untitled

All of the existing notes are here. Lesson titles only to Lesson #100. I will probably work through these 1–3 chapters at a time. I have not yet begin the study of Revelation myself.

1981 Revelation
1	11/29/1981	Revelation 1	(Intro.) Prophecy; historical trends; summaries
2	12/01/1981	Revelation 1:1a	(Outline) Decision & purpose of Christian life
3	12/02/1981	Revelation 1:1b, 2	Purpose/author; slavery; inspiration
4	12/03/1981	Revelation 1:2	Heathens; seven postulates of history
5	12/04/1981	Revelation 1:3, 4a	Revelation’s special blessings; John
6	12/06/1981	Revelation 1:4b	The Lord Jesus Christ; seven spirits
7	12/06/1981	Revelation 1:4c	Humility; 7 spirits in divine dynasphere
8	12/08/1981	Revelation 1:5a	Territorial development; subject of Revelation
9	12/09/1981	Revelation 1:5b	Power: demand exceeds need; first born
10	12/10/1981	Revelation 1:5c	Ruler of kings; royal patent established
11	12/11/1981	Revelation 1:5d	Motivation: God’s, the believer’s
12	12/13/1981	Revelation 1:6a	Royal family’s privilege; innovation
13	12/13/1981	Revelation 1:6a	Innovation; priesthood; baptism
14	12/15/1981	Revelation 1:6b	Historical trends; freedom; Christmas
15	12/16/1981	Revelation 1:7a	Jesus Christ: key to prophecy; clouds
16	12/17/1981	Matt. 24:37–41	Russia; industry; rapture/second advent
17	12/18/1981	Revelation 1:7b	Christ’s second advent; prosperity test
18	12/20/1981	Revelation 1:8a	Hanukkah: historical significance; ALPHA
19	12/20/1981	Revelation 1:8a	Alpha and Omega Glory of Christ; Moses
20	12/22/1981	Revelation 1:8a	Abraham, Paul’s testimony–Alpha, Omega
21	12/23/1981	Revelation 1:8a	Holocaust? Build or borrow strength?
22	12/24/1981	Revelation 1:8b	The Beggar’s song; Christmas, true/false
23	12/25/1981	Revelation 1:8c	Ionic emphasis; Alpha/Omega of Christ
24	12/27/1981	Revelation 1:8	Historical trends; Alpha and Omega glory
25	12/27/1981	John 8:12, 30–59	Holocaust dialogue; prosperity test
26	12/29/1981	Revelation 2:4	Doctrine of historical trends (pts. 1–9)
27	12/30/1981	Revelation 1:8	Doctrine of historical trends (pts. 9–11)
28	12/31/1981	2Cor. 12:9a	Doctrine of historical trends (pt. 12)
29	12/31/1981	2Cor. 12:9b	Weaknesses, prayer, borrowed strength
30	01/01/1982	2Cor. 12:10	Acquired strength, contentment
31	01/03/1982	Revelation 1:9a	Island of Patmos; John
32	01/03/1982	Revelation 1:9b	Christian partnership; manifest destiny
33	01/08/1982	Revelation 1:9c	Review; labor skills/communism’s failure
34	01/10/1982	Revelation 1:10	Worship; Sunday; trumpet alert
35	01/10/1982	Revelation 1:5	Figurative and literal blood of Christ
36	01/12/1982	Revelation 1:11	Revelation–writing/recipients; Domitian
37	01/14/1982	Revelation 1:12	Prosperity test; seven golden lampstands
38	01/15/1982	Revelation 1:13a	The King–Priest; manifest destiny.
39	01/17/1982	Revelation 1:13b, 14a	Freedom; security; King–Priest; His hair
40	01/17/1982	Revelation 1:14b	Manifest destiny; individual judgment
41	01/19/1982	Revelation 1:14	Pre–degenerate thoughts; a challenge
42	01/20/1982	Revelation 1:15; Job 5:19–27	Historical judgment; divine deliverance
43	01/21/1982	Revelation 1:15	Doctrine of historical trends (pt. 1)
44	01/22/1982	Revelation 1:15	Doctrine of historical trends (pts. 2–8)
45	01/24/1982	Revelation 1:15	Doctrine of historical trends (pts. 9–10)
46	01/24/1982	Revelation 1:15	Doctrine of historical trends (pts.11–12)
47	01/26/1982	Revelation 1:15	Doctrine of historical trends (pt. 13)
48	01/27/1982	Revelation 1:16a	Manifest destiny, pastor–teacher
49	01/28/1982	Revelation 1:16b	Grace before judgment of church; swords
50	01/29/1982	Revelation 1:17a	Christ’s appearances; John fainting
51	01/31/1982	Revelation 1:17b, 18	First advent and incarnation
52	01/31/1982	Revelation 19, 20	Edifying and selecting future pastors
53	02/07/1982	Revelation 2:1a	Isagogics; Miletus; Heraclitus; Ephesus
54	02/07/1982	Revelation 2:1b	Future pastors of Ephesus; encouragement
55	02/09/1982	Revelation 2:2a	Ephesus; God’s knowledge, omniscience
56	02/10/1982	Revelation 2:2a	Doctrine of evil, revised (points 1,2)
57	02/11/1982	Revelation 2:2a	Doctrine of evil, revised (point 3a)
58	02/12/1982	Revelation 2:2a	Doctrine of evil, revised (point 3b)
59	02/14/1982	Revelation 2:2a	Doctrine of evil, revised (points 4–6g)
60	02/14/1982	Revelation 2:2a	Doctrine of evil, revised (points 6h–8)
61	02/16/1982	Revelation 2:3a	Tolerant / intolerant; prosperous Rome
62	02/17/1982	Revelation 2:3b	Volitional beauty; eight momentum tests
63	02/18/1982	Revelation 2:3c, 4	Picasso; reversionists in all churches
64	02/19/1982	Revelation 2:5a	Doctrine of repentance / change of mind
65	02/21/1982	Revelation 2:5b	Alternative to repentance
66	02/21/1982	Revelation 2:6	How to be objective; impersonal love
67	02/23/1982	Revelation 2:6	Roman origins; people and their failures
68	02/24/1982	Revelation 2:7a	The Romans; teachability, complications
69	02/25/1982	Revelation 2:7b	Tree of life: happiness
70	02/26/1982	Revelation 2:7; Gen. 2:9	Categories of trees, happiness
71	02/28/1982	Revelation 2:7; Prov. 3:13–18	The trees and happiness / unhappiness
72	02/28/1982	Prov. 11:11–31; 13:10–16; 15:1–5	Cursed by association / blessed, doctrine
73	03/02/1982	Revelation 2:8a	Origin of Rome; history of Smyrna
74	03/03/1982	Revelation 2:8b	Roman history; “The First and the Last”
75	03/04/1982	Revelation 2:9	Medal of honor winners; true wealth: ECS
76	03/05/1982	Revelation 2:10a	Principles of opposition to God’s plan
77	03/07/1982	Revelation 2:10a	The ten Roman persecutions of Christians
78	03/07/1982	Revelation 2:10b	Faithful unto death; test of death
79	03/09/1982	Revelation 2:10c	Judgment Seat of Christ (points 1–3)
80	03/10/1982	Revelation 2:10	Judgment Seat of Christ (point 4)
81	03/11/1982	Revelation 2:10	Judgment Seat of Christ (points 5–8a)
82	03/12/1982	Revelation 2:10	Judgment Seat of Christ (points 8b–d); crowns
83	03/14/1982	Revelation 2:11	A nation’s culture; temporal security
84	03/14/1982	Revelation 2:11b	George Will; eternal security; death
85	03/16/1982	Revelation 2:11b	Believer’s security; doctrine of deaths
86	03/17/1982	Revelation 2:12a	Freedom to discern; churches; cities
87	03/18/1982	Revelation 2:12b	Pergamus; broadsword discipline and USSR
88	03/19/1982	Revelation 2:13a	Terrorists; Satan’s throne; safety
89	03/21/1982	Revelation 2:13b	Pergamus; safety; not refusing doctrine
90	03/21/1982	Revelation 2:13c	Antipas’ glorious death; the impressed
91	03/23/1982	Num. 22:1–35	Balaam in monetary reversionism; his ass
92	03/24/1982	Num. 22:36–23:25	Balaam orders Balak; God orders Balaam
93	03/25/1982	Revelation 2:14a	Authority; a matter of human volition
94	03/26/1982	Revelation 2:14b	Doctrine of Balaam; concept of money
95	03/28/1982	Revelation 2:14c	USSR plan; historical trend/phallic cult
96	03/28/1982	Revelation 2:15,16	Phallic cult; rebound or the broadsword
97	04/02/1982	Revelation 2:16c, 17a	Farmers; broadsword; mandate to hear
98	04/04/1982	Revelation 2:17b	EKKLESIA; super–grace blessings; manna
99	04/04/1982	Revelation 2:17c	Happiness; manna; Roman names; adoption
100	04/06/1982	Revelation 2:18a	Homer Lea; manifest destiny; Thyatira
101	04/07/1982	Revelation 2:18b	Eyes, a flame of fire; feet like bronze
102	04/08/1982	2Cor.12:9, 10	After resurrection, what? Challenge/historical trends
103	04/09/1982	Revelation 1:1–20	Jesus Christ controls history
104	04/11/1982	1Thess. 4:13–18	Motivation of resurrection and eternity
105	04/11/1982	Revelation 2:18	Immigration; labor unions; Thyatira
106	04/13/1982	Revelation 2:19	Thyatira; rewardable works; consistency
107	04/14/1982	Revelation 2:20a	Tolerating Jezebel; weak control the strong
108	04/15/1982	Revelation 2:20b	Weak controlling the strong; Jezebel
109	04/16/1982	Revelation 2:20c	Fornication and the phallic cult
110	04/18/1982	Revelation 2:20–21a	Sectarians; toleration; grace–time
111	04/18/1982	Revelation 2:21b	Rebound, grace before judgment
112	04/23/1982	Revelation 2:22a	Cosmic leadership; culture, promiscuity
113	04/25/1982	Revelation 2:22b–23a	POW; suffering; the sin unto death
114	04/25/1982	Revelation 2:23b	Freedom; investigating the emotions
115	04/27/1982	Revelation 2:23c	Emotions; soul; heart/right lobe content
116	04/28/1982	Revelation 2:23d	Uniforms of honor and glory; punishment
117	04/29/1982	Revelation 2:24a	Idolatry and phallic cult; Phoenicians
118	04/30/1982	Revelation 2:24b–26a	Phoenicians; authority in the millennium
119	05/02/1982	Revelation 2:26–28	The profile of a winner
120	05/02/1982	Revelation 2:26b	Doctrine of authority and human volition
121	05/04/1982	Revelation 2	Summary of historical trends, 1–15
122	05/05/1982	Revelation 2:27a; Psalm 2	Authority, volition; perfect environment
123	05/06/1982	Revelation 2:27b	Ruling with an iron scepter
124	05/07/1982	Revelation 2:28	The order of the morning star
125	05/09/1982	Revelation 2:29a	Spiritual momentum and logistical grace
126	05/09/1982	Revelation 2:29b	Five stages of doctrinal perception
127	05/11/1982	Revelation 3:1a; Isa. 11:2	Seven Spirits; urban interpretation; Sardis
128	05/12/1982	Revelation 3:2b	Power of the divine dynasphere in Christ
129	05/13/1982	Revelation 3:1c	Seven Biblical uses of the word “death”
130	05/14/1982	Revelation 3:2	Pastors; vulnerability to cosmic death
131	05/16/1982	Revelation 3	Doctrine of the perpetuation of warfare
132	05/16/1982	Revelation 3:3a	Are you motivated by people or principle?
133	05/21/1982	Revelation 3:3b	Affection, passion, divine discipline
134	05/23/1982	Revelation 3:4a	Uniform of honor; clothing of dishonor
135	05/23/1982	Revelation 3:4b	Cosmic evangelism; doctrine of walking
136	05/25/1982	Revelation 3:5a	Award of the uniform of glory
137	05/26/1982	Revelation 3:5a	Phases X, Y, and Z in heaven; the winner
138	05/27/1982	Revelation 3:5b	Doctrines of eternal security, book of life
139	05/28/1982	Revelation 3:5c–6	Winner’s shield; presentation at court
140	05/30/1982	Revelation 3:6	Heroes; doctrine of humility (summary)
141	05/30/1982	Revelation 3:7a	Encouragement; Philadelphia; authority
142	06/01/1982	Revelation 3:7a	Pastor–principle; terrorism; boredom
143	06/02/1982	Revelation 3:7b	Absolute millennial power and authority
144	06/03/1982	Revelation 3:8a	Divine knowledge; doctrine of open door
145	06/04/1982	Revelation 3:6b	The open door of opportunity
146	06/06/1982	Revelation 3:9a	Synagogue of Satan; arrogance
147	06/06/1982	Revelation 3:9b	Religion/arrogance persecutes the truth
148	06/08/1982	Revelation 3:9c	Unfair authority?–respond to the Lord
149	06/09/1982	Revelation 3:9	God’s love; warfare; peacetime
150	06/10/1982	Revelation 3:10a	Christ in love complex/ Christian pattern
151	06/11/1982	Revelation 3:10b	Wall of fire; historical disaster
152	06/13/1982	Revelation 3:10c	Concept client nation; cosmic evangelism
153	06/13/1982	Matt. 10:34–39	Peace; principles of cosmic evangelism
154	06/18/1982	Revelation 3:11	The challenge of spiritual maturity
155	06/20/1982	Revelation 3:11	Misery; judgment seat of Christ; crowns
156	06/20/1982	Revelation 3:12a	Pillar in the temple reward; chivalry
157	06/22/1982	Revelation 3:12b	Dexter side of the royal coat of arms
158	06/23/1982	1Cor. 1:23–31	The Magna Carta, aristocracy, culture
159	06/24/1982	1Cor. 1:23–31	Millennial aristocracy/the eternal state
160	06/25/1982	Revelation 3:12c	Eternal coat of arms; the two Jerusalems
161	06/27/1982	Revelation 3:13	Means of momentum; logistical grace
162	06/27/1982	Revelation 3:11	Doctrine of divine discipline (revised)
163	06/29/1982	Revelation 3:11	Basis for a nation’s foreign policy
164	06/30/1982	Revelation 3:11	Principle must be backed by truth/pivot
165	07/01/1982	Revelation 3:11	Cosmic evangelism; doctrine of crowns
166	07/02/1982	Revelation 3:11	Doctrine of crowns
167	07/03/1982	Revelation 3:11	Doctrine of crowns; eternal rewards
168	07/03/1982	Revelation 3:12a	Winners; temple record room; chivalry
169	07/03/1982	1Cor. 1:23–31	Doctrine of the reverse trend of history
170	07/04/1982	Revelation 3:12b	Royal, eternal coat of arms
171	07/04/1982	Revelation 3:11–12	Freedom; eight momentum tests
172	07/06/1982	Revelation 3:14a	Pastor must be accurate; Laodicea
173	07/07/1982	Revelation 3:14b	Deposition related to the First Advent
174	07/08/1982	Revelation 3:14c–15a	High interest rates; what motivates you?
175	07/09/1982	Revelation 3:15b	Soviet superiority; divine knowledge
176	07/11/1982	Revelation 3:15c–16a	Lukewarm believers of Laodicea
177	07/11/1982	Revelation 3:16c–17a	Lukewarm believers’ problems/prosperity
178	07/13/1982	Revelation 3:17b	Prosperity; doctrine of momentum testing
179	07/14/1982	Revelation 3:17b	World economics; momentum tests, pt. B–1
180	07/15/1982	Revelation 3:17b	Momentum testing: 2. people, 3. thought
181	07/16/1982	Revelation 3:17b	Solution to momentum tests 1, 2 and 3
182	07/18/1982	Revelation 3:17b	Impersonal love solution to people tests
183	07/18/1982	Revelation 3:17b	Momentum tests 1–7; correct application
184	07/20/1982	Revelation 3:17c	Momentum test 8; results of ignorance
185	07/21/1982	Revelation 3:18a	Soul recovery; personal counseling
186	07/22/1982	Revelation 3:18b	Taxes; principles of divine guidance
187	07/23/1982	Revelation 3:18c	Counseling; spiritually naked; alertness
188	07/25/1982	Revelation 3:18d	“Pepper”; review historical trends 1–4
189	07/25/1982	Revelation 3:19	Tears and Laughter/One; impersonal love
190	08/01/1982	Revelation 3:19a	Tears and Laughter/Fred; true love
191	08/01/1982	Revelation 3:19b	Oxford movement; discipline motivates
192	08/03/1982	Revelation 3:19c	Doctrine of rebound–the pivotal factor
193	08/04/1982	Revelation 3:20a	Divine discipline (revised), pts. 1–4
194	08/05/1982	Revelation 3:20a	Divine discipline (revised), pts. 5–8
195	08/06/1982	Revelation 3:20b	Pain curve; divine discipline, pt. 9
196	08/08/1982	Revelation 3:21a	Doctrine of the winner
197	08/08/1982	Revelation 3:21b–22	Results of Christ’s strategic victory
198	08/10/1982	Revelation 4:1a	Introduction; the rapture, resurrection
199	08/11/1982	Revelation 4:1b–2a	Approach to Revelation; spirituality
200	08/12/1982	Revelation 4:2b	Spirituality. The Trinity
201	08/13/1982	Revelation 4:2c–3	The Trinity in Heaven: precious gems
202	08/15/1982	Revelation 4:3	Intrinsic must precede relative value
203	08/15/1982	Revelation 4:4	General staff system; angelic conflict
204	08/17/1982	Revelation 4:5a	General staff; divine judgmental warning
205	08/18/1982	Revelation 4:5b–6a	Restraint of cosmos. Angelic hierarchy
206	08/19/1982	Revelation 4:6b	Rumors; “eyes”, angel uniform of wisdom
207	08/20/1982	Revelation 4:6c–7a	“Eyes”, Uniform of wisdom; love for God
208	08/22/1982	Revelation 4:7a	Eras; five contracts to Israel
209	08/22/1982	Revelation 4:7b	Doctrine: virgin birth, hypostatic union
210	08/24/1982	Revelation 4:7c	The flying eagle; angel hierarchy
211	08/25/1982	Revelation 4:8a	Angelic order of battle; seraphs/cherubs
212	08/26/1982	Ezek. 1:4–28; 10:2, 5–10	Angelic order; cherubs, chariot wheels
213	08/27/1982	Revelation 4:8b	Angels professional in worship of Christ
214	08/29/1982	Revelation 4:9	Worship: glory, honor, thanksgiving
215	08/29/1982	Revelation 4:10a	Worship: humility, submission, efficacy
216	08/31/1982	Revelation 4:10b–11a	Worship: glory, respect, honor, power
217	09/01/1982	Revelation 4:11b	Worship: glory, honor, thanksgiving
218	09/02/1982	Revelation 5:1	Banking; prophecy; library of Heaven
219	09/03/1982	Revelation 5:2–3	Christ’s worthiness to control history
220	09/05/1982	Revelation 5:4	Principles of weeping; good/bad emotions
221	09/05/1982	Revelation 5:5a	Angel ranks; The Lion, Davidic covenant
222	09/07/1982	Revelation 5:5b–6a	The Root of David, the Ram of God; horns
223	09/08/1982	Revelation 5:6b	Doctrine of eras or dispensations; horns
224	09/09/1982	Revelation 5:6c–7	7 Spirits; judgment delegated to Christ
225	09/10/1982	Revelation 5:8	Angelic worship; enthusiasms; prayer
226	09/12/1982	Revelation 5:9	The new song of the angelic hierarchy
227	09/12/1982	Revelation 5:10	Unity; volition; inner beauty; reigning
228	09/19/1982	Revelation 5:11–14	Worship/ regenerate chorus/ energy/ ability
229	09/19/1982	Revelation 6:1a; Dan. 9:24–27	Energy and ability; Israel’s time clock
230	09/21/1982	Gen. 39:1–23	Inequality; Joseph and the Potiphars
231	09/22/1982	Gen. 40:1–41:6	Pettiness; Joseph fails, is promoted
232	09/23/1982	Revelation 6:1b–2a	God–given rights; dictators: the rider
233	09/24/1982	Revelation 6:2b	Society/its army; unconventional warfare
234	09/26/1982	Revelation 6:3–4	Warfare principles; economic depression
235	09/26/1982	Revelation 6:5a	Warfare; doctrine of economic depression
236	09/28/1982	Revelation 6:5b–6	Our economy; energy/ability; inflation
237	09/29/1982	Revelation 6:7	Russia 1916: white/red/black; death
238	09/30/1982	Revelation 6:7–8a	Seven deaths; diagram/doctrine of Hades
239	10/01/1982	Gen. 6:1–6	Reason for Tartarus – the super race
240	10/03/1982	1Peter 3:18–22	Doctrine of Hades (complete)
241	10/03/1982	Revelation 6:8b	Dangerous animals; four horsemen summary
242	10/05/1982	Revelation 6:9–10a	Terrorism. Tribulational martyrs
243	10/06/1982	Revelation 6:10b–11a	Imprecatory prayer; interim bodies
244	10/07/1982	Revelation 6:11b–12a	Principle of refreshment. Earthquakes
245	10/08/1982	Revelation 6:12b	Why earthquakes and volcanoes, examples
246	10/10/1982	Revelation 6:13–14	Fig tree; meteors, three heavens, atoms
247	10/10/1982	Revelation 6:15	Earthquakes. Principle of inequality
248	10/13/1982	Revelation 6:15a	Inequality challenges, classes of people
249	10/14/1982	Revelation 6:15b–16	Inequality; no oblivion in eternity
250	10/15/1982	Revelation 6:17	Seven judgments; doctrine of baptism of fire
251	10/17/1982	Revelation 7:1a	Doctrine of evangelism; missionaries
252	10/17/1982	Revelation 7:1b–2a	Angelic restraint of weather; weather
253	10/22/1982	Revelation 7:2b–3	Asiatic fleet. Weather and angels
254	10/24/1982	Revelation 7:4–5	Origin of the 144,000 evangelists
255	10/24/1982	Revelation 7:6–9a	The 144,000 tribulational evangelists
256	10/26/1982	Revelation 7:9ab	No barriers to tribulational evangelism
257	10/27/1982	Revelation 7:9c; Psalm 118	Background: palm branches in their hands
258	10/28/1982	Psalm 118; Mark 11; 12	Palm branches; eternal life categories
259	10/29/1982	Revelation 7:10–11	Salvation; temporal worship challenges
260	10/31/1982	Revelation 7:12a	Concepts of worship
261	10/31/1982	Revelation 7:12b–13	Seven characteristics of worship
262	11/02/1982	Revelation 7:14a	Doctrine of imputation
263	11/03/1982	Revelation 7:14	Doctrine of the blood
264	11/04/1982	Revelation 7:14	The blood; propitiation; reconciliation
265	11/05/1982	Revelation 7:15	Interim state. Teaching vs. preaching
266	11/07/1982	Revelation 7:16–17	Tribulational martyrs delivered
267	11/07/1982	Revelation 8:1	The military society; a sense of destiny
268	11/14/1982	Revelation 8:1–2a	Silence. The Angelic college of heralds
269	11/14/1982	Revelation 8:2b	Tribulational martyrs/ imprecatory prayer
270	11/16/1982	Revelation 8:3	Destiny; incense; doctrine of prayer
271	11/17/1982	Revelation 8:3	The KGB. Doctrine of prayer
272	11/18/1982	Revelation 8:4–6	KGB; angelic order; judgment preparation
273	11/19/1982	Revelation 8:7	1^st trumpet judgment, against the land
274	11/21/1982	Revelation 8:8–10	Axioms; judgments 2 and 3 against water
275	11/21/1982	Revelation 8:11–12	Axioms; 3^rd and 4^th trumpet judgments
276	11/23/1982	Revelation 8:13	Satan’s armies; arrogance; loyalty
277	11/24/1982	Revelation 9:1a	Satan. True thanksgiving
278	11/25/1982	Revelation 4:9–10	Thanksgiving; give only what you possess
279	11/25/1982	Revelation 9:1b–2a	The angelic conflict
280	11/26/1982	Revelation 9:2b–4	1^st demon army attack and restriction
281	11/27/1982	Revelation 9:5	Cosmic evangelism; demons restricted
282	11/27/1982	Revelation 9:5	Vulnerability to demon attack
283	11/27/1982	Revelation 9:6a	Warfare principles and demons
284	11/28/1982	Revelation 9:6b	Decisions from weak or strong position
285	11/28/1982	Revelation 9:7	Cosmic two; indirect/direct demon violence
286	11/30/1982	Revelation 9:8–9a	Exorcism; tables; demon attacks; beauty
287	12/01/1982	Revelation 9:9b–10	Warfare; exorcism; demon offense/roar
288	12/02/1982	Revelation 9:11–12	Great generals; Abaddon; arrogant leader
289	12/03/1982	Revelation 9:13–15	Social action; 2^nd woe; wrong decisions
290	12/05/1982	Revelation 9:16–19	Second army group and its weaponry
291	12/05/1982	Revelation 9:20	Exorcism; demonology
292	12/10/1982	Revelation 9:20b–21	True and false worship
293	12/12/1982	Revelation 9:20–21	Demon attacks; unique humanity of Christ
294	12/12/1982	Gen. 6:1–4	Antediluvian demon attack–genetic
295	12/14/1982	Gen. 6:5–13	Genetic demonic attack on the human race
296	12/15/1982	Luke 4:32–36a	Doctrine of demon possession
297	12/16/1982	Revelation 9:20–21	Doctrine of cosmic one (revised)
298	12/17/1982	Revelation 9:20–21	Doctrine of cosmic one (revised)
299	12/19/1982	Revelation 9:20–21	Doctrine of cosmic one (revised)
300	12/19/1982	Revelation 9:20–21	Doctrine of cosmic one (revised)
301	12/21/1982	1John 1:15–18	Demonization/demon influence defined
302	12/22/1982	Luke 11:27–28	Life belongs to and is given by God
303	12/23/1982	Revelation 9:20–21	Divine dynasphere (revised); authority
304	12/24/1982	Luke 2:8–15	Better things for Christmas
305	12/26/1982	1John 2:15–17; Heb. 13:7	Cosmic one, gate 3: authority arrogance
306	12/26/1982	Revelation 9:20–21	Cosmic one, gate 4: self–righteous arrogance
307	12/28/1982	Revelation 9:20–21	Doctrine of cosmic one, gates 5, 6, 7
308	12/29/1982	Revelation 9:20–21	Doctrine of cosmic one, gates 8–12
309	12/30/1982	Revelation 9:20–21	Cosmic one (summary); cosmic two, gate 1
310	12/31/1982	Eccl. 1–3	Solomon’s experiments for happiness
311	12/31/1982	Eccl. 5–12	Solomon’s experiments for happiness
312	01/02/1983	Rom. 1:18–27	Cosmic two: negative volition, degeneracy
313	01/02/1983	Revelation 9:20–21	Cosmic two, gate 4: anti–establishment
314	01/07/1983	Revelation 9:20–21	Cosmic two, gate 5: demonism
315	01/09/1983	1Cor. 10:14–21	Cosmic two, gates 6–9 completed
316	01/09/1983	Rom. 9:19–21	Doctrine of humility, introduction
317	01/11/1983	Phil. 2:5–8	Doctrine of humility (complete)
318	01/12/1983	Revelation 9	Doctrine of divine dynasphere (revised)
319	01/13/1983	Revelation 9	Doctrine of divine dynasphere, gates 1–3
320	01/14/1983	Revelation 9	Divine dynasphere, gate 4, GAP (revised)
321	01/16/1983	1John 4:16–5:3	Virtue love; integrity precedes love
322	01/16/1983	1John 4:16–5:3	Virtue love; integrity precedes love
323	01/18/1983	2Peter 1:2–9	Divine dynasphere, gate 5
324	01/19/1983	Eph. 3:14–21	Divine dynasphere, motivating virtue
325	01/20/1983	1John 4:16a	GAP; virtue love; God’s justice vs. love
326	01/21/1983	1John 4:16b	Divine love pattern for virtue love
327	01/23/1983	1John 4:17a	Achievement of virtue love
328	01/23/1983	1John 4:17b	Winners/losers in time, in eternity
329	01/25/1983	1John 4:17c	Tragic flaws; virtue love
330	01/26/1983	1John 4:18	Fear vs. courage; virtue love
331	01/27/1983	1John 4:19	God’s love and justice; anthropopathisms
332	01/28/1983	1John 4:19	Integrity comes before love
333	01/30/1983	1John 4:20	Live out of control? You have no virtue
334	01/30/1983	1John 4:21	Mandate for unity of virtue love
335	02/06/1983	1John 4:16–21	Impersonal, personal, and divine love
336	02/06/1983	1John 4:16–21	Impersonal, personal, and divine love
337	02/08/1983	1John 5:1–3	Personal/impersonal love; motivation
338	02/09/1983	1John 4:16–5:3	Doctrine of divine dynasphere, gates 1–3
339	02/10/1983	1Cor. 1:19–2:16	Divine dynasphere, gate 4, GAP function
340	02/11/1983	James 1:19–25	Divine dynasphere, gate 4, GAP mechanics
341	02/13/1983	1Cor. 12:31–13:13	Divine dynasphere, gates 5–7
342	02/13/1983	1Cor. 10:13	Divine dynasphere, gate 7, momentum tests
343	02/15/1983	Eph. 4:11–16	Love complex 7, 8; edification complex
344	02/16/1983	Revelation 12:2	The double entendre pregnancy
345	02/17/1983	Revelation 10:1a	Angelic college of heralds; king of arms
346	02/18/1983	Revelation 10:1b	Angelic king of arms and his escutcheon
347	02/20/1983	Revelation 10:1	Logistical grace: doctrine of principles
348	02/20/1983	Revelation 10:2	Change in world rulership proclaimed
349	02/22/1983	Revelation 10:3–6a	Command not to write; angelic salute
350	02/23/1983	Revelation 10:6b–7	Authority orientation; mystery of God
351	02/24/1983	Revelation 10:8	Mandate for John; authority orientation
352	02/25/1983	Revelation 10:9	Authority orientation; John’s humility
353	02/27/1983	Revelation 10:10–11	Authority orientation; “eating” the Word
354	02/27/1983	Revelation 11:1–2	The Tribulational Temple and the Jews
355	03/06/1983	Revelation 11:3a	Moses and Elijah; ritual without reality
356	03/06/1983	Revelation 11:3b	Moses and Elijah; crisis personalities
357	03/08/1983	Revelation 11:4	Crisis personality/olive trees/lampstand
358	03/08/1983	Revelation 11:5a	Crisis personality; defensive weapons
359	03/10/1983	Revelation 11:5a	Crisis personality; weapon compatibility
360	03/11/1983	Revelation 11:5b	The crisis personality
361	03/13/1983	Revelation 11:6–7a	Proper use of power; God – indispensable
362	03/13/1983	Revelation 11:7a	Truth vs. improvement, ministries removed
363	03/15/1983	Revelation 11:7b	Violence, murder; self–restraint
364	03/16/1983	Revelation 11:8–9	Corpse arrogance; the press; gloaters
365	03/17/1983	Revelation 11:10	St. Patrick; gloating/devil’s Christmas
366	03/18/1983	Revelation 11:11–12	God gives life; fear; miracles/volition
367	03/20/1983	Revelation 11:13	Learn through doctrine or disaster
368	03/20/1983	Revelation 11:14–15a	Introduction; seventh angel; worship
369	03/27/1983	Revelation 11:15b	The masses; marriage; God keeps His word
370	03/27/1983	Special	Marital and people problems
371	03/29/1983	Eph. 5:20–25	Marriage requires respect/responsibility
372	03/30/1983	Eph. 5; 1Cor. 7	Marriage requires virtue love, privacy
373	03/31/1983	Deut. 24:1–4a	Doctrine of divorce
374	04/01/1983	1Cor. 7	Objectivity/virtue in problem solving
375	04/03/1983	1John 4	Problems? Solution is virtue first
376	04/03/1983	1John 4	Right man/right woman issue. Problem solving; virtue; personal love
377	04/05/1983	1John 4	“Marriage and divorce” concluded. Mechanics of resolving marital problems
378	04/06/1983	Revelation 11:15c; Dan. 9:24–27	Chronological and technical background
379	04/07/1983	Revelation 11:16	Life/worship is mental ability–thought
380	04/08/1983	Revelation 11:17	Essence of the God–Man; thankfulness
381	04/10/1983	Revelation 11:18a, b	Socialistic law; resurrectional order
382	04/10/1983	Revelation 11:18c–19	God is faithful; the ark of the covenant
383	04/17/1983	Revelation 12:1	Romans and Jews; signs; 3 great signs
384	04/17/1983	Revelation 12:1; Rom. 9:1–8	Romans and Jews; cruelty; the third sign
385	04/19/1983	Revelation 12:1	Flattery; the Romans, Jews and arrogance
386	04/20/1983	Revelation 12:2	A great coach; double–entendre; the Jews
387	04/21/1983	Revelation 12:2; Jer. 22:18–22a	Bad decision results; curse of Jehoiakim
388	04/22/1983	Jer. 22:18–28	Chaldeans; genealogies; personal destiny
389	04/24/1983	Jer. 22:18–28	Holocaust syndrome; genealogies; Coniah
390	04/24/1983	Jer. 22:18–30; 36:27	Holocaust syndrome; three generation curse
391	04/26/1983	Revelation 12:3; Dan. 7:2–7	Gandhi and India; the second sign
392	04/27/1983	Dan. 7:3–9, 14, 18–26	U.S. survival; Roman Empire past and future
393	04/28/1983	Revelation 12:4a; Isa. 14:11–15	Concept of the harness of life; stars
394	04/29/1983	Revelation 12:4b	Satan; religion/culture; mercenaries
395	05/01/1983	Revelation 12:4c	Concept harness; Satan; the Jews/Dreyfus
396	05/01/1983	Revelation 12:5a	Competition; God’s plan succeeds
397	05/03/1983	Revelation 12:5a	God’s policy regarding unlawful violence
398	05/04/1983	Revelation 12:5a	Reason for/result of angelic observation
399	05/05/1983	Revelation 12:5b	Ascension, session–related principles
400	05/06/1983	Revelation 12:6a; Matt. 24:15–20	Present and future flexibility
401	05/08/1983	Revelation 12:6b; Matt. 24:15–27	Motherhood; present and future refuge
402	05/08/1983	Revelation 12:6c; Matt. 24:21–28	Doctrinal application; mobs/daily living
403	05/10/1983	Revelation 12:7–8a	Timing; Michael; the battle in heaven
404	05/11/1983	Revelation 12:8b–9a	Faith–rest drill; Satan’s desperation
405	05/12/1983	Revelation 12:9b; Ezek. 28:12–18	Satan’s three falls; true happiness
406	05/13/1983	Revelation 12:9b	Hypostatic union; the profile of Satan
407	05/15/1983	Revelation 12:9c	Satan’s profile; happiness; unhappiness
408	05/15/1983	Revelation 12:10a	Strategy/tactics; happiness; authority
409	05/22/1983	Revelation 12:10b	Authority/freedom; persecutor/prosecutor
410	05/22/1983	Revelation 12:11a	The blood of Christ; overcoming Satan
411	05/24/1983	Revelation 12:11b; Prov. 8	What is in a name? Victory over Satan
412	05/25/1983	Revelation 12:12a	Winners amplified; celebrating/gloating
413	05/26/1983	Revelation 12:12b	Winners amplified; the third woe; Satan
414	05/27/1983	Revelation 12:12c–13a	When time is short; Satan; priorities
415	05/29/1983	Revelation 12:13b	Jews in history; medieval history
416	05/29/1983	Revelation 12:13c	Passive/active arrogance; Jews in World War II
417	05/31/1983	Revelation 12:14a	“Megatrends”; protection; flexibility
418	06/01/1983	Revelation 12:14b	Drug use; God’s plan is never deterred
419	06/02/1983	Revelation 12:14c	Marriage/divorce addendum; serpent Satan
420	06/03/1983	Revelation 12:15	Government; survivors are flexible
421	06/05/1983	Revelation 12:16–17a	Right place/right time; frustration
422	06/05/1983	Revelation 12:17b–18	Dictators; passive/active arrogance
423	06/07/1983	Revelation 13 (Intro.)	A Jew survives; dictators/Rome revived
424	06/08/1983	Revelation 13:1a; Dan. 7	Malta knights; ten horns/the little horn
425	06/09/1983	Revelation 13:1b; Dan. 7	Ancient history; a future dictator
426	06/10/1983	Revelation 13:2; Dan. 7	Empire characteristics; Satan; giving
427	06/12/1983	Revelation 13:3a	The golden age of Rome
428	06/12/1983	Revelation 13:3b; Dan. 9:24	The death of the Roman Empire
429	06/19/1983	Psalm 85:8–10	Believer’s national responsibility
430	06/19/1983	Psalm 85:11–13	Knowing God before appreciating His plan
431	06/21/1983	Rom. 8:28–32	Knowing God’s attributes and printouts
432	06/22/1983	Eph. 1:15–20	Knowing God’s omniscience and decrees
433	06/23/1983	Eph. 3:14–19	Knowing God’s love and His integrity
434	06/24/1983	2 John 5:8; John 15:9–10	Knowing God’s system – learning to obey
435	06/26/1983	John 15:9–16	Knowing God’s system: obedience first
436	06/26/1983	Eph. 3:14–19	Knowing God’s system excludes all works
437	06/28/1983	Eph. 5:18; Gal. 5:16	Knowing God’s system of spirituality
438	06/29/1983	2Peter 1:2–5	Knowing what spirituality is and is not
439	06/30/1983	Rom. 9:19–21	Knowing God’s system: obedience/humility
440	07/01/1983	Psalm 23:1	Knowing what David knew: “my shepherd”
441	07/02/1983	Psalm 23:2–3a	Knowing the system for spiritual growth
442	07/02/1983	Psalm 23:3b–4a	Knowing the system for living and dying
443	07/03/1983	Psalm 23:4b–5a	Knowing the system in suffering for blessing
444	07/03/1983	Psalm 23:5b–6	Knowing the system overflows in blessing
445	07/05/1983	2Peter 1:2–9	Knowing God’s system of true virtue
446	07/06/1983	Demand Syndrome	Knowing about the enemies of true virtue
447	07/07/1983	1John 4:16	Knowing about virtue first/virtue love
448	07/08/1983	1John 4:17–18a	Knowing about God’s system: virtue love
449	07/10/1983	1John 4:18b–19	Knowing that fear destroys virtue love
450	07/10/1983	1John 4:20–21	Knowing that hatred cancels virtue love
451	07/12/1983	1John 4:21	Knowing all about love: impersonal love
452	07/13/1983	1John 4:21	Knowing all about love: personal love
453	07/14/1983	1John 4:21; 5:1a	Knowing and developing true sensitivity
454	07/15/1983	1John 5:1–3	Knowing God’s mandate of obedience
455	07/17/1983	1John 3:4–9	Knowing and passing the test of the soul
456	07/17/1983	1Cor. 15:33	Knowing people, thought, system testing
457	07/19/1983	1John 2:15–18	Knowing about demon possession/influence
458	07/20/1983	1Peter 5:4–9; 1John 3:4–10	Knowing demon influence began in Eden
459	07/21/1983	Rom. 12:3	Knowing: faithfulness vs. fanaticism
460	07/22/1983	Prov. 29:23	Knowing cosmic tests change priorities
461	07/24/1983	1John 2:15–16; Rom. 12:3	Knowing the tests of cosmic one; opinions
462	07/24/1983	Rom. 9:19–21	Knowing test gates 3 thru 6 of cosmic one
463	07/31/1983	(Psychotic arrogance)	Knowing that God regards you as a person
464	07/31/1983	(Unhappiness)	Knowing that God regards you as a person
465	08/02/1983	(Iconoclastic arrogance)	Knowing what is meant by grace
466	08/03/1983	(Rational/ irrational arrogance)	Knowing consistently: virtue first
467	08/04/1983	(Client nation arrogance)	Knowing prerequisites for freedom
468	08/05/1983	(Client nation arrogance)	Know: concept of varying circumstances
469	08/07/1983	Phil. 4:11–13	Knowing the adversity & prosperity tests
470	08/07/1983	2Peter 3:17–18; 1Peter 2:1–3	Knowing the strategic & tactical winners
471	08/09/1983	Revelation 13:1a	Dictators; the power of evil
472	08/10/1983	Dan. 7:2–26; Revelation 13:1a	Horns; Revived Roman Empire’s status
473	08/11/1983	Revelation 13:1b–2a; Dan. 7:3–6	Exegesis of the leopard, bear, and lion
474	08/12/1983	Revelation 13:2b	Grace defined; Satan; Roman Republic
475	08/14/1983	Revelation 13:3a	Grace; the Roman Empire historically
476	08/14/1983	Revelation 13:3b	Death of the historical Roman Empire
477	08/16/1983	Revelation 13:3c	Spiritual concept of the harness
478	08/21/1983	Revelation 13:3c; Dan. 9:24	Chronological history of Israel
479	08/21/1983	Revelation 13:3d; Dan. 9:24–27	Israel chronologically; power impresses
480	08/23/1983	Revelation 13:4a	Love bands; Christianity vs. religion
481	08/24/1983	2Thess. 2:1–13	Approbation; the powerful dictator
482	08/25/1983	Revelation 13:4c	Power worship; the absolute/the relative
483	08/26/1983	Revelation 13:5a	Dictators; power; communication ability
484	08/28/1983	Revelation 13:5b–6a	Dictator and time limitation; blasphemy
485	08/28/1983	Revelation 13:6b	Tabernacling in Heaven; Satan–no humor
486	08/30/1983	Revelation 13:7a	Admiral Stockdale; two systems of evil
487	08/31/1983	Revelation 13:7b–8a	Religious evil; minorities influence
488	09/01/1983	Revelation 13:8b	Flight 007; organized/disorganized evil
489	09/02/1983	Revelation 13:8b	Foreign policy: democracy, flexibility
490	09/04/1983	Revelation 13:8c	The beast dictator’s profile; privacy
491	09/04/1983	Revelation 13:8b	The beast dictator; the book of life
492	09/06/1983	Revelation 13:9	President Reagan’s speech; review; ears
493	09/07/1983	Revelation 13:9b	Confidence toward God; mandate to hear
494	09/08/1983	Revelation 13:10a	Lawful and unlawful violence
495	09/09/1983	Revelation 13:10b	Military mobility; God’s perfect plan
496	09/10/1983	Revelation 13:11a	Review; Tribulational Jewish dictator
497	09/10/1983	Revelation 13:11b–12a	National policy; inventory of ideas
498	09/17/1983	Revelation 13:12b	Protesters; inventory of doctrinal ideas
499	09/17/1983	Revelation 13:13–14a	Inventory of truth; function of miracles
500	09/19/1983	Revelation 13:14b	Beast’s mandate; idolatry; Roman history
501	09/20/1983	Revelation 13:15; Mark 13:1–27	Religious policy; warnings of Christ
502	09/21/1983	Revelation 13:16a	Historical opportunity; equality a myth
503	09/22/1983	Revelation 13:16b–18	Computerized tyranny in the future; 666
504	09/23/1983	Revelation 14:1	Review; the Lamb; the 144,000 witnesses
505	09/25/1983	Revelation 14:2–3	The sound of music in Heaven, worship
506	09/27/1983	Revelation 14:4a	Concentration is the key; Christian laws
507	09/28/1983	Revelation 14:4a; Matt. 24:34–42	Supreme sacrifice; the moral unbeliever
508	09/29/1983	Revelation 14:4b	Doctrine of divine guidance
509	09/30/1983	Revelation 14:4c–5a	Verbal sins; experiential sanctification
510	10/02/1983	Revelation 14:5b–6a	Sanctification; the eternal Gospel
511	10/02/1983	Revelation 14:6b–7a	Crisis evangelism in the Tribulation
512	10/04/1983	Revelation 14:7b	Angelic college of heralds; inequality
513	10/05/1983	Revelation 14:7c–8	Savior–Creator; evil ecumenical religion
514	10/06/1983	Revelation 14:9–10a	Nature/results of religious arrogance
515	10/07/1983	Revelation 14:10a	Bad decisions invite divine “wrath”
516	10/09/1983	Revelation 14:10a; Matt. 24:36–42	Anthropopathisms; judgments; baptisms
517	10/09/1983	Revelation 14:10b–11	Eternal results of one decision in time
518	10/16/1983	Revelation 14:10b–11 (Introduction)	Believer’s job: watch and keep learning
519	10/16/1983	Revelation 14:12	Patton’s principles: being a winner
520	10/18/1983	Revelation 14:13a	Patton’s principles; death; dying grace
521	10/19/1983	Revelation 14:13b–14	Victor of the human race; protocol
522	10/20/1983	Revelation 14:15 (intro)	Handguns; seven last plagues outlined
523	10/21/1983	Revelation 14:15a	Doctrine of protocol in heaven
524	10/23/1983	Revelation 14:15a	Marines in Lebanon; protocol in heaven
525	10/23/1983	Revelation 14:15b	Our military; interpretation of history
526	10/25/1983	Revelation 14:16a; 1:1–19	World strategy; Christ controls history
527	10/26/1983	Revelation 14:16b	The purpose for divine judgments
528	10/27/1983	Revelation 14:17	Protocol on earth; protocol in heaven
529	10/28/1983	Revelation 14:17–18a	Imprecatory prayer; protocol application
530	10/30/1983	Revelation 14:18b	Protocol in heaven; divine judgments
531	10/30/1983	Revelation 14:18c–19a	Training, preparation on earth/in heaven
532	11/01/1983	Revelation 14:19b	Review protocol on earth and in heaven
533	11/02/1983	Revelation 14:20	Leadership; stoicism; protocol–virtue
534	11/03/1983	Revelation 15:1 (intro)	Judgment occurs in heaven, then on earth
535	11/04/1983	Revelation 15:2a	Grenada; physical death, victory over it
536	11/06/1983	Revelation 15:2b	Economics; computerized tyranny/the harp
537	11/06/1983	Revelation 15:3a	Hymn of Moses; grace, the work of Christ
538	11/13/1983	Revelation 15:3b	Protocol; hymns of Moses; God’s grace
539	11/13/1983	Revelation 15:3c; Psalm 85:8–13	The meeting of grace and truth
540	11/15/1983	Revelation 15:3c	Grenada; the truth, what is true; God
541	11/16/1983	Revelation 15:3c	God’s knowledge; getting to know God
542	11/17/1983	Revelation 15:3d	Christian silliness; God’s love/integrity
543	11/18/1983	Revelation 15:4a; Jer. 10:3–8	No nonsense, no silliness, no absurdity
544	11/20/1983	Revelation 15:4b	Respecting God; capacity/virtue/momentum
545	11/20/1983	Revelation 15:4c	Principles of worship; good news revealed
546	11/22/1983	Revelation 15:5	U.S.S.R.; humor; the eternal tabernacle
547	11/23/1983	Matt. 8:18–19	Weakness of mobs; distracted disciple #1
548	11/24/1983	Matt. 8:20–22; Luke 9:60	Human security; distracted disciple #2
549	11/24/1983	Matt. 8:23–24; Luke 9:61–62	Priorities; distracted disciple #3
550	11/25/1983	Matt. 8:24–26a	Panic; analogy of the sea’s great storm
551	11/27/1983	Matt. 8:20–27	Fear; no capacity for the storms of life
552	11/27/1983	Revelation 15:6–8	Golden grenades; protocol; doctrine now!
553	11/29/1983	Revelation 16:1–2	Obedience to authority; bowl judgment #1
554	11/30/1983	Revelation 16:3–5	Bowl judgments #2 and #3; God’s justice
555	12/01/1983	Revelation 16:5b–6a	Man’s opinion; God’s judgments/blessings
556	12/02/1983	Revelation 16:6b	War; crisis evangelism/grace in judgment
557	12/04/1983	Revelation 16:7	The honorable purpose of divine judgment
558	12/04/1983	Revelation 16:8–9	Crisis evangelism; bowl judgment #4
559	12/06/1983	Revelation 16:10a	Bowl judgment #5; pain, death, darkness
560	12/07/1983	Revelation 16:10a	Doctrine: Judgments of pain and death
561	12/08/1983	Revelation 16:11	Negative volition – believer/unbeliever
562	12/09/1983	Revelation 16:12a	Eternal judgment; war/campaign/battle
563	12/11/1983	Doctrine of Divine Judgment (review)	Military terms: Israel, A.D. 66–73/today
564	12/11/1983	Rev.16:12b–13	Asian invaders; fear of war; unholy trio
565	12/18/1983	Revelation 16:13b	The evil trinity; Satan; demons
566	12/18/1983	Revelation 16:13	Dictatorship; “the mouth” illustrated
567	12/20/1983	Revelation 16:14a	PBS series Vietnam; emotion vs. thought
568	12/21/1983	Revelation 16:14b; Dan. 10:13, 20 21	Divine viewpoint of war and warfare
569	12/22/1983	Revelation 16:14–15a	Leadership. Satan mobilizes for war
570	12/23/1983	Revelation 16:15b	Believers are to be alert – always
571	12/25/1983	Heb. 10:5–9	The doctrinal meaning of Christmas
572	12/25/1983	Revelation 16:15c	The Christmas challenge: be a winner
573	12/27/1983	Revelation 16:16	Middle East, past & future; warfare
574	12/28/1983	Dan. 11:36	Hang–ups; syndromes; warfare principles
575	12/29/1983	Dan. 11:37–40a	False Messiah’s policies; the blitzkrieg
576	12/30/1983	Dan. 11:40b–45; Isa. 3:16–26	King of the North; invading armies
577	12/31/1983	Prov. 24 (intro)	Premise of leadership in life
578	12/31/1983	Prov. 24:1–6a	Jealousy; confidence of the Centurion
579	01/01/1984	Zech. 12:1–6	Crisis sets the stage for leadership
580	01/01/1984	Matt. 24:15–28	Flexible application glorifies Christ
581	01/03/1984	Zech. 14:1–4	Control of history/rapture/second advent
582	01/04/1984	Acts 13:45–48; Rom. 8:28–32	Not Calvinism/Arminianism but privileged!
583	01/05/1984	Zech. 14:5–9	Earthquakes: past, present, future
584	01/06/1984	Isa. 63:1–9	Arabs; God’s virtuous execution of grace
585	01/08/1984	Revelation 16:17	Protocol: source of blessing/judgment
586	01/08/1984	Revelation 16:18–21	God’s third and final warning judgments
587	01/15/1984	2Peter 1:2–9	Introduction to protocol
588	01/15/1984	Who controls your happiness?	Introduction to protocol, its definition
589	01/17/1984	Revelation 17 intro. (cont.)	Do you control your life, your happiness?
590	01/18/1984	Intro. to Religion	Understanding mandates to obey them
591	01/19/1984	John 15:9–17	Plan of God: spiritual professionalism
592	01/20/1984	1John 4:16–21	Protocol–virtue; Christian dynamics
593	01/22/1984	Revelation 17:1a	Religion, Satan’s genius system
594	01/22/1984	Revelation 17:1b	Religion, the “infamous prostitute”
595	01/24/1984	Revelation 17:2	Arrogance misapplies, becomes religious
596	01/25/1984	Revelation 17:3	Religion; separation of church and state
597	01/26/1984	Revelation 17:4a	Religion, glamorous and high class; USA
598	01/27/1984	Revelation 17:4b–5a	Tribulational religion – mystery doctrine
599	01/29/1984	Revelation 17:5b–6a	Religion, fornication and drunkenness
600	01/29/1984	Revelation 17:6b–7	Religion, apostolic astonishment; shock
601	01/31/1984	Revelation 17:8	Religion’s beast dictator; divine decrees
602	02/01/1984	Revelation 17:8–10	Interpretation, status quo of seven empires
603	02/02/1984	Revelation 17:11	The beast/genius/organized evil; privacy
604	02/03/1984	Revelation 17:12–14a	Arrogance, the basis of all conspiracies
605	02/05/1984	Revelation 17:14b	Unlimited atonement; ultimate invitation
606	02/05/1984	Revelation 17:14c	The who, what, and why of divine election
607	02/07/1984	Revelation 17:14c	Election, the 18^th century; the faithful
608	02/08/1984	Revelation 17:15–17a	Destruction of religious domination
609	02/09/1984	Revelation 17:17b–18	Principle of finesse judgment; religion
610	02/10/1984	Revelation 18:1a	Angels; pivots; pivot and client nation
611	02/12/1984	Revelation 18:1b–2a	Client nations and discipline; demons
612	02/12/1984	Revelation 18:2b	Demons; principle of evil
613	02/14/1984	Revelation 18:2b; Gen. 6:1–13	Antediluvian demon activity; demonism
614	02/15/1984	Revelation 18:2b	Demonism, possession and influence
615	02/16/1984	Revelation 18:2b–3	Demons, demonism; luxury lust; loyalty
616	02/17/1984	Revelation 18:4	Separation and the judgments principle
617	02/19/1984	Revelation 18:5	Divine judgments: pain/death/finesse
618	02/19/1984	Revelation 18:6	The Monroe Doctrine; imprecatory prayer
619	02/21/1984	Revelation 18:7–8a	Tribulational religion; finesse judgment
620	02/22/1984	Revelation 18:8b	Patterns of judgment; 18^th, 19^th centuries
621	02/23/1984	Revelation 18:9	Future lamenting of political rulers
622	02/24/1984	Revelation 18:10a	Concept of God’s temporal judgments
623	02/26/1984	Revelation 18:10b–14	Arrogance has no loyalty; lamentations
624	02/26/1984	Revelation 18:15–20	Lessons from finesse judgment; justice
625	03/04/1984	Revelation 18:21	Spiritual Babylon destroyed; Aegean Sea
626	03/04/1984	Revelation 18:22–24	Peripheral judgment; client nation U.S.A.
627	03/06/1984	Revelation 19:1–2a	Leaving vengeance to God; the true/truth
628	03/07/1984	Revelation 19:1–2a	Ideas; classicism; harnessing the truth
629	03/08/1984	Revelation 19:2a; Psalm 85:8–10a	The true/truth illustrated; knowing God
630	03/09/1984	Revelation 19:2a; Psalm 85:8–13	God’s relative and absolute attributes
631	03/11/1984	Revelation 19:2a	The decrees and the saturation of sin
632	03/11/1984	Revelation 19:2a	Protocol and authority; 18^th century
633	03/13/1984	Revelation 19:2b	Geopolitics; the pivot; client nations
634	03/14/1984	Revelation 19:3–4a	Victory; the perpetual mushroom cloud
635	03/15/1984	Revelation 19:4b–5a	Angelic worship; three categories of worship
636	03/16/1984	Revelation 19:5b–6	Marriage ceremony in the ancient world
637	03/18/1984	Rev.19:7; Matt. 25:1–13	History of great parties; future banquet
638	03/18/1984	Revelation 19:8	Preparation of the Bride; future wedding
639	03/25/1984	Revelation 19:1–9	Wedding banquet of the Lamb; happiness
640	03/25/1984	Revelation 19:10	Apostles, angels, and true worship
641	03/27/1984	2Peter 1:12–21	Something more valuable than experience
642	03/28/1984	2Peter 1:12–21; Matt. 16:27–17:9	Mechanics of verbal plenary inspiration
643	03/29/1984	Revelation 19:11a	Horses; the winner, faithful and true
644	03/30/1984	Revelation 19:11b	Violence of honor and integrity
645	04/01/1984	Revelation 19:11	Seven major judgments; doctrine of baptisms
646	04/01/1984	Revelation 19:11; Matt. 3:11–12	Baptism of fire
647	04/03/1984	Matt. 25:31	Baptism of fire, personal application
648	04/04/1984	Revelation 19:12a	Logistical grace; our Lord’s royalty
649	04/05/1984	Revelation 19:12b	Doctrine of the hypostatic union
650	04/06/1984	Revelation 19:12c; 1 Tim. 2:11–12	Women teaching; the royalty of Christ
651	04/08/1984	For Ladies Only	Seven special warnings from the Lord
652	04/08/1984	For Ladies Only 1 Tim. 2:9–15	Mandate for exterior and interior beauty
653	04/10/1984	Revelation 19:13; John 1:1–3, 14	Christ’s title: the Word of God
654	04/11/1984	Revelation 19:13; Col. 1:25–29	Title of Christ as the Shekinah Glory
655	04/12/1984	Revelation 19:14	Second Advent armies; sanctification
656	04/13/1984	Revelation 19:15a	Second Advent applications; the enemy
657	05/15/1984	Revelation 19:15b; Isa. 9:6–7	Divine integrity’s military victory
658	04/15/1984	Revelation 19:16–18	Feast of the vultures; seeking happiness
659	04/22/1984	Revelation 19:18 (application)	Christ’s virtue happiness on the cross
660	04/22/1984	Revelation 19:19a; Psalm 2	Organized evil; Satan’s power destroyed
661	04/24/1984	Revelation 19:19b–21	Glory; judgment of the last conspirators
662	04/25/1984	Revelation 20 (intro.)	Judgments; doctrine of dispensations
663	04/26/1984	Revelation 20:1–2	Satan’s profile, arrest, and incarceration
664	04/27/1984	Revelation 20:3	Four civilizations; Satan, the deceiver
665	04/29/1984	Revelation 20:4	Doctrine of resurrection
666	04/29/1984	Revelation 20:5–6a	Characteristics of the first resurrection
667	05/01/1984	Revelation 20:6b–8a	Criminality; Satan, the arch criminal
668	05/02/1984	Revelation 20:8b	Source of your happiness; Gog and Magog
669	05/03/1984	Revelation 20:8c	Do you understand grace?; revolutions
670	05/04/1984	Revelation 20:9–10	Divine victory; doctrine of revolution
671	05/06/1984	Revelation 20:11	Divine courtrooms; the eternal statuses
672	05/06/1984	Revelation 20:12	Doctrine of human good; divine evidence
673	05/08/1984	Revelation 20:12b–13a	Evidence in courtroom #2; the sea gate
674	05/09/1984	Revelation 20:13b	Nephilim; doctrine of the Last Judgment
675	05/10/1984	Revelation 20:14a	Eight categories of death; Hades
676	05/11/1984	Revelation 20:14b–15	Doctrine of heathenism; just punishment
677	05/13/1984	(Divine Protocol)	Indirect judgments: pain, death, finesse
678	05/13/1984	Revelation 21:1	The new universe for the eternal state
679	05/20/1984	Revelation 21:2	The New Jerusalem; a client nation
680	05/20/1984	Revelation 21:3	Believer’s body and the Shekinah Glory
681	05/22/1984	Revelation 21:3b	The Shekinah Glory and the Church Age
682	05/23/1984	Revelation 21:3c–4a; Job 5:19–27	Environment of the eternal state; death
683	05/24/1984	Revelation 21:4b	Personality vs. spirituality changes
684	05/25/1984	Revelation 21:4c–6a	Personal and historical suffering
685	05/27/1984	Revelation 21:6b	Why the Lord Jesus Christ is unique
686	05/27/1984	Revelation 21:6c–7a	The first citizen of the New Jerusalem
687	05/29/1984	Revelation 21:7b–27	Angelic–guided tour of the New Jerusalem
688	05/30/1984	Revelation 22:1–6a	Final description of the eternal state
689	05/31/1984	Revelation 22:6a; 1Cor. 2:4–16	Doctrines of common & efficacious grace
690	06/01/1984	Revelation 22:6b–7a	Grace; imminency of the rapture
691	06/03/1984	Revelation 22:7b–9; Phil. 4:11–13	The Holy Spirit; happiness; Word of God
692	06/03/1984	Revelation 22:10–11	The Holy Spirit; Revelation; options
693	06/05/1984	Revelation 22:12	Rapture; reward; emotion – a distractor
694	06/06/1984	Revelation 22:12	D–Day; the rapture, worship then rewards
695	06/07/1984	Revelation 22:13–14a	The Lord Jesus Christ; the tree of life
696	06/08/1984	Revelation 22:14b–15	Common distractors to the Gospel message
697	06/10/1984	Revelation 22:16	Royal warrants of the Lord Jesus Christ
698	06/10/1984	Revelation 22:17–22	Final salvation invitation; God’s grace END OF SERIES

The book of Revelation is the panoramic view of history from the time of John to the end of time: part of it is prophecy; part of it is historical trends. By way of introduction there are several things to note.

1. The Church Age is a dead spot as far as prophecy is concerned. That is, there is no prophecy in the Church Age except the terminating event, the Rapture of the Church. The Church Age is the age of historical trends, it is not a dispensation of prophecy. No prophecy has to be fulfilled in the Church Age. That includes the regathering of Israel and all of the other freakish things that people use to say the Rapture is going to occur in this generation. This is a false hope. It may occur in this generation; it could occur tonight. By the same token the Rapture could be 1000 years away, and that would lead a lot of people astray and even become a distraction from the perception of Bible doctrine. It is far more important for you to know the doctrine of impersonal love, for example, than it is for you to know the day, the hour, the moment that the Rapture occurs. No one knows the day, the hour, or the moment that the Rapture will occur. It is important therefore in learning doctrine to make our applications to history rather than to prophecy.

2. Therefore this means that no prophecy is being fulfilled during the Church Age. The Church Age is the dispensation of historical trends.

3. The next prophetical event in the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church. In the meantime there are simply historical trends but no prophecy.

4. Historical trends is technical in the sense of relating to the impact of the royal family of God on history. That is what historical trends means in the light of the Word of God, the impact of the Church Age believer; the royal family of God on history. That impact is based upon either objective reality or subjective reality.

5. The primary consideration is the believer’s relationship to the dynaspheres. Which category is the issue: the dynasphere invented by God or the two invented by Satan?

6. Because the believer is weak — and, as a matter of fact, all of homo sapien is weak — and inferior to angels he must depend on a power much greater than himself in order to survive and thrive in the devil’s world. The choice is limited to the power spheres of Satan, which we call the cosmic dynaspheres, or the power system of God known as the divine dynasphere. It is this daily decision on the part of the believer that determines the historical trends in any given generation and in any geographical location during the dispensation of the Church.

7. It therefore becomes imperative that we as believers become aware of the principle of historical trends. It is related to our mandates as believers in Jesus Christ and it is the fulfilment of God’s will and God’s plan that becomes the great issue in the spiritual life. We face an issue that no generation has ever faced before. In previous dispensations there was always unfulfilled prophecy; this dispensation is different, there is no prophecy to be fulfilled. This means that instead of being prophecy conscious with regard to the Christian way of life we must become historical trend conscious.

1. Historical trends during the Church Age depend on the number of believers in any given generation deciding for residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

2. When a maximum number of believers in this dispensation perpetuate their spiritual momentum to the point of maturity a large pivot of mature believers is formed. The world historically lives on that prosperity — blessing by association.

3. But when a maximum number of believers live in the cosmic system during any given generation, the client nation to God malfunctions and historical disaster occurs throughout planet earth. But even though disaster exists there are no tragedies in history.

4. Historical blessing then is the result of a maximum number of believers living in the divine dynasphere, whereas historical disaster finds a maximum number of believers living out their lives in the cosmic system. Both peoples and nations are the products of their own decisions. No nation ever suffers historical disaster unless they ask for it. Peoples and individuals must take the responsibility for their own decisions.

5. Historical trends then depend on the spiritual life of the individual believer. This is the invisible factor of history rather than the obvious and visible factor of human leadership plus the economic interpretation of history.

6. Believers residing in the divine dynasphere influence the historical trends in the direction of blessing, while believers residing in the cosmic system influence historical trends in the direction of degeneration and disaster.

7. The predictability of historical trends is based on the impact of objective reality of those believers and unbelievers whose modus operandi is related to the divine dynaspheres.

8. Therefore the second and third chapters of Revelation are a summary of the historical trends of the Church Age, they are not a prophecy. All seven churches represent trends at any moment in any part of the earth right now, there is no chronological sequence of events from the seven churches. Prophecy does not begin until the removal of the Church by the resurrection or the Rapture. Then the Tribulation or Daniel’s seventieth week begins and, with it, prophecy begins. In the meantime Jesus Christ controls history.

1. The Church Age is located between the two greatest prophetical periods of human history, the first and second advents of Jesus Christ. The Church Age is a dead spot, there is no prophecy in the Church Age. Before it we have a tremendous period of prophecy and after it we have another tremendous period of prophecy. In between these two great prophetic periods we live in the most thrilling age of all because it is a dead spot, it is not an age of prophecy.

2. The first prophetical period of human history has been fulfilled so that it is no longer a prophetical period, it is history to us. Nevertheless that was the greatest of all prophetical periods. In fact it was so great that unbelievers reject it entirely, including most of Israel. This first prophetical period includes the incarnation, the virgin birth, the function of the humanity of Christ inside the prototype divine dynasphere, the impeccability of Jesus Christ, the work of Christ on the cross — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, our Lord’s physical death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. These were all a part of that thrilling prophetical period. To us it is the most important of all, it is the basis of our so great salvation, the basis of the fact that we are a part of the patent of royalty. All of that was in the Age of Israel, not in the Church Age.

3. All the Old Testament prophecies pertaining to the first advent have been fulfilled and we, the royal family of God, live in the dispensation of no prophecy and therefore the greatest challenge to spiritual living that has ever existed. We live in a prophetical dead spot: no prophecy, only historical trends determined by the believer’s attitude toward Bible doctrine.

4. The book of Revelation distinguishes between the historical impact of the present Church Age and the prophetical impact of the Tribulation and second advent of Christ. In other words, there is still one very exciting prophetical period built around the second advent of Christ. It includes the Tribulation, the second advent, the Millennium, the last revolution of history, and the destruction of the earth. But we have no part of it, we will be in heaven during those great prophetical events that we are going to study. We have a far greater challenge because it is the challenge of the invisible. Only in this dispensation is every believer a priest. The decisions that the believer makes every day, the decisions of royalty, are therefore far more important than the run of the mill believers in any other dispensation.

5. Therefore the book of Revelation is not written to satisfy morbid curiosity but to delineate the role of the Church, the royal family of God, in the field of historical impact, and to reveal through prophecy of the Tribulational events the disastrous nature of history prior to the second advent. (When Jesus Christ comes back He is going to straighten everything out. Until Jesus Christ returns to the earth planet earth is never going to be straightened out)

6. One of the two prophetical trends of history has already been fulfilled — the first advent, the other is pending, after the Church has been removed from the earth through resurrection. There is only one time in human history when the decisions of every believer enter into the historical trends of a geographical area. We are living in it; we are even royalty.

7. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the prophetical key to history and the true title of the book of Revelation is found in the first three Greek words, Apokaluyij I)hsou Xristou. It is the revelation of one Person, the Person who controls history, our Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ.

1. The Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy, the dead spot in history, the period of historical trends.

2. The only prophecy of the Church Age is the terminating event, the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church. The time of that terminating event is unknown to all mankind.

3. Needless to say, the dispensation of no prophecy is terminated with a prophecy. That is why we have the doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture. Since the time of the apostles the Rapture could have occurred, and it could still occur tonight and it could still occur a thousand years from now. The reason is that in the period of no prophecy you only have one prophecy which terminates it and therefore everything is historical trends until that occurs, and when it occurs no one knows.

4. The fact that periodic historical trends approximate the conditions and circumstances of the Tribulation does not mean that any given period of Church history is the so-called Rapture generation. The point is that the believer is to live every day as unto the Lord and he is to live every day as if the Rapture might occur from now.

5. Circumstances of the past have often resulted in false conclusions in predicting the time of the Rapture.

6. We live in a time when the Rapture could occur at any moment, but this does not mean that it will occur for similar circumstances have existed since the time John wrote Revelation.

7. The first prophecy of the Church Age is the resurrection or Rapture of the Church.

8. Until then there is no prophecy, only historical trends which vary with the decisions and attitudes of all believers in the body of Christ. The decisions and attitudes of believers towards God’s game plan for the Church Age is basically residence and function in the divine dynasphere.

9. Do not be misled by so-called prophetic scholars whose doctrine may be true but whose emphasis is false and distorted, for the Church Age has no prophetical implications until the Rapture.

10 Remember that all prophecy regarding the first advent of Christ has been fulfilled, including the insertion of the mystery age, the dispensation of the Church — inserted between the Age of Israel and the Tribulation — therefore we, the believers of the Church Age, are living between the two greatest prophetical events in human history, the first and second advents of Christ. The book of Revelation makes all of the necessary distinctions to keep us from error regarding false teaching in prophetical fields.

1. At some time in your life you have probably asked yourself this question, especially when a bad decision has been made and you try to blame that bad decision on someone else, even God.

2. How many times have you blasphemed and said to yourself: “Why did God let this happen to me?” — as if somehow everything around which is distasteful is God’s fault.

3. The first thing you should know then is that you have a very serious deep-rooted spiritual problem, the problem of arrogance and preoccupation with self, the problem of ignorance of doctrine and cosmic involvement. If that is your problem then you obviously cannot answer the question: Why am I here?

4. Since the day you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ you have continued to live on planet earth through the courtesy, grace, power, and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ.

5. As a royal priest and ambassador for Christ you live on this earth no longer your own person. You are not the master of your destiny, you are not the Lord of your fate.

6. Since you remain in this life through the power and the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ you have a right to ask yourself this question: Why do you reject that power, that authority, by living in the cosmic system? You are dedicating yourself to a life of complete and total misery when you ignore the authority of God and repudiate His power.

7. Since you remain in this life through the power and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ you have the right to ask yourself another question: Why do you reject God’s authority by rejecting Bible doctrine?

8. Every time doctrine is available to you and you do not take advantage of the opportunity to function at gate four of the divine dynasphere — learning it — you are rejecting the very power, the very authority which keeps you alive in this life.

9. Some of you are distracted by preoccupation with self, some of you are simply distracted by seeking pleasure, and we now have a whole generation of silly young girls who are boy-crazy and who as soon as they get involved with some young man they depart from doctrine. Revelation is going to show us that you have a purpose in life as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. The purpose of the Christian way of life demands residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

2. Your excuses and distractions are not legitimate, not even the ones where you think you can actually blame someone else for your circumstances. Blaming others is cowardice and irresponsibility. Adulthood and maturity is taking responsibility for your own decisions.

3. The power and the authority of God which keeps you alive and well in the devil’s world is the same power and authority which provides blessing for you and capacity for that blessing.

4. That same power and authority of God has provided in logistical grace or what we also call temporal security, everything you need to face life with its problems, its pressures, its disasters on the one hand, and its pleasures on the other hand.

5. The trends of history depend on the believer’s recognition of divine power and authority in his life. The very power that keeps you alive in this life can take you out at any time.

6. If you make decisions which result in residence in the cosmic system and you prolong your stay, you have rejected the authority of God, you have repudiated His matchless grace.

7. Those same decisions to live inside the cosmic system are the basis for historical disaster, historical downtrends, as well as your own personal discipline and punishment from God.

8. If you make decisions which result in residence in the divine dynasphere you are not only accepting the authority of God but you are utilising the power that He has provided for great blessing in your spiritual life and in every other facet of your life. And you have taken the only road to personal happiness and blessing that exists for you under the principle: “Why am I here?”

9. Rejection of Bible doctrine is rejection of God’s authority in your life. Rejection of the divine dynasphere through living in the cosmic system is rejection of God’s power in your life, God’s will, God’s plan.

10. This is the difference between objective and subjective reality in history. Subjective reality or cosmic involvement is the downtrend of history; objective reality or living in the divine dynasphere is the uptrend of history. And since we live in the dead spot when there is no prophecy it becomes exceedingly important for us as believers to recognise our responsibility to the power that keeps us on this earth, the power that has provided a perfect plan and purpose, and to the country in which we have had so much blessing.

1. Even though history is the record of man’s decisions and actions it is Jesus Christ who controls history. This means, of course, that there are two sources of judgment in history. When our country is judged, just as when client nation Israel was judged, there are two sources of that judgment: the erroneous decisions of believers in our country and the wise and sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. The trends of history are determined in the Church Age by whether the believer in Christ chooses to live in the divine dynasphere or Satan’s cosmic system. This affects our economic situation and our military situation.

3. There are no tragedies in history. There are historical disasters but these disasters are not tragedies since these individuals and the individuals who form nations are the products of their own

decisions, not their environment. Disaster is an objective reality in history; tragedy is subjective reality in history. Decisions create environment; environment does not create decisions.

4. People individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions.

5. The demand for power exceeds the need for power. Divinely authorised authority is ignored and brushed aside. We only have under the laws of divine establishment so many places for authority and so many places for power. But as more and more people become arrogant they say: “I should have power.” Therefore, for example, the government creates the bureaucratic system which actually takes power away from the government. There are arrogant people in the slums who say: “I have nothing; I should have power.” So to the scum, power is the name of the game. There is also labour power. All of these are violations of two principles: the laws of divine establishment and the whole concept that enforced humility is a virtue related to authority. Without respect for legitimate authority (which is limited) there is arrogance.

6. Arrogant people or arrogant nations never see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of others.

7. Jealous people and envious nations never see their own sins and production of evil, only the sin and evil of others.

The book of Revelation has nine major chapters or thoughts. They do not coincide with the chapters in the English Bible.

Verse 1 — “The revelation of Jesus Christ.” We start out with the objective genitive, the nominative singular subject a)pokaluyij, which means revelation, disclosure of truth. That disclosure of truth includes eschatological doctrine. Notice there is the absence of the definite article in front of a)pokaluyij. The absence of the definite article in the Greek emphasises the qualitative aspect of the noun, therefore it is translated with the definite article. We would say “the revelation,” which is a correct translation for the absence of the definite article with emphasis on the definite article. With it we have the objective genitive of the two titles of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first is I)hsouj, and the second is Xristoj. So it is the apocalypse of Jesus Christ, or the revelation of Jesus Christ which is the correct translation.

After the title we have a patent of royalty. We begin with the accusative singular from the relative pronoun o(j, whose antecedent is a)pokaluyij, “The apocalypse or revelation of Jesus Christ.” The first thing that is revealed is our Lord’s royal patent plus both an historical and eschatological exposition of the tactical victory of the angelic conflict; “which” — and then we have a subject for the relative clause, the nominative subject o( qeoj, and this time we do not translate the definite article since it is generic, merely setting aside the uniqueness of God. And then the verb, the aorist active indicative of didomi, which means to give. We wouldn’t know anything if God in His grace had not given us information. And there is one thing that volition needs: information. The culminative aorist tense views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The existing result is a divine text of history from the time of John to the end of time. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb, and since the aorist tense connotes indefinite action in past time this occurred after the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and was used in the ceremony in which our Lord Jesus Christ received His battlefield royalty, His royal patent. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of our Lord’s royal patent, the battlefield royalty of the angelic conflict. That is because of His victory in. the angelic conflict, His strategic victory at the cross, resurrection and ascension. The book of Revelation therefore is a patent of royalty, the doctrine of which confers the rights and privileges of our Lord’s appointment to battlefield royalty and/or the victory of the angelic conflict.

Next we have a dative indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj used as a personal pronoun, third masculine singular, referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. The dative of indirect object indicates the one, Jesus Christ, for whom and in whose interest the patent of royalty is disclosed. The patent of royalty was issued right after the ascension; it is now disclosed to us. This explains the book of Revelation in its true context for this book is the revelation of our Lord’s royal patent, His battlefield royalty, or how the angelic will be resolved as a result of the cross, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation is both history and prophecy as to the outcome of the angelic conflict. Satan was defeated at the cross but conflict was not concluded until the second advent of Christ and then one flurry at the end of the Millennium. The cross is historical, the second advent is prophetical, and this prophecy reveals the termination of the conflict.

We now come to the purpose of the epistle. First of all in the aorist active infinitive of the verb deiknumi, which means to point out, to show, to make known something, to explain, to prove. Here it means to make known the royal patent of the royal family of God. Our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ who has a third royal patent from His resurrection, ascension and session, means that we are involved in that royal patent and therefore have a tremendous influence on history, individually and collectively, by the decisions we make regarding the plan of God, the divine dynasphere. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the succession of events in Revelation, gathers them up into one entirety, forming our Lord’s royal patent, and revealing His tactical victory in the angelic conflict. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb by revealing to the royal family of God our Lord’s tactical victory in the angelic conflict. The infinitive of purpose expresses the objective of the action denoted by the finite verb, “he gave.” All of this is very important because the book of Revelation is a patent of royalty, the document which confers the rights and privileges of our Lord’s appointment to battlefield royalty or the victory of the angelic conflict. This explains the book of Revelation in its true context for the book is a revelation of the royal patent of God the Son. The book is in part history and its trends, and in part prophecy which will become a part of history after the Rapture. The book of Revelation is the prophecy of the outcome of the angelic conflict. Satan was defeated at the cross, the strategic victory, and the conflict is not concluded until its tactical victory at the second advent. The cross is historical, the second advent in prophetical, this prophecy reveals the termination of the angelic conflict.

With this we have the dative plural, indirect object from the noun douloj, which does not mean a servant, it means a slave. It refers here to the royal family of God or Church Age believers. You and I are slaves of our Lord Jesus Christ, but unusual slaves in that we have options every day. We have free will, we have the opportunity to function within the framework of God’s plan or within the framework of the Satanic administration of the rulership of this world. Douloj means a slave who is totally dependant on his master to sustain him on earth. Next we have the possessive genitive from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. It is used as a personal pronoun and is translated “his,” “to make known to his slaves.”

1. Believers are called slaves because they are totally dependant upon God’s plan and provision for living in the devil’s world between the first advent, the strategic victory of our Lord, and the second advent, the tactical victory of our Lord.

2. Being a slave gives the believer the advantage of being the recipient of God’s grace policy as the principle and logistical grace plus the divine dynasphere as the provision.

3. Every free will decision a believer makes in the direction of his master, residence and function in the divine dynasphere — means blessing.

4. Every decision the believer makes toward freedom from his master means involvement in the cosmic system — with loss of blessing. (You can use your volition and run away from your master to the cosmic system)

5. Being a slave to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ means blessing, happiness, and a life full of meaning, purpose and definition.

6. Being a slave to God means benefiting from God’s power, God’s authority, God’s grace, and God’s courtesy. Being a slave to God means benefiting from the divine provision of logistical grace.

7. Being a slave to God means degrees of happiness from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

Principle: It is no disgrace to be a slave, provided you are a slave to the right thing.

Next we have the accusative neuter plural from the relative pronoun w(j. The neuter gender in the relative pronoun means “things”; the relative pronoun means “which.” Translation: “things which” — a reference to the historical trends of the Church Age and the prophetical events which occur after the resurrection of the Church. Again, the neuter gender denotes the contents of the book of Revelation. The impersonal verb dei is used quite frequently in the book of Revelation by John. It is the impersonal verb of compulsion or responsibility and is translated “must,” “things which must.” Then we have a prepositional phrase e)n, plus the locative of taxoj, which means soon or shortly. It is an adverbial idiom, it means with speed or soon or shortly. The preposition is not translated in the idiom, it is simply translated like an adverb, “things which must shortly [or soon] take place.” The dramatic aorist tense of the aorist middle infinitive of ginomai, comes up next. It means to take place. The dramatic aorist is used for what is about to be accomplished, i.e. the historical trends of the Church Age. This was written when the Church Age was in its first century and the trends that were about to take place are revealed in the next two chapters, plus the prophetical fulfilment of the Tribulation as the background for the second advent of Christ and His Millennial reign. The middle voice is a dynamic middle, it emphasises the part taken by the subject and the action of the verb. The subject includes both historical and prophetical events and when you put them all together you have a picture of the history of the world from the time of the apostle John to the end of time. And you also have them in their proper sequence so that as we move along we will be chronologically in sequence. The infinitive of time has no significance of time in itself but derives it from the neuter of the relative pronoun o(j. Therefore it is simply translated, “things which must soon take place.”

The chain of communication: It begins with the intensive use of the conjunction kai, which introduces a fact which is both surprising and noteworthy, and therefore the translation, “furthermore.” Then comes the aorist active indicative of the verb shmainw, which means to make a report, to communicate a message. Homer used shmainw meaning to command or to issue a directive or a series of directives. Here it means to communicate a message. In other words, God the Father gave the royal patent to the Son and when He did He gave Him the area of history under which the royal patent would function. It functions in the Church Age in chronological sequence from the time of John in the Church Age, AD 96, down to the Rapture of the Church. The royal patent is also included for the Tribulation, the second advent, for the Millennial reign of Christ when the royal patent will be functioning — Jesus Christ will be the ruler of the world — and then for the great revolution at the end, and then the royal patent will continue to function through the destruction of the heavens and this planet earth, and then the creation of the new heavens and the new earth and the eternal state. In other words, the entire panoramic view of the royal patent is given in sequence and all the way through the rest of world history from the time when John wrote this are all the area of our Lord’s third royal patent. It will function from the Church Age on. Therefore Revelation becomes the history of humanity from the time of John to the end of the world.

Next we have the aorist active participle of the verb a)postellw, and it means here, “having sent it.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The participle indicates antecedent action. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, shmainw, communicating the message. The action of this participle precedes that action, having sent it he communicated the message to His slave, i.e. John.

Here is the chain of command. The preposition dia, plus the singular of aggeloj, through his angel. Aggeloj is used two ways in Revelation: first of all for the super beings, angels; but when we get to the angels of the seven churches we are not talking about angels, we are talking about pastors, communicators of doctrine. Here it is used for someone superior to human beings, a teaching angel teaching John, the human author of the book.

Translation of verse 1: The revelation [or the apocalypse] of Jesus Christ, which the God [God the Father] has given to him, to make known [make known the royal patent] to his slaves things which must soon [in chronological sequence] take place; furthermore, he [the glorified Christ] communicated this message having sent it to his slave, his servant John, through angels.

Verse 2, The human author. First of all we have a nominative singular, relative pronoun, o(j. It is referring to a person rather than the content taught. It is translated “who” instead of “things which” as in the previous verse where we had content. Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb marturew, marturew, which means here to give a deposition. The book of Revelation is a deposition, a written testimony of history. Marturew means to testify, to declare, to confirm, and since this is in writing it means here to make a deposition. The aorist tense is constative, gathering up into one entirety the written deposition of our Lord in historical sequence from the time of John to the end of time, and it is our Lord’s royal patent which is covered in that historical period. The active voice: John the apostle produces the action of the verb in writing the deposition which we call the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Then we have the adverbial accusative of reference from logoj, not translated “word” here but “doctrine.” It is the generic use of the definite article with it and also it is an appositional accusative translated “with reference to the Word” [or “the doctrine”]. This is followed by the subjective genitive qeoj, translated “with reference to the Word [or doctrine] given by God.”

1. Definition: God so supernaturally directed the human writers of scripture that without waiving their human intelligence, their individuality, their literary style, their personal feelings, or any other human factor, His complete and coherent message to mankind was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original language of scripture, the very words bearing the authority of divine authorship.

2. No passage of scripture originates from man’s own thinking independent of God — 2 Peter 1:20,21.

3. The descriptions of the canon of scripture take cognisance of all three persons of the Holy Trinity. The Bible is related to God the Father as the author of the divine plan. Therefore in Hebrews 4:12 the Bible is called the Word of God. The Bible is related to God the Son as the central subject of the book. Therefore 1 Corinthians 2:16 calls the Bible the mind of Christ. The Bible is mechanically formed through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Therefore Hebrews 3:7 calls the Bible the voice of the Spirit.

4. God has placed the highest possible value on the canon and Bible doctrine — Psalm 138:2, “I myself will worship toward the temple of your holiness [the real Holy of Holies which is heaven], and celebrate your person, because of your grace and because of your doctrine, and because you have magnified your doctrinal teaching over your reputation.”

6. The doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration. It involves the principle of the two mechanical functions in the formation of the canon of scripture. The mechanical function is described in principle in 2 Timothy 3:16, “all scripture is qeopneustoj,” and it does not mean “given by inspiration.” Qeopneustoj does not mean inspire, it means God-breathed. That is inhale and exhale. Inspire is only inhale, but there is also exhale. The inhale: God the Holy Spirit communicating the truth to human authors within the framework of their vocabulary, their personality, and their written form. This is the input of God the Holy Spirit.

Next we have the connective kai, followed by the appositional accusative very similar to the Attic Greek. Here is the Attic Greek absolute, this is not Koine Greek, “of the testimony,” marturia, the word for testimony or deposition. Our Lord gave it verbally so that marturia is verbal testimony. John put a testimony in writing but the testimony was given by our Lord Jesus Christ, “given by Jesus Christ.” With this we have the accusative neuter plural of apposition from the correlative relative pronoun o(soj, used in the category of quality and number, meaning “about everything which.” And then the verb, the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, what John had seen; “about everything to which he was an eyewitness” is a better translation.

Corrected translation of verse 2: “Who made a deposition about everything to which he was an eyewitness, namely, the word given by God and the testimony given by Jesus Christ.”

1. Environment is an excuse for bad decisions; volition is the issue in the angelic conflict.

2. Good decisions open options for greater decisions; bad decisions destroy all options and terminate in disaster.

3. Historically good environment is manufactured by good decisions while bad environment is the product of bad decisions.

4. Therefore historically prosperity comes from good decisions while historical disaster originates from bad decisions.

5. Good decisions relate to living in the divine dynasphere while bad decisions relate to living in the cosmic system of Satan who is the ruler of this world.

6. The best illustration of this principle is found in the doctrine of heathenism in which heathen are not the victims of their environment, they are the creators of it. We learn this principle from three passages of scripture: Acts 17:6, “they have upset the world” is the way the unbeliever describes it; Colossians 1:6, “the gospel which has come to you just as in all the world;” 1 Timothy 3:16, “he was proclaimed among the nations, he became the object of faith in the world.” The gospel and truth came first and people made wrong decisions.

2. Natural disaster includes earthquakes, tidal waves, hurricanes, floods, volcanoes, etc.

3. Historical disaster includes military defeat, economic depression, famine, disease, degeneracy, crime, terrorism, revolution, tyranny, and so on.

4. There are two sources of natural disaster, the volition of man and the sovereignty of God.

5. The volition of man is illustrated by the careless camper who throws a cigarette into some dry brush and starts a forest fire.

6. The sovereignty of God in the function of historical judgment may cause natural disaster, as illustrated by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 which destroyed Pompeii, or the destruction of Sodom during the time of Abraham and Lot.

7. There are two sources of historical disaster, the volition of man and the sovereignty of God.

8. The volition of man creates the environment which results in divine judgment, such as the administration of the five cycles of discipline. Man creates the environment by his bad decisions, his cosmic involvement, and the result is that the sovereignty of God administers the five cycles of discipline (Leviticus 26).

The book of Revelation is filled with historical and natural disasters brought on by the volition of man and administered by the sovereignty of God.

The postulates of advantage and historical trends — the first three are personal and the last four are national.

1. There are no advantages to the advantages without the advantage. Advantage in the singular is defined as God’s blessings or an upward trend of history, or objective reality from a maximum number of believers residing in the divine dynasphere. We will simply define it as God’s blessing on an individual as the result of his consistent residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. The advantages in the plural simply describe the blessings that come to an individual from his residence and function in the divine dynasphere, especially the development of motivating and functional virtue, and momentum from gate four to gate eight.

2. If you have the advantage — your decisions toward doctrine which are positive, your decisions to reside and function inside the divine dynasphere, your decisions to reject distractions and temptations — you have the advantage, i.e. those degrees of happiness inside the divine dynasphere.

3. Without the advantage there are no advantages. The advantage is the use of your own free will to recover from the cosmic system when you sin or fail.

4. No nation can have the advantages (prosperity, blessing by association with mature believers) without the advantage, the pivot of mature believers who possess objective reality. As goes the believer, so goes the nation. Our advantages include freedom, the functions of evangelism, Bible teaching, missionary activity, the enjoyment of certain pleasures which are closed to other nations.

5. A nation without the advantage (the pivot of mature believers) loses the advantages and receive from the sovereignty of God the cycles of historical disaster.

a. Believers living in the cosmic system are like salt that has lost its savour, its ability to impartflavour.

b. As goes the believer, so goes the nation — the salt of the earth principle.

c. A maximum number of believers in the cosmic system destroy the advantage of that nation.

d. Therefore the believer must make daily decisions for the divine dynasphere for any uptrend in the history of that nation.

e. Both national prosperity and client nation function depend on the formation of a pivot of believers who have advanced to gate eight as the basis for forming that pivot.

f. When a maximum number of believers are living in the cosmic system that nation loses its prosperity resulting in both natural and historical disaster.

g. The nation can only recover its advantages of prosperity from God through the formation of a new pivot. (Pivot people are being constantly being cycled into eternity and a new pivot has to be formed)

7. Loss of both the advantages and the advantage eventuates in the removal of that nation from history. This means that the justice of God administers the 5th cycle of discipline to that nation and only the pivot of mature believers survives, under the principle of the remnant according to the election of grace.

There are very special blessings stated in connection with the correct understanding of this book. The first thing we notice is the special blessing which comes in exegesis and interpretation.

Verse 3 — “Blessed” is the nominative singular of makarioj. Makarioj is first found in Pindar as a poetic word denoting transcendent happiness in life. It means also to be above normal care and anxieties, to be free from worries, to be happy in that sense. It doesn’t mean that you will have no problems in life but it does mean that you will have great happiness. Because of the elliptical style of Revelation occasionally the verb to be has to be inserted, the present active indicative of e)imi, “Happy is.” The articular present active participle from the verb a)naginwskw, which means to gather exact knowledge from something, to exegete, to teach, to read not in the sense of simply reading but to read in the sense of interpretation. Since the exact meaning of the verb is to know exactly and accurately it is used to denote the public teaching of Bible doctrine. So we will translate: “Happy is he who exegetes for teaching [or, who teaches].” The definite article with the participle is used as a personal pronoun to designate those pastors who will teach the book of Revelation as a result of careful exegesis and study. The perfective present tense refers to what has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality denoting the continuation of existing results. The active voice: during the course of the Church Age certain pastors will teach exegetically and accurately the book of Revelation. The participle is circumstantial and refers to the fact that even ministers have happiness. It is a reference to that pastor then who exegetes, analyses and communicates the content of Revelation to his congregation. There is always blessing to that pastor who will persist in the study of the Word and be faithful in teaching it to his congregation.

The second blessing is the special blessing is for those who will sit through and listen to the entire book. We start out with the connective use of the conjunction kai which extends the special blessing to the congregation, i.e. to positive believers in the congregation where Revelation is taught. This is not found in any other book of the Bible. Then there is the articular present participle of the verb a)kouw, which does not mean just to sit there and listen, it means to listen and understand. The nominative plural definite article in contrast to the previous definite article which was in the singular is the difference between the one teaching and those who are positive and concentrating on the exegesis of the book. The present tense is a progressive present for the function of GAP at gate four of the divine dynasphere. This is persistence in the perception of doctrine and brings out once again that there are degrees of happiness for the believer who resides and functions inside the divine dynasphere. The positive believer produces the action of the verb in residence in the divine dynasphere, simultaneously in the local church where the book is taught. The participle is circumstantial, meaning that under those conditions there is happiness but it does not guarantee happiness for those who are out “raising hell” while Revelation is being taught in church.

With this we have the accusative plural direct object from the noun logoj, which sometimes means “word,” sometimes it means the Word taught [doctrine]. Here it is in the plural so we translate it with the definite article, “the words.” “Happy are they who keep hearing the words [the doctrines, the content].” With it we have the descriptive genitive singular from the noun profhteia, plus the definite article used for the near demonstrative and we translate it “of this prophecy.”

3. Add to this the manufacture of virtue. Why virtue? Because as you manufacture motivating and functional virtue you simultaneously produce a by-product called happiness. Virtue and happiness go together.

4. Residence and function inside the divine dynasphere produces the basis for all happiness in life. It produces not only happiness but a happiness base so that you can be happy in a lot of places.

5. There are degrees of happiness inside the divine dynasphere and the perception of doctrine at gate four is included in this happiness concept.

The third factor this verse is a special blessing and application. Some of the greatest moments of happiness that you will ever have are application type happiness conditions. Therefore the connective use of the conjunction kai, and with it the present active participle of the verb terew. The present active participle terew, minus the definite article, indicates that this participle belongs with the previous participle and they both share the same definite article. Terew means to guard, to watch over, to keep, to observe, to pay attention to; hence the verb connotes application. The retroactive progressive present tense denotes what is begun in the past and continues into the present, the application of doctrine at the various momentum tests of life.

You are going to find that as you have testing the application of doctrine brings happiness in the midst of pressure, that as you have prosperity the application of doctrine to prosperity guards and preserves your happiness and makes your prosperity meaningful rather than a basis of distraction and a basis of disillusion.

The active voice: believers living in the divine dynasphere produce the action, the application of doctrine at gate four in momentum testing. We also have the accusative neuter plural direct object from the definite article ta, used as a near demonstrative pronoun and translated “those things.” The neuter indicates the content of doctrine perceived by concentration and now applied by reverse concentration. And then the perfect passive participle which follows from grafw, which means “which have been written,” referring to the content of the Word of God. The perfect tense is the perfect of existing state in which the book of Revelation is completed and the emphasis is placed on the existing results as having this as the completed last book in the canon of scripture. This is a strong way of saying that the book of Revelation exists for your blessing and always will exist for someone’s blessing. The participle is circumstantial and is followed by a prepositional phrase, e)n, plus the locative singular of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, and it is translated “in it.”

So we have: “Happy is he who teaches exegetically, and happy are they who keep hearing the words of this prophecy [the book of Revelation], and keep preserving those things which have been written in it.”

Next we have the explanatory use of the post positive conjunction gar followed by the nominative subject of kairoj. Kairoj refers to a period of time or a point of time. Here it refers to any point of time when application of doctrine is pertinent. It is not referring to any historical occasion, it is simply referring to a point when it is necessary for you to apply doctrine to a situation, either to be happy or to survive. So we will translate it: “for the time for application.” Then we have again the ellipsis which requires the verb to be, and then the adverb of time e)gguj, “is near.” This means that the believer must discern and distinguish between the Church Age which is the dispensation of historical trends and the Tribulation which is a dispensation of prophecy as far as the Church is concerned.

Application means discernment. Discernment is the link between teaching and application; discernment must be both historical and prophetical — historical applied to the trends of the Church Age and prophetical applied to the prophecies of the Tribulation, second advent, and Millennium.

1. The function of gate four in the divine dynasphere, verse 3. Perception and application of doctrine resulting in wisdom and discernment. There are degrees of happiness in the divine dynasphere.

2. For those believers who die during the Tribulation there is special dying grace — Revelation 14:13.

3. For mature believers in the Tribulation who are alert regarding the second advent. Historically the Tribulation is a very difficult period, it is filled with every possible type of pressure and keeping one’s wits and surviving and interpreting the time in which those people live. There is special blessing for alertness in historical crisis — Revelation 16:15.

5. For those believers who have part in the first resurrection, Revelation 20:6.

Verse 4, the salutation of the book. “John,” ‘Ioanhj, the human author of the fourth gospel and the three epistles of John. John came to the Roman province of Asia around AD 70, shortly after the death of Paul and shortly before the fall of Jerusalem. He became the pastor of the church at Ephesus as well as the non-resident pastor of the six churches that are mentioned in this verse and in the next two chapters. According to Eusebius, the famous church historian and church father, John was imprisoned on the island of Patmos in the 15th year of the reign of Domitian, AD 96, and he remained their until the reign of Nerva around 97 or 98 AD. On the death of Domitian John returned to his resident pastorate at Ephesus and non-resident pastorate of the six other churches of Revelation chapters two and three. But he anticipated historical trends in all of those churches, so when we get to chapters two and three and discover that the angel there is a messenger and a pastor, he is writing to those who would pastor in the future, not to any present pastor.

John’s father, Zebedee, had a very successful fishing business. His mother, Salome, followed Jesus all the way to the cross. She is mentioned in Mark 15:40 and Matthew 27:50. John’s home in Bethsaida was staffed with many servants, Mark 1:20. His mother was independently wealthy — Luke 8:3. The description of his home indicates wealth. John was also well acquainted with Caiaphas who was the high priest and one of the most influential men in all of the land. John and Peter were close friends and remained in Jerusalem together after the ascension of our Lord. What brought them together in great friendship was not the fact that they came from the same background. Peter came from the opposite background but they merged into a great friendship not on the basis of the social circles in which they had previously travelled or their environmental background but because of their tremendous love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Even during the persecutions of Saul of Tarsus there was a time when Peter, John and Paul, were all in Jerusalem at the same time. Peter and John lived there; Saul came in to kill Christians. However John did not meet Saul of Tarsus at that time but in Galatians 1:19 John and Paul met in Jerusalem. During the persecution of Herod Agrippa John lost his brother, James, Acts 12:2, while his friend Peter sought safety in flight, Acts 12:18,19. That left John holding the fort in Jerusalem until shortly before the fall of Jerusalem. Fifteen years after Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem John was still in Jerusalem and was listed as one of the pillars of the church. It was John who took part in settling the controversy between the Jewish and Gentile believers, Acts 15:6,13; Galatians 2:9. After the death of Mary, the mother of the humanity of Christ, John was released from his obligation to Jesus regarding the mother of His humanity. That obligation was taken on in John 19:26,27, and he kept his word. John was a man of impeccable integrity. When he told the Lord he would take care of Mary he did so, and not until she died did he depart from Jerusalem. Jesus called John “Son of Thunder” and this indicates that he was not that sweet simpleton that he has been described as. He was a vigorous, powerful aristocrat and not some mealy-mouthed hippie! John survived until the reign of Trajan who began his reign in AD 98. Both Irenaeus and Jerome wrote that John continued his ministry in Ephesus until the time of Trajan. John lived to an advanced old age so that he had to be carried to the church to preach. It is clear that John wrote Revelation on the Island of Patmos around AD 96.

Next we have the dative of indirect object or dative of possession from the definite article taij plus the numeral e(pta, plus the noun e)kklhsia. It is correctly translated, “John to the seven churches.” The word “church” is a dative of indirect object, it indicates the one in whose interest Revelation is written. Revelation was written for believers. It was written to be explained to believers by the pastor in the local church. The dative of possession is a Greek idiom indicating that John is the pastor of all seven of these churches, and at the moment he is the non-resident pastor of all seven. There were other local churches in the Roman province of Asia such as Troy, Colosse, Magnesia, but John was not the pastor of those churches and John did not write to those churches, he only wrote to his own congregation.

It is an erroneous conclusion to imply that Revelation was written for believers in the Tribulation. Remember that this is the last book of the New Testament, it is the patent of royalty of our Lord Jesus Christ. The dative plural of the definite article taij is repeated because the definite article is used for the near demonstrative pronoun and translated “to those,” “who are.” Again we have an ellipsis demanding the insertion of the verb to be into the English for better translation. The entire book of Revelation was originally written for the royal family of God. Believers in the Tribulation are not royal family. This was written for us so that we can learn to distinguish between historical trends and prophetical trends. This was written for our understanding and orientation to history. We must not only be oriented to God through residence in the divine dynasphere, we must be oriented to other believers, we must also be oriented to history.

Then we have the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of A)sia. Asia is a transliterated Greek word and it does not refer to Asia as we know it today, it refers to Asia as Asia existed in the time of John. Today Asia is a continent; in John’s day it was a Roman province, Western Turkey. It was one of the most brilliant centres of Hellenism during the period of the Roman empire. It was the cultural centre of the Roman empire and the wealthiest part of the empire, the prosperity centre.

Now we begin with the actual salutation. John, like Paul, always emphasises the most important policy principle in our relationship to God and God’s administration of blessing to us — xarij, grace. It denotes the divine policy for the royal family of God, and from grace, without any works or merit on our part, comes e)irhnh, translated peace but it means prosperity, “Grace and prosperity.” Next comes the dative plural indirect object from su, and it addressed to all believers — “to you.” You can’t have prosperity without grace, and you can’t have any of these things without understanding the content of this book; this is another insertion of hidden blessing which will become obvious through perception of doctrine. And where is it? — “from him,” the preposition a)po, plus the ablative of ultimate source from a)utoj, and it refers to the glorified Lord Jesus Christ in status quo hypostatic union, now possessing a third royal patent which is the subject of this book as He is seated at the right hand of the Father. The entire panorama of history, both historical trends of the Church Age and prophetical trends of the Tribulation, second advent, Millennium, last revolution, destruction of the universe; all of these things are a part of the royal patent. And from the royal patent comes grace and prosperity to us.

Once our Lord received His royal patent, King of kings and Lord of Lords, the Age of Israel came to a halt and the dispensation of the Church, the royal family of God, the body of Christ, began. It is an inserted period of history for the purpose of forming a royal family of God for our Lord under His third patent. The book of Revelation is the history of the third royal patent of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no prophecy in the Church Age which is a dead spot as far as prophecy is concerned. It is the period of historical trends and you do not have to be a prophet to know what is going to happen during the Church Age, you have to be a student of the Word of God.

“from” begins a long prepositional phrase. The preposition is the Greek word a)po, plus the ablative of source. It is correctly translated “from,” “him” is a definite article in the ablative case and we have this definite article to indicate a personal pronoun. The personal pronoun refers to the one who is the secret, the key to history, our Lord Jesus Christ. With that we now have the outline of the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. First we have our Lord in the present, Jesus Christ at the present time in history. We have an articular present active participle from the verb e)imi, the verb to be. It is translated “from him who is.” The definite article is a nominative masculine singular subject used as a personal pronoun, and with the preposition a)po is translated “from him’. Next the definite article also refers to the Lord Jesus Christ the subject of the book, for Jesus Christ is the key to history. It is translated with the present participle “from him who is.” The definite article also indicates that the participle is to be translated into English by a small relative clause. The static present tense represents a condition which is assumed as perpetually existing and taken for granted as a fact. It is a reference to the status of our Lord Jesus Christ at the present time. He is seated at the right hand of the Father with His third royal patent. He is in hypostatic union, He is eternal God united with true glorified, resurrected humanity forever. And so our Lord Jesus Christ has His third royal patent; we are the royal family.

Before the incarnation our Lord had a different form. He was simply eternal God, not the God-Man in hypostatic union. So the next phrase in the Greek is our Lord in the past — “and which was,” kai o( en. First of all “who is” refers to our Lord’s present status at the right hand of the Father. Next we have the imperfect active indicative, and with it we have the same definite article in the nominative singular, o). It is used with the indicative in the pattern of an entirely different type of Greek, Ionian Greek. Ionian Greek is the only Greek which takes a definite article with the indicative. The definite article used with the indicative mood in the Ionic Greek is used for both a personal pronoun and the relative pronoun, so again we translate kai o(, the first two words here, “and.” Then we have “he who,” followed by the imperfect active indicative again of the verb e)imi, the verb to be, and it should be translated “was,” and can be translated “always existed.” It is referring to Christ as eternal God prior to the hypostatic union, prior to the virgin birth and incarnation. The imperfect tense is the progressive imperfect of description, it represents linear aktionsart in past time, both eternity past and history up to the time of the virgin birth and incarnation. The active voice: Jesus Christ as eternal God produces the action of the verb. So the past tense takes us up to the moment of the first advent, one of the two key moments in all of prophetical history, a prophecy now fulfilled by the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Up to that time He was simply eternal God, infinite, eternal, holy God.

Now for the third presentation of the one who is the key to human history, our Lord in the future, kai o( e)rxomenoj. We start again with the connective use of the conjunction kai, indicating a categorical division in this case and transition. Then we go back to the articular present active participle from the verb e)rxomai, and it is translated “who is coming” or “who is to come.” The definite article in the nominative singular is used for both the personal pronoun and the relative pronoun. The futuristic present tense denotes an event that has not yet occurred, the second advent of Christ, but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. That is the way you have to study the prophecy in this history book, things that have not yet happened but are just as certain as any past event in history. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb and the participle is circumstantial, reference to the second advent of Christ. All prophecy after the Church Age centres around the second advent, just as all prophecy before the Church Age centred around the first advent of Christ.

And then we add another phrase: the connective use of the conjunction kai indicates that we are still talking about the same person, so whatever the seven spirits are they refer to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a connection conjunction, we are not talking about the Holy Spirit. The preposition plus the ablative is used here, a)po plus the ablative plural from pneuma plus the numeral, e(pta for seven — “and from the seven spirits.” The conjunction again tells us that we are talking about the same person; the prepositional phrase tells us we are looking at a different aspect. The kai plus the preposition a)po tells us that one of these views is going to be expanded. Which one is most important to us right now? Our Lord as He is at the present. And so the kai plus a)po tells us that this view is going to be expanded. The seven spirits do not refer to God the Holy Spirit, that’s singular. It refers to our Lord Jesus Christ and it takes the first of the three views of our Lord, “who is.” At the present time our Lord is seated at the right hand and it describes Him under the phrase “seven spirits.”

Now how can we say that the seven spirits actually refer to the Lord? We have to go back and look at the word pneuma, which means wind, breath, life, spirit [spirit as part of human personality]. Spirit is also used for elect angels in Hebrews 1:7; for fallen angels in Mark 8:12; it is also used for human personality and for the Holy Spirit. The word e(pta, (seven) sometimes refers to the seven pastors of the seven churches, and this means that we have a complicated principle as far as this “seven spirits” is concerned because we are going to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ who is, but we are going to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of what He has left the Church, the formation of the body of Christ. So while this is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ it is talking about, Why am I here as a Christian? Why do I still live? I live because He has provided a power by which I can live. So “who is” tells us that He is at the right hand of the Father and to every generation of believers He has given the seven spirits, He has given a system of power.

We can find more about the seven spirits by going to Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1,2. The Holy Spirit is not seven, the Holy Spirit is a power system in the divine dynasphere, as the pervading influence, as the vital force in our lives, influencing seven pastors. We will get to God the Holy Spirit under that concept.

Isaiah 11:1, “Then a root shoot that buds will spring [first advent] from the stump of Jesse” — Israel under the fifth cycle of discipline. It refers to the Davidic dynasty which started with Jesse the father of David. It is another way of talking about Israel as a client nation to God. But since AD 70 it has been cut off for the last time. Three times the fifth cycle of discipline has been administered to Israel as a client nation. Now we live in the Church Age, the times of the Gentiles. Only a Gentile nation can be a client nation to God, there is no such thing as a Jewish nation in this dispensation. There will be no Jewish client nation to God until the end of the Tribulation, until the second advent of Christ, until the dispensation of the Millennium. So the stump of Jesse means historically Israel is cut off as a client nation to God. The first Gentile nation to become a client nation to God was the Roman empire.

But there is a time coming. It says that there is a shoot that will spring up, and that is the first advent. When Isaiah wrote both the first and the second advents were prophetical. “From the stump of Jesse,” “from” means out of the fifth cycle of discipline, out of the destroyed client nation; “and a branch from his roots,” that is Christ at the second advent; “will bear fruit.”

Verse 2, “And the spirit of the Lord,” God the Holy Spirit, “will rest on him.” So Isaiah 11:2 prophesies that Christ would come in hypostatic union. He is the one who is and from the seven spirits of God, but “and” tells us we are still talking about Christ. We are not talking about His person however, we are talking about His will to the royal family, we are talking about our inheritance. And in Isaiah 11:2 we meet God the Holy Spirit who sustained our Lord Jesus Christ, beginning with the phrase “who is,” the prototype divine dynasphere. The power system: gate one, God the Holy Spirit. This sustained our Lord during His incarnation, this is the basis of our Lord’s impeccability.

Once our Lord is resurrected, ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father, and once the Church Age begins, the heritage of our Lord is given to us, only it is not called God the Holy Spirit, it is called seven spirits because it includes the ministry of the Spirit but it includes all of the functions of the divine dynasphere. All of these functions of the prototype divine dynasphere were prophesied in Isaiah 11:2.

First then there is the person, and He is called the Spirit of the Lord. Spirit of the Lord is gate one of the divine dynasphere. That is one of the seven spirits because we are looking at God the Holy Spirit, not just simply as a member of the Trinity but as our heritage for power in this dispensation. Next, “the spirit of wisdom.” That is the Hebrew word chakmah, which is a reference to the application of doctrine. Wisdom is the application of doctrine, so we are looking at gate four of the divine dynasphere, and one of its functions, application. So now we begin to see what our heritage is. Our heritage is gate one of the divine dynasphere but gate one is a person, God the Holy Spirit. Pneuma has to be in the singular for the Spirit but this is in the plural because it is an entire system. The seven spirits is a system and the seven spirits are defined for us in Isaiah 11:2.

Then we have the third spirit, “understanding.” The Hebrew noun is binah, a very strong word for perception.

The fourth spirit is “the spirit of counsel,” etsah, which means a plan or a purpose. We have a plan or a purpose, it is a reference to God’s game plan which is residence and function in the divine dynasphere. So the fourth spirit refers to the entire plan.

The fifth spirit is called the spirit of virtue. This is the noun gerubah and it refers to virtue; it refers to the principle of the Christian way of life. The principle of the Christian way of life, since it is in the divine dynasphere, it categorically divided into the invisible life and the visible life. The invisible life is directed toward God; the visible life is directed toward man. The invisible life is the function of the royal priesthood; the visible life is the function of the ambassadorship. This is accomplished by virtue, so virtue is a word that covers the entire Christian life. Motivating virtue is the perception of doctrine at gate four, the function of your royal priesthood. Motivating virtue is directed toward God. Functional virtue is the application of doctrine at gate four, the function of your ambassadorship.

Number six is “the spirit of knowledge,” the Hebrew noun daath, which means insight, intelligence, wisdom. This is the spirit of understanding historical trends, understanding the time in which we live. It is the concept of objective reality, orienting to the life in which we live.

The seventh spirit is “fear,” jerah, which means respect or honour, and it is the function of gate five, social life with God, occupation with the person of Christ, personal love for God.

Translation of Revelation 1:4 so far, “John to the seven churches, those who are in the province of Asia: Grace and prosperity from him who is, and who always existed, and who is to come; and from the seven spirits [including God the Holy Spirit as the power system for both the prototype and divine dynaspheres of the royal family of God] ...”

In Isaiah 11:1,2 we not only have the prophecy of the two advents of Christ but the means of sustaining the humanity of Christ during His first advent — the Father’s invention of the prototype divine dynasphere. The power system for the prototype divine dynasphere is God the Holy Spirit who sustained our Lord during the incarnation, i.e. He sustained the humanity of Christ. There are seven descriptions of God the Holy Spirit in this role in Isaiah 11:2. According to Revelation 3:1 Christ’s humanity in glorified state still resides in and possesses the prototype divine dynasphere, and in Revelation 4:5 it is stated that the seven spirits are synonymous with the seven lamps which are the seven churches; again giving us a perfect picture that the plan of God can never be divorced from the divine dynasphere, the modus vivendi of our priesthood in the divine dynasphere, the modus operandi of our ambassadorship in the divine dynasphere. With the divine dynapshere on earth there can be no prophecy, only historical trends. That will be true until the divine dynasphere is removed; it only exists during the Church Age. When it is removed prophecy will resume. There is no prophecy in the Church Age. Instead there is something that you can understand as a believer, and should with the seven spirits of God, and that is historical trends.

So when it says in Revelation 4:5 that the seven spirits are synonymous with the seven lampstands, which are the seven churches, this means two things: it means that the divine dynasphere has been given to the Church, the royal family of God, for use in this dispensation; it means that the believer’s residence and function in the divine dynasphere determines the historical trends of the Church Age. With the divine dynasphere on earth then there can be no prophecy, only historical trends. In Revelation 5:6 our Lord’s first advent is related to the prophecy of the seven eyes of Zechariah 3:3-4:14. Again the seven eyes are the seven spirits, a reference to the power system and its function, the divine dynasphere. So the Holy Spirit sustained our Lord Jesus Christ under the title of the seven spirits related to the prototype divine dynasphere. The Holy Spirit was given without measure to the incarnate Christ, John 3:34. The Holy Spirit is mentioned in a special way at the baptism of our Lord — Matthew 3:16. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is related to the ministry of Christ in Matthew 12:18,28 as well as many other passages. When our Lord was bearing our sins on the cross and being judged the Holy Spirit as God forsook Him.

We have one more phrase in verse four, the accusative neuter plural from the relative pronoun o)j, and it is correctly translated “who.” Then because of ellipsis we have the verb to be, followed by the improper preposition e)nwpion (an improper preposition is using some other form of speech other than a preposition to act as a preposition. This was originally an adverb, now used as a preposition), plus the genitive from the noun qronoj, and with it the possessive genitive from the possessive pronoun a)utoj, used as a personal pronoun translated “his” — “before his throne,” a reference to the throne on which our Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Translation of verse 4 — “John to the seven churches, those which are in the province of Asia: Grace to you, and prosperity, from him who is [the present status of the glorified Christ], and who always existed [Christ as eternal God prior to the incarnation], and who is to come [the future status of our Lord at the second advent]; and from the seven spirits [God the Holy Spirit as the power system of both the prototype divine dynasphere and the divine dynasphere used by the royal family of God] who are before his throne.”

This verse emphasises once again that Jesus Christ is the focal point of history, in fact Jesus Christ controls both history and prophecy. Jesus Christ permits historical trends, therefore in history people are the products of their own decisions, not their environment. Furthermore there are no tragedies in history, only disasters. Tragedy is a word that belongs to drama but not to history. Disaster is self-manufactured inside the cosmic system by an act of one’s own self-will. Collective disaster is the product of collective decisions. The demand for power, then, exceeds the need for power, for power is the manifestation of envy, jealousy, and arrogance.

Quoting from Garry North’s book, ‘Successful Investing in the Age of Envy’: “Envy, i.e. true envy is one of the most insidious evils that can afflict a civilisation. Envy is not mere covetousness, not just a desire to steal or illegally obtain anther person’s goods. Envy is that grinding resentment of another person’s advantages; it is the sin that cannot be placated. Envy is a destroyer.

Jealousy or covetousness says: He’s got it; I want it; I’ll steal it; I’ll use it for myself. But envy says something worse: He’s got it; I want it; I know that I can never get it; I’ll destroy it so that no one else can have it.

Modern socialism is the politics of envy. The socialist knows that there are not enough rich people to support all the poor people of this world. He knows that governments’ programs of wealth redistribution cannot uplift the vast majority of men but that doesn’t convince him to abandon socialism. He likes socialism because he thinks that socialism will make it impossible for the wealth-poverty gap to exist, not because the poor have risen but because the rich have been pulled down to the level of the poor. Envy is the politics of economic devolution (degeneration, retrograde development). When envy becomes the foundation of politics the whole society is threatened. Men lose faith in the ability of civil government to protect their property and their futures. Men become secretive, they hide their resources from prying eyes, they reduce their consideration of others, the concept of brotherly love is abandoned.”

“God has provided everything that humanity needs to sustain itself free of charge. On the surface that may strike you as a strange statement but it is true. If you feel uncomfortable with the concept “God” then substitute “nature” or “universe.” The origin of our bounty is not what I want to write about. Look around you. Everything you see, whether it is a computer, television set, or a nylon carpet has been assembled from materials which existed on this planet before man arrived. Concepts like natural or man-made are misleading; man has never made anything. All man can do is rearrange matter already in existence. A synthetic anything is merely a new combination of natural materials. Everything necessary to duplicate out present civilisation existed in the stone age. To this bounty of natural resources which came with the planet man has added only two ingredients: knowledge and work. What you see around you, good or bad is the product of the increased human knowledge of matter and human labour directed by that knowledge and applied to the matter. It is therefore no accident that education or the acquisition of knowledge and work have always been two of man’s most cherished values. Too bad both seem to be falling out of favour with large segments of the American population.

But now that you see all the wealth that is created by the application of knowledge and work you can also see that there are two ways of sustaining life. We either work or we live off the product of someone else’s work. If we work we are productive; if we live off someone else’s work we are a parasite. The one exception are those who live off the savings they have accumulated from private labour.

All of us are at one time parasites. Children are parasites, though through disease, ageing or accident adults can be forced into parasite existence in a free society. People choose to share the fruit of their labour with those who are not productive but for whom they care. The ancient function of the family is to pool the labour to create a surplus to provide for those family members who are not productive or who may become non-productive.

What has happened to us however is that the Welfare State has been imposed on us by politicians. This State forcibly confiscates a portion of the fruit of our labour and redistributes it to the parasites we don’t even know, much less care about. The only claim these parasites have to our labour is a legal definition created out of thin air by lawyers. There is nothing charitable or just about the system. Those who labour don’t feel good about it because they have no choice in the matter; those who receive don’t feel good about it because they feel guilty for not being productive. The only beneficiary is government which itself is a parasite and which uses the redistribution scheme as an excuse to expand its size and its power. (Remember the principle: the demand for power exceeds the need for power) More seriously, the system destroys the work ethic. The lazy have no incentive to work for they are subsidised; the energetic soon become discouraged because so much of their labour is confiscated. Since work is the source of wealth every Welfare State, under whatever guise, eventually destroys itself. As soon as there are more consumers than producers the standard of living begins and inevitable decline as the common store of wealth is consumed faster than it can be replaced.

The standard of living in America today is declining and will continue to decline so long as we allow politicians to impose this destructive welfare state on us. The alternative to impoverishment is to return to a system in which everyone is encouraged to work and no one is encouraged to be a parasite. You encourage work by not confiscating its fruit; you discourage parasites by refusing to subsidise them. You want to know how to get Americans off their backsides? Just let the Government send them a mailgram. Quote: ‘All forms of subsides have now ceased. If you like to eat, you’d better find a job or a friend in a hurry’.”

Historically all nations come to this sort of a problem. It is true historically in every nation that has ever achieved or attained any system of prosperity. The national entity, the empire, the group, whatever it is, is a product of its own decisions, not its environment. Decisions create environment, not environment decisions, and when people allege that environment creates decisions they announce that they are weak and flawed.

Historically, getting back to our own country (America), we had three categories of environment, all the products of many, many decisions. There was the north, the south, and the frontier. The people in all of these areas were the products of their decisions. Also, this opened up options for decisions. Eventually the north, through immigration and through the industrial revolution, became a manufacturing industrial revolution-type entity; factories, cities, in other words, an urban population functioning under the principles of management and labour. The south was an agricultural economy. Each, of course had its own successful people. The landed aristocracy was the success mark in the south, comparable to nobility in the rise of western European civilisation. In the north you have successful people in the monetary field, the rise of capitalism, supply and demand, and you have your successful millionaires who had no landed patent of nobility, the same as in western Europe.

Then you always have something to which people can direct their energies, toward which people can make decisions. Under the principle of inheritance the eldest son would inherit his father’s fortune in the north, the eldest son would inherit his father’s land in the south. And younger sons were often the best and most successful, the ones with the greatest amount of ability; and therefore they would have the option of finding their fortune by going to the frontier, the same thing that happened in England, Germany, France, Italy and Spain over the last 400 years as they began to emerge from medieval times. So that there were options, opportunities.

But as a land becomes prosperous the frontier decreases, shrinks, and eventually the frontier will be the source of the whining and the complaining, for if any of the conquered people are left alive they always whine and complain and demand damages as the nation reaches its peak of prosperity — like the Indians, whining and complaining and saying, “This land is ours.” So that becomes, then, a source of trouble as the frontier shrinks, and while the frontier is shrinking there is always a class struggle. This happened in England between the landed aristocracy and the successful manufacturers as they became successful.

This conflict often ends, as it did in the USA, in a civil war in which slavery was merely an excuse. Slavery was on its way out and would have been peaceably and easily settled within a generation, but it made a marvellous excuse for arrogance for you see when arrogance intrudes immediately there is conflict. We have already studied the principle that those who are arrogant never recognise their own inconsistencies, their sins, their failures, only the inconsistencies of others. Arrogance in the north saw inconsistency in the south; arrogance in the south saw inconsistency in the north, and a conflict was inevitable in those circumstances. The only thing that could have staved it off was a successful evangelism that brought about perception of doctrine, the function of impersonal love whereby time would resolve many social problems. Slavery was a social problem which would have been resolved, and replaced by other social problems. There will always be problems and there will always be self-righteous arrogance to handle them wrongly. The greatest difficulty in problems are the solutions where human good is produced.

So it was inevitable that a war would come here; it was inevitable that there would be a French revolution; it was inevitable that there would be a Russian revolution, because once you destroy the frontiers and their opportunities prosperity becomes a state of instability. Once you achieve prosperity you, at the same time, achieve instability, for a generation comes along that has no appreciation of that prosperity unless it is a generation of doctrinal people who through the Word of God have come to develop a capacity for life and therefore appreciation of what they possess. But generally there is dissatisfaction, and dissatisfaction can manifest itself through violence, it can manifest itself through the guilt complex. It has many manifestations, but once there is no frontier at all then the State receives its greatest challenge. You have no outlet for decisions, you have no place where people in the south and people in the north can go and find their fortune, where they can use their energy and make their decisions, and therefore life becomes a very strong issue. A nation either passes the prosperity test or flunks it. If it flunks it, it has a tremendous rise in crime. Instead of people going to a frontier to seek their fortune they make decisions to become criminals and prey off the land. There is no frontier, just prosperous people to rob, to cheat, to destroy. You have philosophical opinions such as redistribution of wealth: “You are wealthy, I am poor, it is beneath my dignity to be poor, I am going to take your wealth. I am going to take it through legislation, though violence, through crime. But I envy you and I intend to have it and if I can’t have it, no one will have it.”

There was a time when the frontier turned and destroyed Rome. Discontented peoples became restless and infiltrated, eventually invaded, and destroyed the empire. Whether they were called Gauls or Huns or Vandals, whatever they were called and by whatever designation it happened then, it happens again and again and again in history, demonstrating the fact that human beings are simply unable to handle prosperity and that most people when you get down to the bedrock of their living, if they have any character at all they generally do better in adversity than they do in prosperity. It takes true greatness to handle prosperity, it simply takes greatness to handle adversity. Prosperity requires more spiritual strength, more capacity for life, more human ability than does anything else in life; it is the most subtle of all fields of testing. The prosperity involved is often pseudo prosperity provided by Satan and if it is real prosperity it challenges Satan, it challenges those involved, and the decisions that are made often destroy it before Satan or anyone else can get to it.

The frontiers of the past are now screaming to western Europe, “We have been exploited”; third world nations: “We have been exploited.” The Africans have been beautifully administrated by the Belgians and the English, and in some cases by the French, but the Africans turned against those who came down and used them as a frontier, and now everywhere we are going to see what you have never seen before in history: the stone age trend, in which people appear not to have options. They can’t choose to go to work because there are no jobs, they can’t choose to live normally because there is no option for normal living, it has been destroyed by bad decisions over a period of time. And in their frustration of having no options at all — closed doors — and failing to realise the source of closed doors (bad decisions destroy options) they revert to their emotionalism, they can no longer think, and to survive they emote, they escape through crime, drug addiction, joining organisations that promise them everything and give them nothing: exploitation of the masses. They become communists, they enter into areas of violence, of crime, complaining is a way of life. This destroys any possibility of capacity for life and therefore lays the groundwork for the greatest rise of terrorism and crime and violence and masses being directed by conspiracies of one kind or another. It is not environment which causes this because this comes from places of wealth and influence as well as places of poverty and struggling. It is a matter of individual decision and then the amalgamation of individual decision into collective decision, and then the destruction of individual and collective decision, and the frustration that brings about emotion which is irrational. From emotion something snaps and then people go in different directions which could all be classified as the various areas of degeneracy, and then you fall back into a dark ages such has occurred at various times in history.

It is interesting that Revelation chapters 1, 2, and 3 come before chapters 6 through 19. It is no accident, it is a part of the picture. We must learn historical trends to appreciate the prophecies regarding the Tribulation, the second advent of Christ, the transfer of the rulership of this world from Satan to Christ, the one thousand year reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Millennial reign, demonstrating that perfect environment isn’t the solution to man’s problems. People constantly seek solutions by improving their environment and therefore never orient to the environment they resent. By not orienting to the environment they resent and not meeting it with the principles of Bible doctrine when they have improved environment they are not improved. The environment is improved and instead of having a solution they have simply intensified their problems.

Verse 5, the subject of the book of Revelation. The subject is the unique person of Jesus Christ, the basis and the function of His royal patent as it relates to the history of mankind from the time of John to the end of time. This includes historical trends of the Church Age, the beginning of prophecy with the termination of the Church Age, the Rapture, all of the unusual activities of the Tribulation, the terrible confusion and disasters which occur during the Tribulation, how these are all sorted out by the second advent of Christ, how there is a coup de tat in which Satan as the ruler of this world is superseded by our Lord, and how our Lord rules perfectly the entire earth in the Millennium under a system of perfect environment for which those without doctrine have no capacity to appreciate. At the end of 1000 years of perfect environment their lack of capacity is manifest by releasing Satan from his prison and Satan stirs up the Gog revolution as a demonstration that perfect environment is not the solution to man’s problems. Then comes the last judgment with the second resurrection and the destruction of planet earth and the universe as we now know it followed by the creation of a new heavens and a new earth and a new Jerusalem for your occupancy and the occupancy of all who believe in Jesus Christ. Therefore you must constantly keep in mind when we get into some of the details of these prophecies that even though man is the product of his own decisions Jesus Christ controls history.

We begin the exegesis with the connective use of the conjunction kai, which is simply transferred here “and,” but we will see some great exegetical complications with the word kai. It is used in place of numerals as when giving a summary — point one, point two, etc.; it is used to delineate

categories; it is used to advance the thought, so it has to be translated “furthermore” or “moreover.” One of the weakest areas of translation in all past translations has been lack of understanding of this little three-letter word. Here is verse 5 it is simply “And.”

Then we have the prepositional phrase a)po plus the ablative of source from two proper nouns. The first is ‘Ihsouj, Jesus, the second is Xristoj, the appointed one, the anointed, the one appointed by God the Father to steer the course of human history to the divine purpose and the proper conclusion, not only in your life as an individual but in the function of literally millions of decisions throughout world history. We will translate it: “And from Jesus Christ.” “Jesus” is simply the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Joshua” and it means “saviour”; “Christ” means appointed to destiny, anointed, in the time context of the Old testament. The ablative of source as the object of the preposition a)po indicates that the original situation contributed in some way to the present status of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the subject of the book and the present status of our Lord is denoted by certain doctrines we have studied: the doctrine of the virgin birth, the beginning of the incarnation or the first advent -resultant immediately, the doctrine of the hypostatic union. In hypostatic union the weak part would be the humanity, the susceptible part; for deity cannot sin, deity cannot fail, but the humanity of Christ in hypostatic union could. The prototype divine dynasphere, our Lord’s impeccability inside the prototype divine dynasphere: He was not able to sin in the divine dynasphere, as God He is able not to sin.

Next we have o( martuj o( pistoj, the appositional use of the nominative case: the adjective pistoj, the noun martuj. It is correctly translated, “faithful [or dependable] witness,” a witness inspiring faith, trust, confidence, therefore a faithful or dependable witness. Jesus Christ is not only the witness about the fact of the existence of God but is the manifestation of the Godhead, John 1:18; 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12. As the faithful witness Jesus Christ presents true evidence of God and true testimony about God’s plan; and therefore provides hope for all of us in the midst of historical confusion and disaster. It is the nominative of apposition which modifies Jesus Christ — dependable, inspiring faith or trust. So we translate: “And from Jesus Christ, the dependable witness.” This is why the Bible is called the mind of Christ in 1 Corinthians 2:16, because Jesus Christ is the dependable witness of all truth, all doctrine, the controller of all history; and therefore the one who gives us hope in the darkest hour of history, the one who makes life meaningful in the midst of the greatest disasters of life. The believer also becomes a dependable witness through his residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. He produces motivating virtue toward God, he produces functional worship toward mankind, toward the circumstances of history. Jesus Christ, then, as the dependable witness lived inside the prototype divine dynasphere, an exclusive invention for the Church Age believer only. After the Church Age there will never be again in human history the divine dynasphere. We now possess that same divine dynasphere as the royal family of God in the Church Age and have the same mission to fulfil, the manufacture of virtue in that divine dynasphere which becomes a dependable testimony or the giving of evidence to mankind about God, for mankind in every generation, in every moment of history, needs God. This is why the believer is called an ambassador for Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:20, because in the absence of our Lord seated at the right hand of the Father we are His witnesses, His representatives, therefore His ambassadors on this earth.

This brings us now to the beginning of a very important subject. It is the nominative apposition of the word prwtwtokoj, a word translated “firstborn” but has a tremendous significance to us.

One of the things we need to become used to is the fact that the book of Revelation deals with the historical trends of the time in which we live. While we will be studying prophetical things those prophetical things will not be seen by us in our life time on this earth, for no believer will be alive on this earth at the time that the prophetical part of the book of Revelation begins. So joining the historical with the prophetical to form a panorama of world history the book of Revelation is the text book of history from the time of the Roman empire to the end of time. We have noted therefore the historical trends and they become extremely important, not only for our own application of doctrine but for the spiritual life, the plan of God, the purpose for our very existence on this earth after salvation.

We have now accumulated eight basic principles in the concept of historical trends which will be demonstrated in almost every chapter in the book of Revelation.

1. Even though history is the record of man’s decisions and actions it is Jesus Christ who controls history. Therefore there are two sources of judgment in history: the sovereign decisions of Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind.

2. The trends of history are determined in the Church Age by whether the believer chooses to live in the divine dynasphere or inside Satan’s cosmic system.

3. There are no tragedies in history. There are historical disasters but these disasters are not tragedies since the individuals or nations are the products of their own decisions, not the products of their environments. Decision creates environment, not environment decision.

4. People individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions.

5. The demand for power exceeds the need for power. Therefore divinely authorised authority is ignored and brushed aside.

6. Arrogant people or arrogant nations never see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of others.

7. Jealous people and envious nations never see their own sins and their production of evil, only the sins and evil production of others.

8. Arrogant individuals, groups or nations never see the disastrous consequences or evil results of their own cosmic involvement or evil modus operandi. Preoccupation with self to the exclusion of objective reality is the greatest blindness problem in this life.

Let’s take, for example, the 5th trend: the demand for power exceeds the need for power.

b. The demand for power is determined by the arrogance, lust, envy, greed, motivating and functional evil of the cosmic system.

c. Legitimate power is defined in terms of authority — delegated authority from God, delegated authority in social life, economic life, domestic life, professional life, political life, and spiritual life.

d. Evil and destructive power exists to the extent that cosmic arrogance exceeds the restraints on cosmic arrogance, restraints from the function of legitimate authority in life such as parents over children, husbands over wives, management over labour, law enforcement and jurisprudence protecting the freedom, the privacy, the property of the individual citizen, the authority of the pastor to teach doctrine in his congregation and the influence of that doctrine on the royal family of God.

e. Since we are the products of our volition rather than our environment cosmic arrogance can only be restrained through enforced and genuine humility, gate three of the divine dynasphere.

f. This brings us to the conflict between objective reality in life which is inside the divine dynasphere and subjective reality of life which is related to the cosmic system.

g. Believers are not only the products of their own decisions in life but the nations in which they reside reflect the believer’s volition.

h. The believer’s good decisions to live in the divine dynasphere are reflected by national prosperity while the believer’s bad decisions to live in the cosmic system are reflected by national disaster.

We now move to the nominative of apposition from the noun prwtwtokoj, which means firstborn. Translation: “And from Jesus Christ, the dependable witness, the firstborn ...”

a. The title “firstborn” denotes the privileges of primogeniture, that is the right of the firstborn to all the inheritance.

b. In the Jewish connotation which is in view here this would include three factors. 1. Rulership: Christ is the ruler of both Israel and the Church, and at the second advent will supersede Satan as the ruler of this world. “King of kings and Lord of lords” refers to that royal patent which will be exercised at the second advent of Jesus Christ; 2. The priesthood: Jesus Christ is the high priest of the royal priesthood made up of all believers in the Church Age, sometimes called the body of Christ; 3. The double portion: Jesus Christ has a double portion inheritance, the spiritual inheritance ruling both Israel and the Church throughout the Millennial reign of Christ and forever.

c. Since all believers of the Church Age are royal family of God through baptism of the Spirit and union with Christ we share in this inheritance, the primogeniture of Christ.

d. However only mature believers have the full privileges of the firstborn. For example, rulership. Mature believers will rule with Christ in the future. For example, priesthood. Only the mature believers benefit from the invisible part of the Christian way of life inside the divine dynasphere. For example, the double portion. That is reserved for the mature believer only. In time it is the imputation of supergrace blessing in its six paragraphs; in eternity it is the imputation of the great rewards which will come to us at the judgment seat of Christ.

e. Documentation for primogeniture: Romans 8:28,29; Colossians 1:15, 18; Hebrews 12:23.

f. The ablative of source which follows is nekroj and refers to physical death. It is translated “firstborn from the dead” in verse 5.

g. The ablative denotes the original situation where firstborn was assigned — resurrection, which contributed to our Lord’s present status quo. In resurrection He became the firstborn. That is why it is said “firstborn from the dead,” and we too will enjoy the privileges of primogeniture for all eternity as royal family of God because we, after Christ, will be the first category of believers to be resurrected. After our Lord’s resurrection the next resurrection is the Rapture of the Church, not the Old Testament saints.

There are two words we might as well get used to. The first is qanatoj, which means death, and we are going to see it used again in this chapter for spiritual death. It is used for our Lord’s bearing our sins on the cross. And the other we will see a great deal of is nekroj, and that is our Lord’s physical death on the cross. Remember that our Lord died twice on the cross that we might be born twice.

You cannot understand the dynamic and historical impact of the first advent unless you look at Christ from a threefold standpoint. First, He is eternal God; secondly, eternal God became man — Emannuel, the God-Man, the hypostatic union, the incarnation; thirdly, the second advent of Christ when He will return in hyspostatic union. So we have the eternal God — first advent, second advent. We always have to look at it this way because the tremendous Christological impact comes from the fact that Jesus Christ who came in the flesh was also eternal God. That was the beginning of the strategical victory of the angelic conflict, reaching its peak at the cross where He bore our sins in His own body (not His deity, deity isn’t being judged for sins, deity cannot sin).

Now we move on in verse 5 to the intensive use of the conjunction kai, which emphasises what was a noteworthy fact. We translate this “furthermore.” And with that the nominative of apposition a)rxon, a word which takes us right back to Athens in the fifth century BC to the basis of west European culture in Attica. A)rxon was the word for the ruler or the twelve rulers of the Athenian city state. It is a classical Greek word and it does mean ruler. It is very important because it refers to the fact that not one of us will take another breath or do another thing except by the courtesy of the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I are living on planet earth, the devil’s kingdom at the present time, simply because of who and what Christ is. We are here because of His policy called grace and His authority won in the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, and we are here by His power. We are here because our Lord is the a)rxon, the ruler.

Not only is our Lord an a)rxon but He rules rulers, not peasants and peons. There is only one person in all of history who rules all the rulers, and so we have the ordinary Greek word for a ruler or a king, the descriptive genitive plural from the noun basileuj; and in the plural it is correctly translated “kings,” “the ruler of the kings.” Then we have the genitive singular of place from the noun gh, the word for the planet earth. After the resurrection we have also the ruler of the kings of the earth. Our Lord will return to the earth for the tactical victory of becoming the ruler of all the kings of planet earth. Through resurrection, ascension and session our Lord Jesus Christ won a royal patent. That royal patent supersedes Satan as the ruler of this world. Before the cross Satan offered our Lord the kingdoms of the world, the kosmoj, Matthew 4:8. Our Lord refused because He will not exercise His royal patent until the second advent. Before our Lord will exercise His royal patent on earth millions of people are going to make millions of decisions which will have exhausted every connotation of self-determination that could ever exist in combination in every system of numbers, every variation that could ever exist in every category, so that by the time of the second advent there will be in the history of the human race a total exhaustion of every category of decisions that could be made in history. It will be demonstrated that no one ever came up with a thought, and idea or decision that had not been tried and failed. Our Lord returns when every human resource of every genius has been combined in the functions of history to demonstrate that man has exhausted his resources. Once everything has been tried our Lord will then come back and sort it all out. And the fascinating thing is that He will establish perfect environment on the earth.

1. Note that through warfare our Lord Jesus Christ comes to establish His patent of nobility. He establishes His patent of nobility the way all patents of nobility have been established in world history, through the sword, warfare, Revelation 19.

2. His government is established through military victory — the last phase of the Armageddon campaign, Revelation 16.

3. Only violence and death on the battlefield will pave the way for Millennial reign. Perfect environment is not established by disarmament but by armament.

4. Good government can only be maintained by good military establishment. Both tyranny and good government maintain themselves by good military but military establishment indicates the nation involved has freedom. Establishment doctrine is freedom doctrine.

5. The freedom of the client nation to God can only be purchased by military victory. Freedom is purchased on battlefields, not by politicians making speeches.

6. Warfare is historically the only way to right wrongs until the second advent of Jesus Christ. Wrongs are increased and intensified through disarmament. The principle is that we all have old sin natures and as long as we do these old sin natures have to be regulated en masse by force. This includes, of course, law enforcement. Law enforcement is a form of warfare, warfare against crime. Therefore it is imperative that the client nation to God have a strong military establishment which includes law enforcement and good jurisprudence.

7. Therefore there are certain things under the laws of divine establishment that must exist in the national entity. The necessities for maintaining freedom include universal military training, mobilisation plans which means a good general staff, a strong military industrial base for logistical support of deployed forces, strategic and tactical plans, and great civil and military leadership.

The book of Revelation is designed to orient believers to the historical tends of the dispensation of the Church and to see the entire panorama of history and the principle that we have been studying — Jesus Christ controls history — and other similar principles which will occur from time to time as we progress in this book. Therefore behind everything is the very principle, the very heart of the Christian way of life, the divine dynasphere in which we have: Gate 1, the filling of the Spirit; Gate two, basic impersonal love; Gate three, enforced and genuine humility; Gate four, perception and application of doctrine; Gate 5, love of God, occupation with Christ as you mature; Gate 6, right man-right woman where pertinent; Gate 7, friendship and advanced impersonal love; Gate 8, the completion of the edification complex, cracking the maturity barrier, and the reception of the supergrace blessings in 6 categories.

The Christian way of life can only exist inside the divine dynasphere and it is divided into two parts: invisible and visible. The invisible way of the Christian life is the function of the royal priesthood, the visible way of the Christian life is the function of our ambassadorship. At Gate 4 the privacy of the priesthood gives you the opportunity for perception of doctrine and the application of doctrine to experience. The invisible part of the Christian way of life is directed toward God; the visible part of the Christian way of life is directed toward man. It is impossible to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ except through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. As one continues in the Christian life he produces the motivating virtues from the priesthood, the functional virtues or counterpart from the royal ambassadorship. For example, worship toward God is a motivating virtue for morality directed toward man. The second one that we have studied, personal love directed toward God, is the motivating virtue for the functional virtue of impersonal love directed toward man. Confidence is a motivating virtue directed toward God and its counterpart is the functional virtue of courage directed toward man and circumstances.

It is imperative to understand that the mandates all relate in one way or another in the function of our spiritual experience to the divine dynasphere. For example, the command to be filled with the Spirit is Gate 1, the residence in the divine dynasphere. The command to walk by means of the Spirit is the function at the various gates. The negative mandate, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit,” is to avoid cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance and cosmic 2 with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred which is called “quenching the Holy Spirit.” And the mandates are simple: “Be filled with the Spirit,” residence in the divine dynasphere; “Walk by means of the Spirit,” function in the divine dynasphere. “Grieve not the Spirit,” avoid cosmic one; “Quench not the Spirit,” avoid cosmic two. Cosmic one and cosmic two is the Satanic genius in the administration of his world rulership. The believer living inside of the divine dynasphere produces the uptrend in history, the believer living in the cosmic system produces the downtrend in history.

Continuing with the exegesis of verse 5, we begin with the articular present active participle of the verb a)gapaw, and it is translated “to him who has loved us.” The one participle with its definite article gives us a small relative clause. The dative singular, indirect object from the definite article is used as a personal pronoun as well as a relative pronoun, translated “To him who.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive present also known as the present tense of duration. It denotes what has begun in the past and continues in the present. There never was a time when God did not love us and the conditions under which that exists we will note in a moment. The active voice: Jesus Christ as God produces the action of the verb. Jesus Christ as the God-Man also produces the action of the verb in the function of impersonal love from the prototype divine dynasphere. The participle is circumstantial, being articular it also acts as a relative clause.

Then we have the accusative plural direct object from the personal pronoun e)gw, correctly translated “us.” It refers to the royal family of God, the Church Age believer. God is eternal, God is infinite, therefore God possesses eternal and infinite love. God is immutable, unchangeable. Therefore the love of God is stable, unchangeable, compatible with His perfect character. God is holy, therefore the holiness of God possesses perfect integrity, and this is the key to understanding the love of God. God’s holiness is composed of His justice and His perfect righteousness, and when we believed in Christ His perfect righteousness was imputed to us establishing a grace pipeline from the justice of God to the righteousness of God, the basis of all blessing. Possessing the righteousness of God is also the basis for divine love.

It is important to understand God’s love for God. The basis of it is the essence of the Father, the essence of the Son, the essence of the Holy Spirit. God is one in essence, three in personality. The sovereignty of God the Father, the sovereignty of the Son, the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit is coequal and coeternal, they have the identical infinity, the identical eternal life, and so on. But the basic issue in the integrity of God. God is love. Each member of the Trinity has perfect love, perfect capacity for love, there never was a time when this love did not exist, there never was a time when it increased or decreased, there never was a time when it was involved in anything that was remotely identified with failure such as sin in the human race. Integrity is the issue, God’s perfect righteousness and God’s justice. Justice and righteousness is actually the two attributes related to divine holiness and the Father has perfect righteousness and justice, the Son has perfect righteousness and justice, and the Holy Spirit has perfect righteousness and justice.

God the Father in perfect subjective love loves His own integrity. And the key: the love goes to His perfect righteousness. He loves His own righteousness, it is perfect, and He loves it with His perfect subjective love. Since He is loving a characteristic He has we call it subjective. Subjective, when used of the human race is bad; subjective, when used for God is good, perfect goodness.

Now God the Father being love also loves the perfect integrity of God the Son. That is called objective love. Furthermore He loves the perfect integrity of God the Holy Spirit because there never was a time when all three members of the Trinity did not have perfect righteousness. We call that the love of God for God, or love directed toward God. It is called objective because the target for the love is perfect divine righteousness, and this is true of all three members of the Godhead, the Trinity.

Now you can begin to see the implications of what happens at salvation when we believe in Christ. That perfect righteousness is imputed to us, we have that same righteousness, and therefore God loves the believer and the justice of God can even provide blessing for the believer in failure, as illustrated by logistical grace where God keeps the carnal believer, the sinning believer, the believer functioning in motivating and functioning evil, the believer in the in the cosmic system. The reason is not because there is any merit in carnality, there isn’t .

In verse 5 the one who loves us is a specific member of the Trinity: God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It isn’t the Father or the Holy Spirit who is mentioned loving us here, even though that is a true fact, but not taught here. “To him who loves us” is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ who is different from the Father and different from the Holy Spirit in that He is true humanity and different in true humanity in that He is God.

“To him who has loved us.” What does this mean? Go back to the principle. There are three phases to the plan of God and in each one of those phases we have our Lord’s love described in terms of personal and impersonal love. In salvation we have this same categorical concept: God’s love for God — subjective, objective; God’s love for mankind — divine personal and impersonal love. In phase one divine impersonal love is directed toward all, it is unconditional — John 3:16; “To him who loved us” in our case, doesn’t refer to the unbeliever in phase one. Divine personal love is always conditional. Divine impersonal love is directed toward all, but the few (believers) are the object of divine personal love, those members of the human race in any given generation who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The few are those believers who receive the imputation of +R, God’s righteousness, and just as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit love perfectly in subjective and objective love the perfect righteousness of their own holiness, so they love that same righteousness in us since it is imputed. And since we are the royal family of God we possess a double portion of God’s righteousness. Imputed to us was the righteousness of the Father, and being in union with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit we have the righteousness of the Son. As royal family of God we have a double portion.

In phase two of the plan of God the “all” represents all believers, and when it says, “To him who loved us” it obviously includes divine impersonal love — unconditional — directed toward all believers. And the manifestation of divine impersonal love is the imputation of logistical grace to all of us. Every believer who fails or succeeds receives the imputation of logistical grace — because they are the objects of divine impersonal love. But there is an advance on that for the few — out of the all come the few (few being less than all) — are those who advance to maturity, who go from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere, who persist in the perception of doctrine, who pass the momentum tests for acceleration of growth. And divine personal love is conditional, it is only for those few who advance to maturity in any given generation. It is the few that determine the uptrend in history; it is those outside of the few, the all in the cosmic system, that determine the downtrend in history. So divine personal love is directed toward the few.

When it says, “To him who loved us” in this passage it must include both. He loves impersonally those who are believers in Jesus Christ because all believers have +R. And for the few, add to that from the justice of God to the righteousness of God the six paragraphs of supergrace blessing.

The next phrase is definitely going to emphasise divine impersonal love. From the standpoint of His humanity our Lord resided and functioned inside the divine dynasphere, producing personal love for God as the motivating virtue for the function of impersonal love toward all mankind in dying for their sins. Now Jesus Christ is the God-Man — hypostatic union. As God He has perfect objective and subjective love toward the other members of the Godhead. As God He has divine impersonal love for all mankind and He has divine personal love for the few who believe in Christ. As Man Jesus Christian the prototype divine dynasphere had personal love for God as the motivating virtue and impersonal love for man as the functional virtue, and it was His humanity which bore our sins. Remember, He bore our sins in his own body, not in His deity. The sins of the world were not imputed to His deity. When Jesus Christ approached the cross His humanity was residing inside the prototype divine dynasphere. His deity: He said in Hebrews 10, “Lo I come to do thy will, O God.” His humanity said: “Father, if it be thy will let this cup pass from me.” However, He went on to add: “Not my will but thine be done,” the function of gate three, enforced humility.

This next phrase emphasises the humanity of Christ, and that becomes important because of the function we are about to note. We have a connective kai related to our Lord’s motivation for His saving work on the cross. Our Lord was motivated to go to the cross because He loved us from His humanity. He cannot love us as sinners from His deity as God. There is divine impersonal love toward the entire human race, as manifest by what He did, but God cannot stand sin. We always explain this by saying that God loves the sinner without loving his sin but that would be a compromise of character were it not for one very important thing. The motivating factor must be distinguished from the action, and the motivating factor has to be ascribed to God the Father because John 3:16 says: “God so loved the world that he gave ...”

Throughout the book of John it says “the Father gave.” So divine impersonal love is directed toward all from the standpoint of deity based on the fact that it doesn’t make any difference whether you are good or bad, moral or immoral, whether you are sinful, evil, or whatever your status quo. We all have an old sin nature, we are all spiritually dead. The status of the object of love is inconsequential. Impersonal love emphasises the integrity of the subject — the integrity of God the Father is perfect; the integrity of God the Son is perfect; the integrity of God the Holy Spirit is perfect. That is not the motivating factor here because we are talking about the Son and we are talking about His motivation from inside the prototype divine dynasphere, because that is where all of our motivation for the spiritual life must come. You cannot be an object of someone else’s influence, you must be influenced by the divine dynasphere, which means in effect that you must be influenced by God the Holy Spirit, you must be influenced by Bible doctrine you have learned and can apply, you must be influenced by your own integrity, gates 2 and 3, impersonal love, enforced and genuine humility. All true motivation in the Christian life is totally apart from human beings, it is the wonderful invention of God the Father for the royal family, the divine dynasphere. This then presents it to us from the standpoint of the work of our Lord on the cross, the aorist active participle of the verb luw. There is another verb that looks very much like it, louw, which is pronounced the same, but they are two very different words. So we have here not the word meaning to wash, as per the King James version error. The word we actually have here is the word which means to deliver, to loose, to untie, to free, to release, to liberate. The word “wash” does not occur here.

The accusative plural direct object follows, e)gw, and it should be translated, “and has released us (or delivered us),” not “washed” us.

“And from Jesus Christ, the dependable witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who has loved us, and has released us (or, liberated us) ...” So we must note then the morphology of the verb. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the work of Christ on the cross bearing our sins and being judged for them in its entirety, but it emphasises the existing results in eternal salvation. Salvation is available to all. Those of us who have believed in Christ have attained it, we can never lose it. The active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb by being judged for our sins when they were imputed to Him on the cross. The participle: the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, and the main verb is coming up, an aorist active indicative of poiew. The principle is that you have to be saved by faith in Christ before you can be made a part of the royal family of God, and the word to make or do is coming up in the next verse as the main verb. The sentence goes into verse 6 where we get our main verb.

Then the prepositional phrase e)k plus the ablative from a(rmartia, plus the possessive genitive from e)gw which is translated “our,” “from our sins.” Our sins were separated from us and imputed to Christ and judged at the cross. There is one more prepositional phrase before the main verb, the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of a(ima, which is translated “by means of his blood.” The possessive genitive singular from a)utoj is the intensive pronoun used as a third person personal pronoun. It is our sins, His blood. His blood is the covering for our sins, i.e. principle of atonement.

Translation of verse 5: “And from Jesus Christ, the dependable witness, the first-born from the dead, also the kings of the earth. To him who has loved us, and has released us from our sins by means of his own blood.”

The literal and figurative use of blood demands that we understand several things. In the concept of water which is sometimes used literally in scripture but sometimes it is used figuratively just as blood is used figuratively. For example water is used for salvation in Isaiah 55 and Revelation 22:17; for the Holy Spirit in John 7:37-39; for the Word of God in Eph. 5:26 and 1 John 5:8. And likewise blood is used both literally and figuratively. In the figurative use it refers to the spiritual death of our Lord on the cross, also known as the saving work of Christ. The literal blood of Christ refers to the somatic death of our Lord upon the cross.

The issue for the literal blood of Christ on the cross comes from John 19:34 as it relates to 1 John 5:6 and we call that the somatic death of our Lord on the cross. The reason John emphasised the literal blood of Christ is because he lived long enough to see gnosticism consolidated into a philosophical system which was as devastating in John’s day as communism is today. The Gnostics claimed that Christ never had true humanity and that the cross was an optical illusion. And therefore John often wrote polemically under the ministry of the Spirit in order to refute this principle.

In somatic death irreversible changes begin at various rates after the cessation of breathing and these changes include the cooling off of the body and the development of muscular rigidity. Then follows the breakdown of the cells and the gravitation of the blood to dependent parts plus the clotting of the blood. This is important for this reason. When our Lord was first nailed to the cross there was a little bleeding from His hands and His feet but His blood almost immediately coagulated. He did not bleed to death.

Our Lord’s physical death had nothing to do with our salvation, except to indicate that it was finished. Our Lord had completed His saving work while He was still alive on the cross. He used the Greek word in the present tense of telew, tetelestai: it has been finished in the past with the result that it stands finished forever. Salvation was finished when our Lord was still alive and able to speak. While He was still alive our sins were imputed to Him and judged; while He was still alive towards sin He accomplished redemption, toward man He accomplished reconciliation, toward God He accomplished propitiation. Redemption, reconciliation and propitiation are the three aspects of our Lord’s saving work from the standpoint of direction. The Father had to be propitiated or there is no salvation. Sin had to be paid for or there is no salvation. And man has to be reconciled apart from his own works or there is no salvation. All were accomplished on the cross.The literal blood of Christ refers to His physical death on the cross but our Lord only died physically because His work was finished. It was the option He personally exercised. It is therefore the spiritual death of Christ which is important to us.

Verse 6, The first thing that we notice in this verse is that God has a purpose for each one of us. It is not only a matter of principle but it becomes a matter of great application that we understand that God has given each one of us life on this earth after salvation for a purpose. His plan has meaning and definition for each one of us. So we begin the first part of this verse which is the privilege of the royal family. Our Lord is seated at the right hand of the Father, He is King of kings and Lord of lords as His royal title and He is minus a royal family. In His third royal patent there was no royal family. So we are called out as royal family and therefore as royalty we have privileges that have never existed before, one of which will be emphasised: each one of us is a priest. Another that will be emphasised: Never before in history was every believer the personal representative of God on earth: a royal ambassador. So we have not only these two warrants which are in writing but with them we are a part of a fantastic plan and it is our volition on a daily basis that is the determining factor in historical trends.

So we have the privilege of the royal family introduced by the connective conjunction kai, which relates this sentence to the previous one. Conjunctions are used in the Koine Greek for relationship. Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb poiew which means here to bring about — “And he has brought about.” We have the culminative aorist tense which views the work of God in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. We fall into the historical flow of those existing results. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb as a result of His resurrection, ascension and session, when He received His royal patent as ruler of this world. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the formation of the royal family of God during the Church Age.

This is followed by a double accusative called the accusative of personal and impersonal object. The personal object is the accusative plural direct object from the personal pronoun egw, referring to each believer in Christ. With it we have the accusative of impersonal object from the noun basileia, basileia, which means royal power, it can also mean kingdom. The royal power is the divine dynasphere, God’s game plan for the Church Age.

The word to “bring about” means to provide. Poiew means not only to produce, to make, or to do, but also to provide. So the translation so far: “And he has brought about (provided) for us a royal power.” This royal power demands that we become aware of the fact of logistical grace. Once we accept Christ as saviour we move into God’s plan, the believer in time. In time we face the issue of volition. You and I are the products of our own decisions, not our environment. Your attitude toward Bible doctrine is the determining factor and positive volition is the momentum of the Christian life in the divine dynasphere. Negative volition is the reversion of the Christian life in the cosmic system. In either case salvation is not lost but the blessings of prosperity of time, the prosperity of our national entity, and its proper influence on the world are all involved in this particular factor. So we find ourselves as individuals facing the issue of power, for in ourselves whatever our abilities may be we cannot cope with power greater than we are, we must simply, under the principle of humility, recognise its existence. Humility recognises the existence of the divine dynasphere with its eight gates, and the plan of God. We merge into a power greater than we are so that we can cope with the historical trends, and that includes prosperity. Many people have failed the prosperity test; many others have failed the disaster test, but in our lifetime we face both prosperity and disaster and the divine dynasphere is so constructed that we can pass both with flying colours. In the cosmic system of the genius of Satan we lose all of the benefits of that power and we come under a power which will grind us into the dust, will neutralise whatever assets we have — our abilities, our relationships, our love life, our social life, our business life, our professional life, whatever it is. We are offered so many things as a believer in the cosmic system.

So we have choices, and in order to make the proper choices God had to do something for us that He did not do in the Old Testament. That comes up in the next phrase. We now have the way we approach God’s plan, the divine dynasphere. We have the accusative plural from the noun i(eureuj. I(eureuj is an accusative absolute, it is without a participle grammatically and therefore grammatically independent of the rest of the sentence. It is provided so that it can be proved that the Attic accusative absolute came into the Koine Greek of the New testament. It requires also a present active infinitive from the verb e)imi in order to fill in the ellipsis and make this a legitimate translation. So we translate: “And he has provided for us a royal power, priests to God.” The dative singular indirect object brings us to God, “priests to God,” Qeoj. With this we have the conjunction kai, translated “even,” used to describe a specific member of the holy Trinity, God the Father. He is mentioned by the dative singular from the noun Pater, plus genitive of relationship from a)utoj, an intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun because in the Koine Greek there is no third person personal pronoun and a)utoj is used as a substitute. We translate that phrase very simply: “even his Father.”

The translation so far: “And he has provided [brought about for us] a royal power [the divine dynasphere], as priests to God, even his Father.”

“Priests to God, even his Father” describes the royal power and the way we contact it. In this verse then is the divine dynasphere which can only be approached through the royal priesthood. The moment you believe in Christ you represent yourself before God, you are your own representative. You have a right to direct approach, you do not have to go to a clergyman or a priest or another individual, you have a direct relationship with God. It is true that relationship with God demands a tremendous amount of information and your cognisance of God whom you are approaching means that you must not only understand God and His plan for you but you must understand the very means by which you are approaching Him. You are approaching Him through your royal priesthood.

So we have this royal power and as we make decisions within its framework so goes the uptrend of history. Therefore the universal priesthood demands that each believer reside and function inside the divine dynasphere, the royal power, for himself, living his own life as unto the Lord. Every believer as a priest represents himself before God.

There is a principle of history which we will eventually study in greater detail: there is no progress in innovation without truth. Innovation without truth is retrogressive just as innovation without a system, without a base, is destructive. Innovation without a system runs the gamut from modern art, religious cults, rock and hard rock music, weirdo poetry that has neither rhyme nor reason, socialism, communism, the welfare state, redistribution of wealth, and even ladies high fashion and clothing. Religious cults are innovation without Bible doctrine; rock and hard rock music ignores the basic system in music, it avoids both melody and harmony and therefore the innovations are strident discord.

Learn the basics of doctrine before you innovate or make any multiple applications. For the principle, innovation without truth is the application of doctrine without cognisance of that doctrine. Innovation without a system is application without truth, the absence of wisdom, the instability and eventual disaster which we have been calling the downtrends of history. Innovation imposed on others without their consent runs the gamut from arrogance to tyranny in the field of human government and political science. Socialism, communism, the welfare state and redistribution of wealth are the innovations of arrogance and tyranny. Revolution and terrorism is the disaster of innovation without truth. Historically, then, innovation based on truth is progress, solution, and the historical uptrend of prosperity. Historically, innovation based on a false premise is the retrogressive downtrend of history leading to disaster and destruction of the client nation to God. Innovation in the field of military weapons is disastrous unless the basic weapons of warfare are first put into operation. This is why in this nuclear age the infantry is still the queen of battle. We are talking of course about nuclear missiles and when we do not even have decent infantry weapons for desert warfare it seems rather ridiculous to be innovative with regard to sophisticated nuclear weaponry.

True innovation in the spiritual realm is the function of gate four of the divine dynasphere. Perception of doctrine is the inflexible base for the flexible application of Bible doctrine. We must be inflexible about doctrine and totally flexible about its application. True innovation is the application of doctrine to experience — passing the momentum tests through categorical doctrinal perception, the function of impersonal love. All true innovation on the part of the believer has its operation in the royal priesthood and its application from the royal ambassadorship.

Next we have the purpose for the royal family of God, the Church Age believer. A dative indirect object from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun, since the Koine Greek does not possess a personal pronoun for the third person. It is translated correctly, “to him.” The elliptical nature of the sentence demands a verb, “to him belongs.” That would be e)xw, used in its idiomatic form. The predicate nominative follows, h( doxa, translated here “glory” in view of the context we have previously studied, “to him is the glory.” Idiomatically it would be better translated, “belongs the glory.”

The objective is now stated. The next phrase explains the objective of the Christian way of life, the purpose for remaining in the devil’s world after salvation. He has provided for us a royal power, the divine dynasphere. We glorify the Lord Jesus Christ through our residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, the royal power for both the function of our universal priesthood and our royal ambassadorship. The means is given to us by the connective use of the conjunction kai which joins the two predicate nominatives. Then the second predicate nominative is kratoj, meaning “power.” Usually it means ruling power and is often translated correctly, “sovereignty.” There are three words for “power,” kratoj, iscuj, and dunamij, and are often very closely related. They all have one thing in common: they denote the presence of some form of force. They also denote the significance of strength, in this case ruling ability. And they always have the significance of strength rather than its ruling exercise. The prepositional phrase katakratoj was simply a Greek idiom translated with adverbial force and would be translated into English “powerfully, forcibly, or impressively.” Kratoj was used politically to denote a valid and superior power. It indicates the fact that in life there will always be supremacy. Communism, socialism cannot establish equality in life. Equality in life is never a divine objective, it is freedom that established the principle of inequality. The very fact that people are free means that some will use their freedom to advance and some will use their freedom to decline. Human volition reaches the peaks and it reaches the pits, and that is the principle of historical trends. Generally in the New Testament kratoj refers to God’s ruling power over the Church. Therefore it is a reference to the invention and use of the divine dynasphere as a part of the Christian way of life or the function of the royal family of God. There is a Greek phrase basileia tou qeou which anticipates the second advent of Christ and the establishment of His Millennial reign and therefore is eschatological in its connotation. With kratoj it would be something like this: “To him [Jesus Christ] belongs the controlling [or ruling] power forever and ever.” The noun kratoj, then, has an historical connotation and it has a prophetic connotation.

Next comes the prepositional phrase, e(ij, plus the accusative of the definite article touj, and aiwn, literally translated, with a)iwn being repeated, “to the ages of the ages.” But it is an idiom and it means forever and ever. The final word is A)mhn. Since A))mhn is used to confirm a personal application of Bible doctrine it is going to be translated “acknowledge.” It is also used to confirm the believer’s acceptance of his responsibility, and here the responsibility is residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. Amen was never designed to be transliterated, except where it is used in ritual. It is to be translated. Therefore A)mhn indicates the fact that the royal family can respond to a doxology, not as a ritual but as a challenge.

Verse 7, Jesus Christ the key to prophecy. The exegesis is rather difficult at the start of this verse. We have the demonstrative particle i)dou. I)dou is a form of the aorist middle imperative of the verb o(raw which means to see and is used to demand perception. It is a call for concentration on the subject. We must remember that behind the translation is a mandate for concentration under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and that is utterly impossible unless you are residing inside the divine dynasphere.

Next comes the present middle indicative of the verb e)rxomai. The verb means to come. So the translation: “Remember, he is coming.” The futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not yet occurred, the second advent, but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. Therefore the futuristic present denotes a future event, the second advent, as definitely a part of God’s plan and definitely the key to future history. All future history revolves around our Lord Jesus Christ because in five minutes our Lord accomplishes at the second advent what all of the men of genius in all categories of genius were not able to accomplish in the history of the world up to that time. He provides, for example, the regathering of Israel and the re-establishing of Israel as a client nation to God. He fulfils the four unconditional covenants to Israel which man cannot fulfil. At the same time He provides perfect environment on the earth which is absolutely impossible today. The only thing that is accomplished in every generation of history is the fact that there never has been since the beginning of time a generation which was not evangelised; that is the most certain thing we can say about history. But the Lord Jesus Christ is going to make the most radical change in history at His second advent.

The middle voice of e)rxomai: the subject, Jesus Christ, participates in the results of the action, therefore we call it the direct middle. He supersedes Satan as the ruler of this world at the second advent when there will then be 1000 years of perfect environment. Note: There is no way that the world can be destroyed by man’s use of nuclear weaponry. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine.

The prepositional phrase that follows is meta plus the genitive plural from the definite article plus the genitive plural from the noun nefelh. Nefelh means clouds. So: “Remember, he is coming with the clouds.” Meta plus the genitive means “with.”

a. Clouds are used to portray great armies or masses of people in the Bible, Jeremiah 4:13, for example. Hebrews 12:1 is another. In Revelation 1:7 the clouds refer to great armies, the multitudes of people who accompany our Lord at the second advent.

b. Clouds symbolise a time of catastrophe, a time of divine judgment, Lamentations 2:1; Ezekiel 30:3. Revelation 1:7, “Behold he cometh with clouds.” Those clouds with which our Lord comes indicate the doom of many nations. Nations should be removed when they are totally involved in the cosmic system. And when the cosmic system is destroyed at the second advent so will its adherents, national and individual. The second advent passages which mention these clouds are found in many places. These are tracts where we begin but we always end up in Revelation, Joel 2:1-2; Isaiah 44:22.

c. Clouds are used in the Bible for transitory things, things that are here today and gone tomorrow, like negative believers, like prosperity. Illustration: Job 30:15; Hosea 6:4.

d. Cloud formations also represent the power and the wisdom of God, Psalm 135:6,7; 147:8; Proverbs 8:28.

e. Clouds are used to illustrate the ignorance of man and his need for divine revelation, Job 38:37; 36:39; 37:15,16.

f. Clouds are used to portray false teachers, “clouds without water,” 2 Peter 2:17.

g. Clouds without rain or water symbolise human promises without fulfilment, or the malfunction of human integrity, Isaiah 25:5, or Jude 12, “these men [reversionists involved in the cosmic system] are those who are stains in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, carrying for themselves [subjectivity, arrogance, preoccupation with self — involvement in cosmic one] clouds without water,” people without integrity, doctrine, “carried along by the winds,” instability.

One of the principles of upswing in history has to do with the fact that most nations have become great and blossomed out into what is known as an empire, which is a good word, not a bad word. The first client nation in history was an empire: SPQR, the Roman empire. Some of the greatest client nations in history have been empires. Empire has only been out of sorts since the communists have had so much influence in the world but those who are good students of history know that every empire functions under the shadow of great missionaries. These include Great Britain as well as SPQR and even the USA. Therefore there is always a challenge to an amalgamation of people who leave a geographical area that is dead and move to another geographical area where there is a challenge. The challenge always falls into three separate parts. There is the part of the building of an empire in which you have a base of landed aristocracy. And there is always a part of a potential empire — manifest destiny — where you have the tremendous courage which it takes to develop an industrial sphere. Then there is always a frontier so that there are no racial issues, there are no sociological issues as we know it. If a person finds that he cannot exist in a capitalistic society he can always go to the frontier. Frontiers always take up the slack historically. But once the frontiers are closed down for one reason or another — no more land to conquer, no more opportunity — then the empire goes through its consolidation period which is its prosperity period. In all of world history there never was a national entity or an empire which passed the prosperity test. It may take one hundred years, never more than two hundred, but they always flunk it and are destroyed. This principle is generally a trend of history but what happens when you have an exception or an apparent exception? Russia was very similar in its development, only the empire went east instead of west. Again, northern Russia was the area of landed aristocracy that eventually managed to move into the industrial revolution and become a manufacturing area — large cities, industrial complexes, lots of workers. In the south there was still the landed concept only this time it was the peasant but he had his own landed aristocracy. All of this was destroyed when communism took to dissatisfaction in the south, the peasants should have more land. In the north there was an industrial complex and dissatisfied workers, same concept, and in the frontier there was the frustration which came up at the turn of the century with the Russo-Japanese war, in which the great massive Russian armies were beaten on land and three Russian navies were completely destroyed by the Japs. That is when Russia realised that they really had never consolidated in the industrial revolution, for every nation that truly succeeds and perpetuates its prosperity does so because of the industrial complex, not the landed aristocracy. The landed aristocracy eventually becomes anachronistic and loses out.

“every,” paj, this adjective indicates the entire human race alive at the Second Advent of Jesus Christ; “eye,” o)fqalmoj. While the earth is a sphere rotating on its axis every eye which is capable of sight will see the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And while on the surface this appears to be impossible it

will be explained after looking at the morphology of the verb “see,” o(raw, future middle indicative; “him,” a)utoj, accusative singular direct object. The intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun. This is what we call a predictive future. It anticipates an event which is expected to occur in future time, i.e. the Second Advent of Christ. The direct middle voice is one in which the subject, the entire population of the earth at that time, participates in the results of the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of fact. It is a dogmatic fact that every eye will see Him. How is this possible? The real answer is found in eleven passages of the Word of God. Zechariah 12:4 is a second advent passage: “ … strike every horse [invading army] with blindness,” supernatural darkness. Cf. Isaiah 60:2 “ … his glory will appear.” The glory of the Lord moving through a supernatural darkness will be the only visible thing. Cf. Ezekiel 32:7,8.

“and those,” kai plus o(stij. Lit. including everyone who; “pierced,” e)kkentew, which means to pierce, to run through, to throw a javelin through, to stab, etc. Lit. “including everyone who pierced him.” … and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” This translation is incorrect. This is a specific reference to the mourning of Israel at the Second Advent. It is not the mourning of the entire world, “kindreds,” fulh, “tribes.” These are Jewish tribes and the occasion is the regathering of Israel by our Lord Jesus Christ; “earth,” gh, “land.” It refers to the land of Israel and the regathering of Israel in the land; “shall wail,” koptw, “grieve.” “Will grieve.”

“because of him,” e)pi a)utoj about him rather than over Him. “Even so,” nai, a particle of agreement. With the final word “amen” it is, literally: “So it shall be. Acknowledge.”

1. No nation has ever survived its prosperity after the consolidation of its three components. The three prosperity components are as follows: Landed aristocracy; industrial complex; undeveloped frontiers.

2. Reason: This is because no prosperous nation or client nation to God in prosperity perpetuates its spiritual life through perception of doctrine and residence in the divine dynasphere[1]. The real environment for the perpetuation of prosperity is the divine dynasphere.

4. Therefore, people take the prosperity they received from and in the divine dynasphere and they step out for a holiday. They seek to enjoy what they gained from the divine dynasphere by taking their prosperity to the cosmic system.

5. In the cosmic system the believer becomes preoccupied with the results of prosperity rather than the origin. His life is wrapped up in pleasure, promotion, success, status symbols, etc.

7. Subtle because it requires as much, if not more doctrine, from both capacity and perpetuation of prosperity than anything else.

8. Too often prosperity becomes the enemy of right priorities or true scale of values.

9. Manifest Destiny: a. The struggle for freedom; b. The establishment of freedom (through military victory); c. Capacity for freedom (enjoyment); d. The test of freedom (prosperity).

11. The challenge of freedom is related to the three ingredients of manifest destiny. When all are consolidated into a single national entity or empire, freedom becomes secondary to prosperity and doctrine becomes secondary to pleasure. The true expressions of prosperity are freedom and doctrine, but the inevitable expressions of prosperity come from the cosmic system. It is possible to perpetuate prosperity under freedom but it is not probable for any length of time.

We celebrate the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the beginning of His incarnation, His uniqueness in hypostatic union, on 25 December. No date is given in the Gospels. The question arises: How was the 25th December selected? It is based upon one of the greatest fights for freedom in all of human history, 167 BC, the deliverance through the Maccabaeans. The Jews were freed from the Hellenistic empire of Syria. In their celebration they selected a time for an eight day feast the first day of which was 25 December. The feast was called Hanukkah (The Feast of Lights), called in the Bible the Feast of Dedication. It was to be a great celebration in which certain things were to be accomplished: Instead of the Feast of the Sun God it would be called the Feast of Lights because light was to represent, first of all, the Messiah and, secondly, their freedom. And so on the first day of the celebration, 25 December, 163 BC, all of the people in Jerusalem began celebrating in their homes by exchanging gifts. And then as the High Priest formed up the parade they marched through the city with candles or torches or some form of light and sing hymns as they formed the gigantic procession that marched all of the way to the Temple. And there were offered sacrifices which are actually recorded in Revelation 1:8 under the phrase “Omega.” They offered all five of the sacrifices which speak of our Lord’s work on the cross and rebound of the believer to recover from the cosmic system. Each one would portray some aspect of redemption, reconciliation, or propitiation, which is of course the true meaning of Christmas for the real Christmas tree is the cross, and the real Christmas gift is the gift of eternal salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

However, Christmas and New Year is not significant to Israel as we celebrate them. What is significant to them is Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights. They have a slightly different emphasis because they are looking for the coming of Messiah who hasn’t come as far as Israel is concerned. And because they are still looking for the first advent they periodically throughout their history have selected for themselves some of the greatest historical disasters which we simply classify as “holocaust.”

Verse 8, “I,” e)gw, a pronoun in the proleptic position, the emphatic position. It emphasises the Omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. It emphasises that Jesus Christ, eternal God, became true humanity. And when He did (hypostatic union), at that very moment He became the unique Person of all the universe; “am,” e)imi, the static present tense is for a position which perpetually exists and because of the first advent of Christ and resultant hypostatic union the omega glory of Jesus Christ enters history and becomes the key to history, the key to history for us as a nation collectively and the key to our destiny individually as a person. Our destiny is determined by our attitude to Jesus Christ. It is Israel’s failure collectively to recognise omega glory that led to their removal as a client nation.

“the,” to, this definite article is in the nominative neuter gender single. This is the generic use of the definite article which sets aside a category as being unique. This category is unique in history and is composed of one Person, our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Alpha and Omega,” Alpha is the designation of our Lord’s deity. Hence the alpha glory of Jesus Christ is related to the fact that Jesus Christ is God. It is related to His divine essence plus the fact that Jesus Christ is the creator of the world.

Omega, on the other hand refers to our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. Therefore the Omega glory of Christ is related to the first advent, what the Jews have ignored. It refers to the fact that historically He has come. The first advent of Christ includes His virgin birth, the hypostatic union, the residence of our Lord inside the divine dynasphere, His impeccability, His saving work on the cross, His resurrection, Ascension, and session at the right hand of the Father. At that time He received His omega glory. It is the royal patent which He received under the title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Our Lord’s first royal patent is related to His deity. His title is Son of God and His royal family is God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Our Lord’s second royal patent came at the point of His physical birth. He was Born a son of David. His title is Son of David, it is the title of royalty, the Davidic dynasty is the royal family of Israel. But when He was seated at the right hand of the Father after His resurrection He was given a royal patent but it did not carry with it a royal family. And therefore the discontinuing of the Age of Israel and the insertion of the Church Age, the dispensation of the royal family of God. So that you as a believer are not just a child of God, you are a member of the royal family of God. Being in this dispensation therefore carries great responsibility.

The Omega glory of Jesus Christ indicates that Jesus Christ controls history. This means that the Church Age is the dead spot as far as prophecy is concerned because it is the historical dispensation in which the royal family of Christ is being formed to return with Him at the second advent. We live then in a dispensation of no prophecy. Instead of prophecy we have something of great significance: historical trends. Historical trends in any given generation of the Church Age depend on the number of believers residing in an functioning inside the divine dynasphere, plus the size of the pivot of mature believers, plus the advance of believers to maturity. Church Age believers then reside between the two greatest prophetic events of history, the first and second advents of Christ.Jesus Christ in His omega glory becomes the key to our interpretation of history on a daily basis. We receive enough of this information from the media and ignore the slant they give to it and interpret the facts in relationship to the historical trends.

Historical blessing is administered through the client nations to God. Historical disaster results from a maximum number of believers living in the cosmic system. Historical disaster is usually administered through some evil nation.

Historical trends in any given generation of the Church Age depend on the number of believers residing and functioning in the divine dynasphere and the formation of the size of the pivot in this generation. Historical blessing is administered through the client nation of God while historical disaster results from a maximum number of believers living in the cosmic system. And historical disaster is administered by evil nations which are anti-God.

2. Therefore, the Jews have certain privileges related to their founding as a race since they are the last pure race of history.

(There is no such thing as a pure race any longer, including the Jewish race). The first was the 400 years of slavery which gave them the necessary discipline and character to exist as a client nation.

3. As the Alpha and the Omega Jesus Christ is the key to understanding Israel. In His alpha glory Jesus Christ is the God of Israel; in His omega glory Jesus Christ is the future ruler of Israel. He was born the ruler of Israel, He was born the Son of David.

4. The Jewish race then was founded on recognition of the omega glory of Christ, for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and were able to relate their animal sacrifices to His future work on the cross.

5. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were born again through faith in Jesus Christ whom they recognised as their God, their saviour, and their king.

6. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob set a precedent for the Jewish race in their recognition of both the alpha and the omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This precedent was perpetuated by Moses the founder of the client nation to God when he wrote in Deuteronomy: “Shama Israel, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai ....” Deuteronomy 6:4.

There are two categories of disaster: natural and historical. Natural disaster includes earthquakes, tidal waves, hurricanes, floods, forest fires, volcanoes and so on. Historical disasters include military defeat, economic depression, famine, disease, degeneracy, crime, terrorism etc.

Trends in the Church Age are determined by whether the believer in Christ chooses to live in the divine dynasphere or Satan’s cosmic system. The major issue in whether we survive as a nation is the volition of the individual believer.

There are no tragedies in history, only historical disasters. Historical disasters are not tragedies. Tragedies belong to drama; disaster belongs to history.

Human rights is never an issue, it is a cosmic system. It is freedom that is the issue, a Bible doctrine from the laws of divine establishment. Human rights is a system of taking over a country for tyranny.

One of the problems which many people have is putting people on a pedestal, hero worship. It is called borrowing strength. People who do that lose their perspective. No one is perfect. Borrowing strength is that form of weakness in which the believer resides in the cosmic system and in his arrogance he doesn’t see his own failures but is constantly attacking the failures of some one else.

Question: How do you borrow strength and become weak? You make your social life with the wrong crowd. You take bad advice, using others as a crutch. (You gain strength by learning Bible doctrine; you borrow strength by leaning on others). You use some one else’s scale of values rather than depending on your own.

Our first word is the connective use of the conjunction kai which has many uses. There are probably eighteen to twenty uses of this conjunction. Next we have a nominative singular from the adjective paj. The adjective indicates the entire human race alive at the second advent of Jesus Christ. With this we have a noun, the nominative singular subject o)fqalmoj, which means “eye,” “and every eye.” It is a reference to the entire population of planet earth at that time. While the earth is a sphere rotating on its axis every eye which is capable of sight will see the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The verb is the future middle indicative of o(raw, which means to see. With this we have the accusative singular direct object from a)utoj, which is the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun. This is what we call a predictive future, it anticipates an event which is expected to occur at a future time, i.e. the second advent of Christ. The direct middle voice is one in which the subject, which is the entire population of the earth at that time, participates in the results of the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of fact. It is a dogmatic fact that every eye will see Him.

The question arises: How is this possible? Humanly speaking it is impossible for everyone to see the second advent of Christ. The real answer comes up in eleven passages of the Word of God, e.g. Zechariah 12:4, “every horse [invading army] with blindness.” How are they all suddenly going to become blind? It can be accomplished as a miracle. It could also be accomplished in other ways, e.g. Isaiah 5:30; Isaiah 13:9.10, 11; 60:2, “and his glory will appear.” The glory of the Lord moving through the supernatural darkness will be the only visible thing. Ezekiel 32:7,8.

Then we have a Koine “ism,” the conjunction kai with the nominative masculine plural o(stij, o(stij, a relative pronoun, “including everyone who.” Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb e)kkentew, which means to pierce, to run through, to throw stab with a sword or spear, etc. The accusative which follows is the direct object a)utoj and it is translated “including everyone who has pierced him.” This is a quotation from Zechariah 12:10. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist and it views the rejection of Christ as saviour in the Tribulation, the greatest period of evangelism in all of human history. It is regarded from the viewpoint of it existing results, the greatest rejection of Christ of all time. These are the ones who have pierced Him. The active voice: the unbelievers of the Tribulation produce the action of the verb, rejecting Christ under the greatest wave of evangelism of all time. The indicative mood is declarative for a statement of prophetical fact. Many thousands of people will reject Christ during the Tribulation even though they hear the greatest and soundest and most lucid gospel message of all time. And what a shock it will be to reject Christ as personal saviour and then see Him return to the earth.

There is one more phrase. It begins with the conjunction kai and it will be translated, “and all the tribes of the land will grieve about him.” We should note that this quotation is taken from Zechariah 12:11-14. In that passage we have a prophetical description of Israel’s grief at the second advent. There is personal regret and personal grief in the life of everyone who lives very long, but this is historical regret and grief. The background for Zechariah 12:11-14 is national mourning because of the death of King Josiah in battle. Josiah was one of the greatest warriors down toward the end of Judah as a client nation. He was in a great battle with Pharaoh Necho of Egypt. 2 Chronicles 35:22-27 describes the entire scene. First the war, then the strategic situation, and finally the tactical situation in which Josiah was killed. According to verse 11 of Zechariah twelve the national grief and lamentation occurred just outside of Jerusalem in the Valley of Megiddo. In the sequence of verses each category of Judah is described as participating in great lamentation over the death of Israel’s king and one of the greatest generals in the last part of their client nation history. For example, Zech. 12:12 is the mourning of the ruling house of Israel. He was so loved that even his family genuinely regretted his passing. In verse 13 he was mourned by the priestly line. He was such a great man that those involved in spiritual things missed him. In verse 14 all of the families of Israel mourned him. He was truly and rightly so a popular man.

Based on this information and background the translation in the King James version is incorrect, for this is a specific reference to the mourning of Israel at the second advent. It is not the mourning of the entire world. If it was not for Zechariah we would not be able to determine this.

Again we have the nominative plural from the adjective paj, but this time the subject noun is fulh, which with the generic definite article is translated “and all the tribes.” These are Jewish tribes and the occasion is the regathering of Israel by our Lord Jesus Christ. One of His first objectives is the regathering of Israel.

With this we have the descriptive genitive singular from the noun gh, which refers here to the land of Israel. It doesn’t even refer to the earth, it refers to the land. So it is “all the tribes of the land.” While it is true that the entire population of the earth sees the second advent this is a specific reference to the regathering of Israel in the land after the second advent. Israel is scattered today and the bulk of the people will be scattered, as per the fifth cycle of discipline administered in AD 70. So Israel is regathered at the second advent and the unbelievers and believers of Israel are all regathered — the parable of the wheat and the chaff. The unbelievers will be removed from the earth under the concept of the baptism of fire; the believers of Israel will enter the Millennial reign of Christ. The baptism of fire is going to remove all unbelievers so that the Millennium will begin, and world history will begin with perfect environment and there will be all believers.

In this passage we are dealing only with Israel. We have the future middle indicative of koptw, which in the active voice means to cut off, to cut down, to cut something off from something else. In the middle voice koptw means to beat one’s chest in an act of mourning. Hence, to mourn, to expresses grief or sorrow in a very dramatic way. To grieve implies deeper mental suffering than to mourn. So we will translate this “grieve.” The predictive future anticipates a specific event connected with the second advent of Christ. The indirect middle voice emphasises the agents as producing the action of the verb rather than participating in its results. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of Jewish grief at the second advent and restoration of Israel as a client nation to God.

Next we have a preposition e)pi, plus the accusative from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. The problem here is: What does e)pi mean? With the genitive it connotes contact. With the locative it connotes position. With the accusative it connotes direction. So it is correctly translated “about him” rather than “over him”.

There is one more word, and that is the affirmative particle nai, a particle of agreement. It could be translated tamely, “quite true.” But when we add nai to the final word a)mhn, this is meaningful only in literature. So when you say “Quite true, Amen,” this is not quite correct. It means “So it shall be.” And then “Amen” means “acknowledge.” This is not transliterating, it is translating. In other words, why do we have this rather strange thing? Every time we have prophecy we don’t have a)mhn. The reason is because this is the first prophecy in the book of Revelation to show you what the pattern will be. Prophecy is not to satisfy your curiosity, prophecy is designed to edify, to give spiritual momentum and growth, to give an understanding of the trends of history, to give orientation not only to personal life and circumstances but to the overall historical situation in the time in which we live. Therefore if the prophecy is understood then the significance of it will be understood in the context of the book and then in loco in Revelation chapter one.

This verse adds up to the fact that Jesus Christ is the key to prophecy, not Israel, not the Middle East, not human degeneracy, not historical disaster. As the key to prophecy Jesus Christ will be observed by the entire population of the earth at the second advent. We should also notice that as the eternal ruler of client nation Israel Jesus Christ will restore it. Israel cannot be restored until then. All the Jews gathered in the land for the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel are going to grieve. Israel failed to believe in Christ for salvation and lost their client nation status during the times of the Gentiles, which includes all the Church Age, plus the entire Tribulation. There are certain parables which describe this grief in terms of the baptism of fire, like the wheat and the tares, the ten virgins. In view of the great evangelism of the Tribulation there is no excuse for any Jew rejecting Jesus Christ as saviour. The rejection of Jesus Christ results in divine judgment and the removal of all unbelieving Jews from the earth. This alone is enough reason for the grief expressed by unbelievers. The grief of Jewish believers is different for they are expressing lamentation for the failure of Israel as a client nation to God. They are expressing not only their occupation with the person of Christ but patriotism also. And just as this verse expresses the fact that Jesus Christ is the key to prophecy so the next verse will express the doctrine that Jesus Christ is the key to history.

Translation: “Remember [behold, consider], he is coming with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, including everyone who has pierced him: and all the tribes of the land will grieve about him. So it shall be, I acknowledge it.”

1. No nation has ever survived its prosperity after the consolidation of its three components.

The three prosperity components are as follows: Landed aristocracy, Industrial complex, undeveloped frontier.

2. This is because no prosperous nation or client nation to God in prosperity perpetuates its spiritual life through perception of doctrine and residence in the divine dynasphere.

4. Therefore, people take the prosperity they received from the divine dynasphere and in the divine dynasphere, and they step out of the divine dynasphere for a vacation. They seek to enjoy what they gained from the divine dynasphere by taking their prosperity to the cosmic system.

5. In the cosmic system the believer becomes preoccupied with the results of prosperity rather than the origin. His life is wrapped up in pleasure, promotion, success, status symbols, social life, sex, wealth, material things, etc.

6. The prosperity test is the most subtle and difficult of all tests for both the individual and the nation involved. That what this grieving is about in verse seven. People have selected the wrong thing and now they are grieving because they have made an irreparable mistake. That is the Tribulation. If you are still alive there is no such thing as an irreparable mistake for you as a believer. You will pay for it and you will suffer for it but it isn’t irreparable as long as you’re alive.

7. It is subtle because it requires as much if not more doctrine for both capacity and perpetuation of prosperity. It is subtle because it takes more doctrine to pass the test than anything else, and the prosperity test is difficult because you forget the origin of the prosperity.

8. Too often prosperity becomes the enemy of right priorities or true scale of values.

9. This ties in with manifest destiny. First there is a struggle for freedom, then there is the establishment of freedom through military victory. Thirdly, there is capacity for freedom and the enjoyment. Finally, there is the test of freedom — prosperity.

11. The challenge of freedom is related to the three ingredients of manifest destiny. You have something that is equivalent to a landed aristocracy, you have an industrial complex, and you have an undeveloped frontier. When all have consolidated into a single national entity or empire freedom becomes secondary to prosperity and doctrine becomes secondary to pleasure. When people are prosperous they start looking for pleasure and, as a matter of fact they create pleasure. When pleasure is created doctrine takes a back seat and so does freedom. So the true expressions of prosperity are freedom and doctrine but the inevitable expressions of prosperity come from the cosmic system, and that means pleasure. It is possible to perpetuate prosperity under freedom but it is not probable for any length of time. Start with the old sin nature and you have your first cause, but it requires a large pivot of mature believers, it requires consistent positive volition toward doctrine for that prosperity to be perpetuated. As goes the believer so goes the client nation.

“Christmas is a coming and the geese are getting fat.” Fat geese were the sign of prosperity and it reminds the partying and social crowd in their time of prosperity that they should take some time to be a part of a con game. And in this line of the song the beggar is saying: You won’t have fun at Christmas, you won’t enjoy your party unless you give poor little me a little money. And you should be ashamed of yourself anyway because you have so much and I have nothing. The beggar’s self-pity is a manifestation of his arrogance and at the same time an appeal to give on the basis of emotion and sentiment.

Christmas often becomes very emotional and very sentimental and therefore the emphasis of Christmas is thereby destroyed. For if your capacity for life is related to emotion and sentiment you have nothing. Love and the power of love is based upon thought. Thought is Bible doctrine. The emotional person feels his way through life and is very miserable, and those who have doctrine and the power of doctrine have the finest and most refined and purified emotions and sentiment in the world and therefore will enjoy Christmas or any other season.

The rich man should be exploited is the theme of that song, The Beggar’s Song. The rich man should be exploited at Christmas. Christmas in the beggars mind is the redistribution of wealth. Add to this the false rationale that you should give to the beggar because it is Christmas is absolute nonsense. You should give from honourable motivation and integrity, never because of a guilt complex.

The second line: “Please to put a penny in the old man’s hat.” First of all the beggar is made to look old and therefore tragic. His hat is, of course, a squalid piece of material and the whole thing is to arouse your pity. This line is designed to give those who have fat geese a guilt complex as motivation for giving. The whole function of liberalism and cosmic thinking is to make those who have been successful in free enterprise feeling guilty because they have and others have not. This is one of the great evils of arrogance. The greatest arrogance in the world is found in the gutter and the most arrogant people are scum.

“If you haven’t got a penny, a half-penny will do.” The beggar implies that at least you have something while he has nothing. It is an erroneous implication. In reality the beggar is a con artist who is rich from the exploitation of Christmas.

“If you haven’t got a half-penny then God bless you.” And there is the greatest sarcasm of this song. The beggar cannot hide his arrogance, it shows in his sarcasm. In his own way he has found a way without capital to make money. Those who appear to have nothing are often the most arrogant in life. Arrogance is found in the slums as well as in the Manor. And, furthermore, the beggar hates you whether you give him anything or not. And he now expresses his lack of integrity. He is a beggar because he has no integrity, no honour. If you give, you are a sucker to be hated and you should be fleeced is his attitude. If you do not give you are exploiting the people and therefore he despises you. The beggar is preoccupied with himself, he lives in the cosmic system, he expresses his hatred from behind a facade of religiosity. (God bless you is in reality God damn you).

The Beggar’s Song then expresses the sentimental, superficial, arrogant side of Christmas in contrast to the spiritual side of Christmas. You cannot enjoy Christmas by “becoming spiritual” and coming to church one night. Those who enjoy Christmas are those who have consistently, day by day, taken in Bible doctrine and functioned under the principle of the divine dynasphere.

The issue of verse 8 is Hanukkah or holocaust. Which do you personally choose? The issue will be developed first through exegesis, and along with it, interpretation. But let’s first of all define our terms. We celebrate the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the beginning of his incarnation, His uniqueness in hypostatic union, on 25 December. But our Lord could have been born almost anytime during the year except possibly summer in Palestine. Everything that is descriptive of our Lord’s birth is given in the various gospels but there is one thing that is omitted: no date is given. The question arises: How did Anglo-Saxon culture, Western European culture, ever come to select the 25th December. The answer is very simple. It is based upon one of the greatest fights for freedom in all of human history. It is based upon the principle of freedom through military victory.

It all started on 25 December in BC 167, approximately 170 years before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. It began when a great army just prior to 25 December had invaded and come into the land of Israel. It was an army of one of the most powerful rulers in the world. When Alexander the Great died his great empire was divided among his generals and eventually the age of Hellenistic monarchies came into being with four major powers. The most powerful of all is called Syria, though by modern standards the Syria of today and the Syria of 167 BC are two different countries. For Syria in that day was an empire that went all of the way from India to the borders of Egypt. Antiochus the Fourth, known as Antiochus Epiphanes, came into the land of Israel with his army, and he set up a simultaneous date in which he was going to convert the Jews to Hellenistic culture. The sign of conversion would be the offering of pigs on altars throughout the land. The pig, of course, being unclean as an animal to Israel but was the traditional offering of the Greeks. Under pagan Greek rites and festivals they were going to have the great festival of the sun god. The soldiers went into the temple, drove the people out — except those who would be left behind to observe what they would do thereafter — and they began to offer pigs. There was a protest in the temple in Jerusalem at which point children were seized and offered on the altar.

Throughout the country this was occurring simultaneously, including a smaller town called Modin, and when the very weak priest of Modin agreed to the general officer who was in charge to go ahead and offer a pig there stepped forward a man by the name of Matthias and drew a sword. He killed the priest first (there would be no offering), then he killed the general, and then when the general’s body guard attacked him several of his sons stepped forward, including the best swordsman of all, Judas Maccabaeus. The five sons of Matthias plus Matthias wiped out the entire army detachment that had been sent to the village. They picked up their weapons, asked for volunteers, and the war for freedom had begun. It lasted for three years. Matthias died but Judas Maccabaeus, his son, carried on in his place. He turned out to be a genius, first at guerrilla warfare, and eventually at conventional warfare. As a result of four major battles in those three years he defeated all of the great generals of the day. Finally, peace came and freedom. The Jews were freed from the tyranny of the Hellenistic empire called Syria.

In their celebration they selected a time for an eight-day feast, the first day of which was to be 25 December. They called this eight-day feast Hanukkah, the feats of lights called in the Bible the feast of dedication. It was to be a great celebration in which certain things were to be accomplished. Instead of the feast of the sun god it would be called the feast of lights because light was to represent, first of all, the Messiah, and secondly, their freedom. And so on that first day of the celebration — 25 December, 163 BC — all of the people in Jerusalem began by celebrating in their homes, exchanging gifts. When the high priest formed up the parade they marched through the city and as they did the people came out of their homes with candles or torches or some form of light, and they would sing hymns as they formed up a gigantic procession that marched all the way to the temple. There were offered sacrifices which are actually recorded in Revelation 1:8 under the phrase “Omega,” for they offered all five of the sacrifices which speak of our Lord’s work on the cross and rebound of the believer to recover from the cosmic system. Each one would portray some aspect of redemption, reconciliation or propitiation, which is of course the true meaning of Christmas — or the real Christmas tree is the cross. The real Christmas gift is the gift of eternal salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so they had their great procession that night and they spent the night in rejoicing over their new freedom. This was repeated on a smaller scale all of the way through the 1st of January.

In the course of this it was decided by western European culture, since these things were so significant — freedom through military victory, salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ — to combine these into a celebration of the first advent of Christ: the incarnation, the virgin birth. This is all very significant to you and to me but it is not significant at all to Israel; that is, Christmas as we celebrate it. What is significant to them is Hanukkah, the feast of lights. They have a slightly different emphasis because they are looking for the coming of Messiah. Messiah hasn’t come as far as Israel is concerned and they are looking for His coming. And because they are looking for the first advent they periodically throughout their history have selected for themselves some of the greatest of disasters which we simply classify as the holocaust.

Why the holocaust? Why do the Jews suffer periodically the most terrible persecutions? We know through Genesis 12:1-3 and other passages of the Word of God that anti-Semitism will always be punished. Gentiles often suffer a counter holocaust because of their attitude toward the Jews. We have no right to punish the Jews. The right to punish Israel belongs to God, and in His wisdom only God can do it in perfect justice. Therefore we accept Jews into our land. They make wonderful citizens on the whole.

In verse 8 we have two principles: Jesus Christ is the key to history and the principle of Omega glory: do you accept it or reject it? From that comes a sub principle: as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. The words “the beginning and the ending” found in the KJV are not found in the original MSS, they were added erroneously.

We begin with the nominative singular subject from the first person singular pronoun e)gw. It is our first word, therefore it receives great emphasis. It emphasises the Omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. It emphasises that Jesus Christ, eternal God became true humanity. When He did, at that very moment He became the unique person of all the universe. So we have the word “I.” Next comes the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, “I am.” It should be noted that the static present tense is for a condition which perpetually exists, and because of the first advent of Christ and resultant hypostatic union, taken for granted as a fact by the static present, the omega glory of Jesus Christ enters history and becomes the key to history, the key to history for us as a nation collectively and the key to your destiny individually as a person. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine related to the Omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the beginning of Omega glory. It is Israel’s failure collectively to recognise Omega glory that led to their removal as a client nation.

The predicate nominative which follows is preceded by a definite article to in the nominative neuter singular. This is the generic use of the definite article, it sets aside a category as being unique. This category is unique in history, it is composed of one person, our Lord Jesus Christ — “I am the.” Then we have a double predicate nominative. First of all we have alpha and then omega. Alpha in the Greek, Alfa, and then W, omega. This is the declaration. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet which is derived from the Phoenician alphabet. Alpha is the designation of our Lord’s deity, Hence the Alpha glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is related to the fact that Jesus Christ is God, coequal and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The Alpha glory of Jesus Christ is related to His divine essence, His integrity, plus the fact that Jesus Christ is the creator of the world. All of the attributes of deity belong to our Lord Jesus Christ and none of them were in any way compromised by the hypostatic union. So when Jesus Christ says, “I am the Alpha” He is referring to the fact of His deity. Omega, on the other hand, refers to our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union, therefore the Omega glory of Christ is related to the first advent. The Omega glory is what the Jews have ignored. It refers to the fact that historically he has come. There were to be two advents of Christ, the Jews only recognise one, the one where He comes in His glory. The first advent of Christ includes His virgin birth, the hypostatic union, the residence of our Lord inside the prototype divine dynasphere, His impeccability, His saving work on the cross, His resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of the Father. At that time He received His Omega glory. It is the royal patent which He received under the title of King of kings and Lord of lords.

The Omega glory of Jesus Christ indicates that Jesus Christ controls history. This means that the Church Age is the dead spot as far as prophecy is concerned because it is the historical dispensation in which the royal family of God is being formed to return with Him at the second advent. We live, then, in a dispensation of no prophecy. No prophecy means a dead spot. Instead of prophecy we have something of great significance, something that means you can tell what is going to happen in the immediate future without having the gift of prophecy — for the gift of prophecy was discontinued when the canon of scripture was completed, it was a temporary spiritual gift like the gift of tongues and designed to take up the slack in a certain area until the canon of scripture was completed and then it was discontinued. The gift of tongues was related to evangelism; the gift of prophecy was related to historical interpretation, orientation to one’s time in which he lived. But these things are now gone. Once Revelation was completed those things were removed.

Historical trends in any given generation of the Church Age depend on the number of believers residing and functioning in the divine dynasphere and the formation of the size of the pivot. As over against that we have the detrimental end of the trend which is the number of believers in the cosmic system — the number of believers wrapped up in their own lives to the point where they have ignored the plan of God. This adds to the shrinking of the pivot and historical disaster. It is volition that determines environment, not environment volition.

2. Therefore the Jews have certain privileges related to their founding as a race, since they are the last pure race in history. Every race was formed before Abraham was circumcised. It was the circumcision of Abraham that changed him from a Gentile to the first Jew. He is therefore the father of the Jewish nation.

The Jews had certain privileges which came out of the uniqueness of their race but their first privilege was four hundred years of slavery. It was the four hundred years of slavery that gave them the necessary discipline and character to exist as a client nation to God from BC 1440 to AD 70. They were conditioned by four hundred years of slavery. They did not die in slavery; they were not destroyed by slavery. All of their genius and greatness was linked to humility and self-discipline so that it could be exploited in their magnificent history.

3. As the Alpha and the Omega Jesus Christ is the key to understanding Israel. In His Alpha glory Jesus Christ is the God of Israel. In His Omega glory Jesus Christ is the future ruler of Israel; He was born the ruler of Israel; He was born the Son of David — He is in the Davidic line. He is royalty, then, from His Omega glory. He is the ruler of Israel, and not only so, but the royal patent which He received at the right hand of the Father guarantees He is also the ruler of the world. The royal patent our Lord received at the right hand of the Father was not connected with Israel, Israel had rejected Him: “He came unto his own and his own received him not.” In His Omega glory Jesus Christ is the ruler of the world; in His Omega glory He came. But the Omega glory has two ends as far as history is concerned. The virgin birth made Him the ruler of the Jews; His ascension and session at the right hand of the Father made Him the ruler of the Gentiles, just before the times of the Gentiles would begin. Both of these royal titles merge to be claimed at the second advent.

4. The Jewish race, then, was founded on recognition of the Omega glory of Christ, for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and were able to relate their animal sacrifices to His future work on the cross. Even though the first advent and the work of the cross was future they recognised it as the basis of their salvation and the prophecy was just as real to them, though unfulfilled at the time, as their circumstances historically were.

5. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were “born-again” through faith in Jesus Christ whom they recognised as their God, their saviour, and their King.

6. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob set a precedent for the Jewish race in their recognition of both the Alpha and the Omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This precedent was perpetuated by Moses, the founder of the client nation to God, when he wrote Deuteronomy 6:4-6.

We are going to see that the problem with Israel has always been the same: the failure to recognise the Omega glory of Jesus Christ. His Alpha glory they accepted; His Omega glory they rejected. Yet the very foundation of the Jewish race, the circumcision of Abraham, and the very foundation of Israel as the first and inevitably the last client nation to God, is based upon the principle found in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4-6. The Jews who reject Christ as saviour can never distinguish between prophecies of the first advent and prophecies of the second advent, which means that they have a blind spot. Rejection of the God of Israel inevitably puts the Jew inside the cosmic system. We live today in the Church Age, which is the dead spot, and they are especially vulnerable in the dead spot because they have a blind spot to go with the dead spot. The Church Age is the dispensation of historical trend; there is no prophecy in the Church Age. The two greatest prophecies in history are on each side of the Church Age: the first advent of Christ which is now history by which our so great salvation was accomplished; the second advent.

We now move on to where we see, first of all, our Lord at present. In other words, one articular present active participle from the verb e)imi to delineate the Omega glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the verb to be and is translated “who is.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun to convert the participle into a relative clause. The static present tense represents a condition which is assumed as perpetually existing, our Lord in hypostatic union and/or His Omega glory, His third royal patent. The active voice: Jesus Christ in His glorified state seated at the right hand of God the Father in a resurrection hypostatic union produces the action of the verb, and the participle is circumstantial for the Omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father.

That is the key to the Church Age. It refers to the status of our Lord at the present time which is quite different from what happened prior to the virgin birth, united forever with His deity in perfect true humanity. This makes Him different from the Father and the Spirit because He possesses perfect true humanity; it makes Him different from humanity in that He is eternal and infinite God. This is the present status quo. Add to the fact of His Omega glory or the issuing of the third divine patent the basic reason for the discontinuing of the Age of Israel and the insertion of the Church Age, the calling out of a royal family. Also it gives every believer a mission that never existed prior to the Church Age: never before in history has the life of the individual believer inside of a given nation been so significant as it is in this dispensation — as goes the believer’s volition on a daily basis so goes the client nation.

Next we have our Lord in the past, His Alpha glory. First we have the connective use of the conjunction kai, then we have the nominative singular from the definite article used with the indicative in the pattern of Ionic Greek. We suddenly switch after all this time. John demonstrates his education, he was a well-educated Jewish aristocrat. He now moves over to some Ionic Greek. The definite article with the indicative is not Attic Greek, or what we call Classical Greek; it is not Koine Greek, it is Ionic Greek. This is a peculiar phrase which belongs to the most brilliant minds in western Turkey. Why did he switch to Ionic Greek? Every line of the Word of God is written under the filling of the Holy Spirit. God uses the individual personality of the writer, and so He does in this case. Here is a man who goes from the smoothness of his Koine Greek to this magnificent Ionic phrase because there is no way in human language to communicate the greatness of God. Jesus Christ always existed, there never was a time when He didn’t exist. He was always perfect, always unchangeable; He always had perfect integrity, perfect power. He is greater than space; He is greater than time. So how are you going to say it? You switch languages. John switched languages to emphasise the Alpha glory of Jesus Christ — His eternal glory. So we have the definite article with the imperfect active indicative of e)imi. We translate this phrase, “and always existed.” because the progressive imperfect of description represents linear aktionsart in past time. Therefore Jesus Christ is God, eternal God, and this is His Alpha glory and always has been. Under the doctrine of immutability He has never changed and cannot change His deity, therefore the taking on of humanity. The active voice: Jesus Christ as eternal God produces the action of the verb, and the declarative indicative is for a fact that Jesus Christ is eternal and infinite God.

This becomes a very important concept because when you have a circumstantial present participle followed by an Ionic phrase you have to stop long enough to take a look at it. Why this sudden change of language apart from the fact that we are now speaking of Jesus Christ as God before the virgin birth when He became the God-Man? We are speaking of His Alpha glory before His Alpha glory merged into His Omega glory through the virgin birth. The circumstantial present active participle from e)imi again represent His Omega glory which includes being honoured with the seat at the right hand of the Father and being given His third royal patent, His battlefield royalty for the angelic conflict. So the conferring of this patent of royalty is the basis for the interrupted dispensation of Israel which is to be completed in the Tribulation. The terminating event of the dispensation of Israel is the second advent; the terminating event of the Church Age is the Rapture, which occurs before the second advent. Therefore the insertion of the Church Age for the purpose of the calling out of the royal family of God. Added to our Lord’s eternal glory, which is Alpha, is His historical glory, Omega, the hypostatic union. So by changing the language John is saying, ‘Look, you didn’t know our Lord in His Alpha glory, that was before man existed, but the One who has Alpha glory you know under the concept of His Omega glory for He is the revelation of God — our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Israel.’ Ionic Greek says, here is a language that can be best explained from its grammar the fact that Jesus Christ always existed as God. But what is important now from AD 96 until the end of time is that everything in a world history textbook must talk about Jesus Christ.

While the royal family of God or the bride of Christ is being formed all prophecy stops and historical trends becomes God’s plan for the Church Age. The believer’s influences are absolutely fantastic for the uptrend or downtrend. When you find a maximum number of believers residing and functioning inside of the divine dynasphere with its eight gates you have an uptrend in history; when you find believers living in the cosmic system then you have a downtrend in history.

Then there is a third description of our Lord, the second advent description, the revelation of His Alpha and Omega glory. Again we have the connective use of the conjunction kai, translated “and,” and the articular present active participle from the verb e)rxomai, “and who is to come.” We leave the Ionic Greek and go back to the Koine Greek. The nominative singular definite article is used for both a personal pronoun and a relative pronoun. The futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not yet occurred, the second advent, but is regarded as so certain in thought that it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The futuristic present is that marvellous way in the Greek of describing history before history occurs, with the absolute certainty that it will occur. The active voice: Jesus Christ in both His Alpha and Omega glory produces the action this time. We see the action of the first participle produced by His Alpha glory, the action of the Ionic Greek, His Alpha glory; now we have His Alpha and Omega glory which are the producers of the action. Again we have a circumstantial participle for the revelation of our Lord’s Alpha glory, His deity; the Omega glory, His hypostatic union, at the second advent of Christ.

There are two more words in this verse in the Greek, a definite article o( plus the noun, a nominative of apposition, pantokratwr, which means all-powerful one or the omnipotent one, or the total ruler would be a better translation today. Pantw comes from paj, meaning “all”; kratoj means a ruler, a sovereign. It could be translated “all-ruler” or “total ruler.” The Lord Jesus Christ is the total ruler. The omnipotence is a divine attribute related to God’s perfect and infinite power and therefore related to the Alpha power of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ will rule during the Millennium, both in the power of His Alpha glory (His omnipotence) and in the power of His Omega glory which is related to the impeccability and the integrity of the residence of His humanity in the prototype divine dynasphere. Therefore we translate it “the total ruler.” It is a compound noun and it occurs numerous times in the book of Revelation. In his context, then, we have the translation “total ruler” or “sovereign” and, of course, since Jesus Christ will rule planet earth as the God-Man, the Son of God, and the Son of David; ruling both Israel and all Gentile nations in the future, this is the best translation.

Translation of verse 8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, proclaims the Lord, the God who is, who was, and who is to come, the total ruler.”

1. Billions of years ago in eternity past eternal God, Jesus Christ, possessed the Alpha glory of His deity, and since the incarnation and His first advent our Lord possesses the Omega glory of His hypostatic union.

2. Omega glory includes the true humanity of Christ in hypostatic union, which means that Jesus Christ in His humanity is not only the Son of David, His second patent of nobility, but He has a third patent of royalty which was given at the right hand of the Father: “King of kings and Lord of Lords.”

3. The Omega glory of Christ has been a stumbling block to the unbelieving Jew who through his negative volition has rejected Christ as his personal saviour.

4. So we have Hanukkah or holocaust, and every unbelieving Jew chooses holocaust, for the big blot-out leads to holocaust and holocaust ignores and rejects the first advent of Christ under the principle of grace before judgment. The holocaust is a judgment administered by God through the most evil organisation in the world historically at that time.

5. The Omega glory of Christ has been ignored and rejected with all other aspects of the first advent: Jesus Christ as the Son of God: Alpha glory; Jesus Christ as the Son of David: Omega glory, all in one Person forever.

Historical trends are based upon the fact that the two most important prophetical acts of history are the first and second advents of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament prophecies about the first advent have been fulfilled in detail. The alpha glory of our Lord Jesus Christ as eternal God became the omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union, beginning with the virgin birth. Then His resurrection, ascension and session after His death. And at the right hand of the Father He received His third royal patent. The book of Revelation is also the history of how our Lord’s royal patent relates to mankind from the time of the Church Age to the end of time. It is the story of our Lord’s royal patent in history.

Because of the third royal patent, the battlefield royalty, our Lord did not have a royal family as in His two previous royal patents. With regard to His royal patent of deity He had a royal family, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit. With regard to His royal patent at the point of His birth He was born a king in the dynasty of David, He was descended from two sons of David through Bathsheba — Solomon and Nathan. Joseph, His stepfather, was descended from Solomon and the younger son of David and Bathsheba, Nathan, is in the direct line of Mary.

But once He received this patent and did not have a royal family the Age of Israel was discontinued until the royal family could be called out. This is the dispensation of the royal family called the Church Age; the royal family is called the body of Christ and is composed of all believers in Jesus Christ in this dispensation. The royal family is being formed during this dispensation. Therefore, this dispensation is the dispensation of no prophecy. This is the dead spot in history. No prophecy, only historical trends. During the Church Age there will be no client nation Israel.

1. Even though history is the record of man’s decisions and actions it is Jesus Christ who controls history. Therefore there are two sources of judgment in history: the sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind.

2. The trends of history are determined in the Church Age by whether the believer in Christ chooses to live in the divine dynasphere or the cosmic system. Living in the divine dynasphere is broken down into two mandates under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit: “Be filled with the Holy Spirit” — entrance into the divine dynasphere; “Keep walking by means of the Spirit” — functioning at Gate Two, basic impersonal love; Gate Three, enforced and genuine humility; Gate Four, perception and application of doctrine [momentum gate]; gate five, love of God; Gate Six, right man right woman; Gate Seven, advanced impersonal love; Gate Eight is maturity.

For the believer who fails there is always a downtrend in history, living in cosmic one with its twenty six gates of interlocking systems of arrogance or cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred. Mandate for cosmic one: “Grieve not the Spirit”; mandate for cosmic two: “Quench not the Spirit.” The trends are determined by where you reside. In other words: As goes the believer so goes the nation.

3. There are no tragedies in history. There are historical disasters but these are not tragedies since individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions, not their environment. (Decision creates environment, not environment decision).

4. People individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions.

6. Arrogant people or arrogant nations never see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of others.

7. Jealous people and envious nations never see their own sins and their own production of evil, only the sins and evil of others.

8. Arrogant individuals, groups or nations never see the disastrous consequences or evil results of their cosmic involvement or evil modus operandi. And preoccupation with self to the exclusion of objective reality is the greatest blindness problem in life.

9. There is no progress and innovation without truth. Innovation without truth is retrogressive; innovation without a system is destructive. Innovation without truth is application of doctrine without cognisance of doctrine; innovation without a system is application without truth, the absence of wisdom, the instability and eventual disaster in downtrends of history.

1. Innovation imposed on others without their consent runs the gamut from arrogance to tyranny.

2. Socialism, communism, the welfare state, and redistribution of wealth are innovations of arrogance and tyranny.

4. Historically innovation based on truth is progress, solution, and a historical uptrend to prosperity.

5. Historically, innovation based on a false premise is the retrogressive downtrend of history leading to the disaster and destruction of the client nation to God.

6. Innovation in the field of military weapons is disastrous unless the basic weapons of warfare are first put into operation. This is why in this nuclear age the infantry is still the queen of battle.

7. True innovation in the spiritual realm is the function of Gate Four of the divine dynasphere. Perception of doctrine is the inflexible base for flexible application of doctrine — the dynamics of innovation. The perception is inflexible; the application is very flexible.

8. True innovation is the application of doctrine to experience. Passing the momentum tests through categorical doctrinal perception, the function of impersonal love, the function of the faith-rest drill, occupation with the Person of Jesus Christ.

9. False innovation is the believer’s application to life from residence and function in the cosmic system. The cosmic system provides a base for cosmic innovation.

10. All true innovation on the part of the believer has its base of operation in the royal priesthood and its application in the royal ambassadorship.

11. When people emphasise peace and security they lose freedom and truth, and its by-product of prosperity and self-determination.

Now what really is truth and freedom? Truth is the inflexible base: laws of divine establishment, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Bible doctrine for the believer — this is truth, an inflexible base on which you have the flexibility of innovation. The innovation is freedom.

a. The laws of divine establishment emphasise human freedom as the heritage from God and the major issue in the angelic conflict.

b. In this historical era of nuclear phobia and its bomb syndrome, man has come to emphasise peace as a panacea and compromised the true concept of freedom. Peace is only emphasised by those with a false sense of values. Either you emphasise freedom in your soul or you emphasise security. There are two basic scales of value in life: a scale of value which is built on security and a scale of values based on freedom. There can be no compromise. If you go with freedom then God is the source of your security, not some man-made structure that you plan out.

c. Yet freedom, not peace, remains the most precious commodity of mankind, and the function of self-determination a part of human heritage of truth from God. (You may as well face it, if you are going to go for freedom then you are going to have to war; you have to fight for freedom periodically. If you are going to go for security then “peace at any price”)

d. Freedom and truth cannot be divorced except by man’s use of his freedom to reject truth, in three categories. Good decisions are related to doctrine and the more decisions you make for doctrine the greater become your options in life.

e. When man uses his freedom to reject truth he finds himself deluded by the false prophet, the false politician, for demon and demagogue combine to deceive. Jer. 6:13,14. “When pressure comes [anxiety and anticipation of disaster] they will seek peace but will find none” — Ezekiel 7:25. When historical pressure begins to build up and moves toward disaster people call for “peace.” Compromise to potential enemies, “Let’s be friends, let’s disarm”! That is what happens to those who make security their scale of values rather than freedom. Peace at any price is the compromise of man’s most valuable asset — freedom. When a nation sells its freedom for a mess of pottage called “peace” it loses everything. It loses freedom, truth, true security from God, prosperity and, of course, peace. Peace is that elusive intangible which the compromise of freedom for false security of peace inevitably results in the loss of client nation status.

12. History is often the story of how the weak control the strong. Weak, insecure, irresponsible, thoughtless, arrogant people control policy, procedure and people. In social life, in love life, in business life, in professional life, in culture, in government, etc. Through arrogance, self-centredness and preoccupation with self the weak in society actually dominate the strong. This is the historical downtrend.

Inside the divine dynasphere the battle is the Lord’s, and you win. Inside the cosmic system the battle is yours, and you lose. There are no winners in the cosmic system, just categories of losers. There are no losers in the divine dynasphere, just categories of winners.

This combines such concepts as the demand for power exceeds the need for power; decisions create environment, not environment decisions; people individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions. And there would be no human history without man’s wrong decisions, as illustrated by the fact that man in perfect environment had no problems until they made a wrong decision. Once Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil history became a matter of self-determination, the use of human volition to exercise options in the soul.

The historical trends of the Church Age, therefore, include options — options compatible with the divine plan which is residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, or options related to Satan’s cosmic system.

b. Those who seek solutions by improving their environment inevitably create problems which destroy their environment.

c. Through living inside the divine dynasphere circumstances become the servant rather than the master.

d. Good decisions turn problems into solutions without creating or intensifying problems from those solutions.

e. The power of Bible doctrine to change men’s lives is the expression of non-meritorious human volition in the function of freedom.

f. The power of the cosmic system to change lives is the meritorious and arrogant expression of human volition inside the cosmic system, which is of course the environment of tyranny and slavery. The cosmic system offers you success, approbation, fame, but without the capacity. Therefore, many problems in life are created by prosperity. Problems come from adversity and prosperity.

g. Inside the divine dynasphere men’s lives are changed by doctrine. Inside the cosmic system men’s lives are changed by the arrogance factor and evil.

h. Man can only enter the divine dynasphere through grace, the non-meritorious expression of human volition, and this same exercise of freedom can result in making those bad decisions related to residence and function in the cosmic system.

i. So in the historical phase of the angelic conflict man must be free to succeed, and by the same token man must be free to fail. True freedom is the source of true failure and true success.

Therefore recognition of our weaknesses is neither degrading nor demeaning. It is the beginning of objective reality in the spiritual life. All solutions in life begin by the recognition of weakness which begins the search for power, a system greater than our weaknesses. Man’s decisions leading to failure brings him to his knees and the end of his own resources. This is where truth becomes meaningful, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

Weakness in the unbeliever makes evangelism meaningful; weakness in the believer makes Bible doctrine meaningful. If man is not free to fail he cannot orient to his need of Christ; if the believer is not free to fail he cannot orient to his need of the divine dynasphere and perception of doctrine in the divine dynasphere. So by taking the responsibility for his own failures and bad decisions man learns his inherent and acquired weaknesses, and he seeks for a power system greater than his weaknesses, greater than himself.

A principle emerges which often turns the tide of history in any given generation to the greater human use of human freedom — 2 Cor.12:9.

The sooner the believer realises that he needs a power greater than himself the sooner he establishes the scale of values which places Bible doctrine first. The free will of man, or human volition, resides in the privacy of the human soul and is designed to choose the power system in which he will live and have his being, either the divine dynasphere or the cosmic system. Man is not an independent power but a weak creature which must choose that power system on which to depend. This is why arrogance is self-deceit, for in arrogance man assumes that he is independent and superior to all existing powers in life. But man’s strength lies in his non-meritorious volition, not in his human power, not in human authority or ability.

The principle the: Man’s strength lies in his non-meritorious use of his volition, not in his human ability.

With his volition the believer can make the right decisions relating to God’s power so that God’s grace becomes sufficient. He can also make wrong decisions based on subjectivity of human arrogance and succumb to the satanic propaganda, the cosmic system.

Choosing Satan’s deceitful and clever propaganda in religion or philosophy or psychology or sociology or political science or in any other human thought system where it may exist in a thought form results in choosing the environment of the cosmic system. Such a choice thereafter limits the use of one’s freewill to bad decisions until one runs out of bad decisions and the doors are closed for all options in life, and you stand still and see the results of your own self-destruction in the form of divine discipline terminating in the sin unto death.

Choosing truth in three categories: the laws of divine establishment, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Bible doctrine for the believer which leads to both residence and function inside the divine dynasphere where humility produces both objectivity and capacity for life, multiplying, of course, the options in your life for great blessing, prosperity and, above all, the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore man must choose something greater than himself by which to live. No man can live by his own merits or abilities and survive. No one is ever happy living by his own merits and abilities. If man is to live by his wits he must also live by his volition and the cognisance of man’s inherent sinfulness, the old sin nature which is imputed at birth and subsequent weaknesses become the basis for exercising one’s options in the direction of the cosmic system. We need to exercise those options in the direction of the divine dynasphere.

“Patmos” an island in the Agean Sea, the greatest historical centre in human history. Even as John was writing the most basic concept of history during the Church Age, the dispensation of historical trends, was being formed before his eyes. The doctrine of manifest destiny which up to this time was not an issue in history was to become an issue for the first time with SPQR, the Roman empire. Here on the Island of Patmos it was John who initiated the concept of manifest destiny, a concept which divides any nation that is to be great into three historical movements: Landed aristocracy always give the nation its initial start; Industrial complex, because the landed aristocracy provide a stabilised national entity for the existence and function of industrial complex; Undeveloped frontier, in order for the complete use of the talent and the ability of any nation.

Verse 9, “I John,” E)gw I)oannhj. I)oannej was an aristocratic name; John was an aristocrat. The human author of the book of Revelation was the apostle John who was functioning as a believer priest inside the divine dynasphere, as a one person congregation, on a Sunday morning in AD 96 on the Island of Patmos. He had been banished from Ephesus to Patmos during the Domitian persecution of AD 81-96. Out of John’s persecution by Domitian comes blessing for him. Domitian, a very evil man, was the ruler of the Roman empire. Principle: You can have evil rulers and have great blessing in a national entity. For one of the historical trends of the Church Age: where there is no tyranny, whoever rules the land is not the major issue. It is the system of administration and the system of government that counts. Rome was being beautifully administered by the knights of Rome. The senate had become decadent. The Caesar was a very evil man. It is only when tyranny creeps in that what the top man has to say has significance.

John’s persecutors sought to nullify his effectiveness by isolating him but they forgot one thing: Jesus Christ controls history. And it was the Lord’s will for him to be separated from his congregations so they could get out of the routine of the messages they had been getting. It was time for John to write.

The closing book of the New Testament must demonstrate everything that would happen in history by way of trends from the time of John to the end of the Church Age — the time of the historical trends is the dispensation of the Church — and to bring together all of the historical trends, not only in our dispensation, but to give believers in the Church Age [Not the Tribulation] an understanding of what would happen in history after the Church was removed, and how to relate it to their lives now, and how to grow spiritually from understanding both the historical trends and the eschatological delineation of historical trends beginning in chapter six.

So out of John’s pressures and persecutions from Domitian comes blessing for him. But not only blessing for John in isolation but blessing for believers in every generation for the rest of history. For John was isolated under the principle of cursing turned to blessing. God the Holy Spirit used the mentality of John to present to us the history of the world from his time to the end of the world and to present it in such a lucid form that it is not only understandable but it has great application to us. Out of John’s pressure comes blessing and for countless generations of the royal family of God who have benefited from the study of Revelation.

John, as a believer priest at the time of verse 9, was engaged in worship of our Lord Jesus Christ When this one-man service was interrupted by the sudden appearance of our Lord Himself. The presence of our Lord caused the one person in the congregation to faint. We must also remember that John did not neglect worship when alone. For if ever you need Bible doctrine and its application it is when you are alone for what you are when you are alone determines everything else.

v18 The preacher identifies himself after reviving his congregation.v19 A mandate and the outline for the apocalypse.

a. John is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore a member of the royal family of God. We get this from an appositional nominative case from a)delfoj — brother. With this we have the descriptive genitive from the personal pronoun su.. When you put it together it is “I John, your fellow believer.”

b. John as a believer is a partner with other believers in the plan of God. The connective conjunction kai presents a second aspect of the human writer. Then we have another appositional nominative case from sugkoinwnoj, a partner, a co-participant. The areas of partnership and joint participation are given in one prepositional phrase. You see he’s alone, and now he is not simply speaking to his congregation, he is speaking to the world of believers as they will exist from John’s time to the Rapture. And therefore it is a partnership, still with authority, because as we with positive volition approach the book of Revelation we will benefit to the maximum. Next we have partnership — in what area? e)n plus the locative singular of the definitive article used for three nouns, so there are three ways in which the partnership will be described.

Next we have the human author of the book of Revelation and the threefold description of him.

Verse 9, “companion,” sugkoinwmoj, partner. The areas of partnership and joint participation are given in one prepositional phrase, one definite article, to cover all three areas of this partnership or joint participation. The prepositional phrase is e)n plus the locative of the definite article. There are three nouns in the locative case which will give us the area of partnership.

The first locative singular is from the noun qliyij. It refers here to pressures, sufferings, disasters. The principle that comes out of this first stage of partnership:

b. The reason some believers do not appear to have problems is simply because they live inside the divine dynasphere where they live a happy and normal life under pressure just as they do in prosperity. They have learned to cope by attaining strength rather than borrowing strength.

c. Residence in the divine dynasphere with its function at the various gates guarantees a normal happy life no matter how great the problems or the pressures or the disasters. And believers who live in the divine dynasphere are normal and therefore entitled to sentiment. You can only be sentimental about normal people.

d. The great issue is not avoiding problems and troubles but the modus vivendi of the royal priesthood in the function of the invisible life with God and the modus operandi of the royal ambassadorship in the visible interaction with mankind.

e. This concept excludes divine discipline. Since John has in view here suffering for blessing, obviously it is that concept which is in view here.

f. Problems with people or circumstances are never resolved by adjustment to those people or circumstances, they are resolved by relationship with God. All objectivity in problems and pressures is related to your fellowship with God and not with people involved.

g. If you’re right with God you can face the wrongs of human injustice and oppression. Furthermore, if you’re right with God you do not consider things beneath you as demeaning.

h. Furthermore, momentum testing is designed to accelerate spiritual growth by the application of doctrine to experience. All believers residing inside the divine dynasphere are partners in the pressures of suffering, disaster, trouble, distress, affliction, oppression.

How do you handle life when you are alone? The moment you stop handling aloneness by your relationship with God, by residence and function in the divine dynasphere, you no longer are a participant in the sufferings and problems. And therefore you have lost your rapport with loved ones who are not present.

Next comes the connective conjunction kai followed by a second locative singular from the noun basileia, kingdom. The kingdom refers to phase three of the plan of God. It emphasises eternal rewards, blessings, decorations, above and beyond the resurrection body. The advance to maturity from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere is a guarantee of, not only blessings in time but, of far greater eternal blessings which glorify God forever. Blessing in time is the advance to gate eight of the divine dynasphere, perception of doctrine. But what is far more important is the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal blessing and reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ. In the meantime the believer must endure suffering with great poise and inner happiness which is only possible inside the divine dynasphere.

And so a third noun which goes with a preposition. The connective conjunction tells us that we are still in one prepositional phrase. We have the locative singular of the noun u(pomonh, steadfastness, fortitude, perseverance. Both the noun and the verb connote courageous endurance and so it also means active and energetic resistance of evil which comes out of the cosmic system. U(pomonh refers to residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. It refers to resistance of temptation or, if failing on that count, the habitual use of rebound to recover from sin and failure, the function of the faith-rest drill, the manufacture of motivational and functional virtue, love of God, occupation with the Person of Christ, everything which is necessary for the proper motivation for the Christian way of life.

John, as a believer in the Church Age, has a third characteristic. He possess eternal security from union with Christ; positional truth, which means he also has temporal security as well. This comes out in the second prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of I)hsouj, Lit. “in Jesus” the humanity name of our Lord in hypostatic union. The royal family of God is formed by the unique ministry of God the Holy Spirit which only occurs in this dispensation. The baptism of the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ forever. This means eternal security. Temporal security and our awareness of it comes from our residence and function in the eight gates of the divine dynasphere.

Next, a verb: The aorist middle indicative of the verb ginomai, “came to be” here. John came to be, so he sees manifest destiny as relating to history and he sees his relationship to manifest destiny, for it is John who on the Island of Patmos actually brought into focus the concept of manifest destiny in history.

The thing that really brings the concept of manifest destiny all together is the undeveloped frontier. The undeveloped frontier gives those who fail under landed aristocracy a chance to go west, and those who fail in the industrial complex to go west. And there on the raw frontier your talent, your ability to survive, your ingenuity, comes out and you develop, as it were, a new aristocracy from innovation. Eventually when the undeveloped frontiers are gone the people here have no place to go. The labour complains and those who are working on the land are not satisfied because they don’t share the wealth of the land and they have no place to go, an undeveloped frontier, and then trouble starts. And that is why no nation survives its prosperity.

The aorist tense of ginomai is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The middle voice describes the subject, the apostle John, as participating in the results of the action, which in this case is writing the book of Revelation. He came to be on the Island of Patmos so that we could understand the role of the believer in the dispensation in which we live. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality.

Next comes the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative singular of nhsoj which should be translated “on the island.” Then we have a second locative th used as a demonstrative pronoun which should be translated “that one.” Then the present passive participle of the verb kalew in the passive voice, “the one being called.” Then the dative singular, indirect object, Patmoj, Patmos, a rock in the Aegean, isolated where there are very few people.

Next we have “because of the word of God,” dia plus the accusative of logoj, “and the testimony,” the connective use of the conjunction kai used this time simply to continue the concept, therefore translated “and,” plus dia the preposition plus the accusative of marturia which means testimony in the sense that Revelation is a deposition, our Lord’s verbal testimony to John, and John writes it down under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. And the testimony is not about prophecies but it is the testimony, objective genitive I)hsouj and Xristoj, “concerning Jesus Christ.” The objective genitive of Xristoj is actually not found in the original, which means that since it is not found in the original text we are going to talk mostly in the book of Revelation about Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. So “Jesus,” just the one word, is going to emphasise the Omega glory of Jesus Christ. Translation of verse 9 — “I John, your fellow believer and partner in the pressures, and the kingdom, and the perseverance [persistence in the divine dynasphere] of Jesus, came to be on the island, the one being called Patmos, because of the word of God and the testimony concerning Jesus.”

Verse 5, “Who is this person overcoming the cosmic system, no one else be he who has come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God?”

Verse 6, “This one [Jesus Christ] is he who came by water and by blood; not by water alone, but by water and blood. Furthermore it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is truth.”

Verse 7, “Because there are three who testify, the Spirit, the water and the blood: and these three witnesses have the same purpose.”

John wrote that before he wrote the book of Revelation. He had a testimony of our Lord by the testimony was not completed until he authored the book of Revelation.

Verse 10, “was,” ginomai, I came to be. The constative aorist refers to a fact or action extended over a period of time. The Sunday on the Island of Patmos when John began writing world history as it would occur sequentially down to the end of time.

Being filled with the Spirit John fulfils his job. He fulfils it under the principle of worship, for there is resultant worship as John meets with himself on a Sunday morning on the Island of Patmos — cf. John 4:24. Worship is the function of the divine dynasphere and there is no legitimate worship in Christianity apart from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

“Spirit,” pneuma,e)n plus the locative, “I was in the Spirit.” The absence of the definite article in the Greek emphasises the high quality of the noun, therefore translated with the English definite article. It is an idiom that reverses the use of our definite article in the English. It is a reference to the filling of the Spirit and also to a preparation for the perception of doctrine.

“the Lord’s day,” e)n plus the locative of time from the adjective kuriakoj. It refers to belonging to the Lord. With it is a noun e(mera, day, “On the day belonging to the Lord.” It is a reference to the first day of the week, Sunday. Sunday as the first day of the week is designated as the worship day for the royal family in the Church Age. It was so designated because it was the day of our Lord’s resurrection. The Lord’s day not only commemorates the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ but is a new day marking a new dispensation. The Sabbath or Saturday was designated the day of worship for Israel but never for the Church or the royal family of God.

Worship on Sunday is the privilege of the believer and, as such, must reflect his freewill option. The Day of Pentecost occurred on Sunday and therefore commemorates the day the Church began. The Sunday or the Lord’s day is a reminder that the Church Age is a dispensation of privilege for believers who are the royal family of God.

And so in the time of Domitian the issue arose as to who was the Lord. You see, one day per month was designated the Emperor’s day and this was also called in the Roman Empire the Lord’s day. So Sunday became an issue because the Christians said Jesus is Lord and the rest of the Roman citizens said Caesar is Lord. It was an issue of Caesar versus Christ.

In the early church, while Sunday was a special day, other days were also designated for worship. Day by day is the order which is found in Acts 2:46,47. Sunday was set aside as a public witness to the fact that Christianity worshipped Christ and not the degenerate deified Caesars like Domitian who banished John to the Island of Patmos for worshipping Christ rather than Caesar.

“and heard,” kai a)kouw, plus “behind me,” o)psiw plus the genitive of e)gw. What he heard behind him brings us right back again to our subject of historical trends — “loud,” megaj plus the accusative singular direct object fonh, “voice.”

Next is a comparative particle which tells us we are going to get an illustration as to what is meant. The illustration follows in the noun salpiggoj which refers to a trumpet. The trumpet was used in the ancient world for issuing commands in the military. The trumpet therefore demanded concentration, obedience, execution of commands. Concentration under the ministry of the Holy Spirit is necessary for perception of the plan of God. Therefore it is a reference to the first three gates of the divine dynasphere. The service was interrupted to provide the apostle John with both the historical trends of the Church Age and the prophetical pattern of what will happen after the resurrection of the Church. The trumpet is the alert signal that the trends are about to begin.

In verse 11 we have the divine mandate for the writing and distribution of the book of Revelation. The phrase “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last” is not found in the original. The phrase “which are in Asia” also does not occur. What we have at the beginning of this verse is actually quite different to what the King James version has added in. These phrases do occur in other places.

“saying,” the present active indicative of the verb legw should be “which said.” The perfective present refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The active voice is the voice making a loud noise like a trumpet, the trumpet meaning alertness and concentration to what follows. The history of the world with doctrinal innovations in order that we might begin to orient to the time in which we live which is not a dispensation of prophecy but a dispensation of historical trends.

We have a relative pronoun which follows. The nominative neuter singular from the relative pronoun, o(j, “what,” followed by the present active indicative of the verb blepw which together says, “what you see.” The present tense is a progressive present for action in a state of persistence. It refers to the unfolding of the book of Revelation, an historical textbook which tells us exactly what is going to happen from John’s time to the end of time. The active voice: John produces the action of the verb in relationship to the visions on which the content of Revelation is formed as a deposition from our Lord Jesus Christ to the apostle and eventually to us. John will see a panorama of history of the human race under the principle of our Lord’s third royal patent, seated at the right hand of the Father.

Next we have the mandate for closing out the canon of scripture, the aorist active imperative of the verb grafw, “write.” John is writing a deposition, not a testimony. A testimony is verbal; a deposition is a testimony in writing, and the book of Revelation is a deposition. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the glorious completion of the canon of scripture with the panorama of human history from John to the end of time. The active voice: John produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is the divine mandate for closing out the canon and He selected John to do it. We have following this a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of biblion. Lit. on a scroll. It means in effect “in a book.” Corrected translation: “Which said, Write in a book what you see.”

Next we have the mandate for distribution because in the mandate every historical trend that existed simultaneously at the end of the Roman empire, exists in the world right now. They are the historical trends that simultaneously exist at any point in history on some part of planet earth. We have the aorist active indicative of pempw, “and send it,” kai plus pempw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety: the initial distribution of the Revelation manuscript to the seven churches of the Roman province of Asia. It is a foregone conclusion that John will write under the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the distribution list indicates the fact that non-face to face teaching is legitimate. For up until the time John was banished by Domitian to the Isle of Patmos John was a face to face pastor with the congregation in Ephesus and a non-face to face pastor with the other six churches mentioned in this verse. Now he is going to send it even to Ephesus, and furthermore, John is the pastor of all seven of those churches until he went to Patmos. But there are going to be pastors of all seven of those churches in the future and he is to write the first two chapters to future pastors. The point is that historical trends must be understood by pastors as well as by congregations and that no pastor can effectively communicate to his congregation unless he can understand historical trends because he always has a tendency to get of on something, to ride a hobby horse. “Which are in Asia” is a corruption, not in the best manuscripts.

Next comes the dative plural indirect object from three words. There is the dative plural of the definite article, taij, the generic use of the definite article — which indicates that these seven churches form a specific category. These churches all have something in common. At the moment John is still their pastor. Next comes the dative plural from the numeral e(pta which means “seven,” and then the dative plural from the noun e)kklhsia, “churches.” The next phrase, “which are in Asia,” is a corruption of the manuscript from which the King James version was translated. The distribution to the seven local churches follows the pattern of the preposition e)ij plus the name of each church: “to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” This is the initial distribution list for the book of Revelation.

Verse 12, the vision of the seven golden lampstands; “and,”kai; “I turned,” e)pestrefw, “I turned around.” John turned his head in the direction of the voice. He is alert; “to see,” blepw. The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of the events in the process of occurrence. Where there is a voice there is a form and John wants to see what is the form of that magnificent voice — “the voice,” fwnh.

1. Since a voice is not visible to the eye it identifies with a person who has a message. And therefore even with our Lord Jesus Christ it is still the importance of the message;

2. John refers to the person who owns the voice and he is going to see a form which he will associate with that voice. And that association is going to carry us through two chapters — two and three — and will be seen from time to time throughout the rest of Revelation. So what is coming up, the form identified with that voice, is the key to interpretation of Revelation for it is not the “Revelation of St John the divine,” it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

3. Therefore to ascertain whose voice is speaking John turned in the direction of the voice. In other words the voice demands attention, concentration, objectivity, poise, and good manners, everything necessary for good academic discipline.

“which,” o(stij, “that.” O(stij is the only word to indicate the hypostatic union here. Jesus Christ is God; what follows will be a description of a man, but we have the God-Man altogether here. O(stij as a qualitative relative pronoun tells us that behind the figure, the actual humanity, there is also a union with it, true and infinite deity. So “that” indicates the deity of Jesus Christ.

“spoke,” lalew, to speak, to communicate, to express. The imperfect tense is a progressive imperfect for linear aktionsart in past time. The voice that speaks now is going to be speaking for along time and great portions of the book of Revelation are simply the spoken testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ written by John.

“with me,” meta plus e)gw. John’s turning can be construed as his positive volition as well as his good manners. John had made positive decisions about doctrine which had opened the door for more and greater decisions about doctrine. Persistent positive volition toward doctrine is the only road to spiritual blessing, maturity, and glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“and being turned,” kai e)pistrefw, lit., “and when I had turned around I saw,” o(raw. The panorama of human history; “seven golden candlesticks”: xruseoj, golden; luxnia, lampstand. This lampstand was the only light in the Holy Place in the tabernacle and just as the Shekina glory was the only light in the Holy of Holies so the manora (Heb.) was the only light in the holy place in the tabernacle. The central branch of the lampstand always represents our Lord Jesus Christ who functioned in the prototype divine dynasphere and established a pattern in the game plan for the Christian way of life in this dispensation. Since it is used here, not in connection with Israel, but with the Church it refers to our Lord Jesus Christ in the prototype divine dynasphere.

The six branches represent believers in union with Christ. They represent the phrase “in Christ”. The visible part of the lampstand is the light. The wick is the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The oil, representing the Holy Spirit, is brought up through the wick and there is a light. The wick represents the believer inside the divine dynasphere, and the light are the functional virtues which are obvious to mankind.

1. The light that burns from the golden lampstand is the believer living inside the divine dynasphere — under the principle that the divine dynasphere is God’s game plan for the Church Age and it is divided into two categories: invisible and visible. The invisible life is related to the royal priesthood; the visible life is related to the royal ambassadorship.

2. So speaking of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ we now have a vision of the glorified Christ who is in heaven, seated at the member that His third royal patent was given to His humanity.

The burning of the oil in the lamps is one type of light. But we are going to see another type of light: the light shining from the stars, which is of course Bible doctrine. The stars are called angels or messengers of local churches, hence the stars are pastors of local churches who give off another type of light.

The teaching of doctrine glorifies the Lord, therefore the light from the stars. The light burning from the lampstand is the believer applying doctrine inside of the divine dynasphere, so that Jesus Christ is glorified through the functional virtues apparent to all mankind. The middle vision portrays our Lord in His glorified state in the hypostatic union. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is King of kings and Lord of Lords who is glorified by the teaching of doctrine. Therefore it is very important that we understand the content of this vision. The deity of Christ has been glorified forever, both in eternity past and in the eternal future. Here is a vision of the glorification of the resurrected humanity of Christ and therefore the vision describes our Lord in terms of human clothes, hair, eyes, feet, and voice. And it must be remembered that the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. Therefore we will relate these things to the twentieth century as far as it is possible. There is no anachronism in this vision of our glorified Lord.

Verse 13, “And,” kai. It is translated here “and” but it is used in the sense of the Hebrew waw and it will be translated “consequently, furthermore.” There are nine different legitimate translations of this conjunction. It is used here to set up a double accusative, “in the” e)n plus the locative singular from the adjective mesoj plus luxnia. It means “and in the middle of the lampstands.” Then we have “like unto,” the accusative direct object of o(moioj, “one resembling.” The vision is introduced by giving the title “Son of man,” u(ioj plus a)nqrwpoj. This is the shortened form for our Lord’s title for the first advent. It began with the virgin birth because He was born as Adam was created — perfect. Adam was created without sin; the Lord Jesus Christ was born that way. Human life was imputed to Him the same way it was imputed to Adam. The word “Adam” in the Hebrew simply means “man” and its equivalent in the Greek is a)nqrwpoj. So He is called “Son of Man” or the “Son of Adam.” It is a title to indicate the hypostatic union; it is His true humanity which received the title “Son of Man.”

1. Jesus Christ controls history. All believers are personally related to the eternal God-Man who controls history. It is our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ that gives us the invisible yet the very important impact on history, either uptrend or downtrend depending upon our attitude toward Bible doctrine.

2. Therefore, for the believer there are no tragedies in history — many disasters, a great deal of suffering, but there are no tragedies in history. Tragedy belongs to drama; disaster belongs to history. Since man is the product of his own decisions, individually and collectively, the result of wrong decisions is disaster; the result of right decisions is prosperity. And so we can say with regard to history: there are periods of prosperity, there are periods of disaster, but since man is the product of his own decisions there are no tragedies.

3 People individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions. That means that volition and decision produces environment, not environment decision.

4. Historical disasters result from wrong decisions which destroy options for future decisions.

In heaven, a place of perfect environment, there will be those who have great decorations and those with less. There will be great inequality. A sign of freedom is inequality: you are free to fail; you are free to succeed. Satan has invented a system called communism which seeks to set aside this concept. So to exchange freedom for security is to sell your soul for a mess of pottage. Socialism and the redistribution of wealth is very popular because it offers security instead of freedom. Also it gives those who have failed in life a chance to exercise the motivating evil of jealousy toward others. Disaster results when the demand for power exceeds the need for power. Disaster occurs when arrogant people never see their own consistencies, only the inconsistencies of others.

In verse 13 the robe which we see first is the robe of a high priest. A priest is a man who represents man to God. Our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity is a high priest. His humanity resided in side the prototype divine dynasphere, He was therefore a priest representing Himself to God. He was our high priest and we shall see the significance of that. You have to be true humanity to be a priest. Furthermore our Lord Jesus Christ, if He is going to rule forever as per all of the prophecies with regard to the Millennium and the eternal state, He must be a man. A king must be a man to represent man, 2 Sam. 7; Psalm 89. So it is the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity that is depicted for us here.

“clothed,” e)nduw, perf. pass. participle. This describes the dress uniform of a high priest. Correct translation: “being attired.”

The word “garment” is the accusative singular direct object of podhrh and it refers to the robe of a high priest. It is a robe reaching down to the feet and again it refers to the dress uniform of the high priest as described first in Exodus 28:2-4. Our Lord’s priestly function inside the prototype divine dynasphere resulted in maximum function of all the motivating virtues directed toward the plan of God and the Father in His incarnation. Now our Lord Jesus Christ is the King Priest, the great High Priest who represents us to God the Father. Every believer is in union with Christ and the Church is a kingdom of priests according to Revelation 1:6, and the priesthood is the modus vivendi of the invisible function of the Christian way of life.

Next is “girt about,” perizonummi, “having belted around him a golden girdle,” zwnh xruseoj, lit., a golden sash.What is this golden sash? This is the golden sash of aristocracy, it is worn across the chest. The golden sash worn around the belt was a sign of being a ranking officer in the military but the sash across the chest was the sign of aristocracy, proj plus the locative of mastoj, lit. across the chest. Our Lord’s third title of royalty is involved here. The golden sash is a reminder that our Lord Jesus Christ is the prince ruler of the Church, the titled head of the royal family of God or the Church Age believer. It is a reminder that Christ is the absolute ruler and the authority over the body of Christ.

He has delegated authority under three principles which have to do with the laws of truth: Cat.1, the laws of divine establishment; Cat.2, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (evangelism); Cat.3, Bible doctrine for believers (pastor-teacher).

Three things are emphasised in this verse: 1. Jesus Christ controls history; 2. Jesus Christ is the great High Priest of a kingdom of priests; 3. Jesus Christ is the sovereign ruler of the Church.

“And,” de, Lit., “now,” followed by kefalh, “head.” Lit., “his head.” Next is “his hair”: qrix refers to His hair. Lit. translation: “And His head and hair,” plus “white,” leukoj. Our Lord, when He ascended in His resurrection body, was 33 years old. It is noted in 1 John 3 that we are going to have a resurrection body exactly like His. That means that everyone will have a resurrection body aged 33. Our Lord appears very shortly after the ascension and His hair is now white. “White like wool” means the hair is thick and like “snow”. The white hair of our Lord Jesus Christ denotes the shock of His bearing our very own sins in His own body on the tree. “White wool” is a reminder that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, the efficacious sacrifice for our sins, while the whiteness of snow indicates the impeccability of Christ residing and functioning inside the prototype divine dynasphere. Because of His impeccability our Lord was qualified to go to the cross and be judged for our sins. The white hair, like the scars in our Lord’s hands and feet, are the visible manifestations of the price He had to pay on the cross. So, in effect, what John is seeing here is what he said in the first chapter of his Gospel: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

The next phrase in context emphasises future judgment. In the first phrase Christ is seen as the saviour of the world. In the next phrase He is seen as judge of the world. The white hair, like the scars in His hands, then, are visible manifestations of the price our Lord paid for our so great salvation. The white wool speaks of the perfect impeccable sacrifice, snow emphasising our Lord’s qualification to be a substitute to take our place.

This is followed by “and,” kai plus the nominative plural subject o)fqalmoj, “eyes,” and o(j, comparative particle “as.” The comparison is completed with two words: the predicate nominative flox, flame, plus the descriptive genitive singular pur — fire. Lit. flame of fire. This refers to judgment.

There are two categories of judgment we are going to note in this context. This is personal judgment in verse 14. When we get down to the bronze we are going to see another kind of judgment, national judgment.

Manifest destiny has three components: A landed aristocracy, the backbone for getting a nation started in the right way. Then it is followed by an industrial complex and there is always an undeveloped frontier.

Man is the product of his own volition. Man individually is the product of his own decisions; we as a nation are the products of our collective decisions. This is true in any particular period of history but even though man is the product of his own decisions Jesus Christ controls history. The book of Revelation is a textbook of history from the first century AD down to the end of time. It includes the Church Age, the dispensation of historical trends, and then it includes all of the chronology of eschatology of world history starting with the resurrection of the Church, the Tribulation, the second advent, the Millennial reign of Christ, the revolution at the end of the Millennium, the destruction of the universe.

The Lord Jesus Christ controls history, and as such He provided in His first advent, not only the so great salvation we enjoy through faith in Christ, but when He ascended He was given His third patent of royalty. And it is that patent of royalty that makes up the rest of world history: how He will exercise that patent at the second advent, how in the meantime there must be a royal family, therefore the Church Age is the calling out of the royal family of God, the royal family of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore it is a dispensation not of prophecy but of historical trends.

Controlling history means that eventually when a nation is made up of too many believers are spending their time in cosmic one with the 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance or cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred, there must be judgment. There are five cycles of judgment to a nation but in addition to that there is national self-destruction.

So there are two categories. Self-destruction is recognised by our Lord who makes the estimate of the situation: too many believers in the cosmic system. So eventually then He adds divine judgment. That is the picture we have in verses 14 and 15.

42 01/20/1982 Revelation 1:15; Job 5:19–27 Historical judgment; divine deliverance

In verse 15 we will see His feet like bronze as the national judgment but in the meantime we have the judgment of the eyes like a flame of fire. This is individual. It is not only true in the historical trends of people collectively but it is true individually. We are the products of our own decisions. Good decisions open options for greater decisions; bad decisions destroy those options and eventually remove them altogether and the individual is removed under the principle of the sin unto death. But before his removal he has a long and miserable life of divine judgment and discipline. This is brought out now in the flame of fire, for the flame of fire speaks of individual judgment just as the feet of bronze represents national judgment.

Jesus Christ will not ever tolerate arrogance, the number one enemy of the human race. The Lord Jesus Christ has charge of all judgment: individual judgment of believers called divine discipline; collective judgment of nations called historical trend. For the unbeliever salvation is always offered before judgment; for the believer grace is offered before the judgment seat of Christ. The provision of logistical grace to the believer in time and the temporal security that goes with it always precedes the evaluation of any believer at the judgment seat of Christ. Decision from human volition is always the issue in human history and in every phase of human history called the angelic conflict. For the unbeliever the option is to face Christ as saviour in time or be judged in eternity. The option for the believer is to recognise Jesus Christ as Lord in time or be evaluated at the Rapture with loss of any reward. And therefore this part of the vision emphasises the fact that human life was designed by God to make decisions that relate to the Lord Jesus Christ. To believe in Christ of course cancels any judgment in eternity. But the issue then is not eternal security which was settled at salvation but the issue is Bible doctrine, the Word of God. Jesus Christ is the living Word; doctrine is the written Word. To put Christ first in your life you must give first place to Bible doctrine.

Now by application to all of this there is also the issue of temporal security for the believer. To live inside the divine dynasphere, to learn Bible doctrine, is to recognise Jesus as Lord. Logistical grace includes the provision of the divine dynasphere and Bible doctrine as our temporal security. Our security is not found in money, in the usual systems so designated in this life, our security is related to the Word of God. To use one’s volition as a believer to reject and repudiate logistical grace and temporal security means evaluation and tragedy at the judgment seat of Christ.

We now see in verses 12-20 the subject of the apocalypse and the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. In verses 12-16 there are three introductory visions. The first of these is the vision of the seven golden lamps or lampstands.

Verse 12, the vision of the seven golden lampstands. We start out with the connective conjunction kai. John uses this a great deal; Paul did not. John followed the Hebrew style of connectives, therefore we see a lot of kais. Here it is translated “And.” Next comes the aorist active indicative from the verb e)pistrefw, and it means “And I turned around.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it refers to a momentary action where John turned his head in the direction of the voice. The active voice: John produces the action. The declarative mood represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Remember, the voice sounded like a trumpet. The analogy of the trumpet is not accidental. God the Holy Spirit gave this thought to John as he heard it for the first time. The trumpet means alertness, and there is for us both a personal as well as an historical application. Many, because of their faithfulness to the Word of God are going to be prospered one way or another. Prosperity is a test just like adversity is a test. If you have the ability, the capacity from doctrine, to maintain in prosperity you will pass the most difficult test in life. But the most difficult test in life is not adversity and trial and problems, the most difficult and subtle of all testings is the prosperity test. We face this test nationally and individually. Prosperity provides a certain number of tests saying to you, now that you have this prosperity are you so preoccupied with the prosperity that you have lost track of the source; are you so preoccupied with the wonderful life that God has given you that you have forgotten who gave it? The only way that you can avoid the dangers of flunking this test is to maintain your capacity, and the most difficult thing in the world is to maintain spiritual capacity — for life, for love, for happiness — when you are prosperous. It is very easy to lose the capacity because you start to neglect the Word of God. When you neglect Bible doctrine you lose the capacity. Therefore what you have left is ritual without reality.

Our next word is the present active infinitive of the verb blepw which means to see, “I turned around to see.” The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of the events in the process of occurrence. Up until this moment John has had some adversity in being isolated from his congregations, being banished to a rock island, and left there in hopes that he would die. Domitian would not execute John. He learned something from Nero: Don’t kill the Christians. If they are in prominence killing them will simply expand Christianity. So Domitian was very wise and he didn’t make a martyr out of John. Instead he put him in a place which was his very own Roman Siberia in hopes that he would just simply die away and the problem of the apostle John would go away for the emperor Domitian. This means that John has perhaps suffered some privation. But all of that has gone for that voice is the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ and the greatest blessing that ever came to an individual now comes to John. Only one man in all of human history ever had the privilege of writing with perfect accuracy the entire history of the world from his day to the end of time. It starts with turning the head in the direction of the voice to see who was there, for where there is a voice there is a form.

Having heard the voice John wants to see what is the form of that magnificent voice. So John produces the action and we have the infinitive of purpose and we have the beginning of a translation: “And I turned around to see.” He wants to see the voice, says the accusative singular direct object from fwnh. The voice is that of the Lord Jesus Christ and John wants to associate a form with it.

1. Since a voice is not visible to the eye it identifies with a person who has a message. Therefore, even with our Lord Jesus Christ it is still the importance of the message.

2. John refers to the person who owns the voice and he is going to see a form that he will associate with that voice, and that association will carry us through chapters two and three and will be seen from time to time throughout the rest of the book of Revelation.

3. Therefore to ascertain whose voice is speaking John turned in the direction of the voice. In other words, the voice demands attention, concentration, objectivity, poise and, turning in the direction of the voice, good manners. Good manners accompany a good spiritual life.

Next we have a nominative feminine singular from the qualitative relative pronoun o(stij, it emphasises the essence of Jesus Christ as God — “that.” It is the only word to indicate the hypostatic union here. Jesus Christ is God. What follows will be a description of a man but we have the God-Man altogether here. O(stij as a qualitative relative pronoun tells us that behind the figure, the actual humanity, there is also in union with it true and infinite deity. So the word “that” indicates the deity of Jesus Christ. Then comes the imperfect active indicative of the verb lalew which means to speak, to communicate, to express, to proclaim. We will simply translate it, “And I turned around to see the voice that was speaking.” The imperfect tense is a progressive imperfect for linear aktionsart in past time. The voice that speaks now is going to be speaking for a long time. Great portions of the book of Revelation are simply the spoken testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ written by John just as our Lord gave it. The active voice: Jesus Christ was the voice producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of Jesus Christ communicating information to the apostle John. Then we have the preposition that rounds it out, meta, plus the genitive singular from the pronoun e)gw, “with me.” The act of turning can be construed as his positive volition as well as his good manners. John had made positive decisions about doctrine which had opened the door for more and greater decisions about doctrine resulting in the greatest of all on the island of Patmos. In other words, persistent, positive volition toward doctrine is the only road to spiritual blessing, maturity and glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We now have another connective use of the conjunction kai and a verb, the aorist active participle e)pistrefw, “And when I had turned around.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, a momentary action expressing so much. The active voice: John produces the action. This is a temporal participle plus the principle that the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, the main verb coming up: “I saw.” We know the main verb and we can distinguish it very easily because it is the aorist active indicative. The indicative mood is used for the main verb and the main verb is o(raw. The culminative aorist views the function of seeing in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the panorama of human history. Again, John produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the vision plus the main verb.

The direct object of the verb is composed of three Greek words. We have a numeral which is never conjugated, it always remains in the nominative, e(pta, “seven.” But we have a double accusative. First of all the accusative feminine plural xruseoj, the word for “golden.” With it we have the accusative feminine plural of luxnia, and it is not a candle it is a lampstand, therefore a certain type of lamp. Luchnia is the exact equivalent of the Hebrew menorah, “lampstand.” It is a reference to Zechariah 4:2 where we have the lampstand in the tabernacle; also a reference to Exodus 25 where it is first described. This lampstand was the only light in the holy place. Just as the Shekinah glory was the only light in the holy of holies so the menorah was the only light in the holy place of the tabernacle. The central branch of the lampstand always represents our Lord Jesus Christ who functioned in the prototype divine dynasphere and established the pattern an the game plan for the Christian way of life in this dispensation. Since it is used here not in connection with Israel but the Church it refers to our Lord Jesus Christ in the prototype divine dynasphere. We saw that from the virgin birth He entered into the divine dynasphere, very shortly reached gate eight, and He functioned His entire first advent (the humanity of Christ) inside the divine dynasphere. The six branches represent believers in union with Christ. These represent being connected to the central branch — union with Christ. The hidden part of the lamp is the oil which represents the believer’s function inside the divine dynasphere. The visible part of the lampstand is the light which burns as the oil comes through the wick. The wick, then, is the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ; the light is the function of operational or functional virtues during our life inside the divine dynasphere. The wick represents the believer inside of the divine dynasphere.

Translation: “And I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned around I saw seven golden lampstands.”

Essentially the lampstand is composed of three elements: the invisible, the visible, and the wick which is the conveyer. The invisible part of the lampstand is the oil representing the believer functioning in the divine dynasphere under the filling of the Spirit — the oil representing the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The visible part of the lampstand in the light representing the functional virtues directed toward mankind. The central shaft is our Lord Jesus Christ and then six branches indicate the believer in union with Christ. The gold represents the divine dynasphere, the key to the Christian way of life and, of course, emphasising residence. The gold represents the availability of the divine dynasphere to every believer, just as God the Father made available to our Lord Jesus Christ the prototype divine dynasphere. Therefore the gold of the central shaft is the function of our Lord Jesus Christ inside of the prototype divine dynasphere.

Next we notice the oil in the lamps representing the function inside the divine dynasphere. The burning wick represent functional virtue directed toward mankind. The two combined provide the utilisation of every believer’s warrants: the royal priesthood for the invisible and the royal ambassadorship for the visible Christian way of life. In verse 20 we get the true interpretation of the lampstands. They are said to be the seven churches on the distribution list of the previous verse. Each believer and every local church has the logistical support of the divine dynasphere plus union with Christ plus the invisible and visible components of the Christian way of life.

Verse 13, we note in this passage that there are seven lampstands and this means that we are going to have to be dealing with light. So by way of anticipation:

1. The light that burns from the golden lampstand is the believer living inside the divine dynasphere under the principle that the divine dynasphere is God’s game plan for the Church Age. It is the Christian way of life and it is divided into two categories: invisible and visible. The invisible life is related to the royal priesthood; the visible life is related to the royal ambassadorship. Every believer is a priest representing himself to God; every believer is an ambassador representing God to man. This is the dispensation in which the individual believer is emphasised.

2. We now have a vision of the glorified Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, and seated in hypostatic union. The burning of the oil in the lamps is one type of light but we are going to see another type of light: the light shining from the stars, which is Bible doctrine. The stars are called angels or messengers of local churches, hence the stars are pastors who teach doctrine or give off another type of light. The teaching of doctrine glorifies the Lord, therefore the light from the stars. The light burning from the lampstand is the believer applying doctrine inside of the divine dynasphere so that Jesus Christ is glorified through the functional virtues apparent to all mankind. The middle vision, the one we are now about to study, portrays our Lord in His glorified state in the hypostatic union. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is King of kings and Lord of lords who is glorified by the teaching of doctrine. Therefore it is very important that we understand the content of this vision. The deity of Christ has been glorified forever, both in eternity past and in the eternal future. Here is a vision of the glorification of the resurrected humanity of Christ, and therefore the vision describes our Lord in terms of human clothes, hair, eyes, feet, and voice. And it must be remembered that the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written, therefore we will relate these things to the 20th century where it is possible. There is no anachronism in this vision of our glorified Lord. It was pertinent in the time in which it was written and we can go back and find out exactly the significance of all of these things. In the ancient world what is presented here, His clothes, hair, eyes, feet, voice, were considered the items of major beauty in the male and the female. Therefore, since the Lord is going to be presented in beauty it becomes necessary to cover these things.

We begin the verse with the connective use of the conjunction kai, correctly translated here “consequently, furthermore, and.” It is used here to set up a double accusative. We have a preposition coming up first, however, e)n plus the locative singular from the adjective mesoj plus luxnia, “And in the middle of the lampstands.” As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. As Rome in the time John wrote, so our nation in the time in which we are living is a client nation to God. The believer’s attitude toward doctrine becomes the determining factor in historical trends. After salvation doctrine is the major issue: positive volition expressed through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

Next we have the accusative direct object from o(moioj, “one resembling.” The word for resembling, taken from o(raw, is simply used here in the accusative to indicate that the vision is now introduced, and the vision is introduced by giving the title “Son of man,” u(ioj plus the descriptive genitive of a)nqrwpoj. This is the shortened form of our Lord’s title for the first advent. It began with the virgin birth because He was born as Adam was created: perfect. It is a title to indicate the hypostatic union. “And in the middle of the lampstand one resembling the Son of man.” At this point we now begin the study of our vision of the Lord.

1. Jesus Christ controls history. All believers are personally related to the eternal God-Man who controls history. It is our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ that gives us the invisible and yet the very important impact in history — either uptrend or downtrend, depending upon our attitude toward Bible doctrine.

2. Therefore, for the believer there are no tragedies in history. Many disasters, a great deal of suffering, but there are no tragedies in history. Tragedy belongs to drama; disaster belongs to history. Since man is the product of his own decisions, individually and collectively, the result of wrong decisions is disaster; the result of right decisions is prosperity. So we can say with regard to history there are periods of prosperity, there are periods of disaster, but since man is the product of his own decisions there are no tragedies.

3. People individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions. That means that volition and decision produces environment, not environment decision.

4. Historical disasters result from wrong decisions which destroy options for future decisions. We have studied that principle under the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline, but long before God administers the fifth cycle of discipline to a nation the nation destroys itself. Generally the nation fails to pass the prosperity test.

The robe which we see first in verse 13 is the robe of the high priest. A priest is a man who represents man to God. Our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity is a high priest. Remember His humanity resided inside the prototype divine dynasphere. He was therefore a priest representing Himself to God. He was our high priest: it is necessary to be true humanity to be a priest. Believers in Jesus Christ are also their own priest; they represent themselves to God. This is why the believer should become spiritually self-sustaining. Furthermore our Lord Jesus Christ, if He is going to rule forever as per all of the prophecies pertaining to the Millennium and the eternal state, he must be a man. A king must be a man to represent man — 2 Samuel 7 and Psalm 89. So it is the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity that is depicted before us at this time.

We move on to the perfect passive participle of the verb e)nduw which describes the dress uniform of the high priest. We translate it “being attired.” The dramatic perfect tense emphasises the existing state. In this vision our Lord is represented in the robes of the dress uniform of the high priest. The passive voice: Jesus Christ as the subject receives the action of the verb. The participle expresses the attendant circumstances, hence a circumstantial participle. While this perfect tense emphasises existing results it can be translated by the English present to give accuracy to the Greek idiom found in the passage.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object from bodhrh which is the robe of a high priest. It is a robe reaching down to the feet. Again, this refers to the dress uniform of the high priest as described first in Exodus 28:2-4. Our Lord’s priestly function inside the prototype divine dynasphere resulted in maximum function of all the motivating virtues directed toward the plan of God the Father in His incarnation. Now our Lord Jesus Christ is the King priest, the great high priest who represents us to God the Father. Since every believer is in union with Christ and the Church is a kingdom of priests, according to Revelation 1:6, this priesthood is the basis for the modus vivendi of the invisible function of the Christian way of life. This is why you as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ have a right under freedom to your privacy. The fact that you are a believer means that the invisible part of your life must be functioning toward God apart from any human influence. The only influence should come from your perception of Bible doctrine at gate four. This is a part of the fact that we wear the robe today. It is an invisible robe. We are in union with Christ and each believer is his own priest and represents himself before God. He is responsible to God for what he does with the Bible doctrine that he learns: how he uses it, how he applies it, and how he functions in the residence and modus operandi of the divine dynasphere of the Christian way of life. So since every believer is in union with Christ he shares that priesthood today. Jesus Christ is our great high priest representing Himself to God in the prototype divine dynasphere and representing us at the right hand of the Father in certain areas of intercession. Next we have in the description a connective kai followed by another participle: the perfect passive participle of perizwnummi, and the accusative singular of the direct object with it is zwnh, the word for life, plus the adjective xruseoj, the word for golden.

Translation: “And in the middle of the lampstands I saw one resembling the Son of man, being attired in a robe reaching down to his feet, and having belted on a golden sash across the chest.”

The golden sash is a reminder that our Lord Jesus Christ is the prince ruler of the Church, the titled head of the royal family of God or the Church Age believer. The golden sash across the chest is a reminder that Christ is the absolute ruler and the authority over the body of Christ. The Church is the body of Christ and the sash across the chest is a reminder that all authority is vested in our Lord Jesus Christ. He has delegated authority under three principles which have to do with the laws of truth — “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” All authority is delegated under category #1 truth, the laws of divine establishment. That starts with parents: the principle of organised humility, the home is organised humility. The authority is the principle of enforced humility and obedience to parents. Positive volition toward that authority is genuine humility, and that is the only way a child can ever leave home as an adult and be mature as a human being. Enforced and genuine humility then recognises all of the systems of authority that are provided in the laws of divine establishment. Then there is a second category of delegated authority, and that is involving the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The authority under the gospel are those who have the gift of evangelism, or the power of the Word itself in witnessing. But this is a very limited system of authority. Then there is a third category which comes under Bible doctrine. Under Bible doctrine for believers we have today the pastor-teacher who is the authority for communication of Bible doctrine. That means a prepared pastor and the believer has the right to seek out a pastor who is prepared and who communicates Bible doctrine. Therefore the believer’s volition becomes the individual authority, but once he goes into a church the pastor is the authority and whether he is good or bad is not the issue. If you don’t like him, move on quietly but don’t ever criticise a pastor. The golden sash, then, speaks of authority and the source of all authority in life related to freedom. This means that all authority in the Church is answerable to God for any abuse of that authority, and this is why pastors receive double discipline for their sins and their failures.

Three things are emphasises in this verse. First of all, Jesus Christ controls history. Secondly, Jesus Christ is the great high priest of a kingdom of priests, and the fact that the believer is a priest means that he is personally responsible to God for his own decisions. Good decisions open the door for greater decisions; bad decisions close the door and eventually destroy the options under the sin unto death. The third is that Jesus Christ is the sovereign ruler of the Church.

We move on now into verse 14 where we have a description of the hairs on His head. This is related to the time in which it was written. All beauty in the ancient world was related to the face and the feet, the hair and the eyes; the symmetry of the hands and the feet. And this explains the way people dressed in the ancient world. We see in the verse also our Lord as the one who controls history and administers judgment.

We have a transitional use of the conjunction de instead of the usual kai. It is simply translated “Now.” The nominative singular kefalh gives us our subject. We go to the head which always includes the face, of course. The possessive genitive from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used in the Koine Greek as the personal pronoun, third personal singular, “his head.” Then comes the connective conjunction kai, “and”, and it is a reference to John’s vision of our Lord Jesus Christ as He appeared to the apostle on the Island of Patmos. We notice next the nominative plural from qric, for His hair, “Moreover his head and hair.” Then because this is elliptical we must insert the verb to be, “is.” Then we have a predicate nominative plural leukoj. Our Lord in His resurrection body, when He ascended, was 33 years old. He has the resurrection body of a 33-year-old man. We are going to have a resurrection body exactly like His, 1 John 3. We note now that our Lord was 33 when He ascended, and yet he appears very shortly after the ascension and His hair is now white. White is considered to be pure and is even considered to be a sign of beauty, but that is not the issue here when it says, “white like wool,” which means the hair is thick, and “like snow,” xiwn. The white hair of our Lord Jesus Christ denotes the shock of bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. When our Lord Jesus Christ was on that cross every sin that has ever been committed in the human race was imputed to him and judged. This gives us some concept of the tremendous shock to our Lord in being judged for our sins. This is emphasised in the two analogies: like wool and like snow. White wool is a reminder that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, the efficacious sacrifice for our sins; the whiteness of snow indicates the impeccability of Christ residing and functioning inside the prototype divine dynasphere. Because if His impeccability our Lord was qualified to go to the cross and be judged for our sins. The white hair, like the scars in our Lord’s hands and feet, are the visible manifestations of the price He paid for our sins on the cross. The white wool speaks of His perfect impeccable sacrifice; snow emphasises our Lord’s qualifications to be our substitute, to take our place for judgment of sin and for the entire human race. So in effect what John is seeing here is what he said in the first chapter of his gospel — John 1:29, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” While the first phrase emphasises the judgment of our Lord on the cross, the next phrase in context emphasises future judgment. In the first phrase Christ is portrayed as saviour of the world; in the next phrase he is seen as judge of the world.

The next phrase has to do with the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the connective use of the conjunction kai, and the nominative plural subject ofqalmoj, plus the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “and his eyes.” Again, because of the ellipsis we insert the verb to be. Next we have a comparative participle o(j. Then the comparison is completed with two words: the predicate nominative floc which means flame, and with it the descriptive genitive singular of the noun pur — “flame of fire.” This refers to judgment.

There are two categories of judgment we will note in this context. This is personal judgment in verse 14. When we get down to the bronze we are going to see another kind of judgment and that is national judgment which takes us back into our subject of historical trends. “And his eyes a flame of fire” is individual. It is not only true in the historical trend of people collectively but it is true individually: we are the products of our own decisions.

The first principle of the flame of fire: Jesus Christ will not ever tolerate arrogance. When it says “a flame of fire” it is speaking of the fact that our Lord personally is going to do a lot of judging. For example, John 5:22,23 --- “For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, in order that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.” So the Lord Jesus Christ has charge of all judgment. For the unbeliever salvation is always offered before judgment; for the believer, grace is offered before the judgment seat of Christ. The provision of logistical grace to the believer in time and the temporal security that goes with it — as well as eternal security — always precedes the evaluation of any believer at the judgment seat of Christ after our resurrection. Decision from human volition is always the issue in human history and in every phase of history called the angelic conflict. For the unbeliever the option is to face Christ as saviour in time or be judged in eternity. But the issue here is really for the believer. It is true that our Lord’s eyes are as a flame of fire for the last judgment — all unbelievers will be assembled and judged at the end of human history. For the believer the option is to recognise Jesus Christ as Lord in time or be evaluated at the Rapture with loss of any reward. Therefore this part of the vision emphasises the fact that human life was designed by God to make decisions that relate to the Lord Jesus Christ. Individually the greatest of all decisions is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive eternal salvation. After that the believer must make constant decisions. There is only one one-shot decision in history that gives salvation and eternal security. Thereafter every decision is a daily decision and all decisions require that you constantly evaluate your life, take a look in your own soul, and see what is your scale of values. To believe in Christ cancels any judgment in eternity but the issue then is not eternal security, that was settled at salvation; the issue is Bible doctrine, the Word of God. Jesus Christ is the living word; doctrine is the written Word. To put Christ first in your life you must give first place to Bible doctrine.

By application of this there is also the issue of temporal security for the believer: to make daily decisions to live inside the divine dynasphere; to learn Bible doctrine is to recognise Jesus as Lord; daily decisions regarding rebound — entering gate one, the filling of the Spirit; decisions with regard to perception of doctrine results in basic impersonal love; gate three, enforced and genuine humility. Without the first three gates your decision to learn doctrine are useless unless you have objectivity from impersonal love, enforced and genuine humility which becomes teachability for gate four which is the momentum gate, perception and application of doctrine; gate five, love of God. You cannot possibly love God unless you have Bible doctrine resident in your soul from the function of gate four, you have to make daily decisions without coercion.

Degeneracy has many forms and is always a functional evil. All degeneracy starts with arrogance. Arrogance is a part of gate 1, cosmic one, and preoccupation with self when carried out leads to psychosis, neurosis and many other things. It also results in the principle that we are the products of our own decisions and that an arrogant nation is a self-destructive nation. But you never begin by just suddenly breaking through all barriers and moving into degeneracy. Instead there is a thought pattern which comes first. It begins when there is rejection of all kinds of authority.

Degeneracy comes in many forms. It always takes the form of violence as well as the phallic cult type of operation. It all has to begin somewhere and it begins when a maximum number of people through their own decisions become involved in the cosmic system.

Where degeneracy began in relationship to arrogance in the USA was after the second world war on the college campus when they lowered standards and allowed people in who had no respect for academic authority. From this and what was taught there were certain things that people began to think. For example: There is no such thing as an absolute or eternal truth. To a person involved in academic arrogance the assumption that everything is relative and everything changes opens the door to rejection of authority and inevitable degeneracy. To hold convictions is to be narrow-minded; to stand on principle is to be bigoted; people demand that both sides and every side of a subject is taught without anything indicating right or wrong, good or bad. This opens the door of course for socialism and communism and for many of the attitudes that we have today. It opened the door for violence on the campus, strikes, and all of the other things that have nothing to do with an education. The involvement in mob violence and mob activity is typical of the beginning of degeneracy.

A second kind of thinking that leads to degeneracy is that material change is progress. This is the assumption that material change such as electronic computers, guided missiles, wonder drugs — which are beneficial overtly and provide many wonderful things for us — when leaned on and people say that scientific invention and improvement is beneficial, they have rejected in effect the laws of divine establishment and the system of authority set up in it and have accepted scientific phenomenon as a substitute and this leads to degeneracy.

A third attitude which is related to the mental attitude of cosmic one gate one — arrogance, vanity, jealousy, bitterness, etc. is the concept that physical survival is the highest goal. This is the assumption that mere physical survival is all that counts in life and some believe there is nothing worth dying for. The phrase that began after WW2 “Better to be red than dead” or “coexistence is no existence.” So we no longer hear stirring concepts related to honour and integrity in the individual soul.

Another concept which has developed is that friendship can be purchased by money. This led to the whole change in US foreign policy which has now placed it in a very compromising position. Americans abroad are now subjected to all kinds of violence.

Another attitude that was developed in the early sixties is that people are born equal. This is not true. The Bible teaches that people are born free, not equal. Man is born with a free will as the major function of his soul and as he matures he is free to exercise his own volition apart from coercion. He is free to express his opinion without jeopardising his safety, and to determine his course of life in time as well as in eternity. A slave is a person whose will is in the possession of another. The more decisions the Federal Government has made for Americans over the past three decades the closer they have been to slavery. From this delusion of course is the concept that discernment and discrimination is evil. Nothing could be further from the truth. The delusion contends that to be selective about friends and associates is undemocratic and to attempt to make everyone equal actually destroys freedom, individuality, and personality. The only true basis of equality in mankind is the area of regeneration.

Another factor that is leading to degeneracy is the idea that the majority determines what is right. This delusion that the majority is right when in reality majority rule is simply a technique for making decisions. In many cases majority rule is rule by force rather than by law. That is degeneracy. You cannot solve the problems of life by means of violence. When people get away from their common law they are in trouble. Right is determined by Bible doctrine, not by what the majority thinks about anything.

One of the great tragedies that has led to the degeneracy of the moment is the fact that most people believe that crime can be removed by gun legislation. There are always those who feel that private citizens have no business with weapons and these herd leader types feel that people should submit meekly to violence if the duly constituted public defender is not on hand to protect them. Their arguments run like this:

3. The prevalence of guns, especially hand guns, constitutes a hazard to police work.

This reasoning approximates the concept that because a certain number of children are born idiots the entire population of this country should be confined to playpens and fed with spoons. Obviously guns are dangerous, they were intended to be so, they would be useless if they were not dangerous. So are cars, so are blondes, so are oil stoves, so are electric fans and so is surgery. They way to meet danger is with knowledge of course.

Other concepts that have led to our present status quo: War fare can be outlawed by disarmament; internationalism can solve man’s problems [internationalism complicates man’s problems]; environment is the solution to man’s problems.

Temporal security relates to logistical grace. All logistical grace comes from the integrity or holiness of God, composed of His justice and perfect righteousness. His righteousness was imputed to us at salvation and we now have a grace pipeline with the justice of God at one end and the righteousness of God at the other. Down this pipeline comes logistical grace, the reason we are alive, the reason we have food, shelter, clothing and certain limited blessings which are related to logistical grace. This is also the basis for all the security we need in time. Reason: because of the prosperity test.

We are facing the prosperity test and we are flunking it. Reason: There are always two issues in the prosperity test, freedom under the laws of divine establishment and security. Security becomes an issue not for those who have not but for those who have under the concept of prosperity. We are trading our freedom for that mess of pottage called human security. Now the security is actually in the freedom. Freedom is the source of the prosperity and it is the source of our security under category one truth, the laws of divine establishment, and category three truth, the laws of Bible doctrine.

But when people become security minded there are two things that happen. Those who have succeeded and prospered under the dominance of the industrial complex obviously and normally want to retain what they have. Those who have not become envious, setting up motivating evil under gate one, cosmic one. They become jealous and therefore they accept some system of redistribution of wealth, some system of the welfare state. And between the two groups they start emphasising security to the destruction of human freedom. One group, those who have, set up one system. Those who have not set up another system. One system says “We will retain what we have and you’re not going to take it away from us, we have a right to it” — which is true. But the other group say “We are going to take it away from you even if it means revolution.” Therefore, freedom gets lost. And this is the trend where we find ourselves today and we are losing out in the prosperity test. Everyone has the right to fail or succeed and everyone should therefore take the consequences of his own decision.

When you start to make decisions on the basis of security you provide you have entered gate one of cosmic one, arrogance, because man is not capable of providing security. Security must come from the One who controls history and all of our security is related to our residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, not inside the cosmic system. Therefore you have pseudo security set up in the cosmic system.

For the believer all security is provided by residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. For the client nation to God, freedom through military victory. The principle and the historical trend: Good decisions open the doors and options for greater decisions. Bad decisions close the doors and destroy the options. To use one’s volition as a believer to reject and repudiate the provisions of logistical grace and the mandates to reside and function in the divine dynasphere means to accept a substitute and all systems of pseudo security are related to residence and function inside the cosmic system.

Verse 14b is not a lake of fire sentence, “His eyes were like a flame of fire,” but this sentence refers to the believer who fails in this life with regard to the cosmic system. So verse 14 becomes very important as a challenge to human volition in the angelic conflict. The issue here is a believer seeing the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His glory and that glory includes the power to judge any one of us at any time under any circumstance, and to make life such a horrible, miserable thing that we can’t stand up under the pressure. Only inside the divine dynasphere can we handle the pressure.

Because Jesus Christ is God and has perfect integrity and holiness He also judges the believer in time who fails to utilise the grace provision of logistical support. The cosmic believer then spends his life being judged, being disciplined, and being used by God for people testing.

Divine justice has options. To bless the believer in the divine dynasphere. To bless him individually and to bless the nation in which he lives with an historical uptrend. Or to punish the believer living in the cosmic system and to punish the client nation in which he finds himself with historical downtrend. Our Lord with His white hair portrays the privileges of grace while our Lord with His eyes like a flame of fire emphasises the option to grace, divine justice in time.

Verse 15, the ministry of our Lord in historical judgment — kai plus pouj; feet, o(moioj, were like, xalkolibanoj, bronze. Bronze in the ancient world was an alloy of copper and tin and associated with historical judgment. For example in Lamentations 3:6-8 it was used to illustrate the 5th cycle of discipline.

Bronze is associated with divine judgment on the believer who lives in the cosmic system, 11 Kings 25:7. It is used for historical disaster in the national economy as a part of divine discipline of a client nation to God, Deut. 28:23-25. Here in Revelation 1:15, we have “And his feet were like bronze,” a reference to the historical judgment of nations of the earth from the principle that Jesus Christ controls history.

“as” — o(j introduces a second analogy. It indicates the manner in which something appears or proceeds, or it refers to its quality. Then we have a perfect passive participle, “when it has been refined.” Puorow, refined “in a furnace” has to do with historical trends that result in the destruction of a nation, e)n plus the locate of kaminoj. The furnace is the area which introduces the principle we have been studying, a nation does not go down because of some tragedy. We are collectively the products of our own decisions even as we are individually. Whenever a nation goes down it goes down from the accumulated erroneous decisions.

1. The furnace of divine judgment is constantly judging nations like the heat of the furnace refines the bronze, removing the impurities. Many nations, especially client nations to God, must

undergo testing so that portion of the population which is negative will not infect and destroy that part of the population which is positive. So many many times disaster will come to a nation because God intends to continue using that nation as a client nation to God. But that nation cannot function in its client nation status if for some reason the negative and degenerate part of the population continues unchecked.

Principle: If degeneracy is unrestrained it will eventually influence those who are moral, who are good, and who are not degenerate. Therefore degeneracy is periodically destroyed in history. This explains the fall of certain nations that are not client nations to God and the eventual destruction of certain power mad groups who use violence to control, to gain authority and to enslave people.

2. National disaster is designed to remove the impurities of a population where the nation is going to be perpetuated as a client nation. No nation can survive without national disaster which removes its scum and gives opportunity for it to be perpetuated in history. It is the disaster that doesn’t remove the scum that means the end of the line for that nation.

The second analogy to historical judgment has to do with the voice of our Lord. The nominative singular subject fwnh, voice; “many,” poluj plus u(dor, many waters. Just as with bronze this has the connotation of judgment. For example in Ezekiel 1:24 it is used for the administration of divine judgment through military defeat.

1. Historical judgment means historical disaster. Historical disaster is portrayed by two analogies: bronze in the refining process, and the noise of a successful army pursuing and destroying.

2. Bronze refers to economic disaster while the voice of many waters refers to military disaster.

3. Our Lord used His voice in BC 700 to destroy 185,000 Assyrian infantry and deliver Jerusalem and the client nation.

4. Our Lord will use His voice again at the second advent to deliver Jerusalem again from invading armies of the Armageddon campaign.

So the whole connotation here has to do with deliverance as well as judgment. The two are mingled together. But note that the deliverance is not necessarily from the disaster but deliverance in the midst of the disaster. Cf. Job 5:19-27.

Verse 19, “deliver” is natsal, hiphil stem, the causative stem. It means to rescue; “touch,” nagad, to meddle. In both of these verbs you have deliverance being in disaster, not from the disaster itself. This is a promise to believers who are faithful to doctrine. We have four representative historical disasters given. The first is economic depression which in the ancient world was simply called famine.

Verse 20, “redeem”, the qal perfect of padah. It means the famine is there, people are going to starve to death all around you but although you may be hungry once or twice you are going to live through the famine.

The first historical trend: Verse 15, “bronze” refers to economic judgment. The economic judgment is used to indicate the principle, the historical trend, that we are the products of our own decisions.

“Sound of many waters” is military judgment. The military judgment always comes from an outside power to indicate that while we are responsible and we by our own decisions bring ourselves to a point of economic disaster, God also judges us by military disaster. Verse 15 combines these two systems in one verse.

Economic disaster precedes military disaster and economic disaster and degeneracy always brings on the same thing. You have economic disaster plus degeneracy and when you add the two together it leads to violence and the abandonment of law, which means the abandonment of category one truth, the laws of divine establishment.

We are coming to the period when we are going to have to go through disaster. It happens every once in awhile. It will be believers who survive but no one survives apart from functioning under God’s plan — residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. No one survives in the cosmic system. Believers in the cosmic system are going to lose out and die like flies.

Since the Church Age is a dead spot in which there is no prophecy, only historical trends, it is the believer’s cognisance of doctrine which is his understanding of what’s happening. History, we must understand, is a record of man’s thoughts, motives, decisions and actions. Even though history is such a record it is still Jesus Christ who controls history.

There seems to be a contradiction in this. If we are the products of our own volition, and if history is the record of man bringing about his own disasters, then how can Jesus Christ control? There seems to be a contradiction between the sovereignty of Jesus Christ as God who controls history and the function of man’s volition. The answer in resolving the problem is the doctrine of divine decrees in which the omniscience of Jesus Christ as God knew everything that would be history and everything that would not. Everything that would be history was entered into the computer of divine decrees. The alternatives were not entered, only the realities. The printout is history. So Jesus Christ controls history because in eternity past before man was even created He knew every thought, every decision, every freewill action, of every person who ever lived. He also knew the alternatives and He also knew from divine knowledge what would have happened had we made a different decision. So we start historical trends with a fact: Jesus Christ controls history and that He has set up a system of divine laws which say that when man makes a decision “A” then certain things happen. When man makes decision “X” then something else happens, and when every decision of man individually and collectively goes into this computer and certain natural results occur. Then that decision is broken down into whether that decision was made by a believer or unbeliever in every case all the way through, etc.

The principle that Jesus Christ controls history means that nothing is ever out of control. And the principle that Jesus Christ controls history is what we learned from Job 5:19-27 where God protects the believer in economic depression, in military disaster. Therefore Jesus Christ controls history in a very special way for us as believers because as long as we are fulfilling His plan and as long as it is in His plan and His will for us to live we will continue on this earth no matter how terrible things may become. We have to remember that Jesus Christ is still in charge.

The first historical trend: Even though history is the record of man’s decisions and actions, thoughts, motivation, it is Jesus Christ who controls history.

There are two sources of judgment in history: the sovereign decisions of Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions — or the decisions that violate truth — of mankind.

The second historical trend: The trends of history are determined in the Church Age by whether the believer chooses to live in the divine dynasphere or in the cosmic system. Those who are involved in residence and function in the divine dynasphere are going to have an absolute unique experience in eternity, something that most believers will never have. There are believers who are winners and believers who are losers. Believers who are losers are the believers involved in the cosmic system. Those who live in the divine dynasphere are going to have a special reward in eternity. It is all based upon the decisions made with regard to Bible doctrine.

When Adam and Eve were in the garden they both had access to the tree of life. The it was shut down when they fell. In heaven only a few people are going to have access to the tree of life which is the greatest perpetuation of immortal happiness, eternal happiness, that can ever exist. And it is only for a few.

The third historical trend is obviously the result of the first two plus another coming up: There are no tragedies in history. There are disasters in history but no tragedies. There has never been a disaster in history where the people involved did not make wrong decisions. So there are historical disasters but these disasters are not tragedies since individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions, not their environment. Tragedies belong to drama.

The sign that a nation is destroying itself is the collapse of the economy and the collapse of the fundamental laws of morality under the laws of divine establishment in a society. And morality doesn’t start with sex, it starts with integrity, or lack of it. Decision creates environment, not environment decision. Volition creates environment. Good decisions open options for greater decisions, bad decisions destroy options and close doors.

The fourth trend: People individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions. The decadent status of our society has been brought on by our own decisions. Everything that has happened has now come about by our individual and collective decisions. Individuals form groups, they make decisions as individuals, they make decisions as groups, and that is where we are today.

The fifth trend: The demand for power exceeds the need for power. Therefore divinely authorised authority is ignored, brushed aside, repudiated, eventually trampled.

1. The need for power is determined by the laws of divine establishment. In other words the laws of establishment always define the authority you need — parents, police, etc. But there is always some power-mad person or group who want to control everything and they cut through the laws of divine establishment.

2. The demand for power is determined by arrogance — lust, envy, greed, motivational and functional evil in the cosmic system. In other words, the demand for power exceeds the need for power — the need for power is the legitimate authority delegated by God through the laws of divine establishment, the demand for power is based upon the motivational evil — Gate 1, Cosmic 1, arrogance, lust, envy, greed, etc.

3. Legitimate power always functions in the context of legitimate authority delegated by God through the laws of divine establishment and defined in every facet of life, spiritual, social, economic, professional and national.

4. Evil and its destructive power exists to the extent that cosmic arrogance exceeds the restraints of legitimate authority and power. (Cosmic arrogance always wants to solve a problem through the use of violence.)

5. This principle is true whether in a football game where the referee loses control of the game, or a national entity where the government fails to protect freedom, privacy, property and life, or in a home where the parents have no control over the children.

6. Since we are the productions of our own volition and self-determination rather than our environment the motivating and functional evil of the cosmic system can only be restrained through enforced and genuine humility.

7. Historical trends are therefore related to the conflict between objective reality and life in the divine dynasphere versus subjectivity in life inside the cosmic system.

8. Believers are not only the products of their own decisions but the nation in which they reside is affected by their good or bad decisions. Believers deciding to live their lives in the cosmic system destroy their nation.

9. Good decisions related to living inside the divine dynasphere are reflected in national prosperity while bad decisions to live in the cosmic system of Satan are reflected by national disaster.

The sixth trend: Arrogant people and arrogant nations never see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of others.

The seventh trend: Jealous people and envious nations never see their own sins and their production of evil, only the sins and evil of others.

The eighth trend: arrogant individuals, groups or nations never see the disastrous consequences or evil results of their own cosmic involvement or evil modus operandi. Preoccupation with self to the exclusion of objective reality is the blindest problem in history.

Often progress leaves truth behind. Any form of progress that rejects truth automatically parlays itself into disaster. Today we are the victims of false information but we do not have to accept this false information, and we are protected from all forms of false information today by Bible doctrine. The greatest protector against any false reporting in the news or the media is the book of Revelation.

1. Innovation without truth is retrogressive; innovation without a system is destructive. All good innovation is either based on truth or on a system. All destructive innovation is based upon the absence of truth or the absence of a system. In other words innovation must not precede truth or a system. Truth has to do with Bible doctrine and innovation based on truth becomes true progress. Innovation based on a lie is false progress. The same is true with regard to progress based on absence of a system.

2 Innovation without a system runs the gamut from modern art, religious cults, rock and hard music, weirdo poetry, socialism, communism, the welfare state, redistribution of wealth.

3. Religious cults are innovation without Bible doctrine, innovation without truth.

4. Rock and hard music ignores basic systems in harmony, melody, and so on, and therefore the innovations are strident discord.

5. The innovation of Kenesian economics ignores the most basic truths of human value, supply and demand and free enterprise.

6. Innovation which ignores basic strategy and tactics in the military means military disaster.

7. Innovation is often related to progress. But innovation is never progress unless it is related to something, a system that has proved itself or to truth. This is the principle under which we study Bible doctrine: learn the basics of doctrine before you innovate and make multiple applications. Innovation without truth is application of doctrine without cognisance of doctrine. Innovation without a system is application without truth, the absence of wisdom, the instability and eventual disaster from the downtrends of history.

This therefore becomes one of our most important concepts in modern life because we have assumed that so many innovations are progress when many of them have become detrimental. The basic issue is: Is there a system behind it? Innovation imposed on others without their consent is the great evil of the time in which we live. In the name of crusades, in the name of the better good for the greater number, in the name of many so-called crusading epigrams, innovations are imposed on others without their consent and therefore these innovations destroy freedom.

1. When people emphasise peace and security they lose freedom and truth and its by-product of prosperity and self-determination.

The laws of divine establishment emphasise human freedom as the heritage from God, the major issue in the angelic conflict. The laws of divine establishment are designed to protect human freedom and human self-determination, and to give people the right as well as the freedom to make decisions leading to their success or to make decisions leading to their failure. People have a right to fail or succeed from their own volition, their own decisions, their own ability or lack of ability, the overestimation of their ability or their lack of ability.

2. In this historical era of nuclear phobia and the bomb syndrome man has come to emphasise peace as the panacea of life and to compromise with it the true concept of freedom.

3. Yet freedom, not peace, remains the most precious commodity of mankind in the function of self-determination. It is a part of human heritage related to the truth of God. John 8:32.

4. Freedom and truth cannot be divorced except my man’s use of freedom to reject truth in its three categories — the laws of divine establishment, the Gospel, Bible doctrine. When man uses his freedom to reject truth he finds himself deluded by the false prophet, the false politician.

Historical trend number eleven: History is often the story of how the weak control the strong

1. Weak, insecure, irresponsible, thoughtless arrogant people of control policy, procedure, and people in the following areas: social life, love life, business life, professional life, culture, government, and even in some churches as well.

2. Through arrogance, self-centredness, and preoccupation with self, the weak in society come to dominate the strong.

3. The illustration: This is why a nagging wife who makes scenes in public can dominate a thoughtful, courteous, humble husband or visa versa.

4. This is why scum are possessive of and often control nice people. That is in both personal friendship as well as in the problems of class association in a national entity.

5. This is why irrational, self-righteous crusaders often dominate in politics and government administration.

6. And this is how a power-mad, irresponsible press, without integrity or a sense of responsibility can dominate and even destroy great leaders.

7. Inside the divine dynasphere the battle is the Lord’s and you win. Inside the cosmic system the battle is yours and you lose.

The twelfth historical trend: Therefore human history is the narrative of man’s weaknesses, not his strength.

2. This is a part of the great conflict in each human soul between arrogance and humility. This conflict is the basis for weakness and wrong decisions. For example, if you think you are strong and you are really weak and become entangled in a system stronger than you are, the cosmic system, then you have chosen to be weak and to contribute to the concept of weakness in history. Under humility, if you know that you are weak and become strong by choosing the divine dynasphere then you as a believer have opted for the strength and stability of history, and the perpetuation of history to its final conclusion in the Millennium.

3. Once Adam ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil history became a matter of human self-determination — the use of human volition to exercise the options of the soul. Until man ate of that tree he operated under three categories of trees in the garden — the trees that were a blessing to his soul (He had perfect happiness of soul), the trees which were good for food, a blessing for the body and related happiness, prosperity and blessing to a correlation between body and soul, and the tree of life which meant at that time immortality with perfect happiness.

4. The historical trends of the Church Age include options compatible with the divine plan which is the residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, or options which are subservient to the ruler of this world through residence and function in the cosmic system. Every believer must decide in principle which way he is going to go because as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God.

While man is free he is also weak. Bad decisions are made in side the cosmic system and they destroy future options so that the believer through the exercise of his own free will loses future options and through that same self-determination becomes the slave of Satan who is the ruler of this world and controls everyone outside of the divine dynasphere.

2. Those who seek solutions by improving their environment inevitably create problems which destroy their environment.

3. Through living inside the divine dynasphere circumstances become the servant rather than the master when we become slaves to our circumstances.

4. Good decisions turn problems into solutions without creating or intensifying those problems from the solutions.

5. The power of Bible doctrine to change men’s lives is the expression of non-meritorious human volition in the function of freedom. The power of the cosmic system on the other hand to change lives is the meritorious and arrogant expression of human volition inside the cosmic system which is the environment of tyranny and slavery.

6. Inside the divine dynasphere men’s lives are changed by doctrine. Inside the cosmic system men’s lives are changed by arrogance and evil.

7. Man can only enter the divine dynasphere through grace. The non-meritorious expressions then of human volition are the issue, and to learn these non-meritorious expressions you have to start with basic doctrine such as the Rebound technique.

8. So in the historical phase of the angelic conflict man must be free to succeed. Man must also be free to fail. True freedom is the source of true success. It is also the source of true failure. Freedom, of course, carries the responsibility of making decisions on the basis of integrity, not on the basis of motivating and functional evil. Man must be so inculcated with Bible doctrine that he will take the responsibility for his own decisions in life plus their consequences. Therefore we start by recognising our own weaknesses and recognition is neither degrading or demeaning, provided the recognition comes from perception of doctrine and not some emotional folderol. All solutions in life begin with recognition of the fact that man is fundamentally weak which begins the search for the right power, a system greater than our weaknesses. And we have the ability to enter into this because of free will. Free will gives us the ability to choose for the divine dynasphere rather than the cosmic system. Man’s decisions leading to failure brings him to his knees, to the end of his own resources, and this is where truth becomes meaningful.

1. Weakness in the unbeliever makes evangelism meaningful, while weakness in the believer makes Bible doctrine meaningful.

2. If man is not free to fail he cannot orient to his need of Christ and if the believer is not free to fail he cannot orient to his need of Bible doctrine.

3. By taking the responsibility for his own failures and bad decisions the believer learns his inherent and acquired weaknesses, and therefore he seeks for the power system greater than his weaknesses, greater than himself. The key is learning Bible doctrine, it is greater than we are.

4. The desire to express positive volition in solution is often the way man comes to believe in Christ, or the way a believer becomes consistently positive toward Bible doctrine.

5. Therefore, a demonstration of your weaknesses, your total helplessness, through personal or historical disaster, becomes the basis, the motivation, the means of expressing positive volition toward God’s perfect plan and God’s perfect system.

6. There is a small price we pay for our freedom. We must tolerate all stages of spiritual growth around us. We must tolerate all categories of bad taste and poor manners in others. And we are motivated to do so by going back to virtue.

1. Weakness in the unbeliever makes evangelism meaningful, while weakness in the believer makes Bible doctrine meaningful.

2. If man is not free to fail he cannot orient to his need of Christ and if the believer is not free to fail he cannot orient to his need of Bible doctrine.

4. The desire to express positive volition in solution is often the way man comes to believe in Christ, or the way a believer becomes consistently positive toward Bible doctrine.

Historical trend number thirteen: No nation has ever survived its prosperity after the consolidation of its three components.

In the Dark Ages there was only one component that functioned — landed aristocracy. Because of the function of that one component the major issue of history at that time was not manifest destiny but military ability to establish a sphere of influence and protect that sphere of influence. But with the Renaissance, the Reformation, and eventually the industrial revolution, we come back to the principle of manifest destiny which has three components — landed aristocracy, industrial complex, the undeveloped frontier.

1. Three prosperity components in manifest destiny: landed aristocracy, industrial complex, undeveloped frontier.

2. Once these three are consolidated the prosperity which results (They always consolidate under the leadership of industrial complex) cannot be perpetuated apart from a maximum number of believers living inside the divine dynasphere.

As goes the industrial complex (that means the economy) so goes the prosperity. And when the economy goes down it simply reflects degeneracy and therefore a military organisation from an evil nation comes along and destroys it.

What contributes to the collapse of an economy? Basically arrogance. The greater the freedom the fewer the people who are going to be extremely wealthy. You always have your extremely wealthy people and generally they became wealthy through courage, wisdom, and through having the ability and the integrity. Eventually there is always great jealousy.

This is the way it looks. The first generation works, the next generation plays, the third generation simply falls apart with the total pursuit of pleasure. Often they fall apart in the third generation through the guilt syndrome because by this time the fourth estate and others have made everyone jealous of the wealthy, envious: “Why should you have all of that money and we have none?” That means that the third generation becomes liberal out of sheer guilt reaction.

Degeneracy is anything that breaks down the authority of establishment. Degeneracy occurs as patriotism goes down. It is the redistribution of wealth; it is when a cop is a “pig”; it is when there is no appreciation of the principle of freedom through military victory; it is the destruction of privacy; it is the failure to pass the prosperity test.

3. People become so wrapped in a life of prosperity that they neglect doctrine; they ignore life inside the divine dynasphere and they transfer it permanently to the cosmic system.

4. In the cosmic system there exists the superficialities of prosperity without the capacity for it. Capacity is the foundation, it is the system. If you do not have the capacity it is innovation without the system.

5. The cosmic system offers pseudo prosperity in promotion, success, status, pleasure, approbation, social life, sexual life, without either capacity or perspective top pass the prosperity test.

6. Capacity from perception of doctrine at gate 4 of the divine dynasphere and perspective from application of doctrine at gate 4 is the issue.

7. Therefore the prosperity test is the most subtle and difficult for both the individual believer and the nation where he lives. Subtle because it requires as much, if not more, doctrine for both capacity and perpetuation of that prosperity, and difficult because the original source of that prosperity, Bible doctrine learned in the divine dynasphere, is forgotten.

Principle: Frustrated people are suckers for any power system that promises them betterment. The trouble is that power systems can’t do anything for them.

[Don’t ever feel sorry for the Indians. It’s only when we fail to pass the prosperity test that the people who were once conquered in this country are suddenly promoted way up above us. The Indians only have rights as they would become citizens of this country and that’s true of anyone. Once we flunk the prosperity test, instead of functioning under the principles of our Constitution and using freedom to fail or succeed, we start giving millions of dollars to this group and that group under operation guilty conscience.]

“And his feet were like bronze when it is being refined in a furnace.” “Bronze” means national discipline through the economy because the economy reflects the individual decisions of the people in a nation. The only way to get out of this problem is to follow the laws of divine establishment to its proper solution and re-establish economically. Or that can be rejected and instead the evil solution can be taken which is redistribution of wealth, the welfare state, socialism and communism.

Verse 16, “right,” decioj , hand, xeir. “And having in his right hand seven stars” — stars, a)star. Verse 20 interprets these stars. They are the future pastors of the seven churches. For the moment John is the pastor. Why is a star used for a pastor? It is simply because a star at the time of writing gave light. Stars send light to the earth; pastors who teach doctrine give light to their congregations. The right hand of our Lord is the hand of approval. God approves pastors who teach doctrine. Our Lord Jesus Christ approves the principle of pastors teaching doctrine to the royal family of God since He Himself has delegated the pastors to communicate His thinking. The stars in the right hand indicate the delegation of divine authority to pastors.

The provision of a right pastor is one of the more important aspects of logistical grace since doctrinal teaching from the minister is the only way of spiritual growth and momentum in the Christian life. The need for the pastor is based on the fact that the believer cannot learn doctrine on his own. Perception of doctrine must comply with the principles of academic life and discipline, objectivity and humility, teachability and, above all, Gate 1 of the divine dynasphere, the filling of God the Holy Spirit. In other words the first three gates of the divine dynasphere sustain perception of Bible doctrine.

This verse sixteen is a verse of grace before Judgment. There are two places where the principle of grace before Judgment is pertinent. Grace always precedes Judgment as an historical trend, first to the individual believer. God never puts discipline on us without a grace period. During that grace period we are making good or bad decisions so that we are the products of our own decisions. Before divine discipline comes to us we are still under the function of our volition and we have warning — grace warning. This is also a principle of national modus operandi in which before God uses the five cycles of discipline against a nation, before each cycle is used, there is a grace period before judgment.

So we have grace before judgment, blessing and the alternative, cursing, related to the individual volition of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessing is related to the communication of Bible doctrine from pastors called in this vision “the seven stars.”

The alternative to the perception of doctrine is divine discipline which is portrayed in the next phrase: “and,” kai plus the nominative singular subject of the noun r(omfaia refers to a broadsword. In Revelation 6:8 the rider of the fourth horse known as “death” killed one fourth of the population of the earth during the Tribulation, and he did it with the sword of starvation, disease and wild animals.

The Word of God is said to be a sword, maxaira. And for those reject the maxaira of the Word, they have the r(omfaia of divine Judgment. So there is a choice of swords. Your grace period is always related to the fact that you are given doctrine before judgment. Whatever you are going to be judged for you have the chance to hear the causes and the reasons, the whys and the wherefores. You have a fair trial before you are judged by God, that is the principle. All divine judgment is preceded by a fair trial. The fair trial is the dissemination of Bible doctrine. You may or may not accept that doctrine and therefore you may be screaming one of these days: “Why did God let this happen to me?” This simply means that you ignored the grace period.

Then there is the r(omfaia, divine judgment. It is interesting that the maxaira is a very short sword with great flexibility, moving in all directions with a point. The r(omfaia is a very broad sword and obviously a hacking instrument. So one represents the grace of God through Bible teaching, the other represents the punishment of God through divine discipline.

The broadsword always represents military disaster. We will see this in Revelation 2:12 where r(omfaia is used for divine discipline in the form of death from violence, crime, terrorism, revolution, and military action. This is confirmed as divine discipline in Revelation 2:16 — “repent therefore or else I will come quickly and I will make war against them [believers in the cosmic system] with the sword [r(omfaia] of my mouth”.

“two-edged,” distomoj (tomoj, sharp, di, double). Then we have another word for “sharp,” o)cuj, which altogether means a double-edged broadsword, terrible military discipline, discipline by violence, by terrorism, by military action.

This comes from God. The present middle participle from e)k poreuomai, to go out, to come out. Divine discipline on believers in the form of human violence. But this divine discipline never comes without a grace period for changing your mind. It never comes without first of all having the opportunity to set it aside and it only comes to believers who prolong their stay in the cosmic system. The broadsword is for the believer in the cosmic system. The maxaira is for the believer in the divine dynasphere.

These believers have to be judged, they have to be taken out eventually under the sin unto death. For if the Lord is going to continue to use the client nation to God He must purge those who are negative and their influence on the Christian community.

Principle: Good decisions provide options for greater decisions and divine blessing, while bad decisions destroy the options and result in divine discipline.

The believer then has a choice: doctrine taught by a pastor or divine discipline from God in the form of becoming a victim of violence, crime, terrorism, revolution, warfare. The believer’s decision regarding doctrinal teaching determines the historical trends of his country.

The hope of the individual for salvation and the hope of the world for historical deliverance are both combined in the last part of verse 16, “face,” o)psij, outward or overt appearance. The analogy is found in two words, w(j, like, and h(lioj sun: “his outward appearance was like the sun.” The external appearance of our resurrected Christ in His glorified body. The appearance of our Lord’s resurrection body is analogous to the sun, but is the Lord shining in the power of the prototype divine dynasphere which John actually saw. The glory of our Lord’s humanity resides in His impeccability, His perfect integrity related to His residence and function in the prototype divine dynasphere. And this is a resurrection appearance of our Lord to the apostle John on the Island of Patmos.

The angel who came to roll away the stone, Matt. 28:2-4, rolled away the stone of an empty tomb. The stone was not moved to let our Lord out because He could walk through solid material in His resurrection body. The stone was rolled away to let the world in. People came to verify the fact of His resurrection.

The first appearance of the resurrected Christ was to Mary Magdalene, Mark 19:9-11; John 20:11-17.

The third appearance was to Peter. He appeared on Sunday afternoon, according to Luke 24:34 and 1 Corinthians 15:5.

The fourth appearance was to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Matthew 16:12,13; Luke 24:13-35.

The fifth appearance was to the ten disciples (Thomas was not there, or Judas Iscariot), Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-23; Mark 16:14.

The seventh appearance was to the seven disciples by the Sea of Galilee, John 21:1-23.

These seven appearances might be classified as personal resurrection appearances to friends and associates.

The eighth appearance was historical and was documentation for the benefit of five hundred believers, 1 Corinthians 15:6.

The ninth appearance was for the benefit of the positive believers in our Lord’s family, James, 1 Corinthians 15:7, not a believer before the resurrection, Acts 1:14; Galatians 1:19.

The tenth appearance was again to the eleven disciples on the Mountain in Galilee, Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-18.

The eleventh appearance had great historical and doctrinal significance. It was the resurrection appearance at the ascension, Luke 24:44-53; Acts 1:3-9.

The rest of the resurrection appearances were post-ascension where our Lord would leave the right hand of the Father and make an appearance under special conditions. All of these appearances ceased after the completion of the book of Revelation.

The twelfth appearance was to the first and most famous of the martyrs, Stephen, in Acts 7:55,56.

The thirteenth appearance had great significance — the appearance to Paul on the road to Damascus, the basis for his conversion, Acts 9:3-6; 22:6-11; 26:13-18.

The fourteenth appearance was to Paul in Arabia to encourage him, Acts 20:34; 26:17; Galatians 1:12,17.

The fifteenth appearance was to Paul in the Temple, Acts 9:26-30; 22:17-21; Galatians 1:18.

The seventeenth and final one was the appearance to John on the Island of Patmos, Revelation 1:12-20.

“shineth,” fainw means to shine. The static present tense is for a condition which will always and eternally exist in the resurrection body of our Lord Jesus Christ. It isn’t the sun shining, it is our Lord’s shining in His resurrection body.

“in his strength,” e)n plus the locative of dunamij. Lit. in his power. It refers here to the prototype divine dynasphere.

This seventeenth resurrection appearance continues throughout the book of Revelation. It is an awesome thought that historical trends hang on the fine thread of the believer’s volition and the exercise of his options with regard to the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system.

Verse 17, What John has recorded was so fantastic to him and the emotion was so great that he fainted. He didn’t faint from shock because, remember, John has already seen our resurrected Lord on four occasions. Instead it was the emotional impact of seeing all of these things and putting them together. It was relating what he knew with his emotions and it was too much for him.

We begin with “saw,” o(raw, when I had seen. It was all taken in first, “him,” a)utoj. The seventeenth and last appearance of the resurrected Christ. (The eighteenth resurrection appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ will be the second advent). Then we have the word “fell,” piptw, to fall, “at his feet.”

John was a mature believer but even the greatest of believers living at gate eight of the divine dynasphere simply have to have a special fuse. The understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ, the appreciation of Him, perception as to who and what He is. It is really too much and so fainting is really an emotional fuse.

“And,” kai. This is an expletive use of kai. Translated “And so” or “Then.” Believers must be in a rational state of concentration under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in order to learn doctrine and to appreciate our Lord Jesus Christ. Next is “laid,” tiqemi. The constative aorist refers to a momentary action which was part of the necessary assurance which was to bring John back into a state of concentration — “right hand”, decioj refers to the right hand although decioj is “right”

Now comes the great issue. He speaks. He begins a formal communication of world history. “Fear not” is mh fobou, Stop being afraid. John’s awe has become a distraction to learning. To take in what the Lord was going to say John had to concentrate on content.

Principle: If you have fear in your soul you might have a lot of doctrine but you can’t apply it. Fear is the inability to think under pressure.

In this case of John we are not really talking about fear but about awe, his respect, his total love. The point is that it must not hinder John being clear-headed to get the message.

This verse is going to terminate with the concept of motivating virtue and its relationship to perception for our Lord is going to say, “Fear not,” not in the sense of being frightened but in the sense of awe.

The whole history of the world is based upon two major prophecies, both pertaining to the Lord Jesus Christ. The first advent of Christ beginning with the virgin birth, our Lord’s humanity residing inside the divine dynasphere, His impeccability, His work on the cross, His resurrection, ascension and session — all of this is the first of two major systems of prophecy. The second great period of prophecy is the second advent of Christ, His return to the earth in order to function under His third royal patent.

In the meantime the Age of Israel was brought to a halt in order that we might have the Church Age, the dispensation for calling out a royal family of God. This is the dispensation of historical trends. There is no prophecy to be fulfilled in the Church Age. The next prophecy will be the rapture or the resurrection of the Church, and that will terminate the Church Age and move the royal family of God to heaven in preparation for the second advent of Christ, our Lord’s personal rule on earth for one thousand years of perfect environment. Revelation chapters two and three give us the historical trends.

Verse 17, ”I am the first and the last,” e)gw e)imi (o prwtoj kai esxatoj. Jesus Christ as eternal God pre-existed history as the first; Jesus Christ will conclude human history as the God-Man. The first and the last emphasises the uniqueness of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ as God is the author of history. He is the first as eternal God; He is the last in hypostatic union as the God-Man.

Verse 18, The glorified Christ identifies Himself for everyone. There is no “Amen” in the original in this verse.

“that liveth,” zaw, to be alive. Lit. “and the living one”; “and was dead,” kai ginomai, to become. Lit. “and I became dead,” nekroj.

“and [now], behold [concentrate, see] I am alive,” a reference to the resurrection of Christ. His deity was not subject to death. And because our Lord is now seated at the right hand of the Father, and because He will be in that status for ever and ever, we have the preposition e)ij plus the accusative plural of the noun a)iwn followed by the genitive plural of a)iwn which becomes “forever.” And it means that what happened after the resurrection and the beginning of the Church Age now brings the believer into an entirely different perspective as far as God’s plan is concerned. The moment anyone in the Church Age believes in Christ he becomes a member of the royal family of God.

The authority and power of the resurrected Christ is then given in the closing phrase of this verse, “and”, kai, “furthermore,” “have,” e)xw. Lit. “and furthermore I have.” Our Lord has something very important: “keys,” kleij.

A key goes with the volition of every individual. The issue here is volition. The Lord says: “I have the keys.” Each one of us has related to our volition a key. The key has to do with the angelic conflict. We were created with freewill to make decisions for or against God. The angelic conflict is resolved by the fact that the human soul possesses freewill, the only thing it had in common with the angelic creation. Therefore the keys are plural because a key goes to each volition. Your use of positive volition unlocks many doors which glorify God and give you great blessing and happiness in life. Positive volition experientially is related to your residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. Negative volition is related to your residence and function in the cosmic system. Your attitude to doctrine is the determining factor as far as everything is concerned.

“of hell and death,” a(dhj and qanatoj. Hades is merely where people go after they die if they are unbelievers. What is the key to Hades? It means that if you reject Jesus Christ as your saviour there is a special door unlocked for you in Hades and you go there by your own volition. The Lord holds the key.

Verse 19, We have a mandate in this verse for the deposition of the world history as written in the book of Revelation: “write,” grafw o)un, “therefore write.” The constative aorist refers to an action extended over a period of time. In other words Revelation was not written at one sitting — “the things which thou hast seen”, Lit. “the things you are about to see”; “the things which are” lit. “what is”; “things which shall be hereafter”, lit. “and what is about to come to pass,” ginomai: After the rapture of the Church, world history after the Church Age.

Verse 19, corrected translation: “Therefore, write what you are about to see, both what is [the historical trends of the Church Age], and what shall occur [the prophetical events after the Church Age] after these [the historical trends of the Church Age].”

“After these” refers to the up and down trends of history during the Church Age. This anticipates the content of Revelation chapters two and three in which the role of the royal family of God in this dispensation is clearly delineated. The believer in this dispensation has an obligation to God, and a very personal one. Therefore the dramatic need for every believer to live inside the divine dynasphere every day of his life. Living in the divine dynasphere produces the uptrends in history. The downtrends of history are based upon the believer being involved in the cosmic system.

In verse 20 we have the first interpretation of the apocalypse. This is anticipating the next two chapters and becomes the interpretive key to the historical trends of the Church Age.

“mystery,” musthrion, a technical word as used in the New Testament. It is called a mystery in Old Testament times simply because it was something not known. There is no revelation in the Old Testament about the Church Age. The first prophecies regarding the Church Age are found in the Gospels.

“of the seven stars.” The word for “seven” in the Greek is e(pta. Then we have a)ster for “star.” The seven stars are the pastors, those who communicate Bible doctrine during this dispensation.

“in my right,” e)pi plus decioj, an idiom meaning “on my right hand.” The right hand means royal approval as well as divine authority delegated, “the seven stars are,” e)imi , “angels,” a)ggeloj, messengers. Messengers to the seven churches.

The noun a)ggeloj is not to be transliterated here but to be translated as “messenger,” At the time John wrote he was the pastor of all seven of the churches, being in residence at the pastor in Ephesus and having a non-resident ministry in six other churches. John was aware of the fact that there would be a succession of pastors. He would die and be replaced. therefore he was writing for the benefit of those seven pastors and their congregations. But he addresses those seven letters to the pastors, not to the congregations directly.

There is a principle of course. When God removes a pastor by death or by some other means it implies that God has another person to take his place. But just because God has someone to take his place it never implies that is the one they will get. Bad decisions can preclude getting the right pastor.

Corrected translation of verse 20 — “The mystery of the seven stars which you have seen on my right hand, and the seven gold lampstands. The seven stars are the messengers [pastor-teachers] of the seven churches; and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

Most people are motivated in time by things that personally stimulate or interest them, or something which they think will advance them and stimulate in some way the ego. This is all false motivation in life as illustrated by the fact that it cannot produce happiness and therefore we are taking a look at eternity as a part of our motivation for time. As far as time is concerned we are commanded to live one day at a time and of course we must live each day in the light of eternity, so we have the challenge of historical trends.

Remember that the book of Revelation is a textbook of world history and in a text book of world history from 96 AD to the end of time Jesus Christ who controls history must be presented first and foremost. Our Lord Jesus Christ is not only the issue in salvation, as per John 3:18, under His royal title of King of kings and Lord of lords He is also the temporal issue of history as well as the issue in eternal salvation. In addition to that of course our Lord Jesus Christ controls history. So there are two factors with regard to our Lord and our orientation to Him in time: He is the issue of history; He is the controller of history.

The fact that Jesus Christ is the issue of history was the subject we studied in the first eight verses of chapter one. The apocalypse of Jesus Christ, the revelation of our Lord’s royal patent, plus the history of the world from 96 AD to the end of time. And the title of the book is the apocalypse or the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father has turned human history over to the Lord Jesus Christ. After all, Christ started history with the creation of the universe, He continued history with the creation of man, He will conclude history with the judgment of mankind.

In verse 3 of chapter one: happiness comes from perception of the Word of God, and this is emphasised in great detail in the verse — “Happy is he who teaches exegetically [happiness for the one who studies and teaches], happy are they who keep learning or hearing the words of this prophecy [believers who take in doctrine consistently].” Revelation, as the textbook of world history is divided into two parts: historical trends dealing with the Church Age and the prophetical part dealing with the Tribulation, second advent, Millennial reign of Christ, and the end of time.

Verse 4, “John to the seven churches.” These churches would be the key to historical impact in the Roman empire for over two hundred years, and specifically for the century which was to follow the writing of the book of Revelation. These seven churches, by their residence and function in the divine dynasphere would form the pivot which would sustain the first Gentile client nation [SPQR] in the time of the Gentiles.

Verse 5, “from Jesus Christ, the dependable witness” — that is, He gives us the truth about world history. The truth comes in two categories: the doctrine of historical trends and the truth in prophetical presentation starting in chapter six and going through chapter twenty-two — “the firstborn form the dead” — “firstborn” gives Him the right to control history as the God-Man even as He controlled history as eternal God before the incarnation and before the hypostatic union; “the ruler of the kings of planet earth” — a prophetical concept fulfilled at the second advent. At the present time Satan is the ruler of this world but having a very difficult time administering his rulership. And then what is significant to us, “to him who has loved us” — the fact that Jesus Christ controls history and the fact that He created the world does not keep Him from loving us even though we have messed up His world and failed Him many times; “and has released us from our sins by means of His blood” — a reference to the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. The blood of Christ refers to redemption toward sin, reconciliation toward man and, of course, propitiation toward God.

Verse 6, “And he has provided for us a royal power [the divine dynasphere] to function as priests to God, even his Father” — always there must be an emphasis in the divine dynasphere on the first of our two royal warrants. The Christian way of life is divided into two parts, the invisible and the visible. The invisible deals with the function of our royal priesthood whereas the visible deals with the function of our royal ambassadorship. We have two commissions, two warrants from God: every believer is his own priest, every believer is also an ambassador. As a priest everyone represents himself to God, and that means that you must live your own life as unto the Lord and must not depend upon the advice and the counsel of others. You must gather your own wisdom from your own perception of Bible doctrine. Ambassadorship is the application of that doctrine to history, and that includes man and circumstances.

“to him belongs the glory and ruling power for ever and ever.” The principle here: your happiness and blessing in life, everything that is going to turn out right for you, must be related to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore there is no happiness, no blessing for you as an individual or for your country as a client nation to God in the cosmic system. In the first advent, the hypostatic union and the cross, our Lord provided the basis for taking the rulership of this world from Satan, which He will do at the second advent. Jesus Christ controls history and the principle of the first advent is that the cross must always come before the crown.

Verse 7 — He is coming with the clouds and every eye shall see Him. At this point we have a transitional verse in which we note, “I am Alpha and Omega, proclaims the Lord.” The two glories of our Lord are brought together under the title Alpha and Omega, and from these two glories Jesus Christ controls history.

During the Passover period the Jews repeat three titles of liturgy taken from Deuteronomy 6:4 — “Shamah Yisrael [Hear, concentrate, O Israel], Adonai Elohenu [Jehovah or Jesus is our God, the Alpha glory of Jesus Christ], Adonai echad [Jesus Christ is unique, His Omega glory].” He is Alpha and Omega and He controls history as Alpha and Omega; “who is,” the Omega glory of Jesus Christ as the God-Man in hypostatic union; “and who was,” the Alpha glory of Jesus Christ as God; “and who is to come,” the Alpha and Omega glory revealed at the second advent. But even before the second advent there never has been a moment in history when our Lord was not in control. Therefore the final phrase of verse 8, “the total ruler,” Jesus Christ controls history. To reject the Omega glory of Christ is to be disciplined or punished by the second person of the Trinity. This explains every historical disaster to Gentiles as well as every holocaust to the Jews. The Jews suffer holocaust because they accept our Lord’s Alpha glory as the One who is the God of Israel, but they reject Jesus Christ who was crucified for their sins. The Jews who want therefore the crown before the cross inevitably face periodically in history a holocaust. The same is true of the Gentiles.

In verses 9-11 the apostle John is presenting himself as the human author of the textbook. In verse 11, “write in a book what you see,” a panorama of world history from AD 96 to the end of time; “and send it to the seven churches.” Why? These seven churches would be the basis of sustaining civilisation as well as the Roman empire as the client nation to God for over 250 years. The roster of churches in the Roman province of Asia who provided the pivot of mature believers to sustain the Roman empire as the first Gentile client nation to God is a reminder to us that we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have the same responsibility as they had in their day. The historical impact of those seven churches was remarkable. The question arises: What is our historical impact in the twentieth century?

Verse 12, we have to master a principle. Jesus Christ controls history. Even though history is a record of man’s thoughts, actions, decisions and motivations it is our Lord who is in control. Man can go 180 degrees away from the Lord’s will but he cannot take control of history out of the Lord’s hands. By going 180 degrees in the wrong direction simply means punishment from the integrity of God. There are two sources of judgment in history, as we have noted: the sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind related to the cosmic system.

“I saw seven golden lampstands.” Inverse 20 the seven lampstands are seven local churches in the Roman province of Asia. And the principle: As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God; as goes the local church, so goes the client nation. Jesus Christ who controls history has selected the local church in the nation to be the means of blessing by association or cursing by association. Therefore Jesus Christ who controls history has delegated historical responsibility to the Church. Therefore when the Church advances to maturity inside the divine dynasphere there is great historical prosperity and blessing, but when the Church becomes apostate through involvement in the cosmic system there is great historical disaster to the nation, cursing by association.

Verse 13, “Son of man” is the title of our Lord in hypostatic union and this is the title He has here. The robe and the sash are the dress uniform of the high priest and they signify the authority of our Lord to bless humanity through Bible doctrine or to curse humanity through failure to comply with Bible doctrine. The golden sash is a reminder that our Lord Jesus Christ is not only the prince ruler of the Church but He controls history through the royal patents which supersede the victory of Satan over man in the garden.

Verse 14, the white hair of our Lord Jesus Christ denotes the shock of bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. White hair is often associated with great shock, pressure and disaster. In this case the greatest shock in history occurred at the cross when our sins were imputed to our Lord and every one of them was judged on the tree. The one who controls history then is the issue of history, so that “he that believeth on Him hath everlasting life, but he that does not believe in Him shall not see life, the wrath of God abideth on him.” White wool is a reminder that Christ is the efficacious sacrifice for our sins, He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His wool had to be white, as it were, as the Lamb of God. White wool is perfection, the impeccability of our Lord residing and functioning inside of the prototype divine dynasphere. “White like snow” indicates the impeccability of Christ in residence and function inside that prototype divine dynasphere — “his eyes are like a flame of fire,” this is the alternative the world faces to believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. When people fail to believe in Christ they face at the last judgment the eyes like a flame of fire. So every member of the human race has a choice between the white hair representing eternal salvation or the eyes like a flame of fire representing the last judgment. One of the greatest decision that can be made in the human race is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

For us who are believers there is an issue as well. The eyes like a flame of fire have two applications always. For the unbeliever eternal salvation is offered in time before the eyes like a flame of fire at the last judgment. For the believer logistical grace support in time is offered before the judgment seat of Christ in eternity and that magnificent order which our Lord provides for the believers who are faithful in the perception of doctrine — the order of the morning star, one of the highest decorations that the believer can receive at the judgment seat of Christ.

But here we have the eyes like a flame of fire reserved for those members of the human race who reject the grace of God. For the unbeliever, rejection of eternal salvation means facing the eyes like a flame of fire at the last judgment. For the believer, rejection of the divine dynasphere and the provision of logistical grace means facing the eyes like a flame of fire at the judgment seat of Christ where they can stand in a resurrection body, the white pebble, and have no new name written on it. We are then the products of our own decisions as obvious from this verse.

Verse 15, now we have the outgrowth of the eyes that flame with fire. The bronze represents both economic depression and military disaster under the 4th cycle of discipline in which the client nation is defeated in battle but retain client nation status. As a result of collective bad decisions He administers both economic depression and military defeat under the 4th cycle of discipline. The “sound of many waters” is military disaster under the 5th cycle of discipline in which the client nation to God loses its client nation status and is completely destroyed and taken over by a foreign power. The Lord usually selects the most evil nation to administer “the sound of many waters.”

Verse 16, “seven stars” are Bible-teaching pastors. God will always provide Bible-teaching pastors for positive volition. And again you have an alternative. Just as the white wool versus the eyes flaming like fire, so we have the seven stars or the short double-edged broadsword coming from His mouth. The pastors teaching doctrine and its reception means blessing, but the sharp double-edged broadsword came out of His mouth and this is divine punishment through violence. The violence can take many forms. Violence is related to social degeneration. It can be crime, terrorism, revolution, governmental persecution of Christianity, conventional and even nuclear warfare. “And like the sun his overt appearance [His resurrection body] shines in his power” — our Lord’s prototype divine dynasphere.

Verse 17, “And when I saw him,” says John [saw the resurrected Christ]. This is resurrection appearance number seventeen, “I fainted” is literally, “I fell at his feet as though dead.” The believer must either be in the interim body we receive after physical death or in the resurrection body we receive at the Rapture to appreciate our resurrected Christ. Until we have our resurrection body our rapport in seeing the Lord is impossible. “Fear not; I am the first and the last,” Jesus Christ controls history.

Verse 18, “And so the living one [the hypostatic union, our Lord Jesus Christ the God-Man], and I became dead [both spiritual somatic death of Christ on the cross], now behold I am living forever and ever,” our Lord’s third royal patent is based on His strategic victory, His death burial and resurrection, His ascension and session; “furthermore I have the keys of death and Hades” — another way of expressing the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. Jesus Christ controls history by taking anyone out of this life He so chooses in His sovereign decision. The Lord can take nations, as it were, by the fifth cycle of discipline. He can take individuals. Hades is the temporary abode of the unbeliever until history is completed. Death terminates the unbeliever’s influence on history. Our Lord removes from history certain believers, unbelievers, whose negative impact would destroy human freedom which is the issue of the angelic conflict. Hades is the prison for dead unbelievers until history is terminated with the second resurrection and the last judgment — Revelation 20. Jesus Christ controls history through judgment but in this verse He controls history through death. Therefore out of this comes a mandate …

Verse 19, “Therefore, write what you are about to observe.” John is about to observe through several forms the fact that Revelation is the textbook of human history from AD 96 to the end of human history; “both what is, and what shall occur [the eschatological history from the Rapture to the end of time], “after these things [after historical trends].”

The word “angel,” a)ggeloj, means messenger and it should be translated here, “to the messenger.” It is referring to a future pastor who will take over the pulpit after John disappears from the scene.

“the church,” e)kklhsia, “of Ephesus,” e)n plus the locative of E)fesoj. This church resides in a local area, it is a local church. Paul founded a church in Ephesus that became the greatest church of the ancient world. It had the three greatest pastors in the ancient world — in this order: Paul, Timothy, John.

Some isagogics regarding Ephesus: Greek civilisation gradually replaced the oriental-asiatic civilisation of the Anatoleans. Ionic Greek became the language of Ephesus. It was that language that turned the whole world around. You see, all reality and life is not related to circumstances. All reality and life is related to vocabulary. Happiness is in thought. Ionic Greek became the most revolutionary, the most dynamic language of the ancient world. Next to it was Attic Greek.

Application: Some people will never truly orient to life because they have never done anything to increase their vocabulary. Then greater the vocabulary, the greater the potentiality for thought. And in the day in which we live emotion has been substituted for increasing one’s vocabulary. Therefore, emotions have become meaningless and they are reduced to their base aspect which is simply to feel good at all costs which becomes the basis for drug addiction, and a lot of things that people do trying to find some good feeling and sustain it, and prolong it, and continue it. This is, of course, part of the degeneracy that comes to any great society. When you have an entire generation of people who cannot think, then you have a generation of people who live by their feelings, by their emotions. When this happens they destroy themselves because degeneracy is the inevitable result. (Thought animates).

“write” is aorist active imperative of grafw — “write.” The culminative aorist views writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the completion of the canon of scripture, a textbook of world history from the time of John to the end of time. It presents all of the historical trends and eschatological implications of history.

“saith,” legw. It is our Lord who is speaking; “he,” o(dh, the one who is communicating these things; “holding,” kratoj denotes legal power and authority.

Lit. translation: “He [Jesus Christ] who has empowered says.” The present tense of kratew is the present of duration. It denotes what has begun in the past [the beginning of the Church Age] and continues in to the presence.

During the course of the Church Age there will always be somewhere a pastor teaching Bible doctrine. He will be teaching the laws of divine establishment; he will communicate the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; and he will teach categorically Bible doctrine. These pastors are positioned by our Lord and given authority and power on the basis of interest or positive volition. He does it for two reasons: positive volition toward doctrine or coming judgment from God. It is Bible doctrine which is the fuel burning in the lamps and giving true light to the events of history.

e)n decioj a)utoj, “his right hand.” The hand of approval with our Lord. Jesus Christ both approves, authorises and empowers those pastors who teach Bible doctrine in the local church.

The provision of power includes the following facts for the pastor who faithfully teaches doctrine:

2. His function in the divine dynasphere is both preparation and communication of Bible doctrine.

3. Through spiritual growth and divine guidance the pastor is prepared spiritually, physically, mentally, academically, and through personal character traits, to teach Bible doctrine.

4. Personal character traits include the importance of personal humility, impersonal love, objectivity, and professionalism.

5. Personal character traits include both the motivational and functional virtues plus passing momentum tests.

6. Professionalism is the ability of the pastor to study and teach and not be distracted by inconsequential tradition.

“walketh,” peripatew, keeps walking; “in the midst,” e)n mesoj e(pta luxnia — of the lampstands. The lampstands are the seven churches, a reference to local churches where Bible doctrine is taught. They become the light of history.

Translation of verse 1: “To the messenger, the future pastor of the church at Ephesus write: He who has empowered the seven stars [pastors who teach doctrine] on his right hand [the delegation of authority and power] the one who keeps walking in the middle of the seven golden lampstands [the local churches where the believers reside in the divine dynasphere and learn doctrine] communicates these things.”

We now have our first and most important historical trend of the Church Age. It is the communication and the reception of Bible doctrine. This is the basis for any historical uptrend or age of prosperity in history. There is no true prosperity apart from Bible doctrine. Though Satan has tried desperately as the ruler of this world to simulate true prosperity he always fails, it always collapses.

There are two keys to the historical uptrend: the provision of the divine dynasphere as the divine provision and divine plan for the Church Age, and the provision of the Word of God, the New Testament canon, as the permanent receptacle for Bible doctrine. From these two power systems originates the uptrend of history.

1. This verse brings together everything related to historical uptrend. It is the verse of historical uptrend. While this is the devil’s world, Jesus Christ controls history.

2. Jesus Christ controls history, however, in compatibility with human freedom. He does not contradict or coerce human freedom. The sovereignty of God and the freewill of man are related, not contradictory. He controls history through positive volition toward truth choosing the divine plan instead of Satan’s cosmic administration.

4. The reason why there are no tragedies in history is because people individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions.

5. Historical disaster results from wrong decisions which destroy future options for blessing.

6. Too often people individually and collectively make wrong decisions by treating their freedom for what appears to be security, or what appears to be pleasure.

7. The exchange of freedom for security results in cosmic involvement and historical downtrend as noted by the rise of socialism, liberalism, the welfare state, redistribution of wealth, and other Satanic philosophies which offer security instead of freedom.

8. While God has not overlooked our security in logistical grace freedom is the real issue in the continuation of the angelic conflict in human history.

Through freedom the believer chooses from his freedom both eternal and temporal security as secondary considerations in the plan of God for his life. Reversing the course of historical disaster then is a matter of positive volition toward truth which is always available in every generation. In other words the uptrends of history are related to the communication and reception of Bible doctrine. The downtrends of history are related to a maximum number of people, both believer and unbeliever, living in the cosmic system.

Therefore, there are no tragedies in history, only in drama. Historical disaster is related to certain cosmic trends such as “the demand for power exceeds the need for power.” Arrogance, of course, is the motivation for evil. Arrogance, the motivating evil of the cosmic system demands power and authority not authorised by the laws of divine establishment. Therefore disaster occurs when arrogant people and nations fail to see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of others. Disaster occurs when bad decisions create bad environment known as degeneration. Disaster occurs when jealous people or envious nations fail to see their own sins and evil production, only the sins and evil production of others. Innovation without truth brings disaster. Emphasis on peace and security at any price or at the price of freedom brings disaster. Disaster comes when the weak control the strong.

By the way, the weak always manipulate the strong under the principle that the strong have integrity. Why can the weak control the strong? Why can a nagging wife control a magnificent man and vice versa? Because the strong has integrity. Why do teen-age children control their parents today? Because the parents have integrity. What makes the person strong also makes him vulnerable to manipulation. One of the first signs of degeneracy in a nation is when the weak control the strong.

“I know,” o)ida. It is used as a perfect active indicative for divine knowledge or omniscience regarding the status quo of the church in Ephesus. It should be translated, “I have known.” The speaker is the Lord Jesus Christ and He is speaking from His deity, not His hypostatic union, not from His humanity but from His deity. The present of duration denotes what has begun in the past through the omniscience of our Lord Jesus Christ as God and continues into the present.

“I have known” brings into focus one of the major issues in Biblical theology. How can Jesus Christ as God control history and at the same time man function under his freewill? That is the major question. We have the sovereignty of God and the freewill of man. The problem is they are not contradictory. It isn’t the sovereignty of God versus the freewill of man. They actually function together.

Billions of years before man existed God knew. God has three kinds of knowledge. He has self-knowledge. God is eternal, His knowledge is eternal. God is sovereign, His knowledge is infinitely superior to angelic or human perception or genius. The future is as perspicuous as the past to God. Since God is a person He possesses both self-consciousness and self-determination. Therefore God as a person acts rationally in compatibility with His absolute will and perfection. God is Himself, He knows Himself. He knows Himself to be beyond comparison with any other being. God is infinite, His knowledge is without boundary or limitation. Therefore God’ knowledge is never complicated with ignorance, absurdities or any of the things whereby emotion destroys the rationale of the human mind. God existed eternally, unsustained by Himself or any other source. Therefore His knowledge is as unalterable as Himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ controls history.

God’ knowledge exists in three categories: self-knowledge, omniscience and foreknowledge. God’ self-knowledge is related to the other members of the trinity as well as to Himself. God has eternally known Himself and He has eternally known the other members of the trinity. Each member of the trinity then, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, has perfect subjective knowledge of self and perfect objective knowledge of the other two members of the trinity.

But our understanding of this first verb in our passage does not relate to God’ self-knowledge. While God’ self-knowledge related to His own divine attributes and knowledge of the other members of the trinity, omniscience is a technical term relating to man. God’s objective knowledge of the universe and all of its creatures is the correct definition for omniscience.

The divine decrees establish reality in human history. It is the omniscience of God which feeds the computer which we call the decrees of God. Programming of this computer which we call human history is accomplished by the omniscience of God. The divine decrees establish reality, omniscience includes all that is in the divine decrees. God is sovereign but in His sovereignty He did not interfere when He programmed the computer and He does not interfere in the printout of the computer. The computer does the work itself. God in His omniscience programmed it, God in His foreknowledge got a printout from it, but the sovereignty of God does not interfere with the freewill of man in what he wishes to think or do or how he is motivated or what he decides.

There are a lot of things which were not entered into the computer. We can call these alternatives, alternatives to motivation, alternatives to decisions, alternatives to thoughts, alternatives to actions. These are also included in the omniscience of God.

This leads in historical trends to two ways in which prosperity can exist and two ways in which historical disaster comes about. The omniscience of God knows the alternatives of history under the category of probability. The alternatives are a part of the omniscience of God.

Omniscience is defined as God knows perfectly, eternally, and simultaneously, all that is knowable, both actual and possible.

Now the foreknowledge of God must be distinguished. Foreknowledge is not the same as omniscience. Between omniscience and foreknowledge stands the computer of divine decrees. Omniscience programs the computer with historical facts — thought, decision, action, motive. Foreknowledge is the printout of the computer of divine decrees. Nothing is foreknown until it is first decreed.

When our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to John and said, “write these down,” and He said with regard to the church at Ephesus, “I have known,” He was speaking from His foreknowledge.

Nothing is foreknown until it is first decreed. Only the computer of divine decrees establishes reality, which means that foreknowledge follows as a printout of the divine decrees. The foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain but acknowledges what is certain, the content of the divine decrees. So when the Lord Jesus Christ communicates prophecy it is from His foreknowledge. The omniscience of God, the omniscience of Jesus Christ, fed the facts into the computer but the one who talked to the apostle John was the Lord Jesus Christ speaking from His foreknowledge.

Therefore we have a concept with regard to the fact that the sovereignty of God and the freewill of man coexists in human history and that the sovereignty of God may reach down and punish man based upon His integrity, or He can prosper man based upon His integrity, based upon the principles that are involved, but He never interferes. Only man has the temerity to interfere with the privacy, the rights, the freedom, the functions of other people.

“works,” the accusative plural direct object from e)rgon plus the possessive genitive of the personal pronoun sou. Lit. “I have known your accomplishments.” The word e)rgon means accomplishment or production. The result of the Christian modus vivendi, royal priesthood, the invisible part of the Christian way of life, in the function of our royal priesthood.

Next we have the doubling of the conjunction kai. It is kai kai and when you have it in that form it is translated “both and.” In between there is a clause or two which is involved in the “both and” connotation.

“labour,” kopoj, hardship, trouble, difficulty, toil, pressure, labour, work. Should be translated here, “both the strenuous effort.”

“patience,” u(pomonh, patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance. Should be translated “perseverance.” The noun connotes courageous endurance and refers to residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. Persistence in functioning inside the divine dynasphere. And this means both positive volition toward Bible doctrine and consistent use of the rebound technique to avoid spending too much time in the cosmic system.

Corrected translation: “I have known your accomplishments, both the strenuous efforts and your perseverance ...”

“and,” kai, furthermore. This advances the argument; “canst not,” is dunh , the present middle indicative of dunamai, the verb. A few people. the church at Ephesus, are carrying the whole Roman empire at this moment. Believers advancing to maturity are actually saving the country. Translation: “furthermore you are not able.” The present tense is a customary present. It denotes what habitually occurs or maybe reasonably expected to occur when the believer reside and functions inside the divine dynasphere.

“bear” is bastazw and this refers to the believer only who is inside the divine dynasphere. It does not refer to those who are wasting their lives in the cosmic system; “evil,” — kakoj means evils. It is a reference to categories of evil [because it is in the plural] which result from residence and function in the cosmic system.

Corrected translation so far: “I have known your accomplishments, both the strenuous efforts and perseverance, furthermore you are not able to tolerate categories of evil ...”

1. Evil is the adverse trend of society. It is the destruction of society, the malfunction of society, the removal of the legitimate authority and its function under category one truth, the laws of divine establishment.

Evil is Satan’s policy and function as the ruler of this world. Evil is Satan’s failure to produce a system of good in mankind and in society that would bring in a pseudo millennium. Evil is Satan’s system by which he administers the rulership of this world. Satan cannot restrain sin as the ruler of this world and Satan’s human good is inevitably parlayed both into sin and evil. So evil then is the modus operandi and the modus vivendi of Satan as the ruler of this world.

All evil has two sources: sin and erroneous thought or human good and erroneous thinking. Evil includes sin, human good and all thinking motivation; inevitably, then, the function of mankind in the cosmic system. Evil is the function and innovation of that person who is consistently involved in the cosmic system.

2. The origin of evil. Evil originated and existed before human history. That means that evil overlapped from some previous creature existence. And the means by which it was transmitted from previous creature existence to human history is Satan himself. The origin of evil is Satan’s genius to devise a system to oppose God. So evil originated in a higher form of creation; it originated in angelic creation. It originated with the greatest of all creatures to come form the hand of God, Satan himself.

This originator of evil is the highest of all creatures. He is the ruler of at least a third of all angelic creatures. As the ruler of all fallen angles he is so described in Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26; Luke 11:18,19 and other passages. If ever there was a super creature it is Satan or the devil, or as he was original known Lucifer the son of the morning.

Satan is the great antagonist of the angelic conflict. As a super genius he is the greatest organiser who has ever lived. But along with all of this facade of administrative ability he is the original murderer. There are two sides to him — the attractive side and the evil side. And where evil exists, no matter how great the attraction, the attraction amounts to degeneracy.

Since the fall of man Satan has been the ruler of this world. He is so described in Luke 7:5-7; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2. As such he has put his genius to work and he has set up a system of administration whereby his attractiveness and his evil can function side by side. Satan has devised a system whereby people can be nice, lovely, wonderful, as far as society is concerned — society gives them a high mark — but behind that facade of good, of sweetness and light, there lurks a person who is evil and destructive, not only to society but to the truth, Bible doctrine. And the system that Satan has developed with regard to human beings so that they always appear good, even though they are evil, is a system which we call arrogance; only it is not called arrogance, it is called self-respect, it is called hypocrisy, it is called self-righteousness.

While arrogance is a temporary stabiliser it cannot possibly keep the person from coming to a maximum function of evil which we call degeneracy. And degeneracy too often is related to the gutter instead of to where degeneracy is spawned, in churches, in academic classrooms, by erroneous thinking. But the erroneous thinking is related to arrogance and therefore there is no stability so that you have sweet Dr Jeckle walking around being complemented by society when in reality he is Mr Hyde. And eventually Mr Hyde wins and then society is degenerate.

Satan has to have an overall plan. His plan as the ruler of this world is related to a number of things, including racing for the tape, the tape being the Millennium. The second advent of Christ introduces the Millennium. Satan would like to introduce a perfect world which would exclude the Millennium. And the more the genius of Satan works toward producing a perfect world the more the world goes into degeneracy when it follows his plan. This proves that the greatest plans that man can devise cannot solve the problems of the world.

Satan’s plans always look good to the stupid but they inevitably result in degeneracy. To the extent that we permit socialism into our country, to that extent we have degeneracy developing. Note: Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, p100-111, L.S. Chafer.

Believers are distracted by secondary things so that the very objective of the Christian life, the purpose of logistical grace by which we are supported, is all set aside by the believer’s involvement in the cosmic system. Being so involved they get off the track and become a chief source for the production of evil, the Satanic system. This, of course, means failure to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

Satan has strategy regarding nations. He also has strategy regarding unbelievers, cf. 2 Peter 2. Furthermore Satan has strategy with regard to each one of us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, mentioned as a principle in 2 Corinthians 2:11. Satan is constantly working to frustrate the will of God with every believer, to neutralise doctrinal application, to keep us away from the function of taking in doctrine, and to destroy the believer’s focus so that he gets his eyes on other people and things instead of the Word.

3. The system of evil. This brings us back to the cosmic system, cosmic 1 and cosmic 2. There are two cosmic dynaspheres: No 1 we call interlocking systems of arrogance, it has twenty six gates. Arrogance is the way in which those who are in the cosmic system function. The command in connection with cosmic one is: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit.” Cosmic 2 is composed of nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred. The command with regard to cosmic 2 is: “Quench not the Holy Spirit.”

1. Mental attitude arrogance which includes more than arrogance and pride. It includes jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, self-pity, guilt feelings, operation over think, anything that is related to preoccupation with self to the point of abnormality.

2. Negative volition arrogance. This is found in both cosmic one and in cosmic two but in cosmic 1 negative volition arrogance is related to preoccupation with self, whereas in cosmic 2 negative volition expresses itself in antagonism toward others and toward truth.

3. Impulsive arrogance whereby a person who is preoccupied with himself to the point where he abuses whatever authority he has in life.

4. Institutional arrogance. An institution in life as a system of authority, a policy, a purpose, or objective. Institutional arrogance rejects authority in some legitimate organisation or some organisation for which you work. It also means you reject the purpose of that organisation or the policy of that organisation.

5. Blind arrogance which is really the arrogance of legalism. It is divorcement from reality through preoccupation with self in contrast to psychopathic arrogance in gate 9 where there is total divorcement from reality — here it is a partial factor. Here it can be sociopathic rather than psychotic. Blind arrogance is the allegation of the believer who claims a unique experience in the fields of emotion, self-righteousness or self-sacrifice. It isn’t limited to these three fields but they illustrate the concept.

6. Conspiracy arrogance which is simply a step in advance of gate 4. It results in rejection of authority, rejection of authority results in conspiracy to overthrow the purpose, the policy, the authority of an organisation.

7. Criminal arrogance. This is total divorcement from reality as far as category 1 truth is concerned, i.e. the laws of divine establishment. The criminal is not only a con artist, a liar a thief, but he is a revolutionist. He is the person who tries to solve the problems of life through violence. The criminal is totally occupied with self, therefore he is anti-authority, antiestablishment, and very often the criminal is very self-righteous and saturated with self-justification for his evil deeds.

8. Crusader arrogance. Under this principle you find self-righteousness parlayed into trying to straighten out the world, ignoring all points of freedom, ignoring all principles of privacy. Preoccupation with self plus self-righteousness and arrogance motivates one to try to change his periphery. Under this arrogance the individual places his personal standards often above the law, or any form of authority, or any form of establishment. Crusader arrogance often interlocks with gate 7, criminal arrogance, by encouraging revolution, supporting terrorism, trying to solve problems through violence (such as assassination), creating change by means of violence.

9. Psychotic arrogance. There is no such thing as a system of psychosis that is not related to arrogance. The theory that psychosis that psychosis is inherent and is a matter of genes is absolutely ludicrous as far as the Word of God is concerned. Psychosis is the result of two factors: making your own bad decisions and finally closing doors, and seeking to deal with the frustration of bad decisions in arrogance. So this becomes total divorcement from reality.

Typical of psychopathic arrogance is egocentricity, total subjectivity and preoccupation with self, intense concentration on self excluding and squeezing out such things as a sense of humour. Emotional control of reason, imbalance and instability are factors.

10. Sexual arrogance. Sex without love, preoccupation with self, making sex a means of satisfying self and ignoring anyone else involved. Sexual arrogance may be manifest through polygamy, fornication, homosexuality, incest, rape, etc. Sexual arrogance then is preoccupation with the body to the exclusion of the soul.

11. Genetic arrogance. Ancestral pride assuming that greatness in life is inherited. This is also the arrogance of frustrated parents who seek to attain recognition through the achievement of their children.

12. Political arrogance. Human panaceas for the problems of life generally start in the local periphery but they move out to cover the entire country. Man’s preoccupation with self to the exclusion of category one truth results in political arrogance.

It is not really liberalism versus conservatism in politics, it is really arrogance versus humility — that is the more basic issue. Political arrogance rejects certain necessary separations in life. For example, the function of freedoms, the separation of church and state.

13. Client nation arrogance. This emphasises the laws of divine establishment and the function of government leadership in terms of arrogance versus humility. There are three basic forms of government but whether they are successful or not depends on whether there is humility or arrogance as a national modus operandi. For example monarchy is a legitimate form of government, the rule of one man in the interest of the common good, but if this becomes arrogance monarchy becomes tyranny, the rule of one man for his own advantage. The next best form of government is aristocracy. (The fewer the people running the show the better it is because there is less opportunity for malfunction.) Aristocracy is the rule of a group in the interest of the common good. If it becomes arrogant it becomes oligarchy, the rule of a group for their own benefit. The third form of government, in order of merit, is republic. Republic is the rule of the better part of the people in the interest of the common good. But when arrogance comes in you have the worst form of function in the name of government — democracy. Democracy is the rule of the worst part of the people for their own benefit. Under client nation arrogance we have the failure of our elected representatives and arrogant bureaucracy trying to control the government.

Once you degenerate in any of these there is always a struggle for power. Under tyranny there is a struggle for power that results in revolution. Under oligarchy there is conspiracy in the struggle for power. Under democracy there is the most violent, vicious struggle for power which is divided up among the evil. And when the evil are splitting the pie, in their struggle against each other they destroy any vestige of government and integrity in government. Client nation arrogance is the collective arrogance of people involved in cosmic 1.

14. Authority arrogance. (The satanic syndrome). Through arrogance and preoccupation with self the individual fails to make the most difficult transition of temporal life, the transition from authority in the home to freedom in life. We are born under a system of authority called the home, organised humility. The organised authority are parents, enforced humility. When we respond to parental authority that becomes genuine humility. Genuine humility is necessary to become mature as a person, it has nothing to do with age. Rejection of overt authority in life results in rejection of inner authority (of the soul) and that destroys self-discipline and therefore you open the doors for drug addiction, for example.

15. The arrogance of ignorance. The two most difficult problems in life are related to transition in the temporal and spiritual realms. In the temporal realm the transition from authority in the home to freedom in life; in the spiritual life the transition from ignorance at the point of salvation to the cognisance at the point of maturity. Each transition requires a basic virtue which is genuine humility — teachability. The arrogance of ignorance is failure to make the transition from ignorance to cognisance in the Christian way of life.

16. The arrogance of unhappiness. People who are ignorant are going to be unhappy. This is not talking about education, this is talking about ignorance of Bible doctrine. Self-centredness and preoccupation with self eliminates any possibility or capacity for happiness. Involvement in cosmic 1 actually guarantees unhappiness not matter how much you succeed, no matter how much you possess. It leads to erroneous ideas about what constitutes happiness and therefore people who live in cosmic 1 are unhappy people. They are demanding attention, they are expecting everyone to make them happy. The myth of arrogance is that people can make you happy. Those who have the arrogance of unhappiness generally have a martyr complex associated with it. This results in trying to control people by giving them a guilt complex from your arrogance of unhappiness. Unhappy people always try to control everything around them. Unhappy people are motivated and have tremendous energy in controlling everything around them.

17. The arrogance of disillusion and disenchantment or iconoclastic arrogance, the feet-of-clay syndrome. You put someone you admire on a pedestal and you worship at that pedestal until one day you see their feet of clay. The you become disillusioned and disenchanted and you react to whatever they represent.

Arrogance creates an idol of enchantment and illusion. And when the idol is shattered, the feet of clay appear, arrogance then is shocked and distracted and disoriented to life. Arrogance demands attention. Once the attention is lacking the arrogant creator of the idol begins to look for flaws. It is easy to find flaws in anyone because none of us are perfect and therefore illusion becomes disillusion, enchantment becomes disenchantment and the arrogant creator of the idol seeks to destroy that idol. This is a revenge in which the person can only gain his self-respect by destroying the thing that has allegedly destroyed his self respect.

Disappointment with friends, loved ones, pastors, rulers, bosses, is normal. But disenchantment from the arrogantly created idol is abnormal and evil. Illusion created by arrogance is illusion destroyed by arrogance.

18. The arrogance of morality. The self-righteous arrogance of superimposing false standards of morality on others. When a system of morality created by arrogance is superimposed on true establishment morality or on true Christian spirituality the result is arrogance of morality. It is a form of bullying from arrogance.

19. The arrogance of emotion. This is irrationality. Arrogant people stop thinking and once they do they become emotional. Emotion becomes a substitute for thought. There is nothing wrong with emotion as a response to thought but emotion as a substitute for thought is a disaster. This is the irrationality of emotion dominating the soul instead of thought. This is illustrated of course by the tongues movement in which arrogance divorces itself from the reality of doctrine and emotion dominates the soul. Emotional arrogance not only eliminates rational thinking but results in a total preoccupation with self related to emotion.

Knowledge is the environment for thinking, not emotion. Bible doctrine is the environment for decision, not emotion. Emotional arrogance converts reality into illusion and hallucination and therefore it fantasises and collapses under pressure. When you fantasise in normal situations you will always collapse under pressure.

20. The arrogance of pseudo-generosity. This finds a person giving or being generous because of preoccupation with self. A desire for attention, a desire for approbation, ingratiation or an attempt to buy happiness or friendship. The principle of generosity is found in 2 Corinthians 9:7. The function is found in verse 11.

21. The arrogance of Christian service. Loss of momentum in the spiritual life comes from rejection of doctrine and substituting Christian service as spirituality. Of course you become preoccupied with yourself, you become impressed with having witnessed today, you can make so many sacrifices doing this and that. This becomes the disaster which leads to totally blotting doctrine out of your life. Legitimate Christian service therefore often becomes a distraction to momentum when the person involved neglects doctrine.

22. The arrogance of discouragement. This is preoccupation with self under circumstances of testing and pressure. Adversity and unexplained disaster in the life often tempts the believer into a state of self-pity or preoccupation with self. This is called discouragement and it becomes a form of arrogance. Depression is often a form of arrogance though it may be physiologically as well as psychologically induced.

23. The arrogance of lust. When legitimate desire is linked with arrogance it becomes lust. Lust is inordinate desire. Inordinate means unrestrained, unregulated, and hence used with desire it converts normal desire into lust. There are many legitimate and normal desires in life. Desire in itself is not wrong. It is lust which can be either sin or human good or evil. Lust is arrogant preoccupation with one’s desires.

24. Pseudo-intellectual arrogance. This is the arrogance of superimposition of human IQ over spiritual IQ. This means that arrogance accepts the human viewpoint of life and rejects the divine viewpoint. This is one of the basic functions in the cosmic system that also helps to throw off doctrine and reject it. Without the truth of Bible doctrine and the absolute standard of life, intellectualism becomes meaningless and sometimes becomes very harmful. Pseudo-intellectual arrogance either glorifies human speculation to the exclusion of Bible doctrine or seeks to reconcile Bible doctrine with false philosophical, psychological and scientific concepts. In the early church pseudo -intellectualism was manifested by gnosticism.

25. Pseudo-love arrogance. This is the attempt of anyone to duplicate the principles or function of love while residing in the cosmic system.

26. The ultimate arrogance, the function of suicide in total preoccupation with self. It is a totally locked in self-centredness which motivates taking one’s own life.

This is only part of the third point of the doctrine of evil but it is a very important part of it because it is the basis for all evil. Arrogance motivates. You can take a legitimate subject and put arrogance with it and you have evil. You can take almost anything and if you are arrogant you can emphasise it out of its context so that a true thing becomes false. Satan uses truth to get people away from the greatest of all truth, Bible doctrine.

Cosmic dynasphere number 1, part of Satan’s system, can be summarised very simply as preoccupation with self. It is the function of arrogance that makes, the members of the human race who are in the cosmic system able to function.

In cosmic two the key is antagonism, and that’s why it is called the interlocking systems of hatred. Preoccupation with self, for example, makes the believer in cosmic 1 go negative toward doctrine. But in cosmic 2 it is not because he is preoccupied with himself, he is actually overtly antagonistic toward doctrine. He resists the doctrine. Cosmic 2 is a hatred complex that is antagonistic toward truth, antagonistic toward God, antagonistic toward the things of God. We use nine gates simply to categorise it. The person who chooses it spends his life in antagonism to God’s plan.

There are three categories of negative volition: negative volition at God-consciousness, Gospel hearing, and the rejection of Bible doctrine.

Inevitably when you become antagonistic toward truth you individually enter into the state of degeneracy. If there are enough people like you in society as believers the society will become degenerate, and it will be manifest by degenerate acts. But long before degenerate acts you have degenerate thoughts. Degeneracy is in the thought. Romans 1:24-27 is a perfect illustration of cosmic degeneration: “Therefore God delivered them [people whose thought pattern was in a state of rejection of doctrine] over to the lusts of their right lobes to an immoral status that their bodies might be degraded among themselves, they who have exchanged the doctrine of God for a lie.” When you leave the divine dynasphere and go into gate 2 of cosmic 1 you have rejected truth and you have exchanged it for a lie.

They have “worshipped and served the creature [Satan] more than the creature [the Lord Jesus Christ] … Because of this God has delivered them over to the passions of dishonour [they themselves choose the passions of dishonour, He just doesn’t stop them] ...”

Under the principle of the angelic conflict God cannot coerce volition. People are the products of their own decisions. If they choose to be homosexual this simply becomes the act of degeneracy which is first manifest by the decision to go to degeneracy and the thought pattern that accompanies it.

When the human soul with the human mind is antagonistic toward the truth of category 1, laws of divine establishment. Its beginning, cf. 2 Timothy 3:2 -7. Gate three is also called “the hatred of establishment.” No greater illustration of this can be found anywhere than in Romans 1:28-32.

Man’s attempts to improve the world are always conducted under the sponsorship of Satan. When anyone seeks a solution to life, individual or collective, apart from divine truth in its three categories, they move into the system of cosmic panaceas.

This gate not only rejects the laws of divine establishment but rejects any form of salvation by grace and spirituality by grace. It becomes in effect the satanic administration of planet earth, or how Satan keeps so many of his disciples of the streets! Instead of freedom there is a demand for equality but equality can only be achieved by coercion and slavery. Therefore the means — coercion, violence, slavery — always justifies the end at this gate. Equality demands the full mobilisation of envy, hence to promote it the successful are taxed out of existence, which destroys success. There is redistribution of wealth where the money is given to the scum and therefore, through legislation you destroy success and failure, and therefore you destroy freedom. Freedom demands success and failure.

Cosmic panaceas lead toward big government and little people. The citizens are the slaves of the state. The state owns your property, your life, your children, your mind, your soul. The more you have freedom the state becomes the servant of the people.

This gate is also what we call utopianism. The neologistic arrogance of recreating and refashioning all forms of human existence. The cosmic panaceas lead to violence, terrorism, revolution, under the principle they call social engineering. The application of what is false to life. Social engineering is the function of gate four. The state must train children to the dictates of the state rather than their parents, therefore disobedience to parents is part of the principle. In other words at total rejection of freedom and authority under the laws of divine establishment.

Religion is Satan’s counterfeit of the plan of God for believers in Christ. Religion is a part of Satan’s policy of evil. It should be pointed out that Christianity is not a religion. Religion is man by man’s efforts seeking to gain the approbation of God. In Christianity man is related to God through faith in Christ and God provides for man in grace.

The motivation for this is gate 24 of cosmic 1, pseudo -intellectual arrogance. Pseudo-intellectual arrogance becomes the basis for trying to reconcile philosophical and scientific speculation with doctrine. And when this cannot be done such a person often rejects doctrine, enters into gate 1 of cosmic 2, becomes hostile to doctrine and seeks a substitute.

Motivation and momentum of the divine system, the divine dynasphere, demands that we remain in the divine dynasphere. This is the only way we can avoid getting involved in academic speculation.

Our mandate regarding evil is found in Romans 12:21: “Stop being conquered by evil, but conquer evil by means of the good — a)gaqoj, [fulfilment of the plan of God from the standpoint of imputation].”

What hinders the momentum of this plan? The answer is evil. Evil is to be conquered by means of the good. The good is the function of the plan of God inside the divine dynasphere and therefore the divine mandate of Romans 12:21 can only be executed by residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

Ephesians 5:6 is another mandate: “Redeeming the time because the days are evil.” So the only way that you can purchase time that God has given you is to function under the plan of God. What hinders is evil. Evil is the modus operandi of the believer inside of Satan’s cosmic system.

5. Two categories of evil: Satan’s systems of motivational and functional evil.

Inside of gate 1 of cosmic one we have motivating evil — arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity, and other forms of preoccupation with self. Motivating evil is thought directed toward self. With this we also have functional evil which is the result of motivating evil. When, for example, you are jealous then you are going to function toward people under jealousy.

a. We must distinguish between the honourable and the evil in matters of spiritual growth inside the divine dynasphere. Evil is not simply a synonym for sin. Heb. 5:13,14.

b. The divine dynasphere is the believer’s only real protection against evil. 1 Cor. 13:5.

c. The believer in the cosmic system is constantly frustrated by evil. This is illustrated by two passages: Romans 7:19; 3 John 11.

d. The laws of divine establishment are designed to protect the citizens of the client nation from evil. Romans 13:3,4.

e. The domination of good in the client nation determines its historical prosperity, while the domination of evil determines its historical judgment. Proverbs 12:20; Psalm 34:16; Isaiah 13:11; 47:10,11; Micah 1:12.

f. God protects the believer inside the divine dynasphere who has positive volition toward doctrine. He protects him from evil. The principle is noted in Proverbs 12:21: “No evil happens to the righteous, but the evil are filled with trouble.” cf. Psalm 37:17; 91:10; 97:10; 119:101; 121:7; Proverbs 1:33; 2:11-13.

g. Believers are often led into the cosmic system and evil by their Christian friends. 1 Cor. 15:33; 2 Thess. 3:2,3.

h. Evil is distinguished from disease and war, Jeremiah 28:8. This verse indicates three different categories. They are not the same. This verse indicates then that evil must be distinguished from war and disease. Sin and evil occur in warfare but war in itself is not evil or sinful, it is the basis for national freedom. Disease as a category is not evil though it may be divine punishment for sin, human good, and evil.

Principle: Separate something that is perfectly all right from the fact that it is often distorted by sin, by failure, and other things. Sin is committed in war, sin is committed in crime. All crime is sin but war is not sin. Crime is an evil to be stamped out; war is a necessity and an inevitability under historical trends.

i. Motivating evil which is the basis for all functional evil exists in the thought pattern of the soul. Evil starts with a thought, degeneracy starts with a thought, Matthew 6:23; 15:19.

The testimony of Jacob, Genesis 48:16, “The angel who has redeemed me from all evil.” Through rebound he was redeemed from evil.

Joseph in Genesis 50:20, “You intended evil against me but God meant it for good” — so evil was turned into good.

David’s testimony in Psalm 48:10, 37:25-27. The believer who reaches maturity is the believer whose blessing overflows after his death to his progeny.

Job in Job 28:28, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; to shun evil is understanding of doctrine.”

Solomon in Proverbs 16:6,17; Isaiah in 59:15; Jeremiah’s testimony is found in several passages in his prophecy, 23:21,22; 9:3. Our Lord Jesus Christ in the true Lord’s prayer of John 17 had something to say about evil in His prayer: “I do not ask you to take them [the believers of this dispensation] out of the world but to guard them from evil.”

7. The final mandate which is found in 2 Thess. 5:22. “Abstain from every form of evil”.

Verse 2:2b, “and,” kai; “tried,” pairazw, to test for the purpose of discovering whether a person is good or evil. Such testing refers to cognisance of doctrine therefore those believers who are ignorant of doctrine cannot fulfil this function. The basis of testing is the absolute standard of the Word of God.

“say,” legw, which here means to call. Translated “those who call.” It refers to the Gnostic teachers, including the Nicolaitanes of verse 6. Gnosticism has infiltrated Ephesus and in fact Ephesus is the headquarters for gnosticism.

“they,” e(autoj, lit. “themselves”; “apostles,” a)postoloj, in this case it refers to false teachers who have great influence, the teachers of gnosticism who had a tremendous anti-Christian influence.

They allege to be apostles but they really are not. Gnostic pastors and Gnostic teachers were never apostles but through doctrinal testing the believers of Ephesus discovered it for themselves. And what is so wonderful about it is the fact that a mature believer learns the principle of privacy. And under the principle of privacy he does not depend upon others for deciding but he uses his own doctrine. He decides what is being taught does not agree with doctrine and he therefore departs from that person.

“found,” e(uriskw — intellectual discovery based on observation or reflection, examination or discovery. Translation: “You have discovered.” Discerning believers with maximum doctrine in the frontal lobe use their own knowledge of doctrine to discern false teaching and false teachers; “liars,” pseudhj, false.

At the time of writing Revelation chapters two and three where the seven churches are located, the rural area was the area of atheism, agnosticism, and the polytheistic worship of the gods. Christianity was located in the cities, and there were seven cities that carried the Roman empire for over three hundred and fifty years. This was because in those seven cities were the churches where Bible doctrine was taught. And in these large cities was a large pivot of believers that actually carried the empire, gave it its prosperity, and when it failed the prosperity test it was because the shrinking of the pivot occurred.

The seven golden lampstands are churches in large cities. Christianity did not spread in rural areas. Even to this day rural Christianity cannot in any way be compared with the vigour of urban Christianity. Of course large cities means large populations and that means more exposure to the teaching of doctrine and to the preaching of the Gospel. No nation in modern history ever became great until it had large industrial cities.

The ultimate solution to any problem in life, in any client nation to God, must be the advance to maturity on the part of believers, forming a large pivot for blessing to the nation. That means maximum knowledge of doctrine and recognising the difference between sin and evil, between human good and evil, and we must be able to see when human good becomes evil and when sin becomes evil, and not tolerate it.

Verse 3, “and,” kai should be translated “furthermore” because it is going to add something, it introduces a result from what precedes; “hast”, e)xw, you keep having. The retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun in the past [residence and function inside the divine dynasphere] and continues into the present. The active voice: believers who reside and function inside the divine dynasphere produce the action of the verb. So your impact historically is in that active voice, your advance to maturity. The active voice means that your impact on history comes from your spiritual advance.

During the period of the Antonine Caesars the impact of the pivot produced a period that historians are still astounded about when they study it.

The name of the game is pressure. The name of the game, God’s game plan, is momentum pressure. We are going to have periods of pressure and testing — some of them very painful and some of them related to the greatest of prosperity.

“and hast borne,” Lit. “furthermore you keep having perseverance,” i.e. Residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

1. You keep having perseverance as the basis for the historical uptrend of Roman history during the time of the Antonine Caesars.

2. The military conquests of Rome were made mostly during the time of the Republic. The empire became a defensive, civilised state. With rare exceptions its wars were not for conquest. But this was not the Roman republic that was the first Gentile nation to God, it was the Roman empire.

3. We have noted the basis for Rome becoming a client nation to God and the prosperity which came form the pivot of mature believers.

Perseverance was the key to the greatness of the Roman empire. As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. The perseverance of believers in advancing to maturity is the key. The word “perseverance” is u(pomonh, inside the divine dynasphere, historical uptrend, great prosperity, they all go together.

“and,” kai followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb bastazw, endure. Lit. “and you have endured.” The culminative aorist tense views the believer’s residence in the divine dynasphere in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely passing the momentum tests. (On the path of advance there are eight major momentum tests.) The active voice: the believer inside the divine dynasphere produces the action of the verb. dia plus the accusative of a)noma, person or name. Dia plus the accusative is translated “because of my name.” This is reference to our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union seated at the right hand of the Father where He now enjoys His third royal patent.

The momentum tests that are involved in enduring because of who and what Jesus Christ is

1. The OSN test. The OSN is Satan’s inside agent for producing temptation in the area of sins of cognisance or sins of ignorance or human good or evil. The OSN resides in the human body and is the source of all temptation. The volition or the freewill of man faces daily the temptations of the OSN inside the cell structure of the body. The volition or the freewill of man guards the soul.

The objective of the OSN is to control the soul. It cannot control the soul because the soul has human volition and so the OSN throws up temptation. Once it reaches the gate all the volition has to do is say, “No,” and the OSN is defeated. But if the volition says, “Pass through,” then that becomes sin. The origin of sin has always been human volition. Only when volition passes the temptation into the soul does the OSN control the soul and the individual enters the cosmic system. The decision is made outside the divine dynasphere.

2. People testing. It is inevitable that we are going to live around people. People become a major distraction to momentum when the believer gets his eyes on people. There are two ways to do it. One way is to love them personally; the other is to hate. Either way you are preoccupied with a person to the point of distraction or potential distraction.

The reaction of a person in love is disillusion and bitterness followed by implacability and vindictiveness as you continue in the cosmic system. The reaction of the believer to personality conflict is hatred, revenge motivation, personal insensitivity, the expression of all forms of arrogance, hostile subjectivity. The solution to people testing is the function of impersonal love under the various mandates of the royal family honour code. The reason God allows evil people to live long when often the good die young has to do with the cosmic system. He keeps the mean s.o.b. alive for a purpose — people testing in order to accelerate our spiritual growth.

3. Thought testing — generally related to the believer’s negative volition toward doctrine. There are two kinds of negative volition toward doctrine: Gate 2 of cosmic 1 is negative volition based on preoccupation with self. Gate 1 of cosmic 2 is antagonism toward some form of doctrine. There are two different ways in which negative volition toward doctrine is developed: you are arrogant and preoccupied with yourself and therefore doctrine is excluded, or you are antagonistic toward its content, it attacks you in some area, you are hypersensitive about some principle. Thought distraction can simply relate to one’s arrogance or preoccupation with self or it can originate from some prejudice that you have, some inflexibility that causes you to resist, doctrinal teaching that hits that area of prejudice.

Many times doubts in thought testing can result from neglect of doctrine, lack of daily function of GAP, and often the believer tries to reconcile his favourite academic subject with Bible doctrine. If reconciliation is impossible then he is distracted by taking the side of the academic subject.

The solution to thought testing includes rebound, the function of the faith-rest drill with emphasis on the essence of God rationale or the plan of God rationale which is of course the concept of logistical grace.

4. System testing. Sooner or later in life someone is going to be unfair to you and if that some is not just an individual but an individual in a system then you have system testing. The believer becomes the victim of a rotten system which requires him to have both the function of impersonal love plus the three stages of the faith-rest drill.

The world is filled with bad systems which seek to destroy the integrity and the honour of individuals. Bad systems always have their victims and likely as not if you are doing a good job you may be the victim of a bad system sooner or later. Many organisations become rotten and corrupt when the leadership of such a system is rotten or corrupt through involvement in the cosmic system. Many illustrations exist, e.g. the judicial system where the judges are sociologists instead of interpreters of the law; they favour criminals, they ignore the victims. Many people become bitter and disillusioned about doctrine simply because someone whom they love becomes the victim of such a thing.

System testing distracts from momentum of gate 4 when the believer becomes preoccupied with himself, when he resents human injustice to the point of self-pity, when he becomes bitter and full of hatred and implacability, when he seeks revenge tactics instead of leaving the problem in the Lord’s hands. System testing is a major source of peer ostracism. In addition to the function of impersonal love and the faith-rest drill as solutions there must be social life with God, gate 5 — worship, spiritual life, occupation with Christ.

5. The direct attack of cosmic 1. Every one of the 26 gates of cosmic 1 is waiting to entrap you and to get you out of the momentum line.

7. Disaster testing — where the believer faces both personal and collective disaster — personal disaster for blessing or warning for being in the cosmic system, collective disaster is a historical trend and we are the products of our own decisions as a nation.

8. Prosperity testing. We must all face the prosperity test before we can attain maturity. God will provide in logistical grace some system of prosperity, some system of human recognition, something that can be construed as prosperity. Does that change our scale of values? Does that prosperity make doctrine secondary? If so many many people flunk just before they crack the maturity barrier.

The concepts of arrogance, as we have noted, and the historical trends apply to almost every facet of life and this includes the principle of culture as well. In a book called Libro Nero, by Giavani Papini, is a very excellent confession on the part of Picasso, the one whose innovation brought about what we call cubism.

Giavani Papini gives an account of an interview with the so-called top god of modern art. Here is what Picasso had to say, quoting from the book: “From the moment that art ceases to be the food that feeds the best minds the artist can use his talents to perform all the tricks of an intellectual charlatan. Most people can today no longer receive consolation and exaltation from art. The refined, the rich, the professional do-nothings, the distillers of quintessence, desire only the peculiar, the sensational, the eccentric, the scandalous, in today’s art. And I, myself, since the advent of cubism have fed these fellows what they wanted and satisfied these critics with all the ridiculous ideas that have ever passed through my head. The less they understand me the more they admire me.

“Through amusing myself with all of these absurd farces I became celebrated and famous very rapidly. For a painter celebrity means sales and consequent affluence. Today, as you know, I am both celebrated but also rich. But when I am alone and do not have the effrontery to call myself an artist at all — not in the grand old meaning of the word — I consider myself a publican, a clown, a faker, a mount-te-bank. I have understood my time and exploited the imbecility, the vanity, the greed of my contemporaries. It is a bitter confession, this confession of mine, more painful than it may seem. But at last it does have the merit of being honest.”

2:3, the final phrase: “and”’ kai plus the perfect active indicative of the verb kopiaw, to become weary, to become tired, to faint under pressure. With it we have the negative o)u indicating that they did not faint under pressure, and in the perfect tense we translate that “and you have not fainted under pressure.” The dramatic perfect tense emphasises the result of the completed action. This is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect for a fact or condition which results from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

Because they passed the eight momentum tests, going from gate four to gate eight, they actually contributed to a large pivot from those churches. They made AD 96 — 180 the greatest period of prosperity in human history.

Anticipation that there would eventually be discipline comes from the manifestation of a downtrend. And with the exception of the church at Smyrna every one of these churches had believers who were on a downtrend, who were involved in the cosmic system. Outside of Smyrna there was a criticism of every one of these churches. In verse four we come to the criticism of the Ephesian church. As we do let’s recognise a principle: There is no such thing as a perfect church.

Verse 4, One of the reasons why believers fail is because they leave their first love. One reason why historical downtrends occur is because believers in a client nation to God leave their first love.

“Nevertheless,” A)lla, an adversative conjunction. It sets up a contrast between the commendation of the previous verse and the condemnation of this verse. In other words the congregation is divide.

“have,” e)xw, present active indicative. It means to have, to hold, to possess: “But I hold this”; “against thee,” kata plus su., “against you.” In being critical our Lord Jesus Christ shows how the trends of history go; “that,” o(ti.

Believers in the cosmic system produce no virtue. Virtue is the exclusive function of the divine dynasphere. That is why in the game plan the mandates call for each one of us to live in the divine dynasphere. “the,” thn, the accusative singular, definite article which occurs twice is used generically for a category of love, the motivating virtue of personal love directed toward God. Two things always go when you live in the cosmic system: there is no motivating virtue, which means personal love directed toward God. Secondly there is no functional virtue, impersonal love directed toward man.

“thee,” the genitive of relationship from the personal pronoun, su. It refers to the fact that the believer so involved once resided and functioned inside the divine dynasphere where they produced the motivating virtue of personal love for God from their royal priesthood and their functional virtue, impersonal love toward man, from their ambassadorship.

“first,” the accusative singular from the adjective prwtoj. This adjective is used for rank or degree and it means first in the sense of most important. Our most important love in life as a believer is the Lord Jesus Christ; “love”, accusative singular of a)gaph. Not used here in the sense of impersonal love as it often is, but objective love toward one who is unseen, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Corrected translation: “But I hold this against you, you have forsaken your most important love.”

2. In verses 2 & 3 of this chapter we noted the Ephesian believers residing in the divine dynasphere. They had not abandoned their most important love.

3. But in verse 4 we see believers living in that same congregation living inside the cosmic system under the control of Satan, in reversionism. They have deserted their most important love.

Cosmic involvement and reversionism results in the downtrends of history and the inevitable disaster. So we can’t blame disaster on anything but our own self-determination. Believers living in the cosmic system are the reason for any downtrend in a nation.

6. This historical downtrend occurred during the period known as the Antonine Caesars. It snowballed and while at the moment Ephesus enjoyed great prosperity by 180 AD there would be a great disaster caused by the increase of the number of believers living in the cosmic system.

7. The prosperity experienced by Ephesus under Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pious, and Marcus Aurelius, came to an end under the brutal rule of Commedus.

“Therefore” is the inferential conjunction o)un, a transitional particle. It denotes an inference from what precedes and is generally translated “therefore”; “remember,” present active imperative, mnemoneuw, to remember, to recall, to recall to mind. Translation: “Therefore recall to mind.” It is time to think about the situation. The Ephesian believers who are living in the cosmic system, who are contributing to the historical downtrend are to produce the action of the verb by mandate. The imperative mood is the imperative of entreaty, it does not really have the finality of a command because it demands participation from your own freewill. Therefore, it has the force of an urgency or a request; “whence,” poqen, from what place, or better, from what state. It is a status quo adverb. The status quo should be residence inside the divine dynasphere the only Christian status in which the plan of God can be fulfilled; “you have fallen” perfect active indicative of piptw. This is a reference to living in the cosmic system. To get into the cosmic system you have to use your own volition. The perfect tense is the tense of completed action and with the indicative mood the action is completed from the viewpoint of present time. And from the completed action comes existing results. Therefore we call this the intensive perfect, i.e. the existing results of sin are intensified through residence and function in the cosmic system. When special attention is directed to the results of the action [cosmic involvement] stress on the existing facts are intensified. This is the emphatic method in the Greek of presenting a fact or a condition — the believers involvement in the cosmic system and resultant historical downtrends.

The solution: “and,” kai and the aorist active imperative of the verb metanoiew, repent.

When this word came into the Koine Greek it was strictly a mental function and it means: noiew means to think, not emote or to run around and feel sorry for something. And meta means to change, so the word means to change your mind. This is exactly what the word means in the Old Testament too — the verb in the Hebrew is nachan. Cf. Exodus 13:17, “Lest the people, when they see war, change their minds and run back to Egypt.”

The word “repent” is used in connection with salvation. Salvation repentance is simply: upon hearing the Gospel and understanding it, changing your mind. If you believe in Christ you have changed your mind. Repent is a synonym for believe. You have changed your mind about Christ, therefore you have believed in Him. The change of mind, conversion, is called repentance, cf.. Mark 1:14,15; Matthew 12:41; Luke 13:2,3; 15:7, 10; Acts 17:30.

Change of attitude toward doctrine is the basis for reversion recovery. But that change of attitude first demands the rebound technique which is described as repentance. The change of mind toward doctrine is described as repentance.

When God is the subject of repentance it is an anthropopathism; God cannot change His mind. An anthropopathism ascribes to God a human characteristic which He does not actually possess, but it explains divine policy and function in terms of human frame of reference. Anthropopathisms are language of accommodation.

“repent,” Change your mind, which means the use of rebound to recover residence in the divine dynasphere. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist. It views the function of rebound in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results — residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. The only way to get back into the divine dynasphere is the rebound technique.

The next phrase emphasises the function of the believer at the various gates. Therefore this verse emphasises the filling of the Spirit which also results from the rebound technique, called here repentance.

“and,” kai plus the aorist active imperative of poiew, execute, accomplish, do. The culminative aorist views the function of the believer inside the divine dynasphere, walking by means of the Spirit, functioning at the various gates of the divine dynasphere, and regards it from the viewpoint of its existing result, momentum from function inside the divine dynasphere.

The direct object of the verb is composed of three Greek verbs. The first is the accusative plural of the definite article, “the,” ta. It is a generic definite article representing that category of believer who not only rebounds to recover from residence in the cosmic system, but perpetuates his function in the divine dynasphere. Next is the accusative plural from the adjective prwtoj — most important. It is used as an adjective of rank or degree, not first in matter of time, but in manner of rank or degree. Correct translation: “ … accomplish the most important production”; “works,” e)rgon, production. That means walking by means of the Holy Spirit. E)rgon is used for the perception and application of doctrine at Gate 4 of the divine dynasphere.

The alternative to repentance be gins with the three words, e)i de mh which are an idiom for “otherwise”; “I will come,” e)rxomai. The futuristic present tense denotes an event that has not ye occurred. Divine discipline for the individual believer, loss of local church franchise for the group of believers so involved. It also regards divine discipline for cosmic involvement as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. The middle voice of this verb: the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history produces the action of the verb. This is a potential indicative of obligation: persistence in the cosmic system demands that our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history administer punishment to believers so involved; “thee,” the dative of disadvantage of the personal pronoun su which refers to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who are living inside the cosmic system; “quickly,” there is no such word here in the Greek; “will remove,” future active indicative of the verb kinew, to remove. Jesus Christ who controls history produces the action of the verb in removing a local church franchise, which means the inevitable destruction of the client nation. First the churches go down, no doctrine is taught in the churches because there is no demand for it. Once there is no demand for it then the people have made their own decision and they have brought upon themselves the divine discipline that follows.

The indicative mood is potential of obligation. Our Lord’s obligation to the human race demands that in any given period in the Church Age both personal and collective punishments are necessary for those involved in the cosmic system. In this way history is perpetuated and God’s plan continues to the end of time.

“candlestick,” luxnia, lampstand. With it we have the possessive genitive su, your. Every church is a lampstand, a light in the client nation to God, and as goes the local church so goes the national entity; “out of his place,” e)k plus topoj. Lit. “from its place.” The removal of the lampstand is the end of the nation. When the churches are no longer teaching doctrine they may continue but they no longer have light. Loss of client nation status results from the failure of believers to respond to Bible doctrine. The removal of the lampstand is tantamount to the decline of the client nation to God, or to divine judgment under the five cycles of discipline. Principle: As goes the believer, so goes the client nation to God.

“unless,” e)an, is used to introduce the protasis of a third class condition. (The protasis is the premise of a debater’s technique.) Ea)n means that rebound is a possibility but it does involve your own volition under the function of your own royal priesthood before God. It is correctly translated “if.” It is accompanied by the negative mh, “If not.”

“repent,” the aorist active subjunctive of metanoiew, a change of mind. It has to do with the rebound technique. It can be a momentary action or a succession of actions occurring over a period of time.

Corrected translation of verse 5: “Therefore recall to mind from what state you have fallen, and change your mind, and execute the most important production; otherwise if you do not I will come to you in discipline, and I will remove your lampstand.”

1. Daily decisions of the believer determine the historical uptrend or downtrend of the client nation to God.

2. All momentum in the Christian way of life results from perception and application of Bible doctrine, the function of gate 4 of the divine dynasphere.

3. The first three gates of the divine dynasphere are the support for the momentum of learning doctrine, while the last four gates are the result of that momentum.

4. The uptrend of history is related then to the believer’s residence and function inside the divine dynasphere on a daily basis.

5. The downtrend of history is related to the believer’s residence and function inside the cosmic system.

6. The prosperity of a nation depends on two factors: From the standpoint of the laws of divine establishment the prosperity of a nation depends on the combination of the three components of manifest destiny; Bible doctrine gives the capacity and the stability to pass the prosperity test. From Bible doctrine then the size of the pivot of mature believers is the issue.

1. Not only believers, but all mankind, are the products of their own decisions — not their environment.

3. This also explains the principle then: as goes the believer in his daily life, so goes the client nation to God.

4. Arrogance is not only a motivating evil but the primary reason for any client nation to pass the prosperity test. When divine judgment is administered to the client nation the pivot of

5. When divine discipline comes to a client nation a large pivot of mature believers means national deliverance, but a small pivot of mature believers means national destruction under the 5th cycle of discipline.

6. Therefore another historical trend. A large pivot of mature believers preserves the nation in time of disaster and catastrophe, but a small pivot generally means the destruction of

7. God always uses the most evil nation available to administer the 5th cycle of discipline — the destruction of a client nation.

The solution is divided into two parts: the actual solution and the alternative. There is never an offered solution without an alternative. The corrected translation of the solution: “Therefore recall to mind from what state you have fallen, and change your mind, and accomplish the most important production.” The alternative is used with three words, “and if not,” e)i de mh. The first of these three words is the conditional particle e)i, and used with the negative mh it means “if not”; de, the post positive conjunction, emphasises the contrast between the believer who uses the solution and the alternative, the bad decision which includes both personal divine discipline as well as national disaster for the nation. The literal translation is “but if not,” but this is simply an idiom used after the affirmative clause and is translated “otherwise, or else.” This is the idiom of alternative.

There are two things that are necessary in this life if we are to have objectivity. Objectivity is the only way in which to look at life and avoid all of the pitfalls of neurosis, psychosis, sociopathic behaviour, and anything else that would be negative as far as this life in concerned. This first thing that has to be establish in our souls is an absolute and complete understanding of the significance of physical death. All objectivity in life must eliminate any fear, any concern, about physical death. As soon as the doctrine of death is understood from the standpoint of the Christian, objectivity asserts itself. We have no fear of death, we have no concern about how the Lord is going to take us out, and therefore all possible subjectivity, fear and concern is eliminated.

But there is also another problem in relationship to objectivity. That has to do with impersonal love and the ability to distinguish between people and their failures; the ability to understand the principle of motivating evil. Gate 1 of cosmic 1 is the area of motivating evil. It includes such things as arrogance, pride, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, revenge motivation, self-pity, or even guilt reactions to life. All of these combine to form in the soul a total subjectivity.

Verse 6 — a manifestation of a historical uptrend. Note that they did not hate the Nicolaitanes. You and I as believers in Jesus Christ cannot afford to hate anyone or anything. The moment you do you have at that moment become a subjective person and have lost all objectivity in life and, having done so, there is no possibility that you can cope with life.

One of the great tests in momentum in the spiritual life is the people test. You must learn to distinguish between people and the things into which they become involved. You must learn to hate sin, hate human good, hate evil, but not to hate the people who are involved in it.

“But,” A)lla (adversative conjunction) — “nevertheless.” The conjunction usually sets up some kind of a contrast. Here the contrast is between the downtrend, verse 5, and the uptrend, verse 6. “At least” is the best translation; “hast,” present active indicative of the verb e)xw, you have. They have a system of objectivity; “this”, o(utoj — refers to an area of objectivity which will be explained. “At least you have this,” and the idiom implies, “in your favour”; “that”, o(ti, here a causal conjunction. Translated “because” or “namely”; “thou hatest”, misew, a verb usually indicating sin. It means to hate and is a part of the mental attitude sins of Gate 1, Cosmic 1. But here it has a good connotation without sin. It has an objective connotation. The Ephesian believers have the ability to distinguish between the person and his sins, his human good, his evil; “deeds,” e)rgon, correctly translated “deeds.”

“Nicolaitanes,” nikolaitai, the deeds of the Nicolaitanes are rejected. The Ephesian believers have too much doctrine, too much objectivity in life. The Nicolaitanes are the licentious branch of Gnosticism, the great enemy of the Church in the first two centuries. The leader of the cult was a woman who was given the Bible name of Jezebel. The problem underlying the Nicolaitane controversy is the relationship of Christianity with paganism. There is a separation issue here. The compromise with paganism among the Nicolaitane Christians was a preview of things to come in the future. The Nicolaitanes represent the Gnostic phallic cult.

The issue in this verse is the ability of believers learning Bible doctrine and growing in grace to distinguish between people and their weaknesses and failures. Under the mandates of impersonal love the Ephesian believers do not hate the Nicolaitanes, they do not hate the people who are involved in this cult, only the deeds and the functions of the phallic cult. (The word Nicolaitane means “conqueror of the people” and certainly the phallic cult attracted people.)

The Lord adds His own attitude: “which,” o(j as a relative pronoun refers back to e)rgon, the deeds of the Nicolaitanes; “also,” kagw, a contraction made up of kai and e)gw, and is translated “I also”; “hate,” misew, hate or detest. The attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ toward evil. The very fact that there is a separation from evil is a matter of correct perspective for the believer living inside the divine dynasphere: the ability to separate the person from the problem.

Verse 6, a manifestation of a historical uptrend. Note that they did not hate the Nicolaitanes. You and I as believers in Jesus Christ cannot afford to hate anyone or anything. The moment you do you have at that moment become a subjective person and have lost all objectivity in life and, having done so, there is no possibility that you can cope with life.

“But,” A)lla (adversative conjunction), nevertheless. The conjunction usually sets up some kind of a contrast. Here the contrast is between the downtrend, verse 5, and the uptrend, verse 6. “At least” is the best translation; “hast” present active indicative of the verb e)xw, you have. They have a system of objectivity; “this,” o(utoj refers to an area of objectivity.

The Lord adds His own attitude: “which,” o(j, as a relative pronoun refers back to e)rgon, the deeds of the Nicolaitanes; “also,” kagw, a contraction made up of kai and e)gw. Translated “I also”; “hate,” misew, hate or detest. The attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ toward evil. The very fact that there is a separation from evil is a matter of correct perspective for the believer living inside the divine dynasphere, the ability to separate the person from the problem.

Verse 7, “hath,” e)xw, verb means to have. Present tense is a static present. It represents a situation assumed as perpetually existing: the possession of one or more ears. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb.

Connected with your ears is a principle called volition. You can learn anything you want to even though it may take you a little while to do it. The ear represents the grace system of perception: “an ear,” o)uj, no-one earns or deserves the right to have ears. Hearing has always been one of the major systems of perspicacity. God has provided a grace system for the perception of Bible doctrine, a system where IQ is not an issue, only positive volition and the consistent decisions to learn doctrine; “hear,” a)kouw, this goes far beyond merely hearing sound. It deals with motivation and volition and your desire to learn, your teachability. What you learn today motivates you for learning something in addition to that tomorrow. Doctrine is built on doctrine and each doctrine learned becomes motivation for learning the rest. The mandate for the Christian life is perception of doctrine — consistently; “what,” tij — what sort of thing; “Spirit,” pneuma, reference to God the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is the power by which the divine dynasphere functions; “saith”, present active indicative of legw, to say, to speak, or to communicate. The customary present tense for what habitually occurs when believers reside and function inside the divine dynasphere. The believer residing in the divine dynasphere is filled with the Spirit and therefore qualified for perception of doctrine regardless of IQ. God the Holy Spirit produces the action, teaching Bible doctrine to believers, John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27.

1. The mandate for residence in the divine dynasphere, Ephesians 5:18: “Be filled with the Spirit.” That refers to gate 1, that’s the power in God’s power system.

2. The function in the divine dynasphere, Galatians 5:16: “Be walking by means of the Spirit.”

These are four mandates and in each one you are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. If you are filled with the Spirit you have entered the divine dynasphere, you are always indwelt. If you are functioning at the different gates you walk by means of the Spirit and at the same time you are indwelt by the Spirit. If you are in cosmic 1 you grieve the Holy Spirit but you are still indwelt by the Spirit. If you are in cosmic two you quench the Holy Spirit but you are still indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit does not preclude the communication of Bible doctrine by the pastor but aids it and enhances it.

“churches,” e)kklhsia, the thing that made Rome great. All teaching is conducted in the classroom of the local church. The reason for that is academic discipline. There must be a system of authority.

Translation of verse seven so far: “He who has an ear, let him hear what sort of thing [Bible doctrine] the Spirit communicates to the churches.” If you learn your doctrine, if you grow in grace, if you advance to maturity, there is a future reward in eternity.

The tree of life is the total happiness for which man was designed by creation before man sinned. Any references to the tree of life are confined generally to three books in the Bible, the first and the last, Genesis and Revelation, and some interesting references in Proverbs. Full capacity for eternal blessing and happiness is related to the tree of life and as we have it in this passage (Revelation 2:7) it is a special reward that belongs only to a few.

The tree of life of course is related to immortality, for capacity for blessing and happiness; it is perpetuated without any act of volition. In eternity there will be no volitional tests whereby we can lose salvation or anything related to salvation. In other words, in eternity man will not be able in his resurrection body to repeat the fall of our original parents in the Garden. The tree of life is related to immortality under the status of eternal happiness; there are degrees of happiness in heaven. The losers and the winners are the two categories of believers in heaven, in eternity. The winners are those who cracked the maturity barrier, advancing from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere. The losers are the believers who lived out their lives in the cosmic system. The losers or cosmic believers have a resurrection body but they do not have the privilege of eating at the tree of life.

“in the midst of the paradise of God,” en plus the locative of paradeisoj, a transliteration from the Persian word which came through the Hebrew, pardes — a place where you had a great time. It was a place where the Persian kings threw their parties and therefore it is associated with happiness. In eternity, in heaven, there is a special park, the Paradise belonging to God, where stands the tree of life. Access is open to everyone in Paradise but the privilege of eating from the tree of life belongs only to the winners, believers who live inside the divine dynasphere and advance to maturity.

There are four categories of trees in the garden of Eden, Genesis 2:9. First category: every tree being desirable to the sight; second category: and those good for food; third category: and the tree of life in the middle of the garden; category four: and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Category one is a category designed for the prosperity of the soul. All happiness in mankind must relate to man’s soul: to his self-consciousness, to his frontal lobes, the emotion (which by itself is a disaster) which was designed to be responsive to thought in the soul, the volition which is not an issue in eternity but is an issue in time. All happiness is related to what you think, and if doctrine is resident in your soul then you have happiness. If you have in the soul capacity for happiness from doctrine, then what you are doing, no matter what it is, is the expression of that happiness. Circumstances make no difference. The first tree in the garden relates to the principle of happiness of soul. Man was created in an environment of happiness for the soul. The woman was taken from man and created in an environment of happiness for the soul. Category one, then, was designed for man’s pleasure of soul, for his capacity for happiness. Man in his original state then derived great pleasure from the observation of category one trees, the trees being desirable to the sight. As created from God, then, man had perfect capacity for happiness. Therefore the state of innocence in the garden was the epitome of great happiness. Man reaped what God sowed, and even though man moved into a state of sin the principle of happiness never changed. The trees were gone but the principle remains: happiness is a state of soul; misery is a state of soul. In the original creation man was created to be a creature of happiness. When man left the garden of his own volition he also walked out on perfect happiness.

Category two trees, mentioned in Genesis 2:9 — “and those good for food.” Fun and happiness has always been associated with eating, and the reason for that is that God designed the taste buds. Then taste buds are not the soul, they are related to the body. And the fact is that man in the garden had happiness of soul and happiness of body. Food was designed to express happiness, to satisfy, to stimulate, to perpetuate health in the human body. Again, the grace principle of blessing: Adam in innocence reaped what God sowed. Stimulation of the taste buds was a reminder of God’s grace before sin, just as eating the bread of the communion table is reminder of exactly the same thing. In our soul, if we have doctrine and when we eat the bread of the communion table it is a reminder of God’s grace after man sinned. The body is the home of the soul. Therefore the first two categories of trees in the garden provided blessing for both body and soul.

Category three tree is the tree of life. The tree of life was both the capacity for happiness plus blessing — total appreciation of God’s grace. Hence the tree of life is the total happiness of man designed by God when He created Adam. By creation, man was created to be happy. He had a perfect soul in a perfect body. Therefore he had perfect origin of happiness, perfect expression of happiness. The temptation came not to Adam but to the woman. And the woman became unhappy. Why? Because she thought God had put one over on her! She thought that God had forbidden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for one reason: because God was afraid that if the woman, arrogant woman, ate from that tree she would be as smart as God!

By creation man was designed for happiness, blessing, prosperity, which was perpetuated indefinitely unless he used his own free will to reject it all. The only way man could be unhappy was to use his own free will to disobey God and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, only negative volition toward the plan of God. Man was perpetuated in happiness in the garden indefinitely, there was no termination on the contract unless man terminated it. Only disobedience could destroy the perfect happiness and the perfect capacity for happiness which existed in the garden. The tree of life combined immortality with perfect happiness and could only be lost through Adam’s disobedience. The first sin in life was not a sin related to morality. The greatest sins are never related to morality, they are related to the plan of God. And man’s first sin was simply to eat from a tree on which the fruit was forbidden. Therefore, the first sin and the greatest sin involved no morality at all. What it involved was rejecting perfect happiness provided by God; it was rejecting perfect prosperity provided by God; it was rejecting perfect environment provided by God. In other words, the tree of life would be useless to man in a state of spiritual death from sin, which is his state today. Obviously then the tree of life was provided for man as the ruler of this world. A ruler ought to be happy. If a ruler is happy it filters down. The tree of life would be useless to man in the status of spiritual death. Why? It is impossible to be a sinner and to be happy. Sin destroys happiness. That is why you cannot sin inside the divine dynasphere, and you have to make a decision to get out. This tree was man’s use, then, of positive volition toward the plan of God which made man the ruler of planet earth. And the tree of life is God’s grace provision for man as the ruler of this world. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict and for an indefinite period of time man had perfect happiness and continued to use positive signals toward divine prohibition. Man was created, however, with free will in order to resolve Satan’s appeal of his sentence to go to the lake of fire, Matthew 25:41. Therefore the tree of life was the expression of man’s positive volition toward God’s provision: perfect happiness, perfect environment. The tree of life was provided under the principle of grace. Man didn’t earn it; man didn’t deserve it.

When man sinned and went into negative volition toward the divine prohibition toward the fourth tree he was driven out of the garden of Eden and cut off from the tree of life — Genesis 3:24. In other words, the tree of life represents two things: perfect happiness and perfect happiness perpetuated. It was cut off so that perfect happiness cannot exist in the human race through the tree of life. As close as you can come to perfect happiness is the status quo of maturity at gate 8. And just as eating at the tree of life meant happiness, so (eating — taking in the Word of God) doctrine in the soul is as close as you can come to the perfect happiness of the garden. There is no other way. And you can destroy that perfect happiness the same way that Adam did: by the use of your own volition. We are the products of our own volition. If man in the status of spiritual death had eaten from the tree of life his human volition or free will would no longer be the means of solving the angelic conflict. Immortality in that status of spiritual death would condemn the human race to the lake of fire with Satan. So in Genesis 3:22-24. You can’t have an old sin nature and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is a contradiction of destruction. You can’t have perfect happiness and sin. You cannot choose simultaneously both the plan of God and the cosmic system of Satan because they are mutually exclusive. Man would have no free will after the fall if he had been permitted to eat of the tree of life, and therefore the tree of life was put out of his reach so that his own free will would determine where he spends eternity — that’s faith in Christ at the cross — and his own free will would determine whether he would be happy or miserable in life. By expelling man from the garden the eating the tree of life was no longer the issue, but the eating of another tree, the cross. Eating is an illustration of faith; it is a non-meritorious function.

The tree of life is total happiness for which man was designed by creation before man sinned. When Adam was created by the Lord he was absolutely perfect and he was designed with a soul and a body to enjoy perfect happiness. Full capacity for eternal blessing and happiness is related to the tree of life as we have it in this passage. It is a special reward for happiness, the highest form of happiness that can exist in a resurrection body. In other words, in eternity man in his resurrection body will not be able in his resurrection body to repeat the fall of the original man. He will not be in a position to use his free will to deny the perfect happiness and to reject it as he had it in the garden. The tree of life is related to immortality under the status of perfect eternal happiness and environment. There are degrees of happiness in heaven just as there are degrees of happiness on earth.

By creation man was designed for happiness and blessing and prosperity which was to be perpetuated indefinitely, and as long as man was positive toward God’s plan that is what happened in the perfect environment of the garden. The prohibition to not eat from the fourth tree was the only thing necessary, he only had to obey this one command. Only disobedience to this one command could destroy his happiness and his relationship with God. Only negative volition, then, toward the plan of God as it was then expressed and revealed was all that could destroy that perfect happiness. The tree of life, of course, combined capacity for happiness with immortality [perfect happiness and immortality go together] and could only be lost by a negative action on the part of the man and the woman. In other words the tree of life would be useless to man in the spiritual status of death. And since man died spiritually when he ate of the tree it was absolutely necessary that the tree of life be closed down until a future time, i.e. eternity. Obviously then the tree of life was provided for man as the ruler of this world. The tree, then, was man’s use of positive volition toward the plan of God. And it should be remembered that the soul is not only the source of great happiness but that happiness is never divorced form virtue. Motivating virtue is virtue directed toward God, worship is a motivating virtue, it has its counterpart in a functional virtue, morality toward man. Then there is personal love for God, which is a virtue, and impersonal love which is directed toward man is a virtue. Confidence in God is a virtue; courage toward man and circumstances is a virtue. Obviously then the tree of life was provided for man to demonstrate as the ruler of this world in perfect environment, both virtue and happiness. Since both are related to the soul and the content of doctrine in the soul they obviously stand or fall together. Man was created with a free will in order that he might continue to choose God’s perfect provision or to reject it.

The tree of life, then, was provided by God’s grace to be associated with man’s positive volition expressed in his free will for the plan of God, while he functions as the ruler of this world from his headquarters in the garden of Eden. And when man sinned or went on negative volition toward the divine provision and the plan of God for perfect environment on planet earth — perfect happiness and perfect virtue — he lost the rulership of this world and he was removed from the garden, the Paradise, Genesis 3:24. The tree of life was forbidden. No longer can man have happiness simply by partaking of the tree of life, and therefore, of course, a new tree had to be selected in order for happiness to exist. The principle is quite obvious: you cannot choose simultaneously both the plan of God and the cosmic system of Satan for they are mutually exclusive. Man would have no free will after the fall if he had been permitted to eat of then tree of life. Happiness in a state of sin is totally incompatible with God’s plan and therefore they cannot coexist, and the tree of life was closed down. And, therefore, by expelling man from the garden the eating from the tree of life was no longer an issue. There is no way that God is going to permit sin to coexist with happiness. Virtue is what coexists with perfect happiness.

After man had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he was spiritually dead. If man in spiritual death possessed the sin nature of Adam and eats from the tree of life, then you have the coexistence of happiness with sin. Human life is imputed to man immediately after birth and it is imputed to his human soul, because that means that God, even after the fall of man, has designed a system whereby man can have happiness in time and far greater happiness in eternity. So the soul still exists and there is the human life being imputed to the soul. Human life will always exist in the soul whether the individual goes to heaven or to hell. At the same time Adam’s original sin was imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature in the body. The imputation of Adam’s sin means that we have been born physically alive and spiritually dead. But it also means that if anyone dies before reaching the age of accountability he has automatic eternal salvation without going through the usual route by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Note that we are condemned at birth before we are able to use our volition to commit our first sin. Eventually as an expression of our old sin nature we do so, and therefore we accumulate in our lifetime personal sins. All of these personal sins were sent to another tree; this time the tree is the cross, not the tree of life. This is the tree of eternal life. When our Lord Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross all of our personal sins were imputed to Him and judged. Therefore we have the way of salvation: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

After the fall the purpose of the creation of man could only be perpetuated by cutting mankind of from the tree of life, and providing a new tree of life which is the cross and eternal salvation. In this area we have the use of the fourth tree, the knowledge of good and evil. “Good” is one of the two words for the plan of God. Good in the sense of absolute good is a)gathoj: X+Y+Z = a)gaqoj. The other is dunamij, where we get our power sphere, the divine dynasphere. By remaining in the garden in status quo spiritual death man would have been immortal with unhappiness. Therefore, God in His wisdom shut down any possibility of the tree of life.

Now we have the issue of the fourth tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The first three categories of trees in the garden should be summarised. They should be noted because there is a great principle that comes out of this related to our subject of historical trends. Category one trees, the trees that provided happiness in the soul — prosperity and blessing — and made the soul the seat of human happiness, first of all existed in the garden in perfect status. The trees were perfect, the one who ate from the trees or looked at the trees was perfect, and the result was perfect happiness. Perfect happiness excludes boredom, therefore the reason why man sinned or rejected all of this was not boredom. Category one tree relates to capacity for happiness in the soul, a capacity that keeps you from boredom. Category two trees provided prosperity and happiness for the human body. The human body became the recipient of happiness overflowing from the soul. Therefore the principle: All capacity for happiness must reside in the soul and without that soul capacity there cannot exist that basic prosperity of capacity for life, love, and happiness. Category three tree is the tree of life which perpetuates happiness and prosperity in both the human soul and body in perfect environment in the garden. But the tree of life is only good and only fulfils its purpose in perfect environment. So the first three categories of trees are related to the plan of God for man in innocence and for the believer in resurrection body in eternity. The use of all three categories of trees is tantamount to positive volition toward the plan of God in status quo innocence. As long as man made good decisions of eating from the proper trees in the garden and refusing to eat from category four he perpetuated his options for more decisions, greater decisions, which perpetuated his happiness, his blessing, and his prosperity from God.

There is only one category of tree, of course, which man was to use and to demonstrate his volition in a negative way: category four, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eating from this tree destroyed man’s original prosperity and happiness. Man actually stood there and had his choice between the woman and unhappiness outside the garden and the perpetuation of perfect happiness inside of the garden. Man has been making those choices ever since. Man has the propensity with his old sin nature of choosing, making decisions, whereby he makes himself miserable. Once man ate from the forbidden tree the immortality of eternal life must be attained in some other way: the tree of eternal life, the cross, where our Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. As long as man continued in the garden without sin or that state of innocence he did not need the fruit of that fourth tree. Man did not need to know good and evil. It was unnecessary as long as he had the first three categories of trees. In spiritual death the options of free will and the function of man’s decisions are then related to good and evil. Good is the plan of God while evil is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world.

Remember that good is the plan of God: X is human life imputed at birth plus Adam’s original sin = the first potential: salvation. Plus the pertinent doctrine, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ = hope1 (absolute confidence that when we believe in Christ we have eternal life), plus the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and possess eternal life. Now we are immature believers in Y radical. Here we have a judicial imputation. Judicial imputation number one took place at birth: Adam’s original sin was imputed to us. Our personal sins were imputed to Christ on the cross. Plus judicial imputation number two: the imputation of divine righteousness to us at the moment we believed. That leads to a second potential replacing the first: the potential of great blessing in time, for all blessing is imputed to the indwelling righteousness of God. Plus the pertinent doctrine = hope2 — absolute confidence that when we persist in perception of doctrine — gate four of the divine dynasphere — we reach gate eight, maturity. Plus maturity adjustment to the justice of God. Z radical brings us very close to the tree of life, for in Z radical we have the imputation of eternal life at salvation, plus the imputation of great blessing in time from advancing to gate eight = the third potential, the potential for great blessing and reward in eternity. Plus the pertinent doctrine = hope3, absolute confidence that after the Rapture of the Church at the judgment seat of Christ we are going to receive the imputation of great reward and blessing for advance in time. This equals “the good,” all things working together for good — a)gaqoj. And the means of execution of this is also provided by God as the prototype was provided for the humanity of Christ, and that is the divine dynasphere with its eight gates. You cannot accomplish X+Y+Z except inside the divine dynasphere. That is why only inside the divine dynasphere, at the eight gates, you have degrees of happiness, something that is comparable to the tree of life in the garden. The believer must choose constantly between residence in the divine dynasphere and living in the cosmic system. All uptrends and downtrends of history are related to the decisions of believers in choosing life either in the divine dynasphere or in the cosmic system. In the garden of Eden man was the ruler of this world, but outside the garden Satan is the ruler of this world. Inside the garden man could only sin by eating from one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Inside the garden neither good not evil were issues because of the first three categories of trees. In innocence man did not have to understand good and evil to have a relationship with God. Only in sinfulness and spiritual death must man understand good and evil and make the choice, first at salvation and, afterward the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system.

What is the issue in the book of Proverbs with regard to the book of life? It is the issue of happiness in relationship with God, happiness in relationship to what God has provided as a substitute for the first three categories of trees in the garden.

1. As indicated by the first three categories of trees in the garden God created man to be happy. But that happiness demanded perfect environment, a soul designed for happiness, and its perpetuation through the tree of life.

2. Therefore God provided the perfect soul, the perfect body, the perfect environment for man’s happiness.

3. When Adam sinned it was not a sin of morality but a sin of rejection of God’s plan and God who invented happiness for man. It was a rejection of God’s plan and of God Himself and of God’s invention. The trees were all invented for man’s happiness in perfect environment. Happiness had to be perpetuated by the function of free will. Therefore one tree was forbidden. Happiness is a matter of decisions related to the soul.

5. After salvation man can recover happiness but it is all related to a divine invention, the divine dynasphere and the daily perception of doctrine inside that dynasphere. Doctrine perceived in the cosmic system is useless, therefore the importance of the rebound technique.

6. As indicated by the first category of trees in the garden happiness is first of all the status quo of the soul, and if there is not happiness in the soul you can have everything associated with happiness in life and be unhappy with it.

7. As indicated in the second category of trees happiness is expressed from the soul to the body. Man’s food was not necessary to sustain his body, the trees that were good for food stimulated the body, stimulated the taste buds.

8. Believers who are winners live in the divine dynasphere consistently but believers who are losers live in the cosmic system.

10. However, cosmic believers are always seeking happiness and they seek it in some area associated with happiness. But their unhappy state of soul guarantees their unhappiness in seeking and finding their associations.

11. For example, marriage is often associated with happiness. But when an unhappy person gets married he has an unhappy marriage because he brings unhappiness into the marriage. The status of the soul is not changed by marriage.

12. Often associated with happiness is becoming wealthy. But the cosmic believer may be wealthy and be a very unhappy millionaire. Happiness is not the status of the individual financially, it is the status of the soul.

13. You may change jobs in seeking happiness but even in the perfect job, if you are unhappy of soul, you are unhappy in your job.

1. The cosmic believer is a soul minus doctrine, or what doctrine he has has no relationship to happiness and blessing. Therefore the cosmic believer is a very unhappy person.

2. The rejection of Bible doctrine — which is, of course, rejection of life in the divine dynasphere — is tantamount to Adam’s rejection of perfect happiness in the garden. He used his own free will to reject it, just as we as believers make wrong decisions in life, and when we do, we simply create our own unhappiness. Unhappiness is created by man’s volition. Happiness is the invention of God, and God only administers it to those who are making right decisions. Therefore the importance of the divine dynasphere.

3. Once man had sinned from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, eating from the tree of life would have simply perpetuated his status of unhappiness in the garden. Therefore the tree was shut down.

4. The Church is a Christian institution and designed for happiness. But the believer in the local church minus doctrine is an unhappy person in an institution designed for happiness.

5. Marriage is a divine institution, in contrast to a Christian institution, and designed for happiness, but believers who are unhappy of soul are unhappy in the divine institutions. There is nothing wrong with the institution of marriage and there is nothing wrong with the Church, it is just that the people who are involved make it appear so.

6. You take your soul wherever you go, which means you carry your unhappiness with you, and you take it into happy circumstances and they become unhappy. One wet blanket at a party can ruin a party! One rotten apple spoils the barrel.

7. You can be unhappy at a happy party, you can be unhappy at a happy church, you can be unhappy in a happy business, you can be unhappy on a happy vacation, you can be unhappy with a million dollars, or anything you associate with happiness, and it all adds up to unhappiness. There is nothing associated with happiness that will bring you happiness if you are unhappy. That is the state of your soul.

8. Happiness and happy circumstances belongs to the happy, believers with maximum doctrine in the soul, just as happiness in unhappy circumstances belongs to the happy.

9. This is another way of describing the believer who is a winner. The happy believer is a winner because he lives his life in the divine dynasphere. Happy believers have a soul filled with Bible doctrine from residence and function at gate four, interlocked with gates one, two and three.

10. Therefore it is inevitable that the winner, the happy believer, should have access to a special reward in heaven, in eternity. And he does! It is the tree of life.

Learn then from the tree of life that happiness is not success, promotion, wealth, fame, approbation, recognition, sex, social life, or even health, for even unhappy people are involved in all of these. Happiness belongs to the believer who lives and functions in the divine dynasphere. In eternity happiness is that ultimate which belongs to the winner only. In other words, God takes the happiness that is engendered in the divine dynasphere, gate 8, and perpetuates it to the tree of life, and only a few believers in every generation are going to have the privilege in eternity of eating from the tree of life.

With that understanding you can begin to appreciate why in Proverbs the tree of life is mentioned three times. Why is the tree of life mentioned? Because the tree of life is related to the subject of human happiness. The book of Proverbs has something to say about the subject — 3:13-18.

Verse 13, “How happy is the man who finds wisdom” — wisdom is maximum doctrine applied — “the man who gains understanding of doctrine.”

Verse 14, “For its profit is better than the profit of money, and its gain than fine gold.”

Verse 15 now takes doctrine, which is a feminine gender word in the Hebrew, and translates it by the word “she” [the personification of Bible doctrine]. “She is more precious than jewels” — the possession of jewels was not only a sign of wealth but a sign of enjoyment of those things — “and nothing can compare with her [Bible doctrine].”

Verse 16, “Long life is in her right hand” — doctrine is a basis for long life — “in her left hand are riches and honour.” These are the rewards in time through advancing to maturity.

Verse 17 ,“Her ways,” the ways of doctrine; “are pleasant ways, and her paths,” the paths of doctrine; “are prosperity.”

Verse 18, “She is a tree of life,” doctrine is the tree of life. And the tree of life in the garden is forbidden but there is a tree of life in time — the perception of Bible doctrine in the soul produces happiness in the soul, without which there is no capacity for love, for life, for prosperity in any form; “to those who take hold of her [doctrine], and happy are all who hold her [doctrine resident in the soul].”

So perception of Bible doctrine is analogous to eating from the tree of life in the garden. In time, learning Bible doctrine is as close as we can get to the tree of life in the garden. Those who persist in the perception of doctrine in time will eat from the tree of life in eternity. In eternity there is an ultimate reward, and that ultimate reward in the resurrection body belongs to those who discover something in this life, the true secret of happiness: eating from the tree of life which God has provided for our happiness now. This is another way of saying the perception of Bible doctrine through residence and function in the divine dynasphere.

Proverbs chapter 11:11-31; 13:10-16; 15:1-5. Cursed by association; blessed by doctrine

When Adam sinned it was not a sin of morality, it was a sin of rejecting God’s plan and God’s invention of perfect happiness. After salvation man can, of course, recover happiness through his residence and function inside the divine dynasphere for there is a new tree of life since the fall of man which is the cross. And when a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ he becomes a possessor instantly of eternal life. This means that the door for happiness is opened in this life, and the door of happiness is residence and function inside the dynasphere. The first three trees in the garden emphasise happiness as a state of the soul. The second category of trees in the garden represented or expressed the happiness relationship between the soul and the body. In time learning Bible doctrine is as close as we can get to that tree of life in Paradise, and those who persist in the perception of doctrine in time will eat from the tree of life in eternity and ultimately receive that fantastic reward. In other words, the tree of life in our context, Revelation 2:7, is the ultimate reward and blessing for the believer whose consistent and persistent positive volition toward doctrine results in spiritual advance to maturity. Therefore, in this dispensation this is only possible through our life in the divine dynasphere, which means constant decisions to reject the evil tree of the cosmic system.

In addition to the concept of the tree of life found in Revelation 2:7, it is also found in several other passages in Revelation. For example, it is found in Revelation 22:2. There the tree of life is found in the location of the new Jerusalem of eternity. It is located there for the availability of those Jews who reached maturity in the past and did so through Bible doctrine but without the benefit of the divine dynasphere. Revelation 22:14 also mentions the tree of life in relationship to eternal happiness and blessing. It is associated there with the great reward that comes to the winners — “Happy are those who wash their robes [the use of rebound in time to recover residence in the divine dynasphere] and continue their momentum, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates of the city.” The mature believer has as his ultimate reward in eternity for ever and ever access to a special super happiness that will not belong to the losers in eternity. So he has the ultimate in happiness in time and it is fitting that he should have the ultimate of happiness in heaven in eternity.

The principle of cursing by association with people versus blessing by association with doctrine.

If you are going to be happy in time, if you are going to fulfil God’s plan, if your life is going to glorify God, this principle must become real. Happiness does not come to you by your association with people. If you are a happy person associating with people that is one thing, but if you are an unhappy person association with people isn’t going to improve your situation.

1. There was a tremendous conflict in the garden of Eden which continues to have repercussion until this day. The woman sinned first, the sin of ignorance, and by her act of disobedience she had rejected and lost the perfect happiness of the garden of Eden. But she did so motivated by arrogance. She thought that by taking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil it would make her as smart as God. But what she discovered immediately is that that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when you are under the control of Satan, is human good and evil, for human good is synonymous with evil. She didn’t have any idea of good as the plan of God.

2. At the time of the woman’s sin and her spiritual death Adam was still in a state of perfect happiness. Adam and the woman had a perfect relationship because they had perfect happiness in the garden. So before the woman sinned it was a person coalescing with a person., combining perfect happiness with perfect happiness in any possible expression of happiness.

3. Adam could choose perfect happiness with God in the garden or unhappiness with the woman outside the garden. They had perfect happiness in the garden; they were created for perfect happiness. And as long as they stayed away from the forbidden tree that perfect happiness would be perpetuated by their eating at the tree of life. But when the woman sinned she was minus that perfect happiness, she became plus the old sin nature. But Adam remembers her and the good times together in the garden, and therefore he does something that creates a principle. In thinking of her as she was and the good times together he forgot the source of all of our good times, God. He had to choose between the Source and the memory of fun. So he said No to the Source, to God, and he took the fruit from the hand of the woman. But he did it on the basis of memory of the wonderful times they had had together, not the memory of the Source of happiness. For happiness you always have to go to the source and the only way you can do that is to recall doctrine at the right time in your life. This is the tragedy of so many Christians: they forgot to apply doctrine at the right time and make the right decision.

4. Unhappiness with the woman won. Adam could choose perfect happiness with God in the garden or unhappiness with the woman outside of the garden. Unhappiness with the woman won and the power of the principle of cursing by association became a major factor in human relationship throughout history. Man chose to be unhappy. We are the products of our own decisions.

5. Unhappiness always attacks happiness for happiness is the invention of God to be maintained by means of our new tree of life — Bible doctrine resident in the soul — Proverbs 3:13-18.

6. You cannot remain happy by association with unhappy people, except under one condition: the life in divine dynasphere and the daily perception of Bible doctrine. It’s the only way you can handle unhappiness.

7. You can associate with unhappy people in business life, social life, married, life, home life, professional life, and spiritual life. And unless you possess Bible doctrine in your soul and its constant application and formation of a true scale of values, you will become unhappy through the principle of cursing by association.

8. The pull on Adam in the garden before he sinned was stronger in the direction of the unhappy woman who had sinned than in the direction of God who had provided the trees in the garden for his happiness. This problem continues today: the people with whom you associate may be unhappy. We can associate with them but none of us are strong enough to do it on our own. The only way you can do it is life in the divine dynasphere. Unhappy people will get to you every time if you don’t have that doctrine. [If you say No to the Source, then you’ll say Yes to the sourceless every time!]

2. Therefore, believer beware that in your association with unhappy people you do not reject or ignore your source of happiness — remember God. Your source of happiness is Bible doctrine.

3. Unhappiness is contagious unless you function at gate four of the divine dynasphere, perception and application of Bible doctrine.

4. In some cases decisions must be made in the direction of separation. In many cases, like marriage, home life, business association, there is no physical separation possible. The believer must therefore use doctrine to endure. But you can’t endure grimly. If you do not endure in a state of happiness, your own personal happiness, then you are never going to make it in life and you are going to wind up under the principle of cursing by association. The point is, can you hold your own when you are associated with someone who is an unhappy person? Adam didn’t, and Adam was stronger than we are. Therefore we have to have something stronger than we are to do it. And the only way to do it is to go to the source, eating from the tree of life, your daily perception of Bible doctrine. So enduring in a state of happiness it does not mean to hang on grimly, it means that you are not in any way affected by the unhappiness of someone associated with you.

5. Some situations are endured with happiness while other circumstances simply demand separation.

6. Sorting this out, however, requires maximum knowledge of doctrine for the wisdom to do so. And that doctrine must come from the basis of happiness in the human soul. The believer who does this consistently is a winner and will be rewarded by access to the tree of life in eternity. the ultimate in happiness forever and ever.

Verse 11, “By the blessing of the upright [the mature believer] a city is exalted [blessing by association], but by the mouth of the wicked one [the cosmic believer] it is destroyed.”

Verse 12, “He who despises his neighbour [hatred: gate one, cosmic one] is destitute of doctrine [he lacks sense], but a man of understanding minds his own business [function of the doctrine of privacy].”

Verse 13, “He who functions as a talebearer [a violation of privacy] reveals secrets, but he who is faithful of spirit conceals the matter.”

Verse 14, “Where there is no guidance [from doctrine], the people fail; but where there is no lack of leadership there is deliverance.”

Verse 15, “He who is a co-signer of a note for a stranger will suffer for it, but he who hates co-signing is secure.”

In other words, friendship and compatibility is not based on doing something for someone, but true rapport is based on two happy people.

Verse 16, “A grace woman acquires integrity [or honour], a strong man in doctrine attains happiness.”

Verse 17, “The grace man benefits his own soul with happiness, but the cruel person [cosmic believer] troubles his own flesh.”

We are, as unhappy people, our own worst enemies. God invented happiness to remove that problem.

Verse 18, “The wicked [the cosmic believer] earns the wages of a lie, but he who sows righteousness has a true reward.” The true reward is the tree of life.

Verse 19, “The truly righteous believer lives, but he who persues evil [the cosmic believer] goes to his death [doctrine of the sin unto death].”

Verse 20, “The Lord detests men of distorted right lobes [an unhappy person], but the upright in the way [the believer positive toward doctrine] are his delight.”

Verse 21, “Be sure of this, the evil will not go unpunished; but the descendants of the righteous will be delivered [there is blessing by association].”

Verse 22, “Like a ring of gold in a pig’s snout, so is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion [or wisdom].” In other words, the woman can be beautiful, but if she has an unhappy soul you may as well put the jewel in the pig’s nose.

Verse 23, “The desire of the righteous is unique good, but the expectation of the evil [the cosmic believer] is wrath.” In other words, they make decisions that bring disaster upon themselves.

Verse 24, “One man gives generously yet gains even more; another man is stingy and comes to poverty.”

Verse 25, “A generous man will prosper, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed”.

Verse 26, “People curse the man who hoards grain; but blessing crowns the one who is willing to sell.” Verse 27, “He who seeks good finds grace blessing; but evil comes to him who seeks it.”

Verse 28, “He who trusts in riches will fall, but the righteous will prosper like the green leaf.”

Verse 29, “He who causes sorrow to his family will inherit the wind; and the fool will be the servant of the wise in the right lobe.”

Verse 30, “The fruit of the mature believer is a tree of life” — happy people witness properly. They are motivated for it. Miserable people, unhappy people of soul (unhappy believers) are ineffective in witnessing — “he who wins souls is wise.” But that wisdom must come before the soul winning.

Verse 31, “If the righteous will be rewarded on earth [the mature believer who has happiness on earth]; how much more the cosmic believer and the sinner will receive discipline.”

Verse 10, “Through arrogance comes nothing but strife [arrogance means unhappiness], but wisdom is found in those who take advice.”

Verse 11, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.” Verse 12, the principle: “Hope deferred makes the heart [right lobe] sick; but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” In other words, you will never find happiness through your hopes in getting something you associate with happiness. Your happiness will only come from feeding on the tree of life — Bible doctrine.

Verse 13, “The one who despises the word will pay for it, but the one who respects the mandate of God will be rewarded.”

Verse 14, “The teaching of the wise pastor is the fountain life, turning a person from the snares of death”.

Verse 15, “Good understanding of doctrine wins favour, but the way of the unfaithful does not endure”.

Verse 16, “Every wise person acts out of knowledge of doctrine, but a fool [the cosmic believer] exposes his folly.”

Verse 1, “A gentle answer [a happy person doesn’t have to get up on his high horse when he is challenged or when someone is being unkind] turns away wrath, but harsh words stir up anger.”

Verse 2, “The tongue of a wise person makes doctrine good, but the mouth of a fool [cosmic believer] gushes folly.”

Verse 3, “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere [the omniscience of God], keeping watch on the evil and on the good.”

Verse 4, “A soothing [healing] tongue is a tree of life.” What is the healing tongue? The healing tongue is the teaching of doctrine. And that is the tree of life — “but perversion in it is the crushing of the spirit [distorting doctrine crushes the spirit].”

Verse 5, “A fool despises his father’s discipline, but he who regards correction shows prudence.”

Notice the relationship: the pastor is in view in the first part of the passage; the father is in view in the second. Generally people who have respect for their parents in childhood [enforced and genuine humility] are teachable from the pulpit where Bible doctrine is taught. And generally the people who have no respect for their parents reject doctrine, resist the Word, and wind up as losers in the Christian life.

71 02/28/1982 Revelation 2:7; Prov. 3:13–18 The trees and happiness / unhappiness

72 02/28/1982 Prov. 11:11–31; 13:10–16; 15:1–5 Cursed by association / blessed, doctrine

Verses 1-7 dealt with the church at Ephesus; verses 8-11 deal with the church at Smyrna. In verse 8 we have the encouragement of the local church.

It begins with the connective conjunction kai, showing that all of these churches are related in a common function. The principle of the connective conjunction here is to show that the Roman empire, while it persecuted the Christians many times, was actually sustained and supported by them since they were the first Gentile client nation to God in the times of the Gentiles which began in AD 70. With this we have a dative singular, indirect object, from the noun a)ggeloj, which ordinarily would mean angel (a transliteration) but it actually means a messenger. Here it refers to a pastor. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the act is performed. This is a reference to a future pastor who replaced John, after John’s death, at Smyrna. And since at the moment John is the non-resident pastor this is addressed to those who would follow, who would succeed him. It is also a dative of advantage since it is to the advantage of the local church at Smyrna to have a pastor whether he is resident or not. The believer in this dispensation actually cannot learn doctrine without the gift of pastor-teacher. This is a part of the function of the divine dynasphere with regard to perception of doctrine. The pastor is the authority by which God communicates doctrine to the believers, and also it is the test. The existence of the pastor is the test for the first three gates of the divine dynasphere — the filling if the Spirit, basic impersonal love which is your objectivity (you cannot learn any subject at any time without objectivity. The subject being taught becomes the issue rather than the personality of the one who communicates). Gate three is the basis for teachability — enforced and genuine humility. So, of course, these three gates all depend upon having God’s Word communicated directly to another human being, who has an old sin nature, who has the weaknesses and the strengths that belong to the human race, who is a fellow number of category homo sapien. Therefore the importance of the local church as the classroom and the gift of pastor-teacher as communicator.

Next comes the genitive singular of relationship from the noun e)kklhsia, used for the local church. E)kklhsia is used in classical Greek for the meeting of the council who run the city state. It is also used in technical areas for the function of the royal family of God. Every believer is in the body of Christ and/or the Church in relationship to God, the basis for the royal family concept, and also there is the local church where we assemble to learn doctrine. With this we have the generic use of the definite article, indicating the principle of the pastor’s authority over the local church through the communication of Bible doctrine. And in this case the local church is the congregation at Smyrna. Smyrna today is Izmir, the second largest city in Turkey. We have then the preposition phrase e)n plus the locative of Smurna in the Greek. In transliteration the “u” becomes a “y” for some reason. By the way, we know the name of the next pastor. His name is Polycarp; he is going to succeed John.

— a large ancient city on the west coast of what is now Turkey, but called Asia Minor. It is at the head of the Gulf of Smyrna which reaches 30 miles inland from the Agean Sea. The city of Smyrna was originally settled by a group of people called the Lelages. These were one of those Asiatic peoples who are identified with the Carians, who were identified as the famous mercenaries of the ancient world. About 1100 BC Smyrna was taken from the Lelageans by the Aolean Greeks. In 688 BC Smyrna was taken over by the Ionian Greeks and in 627 BC the Ionian city was taken over by the Lydians. And the Lydians are the key to a lot of things, not only in western Turkey but also as far as the entire Mediterranean basin is concerned. They are definitely connected with the origin of the Romans who were a very different people from the people around them called the Latins. The real key to blessing by association is Smyrna which is the city that really started the Romans.

The secret to the rise of Rome was three things: respect for law, tremendous self-discipline, and the ability to sacrifice for their government. All of these things were a part of their concept. The thing that would sustain Rome and make it great is the divine dynasphere, function inside the divine dynasphere as over against believers being in the cosmic system. The uptrend will come from the believers on the west coast of Asia Minor, and the downtrend will come from all over the empire wherever believers became involved in the cosmic system. Under the concept of manifest destiny any great nation has to start with landed aristocracy. Eventually, of course, there will be an industrial complex as there was in Rome. And there is always an undeveloped frontier. People who can’t make it under the landed aristocracy will go out to the undeveloped frontier. But eventually if the nation is going to be great there must be the leadership of the industrial complex. You can never defeat a good industrial complex, and there is a reason for that under the doctrine of manifest destiny. Manifest destiny says that if a nation is going to be great it will eventually combine all three factors in manifest destiny. The landed aristocracy will combine under the leadership of the industrial complex and eventually they will take in all of the undeveloped frontier. It is not a racial issue, it is an issue of the laws of divine establishment or category one doctrine. And the combination produced outstanding leaders, outstanding soldiers, etc. The Spaniards had the advantage of numbers, the Gauls had the advantage over the Romans in physical strength, the Carthaginians had the advantage of mental sharpness, the Greeks had the advantage of culture, the Latins and the Italians had the advantage of shrewd common sense, but Rome conquered them all. Notice the distinction between the Romans and the Latins and the Italians. They were not the same people. The Romans conquered the Latins and the Italians and eventually gave them citizenship. After the city state was developed it conquered Italy and after it conquered Italy it conquered everything in the Mediterranean basin which became the basis for setting up the first Gentile client nation to God. Before we finish our study we will see how the entire world was evangelised because the Roman legions went successfully all the way to the Euphrates, to the southern Danube, to the Rhine, all of the way to the Caledonians in Scotland. And while they could go no farther there was one thing that stepped beyond the Roman eagles and standards of SPQR — the Christian missionaries who crossed the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and went beyond Hadrian’s wall. And by so doing one of the greatest periods of missionary activity that has ever existed came about. The Roman conquests were often cruel because war is often cruel but while there is cruelty in war but that doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with war. Without war we would have no freedom, we would not be evangelised, we would not have a civilisation or the greatest blessings of modern time.

The key to everything then is Smyrna. It was Smyrna which provided the greatness of the Roman empire. In 688 BC the Ionian Greeks took over and when Alexander conquered the world he went through and took Asia Minor, and after his death the city of Smyrna was ruled by the Macedonians. And one of the Macedonian generals who took over the city was Lysimachus. He rebuilt the city which had been destroyed. When he rebuilt the city he located it at the head of one of the chief highways of that area. Therefore its magnificent port became a trading centre and one of the most prosperous in all of the ancient world. Along with Ephesus and Pergamum, Smyrna became one of the most brilliant and prosperous cities of Anotalia or western Turkey. The population of the city at the time that John wrote was about 200,000. Thanks to the planning of Alexander the Great and the execution of his city planning, Smyrna had wide, paved streets. For that reason alone they could expand and expand, and it became the centre of commerce and for several hundred years it was one of the most prosperous cities in the ancient world.

In AD 23, less than a century before our passage opens up, a temple was built in honour of the emperor Tiberias and his mother Julia. It was connected by a wide golden boulevard. This became one of the most famous of all boulevards in the ancient world and people would actually travel thousands of miles just to walk on the golden boulevard. Because the trade there was so great the Jews moved in and there was a large Jewish population. There was also a very large Roman population, a large Greek population and, of course the Asiatics. There were a strong group of believers in Smyrna. The church is one of the greatest of all time. It is the only one of the seven churches in Revelation 2 & 3 which was not criticised. It became the bulwark of the Roman empire. Under the principle of the pivot and the sustaining of a client nation to God, this one was the greatest. By 300 AD the majority of the people in Ephesus and Smyrna were believers, they became almost totally Christian cities. Smyrna was the last city to hold out against the Mahommedan invasions, it did not fall to the Turks until the year 1424 AD. It was the discovery of America and the discovery of the sea routes to India which eventually ruined Smyrna’s trade.

Polycarp, the pastor who succeeded John was one of John’s parishioners. He was a young person in John’s church in Ephesus. After the death of John he went to Smyrna where he was accepted as the pastor. It was during a pagan festival that Polycarp was brought before the proconsul, Philip, who tried to force him take an oath to revile Christ. Of course, Polycarp refused. His answer was very simple: “For eighty-six years I have been a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my Lord and King, my only saviour?” Polycarp was then seized and burned at the stake. The Roman empire had many horrible Caesars and very few good rulers. They had many things against them and yet, because of the city of Smyrna, because of the tremendous advance of believers in the divine dynasphere, it became the secret that carried the Roman empire for 300 years plus.

The mandate from our Lord Jesus Christ to John in verse 8: the aorist active imperative of the verb grafw, write. The culminative aorist views the writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the completion of the canon of scripture, the history of the world from the time of writing (AD 96) down to the end of the world. The book of Revelation is a text book of world history. We have already seen this in chapter one. In chapters two and three we have the historical trends of the Church Age, the dispensation of no prophecy. The next prophecy is the resurrection of the Church. In the meantime everything is discerned through historical trends. Then, Revelation in chapters four and five the removal of the Church, the royal family of God — the Rapture. In Revelation chapters 6-18, three aspects of the Tribulation. Chapter 19: the second advent of Christ and the changing of the rulership of this world from Satan, who is at that time incarcerated for a thousand years, to our Lord Jesus Christ. Then there is the Millennial reign of our Lord, one thousand years of perfect environment. And then at the end of that Millennial reign, the loosing of Satan, the Gog revolution, followed by the last judgment — the second resurrection, the destruction of planet earth by God Himself, which means that there is no way that mad men pressing buttons can destroy this earth with sophisticated weaponry.

The active voice: John, under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, produces the action of writing under the ministry of the Holy Spirit a text book of world history. Every historical trend, every eschatological function of the future is involved in this book.

Next we have the encouragement of the congregation. This follows a very definite pattern throughout. It starts out with the accusative neuter plural, direct object, from Tade. This is a strange type of demonstrative pronoun because it was used originally as a part of the introductory formula for the translation of the Persian kings’ decrees into Greek. The Persians ruled so many Greeks that the decrees first came out in Persian and were then translated into Greek. And they always started out with this accusative form, tade. It is used here as the introductory formula of a decree and a mandate from our Lord Jesus Christ and as His estimation of the situation in Smyrna. With it we have the present active indicative of the verb legw, which means here to communicate. The aoristic present tense of legw sets forth an event as now occurring, therefore punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, the communication of an estimate of the situation. The indicative mood is declarative, representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The rest of the verse is really the subject of the verb.

Then we have a big subject, because the subject not only has our Lord Jesus Christ but a relative clause in there to indicate who is doing the communicating. We start then with the definite article, o(, plus the nominative singular from the subject, prwtoj, correctly translated “the first.” With this a connective kai and then the generic used of the definite article plus the nominative singular subject again from e)sxatoj. Translation: “the first and the last communicates these things.”

What is the meaning of our Lord’s title, “the first and the last’? This is not the same as a)lfa and o)mega. It actually has a fourfold interpretation.

Twenty six years after the times of the Gentiles began in AD 70 the apostle John, during the rule of the Caesar Domitian, was banished to the Isle of Patmos in hopes that he would die there. Instead he sat down under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to write the last book of the canon of scripture, the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is the text book of world history from the time of John, AD 96, to the end of time. In chapters 2 & 3 we are studying historical trends. Once we understand these things we can determine exactly what is happening today, we can determine what has happened in any period of history, and we can see the entire issue of this dispensation and our relationship to it.

We have now gone into some isagogics in order to understand what we are studying with regard to these churches. Why the western coast of Turkey? Why the seven churches located in that area? Why not something in historical trends written to Rome or to Antioch or to Jerusalem? Why these? Because these seven churches, through residence and function in the divine dynasphere, carried client nation SPQR for a record time for any nation which has been a client nation to God. And for a period of time, from 96-180 AD, thanks to the mature believers who advanced from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere and formed a pivot, we have one of the greatest periods of prosperity in all of human history.

The origin of the Romans includes the geographical area we are now studying. Many of the seven churches were located in the area of ancient Lydia. The source of Rome’s original leadership came from the area of the seven churches and specifically from the city of Smyrna. So it is fitting that the same area should provide mature believers from all races to provide blessing by association which would carry the Roman empire through the greatest period of prosperity that the world has ever known. There was an amalgamation of races resulting in the rise of Rome. But it was not a racial issue, it was a respect for law, respect for authority, respect for good government; it was a system of integrity developed by the Romans. But the thing that sustained them and the thing that made the empire greater than the republic was on the west coast of Asia Minor: manifest destiny, combined with the seven churches of the Roman province of Asia, turned the Roman empire into a great client nation. Christianity was tested under the Roman empire but that testing prepared them for the greatest missionary thrust the world has ever known. Missionaries out of the Roman empire, after going through the ten times of persecution ending with Diocletian, went far beyond any area where Roman eagles and the standards of SPQR ever went.

1. First of all this refers to Jesus Christ as the God-Man; it refers to the hypostatic union which started at the virgin birth or the incarnation of Christ. Jesus Christ as “the first” is eternal God, coequal and CO-eternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. As eternal and infinite God, Jesus Christ pre-existed history which He controls from the computer of divine decrees. Jesus Christ also concludes history as “the last”. He is the God-Man, He concludes history as “the last” in hypostatic union. So He is eternal God and true humanity in One person forever. Jesus Christ as the author of history never loses control of history. He is the first and He is the last. He began history by personally creating man — Adam. And as the last Adam He will personally conclude history with the destruction of the earth. Even though history is the record of man’s thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions, it is Jesus Christ, the first and the last, who controls history. Therefore, there are two sources of judgements and disasters in history: the sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind.

Principle: People are collectively and individually the products of their own decisions. And remember that decision creates environment, not environment decision. For example, there is no such thing as a homosexual because of environment or because of genes, it is a matter of decision. In other words, we are the products of our decisions, not our environment. Our decisions create the environment; the environment does not create our decisions.

2. The second meaning has to do with the two great prophecies of history. The title “first and last” also refers to these two great prophecies because they refer to our Lord Jesus Christ. They are the first and second advents. So many prophecies in the Old Testament deal with the details of our Lord’s first advent, all of which are a part of “the first.” The Church is located in between these two great prophetical periods of human history and therefore the Church Age becomes the dispensation of no prophecy. Everything pertaining to the first advent was fulfilled prior to the beginning of the Church Age — the virgin birth, the incarnation, the hypostatic union, our Lord’s residence and function in the prototype divine dynasphere, His resultant impeccability, His saving work — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation — His death on the cross, His physical resurrection, His ascension, His session, etc. The dispensation of the Church is designed, then, to call out a royal family for our Lord’s third royal patent. Therefore the Church Age is the dispensation of historical trends, but no prophecy. The next prophecy is the termination of the Church Age, the Rapture of the Church, the resurrection of the body of Christ. And because the Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy the next event prophetically, eschatologically, is an imminent event. In other words, there is no intervening prophecies that have to be fulfilled before the Rapture occurs. The Rapture was imminent even in the time of the apostles and still is. Therefore Christ is the first, related to the first advent and the strategic victory of the cross. Christ is the second related to His tactical victory of the second advent. The first and the last, then, is a title of our Lord Jesus Christ as the prophetical key to human history.

3. The third meaning of our subject, the Lord Jesus Christ under the title of “the first and the last,” refers to the uptrends and downtrends of history related to the believer in the lord Jesus Christ. Christ is either first or last to every believer; there is no in between because every believer is either inside the divine dynasphere or inside the cosmic system. If you are living inside the divine dynasphere — gate 5: love of God; gate eight, which includes occupation with the person of Christ — this means that Christ is first. But if you are a believer living in cosmic dynasphere number one, cosmic dynasphere number two, then Christ is last. So the up and down trends of history are related to this particular title of our Lord. In other words, as goes the believer in Christ so goes human history in any generation. When the believer puts Christ first in his scale of values it is because he lives inside the divine dynasphere which contributes to the uptrend of history; when the believer puts Christ last in his scale of values it is because he lives in the cosmic system which contributes to the downtrend of history. Therefore, “first and last” also emphasises the function of human volition in history. It emphasises the importance of occupation with the person of Christ as well as the place of Christ in one’s scale of values and daily priorities.

4. “First and last” also refers to the source of both temporal and eternal blessing for the believer. Our first blessing relates to time while our last blessing relates to eternity. “First and last” is the fulfilment of the Christian way of life resulting in the imputation of both logistical and super grace blessing in time plus the imputation of eternal blessing and reward at the judgment seat of Christ.

The first two points are interpretation of our Lord’s title; the last two points are application of our Lord’s title.

Now for the relative clause. We start out with the nominative singular from the relative pronoun o(j, whose antecedent is “the first and the last.” So it is translated: “the first and the last who.” Next comes the aorist middle indicative of the verb ginomai, which means “to be” and it also means “to become.” We will translate it “who became.” This is the dramatic aorist tense, it states the present reality with the certitude of a past event — the death of our Lord on the cross. The idiom, of course, is a device for emphasis. The middle voice: our Lord’s humanity participated in the results of the action. This refers to His physical death on the cross. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine.

Next we have the predicate nominative from nekroj, which refers to our Lord’s semantic death on the cross. Literally, “who became dead.” But it is an idiom and should be translated “who died.”

Next we have the connective conjunction kai, followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb zaw, which means to live. It is used for dead persons who return to life, hence to become alive again. And it should be translated: “who died and came to life again.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist. It views the resurrection of our Lord in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the continuation of human history past the first advent. This continuation of history is the subject of the book of Revelation. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through His physical, literal, bodily, resurrection from the dead. The indicative mood is the declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine — the doctrine of the literal, physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

Verse 9, “thy works” is not found in the original manuscripts. The verse begins with o)ida, which means cognisance, present active indicative, and it refers here to our Lord’s divine knowledge or omniscience regarding the status quo of this second church which contributed to 350 years or more of glory of the Roman empire, i.e. glory from the divine viewpoint, not the Roman empire as such, but the client nation Roman empire where over several hundreds of years millions and millions of people were led to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The accusative singular, direct object of qliyij comes up next. It refers to pressure, to afflictions, to the various disasters that often occur in life. It is translated: “I know all about your pressures.” It is in the singular, gathering up all of the pressures of these people into one concept.

Then we have the conjunction kai which should be translated here, “even.” It is followed by an appositional accusative of the noun ptwxeia — poverty, and with it the generic use of the definite article thn, indicating that the poverty was categorical. Ordinarily that is what it means, poverty, but here it is more than just poverty and we will translate it “including the destitution”. It indicates that the poverty is categorical. Smyrna was a wealthy city and many believers were, or had been, financially extremely prosperous. But they had become victims of the ten percenters throughout the Roman empire. The ten percenters began with the Domitian persecution of the Christians. The idea was that if a person could find a Christian, preferably a wealthy one, and prove in court that he was a Christian and he was sent to jail, the Roman empire confiscated his wealth and ten per cent went to the informer. Many of the believers in Smyrna were impoverished as a result of this action. There were people who made this a profession. There was also a wealthy Jewish coalition who delighted in eliminating and destroying Christians in business enterprise by using some kind of business tactic. All of this was suffering for blessing on the part of the believers.

The spiritual status of these believers is mentioned next. Their financial status was mentioned because they were under pressure and were suffering privation because of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The spiritual status of the believers is given after the adversative conjunction a)lla. It is correctly translated “but.” It sets up a contrast between the poverty of the believers of Smyrna and their fantastic spiritual wealth through living and functioning inside the divine dynasphere and, above all, through passing the momentum tests dealing with the adversities they have faced. With this we have the present active indicative of e)imi, “but you are. The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past, i.e. the believers of Smyrna have cracked the maturity barrier by reaching gate eight. They did so at the cost of all of their wealth and possessions, but even though they are in a state of poverty they possess something that few people in history have actually possessed, and that of course is the edification complex of the soul. Of all of the possessions in life that must be related to wealth and success there is none greater than the ECS. That makes the believer who possesses it a multimillionaire spiritually. It is the highest and greatest thing that can happen to anyone in life and its repercussions go far beyond the possession of that ECS on arriving at gate eight of the divine dynasphere, because it is the ECS and the person who possess it who contributes to the blessing of the client nation and the uptrends of history. All greatness, all achievement, all aristocracy, all high-class versus low-class, all came out of one thing. Everyone started on the same basis, the use of volition and having established a system of priorities and the right scale of values: doctrine first.

Next we have the noun plousioj, which means rich and refers to the status of being a mature believer. It refers to spiritual wealth.

We then note that there was opposition from the Jewish community. This opposition is stated with the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai. This time kai is translated “also. Then we have an ellipsis which demands the repetition of o)ida — “also I know.” This is followed by the accusative singular, direct object from the noun blasfhmia, which means slander. Then we have the source of the slander, e)k plus the ablative plural from the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun, plus the present active participle of legw. We translate: “from those who allege. The descriptive present tense is for what is now going on; the active voice: racial Jews, also religious Jews, produce the action of the verb. Religion motivates to evil; Christianity motivates to good. This is a circumstantial participle.

Then we have the accusative of general reference of the proper noun, ‘I)udaiouj, which means a Jew by birth or race, a Jew by country or by religion, but not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as the God of Israel. In other words, it is referring to the unbelieving Jew. The Jewish population of Smyrna was very antagonistic toward Christianity for they considered Christianity as dangerous to their own relationship with the Roman empire. The emperors of the Roman empire were constantly confusing Jews and Christians because so many Jews were Christians.

Then we have the accusative plural from the reflexive pronoun e(auton, which is translated “they themselves. This is a part of the idiom of the accusative of general reference, plus the infinitive of indirect discourse from the verb legw, “they allege that they themselves are Jews. The present active infinitive is next, e)imi, “they are (Jews). The static present for something taken for granted as a fact; the active voice: racial and religious Jews produce the action but they produce it as unbelievers. This is the infinitive of actual result called the infinitive of indirect discourse.

Then we have the connective use of the conjunction kai —“and. And again we have the present active indicative of e)imi, but this time it is plus the negative o)uk —translated, “and they are not. The perfective present tense denotes the continuation of existing results. These people have personally rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as saviour. They have accepted the God of Israel in His Alpha glory but they have rejected the God of Israel in His Omega glory. The active voice: racial and religious Jews produce the action of the verb. They are not true Jews, not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ; they are not born again. The difference to the true and the false Jew is his attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ who is the God of Israel, as well as the saviour of the world. Jewish business monopolies in Smyrna had effectively impoverished the Christian community. The royal family of God in Smyrna was constantly facing people testing from both the Jewish community and, of course, the greater pressure of the hostility of Rome and, therefore, in effect, the hostility of the entire cosmic system.

Then we have the final reference. All of this enmity, the hostility from the Roman government, hostility from the Jews, hostility from the ten percenters, all comes under one category; it is opposition from the cosmic system. So again we have the adversative conjunction a)lla which sets up the contrast again. The ellipsis demands the repetition of e)imi —“but they are. And then we have the predicate nominative from sunagwgh, which is translated synagogue but it means congregation actually. There is no definite article here, it is being set apart as a specific category of history. It is not a synagogue, that’s Jewish; it is Gentile and Jew; it is the government involved; it is the Gentiles in the Roman empire and the Gentiles in Smyrna specifically; it is Jewish people in Smyrna specifically. It isn’t a racial oppositional type thing.

Then we have the possessive genitive satanoj, “Satan,” taken from the Hebrew shatan and it means enemy or adversary. Translation: “but they are a congregation of Satan.

Verse 10. In this passage we have principles related to the opposition to the plan of God.

1. The first is fear. We begin with the mandate which is found in the present middle imperative of the verb fobew plus the negative mh. It is correctly translated, “fear not” or “do not fear.” The present tense is a progressive present plus the negative which prohibits the continuation of the action of fear. It is possible to learn a great many doctrines and yet to fall apart in some emergency or pressure situation. Sudden disaster often places the believer in some panic alley situation where he can’t concentrate. If you can’t concentrate you can’t use the doctrine you have learned. Concentration is required both to learn and to apply doctrine to any situation. (Actually, concentration is required for good living) Adversity or disaster destroys concentration and this is why believers fall apart under pressure. They cannot recall any doctrine that would be applicable to the situation because in fear they cannot think at all. Fear is lack of thinking. Because of this there are many biblical imperatives about fear.

Believers in all stages of spiritual growth can find themselves functioning under the fear syndrome because of sudden adversity. Sudden adversity is simply a test to see if you can apply doctrine under pressure. There is a principle which David enucleated in Psalm 56:3 when he said, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in you (the Lord).” In other words, he would come around to being able to think under pressure. And even in the greatest of pressures, the pressure with regard to death: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” This principle is the basis for establishing the faith-rest drill as the concept in applying doctrine that has been learned. So in the first principle that we have in opposition to the plan of God we have a solution in the faith-rest drill — the importance of the faith-rest drill in testing.

The middle voice is the direct middle, emphasising the agent as participating in the outcome of the action — freedom from fear, therefore the ability to think under pressure. And the ability to think means the ability to concentrate. The two of them together mean courage, for courage is thinking and concentration under pressure. The imperative mood plus the negative mh is the negative of prohibition which forbids the continuation of an action which is the initial reaction to suffering, pressure, or disaster.

With this we have the accusative neuter plural direct object from the relative pronoun o(j — “Do not fear what.” The word “what” is the issue, indicating the principle that fear represents the absence of the faith-rest drill and the inability to think under pressure. Therefore this phrase emphasises the fact that if you are going to execute the plan of God as a believer, your life must be free from any form of fear.

2. Principle number two is the source of opposition and testing. It begins with the aorist middle imperative, a form of the verb o(raw, which means to see. But it becomes a particle — i)dou, translated “behold,” but it would probably be better to translate it into modern English, like “note well.” So this becomes a demonstrative particle with no exact English equivalent. And then the subject is the nominative diaboloj, which is almost transliterated “devil.” Not only is Satan the author of the cosmic system but through the influence of Satan’s cosmic system there are periodic persecutions of believers, especially at the starting of a new nation. And with this we have the present active indicative of the verb mellw, which means “to be about to be.” We could translate this: “Note that the devil is about to.” The customary present tense denotes what habitually occurs, or may be reasonably expected to occur, when a believer lives inside the divine dynasphere. Inside the divine dynasphere, of course, he is going to have three things going for him in learning doctrine: a. The filling of the Holy Spirit — the power for perception of the Word of God; b. Basic impersonal love — the objectivity for perception of Bible doctrine; c. Enforced and genuine humility — teachability for perception of doctrine. That means momentum and that means testing. This momentum testing is in view at this particular point because there is going to be opposition to any believer advancing.

Satan doesn’t attack directly, he attacks through his system. Satan has delegated the system — the 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance and the 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred — to be the opposition to the Christian way of life. Indirectly, Satan is in tremendous opposition to any believer who is moving from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. But that isn’t really the issue here, the issue here is that he has delegated the responsibility and, as a result, we get attacked from all sides. Satan rarely has to tamper with his system because it works so well. The only counter to Satan’s genius and his fantastic system for administration of the rulership of this world is the perception and application of Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb as the greatest executive of all time who has delegated the responsibility of attacking us to the 26 gates of cosmic one and the 9 gates of cosmic two, plus his inside help from the function of the old sin nature. And mellw never stands alone, it always has some kind of a verb form with it, generally an infinitive.

So next we have the present active infinitive of the verb ballw, which means to throw, to cast, to put, and we will translate it: “Do not fear what you are about to suffer: note that the devil is about to cast some of you into prison.” Note that mellw plus ballw is preceded by mellw plus pasxw, which means to suffer. Now you are about to suffer, you are about to be put in prison. Mellw, in each case, indicates a system is going to attack you, not Satan himself. You are going to suffer because there is a system the ruler of this world has. This system which is the invention of Satan is administered in two ways: through angelic creatures where necessary, and it is also administered through homo sapien: believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system.

Then there is people. In this case the people represent one of the greatest nations ever to exist in history — SPQR. The people of the Roman empire represent the government. In some cases it was the senate which was responsible for persecuting Christians, in some cases it was the industrial complex leadership, in some cases it would be the emperor.

The present tense of mellw is an iterative present and it almost appears to be a customary present denoting what is reasonably expected to occur when a pivot is being formed in a client nation to God. The active voice: the believer under momentum testing produces the action of being destined or about to suffer. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of momentum inside the divine dynasphere, and therefore the anticipation of testing. So: “do not fear what you are about to suffer.” Then again we have mellw, plus ballw, and that means, “note that the devil will incarcerate some of you.” The present active infinitive, ballw, means to put or to cast. Then we have a prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative plural of the personal pronoun su, “some of you.” Definitely all who were taking in doctrine; definitely all who were taking in doctrine. His is suffering for blessing, for momentum, for acceleration of that momentum. And then we have one more prepositional phrase: e)ij plus the accusative singular of fulakh, “into prison.”

3. Principle number three is the historical trend of Christian suffering as testing. We begin this principle with the conjunction i(na, which has many uses. This conjunction introduces a final clause, denoting a purpose, aim, or objective. It is translated, “in order that.” Then we have the aorist passive subjunctive of the verb peirazw, which means to be tested for the purpose of discovering what you are made of, testing for good or evil. The culminative aorist tense views momentum testing in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Passing the test and accelerating spiritual momentum to maturity. The passive voice: the believer living inside the divine dynasphere receives the action of the verb. I(na plus the subjunctive denotes the purpose clause. And what we are about to study is the basis of the greatest missionary movement of all time in history. It would be sown in the blood of martyrs throughout the entire Roman empire over a period of two hundred years. The historical trend or Christian suffering and testing is related to the Roman empire as a client nation to God. Many of these people are going to die in the most horrible way and yet they are the basis of one of the greatest counters to Satan’s administration of the rulership of this world that history has ever known.

Next we have the connective use of the conjunction kai, meaning “and,” plus the future active indicative of the verb e)xw, which generally means “to have.” Translation: “and you shall have.” The gnomic future tense is for a statement of fact regarding prosperity testing anticipating the tenure of Rome as a client nation and the contribution that this suffering would make. These ten major persecutions of Christians became the basis for millions of people being in heaven right now. And while the legions and the genius of Rome and its military activities advanced to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and Scotland, it could never accomplish what born-again believers advancing across these borders accomplished. It was sowed in martyrdom and it rose up in the most magnificent type of spiritual power.

We have the accusative singular, direct object from qliyij, which means pressure, suffering, affliction, testing, “and you shall have adversity.” Then we have the indeclinable numeral deka, which means “ten.” With it we have the objective genitive plural h(mera, which generally means “days” but here it refers to a longer period of time. We will translate this: “And you shall have special persecutions ten times.” The ten special persecutions of Christians are related to the times of the Gentiles and Rome as the first Gentile client nation to God. And when the 5th cycle of discipline was finally administered to Judah in AD 70, just 40 years into the Church Age, that was the end of any Jewish client nation to God. The “times of the Gentiles” began and it will continue throughout the Church Age until the Rapture. During the dispensation of the Church, which is the time of historical trends, only Gentile nations can be client nations to God.

It was not the Roman republic which was a client nation to God. Before Rome could ever be a client nation it had to be an empire. It had to be an empire where often the rulers of the empire were incompetent, but the genius of Julius Caesar set up a system of administration that would function perfectly, regardless of whether the emperor was good or bad, competent or incompetent. Ten times rulers of Rome tried to wipe out Christianity in the empire not realising that they would be destroying Rome, that as long as there was a pivot of mature believers Rome would continue to be the client nation to God. In the midst of all of this attempt to wipe out Christianity, Christianity not only grew in the Roman empire but it expanded beyond the Roman empire. Rome survived in spite of itself. It survived because believers in these seven churches made decisions to reside and function inside the divine dynasphere, and by making those decisions SPQR as an empire continued until 476 AD, by which time there were too many cosmic believers in the empire and missionary activity ceased to exist. It was not until Constantine the Great and the edict of Milan, in the year 313 AD, that the Church ceased to be persecuted by Roman rulers. And then a new danger came up: the union of Church and State. So Christianity failed the prosperity test; they were happy to be a State religion and that was wrong. The Church can never function when it is sponsored by the State. The Church cannot be the State; the Church must operate under the State, under government, but never be the government. So the combination of Church and State was another test for the Church in which failure led to the Dark Ages.

Note also that these “ten times” do not include Nero’s persecution of the Church. It is excluded for the most obvious reason. He executed the apostle Paul in the year 68 AD and in that year the Lord answered Nero, he was assassinated. So he died in 68. What does that mean? The times of the Gentiles did not begin until 70 AD. And now we are at 96 AD and these ten persecutions start in 96 AD. Nero did persecute the Church, but it is not one of the ten times.

There are two reasons why Christians suffer. One of them has to do with blessing and one of them has to do with cursing or divine discipline. All suffering for blessing occurs inside the divine dynasphere and it is a part of momentum testing going from gate four to gate eight which is the objective of the spiritual life. All cursing, all divine discipline is related to the believer residing inside of the cosmic system. Whenever we suffer for blessing there is a great advance spiritually and there are wonderful things in store for the individual. Furthermore the problem of suffering itself is no difficulty where the believer has lived and resided inside the divine dynasphere, and under the perception of Bible doctrine is able to apply the doctrine to his experience. Honing the believer fine, making him strong, developing everything by way of capacity for happiness and blessing is related to suffering. Suffering and prosperity are the two greatest tests that we face as believers. Both require the application of Bible doctrine to experience, both require the flexibility that comes from virtue that comes from inside the divine dynasphere.

The ten special persecutions of Christians are related to the times of the Gentiles and Rome as the first Gentile client nation to God. In the Roman empire there would be the test of great suffering and then there would be the test of great prosperity. They would have to pass the suffering test, they would have to pass the prosperity test, and as a result Rome as an empire would then become a missionary base. Rome is the first Gentile client nation to God. The church at Smyrna survived all the persecutions of Christianity by the Roman empire because of their residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, and this means they survived because of their perception and application of Bible doctrine at gate four of the divine dynasphere. We do not include the persecutions of Nero in the ten special persecutions.

1. The first one occurred during the time of Domitian — 81-96 AD. Domitian is the last of the Flavian emperors. He died in 96 AD because of his persecution of John, just as Nero died for his execution of Paul. Domitian was jealous of his older brother Titus who had been emperor from 79-81 AD and his arrogance eventually turned to insanity. He demanded that his subjects treat him like a god. He degraded the senate, he persecuted Christians, he announced his own deification, and he banished John to the Isle of Patmos. His wife, Domitia, arranged to have him stabbed and thus the Flavian emperors ceased to exist with Titus Flavius Domitianus.

2. The second great persecution occurred long after in 161-180 AD under Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius was a very fine unbeliever, the last of the good Antonine emperors. He was austere from his stoic beliefs but he was very philanthropic in his domestic policies. He was forced through economic disaster to debase the coinage. Whenever the industrial complex begins to collapse because capitalism fails, because there is a State attack upon capitalism, because there is some form of redistribution of wealth, some concept of the welfare state, there will always be the beginning of the cracking of the nation in its economic modus operandi. It was in AD 161 that the Parthians attacked the eastern frontier and while they were driven back the soldiers who fought them brought back from the area over the Euphrates (Persia or Parthia) the Asiatic plague which became a tremendous disaster in the Roman empire. It was actually a divine punishment and millions of people in the empire died. The Christians were blamed for it and this is how Marcus Aurelius came to persecute them. The Christians would not worship the pagan Roman gods and seek help from them and so the emperors became very antagonistic toward Christianity. Marcus Aurelius never really paid much attention to the Christians until the Asiatic plague, and then under pressure the Christians were severely persecuted. This was the second of the ten special persecutions. He died at age 59 in what is now Vienna. He was allegedly poisoned.

3. The third persecution, 180-192 AD, was under Commodus. By his persecution of the Christians Marcus Aurelius lost his wisdom and made a lot of ruinous decisions. One of his worst decisions was to elevate his son Commodus. Never had any Antonine emperor ever used any of his natural progeny to succeed him, they had always adopted someone who would be the next emperor. But here was the exception and as a result of this terrible decision it would be used of the Lord to punish SPQR for a period of some twelve years. The eighties were the worst period of all of the first century. When Commodus became emperor at age nineteen his insanity caused him to return to the Roman throne. He instituted a reign of terror, he was savage and cruel as an individual, and nothing had ever been seen like this in Rome since the time of Nero’s degeneracy. Commodus had great, great arrogance about his physical strength. He would appear in the arena dressed as a gladiator but he always had unarmed opponents and he always killed these opponents. He appeared in the streets of Rome wearing a lion’s skin, and called himself Hercules. He carried a club and if he didn’t like the look of some of his citizens he would club them to death right there. If these gave him any opposition, out of nowhere would appear one of the special companies of Praetorian Guard to despatch the person who wouldn’t lie down and die neatly! He would go into the senate and pick out senators and slaughter them on the senate floor which ran with blood. He persecuted the Christians and these persecutions were unspeakable, until a believer became his mistress. Her name was Martia. When it was discovered that Commodus intended to kill Martia because she was a believer, and kill all of the palace attendants, they formed conspiracy to assassinate him. A wrestler by the name of Narcissus was hired to strangle him to death. Thus ended the third of the ten special persecutions.

4. The fourth special persecution was under Severus — 193-211 AD. He was an African and very superstitious. In 202 Severus adopted an anti-Christian policy. He forbade Christians to witness and promised death to any Christian who would talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. Any person who believed in Christ was to be persecuted as soon as he was found. The persecutions first broke out in Alexandria. Severus had not been unfavourable toward the Christians at the earlier part of his reign and actually gave his son a Christian nurse. But the policy of Alexandria finally prevailed. Mobs of Egyptians ran loose and killed Christians, robbed, raped and stole in the name of destroying Christianity. Among the Christian martyrs in Alexandria were Felicity and Perpetua of Carthage, very famous for their stand for the Lord before they were horribly killed.

5. The fifth persecution, 235-238 AD, was under Maximus Thrax. He was an eight-foot giant of tremendous physical strength and was as brutal as he was strong. When he became emperor he ordered all Christian leaders to be put to death. And because Christians were honest and had integrity they had predominated in the civil service for some time. Pontian, the bishop of Rome, was deported to Sardinia where he died. Christian churches were burned. Origen took refuge in Cappadocia where the Roman legions functioned but they ignored the orders of the emperor. Eventually, Maximus Thrax stepped out of his chariot and a bunch of people came out of the bushes and killed him.

6. The sixth persecution was under Trajianus Decius. He sought to exterminate all Christians in the Roman empire but he didn’t get to finish his persecutions because he was killed in Gothic war.

7. The seventh was under Gallus — 251-153. He continued the persecution started by Decius but he was so successful he was murdered by his own son and eventually replaced by Valerian who continued the terrible persecution.

8. Number eight is Valerian — 253-260. His persecution of Christians throughout the empire were distracted by a Persian invasion. When he had to go and fight he was captured and horribly tortured. He eventually died while being skinned alive. When the Roman envoys came to sue for peace they were presented with the skin of Valerian. As a result of this the Christians had peace for ten years.

9. Then along came Lucius Domitianus Aurelian. When he began a persecution of the Christians his generals decided they didn’t like him and they murdered him. He defeated the Persians and the Goths but he could not defeat the wall of fire around the Christians.

10. Diocletian — 284-305 AD. Outside of his persecution of Christians he was very effective as a ruler. He was a Dalmatian, the son of a freed slave. He was a strong worshipper of the sun god, Jupiter, and under the influence of one of his cohorts he started the greatest of all persecutions of believers. In February of 303 he sought to completely root Christianity out of the empire. He ordered all copies of the Bible surrendered and burned, all churches destroyed, all meetings abolished. Christians were deprived of their civil rights, including the holding of public office. He retired to Dalmatia.

With the retirement of Diocletian, Galerius took his place and he continued persecution of Christians until the pressure was too great and he issued reluctantly an edict of toleration which cancelled all persecutions of believers and pardoned all Christians who were still living. In 313 Constantine issued at Milan the edict which terminated these ten special persecutions of our passage. “We grant,” he said, “to the Christians and all others free choice to follow their own mode of worship, whatever they wish ...”. Ten emperors administered these persecutions which prepared the church to evangelise the barbarians knocking at the gates of the empire waiting to be converted.

Because the church went through these persecutions so magnificently in so many cases two kinds of believers were manifest at the time. First of all there were believers living in the divine dynasphere contributing to the uptrend of the Roman empire. These are the ones who went to death so magnificently. These are the ones who died under dying grace and there is a special reward with regard to them. But many believers renounced Christ to escape death, to escape torture, to escape the confiscation of their property. These had already contributed to the downtrend and they continued to live in the Roman empire to be a disaster to it. But there was a purpose in all of this: God was toughening up the Church for one of the greatest missions it has ever faced — the evangelisation of the entire world. The Romans could not conquer the world but the pivot of believers sent missionaries to China, to India, to Armenia, to Parthia, to Africa, and to all of the areas of the world that Rome had never been able to conquer. And from these barbarians would come future Gentile client nations, and it was not the eagle standards of Rome but the Christian missionaries who went out from these pivots. The martyrdom of the Christians demonstrated a principle that the barbarians could not understand. All of the barbarians were magnificent in their physical strength, they were fierce as warriors and great as conquerors, but they lacked one thing: death frightened them.

Principle: How you live is determined by your attitude toward death. Sooner or later death will become a reality and you will discover an amazing thing: things that you thought were important, things that you spent your life doing, the pleasures you sought, your ambitions to succeed and to get ahead and become famous and great and to excel above your peers, all of these things when you face death as a reality will not give you one moment of peace or blessing or courage in time of your dying. If you haven’t solved the problem of dying by your scale of values, and where doctrine stands, and the perception and application of doctrine in your life, then you are never going to be able to face death. Death is going to be a horror, a time and moment of truth when you will look back on your life and realise what a fool you were to spend all of your time seeking happiness when it was there in the form of Bible doctrine.

The Church is never ready to evangelise and to send out missionaries until the Church is toughened by testing, and then, having passed the testing, they have to also pass the prosperity test. Testing toughens and prosperity softens, and so to pass both tests we have the history of the first three centuries of Christianity related first of all to persecution and then to prosperity. Persecutions, then, even in a client nation to God is a historical trend until the day the Lord removes the Church by resurrection and terminates this dispensation.

1. The historical trend is there and the precedent has been set by the ten persecutions which were predicted in verse 10. There will always be in the world an eruption of persecution of believers. God often permits this because too many believers have become involved in the cosmic system and, therefore, the remnant in the pivot are toughened and their values are re-established by persecution.

2. Therefore any persecution of Christians has two purposes: either divine discipline of believers living in the cosmic system or spiritual momentum and special blessings for believers living in the divine dynasphere.

3. From the time of Constantine the Great, 313-337, another historical trend will become obvious: the problem of separation of Church and State plus the importance of the Church staying out of politics. When the Church becomes involved in politics the nation is destroyed; when the Church stays out of politics and advances spiritually to maturity the nation is saved. Our job as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and collectively as the Church is to stay out of politics, to advance to maturity, for the only thing that can save a client nation to God is the enlarged pivot of mature believers and the blessing by association which results from it.

4. The same historical trend of cosmic failure in the Church exists today in the so-called social action of the Church.

5. Under the principle of historical trends all suffering, pressure, and persecution directed toward believers is designed for either divine discipline or divine blessing. The way to determine the purpose is whether those involved are living in the divine dynasphere — suffering for blessing, or living in the cosmic system — suffering for punishment. The historical trend, then: when the Church us separated from the State the State often persecutes the Church, but when the Church becomes the State or becomes involved in social action, the Church does the persecuting of the State. Both are wrong, the State persecuting the Church or the Church persecuting the State.

Verse 10b begins with the present middle imperative of the verb ginomai, to be or to become. Here it is translated “keep on becoming.” The progressive present tense is for action in the state of progress or persistence, therefore present linear aktionsart. The middle voice: it is a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning: believers are commanded to produce the action of the verb through resistance of persecution inside the divine dynasphere, or, better stated, to handle all persecution from inside the divine dynasphere. Resistance of persecution is by functional virtue, not by violence. The imperative mood is the imperative of command.

Next is the predicate nominative from the adjective pistoj, meaning faithful or dependable, hence a reference to consistent residence and function in the divine dynasphere so that when any pressures and persecutions in life come along you handle them individually from virtue. That keeps you from ever becoming a persecutor yourself. And the only virtue by which you can meet these things is the virtue manufactured inside the divine dynasphere. Here, of course, the context views residence inside the divine dynasphere from the standpoint of pressure, adversity, persecution, suffering.

Next comes the improper preposition a)xri plus the genitive of qanatoj — “until death.” Qanatoj separates phase two from phase three, apart from being alive at the resurrection. Faithfulness until death is residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

1. The reality of death is the test of the believer’s spiritual condition and true scale of values.

2. In the face of death there are many things people value that are absolutely useless. For example, if you are dying money is no good, success is no good, wealth or promotion or social life is no good. Everything that you put before doctrine immediately becomes obsolete, useless. Dying can be the greatest happiness in life or the greatest misery, and it depends upon the content of Bible doctrine in your soul.

4. Therefore if Bible doctrine is not first in your scale of values dying is a nightmare.

5. The ten special persecutions from Domitian to Diocletian made death a reality to millions of people who were believers.

6. Believers living in the cosmic system when facing the threat of torture and death renounced their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

7. Believers living in the divine dynasphere, when facing the same threat of torture and death, were not afraid. Many of them surrendered their lives under the principle of dying grace. It was not a tragedy, they could not have departed from this life apart from the Lord’s permission. But they had been prepared by their attitude toward doctrine.

8. But for cosmic believers fear of death became fear of life. If you are afraid of death you are afraid of life.

9. If there is nothing worth living for there is nothing worth dying for. But only those mature believers in the pivot understood that issue. It took the persecution of the Church to give the perspective for missionary function. In fact, the persecuted Church sustained the Roman empire.

1. Bible doctrine resident in the soul removes fear of death as well as fear of life.

2. The believer living inside the divine dynasphere is not afraid of torture and death. That means that martyrdom death is never in vain. Martyrdom without renouncing Christ, when that is the issue, is one of the greatest rewardable functions in eternity.

3. Before Constantine the Roman empire was evangelised through dying testimony; after Constantine it was evangelised through living testimony. In history it takes both. Dying testimony requires, like living testimony, that Bible doctrine is more real than anything in life. Otherwise, when called upon to live or die for the Lord Jesus Christ, if He isn’t real to you, you can’t do it. Jesus Christ is not real to the believer who has neglected Bible doctrine.

4. The success standards of life must be replaced by the success standards of God’s plan. And the judgment seat of Christ will reveal that many people who have a comparatively humble station in life were the true great ones as far as God’s plan is concerned.

5. Only through Bible doctrine can God and His plan be more real than people, situations and pleasures.

7. Beware that you do not run your life on the basis of human viewpoint, on the basis of rationalising doctrine to fit your ambitions and functions in life. In other words, if you do not watch your step and put doctrine first in your scale of values, and establish your priorities on the basis of doctrine first — priorities related to residence and function in the divine dynasphere — God is going to send to believers of the client nation a plague of special persecution. But out of that special persecution will come a different brand of Christian than we see today.

The divine viewpoint must override peer pressure, and arrogant ambition must be replaced by doctrinal perception. When that happens and you fulfil the principle of being faithful, even unto death, there is a special super reward in heaven.

The ten special persecutions from Domitian to Diocletian made death a reality to millions of believers in the Roman empire over that period of time. Believers living in the cosmic system when facing the threat of torture and death often renounced their faith in Christ. This didn’t mean they lost their salvation, they still had eternal salvation, they had merely saved their skins by their act of cowardice. Believers living in the divine dynasphere when facing the same threat of torture and death were not afraid and departed from this life under the principle of dying grace. But for the cosmic believer fear of death became fear of life.

It took the persecution of the Church to give the perspective then for missionary function. In fact the missionary church sustained the Roman empire. So the Bible doctrine resident in the soul removes fear of death as well, of course, fear of life. The believer living in the divine dynasphere is not afraid of torture and death, and their martyr deaths were not in vain. Before Constantine the Roman empire was evangelised through the dying testimony of martyrs and after Constantine it was evangelised by the living testimony of mature believers.

But doctrine must be more real than anything else in life and the success standards of life must be replaced by the success standards of God’s plan. Only through Bible doctrine can God and His plan be more real than people and their plans. Ambition to excel above one’s peers is a trap; it is designed to destroy both your happiness and your spiritual life by giving you either a superficial or a false scale of values. So beware that you do not compromise your own principles because of inordinate ambition. And beware that you do not run your life on the basis of human viewpoint and rationalise doctrine to fit your own ambitions. If we do not watch our step then as believers and put doctrine first in our scale of values, and establish priorities related to residence and function in the divine dynasphere, God is going to send the believers of this nation a plague of special persecutions.

The believer with maximum doctrine in his soul cannot be corrupted by fear of death any more than he could be corrupted by fear of failure in life. If your goals are set and related to advance to maturity then you have nothing to fear in life and you have nothing to fear in dying or how the Lord may choose for you to depart from this life. Divine viewpoint must override peer pressure. Arrogant ambition must be replaced by doctrinal perception so that your motivation is in line with the plan of God. Two people may arrive at the same point of success but the one who has false motivation in getting their is a weak sister. The one who has the correct doctrinal motivation in getting there will be very strong and will glorify the Lord in such advance.

The final phrase in verse ten starts out with the connective kai, translated “and.” Then we have the future active indicative of the verb didomi, and it means here to give — “and I will give.” The predictive future anticipates special blessing and reward at the judgment seat of Christ. The active voice: Jesus Christ as the prince ruler of the Church produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ. Every believer gets his evaluation for what he did with logistical grace from the time of salvation to the time he departs from this life. Our Lord Jesus Christ from His omniscience does the evaluation. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of eternal blessing and reward above and beyond the possession of a resurrection body for believers who crack the maturity barrier. Volition is the great issue in the angelic conflict. From salvation you are free to advance to maturity and you are free to fail, so that there will be great inequality in the perfect environment of heaven. Perfect environment always represents the function of freedom and therefore inequality is healthy because it indicates the use of our own free will to succeed or fail.

The dative singular indirect object from the personal pronoun su closes out our exegetical study of this verse. It is translated “to you.” The dative of indirect object indicates the mature believers whose advance in the divine dynasphere results in getting great eternal blessing and reward above and beyond the resurrection body. This is also a dative of advantage. Then finally the accusative singular direct object from the noun stefanoj, which can be translated either crown or wreath. When used in its athletic connotation which came from the Hellenistic culture of the Roman empire it is a wreath, but when used in its military connotation it has to do with special Roman decorations. With this we have the descriptive genitive of the noun zwh, life. The crown of life was given to that believer who advanced to maturity through living in the divine dynasphere and learning Bible doctrine. However the crown of life emphasises the believer passing the momentum tests, advancing from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere which is the power system for the Christian life.

Translation of verse 10: “Do not fear what you are about to suffer: note that the devil is about to cast some of you into prison in order that you may be tested; and you will have special persecution ten times: keep on becoming faithful [residence and function in the divine dynasphere] until death, and I will give to you a crown of life [eternal reward for living inside the divine dynasphere].”

1. The judgment seat of Christ or the evaluation of believers in phase two of the plan of God occurs at the termination of the Church Age. It follows the receiving of a resurrection body. (Whether a believer succeeds or fails he will have a resurrection body)

2. The purpose of the judgment seat of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one of us [believers in the royal family of God] may receive what is due him for the things accomplished while in the physical body [phase two], whether good [a)gaqoj] or worthless [or evil, fauloj].” If the believer lives his Christian life inside the cosmic system what he accomplishes is worthless or evil or both, fauloj. On the other hand if the believer lives his Christian life inside the divine dynasphere what he does is categorised as intrinsic good, a)gaqoj.

3. A))gaqoj refers to the plan of God from the viewpoint of imputation [X+Y+Z = Good]. Here again we have the principle: a)gaqoj means, first through X radical, human life imputed at birth plus Adam’s original sin. The imputation of Adam’s original sin means spiritual death, and that sets up the first potential for salvation, plus the pertinent doctrine — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, imputation, justification, all of those things related to the work of Christ on the cross. That equals hope 1, absolute confidence that of you believe in Jesus Christ you have eternal life plus salvation adjustment to the justice of God through faith in Christ. Now you advance to being an immature believer: Y radical. Here you have judicial imputation #1 — our sins are imputed to Christ on the cross, the basis of our so great salvation. Judicial imputation #2, the basis for our relationship with God. We have God’s righteousness, one half of divine integrity, and also at the same time God has created a target for all logistical grace — imputation, and all supergrace blessing — the possession of the righteousness of God. So a new potential is set up: the potential for great blessing in time, plus the pertinent doctrine equals hope #2 — absolute confidence that you and I as believers using the divine dynasphere advance to maturity, plus maturity adjustment to the justice of God, going from gate four to gate eight. In Z radical we have the imputation of eternal life at salvation plus the imputation of supergrace blessing, blessing in time at the point of maturity, and that equals the third potential, the potential of eternal blessing and reward at the judgment seat of Christ above and beyond the resurrection body. Plus the pertinent equals hope three, absolute confidence that by attaining maturity, advancing from gate four to gate eight, we are going to receive great blessing and reward at the judgment seat of Christ. This equals the good, a)gaqoj, all things working together for good — Romans 8:28. This second Koine word a)gaqoj occurs in 2 Corinthians 5:10 — “that each one of us [royal family of God] may receive what is due him for the things accomplished in the body, whether good, a)gaqoj, or worthless.” The purpose of the judgment seat of Christ is the evaluation of each believer’s life on earth between salvation and his departure.

a. The gain or loss of reward and blessing above and beyond the resurrection body is determined by your personal volition. Your choice of dynasphere determines gain or loss of reward, 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.

b. Loss of reward at the judgment seat of Christ does not imply loss of salvation, 2 Timothy 2:11-13.“if we endure” is persistence and function inside the divine dynasphere. Enduring here is u)pomenw. This is God’s game plan for the Christian life, residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. And if you persist in making decisions consistent with the divine dynasphere in phase two there will be reward in phase three. “If we refuse,” i.e. to function under our Lord’s plan (X+Y+Z); “he will also refuse us (i.e. reward, not salvation).” Eternal security is a divine gift at the moment of salvation through faith in Christ. What God does for us cannot be lost, cannot be changed, cannot be removed. Eternal security depends upon the integrity of God while confidence toward God depends on the integrity of the believer, he must have doctrine resident in his soul. Failure to live in the divine dynasphere may destroy the believer’s confidence in God but failure to live in the divine dynasphere can never destroy your eternal security. Therefore the principle of 2 Timothy 2:11-13: eternal security is permanent and cannot be destroyed by Christian failure. Confidence in God is a motivating virtue which can be lost through the believer’s residence and function inside the cosmic dynasphere. The principle of eternal security: John 10:28; 1 Peter 1:3-5. Eternal security is never an issue at the judgment seat of Christ.

c. However, the cosmic believer in losing reward at the judgment seat of Christ will experience, at least for that period of time, shame. He will be in a resurrection body but there is that implication of shame at loss of reward. Perhaps this is the closest thing to any lack of happiness that can ever exist in heaven, in eternity. And this appears to be only temporary at that moment and does not seem to be perpetuated into eternity. Philippians 1:20, Confidence in time implies reward in eternity. Phil. 3:18,19, “for many keep walking in the cosmic system ...” The apostle Paul had an emotional response to his observation of cosmic Christians: “they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.” What is the end of such believers? — verse 19, “whose end is destruction [the sin unto death], whose God is emotion, whose glory [at the judgment seat of Christ] is their shame, who keep thinking about earthly things [a description of cosmic involvement].”

1 John 2:28, “And now dear children, keep on residing in it [the divine dynasphere]; that if he [Christ] should appear [the Rapture, the resurrection of the Church], we might have confidence, and might not be put to shame by him in his presence [at the judgment seat of Christ].”

Note James 1:25: “But the one who looks intently into the perfect law [Bible doctrine] that gives freedom [perception of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere], and continues to do this [momentum in the divine dynasphere], not forgetting what he has heard but doing it, this believer will be blessed [or happy] in what he is doing”. The perfect law and looking into the perfect law which gives freedom is our life inside the divine dynasphere with emphasis on perception of doctrine.

James 2:12-13, “So keep speaking and so keep doing as though who are going to be judged [evaluated] by the law that gives freedom [perception of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere is the basis for our evaluation]. For judgment for those who have not produced mercy [have not manufactured virtue inside the divine dynasphere, or better, who do not show compassion]; compassion triumphs over judgment.” This is an interim point to emphasise the fact that the judgment seat of Christ and our evaluation is related toward the many decisions for or against the divine dynasphere, residence and function therein.

6. Therefore the application of virtue to the judgment seat of Christ. Note one application found in Romans 14:10-13, “You there [the weak believer who lives in the cosmic system], why do you judge your brother? [Principle of the weak controlling the strong] or you also [the strong believer] why do you regard your brother with contempt [Lack of toleration and impersonal love]? for all will be present at the tribunal of God. For it stands written [Isaiah 45:23], For surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me [the big genuflect after the Rapture of the Church], and every tongue will confess to God [these are believers]. So then each one of us [Church Age believers] shall give an account to God concerning himself [You are responsible for your own decisions]. Therefore let us no longer judge one another: but rather make up your mind, [determine this] not to place an obstacle or distraction in front of his brother”. This is application of virtue to the judgment seat of Christ. The only possible way to do this is inside the divine dynasphere where the motivating virtue of personal love for God is counterparted by impersonal love for mankind. There is where you get your toleration to tolerate believers in all stages of growth so that there is no distraction to their positive volition toward Bible doctrine.

7. An athletic analogy to the judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:5 — “Now if anyone really competes in the athletic games he does not receive a winner’s wreath unless he trains according to the rules.” The Roman empire, in copying the Greek games, copied the whole system, including the rules, and the athlete couldn’t compete unless he trained according to the rules. There were two types of athletes who existed in the Roman empire. The first group were called aqletai and were the people who entered state gymnasiums in order to train and compete in the games. There was also another category of athlete called a)gonistai and were the muscle or body builders who did not enter the games and train under the rules. So we have a)qletai and a)gonistai, two categories of athletes. And we have two kinds of believers, those who are in the divine dynasphere [comparable to the a)qletai] and those in the cosmic system [comparable to the a)gonistai]. We have the cosmic believer who doesn’t train according to the rules and we have the believer in the divine dynasphere who does. Not only did the Roman athlete live inside the gymnasium for ten months but he followed a set of very strict rules which constantly tested his motivation, his decisions, and his momentum. This was a part of the system. The concept of perception of doctrine in the divine dynasphere is analogous. Once the athletes went back to their home town they received rewards which are comparable to the judgment seat of Christ.

This was Paul’s subject, then, in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27: “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run [analogous to the games in the Roman empire and the function of gate four, the perception and application of doctrine necessary for momentum in the Christian life], but one receives the prize [in each event]?” analogous to the attainment of spiritual maturity or advance from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere. “Run in such a way that you may win,” a command for residence and function in the divine dynasphere ; “And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-discipline in all things. They [the athletes] do it to receive a perishable wreath [or crown]; but we [mature believers] an imperishable crown. Therefore [Paul’s application] I do not run like a person without an objective; I do not fight like a person beating the air [cosmic believers are shadow boxers]: Instead I discipline my body, and keep it in training [residence and function in the divine dynasphere]: lest having preached [communicated doctrine] to others, I myself should be disqualified” [disqualification from both temporal blessing in time and eternal reward at the judgment seat of Christ].

8. The rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. During the Roman empire there were two Greek words used for crowns. One of them, stefanoj, which is pertinent is a reward in two areas of life. It is a reward in military service and in the empire games. There is a second word for crown which occasionally we find in the Bible, diadhma. This is a crown used for a king. Certain rewards to mature believers at the judgment seat of Christ are called stefanoi, crowns. There were six categories of such crowns given by the Roman empire. In order of merit the six categories each had a monetary reward that went with it. All six were in the form of a golden crown that you could wear for the rest of your life.

We have in the scripture, not six of the crowns, but three listed for believers. There is the crown of righteousness for the fulfilment of the plan of God in the Church Age [in other words for advancing from gate four to gate eight]. There is the crown of life for passing all of the momentum tests as you go from gate four to gate eight. And there is the crown of glory, a decoration for pastors, evangelists and faithful communicators of the Word of God.

There used to be a phrase among fundamentalist Christians about living your life in the light of eternity. Of course it is a very sound concept, a very doctrinal principle, that while we are living a day at a time as per the mandates of our Lord, we are also to live with eternity in mind. That is exactly what we have in verse 10 with regard to the judgment seat of Christ.

There are three crowns mentioned in the Word of God. The first one is the crown of righteousness, 2 Timothy 4:7,8. The corrected translation of verse 7 is as follows: “I have fought an honourable fight [a reference to the advance to maturity inside the divine dynasphere. It refers to going from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. It indicates that the apostle Paul has attained spiritual maturity at gate eight], I have completed the course [the fulfilment of God’s plan for his life], I have retained the doctrine [not ‘I have kept the faith’. And it refers to perception and application of doctrine resulting in the construction of the ECS]:”

Verse 8, “In the future [reference to the judgment seat of Christ] a crown of righteousness is reserved for me, which crown the Lord, the righteous evaluator, will award me on that day: ...”

The crown of righteousness is awarded to the believer who executes the plan of God during the Church Age.

“ … and not only to me, but also to all those who have loved his appearance [the appearance of Christ at the Rapture].”

The second crown is the crown of life, the one which is mentioned in Revelation 2:10. This crown is related to momentum testing. Momentum testing is only for those believers who are advancing, those believers who are taking in doctrine. The believer who faces momentum testing inside the divine dynasphere accelerates his advance to gate eight. There are two biblical references made to this second crown, James 1:12 which says, “Happy is the individual who perseveres under testing: for he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who consistently love him [referring to our life inside the divine dynasphere].” The second reference is found in Revelation 2:10. So the crown of life is actually a martyrs decoration and reward and also an eternal decoration for those believers who remain in the divine dynasphere under the greatest pressures of life, and advance to maturity in times of historical disaster or historical downtrend.

Note that both the crown of righteousness and the crown of life are preceded by some form of dying grace, and that includes martyrdom. Therefore both crowns or decorations awarded to believers in eternity and believers whose priorities are so linked with Bible doctrine that in time of disaster, pressure or heartache of any kind, doctrine is more real to them than the actual suffering which they endure. And they do not compromise their doctrine or their stand or their love of the Lord because of some pressure.

The third crown is the crown of glory. This eternal decoration is given to pastors who not only reach maturity through their own personal residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, but who through faithful teaching of the Word lead others to spiritual maturity. The crown of glory belongs primarily to the pastor; firstly the apostles, and to the evangelists and prophets who taught the Word of God before the canon was completed, and afterward to the pastors. No pastor can lead his congregation, however, beyond his own stage of growth. In other words, as they would say in Rome, “No man can transfer to others rights more extensive than that which he possesses.” Therefore it behoves the pastor to get cracking and get to maturity as rapidly as possible in order to lead the way; not by example, but by content of doctrine.

Philippians 4:1, “Therefore, my brethren, loved [impersonal love] and deeply desired ones [positive believers living in the divine dynasphere], my happiness and my crown ...” Paul recognises those listening to him and advancing to maturity as his crown, the crown of glory; “in this way [residence in the divine dynasphere] keep on being stabilised by the Lord ...”

1 Thessalonians 2:19,20, “For who is our hope [confidence], or happiness, or crown of boasting? Is it not you [mature believers] in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ [the judgment seat of Christ] at his coming? For you are our glory ...”

1 Peter 5:4, “And when the chief Shepherd appears [the Rapture of the Church], you will receive the unfading crown of glory ..” In the context he is talking to pastors.

Hebrews 6:10, “For God is not unjust to disregard your occupation [of pastor-teacher], also the love which you yourselves demonstrated toward his person [learning Bible doctrine in the divine dynasphere and teaching it to the congregation], having ministered doctrine to the saints, and continuing such ministry.”

There are certain rewards mentioned in the scripture that do not belong to the royal family of God. They actually belong to believers of other dispensations. For example, the reward of cities in Luke 19:12-26, or Abraham’s special city, the new Jerusalem, which is mentioned as a reward in Hebrews 11:9,10,13,16 and Revelation 21:2,10,11. There is the harvest analogy in Matthew 13:3-9, 18-33, for Old Testament believers.

There is another type of reward called “ruling with God,” referring to believers of this dispensation, the Church. We are royal family of God, we are designed to rule. We are designed to rule in eternity, we are designed by logistical grace to rule. There are a number of approaches to ruling:

The first is the a fortiori approach of Romans 5:17, “For if by the transgression of one [Adam’s original sin] spiritual death ruled through that one; much more they who receive in life the surplus from grace [the exploitation of logistical grace is parleyed into supergrace — surplus of grace] and the gift of righteousness [imputed righteousness], much more they shall rule through that one, Jesus Christ.” Those who exploit logistical grace inside the divine dynasphere are going to rule with Christ.

There is a sarcastic approach, 1 Corinthians 4:8. Paul says to the Corinthian Christians who are in the cosmic system: “You are already filled, you already have become rich, you have become kings without us: [and then he adds sarcastically] how I wish you really had become kings, so that we also might rule with you.” Now the truth of the matter of that sarcasm is very simple. The Corinthians, on the course they had already charted, were going to have no rulership in heaven, whereas Paul is going to be one of the greatest of rulers.

There is the approach from the standpoint of eternal security, 2 Timothy 2:12: “If we endure [residence and function in the divine dynasphere] we shall also rule [has to do with reward at the judgment seat of Christ].”

From the standpoint of Rapture hymnology, Revelation 5:10, “And you have made them a kingdom, even priests to our God, and they will rule on earth.”

In addition to this there are rewards related to historical trends for those who had maximum impact to historical uptrends in their life in the divine dynasphere and the resultant momentum. We have just noted the crown of life in Revelation 2:10 which is a reward related to historical trends. Momentum testing is related to historical trends in the client nation. As a result of passing persecution testing mature believers prepared the way for one of the greatest missionary movements in all of history.

Next coming up is the hidden manna and the white stone with a name on it. Actually there are seven different rewards related to historical uptrends.

There are certain historical trends that are very interesting and certain parallels between Rome as a client nation to God and the USA. For example, Rome started out as a city and then the seven hills and the amalgamation of the two races that lived on four of those hills, the Villanovans and the Sabines. From there the amalgamation included the Etruscans who came along. First Rome was a city and then it began to reach out and grab the races around it: the Italic people, the Latins as they are sometimes called, the Gauls, etc. In other words, Rome as a nation was an amalgamation of races, it was never one race. It was actually held together by its law. When people wanted to become Roman citizens it was because it was an improvement of their lot. Therefore they left their culture behind and adopted Roman culture which was based on law an order. Later on Rome would adopt Greek culture and that would be the basis for all western European civilisation. It was not Greece that brought us western European civilisation, it was Rome with its law and order. Eventually, Roman citizens numbered every race and every kind of person, but the thing that pulled them together was their respect for Roman law, their respect for Roman economy, their respect for Rome’s administration of the law. And they were unicultural: one culture, and out of one culture eventually came Christianity. There were many religions in the Roman empire but Christianity eventually dominated as the most important because, after all, without Christianity there is no such thing as civilisation. Christianity embraces every brilliant philosophy and every false system of philosophy and tolerates what is false and accepts what is true.

Now we face a problem today where we are about to destroy ourselves as client nation. We have tolerated the wrong things — cultures that are decadent, cultures that have destroyed people. There never was a black culture in Africa which ever protected the Africans and when the Africans come here they should want our culture, our system. For it is our system and our culture which allows blacks to live like kings here. In Africa they would be just someone else in the bush. So we have here now a black culture and a Hispanic culture, etc. In the Roman empire the Gauls and the Germanic people couldn’t wait to learn Latin, to enter into the culture of something they recognised as superior to their own. And no nation has ever survived the toleration of all the cultures of decadence that come in, and we won’t either. When people come in and say, “You must accept my culture”, that is arrogance, and that type of arrogance demands that instead of a unilingual language which is universally taught in schools that it must be their language which is taught because they say, “We are not going to learn yours” .There should never be tolerated anything but English being taught in the schools as far as teaching — all communication in English. Why? English is the language of the Anglo-Saxon culture, English is the language of law and order, English is the language of the Protestant ethic, English is the language of prosperity, not Spanish. People south of the border are starving to death, they are victims of every kind of evil and their language hasn’t improved their situation a bit. People have come here from Vietnam and they have learned the language because they know it is a better place to be. But it is better because of the Protestant ethic. Those who know European history know the story. The Heugenots brought prosperity to France — the Protestant ethic, free enterprise. Then when they were kicked out through the revocation of the edict of Nants they went to Switzerland and Switzerland became prosperous. They went to north Germany and north Germany became the centre of prosperity from the last century into this one. They went to England and in England there was the same prosperity. They went to the United States and everywhere where the Protestant ethic went there was capitalism, there was free enterprise, and if you had what it took you could make it. That isn’t true any more because of the welfare state and socialism which is anti-Christian and anti-sanity. Japan is a nation which has done well. Why? One culture is acceptable in Japan. And if you went to Japanese schools you learned to speak Japanese!

Does that tell you something? We have created out of great potential American scum in all races, in all categories — white scum, black scum, yellow scum, brown scum — and it always is done through socialism, through the welfare state, through that evil concept of redistribution of wealth. That is where we are in our historical trends in these United States today. And the tragic thing is that we have yet to recognise our problem, we have yet to recognise the difference between freedom and what it means. Freedom is destroyed by tolerating many cultures — freedom is destroyed, respect for law is destroyed. These people do not come in respecting our laws, except in rare cases, they come into the United States because they recognise they have bettered their situation.

Therefore, when you come to this country you are no longer white, or black, or brown of skin. Your colour is no issue. You are no longer whatever your background was, you are in the United States and there is one culture and only one. But we have departed from that attitude because the same thing that destroyed the Roman republic is destroying the United States. We have opened the franchise and allowed people to vote who have no interest in this country or the understanding of it. We have opened the franchise to immigrants who understand nothing of this country. What is an American? There is no such thing as defining an American by race. We aren’t a race. We are like Rome, we are a large group of races. When Julius Caesar took in the Gauls and others as citizens he shocked Rome but it was the beginning of the greatness of Rome because they were taken in on the basis of Roman culture. There is no racial issue in this country, it is a created issue for evil politicians to exploit black people, brown people, Vietnamese people, etc. There is no race, there is no issue with colour. These are false issues that have been created and all they have done is to produce arrogance so that people say, “My race has been maltreated here.” But their race has in fact had the best opportunity it has ever had. Who are these people we are catering to who say they are the downtrodden? People are only downtrodden because they are the products of their own decisions, they have made decisions to be downtrodden.

Now we move to a principle which is the background for all of these rewards. These great decorations and rewards which come to those who glorify the Lord, who fulfil the plan of God, who reside and function inside the divine dynasphere, they all are based on a principle, temporal and eternal security. Once you decide to believe in Jesus Christ you enter the plan of God and you can’t get out — that’s phase one. Inside the plan of God there are many options. Good options result in opening the door for greater options. Inside the plan of God are the opportunities for bad decisions. Bad decisions destroy the options and make your life miserable (there are various types of divine discipline). And, of course, in eternity there are degrees of reward. You can make wrong decisions all of your life as a Christian, you will be miserable, but no matter how many wrong decisions you make you cannot lose your eternal salvation. So we have temporal security, the principle of logistical grace supplied, and we have eternal security, the principle of the saving work of God applied.

So we now move from the principle of rewards and decorations at the judgment seat of Christ plus the tremendous degrees of happiness and prosperity which are provided in time, and we move to the ones who fail. Security orientation from life and momentum in the divine dynasphere is the principle. The basis for temporal security — verse 11a: “He who has an ear.”

We begin with the articular present active participle from the verb e)xw, which means to have. The definite article is used as a personal pronoun and refers to the fact that believers in Jesus Christ are equipped from the moment of salvation to understand Bible doctrine, regardless of academic ability or human IQ. The present tense is a static present representing a circumstance — having ears — which is assumed as perpetually existing. The active voice: the believer produces the action, the participle is circumstantial. The accusative singular direct object from the noun o)uj, which means an ear, follows. The ear represents the grace system for perception of Bible doctrine. All kinds of people have ears and can hear, no one earns or deserves the right to have ears. The whole point of having ears means volition. You have free will; you have your own volition; you can choose to hear or not to hear. “He who has an ear,” then, refers to the principle of grace perspicacity. God has provided a grace system for the perception of Bible doctrine, a system where IQ is not the issue, only positive volition and the daily use of positive volition fulfilling the principle of residence and function in the divine dynasphere. God in His matchless grace has provided through logistical grace everything necessary to perpetuate momentum in the spiritual life.

Next, the mandate: the aorist active imperative of the verb a)kouw, which means let us hear. And in the imperative mood it is a command, it is a mandate for the Christian life. You must use your own free will for or against doctrine. If you use it for you will expose yourself to doctrinal teaching. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for a fact extended over a period of time, the taking in of Bible doctrine, the residence in the divine dynasphere, God’s power system, God’s game plan for the Church Age. The active voice: this is a third person suffix of the verb and indicates that the positive believer living in the divine dynasphere produces the action although the mandate belongs to all Christians. And the accusative neuter singular from the interrogative pronoun tij indicates the object of hearing doctrine, correctly translated “what sort of thing [the categories Bible doctrine].”

Then we have the nominative neuter singular subject from pneuma, referring to the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. And it relates to the function of gate one of the divine dynasphere. Then we have the present active indicative of the verb legw, which here means to communicate. The customary present tense is for what habitually occurs when the believer resides and functions inside the divine dynasphere and is positive toward the teaching of Bible doctrine. Such Bible doctrine can only be learned and applied under the status of the filling of the Spirit who is the teacher of doctrine. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb teaching positive believers under the ministry of their pastor, as per John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27. Apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit there is no perception of Bible doctrine. The only legitimate area for the use of divine power in perception of Bible doctrine, the fulfilment of the plan of God, the production of the Christian life, the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ and, inevitably, the ultimate in happiness in time, is the ministry of the Spirit; all of these depend upon gate one or the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

Next we have the dative plural indirect object from the noun e)kklhsia, which is the classroom for learning Bible doctrine, correctly translated “churches.” It refers to the local church. All teaching is conducted inside the classroom of the local church and the congregation functions as students without portfolio. The minister is the teacher, therefore his authority as the pastor must be linked with the higher authority of Bible doctrine which is the mind of Christ — 1 Cor. 2:16. This is a dative of indirect object, it indicates the ones — believers assembled in the local church — in whose interest the act of teaching doctrine is performed. Therefore it is a dative of advantage, it is to your advantage to hear and to absorb Bible doctrine. Consequently the greatest decisions in life are those positive decisions made toward Bible doctrine. These decisions are related to your priorities in life, whatever they happen to be. If Bible doctrine is number one in your scale of values then you are positive toward doctrine. In other words, the believer is equipped through logistical grace to understand Bible doctrine but he must use his own volition or free will to learn the Word of God.

Furthermore, the perception of Bible doctrine properly relates to the function of freedom and security. Freedom is the origin of all true security in life and therefore the function of freedom must be directed toward the divine mandates regarding residence and function in the divine dynasphere.

Degeneracy has many forms and is always a functional evil. All degeneracy starts with arrogance. Arrogance is a part of gate one, cosmic one, and preoccupation with self when carried out leads to psychosis, neurosis, and many other things. It also results in the principle that we are the products of our own decisions and an arrogant nation is a self-destructive nation. But you never begin actually by just suddenly breaking through all barriers and moving into degeneracy. Instead there is a thought pattern which comes first.

In time of degeneracy the public is especially bad. They vacillate very easily. And very quickly they become a weapon in the hands of the demagogue. But there is a way in which this can be corrected and in which you can think for yourself. But you have to go back and take a look at the only perfect person who has ever been on this earth: our Lord Jesus Christ in His hypostatic union, manifest to His own country, “he came unto his own and his own received him not.” Certainly one of the greatest demonstrations of historical fickleness is related to our Lord Jesus Christ and how easy it was to arouse the crowds against Him. The more truth He gave and the more He was right, the more the people in power demonstrated great vacillation and fickleness. And once you become aware of this historical trend it is very easy to become discouraged by it. But there is always a factor, a factor related to Bible doctrine, a factor related to truth which can turn it all around and bring stability into the life and crystallise your opinions and your standards and your priorities. And that is, of course, the remembering of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what the communion table is, the recalling of who and what Christ is. It is a stabilising factor for those who have Bible doctrine because it calls upon them to use their concentration, the same concentration used in the perception of doctrine, the same concentration which is used in any facet of life. The concentration is required for remembering our Lord Jesus Christ. Memory is a concentration effort just as prayer is a concentration effort.

Perception of doctrine properly relates to the function of freedom to security. Freedom is the origin for true security in life, and therefore, the function of freedom must be directed toward the divine mandates regarding residence and function in the divine dynasphere. The security of believers begins at the point of salvation through faith in Christ. At that moment they receive two categories of security: eternal security related to the possession of eternal salvation as a work of God and guarantee that we shall spend eternity in the presence of God; temporal security which is related to the imputation of divine righteousness, forming a grace pipeline for the flow of logistical grace support. The believer cannot earn, deserve, merit or work for either category of security. People often relate security to happiness or a change of circumstances instead of to freedom, and that is a disaster.

Believers are the products of their own decisions, like all other members of the human race. Therefore, decisions to live inside the divine dynasphere provide that confidence in God as a motivating virtue — which also brings to us awareness of security — while decisions to live in the cosmic system do not actually cancel the security but they do cancel our awareness of both temporal and eternal security. Therefore the result is that instability, that vacillation, that insecurity, which comes from trading freedom for a system of false security. The philosophy of the cosmic system and the welfare state, socialism and communism. Socialism offers pseudo security instead of genuine freedom. God has not overlooked the believer’s security but freedom is the true issue in the angelic conflict.

Verse 11b, we start out with the articular present active participle from the verb nikaw, which means to be a winner, to be victorious, to conquer, to overcome. It should be translated winner, or he who is victorious. The definite article is a nominative masculine singular and is used as a personal pronoun in the subject. The present tense is a perfective present for a fact which has come to be in the past: initial entrance into the divine dynasphere at the point of salvation and, of course, is now emphasised as a present reality. The active voice: the believer in the Church Age and/or the royal family produces the action of the verb — being a winner.

In the previous Church — Ephesus, in chapter 2:7 — the emphasis was on perpetuation of the Christian life in the divine dynasphere resulting in momentum and maturity, and therefore reward in eternity. But here the emphasis is on the initial victory at salvation when the believer enters the divine dynasphere, because not only is he a winner for the moment but at the same time he receives something he can never lose. He can’t throw it away by wrong decisions. Wrong decisions have a great deal to do with failure in life, and great unhappiness and misery, but you can make wrong decisions as a Christian all of your life and you still do not lose your salvation.

For the mature believer of Smyrna the reward is a decoration called the crown of life. Victory over the cosmic system begins at salvation with that initial entry into gate one, the filling of the Spirit. At that moment the believer in this dispensation has received 40 things from God, he has come under the support of logistical grace, and he resides in the driver’s seat inside the divine dynasphere. This initial point of victory over the cosmic system at the point of salvation is also described in 1 John 3:9, which says that at the moment when anyone is born from God — salvation through faith in Christ — he is not sinning, because his seed — God the Holy Spirit — keeps residing in it [the divine dynasphere]. Furthermore he is not able to sin [i.e. inside the divine dynasphere. He is able to sin all right but any decision to sin moves him outside of the divine dynasphere]. And the reason he is not able to sin is because he has been born from God, he is in the divine dynasphere. To sin he has to step outside. Perpetuating residence in the divine dynasphere for the believer, then, is a matter of one of two things: resistance of temptation from the old sin nature residing in the body or having sinned and consequently having become involved in the cosmic system to use the rebound technique. Residence and function inside the divine dynasphere is God’s game plan for the Church Age believer and this is the power system He has provided for our weaknesses.

Then we have the aorist passive subjunctive of the verb a)dikew, which also has with it the strongest possible negative you can have — o)u plus mh. Mh ordinarily goes with the subjunctive mood; o)u goes with the indicative mood but is used here in combination with mh to form an extremely strong negative. A double negative in the Greek is a stronger negative; the double negative in the English is a positive. We will translate that then, “shall not ever be hurt [injured or damaged].” The gnomic aorist tense is for a doctrine, the doctrine of eternal security, so absolute and so certain as to be axiomatic in character. The passive voice, plus the double negative o)u mh, emphasises the fact that the believer cannot ever receive the action of the verb because of eternal security. The mature believer, then, under martyrdom, dies under the principle of dying grace. The believer can only die once. Whether he dies under dying grace or the sin unto death — judgment, divine discipline for failure — the fact remains he cannot lose his salvation.

It is not possible to lose your salvation. This is stated with the prepositional phrase in terms of the lake of fire — e)k plus the ablative of means from the adjective deuteroj plus qanatoj.

Altogether it means, “shall not ever be hurt, injured or damaged by the second death.”

What is the second death? Obviously if there is a second death somewhere there is a first death. If there is a first and second death there may be more deaths and, of course, there are. There are seven deaths which are found in the Bible:

a. Physical death or the first death of the human race. It is defined as the separation of the soul from the body so that the person involved no longer lives on planet earth. But such death cannot separate the believer from God — Romans 8:38,39. Physical death is a matter of God’s sovereign decision as to when to take us home to be with Himself, Psalm 68:19,20. But God can and does prolong physical life on the earth and Psalm 102:19,20,23,24 tell us the whole story. God also delivers the believer from death many times before he dies, Job 5:20; Psalm 33:19; 56:13; 116:8. The believer who attains maturity departs from life under the principle of having wonderful death, death is the greatest experience of his life, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his mature ones.” Psalm 23:4, “Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil”. Resurrection is the victory over death, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57. All of this adds up to the fact that there is a first death and all of us will face it apart from resurrection, the Rapture may occur and will occur before one group or generation actually dies physically.

Security belongs to both the winners and the losers in the Christian life. All of the way through this historical trend dissertation in Revelation 2 & 3 are a tremendous amount of security phrases. What is the meaning of these security phrases? We have a doctrine called “temporal security” as well as “eternal security.” While people are struggling and scrounging, vainly often, to find some kind of security, if they are where the Lord wants them to be they couldn’t be more secure. The way to be secure is to stay in the divine dynasphere, and when you get out of the divine dynasphere you have rejected the wall of fire where there is no place you are secure. In the second chapter of Revelation we discover that our life is not dependent upon social interaction, the functions of governments, the functions of Satan who would like to remove believers for obvious reasons — they foul up his administration. We are perfectly secure. Verse 11 is addressed to people who have failed as well as to people who have succeeded but they are still winners in the sense of security.

Physical death is a part of the security package. The security package started at the moment you believed in Christ. It includes dying. You are going to die in the way that the Lord wants you to, so what is your concern? It also indicates that whether you fail or succeed you are going to be in heaven. And, furthermore, even the worst failure, after he dies physically, gets an interim body and a great interlude of happiness before the resurrection. We have a perfect security package and there is no reason, then, for fear. It is mandated that we are not to fear. There is reason to fear if you like to live in the cosmic system and you like to ignore the Word of God. Then it is inevitable that you will be frightened, but there is no way that you can have any fear once you understand a principle: failures are just as much under the security package as winners.

Physical death is defined as the separation of the soul and the spirit from the physical body so that the person involved no longer lives on planet earth. The fact that we have a soul means that we will live forever, either in the lake of fire or in heaven. And such death cannot separate the believer from God. Death does not mean separation from God, on the contrary it means coming face to face with God in an interim body. Physical death is a matter of God’s sovereign decision, and God knows better than we do what we should have. We make all of the decisions up to the moment of our dying but the Lord makes that one. The Lord knows best for each one of us.

The second death in the Bible has nothing to do with physical death, it is spiritual death. It is something we all had at birth; it is a type of death that accompanies life while we are alive. Since the moment we became alive we have had spiritual death. Spiritual death is the penalty of sin. And given as a warning to our original parents in the garden — Genesis 2:17, they were told that “dying they would die.” That means that eventually they would have physical death but long before physical death they would suffer spiritual death. At the moment of birth we have a death called spiritual death, the imputation of Adam’s original sin to the genetically formed old sin nature. We are born physically alive and spiritually dead. The sign of that death is the existence of the old sin nature, genetically formed in the body and controlling the soul when we sin.

The solution to spiritual death is stated in Romans 6:23: to believe in Jesus Christ. That is why we are said to be born again. When we were born physically we received human life imputed to the soul. We received Adam’s original sin imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. When we are born the second time we receive the imputation of divine righteousness and eternal life is imputed to the human spirit. Being born again is solving the problem of spiritual death. So our personal sins were never imputed to us for condemnation but imputed to Christ on the cross, as per 1 Peter 2:24 and Isaiah 53:6.

The third death is positional death of the believer. This has to do with something which happens at salvation: God the Holy Spirit entering us into union with Christ, which we call positional truth. It is defined as identification with Christ and it is defined two ways: retroactive positional truth identifies us with Christ in His death; current positional truth identifies us with Christ in His resurrection. So we have a type of death that is actually retroactive positional truth and it means that through the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation the believer is identified with Christ in His death. In His death Christ was judged for our sins but He rejected both human good and evil. Human good and evil are a great part of Satan’s plan for administering the rulership of this world. Our Lord rejected human good, He didn’t bear human good on the cross, He didn’t even bear our evil, only that part of evil that relates to sin. He was judged for our sins only and since we are identified with Christ in His death we as believers must reject and separate ourselves from human good and evil, and we do this by obeying the mandates of residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. There is no human good and there is no evil (and actually no sin) inside the divine dynasphere with its eight gates. All sin, all evil, and all human good is associated with cosmic one and the 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance, and cosmic two and the 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred. So the positional death of the believer is a very important concept.

Retroactive positional truth or positional death is identification with Christ in His death where He was judged for our sins, where He rejected human good and evil, the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. Therefore we can only sin outside the divine dynasphere and only produce human good and evil inside the cosmic system. Therefore all personal sin places us immediately inside the cosmic system.

Furthermore, the next category of death is cosmic death, the believer involved in the cosmic system. This is the same as carnality or reversionism. It is the function of the believer’s volition converting temptation into sin. Whether the believer knows that he is being tempted or not is not even the issue. The real issue is: Does he want to do it? And whether it is a sin of ignorance or a sin of cognisance he still wanted to do it and he is responsible. The decision automatically places the believer inside of the cosmic system — physically alive but said to be dead in such passages as James 1:15.

The next type of death is the production of dead works. This category combines the arrogance of Christian service at gate 21 of cosmic one with the function of human good at gate nine of cosmic two. In other words, Christian production is dead if it is performed inside the cosmic system.

There is also a category called sexual death, only found in two passages both of which deal with Abraham, Romans 4:17-21; Hebrews 11:11-12.

The seventh death is the “second death,” the one we have in verse 11. This death is for the unbeliever only. It is the final judgment for the unbeliever, the one who has rejected Jesus Christ as saviour. It is eternal separation from God and its locale is the lake of fire. The lake of fire does not exist now. There is a hell but it is a part of Hades, and there is a difference between Hades and the lake of fire. The lake of fire is found in the judgment of Hebrews 9:27. It is so described in Revelation 20:12-15. The lake of fire is the second death.

There is one other death, the sin unto death, which is maximum discipline for the believer.

Verses 12-17 have to do with the church at Pergamos. This was a great church in a most unusual city.

We have the connective use of the conjunction kai, indicating that we are continuing our subject of historical trends but we are moving to a different locale. It is followed by the dative singular, definite article, toi. The generic use of the definite article is used for a category known as the second estate, the clergy — pastors of the local churches. Any kind of communicating profession always has those who communicate the truth and those who do not, those who distort the truth and those who do not. And it is very important for us to understand a principle here. We have good reporters and bad reporters in the news media, we have good clergymen and bad clergymen. You have those who teach what is truth and those who teach what is false; you have those who teach what is slanted in both. And if you get rid of the news simply because you have people who falsify it you also get rid of any system of freedom in communication. That means you also get rid of the clergy. Rather, the point is: Let’s learn the truth so that we can recognise what is false and what is slanted, and discern. Freedom demands discernment. That is our first principle and it comes from a definite article. Discern what is true, and to do that you must have the truth. If you desire the truth, the truth is available: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” You have to discern where clergymen are concerned. The whole basis of the fact that men stand up in pulpits and teach what is false and men stand up in pulpits and teach what is true doesn’t change the principle: you have the right of discernment. Discernment is based upon your own scale of values and your knowledge of Bible doctrine. Therefore, the key is to learn the truth and the truth makes you free to discern. Therefore, you do not abolish communication systems just because they falsify information. Instead you discern what is true and what is false. You are always going to have the true and the false standing side by side and the point is not to destroy what is false but to recognise it and reject it. In any generation where you have a large number of people who understand truth and reject what is false you always have a great historical period. When you don’t have that you have confusion. But it is far better to have freedom and confusion than no freedom and the lie — dictatorship.

Next we have the dative singular, indirect object from the noun a)ggeloj. This word can be transliterated “angel,” in which case we are talking about a super creature. But we are talking here about human beings. It means “messenger,” used here for a technical messenger — future pastors of Pergamos. The dative of indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest the act is performed — the future pastors in the city of Pergamos. The dative of advantage also has in view the advantage to the local church of having a local pastor in residence: face to face teaching, or nonresidence. Believers cannot learn doctrine without a communicator of doctrine who is in the business of communicating; a pastor-teacher by gift, by preparation, by academics, and by everything that is necessary to communicate doctrine and to go into the original languages and separate the wheat from the chaff, the true from the false.

Then we have the genitive singular of relationship from the noun e)kklhsia, which refers to local churches, not denominations. You have to remember that this was the first century when this was written and for three centuries thereafter you have local churches, like at Pergamos. Believers had fellowship as they travelled back and forth but they never formed a denomination. And you have to remember that there was no such things as the words “Catholic” and “Protestant” as we know them today until the seventeenth century and thereafter. The e)kklhsia was simply a classroom where people learned doctrine, and all believers throughout the Roman empire, and everywhere else there were believers, gathered to learn doctrine. When we talk about the church here we are talking about the church as a classroom where Bible doctrine was taught.

“in Pergamos,” e)n plus the locative of Pergamum. And then we have the mandate to the apostle John, the aorist active imperative of the verb grafw, which means write. The culminative aorist tense views the writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety, but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, plus the encouragement of future pastors to study and to teach the content of the Word of God. The active voice: the apostle John, under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is an order, a command.

It will be noted by now that we have taken up three cities, Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamos, so it is time to look at isagogics again with regard to the Roman empire at this time. The first principle is the urban interpretation of Roman history. Rome as an agricultural country was a republic; Rome as an urban nation was an empire.

1. What is often categorised as the Roman empire is really not an empire at all. It is really an association of large cities, and these cities were made up of all races, of all peoples, and everything but nations. Rome as an empire was an association of cities, large and small.

2. Without the Greek civilisation (the Greek civilisation of city states) preceding the Romans there would have been no Roman empire. There was a Roman republic but there never would have been a Roman empire apart from the Greek civilisation of city states.

3. Roman civilisation became an urban civilisation for the city of the Roman empire was its important entity. What does that tell us? The same thing it tells us about the USA and her manifest destiny. The south was an agricultural area; the north was industrial. Where do you get your large cities? From industry. The north had the large cities, the south was agricultural — landed aristocracy. Once the war between the states was settled the US began to prosper because the undeveloped frontier was an area of townships, ranches, farms, and so on. What is it all today? One of the major parts of the undeveloped frontier is now a state of large cities — California. But the greater the urban development the more is the dependence upon the farmer. No urbanised civilised has ever survived the loss of water and food. Roman government got into the business of water and food and through the genius of Caesar and the system he set up, Rome had for 450 years, water and food. And the empire was an association of cities. All of the churches were located in cities, there was no country church in the Roman empire. 4. The cities were to the Roman empire what cities and states are to the USA. Cities were permitted and encouraged to manage their own affairs. One thing about the Roman empire: they had literally thousands of cities in the empire and they allowed the citizens of the city to manage their own affairs. That was Caesar’s idea. They had provincial governors acting as a general supervisor in large cities like Ephesus. The population of the Roman empire considered themselves citizens of the city and thus they lost racial identity and racial prejudice. Therefore, a person considered himself an Alexandrian, and Athenian, a Corinthian, a Philippian, etc. They were all races and of different colours of skin but they were all citizens of their city and they just simply had no racial prejudice. In other words, the conquests of Alexander the Great and the consequent Hellenistic monarchies paved the way for the Roman empire to be an association of cities. Rome became the master of a galaxy of cities which flourished in Hellenistic times.

Rome was not an empire as we understand empires. It was simply an association of prosperous cities, free trade between thousands of cities. On one side the Atlantic, on the other side the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, all of the way up to Hadrian’s wall and all of the way south to the Sahara desert. That large chunk of the world had thousands of cities and they traded — free trade — and prosperity was fantastic. Capitalism was the order of the day and people were prosperous everywhere.

And, of course, it was related to the rise of Christianity. The state of the cities plus their prosperity was the index for the condition of the Roman empire, and when something went wrong with the cities the empire went down; when the cities prospered the empire went up. Obviously the cities are necessary for the existence stability of local churches where Bible doctrine was taught, and the cities became prominent in the Roman empire. In those cities you have large groups of people together, like the apostle Paul, the apostle John, and Peter and many others. What did they do? They went to cities where there were populations and they evangelised in those cities. They did missionary work inside the Roman empire which would eventuate in the Roman empire being a strong client nation to God and a base for missionary activity outside the Roman empire to the entire world.

So there were local churches where Bible doctrine was taught and a maximum number of mature believers in any of these cities caused an uptrend in SPQR.

What held the Roman empire together, then, was the triumph of Christianity. Christianity was in the cities, and while in the rural populations they would cling to the ancient religions, generally in all the large cities Christianity became the factor. The country folk had to come to the cities to participate in their religious worship and in the cities they were evangelised. This means that the great conflict existed in the cities of the empire. There was a conflict between the Bible doctrine of the divine dynasphere and the religious and philosophical traditions of the cosmic system. Christianity took over the cities of Rome eventually through evangelism, through Bible teaching, through the functions of the Word of God.

Pergamos was one of the more important cities in the Roman province of Asia along. of course, with Ephesus and Smyrna. It was north of Smyrna and three miles from the river which flowed into the Agean sea 15 miles further on. The early people of the city were the descendants of Greek colonists who intermarried with the Myceans. Lysimachus took over the city after the death of Alexander the Great and he deposited there nine thousand talents of gold which was the basis of turning the city into a great area later on in the Roman empire. After the death of Lysimachus there was a garrison commander there by the name of Philaterias who took over the control of the city from the garrison. He ruled the city for twenty years from 283 to 263 BC and he used the wealth that had been deposited there and established an independent Greek dynasty called the dynasty of the Attalids. In founding this particular dynasty he began one of the smartest groups of rulers in the ancient world. He was succeeded by his nephew Eumenes who became the first king of Pergamos. Eumenes increased the power of the small city state and made a nation out of it, so it became the nation of Pergamum. He even defeated the Seleucid empire, the same empire that tried to overrun Israel. His successor, Attalus the First, defeated the Gauls from the kingdom of Galatia who like the Seleucids tried to overrun this kingdom. So one thing about the freedom of this kingdom: it was based upon military victory. They never lost their freedom during the rule of the Attalids. And so it was Attalus who correctly interpreted the history of his own generation by foreseeing the rise of the Roman republic, and he did another thing: the Roman republic looked to him like the nation of the future so he made an alliance with Rome and he made sure that Pergamum was always on the side of Rome in the politics of the Mediterranean. The influence as a result of this was fantastic. The Roman republic came to power and Pergamum rode in with them on their coat tails. The kingdom of Pergamum reached its peak under Eumenes the Second, the ruler from 197-159 BC. He was succeeded by his brother who took the title of Attalus the Second. He held the rulership until Eumenes’ son was old enough to take over and then we have Eumenes the Third. He ruled from 138-133 BC. He died leaving behind a very powerful small nation and in his will he made Rome his heir, he had no legitimate son. And a smarter move never occurred because now the Romans took over the protection of this city. And the Romans never forgot the fact and always gave preferential treatment to Pergamum.

At the time of writing Pergamos was the medical centre of the Roman empire. It was a royal residence; it was a very famous university town. It was also the centre for the phallic cult in that part of the world. In addition to the manufacture of its parchment Pergamos was famous for its pottery, its tapestries, and the greatest perfumes in the Roman empire. It was also a big source for silver and therefore was a source of coinage for the Roman empire.

Verse 12b, “These things saith.” The present active indicative of legw, which means to speak, to communicate, to say. The active voice: we will discover shortly that the subject is the Lord Jesus Christ. He produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality.

Next we have the accusative neuter plural, direct object from the demonstrative pronoun, o(dh. The demonstrative pronoun was used originally as an introductory formula for the Greek translation of the decrees of the Persian king. When Persia was a great empire they had many Greeks under the Persian king and the king so admired the Greeks that he always translated all of his laws immediately into Greek so that the Greeks would stay up to date with what he was thinking. And o(dh was the key word. This was the one that introduced the decrees; here it is used for introducing the commands, the decrees, the mandates, the will and the plan of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is used at this point as our Lord’s estimate of the situation of the church at Pergamos. All we have so far is a partial sentence — “Communicates these things,” legw plus o(dh.

Next we have a subject and it is the simple pronoun “he,” referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. We find that in the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw. The definite article is used as a personal pronoun to describe our Lord Jesus Christ as we have previously noted Him in Revelation 1:16. This is a descriptive present tense. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. We translate is then: “He who has.” The object of the participle is composed of six Greek words in the accusative case. Three are the definite article in the accusative form, thn. Then we have a couple of adjectives, o)zuj, which means very very sharp; distomoj, a composition of two words, di for two and stomoj for mouths. It is used for a double-edged sword, the Greek word r(omfaia referring to the famous Thracian broadsword. Translation: “He who has the sharp double-edged broadsword communicates these things.”

The broadsword is a reference to divine discipline of a nation or people through military disaster or something that causes death like violence, terrorism, crime, revolution, guerrilla warfare, conventional warfare. And the divine discipline is administered to believers living in the cosmic system and in some stage of reversion. If we do not use the laws of divine establishment to keep our house in order the Lord Jesus Christ will do it for us. In that way our Lord protects the local church where evangelism and Bible teaching is absolutely necessary. So divine discipline in the form of a double-edged broadsword is reserved for a society out of control and for believers in that society who are living in the cosmic system. In other words, it takes a lot of bad decisions to become the recipient of the sword of the Lord. Good decisions provide options for greater decisions and divine blessing in the divine dynasphere, but bad decisions related to the cosmic system destroy those options and result in the divine discipline of the sharp double-edged sword. The historical trend of disaster results from negative and bad decisions of the believer.

1. The believer’s decisions regarding doctrinal teaching determine the historical trends of a client nation.

2. The believer has a choice of being taught doctrine by his right pastor or the divine discipline of the double-edged broadsword, including violence, crime, terrorism, revolution, guerrilla warfare, conventional warfare, etc.

3. Should individual believers or the entire nation be devastated by the broadsword from the Lord in any of these specified forms, many would say immediately: “What a tragedy.”

4. But there are no tragedies in history, only disasters brought on by individual and collective decisions within a national entity.

5. Because we as a nation have rejected truth — the laws of divine establishment, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Bible doctrine — we become liable for discipline from the sharp double-edged broadsword. And that sword can be any form of terrorism, any form of violence, a rise in crime. Which means unrestrained crime, uncontrolled revolution, predatory dictatorships, vulnerability to international blackmail, victimisation by world-wide terrorism, and either humbled or destroyed by conventional, guerrilla or nuclear warfare. And there is an overriding statement to all of this: As goes the believer, so goes the client nation. A maximum number of believers in the divine dynasphere means blessing for the nation; a maximum number of believers in the cosmic system means divine punishment. The broadsword of historical disaster is a continuing historical trend until the second advent of Christ.

We have seen how the believer’s decisions regarding doctrinal teaching determined historical trends in the ancient world as well as today. The believer has a choice of being taught doctrine by his right pastor or divine discipline from the double-edged sword.

Verse 13, “thy works” is not found in the original Greek. But we do have the perfect o)ida used as the present active indicative for the omniscience of the Lord Jesus Christ in the evaluation of the church at Pergamos before the evaluation material had become history. “I have known” is the way we will translate it. This phrase is based upon the doctrine of divine knowledge and the doctrine of divine decrees. The present tense of duration denotes what has begun in the past: the function of the omniscience of God in eternity past before man existed. The omniscience of God knew every thought, every motive, every action, every function of every person in history. And the omniscience of God entered that information into the computer of divine decrees. He also knew the alternatives, the things that didn’t happen but could have happened, had each individual made different decisions at different times. But it is the printout for Pergamos that is in view when He says: “I have known.” The active voice: Jesus Christ as eternal God produces the action of the verb. He always knew it, there never was a time when He didn’t. The indicative mood is declarative for an accurate assessment of the situation which contributes to the doctrine of historical trends.

Next we have the interrogative adverb, pou. This adverb is used in indirect questions and it is simply translated “where.” Location has to do with type of thought, the type of thought that you have finally developed whereby you are either a mature believer or you are a cosmic believer. In other words, like a piston being seated in a new engine. Then we have the present active indicative of the verb katoikew, which means residence. Translation so far: “I have (always) known where you live.” The present tense is a perfective present. It refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised now as a present reality. The active voice: believers in Pergamos produce the action of the verb. In effect it is saying to us: “I know where you live.” Billions and billions of years ago God knew all about us. The indicative mood is declarative, representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality.

Then we have the particle o(pou, which is the particle of place translated “where.” It is used in answer to indirect questions, presenting the divine viewpoint of Pergamos. Pergamos could go either way: it could become a place of historical disaster, a place of affliction, a place of pressure, or it could be a place of greatness.

And now we see what the big problem is: the nominative singular, o( qronoj, which means “the throne.” The throne is probably related to the famous altar of Zeus in Pergamos. There was in Pergamos a tremendous amount of idolatry and therefore this is where Satan’s throne was. The phallic cult, emperor worship, all of these things are a part of the modus operandi of the cosmic system. With this we have the possessive genitive of the noun satanaj, and it is a Greek transliteration from shatan of the Hebrew. It means enemy. With it we have the generic use of the definite article specifying a category, “where the throne of Satan is located.”

Principle: wherever the throne of Satan is there has to be a lot of idolatry and a lot of demonism.

1. Demonism is always associated with idolatry and Pergamos was saturated with idolatry. So Satan made his headquarters there. Satan, like all creatures, can be at one place at one time.

2. Pergamos was a centre for the phallic cult, as illustrated by the presence of the Nicolaitanes, but it wasn’t the worst place for the phallic cult. Here the cult which involved demon possession is apparently in the hands of male priests.

3. Furthermore, Satan worship or serpent worship was conducted in the temple of Esculapius.

5. What is more important is the fact that believers lived in the city which was the headquarters of Satan, and believers living in the divine dynasphere were as safe in this headquarters city for Satan as any place in heaven. Which means: living in a dangerous place is not necessarily dangerous. What is dangerous is living in the cosmic system, not your geographical location. Your security is related to your residence in the divine dynasphere, and inside the divine dynasphere there is safety even though you live in a dangerous place.

6. This establishes the fact that believers can live in perfect safety, in perfect security, in the most dangerous place in the world. But you can also live in the safest place and be in great danger all of the time if you are a cosmic resident. The wall of fire exists for residence in the divine dynasphere only. Safety and security is not where you are located but to whom you are related.

Now we have one of those unusual uses of the conjunction kai. God does not promise us freedom from adversity but He promises us the solution to adversity only inside the divine dynasphere. So we have the connective use of the conjunction kai emphasising an unexpected and noteworthy fact; it is translated “nevertheless.” And this “nevertheless,” what comes now, is very important with regard to your temporal security and your temporal safety. The present active indicative of kratew follows. It is not where you are, it is what you hang on to. Kratew means to hang on, to cling, to hold, to hold fast, to retain, to hold fast to someone so as to be closely united with him, to hold on to something that belongs to you. The Homeric Greek used kratew when it meant to possess power, and that brings us down very close to the meaning here. In Attic Greek the verb meant to rule, to win, to seize, to arrest, to imprison, to retain. Here it means to hold on,. to hold fast, to remain true or faithful. “Nevertheless, you hold on,” is the translation. The present tense of duration connotes what is begun in the past — residence in the divine dynasphere — and continues into the present with advance to maturity, gate eight. The active voice: mature believers and believers with momentum produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of mature believers living in Satan’s headquarters, right under his nose in Pergamos.

And then we have the accusative singular, direct object from the noun o)noma, which means both name and person. It refers to the person of Christ because of the possessive genitive from the pronoun e)gw, my name. “Nevertheless, you hold on to my name.” What does that mean? It means that right under the nose of Satan in Pergamos believers were advancing to maturity, they were passing momentum tests, they were constructing an ECS, and they were fulfilling the principle of occupation with the person of Christ. But to hold on means to be in the divine dynasphere where it all takes place, and as a result of residence and function in the divine dynasphere it indicates the fact of holding on to the name of our Lord, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. In Pergamos there was a pivot of mature believers right under Satan’s nose, and the Roman empire — the first Gentile client nation to God — was being sustained. And the point is that Satan is a genius, Satan is powerful, and he is the ruler of this world; so he is far greater and far more powerful than any of us as members of the human race. And with all of his power and all of his tremendous demon army believers did not leave the city of Pergamos because of problems or because Satan was there. Believers were not only living under Satan’s nose but were advancing to maturity, right there. That gives us some idea of the tremendous power of the divine dynasphere and the tremendous provision of logistical grace. In the midst of the evil of this city the plan of God advanced because positive believers resided and functioned inside of the divine dynasphere.

Pergamos was where the throne of Satan was at this time, and the amazing thing as that there were many believers who had advanced to maturity inside the divine dynasphere in Pergamos. This establishes the fact that a believer can live in perfect security in the most dangerous place in the world, provided he is living inside the divine dynasphere. As Satan’s headquarters Pergamos was the centre of all the religions of that time. The believer living in the divine dynasphere, however, was safe and secure. Believers living in the cosmic system were constantly subjected to persecution, torture, and death.

“and thou holdest fast my name.” No one can hold fast or remain true to the person of Christ apart from positive volition.

We have a connective conjunction kai used here as an expletive conjunction, translated “that is.” Then we have the aorist middle indicative of the verb a)rneomai, a word which means to deny, to refuse, to repudiate, to resist. The original meaning of the verb was to say, No. It describes a negative attitude toward something which here, of course, would be Bible doctrine. But with the negative it means, “You do not refuse,” or, “You do not reject.” The culminative aorist views positive volition in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results — the advance to maturity inside the divine dynasphere. The direct middle voice is one in which the subject, believers in Pergamos, have advanced to maturity and participate in the outcome of the action. The indicative mood is declarative, representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of absolute reality. With this we have the accusative singular, direct object, from the noun pistij. Pistij has numerous meanings. Some of these meanings are very simple, like the first one which is non-meritorious perception in an active sense. That is translated trust, confidence, or faith. It is also used as an attribute, hence faithfulness or reliability. It has a passive meaning, which is in view here, that which is believed — Bible doctrine.

Corrected translation of verse 13 so far: “I have known where you live, where the throne of Satan is located: nevertheless you hold fast to my name, that is, you do not refuse, reject or resist my doctrine.”

1. No one can stay inside the divine dynasphere `without being positive toward the teaching of the Word of God. It is impossible. No person can hold fast or remain true to the person of Christ apart from consistent positive volition toward Bible doctrine.

2. Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16, and is vitally necessary for the believer living in the hottest part of the battle field. Just as Pergamos, in 96 AD, was the hottest part of the battlefield so our own locale may be the hottest part of the battlefield today. But it is perfectly safe for the believer who is consistent in the perception of doctrine.

3. Without residence in the divine dynasphere and the consistent perception of doctrine the believer cannot survive in the devil’s world.

4. Negative volition toward Bible doctrine, as expressed in the verb a)rmeomai, is self-destructive to the life of the believer — spiritual life, social life, business or economic life, professional life, etc. The believer in the cosmic system is a fish out of water and there is no way that he can survive anything in life, in fact he will not, he will be destroyed by the ultimate punishment from God — the sin unto death.

5. The rejection of doctrine/negative volition is a guarantee that the believer will spend his life on earth inside the cosmic system, the slave to Satan. Satan offers many pleasures, many activities, but they are all dead ends. (Pleasure gives a fleeting moment of stimulation but it always winds up in frustration and a dead end and great misery. Misery is manufactured out of pleasures in life)

6. The cosmic believer has a miserable life as a Christian, both as the product of his own wrong decisions and the recipient of divine discipline, eventuating of course in the sin unto death.

7. All successful believers, or winners in the Christian life, function as a result of the gates of the divine dynasphere — Gate five: love of God; Gate six: right man, right woman; Gate seven: advanced impersonal love; Gate eight: the construction of the ECS and great maturity.

We are going to study a man whose name was Antipas, a man who is unknown apart from his name and apart from the few words that are written about him in the Word of God, but a man from whom we can understand from the standpoint of the Word of God and the Bible doctrine of the Johanine epistles and Revelation chapter 2. He was a most unusual person; every day was a wonderful day for him. He lived every day as unto the Lord; he lived his life inside the divine dynasphere. Therefore his life was wonderful as he functioned under the filling of the Spirit, under impersonal love, under humility, under love of God, etc. He died in what most people would say is a horrible and gruesome way and yet the Word of God says he died gloriously, honourably, and with integrity died in a horrible and gruesome way, demonstrating the fact that Bible doctrine is greater than any source of pain, any problem, any adversity, or any difficulty in life. Later in the text we come across a believer of the Old Testament who is set up by way of contrast, Balaam. And Balaam lived his life in the cosmic system, he thought more of money than anything else in the world. He knew doctrine, he was a born-again believer, but he was greedy for money.

The phrase in verse 13 begins with the conjunction kai which has two adverbial uses. One use is called asensive, in which kai is translated “even,” the other is called adjunctive and the translation is “also.” So whenever kai is translated “even” or “also” it is a conjunction with an adverbial connotation. Here we have the asensive use of kai translated “even.” The word “even” takes us to a historical moment, to something that happened just prior to the writing of this passage to the church involved. Therefore, it becomes something of great importance.

This is followed by a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of h(mera, meaning day. It is in the plural so it is “in the days.” It is a reference to the reign of Domitian, the last of the Flavian Caesars who ruled from 81-96 AD. And we should translate this “even in the times.” The word “wherein” is not found in the original.

Next comes the nominative absolute of the proper noun, A)ntipaj. The nominative absolute is used for proverbial expression and it is translated like a genitive — “of Antipas.” Antipas is simply a nickname for Antipater and refers here to a former pastor of Pergamos before John took over as the non-resident pastor. The reason John had to take over s the non-resident pastor of Pergamos is because Antipas was martyred. The priests of the temple of Esculapius became antagonistic toward Antipas, and under cover of the Domitian persecution they seized him and put him inside of a brass bull, which they heated up and roasted him to death. At the same time there were other believers in the church who were also murdered but only Antipas is mentioned here because he is the one who died so honourably. Only Antipas is mentioned because Bible doctrine was so important and so real that the excruciating pain and the torture which he endured and the manner in which he died was completely set aside by the reality of the Word of God in his own soul.

With this we have an appositional nominative from the noun martuj. Unfortunately it is often transliterated martyr but that is not correct. Martuj means witness. And with it we have a possessive genitive from the pronoun e)gw, and this means that this witness is one who belongs to God. Therefore it is translated “my witness.” Martuj means a witness in the legal sense of one who tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That is exactly what Antipas did. He told the truth about doctrine in a very special way to us: that there was no pain, no matter how excruciating, nothing more important in life for him than Bible doctrine. And he took the witness stand, first in the pulpit of the church at Pergamos, but then being roasted alive inside of a brazen bull. The truth, of course, is Bible doctrine, and as a faithful witness Antipas functioned not only as a great pastor in Pergamos but he also in time of greatest possible stress refused to renounce the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was cruelly murdered by the priests of the temple of Esculapius.

The nominative of apposition from the adjective pistoj follows. It is correctly translated “faithful one.” He was faithful as a minister but he was faithful as a person who witnessed to the fact

that Bible doctrine was more powerful, more meaningful than anything in life. Then we have an explanation as to what happened to him. We have a nominative singular relative pronoun from o(j, referring to Antipas. It is correctly translated “who,” “Antipas who.” Then comes the aorist passive indicative of a)pokteinw, which means here to murder, to deprive a person of his life illegally — “who was murdered.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety; the passive voice: Antipas received the action of the verb, being assassinated after torture by the priests of the temple. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the fact that God takes note of it both now and forever. Here is a name that only occurs once in the Bible and yet it is very meaningful to us.

Next comes the prepositional phrase para, plus the locative plural form the personal pronoun su, correctly translated “in your,” and it means in your presence; it is an idiom. The problem here is with para. Para has three different meanings. Para plus the ablative means “from.” Para plus the locative means “by the side of,” “in the presence of” or “before.” That is what we have here. Para plus the accusative means “by” or “beside” or “beyond” in a comparison. The basic connotation of para plus the locative is nearness. Therefore, it connotes the city, it connotes something that happened inside of that particular area. The meaning is very obvious: everyone in Pergamos knew about Antipas and that he refused to renounce Christ under pressure. No one in that generation would ever forget it.

Next comes an adverb of place, o(pou, translated correctly, “where.” Then the nominative subject again, satanaj. Obviously this was a Satan-inspired function to break the back of the church in Pergamos. Then we have the present active indicative of the verb katoikew. Why repeat the fact that Satan resides there? Because Satan took Antipas as a personal challenge. Here is the exception to the principle that the wall of fire inside of the divine dynasphere functions all of the time. But because of this man inside of the divine dynasphere had so much doctrine, and because doctrine was number one in his life, the Lord permitted him to be taken by these people. And even though the wall of fire was removed as far as his dying was concerned the wall of fire in his soul of Bible doctrine remained in a constant frame, constantly applied to the situation. “Where Satan resides” — a retroactive progressive present denoting what has begun in the past and continuing into the present time. The active voice: Satan made his headquarters in Pergamos, so Satan produces the action of the verb, a comfortable place for Satan because of maximum idolatry in the city. The indicative mood is declarative for the

principle that Satan as the ruler of this world always has his headquarters in some major city in the world. It also demonstrates the fact that Satan can only be in one place at a time.

This assassination made a great impression on Satan because he realised that throughout

history he must do everything he can to distract believers from Bible doctrine. It was quite obvious that anyone who ever gets that much doctrine can ever be shaken by the power of Satan. It was a case

of Goliath and David all over again. But life in the cosmic system gives no power to face this issue.

The death of Antipas did not, however, intimidate believers whose scale of values found doctrine as number one. They were not intimidated; they were living inside of the divine dynasphere,

and they continued faithful to the Word of God in spite of all persecution. Others followed Antipas to martyrs graves but doctrine was more real than death and they died magnificently, honourably, and

with great courage, making a permanent impression. The permanent impression is related to the noun martuj, for it does not mean martyr, it means witness to the truth. The truth is Bible doctrine and

Believers living in Pergamos were also impressed. They realised how important doctrine was, and therefore when John started his non-face-to-face ministry they assembled to hear his letters and to

hear his Bible teaching; they realised the importance. So the witness for God is Antipas. He impressed Satan with the truth so that Satan would seek to use every method possible from his genius to destroy,

And there was a third category of those impressed — unbelievers. Many of those very priests of the temple of Esculapius were impressed, and as a result of watching this man die. Others had been

burned to death and had screamed their lungs out, and begged for mercy, and pleaded for help, but here was someone who was different and as a result they were impressed. But there was also someone

else who was impressed, the members of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Antipas now has a permanent memorial in the Word of God. Satan in his own

headquarters city of Pergamos could not shake mature believers from their faith, so that Pergamos contributed to the pivot of mature believers who sustained the Roman empire as the client nation to

God. The power of God, the power of the Word, the power of the divine dynasphere are not only great in life but they are even greater in death. And they are infinitely greater than the power of Satan. This principle was demonstrated at Pergamos, the headquarters of Satan, at this period of history.

In order to understand the next verse in Revelation we must turn to Numbers 22. Money is the subject. In order to understand Balaam you have to understand that there is a river that runs through Palestine called the Jordan. Just north of the Dead Sea is the oldest city in the world, Jericho, and in Numbers 22 the Jews are camped in the plain of Moab, across from Jericho, their next objective. This is the basis for studying Numbers 22:1.

Verse 2, Balak is the king of Moab. The Amorites had controlled all of this land and had previously defeated Moab and so they were shaken that a nation that drove them down south into the area of the mountains suddenly is defeated by the Jewish infantry.

Principle: Many of the most dangerous situations that we will ever face as believers are unknown to us until a later time. God in His principle of logistical grace kept the Jews alive and it was not until they failed and went into the cosmic system that they ever learned of what had happened to them. God was faithful to a faithless people and they didn’t even know it at the time. The great attacker here is a man by the name of Balaam, and Israel did not know that a Gentile believer living in the cosmic system was looking down from the high mountains to the south and the east of them and he was actually trying to destroy them for a large fee. Balak was the king of two countries: the Midianites who were Arabs and the Moabites who were cousins of the Jews. Remember that the Moabites were descendants from Lot; they got their start through Lot getting drunk and getting involved in incest. These two have combined now to stop the Amorites — they didn’t have to because in walked the Jews and there was no longer an Amorite problem. Balak was thinking: “We are a wealthy nation and we have a tremendous armed force, but I don’t think we can handle the Jews. So let’s get them cursed; let’s get them through demonism, divination, and all the other things that we are good at.” So instead of launching their troops against the Jews they are first of all going to use the first phase of their religion — divination, spiritism, and demonism — and then when that fails they are going to use the second phase — the phallic cult, which was a religion related to demonism. But they want reinforcements for their religion. Their religion is no good unless they can get someone who can conjure up demons and through divination can actually put a curse on people so that the people are destroyed by that curse.

So verse 5, Balak “sent a messenger to Balaam, son of Beor, at Pethor which is near the river [Euphrates] ...” Pethor is south of Carchemish; it was the Magi town for the Babylonian Magi. Balaam means destroyer of the people, and Beor, his father, means the one who destroys by burning them up. So they had titles of divination. Balaam was in the business of cursing, a service for which he charged. But something had happened to Balaam, and he not only knew but confessed the Lord in the presence of the messengers from Moab and Balak. He also asked the Lord’s will and to some extent followed it.

Verse 6 -7, Balak’s request. Obviously, before his conversion Balaam had been a very successful divinator. Notice that Balaam was very famous and there is an application from verse 6 where the salvation Balaam who had been demon-possessed before, and he had practised magic and witchcraft. And the call to Balaam came when he was a believer and today of course the real power of believers is spiritual power. Our influence on our country is spiritual And there is a counter to this: Satan influences countries through the antithesis of the spiritual power of doctrine, he does it through religion. Religion is as detrimental to a nation as believers advancing in the divine dynasphere is a blessing to a nation. So many believers prefer the substitution of human power for divine dynamics and this is how they get into the cosmic system. If Balaam had been in fellowship with the Lord and not in the cosmic system he would have just told them to leave — forget it! But already his lust for money is working him into a lather and he just can’t wait to earn that fee. Of course Balaam’s problem in verses 9-11 is that God’s conversation with him has to do with the will of God. And while God doesn’t talk to us in conversation today He does through doctrine, and we know His will through doctrine. Basically there are three principles of the will of God here: the directive will of God — You will not go; the permissive will of God. God cannot coerce human volition but from His integrity He can discipline any disobedience to His will; and there is the overruling will of God which we will see. Balaam will never be permitted to curse Israel because this involves Satan and demons rather than human freedom and volition.

So we find God speaking to Balaam about the matter, verse 9. He wants Balaam to explain who these men are. And in verse 12 God said to Balaam: “Do not go with them: you shall not curse these people; for they are blessed”. That is the directive will of God. The only one who can curse Israel is God Himself. The people in the client nation can bring down punishment on themselves, they can even punish themselves by wrong decisions, but there is no outside power that can destroy a client nation to God.

In verse 13 Balaam refused to go with the representatives of Balak. He is fulfilling the will of God. It was not that he was in fellowship, he just had enough discipline to be smart enough to recognise that he couldn’t get away with it. That becomes a deterrent until you are too far gone in reversionism.

So in a further attempt to attract Balaam, Balak not only offers a tremendous amount of wealth, but with it he offers power: “I will do whatever you say.” Three times he was approached (he finally succumbed), three times he stood on different mountains, looking from them, — the first two mountains on part of the host of Israel and could only bless them, and on the third time he gave a prophecy that goes all the way to the Millennium; it covers the same area as the book of Revelation without all the detail.

Balaam is a believer under restraint; Balaam does not close the door, however, on the temptation when he says in verse 19: “Now please, you also stay here tonight” — He is going to try to work out a way! — “and I will find out what else the Lord will speak to me.” He wants that fee and he wants that power. Furthermore, he knows that the Mideanite women are the most beautiful women in all the world and he is not opposed to a little sex with all of those millions and his power!

Verse 20, the permissive will of God. God cannot coerce human volition and God reads the mind of Balaam. Balaam has made up his mind to go. Why? Not just the money alone, which is enough to make him drool, but at the same time he is going to have power.

Principle: When you as a believer have done something contrary to the will of God and are still alive, remember that you are under the permissive will of God, not the directive will of God. And there is no blessing under the permissive will of God except to be alive; all of the blessing is under the directive will of God. How does that translate into the Church Age? The directive will of God can only exist for you inside the divine dynasphere. Inside the cosmic system you are alive because of logistical grace but you are in the permissive will of God.

Verse 21, we have a change of pace. God cannot violate the volition of Balaam and Balaam had already made up his mind. In verses 21-35 Balaam is going to get three warnings. He is in the permissive will of God and just like all of us in the cosmic system God warned him. We get warnings; we get warning discipline. This is grace before judgment. Once you get in the cosmic system you divorce yourself from reality. His lust for money through arrogance is converted into lust for power. The lust for money is always a starter but it must be turned into power. There is a lust for power that goes with money and therefore arrogance is the converter.

Verse 22, the angel of the Lord is Jesus Christ. This is an anthropomorphism. God uses the form of an angel in the Old Testament to reveal Himself. We call this a Theophany. In the New Testament the resurrection appearances of our Lord are called Christophanies. In this verse the Lord Jesus Christ stood in the way against Balaam.

Verse 23, when the ass saw the angel of the Lord sanding in the way with a drawn sword in His hand, the Bible says the ass backed off from the way and went into the field. Balaam struck the ass to turn her into the way. This, of course, was his first warning. The ass which had always responded had now responded to protect the master.

Verses 24, 25, we have a second warning. The ass does something peculiar, something out of the ordinary. The ass sees the danger, long before Balaam did! Balaam struck the ass again. (People who are out of kilter with life demonstrate the fact by their treatment of animals.)

Verse 26, all of this time the only one who was seeing the Lord Jesus Christ is the dumb animal. Verse 27, when the ass saw the angel of the Lord she lay down under Balaam, and Balaam was angry and struck her with a stick.

Verse 28, in time of cosmic degeneracy people will only listen to an ass. “What I have done to you that you have struck me down these three times?” But when you get divorced from reality even unusual things don’t impress. Then you’re in trouble!

Verse 29, “Then Balaam said to the ass”! He is now going to talk to her about it!

Verse 31-32 Balaam’s faithful animal had saved his life three times. Balaam once again is getting a warning that the Lord practices capital punishment with believers, the sin unto death.

Verse 34, Balaam’s rebound. Once he is in fellowship he wants to do the will of the Lord. That is always true. The Lord now instructs Balaam to go with the men. So Balaam went along with the princes of Balak, the permissive will of God and it will be used to further the plan of God. And even though Balaam will get out of fellowship again and seek to curse and destroy Israel God will used Balaam to declare the prophecies of the first client nation in history and to actually present some historical trends.

Revelation 2:15, “which thing I hate” is not found in the original manuscript. We start with the last Greek word in the sentence which is the adverb of analogy, o(moioj, which indicates that the believers at Pergamos were repeating the failure of those in client nation Israel in the time of Balaam. So we can translate it: “In the same manner.”

Then we have the adverb o(utoj. Both of these adverbs go together here to form a principle. It refers to what precedes and is translated “so” or “in this manner.” So we will translate the two adverbs: “So in this manner.”

Next is the nominative singular personal pronoun, su, “you.” The subject refers to believers in Pergamos and it refers to us today by way of application. The adjunctive use of the conjunction kai is one of eight different uses of the conjunction. It is translated “also.” Then we have the present active indicative of the verb e)xw, which means to have, to hold, or to have and to hold. The present tense is a perfective present. It refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The active voice: the church at Pergamos produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of what we are about to note. “So also in the same manner you have believers ...”

Next is the participle: the present active participle of the verb kratew, which means to seize, it means to hold. Here it means to hold to or to adhere to. It is a descriptive present tense for what is now going on. The active voice: the believers in Pergamos produce the action of the verb. It is a circumstantial participle with the accusative singular direct object of the noun didaxh, for doctrine or teaching. And we have a progressive genitive plural from Nikolaitai, for the Nicolaitans.

Corrected translation: “So also in the same manner you have believers who adhere to [or hold to] the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.”

What we have in the Nicolaitans is a combination of gnosticism with the phallic cult. The Nicolaitans were the cult of gnosticism which we have to call the licentious type of gnosticism. It trapped believers into the cosmic system through the function of the phallic cult. Remember that gnosticism would accept almost anything and amalgamate it into its system, making some kind of a mystery out of it, making it somehow spiritual when it really was not. The Nicolaitans are derived from two Greek words, the noun nikh, and laoj for people. The two together would mean the winner over the people, defeating the people, or overcoming the people. Balaam found a way for Balak to be a winner over the people of Israel and, therefore, the function of the phallic cult infiltrated into Israel through his teaching. The phallic cult possessed a twofold distraction to believers. The religious part was the idolatry and the system of theology that went with it. The modus operandi of the system included drunkenness, fornication, feasting, not just eating things sacrificed to idols, it was partying in relationship to the idols. They also had their own special ecstatic experiences. But the combination of these made an attractive package for a person whether he was a cold intellectual or a warm licentious type; there was something there for everyone. While the phallic cult of the Nicolaitans was rejected in Ephesus [Revelation 2:6] it was effective with many of the believers in Pergamos. The phallic cult is designed to perpetuate a downtrend in history through involving a maximum number of believers in the cosmic system. The reason can be seen for this. Pergamos was Satan’s headquarters as we have noted and it did not do Satan’s cause any good to have believers advancing to maturity in Pergamos, right under his nose. The power of doctrine, the power of the divine dynasphere acting as a wall of fire: as long as believers stayed within that wall of fire, the divine dynasphere, they were perfectly safe right under the nose of Satan. The doctrine of the Nicolaitans justified lasciviousness and antiestablishment behaviour through a system of substituting religion for Bible doctrine, and for the spiritual experiences, a licentious system. Principle: Religion rationalises; doctrine discerns.

Verse 16, the reversal of the downtrend. We start out with the inferential conjunction o)un, which demotes an inference from what precedes. Generally it is translated “therefore.” Then we have the aorist active imperative from metanoiew, a mandate to believers inside the cosmic system. The word means a change of mind. The constative aorist tense is for a fact or action extended over a period of time which will result in a historical uptrend. The only way for the believer to get out of the cosmic system of Satan is through the rebound technique — the function of his priesthood. And this is the only function of his priesthood out of fellowship. Remember that the plan of God is divided into two parts: the visible and the invisible. The invisible function of the plan of God is the believer’s relationship to God inside the divine dynasphere. It is the function of his royal priesthood. The visible part of the plan of God is the function of his royal ambassadorship directed toward man’s circumstances and history. Both of these function at gate four — the function of the priesthood: perception of doctrine; the function of the ambassadorship: application of doctrine.

We will translate this so far: “Therefore change your mind.” The constative aorist is for the fact or action of rebound, the use of the rebound technique plus residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, with emphasis on the function of gate four, the perception and application of Bible doctrine. The active voice: believers in the cosmic system, through the function of the phallic cult, are commanded to produce the action of the verb. They are commanded to change their mind. This is a mandate for all believers living inside the cosmic system. Apart from rebound there is neither personal nor national recovery for the client nation to God. The client nation so involved in the cosmic system is punished by God and eventually destroyed. So the consistent use of rebound is a good decision which opens the door for greater decisions, while failure to rebound is a bad decision which destroys options and closes the door for future decisions, fulfilling the principle that we are the products of our own decisions and, first of all, we provide punishment for ourselves by our involvement in the cosmic system. But eventually God adds to that His own divine discipline: warning discipline, then eventually dying discipline. So we note that all historical uptrends relate to the believers use of rebound and his consistency of living in the divine dynasphere. Only in this way can a pivot be formed which will carry the client nation to God. The larger the pivot the greater the function of the client nation to God. The pivot is made up of mature believers only who have arrived at gate eight. A large pivot means historical blessing for that generation. But if the pivot shrinks and becomes very small and you have a large spin-off of believers involved in the cosmic system, then you have the downtrend. Therefore the mandate is given which is the rebound technique and resultant residence inside the divine dynasphere.

1. There are historical disasters but these disasters are not tragedies since both individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions, not their environment.

2. Life in the cosmic system produces both motivational and functional evil — the cult of envy, that power lust in which the demand for power exceeds the need for power.

3. In that historical downtrend of the phallic cult the weak control the strong in social life, in business life, in culture, in professional life, in government, as well as all too often in the congregation of the local church.

4. Cosmic involvement results in preoccupation with self whereby the weak in society control the strong.

5. Therefore, human history is all too often the narrative of man’s weaknesses, not his strength.

6. Consequently good decisions are made for the divine dynasphere while bad decisions are made for the cosmic system.

7. The phallic cult is designed to lure believers into a pattern for making bad decisions. Satan made bad decisions and in his genius he knows how to cultivate bad decisions in believers.

8. Bad decisions made inside the cosmic system destroy the options for future decisions so that the believer through the exercise of his own free will loses future options and, through freedom of self-destruction becomes the slave to Satan who is the ruler of this world.

9. The options for the believer are simple. The believer must either decide for God’s plan and God’s power which is related to the divine dynasphere, or the believer will choose Satan’s plan and Satan’s power which is related to the cosmic system. One of the manifestations of life in the cosmic system is the modus operandi of the phallic cult as portrayed by the Nicolaitans.

Now we have the statement of alternative. We begin with the post positive conjunction de which emphasises a contrast with regard to believers. It is a contrast between the believer who uses the solution and the alternative to that solution which is divine discipline.

With this we have the conditional particle e)i plus the negative mh. They mean “if not” but it is an idiom meaning “or else” or “otherwise.” Then we have the present middle indicative of the verb e)rxomai, I will come. This is a futuristic present. It denotes an event which has not yet occurred — divine discipline for cosmic involvement and adherence to the cult of the Nicolaitans. The futuristic present regards divine discipline for cosmic involvement as so certain that in thought it may be regarded as already occurring. Living in the cosmic system demands punishment from our Lord Jesus Christ. With this is the dative of disadvantage from the personal pronoun su, you. “Otherwise I will come to you.”

With this we have a neuter singular form of the adjective taxuj, used for the certainty of divine judgment. It can be translated “soon, at once, shortly,” or possibly “without delay.”

The people in the client nation are the products of their own decisions. Combined with man’s free will is the fact that man is weak. Therefore he must use his volition to identify himself with a power system that is greater than himself. The alternatives are simple. Either the believer must use his volition to reside in the divine dynasphere or he must use his volition to reside in the cosmic system. There is no in between. Either you are in one or the other. Life in the divine dynasphere means historical uptrend for the client nation as well as spiritual momentum and advance for the believer. But life in the cosmic system means historical downtrend and, of course, spiritual failure means cursing by association to that client nation. This is the difference then between prosperity — personal and national — and disaster — personal and national. Historical uptrend from residence in the divine dynasphere means historical blessing while historical downtrend from the cosmic system involvement means historical disaster. Therefore the importance of the above mandate to rebound.

We have next the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, translated “in fact,” followed by the future active indicative of the verb polemew, which means to make war against. With this we have a prepositional phrase meta plus the genitive plural from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. A)utoj is used in the Koine Greek for the third person personal pronoun. It was not brought in from the Attic Greek, and therefore a)utoj doubles for that. “Against them,” since this is the plural. Translation: “In fact I will make war against them.” The future tense of polemew is a predictive future, it anticipates divine discipline against believers who live in the cosmic system and cause the historical downtrend of the client nation. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb by punishing cosmic believers with historical disaster. This historical disaster can be administered in many ways, depending upon the decisions that individuals make in the client nation. It can be for uncontrolled crime or terrorism or revolution or guerrilla warfare, or nuclear warfare.

Next we have a preposition e)n plus the instrumental of r(omphaia, the sharp double-edged sword associated with all categories of violence. In Revelation 6:8 the broadsword is carried by the rider of the fourth horse, known as death. Here we find the broadsword coming from our Lord’s mouth. The ablative of source, stoma plus the possessive genitive of e)gw, “my mouth.” The ablative of source indicates the original source of violence: the integrity of God, the justice of God under the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. The fact that Jesus Christ controls history is manifest in two ways: by divine punishment administered to a nation or an individual, or by divine blessing administered to a nation or to an individual. And even though history is the record of man’s thoughts, motives, decisions and actions, it is Jesus Christ who controls history.

There are, then, two sources of judgment in history. First of all, the erroneous decisions of the individual. Every erroneous decision you have ever made is a part of discipline to yourself and to the client nation. Secondly, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as to the natural consequences of erroneous decisions. The omniscience of God enters every thought, every motive, every decision, every action, of every person into the computer of divine decrees without interfering with man’s free will. The printout of the computer is history with its prosperity on the one hand, its judgements on the other. The source of divine judgment is cosmic involvement, and the source of cosmic involvement is human volition.

Corrected translation: “Therefore change your mind; otherwise I will soon visit you with divine discipline, in fact I will make war against them [the believers involved in the cosmic system] with the broadsword of my mouth.”

Making “war with … the broadsword of my mouth” is significant because this phrase applies to the Church Age, and one of the historical trends of the dispensation in which we live is the fact that when a nation goes too far into degeneracy — and we are the products of our own decisions, individually and collectively — then we are going to feel the broadsword. We must remember who is swinging the broadsword. As long as the Lord is swinging it you don’t have to duck! It is not something to frighten the believer but to encourage.

Verse 17, the motivation for the historical uptrend. “He that hath an ear.” The key to the whole thing is to have an ear and to obey a mandate with it — “let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.” Churches, bodies of believers, are the key to the historical uptrend. Historical uptrend is not related directly to things that we often think of in terms of recovery — the passing of laws, getting rid of laws, etc. Many of the laws we now have are absolutely detrimental to living, and they should be rescinded.

Principle: Momentum and maturity means blessing by association. Therefore the basis for all historical uptrend is reduced to the principle of your attitude toward Bible doctrine.

We start out with the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw, a verb that John loved almost as much as the verb “to be.” We translate it: “he who has.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun and refers to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who from the viewpoint of salvation are equipped through logistical grace to learn Bible doctrine. Grace has overcome every human handicap in learning, and therefore perception of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere is the basis for momentum and the historical uptrend of blessing by association. The static present tense represents the circumstances of possessing ears, a status which is assumed as perpetually existing. The point is: All people have ears and ears become the analogy to the supernatural perceptive system our Lord has established for learning Bible doctrine, and from learning that Bible doctrine to grow in grace. So the static present tense represents circumstances: each one of us has ears. If the believer has ears he also has the ability to learn Bible doctrine, in fact all the realm of doctrine. The ears become the illustration for volition and motivation in learning. In John’s day most people learned, not by reading, but by hearing. If this was written in the 20th century it may we have been, “he who has eyes” — for reading. There are two basic systems of learning: hearing and reading. What is the difference between them? Hearing is motivation directed toward someone else as a communicator; reading is doing it on your own. The communicator has put it in writing. When it comes to Bible doctrine number one is the system because hearing means you must accept the authority or the credentials of the one who teaches. So it is not accidental that we have eyes omitted here because you see you can sit down and read the Bible but Bible doctrine which causes spiritual growth is communicated under a system of authority from someone else outside of yourself. And the secret to spiritual growth from the standpoint of your personality is the issue of humility versus arrogance. Arrogant people are not teachable.

Next we have a circumstantial participle in the accusative singular direct object from o)uj, which means ears.

Principle: The ear refers to teachability, therefore to learnability. If you have ears, and you do, it also means you are able to learn doctrine as a believer. All kind of people have ears for perception and no one earns or deserves ears. Just as you come equipped with ears from birth, so from the second birth you come equipped with a system of perception necessary to learn doctrine. The only problem is volition. No one hears apart from his own volition, and therefore the importance of positive volition in learning doctrine. The ear represents the grace system for perception of Bible doctrine: gate four of the divine dynasphere. Learning doctrine is the basis for momentum; momentum is the basis for attainment of spiritual maturity, therefore the glorification of Christ, and that spiritual maturity is the basis for blessing by association — the historical uptrend of the client nation, forestalling the Lord’s use of the broadsword.

Any believer is qualified to learn doctrine, we all have ears. Mandate: aorist active imperative from the verb a)kouw. “Let him hear” is the way it is translated. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for a fact or action extended over a period of time. Over the period of your entire lifetime as a believer you should never stop learning doctrine. Positive volition toward doctrine inside the divine dynasphere is the secret to whether we survive as a nation. So regardless of the extent or duration gathered up into one entirety is your life as a believer. That means your life should be characterised by the daily intake of doctrine. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, it is a mandate for the royal family of God in the Church Age — perception and application of doctrine, the function of gate four of the divine dynasphere. The accusative neuter singular from the interrogative pronoun tij takes us back to the content. It is correctly translated “what sort of thing,” a reference to the categories of doctrine. Remember that all blessing by association in life, whether it is personal or national, all comes from the believer’s perception of Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere.

Then we have the phrase dealing with God the Holy Spirit, the nominative singular subject from pneuma, referring to the third person of the Holy Trinity — the power of the divine dynasphere, gate one. Principle: No one can learn Bible doctrine apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit, the function of gate one of the divine dynasphere. And with this the present active indicative of legw, meaning here to communicate — “what the Spirit communicates.” The customary present tense for what habitually occurs when the believer resides and functions in the divine dynasphere. This includes the fact that the believer in the divine dynasphere must be positive toward doctrine and must be teachable. Humility is necessary for learning any subject. It is always better to assume, even though you may be fairly familiar with the subject, that you know nothing, and therefore you always learn something that you didn’t know before. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb in causing the believer to learn doctrine, and therefore the Holy Spirit replaces the normal function of human IQ in perception of doctrine. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine regarding the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit. And apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit there is no spiritual IQ for the perception of Bible doctrine and the resultant momentum in the Christian way of life. Therefore residence and function in the divine dynasphere is the only legitimate area for perception and application of doctrine.

As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are never going to find any happiness, any blessing, and orientation to what God has for you in this life apart from Bible doctrine. Times of economic disaster are also times of punishment for believers who think that they can live without doctrine. We are the products of our own decisions and many believers today, and for some time in the past, have been making wrong decisions with regard to the Word of God, wrong decisions with regard to the establishing of their scale of values. You’ve heard it so many times about the importance of doctrine but it can go in one ear and out the other, and something attractive or something interesting, or something that sets up a spark of motivation, comes along. Many times this is merely a test to see if you have what it takes or not.

So let’s establish a principle that comes from the hidden manna that we have begun to study in Revelation 2:17: there is no happiness for the believer in this life apart from Bible doctrine being number one in his scale of values. Any system of priorities or scale of values that even puts the hidden manna [Bible doctrine] in second place is a personal disaster to you. And you can achieve everything associated with happiness in this life, wealth, prominence, prosperity, success, promotion, everything that people associate with happiness, and you can be the most miserable of creatures. And there is no way that you are going to get around this principle of you have already accepted Christ as saviour. If you accept Christ as saviour and neglect doctrine you are guaranteed a miserable life. And you will do it all by your own wrong decisions.

Just as the visible manna was stored in the ark as a permanent memorial to God’s grace, so Bible doctrine is stored in the soul as e)pignwsij as a permanent memorial to God’s grace. Only Bible doctrine learned inside the divine dynasphere can be used in the construction of the edification complex of the soul. Blessing from hidden manna is blessing from maximum perception of Bible doctrine. There is no way that doctrine can be second to anything in your life and you can survive it. All blessing to the believer is related to the hidden manna, the manna that is preserved as Bible doctrine in the ark of your soul. Ungathered manna is like the doctrine we did not learn. It cannot be used for momentum, application, or spiritual growth. There is no advance in hearing doctrine, it is learning it that counts.

Next we have the connective conjunction kai, plus the future active indicative of the verb didomi, to give. The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates a future event in eternity. If you take in the hidden manna, if you have a soul filled with hidden manna, you are going to get a special reward in eternity. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for reward and eternal blessing to the believer who has great historical impact through his perception of Bible doctrine.

Then comes the dative singular indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, which became a personal pronoun in the Koine Greek. The reason is because the third person Attic Greek pronouns were not passed on, therefore a)utoj is the substitute for them. Since this is the singular it is translated, “I will give to him.” The dative indirect object indicates the believer, the mature type, the one who has maximum hidden manna in his soul, is the one in whose interest the eternal blessing and reward is given. The accusative singular direct object follows, it is composed of two words: the adjective leukoj, translated “white,” and with this we have the Greek word psefoj, which means a pebble. It does not means a rock or even a chip out of a rock, that would be petra and petroj. Peter was the chip off the Rock, Christ Jesus. Translation so far: “And I will give him a white pebble.”

The juries in the ancient world voted privately. They had a box which was passed around in which were black pebbles and white pebbles, and each one selected a pebble and put it on the table. A black pebble was guilty; a white pebble was a vote for acquittal. The primary usage was in voting, then, or in counting. The white pebble here is the Lord’s vote for acquittal for the believer — Romans 8:1. There is no judgment, no lake of fire, we are acquitted because we have personally believed in Jesus Christ. The Lord votes with a white stone for acquittal for every believer in the human race. Christ died for every person in the human race. Those who reject Him get a black pebble; those who accept Him get a white pebble. Whatever the evaluation or judgment at the judgment seat of Christ it does not include loss of salvation. Therefore every believer gets the white pebble. It has two meanings: adoption and resurrection. All believers have a resurrection body.

Adoption: The word in the New Testament is u(ioqesia, and that would be “son-placing,” literally, but it actually means adoption.

Every Roman son who became adult and was recognised as adult became officially adopted. Being a natural son was not enough. The eldest son had to be adopted as the heir. Now he had the right of marriage, he had the right of military service, he had the right to function under a bank account, he was an adult and responsible for his own actions. He was also given an official name, and this official name was a part of this white pebble we are about to study. In this white pebble is the name that you are going to have in eternity, if you have one at all.

The Romans were the most famous people in the ancient world from the standpoint of a name. They were called the trinomen people, they had three names. The first name was called praenomen, which was a name given at birth. It was not a family name. The second name was called nomen, and that was the name of the original Roman family, the clan or the family. The third name was called cognomen, which was a nickname but eventually it had other connotations as well. A nickname was often given as a descriptive name or a branch of the family name. Later it became an additional honour. A praenomen might be Gaius, or Lucious, or Marcus. A nomen might be one of the famous families of Rome, Cornelius, Fabius, Julius, Claudius, etc. A cognomen can be a nickname or a descriptive name. Take Julius Caesar: Gaius [praenomen], Julius [nomen or family name], Caesar [cognomen — it means in the Latin, “hairy”]. Romans generally addressed each other by the cognomen.

So the new name or the white stone in heaven means that you are a special person. And to have a white pebble with a new name on it is about as high an honour as you can have, and it is to show what you have done over the period of your lifetime since salvation. At the judgment seat of Christ all believers get a white stone, a resurrection body. Why? Because they are saved and are going to live forever. But there are going to be a lot of white stones with no names on them. The only white stone that has a name on it is the believer who day by day takes in the hidden manna. To have a name on that stone is the highest possible decoration for historical impact outside the order of the morning star.

Adoption in the Roman empire was an honour, and adoption meant a new name. The new name was a reward, it gave one the highest area of aristocracy. Hence the white pebble is not simply a resurrection body, it is a special reward that accompanies the resurrection body. It puts one into the highest area of aristocracy in heaven. The white stone speaks of freedom from condemnation in a resurrection body forever and ever, plus adoption for the purpose of honour. But there is no adoption for the purpose of honour except for the winner.

“and,” kai, here means “furthermore.” Then we have the prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of psefoj, plus the perfect passive participle of grafw, write. Translation: “On the stone has been written.” The prefect tense is a dramatic perfect representing the existing state in eternity for the victorious believer. He is given the highest possible aristocracy in heaven and all the privileges pertaining thereto. There are going to be very definitely levels of society in heaven. The participle is circumstantial for the reward given by our Lord Jesus Christ to winners only.

With this we have the accusative direct object composed of two words, the adjective kainoj, which means new in species, and the word o)noma, name — a new name, new in species, a new aristocracy exists in heaven.

Then the new name is described, the accusative neuter singular from o(j, referring to o)noma. And on that new name “which” we have an adjective o)udeij, meaning no one. And then the perfect o)ida, used as a present, “which no one knows.” The pictorial present tense of o)ida represents to the mind the future event of standing before all of your contemporaries in the Christian life and receiving the highest possible reward of aristocracy. The active voice: “no one” produces the action of the verb, which means everyone in time. Only eternity will reveal the true extent of rewards and blessings of believers who persist in functioning inside the divine dynasphere. No one knows it now; everyone will know it then.

Then we have e)i mh, meaning “except,” and the articular present active participle of the verb lambanw. No one knows except the one who receives it.

Verse 18, we begin with the connective use of the conjunction kai, translated “And,” followed by the dative singular definite article toi, and category to whom it is addressed is the second estate state, pastors or clergy. With this we have the dative singular indirect object from the noun a)ggeloj, sometimes translated correctly “angel,” and sometime translated correctly “messenger.” Here it refers to messengers or communicators. It is used technically for future pastors of the church at Thyatira. A)ggeloj is used for angels in passages like Matthew 1:20; 4:6; Acts 5:19; 2 Corinthians 11:14; 1 Timothy 5:21; Hebrews 1:4,5; 2:9; 1 Peter 1:12, etc. However, a)ggeloj or angels is used for messengers or human communicators in the following passages: Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2; James 2:25; Revelation 2:1, 8, 12, 18. We have here the dative indirect object which indicates the ones — the future pastors who serve at Thyatira in whose interest the message from our Lord Jesus Christ is now given to the last of the apostles, John himself. Therefore this becomes a dative of advantage.

Next we have the genitive of relationship from the noun e)kklhsia used for the body of Christ as a whole and used for the local church or the classroom for the perception of Bible doctrine. “And to the future pastor or the messenger of the church.” Location: preposition e)n plus the locative Quateira, “in Thyatira.” Then comes the aorist active imperative of the verb grafw, “write.” The culminative aorist views the writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, not only the completion of the canon of scripture and encouragement to future pastors but a textbook of world history to the end. Furthermore, understanding the context will give the pastor insight into the historical trends which are necessary for relating his ministry to contemporary history. The active voice: the apostle John under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a divine mandate to complete the canon of the New Testament and to complete a textbook of world history from the time of John to the end of time.

Thyatira is located on a very fertile plain of the Lycus Valley, fifty-eight miles north east of Smyrna. As a sequel to the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great it was established in BC 290 as a Macedonian colony. Thyatira became an important station on the Roman road from Pergamos to Laodicea and became a very wealthy city in northern Lydia in the Roman province of Asia. As a Hellenistic city it was a garrison post for the Seleucid empire. As a Roman city it was an important link in the Roman network of roads. It was to the Roman empire what Bastogne was to the Ardenne. Seleucis Nicator regarded the city as holy because it was the world centre for the worship of the sun god Apollos, worshipped under the title of Tyrimnos, the Lydian name for the sun god. On the early coins of Thyatria this Asiatic god is represented as a horseman carrying a double-headed axe similar to those found in the Hittite monuments. This double-headed battle axe also relates to the Lydians, to the Etruscans, to the Romans.

Thyatira was famous for its labour unions. It was the most completely unionised city in the Roman world. Every artisan in Thyatira belonged to a labour union and every guild or labour union owned property in its own name, made contracts for construction, and had tremendous power and influence. Most famous were the coppersmith unions, and the dyers’ union whose purple dye was in demand all over the world. The unions sponsored also the phallic cult and various idolatrous cults, and were opposed vehemently to Christianity. In this context Thyatira is threatened with divine punishment through economic disaster. People are the products of their own decisions and the unions will make bad decisions which will destroy the economy of Thyatira unless corrected by Bible doctrine.

So far we have: “And to the messenger [future pastors of the church in Thyatira] write.”

Then we have who is ultimately communicating this information. The unions have almost destroyed the town; now how can they be saved from this power control. The answer is very simple: the advance of believers inside the divine dynasphere.

We begin the with the nominative subject( u(ioj plus the definite article o( plus the genitive of qeoj, “the Son of God,” the royal title of our Lord Jesus Christ as eternal God, therefore this emphasises His deity. He is speaking as God. The present active indicative of legw means to speak or to communicate: “The Son of God communicates.” The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The point is: No matter what reason people form guilds and unions, no matter for what reason people do anything by which they get together, when their power exceeds their purpose they become destructive. In this case we are talking about unions; in the cases of others areas we might be talking about dictators or political rulers. Anyone can get some power somehow, whether it is through a union or through politics or through some fame or success principle; and once they do and they link it up with arrogance then you have trouble. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Then we have the accusative neuter plural direct object from o(dh, a demonstrative pronoun used originally as an introductory formula for the Greek translation of the decrees of the Persian kings; used here, however, as the introductory formula for our Lord’s estimate of the situation in the local church at Thyatira — “the Son of God [the subject] communicates these things.” Between the subject and the predicate there is a relative clause divided into two parts. The first half of the relative clause is the articular present active participle from the verb e)xw, the verb to have. It is translated as an articular present participle, “the one who has.” So between the phrase “the Son of God” and the verb “communicates,” and the object “these things,” is this relative clause that begins “the one who has.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun whose antecedent is the Son of God, the subject — “the Son of God who.” The present tense is a descriptive present. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. This is a circumstantial participle. With this we have in the relative clause an object of the participle, the accusative direct object from the noun o)fqalmoj. And with this we have a possessive genitive from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as the third person personal pronoun, “the one who has his eyes.” The ellipsis demands e)imi. Then we have “like,” the comparative article o(j, which means “like” here although on other occasions it has other meanings, and then the descriptive nominative floc, which refers to a flame. With it we have the descriptive genitive pur, which means fire. So: “the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire.” The flame of fire connotes divine judgment related to historical trends. Remember we are the products of our own decisions, we bring disaster on ourselves, but along with it the Lord Jesus Christ also judges individuals and nations constantly. Our first principle of historical trends: Jesus Christ controls history. John 5:22,23 puts it this way: “For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has delegated all judgment to the Son in order that they all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him”. Since the first advent of Christ the issue is that Jesus Christ controls history.

For the unbeliever eternal salvation is offered before the last judgment and the principle is always the same: grace precedes judgment. Grace often means living longer, surviving to have another opportunity, facing some disaster and re-evaluating your life and then moving on. For the believer logistical grace is always offered before the judgment seat of Christ. The provision of a definite plan and logistical grace includes temporal security, and of course temporal security precedes the evaluation of the believer at the judgment seat of Christ. God has made you secure in the devil’s world. “Greater is he who is in us than he that is in the world.” While Satan has the most phenomenal power and the great genius system of Cosmic one and Cosmic two, yet God has provided us fantastic security. For the unbeliever the option is simple: either receive Christ as saviour in time or else face our Lord Jesus Christ as judge in eternity. For the believer there is no such thing as a simple option such as that. For the unbeliever the option is “What think ye of Christ?”; to believe in Him eternal life, to reject Him eternal condemnation. But for the believer there are many options. However they are related to God’s plan, and God’s plan is related of course to the divine dynasphere with its eight gates. The principle then is: Jesus Christ not only controls history but Jesus Christ is the issue in history. For the believer in Jesus Christ there is great blessing in making decisions for the plan of God, great punishment for making decisions for the cosmic system. There is no such thing as happiness for the believer outside the divine dynasphere. Satan tries to manufacture a pseudo happiness but when you come up against the realities of self-induced misery, the reality of divine judgment, the reality of death, then of course it disappears entirely. The issue of punishment or blessing requires decision from your free will, and you are on your own. Decisions should be based on facts and all the facts are found in the content of Bible doctrine, and therefore the importance of daily perception of Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere. The divine dynasphere provides both happiness and security while Bible doctrine provides the necessary information to make consistent decisions for God, God’s plan and the uptrends of history.

So we have the eyes like a flame of fire and they are for those believers who make wrong decisions after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The eyes like the flame of fire do not become an issue until after salvation, then you have the option and then you face the option. Which way are you going to go? Positive toward doctrine or negative toward doctrine. Are you going to live your life in the divine dynasphere where there are degrees of happiness or are you going to live in the cosmic system where misery is piled upon misery until the intensification becomes a horrible thing.

The eyes of the Lord being a flame of fire also refers to our Lord’s integrity in punishing believers who spend their time in the cosmic system. Believers in the cosmic system are sustained by logistical grace. Whether you are in God’s plan, the divine dynasphere, or in the cosmic system you are always indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Remember the mandate: “Be filled with the Spirit,” that is the command to reside in the divine dynasphere. The mandate from Galatians 5:16 is to walk in the Spirit, that is the function at the various gates. If you are filled with the Spirit and walking in the Spirit you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But the negative commands are there too. For cosmic one, “grieve not the Spirit.” If you are living in cosmic one you are still indwelt by the Holy Spirit; if you are in cosmic two you are quenching the Spirit, I Thessalonians 5:19, “Quench not the Spirit,” but you are still indwelt by the Spirit. So matter what your status you are still indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Another principle: Whether you are in the divine dynasphere or in the cosmic system you still receive logistical grace support. You will know when logistical grace support ceases because you will cease to breath! Physical death will be the very clear indication of that.

The believer then in the cosmic system is sustained by logistical grace and therefore the Lord punishes the misuse of His grace in serving self and in serving Satan in the cosmic system. The eyes of the Lord are like a flame of fire and this refers to both divine punishment of cosmic believers and divine reprimand at the judgment seat of Christ through loss of certain blessings, loss of decorations, loss of rewards, loss of some of the super happiness systems of eternity. This doesn’t mean that you are going to be miserable in eternity but there are definitely degrees of reward and definitely degrees of happiness. The eyes of the Lord as a flame of fire, then, is a challenge to every believer to make good decisions from his human volition. It is a challenge to human volition in the angelic conflict.

There are three sources of judgment in history. The sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of born again believers living in time. The eyes like a flame of fire are a warning against believers making bad decisions.

The second half of the relative clause starts out with the connective use of the conjunction kai, and with it we have a nominative from the word pouj. It refers to feet. And with it the possessive genitive singular from a)utoj, translated “and his feet.” The predicative nominative masculine plural is from the comparative particle o(moioj, and because it is in the nominative it demands the use of the verb to be, “and his feet are like.” O(moioj means like, and after o(moioj we have an associative instrumental case from the noun xalkolibanon, which means bronze, “and his feet are like bronze.” It is a reference to historical judgment to the nations of history from the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. For example, bronze is used for economic judgment of a client nation. Note the use of the word “bronze” [not brass] in Deuteronomy 28:23-25. These are judgements that come to client nations who fail. They fail because of the downtrend — believers residing in the cosmic system rather than in the divine dynasphere.

1. Bad decisions bring on economic disaster as a manifestation of cosmic involvement with evil and degeneration.

3. Jesus Christ picks an evil nation and sends it against the client nation to destroy it. To be destroyed by an evil nation is the greatest shame and loss of integrity.

Other examples: Bronze is used for slavery after the administration of the 5th cycle of discipline to a client nation, Lamentations 3:6-8. The divine judgment on a cosmic ruler named Zedekiah, king of Israel, 2 Kings 25:7.

4. The pattern of historical disaster begins with economic disaster and social degeneracy but it culminates with military disaster.

5. The only guarantee against divine judgment in historical disaster to the client nation is the resident and function of the believer inside the divine dynasphere.

6. Historical judgment is the manifestation of the fact that the essence and character of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be compromised by evil or destroyed by cosmic involvement.

One of the great principles in the Word of God is living your life in the light of eternity, and when you live your life in the light of eternity you have a wonderful time in time. When you live your life in the light of the moment then you are going to be totally and miserably disoriented to life, and the great tragedy occurs in eternity at the judgment seat of Christ when born again believers who cannot lose their salvation by anything they do after believing in Christ get the greatest shock of their living experience forever and ever — the shock of being in a resurrection body without anything to show for this life. Heaven is a perfect place and like all perfect places there is no equality. Equality is an invention of the genius of Satan in order to facilitate his rulership of the world. Equality is a myth, an impossibility. The idea of equality has never existed in the plan of God, but certain things are open to everyone — happiness, for example.

Our Lord Jesus Christ comes the second time at the beginning of the Millennium when He will take over the rulership of the world from Satan. He will rule for one thousand years under perfect environment. Those believers who advance from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere are going to have special authority and rule with Him, and even have a decoration which they receive at the judgment seat of Christ seven years before the second advent, a decoration called the order of the morning star, one of the highest decorations for historical impact. So we have after salvation a purpose — Gate 1, the filling of the Spirit; gate two, basic impersonal love; gate three, enforced and genuine humility; gate four, perception and application of doctrine; gate five, love of God; gate six, right man, right woman; gate seven friendship, advanced impersonal love, gate eight, maturity which is the objective.

So the Lord Jesus Christ is the issue of history. The Lord Jesus Christ also controls history. In the control of history at the present time He controls through the laws of divine establishment, He controls through historical trends, and He controls through discipline, judgment and punishment of individuals and groups forming nations. There are two sources of judgment in history: wrong decisions — we are the products of our own decisions; the sovereign, honourable decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have noted the trend: As goes the believer, so goes the trends at any point in the Church Age. Residence and function inside the divine dynasphere means historical uptrend while involvement in the cosmic system means historical downtrend. So whether we survive or not as a nation depends on believers either living in the divine dynasphere or believers living in the cosmic system. The Lord Jesus Christ has chosen to control history through the Church in this dispensation. Nations rise because of an enlarged pivot of mature believers and nations fall because of a spin-off of apostate believers living in the cosmic system, but in this way the believer is the key to history until the Rapture. Historical trends are related to objective reality or life in the divine dynasphere versus subjective reality or life in the cosmic system.

Too often history is the narrative of man’s weaknesses, not his strength. Inside the divine dynasphere the battle is the Lord’s, and you win; inside the cosmic system the battle is yours, and you lose. There are no winners in the cosmic system, just different categories of losers. There are, of course, winners in the divine dynasphere and, again, there are different categories of winners. This is a part of the great conflict between the arrogance of the cosmic system and the humility of the divine dynasphere. There is no substitute for humility. Inside the divine dynasphere men’s lives are changed by doctrine and, of course, inside the cosmic system men’s lives are changed by arrogance and by evil. So knowledge of the truth is the basis for manufacturing freedom. Freedom is a manufactured product. When you make decisions for Bible doctrine you manufacture in your soul the concepts of freedom by which you live. You learn the principle of live and let live, you learn to respect the privacy of others, you learn to respect the property of others, you learn to control yourself in circumstances which are not to your liking.

When our Lord Jesus Christ ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father He received His third royal patent, and therefore a history of the world had to be written regarding the use of that royal patent. First of all there had to be the calling out of a royal family, since there was no royal family to go with this patent. Therefor the sudden halt of the Age of Israel and the dispensation of the Church, a dispensation of historical trends — no prophecy, simply historical trends. The next prophecy is the Rapture or resurrection of the Church followed by the continuation of the Age of Israel called the Tribulation, and finally the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. This will be followed by 1000 years of perfect environment, the rule of our Lord upon the earth, He will remove Satan from the rulership of this world. Then comes of course the Gog revolution at the end of 1000 years — revolt against perfect environment — demonstrating the fact that environment is not the solution to man’s problems. Then comes the end of the world, the last judgment, the destruction of the universe by nuclear fission. This will be provided by the Lord Himself, it is impossible for the universe or this earth to be destroyed until our Lord does it. Then we have the new heavens, new earth, the new Jerusalem, and the eternal state beginning. All of these things are a part of world history, starting in John’s time and going down to the very end so that the book of Revelation is the history of the world during that period of time.

Our subject at the moment is historical trends. Historical trends are based upon the principle that we must as believers have a definite influence on history. It is an invisible unseen influence but nevertheless it is there. In fact the greatest influence on history is the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The principle of doctrine: As goes the believer, so goes the historical trends. All historical uptrends are related to the believer fulfilling the plan of God by residence and function inside the divine dynasphere with its eight gates, God’s game-plan for the Church Age. When believers are involved in the divine dynasphere there is an uptrend but when believers become involved in Satan’s cosmic system then we have a downtrend in history. All uptrends and downtrends in history are determined by believers living on planet earth and this is the story of Revelation chapters two and three. Seven churches in the Roman province of Asia sustained the Roman empire for over three hundred years.

1 Thess. 4:13 — “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren.” This is a general statement as well as a specific dealing with this particular passage. Ignorance is the greatest disaster for the history of the world as well as the individual believer, for the believer’s cognisance of doctrine is the basis for historical impact as well as historical uptrends; “concerning those who are asleep” — being asleep is one of the ways of describing Christian death as it relates to the body only. We note that the soul leaves the body in death and the soul of the believer is absent from the body and face to face with the Lord, enjoying an interim body where there is no more pain, no more death, the old things are passed away; “that you may not grieved like the rest” — the rest of the world being the world of unbelievers. Attitude toward Jesus Christ divides the human race into two parts: those who believe in Christ have eternal life, those who do not have eternal condemnation; “who have no hope” — there is no hope apart from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, therefore, and so, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” — a reference to the resurrection of the Church, the Rapture, the next prophecy in history.

Verse 15, “for this doctrine in the word of the Lord we communicate to you, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord” — there will be one generation of believers who will be alive when the resurrection takes place; their mortal bodies will become immortal; “shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.”

Verse 16, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a command, with the voice of the archangel [the ruling angel of elect angels], also a command from the trumpet of God: in fact the dead in Christ shall rise first”. Notice that at the resurrection there are two commands. The voice command of the archangel is for the resurrection of living believers on the earth, mortal believers becoming immortal. They will be changed in a moment, they will receive a resurrection body. There is a trumpet command. Trumpet commands were used at the time of writing, it was one of the major means of controlling armies in the ancient world. The trumpet command is for the resurrection of the dead believers, corruption turned into incorruption.

Verse 17, “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, for the purpose of meeting the Lord in the air: and so we shall always be with the Lord” — that is, in our resurrection bodies.

There is a time coming when we are going to face the Lord in a resurrection body. All physical death at the present time simply means to be absent from the body and face to face with the Lord in an interim body, and this is an interim of great blessing until the resurrection takes place. Then the trumpet command brings into the air those who are dead in Christ. The voice command brings those who are living into the air and all receive a resurrection body. The next event on the calendar is called the big genuflect in the sky, described in Philippians 2:9-11. Then comes the judgment seat of Christ described in 2 Corinthians 5:10. This is not judgment for gain or loss of salvation, this is evaluation for what you did between the time that you believed in Christ on earth until the day you departed, either by physical death or by the Rapture, whichever occurs first. You will be evaluated simply because during this period, however long it is, you are under the support of logistical grace — everything necessary for you to fulfil the plan of God — and you are going to be evaluated in that future time on the basis of what you did in time. After salvation your attitude toward Bible doctrine determines whether you are going to be rewarded or not in eternity. You have free will; we are the products of our own decisions; you can make decisions for or against the plan of God as a believer. You cannot lose your salvation but you certainly can lose blessing in time as well as great blessing in eternity. Positive volition toward Bible doctrine and the execution of the plan of God means not only blessing in dying but also great reward in eternity. But for the believer who is negative toward doctrine there is first of all divine discipline as well as personal self-induced misery — again we are the products of our own decisions — and in eternity he will have a resurrection body minus the old sin nature and all human good, and that is all! There is no equality in heaven and in eternity there is going to be great differences between believers.

Bible doctrine is the key to growth versus failure. Whether you are a winner or a loser in the Christian life, whether you have historical impact or whether you contribute to the downtrend of history is determined by your attitude toward Bible doctrine. Some believers waste their entire life. Apart from perception of Bible doctrine you are going to be a loser. There are many categories of losers but a loser you will be, living in the cosmic system, being miserable all of your life. And some are going to be winners, and winners are those who take in doctrine on a daily basis and through the momentum of perception of doctrine advance to maturity — those who construct the edification complex of the soul. So there will be great differences in heaven just as there are great differences on earth. The inequalities of life are going to be reflected by inequalities in heaven, the only difference being that inequalities in life are often based on something that is unfair. But in heaven everything is perfectly fair. You had your opportunity in time to take in doctrine, and the fact that you failed and made erroneous decisions only emphasises the doctrine: good decisions open options for greater decisions, bad decisions destroy those options until no options are left, only the sin unto death. Good options are related to your decisions to live and function inside the divine dynasphere, bad options are related to your decisions to live inside the cosmic system.

Then comes the next item on our chronology, the second advent of Christ. When the second advent occurs we as believers in resurrection bodies return with Him. So this is the profile of the resurrection body. You receive it first at the Rapture of the Church. Then you take your resurrection body into the air for the big genuflect. The first thing you will do in your resurrection body is what you are really or allegedly doing now, worshipping the Lord. That will be the first time you worship Him in a resurrection body. Then there will be the evaluation. During the Tribulation on earth you will have a turn at the judgment seat of Christ. You will receive your royal family efficiency rating. You will either flunk or you will pass with good grades or high grades or the highest. And it all depends on the decisions you make while in this body of corruption. After the Tribulation is over Jesus Christ returns to the earth. His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives. Coming with Him will be the royal family of God. We will be in resurrection body even as our Lord’s humanity will be in a resurrection body, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, “… at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his royal family [saints].” And then we have something that we have never had before. We are manifest as the key to history during the dispensation of the Church. All believers who were winners, who advanced to maturity, who used the time on earth to glorify the Lord — perception and application of Bible doctrine — are going to be presented to the world. In other words, we are unknown in time. As we move through this life with a positive volition toward doctrine we are not in anyone’s history book, we are not even news, we are not even regarded in any way. And that is as it should be. You see, history depends upon our attitude toward Bible doctrine, therefore no publicity is necessary and no publicity is desired. We are here for a purpose, we are involved in a great unseen, invisible war and the trends of history depend upon our attitude toward Bible doctrine. So we live relatively unknown; we die anonymously, but the Lord knows all about us. Therefore we become known at the judgment seat of Christ to the rest of the royal family. The plan of God is going to be a great revelation at the judgment seat of Christ, and there you become known, you are presented to the royal family of God as one of the great ones. You receive your decorations and your awards. You are relatively anonymous and you will only become known as a winner, first to the Church at the judgment seat of Christ at the resurrection, and secondly, to the entire world at the second advent of Christ. Then you will be on the permanent page of history, if you are a winner, if you reside and function inside of the divine dynasphere, Colossians 3:4, “On the occasion when Christ our life [“our life” indicates the attitude of the mature believer] shall become manifest [the second advent] you also [the mature believer rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ] shall become manifest with him in glory.”

When our Lord returns one of the first functions is operation footstool. After AD 70 of the Church Age we begin what is called, in Luke 21, the times of the Gentiles. From BC 1440 all of the way down to AD 70 the Jews were the client nation to God. When the Jews went out under the fifth cycle of discipline in AD 70 there could only then be Gentile client nations in this dispensation. So the history of the Church Age is the history of Gentile client nations beginning with the Roman empire and going right up to the client nation of the present time. For some 2000 years only a Gentile nation could be a client nation to God, and so it will be until the second advent of Jesus Christ. When that occurs there will be a special operation in which we participate. During the Tribulation there will be no Jewish client nation but 144,000 Jews will function in place of a client nation, Revelation 7 and 14. When the second advent then occurs operation footstool is one of the first items on the agenda. It is first mentioned as a prophecy in Psalm 110:1. This is a prophecy so important that it is quoted numerous times in the New Testament, Matthew 24:22; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:43; Acts 2:35; Hebrews 1:13; 10:13, among others. Operation footstool begins at the second advent and includes the coup de tat in which Satan loses the rulership of this world to Christ. Both Satan and all fallen angels are incarcerated for a period of 1000 years. Those of us who are winners are involved in operation footstool.

Operation footstool is described as a triumphal procession which was quite well-known at the time of writing. During the period of the Roman empire one of the greatest things that could happen was for a general to receive a triumphal procession, it was considered the ultimate in life. It was very simple. First of all the victorious general would have in the procession his army, those who were guarding the prisoners. The prisoners and the things captured would go first through the streets and they would be followed by a royal golden chariot. In that chariot, with a crown held over his head by a slave, would be the triumphant general. The slave would repeat to the general, sic transit gloria munde, sic transit gloria munde, sic transit gloria munde, a reminder not to lose his cool, not to get arrogant, and it means simply from the Latin, “For the glory of the world passes away”. This was the ultimate in glory in the Roman world. Then following would be the army, and when the triumphal procession would finally come to its termination, at that point all of the captives would be seized and thrown into prison. Some would be executed, some would be disposed of in other ways. So the triumphal procession is the way in which operation footstool is described in its fulfilment. It follows the same format and procedure as that Roman triumphal procession. The prisoners in this case: Satan as the ruler, and the demons, are marched in front of the triumphant General who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Then comes the triumphant consul or tribune or leader with the crown. That, of course, is our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent. Then follows the army. In this case it is the royal family of God, the Church Age believers, many of whom have been decorated, have received rewards. When the process ends the captives are then cast into prison, and the army does this. It is the privilege and the honour of believers who are winners in this life to incarcerate the demons who are removed from the earth so that perfect environment can exist for 1000 years during our Lord’s Millennial reign.

In the triumphal process of the second advent then the demons are disarmed and publicly displayed in the triumphal procession. This is the subject of Colossians chapter 2, especially verse 15 which says: “And having disarmed demon archons and commissioned officers, he [Christ at the second advent] made a public display of them [triumphal procession], having celebrated a triumphal procession over them [i.e.. demons and fallen angels] by means of it [the strategy of the cross].”

At the end of the triumphal procession we have a description of what happens in 1 Corinthians 15:23-25, “But each man in his own battalion,” describing the resurrection. There are two battalions in this review in resurrection. There is the first and second resurrection. The first resurrection has to do with eternal life; the second resurrection has to do with eternal condemnation. At the end of the Church Age is the resurrection of the Church; at the end of the Tribulation Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs are resurrected; at the end of the Millennium there are all of the Millennial believers who will receive a resurrection body. This is all the first resurrection; this is the first battalion. The second battalion is the unbeliever resurrected at the end of the Millennium, judged, and cast into the lake of fire forever.

Verse 23, “Each man in his own battalion: Christ the firstfruits [our Lord Jesus Christ in His resurrection]; after that those who are Christ’s at his coming” — this is the second part of the first battalion, all of those in the Church Age who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 24, “Then comes the end [end of the Tribulation, the second advent of Christ] when he delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father” — our Lord Jesus Christ takes the rulership of the world away from Satan in the coup de tat, gives it to the Father who in turn gives it back to the Son as the last Adam of Hebrews chapter one, verse two — “when Christ has abolished all rule [the rule of Satan] and all authority [the dictators of the Tribulation, the two beasts of Revelation 13] and the power [the removal of demons],” as per Zechariah 13:2 and Colossians 2:15.

Verse 25, “For he must reign [for 1000 years] till he has put all enemies under his feet.” So we have a special passage which deals with the incarceration of Satan. This is found in Revelation chapter 20, verses 1-3. We also have the wedding feast of the Lord. Remember the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. It deals with believers and unbelievers in the Tribulation. But in the wedding supper of the Lord when all of these things are brought together at the second advent it is found, however, in Revelation chapter 19 verse six and following, the Church as the bride is prepared for this wedding supper by resurrection, by the judgment seat of Christ after the resurrection. The doctrine of ultimate sanctification is the believer in the resurrection body. The tremendous rewards that some will receive are the result of what they did during their life on this earth as believers — perception and application of Bible doctrine, residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. The coronation of Christ as the groom precedes the wedding supper of the Lord, and this coronation is recorded in Revelation 19:6 where it says: “And I heard as it were a sound of a great crowd of people” — these are the Church Age believers, this is a prediction about you if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ — “and I heard the sound of many waters” — these are the Old Testament believers who have just received their resurrection bodies, as per John 3:29, the friends of the groom; “and the sound of many thunderings” — these are the Tribulational believers at the second advent who will be the initial population for the Millennium, as per Matthew 25:1-13. All three are gathered together for a purpose, for the coronation of our Lord Jesus Christ; “saying, Hallelujah: because the Lord God [Jesus Christ], the total ruler has been crowned.”

Then comes the wedding supper in Revelation 19:7-9. “Let us have extreme happiness” — happiness is something that resides in the soul, it is a capacity which begins in the soul and relates to things in life, good or bad, adverse or wonderful; “and celebrate, and let us give glory to him [our Lord Jesus Christ]: because the marriage of the Lamb and his bride is come” — the preparation of the bride again is the resurrection.

Verse 8, “And it was given to her that she should be attired in fine linen” — imputed righteousness parlayed into great blessing at the judgment seat of Christ. It is said to be bright, related to perfection in the divine dynasphere, unsoiled, total freedom from contamination of the cosmic system; “for the fine linen is the ultimate righteousness of the saints.” All of this is a resurrection scene in the future.

Verse 9, “And he communicates to me, Write, Happiness belongs to the ones who have been invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” There are invitations issued to three categories: believers of this dispensation, the royal family of God; friends of the groom, the Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs who receive their resurrection bodies at the second advent; then there are the friends of the bride, and that is the Tribulational believers who survive the terrible things of Revelation chapters 6-18 and who will be the initial population in the Millennium, “Furthermore he communicates to me, These are true doctrines from the source of God.”

This brings us into the field of motivation, for you are going to spend a very short time on this earth. Life is just a drop in the bucket compared to eternity and there is no way to make a comparison between the few years of this life and eternity. It is eternity that counts, that which is invisible to us now and for many not very real at all. The winner is the one who will be great in eternity. The winner is the mature believer of the Church Age who will rule with Christ after this wedding feast. The winner will be identified by the awards and decoration received at the judgment seat of Christ, and all of these awards are related attitude toward Bible doctrine. He has access to the gazebo in the garden of Revelation 2:7. He will receive the crown of life, the highest decoration for living in the divine dynasphere. He will receive that decoration which has to do with his passing all momentum tests from gate four to gate eight. He will be awarded these things at the judgment seat of Christ after the resurrection. He will have authority then to rule during that period of perfect environment. This authority is mentioned in Revelation 2:26, “Furthermore the winner, even he who keeps my assignments to the end,” keeping our Lord’s assignments has to do with perception of Bible doctrine, “to him I will give authority over the nations,” this refers to the Millennial reign of our Lord. For example, in Revelation 20:4, “I saw thrones and they that sat on them,” Who is going to sit on these thrones? Every mature believer of the Church Age, “and judgment was given to them,” Revelation 5:10; “and you have made them a kingdom of priests to our God and they will rule on earth.” That is future, and it has to do with the future rule of the mature believers. Romans 5:17, “Much more then, they shall rule through that one, Jesus Christ”; 2 Timothy 2:12, “If we endure [that has to do with residence and function inside the divine dynasphere] we shall also rule.” This function is restricted to the order of chivalry in the Church Age, those who are knighted with a new name and a new title. It begins with the hidden manna, maximum doctrine resident in the soul; it goes to the resurrection body, the white pebble, the vote of God for your eternal life; and it ends up with a new name, the knighthood title you will receive at the judgment seat of Christ.

Now all of this has a point, this review of the various chronological things related to your resurrection body, and the point is a very simple one. All historical blessing and prosperity in the Church Age results from unknown and unnamed believers living inside the divine dynasphere, advancing to maturity, forming the pivot for blessing by association to the client nation of God. The mature believers who provide the basis for blessing and prosperity are not named in history. They are not found in the textbooks of world history, they are anonymous and unknown. They are unsung heroes.

These mature believers, then, who provide the basis for all of our blessing and prosperity in time are the only solution to the problems we face at the present time, economic depression, social degeneration, and military disaster just around the corner. While these believers are unknown today they will be well-known at the judgment seat of Christ to the Church, and even better known to the entire world at the second advent of Christ. At the resurrection of the Church, called the Rapture of the Church, they will have the white pebble, the resurrection body. All believers, including the losers will have the white pebble, the resurrection body, but the winners will be knighted with a new name, a new title. The most important factor in history at this time is the unknown factor — the spiritual dynamics that come from believers who reside and function in that divine dynasphere. But in the future the winning believer, the believer who advances to maturity, will become well-known. At the Rapture, again, in his resurrection body he will receive great decorations, the knighthood, the crown of life, and he will be presented to the entire world to reign with Christ during the Millennium. He will become well-known, then, to the entire world at a future time.

Therefore the challenge is presented to you: Will you live your life, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the light of eternity to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ?

John 11:25,26 puts it this way: “Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life: he who believes in me shall live even if he dies: and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Thyatira was famous as the centre of labour unionism in the Roman empire. The first Gentile client nation to God found itself faced with a very serious union problem. Thyatira was the most completely unionised city in the Roman world, therefore it was impossible for many of its believers to ever advance to maturity because they were more under the influence of loyalty to unionism than to what the Word of God had to say. Therefore we are not going to find it the same as Ephesus or Smyrna or even Pergamum. The unions were the ones who sponsored the phallic cult and various idolatrous religious activities, and the unions took a stand at that time which basically has never changed: they were anti-Christian; they were anti-doctrine. It is very rare for a born-again member of a union to ever become a mature believer because of a conflict of interests between the union and Bible doctrine, for unionism is a form of power grabbing where power is not authorised under the laws of divine establishment. In this context Thyatira is threatened with divine punishment through economic disaster, for where the unions rule economic disaster is inevitable.

Too often today the unions have become a sacred cow. To even say anything unkind about the unions is considered to be political suicide, and that means that the unions have a power which has become evil. This doesn’t mean that people don’t have a right to decent wages but when people working for unions are making more than college professors and professional people something is terribly wrong.

Verse 19, we begin with the perfect o)ida, used as a present active indicative. O)ida is a verb of cognisance used here for divine knowledge [omniscience] regarding the status quo of the church at Thyatira. We will translate this, “I have known.” The present of duration or retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun in the past through omniscience, feeding the computer of divine decrees, and continues into the present with a printout of history. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action; the indicative mood is declarative for a statement of an absolute and dogmatic fact known to our Lord in eternity past.

With this verb we have the accusative plural, direct object from the noun e)rgon, which can be translated works, deeds, production, or accomplishments. It refers to whatever the individual believer does, moment by moment, during his life in this earth. With this we have the possessive genitive singular from the personal pronoun su, referring in this context to every believer in Thyatira in the year AD 96, but also referring to every believer in the history of the Church Age. There is nothing unknown to the Lord, “I have known your accomplishments.”

We have following a double use of the conjunction kai, and when it is doubled in a phrase it generally is translated “both and.” But here, of course, we have the explanatory use of the conjunction kai explaining the meaning of the accusative direct object, and therefore it is translated correctly, “namely.” Plus the following appositional accusatives are given, one is not found in the original. We first of all have the accusative of a)gaph. A)gaph has to do with virtue, integrity, and all Christian production has to do with virtue and integrity; which takes us right back to the Christian way of life inside the divine dynasphere, invisible and visible. The invisible is the function of the royal priesthood, it is always directed toward God. The visible is the function of the royal ambassadorship, and it is always directed toward man. In this particular area we are talking about integrity. All Christian production is based upon virtue and integrity. All Christian production is meaningless unless it is based upon virtue and integrity. Take love, for example. Personal love is never a virtue unless it is directed toward God. The functional virtue is impersonal love which is directed toward all mankind. Personal love exists in the human race: category two, right man, right woman; category three, friendship. But they are only successful when they are based upon virtue, and the virtue of love directed toward mankind is impersonal love, the application of doctrine from gate four of the divine dynasphere toward mankind. So the first item of production is not some work, not something you do. All production in the Christian life is based on thought and the Christian way of life is what you think. Action merely results from good motivation.

The second area of Christian production follows. It is also an appositional accusative from the noun pistij. It refers to the three stages of the function of the faith-rest drill. Stage one: faith reaches out and claims a promise. The reason for that is because of inability to think. Fear and cowardice is lack of thinking; it is an emotion without any rationale. To overcome it faith reaches out and claims a promise. Stage two: The doctrinal rationales which are applied to the situation. The essence of God rationale applied to the situation, the plan of God rationale applied to the situation. Often it is simply the logistical grace rationale applied to the situation. Stage three: You reach doctrinal conclusions whereby you deal with the situation from the standpoint of the application of Bible doctrine. The faith-rest drill is absolutely necessary in passing the momentum tests between gate four and gate eight. To solve your own problems you have to have the doctrine and these two techniques.

Next we have a third appositional accusative. The words “and service” do not occur in the original, but we do have the appositional accusative of diakonia. It is of course related to the noun diakonoj which is transliterated “deacon” and translated “ministry.” This word also refers to an administrative service, to behind the scenes activity, the function of believers in a local church. Like members of an air crew or combat team it takes the dedication of many different believers to form the function that is mentioned here. We are going to translate it, “and the ministry.” In this dispensation every believer is a member of the royal family of God and this results in the universal ministry of the believer. There is no such thing as full-time Christian service inasmuch as every believer is in full-time Christian service as a royal priest and as a royal ambassador. Therefore every believer as a minister of God in full-time Christian service is in view. And without this background whatever production is accomplished it is meaningless, it is wood, hay, and stubble, unless it is based upon these three appositional accusatives.

We do have the fourth appositional accusative and that is the accusative of u(pomonh, which means ordinarily in the Greek, patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, and persistence. It has a technical connotation here. The noun even connotes — going back to Classical Greek — courageous endurance, and here it refers to something very similar to that, the believer’s residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. We will translate it, “and your perseverance,” but it is technical for your life. You must live (persevere) in the power sphere provided by God, the divine dynasphere. All of us are weak in this life and the ruler of this world is Satan who in his genius has provided a power system that is far stronger, far greater than we are. And when we reject the divine dynasphere we move into Satan’s cosmic one or cosmic two. We become negative toward doctrine from cosmic one through preoccupation with self, that’s grieving the Holy Spirit; in cosmic two we become antagonistic toward doctrine. The combination of the two

So here we have “perseverance.” Note that with it we have the possessive genitive from the pronoun su, which occurs in this and in the next appositional phrase only. It is, “your perseverance.” And then finally we have the appositional accusative to summarise the fact that all production in the Christian life is dependant upon these four. We have the appositional accusative once more of the noun e)rgon, and again it means works, production, deeds. We will translate it simply, “your works.”

Translation of the verse up to this point: “I have known your accomplishments [Christian production], namely the love” — the function of virtue inside the divine dynasphere; “and the faith” — the modus operandi of the three stages of the faith-rest drill; “and the ministry,” the function of your royal warrants (ambassador and priest); “both your perseverance,” your decisions to live inside the divine dynasphere; “and your production” — the result of living in the divine dynasphere.

Then he adds one phrase, the nominative neuter plural subject from e)schatoj, which means last. As an adjective it must find a noun, e)rgon, “your last production.” Then he adds the accusative neuter plural direct object, pleion, the comparative of poluj. It means greater. And since greater is in the accusative and last is in the nominative obviously we have the need of a verb here, “the last works are greater.” Then we have the comparative, the ablative of comparison from prwtoj, “first.” This is a reference to the momentum of believers who consistently live inside the divine dynasphere and are faithful in the perception and application of doctrine. Therefore this phrase refers to the believer passing the momentum tests.

Corrected translation: “I have known your accomplishments, namely the love, and the faith, both your perseverance and your works; the last works are greater than the first.”

Several principles in closing out this verse: The secret to the Christian life is not your spiritual gift here, and it is not all of the things that God has provided — though these are true. But here we have an additional thing. The secret to the Christian life in this verse is one word: consistency. What this is saying in effect is that you cannot live the Christian life unless you are organised. That is what consistency means. The only way you can be organised is to be consistent in your thinking and in your action, to be self-disciplined in your thinking and in your action.

Consistency as far as the Christian way of life is concerned has three basic principles:

a. Consistency in living inside the divine dynasphere, which in effect means consistency in the use of the rebound technique which is the only way to recover and re-enter the divine dynasphere and regain and retain the filling of the Holy Spirit.

b. Consistency in a scale of values — Bible doctrine first, in other words, and the decisions based on that system of priorities, having the right priorities, the right scale of values, and making your decisions on the basis of your right priorities.

c. The ability to keep plugging in spite of failure, distraction, disillusion and setback. Keep plugging, keep going; don’t let anything get you off the track no matter how discouraging any set of circumstances happen to become. That is why we have the last phrase at the end of verse 19 — “the last works are greater than the first.” This also means something else: it refers to the fact of having consistency and therefore passing momentum tests.

a. The old sin nature test. The old sin nature constantly seeks to gain control of the soul. Guarding the gate of the soul is your volition. All temptation comes from the old sin nature and it moves in the direction of that gate, your volition. To say No ends the matter. To fail the temptation though and do it, whether you know it is a sin or not, means that the old sin nature now controls your soul and you are now living inside of the cosmic system. The consistent use of rebound is the way to stay out of the cosmic system.

b. People testing — reaction to people, distraction from people. Love or hatred can both be a people test. All of the people tests can only be solved through the existence of a functional virtue called impersonal love.

c. Thought testing. This can only be resolved by the daily routine and habit of doctrinal perception.

d. System testing. At some time or another we are all victims of a bad system, a bad organisation, an evil organisation, and there are three solutions. There is the function of the faith-rest drill toward the problem in the bad system. Secondly the function of impersonal love directed toward personnel in the bad system. Thirdly, occupation with the person of Christ, or a social life with God to give you the ability, the virtue and the integrity to rise above your circumstances.

e. The attack of cosmic one. For example, mental attitude arrogance, negative volition arrogance, impulsive arrogance, institutional arrogance, blind arrogance, conspiracy arrogance, crusader arrogance. The answer is again rebound and maximum growth inside the divine dynasphere.

f. The direct attack of cosmic two. For example, negative volition, degeneracy, antiestablishment, the cosmic panaceas, religion, demonism, academic speculation, the old sin nature, evil. The answer is rebound and maximum growth inside the divine dynasphere.

g. Disaster testing — always personal to you. This demands the function of the faith-rest drill.

h. Prosperity testing. Usually individual prosperity results from achievement of spiritual maturity, the arrival at gate eight. To pass the test the believer must have capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, capacity for prosperity, and capacity for love and virtue.

To avoid being depressed, which is always a great danger in all of these tests, the believer must have great capacity for thanksgiving, a great appreciation for things in life. He must also have enthusiasms in life. Prosperity testing can only be passed where these things exist. Prosperity testing is always a maturity test or a final test which leads to maturity.

Only by passing these eight momentum tests are the “last works greater than the first,” as per our passage. And note once again that discouragement and depression accompany all of these momentum tests. They always accompany to see if Bible doctrine is more important and more real than anything else in life and to make sure that the invisible God in heaven are more real than anything else in life — people, circumstances and, of course, more real than all the systems in Satan’s ace trump which is arrogance.

We now look at how the church at Thyatira failed, why they failed, how they failed, and how this has become a part of human history from AD 96 to the present.

Verse 20, We begin in the Greek with the use of the adversative conjunction a)lla, which is a conjunction of contrast which sets up a contrast with the preceding verse. We now see what the Lord has against the church at Thyatira. It is correctly translated “but.” With it we have the present active indicative of e)xw, the verb to have. “But I have” is the descriptive present tense for what is now going on. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb as eternal God and the prince ruler of the Church. The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that many believers in Thyatira are living inside the cosmic system. Then we have the prepositional phrase kata plus the genitive of the personal pronoun su, which is translated “against.”

What follows, then, is an indictment against those believers involved in the cosmic system. Involvement in the cosmic system results in a historical downtrend of a Gentile client nation called SPQR, the Roman empire. The phrase “a few things” is omitted simply because it is not found in the original. The translation is simply: “But I have this against you.”

Then we begin what He has, and we start out with the conjunction o(ti which introduces the content of the indictment of the Thyatira church. It can be translated “that,” but it really means “namely that.” Then we have the verb, the present active indicative of the verb a)fihmi, which means to tolerate here. We have seen toleration which is a virtue but there is also a toleration which has no virtue at all, it is simply a sign of cosmic living. Remember that in the cosmic system there is a great deal of toleration of all Satanic ideas and concepts and that is exactly what we have here. There is a right toleration; there is a wrong toleration. Right toleration is related to the doctrine of impersonal love but here we have toleration of that which is false and that which is evil. The active voice: believers living in the cosmic system produce the action of the verb.

Remember there are four mandates of the Christian way of life related to God the Holy Spirit. For example, he mandate in Ephesians chapter five verse eighteen — gate one of the divine dynasphere. Then the command of Galatians 5:16, “Walk by means of the Spirit,” function at the eight gates in the divine dynasphere, which is God’s game-plan for the Church Age believer. There is also a negative command dealing with cosmic one, the interlocking systems of arrogance: “Grieve not the Spirit.” And there is another negative mandate dealing with cosmic two: “Quench not the Holy Spirit. These two cosmic systems together form Satan’s system of controlling believers, as well as Satan’s genius in the administration of the rulership of this world. The cosmic believer is grieving the Holy Spirit and he is quenching the Holy Spirit, and therefore he is completely out of God’s will and out of phase with God’s plan.

The word we have next is gunh, translated “woman.” If there is anything that is really dangerous it is a smart woman, and a smart woman who has great beauty can be a “bomb” can be very dangerous or very magnificent. There is no in between! Now here is a beautiful woman with brains and ambition — the accusative singular direct object from the definite article thn, and then in the accusative gunh. We have it correctly translated “namely, you tolerate that woman.” Then we have an appositional nominative case from the indeclinable proper noun I)ezabel, our English word Isabel. There is also an articular present active participle from legw, and that plus h( a)utou means to call one’s self something. So it is translated, “who calls herself Jezebel.”

Translation so far: “Bit I have this fact against you, namely that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself.”

The very word Jezebel means beauty and brains, otherwise she would not have been so designated by the writer under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. This isn’t Jezebel coming back to life from the Old Testament, this is a beautiful smart woman. But we add something: she was an arrogant ambitious woman. There is nothing wrong with being beautiful and there is nothing wrong with being smart but it is the word “prophetess” where we begin to find something very much amiss; profhthj, “who calls herself a prophetess.” We have here a double accusative of direct and predicate object, h( a)utou is the direct object, the reflexive pronoun translated “herself,” and then the predicate object is profhthj, prophetess. In order to advance her own aims in order to gain attention, in order to fulfil inordinate ambition, she gave herself a title to which she was not entitled. There were no female prophets in the Church at this time. The male prophets had died out and no prophetesses existed. She was alleging to have a gift from God that did not exist, which brings her into focus as a very arrogant and ambitious woman.

1. Jezebel is not really her name. It is a pseudonym but everyone knows who it is. Jezebel merely describes what the woman was like — beautiful, smart, ambitious. So it is a reference to a very smart and beautiful woman living in the city of Thyatira as the head of a phallic cult. She was also using religion to make a name for herself.

2. She had succeeded in luring believers away from doctrine into the phallic cult in a manner similar to the historical Jezebel who invaded Israel. One of the greatest invasions that Israel ever faced was not the Assyrian army, but one woman, Jezebel.

3. The Word of God strongly opposes female leadership in spiritual things — Revelation 17:1-6.

4. The pattern for this Bible objection goes back to the Garden of Eden and the historical trend related to the principle of the weak controlling the strong. The Bible calls the woman the weaker vessel, not because she lacks courage or character but simply because she is dependant on the man.

5. The woman sinned first and at that moment became weak, while Adam had not yet sinned and therefore is classified as strong. So in the Garden when Adam looked on the first sinner she was weak and he was still in a state of perfection or innocence, he was strong.

6. From the very beginning of man’s failure on planet earth he was the victim of the weak manipulating and controlling the strong.

7. Adam took the forbidden fruit from the hand of the woman, not from the tree. Jezebel, the weak, ambitious, beautiful, smart, arrogant woman controlled one of the greatest soldiers of her day. Ahab was a great military man who even frightened the Assyrians he was so great.

8. Jezebel in Thyatira is controlling believers, luring them from the blessing of the divine dynasphere into the cursing of the cosmic system. Many of these believers were like Ahab, they were strong in their field but were led astray very easily.

Translation so far: “But I have this fact against you, namely that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess.” To understand this phrase we must begin with the historical trend of how the weak control the strong.

1. There are two categories of weak people: the evil weak and the good weak. A lot of weak people are obviously evil, but just as weak are self-righteous good people.

2. The good weak are not involved in this study. The divine dynasphere was provided by God for the protection of the good weak.

3. Therefore in this study we will deal with the evil weak. From now they will simply be called the weak in our study.

4. Weak, insecure, irresponsible, thoughtless, selfish, arrogant people — the evil weak — control policy, procedure and people as a historical trend. They control them in social life, business life, government life, professional life, cultural life, spiritual life, sexual life, etc.

5. One of the signs of a declining society is the sign of the weak in society dominating the strong, and the weak in society controlling people through arrogant self-righteousness, violence, liberalism, or whatever is the going, acceptable thing in current Satanic trends.

6. The scum, the criminal element, the liberals, the hippies, the irresponsible, control the strong as an historical trend toward cosmic involvement and inevitable degeneracy.

7. This why a nagging wife who pouts, makes scenes in public, can dominate, control and manipulate what is often an honourable husband, a person who is kind, considerate and thoughtful. And this is how a power-mad fourth estate plus an irresponsible press without integrity can dominate the thinking of a nation and often destroy an truly great leader.

So under the principle of the weak controlling the strong human rights advocates destroy human freedom. Terrorism and crime are the tools by which the weak control the strong. When crime is out of control and terrorism is the order of the day then in society the weak control the strong. When liberalism is out of control teenage kids dominate and control their parents.

1. The Garden of Eden was to Adam, when he looked at the first sinner and was tempted, as the divine dynasphere is to the believer when faced with temptation and manipulation by the weak — such as Jezebel. (Jezebel is the pattern of the weak controlling the strong)

2. Inside the divine dynasphere the battle is the Lord’s and you win, you make a right decision; inside the cosmic system the battle is yours, and you lose, you make a wrong decision.

3. There are no winners in the cosmic system, there are just different categories of losers. Among the categories of losers are the group who follow the principle of being strong but controlled by the weak.

5. Obviously some, in fact many believers, have rejected the lure of the weak controlled by the strong.

6. Starting with Adam’s wrong decision there would be no human history without wrong decisions. This is a part of the great conflict. Man must choose between arrogance and humility as an extension of the angelic conflict.

7. If you think you are strong you really become weak and you become entangled with the system stronger than you are — the cosmic system of Satan whereby he administers the rulership of this world.

8. If you know that you are weak you become strong in choosing the divine dynasphere. Once Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil history became a matter of self-determination, and human volition exercises the options of life, the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system.

Once you choose a power system in which to reside as a believer your decision merges into a power greater than you are so that your decisions take on the character of your choice. You either as a result of choosing the cosmic system take on the character of the cosmic system or you take on the character of the divine dynasphere, if you so choose. Therefore good decisions are made for the divine dynasphere and Bible doctrine while bad decisions are made for the cosmic system where the weak control the strong. Good decisions are made inside the divine dynasphere where the strong become stronger and options are created for more and greater decisions leading to the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ and fantastic human happiness. But bad decisions are made inside the cosmic system where the weak control the strong, and both freedom and the options are destroyed so that the believer becomes the servant of Satan under the title of everything that runs the gamut from carnality to reversionism.

To understand the phrase, “that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess,” we need now to examine the Jezebel profile. We have simply stated that the solution to the weak controlling the strong is residence and function inside the divine dynasphere but now we need to amplify this Jezebel of Thyatira. She is not a reincarnation of Jezebel of the days of king Ahab but she follows the same pattern.

The author of the book of Kings makes no bones about the fact that Jezebel was an implacable dictator, a very clever intriguer, a shameless trollop, besides which she was a high-class whore. She was the high priestess of the phallic cult called Ashtaroth. Jezebel came from the palace of Hiram, king of Tyre, who had done so much business with Solomon when he was king of Israel. Her father, Ethball, had been a priest of Ashtaroth before he took over the throne in a palace revolution. His neighbours, the Jews, were still his best customers. In the northern kingdom there was a strong warrior king by the name of Omri. He ruled from 882-871 BC and he built a new strong fortification which became the capital of the northern kingdom and was called Samaria. He was involved in a weak controlling the strong situation which began with king Omri who like his son was one of the great generals of his day. He was led astray by a weak king, Ethbaal of Tyre. It was Ethbaal of Tyre who saw that the Jews were going to be the great warrior nation in the Middle East in the ninth century BC. King Omri was a very strong man and a great soldier but he was led astray by a very weak person, Ethbaal, king of Tyre at whose suggestion there was the marriage between his son, Ahab, and Omri’s daughter Jezebel. And it was inevitable that just as Ethbaal controlled Omri so Jezebel controlled Ahab.

Like his father, Ahab was a great soldier and he would have been a great king except for the fact that he was a victim of a very evil weak person controlling the strong. In her marriage to king Ahab Jezebel changed her nationality but she didn’t change her religion, the phallic cult. By controlling Ahab she brought great apostasy into Israel, the greatest invasion of the cosmic system into Israel in all of its history. This is why God raised up first Elijah and later on Elisha. But it was about 871 BC when Jezebel married king Ahab, 1 Kings 16:31ff, and thus established an alliance between two of the most vigorous people of that century, the Phoenicians and the Jews. And under the principle of the weak controlling the strong Jezebel was permitted to bring her priesthood into Israel. So she brought the phallic cult into Israel She sponsored 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Ashteroth. With her foot in the door she also arranged the assassination of the Lord’s prophets — 1 Kings 18:13; 2 Kings 9:7. The evil of weak people is seen in Jezebel’s murder of Naboth. This resulted in Elijah’s prophecy as to how she would die, the dogs would eat her bones — 1 Kings 21:19-29.

After the Elijah revival on Mount Carmel she neutralised the revival by threatening to kill Elijah and scared him off. In this case the weak Jezebel controlled the strong Elijah, just as the weak Jezebel controlled the strong Ahab. In Israel during the time of Jezebel there were only 7000 believers who continued faithful to the Lord, just as in Thyatira at the time that John wrote this passage there were few believers inside the divine dynasphere. Jezebel survived Ahab by some fourteen years. She was a beautiful woman with brains and she was evil; she was the weak controlling the strong; she neutralised everything related to doctrine. When Jehoram, her son, was killed by Jehu Jezebel attempted to seduce Jehu. She failed and Jehu ordered her thrown from the balcony and when her body hit the courtyard the prophecy of Elijah was fulfilled — “the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel and the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field.” What the dogs didn’t eat they tossed out into a field and as such the weak always end up.

The Jezebel of Thyatira was a beautiful woman, obviously, like the Jezebel of the ninth century BC in Israel. She was also a very smart one and also made an allegation that gave her great credibility with the dumb people in the church. She went around saying she was spiritual and when this happens there are inevitably those who will believe it. We have studied before how the Roman empire was a nation of cities, an urban empire. The country people always followed the religions of Greece and Rome, the ancient religions, and all of the ancient religions had two or three things that we should bare in mind. They had human sacrifice, all the sex they wanted and more, and they had ecstatics like the holy-rollers. They put the whole package together, and when you have sex and the tongues movement, and include a human sacrifice, it seems to cause a great evangelistic push! Just as the original Jezebel used sex in the phallic cult under the principle of the weak controlling the strong, so the Jezebel of Thyatira did exactly the same thing — they evangelised with free sex. Because she was a priestess of the phallic cult and totally involved in the cosmic system Jezebel was an evil, weak woman. This made her a great attraction for the strong. Jezebel was a great manipulator of the strong so that what Jezebel wants, Jezebel gets, whether it is Naboth’s vineyard in the ancient world at the time of Elijah or control of the people in Thyatira. She did it all by combination of sex, religion, ecstatics.

This brings us back to the Greek text. What is she doing? Well, we have the combination of two conjunctions, kai, kai, the double conjunction translated “both and.” So with the first word kai we will translate “she both,” and then we have the present active indicative of didaskw, “she both teaches.” In other words, no woman or man can start a religion without some form of doctrine involved, false doctrine in this case because it was a religion. Religion and Christianity are not the same. In religion man seeks to gain the approbation of God by his works; in Christianity God seeks man through the work of the cross. “She both teaches,” the present progressive tense for an action in the state of persistence, therefore present linear aktionsart. The active voice: Jezebel of Thyatira produces the action of the verb. Then we have kai again in the present active indicative of planaw, which means to deceive or seduce or to lead astray.

When you use teaching you use it for one of two reasons, to clarify the issues of an organisation and give policy to an organisation, or you use teaching in order to deceive people. Jezebel’s organisation was religious, therefore it had to have justification, for sin, evil, self-indulgence, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, bitterness, implacability. These things had to be justified in a religious system, just as Islam today does the same thing. The Mohammedans are a religion who justify their violence. The reason behind all of this is very simple: you have to have a doctrine, a system to justify violence. One of the interesting things about terrorism at the present time is that many of the terrorists are anarchy groups who have no rhyme or reason to what they are doing. Others have an organised system of doctrine and they are the ones that seem to do the best as far as representing communism or whatever their personal interest is.

So we have: “she both teaches and seduces [leads astray, causes to wander].” That is exactly the function of a religion. It is to use some form of teaching and doctrine to lead astray. The perfective present tense refers to a fact of cosmic involvement in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. With this we have the accusative plural direct object composed of two words, the accusative plural from the possessive adjective e)moj, and is correctly translated “my,” and with that the accusative plural from the noun douloj, which means slave. So “she both teaches and seduces [leads astray, causes to wander] my servants” — the Lord’s servants, believers. This is a clear-cut illustration of the weak controlling the strong. The believers in the Lord Jesus Christ by comparison strong, but they are controlled by the weak. So here is the weak controlling the strong because the strong refuse to live within the sphere of their strength.

We are not strong in ourselves, we are strong by virtue of the fact that we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our strength comes from being born again. Our strength comes after salvation from living inside the divine dynasphere. We are not strong in ourselves, we are strong because of our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. After salvation that relationship must be in terms of the mandates of the Christian life, residence and function in the divine dynasphere. Our strength is potential depending upon our residence in the divine dynasphere. No one is free from the power systems which exist during the Church Age for this dispensation is the age of the power systems — the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system. The options for the believer are very simple: either choose God’s plan and God’s power related to the divine dynasphere or choose Satan’s plan related to the cosmic system. When we get out of the divine dynasphere we are led out by the weak controlling the strong.

Normal weakness must be distinguished, of course, from evil weakness. Normal weakness implies the fact of the problems of life and our inability to solve those problems. Evil weakness is association with the cosmic system, and evil weakness is what we have in view in this verse. Evil weakness seeks to solve the problems of life by ignoring the problems, rejecting the problems, or using cosmic solutions such as being involved in the religion in Thyatira.

Hence the historical trends. We are the products of our own decisions related to either God’s power system or Satan’s power system. We are the products of our own decisions for volition creates environment, not environment volition. Note that all forms of apostasy is preceded by some form of inculcation which precedes the actual function of apostasy or reversionism. There is cosmic propaganda and there is cosmic philosophy. The believer does not have to listen to false teaching or inculcation but he will do so every time if he has neglected Bible doctrine and wandered away from the power system of the divine dynasphere.

In the human history phase of the angelic conflict man must be free to fail and he must be free to succeed, and therefore the source of either failure is success is the same, the function of your own free will, the function of human volition under the principle of freedom and self determination. Freedom is useless without a sense of responsibility to ensure correct function of that freedom without distortion. And freedom carries the responsibility of making decisions on the basis of integrity and the laws of divine establishment, not on the basis of motivating evil of arrogance — gate 1, cosmic 1. Man must be so inculcated with truth and doctrine that he will take the responsibility for his own decisions in life, plus the consequences of his own decisions. Consequently, recognition and evaluation of our own personal weaknesses is neither degrading nor demeaning, but the means of recognising the principle of doctrine that God has an answer for every weakness in the human life. He alone can convert weakness into strength.

There must be a search for power to overcome weakness rather than a search for weakness by which strength is overcome, and the believers in Thyatira were failing because they were searching for weakness by which strength was overcome — as per Jezebel and the popularity of the phallic cult at that time. And by taking the responsibility for his own failure and his own bad decisions the individual believer learns his own inherent and acquired weaknesses and seeks the solution by rebound and re-entry into the divine dynasphere, God’s power system. It is a system that is greater than all of our weaknesses for the divine dynasphere is greater than all believers.

We have noted that all apostasy is preceded by some form of teaching, some form of inculcation, which precedes the actual function of apostasy or reversionism. Remember that cosmic involvement doesn’t mean that you are instantly ready to be a good servant of Satan. Satan must train you, and therefore the whole system of cosmic two is going to Satan’s school, and when believers serve Satan it is the greatest disaster of all. They are sincere, they are motivated into thinking they are doing something for God, and in reality they are serving the ruler of this world, his majesty the devil. The negative volition of cosmic two is entirely different from the negative volition of cosmic one. In cosmic one negative volition is related to preoccupation with self, to being so interested in entertaining yourself that doctrine ceases to be important, whereas in cosmic two you have an active antagonism toward Bible doctrine. The difference is inculcation, false teaching, and the degeneracy, the antiestablishment, the cosmic panaceas, becoming involved in some religious concepts [religion and Christianity are antithetical], the academic speculation which is often tied into cosmic one [pseudo intellectual arrogance]. All of these things add up to the effectiveness of going to school in the cosmic system, the effectiveness of inculcation of human viewpoint. We see human viewpoint on every hand, we use human viewpoint to justify decisions and activities in which we are involved today. The only defence against this is to learn for yourself Bible doctrine so that you can discern for yourself.

Before we get through with this passage we are going to see how Christian friends are one of the major systems of evangelism for Satan’s cosmic system, and that Christian friendships can very sustaining if everyone involved is pro-doctrine and living in the divine dynasphere, but that born again believers are the devil’s best evangelists for entrance into the cosmic school for inculcation of the human viewpoint of life. Christian friends are the best system for leading you astray.

In the human history phase of the angelic conflict we have noted that man must be free to fail and that he must be free to succeed, for all historical trends are based upon good decisions or bad decisions. And we have seen that good decisions open options for greater decisions whereas bad decisions destroy those options. So the source of either failure or success is always the same — the function of your individual volition, your self-determination under the principle of freedom and self-determination. Freedom is useless without a sense of responsibility to ensure the correct function of that freedom without distortion and to avoid that pitfall of justifying what is wrong in your own life or in others. Freedom carries the responsibility of making decisions on the basis of integrity under the laws of divine establishment, not the motivating evil of arrogance as per cosmic one, gate one. Man must be so inculcated, then, with Bible doctrine that he will take the responsibilities in life, the good ones and the bad ones. Consequently recognition and evaluation of our own personal weaknesses is not degrading or demeaning, it is the means of recognising the principle of doctrine that God has an answer to weakness, converting it into strength, and that there must be, again, decisions made for the power system that gives us the ability to convert our weaknesses into strength rather than to be strong and led by the weak.

Next we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb porneuw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for an action or a fact extended over a period of time. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Fornication is a sin but that isn’t the issue here, it is a system of evangelising for religion. Religion is the devil’s ace trump. The active voice: cosmic believers produce the action through involvement with the phallic cult. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result when the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate plan or objective, and therefore the blending of purpose and result. With this we also have the word for eating food which is a second aorist active infinitive preceded by the word kai, the aorist active infinitive of e)sthiw which means to eat. The constative aorist is for an action or fact extended over a period of time and hence contemplating the action in its entirety. The cosmic believers produce the action of the verb through involvement in the phallic cult, so it has some form of eating which has to do with this religion. The infinitive again is intended result and the two of them together can be simply translated: “But I have this fact against you, namely that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess; she both teaches and seduces my servants [cosmic believers] to fornicate, and to eat food … “ Then we have the accusative plural direct object from the neuter noun e)idwloquton, which means food which has been sacrificed to idols, to eat food sacrificed to idols. It has to do with the function of the phallic cult.

Principle: Believers must be very wary with whom they party and have their social life. The people with whom you socialise often have the greatest influence in your life. Eating food offered to idols is not the issue, it is the association and influence leading to the weak controlling the strong, and you must constantly make decisions to guard your social life. In effect this says: If you want to stay out of the cosmic system guard your social life and guard your sexual life. It is quite obvious that people who influence are related in these two areas.

There are two principles related to fornication. There is fornication as a social sin, sometimes called adultery although there is a technical difference between the two terms. Then there is fornication related to religion, and that is the phallic cult. One is a sin; one is a system of evil. Religion, being evil — all religion originates with Satan and is used as a distraction from doctrine — always throws in sex as a part of the function of the religion. This has been the case from ancient religions right down to modern religions.

We have noted the significance of fornication and the food sacrifice to idols. As we continue we begin to note some principles which relate to this passage. First, that believers involved in the divine dynasphere are strong and believers involved in the cosmic system are weak. And it is the weak believers who come into this type of activity. Once, living inside the divine dynasphere, they had the strength to produce the activities found in verse 19, but in verse 20 we find the negative side of the picture. From their own free will decisions believers became the strong being controlled and manipulated by the weak Jezebel. So we have again the historical trend of how the weak control the strong. Here were people who were strong at the start but by their failure to persist inside the divine dynasphere they became victims being led by the strong. It all starts with decisions to tolerate and it ends up with decisions to participate. This is the principle: we start out by tolerating that which is wrong and we end up by participating in that which is wrong. We do it from our own free will. Man is the product of his own decisions, and he cannot blame anyone else for decisions he has made. God has given each one of us a free will to make our decisions and when we make erroneous decisions then we wind up under the category of the weak controlling the strong. From the next verse we will learn that Jezebel of Thyatira was a believer who had both time and opportunity for rebound but did not ever recover her residence inside the divine dynasphere. The believers at Thyatira started out in the divine dynasphere but they began to tolerate and then to accept this woman who had entered gate one of cosmic one. Remember that the mandates of God the Holy Spirit always deal with these power spheres. In the dispensation of the Church we have the cosmic system versus the divine dynasphere. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit — Gate one of the divine dynasphere; we are commanded to walk by means of the Spirit — the function of the various gates of the divine dynasphere. By way of negative commands we are commanded to “grieve not the Spirit.” That is functioning in cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance; we are commanded to quench not the Spirit, the function of cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred. It all started with this woman entering gate one of cosmic one. This became the motivating evil for this woman called Jezebel of Thyatira. Next, of course, she moved over to interlock with gate two of cosmic one, which is negative volition. This negative volition is not the type that is antagonistic toward Bible doctrine, it is simply preoccupation with self to the exclusion of doctrinal teaching. And then because of her tremendous beauty and because she was a very brilliant woman she got into gate ten, sexual arrogance; gate seventeen iconoclastic arrogance; gate nineteen, the arrogance of emotion; gate twenty-three, the arrogance of lust. And, of course, she interlocked with cosmic two immediately. Gate eight of cosmic two is the old sin nature gate and she became involved there. Gate nine is evil.

The weak controlling the strong, then, began with toleration of the weak. Note in verse 20: “But I have this fact against you, namely that you tolerate that woman Jezebel”. Toleration is a wonderful thing if it extends from the virtue of impersonal love. But never does impersonal love tolerate beyond the point of compromising your life in making wrong decisions. That is exactly what happened here. They abandoned the concept of toleration as they began to fail in the function of impersonal love as a virtue, and the more they failed in the function of impersonal love as a virtue the more they began to tolerate what was doctrinally in error. As a result they finally opened the floodgates to allow this cult to develop inside the church. So we have the case of the weak controlling the strong and it always begins by toleration — the strong tolerate the weak, they have the strength of toleration but they misplace it — and then using one’s free will to be inculcated and taught by the weak. So that the weak influence the strong by some system of teaching or inculcation and finally become involved in the cosmic system advocated by the weak. And then the believer’s involved with Jezebel began to make wrong decisions. Wrong decisions result in further cosmic involvement and they require the rebound technique to escape, as we will see in the next verse, but instead of using that and re-entering the divine dynasphere they continued to become enmeshed in the cosmic system. The greater the function of our volition under the principle of freedom the more we as believers must be aware of our inherent and acquired weaknesses so that we turn to God’s provision of the divine dynasphere for the ability to cope with these things and not let them become a means of tripping us up.

This brings us to our first principle with regard to the interpretation of verse 20: We need God, we need God’s provision, we need God’s plan for our lives:

1. God’s plan is first of all salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it continues after the moment of salvation with residence and function inside the divine dynasphere which He has provided for us under the principle of logistical grace.

2. Man is neither the master of his fate nor the Lord of his destiny. This is illustrated by the historical trend which we have developed before in which the weak control the strong. The weak control the strong in business, in government, socially, in all forms of organisations, even in some churches. Man is not the master of his fate. As a matter of fact he is the product of his own decisions but that doesn’t make him the master of his fate.

3. Man lives in the devil’s world and he is therefore vulnerable to involvement in the cosmic system.

4. Therefore through wrong decisions: every terrible thing that comes to us comes through wrong decisions we have made, we can never blame anyone else, we must take the responsibility for our own decisions, that is a part of growing up. The believer becomes involved in the cosmic system of Satan as the ruler of this world and the genius who has developed this unusual system.

5. Without the power of the divine dynasphere and the provision of logistical grace man cannot withstand the pressures and temptations to become involved in the cosmic system. In other words, none of us as believers on our own are stronger than the cosmic system. We find ourselves therefore caught between two systems. We are human and therefore naturally weak. We find ourselves forced to face the issue: Which system do we choose, the cosmic system of Satan or the divine dynasphere system of our Lord? One offers great happiness and blessing, the other offers pseudo happiness and pseudo blessing and inevitably trips us up in wrong decisions. We are the products of wrong decisions. The more wrong decisions we make the more we become involved with Jezebel of Thyatira.

6. Apart from doctrine and the divine dynasphere man does not have the power, the strength, the ability to resist life in the cosmic system. Therefore the believer lives by his own volition and chooses something greater than himself by which to live.

7. Each one of us must choose in what power sphere he is going to live. This does not mean that because you made a one-shot decision you will always do it. This is the decision that is made every day. Some times it is made through the rebound technique and sometimes it is made simply by positive volition towards Bible doctrine. But every day you have to face the same decision all of the way to the end of your life on this earth — to choose one system as over against another, recognising the fact that our power is not in our inherent ability but in the volition, the freedom we have to choose one system as over against another.

8. There will always be some Jezebel hanging around to push man or mankind into the cosmic system through the historical trends of the weak manipulating the strong. This is talking about someone who is attractive, not someone who is beautiful and dumb, which is not attractiveness all. This is talking about the dangerous combination which has the ability to manipulate through hypocrisy and at the same time to attract the men through the obvious system — Adam meets Eve!

Again the corrected translation: “But again I have this fact against you, namely that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess; she both teaches and then seduces [leads astray] my servants to fornicate and to eat food which has been sacrificed to idols.”

Believers in Thyatira began to lean on their local Jezebel rather than on Bible doctrine. They began to lean on her and the cosmic system rather than the divine dynasphere and the other provisions of logistical grace. They became the strong controlled by the weak and they did so by abandoning the divine dynasphere and neglecting the perception of Bible doctrine. Therefore they began to live on borrowed strength, and once you begin to live on borrowed strength from Jezebel you immediately become weak. Once you begin to lean on people then you start to borrow strength. It often starts out with asceticism, with conversation; this is a smart woman. It starts out with conversation, with attraction, with asceticism. This is the front for the phallic cult — asceticism. And to go from asceticism to ecstatics then you go through the phallic modus operandi. So their association with cosmic Jezebel was a social one, a conversational one, and it led them into the cosmic system and the fulfilled the pattern, then, of 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived, evil companions corrupt good morals”. They borrowed Jezebel’s standards and made Jezebel’s standards their own. It started out with strong asceticism, often a reaction to salvation.

Note: People, if they get the wrong teaching, think they have to give up everything.

So by so doing they abandoned the standards of doctrine. They had learned these things inside the divine dynasphere but they walked away from them. They began to neglect doctrine in preoccupation with self because the Jezebel approach has never changed. It is to get you to become preoccupied with yourself. The Jezebel approach is to find something nice in you and exploit it. The point is, when a person uses their beauty, their cleverness, to appeal to your arrogance you are in the cosmic system. Many a person has become “Gung ho for Christ” on the basis of a nice smile from a pretty girl! or from a soft-spoken counsellor: “Now you have a real talent here, you should be using that for the Lord.” So you have all the athletes up their giving their testimony! When you identify with an organisation that says you are important, although you may be the worst cluck in the world, you go for it. That is how religion recruits. These believers related their volition to what Jezebel was doing rather than what they had been doing in the divine dynasphere. Therefore they came under the principle of borrowed strength. Borrowed strength is weakness; acquired strength is power; that is the principle.

They followed Jezebel in the cult of phallic reversionism to live out their lives in the cosmic system. They ignored the dynamics of 2 Corinthians 12:9.10, “My grace (logistical) is sufficient for you, for the power (divine dynasphere) functions in our weaknesses. Most gladly therefore I will rather demonstrate confidence toward God in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ (the divine dynasphere) may pitch a tent over me. Therefore, for the sake of Christ I find contentment (happiness) in the divine dynasphere ...”

Verse 21, the principle of grace before judgment. Jezebel is a believer; she is given time to repent of her fornication, “and she repented not.” Fornication here means a great deal more than simply illicit sexual intercourse. It has to do with the entire phallic cult.

We start out in the Greek with the connective use of the conjunction kai which expresses a result from what precedes. It is translated here, “And so,” or it could be “Furthermore.” Next comes the aorist active indicative of the verb didomi, the verb to give, to grant — “And so I gave.” The culminative aorist tense views the decision opportunity for rebound in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, Jezebel of Thyatira’s option to recover fellowship with God and re-enter the divine dynasphere. This woman had many opportunities to use her own free will and walk out on the deal in which she was involved; but she liked what she was doing, it appealed to her arrogance. She not only felt important but she got her kicks out of controlling people. Both male and female find happiness in running the show when they reach a certain stage of arrogance — happiness comes from controlling people. That is why we get so many lousy politicians instead of real statesmen. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb; the indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the principle of grace before judgment, the option to use grace provision of rebound to cancel out the divine discipline for cosmic involvement on the part of this Christian woman. With this we have the dative singular indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used for the personal pronoun, third person, and it is correctly translated “to her,” “And so I gave to her.” The dative of indirect object indicates the one, Jezebel of Thyatira, and unknown Christian female, in whose interest additional time is given for rebound and recovery to the divine dynasphere.

The word that follows is an accusative singular direct object from xronoj, the word for time, “And so I gave her time.” One of the provisions of logistical grace that God has for all of us is whenever we fail, when we make wrong decisions, God gives us additional time, either to rebound and recover or to get more deeply involved in the cosmic system. He always holds off discipline so that when He finally does punish us it comes as such a terrible shock that we lose our poise and we are forced to face the reality of the situation. It is a sort of a last call to rebound and recovery of the divine dynasphere. The options of grace, then, exclude the fact that every believer is the product of his own decisions. The decision to live in the cosmic system brings on self-induced misery and the principle that we are the products of our own decisions. Many of the things that we suffer we blame on someone else but in reality we have made the decisions that place us in that situation. Furthermore, the options of grace determine whether the believer is suffering for blessing or suffering for divine discipline. The provision of time is a part of logistical grace for every believer and none of us have ever failed and not been given time to rebound, to recover, to remove ourselves from that failure. For some believers the provision of time is an opportunity to advance to maturity in the divine dynasphere, and thus fulfil the plan of God and move on to greater things. For other believers the provision of time is simply grace before judgment or an additional opportunity for rebound and to recover for the divine dynasphere and, of course, refusing it. Still other believers the provision of time is simply for the purpose of extending one’s life for divine discipline. That was the tragedy of Jezebel.

Principle: Logistical grace belongs to the reversionistic and cosmic believer just as much as it belongs to the advancing and mature believer. Logistical grace is for all believers, the winners and the losers; those who fail and those who succeed. And one of the manifestations of logistical grace is time. God gives each one of us a day at a time: a day in which to make decisions to recover, a day in which to make decisions to become more involved in our misery. The difference is how the believer uses or exploits logistical grace provision and the exercise of his options, and the options have to do with Bible doctrine. The believer exploits logistical grace only through the perception of Bible doctrine. There is therefore no substitute for the daily perception of the Word of God. Positive believers parlay logistical grace provision into great blessing both in time and in eternity, whereas negative believers use logistical grace to make themselves miserable and to experience divine discipline in time, and loss of reward in eternity.

Jezebel had time, and the reason for that is because Jezebel of Thyatira was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and one of the provisions of logistical grace — one of the major provisions — is time. What do we all have in common right now as believers? We all are recipients of one paragraph of logistical grace: time. We are alive, our time has not run out. We are given time and this is a provision of logistical grace. We are all given time before God steps in to discipline us. Long before we are hit with divine punishment or discipline we make our own bed of misery, we make our own disaster, we are the products of our own decisions individually as well as collectively. Therefore when we make wrong decisions we pay the piper for them, and we even intensify the natural results of our wrong decisions by whimpering and crying and carrying on, without even offering the one prayer that can turn around lives, namely the rebound technique. Around the corner from every problem there is great blessing, but for the wimpy losers in Christianity, those who neglect Bible doctrine, we are the products of our own decisions, and we pay every day for our failure to take in doctrine. Doctrine is not only the key to spiritual advance and recruiting for the pivot which changes history but doctrine also is a key and daily test for your volition — the rejection of Bible doctrine on any given day, the resistance of it. Preoccupation with yourself because you are involved in hedonistic activities is another way of saying no to doctrine. Preoccupation with self is negative volition from cosmic one; antagonism toward doctrine is negative volition from cosmic two. But they combine so that you make your own life by your own decisions, and when your decisions are bad you definitely make misery for yourself constantly.

The options of grace exclude the fact that every believer is the product of his own decisions and therefore grace gives us the option to recover from our bad decisions. That includes time; God gives each one of us time. The options of grace determine whether the believer is suffering for blessing or for cursing, and the provision of time, then, is a very definite part of logistical grace. For some believers the provision of time is opportunity to form a part of the pivot and, from that, great blessing by association, whereas for other believers the provision of time is simply grace before judgment or additional opportunity for rebound recovery and re-entry into the divine dynasphere. For other believers the provision of time is for divine discipline and the inevitable administration of the sin unto death.

That brings us now to the purpose clause which is actually made up of two words: the conjunction i(na, which introduces a sub-final purpose clause. A sub-final purpose clause denotes the direction of the action of the main verb toward a given result, which result is sought or anticipated through the function of one’s free will. We can translate it “that” or “in order that.” With it we have the verb, the aorist active subjunctive of metanoew, mistranslated “repent” in the Bible. Actually, “repent” is anachronistic, it has no meaning today except to feel sorry for something that you have done, and that is not the meaning of repentance in the Bible at all. The modern connotation of repentance is emotional and there is no emotion in this word. Meta means change; noew means thinking, not change of emotion. So it is correctly translated, “in order that she might change her mind”. It becomes a technical word here for rebound. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the rebound technique in its entirety, including the decision to confess to God one’s sins. For some the constative aorist would take less then a minute; for others it might take several hours, depending how good the memory was and how long it has been. The active voice: the believer out of fellowship, known as the carnal believer, the cosmic believer, the reversionistic believer, produces the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood: a potential subjunctive implying a future reference; it is qualified by the element of contingency.

The element of contingency is, What hits you first? What makes you realise? If you are in the cosmic system and you are neglecting doctrine, you are not interested, there are two things that can cause you to change your mind. First, your bad decisions result in a tremendous amount of trouble, self-induced under the historical principle: we are the products of our own decisions. You finally get into some kind of a jamb that is so bad that you stop and think. Remember that repent means to think, to change your thinking. And you may have ignored the trouble you have produced yourself, you may have justified it, you may have blamed it on someone else. Therefore the next step is warning discipline or punishment from God. If that doesn’t do it then we move to intensive discipline. Failing that God will take you out under the sin unto death. The only reason some believers are not dead under the sin unto death is simply because they have Christian friends who haven’t passed the people test, that’s all.

Next we have the phrase, “of her fornication.” The phrase is out of place in the King James version. In the Greek text this phrase comes at the end of the sentence, and so repentance has nothing to do with fornication but it has to do with any sin or any system of evil.

Jezebel had a great deal to confess to the Lord her arrogance, her jealousy, her vindictiveness, her implacability, her gossip, her lying. She told hundreds of lies every day in the inculcation of false doctrine. We move to the connective conjunction kai, emphasising a fact as surprising, or unexpected, or noteworthy. We translate is, “nevertheless.” Then we have the present active indicative of qelw, plus the negative o)u, and we translate that, “she did not wish [or will, or purpose, or desire],” it was not her desire to rebound. She enjoyed being the head of a great phallic system. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present known as the present tense of duration. It denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. The active voice: Jezebel of Thyatira, an unknown Christian female of great talent and beauty produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a locked-in negative volition, she refused. Then we have the verb metanoew again, this time in the aorist active infinitive — “she did not wish to change her mind.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. God dealt with her through the historical trends, she was the product of her own decisions. Then He dealt with her with warning discipline. She still refused.

Then we have “fornication” finally. The preposition e)k plus the ablative of porneia, and it means “from her fornication,” the whole function of the phallic cult, the literal sin of fornication plus everything that went with it in the cult. That included mental sins, verbal sins, overt sins. They were concentrated into a system of evil. It is an idiom here, so it should be translated: “about her fornication.”

Corrected translation: “And so I gave her time in order that she might change her mind [the function of the rebound technique] nevertheless she did not wish to change her mind [rebound] about her fornication.”

This is grace before judgment. Under the provision of logistical grace this Christian female involved in the phallic cult was given extra time for rebound and recovery of her fellowship with God — the chance to get back into the divine dynasphere. But in spite of the grace provision of time she refused to rebound and therefore she must take the temporal and eternal consequences of her negative volition. We, therefore, all of us as individuals and collectively, are the products of our own decisions.

We resume with the manifestation of the historical downtrend. In verse 22 we note divine discipline the alternative to rebound. We begin by noting the discipline of cosmic leadership. Jezebel represented cosmic leadership in Thyatira where she is by far the greatest leader for evil.

We begin with the demonstrative particle i)dou, a word which is derived from the aorist middle imperative of the verb o(raw, which means to look, to see. But here it is used for a call to clear consideration, for contemplation. So we could translate it best “consider.” But that doesn’t quite get the imperative in there, so let’s try something from the Navy, “Now hear this.” This is exactly what i)dou means.

Remember a principle of historical trends. No nation can survive multicultures, but any nation can survive and will survive many religions. Why? Many religions means freedom but a client nation to God which is prosperous only has one culture that brought prosperity. Culture reflects prosperity. Culture is what you do in your spare time, it is your system of music and art, literature, drama. Culture is related to your entertainment. No nation can survive unless it has one culture.

The culture that made Rome great was Greek culture. It was a manifestation of their prosperity. Rome became a powerful nation through self-discipline, through law, the laws of divine establishment. Rome was started by the Sabines and the Etruscans and others, like eventually the Latins and the Gauls, many races. You can have many races but you cannot tolerate many cultures. And what made this country (America) great was Anglo-Saxon culture. When you go to a country you like the first thing you do is adopt their culture. Why? Because their culture is a reflection of their prosperity. You are going to that country because it is a country of freedom and prosperity. That should be the attitude. No nation ever survives the dominance of many cultures, for a nation’s greatness comes from the fact that it has one culture. You can have many religions, that’s freedom; but only one culture, and the culture must reflect in some way the laws of divine establishment.

Three things are sacred under the laws of divine establishment. Human life is sacred and therefore when you have a culture of arrogance that seeks to destroy human life to save one’s honour — aristocracy duels — you have a bad culture. Human life is sacred; property is sacred; freedom is sacred; and the three stand or fall together. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t have freedom without privacy and privacy demands property. You must have property for privacy and freedom. And when you try to divide them and say, Yes, you should do something about murder but let burglars go, then we are saying that we believe in the sacredness of human life but we don’t believe in the sacredness of property. If you don’t believe in the sacredness of property you don’t believe in the sacredness of human life.

“Now hear this.” Cults often intrude on the concept of freedom of religion. In a basic sense a cult is not a religion because a cult not only talks about God or gods but it also sets up a system of life. So apart from what you do to earn a living you have a culture. Cults encourage uniculture under the title of toleration. Basically a religion is intolerant of others because man is seeking to gain the approbation of God by his own works, his own function, by his personality. Remember that Christianity is not a religion. You can have many religions in a nation under the principle of freedom (concept of freedom of religion) but you can only have one culture and survive. When you get into multicultural aspects you are destroying the very foundations of category one truth, the laws of divine establishment.

We have the present active indicative of the verb ballw, which means to throw and it means to cast: “Now hear this, I will cast.” The futuristic present denotes and event, divine discipline, which has not yet occurred but which is regarded as so certain in thought that it may be regarded as already coming to pass. Jezebel and the cult are going to get their “comeuppance.” The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ, the prince ruler of the Church, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of divine judgment on believers involved in the cosmic system.

With this we have the accusative feminine singular direct object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, and we remember that a)utoj is used as the third person personal pronoun since the Attic third person singular word, and the plural word did not come into the Koine Greek, so a)utoj is used instead. We translate it simply “her,” “I will throw [or cast] her.” Then we have a prepositional phrase e)ij plus the accusative singular of the noun klinh, “into a bed.”

Jezebel fornicated around Thyatira as a form of religion, not just as a sin. That is a part of religion as well: parlaying the sin of fornication into the evil of fornication. But remember the principle: people are the products of their own decisions individually and collectively. Nothing horrible ever happens to us apart from our own decisions. And God doesn’t start out punishing us, we punish ourselves under the principles of category one truth. If you make bad decisions then you are going to start making your own misery. God will add to it if you do not wake up and realise that you are on the wrong track. Obviously Jezebel of Thyatira did not wake up. She was accustomed to getting into bed for fun; this is not fun any more. And when you do things that are wrong for fun eventually the fun turns to the most intense type of misery. None of us can get away with sin for pleasure.

1. Since the bed is associated with fornication and also associated with illness and disease it is used to describe the nature of Jezebel’s discipline from our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. The Jezebel of Thyatira, from her own free will, chose a bed of fornication. Therefore our Lord chose for her punishment a bed of illness and decay.

3. Promiscuity results in both total frustration and unhappiness as well as added divine discipline. The road to happiness goes through the Word of God, the divine dynasphere, not through the bedroom of Jezebel.

4. We as believers are the products of our own decisions. Likewise, Jezebel of Thyatira as a believer was the product of her own decisions.

5. She chose fornication and thereby chose for herself a life of misery, frustration, unhappiness.

6. She was seeking pleasure but she found self-induced misery and unhappiness to which God will eventually add (futuristic present) divine punishment, the bed of illness, disease, incapacitation.

7. Since God designed sex as an expression of category two love between one man and one woman He will not permit the distortion of sex into sin and evil.

8. Illicit sex offers a moment of pleasure and a lifetime of misery and unhappiness.

9. Promiscuity then is a distraction from the road of happiness, a dead end for what could otherwise be a very wonderful and happy life.

10. God who invented sex for happiness also invented happiness which can only exist inside the divine dynasphere and under God’s rules. Legitimate sex related to the divine dynasphere is an expression of human happiness, but any form of illegitimate sex inside the cosmic system guarantees misery, frustration, unhappiness, and punishment from God.

The second principle in this verse is the discipline of her cosmic followers. A lot of believers followed her into this phallic cult. Now we have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, and the corrected translation is “also.” With it we have the accusative plural direct object from the definite article touj. This is the generic use of the definite article representing that category of believers who are involved in the phallic cult, involved in the cosmic system of Satan. The definite article is used here as the immediate demonstrative pronoun and translated “those,” “Also those.” Then the present active participle of moixeuw, which means to fornicate or to commit adultery, “Also those who commit adultery.” The progressive present signifies action in a state of persistence. This isn’t one act of adultery, it is a continuing action and it is parlayed into evil because it is related to religion. The active voice: cosmic believers who are the followers of Jezebel are involved in the phallic cult of Thyatira, phallic Gnosticism. This is a circumstantial participle and it is followed by a preposition, meta plus the genitive singular of that same intensive pronoun, a)utoj, “with her.”

Then we have another prepositional phrase: e)ij plus the accusative of the adjective megaj and the noun qliyisj, and it means “into great disaster.” There are three basic kinds of historical disaster: economic depression, social degeneration, and military disaster. This one refers to social degeneration. When a large part of the population of any nation are practising and condoning fornication it is the beginning of social degeneration. It eventuates in fornication being turned into homosexuality and other degeneracies. There is a whole area of social degeneration that starts with fornication between a man and a woman and ends up with all of the distortions. By the way, social degeneration always precedes military disaster. You can’t fight a war with socially degenerate people.

Note that the female leader, and her followers made individual bad decisions. These bad decisions resulted in both self-induced misery and punishment from God. In closing out this verse we have a conditional clause in which we see the alternative to divine discipline. We begin with the conditional particle e)an plus the negative mh, which introduces the alternative to divine discipline but not the alternative to self-induced misery. The translation of the two words together is “if not,” but it is an idiom meaning “unless.”

With this we have the third person plural future active indicative of metanoew, meaning to change the mind in the technical sense of rebound, “Unless they shall change their minds.” With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative of e)rgon, and with it the genitive of a)utoj the intensive pronoun used as the personal pronoun, translated literally, “from her deeds,” but it is an idiom meaning “about her deeds.” Corrected translation: “Unless they shall change their minds [rebound] with regard to [or about] her actions.” The future tense of metanoew is a predictive future, it anticipates the alternative to divine discipline, the use of the rebound technique. The active voice: each believer must rebound for himself to recover residence in the divine dynasphere and cancel out the divine discipline. The indicative mood is potential indicative of obligation. The reality of cancelling the divine discipline and the conversion of suffering for punishment into suffering for blessing is an individual decision, an individual modus operandi.

Corrected translation of verse 22: “Now hear this. I will cast her into a bed of punishment, also those who commit adultery with her into great disaster [pressure, affliction], unless they shall change their minds [the priestly function of the rebound technique] about her actions [the phallic cult into which they had been drawn].”

Before we move on we have to note a principle which has to do with suffering. Suffering may be related to many things but there are two general categories. There is suffering for blessing and there is suffering for cursing or discipline. There is always an issue in suffering, it is not accidental. There is no such thing as accidental suffering and there is no such thing as being “innocently involved”. All suffering is either for divine discipline or for divine blessing — that is, for the believer. The issue as far as discipline is concerned is very simple: it can be sin or evil, or even human good. It is always sin, cosmic involvement, reversionism, apostasy, which is the issue of suffering for discipline. The issue as far as suffering for blessing is a very simple one: grace, a means by which God can bless you with undeserved blessing. The issue then is sin versus grace. The category involved in each one is very simple: the category for suffering for discipline is unbearable; the suffering for blessing is bearable, you derive blessing from the adversity. In each case there is a concept from the dynasphere involved. For example, if you are suffering from divine discipline it is always accompanied by arrogance. Arrogance intensifies everything that is negative and bad in this life, for arrogance takes the most objective person in the world and makes him subjective. You cannot approach life from the standpoint of subjectivity without making yourself miserable and, of course, everyone around you. Remember also: there is no solution to subjectivity as long as you are in that status, even if you are counselled until doomsday! On the other hand suffering for blessing is accompanied by humility. Humility always brings objectivity, they go hand in hand. You cannot begin to see any purpose or meaning to your life without humility.

Suffering for discipline and suffering for blessing each has a solution related to it. If you are suffering for divine discipline the solution is rebound, a change of mind. The solution for suffering for blessing is the three stages of the faith-rest drill with emphasis on the rationales. The objective is for all suffering to be turned to blessing but in order for suffering to be turned to blessing a number of decisions have to be made, rebound for example, or the function of the faith-rest drill, the application of doctrine.

Verse 23, divine punishment and historical trends. We start out with the connective use of the conjunction kai, which adds something to the concept. We simply translate it “furthermore.” Kai introduces the result from making wrong decisions regarding the cosmic system and the phallic cult. With this we have the future active indicative of the verb a)pokteinw, used here for the administration of the sin unto death for cosmic believers. For believers who live their lives in the divine dynasphere there is nothing but blessing and spiritual growth, both in time and eternity, but for the believer who lives in the cosmic system there is self-induced misery from wrong decisions, followed by warning discipline, followed by the intensification of divine punishment, and eventuating with maximum divine punishment for the believer, the sin unto death. The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates the administration of the sin unto death for the cosmic believer who does not rebound or “repent.” The active voice: Jesus Christ, the prince ruler of the Church, the judge of the royal family, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the doctrine of Christian capital punishment, not for crime as such but something worse than crime: a believer living under the control of Satan in the cosmic system. The sin unto death is defined as maximum divine discipline from the justice of God resulting in a very painful physical death for the culprit. Since the sin terminating unto death is living inside the cosmic system it is not a specific sin, it is a series of sins. It includes therefore carnality. It is a series of evil functions, motivating evil as well as functional evil. Maximum punishment administered through the sin unto death does not imply that the believer, however, will be miserable before the Rapture. In heaven he will have great interim happiness.

The sin unto death is rejection also of establishment truth. The sin unto death means that the believer has rejected several categories of doctrine: category #1, the laws of divine establishment; category #2, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; category #3, Bible doctrine for the believer. Category #2 is not an issue here, the person has already accepted Christ as saviour and he can renounce Christ and still not lose his salvation. But he rejects doctrine and this always moves into the laws of divine establishment. Remember that in the laws of divine establishment three things are sacred: life, with the exception of criminals and the concept of capital punishment, plus the concept of enemy in warfare; property, which is just as sacred as life, they must go together; freedom is sacred. These three stand or fall together. If property is rejected as sacred then freedom to hold property, to gain, to own, to make profit, is gone. And eventually this applies to life, which will belong to the state if you have no freedom and you have no property. All systems of crime violate these three principles. So it is not surprising that in passages like Jeremiah 9:13-16 we see people dying the sin unto death simply because as believers they have rejected establishment truth.

It says here in verse 23 that He is going to kill the converts to the phallic cult who are believers. “Furthermore I will execute [kill, put to death].” And then we have the accusative plural direct object from teknon, and while it is ordinarily translated “children,” a child in relationship to father and mother or descendants, it also means “students” because of the authority principle. We will translate “her followers.” “Furthermore I will put to death her followers,” i.e. believers who have become involved in the cosmic system, and with her. Next we have how they are going to be dealt with, a prepositional phrase e)n plus the instrumental of qanatoj, and it is translated “by means of death.” Dying horribly and miserably is the means of removing from this life those believers who are perpetual losers and failures through involvement in the cosmic system. This is capital punishment for cosmic believers. There is no place in the plan of God for residence and function in the cosmic system, especially as God has provided in rebound a way to recover. The believer enters the cosmic system through sin. He remains through failure to use the logistical grace provision of the rebound technique. And because of logistical grace provision there is no excuse for any believer spending much time in the cosmic system. It is simply a matter of good decisions versus bad decisions. Every believer is the product of his own decisions and every believer must take the responsibility for his daily decisions in life in phase two of the plan of God.

The verse then goes on to explain why capital punishment is necessary in Christian circles. God provides capital punishment. God is perfect; His decisions are perfect. Capital punishment is provided under the laws of divine establishment for criminals who have been convicted in a court of law. But God Himself is judge and God Himself removes from this life certain believers under the same principle of capital punishment. We continue with the connective use of the conjunction kai, translated here “And so.” It introduces a result from what precedes. With this we have the nominative plural subject composed of three Greek words. First we have the nominative plural from the adjective paj, and then we have a definite article a(i, and with it the nominative plural from the noun e)kklhsia, “And so all the churches.” A church is just another way of describing a believer, just like battalion is another way of describing a soldier. And so all the churches, all the believers, all the battalions, emphasising the fact that the local church is a class room for the perception of Bible doctrine and that perception of doctrine is the basis for blessing in the client nation as well as future reward and decoration for glorifying the Lord. The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates the results of cosmic believers dying the sin unto death — cognisance and the inculcation of the power and the integrity of God.

“shall know” is the future middle indicative of ginwskw, meaning to know. Never let your ambition, your goals, your lifetime desires separate you from the plan of God. If you do you will not only have self-induced misery but in addition to that there will be punishment from God. The predictive future anticipates the results of cosmic believers being executed under the principle of capital punishment — executed by God, dying horribly and miserably. Cognisance and inculcation of the power and the integrity of God results. The middle voice is the indirect middle, it emphasises the agent, believers gathered up into their battalions, local churches, as producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of inculcation from the administration of the sin unto death to cosmic believers, to losers. With this we have the conjunction o(ti, used after verbs of cognisance to give us the content. It is translated here “that,” “And all the churches will know that.”

What will they know? First of all we have the content, the nominative subject from the personal pronoun e)gw, which refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as eternal God, the evaluator of every believer in the royal family in this dispensation. It is correctly translated “I,” referring to the Lord Jesus Christ who commands all the churches, all the battalions, who is the prince ruler of the Church and in charge of both blessing and punishment. Your decisions will determine whether to you our Lord administers blessing or whether He administers punishment.

Then we have the present active indicative of e)imi, the verb to be. It is correctly translated “so all the churches will know that I am,” static present tense for the fact that the deity and essence of our Lord Jesus Christ is infinite and eternal, and that as the God-Man and having the third royal patent plus His deity He is in charge. Next we have the active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the reality of His hypostatic union, the reality of two sources of authority from one person: authority from the fact that He is eternal God, the creator and the sustainer of the universe; authority from the fact that in His humanity He achieved the highest thing that any member of the human race can do as the morning star.

“am he who,” the next phrase is quoted from four passages in the Old Testament: Jeremiah 11:20, “But, O Lord of the armies.” It was Jesus Christ who put a wall around Israel as the Lord of the armies; “who judges righteously,” divine integrity, “who tests the kidneys [emotions] and the heart [right lobe].”

17:10, “I, the Lord, search the heart [right lobe], I test the kidneys [emotions], even to give every man according to his modus operandi” — the Lord judges from the facts. The facts are what you think and how you emote in your soul. So our Lord never makes a mistake in executing any Christian under the sin unto death, or in administering punishment of any kind.

Psalm 7:9, “O let the evil of the reversionist [cosmic believer] come to an end, but establish the righteous [mature believer]; for the righteous God tests the hearts [right lobes] and the kidneys [emotions].”

Psalm 26:2, “Examine me, O Lord, and test me; test my kidneys [emotions] and my heart [right lobe].”

Now for the quotation in the Greek. It starts out with an articular present active participle from the verb e)raunaw, and it means to investigate: “I am he who investigates.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun, referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. The retroactive progressive present tense denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. Our Lord is constantly evaluating every living believer on the face of the earth. He tests the right lobe, what we think; He tests the kidneys, the emotions, which either respond or control the soul. If they control it is a sign of being a cosmic believer. The active voice: Jesus Christ is eternal God. He produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, the present tense can also be a customary present tense to denote what habitually occurs, the evaluation by our Lord Jesus Christ. In this usage the temporal element is remote since the act or state is assumed to be true in the past, the future or the present. Furthermore the action of the present participle is coterminous with the action of the main verb which is “I will give.”

Translation so far: “Furthermore, I will execute her followers by means of death; and so all the churches will know that I am he who investigates …”

Now we need an object. We have a dual direct object. First, the accusative plural direct object from nefroj, which means kidneys. The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the noun, and it is translated with the definite article, “the emotions.” The emotion responds to both life in the divine dynasphere and the perception of doctrine in the divine dynasphere. Psalm 16:7, “I will praise the Lord who has counselled me, even at night my emotions correct me [instruct me, punish me, exhort me, train me]”. We are trained by our emotions. Happiness from life in the divine dynasphere or unhappiness from life in the cosmic system are reflected in each one of us emotionally.

So the emotion and the cosmic involvement becomes a major issue. For example the believer who lives in the cosmic system is negative toward doctrine. The believer’s emotion reacts to lack of Bible doctrine in the soul plus failure to live in the divine dynasphere. Remember that emotion is a responder to what exists in the frontal lobe. Emotion can respond to doctrine or emotion can react to doctrine. Emotion cannot think, cannot reason, cannot learn. In fact emotion without thought is always, inevitably arrogance. Emotion responds to thought but cannot replace thought. Inside the divine dynasphere emotion responds to thought; inside the cosmic system emotion dominates or replaces thought. Therefore divine discipline and punishment of believers is related to the emotions of the soul. The destruction of the emotions of the soul demands that the justice of God execute such a believer by means of the sin unto death. This destruction of the emotions results from the believer residing and functioning in the cosmic system. For the believer living in the divine dynasphere the emotions function normally in great happiness and capacity for life is wonderful, but emotions are a sign in the cosmic system of your own cosmic failures. There is terrible pain emotionally in the soul for the believer living in the cosmic system. For the believer living in the cosmic system his emotions have great capacity for misery, unhappiness, frustration; it even explains some forms of depression. The believers emotions cannot function normally in the cosmic system.

Therefore these emotions are constantly investigated by God for the purpose of providing happiness and blessing, or investigated for the purpose of providing punishment and even death.

“and so all the churches will know that I am he who investigates the reins [kidneys, emotions].” The Greek word for reins is the word nefroj, and it means kidneys. Actually it refers to the Hebrew kiljah. The kidneys are used in the Bible for emotions, just as the heart is used for the right lobe where we do our thinking. The adrenal glands secrete many hormones, one of which is adrenaline, the emotional hormone of fright, flight and fight. The secretion of the adrenaline accomplishes four things which are related to the principle of emotions: increased pulse rate, cardiac blood output, increased blood to the muscles and increased glucose. The reins or kidneys are comparable then to the right man, right woman analogy. The right man of the soul is the frontal lobe where we do our thinking and the right woman is the emotion which responds to what we think. Since the reins or the kidneys refer to the adrenal glands where the emotional hormone of fear is secreted, it is so linked with fear in Job 16:13; 19:27. And for the believer living inside the divine dynasphere perception of Bible doctrine, the function of the other gates, is related to the various degrees of happiness and emotions respond to happiness as well as other things.

We have the left and right rein and we have an analogy there as well. The left rein is the function of the believer’s royal priesthood in responding emotionally to God. It is a part of worship. The right rein is the function of the believer’s royal ambassadorship and responses emotionally to people and situations. Emotions work in both directions — toward God and toward people, and situations. In other words, the left rein is the capacity for spiritual life in responding to Bible doctrine which is perceived at gate four, while the right rein is capacity for temporal life in applying doctrine. Happiness from life in the divine dynasphere or unhappiness from life in the cosmic system are reflected in the emotions as well as in the thinking.

2 Corinthians 6:11,12, “hindered by your own emotions.” People react emotionally to doctrine, to the communication of doctrine or the communicator, person or content. That is because people live by their emotions rather than by thinking. You cannot react emotionally and be objective in life. Emotional reaction also goes with drugs, and people who are searching for happiness in the wrong direction. Emotions are designed to respond to the right lobe, they are not designed to run the soul. People whose emotions are out of control are miserable, unhappy people and will never change.

Romans 16:17,18, “for such believers do not obey our Lord Jesus Christ [they do not live in the divine dynasphere], but they obey their emotions, serving themselves; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the right lobes of the stupid [the cosmic believer].”

Philippians 3:18,19, “For many [cosmic believers] keep walking [in the cosmic system] concerning whom I have communicated to you many times and now continue communicating, even though weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ” — believers living in cosmic one with its twenty-six gates of interlocking systems of arrogance, or cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred, are the enemies of the cross. They are so involved as believers in Satan’s program that they become the enemies of the cross. Emotional revolt of the soul is a part of this. In cosmic one they are grieving the Holy Spirit, in cosmic two they are quenching the Holy Spirit — “whose termination is destruction [the sin unto death], whose god is his emotions, whose fame is by means of his dishonour and who keeps thinking about earthly things [the propaganda of the cosmic system].”

That brings us to the second part of the direct object, and we have next the accusative plural of the noun kardia. And just as nefroj means kidney kardia is translated heart. The corrected translation: “Furthermore I will execute her followers by means of death; and so all the churches will know that I am he who investigates the emotions and the right lobe.”

Let’s stop and take a look again at the heart. We have two Greek words here. The first one we have noted is nefroj, the second is kardia. They both have physiological connotations and the physiology of the kidneys, as we have already seen, has spiritual illustration of emotion. Emotion is a definite part of the soul. It can be good or bad, depending on the status quo of the believer. Kardia also in its physiological function has analogy to thought, for the thinking of the soul is done primarily with the right lobe — the true thinking that leads to wisdom. So emotion and thinking are a part of the soul. Therefore they are used throughout the scripture because of the analogy. For example, in the Bible the word “heart” is never used for the physiological heart, the heart is always used as a part of the soul, as the most important of the real “you.”

In the Bible the word “heart” is only used for thinking; the Bible never uses “heart” for emotion. The mentality of the soul is divided into two lobes. The left lobe is called the nouj, and the right lobe is called kardia. The nouj produces a type of thinking called gnwsij, a limited type of thinking, whereas the heart or the kardia produces a tremendous type of thinking called e)pignwsij. Gnwsisj and e)pignwsij are both functions in the soul for the unbeliever as well as the believer. We are only going to study them in relationship to the believer. The heart or kardia is the dominant lobe designed by God to dominate the soul. Therefore the heart in the Bible is the organ of thinking. For example, 1 Samuel 16:7, “But the Lord said to Samuel,” when Samuel was trying to anoint a son of Jesse, “Do not look at his outward appearance because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks [evaluates] on the basis of outward appearance, but the Lord [looks on the heart] evaluates on the basis of thought in the soul.” The Lord’s evaluation of you is what you think, not how you look. The heart is used in the Bible for the place of thinking, the place of processing thought, the location of vocabulary and categories with which to think. Therefore the heart is the thinking function in the Bible.

Proverbs 19:2 tells us that we have two lobes. We also have a response to those two lobes — emotion. Emotion responds to thought in the normal soul; emotion dominates thought in the abnormal soul. One of the basic differences between normality and abnormality is the place of your emotion. If emotion dominates thinking then you are abnormal, temporarily or permanently. If thinking dominates emotion so that emotion responds to thinking, then you are normal.

We also have volition of the soul. Man is the product of his own decisions, and decisions make environment, not environment decisions. Those who use their volition to crack the maturity barrier and have maximum historical impact are going to have a phenomenal series of things in eternity that will make them as superior to the average Christian in a resurrection body as the archangel is superior to the ordinary angel. There is not even equality among angelic creatures because both angelic creatures and human beings have free will. We are always the products of our own decisions, individually and collectively.

The frame of reference is the antechamber for Bible doctrine. Proverbs 4:4 — “Then he taught me and said to me, Let your heart hold fast my words.” Learning is the heart holding fast words. The memory centre is the second part of the heart. Things do not often go from the antechamber to the memory centre — until you have heard it anywhere from five to five hundred times. Then you file it and you can keep it and use it, you remember and identify with it. Memory centre circulates doctrine into various parts of the right lobe and heart. The heart circulates blood; memory centre circulates doctrine.

Lamentations 3:20, 24, “Surely my soul remembers,” notice, the soul remembers, “and is humbled within me. “This [doctrine] I recall to mind,” there is the memory centre working, “therefore I have confidence.” And what does the person here involved recall? Logistical grace. “The Lord’s grace support never ceases, his grace expressions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, [the Lord is the source of logistical grace] therefore I have confidence in him”.

Psalm 119:16, “I shall delight in doctrinal principles; I shall not forget your word.”

Psalm 119:109, “My life is in continual danger, yet I do not forget your doctrinal categories”

The third part of the heart is the vocabulary storage. In other words, every doctrine you learn has some technical words related to it. For example, the hypostatic union. In any technical field there are technical words that have to be learned on which the concepts of that science are constructed.

And then there is categorical doctrinal storage which is the basis for classification of doctrine. The heart or the right lobe is the storage or the residence for Bible doctrine in the soul by which there is a maximum adjustment to the plan of God.

Proverbs 2:2, “Make your ear attentive to wisdom,” concentrate on doctrinal teaching, in other words — “Incline your heart to understanding.” Concentration requires not only the function of the heart [right lobe] but the function of the volition toward the subject.

Proverbs 3:3, “Do not let grace and truth [doctrine] leave you; bind them around your neck,” make notes, “write them in the tablet of your heart.”

Proverbs 15:14,15, “The mind of the intelligent seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on folly. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but a good heart [perception of doctrine daily] has a continual feast.”

Proverbs 18:15, “The heart [right lobe] of the wise acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.”

The heart also contains suneidhsij, which means conscience. The conscience extrapolates from doctrine norms and standards for life. It is a separate compartment of the heart. It is so used in Romans 2:15;9:1; 13:5; 1 Corinthians 8:7; 2 Corinthians 4:2;5:11; Titus 1:15; Hebrews 9:14.

Finally there is the launching pad, the place of application of doctrine to experience, the place of applying doctrine to the momentum tests for accelerated advance to maturity.

On the other hand the right lobe can be a place of failure as far as the Lord is concerned. The thinking of the reversionist is mentioned in Psalm 10:6, “He [the reversionist] says in his heart, “I shall not be moved; Throughout all generations I shall not be in adversity,” stubbornness, stupidity. Verse 11, “He [the reversionist] says in his heart, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”

Verse 13, “Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said in his heart, You will not punish me. “

Rationalising maladjustment is one of the functions of the heart. Isaiah 47:10, “And you felt secure in your evil and said, ‘No one sees me,’ Your evil wisdom and knowledge have deluded you; for you have said in your heart [right lobe], “I am, and there is no one beside me.”. That is locked in arrogance.

Thinking arrogance is always related to the heart. Luke 9:46,47, “Now a controversy entered in among the disciples as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing that they were reasoning in their heart, took a child.” And then He used the child as an illustration.

Luke 2:19, “Mary treasured up all of these things, pondering them in her heart.”

There are various facets to heart function. Proverbs 5:12-14, “How I have hated instruction! And my heart spurned reproof! And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to my instructors! I was almost in utter ruin in the middle of the assembly and congregation.” Nothing will ruin a person faster than the malfunction of the heart — rejection of truth.

Proverbs 6:14, “Who by perversity in his heart devises evil continuously, he is the one who spreads strife.” Verse 18, “The heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil.”

Verse 23b, “and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.” We start out with the connective kai, “and,” followed by the future active indicative of the verb didomi, which means to give, and here it will be translated “administer.” The predictive future tense anticipates the administration of divine discipline to cosmic believers who fail to rebound and recover residence in the divine dynasphere. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the of divine discipline of the cosmic believer. It is followed by the dative indirect object of the adjective and substantive e(kastoj, and it means “each one,” plus the dative plural of disadvantage from the pronoun su, “each one of you.”

We have noted how Jesus Christ controls history and we noticed that He does not interfere with free will or volition. We have also noted that when things reach a certain point, when the human race would be in jeopardy, then at that point our Lord Jesus Christ interferes and we have the administration of the cycles of discipline. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and one who is consistent in the perception of doctrine you ought to begin to recognise certain signs, certain characteristics, certain categories, not only historically but individually. For example, historically you ought to be able to recognise that there are three categories of historical disaster. There are no tragedies in history, only disasters. The reason there are no tragedies in history is that we are the products of our own decisions. If we were not the products of our own decisions then there would be tragedies. Tragedy belongs to drama. Good decisions open options for greater decisions, bad decisions destroy the options.

The uniform of glory which is worn over the resurrection body has a counterpart in time, the uniform of honour. The uniform of honour belongs to the believer who resides and functions inside the divine dynasphere. There are certain characteristics of the uniform of honour. The person who has it lives by virtue: motivating virtue directed toward God, the function of his ambassadorship; functional virtue directed toward man and circumstances, which would be the function of his royal priesthood. The uniform of honour is going to be parlayed into the uniform of glory in eternity. Those who wear the uniform of honour, a modus operandi of the soul, in time, are going to have a “new name written,” and that is the knighthood. They are going to have the privilege in eternity of functioning at the gazebo in the garden, the tree of life in the Paradise of God. The uniform of glory in eternity and the decoration which goes with it, the order of the morning star, means that there will be a presentation in the court of heaven for a few believers out of every generation, those who make the pivot, those who advance to maturity, those who function inside the divine dynasphere. After the Rapture of the Church there is a special court presentation. At the second advent of Christ those who wear the order of the morning star are going to be presented to the population of the world. In the Church Age these believers advanced to maturity between the time of salvation and departure from this life. God under logistical grace provides the believer a certain amount of time on this earth. That time is terminated either by death or resurrection, whichever occurs first. During that time on earth the believer is sustained logistically so that he can receive this decoration in heaven. Those who parlay logistical grace into supergrace are the believers who are going to receive the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory that goes with it, and all of the privileges pertaining thereto. The during the time of the Tribulation on earth there is a special court presentation for the VIPs of the Church Age. The only way to get into this presentation is to wear the uniform of glory and be decorated with the order of the morning star.

But that is only a part of the story, because generally speaking the person who is making the great contribution to history is the believer who advances to maturity. As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God, and the believer living in the divine dynasphere contributes to the uptrend of the client nation, and the believer living in the cosmic system contributes to the downtrend of history. It is the historical impact of the unknown factor, the unknown factor being as goes the believer so goes the historical trends of any given generation. So at the second advent there will be a presentation to the entire population of the world of every person who has the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory. And the believer wears this decoration also at the wedding supper of the Lamb, at the coronation. The authority of this particular decoration is phenomenal because for one thousand years of perfect environment on the earth, the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, the person who wears the uniform of glory, the same uniform that our Lord presented at the mount of transfiguration even before He had a resurrection body, will rule nations and act as judges of the world. And then in eternity some unique privileges belong to the believer who wears the order of the morning star.

You are going to begin to recognise in your own life what it means to wear the uniform of honour which is parlayed into the uniform of glory in eternity. You will be able to recognise through the honour code, through the various categories of virtue, and when you recognise these in your own life: the motivating virtue of personal love for God, the functional virtue of impersonal love for man, the motivating virtue of confidence toward God, the functional virtue of courage directed toward man and circumstances. You will be able to recognise the signs in your own life.

But there are certain signs you ought to begin to recognise in client the nation, signs which are very similar to the signs which occurred in client nation SPQR in certain stages of its history. For example, the three categories of historical disaster: economic depression, social degeneration, military defeat. They are interrelated and they are also related to rejection of the three basic categories of category one truth, the laws of divine establishment. Three things are sacred under the laws of divine establishment. One is individual freedom. You cannot have that individual freedom of course without privacy, which is a part of the concept. And there must be law to establish that privacy. Secondly, there is the sacredness of property. In a society where property is not sacred you have a decline of that society. Property includes not only land but anything that you can earn through the normal functions of business in life, anything you can accumulate. The third is human life. These three are absolutely sacred according to the Word of God and they are the basis for the modus operandi of the angelic conflict. Economic depression is an attack upon freedom. Men are not free to go out and use their money under the principle of capitalism and form a country or organisation or business, to invest. Military defeat is inevitable if you have social degeneration. You cannot fight a war with social degenerates.

The major factor with all of these things is, What does the believer do spiritually? The major factor in history has always been, since the beginning of the times of the Gentiles in August of AD 70, the spiritual life of the believer. Negative volition toward doctrine means historical downtrend; positive volition toward doctrine means historical uptrend. A maximum number of believers in a spin-off from the pivot then you go through the cycles of discipline and the downtrend.

“and I will give to each one of you” — “each one” refers to the principle that we are the products of our own decisions, individually and collectively. If individually we are negative toward doctrine and live in the cosmic system, and there are enough of us who make that decision, it is inevitable that our country will go through a period of terrible historical disaster just as occurred at the end of the Antonine Caesars. In AD 96 when John on the Isle of Patmos wrote the book of Revelation as the textbook of history from then until the end of time, once he completed the last “Amen” of chapter 22 the Roman emperor who put him there died. Then along came Nirva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pious, Marcus Aurelius, from 96 to 180 AD. During that time there was a maximum pivot from the seven churches in chapters two and three so that this is one of the greatest periods in all of history. Then from 180-192 AD was the decade of disaster.

The issue in recovery from a downtrend is, What do you do? What is your attitude as a believer? You are the key.

Next we have a prepositional phrase, kata plus the accusative plural from the noun e)rgon. E)rgon means deeds, actions, accomplishments. It is a reference to actions inside the cosmic system. Translation: “according to your activities,” believers living in cosmic one and cosmic two, the system by which Satan administers the rulership of the world.

Translation of verse 23: “Furthermore I will execute her followers [believers in the cosmic system] by means of death; and so all the churches will know that I am he who investigates the emotions and the right lobe: and I will administer punishment to each one of you [cosmic believers] according to your activities [inside the cosmic system].”

So the noun e)rgon, translated here “activities,” refers to the entire function of human good, sin, and motivational and functional evil inside the cosmic system. Based on complete facts in every case there is a tremendous amount of divine discipline and punishment administered to cosmic believers, falling into two categories: that which we bring on ourselves and that which God administers. The ultimate punishment is mentioned in this context as the sin unto death which does not cancel salvation but guarantees no rewards or decorations in eternity. This verse is dealing with the cosmic or carnal believer only, the believer in various stages of reversionism.

The degeneracy related to Jezebel of Thyatira and the revival of the Phoenician-Canaanite phallic cult is the basis for many warnings in the Old Testament, so much so that we can understand why this famous woman who had beauty and brains in one person is called Jezebel in our context. Deuteronomy 23:17,18 gives us a clue as to the meaning of Jezebel: “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute [religious prostitute, priestess], nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute [men who acted as priests in this function]. You shall not bring the hire of a temple prostitute or the wages of a dog [male prostitute involved in homosexual activity] into the house of the Lord your God for any votive offering [used to fulfil a vow], for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.”

1 Kings 14:22-24, “And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord … For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim [the naked female statue used in the phallic cult] on every high hill and beneath every beautiful tree. And there were also male cult prostitutes in the land.”

The children and female virginity were always sacrificed to the phallic cult, plus homosexual acts among the males. Women sacrificed their virginity at the shrines of Ashtarte, and they did so in the belief that this propitiated the goddess of love — called Ashtarte, Aphrodite, Venus, Ishtar, depending on the language — and the goddess would then give them blessing and good fortune in life, and give them a wonderful husband. So the licentious rites were motivated by the desire to have a wonderful life. They were always accompanied by the worship of the reproductive sexual organs, whether it was the worship of Ishtar in Babylon or Aphrodite in Greece or Venus in Rome or Ashtarte in Phoenicia and Palestine. It was always the same function. The woman would have to go and sit in the temple and wait for someone to go and throw some money at her feet. With this stranger she would have to have sex, no matter who he was. The symbol of the phallus was a part of the worship for it expressed to their decadent minds that through submission in sexual intercourse with a male or a female prostitute of the temple all the citizens communicated to the power of God. Sexuality was the mystery copulation of living for one moment, the moment of sex, and that moment was contact with God. It was a moment of forgetting the past and forgetting the future. The sexual act was an act of concentration in devil worship. So we are not talking about normal fornication, we are talking about religious fornication. Religious fornication actually brought in a concept of God, that during the sexual act in the concentration of pleasure you are actually having contact with God in some mysterious way. So sexuality was the mystery copulation of living for that moment of sex which was contact with God. The sexual act, then, became under the phallic cult an act of worship and therefore was justified by those involved as contact with God through the reproductive organs.

All of this is pertinent to what we have been studying concerning Jezebel of Thyatira. This is all done by believers and this is a part of their cosmic involvement. By involvement in cosmic one they became preoccupied with self, by involvement in cosmic two they became antagonistic toward the Word of God and Bible doctrine. As they did so, gradually their concepts of God changed and as their concepts of God changed long came the evangelist. The evangelist was the person who sold them on the phallic cult. Evangelism was very successful under this system and is still successful today. We have licentious Gnosticism in a rather crude form as illustrated by the Jones cult. It is a major distraction to historical uptrend because it contributes to social degeneration and no nation can survive social degeneration, combining religion and sex into a cult degeneration.

Verse 24, We begin with the post positive conjunctive particle de, which sets up a contrast between believers living in the cosmic system which we have just studied in verses 20-23 and believers living in the divine dynasphere which we will be noting from now on to the end of the chapter. The divine dynasphere is God’s plan for the royal family of God in this dispensation. Living in the divine dynasphere is the basis for glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, bringing historical blessing to the client nation. When too many believers live in the cosmic system then there is a historical downtrend — living in cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance or cosmic two with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred.

We now have a contrast. The first word is translated “but,” the conjunction de setting up a contrast between believers of verses 20-23 living in the cosmic system and believers beginning in verse 24 living in the divine dynasphere, the place of solution. Next we have the present active indicative of the verb legw, which means “I say” — “But I say.” The aoristic present tense is for punctiliar action in present time. The aoristic present sets forth an event as now occurring. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through His messenger, the apostle John, who is the non-resident pastor of the local church in Thyatira. You ask the question: Which is the most advantageous, to have face to face teaching or non-face to face teaching? The answer is very simple: whatever is available. It has to be doctrinal teaching. Having a face to face pastor is no good if the pastor isn’t teaching doctrine. The whole purpose for assembling in the local church is for the royal family to learn doctrine. Everything depends on it whether it is worship or production or any other factor related to the Christian way of life. There is no momentum apart from perception of doctrine; there is no capacity for happiness, capacity for love, capacity for blessing, apart from perception of doctrine. Perception of doctrine is the whole story; it is the issue and everything else revolves around it; it is the hub on which the wheel turns.

For those in Thyatira there was no pastor teaching doctrine and therefore they received doctrinal teaching through the apostle John. They didn’t have the advantage of modern technology which we enjoy today and therefore John would have to send letters to the local church in Thyatira. In that way they would receive their doctrinal lesson. In some generations there is an abundance of pastors for teaching doctrine and a general state of prosperity. However, in other generations there is a lack of pastors and a general state of historical disaster. The issue is not which is the most advantageous but what form of Bible teaching is available to match your positive volition.

Principle: Positive volition demands Bible teaching. Therefore believers with positive volition must be particular. The issue is not which is most advantageous, face to face or non face to face, it is a matter of what is available.

The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of doctrinal communication from the Lord Jesus Christ through a non-resident pastor. With this we have the dative plural indirect object from the personal pronoun su, translated “you,” “But I say to you.” The dative of indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest the communication of doctrine is given. Therefore there is a the dative of advantage whether you are getting it face to face or non face to face. The people of Thyatira to whom this is addressed were getting it non-face to face; it came to them in written form, yet it was to their advantage to have it that way. Please note: Here was a congregation with a non-resident pastor and yet it is to their advantage to have a non-resident pastor because the non-resident pastor is the apostle John and he is orthodox and biblically accurate, he is teaching Bible doctrine.

Next we have a dative plural of advantage from the second definite article toij, and it is used as an immediate demonstrative pronoun referring or calling special attention to those believers who reside and function inside of the divine dynasphere, with emphasis on those mature believers who have reached gate eight of the divine dynasphere by passing all of the momentum tests, by persistence in the perception of Bible doctrine. This second definite article toij is translated “those,” “But I say to you, those.”

Then we have the word loipoj, which goes with the first definite article. It is translated “others,” “to the others.” So far: “But I say to you, the others,” believers living in the divine dynasphere, believers who are in contrast to the Christians of Thyatira who are living in the cosmic system. Then to make sure we know that this is a local problem all the way, e)n plus the locative plural of Quratira, “in Thyatira.” “But I say to you, the others [believers living in the divine dynasphere], those of you who are in Thyatira.”

Principle: In Pergamum we noted that believers were advancing to maturity right under the nose of Satan where Satan’s headquarters is. Now in Thyatira we note that believers were advancing to maturity in spite of the distraction of the phallic cult. This advance to maturity in areas of special pressure and distraction is because of the grace provision of the divine dynasphere, whether it is Houston, Texas in the twentieth century or whether it is Thyatira in the first and second centuries. It makes no difference whether you live in a large city with many pressures or live in a quiet out-of-the-way place where pressures are relatively small and practically non-existent. You can advance to maturity as easily in a pressure context as you can in a quiet, pleasant country area. Without the divine dynasphere and its wall of fire such normal Christian living in abnormal circumstances would be impossible. The wall of fire only exists for the believer in the divine dynasphere and it works just as well in a large city as it does in a quiet rural area.

In both Pergamum and Thyatira believers were living inside the divine dynasphere, fulfilling the plan of God in spite of every possible distraction. Satan’s headquarters was in Pergamum. In Thyatira the Gnostic cult was flourishing under one of the most dynamic women of all times. Inside the divine dynasphere Bible doctrine is number one on the believer’s scale of values but involvement in the cosmic system destroys the importance of Bible doctrine and replaces it with a variety of things, including putting pleasure first. Those who put pleasure first have the least amount of pleasure in this life. The believer living inside the divine dynasphere is impervious to the charms of Jezebel and the attractions of the phallic cult. Permanent Bible doctrine in the soul is far more important than a few moments of pleasure. (Of course the person who puts doctrine first is not denied any pleasure, he just enjoys his pleasure) Furthermore, after those few moments of pleasure comes the frustration, the unhappiness, the misery, the depression, the discouragement, for making bad decisions. Good decisions related to the divine dynasphere and Bible doctrine provide options for greater decisions but bad decisions destroy those options and leave the believer in a wake of self-made disaster and misery.

Next we have a nominative plural subject from a correlative relative pronoun, o(soj, translated “as many as.” With it we have the present active indicative of the verb e)xw, plus the negative o)uk, “as many as do not adhere to.” It means “have not” literally, but it is an idiom meaning “do not adhere to” or “hold to.” The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The active voice plus the negative indicates that believers living inside the divine dynasphere do not produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of reality, namely believers living inside the divine dynasphere and learning doctrine on a daily basis do not succumb to false teaching, they are not suckers for the phallic cult or any other pressure that comes along. With this we have the accusative feminine singular from the immediate demonstrative o(utoj, part of the direct object. The immediate demonstrative gives special emphasis to a designated object, namely the false teaching of Jezebel of Thyatira. With this the rest of the direct object, the accusative feminine singular from the Greek noun didaxh, which means doctrine. Here it means false teaching, the false teaching of licentious Gnosticism. This would include both the Nicolaitanes and the Jezebelites.

Translation: “But I say to you, the others, those of you who are in Thyatira, as many as do not adhere to this false doctrine [licentious Gnosticism].”

1. The phallic cult is a part of licentious reversionism, or licentious Gnosticism, and is actually referred to in passages like 2 Corinthians 12:21; Ephesians 4:19; 5:5; 3:5; Revelation 2:14, 20-23.

2. Phallic reversionism is always related to demonism. It combines demonism with licentiousness. The link between the two is idolatry. Idolatry was therefore specifically forbidden client nation Israel when they entered the land, Exodus 20:3, 23; 23:24; Deuteronomy 4:28; 5:7; 6:14; 7:16; 8:19. No nation can survive the spread of the phallic cult, it is a part of the principle of social degeneration.

3. The fact that Israel was a client nation to God from the time of the Exodus (BC 1441-AD 70) is documented by, for example, Exodus 19:4-6, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice to keep my mandates, then you will be my own special treasure among all the peoples, the Gentiles, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation [two ways of describing a client nation to God].”

4. This explains, then, the universal priesthood of the believer in the Church Age since the function of the Gentile client nation to God depends upon the number of royal priests in that nation who attain maturity.

5. Idolatry is the subject of the first two commandments in the decalogue. Idolatry is the enemy of freedom. Wherever idolatry is practised freedom does not exist, as in India. The first commandment prohibits mental or soulish idolatry, Deuteronomy 5:6,7; the second commandment prohibits overt idolatry, Deuteronomy 5:8,10. Obviously then idolatry begins in the soul or in the mind and proceeds to an overt practice. Mental idolatry precedes overt idolatry, Judges 2:10-13; Ezekiel 14:7. Scar tissue of the soul and cosmic involvement precedes the modus operandi of idolatry. It starts with negative volition toward doctrine; it starts with residence in the cosmic system — Romans 1:18-25. For this reason idolatry is often called spiritual adultery because it is unfaithfulness to the Lord, Jeremiah 3:8-10; Ezekiel 16:23-43; 23:24-30; Revelation 17:1-15. Idolatry is also the basis for contacting demons, demon influence or demon possession. For the unbeliever this means demon possession; for the believer this means demon influence. The believer’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and he cannot be demon-possessed, but demon influence means false doctrine controlling his mind as he lives in the cosmic system; it means scar-tissue of the soul. Idolatry, then, is the basis for contacting demons, Zechariah 10;2. Idolatry is called the devil’s communion table, then, in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21. Note that the believer can only be under demon influence through false doctrine, while the unbeliever can experience actual demon possession. Idolatry also motivates the entire realm of sexual sins and therefore idolatry is related to the phallic cult, Ezekiel 22:3-18; 23:37-39.

The phallic cult includes the following functions: immorality of all kinds, Leviticus 18:3-25; demonism, either demon influence or demon possession, Leviticus 20:6; idolatry as related to the phallic cult always includes human sacrifice — Leviticus 20:1-5.

Remember this: All cults link the phallic function with demons through idolatry. In the ancient world the phallic function and the demon function always had design to lead people to some form of ecstatics where the emotion controls the soul and reason disappears completely. In the ancient world this form of ecstatics always reached its climax with human sacrifice. Today human sacrifice seems to be out so the tongues movement does the same thing. Ecstatics completely removes all the stops. The tongues movement is totally evil. Born-again believers in the tongues movement are the servants of the devil. We also have something else that comes out of the phallic cult: the rejection of establishment authority. When you get into the tongues movement today, as with the phallic cult in the past, the things that are sacred under category #1 truth — the laws of divine establishment: first of all freedom; secondly, property; thirdly, life — are all rejected. Wherever you find cults you find these things. They reject legitimate authority; the reject establishment authority — Leviticus 20:9. Also, the phallic cult has spiritual, cultural and social degeneracy, Leviticus 20:10-23. We might also conclude with the fact that idolatry with its ecstatic cultism is the origin of homosexuality, bestiality, incest, etc., Deuteronomy 12:29-31. So licentious Gnosticism and the phallic cult practised in Pergamum and Thyatira posed a serious threat to the continuation of the Roman empire as the first Gentile client nation to God. Idolatry and the practice of the phallic cult was responsible for the historical downtrend in Israel as a client nation, the basis of the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline, Isaiah 2:8, 18-20; 21:9; 36:18-20; 37:12-19; Jeremiah 3:6-11; 2:27-30; 7:17-20; 17:1-4; Ezekiel 6:4-6.

The best illustration in the ancient world mentioned in the Word of God are the Canaanites. The Canaanites became the Phoenicians when they mixed with the great sea peoples. So we will use the Phoenicians as the background for phallic cult evangelism. By the time of the Roman empire the phallic cult was carried on by this beautiful and brilliant woman called Jezebel. Why is she called Jezebel? Because Jezebel was a Phoenician who married a Jewish king who was a brilliant soldier but a jackass otherwise!

The Phoenicians, who were the evangelists of the phallic cult, are descendants from two peoples — the Canaanites and the sea peoples. The Old Testament prohibited idolatry and the practices of idolatry by the Canaanites is well documented. You might say that the Canaanites who occupied the land before Israel were landlocked as a people until they combined with Oddities.

In about 1200 BC the sea peoples invaded the near east: Anatolea, the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Palestine. The fall of the Hittite empire, the destruction of Troy, the disappearance of the Minoan civilisation, the pressure of the Dorians who forced the Maecenians to go to their ships and leave Greece, resulted in having peoples wandering. There were great migrations by sea as well as by land. Out of this came new races, new peoples. There were the Philistines, the Phoenicians, and the Greeks and the Romans also came from these same wanderings or migrations. The Phoenicians are the result of intermarrying with the Canaanites and establishing a great maritime empire which gave both an alphabet to the world and a religion to the entire area covered by the Roman empire. That includes western Turkey. In both the Bible and in Homer the Phoenicians are called Sidonians. In Africa they were called the Carthaginians. The word “Phoenician” is derived from a Greek word, Foinic. In the Greek it means crimson or purple colours, dye which was manufactured in Tyre and Sidon. The land of these people was called in the Greek Foinikh, which we translate Phoenicia. The people were called Foinikeij, which we call Phoenician. The word Canaanite in the Hebrew is kanan, and it means Canaanite or merchant, a dealer in crimson dye. In 1 Chronicles 1:13 it says: “And Canaan became the father of Sidon [Phoenicia].” The demand for purple and crimson dye, plus the great maritime free enterprise system, made the Phoenicians and Carthaginians the only empire in history without a strong federal government. For over 1000 years they were a great people and a great empire — strictly free enterprise and no federal government. They never went into debt, they always had a balanced budget. They had one of the most stable governments. The senate of Phoenicia was composed of business executives, no elections, and the senate ran the country. They were a mixed race held together by free enterprise and maritime power, plus the fact that they only had one culture.

The source of information about the Phoenician-Canaanite religion in the Bible plus one other book — The Epic of Ugarit. The chief god of the Phoenicians was El, and he is the counterfeit God the Father. He has a son — Baal, the counterfeit Son of God. Baal had a struggle with Mot, the god of death, but Mot overcame Baal and killed him. This is the Satanic counterfeit of the crucifixion of Christ. You see, they had a trinity and they had a devil called Mot. Now where things get sticky is that Baal had a sister who was also his wife. Her name was Anath. Anath found his body and she brought it back to life — counterfeit resurrection. She was the goddess of sex, murder, warfare, and love. They all go together because the sex was violent, the murder was violent, the war was violent, therefore the love was violent, as of the phallic cult. She was also the founder of the greatest criminal organisation of all times, Thugs. Anath was also called something else — Ashtarte. Baal means lord, the second person of the Phoenician trinity. he was worshipped under hyphenated titles — Baal-shamen [lord of heaven]; Baal-melquart [lord Hercules]; baal-gad [lord of good luck]; Baal-merodach [Jupiter the sun god]; Baal-hanan [lord of heat].

Dionysius, the god of wine, was another of the favourite gods. He was not discovered by the Greeks but by the people of Asia-minor and Anatolea. In Lydia Dionysius was called Bacchus, so the Romans at an early stage worshipped the god of wine. It was through the worship of Baal that the Omri dynasty of the northern kingdom of Israel — the great warrior dynasty: Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah and Jehoram — attempted to fuse the Phoenicians and the Jews into one powerful race. The Phoenicians were the greatest maritime power and the Jews were the greatest military power at that time. Ahab and his father before him, Omri, were great soldiers, the greatest generals of their day. So in order to fuse the two people Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Phoenicia, was married off to Ahab the son of king Omri. The evil of Omri is mentioned in 1 Kings 16:25,26 while the evil of Ahab is summarised in 1 Kings 16:30,31.

Our subject is the Phoenicians as evangelists of the phallic cult and why the word “Jezebel” occurs in our context. Jezebel didn’t come back to life but her facsimile was there in person and she herself was a believer who attracted many others into the phallic cult.

Idolatry begins in the soul and proceeds overtly to practice. Mental idolatry precedes overt idolatry. Scar tissue of the soul and cosmic involvement always precedes the modus operandi of idolatry, therefore idolatry is the manifestation of negative volition toward doctrine and living inside the cosmic system, as per Romans 1:18-25. For this reason idolatry is often called spiritual adultery. It is also the basis for contacting demons — demon influence or demon possession — depending on whether you are an unbeliever or a believer. If you are a believer you cannot be demon-possessed, you can only come under demon influence. The believer can only be under demon influence through false doctrine, living in the cosmic system. Idolatry also motivates the entire realm of the phallic cult, Leviticus 18:3-25; demonism, Leviticus 20:6; human sacrifice, Leviticus 20:1-5; rejection of establishment and authority, Leviticus 20:9. In Leviticus chapter 20:10-23 we have spiritual, cultural and social degeneracy from the phallic cult. Idolatry is one of the things that originates such things as homosexuality, bestiality, incest, and so on, Deuteronomy 12:29-31.

We have seen how the sea peoples combined with the Canaanites to form the Phoenicians. We took up the religion of the Phoenicians as the foundation for the phallic cult and how the Phoenicians were the evangelists for the phallic cult with religion, licentiousness, human sacrifice, demonism, and ecstatic abandonment to pleasure. The entire Baal system for the phallic cult spread to the area we are studying where names were changed by the Greek and Roman people; they changed the gods to fit into their own language. The worshippers were required to submit to violence, rape, murder, and therefore Jezebel of Thyatira brought the same system of power politics to Christianity that Jezebel of Phoenicia brought to the court of northern Israel, so that the religion of Baal was the religion of licentious Gnosticism, designed to make slaves of cosmic believers and exploit the common man. The cult led by Jezebel of Thyatira was a facsimile, then, of the Baal cult which Israel faced in the time of Elijah and thereafter. Therefore it is not surprising that in the next phrase of verse 24 we have this cult described as the deeper things of Satan. Anath, Astarte, Ashera, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Isis and Venus, are different languages for the same person, the goddess of love in the Baal cult. In both Phoenicia and Israel Anath, the wife of Baal, was depicted as a nude woman mounted on a lion with a lily in one hand and a snake in the other. The significance of this has been brought out by archaeology. The lily symbolised sex, the snake in the other hand fecundity, the lion conquest and power.

It would appear that this Jezebel cult was far worse than the Nicolaitanes which we studied in verse 15. This was a revival of the old Phoenician cult and this is why Jezebel was used for the female leader in Thyatira. The doctrine of Jezebel is the depths or the deep things of Satan. This cult has not distracted nor caused apostasy among positive believers, those who are living inside the divine dynasphere and those who are learning Bible doctrine on a daily basis.

So we pick up again with the nominative masculine plural subject of the qualitative pronoun o(stisj, and it is a qualitative relative pronoun emphasising a quality by which the preceding statement is to be confirmed. So we can translate it, “such a category who.” We are talking about mature believers, believers who are positive toward doctrine, believers who have doctrine first in their scale of values. This is followed by the aorist active indicative of the Greek verb ginwskw, and with it the negative o)uk, “such a category who have not come to know.” It means to know, to understand, and it is used for the mystery doctrine of Gnosticism, or the mystery rites of the various phallic cults that are related to it. The ingressive aorist tense is one in which the action signified by the aorist may be contemplated at it’s beginning. It denotes entrance into a state or condition. Here with the negative o)uk it denotes not entering into the state or condition. In other words, not being evangelised by the phallic cult of Thyatira. The active voice: believers living in the divine dynasphere produce the action of the verb by resisting the revival of the Baal cult in Thyatira. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. The reality is residence and function in the divine dynasphere insulating these believers against this phallic activity. We also saw last time the relationship between the modern tongues movement and the phallic cult.

The accusative neuter plural direct object follows. It is from an adjective, baquj, which means deep things or deep secrets, a reference to doctrine related to demonism and the phallic cult. The next phrase is an idiom used as an adjective to be translated either to be alleged or so-called. In this idiom we have two words: a relative adverb o(j, and the verb legw. Ordinarily it would be translated “as speaking,” but here it is an idiom meaning “alleged.” So we translate it, “alleged deep secrets,” a phrase used as an adjective. With this we have the possessive genitive from the proper noun for Satan, and it is correctly translated, “of Satan.”

Translation: “But I say to you, the others [believers living inside the divine dynasphere], those of you who are in Thyatira, as many as do not adhere to this false doctrine [the revival of the Baal cult], such category of mature believers who have not come to know the alleged deep things of Satan.”

Next we have a present active of the verb ballw plus the negative o)u. It ordinarily would be translated, “I will not cast” or “I will not throw,” but here it simply means “I place no.” The idea is conceived as independent of any particular verbal relationship, and so with it we have a nominative neuter singular of an adjective a)lloj, plus the nominative masculine singular baroj, meaning burden or weight. Altogether it says, “I place no other burden.” With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of su , “on you.” The present tense of ballw is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected to occur when believers live in the divine dynasphere. They face the whole problem of historical trends, they have the ability to cope and they understand the solution. They are in the field of active panaceas even though they are unknown to history. The people who make the greatest impact on history, either pro or con, are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. As goes the believer so goes the historical trend. Believers living in the divine dynasphere contribute to the uptrend of history, believers in the cosmic system contribute to the downtrend of history. The active voice: our Lord produces the action of not putting any other burden on them because they are obviously involved in the historical trend.

The entire passage says: “But I say to you, the others, those in Thyatira, as many as do not adhere to this doctrine, such a category who have not come to know the alleged deep things of Satan; on you I place no other burden..”

This anticipates the subject of the uniform of honour which we will be studying in Revelation 3:4. Those who do not adhere to this false doctrine are the mature believers who in eternity are going to wear the uniform of translucent light over their resurrection body, they have not soiled their clothes. No additional burden or mandate is given to these mature believers who live and function inside the divine dynasphere. It isn’t necessary to emphasise the negative with believers who are positive toward doctrine. In other words, believers who are positive toward doctrine do not need a lot of negative mandates, they are functioning in the positive mandates relating to residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. They actually fulfil certain doctrines we have studied. For example, the divine dynasphere and the edification complex of the soul; for example, the royal family honour code which we studied in Romans thirteen. For example, the concept of virtue we studied in 1 John chapter five, and also the functional virtue of impersonal love which we studied in that chapter.

Verse 25 then gives us the mandate to these people. They have passed the major momentum tests, they have advanced to maturity, therefore they don’t need a lot of negative hoopla. Instead, one positive statement given in this verse.

The adverb plhn which begins this is actually an adverb used as a conjunction to break off a discussion. It isn’t necessary, positive believers simply do not need the negative, mature believers especially. You don’t have to tell a positive believer, Don’t do this and Don’t do that. Just give them the positive mandate and they will carry it out. So for the mature believers who have advanced from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere the negative is unnecessary, therefore the negative is cut off by the adverb used as a conjunction and translated “Only.” Then with this the adverb conjunction goes with the aorist active imperative of the verb kratew, a positive mandate. It means to hold fast or to hang on. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist viewing the believer’s residence and function inside the divine dynasphere in its entirety, but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the momentum of going from gate four [perception and application of doctrine] to gate eight, which is maturity. This also implies passing the eight momentum tests. They have moved along, now they need simply to stand fast. The active voice: positive believers produce the action, they have produced it by advancing to maturity, passing the momentum tests. The imperative mood is a command or mandate to positive believers in Thyatira.

With this we have the accusative neuter singular direct object from the relative pronoun o(j, and as usual translated “who” or “what”; here as the accusative, “to what.” And then the present active indicative of the verb e)xw, “hold fast to what you have.” The present tense of duration denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. This includes parlaying logistical grace into maturity and utilising to the maximum the divine dynasphere. The active voice: the positive believer produces the action of the verb although all believers possess logistical grace and the divine dynasphere. But only positive believers utilise this grace provision and turn it into something absolutely fantastic in time, contributing to the historical uptrend, having great blessing and happiness individually. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the provision of logistical grace and the provision of the divine dynasphere. “Only hold on to what you have.”

Then we have one more phrase, the improper preposition a)xri plus the relative pronoun o(j, and it is translated “until which time,” it is an idiom. The genitive from the relative pronoun o(j introduces an indefinite temporal clause and “until which time” is the correct way. There is also in this idiom a small, small word made up of two letters. It is called the mobile a)n, a small particle which is very important because it denotes that the action of the verb depends on some circumstance implied in the context. The circumstance here is the Rapture of the Church. The temporal clause a)n plus the subjunctive describes an event which will occur in the future, namely the Rapture of the Church, but when it occurs cannot be assumed with certainty. In other words, this is another way of saying no one, absolutely no one, knows when the Rapture is going to occur. No one knows if they are in the Rapture generation or not. That is the importance of one Greek word, often not even translatable. In the temporal clause plus the subjunctive it is described as an event that will occur, namely the Rapture, but when it occurs cannot be assumed, says this particle. The Rapture is imminent but no one knows the day or the hour. In this idiom neither the relative pronoun o(j nor the mobile a)n are translatable, we simply take the three words together and translate them “until” because they are introducing an indefinite temporal clause. No one knows when it will happen but everyone knows it will happen sooner or later. Only the time is unknown.

Next we have the aorist active subjunctive from the verb e(kw, correctly translated “until I have come,” i.e. the Rapture of the Church. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the Rapture or the royal family resurrection in its entirety as a momentary action, an action which will be unknown by all who participate. Only God knows and that is the way it should be. We are to carry on as usual. If you are doing what is right — the will of God — you don’t have to anticipate any event which is coming up. The active voice: Jesus Christ will produce the action of the verb at the Rapture, and the subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive implying a future reference regarding the Rapture, plus the indefinite temporal connotation of the imminency of the Rapture.

Corrected translation: “Only hold on to what you have [the residence and function inside the divine dynasphere] until I come [the Rapture].”

The divine plan for the Church Age never changes. The provision of logistical grace plus function in the divine dynasphere for the royal family of God demands that we as believers keep on doing what we are doing. All the mandates of the Christian way of life are related to residence and function at the various gates of the divine dynasphere and therefore John emphasises to positive believers in Thyatira the importance of just doing what they are doing. They have already passed the test, they haven’t been caught up in the tongues movement as it existed in its phallic form in that day. They were not caught up in all that emotional nonsense. God’s plan utilises God’s power and exploits God’s grace, God’s logistical grace provision, so that God is glorified and the Gentile client nation SPQR is perpetuated. Today it would be the Gentile client nation USA is perpetuated. Luke 21:24 — The times of the Gentiles are the time in which we live, “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” The times of the Gentiles began in AD 70 and concludes at the Rapture of the Church. For all practical purposes Israel will not be a client nation again in the Tribulation but there will be no client nation in the Tribulation due to the intensifying of power politics. Instead 144,000 individual Jewish evangelists will function as a client nation.

So the same message regarding the times of the Gentiles was given by the apostle Paul in Romans 11:25, “For brethren [royal family of God] I do not wish you to be ignorant about this mystery, that you stop being wise in your own estimation,” ignorance produces arrogance, “that the hardening in part has happened to Israel until the time of the fullness of the Gentiles [the Church Age] has come in.” In other words, in every generation of the Church Age the basis for historical uptrend of prosperity will always be the same: As goes the believer so goes the client nation, and so goes the trends of history in that generation. Furthermore in every generation of the Church Age the basis for historical downtrend will always be the same. When things start to go bad historically as they appear to be doing now it is because the pivot of mature believers has shrunk. It is because believers are not fulfilling divine mandates, not executing the plan of God. Individually as believers and collectively as a client nation to God we are the products of our own decisions. Decisions create environment, not environment decisions. There are no tragedies in history, rather historical disasters based on cosmic involvement. Such disasters cannot be tragedies since both individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions. Individual subjectivity contributes to the destruction of national objectivity. This is why arrogant individuals and arrogant nations never see their own inconsistencies and failures, only the failures of others. Furthermore, since authority in life is a matter of human volition cosmic believers always use their volition to accept wrong authority and follow wrong leadership. They follow demagogues. Establishment authority in the client nation breaks down when those involved in the cosmic system use their free will to accept the authority of evil. This is how believers go from the directive will of God to the permissive will of God, by going from the divine dynasphere to the cosmic system.

If anything will give meaning and purpose to your life, if anything will give right motivation, if anything will make your life meaningful and bring happiness to you it is the next eight verses. We begin in verses 26-28 with the reward for momentum and maturity: the dynamics of historical impact. And we begin by noting that those who are unknown in history in the Church Age will be well known, they will be the famous people of the Millennium. So even though you are not in the history books now as a mature believer you will make history for the 1000 years of this dispensation. Therefore we are going to see how the invisible of the Church Age will become the visible in the Millennial reign of Christ, and you will finally come to be — if you follow through on this — single-minded in your life. Only single-minded people ever achieve maximum happiness in life. And by single-minded I mean you will understand why you are here, you will understand the purpose for being here, and you will understand that nothing is more important to your life than Bible doctrine. So we begin with the reward for momentum, maturity, the dynamics of historical impact.

The reward of Millennial authority is verse 26. “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him I will give power over the nations.” The order is a matter of encouragement. We don’t start out with the rewards. The rewards actually come at the judgment seat of Christ. That is when the mature believer receives the highest decoration, the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory, the translucent transcendent uniform of light that goes over the resurrection body. Then it is seven years later before the second advent, the coronation, the wedding supper of the Lamb, and then the Millennial reign of Christ. It is of the Millennial reign of Christ that we are talking in verse 26. In verse 28 we will go back to the decorations, and then in chapter three we will get the uniform of glory.

The King James version is its usual innocuous self! So we have to start all over with the Greek. The connective use of the conjunction kai introduces a result from what precedes. So this word kai is translated “furthermore.” With it we have the articular present active participle of the verb nikaw, which means to win. The definite article is a generic definite article describing the mature believer as a separate category from all human beings in his own generation and in all generations. When the participle is not accompanied by a noun it may function as a substantive as here. So instead of translating it like a participle we translate it like a noun: “Furthermore the winner.” Basically there are two categories of believers, winners and losers, great people and wimps. The winner is the believer who advances from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere, therefore the mature believer who has constructed the edification complex of the soul. With this we have the ascensive use of the conjunction kai, translated “even.” The articular present active participle from terew, which means to keep or to guard. The winner is now described, “even he who keeps” or “even he who guards.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun describing the believer who advances to maturity. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected to occur when the believer lives in the divine dynasphere and passes the momentum tests, and through the daily perception of doctrine goes from gate four to gate eight. The active voice: the positive believer produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial for the fulfilment of the plan of God through the daily perception of Bible doctrine. With this we have a direct object composed of three words. The first is the accusative plural from the noun e)rgon, which is generally translated “works” but has other related meanings. With this we have the accusative plural definite article used in the generic sense in describing the believer who has attained or achieved maturity. We also have a possessive genitive singular from the personal pronoun e)gw, and this makes up the direct object and is translated “my assignments” — “even he who keeps my assignments.” The assignment is the word e)rgon here. The tasks or assignments of God are the fulfilment of the plan of God inside the divine dynasphere. X+Y+Z = the assignments of God.

Then we have a prepositional phrase, “until the end,” the famous improper Attic Greek preposition which we had in the previous verse, a)xri, used as an improper preposition with the genitive singular of the noun teloj, and this is a genitive of time, we have a temporal clause again. A)xri plus teloj means “until the end” and it is a reference to the end of the believer’s life on this earth, which may mean either death or the Rapture, whichever occurs first. Phase two is terminated either by death or the Rapture of the Church and therefore the prepositional phrase refers to that part of God’s plan between salvation and physical death. “Until the end” takes you from the moment you believe in Christ until the moment that you depart from this life, either by death or resurrection, whichever occurs first.

“Furthermore the winner, even he who keeps my assignments until the end,” until the termination of God’s plan.

Then we have the principle which follows, “I am going to give that person some special authority.”

We are going to look at the subject of winners and losers. There is nothing worse than for a Christian to be a loser. Every believer who lives in the cosmic system is a loser all the way and what happens to losers in eternity shouldn’t happen to a dog with hydrophobia! Eternity and heaven is for all believers and there is no way you can lose your salvation, but there are tremendous degrees of happiness and blessing forever and ever and ever in heaven.

The name of the doctrine which is necessary for our continued study of Revelation chapters two and three is

1. Believers in time and in eternity believers are classified into two categories: winners or losers.

2. The winners are believers who live in the divine dynasphere learning Bible doctrine, passing the momentum tests, advancing to maturity, fulfilling the plan of God and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. The losers are believers who live in the cosmic system, servants of Satan, constantly under the control of their old sin nature (carnality), involved in both motivational and functional evil.

4. Losers are Christians who fail in time but they do not lose their salvation. However, Christians who are losers in time do occupy an inferior place in heaven and have no authority in the Millennium, which means no impact on history.

5. Winners are described in Revelation chapters two and three by the present active participle of the verb nikaw; it is used seven times in our context, Revelation 2:7,11, 17, 26; 3:5,12, 21.

6. In each case the participle is translated like a noun which is a legitimate grammatical use in the Greek. Therefore it is translated consistently “the winner.”

7. All historical blessing and prosperity in the Church Age results from unknown and unnamed persons who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ living in the divine dynasphere.

8. These mature believers we are going to call winners. These winners provide blessing by association and historical uptrend not recorded in any human history book of the world.

9. Therefore, these believers who are winners are unknown, anonymous, unsung heroes of history during the Church Age. They have used the hidden manna of Bible doctrine and other provisions of logistical grace to advance from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere.

The divine dynasphere is the plan of God for the Church Age — Gate one, the filling of the Spirit; Gate two, basic impersonal love; Gate three, enforced and genuine humility. Gate one is spiritual IQ; Gate two is objectivity in learning doctrine; Gate three is teachability in learning doctrine; Gate four is perception and application of doctrine (the momentum gate); Gate five, love of God; Gate six, right man, right woman where pertinent; Gate seven, friendship, advanced impersonal love; Gate eight, is spiritual maturity, the construction of the edification complex of the soul. Believers who advance to gate eight contribute to the historical uptrend of the client nation, which at the time of writing was SPQR, the Roman empire, but today is the USA. On the basis of historical trends, as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. The winner, then, is the secret to national and historical blessing in this life and in this dispensation. These Christian heroes of history are anonymous today but they will be well known at a future point in history and they will take a prominent place in the last one thousand years of human history. As the resurrection of the Church is called the Rapture it becomes a major issue because at that time they will receive what is called a white pebble, a resurrection body. They will be knighted with a new name or title and they will become the most well known of all men in history. Cracking the maturity barrier, reaching maturity as an anonymous individual as far as world history is concerned is very important because it means that although you are anonymous now in the Church Age you will be the most famous of people in the Millennium. So just as the mature believer is born twice he gets two cracks at history, and he will have the greatest and most permanent of all fame in the last one thousand years of history.

1. It is the objective, then, of this profile to present the doctrine that the anonymous believers with maximum historical impact today will be famous at a future time in history.

2. The winner will be at the Rapture of the Church; so will a lot of believers who are not winners — 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

3. The winners will participate also in the big genuflect in the sky, Philippians 2:9-11, a time when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. Losers are going to glorify God whether they want to or not.

After the big genuflect the winners and the losers are going to be separated and there will be great inequality in heaven. Notice the one thing they all have in common in Philippians 2:9-11, “Therefore also God [the Father] has exalted him [our Lord Jesus Christ] to the maximum, and has given him a name [our Lord’s title of knighthood],” the same name we will study in connection with winners. He has given Him a name, our Lord’s royal patent, which prepares the way for the new knighthood of Revelation 2:17, the new order of chivalry for the Millennium and the eternal state; “which is superior to every name, that in the presence of the person of Christ every knee of heaven shall bow,” this is right after the Rapture of the Church, the worship of the entire royal family of God. The winners and the losers will be there together; “both the ones on the earth,” the believers who are alive at the time of the Rapture; “and the ones under the earth,” the believers who died during the Church Age; “and every tongue shall acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father”. One thing is clear: winners and losers alike have the right perspective at the resurrection and thereafter. So the issue in the difference between winners and losers is not their attitude at the resurrection, it is their attitude in time — the attitude now. Winners and losers will be there, 2 Corinthians 5:10, where the winner is described as “good” because he fulfilled the plan of God [X+Y+Z]. The loser is described as “ashamed” at the judgment seat of Christ, Romans 5:5, “and hope does not make us ashamed.” It is the loser who is going to be ashamed, therefore the importance of that phrase from 2 Timothy 2:15, “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed” at the judgment seat of Christ. And what keeps him from being ashamed at the judgment seat of Christ? Rightly dividing or categorising the Word of truth. Philippians 1:20, “According to my earnest anticipation and hope that I shall not be put to shame in anything [at the judgment seat of Christ], but with all confidence, Christ shall even now, as always [from the judgment seat of Christ until eternity], be glorified in my body, whether by life or by death.”

But the loser is described in several passages: Philippians 3:18,19, “For many [cosmic believers who are losers] keep walking [in the cosmic system], concerning whom I have communicated to you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction,” they will die the sin unto death, “whose god is their emotion,” holy-rollers and so on, “whose glory is their shame,” at the judgment seat of Christ there is no glory for them, all they have is a resurrection body, “who keep thinking about earthly things,” result of cosmic involvement.

The drama of winners and losers at the judgment seat of Christ is emphasised by 1 John 2:28, “And now, dear children [all believers], keep residing in it [the divine dynasphere], so that if he [Christ] should appear [the Rapture followed by the judgment seat of Christ], we might have confidence,” the winner has confidence at the judgment seat of Christ, “and might not be put to shame [that is the loser] by him in his presence.”

Two major declarations are given to the winners with maximum historical impact, and these are as high as any believer could ever go. For life in the divine dynasphere there is a special declaration mentioned in Revelation 2:10, “Keep on becoming faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life,” the highest decoration for living the Christian life, but not the highest decoration given. But it will be given prior to the awarding of the highest decoration that a human being can ever receive and hold forever and ever, for maximum historical impact. Revelation 2:28, “Furthermore I will give to him [the mature believer, the winner in time] the order of the morning star,” the highest decoration for life on this earth, the highest decoration for historical impact and for glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. The name for this highest decoration for the mature believer with maximum impact is the order of the morning star. The name is derived from the title of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His strategic and tactical victory our Lord Jesus Christ is called the Morning Star. For example, the strategic victory of the first advent, Numbers 24:7, “A star shall come from Jacob” — the tactical victory of the first advent. The tactical victory of the second advent: 2 Peter 1:19, “And we keep on having a more reliable doctrine,” a doctrine which is more reliable because it is in the Word, more reliable than the empiricism of Peter, James and John on the mount of transfiguration; “with reference to which doctrine you perform honourably,” a reference to the uniform of honour worn by winners in time, invisible since it is a uniform of the soul. It is the result of fulfilling the royal family honour code; it is the result of fulfilling motivating virtue and functional virtue inside the divine dynasphere; “by habitually concentrating in your right lobes on the lamp shining in a dark place [Jesus Christ controls history],” Even though Satan is the ruler of this world the lamp shining in the dark place is Christ controlling history; “until the day dawn [second advent of Christ] and the morning star [our Lord Jesus Christ] has come.” In the strategic victory of the first advent, in the tactical victory of the second advent, our Lord is called the morning star. In the empirical experience of Peter the first showing of the morning star’s uniform of glory is the mount of transfiguration. Christ is the morning star and the uniform of glory is the translucent robe, a robe of light, which He wears over His resurrection body. But even before our Lord received the resurrection body the uniform of glory in eternity — to be contrasted with the uniform of honour in time — was modelled for Peter, James and John on the mount of transfiguration. Our Lord said by way of prophecy, “Truly I say to you, there are some standing here [Peter, James and John] who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

This prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew 17:1,2 — “And six days later Jesus took Peter, James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. And he was transformed before them; in fact his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” That introduces to us that which accompanies this decoration, the highest of all decorations, the order of the morning star. It is the uniform of glory first seen on the mount of transfiguration, and now in the humanity of Christ a constantly worn uniform of translucence, a uniform of light. The “uniform of glory” is how we will designate it.

5. The decoration of the morning star. Again, Revelation 2:28, the order of the morning star is the highest decoration that God can give a human being, a decoration for historical impact, a decoration for life in the divine dynasphere as manifest by the crown of life. The decoration of the morning star includes the privilege of wearing the uniform of glory, a uniform of translucent light over the resurrection body. Revelation 3:4, “But you have a few people in Sardis,” a pivot of mature believers living in the divine dynasphere contributing to the historical uptrend plus national blessing. In other words, mature believers having maximum impact on history through their life in the divine dynasphere; “who have not soiled their clothes,” a reference to the uniform of honour worn by the mature believer in time. The winner wears the uniform of honour in time; “in fact they will walk with me in whites (plural),” the translucent uniform of glory worn over the resurrection body, but worn by winners only. Believers who fulfil life in the cosmic system will have a resurrection body but no uniform of glory. The uniform of glory is worn with the order of the morning star, the two go together, “because they are worthy,” i.e. they have been decorated with the order of the morning star. The decoration includes presentation in the court of heaven. While the Tribulation is occurring on earth those who have had maximum historical impact through living in the divine dynasphere and advancing to maturity. That is, the winners are going to be presented at court, the highest honour that God can give a Church Age believer. They will be specifically presented in the court of heaven to God the Father, Revelation 3:5, “Thus the winner shall be clothed in a white garment,” the translucent uniform of glory worn by the winners of the morning star, the same translucent uniform worn by our Lord Jesus Christ as of the moment of His resurrection; “and I will never blot his name,” the new knighthood which accompanies the order of the morning star; “out of the book of life; in fact I will acknowledge,” the presentation of morning star winners in the court of heaven during the Tribulation; “his name,” a new knighthood received at the judgment seat of Christ; “in the presence of my Father, and before his angels.” Winners will be presented in the court of heaven; losers will cool their heels in the second heaven! There is a separation between winners and losers in heaven at this stage. The order of the morning star includes a new knighthood. the order of chivalry for the royal family or Church Age believer, Revelation 2:17 “ … to the winner [mature believer] I will give him blessing from the hidden manna [blessing in time from maximum doctrine resident in the soul], and I will give him a white pebble [resurrection body]; furthermore, on that pebble has been written a new name [title of knighthood, an honour belonging to those who hold the highest of all decorations, the order of the morning star] written which no one knows except he who receives it,” he alone knows his place in the eternal order of chivalry.

6. The winner returns with Christ at the second advent. All Church Age believers return with Christ at the second advent, winners and losers, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints,” but those who are winners come with their decorations, the order of the morning star, having received knighthood, and having a uniform of glory. On those winners of the morning star there will be a uniform of glory, Colossians 3:4, “on the occasion when Christ, our life, shall become manifest [second advent], you also [winners of the morning star] shall become manifest with him [at the second advent] in glory,” wearing the uniform of glory, a special reward for winners only.

7. Winners will also be involved in the operation footstool and our Lord’s triumphal procession. After AD 70 of the Church Age Israel no longer functions as the client nation. The Church Age began roughly between 30-32 AD. From 70 AD we have the times of the Gentiles when only a Gentile nation can function as a client nation to God. In 70 AD the first one was SPQR; today it is USA. Then comes the Rapture, the end of the Church Age. There will be no client nations during the Tribulation that follows. Instead, 144,000 individual Jewish evangelists and Bible teachers will take the place of a client nation. Then comes the second advent. Christ returns, winners return with Him in the uniform of glory, and at that time there will be a coup de tat and Satan will be set aside. There will be a triumphal procession, operation footstool, and the winners will be involved in that as well.

Psalm 110:1 describes it this way. “The Lord [God the Father] has said to my Lord [God the Son]: Sit down at my right hand” — a prophecy in the Psalms of the ascension and session of our Lord; “until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet [second advent].” Operation footstool begins at the second advent and includes the termination of the Armageddon campaign of the Tribulation, the baptism of fire which separates believer from unbeliever, and the coup de tat in which Satan loses the rulership of planet earth. Both Satan and all fallen angels will be incarcerated for 1000 years to make room for perfect environment in the Millennium.

The importance of Psalm 110:1 is noted from the numerous quotations in the New Testament, Matthew 24:22; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:43; Acts 2:35; Hebrews 1:13; 10:13, etc. Operation footstool includes the three phases of the triumphal procession. The actual procession itself is recorded numerous times because it was such a prominent thing in Roman history. Those who had the greatest impact historically were allowed the triumphal procession. Our Lord’s triumph relates to His victory over two categories of His enemies: angelic and human. The unbelievers of the Tribulation are dealt with in the baptism of fire. In the triumphal procession the prisoners and the booty always came first. The prisoners include Satan and all the fallen angels who have functioned under Satan’s command since Genesis 6. Next in the procession comes the triumphant general, a counsel, a tribune, and later on a ruler, a Caesar. Our Lord Jesus Christ comes in the triumphal procession. Then follows the army, the royal family of God, Church Age believers in resurrection bodies. Losers are just there; winners are wearing the order of the morning star on the uniform of glory. Some of the royal family are winners and some are losers, they will all be there. In the triumphal procession of the second advent all the demons who serve under Satan are disarmed for public exhibition, Colossians 2:15, “And having disarmed demon archons [generals] and commissioned officers he [Christ at the second advent] made a public display of them having celebrated a triumphal procession over them by means of it [the strategic victory of the cross in the first advent].”

At the end of the triumphal procession it always ended up in Rome by the dungeon, and at the end the prisoners were put in the dungeons. Sometimes they were executed. In this case we have 1 Corinthians 15:23-25. The prisoners [demons] will be cast into prison. “Each man [believer] in his own battalion: Christ the firstfruits [Alpha company], after that those who are Christ’s at his coming [Bravo company of the royal family, the Rapture]. Then the end [of the Tribulation, the second advent], when he [Christ] delivers up the kingdom even to God the Father,” Christ takes the rulership of the world from Satan, gives it to God the Father who in turn gives it back to Him through a coronation, “when he [Christ] has abolished all rule [of Satan] and all authority [the dictators of the Tribulation] and power [the removal of all demons from planet earth],” as per Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15. “For he must reign,” our Lord must reign for the 1000 years of the Millennium; “until he has put all enemies under his feet.”

The final part of this triumphal procession is the incarceration of Satan, described in Revelation 20:1-3, “And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he seized the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and incarcerated him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, which he both shut and sealed until the thousand years were finished.” The winners will be there in the triumphal procession. Their significance? Wearing the uniform of glory, the new knighthood, the crown of life, the order of the morning star.

What is really tragic is that if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ these decorations are open to you in the future, but some of you are certainly going to have to change your attitude toward Bible doctrine.

8. The winner is also at the coronation of Christ and the wedding supper which follows, Revelation 19:6-8. “And I heard, as it were, the sound of a great crowd of people [Church Age believers in resurrection bodies, winners and losers] and as the sound of many waters [Old Testament believers who now have resurrection bodies because they receive them at the second advent with Tribulational martyrs. These are the friends of the groom of John 3:29] and as the sound of mighty thunderings [believers of the Tribulation who survive to the coming of Christ. They will form a nucleus, a cadre for the population explosion of the Millennium. They are said to be the friends of the bride in Matthew 25:1-13], saying, Praise the Lord! because the Lord God [Jesus Christ], the total ruler, has now become King.”

In verse 7 we have the wedding supper of the Lamb. “Let us be extremely happy,” there are degrees of happiness in heaven, maximum happiness going to the winner of the morning star, “and celebrate with maximum happiness. Let us give glory to him [Christ is the groom who has just been crowned ruler of the world] because the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride [the Church] has made herself ready,” that would be the judgment seat of Christ, and for morning star winners presentation in the court of heaven during the time of the Tribulation.

Verse 8, “Also it shall be given to her that she [the Church, the Bride of Christ] should be clothed in fine linen,” fine linen belongs to winners and losers. It includes all believers of the Church Age. Hence, it is not the same as the uniform of glory, it is rather the imputed righteousness received at salvation parlayed into ultimate sanctification at resurrection. All winners and losers receive the benefit of ultimate sanctification but there is a difference. For some there is something bright, “bright.” This part is limited to morning star winners who are also given the uniform of glory, “and unsoiled,” for morning star winners the uniform of honour in time is exchanged at the judgment seat of Christ for the uniform of glory. The uniform of glory means those who wear it are going to rule nations for a thousand years. The fine linen has to be explained, the uniform of glory is obvious from other passages. The fine linen is the ultimate “righteousness,” the resurrection body minus the old sin nature, “of the saints.”

Verse 9, “And he communicated to me, Write, Happiness belongs to the ones who have been invited to the marriage supper of the lamb,” maximum happiness for winners, those who receive at the judgment seat of Christ the order of the morning star. Three categories of people are invited: the bride, Church Age believers, winners and losers, with emphasis on the prominence belonging to the mature believer who holds the order of the morning star and wears the uniform of glory at the wedding feast; secondly the friends of the groom, the Old Testament saints, with special emphasis on Moses and Elijah who were martyrs in the Tribulation as well, Revelation 11:3; thirdly, invited to the wedding supper are the friends of the bride, the Tribulational believers who are alive at the second advent. This cadre of believers forms the nucleus for that population explosion of the Millennium.

9. The authority of the order of the morning star in the Millennium, or when anonymous heroes are going to become well-known heroes. The authority of the morning star in the Millennium is described in Revelation 2:26-28, “And so the winner, even he who keeps my assignments until the end [of phase two], to him I will give authority over the nations.” Notice that when Jesus Christ rules the world under perfect environment of the Millennium there will still be nationalism, not internationalism. “And he [the Lord Jesus Christ] will rule them with an iron sceptre,” criminals will be executed immediately. There will be capital punishment under the perfect environment of the Millennium; “as pots made of clay are shattered,” capital punishment in the Millennium; “as I also have received authority from my Father. Furthermore I will give to him [the one who is going to rule] the order of the morning star,” the highest decoration for historical impact and spiritual maturity in the Church Age.

10. The function of the morning star in the Millennium, Revelation 20:4. “And I saw thrones, and they that sat on them,” those who hold the morning star and wear the uniform of glory; “and judgment [rulership] was given to them,” they are going to rule for one thousand years as the most famous rulers in history.

11. The privilege of the morning star decoration in the eternal state. Certain privileges not only are related to history but certain privileges are related to eternity. In the eternal state there will be the ultimate in eternal happiness. There are degrees of happiness in eternity and the ultimate in eternal happiness in the privileged access to the gazebo in the garden, Revelation 2:7, “To the winner I will give him the privilege of eating from the tree of life in the paradise of God.” That is in eternity for the one who holds the morning star and wears the uniform of glory, and only that person will be permitted in to the gazebo of the garden, the privilege of eating at the tree of life in the paradise of God. The highest order of eternal chivalry in the new knighthood of Revelation 2:17, “To the winner I will give him blessing from the hidden manna, and I will give him a white pebble [resurrection body], furthermore on that pebble has been written a new name which no one knows except the one who has received it.” There is the new order of knighthood. In chapter three we anticipate several other special privileges that go with this decoration. For example, a pillar in the temple. It has to be remembered that in the ancient world temples like the one in Ephesus had special pillars in which a famous king was allowed to write in gold and give the story of why he was famous. He also would put jewels and other valuable things into that pillar so that when people walked through that temple they would see a history book, not as we have history books made of paper, but out of a pillar. And there is a history book that will last forever and ever, it is the pillar in the temple of heaven. On that pillar will be the name, the knighthood, the decorations, and it will be a permanent history as to who was really important in this life.

Verse 26, “Furthermore the winner, even he who keeps my assignments until the end [the termination of phase two, God’s plan for time] … ” Next we have the future active indicative of the verb didomi, which means to give. With this we have the dative singular indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “I will give to him” or “to him I will give,” it can be read either way. The future tense of the word didomi is a predictive future, it anticipates the second advent and the reign of Christ. As we have noted, the decoration of the order of the morning star is received at the judgment seat of Christ. With it is the uniform of glory made of translucent light exactly like the uniform of glory on the resurrection body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Losers will not have either one of these decorations. These decorations have many privileges in eternity and they have a fantastic impact in future history. Those who are invisible anonymous heroes of history at the present time are believers in the Lords Jesus Christ who have advanced to maturity, going from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. These same people, although unknown in the textbooks of modern history, are going to be famous and well-known in the future, for they will have a special presentation in the court of heaven during the Tribulation, and their name with their new knighthood is going to be given in the presentation before God the Father and the angels of heaven. Then they will return with Christ, they will be in operation footstool, they will be at the coronation of our Lord Jesus Christ, they will be present in a very special way at the wedding supper of the Lamb. And then they will be famous and well-known for God is going to present those who have won the order of the morning star in their uniform of glory to the population of the Millennium, and this is where we come in with the next phrase, “I will give to him [the one who has the order of the morning star].” The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine. Winners will be rewarded; winners unknown and anonymous at the present will be well-known at another time in history. The dative of indirect object of the intensive pronoun is the dative of advantage as well as indicating those mature believers who have the order of the morning star. They are going to rule nations in the Millennium. Remember that in the Millennium the order of the day will still be nationalism. The Millennium is a time of perfect environment, Jesus Christ rules the world but He administers the rulership of the world through those believers of the Church Age who are decorated with the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory and the crown of life.

“I will give to him authority,” the accusative singular direct object of the noun e)cousia, which means “authority.” Then follows the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the genitive plural of e)qnoj, and it is correctly translated, “over the nations.” E)qnoj always refers to Gentile nations.

Corrected translation: “Furthermore the winner, even he who keeps my assignments until the end [termination of phase two], to him I will give authority over the nations.”

Keeping our Lord’s assignments is a daily function, making good decisions every day, making decisions for doctrine, making decisions for residence and function inside of the divine dynasphere.

This verse is a Millennial reference. The Millennium is a time of perfect environment on the earth. The lion and the lamb will lie down side by side, the swords will be turned into ploughshares, the spears into pruning hooks, and man will learn war no more. That passage in Isaiah applies only to the Millennium. Our Lord Jesus Christ told us very clearly that until the Millennium there will be wars and rumours of wars, and the only way to stop warfare is to be prepared and to be tough.

The statement found in verse 26 is a reward to mature believers, those who hold the order of the morning star, those who have the uniform of glory — these will also have the crown of life. The prepositional phrase indicates the fact that even under perfect environment nationalism will exist during the Millennium. The only possible way to keep the human race from its arrogance and from self-destructing is nationalism, breaking the human race down into national entities. This means that the laws of divine establishment will still be mandatory even in perfect environment. And it also means that in the perfect environment of the Millennium three things will be sacred: freedom, property, and human life. In the perfect environment of the Millennium mankind still has an old sin nature and while Satan is incarcerated for 1000 years and the cosmic system is defunct the existence of human volition and the old sin nature means the necessity for both the laws of divine establishment and the use of authority under perfect environment. Authority must be delegated by God for the administration of the perfect environment of the Millennium. Human history began with perfect environment in the garden of Eden, human history terminates with 1000 years of perfect environment on the entire earth. Part of that perfect environment in the function of the authority of our Lord and the function of the authority of believers who in the future will have the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory, and will be the most famous people in history. Perfect environment still demands the function of authority to coexist with man’s volition and the use of his freedom, his self-determination. While legitimate authority exists the authority depends on human volition for its function.

1. All authority in life is divided into two categories: legitimate and illegitimate. Examples of illegitimate authority — Joe Stain, Adolf Hitler.

2. Legitimate authority is defined as those powers delegated by God to human beings under the laws of divine establishment.

3. God delegates authority through His mandates recorded in the Word of God, Deuteronomy 11:27; 1 Samuel 15:22; Jeremiah 7:23; 11;4,7. Before the canon of scripture was completed these mandates were given through prophets and through apostles and other communicators of doctrine.

4. God has authority over nature. Nature obeys God, Matthew 8:27; Mark 4:41; Luke 8:25.

5. Angelic creatures are also subject to divine authority, Mark 1:27; 1 Peter 3:22.

6. However, here we are dealing with authority in the human realm and all such legitimate authority is delegated by God. Without this authority the human race could not coexist in any numbers and it is understanding authority that is the basis for growing up. Some people never grow up because they have no concept of authority, they think their freedom doesn’t need any regulation or any sense of responsibility.

Example of legitimate authority delegated by God: Pastors have authority over congregations, 1 Corinthians 16:15,16; 2 Corinthians 10:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7,17.

7. The government has authority over people to protect the sanctity of freedom, property, and human life.

8. The husband has authority over the wife, parents over children, teachers over students, coaches over athletes, management over labour.

9. The proper establishment use of authority in business stabilises the economy, Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22.

10. Freedom through military victory is based on authority of military rank, Nehemiah 4:13-15.

There also coexists illegitimate authority. Illegitimate authority is established by Satan through the function of the cosmic system. The twenty-six gates of the interlocking systems of arrogance and the nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred, the two cosmic dynaspheres of Satan’s administration, have all a system of illegitimate authority. In the angelic conflict man was created with free will. He has therefore the freedom, the free will, the self-determination to choose between legitimate and illegitimate authority — legitimate authority delegated by God; illegitimate authority provided through the Satanic administration of the rulership of this world. Therefore, all human authority is a matter of human choice, human volition.. Legitimate authority won’t work unless someone accepts that authority, and even illegitimate authority won’t work unless someone accepts that authority. There is no authority in life unless your volition says so, and if you are a law unto yourself then pretty soon authority will catch up with you. The laws of divine establishment also include capital punishment.

1. The acceptability of authority in life depends on human volition and therefore thousands of decisions. Freedom gives the option of accepting or rejecting authority in life — legitimate or illegitimate authority.

2. All illegitimate authority in life is based on the function of the cosmic system, and people choosing for the cosmic system.

3. Arrogance results from rejection of legitimate authority in life and the most basic definition of arrogance is rejection of legitimate authority in life. Therefore arrogant people are always disoriented to life and people who accept no authority inevitably become a drug addict, or something else equally disastrous. Such arrogance is the source of evil, disorientation, and psychosis. (Very rarely is psychosis originating from physiological problems, it originates from the volition — we are the products of our own volition)

4. While God has delegated authority in life to government, to husbands, to parents, to teachers and coaches and police officers, to judges, to management, this authority is useless unless human volition accepts it.

5. The husband has legitimate authority over the wife but if the wife does not accept that authority he has no authority. Who says he has authority? His authority is useless unless the wife from her very own free will recognises and accepts that authority. That is why the Word of God commands that the husband loves the wife. The wife is never commanded to love the husband, she is commanded to obey him.

6. While parents have legitimate authority in the home this authority is useless unless the children from their own free will recognise and accept it. And while a parent loves his children, if he is normal, the children doesn’t have to love him at all, but they have to have something far more important than love. The must respect him. A child’s love doesn’t mean a thing. With the right kind of candy you can get the love of any child under five, so the person who bring along the right candy is the one they love at the moment. Today we live in a degenerate society. Children have no respect for their parents and if they do not respect their parents they will respect no authority outside the home. If they do not respect authority in the home they do not respect authority outside the home.

7. Legitimate authority is only effective where human volition responds to it. With children it is easy, you can condition them to obey. With the wife you cannot!

8. This is why we have crime, terrorism, revolution, dictatorship, slavery, and other functions of evil because legitimate authority is only effective when human volition responds to it.

9. We are the products of our own volition, therefore when we choose for legitimate authority we are blessed, but when we choose for the cosmic system with its locked-in arrogance we are both punished by our wrong decisions and eventually individually and collectively punished by God.

1. Human volition can override the directive will of God. When this happens we go to the permissive will of God. God does not coerce volition. The doctrine of divine decrees is not fatalism. So when you make a decision against God’s directive will, like Balaam, then you move over into the permissive will of God; He permits you to use your own volition to make your own mistakes.

2. The permissive will of God is based on the fact of human volition and human freedom as the means of resolving the angelic conflict.

3. The doctrine of the permissive will of God permits the function of human volition under the principle of human freedom. God permits mistakes up to a point, but He warns though He doesn’t coerce.

4. Therefore the permissive will of God becomes activated when the believer rejects the directive will of God.

5. However, if the believer uses his volition to attempt to destroy human authority then he moves into the category of the overruling will of God.

6. The believer was designated to function under the directive will of God. Logistical grace is designed for the believer to function under the directive will of God.

7. When the believer rejects the authority of God’s Word and the content of the mandates contained therein he has in essence through his own free will destroyed the authority of God in his life. He has reverted to the cosmic system and the authority of Satan as the author of evil.

1. People use their own free will to gravitate to a system of power, especially in time of historical disaster.

2. When people gravitate to the power of the divine dynasphere they use their volition to make good decisions for legitimate authority, plus inevitable divine blessing.

3. However, when people gravitate through their own free will to the power of the cosmic system they use their own volition to make bad decisions and to give authority to evil leaders with disastrous consequences. In other words, evil has no authority apart from human consent. Wherever evil exists someone has agreed to it; they have used their free will to accept the authority of evil. We are the products of our own decisions and we constantly assign authority to evil people representing the cosmic system. Therefore in history disaster is the result of individual and collective decisions of the people; they are the products of their own decisions. The winners in history never deviate from the divine authority of God’s directive will and His mandates which lead the believer to spiritual maturity and establishes the pivot for personal and national blessing in the client nation to God.

1. Even though history is the record of man’s thoughts, decisions, actions, motivations, Jesus Christ controls history. There are two sources of judgment in history: the sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind.

2. As goes the believer so goes historical trends at any point in any given generation of the Church Age. Residence and function inside of the divine dynasphere means historical uptrend while involvement in the cosmic system means historical downtrend.

3. People individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions. Decisions create environment, not environment decisions. In other words, there are no tragedies in history, rather historical disasters. These disasters are not tragedies since both individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions. The pattern of historical disaster begins with economic depression, moves to social degeneracy, and military disaster. God generally selects the most evil nation to administer the fourth and fifth cycles of discipline to a client nation to God.

4. Individual subjectivity destroys national objectivity. Arrogant people or arrogant nations never see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of others. Jealous people and envious nations never see their own sins and production of evil, only the sins and evil production of others. This is why our Lord Jesus Christ, while He was on earth, enucleated a very special doctrine: the doctrine of perpetual warfare. Until the Lord returns warfare will never cease on the earth.

5. The demand for power exceeds the need for power. The need for power is determined by the laws of divine establishment which defines legitimate authority in the civil realm. The demand for power is determined by the motivating evil of cosmic one and the functional evil of cosmic two. Legitimate power always functions in the context of legitimate authority delegated by God through the laws of divine establishment, so that authority is defined for personal life, social life, economic life, professional life, national life, and spiritual life. Evil and its destructive power exists to the extent that cosmic arrogance exceeds the restraints of legitimate power and authority. Since we are the products of our own decisions and self-determination rather than environment, motivational and functional evil of the cosmic system can only be restrained through gate three of the divine dynasphere — enforced and genuine humility.

6. Historical trends are related to the conflict between objective reality or life in the divine dynasphere, versus subjective reality or life in the cosmic system. Believers are not only the products of their own decisions but the nation in which they reside is affected by their good or bad decisions. Good decisions relate to life in the divine dynasphere; bad decisions relate to life in the cosmic system. Arrogant individuals, groups or nations never see the disastrous consequences of their own bad decisions related to the cosmic system of Satan. Preoccupation with self to the exclusion of objective reality is the greatest blindness problem in life and the major explanation for such things as criminality.

7. There is no progress in innovation without truth or without a legitimate system. Innovation without truth is historically disastrous while innovation without a bona fide system is destructive. Innovation without a system includes such things as modern art, religious cults, rock and hard music, weirdo poetry, everything from Gnosticism to communism. Innovation imposed on others without their consent runs the gamut from personal arrogance to collective tyranny. Redistribution of wealth, the welfare state, socialism and communism are innovations of disaster.

8. Too often history is the story of how the weak control the strong. Weak, insecure, irresponsible, thoughtless, arrogant people often control policy, procedures and people. This is in social life, culture, business, professional life, government, churches, almost anywhere where organisation exists. Through arrogant self-centredness and preoccupation with self the weak in society control and manipulate the strong. This is why a nagging wife creates a scene in public and dominates a courteous and kind husband; this is why peons and scum are possessive and often control nice people; this is why irrational, self-righteous crusaders often dominate in politics and government administration; this is how a power-mad, irresponsible press can dominate and destroy great leaders.

9. Man’s strength lies in the non-meritorious use of his volition, not in his human volition. With his volition the believer can make right decisions relating to God’s power and Bible doctrine, but he can also make wrong decisions based on subjectivity and human arrogance and thereby succumb to Satanic propaganda [cosmic system], choosing to believe Satan’s deceitful and clever propaganda, whether in religion, philosophy, psychology, sociology or political science, or any other thought system or any other academic subject, resulting in choosing and thinking in the environment of the cosmic system. This does not imply that the academic subjects mentioned are all Satanic viewpoint, far from it, but most of them from time to time contain a great deal of human viewpoint. Such a choice thereafter limits the use of one’s free will to bad decisions, until one runs out of bad decisions, closing the doors to all options in life and terminating life on earth with the maximum punishment which we have studied under the title “the sin unto death.” By choosing divine truth in three categories — establishment for everyone, the gospel for the unbeliever, doctrine for the believer — the decision results in both residence and function in the divine dynasphere where the filling of the Spirit at gate one produces the power where basic impersonal love at gate two produces the objectivity and where enforced and genuine humility at gate three produce teachability for greater options in life plus personal blessing and the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore man must inevitably choose something greater than himself by which to live. He must choose greater wisdom, greater power, and greater ability. There are only two power systems available today: the divine dynasphere first used in prototype by our Lord Jesus Christ during His incarnation, and the cosmic system of Satan which has been operational on planet earth since the original fall of man. If man is to live by his wits he must live by his volition. Non-meritorious use of volition, linking up with grace and the plan of God, results in historical blessing by association for all.

10. Too often history is the narrative of man’s weaknesses, then, and not his strength. Inside the divine dynasphere the battle is the Lord’s, and you win; inside the cosmic system the battle is yours, and you lose. There are no winners in the cosmic system, just different categories of losers; there are no losers in the divine dynasphere, just different categories of winners. There would be no human history without man’s wrong decisions, and wrong decisions are made every day in the cosmic system This is a part of the great conflict between the arrogance of the cosmic system and the humility of the divine dynasphere. Weakness becomes strength by choosing for the divine dynasphere, while strength becomes weakness by choosing for the cosmic system, so that no one can really evaluate your life and say that you are always strong, you are always strong, you are always great, you are always this. Any time you choose to go into the cosmic system, whatever your strong points happen to be they are drowned, they are immersed in weakness. There are no strong-points for the believer living in the cosmic system.

Once Adam ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil history becomes a matter of self-determination. Adam made a wrong decision and now the human race is plagued with wrong decisions. The use of human volition is therefore the issue in life. To make good decisions you open options for greater decisions and blessings. If you make bad decisions you destroy those options. The historical trends of the Church Age are related to the believer’s choices of options. The believers choosing for the divine dynasphere, making a large pivot in any generation, means a generation of great blessing, but believers choosing and making options for the cosmic system means a generation of disaster. So good decisions are made for the divine dynasphere, bad decisions are made by the believer for the cosmic system. While man is free mankind in general is weak. Mankind is born in weakness, he lives in weakness, and often dies in weakness. He is born in weakness, therefore he must use his volition. The greatest thing we have going for us is free will and all of us must use our free will to identify with a power system greater than we are which can turn weakness into strength, and that of course is the divine dynasphere. There is also a power system that turns strength into weakness — the cosmic system. So inside the divine dynasphere men’s lives are changed by doctrine; inside the cosmic system men’s lives are changed by arrogance, by motivating and functional evil. Under the principle of liberty man must be free to succeed but by the same token man must be free to fail. Therefore true freedom is the source of both failure and success. This is one of the many things that is vicious about communism, because communism relates failure or success to the Sate instead of to the Word of God, and the State becomes God rather than the Bible.

11. Knowledge of truth manufactures freedom. The principle is stated in John 8:32 — “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” This is another way of saying that good decisions create options for greater decisions while bad decisions destroy those options. The cosmic system has the power to change lives for the worst while the divine dynasphere has the power to change lives for the better. Better or worse are two concepts that we face in our daily lives. None of us stand still, we are constantly moving in one direction or the other. That is why volition is operational until by either wrong decisions you destroy your mentality or you become a vegetable in some other way, or you depart from this life through physical death. So better or worse is the daily option of the free will function in the sphere of freedom. Freedom carries the responsibility of making decisions based on truth or, what we call Bible doctrine, rather than making decisions based upon arrogance and evil. Preoccupation with yourself is arrogance; preoccupation with Satanic doctrine is evil. Furthermore, recognition of our weaknesses is neither demeaning nor degrading.

All solutions to life begin with weakness and with the grace principle is the only true principle in life that recognises that we are weak. We cannot save ourselves so we are saved by God’s provision, “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” Once we are saved we are still weak. We are inferior to angels and we are in various degrees of inferiority in the field of mankind. While people constantly think in terms of superiority you cannot get down to making objective decisions until in humility you recognise that you are a member of the human race and that you have weaknesses like all members of the human race. Man is helpless and hopeless without God’s provision, so all solutions to life begin with weakness and the recognition of our failures, and then move to God’s provision for strength and integrity. All strength in life is not from muscle but from integrity. True strength and honour is a function of the soul, not a function of the body. Weakness in the unbeliever makes evangelism meaningful while weakness in the believer makes doctrine meaningful. If man is not free to fail he cannot orient to his need for Christ and if the believer is not free to fail he cannot orient to the need of life in the divine dynasphere, the need for daily perception of Bible doctrine. So by taking the responsibility for his own failures, which in effect is taking responsibility for his own decisions, all human failure comes from personal decision. Therefore we all fail but those who take responsibility for their failures have the beginning of a solution. Those who blame it on someone else will never have any happiness or solutions to the problems of life. So by taking the responsibility for his own failures and bad decisions man learns his inherent and acquired weaknesses and he seeks for a power system greater than his weaknesses, greater than himself. The principle that turns the tide of history: the greater the use of positive volition toward the power and the plan of God the greater blessing and prosperity for the client nation involved. Therefore knowledge of truth not only manufactures freedom but deliverance and prosperity to the client nation of God.

12. Out of weakness comes strength through positive volition toward truth. We need God we need God’s plan for our lives. God’s plan begins when we believe in Christ and it continues when we learn Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere, the function of gate four. Man is not the master of his fate nor the lord of his destiny. Man lives in the devil’s world and through weakness is vulnerable to enslavement in the cosmic system. Man could use his own free will to become a slave or he can use that same free will to become the servant of God, and therefore the sooner the believer realises his need of a power greater than himself and outside of himself the sooner he establishes the right priorities for life and he establishes the pattern of good decisions relating to the divine dynasphere. Man is not an independent power but a creature, and as a creature a creature of weakness whose strength lies in the functions of his soul, especially his volition or free will. In other words, choosing the right power system, choosing the divine dynasphere rather than the cosmic system. Human power, ability, authority, genius, talent, even self-righteousness or a dynamic personality or even great beauty is no substitute for life in the divine dynasphere. And yet today people depend upon these things and almost anything of a creature nature rather than depending upon the provision of the creator, our Lord Jesus Christ. It takes historical or personal disaster to bring the believer to an understanding of how weakness is turned into strength.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9,10 the grace provision of the divine dynasphere is the case in point. After Paul had been praying, and praying a wrong prayer [for the disaster to be taken from him], for the thorn in the flesh to be taken from him he received quite a different answer, “And then he assured me, My grace is sufficient for you, for the power [the divine dynasphere] functions in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather demonstrate confidence toward God in my weakness.” In other words, that would be the function of motivating virtue inside the divine dynasphere. Remember that motivating virtue is always directed toward God and is a function of the royal priesthood, in this case confidence directed toward God, whereas the functional virtue which is the counterpart is courage directed toward man and circumstances, “in order that the power of Christ [the divine dynasphere] may pitch a tent over me.” Then in verse 10 Paul amplifies. “Therefore for the sake of Christ I find contentment,” inside of the divine dynasphere there are degrees of happiness. To cover the whole concept we have the word “contentment.” Gate one is the filling of the Spirit, there is happiness in the filling of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is joy [happiness]; Gate two, basic impersonal love; Gate three, enforced and genuine humility; Gate four, perception and application of doctrine, the momentum gate; Gate five, love of God; Gate six; right man, right woman where pertinent; Gate seven, friendship, advanced impersonal love; Gate eight, maturity, the ultimate. Each one of these gates represents a degree of happiness. Functioning inside of the divine dynasphere means contentment. Contentment covers all of the degrees of happiness that are available to the believer including maximum happiness from living at gate eight, “in weaknesses [helpless situations], in the antagonisms of arrogance [opposition from cosmic one], in pressures [momentum testing], in persecutions [opposition from cosmic two], in disasters [hopeless situations], for when I am weak then I am strong,” all true strength comes from weakness plus the provision of logistical grace, and that would include God’s gracious provision of the divine dynasphere.

13. The principle of borrowed strength. Borrowed strength is weakness acquired, whereas power is acquired strength. Acquired strength is that spiritual power which results from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, and that includes spiritual momentum from doctrinal perception. But on the other hand borrowed strength is that form of human weakness by which the believer becomes involved in the cosmic system. He becomes involved in the cosmic system by depending on apparent strength and alleged wisdom — the apparent strength of others and the alleged wisdom of others. The implication of course is obvious: you can use your own free will or you can use your volition to gain strength in the divine dynasphere, or you can use your same volition to borrow strength and live in the cosmic system in a state of weakness. The believer who lives in the divine dynasphere gains strength through his daily decisions to learn Bible doctrine, Philippians 4:13, “I have the endowed power [the divine dynasphere] to attain all things [spiritual maturity] by means of the one [the Holy Spirit at gate one] who keeps on pouring the power into me [Bible doctrine].”

The question arises, How do I know when I am borrowing strength? Very simply: make your social life with the wrong crowd, make decisions to go with people who influence you erroneously. 1 Corinthians 15:33 puts it this way: “Do not be deceived, evil companions corrupt good morals.” How else can you borrow strength? Take bad advice or simply go through life being influenced by what people advise rather than what Bible doctrine says; never learn any doctrine, just depend on others for advice (Nothing is worse than taking advice from strangers); never have a thought of your own, you are weak all of your life; depend on the counsel of others, which means using someone else as a crutch rather than learning and applying doctrine for yourself; use someone else’s scale of values rather than developing your own through doctrine. Eventually some people go other ways, they depend on chemicals for comfort and courage: drug addiction, getting your strength out of a bottle. When you depend on others for happiness you will never be happy; when you are a self-contained unit you will find great happiness with others — if you bring your own happiness with you. So depending on others for happiness rather than living inside the divine dynasphere and deriving your happiness from the function of the various eight gates is borrowing strength.

The illustration: You can’t build muscle and strength by designating someone else to go to the gym and take a workout for you, you have to do it yourself. You must make the decision and you must do the exercise. You can’t gain spiritual momentum or achieve spirituality by sending a proxy to church to learn doctrine. You must relate your own volition to what you do, not what others do. Wimps spend their whole lives relating their volition to what others do. You must make daily and consistent decisions to go to church and learn doctrine for yourself and not be distracted by the opinions of others or the influence of some believer in the cosmic system. You must decide to learn doctrine, no one else can learn it for you.

14. No nation has permanently survived the prosperity of manifest destiny. The three components of manifest destiny: a landed aristocracy and agricultural economy which moves to an industrial complex, and it has an undeveloped frontier which in the first part of its history actually absorbs the failures in the landed aristocracy system plus the failures in the industrial complex — people who have talent and who work hard but they simply can’t make it in the industrial complex of the landed aristocracy but they do very well in the undeveloped frontier. Historically England went this way. For prosperity to exist all three components must be combined under the leadership of the middle class industrial complex. Inevitably if the nation is going to become a client nation to God the industrial complex must carry the leadership, must dominate. And during the combined process there is a struggle for freedom, the attainment of freedom, the establishment of freedom, the capacity for freedom necessary for the function of the client nation to God. When all components of the client nation are combined under the leadership of the industrial complex there is great prosperity and inevitably prosperity tests. Once the prosperity of manifest destiny is established through consolidation it cannot be perpetuated apart from a maximum number of believers living in the divine dynasphere and learning Bible doctrine. The pivot of mature believers which perpetuates the prosperity of manifest destiny is formed by residence and function inside the divine dynasphere and/or advancing from gate four to gate eight through the perception and application of doctrine. However, when believers become so wrapped up with life of prosperity that they neglect doctrine and transfer to the cosmic system to exploit and enjoy their prosperity they use their very own volition to destroy themselves and eventually the client nation to God. In other words, it is the prosperity of any client nation to God which brings ruin and destruction to that client nation. No nation has gone down under adversity, it goes down under prosperity. Prosperity creates the climate for destruction. Prosperity leads to economic, social and military decline. The cosmic system, then, becomes the detractor and the basis for failure to pass the prosperity test, both individually and nationally. The cosmic system offers pseudo prosperity by eliminating capacity and perspective and by putting up such things as promotion, success, money, pleasure, approbation, social and sexual prosperity as substitutes. In their proper place all of these things are legitimate expressions of happiness but in the cosmic system they are the expression of evil. All capacity for prosperity comes from Bible doctrine or truth and is related to humility. The freedom and doctrine which produce the prosperity we have today has suddenly become secondary and freedom is distorted into a system of pleasure leading to social degeneration. It also has distorted into a system of welfare State leading to economic disaster. Therefore self-gratification rather than the enjoyment of prosperity is always and inevitably the ruin of a nation. Prosperity cannot be enjoyed or maintained apart from doctrine or truth and therefore, again, as goes the believer so goes the client nation. Prosperity cannot be perpetuated apart from residence and function in the divine dynasphere. The administration of the fifth cycle of discipline destroys both the client nation to God and the principle of manifest destiny, and therefore the important historical trend. The pivot of mature believers is the basis for the perpetuation of prosperity in the client nation to God. Historically no nation has permanently survived the prosperity of manifest destiny and in these times of the Gentiles SPQR holds the record of having the longest period of prosperity. So authority is a matter of human volition. This is a part of the same principle.

We have seen that all authority in life is dependant on human volition. We are free to accept or reject authority in life. All legitimate authority is delegated by God through the laws of divine establishment and through the principles of freedom; all illegitimate authority is based on the functions of the cosmic system. And while God has delegated authority in the human race — like government, marriage, home — this authority is no good unless human volition accepts it. While the husband has legitimate authority over the wife his authority is useless unless the wife from her own free will recognises and accepts it. While parents have legitimate authority in the home that authority is useless unless children from their own free will recognise and accept it. That is why the principle that all great leadership involves salesmanship. Authority is useless and meaningless unless recognised and accepted by human volition. This is why when we have revolution, violence, crime, and other functions of evil, and this explains the rise of Hitler in Germany or Lenin in Russia.

15. Historical disaster to the client nation occurs in three categories. The first is economic depression, the accumulation of bad decisions regarding free enterprise. It can be government destruction of industry, labour destruction of industry, or management destruction of industry. Secondly, social degeneration. Individual bad decisions destroy the structure of society. The sacredness of freedom, property and life are ignored or rejected. Integrity disappears from society and is replaced by every form of crime or immorality. The third is military defeat. No nation can win a war when the manpower suffers from social degeneration and the industrial complex cannot provide logistical support. No nation can win a war without logistics and the great secret weapon is to have the backing of an industrial complex that can out-produce the enemy. Without it there is no hope for winning any future wars of any size.

Under the laws of divine establishment three things are sacred: human freedom, human property, life. The laws of divine establishment revolve around these three principles and they stand or fall together. In the eyes of God people who rob a home are just as evil as the people who take life or destroy freedom. Life becomes cheap when people feel free to steal, and when you have a maximum amount of stealing such as we have in this country today that means that life is not regarded as very much. When there is no sacredness to property there is no sacredness to life and obviously freedom suffers.

Under this particular concept that we have been studying God has ordained and delegated a system of authority to protect freedom, property and life. That authority includes the judge sitting on the bench, the police officer, the military establishment protecting from criminals without, the concept of free enterprise in the economy. Everything has to have a system of authority to function. Management has the authority in economy, not labour; the police officer has the authority on the street; the judge has the authority in the court; the parents have the authority in the home; the husband has the authority over the wife; the teacher has the authority over the students; the coach has the authority over the members of the team. Authority is the secret to happiness; authority is just as important as freedom. We have to have both and you can’t have one without the other.

So all authority in life is divided into two categories — legitimate authority and illegitimate authority. The believer in the divine dynasphere recognises and functions under legitimate authority; the believer in the cosmic system functions under illegitimate authority which results in economic depression, social degeneration, and military defeat. Legitimate authority is defined by those powers delegated by God to human beings under the laws of divine establishment. God delegates authority through His mandates. Government has authority over people to protect the sanctity of freedom, property and life; the husband has the authority has the authority over the wife, the parents over the children, the teachers over the students, the coaches over the athletes, management over labour, and so on.

A problem we have in life: no authority. People, to respect legitimate authority, must be hurt. Legitimate authority exists in the military, so we have basic training where people are hurt by boredom following the same commands. The purpose of close-order drill is to learn to respect authority. Respect for authority must be inculcated. The inculcation of authority is absolutely important if we are going to all utilise our freedom to fail or succeed.

Illegitimate authority on the other hand is authority established by Satan through the function of the cosmic system — Cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance, and Cosmic two with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred. In the angelic conflict man was created with free will to choose between legitimate authority delegated by God or illegitimate authority provided by Satan. Therefore authority is a matter of human choice, of human volition. The acceptability of authority in life is dependant on human volition for freedom gives the option of accepting or rejecting authority in life — legitimate or illegitimate. Again, all legitimate authority in life is delegated by God through the laws of divine establishment and the content of Bible doctrine, whereas all illegitimate authority in life is based on the function of the cosmic system. It is very easy to get into the cosmic system, it just takes wrong decisions related to wrong thinking.

Parents have legitimate authority in the home and this authority is useless unless the children from their own free will recognise and accept it. Therefore punishment of children is legitimate. Children never grow up even though they become adults by simply advance of time; they never become mature until they recognise authority in life, accept it, and orient to it whether they like the ones who have it or not. We have crime, terrorism, revolution, dictatorships, slavery, and all the functions of evil simply because authority is rejected by those in the arrogance complex — cosmic one. Preoccupation with self excludes recognition of the normal and important authorities in life.

The concept of authority is important because as we come to verse 27 we see authority used under perfect environment. The Millennium is a time of perfect environment on the earth. Under perfect environment there will be no more war. All of the things related to perfect environment will exist. The air will be pure, but not people. The old sin nature will still exist in perfect environment which lasts for 1000 years. Man’s revolt against perfect environment at the end of the Millennium is a demonstration of the principle that environment is not the solution to man’s problems; it is not even the basis for happiness. In perfect environment there will be nationalism, not internationalism. Under nationalism those who hold the order of the morning star will rule nations — verse 26.

What kind of rulership will exist in the Millennium under perfect environment? There will be perfect freedom for all. Freedom will be enforced and to enforce freedom there must be strict authority. Note Revelation 2:27, describing a Millennial concept, “And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I have received of my Father”.

Before we can analyse this verse we must recognise that it is quoted from the Old Testament, from the second Psalm, verses 8,9. David was the human author of this Psalm, Acts 4:25, 26. It was the lyrics of a hymn in which each stanza portrays a different viewpoint of life. For example, verses 1-3, the voice of mankind, which means the thinking of mankind. The voice merely expresses the thought; verses 4-6, the voice of God the Father; verses 7-9, the voice of God the Son; verses 10-12, the voice of God the Holy Spirit. You will note that the quotation is taken from the third stanza, the voice of God the Son, verses 7-9.

The second Psalm is quoted at least five times in the New Testament, Acts 4:25,28; 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5; Revelation 2:27. The background for the Psalm is David’s study of eschatology where he sees prophetically Satan’s attempt in the Tribulation to frustrate the plan of God. David studied the Tribulation and he saw Satan’s attempt to hinder the second advent of Christ and his own inevitable defeat. Satan also tried to frustrate the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant and this is the description that David wrote under the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The voice of mankind in the Tribulation, verses 1-3. “Why do the nations rage,” a complete breakdown of all the nations, they are in a state of anarchy. The only authority in the nations in the Tribulation is illegitimate authority, dictatorship will be the order of the day. These are Gentile nations in the Tribulation, “And the people plot a vain thing.” In other words, people are involved in a conspiracy to stop the second advent of Christ. “The kings of the earth take their stand,” the four spheres of influence in the Tribulation. “And the rulers plot together against the Lord [God the Father] and against his anointed [God the Son].”

“Let us break,” the piel imperfect of the verb nathaq, which means to smash; “their bands [legitimate authority under the laws of divine establishment], Let us destroy their restraint,” i.e. the restraint of people and the restraint of old sin natures by establishment authority; “and throw off their chains,” people are the products of their own decisions, nations are the products of their own decisions, and here is the use of volition to reject the laws of divine establishment in the Tribulation. Here is arrogance as the motivating evil of gate one, cosmic one.

The voice of God the Father, verses 4-6. “And he [God the Father] who is enthroned in heaven laughs,” this is an anthropopathism for a sense of humour. Then we have an antithetical anthropopathism, “The Lord scoffs at them,” sanctified ridicule.

“Then he will speak to them in his anger,” another anthropopathism; “And terrify them in his wrath,” a reference to the vial judgements in Revelation 16 and the fall of international religion in Revelation 17,18, plus the slaughter at the end of the Armageddon campaign, Revelation 19. These are in view in verse five. “But as for me [God the Father], I have installed my King [Jesus Christ] upon Zion, my holy mountain,” the future coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of the world.

The voice of God the Son, verses 7-9. “I will proclaim the decree of the Lord,” that is, the plan of God the Father in history. Remember the doctrine of divine decrees. The omniscience of God knows every thought, every motive, every decision, every action of every person who has ever lived in history, and it is fed into the computer of divine decrees. He also knows all of the alternatives, the options that were not exercised. Then you have the printout which is history. It is the printout that is being developed in this particular section, for one of the printouts is the fact of the second advent of Christ, the coronation of our Lord. In the first advent we had the cross, in the second advent we have the crown. The cross must come before the crown. Christ had to die for our sins on the cross; He had to be judged in our place and take our place and become our saviour before He could bring us back to rule with Him in the Millennium. “He [God the Father] said to me [God the Son], Thou art my Son, today I have begotten Thee.” “Today” refers to the moment of the virgin birth.

Let us stop and take a look at this. Human life is imputed to each one of us immediately after birth. God imputes human life to the human soul; human life resides in the human soul forever. Adam’s original sin is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. Our personal sins are not the basis for our judgement- “The wages of sin is death” is not personal sin, it is Adam’s original sin. Why? God is fair and anyone who dies before reaching accountability automatically goes to heaven because they were judged at birth — they were given spiritual death at birth, they were condemned at birth — and not having reached accountability they are automatically saved. But for the rest of us it is “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” All of our sins gathered together in one bundle were never imputed to us for judgment. Instead they were imputed to Christ on the cross and judged. The reason they were imputed to Him and judged is because of the virgin birth. When our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world human life was imputed to Him, to His human soul. But Adam’s original sin could not be imputed because the old sin nature is passed down through the man in procreation. Therefore He had no old sin nature. Adam’s original sin only gravitates to the old sin nature and with our Lord there was no old sin nature. Therefore Adam’s original sin was not imputed. Our Lord came into the world as the last Adam, born as Adam was created — without a sin nature, perfect — and, of course, He lived in the prototype divine dynasphere and went to the cross and was qualified to bear our sins under the principle, “He who knew no sin was made sin for us.” Whoever bore our sins on the cross had to be free from sins himself, and that is what is in view.

“I will proclaim the decree of the Lord” he [God the Father] said to me [God the Son], Thou art my Son [first advent], today have I begotten you,” reference to the virgin birth.

Verse eight is where the quotation begins. “Ask from me [says God the Father], and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.” Because of the strategic victory of the cross [first advent] the nations of the world are to become the inheritance of our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent. Reason: because our Lord became our saviour, was judged for our sins, died physically, was resurrected and ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father. At the right hand of the Father He was given His third category of royalty.

1st category: Jesus Christ is God; title of royalty: Son of God; royal family: God the Father, God the Holy Spirit.

2nd category: He was born into the most famous of all the royal families, the dynasty of David, the Davidic line. He was born a King in the line of David. The virgin Mary was descended from David through the son of David and Bathsheba called Nathan. Joseph was also descended from David and Bathsheba through Solomon. So His second royalty has a title: the Son of David; royal family: dynasty of David.

3rd category: “King of kings and Lord of lords” and “morning star.” But He was minus a royal family and therefore the Age of Israel came to a halt and we have the dispensation of the Church. Believers in the Church Age are the royal family of God. So when Christ returns to the earth He will return with a royal family, some of whom have a new knighthood and some of whom will rule with Him — those who hold the order of the morning star.

And you will shatter them to pieces like pottery.” We will see this as the function of capital punishment in the Millennium. You cannot maintain perfect environment, or even decent environment, without capital punishment. Israel always had a low crime rate and they had no prisons. They executed criminals.

Then finally the voice of God the Holy Spirit in verses 10-12. “Therefore, you kings, be wise,” the hiphil imperative from the verb sakal, and it means the application of wisdom to a situation. When you are in any position of authority it always wisdom to remember the grace of God and to function accordingly. So this is the command to the rulers of the earth during the Tribulation.

“Be warned you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with respect,” they serve the Lord with respect by the enforcement of the laws of divine establishment relating to freedom, property, privacy., life; “And rejoice with anticipation.”

“Kiss the Son,” the custom of kissing in the ancient world originated from the concept of animism, the belief that all objects possess life by having an indwelling soul. The Latin word for “soul” is anima. So the kiss on the mouth was the means of conveying one’s soul to another in the expression of love which resided in that soul. Later the essence of kissing was often found in the transfer of breath by those who related breath to the soul. Yukh in the Greek also meant breath as well as soul. Hence a kiss was the intermingling of anima or two souls. The kiss was also used to get to know the person by scent in the ancient world. Apart from the erotic implications of the kiss it was the means in the ancient world of recognising rulers — kissing the hand, kissing the foot, kissing the robe. It was also used in the greeting of relatives and that has come down to us today. The kiss expressed a close relationship among members of the royal family of God. That is why we have several times, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” The kiss was used for respect, however, as well as love. Hence it became the custom of Greeting. The holy kiss was the expression of impersonal love in the royal family honour code, the function of virtue and integrity. The kiss conveyed honour.

What does kissing means here in Psalm two? It has, of course, no erotic connotation. It means respect, honour, awe. Respect the authority of the Son. “ … lest he be angry, and you perish in the way” — nations cannot survive without the use of the laws of divine establishment. “For his wrath is kindled for a little while, but there is happiness and blessing for those who take refuge in him.”

So much then for the context, now we are ready for the passage, Revelation 2:27. The quotation begins with the conjunction kai, introducing a result from what precedes, translated “and so” or “furthermore.” Then we go to our verb, the future active indicative of the verb poimainw, which means to shepherd or to rule, “And so he shall rule.” The predictive future tense anticipates the second advent of Christ and His Millennial reign. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb and therefore the authority by which believers will rule in the Millennium is delegated by our Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of the entire world. This is why we noted the highest decoration a believer can receive, the order of the morning star, for the only believers who are going to rule in the Millennium are those who receive at the judgment seat of Christ the order of the morning star. In the dispensation of the Church the person whose life counts the most in history, in any generation or decade, is the believer who has cracked the maturity barrier. A large pivot of mature believers means blessing; a small pivot means historical disaster. The difference between a large and a small pivot is the personal volition of the individual believer as demonstrated by his attitude toward Bible doctrine. Those who have the greatest historical impact are believers who advance to maturity through daily perception of Bible doctrine, and they are the means of historical uptrend. In other words, the solution to our problems right now can only be resolved by your attitude toward doctrine. Failure of believers in any given generation to crack the maturity barrier in any large numbers means historical downtrend because it means believers are involved in the cosmic system.

What needs to be emphasised here is the fact that the names of believers who crack the maturity barrier are not mentioned in any textbook of history. They are unknown; they are anonymous heroes. The great heroes of any generation of history in the Church Age are anonymous heroes, but they will be known for the first time at the judgment seat of Christ. They will be known to the other members of the royal family of God for they will receive the highest decoration that a believer can receive, the order of the morning star. Then while the Tribulation is occurring on earth those believers who have the order of the morning star are going to be presented in the court of heaven. They will be presented to the angels of heaven as well as God the Father. Then they return at the second advent and they will be known to the population of the earth, the largest population that the earth will ever have will be in the thousand years of our Lord’s reign. At that time they will be the most famous people in history.

So those who have historical impact today have another crack at history, they will wear the order of the morning star over the uniform of glory and they will rule with the Lord Jesus Christ for one thousand years. So the heroes of history, believers, will not always be anonymous. Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine. The accusative plural direct object is from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used as a personal pronoun since the third person personal pronoun of Attic Greek was not carried over to Koine Greek. “Them” is the correct way to translate it — “And so he shall rule them.” He delegates authority, and this is where those who hold the highest decoration, the order of the morning star, come into the picture.

With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental of r(abdoj, and r(abdoj means a sceptre, not a rod. With it we have the instrumental of sidhroj, iron, which at the time of writing was the great weapon, the iron age had replaced the bronze age. Translation: “And so he shall rule them with an iron sceptre.” Now the liberal, misdirected people in terms of loving everyone, being sweet to everyone, do not understand phrases like this. This emphasises what it takes to control people and to assert authority. It takes a rod of iron.

One of the things that we have to start noting with regard to historical trends is what may be called the power factor. The question which arises historically is, How much power does an organisation, a group, or an individual possess before that power is distorted under his authority. Everyone has, probably, a power factor index as part of his soul, which means simply this: How much authority can you handle, how much power can you take before you go sour, before you become a dictator, a little Caesar, etc. The principle is a very simple one: arrogance distorts power and authority. Just as we have seen that salesmanship is a characteristic of leadership so humility is a characteristic of successful and honourable use of authority. Authority is abused by arrogance, as well as the fact that arrogance distorts power and authority. We have noted before that arrogance corrupts so that some people, some individuals, and some groups cannot have too much power. We have a tendency in history to say: It is this movement or that movement; management has too much power; labour has too much power; the government has too much power; so and so has too much power, and to blame it on the group involved, when in reality it is simply the fact that the group or the individual under, in this case, legitimate criticism simply has become arrogant. It is the arrogance factor that makes the difference, so that we can’t always say dogmatically that it is this group or that group who are ruining the country, that government is ruining the country, labour is running the country, management is ruining the country, this or that is ruining the country, ruining the city, the state, the county, or whatever is being ruined or allegedly ruined. In reality it is just a power factor, and at any given time in history, the other trends being equal, people simply become arrogant when they pass their power factor. They get too much power and they can’t handle it and they turn to arrogance and other things. As a result they distort power into a system of dishonour rather than utilising it as a system of honour and integrity. So arrogance corrupts so that some people or groups cannot have any power, while other individuals and groups are free from arrogance, and through humility plus integrity use power and authority honourably.

Verse 26b, “to him I will give authority [power] over the nations.” This principle, just mentioned, will work very well at that time because the ones involved who are going to receive this authority over the nations in the Millennium are believers in resurrection bodies. So they will not be corrupted by the power factor, they will not become arrogant, they will not abuse their authority. Furthermore it is probably one of the most unique groups of believers of all time because it is the believer in the Church Age who has been decorated with the order of the morning star at the judgment seat of Christ who having received this decoration also receives with it a uniform of translucent glory, first noted when our Lord was transfigured. On the mount of transfiguration our Lord’s face shone like the sun and His clothes were suddenly turned into translucent light. This was the first time anyone in the human race had ever seen the uniform of glory. Our Lord’s resurrection body has an additional factor, the uniform of glory. Only a few other people will wear forever and ever this uniform of glory. Those few are the ones who advance to maturity in time in the Church Age, the dispensation of historical trends. They will receive the order of the morning star at the judgment seat of Christ after the Rapture. Immediately after they receive it these individuals are differentiated from all other Church Age believers in a resurrection body, and that differentiation will last for ever. They alone are going to be presented in the court of heaven to God the Father and the elect angels. They alone on the return of Christ (all Church Age believers return with Christ at the second advent) have certain privileges. For example, in the Millennium they are going to rule over Gentile nations. They were the anonymous heroes while living in phase two of the Church Age, and the anonymous heroes become the most famous persons of all world history. Only the believer who cracks the maturity barrier is going to be in that picture. They have a special place at the coronation of our Lord at the second advent; they have a special place in the triumphal procession; they also have a special place in the wedding supper of the Lamb, and in eternity they will also have the privilege of the highest and most important function of maximum happiness at the gazebo in the garden, the tree of life in the paradise of God. They will have a permanent record in history, they will be a pillar in the eternal temple in which the true history of the world will be written. So they have all kinds of fantastic privileges.

Notice again at the end of verse 26, “to him I will give authority over the nations.” The authority and the power they have is incorruptible. They are in a resurrection body; they wear the uniform of glory; they have also the crown of life for their residence and function in the divine dynasphere, and they have the highest decoration that God can give to a human being, the order of the morning star. And in the perfect environment of the Millennial reign of Christ all authority will be incorruptible. That is why believers in this dispensation, those who reach maturity in time, in their resurrection bodies will be the rulers of nations in the Millennium. In spite of the fact of the perfect environment provided, the lucid presentation of the laws of divine establishment, incorruptible authority and power, man has a free will and literally hundreds of thousands of people living in perfect environment on the earth will reject that perfect environment. They fall into two categories: those who show their resentment during the perfect environment by the use of violence and crime — they will be tried and executed — and those who practice hypocrisy and appear to go along with things and as soon as a leader comes along, around whom they can rally, they are going to join in a revolution. That leader, Satan, will be released from prison after 1000 years and they will rally around him for the Gog revolution.

In the meantime what we are noting here is the tremendous privileges that belong to the believer who cracks the maturity barrier, the believer who lives in the divine dynasphere, the believer who takes in Bible doctrine on a daily basis; ridiculed by friends, misunderstood by people, becoming the basis of all kinds of sarcasm, constantly facing distraction tests and all of the things that everyone who reaches maturity must face; and yet, wading through all of these, passing these tests and advancing to maturity, and becoming the basis for the continual blessing of the client nation and the perpetuation of the human race with some form of prosperity. Nothing is more important, nothing in the world, than your attitude toward Bible doctrine. You will get more flack, more ridicule; you will face more honourable testing. Honourable testing meaning you are not being punished for sin and failure but simply being tested for the application of doctrine to accelerate your spiritual growth, simply because you are consistent in the perception of doctrine. It happens to anyone who cracks the maturity barrier, and that uniform of glory which is received at the judgment seat of Christ, and that highest decoration, the order of the morning star taken from the title of our Lord Jesus Christ in Numbers 24; 2 Peter 1:19, is for them. So the authority over the nations is characterised by certain decorations. During the Millennium other believers who did not crack the maturity barrier, who are in essence peons in resurrection bodies, who are going to have a lower degree of happiness, but happiness nevertheless, will not participate in the history of planet earth.

For perfect environment to be perpetuated on the earth after the second advent there must be one ruler who is perfect and who possesses perfect integrity. And He must delegate authority to those who are perfect under the principle of ultimate sanctification and have perfect integrity. So the rulership of the world will change. We have noted the coup de tat which will occur at the second advent, and Satan is imprisoned; he is no longer the ruler of the world in the Millennium. The Lord Jesus Christ is perfect; He is the God-Man — doctrine of the hypostatic union applied — and He delegates authority to rule nations to the great believers of this dispensation, those who hold the order of the morning star and have the uniform of glory at the judgment seat of Christ. Only our Lord Jesus Christ is qualified to rule the world. Such a ruler delegates authority only to those who have attained the order of the morning star, and under the principle of ultimate sanctification they are incorruptible in their resurrection bodies.

The “sceptre of iron” (Verse 27) is mentioned in the iron age and the sceptre of iron is a reference to great power and authority. We will note that the sceptre of iron shatters vessels, which means that perfect environment can only be maintained by strict law enforcement, strict crime prevention, including individual and, if necessary, national punishment. Individual maximum punishment is capital punishment and in the Millennium it will be used. National maximum punishment is related to the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. The sceptre of iron, the power and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, shatters the evil vessels, whether individual criminals or national or group conspiracy. While the Millennium is characterised by perfect environment people outside the resurrection bodies still have the old sin nature, and while the cosmic system is not operative during the Millennium human volition is, and human volition can choose for evil and even create evil without the cosmic system. So human volition plus the old sin nature can still get out of hand and must be controlled for the maintenance of perfect environment. Remember that perfect environment is maintained by the iron sceptre, and the iron sceptre guarantees the fulfilment of the three sacred factors in the laws of divine establishment — human freedom and privacy, property, life.

1. Severe discipline is necessary to keep the human race in line, even in perfect environment. This is because the human race still has an old sin nature.

2. Laxity in government, or any form of rulership, inevitably results in the decline and degeneracy of a nation.

3. Therefore it is not the type of government but the integrity of government to enforce the laws of divine establishment that counts, so that freedom, property and life remains sacred in the continuation of history.

4. You cannot rule with a golden sceptre unless you rule with the iron sceptre. The golden sceptre of prosperity never precedes the iron sceptre of establishment, just as the cross must precede the crown.

5. Society will only recognise the sanctity of life, property and freedom of others when society is restrained by just law enforcement and discipline based on integrity and category one truth in the Bible, i.e. the laws of divine establishment.

So that brings us now to the analogy which is introduced by the adverb o(j, used as a conjunction for analogy. The analogy is introduced by the word “as” or “just as.” The nominative plural of skeuoj, meaning a vessel, follows plus the generic use of the definite article — “the vessels,” referring to people. A “vessel,” a piece of pottery, is an excellent illustration. The pottery represents the human body and the decorations on them are simply ways of indicating a manufacturer, some artistic value, and so on. But inside of the vessel, or what it contains, is more important than the pot itself. The soul resides in the body and the vessel is often analogous to the body, whereas the soul inside of the vessel is the important factor. It therefore refers to human life.

With this we have an adjective, keramikoj, and it is part of a nominative plural subject. The adjective means belonging to a potter. So we could translate: “as the clay pottery” or “the clay pots.” Then the present passive indicative of the verb suntribw, which means to shatter, to break in pieces — “as the clay pottery is shattered.” The pictorial present tense presents to the mind the administration of capital punishment or the fifth cycle of discipline in the process of occurrence — in this case, in the Millennium. The passive voice: evil elements of the Millennium receive the action of the verb — instant and just punishment. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the perpetuation of perfect environment through strict discipline, law enforcement, punishment of crime instantly.

2. Only those vessels or clay pots which are evil or no good are broken in pieces, shattered, destroyed, indicating capital punishment in the Millennium to sustain perfect environment. Perfect environment does not produce law-abiding people. On the other hand you must add something to perfect environment to have law-abiding people — power and authority.

3. If the clay has been fired it cannot be reused, an illustration of capital punishment and even the fifth cycle of discipline to a nation in the Millennium.

4. Therefore in the Millennium the Lord Jesus Christ will punish individuals by taking their lives, breaking in pieces the clay pots, and nations by removal from the family of nations in the Millennium.

Now we have a second analogy. The first analogy is the clay pottery, the vessels made of clay are shattered. The second one is the authority to rule in the Millennium, an authority delegated to those believers who hold the order of the morning star. Again we have the conjunction w(j, giving a reason for the action, translated “as.” Then we have a compound particle, kagw. It comes from the conjunction kai plus the personal pronoun e)gw, literally, “and I” or “even I.” Here it is correctly translated literally, “I also” or “I too” or “I in turn.” This is a reference to our Lord Jesus Christ receiving the authority to rule in the Millennium from God the Father who gave Him the third royal title at the ascension. Then we have the perfect active indicative of lambanw, which means to receive, “I also have received,” and it is used for receiving authority. The dramatic present tense describes in an unusual and vivid way the permanence of our Lord’s appointment to rule the world in the Millennium and therefore the delegation of authority to those who hold the morning star. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. As the God-Man He receives the action of the verb through His third royal patent achieved through the first advent. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic authorisation for our Lord’s Millennial rule. The source of the authorisation: the preposition para plus the ablative from the noun pathr, “from the Father.”

You probably are wondering here, If you receive something from the Father doesn’t that make the Son inferior to the Father? The answer is, No. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in their deity are coequal and CO-eternal as we have studied in the doctrine of the Trinity, but the reference here is to the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ is ruling as a member of the human race. Jesus Christ is God, He has all of the essence of the Godhead; but He is different from the Father and from the Spirit in that He is true humanity forever — humanity now in a resurrection body, wearing the uniform of glory under His title of King of kings, Lord of lords, the morning star. And it is the Father turning over to the humanity of Christ the rulership of the world. Satan, who rules the world now, is not a member of the human race, but in the future, in the Millennium, Jesus Christ will rule as a member of the human race in His resurrection body. He is the morning star and those who rule the nations under Him — that is, the Gentile nations — have the order of the morning star, and that is why they wear the uniform of glory which is unique to our Lord Jesus Christ at this time. They will wear that uniform of glory forever to distinguish them from all of the believers who failed to utilise logistical grace in time.

God the Father is the author of the divine plan for the human race and therefore He has the right to authorise and decree regarding human history. This does not change the fact that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are coequal and CO-eternal, one in essence but three separate and distinct personalities. Note that the cross must come before the crown. Before the Lord Jesus Christ can rule in the last 1000 years of history, with emphasis on His humanity ruling — His humanity had to go to the cross and bear our sins and be judged for us, otherwise there would be no members of the human race to whom to delegate authority. So our Lord has the crown today as seated at the right hand of the Father, and then there will be the Rapture of the Church and then the Tribulation, and then He will come back. The Rapture must occur before the Millennium because during that time we have the evaluation of believers. They receive their resurrection bodies; they stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Those who receive the morning star are going to receive their uniform of glory, so when they return there will be those of perfect integrity to rule with our Lord. So our Lord Jesus Christ will rule the world and He will delegate authority for nations.

The cross came before the crown. Jesus Christ would not have received the crown without the cross. Our Lord functioned in the divine plan of the Father calling for the first advent. And in the first advent our Lord did something else. During the incarnation, starting with the virgin birth, our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity lived in the prototype divine dynasphere so that he prepared this system for us, and after the ascension one of the things we received on the Day of Pentecost was Gate One, the filling of the Spirit, something that did not exist in Old Testament times. The command to be filled with the Spirit belongs to this dispensation only; the command to walk by means of the Spirit belongs to this dispensation only.

Christ came the first time to save the human race; He comes the second time to rule the human race. There will be those who say No to His perfect rule. They are manifest at the Gog revolution at the end of the Millennium and they are dealt with at the great white throne judgment in the second resurrection. The baptism of fire is the first sign of His authority. When Christ first comes back He finds Tribulational people alive: Gentiles who are believers; Gentiles who are unbelievers. The Gentiles who are believers pass through the fire into the Millennium to become a cadre, a nucleus, for the population explosion of the Millennium. The Gentile unbelievers are cast off the earth.

Man was the ruler of this world when it was created, Adam being that man. Distortion in history began when Adam lost the rulership of this world and at the present time a fallen angel by the name of Lucifer the son of the morning and Satan rules the world and therefore the problems and the distortions.

That brings us to verse 28, “And I will give him the morning star.” First of all we have a connective conjunction kai which introduces a result from the previous verse. We translate it “furthermore.” With this we have a future active indicative of the verb didomi, meaning to give, which is used here for decoration. Sometimes it means to present and really it means here to decorate the highest honour one can receive. The gnomic future tense is for a statement of fact regarding Millennial and eternal reward for the mature believer who has historical impact in time. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action at the judgment seat of Christ in anticipation of His rule for the last 1000 years of history, a rule which begins at the second advent. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the decoration, the reality of Millennial authority, the reality of this highest of all honours given to a human being. With this we have the dative indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used for the personal pronoun third masculine singular referring to mature believers who have maximum historical impact in the Church Age through their achievement of spiritual maturity. The dative indirect object indicates the mature believer in whose interest the authority and decoration are given, therefore also a dative of advantage. With this we have the accusative direct object composed of four words. Two of the words are the generic use of the definite article, twn, in the accusative. With this we have the reference to the order of the morning star. The problem with studying the morning star is that it involves so much eschatology. The rest of the accusative has two words, the accusative singular adjective from proinoj, translated “morning”; and with it the accusative singular the noun in the direct object, a)sthr, “star.”

The morning star has two meanings in the Bible. First is refers to our Lord Jesus Christ. In Balaam’s prophecy regarding Israel Christ is mentioned under the title of the morning star — Numbers 24:17. It is related to His first advent. Bible doctrine is tied into this as Christ the morning star in the famous passage in 2 Peter 1:19-21. This is perhaps the most important of the morning star passages by way of explanation. It starts out by saying, “And we keep on having a more reliable prophetic doctrine,” that is, more reliable than the empirical perception that occurred at the mount of transfiguration. The mount of transfiguration is the background for this passage; “with reference to which doctrine you perform honourably by habitually concentrating in your right lobes.” And then the word o(j is sometimes used, not as a comparative particle, but as an actual quality conjunction. When that happens it is translated “on,” “on a lamp shining in a dark place,” Jesus Christ controlling history — “until the day dawn [second advent] and the morning star [Jesus Christ] has come. Knowing this first, that all prophecy of scripture [eschatological doctrine] did not originate from one’s own explanation, for prophecy was never produced by the design [purpose, will] of man, but men communicated from God being carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

All of this has to do with the morning star as explained in Matthew 2:2 where the star was first seen. In 2 Peter 1:19, the morning star “shall come up,” and that is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ coming the second time, but the morning star is coming the first time, like Matthew 2:2 when the wise men said: “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.” So the word “star” and “morning star” are constantly used in connection with our Lord Jesus Christ. The order morning star is a special decoration for mature believers with maximum historical impact. It is given at the judgment seat of Christ; it authorises the recipient to rule with Christ in the Millennium; it is the highest of all decoration which is given by our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is our objective now to study once again the order of the morning star. We have to start out with noting who and what is a winner. The word “winner” is used at least seven times in Revelation chapters two and three. Both in time and in eternity believers fall into two categories: winners and losers. They are very easy to distinguish one from the other. The winner is the believer who lives his life in the divine dynasphere, the plan of God for the Church Age believer, the royal family of God, and this is the only dispensation in which the divine dynasphere is operative. The prototype divine dynasphere was invented for the humanity of Christ to sustain Him during the incarnation. It is used for the royal family and then never again. The loser on the other hand is a believer who is going to be in heaven with a resurrection body, and that is about all. He is the believer who lives in the cosmic system. Losers are Christians who fail in time but they do not lose their salvation as a result of their failure. They occupy an inferior place in heaven; they have no authority in the Millennium; they are as anonymous in the Millennium as they are in time.

The winners are described by the present active participle of the verb nikaw. Participles are not always translated like verbs. Many times the ascriptive participle is an adjective. But there is also the participle used as a noun, as we have seven times in the book of Revelation, 2:7, 11,17, 26, 3:5,12, 21. In each case the participle is translated like a noun and translated “the winner.” All historical blessing, all prosperity in the Church Age results from anonymous, unknown, unnamed believers living inside the divine dynasphere, advancing to spiritual maturity, forming the pivot for the client nation. These mature believers provide blessing by association as well as historical uptrend, and their names are generally not found in historical text books. They have used the hidden manna of Bible doctrine and other provisions of logistical grace to advance to maturity. So on the basis of historical uptrend — as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God — the winner is the secret to historical and national blessing in this life and in this dispensation. These Christian heroes of history are anonymous today. That has to be emphasised.

We have noted that the winner will be at the Rapture. The Church Age terminates with resurrection, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. This is true for the loser as well as the winner. When the resurrection occurs the trumpet assembles them in the second heaven and then “we who are alive and remain are caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” That is the beginning of phase three for all Church Age believers. Phase three begins for the dead in Christ prior to that time. They have the interim blessing. Once this occurs there is the great genuflect in the sky which finds all believers, at this point, still in their resurrection bodies. No decorations have been given as yet. In the meantime the Tribulation is in progress on earth where Revelation 6-18 is going on. The judgment seat of Christ is next. It is at the judgment seat of Christ that eternal distinctions are established among those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in this dispensation, known as the royal family of God. This is where the winners and the losers are separated.

The drama of winners and losers at the judgment seat of Christ is quite a subject and is emphasised in a very real way to us in connect with our subject in 1 John 2:28, “And now dear children.” Why call believers children [or students]? because as a believer you must learn all of your life. When you stop learning you stop growing, “keep residing in it [the divine dynasphere], that if he [Christ] should appear [the Rapture of the Church which will be followed by the judgment seat of Christ], we might have confidence and might not be put to shame in his presence [at the judgment seat of Christ].”

There are two major decorations given by our Lord Jesus Christ to mature believers. The first of these two decorations we have previously studied in Revelation 2:10, the crown of life. The crown of life is like the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest decoration you can receive in the army. The crown of life is simply faithfulness in sticking inside the divine dynasphere, that plus your positive volition toward doctrine, that plus keeping your priorities straight — doctrine first, pretty much guarantees the fulfilment of this concept. The crown of life is given first at the judgment seat of Christ to indicate the means by which one attains the highest decoration, the achievement of the order of the morning star. No one will have the order of the morning star without having the crown of life, and the crown of life has to do with logging maximum time inside the divine dynasphere. The other decoration, the two go together, “Furthermore, I will give to him [the believer in time] the order of the morning star, Revelation 2:28. This is the highest decoration for spiritual life on earth, historical impact, the glorification of Christ. The name for this highest decoration to the mature believer with maximum impact in time, the order of the morning star, is derived from the title of our Lord Jesus Christ related to His strategical and tactical victory in the angelic conflict. His strategical victory: the first advent; His tactical victory: the second advent. The tactical victory is when our Lord comes into contact with the enemy and puts him in jail for a thousand years. Jesus Christ in His two advents, then, is called the morning star.

The decoration of the morning star includes the uniform of glory. Revelation 3:4 puts it this way: “But you have a few persons in Sardis,” a pivot of mature believers living in the divine dynasphere, contributing to the historical uptrend, having historical impact; “who have not soiled their clothes,” in other words, they are wearing the uniform of honour. The losers have soiled clothes living in the cosmic system; “in fact they will walk with me in whites,” plural, e)n plus the locative plural of leukoj, the translucent uniform of glory worn over the resurrection body; “because they are worthy” — worthiness comes from life in the divine dynasphere, the daily perception of Bible doctrine. The decoration includes the presentation in the court of heaven. During the Tribulation losers are not presented in the court of heaven. They are in heaven but heaven is a gigantic place. Only winners are going to be presented in court. “Thus the winner,” says Revelation 3:5, “shall be clothed in white garments,” the translucent uniform of glory, “and I will never blot his name out of the order of chivalry,” this is not the book of life for people, this is the book of life for knighthood. He will never have his new knighthood cancelled; “in fact I will acknowledge,” presentation of morning star winners in the court of heaven during the Tribulation; “his name [the new knighthood received at the judgment seat of Christ] in the presence of my Father, and before his angels,” an honour reserved for those who advance to maturity only.

The order of the morning star includes a new knighthood, the order of chivalry for the royal family or Church Age believer, the highest order of chivalry, and this means that forever and ever, when history is closed down after the Millennium, believers who advance to maturity today are going to be distinguished in their resurrection bodies from all believers who are losers in time. How are they going to be distinguished? In the most magnificent way. They will have the highest order of knighthood, the new name which is written on the white pebble, Revelation 2:17, “To the winner [the mature believer] I will give him blessing from the hidden manna,” that is blessing in time, “and I will give him a white pebble,” the ultimate vote of confidence in the resurrection body. But of course, all believers, both winners and losers will have the white pebble; “furthermore on that pebble has been written a new name,” the highest title of knighthood, an honour belonging to the holder of the morning star; “which no one knows except the one who receives it.”

The winner returns with Christ at the second advent, after being presented at court. In 1 Thessalonians 3:13 it says, “At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” However, only those winners of the morning star they will be manifest with Him in glory. The ashamed crowd are not presented. The Lord doesn’t even make them known. After all they contributed nothing but downtrends to history. They are going to be unknown then. Colossians 3:4 — “On the occasion when Christ our life shall become manifest, you also” — mature believers wearing the morning star, the uniform of glory; “shall become manifest with him” — the anonymous heroes are presented to the population of the world by name, by rank, by order of chivalry, by knighthood, by the obvious appearance of the uniform of glory and the magnificent and beautiful order of the morning star.

And then operation footstool, the great coup de tat, the termination of the Armageddon campaign, the great slaughter that ends the Tribulation, the baptism of fire when all unbelievers of the Tribulation are removed from the earth. The ones who survive the Tribulation are the nucleus for the population explosion of the Millennium. Then we come to the coronation. And who will be prominent in the coronation? Those who have the order of the morning star and at least two people from the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah, because they came back as the two witnesses in Revelation 11 and after evangelising were martyred; but there will also be others such as Joseph, David, Isaiah, and other prominent believers of the Old Testament. It says in Revelation 19:9, “Happiness to the ones who have been invited to the marriage supper of the lamb,” three categories: the Bride (Church Age believers, divided into winners and losers; the friends of the groom, the Old Testament saints; friends of the Bride: the Tribulational believers who are still in their physical bodies and who have great reason to rejoice under perfect environment of the Millennium). Then, of course, there is the function in the Millennium of those who win the morning star. This is, again, Revelation 2:26-28. Those who have the order of the morning star are going to rule nations.

From AD 96 to the end of time the book of Revelation gives us a detailed history divided into two parts: historical trends and the eschatological development of history. So we have prophecy beginning with the Rapture of the Church, which is the next prophecy in history. As we have been studying the historical trends we have begun to note a pattern: how the historical trends depend upon the attitude of the believer toward the Word of God. It does not depend on so many things we have discussed by way of solving man’s problems. There is no ruler or any category of government in this world who can do anything at all to solve the problems of this life, for the ultimate solution depends upon the believer. As goes the believer, so goes the national entity and so goes world history.

Today we are actually experiencing a world-wide depression, and it is not in this country alone. The real problem is the believer. If the believer lives inside the divine dynasphere: Gate 1, the filling of the Spirit gate 2, basic impersonal love; gate 3, enforced and genuine humility; gate 4, perception and application of doctrine, the momentum of the spiritual life; gate 5, love of God; gate 6, right man, right woman where pertinent; gate 7, friendship, advanced impersonal love; gate 8, maturity. If the believer is residing and functioning inside of the divine dynasphere then we have a historical uptrend. But if believers are living in the cosmic system of Satan, cosmic 1, with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance; cosmic 2, with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred, then, of course, we have a downtrend.

Remember that freedom always guarantees inequality in life and in eternity. Once you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you have decisions to make every day. Your attitude toward doctrine determines whether you are going to advance toward maturity — positive volition; or negative volition, going through the various stages of reversion, living in the cosmic system, eventually dying the sin unto death. You have a choice to make and that choice will be reflected at the judgment seat of Christ, for there will be those who are going to receive great rewards and will be the great people of eternity as well as the Millennium; and there will be those who receive no rewards, they will have the white pebble, the resurrection body but nothing in the order of chivalry, no new knighthood, no uniform of glory, no crown of life, no morning star, no name written in the permanent history book of heaven, the pillar in the temple. All of these things are gone. So heaven being a perfect place there are still great inequalities.

During the Church Age the historical impact of the mature believer is invisible, it is low-key from the standpoint of publicity and yet a very real factor in whether prosperity exists in any given generation in history. As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God and so goes history in any particular generation. At the judgment sea t of Christ the historical impact of the mature believer becomes manifest through the recognition, the receiving the decoration of the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory, presentation in the court of heaven. At the second advent of Christ the entire population of the world is going to recognise the anonymous heroes of the Church Age. Recognition will be related to the decoration of the order of the morning star and the wearing of the uniform of glory. When the invisible Christ becomes manifest at the second advent invisible greatness of the mature believers in the Church Age will become very real and very visible.

Three crowns are given also as rewards at the judgment seat of Christ: the crown of glory, the crown of life, the crown of righteousness. These are comparable to the military crosses given by the various services. The order of the morning star is the highest possible decoration. Decorations in order of chivalry are not unknown in history. In the time of writing they had them in the Roman empire. During the middle ages they were carried over, such as the order of Malta which started in 1070 AD, the order of St John, the order of the Knights Templars, etc. No country is exactly free from the analogy that we find here.

This leads us to the last verse in this chapter, verse 29, the basis for spiritual momentum. The question arises: How does one achieve the order of the morning star? What do you have to do? What sacrifices do you have to make? What is necessary to comply with this decoration? Here is the answer given very simply “ He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” That is the answer.

We begin the exegesis with the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw in the Greek. It means to have or to hold. Here we are going to translate it, “He who has.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun referring to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who from the point of salvation is equipped and supported by logistical grace to learn Bible doctrine. It is logistical grace support that actually makes the difference. The definite article emphasises that. You and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are all sustained by the same concept from heaven. We are provided with exactly the same principle of logistical grace, none of us are exceptions to this. The static present tense represents the circumstances of possessing ears, a status assumed as perpetually existing in time. Hearing is not a matter of possessing ears or the normal physiological function of hearing, hearing is a matter of motivation. If the believer has ears he can understand Bible doctrine and perpetuate his momentum inside the divine dynasphere. Momentum in the divine dynasphere leading to spiritual maturity is the basis for historical impact. The active voice: the positive believer produces the action of the verb. You have to be motivated to hear doctrine on a regular basis. You have to understand the implications and you have to utilise through logistical grace provision the spiritual IQ provided by God in the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Perception of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere is the basis for achievement of spiritual maturity, and both blessing by association and historical uptrend as far as the client nation to God is concerned. This is what is called a circumstantial participle, circumstantial for believers attaining spiritual maturity through perception of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere.

With this first phrase we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun o)uj, and that is the Greek word for ears, “He who has an ear.” The possession of an ear is the potential for learning Bible doctrine. Furthermore, you will please note it is a grace provision.

The moment you believe in Jesus Christ 40 invisible things happen to you, plus entrance into gate one of the divine dynasphere. You can’t feel them, you can’t experience them, they nevertheless occur, they are very real, they are provided by God. One of these 40 things is the imputation of divine righteousness; you receive the righteousness of God. This establishes a pipeline. Since the holiness of God is composed of His righteousness plus His justice this is the integrity of God. The justice of God imputes to each one of us His righteousness, one half of divine integrity, and so a pipeline exists between the justice of God and the righteousness of God. From the righteousness of God as the source comes logistical grace, for believers who are winners and believers who are losers. No matter what category of believers all believers receive certain things. For example, they receive time, the amount of time necessary for you to advance to maturity is provided, you receive any kind of support you want to name. Logistical grace includes food, shelter, clothing, opportunity to hear the gospel, a right pastor, a place to go where you can hear, or some type of machine or gadget whereby you can hear. Therefore we have a concept that comes out of this articular present active participle, “He who has an ear.” This is a reference to logistical grace, everything necessary to keep you alive so that you can make decisions. We have studied decisions from the standpoint of historical trends, as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. The believer who makes decisions positive for the divine dynasphere and doctrine; that means historical blessing. The believer who makes negative decisions and goes into the cosmic system; that means historical downtrend. And when you see social degeneration, economic depression, or military disaster, or a combination thereof you are looking at the failure of believers to advance to maturity inside the divine dynasphere.

This brings us then to the concept of having an ear. We have freedom; we are free to succeed, to advance to maturity; we are free to fail. We are free to become winners in life; we are free to become losers in life. Attitude toward doctrine becomes the primary principle. Some people are so interested in security that they exchange freedom for security, and this is like selling your soul for a mess of pottage. Socialism and the redistribution of wealth is popular because it offers security instead of freedom, and when you get your priorities confused and you want security rather than freedom — that is what social security is all about — then, of course, you are on the wrong side of the fence, you are a loser as a believer. Freedom is necessary to glorify the Lord; security is not. Nevertheless, God has provided in grace both eternal and temporal security, and the temporal security, of course, is provided through logistical grace. Eternal security is settled at the moment you believe in Christ; temporal security is settled in less than a second through the imputation of divine righteousness. The believer cannot work for, earn, or deserve eternal security and he cannot earn, or work for or deserve temporal security. The possession of divine righteousness is your guarantee of eternal as well as temporal security.

Logistics is a technical word in the military. It is the military science of supply, provision, planning of troop movement. Therefore it has the concept of sustaining in the military functions of life. In manoeuvre logistics is the science of supporting troops in every situation. Whether advancing, retreating, evacuation, reconnaissance, attack, exploitation, pursuit, logistics is always the major issue. Logistical grace is therefore a pertinent term for us because the very fact that we possess physical ears as believers is a guarantee, an analogy, a reminder that each one of us is here today because of logistical grace. Once we believe in Jesus Christ He daily imputes to us time; He gives us a day at a time; He provides everything necessary to sustain us, to support us so that we are free to make decisions for or against His plan. Decisions for His plan make us winners; decisions against His plans make us losers, but being losers, again, does not mean loss of salvation. That is why we are commanded: “Grow by means of grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” — 2 Peter 3:18; that is why in 2 Corinthians 9:9, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency [logistical grace] in everything you may have an abundance for every good production”; or Ephesians 1:3, “Worthy of praise and glorification the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one having provided us benefits by every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” This is just another way of stating the principle of logistical grace. So we are supported in a magnificent way by God Himself, and the very fact that we have ears brings this to mind. Logistical grace is based on the faithfulness of God as a part of His integrity, as a part of His holiness. For example, Lamentations chapter is a great dissertation on logistical grace in time of disaster. Jeremiah was about to get upset by the fact that the fifth cycle of discipline was administered to the southern kingdom of Judah and was standing there as the young people were being shackled for the famous death march described in Psalm 119, a death march from the ruins of Jerusalem to the capital of Chaldea in Babylon. Before this death march was going to be made over desert and rough terrain Jeremiah stood there and he watch these young people, many of whom he knew were believers. He was very concerned and then the Lord brought to mind the doctrine of logistical grace, the fact that those young people would survive, that they would be supported, that they would even come back to the land to re-establish the client nation to God.

Lamentations 3:20, “Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.” No one can learn doctrine apart from humility. Humility is teachability, gate three of the divine dynasphere.

Verse 21, “This I recall to mind [concentration], therefore I have confidence [or hope],” this is hope number 2 in “Y” radical, or absolute confidence that attainment of maturity will result in special blessing from the justice of God. We are sustained logistically so that we can grow in grace, we are sustained, we have ears so that we can become mature believers, and the analogy is quite obvious: ears are undeserved; logistical grace is undeserved. Ears make it possible for us to hear doctrine; logistical grace makes it possible for us to hear doctrine.

Verse 22, “The Lord’s gracious functions [logistical grace] never cease, His compassions never fail,” the integrity of God is the basis for logistical grace.

Verse 23, “They are new every morning,” God provides time; God provides opportunity; God provides health so that you can decide; God provides freedom, He provides everything necessary so that we can grown in grace, “Great is your faithfulness.”

Verse 24, “The Lord is my portion [logistical support], says my soul, therefore I have confidence in him.”

Verse 25, “The Lord is good to those who trust in him.” The word for “trust” here is the strongest word for faith. It is the qal active participle of the Hebrew verb qawah, used for the for the strongest use of the faith-rest drill. It emphasises the third stage of the drill and the second stage where doctrine is applied, “To the soul who seeks him.”

So, “Great is thy faithfulness” is a manifestation of logistical grace. God’s faithfulness in rebound is stated in 1 John 1:9; His faithfulness in logistical support is mentioned in great detail in Lamentations 3:22,23. His faithfulness is based upon our relationship with Him, the fact that we have personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Logistical grace, therefore, has a testimony which is found throughout the scriptures and it is represented by this participle of having an ear.

The testimony is given in the form of anthropopathism. Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is our refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.” The everlasting arms sustain the winner and the loser, the Christian who fails and the Christian who succeeds. Each is given time and opportunity under logistical grace in order to advance or to fail miserably. God even gives extra time to believers who fail, postponing the administration of that maximum punishment, the sin unto death.

There is also the testimony of old age with regard to having an ear or logistical grace. “I have been young, but now I am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his descendants begging bread,” Psalm 37:25. From the standpoint of old age this was David in old age making it very clear that God had been faithful to him in his successes and God had been faithful to him in his failures.

The testimony of the shepherd is found in Psalm 23:1, “The Lord is the one shepherding me, therefore I do not lack anything,” literal translation from the Hebrew. We as believers do not lack, we have freedom and opportunity and time, and everything necessary in order to advance to maturity.

The testimony of the smartest man who ever lived, the apostle Paul. Philippians 4:19, “My God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” The logistical grace is divided into many categories, the most obvious one is time. The second one is life-sustaining support. God sustains the life of every believer on earth regardless of his status quo. No believer will depart from this life apart from divine will, that is why Psalm 48:14 says, “This God is our God forever and ever, he will be our guide even unto death.” The assignment of guardian angels, the assignment of the wall of fire which, of course, is pertinent to the divine dynasphere; the establishment function of freedom, authority, privacy, property; all of these things are a part of the picture. So that we can conclude with Peter in 1 Peter 1:5, “We are kept by the power of God.”

There is also spiritual provision: the provision of the divine dynasphere at salvation, the provision of an evangelist to present the Word of God — it may be a believer, it may be the gift of evangelism, it may be a pastor, it could be anyone, the provision of a right pastor, the provision of doctrinal teaching, the provision of privacy for the function of positive volition.

Logistical grace, of course, is always related to the faith-rest drill. The illustration of this is found in Matthew chapter six beginning at verse twenty-five: “For this reason I say to you, Stop worrying about your life, as to what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall wear. Is not life more than food, and body more than clothing?” — this is logistical grace, God provides these things. Illustration: the birds, etc. of verses 26-34. All of the things that we have are courtesy of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is going to provide for us as long as there is a purpose for our life; there is no way to get around it. Therefore, the conclusion of the matter: Matthew 6:34, “Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will take care of itself [under the principle of logistical grace]. Each day has enough evil of its own,” apply doctrine to the problems of the day, don’t in your imagination work up problems for tomorrow, they will come with or without your help!

So the issue in logistical grace. Logistical grace is the basis for stability in time, 1 Peter 5:12, “Stand fast in it [the grace of God].” Logistical grace is designed for momentum, Hebrews 12:28. Logistical grace continues in reversionism, 2 Corinthians 6:1, the carnal Corinthians were receiving the grace of God in vain. Logistical grace came to them just as it came to mature believers. Galatians 5:4, “You reversionists have become a casualty from Christ, whoever is being vindicated by the law; you have drifted off course.” Hebrews 12:15, “See to it that no one falls back from the grace of God,” logistical grace, “that no root of bitterness sprouting up cause trouble, and through this many be contaminated.”

It is first of all the perpetuation of human life in time. God sustains the life of the believer in spite of opposition from Satan and from his genius system, the cosmic system. No believer can continue in life apart from logistical grace support for Satan has the power of death, Ephesians 2:14, 15. But God delivers from death, according to Job 5:20; Psalm 33:19; 116:8. Death, then, is a matter of the sovereignty and plan of God based on prior knowledge of all the facts, believer, the believer in the cosmic system, the believer in the divine dynasphere, God sustains all.

Secondly, we should note that logistical grace includes the formation and the preservation of the canon of scripture. This includes the mechanics of inspiration as well as the faithfulness of divine integrity in preserving the Bible for us. Consequently the 20th century believer, while nearly 2000 years away from the original writing, has the Word of God preserved with a critical apparatus for determining the original text.

Thirdly, logistical grace includes the laws of divine establishment. Under the laws of divine establishment three things are sacred: freedom, property and human life. The laws of divine establishment therefore guarantee a certain amount of protection for you, especially in the client nation, the protection of your life, the protection of your property, the protection of your freedom. The laws of divine establishment provide authority and freedom in correct balance. Freedom with authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny.

Freedom is the heritage of birth plus the resultant imputation of life to its target or home, the human soul. Freedom is the extension of soul function; freedom includes the use of your volition, your emotion, your mentality, your conscience. Freedom includes the use, as it were, of your ears. The ears represent you mentality, they represent your volition; the ears represent the functions of your soul with which you can be positive or negative toward Bible doctrine. Freedom, of course, exists in two spheres: human life as a result of imputation at birth; spiritual life as the result of imputation at salvation.

Privacy is the environment for the function of freedom. Property is the legitimate possession of the believer under both logistical and supergrace blessing. It includes, of course, ownership of tangible things. Freedom cannot exist without an umbrella of authority. Freedom and equality, for example, cannot coexist. Freedom can neither guarantee or manufacture equality in the human race. Some use freedom to advance — self-determination toward residence in the divine dynasphere, self-determination toward function at its various gates; some use freedom to fail — self determination with regard to the two cosmic dynaspheres. Freedom does not guarantee equality, the function of freedom guarantees inequality, both on earth and forever — we have noted the fact that only a few are going to receive the order of the morning star, only a few are going to have resurrection bodies clothes with the uniform of glory. Equality, then, is the device of the arrogant; it is the device of the disoriented, the sociopath. Freedom is the motivation for grace orientation. Forced equality is not only the policy of dictators and tyrants but the basis for Satan’s eschatological, cosmos diabolicus, composed of his two cosmic systems. Freedom is the policy of God in the creation of the human race to resolve the angelic conflict. Freedom is dogmatic and inflexible regarding the essentials of life and reality, while being flexible and pliable regarding the nonessentials as well. Therefore freedom is both common sense, orientation to reality, which includes respect for authority, privacy, property and life. Under the laws of divine establishment freedom and authority are mated. You can’t have one without the other.

Another provision is the divine authorisation for the local church. The local church is the classroom for perception of Bible doctrine and momentum in the Christian life. It is the place where the believer assembles under divine authority for learning doctrine, advancing to maturity inside the divine dynasphere. The local church can be a house, a public building, a private building, a home, a car, an office, any place where doctrine is taught by a pastor, wither face to face or through some mechanical device. Mechanically, therefore, teaching can be face to face or it could be the convenience of a tape recorder, radio or television, and so on. However, no matter what the locale strict academic discipline and Spirit-filled concentration is always mandated by the Word. Believers who assemble in the local church are Bible students without portfolio. Their royal family privilege is the filling of the Spirit, life in the divine dynasphere, and the focal point of all worship is perception of Bible doctrine. In spite of apostasy of any given generation the local church continues in every generation of the Church Age. God does not change His policy because believers fail. Actually His policy remains the same and believers are punished for their failure to comply.

Also there is the provision of a right pastor and every believer has a right pastor within reach, either mechanical device or face to face. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher is a part of God’s logistical grace provision. The spiritual gift includes both authority and ability to communicate doctrine under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The gift is restricted to male believers but this fact does not preclude women from teaching children or women within the local church functioning in various ways. No male ever earned or deserved the gift of pastor-teacher and there is no stereotyped personality which is qualified to be a pastor. There is such a thing as recognising your gift from learning doctrine but there is no such thing as dedication to full-time Christian service or that nauseating phrase, “surrendering to preach.” Spiritual growth and advance through maximum doctrine resident in the soul is the means, of course, for discovering your own spiritual gift.

The royal priesthood of the believer is another logistical grace provision. Every believer is his own priest, therefore he has the right to assemble and to “use his ears,” as it were, and to hear Bible doctrine.

And, of course, there is the provision of the divine dynasphere which includes the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, objectivity from impersonal love, and humility which is teachability.

“He who has an ear,” the possession of an ear is the potential for learning Bible doctrine under the grace provision of spiritual IQ. The fact that the believer has ears is a guarantee of the ability to learn doctrine. No one earns or deserves ears and no one earns or deserves the IQ for the perception of Bible doctrine. Perception, of course, depends on hearing doctrine under the principle of audio grace. No one hears apart from his own volition. You can hear the sound but to concentrate on the content of the words is something else. So no one hears apart from human volition, and therefore the importance of positive volition toward doctrine, the importance of being self-motivated from the inner resources of grace. The ear represents a grace system for the perception of Bible doctrine at gate four. As a matter of fact God has provided three gates in the divine dynasphere as the support system for learning doctrine. Gate one is the power for perception, the ability to learn doctrine — the filling of the Spirit; Gate two is basic impersonal love, which is objectivity in perception of doctrine. This, of course, means that neither the communicator nor the content is regarded in any distorted sense; Gate three is humility or teachability, and, of course, arrogant believers are not teachable, they distort and exploit Bible doctrine to their own ends. All historical impact, then, results in the award of the morning star and ruling with Christ comes from the daily perception of Bible doctrine.

To amplify what it means to have an ear spiritually we should notice a few principles with regard to the perception of Bible doctrine. First there is ignorance. All of us live at one time in our lives totally ignorant of Bible doctrine, so there is ignorance in which the believer does not understand what is being taught from the pulpit. There are many reasons why he does not understand:1. No frame of reference through neglect of doctrine or just simply being e new believer; 2. There is arrogance, indifference, lack of concentration, negative volition. But then there is simply the fact that we all have to start with ignorance before we can come to cognisance. This means that in the perception of Bible doctrine we must first be hearers of the Word, and the hearer of the Word obviously has ears.

So we begin with the concept that Bible doctrine is taught. We call that the ICE principle. “I” is for isagogics — recovering the time in which the Bible was written. So many of the words and phrases and analogies simply deal with the time in which a given passage was written. This calls for a tremendous amount of detective work with regard to the ancient world. A good pastor actually has to live in two areas of time: in the past when the Bible was written and in the present when it has to be communicated so that the people can understand it. The “C” stands for categories of the Word of God. From time to time we develop categories and take them point by point. The “E” is for exegesis. Nothing can be categorised, interpreted or explained isagogically until it is first of all based on the original text. The ICE principle then is the principle of communicating to positive believers assembling in the local church.

When you first hear these things, if you are positive, they go into your left lobe as gnwsij. That is the first stage of knowledge, but that is a stage of knowledge of doctrine when it has no use to you as far as spiritual growth or as far as application, it merely becomes cognisance of what is being taught. So far it is not related to your life because it is simply in the left lobe, called also the nouj. This means that people can often tell you what they have heard in Bible class, but as long as it is gnwsisj it has no spiritual benefit whatever. Before Bible doctrine contributes to your growth, before Bible doctrine can be applied, before Bible doctrine is meaningful, it must be transferred to the right lobe which is called in the Bible the heart or, in the Greek, the kardia. This requires a process and this process is a part of the concept. For example, you can say, “I understand what you are teaching but I do not believe it.” That equals gnwsisj; that represents negative volition; it never becomes e)pignwsij and it does not contribute to your spiritual growth. But when you say, “I understand what you are teaching and I believe it,” this is how gnwsij is converted into e)pignwsisj. This breaks through the barrier; this is the use of the faith-rest drill related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit converting the g)nwsij doctrine into e)pignwsij. E)pignwsij enters into the right lobe. It goes into the frame of reference; it goes into the memory bank; it develops new vocabulary and categories; it is ready for application; it is the only basis for spiritual growth. Only e)pignwsij causes the believer to advance to maturity; only e)pignwsij can be formed categorically into rationales to be applied to experience. Gnwsij can never be used in reverse concentration or the second stage of the faith-rest drill. Gnwsij is only converted to e)pignwsij through faith perception. There are two things that are vitally necessary and they are road blocks when negative volition is involved. First of all, when you hear you must be filled with the Holy Spirit for perception. Once you understand it you must believe it, so that we actually have, then, a mechanical system by which doctrine becomes meaningful. Stage one is the presentation of doctrine from the pastor-teacher. Essentially this is the ICE function. The congregation is placed under a system of spiritual humility for reception and perception of doctrine. The system of spiritual humility begins with the existence of the local church, which equals organised humility. When you assemble you are a student without portfolio, the authority of the pastor becomes the principle of enforced humility. The reception of doctrine therefore becomes the basis for genuine humility — positive volition, the use of the filling of the Holy Spirit plus the faith-rest drill, second stage. There is growing in the spiritual realm just as there is growing in the human realm. The home is organised humility in the human realm; the parents are the authority for enforced humility and positive volition toward the parents results in genuine humility. No one can be mature in a human way in life without genuine humility. Genuine humility is the key to everything.

So we have isagogics presented when necessary. This is the interpretation of the Bible within the framework of its historical setting. Again, the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written as well as the original language in which it was written. The categorical communication of doctrine fulfils the hermeneutical principle of comparing scripture with scripture to determine classification of doctrine. The exegetical communication of doctrine is the analysis of each verse in its context to determine the exact meaning of a verse and its relationship to the context. Interpretation demands analysing the grammar, the syntax, the etymology of words in the original languages.

Stage two, then, becomes operation gnwsij. This is the function of receptive comprehension. The mentality of the soul has two working parts called lobes — left and right. The function of the left lobe: the believer approaching doctrine in ignorance. The objective of doctrinal teaching is to turn ignorance into cognisance. If ignorance continues it is because the believer is negative at one of the road blocks in the function of GAP. Ignorance persists because the believer is involved in the interlocking systems of arrogance. For example, he might be involved at gate one, mental arrogance. This includes a lot of things — jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, any form of antagonism, any motivation regarding revenge. All of this is preoccupation with self and becomes motivating evil. Gate two is negative volition arrogance, gate four is organisational arrogance, conspiratorial arrogance, gate fourteen is authority arrogance; gate fifteen, the arrogance of ignorance; gate seventeen, iconoclastic arrogance; gate nineteen, the arrogance of emotion. Other reasons for ignorance include lack of frame of reference from sporadic exposure to doctrine. Once the believer understands doctrine under the principle of receptive comprehension that information simply resides in the left lobe — we call it gnwsij. Such gnwsij information or doctrine resident in the left lobe cannot produce either spiritual growth or be used in application. This is simply a staging area in the whole concept of learning Bible doctrine; but it is a staging area with a purpose, for if you have any flaws then the doctrine will go no further and your flaws will dominate your life, and you will not grow spiritually even though you have been exposed. These flaws can be any category from sin to evil to the function of human good, but inevitably they are related to some form of preoccupation with self, some form of arrogance.

Stage three is the transitional stage, the function of faith perception. There are two kinds of faith related to the modus operandi of the plan of God — faith perception and faith application. Faith perception is learning doctrine or converting gnwsij into e)pignwsij. Faith perception also has another function. It is tolerant of repetition, for it is repetition that makes it possible for these things to become inculcation. In stage three gnwsij , then, is converted into e)pignwsij through the function of faith perception. The mechanics involve both volition and faith and, of course, continue to use objectivity and humility. Stage three is the critical stage and you never pass the critical stage as long as flaws are present. Under ordinary circumstances you might agree with the doctrine; it might be converted into e)pignwsij during the course of the teaching of it. But if there is some stage of preoccupation with self — if you are jealous, if you are bitter, if you are vindictive, if you have revenge motivation in your soul, if you are feeling sorry for yourself — that becomes a road block, and you may hear what is said and may understand it and still it is not doctrine that will cause you to grow. G)nwsij is only converted into e)pignwsij where there is positive volition, objectivity, the filling of the Spirit.

The fourth stage is the application. Faith application is actually reverse concentration, what is necessary for the acceleration of spiritual growth. We have studied in the past the moving from gate four — perception and application of doctrine — to gate eight, which is the objective, the momentum gate. Once you understand doctrine it is tested. The testings are the eight different momentum tests and each passing a momentum test means an acceleration of spiritual growth. No one reaches maturity without these tests and without passing them. This means that in the fourth stage application demands that there be e)pignwsij only for application. Apart from e)pignwsij doctrine and the divine viewpoint application is impossible. This means that we should understand the status of e)pignwsij doctrine in the heart or the right lobe. First of all, that e)pignwsij doctrine will be in the frame of reference. The frame of reference is a chamber that calls upon vocabulary which is technical. You never advance in learning anything without vocabulary, and in technical subjects technical vocabulary is necessary. This is true just as much in theology as it is in geology or anthropology or psychology, etc. Any subject has technical terminology for understanding the subject. The subject develops its own terminology and this is true of theology just as much as any other academic subject. The general language of social life simply will not cover it so you depart from social life and the language of social life, you depart from social intercourse and the language of social intercourse to add many words to your vocabulary. Therefore the frame of reference sets up a technical vocabulary, it is the framework for learning Bible doctrine. Vocabulary storage is a very important part of the right lobe.

However, these would be useless without something else added — a memory centre. This memory centre becomes a major issue in application, the ability to recall what you have learned, the ability to take the proper doctrine and place it with the proper experience, the proper situation. Vocabulary storage demands memory centre. Memory centre is the computer for bringing into focus what is pertinent to a given situation.

You also have a categorical storage as well. Many times a category will be recalled and then the correct application will be made. People often ask: “What is the will of God?” The will of God is, first of all, learning Bible doctrine for the believer. The will of God for the unbeliever is to accept Christ as saviour but for the believer it is to learn doctrine. It goes into the frame of reference, therefore to know the will of God it isn’t necessary to go to someone else, you go to your own vocabulary, you go to your own categories. The memory centre programs the whole thing for you so that if you continually learn doctrine you have programmed for you moment by moment in your life exactly what the will of God is. But knowing what the will of God is isn’t enough. That also must be related to volition. Once you know what the will of God is that is only half the fight; the other is to do it. You may know what the will of God is and not do it. Once you discover the will of God it isn’t pleasing to you, and since it isn’t pleasing you don’t do it. That, of course, takes you right into the cosmic system which immediately freezes the whole function of the k)ardia or the right lobe, and there is no application at all. That means that you have to have from your priesthood one thing that will help you once you go into the cosmic system through negative volition. Memory centre will immediately bring you to the realisation that the will of God for you is to rebound. So you go back into your vocabulary: What is rebound? You bring it into your memory centre. You are a priest and there is only one priestly function that can exist in the cosmic system — to name your sin, rebound.

The conscience is a part of the right lobe. The conscience is the norms and standards that you develop from doctrine, that is one half of the conscience. The other half of the conscience is priorities, and priorities are directly connected with the volition of the soul. The conscience, by the way, only uses e)pignwsij doctrine, gnwsij doctrine won’t do it. The conscience only has doctrine which is fulfilling the e)pignwsij principle, so whether you have right priorities or not, whether you have a conscience that sets up norms and standards correctly or not, depends on the perception of e)pignwsij doctrine. And doing the right thing is often something that goes counter to human viewpoint, but if you have enough e)pignwsij doctrine you will do the right thing, you will do the honourable thing.

All of the wires of the soul not only interlock and relate to each other — the volition of the soul, the right lobe of the soul, they also relate to emotion, but more than that they relate to the integrity that is developed from all of this. You develop a system of integrity and as you do, at that time you will do things that are honourable even though people won’t understand it, even though sometimes people will think you are crazy to do this or that or the other thing, but you will know what is right and you will do it and you will have no regard at all for the human viewpoint of your friends.

The frame of reference does a few other things as well. It sets up a system of using basic doctrines as a means of learning advanced doctrines. The frame of reference has a “red alert” section for the soul, using the garrison of doctrine for an instant reaction force against false doctrine. You have to be able to discern for yourself what is false, so this is an alarm system for detecting false teaching. The frame of reference uses e)pignwsij doctrine for dealing with problems of the subconscious and the guilt complex. The guilt complex is entirely an evil thing, the function of the subconscious is something else. The use of e)pignwsij doctrine, then, in dealing with the subconscious is very important. Many of the fears that you may ignore while you are conscious and awake come out in different ways when you are asleep. This is why some children are afraid to have the lights turned off when they go to bed, or they call for their parents and they want a drink of water. This goes into adult life as well.

The frame of reference also provides effectiveness in communicating ideas in conversation, in witnessing, in public speaking, in debate. It provides capacity for life, for love, for happiness. It raises the spiritual IQ, it motivates general learning and understanding of life. So when you put the frame of reference into the right lobe and start the operation it becomes a very delicate operation and everything balances out everything else; but two things are necessary: doctrine and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

Stage five is the spiritual growth, the advance from gate four to gate eight, the use of all of the things. Again you have the principle: “He who has an ear.” Now we come to the positive volition. Any believer is qualified to learn doctrine and therefore the mandate, “let him hear,” the aorist active imperative of the verb a)kouw. The constative aorist tense is for a fact or action extended over a period of time, that is, the believer is positive toward doctrine and he utilises the faith-rest drill in a positive way, and therefore gets doctrine as gnosis converted into e)pignwsij. It takes, therefore, positive volition toward doctrine inside the divine dynasphere and regardless of its extent or duration it gathers it up into a single whole as representing the fulfilment of God’s plan for the royal family believer in phase two. The active voice: the third person suffix of the verb indicates that the positive believer living in the divine dynasphere produces the action of the verb although the divine mandate belongs to all believers of the Church Age. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, this is a mandate for the royal family of God. It is a mandate that does not depend therefore on the personality of the minister, it does not depend on what your friends think, it depends strictly upon you — “let him [an individual] hear.” The hearing, of course, is more than just hearing, it is concentration under the ministry of the Spirit inside of the divine dynasphere; it is objectivity in the approach to the Word, it is motivation to persist in spite of all of the testings and all of the distortions to keep you and distract you from the Word.

Then we have the accusative neuter singular from the interrogative pronoun tij, correctly translated “what sort of thing.” It is a reference to the content of Bible doctrine and, of course, all blessing by association in historical impact comes from the momentum which comes from the doctrine. And the one who gives us the IQ for perception comes next, the nominative subject from the Greek word pneuma, “spirit.” The principle is very simple: no one can learn doctrine apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is taught in John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27. With this we have the present active indicative of legw, used for communication — to say, to speak, to communicate. The customary present tense is for what habitually occurs when the believer resides and functions inside the divine dynasphere, God’s game plan for the Church Age. The principle is very simple: power, objectivity and teachability. Power — gate one, the filling of the Spirit; objectivity — gate two, impersonal love; teachability — gate three, enforced and genuine humility. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb by providing the necessary spiritual IQ for learning doctrine. The declarative indicative mood is for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine, the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit there is no spiritual IQ for the perception of Bible doctrine and resultant momentum in the Christian way of life. Therefore, in this dispensation residence and function inside of the divine dynasphere is the only legitimate area for perception and application of doctrine because it is the only place where we are filled with the Spirit. It is the place of production in the Christian life, the place of glorification of the Lord, the place of historical impact. Apart from the filling of the Spirit there is no residence or function inside the divine dynasphere and that is why we have the four mandates. Mandate #1 is positive: “be filled with the Spirit” — Ephesians 5:18; mandate #2, is positive: “walk by means of the Spirit,” Galatians 5:16; mandate #3 is negative: “grieve not the Spirit,” Ephesians 4:30; mandate #4 is negative: “quench not the Spirit,” 1 Thessalonians 5:19. The positive mandates relate to uptrends in history; the negative mandates relate to downtrends. In cosmic one negative volition toward Bible doctrine is based upon preoccupation with self in the various categories of arrogance. In cosmic two negative volition toward doctrine is based on antagonism toward the truth. Because of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit related to positive mandates, such as Ephesians 5:18 and Galatians 5:16, a low human IQ is no handicap in learning Bible doctrine. The only handicap is cosmic involvement and resultant negative volition toward Bible doctrine. In other words, no matter how low your IQ if you are positive God the Holy Spirit will provide the necessary perceptive ability. In the cosmic system the greatest genius among Christians cannot understand the simplest of doctrines, while inside the divine dynasphere the dumbest of believers can understand the most complex doctrines of orthodox Christianity. While the channel for teaching doctrine is the ministry of the pastor-bishop, the understanding and perception of that doctrine depends on the ministry of God the Holy Spirit inside the divine dynasphere. Therefore the last word is the classroom: the dative plural, indirect object from e)kklhsia. The dative plural is an indirect object; it is also dative of advantage. All the teaching of Bible doctrine, all inculcation of the Word of God, must be under the filling of the Spirit inside the divine dynasphere, but for understanding this means one other thing: you are not only inside the divine dynasphere but you must be inside an academic situation. This can be at home. The trouble with so many tape classes is the fact that be distracted during the hearing of the tape. That home could be a church all right during the teaching of the Word, except for one thing: no academic discipline, therefore no concentration.

In the cosmic system the greatest genius among Christians cannot understand the simplest of doctrines, and sometimes that is because the great genius is arrogant. That is because the great genius looks down his nose academically, he is a snob. Therefore he is not about to sit down and listen to some dumb preacher. All teaching of Bible doctrine, all inculcation of the Word of God demands therefore that we be under a system of academic discipline, and that is really what the church is. All great decisions in life are related to assembling in the class room of the local church. And, again, the local church can be a building, a business office, a home, but nevertheless they have to observe strict academic discipline. So the principle of assembling becomes a matter of motivation related to volition and when you put it all together it simply says that there must be a regular place, a regular time, when you sit down and listen to the Word of God.

The outline of chapter three is very simple. There are three churches which are covered, the last three churches to complete the concept of historical trends: the church at Sardis, 3:1-6; the church at Philadelphia, 3:7-13; the church at Laodicea, 3:14-21. There were many other churches in the Roman province of Asia but these seven churches were well known to John and, secondly, they portrayed all of the historical trends that would occur throughout the Church Age. The times of the Gentiles began with AD 70, and in the first quarter of the century these things were not defined with regard to historical trends until John wrote on the Island of Patmos in AD 96.

Verse 1, we start with the encouragement of a future pastor. The verse deals with the basis for a historical downtrend. Even in times of historical downtrend pastors who are faithful in teaching the Word are encouraged by the phrase which begins the study of these local churches. We begin with the connective use of the conjunction kai, which is simply translated this time, “and.” Next we have the dative singular definite article. This is the generic use of the definite article. In the Greek it is toi, and the generic use is used to define a category. The category is the clergy, pastors, ministers of local churches. With this we have a dative singular indirect object from the noun a)ggeloj, transliterated in the King James version “angel,” but it really means messenger and that is the use here. However, it is a technical use for the word “messenger,” it means future pastors in the church at Sardis. The dative indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest the information is given. It is to the advantage of every pastor to have a message from God, and it is to the advantage of the congregation to have a pastor with a message. The genitive singular of relationship from the noun e)kklhsia follows, referring here to the local church as a class room for the perception of Bible doctrine. All local churches have location, so we have the prepositional phrase to bring that into view, e)n plus the locative from the proper noun Sardeij, “Sardis.” Then we have the aorist active imperative of the verb grafw, this is the mandate. The culminative aorist tense views the writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: completion of the canon of scripture, the encouragement of future pastors to teach doctrine, the completion of the textbook of world history from the time of John to the end of time. The imperative mood is the imperative of command. The active voice: the apostle John under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb. So the translation to begin our study: “And to the messenger, the future pastors of the church in Sardis, write.”

Before we go any further, however, we stop to note again the principle of the urban interpretation of Rome. Remember that the Roman republic was an agricultural economy, a collection of small farmers, first of all living on seven hills and then eventually spreading out. The people of the republic were a cross-civilisation of three races: Vilanovans, Sabines, and Etruscans (or Lydians). Sardis was the capital of Lydia. So the aristocrats of Rome came primarily from the area of Sardis, 700 years before this time. Rome grew from a city to an Italian state, and eventually a Mediterranean empire. What has often been categorised as the Roman empire was in essence an association of cities. Without the Greek civilisation of the fifth century BC and the Hellenistic states of the Macedonian empire there would have been no Roman empire. The Roman empire was the logical result of the great Hellenistic states, and before that the founder of the Hellenistic states, Alexander and his Macedonian empire. Roman civilisation was an urban civilisation for the city of the Roman empire was the important entity. In fact the cities of the Roman empire were very much like states, they were analogous to states in the USA today.

Since the cities were to the Roman empire what states are to the USA this will help us to understand a principle or two behind this passage. Cities in the Roman empire were permitted and encouraged to manage their own affairs with the Roman provincial governor acting as a general supervisor. The Romans did not crack down, in fact they encouraged independence in their large cities throughout the empire. The population in the Roman empire considered themselves citizens of a city more than anything else, thus losing their racial identity and their racial prejudice. Race was never an issue to the Romans. The combining of the Sabines and the Vilanovans with the Etruscans to form the aristocracy immediately eliminated any racial nonsense. The Etruscans, for example, didn’t hang on to their racial concepts, and the other peoples who were brought in, the Latins and the Gauls, were not encouraged to bring along their culture, and they did not. They were proud to be Romans because Rome didn’t represent a race, it represented a system, an excellent system invented by Gaius Julius Caesar. Therefore race was never an issue. And race is never an issue anyway, except where arrogance exists.

The Romans were greater than any people that have ever lived because of discipline, because of respect for authority, because of integrity. For discipline, authority and integrity are always associated with humility. So a Roman citizen considered himself an Alexandrian, an Athenian, a Corinthian, etc., so that the citizens of the Roman empire generally identified themselves with a city rather than a race. There was only one culture that was ever acceptable. You see the Romans had no culture. They started out as shepherds and farmers on seven hills and they had no culture. Therefore they borrowed a culture, and that is what preserved the Greek culture to bring about what we call classical times. Classical times isn’t classical Greek, it is Greek thought and Hellenistic thought, and the only culture that the Romans ever accepted was the Greek culture. No nation can survive more than one culture, and the Romans were many races and many religions but one culture. That is why, outside of England, very few nations have ever been great for a thousand years. The British had one culture, though they were many races also.

The spectacular conquest of Alexander the Great and the consequent period of Hellenistic monarchies after Alexander’s death in 321 BC paved the way for the Roman empire to be great. The Roman republic was not great — contrary to the opinions of historians who are liberals, it was the empire that was great. The republic was merely a foundation in which the empire was built, the foundation of discipline, the foundation of respect for law which brought about establishment principles. Rome, therefore became the master of a galaxy of cities throughout the world, cities which had flourished in Hellenistic times such as Athens, Corinth, Thessalonika, Pergamum, Ephesus, Antioch, Alexandria, and others. The republic was not a client nation to God, it was the empire that became a client nation to God. The direction of the Pauline epistles, of course, indicates something of Paul’s preference, while John would rate first and foremost the seven churches which we are studying. To John Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea carried the Roman empire during the period of the Antonine Caesars, the greatest period in Roman history. The prosperity index, then, of the Roman empire was the status of its cities, their industries, their free trade, their function of capitalism. Rome had the greatest system of free trade the world has ever known. They had the greatest industrial complex of the ancient world. Most important of all, the cities were the place where the churches came into being. Their were no country churches in the Roman empire and there was relatively little evangelism in the country, so that much of the opposition to churches came from country people who came to town and persecuted. Christianity flourished in the cities, the rural areas were strongholds for idolatry — the phallic cult, human sacrifice. This is one reason why they didn’t mind killing Christians when they came to town, they were accustomed to worshipping with human sacrifice. Evangelism, missionary activity, and Bible teaching reached its effective peak in the cities of the Roman empire. Therefore the rapid spread of Christianity and the establishment of the local churches was a city function. And as goes the believers in the cities so went the Roman empire as the first client nation to God. It is also interesting to note that no nation or empire can survive, and the cities in the empire, without the farmer. But the farming declined and almost disappeared in the Roman empire, and yet the Roman empire had the finest of food thanks to Egypt which provided all of the grain for all of the empire. The Roman empire as the first Gentile client nation to God therefore had its own agricultural support.

Sardis was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia. The Lydians were one of the three races that contributed to the Romans. The Iliad of Homer mentions Sardis under the name of Hyde [pronounced Hydee]. In the 8th century BC Sardis was the capital of the powerful Lydian empire, which produced kings like Creocus, the man who invented money. He invented money out of the most valuable of all metals, gold. The Jews did not have coined money, they had what is called talents — bars of metal. The city of Sardis was attacked by some wild Barbarians called Cimmerians in the 7th century BC. They kept attacking but because Sardis was a very beautifully fortified town they were never able to break in, except once, and they were finally driven out. But the Persians and the Athenians in the next century found a way to break through the great fortification system of Sardis, one of the greatest forts in the history of forts. Sardis was destroyed by a great earthquake in BC 17. The emperor Tiberias rebuilt it and because it was in such a fantastic location in less than two years it was rebuilt. When they rebuilt the city they took in mind traffic and so they built some of the finest boulevards and wide streets. The city of Sardis was famous for the gold taken out of the river which flowed through it, and it became a centre for making settings for jewelry. They also found out that there was something in the water beside gold, something that was perfect for dying, and it became the world centre for textile industries.

In 549 BC Sardis was captured by the Persians; in 501 BC it was captured and burned by the Ionians, the Athenians who went to Asia Minor; in 334 BC it surrendered to Alexander the Great, and he admired it so much he didn’t touch a thing. By the way, his soldiers were so well behaved there wasn’t one rape in town while they stayed there for six months. He controlled his army very well. He gave the city its independence which lasted for twelve years to 301 BC when it was conquered by Antiochus the Great; in 190 BC it became part of the kingdom of Pergamum; in 17 AD it was destroyed by an earthquake but the emperor Tiberius saw to it that it was rebuilt within a year; in 295 AD the Roman province of Asia was broken up and Sardis became part of the capital of Lydia; in 1402 AD it was conquered and destroyed by the Mongolian hordes, the last of the descendants of Ghengis Khan, and it never recovered from that.

Sardis was famous for other things, like the phallic cult. It was the first place in history where gold and silver coins were minted; it was famous for its fruit, its wool, its carpets, its jewelry; it was the wine centre of the world at that time. When Cicero visited Sardis he was impressed with its beauty. Three hundred years later Longus compared it to Venice in its beauty. It was the number one city for the manufacturing and the dying of woolen clothes throughout the world.

Next we have the anticipation of the historical downtrend. We begin with the present active participle from the verb legw, a word which can mean allege, answer, speak, to say. It has all kinds of related meanings. Here it means to communicate. The aoristic present tense sets forth an event as now occurring, punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality — the Lord Jesus Christ is communicating this information through the future pastors at the church of Sardis to the people of that city and, by the way, communicating it to us likewise. You must remember that behind these words and phrases is the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. The accusative neuter plural direct object o(dh is a demonstrative pronoun. It was used originally as the introductory formula for the Greek translation of the decrees of Persian kings. It is used here as an introductory formula to our Lord’s estimate of the situation in Sardis. So we have, “communicates these things.” Remember that the words in Greek are not in the same order as the English.

The subject is actually found in the relative clause which starts with the articular present active participle of e)xw, “he who has communicates these things.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun, translated “he”, subject: Jesus Christ. The present tense is a descriptive present; active voice: Jesus Christ is the subject. The participle is circumstantial to set up a relative clause, “He who has communicates these things.” Between “he who has” and “communicates these things” is the beginning of our study of the historical trends again. The rest of the relative clause is actually quoted from Revelation 1:4, 16, 20. First of all, from 1:4 we have the seven spirits. The accusative plural direct object of the verb e)xw is the seven spirits, “He who has the seven spirits communicates these things.”

This is a reference to God the Holy Spirit as the power system of the divine dynasphere. The title of God the Holy Spirit is taken from the prophecy of Isaiah 11:1,2. In Isaiah 11 we have a prophecy of the first advent of Jesus Christ.

Verse 1, “Then a shoot [a root that buds, a root shoot] will spring up,” a prophecy of the first advent. And the root shoot will spring up from a dynasty which is no longer ruling in Israel, the dynasty of David. Since the fifth cycle of discipline was administered by Nebuchadnezzar no member of the royal family has ruled in Israel, so it is called “the stump,” “from the stump of Jesse,” that is David’s line defunct from the fifth cycle of discipline; “And a branch from his roots [Christ at the second advent] will bear fruit [His rule in the Millennium].” So from verse one we have a prophecy of the two advents. It is because of a failure to properly interpret verse one that Jews have got into so much trouble in the 2000 years since Christ came the first time. Their failure to distinguish between the first and the second advent as in this passage is a part of their trouble. They can’t tell the difference between the root and the branch, and yet the root and the branch are one person, Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, the founder of Israel as the root. In the first advent He manifests Himself to Israel; in the second advent He comes back as the branch of a tree, the root grows into a great tree.

Verse 2, we have the fact that in the first advent of our Lord He was sustained by God the Holy Spirit. “And the Spirit of the Lord,” a reference to God the Holy Spirit, functioning at gate one of the prototype divine dynasphere, “will rest on him.” So here is the first of the seven spirits, His title as God. Remember that when Jesus Christ came in the flesh He was born into a power system; He was filled with the Spirit from birth. So “the Spirit of the Lord” is #1, the Holy Spirit at gate one.

The second of the seven spirits applying to the Holy Spirit. He is called “the Spirit of wisdom,” which in the Hebrew is chakmah, which means the application of doctrine from gate four of the prototype divine dynasphere.

Then we have “and understanding,” and that is the third of the seven spirits applying to God the Holy Spirit. “Understanding” is binah in the Hebrew; it is the perception of doctrine at gate four. Without the ministry of God the Holy Spirit there is no perception of doctrine.

Next He is called “the Spirit of counsel”, which is tseah in the Hebrew. It means plan or purpose, hence it is a reference of the Father’s plan to sustain the humanity of Christ in the prototype divine dynasphere. So again it refers to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit sustains the person of Christ during His earthly ministry.

Number five of the seven spirits: “and strength.” In the Hebrew it is “and of virtue.” It is the Hebrew word geburah, and it refers to both motivational and functional virtue produced by God the Holy Spirit in the incarnate Christ in His humanity, resulting in impeccability.

Number six is mentioned next in the verse: “The spirit of knowledge,” and this is daah, a reference to our Lord’s ability to interpret the trends of history during the first advent. By application, the ability of the believer living inside the divine dynasphere, learning doctrine , applying doctrine, and eventually coming to understand historical trends.

Number seven of the seven spirits is “the fear of the Lord.” This is jirah, the fear of the Lord meaning awe, respect, hence the function of gate five of the divine dynasphere.

So all seven descriptions in Isaiah 11:2 are really one Spirit, God the Holy Spirit whose divine power sustained the humanity of Christ in the prototype divine dynasphere, and whose divine power sustains the believer inside the operational model of the divine dynasphere for the Church Age.

1. Isaiah 11:1,2 not only prophesies of the two advents of Christ but emphasises the means for sustaining the humanity of Christ during the first advent, the power of the Holy Spirit in the prototype divine dynasphere. The Holy Spirit in the divine dynasphere is seven spirits but one person.

2. Isaiah 11:2 describes God the Holy Spirit in seven categorical functions inside the prototype divine dynasphere.

3. Revelation 3:1 indicates that the resurrected, glorified humanity of Christ at the right hand of the Father still possesses that prototype divine dynasphere in its power system, God the Holy Spirit.

4. In Revelation 4:5 it states that there is a relationship between the seven lamps, i.e. the seven local churches of Revelation 2 and 3, and the seven spirits, i.e. God the Holy Spirit. Therefore the divine dynasphere and the power of the Holy Spirit has been given to the royal family of God to be perpetuated throughout this dispensation only. You, as a believer, have something that is unique. You have the seven spirits, which means that you have the divine dynasphere available and the power system that goes with it, God the Holy Spirit, a power never made available to all believers at any other time in history. God the Holy Spirit sustained, empowered a few people in the Old Testament; now it is every believer who has the availability of the Spirit.

5. As long as the divine dynasphere is on earth, for the duration of the Church Age, there cannot be any prophecy. Prophecy stops and trends begin, trends depending on whether the believer lives in or out of the divine dynasphere.

6. This means that the dispensation of the Church is the Age of no prophecy, only historical trends.

8. The uptrend of history in the Church Age is influenced by the number of believers living consistently in the divine dynasphere.

9. Hence the believer’s residence and function in the divine dynasphere determines historical trends for any given generation.

10. Prophecy will not resume until the divine dynasphere is removed from planet earth. This will not occur until the Rapture, until the royal family departs.

11. Revelation 5:6 emphasises our Lord’s first advent under the title of the Lamb slain, and further relates the seven eyes of Zechariah chapters three and four to the seven spirits in that passage. In other words, the seven eyes and the seven spirits are synonymous.

12. Just as the Holy Spirit was the power system for the prototype divine dynasphere so the Holy Spirit is the power system or the working model of the divine dynasphere in this dispensation.

We have in verse one a principle with our Lord Jesus Christ: He was tested in all points like as we are. You will never have a test, a temptation, a justification for bitterness or reaction to life that our Lord Jesus Christ didn’t face in the 33 years of His first advent. He was tested in all points like as we are, yet apart from sin, apart from having a sin nature and apart from any personal act of sin. He started out without the imputation of Adam’s sin because of the virgin birth, and He started out in the prototype divine dynasphere, the same divine dynasphere that is given to us. And any time that we linger outside of the divine dynasphere it is inevitable that we are going to produce from our own volition a great deal of misery. It is also inevitable that the Lord will add to self-induced misery by divine discipline. The point that is emphasised in chapter 3:1 is a very simple one: the Lord used the power given by God the Father; the same power is available to you in the divine dynasphere.

God’s game plan for the Church Age — residence and function inside the divine dynasphere — is actually an invention of God the Father. He invented it to sustain the humanity of Christ during the first advent. When our Lord was born He was given the divine dynasphere, and because there was no genetically-formed old sin nature our Lord was born as Adam was created perfect. There was one difference: God the Father invented a power system and our Lord faced the same issue we face in our Christian lives — either choose for it or against it. Of course, our Lord chose for it. Prior to the virgin birth no divine dynasphere had ever existed in human history and whatever provision for spirituality existed in the Old Testament it did not include what we have today as the royal family of God or Church Age believers.

In verse 1, the one who has the seven spirits is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who first used the prototype divine dynasphere with such great success that it changed the course of human history and leads to historical trend number 1, Jesus Christ controls history. Our Lord’s function in His humanity — only the humanity of Christ is related to the divine dynasphere — is first noted in the scripture as a child in the home. The home is a part of category #1 truth, the laws of divine establishment; the home is the school by which children are trained for life. So the home is organised humility for without humility there is absolutely no orientation to life, no human maturity, no teachability, and life then becomes a miserable, horrible thing.

Our Lord had parents, and those parents represent authority. We don’t start out with freedom in life, we are not born free, nothing is born free. We are born helpless and under a system of authority. That big “A” for authority is the key to life, it is the key to freedom, it is the key to the sanctity of property, it is the key to the sanctity of life. Our Lord was born and He had parents. One was His real mother and one was His step father, not His real father. Both were descended directly from David. Joseph was descended from David through Solomon; Mary was descended from David through Nathan. So we have the principle of enforced humility. No one in this life ever reaches humility without enforced humility first. Enforced humility means authority. No one ever reaches teachability, no one ever has capacity for life, for love, for happiness, for blessing, without humility. Humility is the key to everything in life, and that is true for the unbeliever as well as for the believer. Our Lord responded to the authority of His parents.

You must remember that human authority is not always going to be fair. That is not even the point. You don’t reject authority because authority is unfair, for to reject authority is to reject life. Life cannot exist without authority. Many of the people who have authority are incapable but that is not the issue. Some people never get oriented to life because they have never been oriented to authority, starting in the home. And remember the principle of historical trends: We are the products of our own decisions; decisions create environment, not environment decisions. It is the positive response to the parent’s authority that leads to learning in life. Good decisions open the door for greater decisions and more decisions; bad decisions close the doors and shut down the options in life. The first great decision you make in life is to obey your parents. Whether they are fair or unfair is not the issue. That is the basis for genuine humility in life and genuine humility is the basis for maturity. Maturity has nothing to do with how many years you have.

Many human beings fail to make the transition from the home as a child to freedom in life as an adult. They reject parental authority and policy and purpose, resulting in becoming a physical adult and a mental child, or they have the soul of a child inside of an adult body. Human immaturity or lack of enforced and genuine humility cannot make proper use of freedom but distorts it into a system of evil by rejecting authority in life. Furthermore, such a person will not and cannot take the responsibility for the function of his own volition. But our Lord Jesus Christ responded to parental authority and functioned under gate three of the divine dynasphere, Luke 2:51,52, “and he was subordinate to them [His parents].” Not once was He ever touched by arrogance.

(A person who has human immaturity or lack of enforced discipline and genuine humility cannot make proper use of freedom. They distort it into a system of evil by rejecting authority in life)

Our Lord’s subordination to the Father’s plan follows the same parallel. The plan of God the Father is organised humility. The authority of God is the sovereignty of God, and that is enforced humility. Positive volition to the plan of God is genuine humility. Positive volition can be summarised by residence and function in the divine dynasphere, the filling of the Spirit, the daily perception of Bible doctrine and application where necessary. At the point of His birth our Lord so stated His subordination to the Father’s plan. Our Lord in the cradle was in hypostatic union, Hebrews 10:5, “Therefore, when he [the incarnate Christ] entered into the world [virgin birth], He said, “You [God the Father] do not desire sacrifices and offerings.” In other words, our Lord was a new priest after the order of Melchizedek, He was not going to offer animal sacrifices. He would institute the cup and the bread, but He would not go through any ritual of the animal sacrifices, “but you have prepared for me a human body … At that time [the first Christmas] I said, “I have arrived (In the scroll of the book [Old Testament] it stands written concerning me) to accomplish your plan, O God.” That is the ultimate in subordination to authority.

Before the cross our Lord faced the intensification of that test. In Matthew 26:36-42, “My Father, if it is possible [and it isn’t], let this cup [the cross, His bearing our sins] be removed from me; however, not as I will, but as you will.” The purity of our Lord’s motivation is expressed in Philippians 2:5-8, and it is related again to humility: “Keep on thinking this within you which was also resident in Christ Jesus, who, though he eternally existed in the essence of God, he did not think equality with God a profit to be seized and held,” He did not make an issue out of equality, only arrogance makes an issue out of equality. Humility never gives equality a thought, “but he deprived himself of the proper function of his deity [doctrine of kenosis], when he had received the form of a servant, when he had been born in the likeness of the human race. In fact, although he was discovered in outward appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of the death, that is, the death of the cross.”

John 15:10, “If you keep my mandates, you will reside in the sphere of my love complex; just as I [Jesus Christ] have fulfilled the mandates of my Father, and I reside in the sphere of his love complex [a synonym for the divine dynasphere].” So our Lord’s emphasis on doctrine inside the divine dynasphere is a marvelous thing, and the last thing that He uttered on the cross was the word “doctrine.”

The impeccability of Christ inside the divine dynasphere becomes a major issue. Impeccability means not liable to sin, exempt by virtue of being inside the divine dynasphere. As long as one remains inside the divine dynasphere he is free from sin. When you choose to sin you step outside the divine dynasphere. Inside the divine dynasphere is purity, integrity, honour, and as long as one remains inside the divine dynasphere through one’s own volition the purity factor remains in status quo. Jesus Christ, during the incarnation, remained inside the divine dynasphere, therefore He did not commit an act of personal sin. Where the first Adam failed the last Adam succeeded. The first Adam was temptable and peccable; the last Adam was able not to sin in His humanity because of the divine dynasphere. Christ was born without a sin nature, therefore He could not be tempted from within. His temptations came from without and they were much more extensive than anything we will ever face. The human nature of Christ was temptable but inside the divine dynasphere His purity remained intact. Our Lord’s temptations to His humanity not only came from without but He was tempted by Satan personally. That in itself is significant, Matthew 4:1. The divine nature of Christ was not temptable. Divine immutability demands impeccability, God cannot become mutable and turn temptation into sin. So His deity was not the issue. Christ is God; He is immutable; He is omnipotent, always has been and always will be. It is impossible for the deity of Christ to sin, to be tempted, or to be deceived. While Eve was deceived in her original temptation in the garden our Lord is omniscient and cannot be deceived by Satan or by sin. The sovereignty of God cannot change His mind about sin; the perfect righteousness of God cannot be corrupted by sin; the deity of Christ is not able to sin, James 1:13. The union of undiminished deity with true humanity meant that Christ was impeccable. The humanity of Christ was temptable and peccable but remained in purity inside the divine dynasphere. The deity of Christ was neither temptable nor peccable. Christ in hypostatic union, therefore, was temptable but impeccable. As God He was not able to sin; as true humanity inside the divine dynasphere He was able not to sin. This, then, is the picture of the power of the prototype divine dynasphere.

Translation of Revelation 3:1 so far: “And to the messenger [future pastors of the church at Sardis] write; He who has the seven spirits [God the Holy Spirit is the power system of the divine dynasphere] communicates these things.” The Holy Spirit was given without measure to our Lord and therefore we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. That is entrance into the divine dynasphere, gate one. We are commanded: “Walk by means of the Spirit,” this is functioning at the various gates of the divine dynasphere. Negatively, we are commanded. “Grieve not the Spirit” — involvement in cosmic one; “Quench not the Spirit,” involvement in cosmic two.

The Lord Jesus Christ was sustained by God the Holy Spirit throughout His earthly ministry. John 3:34, the Spirit was given without measure to the incarnate Christ; Matthew 3:16, the Holy Spirit is mentioned at the baptism in a special way; Matthew 12:18,28, the Holy Spirit is related to the ministry of the incarnate Christ. When Christ was being judged for our sins on the cross the ministry of the Holy Spirit in sustaining Him was set aside. There is only one time when our Lord was out of the divine dynasphere and that was for three hours when ”He who knew no sin was made sin for us.” However, the Holy Spirit participated in the resurrection of the humanity of Christ, according to Romans 8:11 and 1 Peter 3:18.

From Revelation 1:16 we have the next phrase. We have e(pta and a)steroj, “seven stars.” By comparing Revelation 1:16 for the interpretation given in 1:20 it is concluded that the seven stars are the seven future pastors of the seven churches. Just as a star is a light container so the pastor must also be a light container. The light that he must contain in his soul must be Bible doctrine which he has learned through study; the light must be maximum doctrine resident in his soul to teach the congregation. Hence we have the phrase, kai touj e(pta a)steroj, and this is a part of the accusative plural direct object from e)xw, “and he who has the seven stars communicates these things.” Translation so far: “And to the messenger [the future pastors] of the church in Sardis write; He who has the seven spirits and the seven stars communicates these things.”

We are now ready for the overall evaluation. We have the perfect i)oda used as a present active indicative. It is correctly translated, “I know,” but a better translation is, “I have known.” The present tense of duration is often translated like a perfect tense because the present of duration denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time — begun in the past through omniscience feeding the divine computer, the computer of divine decrees, and continues into the present with a printout of historical trends. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, as God, and the indicative mood is declarative for a statement of absolute and dogmatic fact known to our Lord Jesus Christ in eternity past.

Next we have the accusative plural direct object from the noun e)rgon, which means accomplishments or production. With it we have the possessive genitive singular from the personal pronoun su, “I have known your accomplishments,” i.e. your Christian production. Then we have a conjunction o(ti, used after verbs of cognisance to get the content, “namely that.” This is followed by a present active indicative of e)xw, which is used so frequently by the apostle John. It means to have or to hold. So we have “namely that you have.” The present tense is a descriptive present for what is now going on, a false reputation assigned to the church in Sardis. They have given a false impression to the world and their false reputation is about to be exposed. The active voice: the church in Sardis produces the action of the verb. There are many churches that have false reputations. They are supposed to be great spiritual churches. In reality they are not and cannot be without the presentation of Bible doctrine and the communication of the plan of God, i.e. the divine dynasphere. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of a false reputation assigned to the church at Sardis.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object from the word o)noma, which has three related meanings. It means “name,” it means “person,” it means “reputation.” So we will translate it, “namely that you have a reputation.” The reputation is that they are a live-wire church, the present active indicative of zaw, which means to live. The descriptive present for what is now going on, a false reputation assigned to the church at Sardis that they are a live-wire church, active in perception and application of doctrine. The active voice: allegedly the church at Sardis is producing the action. This is a declarative indicative mood for the reality of a false reputation — “namely that you have a reputation that you are alive.” A reputation for being alive implies that the believers in the church at Sardis are positive to doctrine, living in the divine dynasphere, advancing to maturity and forming a pivot for the blessing of the first Gentile client nation to God, SPQR.

1. A false reputation for spirituality and maturity is a sign of cosmic involvement related to the function of hypocrisy.

2. To live by one’s reputation with people apart from integrity and virtue is to be a cosmic believer, the most miserable person on planet earth.

3. The only reputation that counts is the believer’s reputation with God who cannot be deceived.

4. It is impossible to have a good name or reputation with God apart from consistent residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, and that includes consistent perception of Bible doctrine.

5. The believers of Sardis involved in the cosmic system talk a good fight, which means they have been exposed to excellent doctrinal teaching, but they have learned the vocabulary without its content.

6. To talk a good fight the believer only has to know the doctrinal vocabulary, but to fight a good fight, as per 2 Timothy 4:7,8, the believer has to be consistent in living inside the divine dynasphere, consistent in the perception and application of doctrine to life. Only e)pignwsij-type doctrine results in both spiritual growth and application to adversity. Adversity is the testing point.

7. It is easy for the cosmic believer to talk a good fight but it is difficult for the positive believer to fight a good fight. Talking a good fight is exposure to doctrine, living in the cosmic system while exposed to doctrine, growing in arrogance and functioning under the principle of hypocrisy. Fighting a good fight is learning doctrine, living in the divine dynasphere, growing in grace, applying doctrine to experience. The believer who talks a good fight makes bad decisions. He is spiritually and mentally lazy, negative toward doctrine, but gives the impression of being a spiritual giant. His arrogance is stimulated by approbation from other believers which only stabilises and crystallises his facade of hypocrisy plus his legalistic vanity.

The false reputation for spirituality and maturity is a sign of cosmic involvement related to the function of hypocrisy. To live by one’s reputation with people apart from integrity is one of the signs of being a cosmic believer and a cosmic believer is the most miserable person on planet earth. The only reputation that counts is the believer’s reputation with God. A reputation with people is meaningless unless it is backed by virtue and integrity. It is impossible to have a reputation or a good name with God apart from consistent residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, the daily function of GAP. The believers of Sardis involved in the cosmic system, therefore, fought the good fight, which means they have been exposed to excellent doctrine and doctrinal teaching but they had only skinned off the vocabulary without the content. They talked a good fight but they did not fight a good fight. To talk a good fight the believer only has to know the doctrinal vocabulary but to fight a good fight the believer has to live in the divine dynasphere, perception and application of doctrine. So only e)pignwsij type doctrine results in spiritual growth and the application to adversity. Only e)pignwsij-type doctrine develops virtue so that the believer has an honest reputation with people. It is easy for the cosmic believer to talk a good fight but it is very difficult for the positive believer to fight a good fight, so that talking a good fight is exposure to doctrine while living in the cosmic system but fighting a good fight is the residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. The believer who talks a good fight makes bad decisions, he is spiritually and mentally lazy, negative toward doctrine, but gives the impression of being a spiritual giant. His arrogance is stimulated by approbation from other believers, which only crystallises and stabilises his facade of hypocrisy.

Our next Greek word in Revelation 3:1 is the connective conjunction kai which introduces a fact as surprising, and when it introduces something as a surprising fact it is usually translated into the English by the word “nevertheless” or “in spite of that” So we have to translate, “but in spite of that reputation.” Next is the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, “in spite of that reputation you are.” The perfective present refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The active voice: the cosmic believers in the church at Sardis produce the action through their hypocrisy. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of cosmic believers in the Sardis church passing themselves off as spiritual believers. With this we have the predicate nominative of the noun nekroj, “you are dead.” This is a reference to believers living inside of the cosmic system. Hence the death of a cosmic believer, known as carnality and, when perpetuated, reversionism. This is the one word that clarifies the entire concept of this verse — “you are dead.” Obviously they are live physically, otherwise they would not be rebuked by the Lord at this point. So what does it mean, “you are dead”?

The last part of the verse says, “I have known your accomplishments, namely that you have a reputation that you are alive, but in spite of that reputation you are dead.”

1. The first and most obvious death is physical death in the human race which is defined as separation of the soul from the body. As long as the soul resides in the body there is life in the individual. This life was imputed by God immediately after birth to the human soul. When the soul leaves the body the person is physically dead. Physical death is a matter of the sovereign decision of God based on His perfect knowledge of all the facts. No believer ever departs by physical death unless God permits it. Exception: suicide, the superimposition of one’s volition over God’s.

God can and does prolong physical life. The conditions under which He does so are described in Psalm 102:19, 20, 23,24; 118:18. God also delivers the believer from death, Job 5:20; Psalm 33:19; 56:13; 116:8. Believers who attain maturity depart from life under the principle of dying grace, which means dying is one of the greatest moments of life, it is the moment of great happiness, blessing, and not necessarily freedom from pain but the negation of pain as a factor. Principle of dying grace: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints,” this does not refer to the believer who dies under the sin unto death. Resurrection, of course, is the victory over death, 1 Corinthians 15. Physical death is the soul leaving the body, in the case of the believer it is the soul and the spirit, while resurrection is the soul and the spirit of the believer getting a new body in the air. This body is permanent and the soul and the spirit live in that body forever. The body we have now is a body of corruption subject to death and it will not last forever, but the one we have in the future will.

Also at the last judgment when the unbeliever is resurrected he is given a body so that when he is cast into the lake of fire forever and ever that body will suffer maximum pain. The soul of the unbeliever has a body which will suffer intensive pain forever and ever. The second resurrection is a bona fide resurrection of the unbeliever, and because he has rejected Christ in time he is judged — he is not judged for his sins because all sin was judged at the cross and therefore sin cannot be mentioned at the last judgment. Instead the issue is all of his good deeds, which will not be good enough — in eternity on the basis of his works, out of the book of works. Human good is not good enough to get to heaven. The important thing about physical death is that the soul never dies; death does not refer to the soul. Once life is imputed to the soul the soul lives forever. The issue is: Where does the soul live forever? That issue can be answered only one way: “What think ye of Christ?” Christ is the issue.

So let’s take an illustration, someone who is the antithesis of the apostle Paul and who died in Rome at the same time he did, in about 66 AD. When Paul died he received an interim body, face to face with the Lord. He was recognisable in his interim body and for nearly 2000 years he and his friends have been having a wonderful time in heaven. The is the interlude of blessing. But let’s take “Brother Nitwit” who also died the same year and was a loser all the way. He didn’t spend five minutes of his Christian life in the divine dynasphere, he did everything wrong, he was in the cosmic system from start to finish, he was one of the world’s greatest losers. When he died the same year as Paul he was absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. He also had an interim body; he also had no more sorrows, no more tears, no more pain, no more death, the old things are passed away. And he also is enjoying and has been enjoying 2000 years of great blessing. But where the difference comes is at the judgment seat of Christ after the resurrection or Rapture of the Church. That is when “Brother Nitwit” is going to be ashamed, and that is when Paul is going to have the order of the morning star and all of the blessings that attend it. So “Nitwit” forever and ever and ever in his resurrection body is going to be low on the totem pole. Nevertheless between now and the Rapture the losers have an interim of great blessing. Death has great connotations for the believer and the believer with doctrine never fears death; it is the believer without doctrine who goes out with his fingernails across the blackboard of life, hanging on for dear life! For the believer whose momentum carries him to gate eight — the mature believer of the divine dynasphere — death is profit forever and ever, says Philippians 1:20,21. “According to my intense concentration and confidence that in nothing shall I be ashamed, but in all confidence, as at all times [i.e. inside the divine dynasphere] even now Christ will be glorified in my person, either through living or through dying. For me living is Christ [in the divine dynasphere], dying is profit.”

We have seen humility as one of the great things in life, now we see with humility two other factors: concentration and confidence. Humility, concentration and confidence are the greatest virtues for happiness in this life. For the believer who spends his life inside the cosmic system, however, death is horrible. The believer living in the cosmic system dies under discipline and has the most painful, nightmarish death.

2. The second category of death in the Bible is spiritual death, probably the least understood, especially when you link it with the cross. Spiritual death is the penalty of sin and is so given as a warning to our original parents in the garden. They were warned in Genesis 2:17 that if they disobeyed God and His prohibition, “dying they would die”. That was spiritual death. They didn’t die physically when they partook of the forbidden fruit, they died spiritually. But Adam’s original sin which brought about that spiritual death is imputed to us at birth; it is imputed to our genetically-formed old sin nature, and when it says the wages of sin is death in Romans 6:23 it is not talking about your personal sins and it is not talking about physical death. It is talking about Adam’s sin and it is talking about spiritual death, separation from God. We are born physically alive, human life imputed to the soul; we are born spiritually dead, isolated from God; that is what spiritual death is. Remember our personal sins are not the basis of our spiritual death, they are the basis of our Lord’s spiritual death on the cross. When He became a substitute and took our place on the cross these personal sins were imputed to Him. He had no spiritual death of His own because through the virgin birth He was born without an old sin nature, therefore Adam’s original sin couldn’t be imputed to Him because He had no old sin nature. Therefore He lived a perfect life inside the divine dynasphere and when He went to the cross He was the exception. The wages of sin is death to all members of the human race, Christ is the exception. The wages of sin was not death to Him because He did not sin, but it became death to Him because as our substitute and saviour our personal sins were imputed to Him and judged. So the spiritual death He had was not His own. When Christ was on the cross He died spiritually by being judged for our sins. Later on He died physically because His work was finished. Christ died twice on the cross that we might be born twice. So the entire human race is born physically alive and spiritually dead because of the two imputations that occur at birth. Mankind is not condemned by the imputation of his own personal sins to himself but by the imputation of Adam’s original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature. Condemnation is not the basis of personal sin, condemnation is on the basis of imputed sin. From birth the status of the human race is spiritual death, so the first death that comes to us comes at birth — spiritual death, just as Adam and the woman. We end life with physical death, the exception of course is the Rapture generation.

The solution to spiritual death is stated also in Romans 6:23, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Eternal life is not the same as human life. Human life is imputed to the soul after birth. Eternal life comes through Jesus Christ our Lord. So when we believe in Christ we are said to be born again, and we now have eternal life. This eternal life is not imputed to the soul but it is imputed to the human spirit. Regeneration or being born again is God the Holy Spirit creating a human spirit for the imputation of eternal life.

Our personal sins were never imputed to us for condemnation, they were imputed to Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “he [the Father] made him [Christ] who knew no sin [impeccability of the humanity of Christ inside the divine dynasphere] to be made sin on our behalf [our sins were imputed to Him] that we might become the righteousness of God in him [the other judicial imputation].” Isaiah 53:6, ‘Therefore the Lord [God the Father] has caused to fall on him [Christ on the cross] the punishment for our sins,” that is spiritual death.

3. Positional death of the believer is the third category of death in the Bible. Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation the believer is identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. Out of the forty things that happen to us at the point of salvation one is the baptism of the Spirit, one of the five ministries of the Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit: God the Holy Spirit picks us up and puts us into union with Christ. We are in union with Christ forever, we can never get out of being in union with Christ. “In Christ” is a technical phrase in the New Testament which means two things: current positional truth and retroactive identification with Christ in His death. This means simply this: When Christ died on the cross our sins were imputed to Him and judged, but we have two other things that were not imputed, our human good and our evil which were both rejected because human good and evil must continue to be an issue throughout human history. Remember that the angelic conflict is resolved by the function of human volition and without human good and evil the options do not exist in human history. So our Lord rejected human good and evil on the cross and was judged for our sins. Positional death is identification with Christ in His death, which means that positionally we have rejected human good and evil — not experientially but positionally. So through the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation the believer is identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. Positional death, also called retroactive positional truth, is the believer’s identification with Christ in His death, for just as Jesus Christ on the cross rejected human good and evil so positionally have all believers. That is why we only confess our sins for rebound, we do not confess human good and evil. Experientially the rejection of human good and evil by the believer is a matter of spiritual growth. Positional rejection of human good and evil as the policy of Satan, the manifestation of the cosmic system, is a part of the believer’s residence inside of the divine dynasphere. So positionally we were identified with Christ in His death, therefore positionally we have rejected good and evil. Experientially life in the divine dynasphere rejects human good and evil.

Colossians 2:11,12 is a good passage on this type of death. “In fact in him you have been circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, by the renunciation of the body of the flesh,” that is, the old sin nature’s functions: evil and human good, “by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him by means of the baptism [of the Spirit]”. The concept is expanded in Romans 6:1-5.

So retroactive positional truth or positional death is identification with Christ in His death where He was judged for our sins but rejected human good and evil, the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. Therefore we can only sin outside of the divine dynasphere and only produce human good and evil inside the cosmic system. Therefore all personal sin places us immediately outside of the divine dynasphere and simultaneously inside the cosmic system. If the believer persists in this then cosmic death becomes the issue.

4. Cosmic death is therefore category #4, the one we actually have in our passage. Cosmic death is carnality, the function of the believer’s volition converting temptation into sin. The old sin nature resides inside the human body. This is why people get old. Time is not the major issue, the old sin nature residing in the cell structure of the body is.

There is a gate between the body and the soul and that gate is guarded by the volition of the soul. The old sin nature can only send up temptation. It is the source of all temptation but it is not the source of sin, the source of sin is human volition. Temptation knocks on the gate and if you open the gate and let it through then it becomes sin. You may say you didn’t know that it was a sin when temptation knocks, but you still wanted it to enter. Therefore whether it is a temptation regarding a sin of cognisance or a sin of ignorance it makes no difference, you are responsible because that sin of ignorance or cognisance could not exist without your volition. This is how the old sin nature controls the soul, because you open the gate and let it in. The principle: The believer cannot sin inside the divine dynasphere, so when he makes that decision to open the gate and let the sin in — he converts temptation into sin — he is outside the divine dynasphere, and once he opens the gate and commits the sin from his own free will then he is in the cosmic system. That is how cosmic death gets started. The decision to sin automatically places the believer inside the cosmic system. Living inside the cosmic system classifies that believer not only as carnal but living in temporal death. For the believer cosmic involvement through sin is always cosmic death, the believer’s function inside the cosmic system. So when you sin of your own free will and enter into the cosmic system you are described in the Bible as dead. That can also be called carnal and you can call it reversionism, apostasy or anything but in some passages the Bible calls it death, James 1:15; Ephesians 5:14; 1 Timothy 5:6; Revelation 3:1; 1 John 3:14.

5. The production mortality of the believer. This category combines the arrogance of Christian service with the function of human good. It also can include the function of crusader arrogance with the modus operandi of cosmic panaceas. In other words, this is the production of Christian service, good works of the believer involving the cosmic system. All good works in the cosmic system are human good and are called “dead works,” Hebrews 6:1. Anything related to the cosmic system is outside of the plan of God, including Christian service and production performed while residing in the cosmic system. The works, the production, the Christian service of the believer in the cosmic system is dead, to be burned at the judgment seat of Christ under category “wood, hay, and stubble” — 1 Corinthians 3:15. All Christian production will be evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ after the Rapture of the Church.

6. Sexual death, the inability to copulate. It is only used in connection with men, and only one man in the Bible, Abraham, Romans 4:21; Hebrews 11:11,12. The issue of sexual death is very important. Abraham had children, but none by his wife. Now at age 99 there was a covenant to be fulfilled and he doesn’t have any child by his wife, Sarah. “Sarah shall have a son” is the issue. From Abraham’s loins would come a great nation, Israel. So how is the promise going to be fulfilled, an unconditional promise to Abraham if he can’t copulate? Here he is 99 and the promise is an unconditional promise from the Abrahamic covenant. Not only is Abraham unable to perform sexually but Sarah has passed the menopause so she could not become pregnant. That is sexual death. Both of them were sexually dead but very much alive! The promise was that Abraham would have a son by Sarah. If Abraham believed this he would do the following: cut the foreskin around the phallus and be ready for the Lord to fulfill His promise. And he did. The Jewish race is a miracle race. When Abraham had cut off the foreskin that was dead skin, that was spiritual death gone, and God revived his sexual apparatus as well as that of his wife, Sarah. And they had a son. After Sarah died Abraham had eight more sons.

7. The second death is for the unbeliever, and the unbeliever only. It is the final judgment of those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ as personal saviour; it is eternal separation from God in a literal lake of fire created out of the destruction of the universe. It is described as judgment in Hebrews 9:27, “And inasmuch as it is destined for mankind to die [physical death], but after this death the judgment [the second death].” That is why it is called the second death in Revelation 20:12-15, “the dead were judged from the things which had been written in the books according to their works … and they were judged each one according to his works.” They were not judged according to their sins because the sins of the unbeliever were judged at the cross, so he has to be judged according to his works. The lake of fire is the second death.

Verse 2, translated, “Be watchful” in the King James version. A pitiful translation. The present active imperative periphrastic is what we have. A periphrastic always has two verbs and in this one we have a participle used with a finite verb to constitute a compound tense form. The periphrastic combines two verb forms to make a more forceful mandate for alertness. In view of the overall subject of Revelation chapters 2 and 3, which is historical trends, the mandate is obvious. The reason for the periphrastic is emphasis on both linear aktionsart and duration. The actual periphrastic is composed of two verbs: ginomai and e)imi. These are the two that are always used in a periphrastic. In this particular case the verb ginomai is used instead of the verb e)imi as the first part of the periphrastic. Ordinarily, while you have e)imi you might as well know that this is most unusual, as is the mandate. Usually you have e)imi; this time we have ginomai. With it is the noun gregorew. We start with the fact that we have a present participle, ginomai, combined with a present middle imperative of gregorew, which is translated simply, “Be constantly alert,” but it is stronger than that. In fact the strength of the periphrastic simply cannot be rendered into English. The progressive present tense for both the participle and the finite verb is present linear aktionsart. It is a constant thing; you must be constant all of your Christian life. Alertness for every possible type of a problem is very important. Alertness with regard to temptation is basically where it starts; alertness with regard to your failures and what to do about it — the function of the rebound technique; alertness therefore to spend as much times as possible in the divine dynasphere; alertness to make sure that you are not distracted by others from learning the Word of God, either by the one who teaches the Word or by people in the congregation, or by your friends who have nothing whatever to do with the congregation. Distraction is a major problem and it requires alertness. But the primary alertness we have in this passage has to do with historical trends which we have studied in detail.

“Be constantly alert,” the active voice of the participle: the believer must produce the action. The middle voice of the finite verb, gregorew, is a direct middle in which the subject acts with a view to participating in the outcome of the action, participating in the results of residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. The imperative mood is a mandate for the believers to whom this was originally addressed and a mandate to Christians in general.

We have a connective kai because another part of this particular mandate includes a second verb, kai, simply translated “and.” Then the second mandate, part of the first, the aorist active imperative of the verb sthrizw, and it means to establish, to support, to confirm, to strengthen, and we are going to translate it “and strengthen” as in the King James version. But you must understand it means strengthen in the sense of support or stabilise. The original connotation of the verb was to support something so that it stands upright and immovable. In other words, this is a command to the pastor to continue teaching Bible doctrine in Sardis in spite of the tremendous surge of negative volition on the part of the believers.

One thing that men in the ministry remember is that people in general are fickle. Crowds inevitably are fickle and unstable and easily led. That is why, of course, Christianity has mandates with regard to crowds — not stay out of crowds but to stay away from the influence of crowds, and of people. Hence the two commands are directed toward the future pastors of the church at Sardis. Pastors through their own study of the Word must be able to interpret the historical trends since there is no prophecy to interpret for the Church Age. All prophecy begins after the Rapture. The historical trends are clearly delineated and the pastor must be alert to relate historical trends to the teaching and the application of the Word of God for the benefit of his congregation. But is says he must also do something else, and it is very discouraging for a pastor to study the Word of God only to have his message rejected, ridiculed, refused, or when there is rudeness during the teaching of the Word of God.

There are two basic categories of negative volition toward doctrine, both of which are related to the cosmic system. There is the negative volition of cosmic one, the twenty-six interlocking systems of arrogance; there is cosmic two, the nine interlocking systems of hatred. Each one has its own characteristics with regard to negative volition toward God’s plan — negative volition toward doctrine, negative volition toward anything that the Lord has provided by way of logistical grace and the options thereof. The negative volition of cosmic one, gate two — the negative volition gate — is rejection of Bible doctrine because of preoccupation with self. Preoccupation with self includes a principle called prejudice. Prejudice is often arrogance, although not always. When you are preoccupied with yourself and you are challenged by something in the Word that militates against your background, your preconceived notions, or something that is contrary to what someone you love and admire has said. Then you reject it. You are not really rejecting the overall teaching of the Word as such but because you are preoccupied with yourself you are rejecting some principle of the Word of God. The second category is negative volition of cosmic two, gate one. This is antagonism toward doctrine from rejection of its content and this is a much more serious type of negative volition. But no matter how widespread negative volition happens to be in the local church — and every local church has its negative volition — the pastor must continue to support, to strengthen, to stabilise, to establish those who are positive to Bible teaching by continued faithfulness in teaching, no matter how much “booing” there is from the pew. Often a message is only geared to a small percentage of the congregation because those are the positive ones.

The constative aorist tense is for action extended over a period of time, such as doctrinal teaching from the pulpit designed to stabilise, support, and strengthen those believers in the congregation who are positive. The active voice: the pastor produces the action and the imperative mood is a mandate, it is the imperative of command. Translation: “Be constantly alert, and constantly strengthen, support, stabilise.”

Now we have the object of both verbs. The accusative neuter plural from the definite article ta is the generic use of the definite article. The generic use of the definite article recognises positive believers as a special category to whom the pastor must be faithful in teaching while there is negative volition present in the same congregation. It recognises positive believers as a special category which glorify Christ, provide blessing for the client nation, fulfill the plan of God for the Church Age, and personally advance to maturity in great blessing from God in time. The accusative neuter plural direct object from the adjective used as a substantive, loipoj, is an adjective but it is used as a noun. It is translated, “the remnant,” the rest who have positive volition toward doctrine. In Sardis positive volition was in the minority in that local church. It was a local church where the majority of the believers talked a good fight but did not fight a good fight. They listened and picked up the vocabulary but they distorted it into something that was meaningless. So this is the remnant and the remnant is now described by the imperfect active indicative from mellw which introduces a relative clause — “who are about to.” The imperfect tense is a tendencial imperfect for an action tending toward realisation. It implies that cosmic involvement has not attained to the point of maximum punishment from God but the potential is there. In other words, when the majority of any given congregation are negative toward doctrine it has a tendency to put up a temptation in front of the positive believers, they have a tendency to go negative and get into the cosmic system themselves. This is the way it would be translated: “Be constantly alert, and strengthen the remnant.” The pastors must persist in teaching to positive believers for without doctrine they are the potential candidates for the cosmic system. They reside in a congregation where the majority of the believers are negative toward doctrine and therefore they are constantly tempted and they are constantly candidates for being influenced by the mob, influenced by the majority rather than being influenced by the teaching of Bible doctrine. This is always a problem. If everyone else is booing sometimes it is easy to join them, and the weak always do. The active voice means that these are positive believers living in the divine dynasphere and they have the potential of producing the action of the verb — although they haven’t as yet — even though there is a tremendous temptation to do so because they are in the minority. The indicative mood is the potential indicative of impulse. It is easy in a moment of impulse to get into the cosmic system. Then we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)poqenhskw, and it means to die, “who are about to die.” It is a reference to cosmic death and implies that from cosmic death comes the sin unto death. The constative aorist tense contemplates the possibility, the potentiality of positive believers getting into the cosmic system because so many are in the cosmic system in that particular local church. The active voice: the believers are potentially under the influence and distraction of negative believers producing the action. So we have believers in Sardis who are about to become negative. The infinitive indicates a conceived result which follows the nature of the case.

1. People influence people; believers influence believers. Our passage says: “Be constantly alert, and strengthen the remnant who are about to die,” they haven’t and they are still going strong but the potential is there. When you have a majority of people in the congregation that are negative toward doctrine it tends to cause those who are positive to become shaky, and often because they make close friendships with those who are negative they are led astray themselves.

2. Cosmic believers, especially when they are in the majority, influence positive believers living in the divine dynasphere, apart from the protection of faithful doctrinal teaching. They do this through friendship, flattery, and social life so that social life takes precedence over spiritual life.

3. Strong believers therefore become weak, and no matter how strong or talented or great a person may be in any given area arrogance neutralises that ability. So strong believers become weak when they become arrogant.

4. Arrogance is easily influenced by evil. That is because arrogance is preoccupation with self to the exclusion of any form of truth or any system of integrity.

5. Every positive believer living inside the divine dynasphere must be constantly alert from perception of doctrine not to be disillusioned or distracted or misled by cosmic believers. The pastor must be alert in teaching the Word; the congregation must be alert in the perception of doctrine to make the right application.

6. The spread of cosmic believers as the majority in any local church means the potential spread of apostasy through cosmic involvement.

7. Every cosmic believer in the local church is an evangelist for Satan and the cosmic system.

8. It is easier for believers to follow their friends into the cosmic system than to remain faithful to the teaching of Bible doctrine. The thing that causes this is arrogance in social life.

9. Where arrogance abounds friendship means influence and influence means cosmic involvement, cosmic involvement means the sin unto death.

In the next phrase we have an explanation, the explanatory use of the post-positive conjunctive particle gar, “for.” With this we have the perfect active indicative of the verb e(uriskw plus the negative o)u, “for I have not found.” The intensive perfect emphasises the existing results of a completed action, in this case a completed investigation of the church in Sardis. This is the emphatic method in the Greek of presenting a fact or a condition. The active voice: the Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb and the findings are not favourable. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of an unfavourable report regarding the church in Sardis. With this we have the accusative plural direct object from e)rgon, which should be translated here, “accomplishments,” “for I have not found your accomplishments [you production, your modus operandi].” The “your” comes from the possessive genitive singular from the pronoun su, “your accomplishments.” With this we have the perfect passive participle of the verb plhrow, a word which means fulfilled, completed, executed. It is used in seven ways in the several Greek languages. It is used in the New testament in this way: for the believer functioning at gate one of the divine dynasphere, “Be filled with the Spirit” is the same verb. Secondly it is used for the pastor communicating doctrine or filling up the deficiency of the Word of God among believers, Colossians 1:25. Thirdly it is used for the humanity of Christ functioning inside of the prototype divine dynasphere, Luke 2:40. Fourth, it is used for believers living inside the divine dynasphere, Ephesians 3:19; Colossians 1:9.Fifth, it is used for capacity for happiness in the divine dynasphere, 1 John 1:4; Sixth, it is used for the priestly function of giving, Philippians 4:18; Seventh, it is used for the results of the believer residing and functioning inside of the divine dynasphere, Philippians 1:11. Hence the verb plhrow is obviously used for the execution or the fulfillment of God’s plan for the royal family of the Church Age. In this context with the negative o)u, the failure of believes in Sardis to execute, to fulfill, to complete the plan of God related to residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. Translation: “For I have not found your accomplishments completed [fulfilled, executed, accomplished].” The English word “completed” seems to be in keeping with the facts of the context. There exists a remnant, a minority of positive believers in the church at Sardis. This remnant is functioning inside the divine dynasphere but is shaky because they are in such a minority and not consistent enough to avoid distractions caused by the Jezebel cult in nearby Thyatira and the potential of dying the sin unto death through cosmic involvement. There is, therefore, an historical downtrend in the city of Sardis. It is caused by inconsistency and instability of believers who vacillate between positive and negative volition, between the divine dynasphere and the cosmic system. That vacillation is instability, therefore nothing is accomplished or completed. The instability of believers in Sardis has the effect of historical downtrend for they cannot reside in the divine dynasphere long enough to advance from gate four to gate eight or complete the achievement of spiritual maturity.

So we have the perfect tense of plhrow. It is what we call an iterative perfect in which advance to maturity in the divine dynasphere is not progressive, in fact it is retrogressive. It can also be construed as the perfect of existing state in which the past is dropped from the thought and attention is focused on the present status quo. The passive voice: unstable, negative believers involved in the cosmic system continually vacillate between positive and negative volition and between the divine dynasphere and the cosmic system, and they receive the action of the verb, they are not completing God’s plan. The participle is circumstantial. With the negative it means failure to execute the very purpose for which they are supported logistically.

Then finally in this verse we have the improper preposition e)mwpion plus the genitive of Qeoj, and it is translated, “in the sight of God.” There is a possessive genitive from e)gw, calling it “my God.”

Corrected translation of the entire verse: “Be constantly alert, and strengthen the remnant [those who still have positive volition] who were about to die [those who had the potential for cosmic death and the sin unto death]: for I have not found your accomplishments [your Christian modus vivendi] completed [fulfilled] in the sight of my God.”

1. The fulfillment of the Christian way of life and the completion of the plan of God for our lives must be motivated by that function of the royal priesthood inside the divine dynasphere. Every believer is his own priest and therefore, in effect, does not have to be distracted from the Word by the majority who are negative toward doctrine. The believer must live his life as unto the Lord. In other words, not live his life as unto people, the majority, friends, people who lead him away from doctrine.

2. This prepositional phrase emphasises the fact that no believer can fulfill the plan of God inside the divine dynasphere when he has false motivation.

3. True motivation is derived from Bible doctrine resident in the soul causing personal love for God as the motivating virtue and functional virtue toward man, impersonal love. That impersonal love gives you the ability to have high regard for people without being influenced by people.

4. The turning of the tide and the reversal of historical trends is the responsibility of the believer living consistently in the divine dynasphere and functioning consistently at the various gates.

In verse three we see the alternatives to turning the tide: historical downtrend, a reversal of the great blessings that have come in the past to that area from maximum positive volition.

We belong historically to nearly two thousand years of Gentile client nations. We live in the times of the Gentiles when no Jewish nation can be a client nation to God; the next Jewish client nation will be at the second advent of our Lord and will continue down through and including all of the Millennium, the last 1000 years of history. But in the meantime this is the dispensation of the Church and in this dispensation any client nation to God is especially sensitive to historical trends. We are the products of our own decisions individually and collectively; as goes the believer, so goes the client nation to God.

For the believer who spends his time living inside the divine dynasphere, functioning at gate one, the filling of the Spirit; gate two, basic impersonal love; gate three, enforced and genuine humility, that particular believer has capacity for life. The first three gates are in support of gate four. Gate one is the IQ, the power for the ability to learn; gate two is the objectivity in learning doctrine; gate three is the teachability in learning doctrine; gate four is perception and application of doctrine, perception of doctrine, the function of the royal priesthood; application of doctrine, the function of the royal ambassadorship. The rest of the gates are the results of the first three gates in function. Gate five is love of God; gate six: right man, right woman where pertinent; gate seven: friendship plus advanced impersonal love; gate eight: the ultimate objective in the Christian life in which we have constructed the edification complex of the soul and, at the same time, advance to maturity becoming the recipients of supergrace blessings in six paragraphs. The believer living inside of the divine dynasphere contributes to the uptrend of history but the believer living in Satan’s cosmic system — cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance; cosmic two with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred — is contributing to the downtrend of history. We appear to be on a downtrend at the present time, the three characteristics of the downtrends seem to be applicable at the moment in our own nation. We are seeing economic depression, social degeneration, and certainly in our lifetime we have seen military disaster, we have lost two wars. But the wars were lost here at home where we are the products of our own decisions.

We recognise from the Word of God that the human race will never be destroyed by nuclear weapons. The human race will not even be changed by these weapons. People are born, live and die, and people will continue to be born and to live and to die. The three categories of truth in the Word of God, #1, the laws of divine establishment; #2, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; #3, Bible doctrine for believers, all deny and brand as blasphemous what people in the National Council of Churches are doing by calling for nuclear disarmament.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has declared in Matthew chapter 24, a doctrine: the perpetuation of warfare. The only one who can stop warfare is our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent. It is not true that the swords will be turned into ploughshares and the spears into pruning hooks in this dispensation or in the Tribulation. This is only true of the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, another distortion: when the Bible says, “he who carries the sword will perish by the sword,” and it is commonly taken to mean warfare. Actually, it is dealing with criminality, with a civilian picking up the sword to kill someone. It is dealing with the subject of murder and we note that the Word of God advocates that murder should be punished by death.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in Matthew chapter 24 beginning at verse four, had this to say: “See to it that no one misleads you.” In time of decline of a client nation religion is always misleading. It is religion that says: “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. And the condemnation of this phrase uttered in the past by the prophets, as uttered today by many people in many pulpits, has the same connotation — there is no peace.

“… And you will be hearing of wars and rumours of wars; see to it that you are not frightened,” there is the issue. Religion is frightened, it is running scared. And yet the believer in Jesus Christ understanding Bible doctrine has no fear of these things; “for these things must take place,” this is one of the historical trends, the perpetuation of hot and cold wars during the Church Age and in the Tribulation to follow. War will only be abolished at the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ; “but it is not yet the end [of the Jewish Age]. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,” the only exception to this will occur when Jesus Christ personally rules the earth. As long as Satan is the ruler of this world there will be wars and rumours of wars.

Isaiah 2:4 tells us what will happen when our Lord Jesus Christ returns: “And he will judge between the nations, and he will reprove many peoples; therefore they will hammer their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither again will they learn the art of war.” Man will not accomplish in the dispensation of the Church nor the Tribulation what only Jesus Christ can accomplish by His personal rule of the earth, beginning at the second advent. Therefore as a historical trend warfare will continue just as our Lord Jesus Christ has warned us.

Other passages tell us this fact as far as the historical trend is concerned. In Ecclesiastes 3:8, “There is a time for war and a time for peace.” This means that war is often beneficial; that when people destroy themselves with their cosmic ideas, that when people start to degenerate beyond the place there the human race can be perpetuated, God used warfare in order to cleanse the human race of its degeneracy.

Numbers 21:14, “Therefore it is written in the Book of the Wars of the Lord, Waheb in Suphah [Jehovah takes in the storm].”

The misnomer of warfare is found in Matthew 26:52, And Jesus said to him [Peter], “put up your sword; for all who draw the sword [in crime] shall perish by the sword [in capital punishment].” The sword refers to capital punishment in Romans 13:4. Therefore we should have a different concept of the military. Under category #1 truth the military, if it is well prepared, often prevents war. A strong military establishment is a blessing to a nation, a protection of its stability. Under the laws of divine establishment pertaining to divine institution #4 all national freedom comes through military victory. Two factors are involved in the protection of national sovereignty and freedom. The first factor is the one we have been studying in detail in Revelation, i.e. the spiritual factor. The spiritual factor comes from a principle which has to do today with believers residing in the divine dynasphere. At the time of the writing of Nehemiah, however, there was no divine dynasphere, that belongs to the royal family of the Church Age. So there is another factor as well as the spiritual factor of the life of believers inside the divine dynasphere. Nehemiah 4:8, “And all of them together [Samaria, the Ammonites, Arabs and the Philistines] organised a conspiracy to invade and fight against Jerusalem to manufacture harm against it. But we made intercession to our God [the spiritual factor], and we established a military security system against them day and night.” This is a mobilisation plan that put the nation on red alert. Verse 13, “Therefore I garrisoned troops on the lower slopes behind the walls as a mobile reserve. On the higher places I stationed troops according to their tribes with their swords, their spears, and bows… I spoke to the generals, the commissioned officers, and the men in ranks: “Do not be afraid of them; remember the Lord, hero warrior and respected one, therefore fight in battle for your fellow citizens ...” Under the laws of divine establishment three things are sacred: freedom, property and life — “And it shall come to pass that when the enemies heard that it was known to us, and that God had frustrated their plan, then all of us returned to the wall, each man to his service.” Failure of the military on the battlefield indicates the failure of a cross section of people, for any military organisation represents every aspect of society in a nation. Failure in the battlefield indicates also lack of training, lack of self-discipline, lack of respect for authority, lack of motivation to courage, lack of spiritual incentive to remain free, to try to trade some form of apparent human security for what is real security — freedom. Freedom in the historical trend of this dispensation is purchased and perpetuated only through military victory. No nation has survived the fact of defeat. Failure to fight for freedom means slavery and you cannot fight for freedom unless you are prepared and professionally trained, and unless the military is given its rightful place under the laws of divine establishment. Social degeneration is always characterised by disdain of the military and the police. Jewish military failure during the Chaldean invasion by Nebuchadnezzar in BC 587 can be attributed to the spiritual and moral decline of Judah, as portrayed by the book of Jeremiah. God used the military in action, therefore, to demonstrate the degeneracy and the decline of a nation. Remember, we are the products of our own decisions individually and collectively. The issue of national sovereignty, integrity and freedom depends therefore on which army wins. The Chaldean army won in 586 BC and the Jews lost their freedom. Even Jeremiah himself, for a short time, was put in chains Jeremiah 40:1.

The second problem has to do with our Lord’s teachings of the sermon on the mount, which is one of the favourite areas for the Methodist bishops. They love “turning the other cheek,” but they misinterpret this, of course. These things are the manifestation of the doctrine of impersonal love or functional virtue from residence inside the divine dynasphere and daily perception of doctrine. But these things are only applicable in social situations, not historical. Furthermore, it is our Lord’s policy for ruling the world in the Millennium, therefore it has a Millennial connotation, just like turning swords into ploughshares. In the meantime the order of the day is quite different and our Lord Jesus Christ makes that very clear. Our Lord rejected human violence; that is crime, an evil.

In Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you.” The one who is to fight in this chapter is described by one of His titles as the God of Israel, Adonai Sabaoth. It is called Lord of hosts in translation but that is really Lord of the armies. The Lord approves of armies; He doesn’t approve of disbanding armies. This is the title of our Lord as Commander-in-Chief. Joshua discovered that he was only a Chief-of -Staff under the Lord Jesus Christ in that famous section of the Word of God — Joshua 5:13-6:2. In Zechariah 14:3,4, “The Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.”

Jesus Christ as the Lord of the armies is also a combat soldier in a very real sense. In the year 701 BC, during the Assyrian invasion of Sennacherib who came into Judah with one of the greatest armies in history, Isaiah 37:36 tells us what happened to that army. The Jews were without any strong military and they were overpowered. And when the coup de grace was about to be administered by the Assyrian army, this is what happened: “Then the angel of the Lord [Jesus Christ] went out, and struck down 185,000 of the camp of the Assyrians; and when the men went and returned early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead”. Note verse 37: Sennacherib retreated!

The Lord Jesus Christ will break His own record in the last phase of the Armageddon campaign. In Revelation 19:11, “And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and he who was mounted on it is called Faithful and True [our Lord Jesus Christ]; and in righteousness he judges and makes war.” Verse 15, “And from his mouth came a sharp sword, so that with it might smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty one.” The winepress is described in Revelation 14:20, “And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came from the winepress up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of 200 miles.” So this is our same Lord Jesus Christ.

The image of our Lord is very simple. Our Lord is a warrior; our Lord recognises the difference — after all, He is God — between legitimate force and violence. Violence is the revolutionary crowd, the Jacobins of France, the communists of Russia. They use violence to get their way. Force belongs to the laws of divine establishment. There are three legitimate forces in this country: first, the military to protect us from enemies without; secondly, the police officer to protect us from enemies within; thirdly, the right of the individual citizen to protect his life and property against criminality. There is legitimate force. On the other hand, violence is crime — criminality, revolution, terrorism —, the quintessence of evil and is punishable, and should be punished by death.

In Numbers 1:2,3 our Lord commanded to take a census: “Take a census of the people of the sons of Israel … twenty years old and upward.” Why? They needed to know who was eligible for military service. “ … whoever is able to go to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall muster them by their armies.” The exception to conscription is also given: “When a man shall take a new wife he shall not go out with the army, nor be called to active duty; he shall be free to stay home for one year with his wife. He shall give pleasure to his wife whom he has taken.” The mobilisation plan for Israel is the book of Numbers, one whole book of the Bible devoted to the military of client nation Israel! Numbers means mobilisation and everything in the book is related to the war plans of client nation Israel.

There must exist in a national entity also professional, capable high-ranking officers whose life is devoted to planning of warfare, Luke 14:31, “Or what king, when he advances to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to attack the one coming against him with an army of twenty thousand?” This is a principle enucleated by our Lord. He makes it very clear that there must be professional leadership, there must be professional military establishment.

True motivation for military training is from God Himself when He said in 2 Samuel 22:35, “He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze,” they are in good shape. In Psalm 144:1, “Blessed be the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.” It takes training to do this, and yet some would have us disarm!

Quote from a book on military institutions of the Romans: “Victory in war does not depend on numbers or mere courage, only discipline and training will ensure it. We find that the Romans owed the conquest of the world to no other cause than continual military training,” we are talking about the first Gentile client nation to God, “exact observance of discipline, and unwearied cultivation of the arts of war. Without these what chance would the Roman armies have with their small numbers against the larger numbers of the Gauls, or what success could they have in opposing the superior numbers of the Germans. The Spaniards surpassed the Romans in both numbers and physical strength. We were always inferior to the Africans, the Carthaginians, in wealth and unequal to them in strategy and tactics,” a reference to Hannibal. “The Greeks were superior to us in skill, in arts, in all kinds of knowledge, but to all of these advantages the Romans imposed unusual care in the choice of their conscriptions and in their military training. They thoroughly understood the importance of toughening them by continual practice and training them in every manoeuvre of line and in action. They were strict in punishing idleness in the military. The courage of a soldier is intensified by his knowledge of his profession and he only wants an opportunity to execute what he has been perfectly taught. A handful of men inured to war move to certain victory, while on the contrary, numerous armies of raw and undisciplined troops are but a mass of men being dragged to the slaughter.”

So war is a principle from God. For example, in 1 Chronicles 5:19,20, “And they made war against the Hagrites (Arabs) … and they were helped against them, and the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hand; for they [the Jews] cried out to God in battle, and he was entreated for them, because they trusted in him.” Verse 22, “For many fell slain, because the war was from God.”

The principles of warfare are delineated in great detail in the book of numbers, “And when Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance for Israel according to the division by tribes; therefore the land had rest from war,” Joshua 11:23 tells us therefore that victory in warfare means the perpetuation of peace; not that peace will be indefinite, but victory is remembered in war long enough to give a period of peace. God Himself has ordained the principle of peace through military victory in Psalm 46:7-9, “The Lord of the armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our bivouac. Come, and behold the works of the Lord, which he has wrought as desolations in the earth,” Jesus Christ controls history, often through warfare and military victory; “He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; he burns the chariots with fire,” He does this through military.

God protects from evil and warlike nations. Psalm 55:20-23, “He has put forth his hand against those who were at peace with him,” a reference to an evil nation preparing for war against a nation with whom they have a treaty; “He has violated his treaty. His [evil nation] speech was smoother than butter, but his right lobe was at war; his words were slicker than oil, yet they were from drawn swords.” So what is the good nation going to do? “Cast your burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will not allow the righteous to totter.” And the enemy? “But you, O God, will bring them down to the pit of destruction; men of bloodshed will not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.”

Jeremiah describes why often a nation is attacked, why a nation gets into war. Jeremiah 6:13,14, “From the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain, and from the prophet even to the priest, every one manufactures lies,” lack of teaching of truth and lack of integrity in business always bring about warfare; “And they have healed the wound of my people superficially, saying, “Peace, peace, but there is no peace.” So they talk about peace but that’s a lie. The more they talk about it and the lie is accepted the sooner they are destroyed.

In Hebrews 11:35, however, there was freedom perpetuated because of this phrase: “they became courageous in battle, and put to flight the invading armies.”

Leadership is necessary, as we have noted, in war. “War plans are formed by wisdom and planning,” professional leadership; “and with wisdom men make war.” Proverbs 24:1-6, “Do not become jealous of evil men.” It is interesting to note that arrogance destroys whatever leadership ability people have. It may be business leadership, military leadership, but whatever leadership exists arrogance destroys it. Arrogance destroys talent or anything that is good in man, “For their right lobes devise violence [violence is evil], and their lips talk trouble [personality conflicts mean disaster in battle]. By wisdom [doctrine in the soul] a house is constructed [the ECS], and by understanding [doctrine] one prepares himself for war; and by knowledge [of doctrine] the rooms are filled with something of value [the spiritual blessings of supergrace]. A wise man [military leader] is strong, a man of knowledge increasing his strength. For by the art of leadership you will execute warfare, for victory is in the greatness of the one planning strategy and tactics.”

All self and group discipline is dependent upon respect for authority. That is why a really great leader must also be a salesman because he must sell people on accepting his authority. The proper use of authority without the abuse of authority demands integrity. All great leaders have integrity in their profession. A relaxed mental attitude includes freedom from mental attitude sins. All great leaders have been free from worry and anxiety. Strong character of soul accompanied by strong sense of responsibility is a part of leadership. Professional understanding and knowledge of all phases of military logistics, strategy, tactics is necessary. Loyalty as a result of understanding the principle of authority. Objectivity in living by the principle and not succumbing to personality conflicts. Common sense, good judgment, fairness, objectivity, understanding of people, executive ability; the ability to organise, to categorise, to delegate. Health which includes endurance and nervous stability is also necessary. The concept of dress, presence, carriage, poise, courtesy, even flair, these are all a part of the picture. It has been noted that those who are truly great and fulfill these principles in the military also make good business executives, they do well in professions and in other fields of life.

The concept of warfare as a means of discipline is taught in Judges 5:8 — “New gods were chosen [religious reversionism]; then war was at the gate.” “New gods were chosen” has to do with the fact that the Jews became idolatrous, and as soon as they did then war was at the gates; “Not a shield or a spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel,” they were unprepared for war. Divine rebuke of Asah brings about the same principle in 2 Chronicles 16:8,9, “And were not the Ethiopians and Lybians a great army with many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that he may provide support for those whose right lobe is completely his. You have acted foolishly in this, O king, therefore from now on you will always have wars.” Wars, under the principle of historical trends, are brought about by collective and individual decisions.

And who suffers the most in warfare when you lose? As a result of violation of the principles of historical trends the ladies suffer. Isaiah 3:16, “Moreover, the Lord said, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud [arrogant], and walk with heads held high and seductive eyes, and walk with short sexy steps, and tinkle the bangles on their feet [a come-on]. Therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs, and the Lord will make their foreheads bald.” The scabs have to do with loss of health in time of war and it means they are no longer attractive. The foreheads bald simply means they are slaves to the enemy. “In the day of disaster the Lord will therefore take away the beauty of their anklets, headbands, crescent ornaments, dangling earrings, bracelets, veils,” there is nothing wrong with these things but in war you lose them all. Verse 24, “Now it will come to pass that instead of sweet perfume there will be a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of well-set hair, a plucked-out scalp; instead of fine clothes, wearing sackcloth; instead of beauty, branded as slaves. Your men will fall by the sword, and your heroes in battle. Therefore her gates will scream and mourn; and be deserted she will sit on the ground.”

Tacitus, one of the great Roman historians: “The tranquillity of nations is not to be preserved without armies. Troops cannot be maintained without pay, and their pay cannot be made good without taxes.” The payment of taxes, the proper use of tax money to build up the military rather than socialism, respect for the military, separation of the military from politics, upgrading professional training and standards of the military, the utilisation of science to improve military weapons and concepts, and the improved spiritual quality not only of the military but the American people is definitely the answer to these bishops and the communist threat we face.

Warfare is used to illustrate doctrine, as in Ephesians 6:10ff; warfare and the military is the means of preparing people for life and future greatness, as per 2 Samuel 5:2, “Previously, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led [the armies of] Israel out and in. And Jehovah said to you, Because you are successful in battle you will shepherd my people Israel, you will be a ruler over Israel.” David was first successful as a soldier before he was successful as a ruler, and this is one reason why the military is so important. Truly successful people in the military will be successful in any endeavour in life.

The present solution to warfare then is related to the client nation function, to the pivot of mature believers living inside the divine dynasphere, to military preparedness. It relates to spiritual functions as well. Historical trends again: As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. A maximum number of believers living in the divine dynasphere means uptrend, but a maximum number of believers living in the cosmic system means historical downtrend and discipline to the country from God. It will be economic depression, social degeneration, military disaster. Peoples and nations are the products of their own decisions.

The fulfillment of the Christian way of life and the completion of the plan of God for our lives must be motivated by that function of the royal priesthood inside of the divine dynasphere. The prepositional phrase in verse two, “in the sight of my God,” means that no believer can fulfill the plan of God inside the divine dynasphere if his motivation is false. True motivation is derived from doctrine and that doctrine must be resident in the soul. That requires following the procedures that have been established in the Word for this factor. The turning of the tide and the reversal of the historical trends is the responsibility of the believer who is consistent in the perception of doctrine, consistent in the filling of the Spirit and therefore consistent in living in the divine dynasphere.

This brings us now to verse three where we have the alternative to reversing the historical downtrend. Please notice: Each one is responsible for his own life before the Lord. If you could ever understand this from the many doctrines we have studied you would find that immediately your life becomes simpler and the issues come into focus. It is very easy to criticise someone who is wrong, who has made a mistake, and this is all too often the arrogance demonstrated by born-again believers. This is cosmic involvement and a state of great instability. It is amazing how no one seems to want to leave anything to the Lord, and let the Lord decide the rights and the wrongs of every situation, and let the Lord handle these things as inevitably He will and He does.

Compassion is not an emotion. Compassion is the manifestation of integrity, lots of knowledge of doctrine, understanding the old sin nature, and understanding that even nice people have one. This was a problem in Sardis. There were truly believers who loved the Word but Christians in the cosmic system won’t let them alone. Many times Christians in the cosmic system aren’t saying, “Let’s go down to the idol temple and have a good time,” they’re saying, “You don’t need all that doctrine, you just need to live a good life.” And so it is a very subtle and very great problem. What really makes it difficult is when you have a true friend, someone you truly love under category #3 love and they just simply have lost interest in the teaching of the Word of God on a consistent basis. It is very difficult to make the right choice: doctrine instead of that friend. Most people that have to do it have to turn on their friends and snarl at them, and say, “You’re going in the wrong direction, I’m going this way”. No one seems to have the ability to part from someone they love without getting in the last Word.

Verse 3, the congregation are called upon to remember something. The pastor was called upon in verse 2 to “be constantly alert, strengthen the remnant” who were about to die; they were about to get in the cosmic system. In verse three the first word in reality should be “Therefore,” even though it is the second word. That is because it is an inferential post-positive particle o)un, which is “therefore.” Then we go to the congregation, the present active imperative of the verb mnemoneuw, which means to recall, and it is a reference to recalling doctrine in this case. The people who are in the cosmic system have had doctrinal teaching, but more important the positive believers have had enough to where they need to make an application from doctrine, not from their personal likes and dislikes, not from their personal prejudices, not from personal and category #3 love. Recall is necessary for the application of doctrine to life. Are you going to apply doctrine to life or you personal feelings? It is very difficult to keep your personal feelings out of your own life and the only way to do it is perception of Bible doctrine. The present tense is a customary present for what habitually occurs when the believer learns doctrine at gate four. He has something to remember, something to apply. The active voice: the positive believers who have learned doctrine at gate four produce the action. This is the remnant. They are going to survive, they are going to have to remember some doctrine. Doctrine is going to have to be more real than their friends who are negative, their friends who are in the cosmic system. The only way that doctrine can be more real than friends that you see every day is recall, memory. The imperative of command for a mandate regarding the application of doctrine to the situation we find here — a minority of positive believers in a congregation where the majority are negative and involved in the cosmic system. “Therefore, recall to mind,” is the way it should be translated.

Next in verse 3 we have an interrogative particle, poj. It is used for a direct question to determine how something has come to be or how something should happen. It is simply translated by the English word, “what.” Then the perfect active indicative of the verb lambanw, receive, “remember what you have received.” This is a reference to Bible doctrine. The consummative perfect presents a consummated process, the function of GAP, rather than an existing state. This use of the perfect actually has both the past act and the present result in mind. The past act is perception of Bible doctrine, the present result is the application of doctrine where you are pulled in one way but doctrine says it is the wrong way. And it applies to all kinds of situations where that might occur. In other words, it is a testing that every believer faces. You are pulled in one direction because of personal friendship and love, but in reality you need to be going in another direction. So this is really and answer to what we call in life, “push-pull,” where the friend in pushing and the doctrine of the Word of God is pulling. This situation demands a decision and maybe you postpone the decision. The active voice: the believer who functions at gate four of the divine dynasphere produces the action of the verb. The declarative mood is for the reality of a past perception of doctrine demanding a present application. And please notice: you are to handle your own life, you are to make your own decisions, you’re not to be influenced by friends or enemies or by what others think. You are to be influenced by the doctrine you have in your own soul. This is a private matter between you and the Lord and you must answer to the Lord inevitably and you must inevitably take the responsibility for your own decisions.

While lambanw refers to the modus operandi of GAP and eventually resulting in getting e)pignwsij doctrine it also refers to motivation. When you learn doctrine you must be motivated by doctrine. If doctrine does not become your motivation sooner or later some friend or someone you love is going to drag you away from the plan of God. So you must not only learn doctrine but what you learn must become your motivation in life.

With this we have the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw, a verb we have seen many times before, always with reference to the perception of doctrine. It is used for positive volition toward doctrine which includes both the recognition of the authority of one’s right pastor and concentration as a result on the message. One thing that authority does for people in life: the proper use of authority keeps you from making an issue out of people and takes you from people to principle. Recognising the authority of the pastor doesn’t mean liking the pastor, or loving the pastor, or having any attitude about the pastor. It means recognition, acceptance of the content of his message, i.e. Bible doctrine. So in a true situation in learning doctrine, doctrine is the issue, not the one who communicates. It is not the man it is the message. The personality of the one who is in authority is never an issue. This is true in business, in the military, and in any profession. So the true function of authority eliminates personality conflicts, and often where a personality conflict exists it is simply that authority has never been related to the purpose of the company, the organisation, the academic classroom, whatever it happens to be. Therefore you have a choice inevitably in these situations. You can recognise the authority and go for the doctrine or you can get your eyes on the person who has the authority because all authority in life has been delegated to people.

You are either motivated by people or by principle. That in principle is what we have here: “therefore recall to mind what you have received,” and if you have received truth in more of its categories: in category #1, the laws of divine establishment in which authority is defined in terms of freedom, you have received truth; the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: you may have heard it from an evangelist who is a person, but it wasn’t what kind of a person he was, it was his content and you responded to the teaching of the evangelist, the presentation of the gospel. So you don’t make an issue out of the person who is the evangelist, you make an issue out of the message.

Then we get down to some spiritual growth, a pastor communicating Bible doctrine. If you make an issue out of the pastor you’ve had it! All of your life you are going to face the issue: people versus principle. It is a test that comes periodically. It is not always people versus principle because all of us find people to whom we are attracted, find people with whom we are compatible and who share the same principles that we do. But when it comes to an issue where you are tempted to run down someone, to malign someone, to judge someone who allegedly has wronged or who really has wronged, the allegation or the reality is really not the issue. The issue is: Are you going to live by principle or are you going to live by people? It is amazing that once you establish the principle your attitude toward people changes to where you are going to be well liked and well thought of, and before you know it you will have some real friends.

The principle comes from doctrine, through people, therefore the consummative perfect tense. The active voice: the believer who is positive produces the action. With this the aorist active indicative of a)kouw, the culminative aorist views the function of GAP where you learn principle in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the application of the doctrine you have learned. Once you have e)pignwsij in the right lobe you have principle and therefore you have a launching pad to apply principle to people, so that people are no longer obnoxious. The positive believer produces the action, the declarative indicative for the reality of positive volition on the part of a few, “Therefore recall to mind what you have received [the application of doctrine] and heard [the perception of doctrine].” The next word is the present active imperative of terew, guard it [the doctrine]. You guard doctrine and you will have wonderful friends. If you don’t guard doctrine you’ll live in the cosmic system and you will be a vacillating, hypocritical traitor to your friends. “Guard it [maintain it, keep it],” by living in the divine dynasphere. This means to guard it, to keep it in the sense of not losing it, to keep in the sense of protecting it, of paying attention to it, of applying it. To keep or guard doctrine as per this mandate one must reside and function in the divine dynasphere. Therefore it is a present tense of duration for what has been mandated in the past and continued into the present. The active voice: believers in this dispensation, royal family of God, are the recipients of this mandate; therefore they must execute it. The imperative mood of command is a mandate for the royal family to keep living in the divine dynasphere.

The pastor must persist in teaching the positive believers even if they are a minority in his congregation, for without doctrine they are potential candidates for the cosmic system, “Be constantly alert, and strengthen the remnant who are about to die [cosmic death, carnality, reversionism, cosmic involvement].” The problem is that when you are hit with a little bit of flattery by a negative believer it often becomes binding in this way: arrogance means loss of discernment. Arrogance not only means that whatever abilities or talents or greatness you have in this life is neutralised but arrogance inevitably means loss of discernment.

1. Moral people are affectionate without being passionate in category #3 relationships — social life and friendship, whereas immoral people are passionate without being affectionate in social life.

2. Affection belongs to category #3 love; affection and passion belong to category #2 love.

3. Affection comes from the soul and is meaningful in human relationships, of course, when it includes both integrity and capacity for love.

4. Passion comes from the body and must be controlled or regulated by integrity of the soul.

5. For the believer integrity of the soul is the result of living inside of the divine dynasphere and learning Bible doctrine on a constant basis.

2. Therefore arrogance assumes that a show of affection from the opposite sex is an invitation to passion. This is a major factor in our social degeneration in this country today.

5. Arrogance assumes that passion is affection. Therefore arrogance enters into physical relationships without integrity of soul and capacity for love.

6. Arrogance assumes that affection is passion. Therefore arrogance becomes aggressive in lust and attempts at seduction.

7. Arrogance is weak and assumes that flattery is greatness, and there is the analogy. Just as there is a breakdown in social life of a nation so there is breakdown of spiritual life in a congregation. And they break down the same way — arrogance. One day you have in social life a lot of nice people, the next day you have a lot of lascivious maniacs. One day in a church you have the majority of the people are positive for doctrine, the next day the majority are negative. And the thing that breaks them down, the antithesis of metabolising them, and destroys them is arrogance. Arrogance disintegrates social life and converts it into degeneracy and arrogance takes positive volition and converts it into negative volition over night. That is why arrogance is weak; arrogance assumes that flattery is greatness.

8. This is why, going back to the social side, women imagine that every man is after her, and this is why on the other side of the fence the minister assumes that he is great when there is no such thing as greatness associated with the clergy. There is no such thing as looking at a minister and saying he is great. Why? Because you are looking in the wrong direction. The content of his message may be good and excellent and understandable but there is no such thing as a great minister. A “great minister” is the object of flattery and attention and is under the principle of public relations. Therefore it is false. A minister who does his job right is going to be despised, hated, loved, rejected, accepted, you name it, and he is going to the recipient. That is not greatness, not in a human sense. And you really never know whether a minister is great or not until the judgment seat of Christ, but one thing you can be sure of if you have your right pastor is that the content of his message is meaningful to you. The content of his message, regardless of how it is delivered, goes home to your soul and becomes meaningful in clarifying issues of doctrine and straightening out your thinking with regard to places where you have been false in your application. It makes the issues of life clear regardless of what category of life is being discussed by the passage.

9. The pastor must be alert to avoid arrogance and protect his congregation from arrogance through doctrinal inculcation from the pulpit. Basically, that is behind the command, “Be constantly alert, and strengthen the remnant,” meaning that there is still a minority of believers, therefore persist in teaching them. Even though you may be irritated by the negativism in the congregation just go right on teaching the Word. There are positive believers there and those positive believers must be protected from going the same way as the negative crowd.

Verse 3, “Recall to mind” or “remember” is the application of Bible doctrine to the situation. “What you have received,” e)pignwsij doctrine received through the function of GAP; “and heard,” the positive volition toward doctrine. Hearing is perception ; “and guard it,” by living in the divine dynasphere, for this is the only way that you avoid arrogance, the greatest enemy of mankind, the basis for the fall of Satan, the basis for cosmic one and it 26 gates which interlock in different categories of arrogance. Arrogance is self-destructive, destructive to a group in a collective situation of any kind, and inevitably arrogance destroys a national entity, it destroys everything. Arrogance is the basis for all misery and all unhappiness, everything in life that is totally horrible and unmentionable. And while people have a tendency to classify sins on the basis of their overt manifestation it is arrogance which is the root of all of the various manifestations of it through sin. That is why arrogance is not only a sin but arrogance is motivating evil. One thing is certain: you cannot be arrogant inside the divine dynasphere. To be arrogant you get outside of the divine dynasphere.

We have the aorist active imperative of the verb metanoew next. It means to rebound, to change the mind. The rebound technique is the only way any of us can avoid arrogance. The person who says that he has never been arrogant is a double liar. First of all he is a liar and then, of course, he is arrogant. There is no such thing as an individual who has not converted normal self-consciousness of the soul into some form of arrogance at some time. The active voice: the carnal reversionistic or cosmic believer produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, a mandate from God for the believer to leave the cosmic system and return to the divine dynasphere. So what we have here is not “Repent, repent,” some emotional claptrap, but it means change your mind and it is technical for rebound.

Translation: “Therefore recall to mind what you have received [the application of doctrine] and heard [the perception of doctrine] and guard it [by living in the divine dynasphere], and change your mind [the use of the rebound technique to recover from cosmic involvement and reenter the divine dynasphere].” That is the first sentence in verse three.

Now we have a second sentence that deals with residence in the cosmic system which is the means of historical downtrend. And we have a protasis of a third class condition to begin the sentence. That means we have two words, first of all o)un, an inferential conjunction translated “therefore.” Then we have with it e)an, plus the subjunctive which introduces the protasis of a third class condition, which is a more probable condition or a supposition from the viewpoint of probability. The alternative to historical uptrend from life in the divine dynasphere is historical downtrend from life in the cosmic system. Life in the cosmic system is characterised by arrogance, preoccupation with self , and therefore inevitable misery and unhappiness. Unhappiness self-induced plus something that is even worse and that is the inability to derive any pleasure on a permanent basis from anything that one has or has achieved, or any relationship or any function in life that is generally associated with happiness. Happiness simply does not exist in a state of arrogance. The inferential conjunction o)un, of course, draws a conclusion from what precedes. The inference comes from three mandates of the previous sentence in verse three: “recall to mind,” “guard it,” and “repent” [rebound].

“If therefore,” with this we have a verb, the aorist active subjunctive of gregorew, plus the negative mh; “If therefore you are not alert,” the constative aorist tense for a fact or action extended over a period of time. This use of the aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, i.e. phase two of the plan of God. The active voice: the believer must produce the action of the verb, namely alertness. Alertness is defined in terms of three mandates again, “recall to mind,” “guard it,” “rebound.” The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive implying a future reference and is qualified by the element of contingency. The alternative to alertness is divine discipline, and therefore the apodosis, the future active indicative of the verb h(kw, which means to come but it is quite different from the verb e)rxomai. E)rxomai is used for coming and going in normal circumstances; h(kw means to come suddenly, to come as a matter of a shock, to surprise someone, and so on. The predictive future anticipates divine discipline. This is the type of “coming” we have in h(kw. The active voice: Jesus Christ, the prince ruler of the Church, produces the action of the verb, discipline of the arrogant believer. The indicative mood: the reality of divine discipline to the cosmic believer.

We should be warned about one thing with regard to arrogance. People associate arrogance with the wealthy, the successful, the well-poised, people with very strong personalities, and this has nothing whatever to do with arrogance. Some of the most arrogant people are poor people, scum, people who have nothing and who have achieved nothing. Some of the most arrogant people in the world are people with problems, people who are downtrodden or depressed. Arrogance is preoccupation with self above and beyond the normal function of self-consciousness of the soul. No one is free from it but, strangely enough, when people have good poise, good leadership, and great ability and achieve, they are considered automatically to be arrogant. That is not true at all. The reason why people are accused of arrogance is because people are so arrogant themselves that they automatically transfer a sin that they know to someone else about whom they are jealous or they have some feelings of vindictiveness or bitterness or some other form of antagonism.

So the future active indicative of h(kw, “I will come.” This means to come to punish. Believers are the products of their own decisions. Bad decisions bring self-induced misery plus divine discipline. The self-induced misery is what you do to yourself with your bad decisions but the divine discipline is at the point “I will come.” Then we have an analogy introduced by the comparative adverb o(j, “as” or “like.” With it we have the nominative subject to complete the analogy, klepthj, it means thief, “like a thief.” The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. Coming like a thief does not imply stealth, as in modern times. It implies rather suddenness, surprise. Part of the discipline is always to be surprised by it. Divine discipline comes suddenly and when least expected. It always seems to surprise the believer and the believer often rationalises divine discipline into testing, when it isn’t testing at all. The cosmic believer will be taken by surprise at the suddenness of his divine discipline. Divine discipline, as it were, takes his breath away. “I will come to punish like a thief [suddenly, with surprise, when least expected].” Discipline that isn’t anticipated or expected hurts because you have not prepared yourself for it either mentally or physically, or in any other way that you might be able to soften the blow of some personal disaster in your life.

Then we have the connective use of the conjunction kai, but it is used here to emphasise a fact as surprising or unexpected or noteworthy, and therefore we translate it, “furthermore.” Then we have the aorist active subjunctive of the verb ginwskw and with it we have the strongest possible negative in the Greek, o)u mh, two negatives make a stronger negative in the Greek. We translate it: “you will [definitely] never know.” The constative aorist is for a momentary action. The active voice: the cosmic believer produces the action of definitely not knowing. The subjunctive of emphatic negation indicates that divine discipline always catches the believer by surprise because in his arrogance he assumes that because he hasn’t been disciplined for something he is not going to be disciplined for something. And it is true that discipline is changed by rebound. Even if the punishment goes on the cursing is turned to blessing by means of the rebound technique.

Then we have the object of the verb, the accusative feminine singular from the interrogative pronoun translated “what,” poioj, “You will definitely not know what.” It is followed by the accusative plural direct object from the noun o(ra, which has been mistranslated “hour” in the King James version. O(ra is used for a limited portion of time. It is like the word “day” in the Greek, which is used for a period of time; o(ra is used for a limited portion of time marked out by part of a settled routine, or a train of circumstances. Therefore you can refer to a season of the year or a time of day, and it is correctly translated “point of time,” “Furthermore you will definitely not know what point of time. And then we have the repetition of the aorist active subjunctive of h(kw, “I will come.” The constative aorist refers to a momentary action when divine punishment strikes the cosmic believer. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb as the administrator of divine punishment to the cosmic believer. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive qualified by the element of contingency such as rebound, transfer from the cosmic system to the divine dynasphere. Then we have the final prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative singular from the personal pronoun su, and we translate that “to you,” for the administration of punishment.

Corrected translation: “Therefore recall to mind what you have received [application of doctrine] and heard [perception of doctrine], and guard it [by living in the divine dynasphere], and change your mind [rebound]. If therefore you are not alert, I will come to punish you like a thief [suddenly and violently], in fact you will definitely not know what point of time I will come to you for the administration of discipline.”

In the administration of divine punishment to cosmic believers our Lord Jesus Christ has perfect timing so that the discipline has maximum effectiveness. Remember that a thief coming suddenly always refers to violence. Furthermore the divine discipline does not necessarily match the sin, the human good or the evil which brought it about. In other words, our Lord waits to spank at a propitious time when we will hurt the most. This, of course, is for the cosmic believer who remains in that condition. Rebound changes this as we have seen. Divine discipline is designed to bring the believer back to the reality of the plan of God. You see, the cosmic believer loses touch with the reality of God’s plan and purpose for his life. Divine discipline is to bring him back to the reality of the plan of God. Therefore we must really suffer in the administration of that punishment. If it doesn’t hurt there is no reality that God is still around. Much of our suffering comes from making wrong decisions regarding doctrine and the plan of God related to the divine dynasphere. When self-induced suffering does not bring us to the point of rebound and positive volition in the divine dynasphere then God adds divine discipline which will either make us or break us. It makes us if we become aware that we have drifted from the plan of God and rebound and get back in fellowship, but if we remain in the cosmic system then we go into intensive discipline and eventually the sin unto death which was implied as a result in the previous verse. After warning discipline from God comes intensive discipline and eventually maximum discipline, the sin unto death.

1. The divine timing finds the cosmic believer unable to cope with punishment. We have noted before that when suffering is for discipline it is unbearable; if suffering is for blessing it is bearable. When suffering is for discipline it is accompanied by arrogance and subjectivity, but if suffering is for blessing it is accompanied by humility and objectivity. The solution to suffering for discipline is rebound; the solution to suffering for blessing is the three stages of the faith-rest drill.

2. If we cannot cope we either get better or worse, we never stay the same. To ignore divine warning through discipline is to become worse; to recognise the divine warning in discipline and rebound is to become better.

3. The greatest disaster in life for the believer is to become insensitive to the hard rein of divine discipline.

4. If we refuse to be led by God’s Word then we will be led by God’s punishment.

5. It is far better to be led by Bible doctrine than to be led by divine discipline. To be led by Bible doctrine implies humility and sensitivity to the Word; to be led by divine discipline implies arrogance, insensitivity, stupid stubbornness.

6. It is better to take time to learn doctrine than to lose time in divine punishment.

7. The issue, then, is perception versus punishment. By residence and function inside the divine dynasphere with the daily perception of Bible doctrine the person involved chooses for perception and God’s plan, but by residence and function in the cosmic system, where the believer is inculcated by Satanic propaganda, the believer chooses punishment and Satan’s plan.

We live in very strange times, it is very obvious that believers in client nation USA are definitely not holding up their end. As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. A maximum number of believers moving from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere produces historical prosperity, but a maximum number of believers living in the cosmic system produces historical downtrend. Historical downtrend is characterised by economic depression, social degeneration and military disaster. There is under the surface in these United States a tremendous collection of terrorist organisations. Terrorism is, of course, one of the weapons of the communists and lying low throughout the country at this very moment there is a tremendous volcano about to erupt. The US Army is aware of this and has developed its own anti-terrorist techniques. Generally speaking there is very little that has been done and very little that is recognised. Of course, one of the tragedies is something that has been noted in a recent Texas Tribune, May 13, 1982, which discusses the principle of how the US is in support of terrorism.

“On the one hand the United States deplores terrorism and terrorist groups that conduct it. On the other hand the same United States subsidises the same terrorist groups, not directly of course, but through the United Nations. That these terrorist groups would wither on the vine without direct Soviet financial and political aid adds to the lunacy. A study by the Heritage Foundation underscores the irony. The United States is directly supporting guerrilla and terrorist groups around the world since 1975 to the tune of $116,000,000 in traceable funds, with other millions buried in under-the-table transactions. The United States picks up roughly twenty-five per cent of that tab which gives the Kremlin the giggles.

UN support of guerrillas and terrorists, all anti-West and oriented toward the Soviet Union, takes many forms. Some of it is in cash outlays or in gifts of food, housing, health services, communications channels. But far more important to the terrorists is the good housekeeping seal of approval it bestows on them. Oddly enough, or not so odd, is the fact that when anti-Soviet national liberation movements spring up, such as UNITA in Angola, the United Nations puts a rubber band around its wallet and refuses to help. All of its aid funds go to anti-Western groups. Much of this aid ends up with the Palestine Liberation Organisation which supplies training and arms to most of the world’s terrorist groups. In fact, as the Heritage report points out, just two years after the mass murder of Israeli athletes in Munich by the PLO the United Nations welcomed Yasser Arafat as the representatives of the Palestinian people. In fact UN agencies have granted the PLO full observer status. The PLO sits with the international civil agency where it serves, I kid you not, as an expert on airline hijacking, one of its fortes. There is indeed evidence that the UN has allowed the PLO to infiltrate the lavishly-funded UN relief and works agency, UNRWA. This not only puts a PLO hand in the $200,000,000 annual budget but also gives Arafat terrorists access to Palestinian refugee camps which, as the Heritage report notes, serves as valuable recruiting centres, bases for military training and indoctrination, and as reported by the Lebanese officials, actually military installations. At one time the Lebanese Government ringed these camps with tanks and soldiers, but since the civil war and the Syrian invasion of Lebanon the PLO openly uses these camps for military operations — at the United Nations expense and ours.

Official UN recognition is enjoyed by these communist-oriented guerrilla groups. Heritage says the South West African Peoples’ Organisation (SWAPO), the African National Congress (ANC), and the Pan African Congress (PAC), are in it. As I have noted, the United States contributes some twenty-five per cent of the funds donated by the United Nations, making this country the largest financial contributor to terrorism in the world. The Soviet Union, through East Germany and Czechoslovakia, sells the terrorists arms for which the United States indirectly pays. The SWAPO case is interesting. In recent years the United Nations has given that organisation with a thoroughly documented record of terrorism some 40-billion dollars, thirty per cent of it from the United States. Interestingly, Kert Waldheim, when he was the UN Secretary General, refused to consider evidence of the nine hundred and sixty nine terrorist attacks by SWAPO involving 227 deaths, 385 abductions, and 227 serious injuries. Instead the United Nations focused its fire on South Africa, a UN member with which SWAPO is at war. And while the United States contributed the lion’s share to the United Nations’ world food program, whose contributions to terrorist organisations exceeds that of any other UN agency, the Soviet Union gave not a ruble. Since the UN secretariat is infiltrated at all levels by the Soviet secret police it is understandable that money should be lavished on Terrorist and guerrilla groups which the Kremlin arms and trains, or through the PLO. Why should the American taxpayer pay for this at a time when the Treasury faces a one hundred billion dollar deficit? Why should the domestic programs be curtailed so multi-millions can go to the enemies of the United States?...”

What this does not say is that in addition to this the National Council of Churches of America is one of the major contributors to terrorist organisations. This means that there is a lot of failure in many, many places and the blame of course can be laid to the door of many. But that is only part of the truth. The fact remains that we live in the dispensation of historical trends, and at the present time we, the people of the United States are a client nation to God. Therefore, as goes the believer so goes the client nation. The believer is the product of his decisions, not his environment. Decisions create environment, not environment decisions, and we have made literally hundreds of thousands of bad decisions and we are closing the options day by day for the perpetuation of this client nation to God. This is the tragedy that is rectified by the content of Revelation chapters 2 and 3.

We are studying the dispensation of historical trends. We live in a dead spot, there are no prophecies to be fulfilled at this time. The first and second advents of Jesus Christ are the major prophecies in the field of eschatology. Once our Lord Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father and once the Church Age began, from that point right down to the Rapture of the Church there is no prophecy to be fulfilled. This is the dispensation of historical trends and therefore a dead spot as far as prophecy is concerned. The next prophecy is the Rapture of the Church. We have also noted the most important factor of all, the profile of the winner, the one who receives the highest possible decoration from God at the judgment seat of Christ, the order of the morning star. We have seen how those believers who receive the order of the morning star for historical impact are going to be presented in the court of heaven during the time that the Tribulation occurs on earth. The discussion of the Tribulation on earth is the subject of Revelation chapters 6-18. Then when Christ comes back those who hold the decoration of the order of the morning star have certain special privileges related to the triumphal procession of our Lord, related to the coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of the world during the Millennium, and related to the rulership of various nations during His Millennial reign. But that is only the beginning of the story for in all eternity those who hold the order of the morning star are going to be infinitely greater than all other believers.

Right now we are looking at verses four through six which is a study of the uniform of glory which accompanies the order of the morning star.

Verse 4, there are two uniforms presented in this verse, the uniform of honour which is worn by the mature believer today, and the uniform of glory which is a translucent light worn over the resurrection body of those believers who receive the highest of all decorations at the judgment seat of Christ.

We actually begin the passage, not with “Thou hast,” but with an adversative conjunction, a)lla, literally translated “but.” It sets up a contrast between the cosmic believers we have been studying in verses 1-3 and the mature believers whom we now study in verses 4-6. And cosmic believers are always separated from mature believers. Believers living in the divine dynasphere are winners; believers living in the cosmic system are losers, and God always separates the winners from the losers. In this passage He does so with the adversative conjunction, “but,” setting up a contrast between the losers of the first three verses and the winners in the next three.

Next we have the present active indicative of the verb e)xw, “But you have.” This is a customary present tense, it denotes what may be reasonably expected to occur when the Word of God is faithfully taught by pastors. The temporal element is remote in this passage since the status is assumed to be true in the past or the future as well as the present. This is the meaning of the customary present, it denotes all facets of time. The active voice: the church at Sardis produces the action of the verb, which means that some of the believers in the local church continue to live in the divine dynasphere, even though they in the minority, and they persist in the perception of doctrine even though there is a tremendous amount of pressure on them to join their friends who are in the cosmic system. The church at Sardis still had those who persisted in the divine dynasphere. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of believers advancing to maturity in the midst of general apostasy and reversionism. The general apostasy of the indicative mood is the historical downtrend which results from believers spinning off from the pivot through living in the cosmic system. Three categories of historical disaster result: economic depression, social degeneration, military disaster.

These are the ones who are still holding fast. Next we have the object of the verb, the accusative plural direct object is composed of two Greek words. First of all the adjective, o)ligoj, and it means “a few”; with it we have the word o)noma, which has several meanings. It generally refers to a person. Sometimes it refers to a title. We have already seen how it refers to the order of chivalry at the judgment seat of Christ. Here is should be translated “persons” rather than “names.” It is the same problem that we have with the word o(ra, translated in the King James by a transliteration, “hour,” but it very rarely ever refers to a sixty-minute hour. Generally it refers to a period of time, longer than an hour, shorter than an hour, and it refers to a period of time which has certain limitations and certain problems. The same thing is true with regard to another Greek word, h(mera. It is generally translated “day,” but more frequently than not it does not refer to a day. Rarely does it refer to a day. It does when talking about the Sabbath but outside of that and a few other passages it refers to a point of time, like the day of salvation, a few seconds, and sometimes a thousand and seven years, like the day of the Lord.

So o)noma is another problem, it is a technical word and it refers to persons or individuals, and we are going to translate it “But you have a few persons [individuals].” The fact is that o)ligoj emphasises the fact that those who advance to maturity in Sardis go from gate four to gate eight and make good decisions every day in an area saturated with bad decisions. It is possible for you as a believer not to be influenced by your dear friends and your close friends who are in the cosmic system, not to be influenced by them socially or sexually or materially or some of the other systems of cosmic evangelism. It is possible for you every day of your life to make good decisions but you cannot do it without having the right priorities, and if Bible doctrine is not number one priority there is no way that you are going to survive cosmic evangelism. Cosmic evangelism has turned the majority of believers in the church at Sardis into reversionists and apostate believers contributing to the downtrend of history.

The Greek adjective o)ligoj, meaning few, means that these believers in Sardis who advanced to maturity had to do so on their own motivation and volition without help or encouragement from others in Sardis. In fact other believers in Sardis were trying to lure them away. In other words, there was neither encouragement from Christian fellowship or social life. Instead, positive volition toward doctrine was ridiculed in Sardis and consistent living in the divine dynasphere often resulted in social ostracism by the cosmic believers. Therefore the direct object emphasises the fact that believers who advance to maturity possess very strong motivation, a good scale of values, the ability to pass the momentum tests, and the ability to stay relaxed through enforced and genuine humility. In Sardis peer pressure was strictly human viewpoint which encouraged and justified cosmic living, while ridiculing the divine viewpoint and those who were motivated by it. Those who were advancing to maturity, the “few names” as per the King James version, were truly great and strong people. But you must remember that their strength came from living in the divine dynasphere.

Next we have the locale for this, the preposition e)n plus the locative of Sardeij.

1. Sardis was not the ideal environment for believers with positive volition toward doctrine. Hence it was a good environment for developing great strength, for rapid acceleration to maturity, for becoming eligible in the future for the crown of life, the order of the morning star, the gazebo in the garden, the order of chivalry, the new name on the white pebble of the resurrection body, and above all, wearing in time an invisible uniform of the soul, the uniform of glory, and in the future being distinguished from all losers — the majority of believers in eternity — by wearing the uniform of glory of translucent light. So Sardis was the perfect environment for testing one’s motivation and accelerating one’s advance to maturity. There was no encouragement from the majority and therefore you had to be motivated by virtue. Motivational virtue is directed toward God.

2. As goes the believer so goes the historical trend at any point in the Church Age. Your attitude toward Bible doctrine on a daily basis is the determining factor of historical impact in this dispensation, and inasmuch as we live in a client nation to God your attitude toward Bible doctrine determines the downtrends or the uptrends of this country.

3. Residence and function inside the divine dynasphere means historical uptrend; involvement in the cosmic system means historical downtrend. This, of course, refers to believers. Believers are either anonymous heroes or anonymous losers. Nothing is worse for a nation than to have the majority of believers as anonymous losers.

4. Therefore people individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions.

5. Decisions create environment, not environment decisions. Therefore there are no tragedies in history, rather historical disasters. When a nation falls to whom we are sympathetic we must remember that prior to the fall of that nation, prior to the absorption of that nation by the communists, there has been over a period of time negative volition toward truth in three categories.

6. These disasters are not tragedies since both individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions.

“But you have a few persons in Sardis,” a pivot of mature believers living in the divine dynasphere and contributing to the historical uptrend plus national blessing.

Next we have a relative clause which introduces the first of the two uniforms in this verse. This is the uniform of honour or the mature believer in time. It begins with the nominative plural of the relative pronoun o(j, and the antecedent is a)noma [persons], “But you have a few persons in Sardis who.” The few persons, of course, are the pivot of mature believers living inside the divine dynasphere, contributing to the historical uptrend plus national blessing by association. This is a reference to the pivot of mature believers. Next we have the aorist active indicative of the verb molunw, plus the negative o)uk, which means to smear dirt on something, to stain, to defile, to soil, to make impure. We will simply translate it, “who have not soiled.” The culminative aorist tense views the mature believer’s residence and function inside the divine dynasphere in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The achievement of maturity plus the edification complex of the soul, maximum historical impact through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, the maximum impact of the pivot and, of course, the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the manner in which believers fulfill the plan of God as it relates to the client nation. The active voice: mature believers produce the action of the verb inside the divine dynasphere. The indicative mood plus the negative o)uk indicates the reality of the invisible uniform of honour, life in the divine dynasphere resulting in spiritual maturity. Believers who are mature wear an invisible uniform of honour and it is described in the accusative plural direct object from the noun i(mation, and it means clothes, and refers here to the invisible uniform. With this we have the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “their uniform of glory,” a)utoj used as a personal pronoun in the genitive indicating the uniform of glory or honour which belongs only to the mature believer in time.

1. Just as the impact of the mature believer in time is invisible so is his uniform. The mature believer is the anonymous hero of history. He will not be revealed for his fame and greatness until the judgment seat of Christ and he will be very famous in the Millennium as he rules some nation under our Lord Jesus Christ. In the meantime the believer who is mature is anonymous and he wears, therefore, an invisible uniform, the uniform of honour.

2. The uniform of honour is the life of the mature believer living in the divine dynasphere attaining spiritual maturity, glorifying Christ, having maximum impact on history as he forms part of the pivot. (I call it the uniform of honour because the modus operandi of the Christian is the royal family honour code. He executes the royal family honour code inside the divine dynasphere)

3. Such a believer is not found in the pages of our history. His influence is nevertheless real but invisible. 4. During the Church Age the historical impact of the believer is invisible, yet very real under the principle of blessing by association. Therefore during the Church Age the true impact of history is unknown to the general public.

5. However at the judgment seat of Christ the invisible historical impact of the mature believer, wearing the uniform of honour, will become known to a select group, the elect angels and the royal family of God.

6. The mature believer will receive certain decorations: the crown of life, for life in the divine dynasphere; the crown of righteousness, the execution of the royal family honour code; a new knighthood in the resurrection body anticipating Millennial chivalry; the highest decoration that man can receive from God, the order of the morning star, and with it, the uniform of glory.

7. Furthermore, at the second advent of Christ the entire population of the world will know and recognise the mature believers by the uniform of glory and by the fact that they wear the highest of all decorations, the order of the morning star.

8. The uniform of honour which is invisible in the Church Age — it is worn in the soul — will be exchanged for the uniform of glory which will be visible in the Millennium.

9. Those mature believers who receive the order of the morning star will rule with Christ over Gentile nations in the Millennium.

10. Therefore when the invisible Christ, now seated at the right hand of the Father, becomes visible at the second advent, the invisible mature believers of the Church Age will become visible with Him, manifest to the entire population of the world. The uniform of honour, therefore, anticipates the visible uniform of glory in the future.

1. The positive, mature believer lives consistently in the divine dynasphere. This does not imply perfect life but the daily use of rebound when necessary, and he wears the uniform of honour.

2. Clothing in natural life represents thinking, motivation, organisation, and judgment of the individual.

3. Clothing in the spiritual life represents the Christian way of life, or the carnal way of life of the royal family, whichever you happen to be. There is a uniform of honour worn by believers in the divine dynasphere but there is also a uniform of dishonour worn by cosmic believers.

4. In this passage unsoiled clothing represents the believer living in the divine dynasphere. Hence the uniform of honour, integrity, virtue in this life.

5. Soiled clothing mentioned here refers to the believer living in the cosmic system. Hence the uniform of dishonour, the uniform of carnality, evil and reversionism.

6. The believer living in the cosmic system has clothing of dishonour and contributes the historical downtrend of the client nation to God.

7. The believer living in the divine dynasphere wears the uniform of honour and not only produces personal virtue, integrity and honour but contributes to the historical uptrend of the client nation to God.

In the future mature believers are going to exchange their uniform of honour for the uniform of glory. So that is next in this verse, the uniform of glory or the mature believer in eternity. We begin with the intensive use of the conjunction kai, translated, “in fact.” We move then to the future active indicative of the verb peripatew, which means to walk. It is translated, “in fact they shall walk,” referring to the mature believer, the believer who advances from gate four to gate eight, living inside of the divine dynasphere. The predictive future tense anticipates the judgment seat of Christ, the second advent, the Millennial reign of Christ, the eternal state. That is when they will walk in the manner described here. The active voice: mature believers only produce the action of the verb and they produce it in the future. The indicative mood is declarative for a future reward of the uniform of glory and the privileges which are associated with that award. This verse describes the privileges which belong to the order of the morning star, wearing forever over the resurrection body the uniform of glory. With this we have a prepositional phrase, meta plus the genitive of e)gw, “they shall walk with me,” i.e. with our Lord Jesus Christ who is communicating this information through the apostle John to us as believers. With this we have a preposition e)n plus the locative plural of the adjective leukoj, and it should be translated, “in whites” — “in fact they shall walk with me in whites,” plural. It describes the uniform of glory which is a transparent garment, probably made of light, which is worn over the resurrection body as an unparalleled honour. Not all resurrection bodies have it, in fact probably relatively few, those who advance to maturity in any given generation.

1. Our Lord Jesus Christ wears the uniform of glory right now at the right hand of the Father. He first showed it to Peter, James and John even before He had received the resurrection body. In other words, the uniform of glory was modeled at the mount of transfiguration.

2. This is the fulfillment of Matthew 16:28, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here [Peter, James and John] who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom,” a preview of the second advent.

3. While on the mount of transfiguration Peter, James and John could not see our Lord in His resurrection body but they could see the uniform of glory which He would wear over His resurrection body in the future.

4. In Matthew 17:2 the modelling of the uniform of glory: “And he was transfigured before them; in fact his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” Only a few, those who are mature believers who advance to maturity in any given generation will wear the uniform of glory.

6. The uniform of honour is the life of the mature believer in time and is manifest to the world by functional virtue such as impersonal love.

7. On the other hand the uniform of glory is the transparent garment of life which is awarded to the mature believer at the judgment seat of Christ. It is to be worn only with the highest decoration, the order of the morning star.

The basis for cosmic it is found in the mandate which is given in verse two to the pastor of the local church: “Be constantly alert and strengthen the remnant.” These are the believers who wear the uniform of honour, the minority in this congregation. The pastor must persist in teaching positive believers for without doctrine they are potential candidates for the cosmic system; “who are about to die,” we have seen that this is cosmic death, the carnality which leads to eternal loss of reward, not loss of salvation. It is carnality reversionism and cosmic involvement; “for I have not found your work fulfilled in the sight of my God,” which is the criticism of the majority in the Sardis church. They definitely were not advancing to maturity; they were not completing the plan of God; the plan of God was simply not fulfilled, and the reason has to do with the principle and the purpose of cosmic evangelism.

1. Cosmic evangelism is conducted by believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are under the control of Satan and in his power system, cosmic one, the interlocking systems of arrogance; cosmic two, the interlocking systems of hatred.

2. Cosmic evangelistic appeal is generally conducted through arrogance though the arrogance might be disguised by a facade of flattery, intellectuality, affection or passion.

3. Arrogance is easily influenced by evil, 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Be not deceived: evil friends corrupt good morals,” and this includes virtue and integrity derived from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

4. When the mature believer in the divine dynasphere is led astray by his love for the cosmic believer the resultant arrogance means loss of discernment; he is dead cosmically.

5. His cosmic friends may be moral or immoral but the results are the same. He is evangelised for the cosmic system.

6. The moral cosmic believer is affectionate without being passionate, and with affection lures the mature believer or the believer living in the divine dynasphere outside and into the cosmic system.

7. The immoral cosmic believer is passionate without being affectionate, and with his passion lures the mature believer into the cosmic system.

8. In the first case of the moral cosmic believer friendship becomes more important than doctrine. You can be lured out of Bible class daily very easily. All you have to do is to make a friend of a moral cosmic believer and that friendship will eventually become more important than doctrine — and you’re gone.

9. In the second case, the immoral believer leads to the principle that sex becomes more important than doctrine.

10. Affection comes from the soul and is very meaningful and wonderful only when it includes virtue, integrity and capacity for love.

11. Passion comes from the body and is meaningful as an expression of category #2 love only where love, honour, virtue and integrity also exist.

12. But where love, honour, integrity and virtue does not exist then you are evangelised by your cosmic friends, or in some cases, your cosmic lover. Love, honour and integrity can only exist in the divine dynasphere, in the cosmic system they are destroyed.

1. The objective of cosmic evangelism is to lure the believer in the divine dynasphere into the cosmic system. And Satan does not attack directly, he uses believers in the cosmic system. He uses their attractiveness, he uses their relationship with you, he uses their friendship, he uses their morality, he uses their immorality. Just like communism Satan uses antithetical methods to achieve the same thing.

2. The tool of cosmic evangelism is the lure to arrogance. The human race is extremely vulnerable and the attention of a friend or the desire, the lust of a lover, can make a person forget overnight that number one priority is Bible doctrine.

3. Arrogance cannot discern between passion and affection. Arrogance cannot relate, then, to love, honour, integrity and virtue.

4. Therefore arrogance assumes that a show of affection from the opposite sex is an invitation to passion.

5. Furthermore arrogance assumes that a show of passion from the opposite sex is a sign of affection or love, and where cosmic involvement is concerned neither is true. Passion is not love and affection is not passion. The believer living in the divine dynasphere keeps them in their proper place.

6. Arrogance cannot distinguish between passion and affection, sex and love, the unreality of flattery and the reality of virtue, honour and integrity.

7. Arrogance assumes that passion is affection, therefore arrogance enters into a physical or sexual relationship without love, integrity, virtue or honour.

8. Arrogance assumes that affection is passion, therefore arrogance becomes aggressive and advances lasciviousness, attempted seduction.

9. Arrogance assumes that flattery is greatness and the weakness developed makes the arrogant person the slave of the flatterer.

10. Cosmic evangelism is easy once the victim has been lured into one of the many categories of arrogance, so inevitably arrogance is a sign of being evangelised for the cosmic system. This is exactly what has happened in Sardis.

Verse 4b, “In fact they will walk with me in whites.” This is the uniform of glory. The uniform of honour is parlayed into the uniform of glory at the judgment seat of Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ wore the uniform of glory first on the mount of transfiguration, and the uniform of glory will be worn by a few believers who achieve maturity in the future. It will be worn at the court presentation in heaven during the Tribulation, it will be worn at the coronation of our Lord after the second advent, it will be worn at the wedding supper of the Lamb, it will be worn throughout the Millennium. It is the greatest honour that a human being can receive.

1. Walking is, of course, the function of bi-ped homo sapien. It is a form of locomotion in which forward progress is accomplished by hoisting one foot of the body in front of the body, and then placing weight on that foot, causing the body to move forward. In the New Testament, however, walking is used as a synonym for spiritual modus operandi. All of the connotations of walking in the Christian life are covered by the one Greek word peripatew. There is also the Hebrew equivalent found in the Old Testament, halak, used generally in a metaphorical way. There are also at least two other words translated “walking” in the King James version. One of them is the verb stoixew, which generally connotes marching in ranks and used primarily by the apostle Paul. The apostle John uses peripatew. There is also one other word and that is o)rthopodiew, and it means to walk straight. With the negative it is used for cosmic involvement; with the positive it is used for living in the divine dynasphere.

2. Walking in the New Testament refers to Christian modus operandi inside the divine dynasphere. For example, walking refers to residence in the divine dynasphere in 1 John 1:7, “but if we keep walking in the light,” the believer living in the divine dynasphere. The same connotation is found in Galatians 5:16, “keep walking by means of the Spirit and you will not perform any lust pattern of the old sin nature.”

Functioning at the various gates of the divine dynasphere is said to be “walking in the Spirit.” Also, walking is used for the three functions at gate four which are described in terms of walking. The first function of gate four of the divine dynasphere is perception of doctrine, 3 John 4, “ … some of your children keep walking by means of doctrine,” i.e. perceptive function of doctrine at gate four. Also at the same gate is the application of doctrine, 2 Corinthians 5:7, “We walk by faith and not by sight,” and “faith” refers to the three stages of the faith-rest drill. The third function of gate four is momentum, Colossians 1:9,10, “For this reason also, since the day we heard it, we do not cease to pray for you and so to ask that you may be filled with e)pignwsij doctrine of his sovereign purpose by means of all wisdom,” application of doctrine; “and spiritual understanding,” perception of doctrine; “in order that you might walk worthy of the Lord.” This is passing the momentum test. Walking is also used for the function of virtue inside the divine dynasphere, Ephesians 5:2, “We keep walking in love,” “love” here refers to the functional virtue, impersonal love. 1 Thessalonians 2:12, “So that you may walk in a manner worthy of God who called you into his own kingdom and glory,” the function of virtue inside the divine dynasphere. Romans 12:13, “Let us walk honourably as in the daytime,” function of virtue inside the divine dynasphere. Ephesians 4:1,2, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, continue to encourage you to walk in a manner worthy of your station in life,” royal family of God; “into which you have been elected to privilege, with all humility,” function of gate three; “and courteous thoughtfulness of others, with patience,” regarding the divine dynasphere, its residence; “showing forbearance,” function in the divine dynasphere; “to one another in the sphere of the love complex [the divine dynasphere].”

Walking also refers to the three stages of the faith-rest drill. 2 Corinthians 5:7, “We walk by faith and not by sight.” The faith-rest drill is used inside the divine dynasphere, it is also used to pass momentum testing. The faith-rest drill is used in the cosmic system only to get out and to recover life in the divine dynasphere, Colossians 2:6, “According as you have received you yourself Christ Jesus the Lord [by faith], so keep walking in him.”

Walking also refers to life inside the cosmic system of Satan, Ephesians 4:17, “This I say therefore, and make emphatic demand by means of the Lord, that you no longer keep walking as the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind [cosmic involvement],” Ephesians 5:15, “Be careful how you walk, not as unwise [cosmic involvement], but as wise [decisions regarding the divine dynasphere].”

Once a believer starts living in the cosmic system, even though he has been saved by faith in Christ and the work of the cross, he nevertheless continues to be the enemy of the cross in that system, Philippians 3:18,19, describing the walk of the believer in the cosmic system … “whose fame is by means of dishonour [the uniform of dishonour or soiled clothes worn by the believer in the cosmic system], who keeps thinking about earthly things [involvement in cosmic two].” Or, 1 John 1:6 I “If we contend that we have fellowship with him and keep walking in darkness [the believer in the cosmic system is walking in darkness] we are lying and do not practice the truth.”

Walking also refers to future reward of mature believers, Revelation 3:4, “They will walk with me in whites.”

One of our Lord’s titles in the strategic victory of the angelic conflict is called “the bright and morning star.” Christ is called the morning star in relationship to His first and second advents. In Numbers 24:17, “A star shall come forth from Jacob [1st advent]”; 2 Peter 1:19, “A morning star has come up [2nd advent].” The same is found in Revelation 22:16 where He is called the bright morning star. Since the order of the morning star is the highest decoration that heaven can give to a believer it must be accompanied by an appropriate garment. That appropriate garment is the uniform of glory.

So far in verse four this is what we have: “But you have a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes [the uniform of honour]; in fact they will walk with me in whites [the uniform of glory].”

We have three more words in this particular verse. We start out with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, correctly translated “because.” Here is the reason for the special award for the uniform of glory. Worthiness in time means glory in eternity; “because they are,” the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, the verb to be. This is a perfective present tense, it refers to the fact of advance to maturity in past time but is emphasised as a present reality, the reality of a future reward in the resurrection body. This is tantamount to hope3 in the divine plan, X+Y+Z. The active voice: the mature believer living inside the divine dynasphere produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a reality of future reward to all mature believers.

With this we have the last word in the sentence, the predicate nominative from the adjective a)cioj, and it means worthy. They are worthy because they have lived inside the divine dynasphere; they are worthy because they have been positive toward doctrine on a consistent basis and have not succumbed to cosmic evangelism; they are worthy because they have advanced to maturity, passing all of the momentum tests; they are worthy because they have constructed the edification complex of the soul; they are worthy because they have glorified our Lord Jesus Christ in time; they are worthy because they have maximum, yet anonymous, invisible impact in this dispensation.

The entire translation: “But you have a few persons in Sardis [the pivot of mature believers] who have not soiled their clothes; in fact, they will walk with me in whites, because they are worthy.” The mature believer exchanges the temporal uniform of honour for the eternal uniform of glory at the judgment seat of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ as the morning star has a resurrection body enshrouded in white transparent light. While all believers will have the white pebble or the resurrection body at the Rapture of the Church, only those believers who achieve maturity through life in the divine dynasphere will have the uniform of glory covering their resurrection body. This uniform of glory is made of transparent light and resembles the highest-ranking uniform worn by our Lord Jesus Christ on His resurrection body. The uniform of glory is a part of our Lord’s third royal patent as the morning star. For mature believers with maximum historical impact in time our Lord will decorate them at the judgment seat of Christ with the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory. The order of the morning star is worn on that special uniform only. This decoration plus the uniform of glory also gives the mature believer special privileges and special fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ after the Rapture in heaven, on the earth during the Millennium, and forever and ever in the eternal state.

You will note that while heaven is a perfect place for ever and ever there is no equality among believers in heaven, just as there is no equality among angels in heaven. The are archangels and angles; there are mature believers and there are immature believers; there are winners and losers. The losers have a resurrection body; the winners have a resurrection body plus the uniform of glory plus the order of the morning star plus the crown of life, and there are vast differences. And differences in heaven, a perfect place, represents the principle of freedom. It is always freedom that makes the difference. After salvation your attitude toward Bible doctrine is the determining factor. Positive volition: advance to maturity; negative volition: you become a loser.

Remember that freedom always results in inequalities in life. There is no equality in life; there is no equality in eternity; equality is not necessary for anything. Equality is ego-arrogant propaganda from the cosmic system. That is why communism uses it successfully and that is why so many organisations have used equality successfully. Equality does not mean happiness, it means unhappiness. Equality means loss of freedom. When people are equal, allegedly, there is no freedom, no function of freedom. The function of freedom guarantees that some will succeed and some will fail. That is why volition and freedom, live and let live, is the great issue in the angelic conflict. All believers will possess the white pebble but only the mature believers of phase two will wear the uniform of glory and receive with it the decoration of the order of the morning star.

The difference between all believers in eternity is determined by the use of their volition in time. The believer possesses freedom to choose for the plan of God, including doctrine and the divine dynasphere. He also possesses freedom to choose for Satan’s plan, the cosmic system. As goes the believer’s volition toward the plan of God in time, so go the rewards and decorations of eternity, as well as the difference between great happiness and misery in time. The differences between believers in eternity is not the resurrection body but the rewards, the decorations and the privileges presented at the judgment seat of Christ. The elite of Christianity are not visible in time for our uniform of glory is worn in the soul. Their faithfulness is related to their spiritual life — consistent positive volition toward doctrine, consistent filling of the Spirit inside the divine dynasphere, consistent advance from gate four to gate eight, the construction of the edification complex of the soul, the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the elite of Christianity are those believers who exploit to the maximum the divine provision of logistical grace and parlay right decisions into spiritual maturity. Right decisions are made for the divine dynasphere and the Word of God. These positive decisions are right decisions. They have to be, however, daily decisions which reflect daily right priorities in life. The thousands of right decisions in time are reflected in the decorations and privileges of both the Millennium and the eternal state.

The privilege of ultimate happiness in eternity is related to the gazebo in the garden. The highest decoration for life in the divine dynasphere is: the crown of life; knighted with the new order of knighthood, the order of chivalry for eternity; decorated with the order of the morning star the highest decoration for historical impact in the angelic conflict; the uniform of glory which accompanies the morning star.

Peter’s account of mount of transfiguration is given in 2 Peter 1:17-19, “For when he [Christ] received [on the mount of transfiguration] from God the Father honour,” the uniform of honour was from His residence in the prototype divine dynasphere; “and glory,” this was the uniform of glory which anticipated His resurrection, ascension and session; “such a sound was then made by his majestic glory [God the Father spoke], “This one [our Lord Jesus Christ] is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased,” some of us as sons of God are going to have that same accolade in the future; “and we heard the same voice carried from heaven when we were with him in the holy mount [the mount of transfiguration]. And we keep on having, however,” right now the issue is not what you can see. Peter, James and John saw the uniform of glory, therefore, empirically they understand something that we can only understand theologically; “a more reliable prophetical doctrine,” more reliable than the empiricism of Peter, James and John on the mount of transfiguration; “with reference to which doctrine you perform honourably,” that is the uniform of honour, invisible at the moment but parlayed into the visible uniform of glory in the future; “concentrating in your right lobes on the lamp shining in the dark place,” the lamp shining in the dark place today is Jesus Christ who controls history, “until the day dawn [second advent of Christ] and the morning star [our Lord Jesus Christ] has come,” second advent. What is invisible today is the anonymous heroes of the time in which we live, but in the future they will be well-known, they will be the great people of history.

Verse 5, the uniform of glory presented at court. First of all we have the award of the uniform of glory, and our first two words are o( nikon. O( is the generic use of the definite article used to describe a category. The category here: Church Age believers who attain maturity through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, who are persistent in the perception of Bible doctrine. So we simply translate the definite article, “the.” Next we have the present active participle from the verb nikaw, and it means to win. However the problem here is that there are two other uses for the participle in the Greek. One is ascriptive, where the participle is used as an adjective; the other is when the participle is used as a substantive. Here we have the present active participle used as a substantive and this is because there are no other nouns in the area. It is translated simply, “the winner.” With it we have an adverb, o(utoj, and it would be translated, “So the winner”: o(utoj means “so,” and it refers to what precedes. It can be translated “thus”; it can be translated “so.” In other words, this is simply a continuation from verse four. The mature believer decorated with the order of the morning star at the judgment seat of Christ is the winner.

Next we have we have the future middle indicative of the verb periballw, and it means to clothe, it means to wear, it means to attire, “Thus the winner [the mature believer] shall be clothed.” The predictive future tense anticipates the judgment seat of Christ when the mature believer receives the uniform of glory as a part of being decorated with the order of the morning star. The middle voice is a direct middle in which the believer participates in the results of the action, being decorated with the order of the morning star plus the uniform of glory worn over his resurrection body. Remember that the uniform of glory is a robe of translucent light. It was worn first by our Lord Jesus Christ; in fact it is worn by Him at the right hand of the Father. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the award of the uniform of glory at the judgment seat of glory. The uniform of honour is exchanged for the uniform of glory. The uniform of honour is manifest by the modus operandi of functional virtue and the fulfillment of the royal family honour code. “So the winner [ the mature believer] shall be clothed.”

Now we have the prepositional phrase which describes the uniform of glory, e)n plus the locative plural of the adjective leukoj plus the noun i(mation, meaning robe or garment. It is translated, “in whites,” plural.

The occasion for the uniform of glory and the wearing of the order of the morning star begins at the judgment seat of Christ where it is awarded. That is when for the first time mature believers will be decorated and they will wear the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory. With the order of the morning star they receive the uniform of glory, as we have noted. The reason for the presentation of this decoration in heaven is because Jesus Christ has as a part of His third royal patent the title “morning star.” The order of the morning star, therefore, and the uniform of glory represent maximum utilisation of logistical grace during phase two of the plan of God. They also represent maximum time spent inside the divine dynasphere and the consistency of high priorities given to Bible doctrine so that doctrine comes first above everything else. Doctrine is the key for advancing to maturity.

After mature believers receive the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory they will be presented in the court of heaven, but only mature believers. Believers who do not attain maturity in this dispensation are going to have resurrection bodies but they are not going to be presented in the court of heaven. They are not going to have a chapter in the eternal history of the human race.

Once the second advent occurs the next item on the agenda is the fact that the believer in the uniform of glory and the order of the morning star is revealed to the entire population of the world.

In verse 5 we have covered one phrase: “Thus the winner,” the mature believer decorated with the order of the morning star at the judgment seat of Christ, “shall be clothed in white garments,” a reference, again, to the translucent uniform of glory. The winner is the believer who lives in the divine dynasphere and functions at the various gates. It is the mature believer who carries the nation. The loser is the cosmic believer who is involved in cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking system of arrogance and cosmic two with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred.

We have noticed the resurrection of the Church which terminates the Church Age, the next prophecy in history. That is point X. Point Y is the great genuflect in the sky. When a person dies during the Church Age he is absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. That means that his soul leaves the body and enters into the presence of the Lord where he receives a new interim body. This is a period of tremendous happiness for losers and winners. Losers and winners are not distinguished after physical death in heaven. Then comes the resurrection of the Church and that is where we start X, Y and Z. At X the resurrection body is received. The dead in Christ receive theirs; those who are alive and remain receive theirs, and at point X there is no distinction among believers as yet. They all have the same resurrection body. Then at point Y, the big genuflect in the sky, the great time of worship of the entire assembled royal family of God, and still no distinction between resurrection bodies. Point Z is where the distinction begins.

The winner is the believer who logs maximum time in the divine dynasphere, the believer who advances from gate four to gate eight, who fulfills the principle of integrity and virtue in life manufactured inside the divine dynasphere. The function of the royal priesthood is directed toward God, you have to live your life as unto God; the function of the royal ambassadorship is life directed toward man and circumstances. The result is that by perception of doctrine there is motivating virtue produced in the direction of God and functional virtue produced in the direction of mankind. This is the modus operandi of the mature believer. He builds the edification complex of the soul through daily perception of Bible doctrine. So the winners are believers who live in the divine dynasphere, learn Bible doctrine on a consistent basis, pass the various momentum tests, advance to maturity, fulfill the plan of God, and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Losers are believers who live in the cosmic system. They become the servants of Satan, they come constantly under the control of their old sin nature and carnality, and constantly under the control of Satan through the cosmic system. Losers are Christians, then, who fail in time. They do not lose their eternal salvation because of their failure. However they do occupy an inferior status in heaven, they have no authority in the Millennium and an inferior status forever and ever.

The winners are described by the participle nikaw, winner. All historical blessing and prosperity in the Church Age results from unknown and unnamed believers who live inside the divine dynasphere and advance to spiritual maturity and form the pivot for the client nation. These are the anonymous heroes of history. They have used the hidden manna of Bible doctrine and the provision of logistical grace combined with the function inside the divine dynasphere to become winners. That is why in verse 5, “Thus the winner shall be clothed with white garments,” referring to the uniform of glory. The uniform of honour is parlayed into the uniform of glory at point Z, the judgment seat of Christ.

Point Z: 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one of us [each believer in Christ] may receive what is due him for the things accomplished in the body,” while he was on earth, a specific reference to phase two of the plan of God, “whether good or evil [worthless].” The word for “good” is the Greek word a)gathoj, the adjective which means good of intrinsic value, and it is often used to describe the plan of God, Romans 8:28. The word for “worthless,” fauloj, has to do with function inside of the cosmic system.

The loser should be noted first at point Z. There are two categories at the judgment seat of Christ, all are believers but there are two categories: those who are losers and those who are winners. The losers are going to have a period of ashamedness. Romans 5:5 puts it this way: “And hope [hope3 of Z radical] does not make us ashamed [at the judgment seat of Christ].” Or, 2 Timothy 2:15, “A workman who needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.” And, of course, the implication is that if you do not rightly divide the Word of truth, perception and application, then you are going to be ashamed. Or, Philippians 1:20, “According to my earnest anticipation and hope [hope3 of Z radical], that I shall not be put to same in anything,” the implication is that losers are put to shame; “but with all confidence [again, the 3rd hope of Z radical] Christ shall now, as always, be glorified in my body, whether by life or by death.”

Losers are found in Philippians 3:18,19. While they have not lost their salvation in that passage they are called “enemies of the cross,” their end is destruction, they are going to die the sin unto death, their god is their emotion, their emphasis is on the human viewpoint, etc. In 1 John 2:28 we are given the mandate as believers, “keep residing in it [the divine dynasphere], that if he [Christ] should appear [Rapture followed by the judgment seat of Christ], we might have confidence and might not be put to shame in his presence.” Losers are going to be put to shame in His presence.

Winners are going to receive the crown of life. This is for living inside the divine dynasphere. And with the crown of life they will also receive the decoration of maximum impact — Revelation 2:28, “Furthermore I will give to them the order of the morning star.” And, of course, the uniform of glory goes with this. The decoration of the morning star includes the privilege of wearing the uniform of glory, Revelation 3:4, walking with the Lord in whites. The decoration includes also presentation at the court of heaven.

The order of the morning star also includes a new knighthood, the order of chivalry for the royal family or Church Age believer, Revelation 2:17, “I will give him blessing from the hidden manna [Bible doctrine], and I will give him a white pebble [resurrection body], and on that pebble has been written a new title [an honour only belonging to those who hold the order of the morning star] which no one knows except the one who receives it.”

The winner also figures in the second advent. After being presented at the court of heaven he joins up with the other winners of the morning star to return to the earth. When the Lord returns to the earth those who hold the order of the morning star and wear the uniform of glory are going to be there, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, “At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all of his saints,” those who are winners and those who are losers. They are by this time distinguished. There is no longer the common resurrection body, the white pebble. Now there is a tremendous distinction between winners and losers.

Before the Millennium there will be a coronation such as the world has never seen. Our Lord Jesus Christ is going to be crowned the ruler of the world. He will give the rulership of the world to the Father who will immediately give it back to Him. At that point, once again, there is a tremendous distinction between winners and losers. There are two kinds of people there who are believers. There are believers in their physical bodies who will be the nucleus for the Millennium and believers in resurrection bodies. It is described in Revelation 19:6, the coronation; in Revelation 19:, the wedding supper of the Lamb which follows.

Verse 6, the coronation, “I heard as, as it were, the sound of a great crowd of people [Church Age believers in resurrection bodies] and as the sound of many waters [the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs have just received their resurrection bodies and they are classified as “friends of the groom”] as the sound of mighty thunderings [the living and surviving Tribulational believers who will be the nucleus for the population explosion of the Millennium], saying, Praise belongs to the Lord because the Lord God [Jesus Christ] has become king.”

Verse 7, the wedding supper of the Lamb. “Let us be extremely happy.” There are degrees of happiness always. In the divine dynasphere there are degrees of happiness, happiness from the filling of the Spirit, happiness which comes from objectivity, basic impersonal love. Great happiness and capacity for happiness always depends on humility. No one is ever happy in a state of arrogance. Then, of course, there is happiness for those who are positive in perception and application of doctrine, happiness in love for God, happiness in right man, right woman, in friendship, in maturity. There are also degrees of happiness in eternity; the same thing applies.

The reason for this is obvious. Once we accept Christ as saviour we are free to accept or reject Bible doctrine. The issue is no longer salvation or, What think ye of Christ? The issue is now, What do you think about Bible doctrine? Positive volition toward doctrine in the divine dynasphere means good decisions over a period of time resulting in spiritual maturity. But negative decisions toward doctrine result in becoming a loser.

Heaven is a perfect place and heaven is going to have winners and losers in varying degrees. So there will be varying degrees of happiness in heaven. No one is going to be unhappy once they get past the judgment seat of Christ but there is going to be a tremendous inequality. Remember that inequality goes with freedom.

Continuing verse 7, “and celebrate with maximum happiness and give glory to him [Christ is the groom who has just been crowned ruler of the world] because the marriage of the Lamb [Christ] has come and his bride [the Church] has made herself ready,” i.e. the judgment seat of Christ, presentation of the morning star winners and then returning with Christ, “Also it was given to her that she [the bride, the Church] should be clothed in fine linen,” all believers in their resurrection bodies. There is no distinction between winners and losers in this passage but there is in the next phrase; “bright,” this is part of the limited group who have the uniform of glory and the order of the morning star; “unsoiled,” morning star winners only. The fine linen is the ultimate righteousness, resurrection body minus the old sin nature of the saint, the royal family of God. “And he communicated to me, “Write, ‘Happiness belongs to the ones who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb’ .”

The authority of the morning star in the Millennium then becomes the next issue. The morning star people are going to stand out at the coronation, at the wedding supper of the Lamb, and now we go into the Millennium. The Millennium is a time of rulership by our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a time, however, of nationalism. The whole system for administering freedom under the rulership of our Lord is nationalism and the world again will be broken up into many nations. There will be one client nation to God and that will be Israel at that time. For the rest there will be Gentile nations and the principle is that those who hold the order of the morning star are the anonymous heroes of history. They are anonymous in the Church Age but they will be well-known in the Millennium. Revelation 2:26-28 — “to him I will give authority over the nations.” The anonymous heroes of the Church Age will become famous in the Millennium. And notice: the Lord Jesus Christ “shall rule them with a rod of iron.” He rules with authority. No one can rule without authority; no one can control without authority. And He rules: Revelation 20:4, “And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them [Church Age believers, winners of the order of the morning star], and judgment was given to them.”

The privileges that belong to the morning star decoration in the eternal state is a fascinating subject. For example, once the Millennium is over there is a revolution at its end. Satan is loosed and he comes back and finds those who reject perfect environment because they have no capacity for life, love or happiness or blessing. They have rejected Christ as saviour and therefore Satan will start a revolution, the Gog revolution. After that is put down there is going to be the nuclear destruction of planet earth by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The first thing we notice about privileges in eternity. There is going to be a nuclear destruction of the universe and a new heavens and a new earth and a new Jerusalem are all going to be created, and we are going to live forever and ever in this. And we are going to have degrees of happiness, degrees of blessing, and inequality will be the order of the day in eternity, just as the angels are in eternity and there is tremendous inequality among angels.

The privileges: We only have a short time on this earth and if our priorities are straight we will have no problem. Revelation 2:7, “I will give him the privilege of eating from the tree of life in the paradise of God.” The tree of life and the paradise of God is open to mature believers only. By the way, it is going to be located in the new Jerusalem and you are going to have to have the pass to get in, and if you are not a mature believer with the coat of arms, the eternal escutcheon of maturity, you can’t get in. So the gazebo in the garden is where there is going to be a lot of partying in heaven. But if you are a loser, note that there is a special party every now and then in the new Jerusalem and it is for morning star holders only, for those who wear the uniform of glory only, for those who have the escutcheon of glory only. So there is a great benefit that belongs to a few. It should be more than a few.

The highest order of eternal chivalry is the new knighthood of Revelation 2:17, “To the winner I will give him blessing from the hidden manna [maximum doctrine in the soul], and I will give him the white pebble [resurrection body] and a new title [knighted with the new title of knighthood for the order of chivalry in eternity]”.

Then there is a third factor that is very important. The believer who has the most impact on history is the believer who advances to maturity, lives in the pivot, and therefore becomes blessing by association historically to his contemporary. This believer is going to be anonymous now but the time will come when the low profile will be famous, for in eternity. Revelation 3:12, “I will make the winner a pillar in the temple of my God. Furthermore, he will never vanish from history.” This anticipates our study of this verse. Each believer who is mature and holds the order of the morning star will have a pillar, a chapter in the permanent history of the human race. He will be famous as a ruler in the Millennium; he will be famous as having a permanent chapter in human history.

In the rest of verse twelve we have the eternal coat of arms and the heraldry of the winners. An escutcheon is simply a coat of arms often put on some kind of a shield. It has three parts. On the first, “I will emblazon on him [the mature believer, the winner] the title of my God,” the title of God the Father as the author of the divine plan. The mature believer has executed the plan of God in time and, therefore, he has a heraldry and the title of God the Father. The next part of the escutcheon is next described, “also the new Jerusalem,” that is, the pass to enter the new Jerusalem of the eternal state where the tree of life is located; “which shall descend from the immediate source of heaven and from the ultimate source of God.” Then the third part of the escutcheon, “also emblazoned with my new name.” That is the third royal patent of our Lord Jesus Christ which He earned at the cross and the first advent, and it indicates that mature believers faithfully served the Lord in time rather than Satan in the cosmic system, the honoured Him, and this is the way they are recognised in their coat of arms.

Summary: The coat of arms of the mature believer in eternity has three parts: Dexter — the title of God the Father, indicating the fulfillment of His plan in time, life in the divine dynasphere, advance to maturity, construction of the edification complex of the soul; The Middle — the new Jerusalem simply parlays supergrace blessings of time into surpassing grace blessings of eternity; the Sinister — the third royal patent of our Lord Jesus Christ indicating the fact that the mature believer glorifies God in time.

All of this pulls together what we are discussing at this point in verse 5 — “Thus the winner [the mature believer] shall be clothed with white garments.”

We now move to the permanence of the uniform of glory. There are going to be great distinctions in heaven. The use of freedom in time, the use of volition in time, means inequality in heaven. Heaven is a perfect place, the circumstances of heaven are perfect and yet there will be vast differences between believers. Some will have simply a resurrection body minus the old sin nature. Others are going to have the resurrection body plus the crown of life, the crown of righteousness, the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory, the heraldry of glory as well.

Next we have the connective use of the conjunction kai, meaning “and,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb e)xaleifw, which with the strong double negative means to blot out. The double negative is not a positive in the Greek, it is a stronger negative. Here we have u)o mh. Mh is the negative usually used with the subjunctive, with the imperative, with infinitives and with any other type verb form where you have a negative, except the indicative. O)u is used with the indicative. When you put them together they are very very strong. The literal translation is, “not never.” So we have so far: “and I will not ever blot out” or “I will never obliterate.” The dramatic aorist tense states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. This is a grammatical device for emphasising the eternal security of the believer and applying it to the doctrine of the uniform of glory. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb to emphasise the permanence of all rewards and surpassing grace blessings in eternity. The indicative mood is declarative plus the strong double negative emphasises the permanence of rewards and also the permanence of the decision you made when you personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from o)noma. While o)noma means name it also has other similar meanings in the Greek. It sometimes means “person” and it quite often, as in the book of Revelation, refers to a title, a title of knighthood. The heraldry we have noted briefly and the title of knighthood go together. Anyone who has a title of knighthood also has a coat of arms and heraldry is the study of the coat of arms. When the Normans came to England the way in which they recognised their own troops was by what they wore over the breastplate and what they had on the shield. To distinguish friend from foe a system of heraldry was used by these Norman knights. Eventually in the history of England it was picked up by the Saxons as well and, eventually of course, the amalgamation of the two led to a tremendous system of heraldry which spread all over western Europe.

The shield became the basis for it all. On the top was the “chief,” the bottom was the “base,” the left was called “dexter,” the middle was called “middle,” and then the right was called “sinister.” There are three different facets to the order of knighthood given to every mature believer as a reward in eternity and the distinction between believers will be found in that order of chivalry for eternity. There is an order of chivalry for the Millennium, there is an order of chivalry for eternity, and the uniform of glory is permanent; all of this is permanent. This is the concept: “I will never obliterate his royal title” — not “his name” but his royal title, the title he has earned as a believer in time, residing and functioning inside of the divine dynasphere and, at the same time, advancing to maturity from gate four to gate eight.

Then we have the reference to the book of life, e)k plus the ablative from bibloj, and with it we have zwh in the genitive. It is correctly translated “book of life.” “I will never blot his title [his honour, his awards, his heraldry] out of the book of life.”

The book of life is two things. It is one thing in time and it is something else in eternity. Basically the book of life is a registry, it has the names of every member of the human race in time. In eternity it is the registry of all believers, not all people. When a person dies without accepting Christ as saviour his name is blotted out of the book of life so that when you get to eternity the only people who are left are believers. So in eternity it is the registry of believers; in time it is the registry of the human race.

The book of life in our passage deals with also with the new knighthood, the new order f chivalry as well as the registry of the name. The book of life is related to the function of GAP in Philippians 4:3, “Help those women who fought at my side in the spread of the gospel; also help with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life,” meaning they are in there now and they always will be, they will never be blotted out.

The unbeliever is not registered in the book of life, according to Revelation 13:8, “And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, every one whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.”

So you see we have different approaches to the book of life. Here we anticipate eternity because those who are going to worship in eternity are those who are still in the registry. If you are not in the registry you don’t worship God. The book of life is also related to the historical power of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation, Revelation 17:8 — “The beast that you saw [revived Roman empire] was [Roman empire in AD 96] and is not [AD 476], and is about to come out of the abyss [revived Roman empire of the Tribulation] and to go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth will be amazed whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they shall see the beast, that was and is not and will come.”

The book of life is also related to the last judgment, Revelation 20:12, “And I saw the dead [unbelievers], great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things that were written in the books, according to their works.” Here is the principle of the last judgment. If your name is blotted out of the book of life because you didn’t accept Christ as saviour there is another set of books on you, the books of your works, every good deed you have ever done. At the last judgment your sins will not be mentioned, they were judged at the cross. But the unbelievers works will be brought up and they will tally up to -R. It will be demonstrated then that -R cannot have fellowship with +R and therefore this is the basis for going to the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15, “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

In Revelation 3:5 it says: “I will not blot his name out of the book of life.” This means two things: that no believer can lose his salvation; that no mature believer can lose his rewards. The registry of the names of believers in this dispensation will include their royal titles, royal titles earned by advancing from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. Hence the book of life is the registry of all believers in eternity, according to Philippians 4:3; Revelation 13:8; 17:8; 20:12,15; 21:27; 22:19. In history all members are registered in the book of life but at the point of their death, or in the case of the end of the Tribulation the baptism of fire, the unbeliever is blotted out of the book of life. The believer cannot be blotted out of the book of life, emphasising the permanence of his eternal state and the irrevocable eternal rewards which belong to him. So the one who has the order of the morning star also has a special royal title which distinguishes him from other believers, and his royal title will not be blotted out, another way of saying we are not going to all be equal in eternity. There will be inequality in the perfect environment of heaven and that means that royal titles will be used for ever and ever, and royal titles belong only to those believers who advance to maturity and therefore are in the order of chivalry.

Mature believers are going to be presented at the court of the third heaven after the judgment seat of Christ. The presentation begins with the intensive use of the conjunction kai. Then we have the future active indicative of the verb o(mologew, “in fact I will acknowledge.” O(mologewis the word translated “confess” in 1 John 1:9, and we have already seen that it means to acknowledge or cite. Now here is a public acknowledgment and the one who is going to do it is our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are two ways in which you can be presented at court. The first way is to actually be brought into the presence of the king (or the queen) and receive some investiture, be presented and recognised personally by the sovereign of the land. There is another way. Kings and queens in the past history of England have had bastards, lots of them. These people couldn’t even go into court until they were given a coat of arms and a family name. “I will acknowledge” — that is what Richard II did for his cousins, the Beauforts, and that is what the Lord Jesus Christ will do for every mature believer; “in fact I will acknowledge,” the predictive future anticipates and event which occurs between the Rapture and the second advent in heaven. The believer who is decorated with the order of the morning star is actually presented at court. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb by making the presentation. Our Lord Jesus Christ presents every morning star-holder personally to God the Father, “in the presence of the holy angels.” God the Father knows all people, He is omniscient, but this goes beyond that as an honour. The presentation is made with the believer wearing the uniform of glory. The indicative mood is declarative for the court presentation in heaven while the Tribulation is occurring on earth, Revelation 6-18.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from o)noma, which means “name,” “person,” “title,” “knighthood.” And with it we have a)utoj, which means “his name,” “his title.” He will be presented with his title.

Then we have a description of the court of heaven. It begins with the improper preposition of place e)nwpion, and it has two meanings in this context. With the Father [Pathr] it means in the presence of the Father; with angels [a)ggeloj] it is “before.” “In the presence of my Father,” genitive of relationship from e)gw, and that describes the court of heaven where the believer who is decorated with the order of the morning star is presented; “and before his angels,” the same word, e)nwpion, this time plus a)ggeloj and the possessive genitive a)utoj. These are the elect angels who did not go astray when Lucifer started the first revolution in heaven.

So it should read in verse 5: “Thus the winner [mature believer] shall be clothed in white garments; and I will never blot his name out of the book of life; in fact I will acknowledge [the presentation of the morning star winners at the court of heaven] his title [new knighthood received at the judgment seat of Christ] in the presence of my Father and before his angels.”

Verse 6, how to achieve all of these things. This is the articular present active participle of e)xw, “He who has.” The definite article is used for a personal pronoun referring to the believer in Christ who from the point of salvation on has been equipped and supported with logistical grace and has made positive decisions with regard to what he has been given in logistical grace. The present tense is a static present emphasising the fact that everyone has ears totally apart from human merit which is analogous to the believer being sustained by logistical grace for perception of doctrine and perpetuation of momentum. Every believer has the same opportunity.

God provides for you everything you need to advance. If you do not it is your decision, not God’s provision. The only reason there will be losers at the judgment seat of Christ is because people have made wrong decisions.

Momentum inside the divine dynasphere is the only means of achieving spiritual maturity and possessing maximum historical impact. The believer who attains maturity in the divine dynasphere wears the uniform of glory, is decorated with the order of the morning star, is actually given a coat of arms a patent which is registered in the book of life, a royal patent which can never be removed. He is also in the sphere of maximum happiness forever and ever. The maximum happiness in eternity is related to the new Jerusalem which hovers over planet earth in eternity, and access into new Jerusalem is only possible for mature believers. So there are even places in heaven where forever and ever certain people are restricted from going.

The uniform of honour in time is therefore parlayed into the uniform of glory at the judgment seat of Christ. The active voice: positive believers produce the action of the verb through the exploitation of logistical grace.

“an ear,” the accusative singular direct object of o)uj, a dual word which in the singular means you have ears, plural. If it is in the plural it means everyone else has ears. So we translate: “He who has an ear.” Just as the possession of ears is totally without human merit so the provision of logistical grace is totally apart from human works, ability or merit. Possession of ears is a reminder that we as believers are equipped with grace provision for learning doctrine, we have spiritual IQ related to the first three gates of the divine dynasphere. Gate one, the power for perception of doctrine, the filling of the Holy Spirit; Gate two is objectivity for perception of doctrine, impersonal love; Gate three is teachability, which is enforced and genuine humility. Note also that no one hears apart from human positive volition toward doctrine. The ear, then, represents the grace system for the perception of doctrine; gate four of the divine dynasphere. It is perception of doctrine at gate four plus the application of doctrine to momentum testing which results in advance to maturity and the guarantee of the order of the morning star in eternity.

Next we have the mandate, “let him hear,” the aorist active imperative of the verb a)kouw, used not in the present tense, keep on hearing, but as a constative aorist which gathers up in to one entirety every moment of positive volition you have in your lifetime. There is a lesson in the constative aorist: God isn’t looking for hotshots, because no matter how smart, how talented, how beautiful, how attractive, how great, how powerful, how anything you might be, it means nothing to God or God’s plan. God’s plan calls for pluggers. You have to make decisions every day for doctrine, you can’t make them once in a while. The people who advance to maturity are all pluggers. Pluggers are the people who really make it. The constative aorist reminds us of the fact that to advance to maturity you have to plug. You have to take in doctrine to day, tomorrow, the next day. The active voice: we have the third person suffix of the verb form and it indicates that positive believers residing in the divine dynasphere produce the action of the verb. The divine mandate, however, is addressed to all members of the royal family, not just some of them. The imperative mood of command is the overall mandate for the believer of this dispensation, the Church Age, to reside and function in the divine dynasphere — positive volition, right priorities, perception of doctrine.

With this we have the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the accusative neuter singular from the interrogative pronoun tij, which means “what sort of thing?” Bible doctrine. And then pneuma, referring to God the Holy Spirit, “what the Spirit.” And then what sort of thing the Spirit communicates, which is the present active indicative of the verb legw, which means to say, speak, communicate, sometimes teach. It comes from the Greek word logoj which means “word” and “doctrine” and similar connotations. The customary present tense is for what habitually occurs when the believer resides and functions inside the divine dynasphere, in God’s plan. Perception of doctrine at gate four is the function of the royal priesthood while application of doctrine is the function of the royal ambassadorship. The Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb, He provides the necessary spiritual IQ for perception of doctrine. No one is handicapped in learning doctrine because the IQ is provided by the Spirit. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the Spirit’s ministry in perception of doctrine. This is again the principle of power, objectivity and teachability. The power: the filling of the Spirit; the objectivity: the function of impersonal love at gate two; teachability: the function of enforced and genuine humility at gate three.

Then there is the classroom, the dative plural indirect object of the noun e)kklhsia, the local church which is the classroom. This is a dative of advantage. Not only must all teaching of doctrine as perception be related to residence in the divine dynasphere but also in the classroom of the local church. However, we have to be careful here because a building is not a church. A home can be a church, as in the ancient world. It is simply a place where believers gather together under strict academic discipline for perception of doctrine. In other words, good manners must prevail whether it is face to face teaching or whether it involves nonresident teaching through some mechanical convenience, a radio, television, tape recorder, etc. The local church is an academic classroom because it is the means of communicating doctrine. Therefore perception not only demands the filling of the Spirit but the recognition of the authority of the pastor, whether he is coming out of a tape recorder, over the radio, or whatever type of pastor the individual has, and strict academic discipline is still enjoined.

Translation: “He who has an ear, let him hear [positive volition toward doctrine] what sort of thing [content of Bible doctrine] the Spirit communicates to the churches.”

There is a hero that is anonymous today, the hero we have been studying in great detail, and that is the believer who in residence and function inside the divine dynasphere advances to spiritual maturity. This is the one who has the greatest impact on history and this is the responsibility of the royal family of God living on planet earth during the dispensation of the Church — a special mission, a special opportunity, the greatest privilege that anyone could have; first of all to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, to know that you possess eternal life and that your salvation can never be canceled; to know that you have a mission and a purpose, not related to anything that will ever be cited for heroism in battle, but related to something that is far, far greater, for the great heroes of the Church Age are the anonymous heroes who advance to maturity.

Before we leave verse 6 we must recognise the importance of humility in our lives. “He who has an ear,” that is the ability for comprehension, the two frontal lobes, the volition, everything that God has given you by way of physiology for comprehension; “let him hear” is a mandate for positive volition toward Bible doctrine on a daily basis, the only way of advancing to maturity and wearing the uniform of glory forever; “what sort of thing” is the content of Bible doctrine, and the communicator is the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit has delegated the responsibility. The Holy Spirit at gate one acts as our IQ, the power of perception, but the Holy Spirit has delegated the communication of doctrine to those who are pastors of local churches. That means that if you are ever going to advance spiritually you are going to have to listen to some pastor.

Arrogance becomes the basis for the resistance of the truth. Humility is defined in our study as freedom from the cosmic system. The cosmic system is arrogance. Cosmic evangelism is one of the most successful forms of selling the world has ever known, and the reason that it is successful is that it inevitably appeals to the ego and, in some cases, the arrogance of the individual who is the victim. So cosmic evangelism is actually an appeal to arrogance. In some cases arrogance has to be developed in order for the appeal to be made, but inevitably people who are preoccupied with self, people who are stuck on themselves, people who really are perfunctory in their attendance and in their reception of doctrine, are caught up in cosmic involvement.

You have no attitude to Bible doctrine without humility. We have seen that verse six is the means of advancing to spiritual maturity, the means of contributing to historical uptrend, the means of personal blessing by association as well as collective blessing by association.

Humility is defined as freedom from the cosmic system. The maintenance of humility demands the rebound technique. No one can recover from cosmic one and cosmic two apart from rebound. Humility is a state of thinking but humility above all is recognition of true authority in life, and submitting to that authority regardless of any personality conflict or unfairness in the function of that authority. Humility must not be confused with self-effacement or asceticism. Self-effacement and asceticism is hypocrisy, it is arrogance, it is self-righteous arrogance. They are not only negative as far as humility is concerned but they are very definitely positive as far as arrogance is concerned.

Humility is capacity for life; humility is capacity for love; humility is capacity for happiness and, therefore, humility is the potential for success for love, for happiness, for greatness. Humility has a key always so that it is recognizable. It must never be confused with pseudo spirituality or with self-effacement or with asceticism. The key to humility is authority. What do you do with authority? What is your attitude toward authority? We were born to be happy because we were born under the principle of humility. The physical birth, the life which we received after birth, was given to us by God, but that life was put into the human soul after birth. Some people are born with good parents and some people are born with bad parents. The point is that you, no matter what kind of parents you have, have no control over that at all — the unfairness that might exist or the fairness, the wisdom or the idiocy. No one has exactly the same parents as someone else. But we fail to recognise the really important thing about parents, especially when we are children, and that is their very existence is the key to whether we start life with humility or arrogance. When you have too many arrogant people and they have no capacity for love, for arrogance destroys capacity for love, then they go in for promiscuity and lasciviousness. Lasciviousness and promiscuity is born from the fact that people reject authority, that they set themselves up as an idol. Therefore this arrogance becomes one of the bases for social degeneration. Why do we have so much promiscuity in life today? Why are things that were once rejected now acceptable in society? The answer is very simple: people have become arrogant, and arrogance includes promiscuity.

Granted, some parents are idiotic and they want their children to “love” them, and they spend all of their time catering to them and they never discipline them. That is what we call spoiling. You can’t spoil a child by giving him gifts, you can only spoil a child by withholding discipline when necessary. We have permissiveness which became a philosophical application to life and we finally discovered that parents were no longer acting as parents, and they allowed their children to get away with this or that, they didn’t spank them because it might injure their “little personalities”. And we are paying for this now because we have by-passed the first system of authority. Prisons are overcrowded, and they are for two reasons: they don’t execute criminals, and parents were permissive when they had the first crack at the little child.

As a parent you should know what he should touch and shouldn’t touch; you should know what he should eat and not eat; you know what he should wear and not wear. Or do you? If you do know a few things then you should say, “No you can’t do that,” and No is what produces great people, not Yes. “No, you can’t touch that,” “No, you can’t go with your friends, they’re idiots and they’re going to get in trouble,” “No, you can’t do this”, “No, you can’t do that.” “No” is the developer of virtue because “No” and respect for the word “No” from authority is the basis for beginning humility. And people who have true capacity for love and true capacity for happiness and success, who have all of these things and still have the great virtue of humility have learned to respect authority. They start with the parents and this is the whole concept of the home. The home is organised humility. The parents are the authority in the home and therefore enforced humility and positive volition toward the authority of the parents results in genuine humility, and no one can

No one is born with genuine humility, it is not inherent, it is acquired through a system related to the laws of divine establishment. It is important to acquire for genuine humility is the basis for not only virtue in life but it is the secret to happiness. And it is the only way in which you can cope with the realities of life, for where freedom exists there cannot be equality. Where tyranny exists there is a superficial quality, not a real one. But equality means slavery; freedom means inequality. The great sign of freedom is the fact that some fail and some succeed. And this is true in the Christian way of life. Some believers succeed in the Christian life and some fail. Humility is the basis for orientation to authority and therefore for orientation to the grace of God.

Since humility must be attained in life God has provided the potter’s wheel of authority. Romans 9:19-21, “Therefore you will say to me, ‘Why does he [God] still find fault with us? For who has resisted his purpose?’ On the contrary, O mankind, who are you who answers back to God?” Answering back to God is rejection of authority, therefore arrogance. It is a sign of cosmic involvement. “Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Or does not the potter possess authority over the clay, from the same lump to make on the one hand a vessel for the purpose of honour” There is the invisible uniform of honour in life; “on the other hand, another vessel for the purpose of dishonour” — cosmic involvement for the born-again believer.

Whether a person is a vessel of honour or dishonour depends upon his attitude toward authority and therefore genuine humility. The potter is God; the potter’s wheel is the principle of authority invented by God as the environment for freedom. And just as the chicken came before the egg so authority came before freedom. You cannot authority without freedom; you cannot have freedom without authority, they must stand together. Freedom without authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny, and therefore the potter’s wheel is divine authority delegated under the laws of divine establishment, and it begins at birth; all of us have parents.

This is why in Colossians 3:20, “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord.” Life begins with the imputation of human life to the target or home, the soul plus the imputation of Adam’s original sin which is to the genetically-formed old sin nature. God also provides the basis for overcoming the handicap — authority.

Again, the home is the principle of organizational humility. In the home are parents, the authority for enforced humility; and finally from enforced humility comes genuine humility which is the key to happiness in this life. The parents train the children in the use of restraint by volition, poise, self-control, self-discipline, the enforced humility by which one’s volition has maximum function under freedom as an adult. The organisation of the humility of the home, then, provides environment for blessing in the future. A lot of people are handicapped because they have rejected the authority of their parents. Their attitude toward their parents determines their future. This is the basis for so many people failing in life, they have rejected authority.

The provision of humility at spiritual birth begins with the imputation of eternal life. God imputes two things at the point of salvation. Eternal life is imputed to the human spirit which is created by God the Holy Spirit, and one half of divine integrity or holiness, God’s righteousness, is imputed as the recipient of all blessing. So a new authority comes into the life called grace. Grace is a pipeline that goes from the justice of God to the righteousness of God in you. All blessing which you receive comes from God, unearned, undeserved, and it goes to the righteousness of God so that God is not compromised with regard to His essence. You can’ give money to be blessed by God; you can’t work to be blessed by God. This grace system becomes a system of enforced humility. People do not realise that when they are saved by grace through faith it is the beginning of a whole new system of authority. The authority in your life becomes grace, you can’t earn or deserve anything from God. You can have capacity to appreciate what He gives you and that comes through doctrine. And so we have the same principle of authority all over again. Enforced humility is the principle of positive volition toward Bible doctrine and submission to teaching of the Word of God. Persistent positive volition toward doctrine results in both spiritual maturity and genuine humility. Spiritual maturity requires two basic virtues: genuine humility and concentration. Genuine humility is positive volition toward doctrine which submits to the teaching ministry of the pastor; concentration is the function of the filling of the Spirit and genuine humility. That is why we have passages like Proverbs 3:33-35, “The curse of the Lord is on the house of evil,” that is the home where arrogance is inculcated instead of enforced humility, “but he blesses the home of the righteous,” organisational plus enforced humility, “He makes war against the arrogant but he gives grace to the humble. The wise person [genuine humility] will inherit honour [the integrity or learning doctrine plus loyalty as a virtue or applying doctrine] but fools carry away dishonour,” the fool is the person who rejects authority in life. This is why we have, “God makes war against the arrogant but he gives grace to the humble,” James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5,6. Humbling yourself “under the mighty hand of God” is the recognition of divine authority and the manner by which He has delegated it in life.

So our passage in Revelation 3:6 says, “He who has an ear let him hear.” This is a call for humility; this is a call for positive volition; this is a call for a recognition of the authority of the Word of God.

As far as we as believers are concerned there are three absolutes of humility and honour. They are the parent, the personal volition and the pastor. The parent: the home, the beginning of life; the pastor: the new life; the person involved, these are the three absolutes. The parents relate to the laws of divine establishment; the pastor relates to the perception of doctrine under the principle of GAP; personal volition relates to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, positive volition, then you are born again and spiritually you come under another system. Just as you had your home as organisational humility you now have the local church or its equivalent as your organisational humility. Just as parents represented authority for enforced humility, so you have a pastor with the authority in teaching for enforced humility in the spiritual life. And just as you responded to the authority of your parents for genuine humility, so you respond to the teaching of the pastor for genuine humility, the advance to maturity. Without this, of course, you will never make it in the spiritual life just as you haven’t in human life. In the environment of the home the parents are the system of authority; in the environment of the soul the person’s volition is his authority, so the individual must constantly make decisions. Just as the individual as a child made decisions in the home to obey parents, so the individual in salvation makes decisions with regard to doctrine by which he advances to maturity; without that humility he doesn’t. His personal volition is regulated by his genuine humility. That is why believers make good decisions resulting in opening options for greater and greater decisions, and this is why they make bad decisions destroying those options. Again it is a matter of residence. Either you reside inside the divine dynasphere or you reside in the cosmic system.

The perfect example of humility as a virtue of life is given in Philippians 2:5-8, This is the key to it all, “Keep on thinking,” humility is a thinking system; “this within you which was also resident in Christ Jesus, who, though he eternally existed in the essence of God, he did not think equality with God a profit to be seized and held, but he deprived himself of the proper function of deity” — doctrine of kenosis, “when he had received the form of a servant, when he had been born into the likeness of mankind. In fact, although he was discovered in outward appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of spiritual death, that is, the death of the cross”. Here is our Lord Jesus Christ, eternal God, the unique person of the universe. In His humanity He humbled Himself; He was born into a home; He recognised the authority of His parents and He responded to it. He became mature very rapidly. He also was born into the plan of God; the plan of God was organised humility, the authority of God the Father: enforced humility. God the Father’s plan: Go to the cross; bear the sins of the world. And because He was positive to the Father’s authority [genuine humility] as He hung upon the cross bearing our sins and taking our place, doing the thing that makes us different from everyone else in the universe. That is, because of His work on the cross, we possess eternal life. And we face an issue: as believers we can be involved in the cosmic system and be arrogant; we can be involved in the divine dynasphere with humility. Humility is a daily decision, recognising certain authorities in life, recognising and appreciating them, using our free will to recognise the authority of establishment, spiritual authority, authority in the vicinity of our own personal modus operandi. So the principle behind verse six never departs from concept humility.

Verse 7 — a mandate to the pastor through the apostle John from the Lord Jesus Christ, the prince ruler of the Church. All of the seven letters in Revelation chapters two and three all begin the same way with the conjunction kai, which has numerous meanings and several grammatical connotations. Here it is simply a connective conjunction and it is translated “and.” Next is the dative singular definite article toi, it is the generic use of the definite article used to define a specific category. The specific category is what is classified as the second estate, the clergy, ministers, pastors of local churches. With this we also have the dative singular indirect object from the noun a)ggeloj, which is definitely mistranslated. The problem is that it is transliterated, and this is not addressed to an angel, it is addressed to a messenger which is the meaning of a)ggeloj. A)ggeloj is used here in a technical sense for a special messenger, the pastor of the church at Philadelphia. So we translate: “And to the messenger.” While it is in the singular it will refer to any future pastors of the church at Philadelphia. At the time John was the pastor, though not face to face. He was the nonresident pastor. All of that will change when John departs from the scene and then, of course, they will have a series of pastors.

“And to the messenger” refers to future pastors and therefore it is an encouragement to future pastors. Any profession, any job, any business requires that as a function of leadership there must be encouragement to everyone who participates. In a business everyone must be encouraged. People should be motivated for other than monetary reasons to do the best possible job, whether it is an office boy replacing the rubber bands and paper clips, or whether it is someone working the machinery, or whether it is an executive. Every facet of an organisation should receive encouragement to contribute to motivation. When this is lacking, of course, people become dissatisfied and become arrogant, and the greatest enemy to efficiency in business is arrogance. When people become arrogant they become inefficient at whatever their job profile requires. The motivation in the local church is related to the content of Bible doctrine. Anything else becomes false motivation. In the church you live your life as unto the Lord and therefore one’s motivation has to relate to Bible doctrine. Your motivation for life must come inevitably from doctrine and this why a believer who is positive toward doctrine should do well in anything simply because he is motivated to do well.

The motivation is provided for pastors to keep on teaching doctrine in this phrase, “And to the messenger.” More than that, of course, the whole trend of history depends upon how well the pastor teaches and how well the people who hear the teaching respond. The uptrends of history depend on this factor. So we have a dative of indirect object indicating the ones in whose interest the information is given. At the same time we also have the dative of advantage. It is to the advantage of every congregation to have good doctrinal teaching.

With this we have the genitive singular of relationship from the noun e)kklhsia, meaning “assembly,” and it does not connote a building. It refers to an assembly under almost any circumstance as long as it has the ingredients: two or three are gathered together and there is a pastor communicating doctrine — “of the church.”

And then we have the prepositional phrase , e)n plus the locative of Filadelfia. Philadelphia was located 28 miles south east of Sardis in Lydia. The city was founded in BC 189 by Eumenes II who was the king of Lydia, and he founded it in honour of his brother, Attalus II, whose faithfulness earned him the title of Filadelfoj. The area is famous for earthquakes. In AD 17 the city was completely destroyed by an earthquake. It was built on the Cogamus River and stood on a terrace about 650 feet above the river. Behind the city were famous volcanic bluffs and across the river was very fertile land which came from volcanic activity. The volcanic ash had produced a phenomenal vineyard-type soil and they produced the finest wines of the Roman empire. After the earthquake the city was rebuilt and called Neo-kaisaria which means “New Caesar.” During the reign of Vespasian the name was changed to Flavia for the wife of Vespasian. The city is also called Little Athens because it has magnificent temples and buildings.

As the centre of the wine industry they worshipped a god of wine who in the Latin was called Bacchus and in the Greek was called Dionysus. Philadelphia was also the centre of a very large Jewish population. The church at Philadelphia had a very long life lasting 1300 years. The church was started in AD 90 and it went to AD 1390. Frederick Barbarossa visited the church on his way to the crusades in 1190. Twice Philadelphia was besieged by the Turks in 1306 and 1324 but managed to retain its independence. Finally in 1390 it was captured by the combined forces of the Turks and the Byzantines. In 1403 Tamerline captured it and he built a wall around it with the corpses of the citizens. By that time there was no church in Philadelphia.

The modern name for Philadelphia, there is still a town there, is Allah-shehir [The city of God]. One quarter of the population today is Greek and it is the centre of a famous Greek Orthodox Church. One of the most famous modern industries in Philadelphia is that they have one of the greatest licorice factories in the world. On the terrace above the river where the original city stood are the ruins of a castle and the walls can still be seen. Among them is the foundation of the early church and someone decided that one of the pillars ought to be pushed upright. So if you go that way today and you go to the area where the church is located there is one pillar standing, and they will quote to you from the Greek in Revelation and they will try to make you think that it is the pillar of this passage, but it isn’t at all. The pillar that we are going to study is in heaven and it is a permanent history book, so it is not quite the same.

Verse 7 starts out, “To the messenger [future pastors] of the church in Philadelphia.” And then we have the aorist active imperative of grafw, “write,” the mandate given to the apostle John. The culminative aorist tense views the writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results — the completion of the canon of scripture, therefore the textbook of history from the time of John to the end of time, the encouragement of future pastors to teach doctrine, a message about historical trends. Remember the entire book of Revelation is addressed to the Church.

Later on when we get to chapter six and get into eschatology and start to study the Tribulation and its various aspects we will have to explain why so much detail about the Tribulation when we are not going to be here for it. The answer is very simple: the inevitable results of removing the Church, the body of Christ, from the earth is to remove the basis for historical blessing, historical uptrend, historical prosperity. Once the Church is removed there will be no historical prosperity during the Tribulation. The reason the Tribulation is such a horrible period of history is simply because there is no pivot; there are no mature believers, royal family. There will be a few mature believers in the Tribulation and there will be most unusual things happening, sensational things, but one of the great principles that we are going to learn from Revelation chapters 6-18 is that sensationalism is not spiritual advance. Sensationalism leads to emotionalism; emotionalism leads to degeneracy. Sensationalism today is out as far as spiritual advance is concerned; it is those who plug, those who take in doctrine today, tomorrow and the next day, those who are positive toward the Word of God are the ones who have the great historical impact. So we have chapters 6-18 to show us that all kinds of exciting things, like angels evangelising, Moses and Elijah coming back, demonstrate to us that sensationalism is instability historically. It is emotionalism. When emotionalism gets out of hand you have historical disaster.

The aorist tense of grafw tells us that the result of this is going to be a completed textbook of history, the message of historical trends, the implication of historical impact plus the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. The active voice: the apostle John under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb, and this is the imperative of command, a mandate to the great apostle to write. Now what is the command? The next two words gives us the gist of it, tadh legei. Legei is the present active indicative of the verb legw, and tadh is the accusative plural from o(de. Legw would come first in an English sentence because it is the verb, and o(de would come after the verb because it is the object of the verb. The two together means simply, “communicates these things.” Obviously we will have to look for a subject and we will get one later on. The verb is the aoristic tense, it sets forth an event as now occurring, therefore it is punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of realty.

Then comes the accusative neuter plural direct object, o(de, a demonstrative pronoun used originally as an introductory formula for the decrees of the Persian kings translated into Greek. Here is an introductory formula for our Lord’s estimate of the situation in Philadelphia. The translation so far has neither a subject nor a relative clause to identify the subject. These will be filled out later. What we have so far is: “And to the messenger [the future pastors] of the church in Philadelphia write.”

“communicates these things.” Now who communicates what? That comes up next. We are going to get a subject. This is both the subject and the relative clause which modifies the subject. The first line starts out O( a(gioj o( a)lhqinoj and we have a problem here which stems from the fact that the word o( which is used twice as the subject has several possibilities. It is the nominative masculine singular from the definite article; it is also the nominative and accusative neuter singular from the relative pronoun o(j. What settles the matter is the fact that the noun which follows the first two are the nominative masculine singular, hence the subject is in the first line and the next line will be the relative pronoun.

The subject: O( a(gioj o( a)lhqinoj. The nominative singular of a(gioj is the first part of the subject, o( a(gioj, used here as a substantive although it is an adjective used as a noun. Specifically it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. It also refers to the Lord Jesus Christ under the concept of His integrity. “Holy” is used for the integrity of God. The one who is speaking has perfect integrity, therefore it refers to the fact that Jesus Christ controls history and that virtue will never be destroyed or overcome in history; and that historical uptrend depends upon the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ living inside the divine dynasphere and producing both motivational functional virtue. It is also a reference to our Lord Jesus Christ, not only in His deity as God, but as true humanity in the hypostatic union. “Holy” refers in the hypostatic union to His life in the prototype divine dynasphere producing impeccability and perfect virtue.

With this we have an appositional nominative a)lhqinoj, also and adjective. It means “truth” or “true one”. It corresponds to the Hebrew emeth. Both of these words, Greek and Hebrew, mean stability, perpetuity, faithfulness, fidelity, true as opposed to false. We can translate it: “the truthful, trustworthy one,” “The holy one, the truthful trustworthy one [our Lord Jesus Christ], communicates these things.”

Now we have a subject. All we need is a relative clause and the relative clause, by the way, is quoted from Isaiah 22:22. Corrected translation from the Hebrew: “Then I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder. When he opens no one will shut, when he shuts no one will open”. This is quoted as a relative clause now related to the Lord Jesus Christ, though it was not, in Isaiah, related to our Lord; it was related to a replacement of a very arrogant, ambitious man by the name of Shebna. King Hezekiah had appointed as his prime minister, Shebna, a very arrogant, vain person. Shebna’s arrogance increased as prime minister and he became involved in the cosmic system and had to be replaced. He was replaced by Eliakim. And the way that they replaced was they talked about the keys of David. Hezekiah, who was of the house [dynasty] of David simply took the keys from Shebna and gave them to Eliakim. Now Eliakim is the prime minister, and when he opens no one shuts, and when he shuts no one opens. The responsibility and the authority of Eliakim is described in Isaiah 22:22.

But this verse goes beyond Eliakim as prime minister of Judah under Hezekiah to our Lord Jesus Christ who will have that same power and authority after His ascension in heaven, and on earth when He returns for the second advent. The opening and shutting of doors refers to the highest power and authority for rulership. The reference to David is the Davidic dynasty. Hezekiah was in the line of David and so is the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it is a reference to David, to the Davidic dynasty in connection with this context: Hezekiah was in the line of David, therefore he could delegate authority and he gave the keys of David from one prime minister, Sehbna, to another, Eliakim. King Hezekiah prophetically represents the Lord here, and the Lord Jesus Christ is going to do exactly the same thing at the second advent. He is going to give to all of those who hold the order of the morning star rulership in this world so that the anonymous heroes of the Church Age, those who crack the maturity barrier in the Church Age, will in the future at the second advent be famous and well-known. The Millennium will be one thousand years of perfect environment on the earth and perfect environment will include nationalism. Our Lord rules the world under the principle of nationalism, not internationalism. That means that the key of David is going to be delegated to every person who wins the order of the morning star through advance to maturity in this dispensation.

So we have in our context in Revelation 3:7 this relative clause which referred to King Hezekiah, as it was found in Isaiah 22:22, but here it refers to the King of kings and Lord of lords at the second advent.

The exegesis is relatively simple. We have an articular present active participle from the verb e)xw, and it means to have or to have and to hold. Here it is translated “He who keeps on having.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun and refers to our Lord Jesus Christ in contrast to the context of Isaiah 22:22 where it refers to Eliakim as the prime minister under King Hezekiah. The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition as perpetually existing after the second advent of Christ when the Davidic covenant is fulfilled. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb and the participle is circumstantial. With this participle we have a direct object, the accusative singular of the noun kleij, translated “key,” referring to authority. Plus the indeclinable proper noun Dauid, ‘David.’ “Who keeps on having the key of David,” a reference to the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ which He will have at the second advent when He comes to fulfill the Davidic covenant, and the delegation of authority to those believers who hold the order of the morning star. This is a fulfillment not only of the Davidic covenant but of the system of rulership which will exist in the Millennium. Authority is necessary even for perfect environment. Without authority there can be neither freedom nor privacy, nor the possession of property, nor the legitimate function of life. So authority is absolutely necessary to guarantee the sanctity of the laws of divine establishment.

1. The Lord Jesus Christ rules Israel with that divine authority called the key of David, an authority which also means He is delegating the rule of Gentile nations to mature believers of this dispensation.

2. The Lord Jesus Christ also rules the world with the authority stated in Revelation 2:26,27. Our Lord Jesus Christ receives authority from the Father to rule the world and those who receive the order of the morning star are presented at court. In the presentation at court the name of the one who holds the title that goes with the order of the morning star is not blotted out of the record of chivalry and, at that time, every mature believer is going to be assigned a nation that will exist in the Millennium. So in this presentation to God the Father and all the holy angels there will also be the assignment so that at the second advent believers who have cracked the maturity barrier will eventually go to their assignment and they will rule under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will not only have the order of the morning star presented in the court of heaven during the Tribulation but they will carry the key of David.

3. The perfect environment, then, of the Millennium still demands the function of authority to coexist with man’s volition and the old sin nature.

4. The recognition and acceptance of authority is a matter of human volition both in the Church Age and in the Millennium.

5. The only difference is that in the Millennium all authority will be legitimate since Satan is incarcerated for a thousand years and the cosmic system will not function during the Millennial reign of Christ. The genius of Satan and his cosmic system will be absent from the earth during the Millennium.

6. The acceptability of authority in life is still dependent on human volition in the Millennium, as illustrated by the Gog revolution which occurs at the end of the Millennium when Satan is released from his prison. There will be a great revolution and human volition will turn against the perfect rule of our Lord.

7. The authority of our Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of the world and its delegation to certain ones, like those who hold the order of the morning star, is still a matter of human volition. Whether people accept the authority of those who rule them or not is still a matter of their volition.

8. Human volition under perfect environment will reject the authority of our Lord and the authority He has delegated under the concept “key of David.” This is demonstrated by the God revolution at the end of the Millennium — Revelation 20:7-9.

Man without truth has no capacity for perfect environment. Negative volition will enjoy 1000 years of perfect environment in the Millennium and still reject the source of it in the Gog revolution. All historical disaster is the result of individual and collective decisions for evil. At the beginning of human history in the garden of Eden the original parents had perfect environment and they used their free will to reject God’s authority and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By so doing they accepted the authority of Satan, an authority which only existed in the angelic realm over fallen angels, but that was extended to include planet earth. At the end of human history in the Millennium people are still, and always will be, the products of their own decisions. Perfect environment will make no difference, they will still reject the perfect environment. The reason for this is arrogance, a facet of arrogance called boredom, preoccupation with self. Crime will be restricted and restrained by our Lord and therefore they will have to wait until Satan, the arch-criminal of all time, is released. Strict discipline and law enforcement is and always has been very necessary to keep the human race in line so that each one of us can enjoy the freedom to fail or succeed, so that each one can have his privacy, so that each one can recognise and fulfill the doctrine of the sacredness of property and the sacredness of human life. We have noted the principle that no one can rule with a golden sceptre unless he rules with an iron sceptre. Society will only recognise the sanctity of life, property and freedom when society is restrained by legitimate authority, by just laws, by good law enforcement and discipline based on integrity. And under the principle that the cross came before the crown no one has greater integrity than our Lord Jesus Christ, and no one is more qualified to rule in the last 1000 years of human history.

Our closing phrase in verse 7 is a quotation from Isaiah 22:22. We begin with the articular present active participle of the verb a)noigw, which means to open. The definite article does double duty, it is both a personal pronoun and used as a relative pronoun. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event, namely the future rule of our Lord Jesus Christ. It hasn’t occurred yet but it is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb in the Millennium through the use of His power and authority as the ruler of this world. The participle is circumstantial for a positive policy and the mandates of the Millennium.

After a connective conjunction kai we have the nominative singular subject, o)udeij. It is taken from an adjective. It is an adjective used as a substantive and it is translated “no one.” Then comes the future active indicative of the verb kleiw, which means to shut. The future tense is an imperative future, it expresses a mandate involving futurity as both a Greek and Hebrew idiom. The active voice: the Millennial population produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of fact. Our Lord’s authority in the Millennium is absolute; He opens the door and no one can shut it.

Then we have the reverse. This time the present active participle of kleiw with the present active indicative of a)noigw, so the two verbs are reversed. It is the same futuristic present of the participle and the same present active indicative, only it is a customary present this time of a)noigw. The customary present denotes what may be reasonably expected to occur in the Millennium under the authority and the rulership of our Lord Jesus Christ. When our Lord shuts a door there is no way that anyone can open it. This is the function of absolute authority.

Translation of verse 7: “And to the messenger [future pastors] of the church in Philadelphia write; the holy one [the Lord Jesus Christ], the truthful trustworthy one, who keeps on having the key of David, he who opens and no one will shut; and he who shuts, and no one will open, communicates these things.

1. In the last half of verse seven we have the absolute power and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ in the last 1000 years of human history, the Millennium. At the second advent our Lord Jesus Christ will execute a coup de tat in which Satan is set aside as the ruler of this world. Our Lord replaces him and this is an expression of the perfect absolute authority necessary to give everyone the same amount of privacy.

2. Our Lord is perfect, perfect in His deity, perfect in His humanity, perfect in His hypostatic union. Therefore His power is perfect. It is impossible for our perfect Lord to distort the power He possesses. Only a perfect person can administer absolute power with perfect integrity. Our Lord has perfect integrity, His authority functions from perfect integrity.

3. Our Lord Jesus Christ therefore rules from perfect integrity and honour. Therefore He does not distort or abuse His power and His authority.

4. The power factor remains a major issue in contemporary history. Power and authority is always an issue in the subject of historical trends.

5. The power factor begins with individuals and moves from individuals to groups, organisations, governments. Power and authority are abused and distorted into tyranny through arrogance. Arrogance: gate one, cosmic one, is motivating evil.

6. Then you have arrogance at the other end. You have arrogance in society and you have arrogance in authority because an arrogant society elects arrogant officials. When you have a majority of arrogant people they gravitate to arrogant candidates so that arrogance is at both ends. Arrogance is in authority and arrogance predominates in society. Arrogance abuses power; arrogance abuses authority. And so a people who are predominantly arrogant inevitably bring upon themselves a dictatorship.

7. No one can assume authority or control of any organisation, or fulfill that responsibility, while under the influence of arrogance.

8. Arrogance corrupts power; arrogance corrupts authority, both in individuals and in groups. It isn’t power that corrupts, it is arrogance that corrupts.

9. Many organisations were founded to correct abuses, to solve problems of evil, but when these organisations are carried away by arrogance they distort their power into a system of tyranny. Illustration: the labour unions. Unions were founded to correct certain abuses, but they have become powerful and they have turned their power into tyranny.

10. The key to avoiding tyranny in the use of power and authority is individual humility and integrity. No nation can survive the arrogance of any group that has too much power, including the church.

11. Because of that same human impeccability which qualified our Lord Jesus Christ to go to the cross in the first advent, our Lord is qualified to rule the world at the second advent.

The emphasis on our Lord’s rulership in this passage is the fact that He is true humanity and perfect humanity in His resurrection body. He is true humanity living inside the divine dynasphere, that is the basis for impeccability in His humanity. As God Jesus Christ is not able to sin; as humanity in the divine dynasphere He is able not to sin. Not able to sin plus able not to sin equals impeccability.

Human history began with Adam ruling the world and human history will terminate with the last Adam [Jesus Christ] ruling the world. Adam ruled to world under perfect environment and the last Adam will rule the world under perfect environment. The perfect environment of the garden terminated with Adam’s fall when he lost the rulership of the world to Satan and there will never be perfect environment again until the second advent. The abnormal part of history is the fact that from the fall of Adam to the second advent of Christ a super angel by the name of Lucifer or Satan rules the world. Our Lord Jesus Christ as world ruler will come at the second advent. He will delegate authority to certain ones who are also perfect in their resurrection bodies. This explains why believers of the Church Age receive a new knighthood in the order of chivalry, the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory, and the escutcheon of glory, the heraldry which will give them authority to rule in the Millennium. Today these believers who advance to maturity are anonymous heroes but in the Millennium, the last 1000 years of history, they will be the most famous human beings on earth. They are going to rule with Christ. All rulers of the Millennium will be in resurrection bodies, the state of ultimate sanctification, therefore no ruler in the Millennium will be corruptible. The state of ultimate sanctification means that they are incorruptible, honourable, ruling with wisdom and integrity under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. There will be no corruption from arrogance or vanity.

Today in the Church Age human leadership is protected by humility and integrity but in the Millennium human leadership is protected by the possession of a resurrection body plus the uniform of glory, plus the order of the morning star, plus the new order of chivalry. Being famous will not corrupt the anonymous heroes of the Church Age.

Verse 8, “I know thy works.” We begin with the perfect o)ida used as a present active indicative. It is correctly translated “I know.” The present tense of duration denotes what has begun in eternity past and continues into time, the function of divine omniscience. The active voice: Jesus Christ as God produces the action of the verb. The declarative indicative is for the reality and the veracity of God’s estimate of the situation. With this we have a direct object, the accusative plural from the noun e)rgon, and while it means works or production it also means accomplishments and it refers to Christian modus operandi, Christian modus vivendi. The word “your” is the possessive genitive from the personal pronoun su, and we are going to translate that, “I know your accomplishments.”

The fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal God means there never was a time when He did not have a correct estimate of the situation for everyone who has ever lived. Therefore we need to go back and review the concept of the verb “I know.” It refers to the divine attribute of knowledge. Actually the divine attribute of knowledge is divided into three categories: self-knowledge, omniscience and foreknowledge. All three belong to God. Since all three members of the Trinity are eternal they have always had self-knowledge, always had omniscience and have always had foreknowledge. In our passage it is referring to the self-knowledge, omniscience and foreknowledge of God the Son.

In the divine attribute of knowledge the first category is self-knowledge. Under that principle God is eternal and therefore His knowledge is eternal. God is sovereign, therefore His knowledge is infinitely superior to angelic or human perception, as well as angelic or human genius. Time has nothing to do with God’s knowledge. In other words, the future is as perspicuous as the past. Since God is a person He possesses with this knowledge self-consciousness and self-determination. Therefore God as a person acts rationally with His absolute will, His perfection, His divine integrity. God is Himself and under the principle of self-knowledge therefore He knows Himself to be beyond comparison with any creature who has ever existed. Because God is infinite His knowledge has neither boundary nor limitation. Our knowledge is related to the past or observation of the future through either rationalism or empiricism with the present, and we speculate about the future.

God’s knowledge has nothing to do with time. What is going to happen 100 years from now is known perfectly by God — what every person in the world will be thinking, how they will be motivated, what they will do, what they will say. God’s knowledge is never complicated by ignorance or absurdity. One of the greatest problems with human knowledge is that when we know a little we often assume that a little is a lot. Therefore we add to what knowledge we have gained arrogance, and therefore limit and destroy any perspicacity in the future. This is true with Bible doctrine or in almost any subject. This is why so many people today who are an expert in knowledge in some area immediately assume that they are an expert about every area, and therefore they make dogmatic statements that are incorrect, inaccurate and are related to ignorance. Yet the people who do it are smart in their own field. Example: These days the press interview some prominent person and quote them as an expert on whatever the topic happens to be.

So God is never complicated by ignorance or absurdity. He exists eternally, He is unsustained by Himself or any other source, and therefore His knowledge is as inalterable as He Himself is. God cannot change and therefore He cannot change His knowledge. His knowledge about everything is perfect, not related to time in any way. God’s knowledge precedes both time and space therefore God’s knowledge is not subject to either time or space. So when our Lord Jesus Christ speaking as God says, “I know,” He is referring first of all to this principle: God’s knowledge cannot be more or less than it is. God’s knowledge is related to His veracity, His faithfulness, His mercy, His justice, His righteousness. God’s knowledge exists therefore first of all in self-knowledge. God’s self-knowledge is related to the other members of the Trinity as well as to Himself. God has eternally known Himself — in this case it is God the Son; He has also eternally known God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. He has perfect subjective knowledge of self and all of His attributes of deity plus how they function in relationship to self and to other members of the Trinity. He has perfect objective knowledge about the other members of the Trinity.

The second category of God’s knowledge is omniscience, the one that is pertinent to our passage — “I know your production [accomplishments].” The omniscience of God is definitely in focus here. While God’s self-knowledge is related to His own divine attributes and to the other members of the Trinity omniscience relates to creatures. God knew all about all creatures long before they were created. It is defined as God’s objective knowledge of the universe and all of its creatures.

Since the divine decrees establish reality omniscience includes all that is in the divine decrees plus all that is not in the divine decrees. In eternity past the omniscience of God knew every thought, every decision, every action of every creature. The omniscience of God fed that into the computer of divine decrees but He also knew the alternatives. You could have gone to three colleges; you chose one. What would have happened if you had gone to the other two? You could have married five girls but you chose one. What would have happened if you had chosen any of the other four girls? God can tell you if you had chosen the other way down to the last generation of the Millennium. But in the divine decrees we only have the printout of what you actually think and do, of how you are motivated, what you say, and how that relates to what other people in your periphery do say and think simultaneously at any point in history. We have been studying another printout of the divine decrees called historical trends for the Church Age — the interrelationship of all peoples at any given time in history.

Remember that time has nothing to do with omniscience. The future is as perspicuous as the past. The omniscience of God therefore knows all of the alternatives of history under the category of probables. So what is reality in history goes into the divine decrees; what is probability is also known to God but is not entered into the decrees since it didn’t happen. So you have reality and probability and reality, and all reality goes into the divine decrees and all probability is known to the omniscience of God. This is how we distinguish between the omniscience of God and the third category of divine knowledge which is foreknowledge and which is entirely different from omniscience. The omniscience of God therefore knows the alternatives of history under the category of probability. Omniscience therefore knows in every case what individual decisions might have been different — what thoughts, what actions. Omniscience includes the actual — reality fed into the computer — and the possible — the alternatives that could have occurred but did not occur. Omniscience is defined therefore as follows: God knows perfectly, eternally and simultaneously all that is knowable, both the actual and the possible.

God does not interfere. He knows which way your free will is going to go, what decisions you are going to make but He doesn’t reach down and turn a button in your soul and say no. God allows us the freedom to fail or succeed. He provides warning for failure; He provides encouragement for success. Inevitably therefore logistical grace to the winner becomes supergrace. Logistical grace for the loser becomes divine discipline. But He never coerces.

So we have then the principle that every minute detail of both angelic and human history is completely in God’s mind at all times. Remember that the actual is fed into the computer of divine decrees to become history while the possible or the probable are decisions and things that could have been done, could have been made but were not. Therefore omniscience perceives the free as free, the necessary as necessary, together with all of their causes, conditions and relations as one individual system of things, every link of which is essential to the whole. The links are the making of history; the whole is the historical result.

The third category is the foreknowledge of God. The foreknowledge of God has to be distinguished from omniscience. Between them stands the computer of divine decrees, or what actually occurs in human history. Omniscience programs the computer of divine decrees with historical facts — thought, decision, motivation, action. Foreknowledge is the printout of the computer of divine decrees. Nothing is foreknown until it is first decreed. The decree is was in the mind of God billions of years ago, foreknowledge only takes cognisance of what actually happens; it is the printout of the computer. Only the computer of divine decrees establishes reality, which means that foreknowledge follows as a printout of the decrees. There would be two categories of foreknowledge in our dispensation, historical trends and what will happen in the future, called prophecy. Foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain, it merely acknowledges what is certain, the content of the divine decrees. God foreknows all things as certainly future because He first decreed them, that is, He knew them in His mind. The omniscience of God feeds the facts into the computer of divine decrees while the foreknowledge of God prints out the facts. That is essentially the difference.

In summary, God’s self-knowledge and omniscience precede the divine decrees, while God’s foreknowledge is the printout, the programming of the divine decrees. While the omniscience of God knows every thought, decision, action, motivation of history, not so the foreknowledge of God. The foreknowledge of God can make nothing certain, it merely acknowledges what is certain. And since the divine decrees establish certainty nothing can be foreknown until it is first decreed. God therefore foreknows all events as certainly future because He first decreed them from His omniscience. Omniscience came first, knowing the actual and the possible. Foreknowledge then follows, dealing with the actual only. While everything was decreed simultaneously and not by stages the plan of God rationale applies the foreknowledge of God to situations in life.

Next in verse 8 we have a new sentence beginning. The new sentence begins with a demonstrative particle i)dou. It is a particle taken from the aorist middle imperative of the verb o(ra meaning to see. The idiom is best translated in modern English, “Now hear this,” or “Note well.” Next we have a perfect active indicative of the verb didomi, which generally means to give. It also means to place, “I have placed.” With it we have an improper preposition, e)nwpion, plus the genitive of su. So we have, “Now hear this, I have placed before you.” The perfect of existing state is one in which the past completed action is practically dropped from the thought and attention is now focused on the existing state. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb by providing opportunity for historical impact in the Church, providing the means for historical impact by giving the believer at the point of salvation 36 things, in this dispensation only, plus the divine dynasphere. The divine dynasphere is available to the Church Age believer only. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the principle of historical impact in this dispensation.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun qura. Qura is used two ways: for a door and a shield. The Romans had a shield [qura] shaped like a door. Here it means door. With this we have the ascriptive use of the perfect passive participle from the verb a)naoiga, it describes a quality directly related to qura, the substantive, and so it is simply translated, “I place before you an open door.” The open door always connotes some form of opportunity for the believer who lives inside the divine dynasphere, who lives in the plan of God. Furthermore it connotes opportunity provided by the grace of God. The open door demands spiritual aggression on the part of the positive believer living inside the divine dynasphere.

1. An open door is opportunity, grace opportunity, God-given opportunity, an opportunity related to giving meaning, purpose and definition to your life, an opportunity that results in happiness and blessing for the person who fulfills the plan of God.

2. The first door of opportunity in the scripture is the door of salvation, John 10:9, “I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved; furthermore he shall go in and out, and find pasture [logistical grace provision for the believer in Christ].” Acts 14:27 puts it this way: “And so when they had arrived an gathered the church together, they began to report all the things that God had done with them and the fact that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” This was a church made up of Jewish people. The fact that Gentiles could be saved apart from Judaism was foreign to their thinking. The open door of salvation is “Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life,” it is not exclusive.

3. There is a second door of opportunity in life, the door of communication of truth. The communication of category #2 truth is the gospel and it is related to an open door, 2 Corinthians 2:12. There is also the open door mentioned in connection with category #3 truth, teaching doctrine to believers, Colossians 4:3. There is also the communication of all three categories of truth in relationship to an open door [Category #1, the laws of divine establishment for the entire human race; category #2, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ for unbelievers; category #3, Bible doctrine for believers], 1 Corinthians 16:9.

4. The third door of opportunity in life is the provision of the divine dynasphere and its resultant historical impact, Revelation 3:8. The fact that the divine dynasphere is available to you as a believer is the greatest opportunity for historical impact that individual believers have ever had in any dispensation of history.

5. The fourth door of opportunity in life is the door of reversion recovery. In Revelation 3:20, “Now hear this, I have stood at the door with the result that I keep standing at the door and I knock repeatedly [warning discipline]; the door of opportunity for rebound and recovery from the cosmic system often comes through warning discipline, “if anyone hears my voice and opens the door [the use of rebound], I will come into him [face to face with him] and have dinner with him, and he with me.” The open door of opportunity is related to recovery from the cosmic system through the rebound technique.

6. There are open doors in heaven, Revelation 4:1, the open door of the Rapture; Revelation 19:11, the open door of the second advent; the same door of the second advent is related to our Lord’s triumphal procession in Revelation 19:11-21 as quoted from Psalm 24:7-10, “be lifted up O everlasting doors.”

“I have set before you an open door.” Next we have an accusative feminine singular from the relative pronoun o(j, correctly translated “which,” and with the adjective o)udiej in the nominative singular subject it is used as a substantive, “which no one.” This covers a great deal of territory, the human race. Then we have the present active indicative of the verb dunamai, translated to be able, “which no one is able.” The customary present tense denotes what habitually occurs when the Lord opens the door of opportunity. No adverse circumstance of history or adverse power of Satan and his cosmic system can shut a door of opportunity opened by God. Today we live in the same circumstances. The door of opportunity is wide open. It is wide open for change for the better, wide open for blessing, wide open for the perpetuation of the client nation to God, wide open for everything that is wonderful and meaningful in life. And the wide open door simply demands volition, the function of your own non-meritorious free will, positive volition toward doctrine, residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. The active voice: the adjective is used as a substantive and it produces the action of the verb which is the inability of anyone in history or any force in history or any force of evil to shut the door of opportunity, only God Himself slams the door. The door of opportunity was open in Philadelphia nearly 2000 years ago and it is open today. The indicative mood is the reality of impossibility for anyone to close the door of opportunity in history. This is the opportunity provided by God in the dispensation of historical trends which we also call the Church Age. With this we have an infinitive. Dunamai requires an implied or stated infinitive. The stated infinitive is the aorist active indicative of the verb kleiw, and it means to shut. Plus the accusative singular direct object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “it,” used as a pronoun. No one is able to shut “it,” a reference to qura or the door. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist in which the event is viewed in its entirety but regarded from the viewpoint of existing results. The existing results include dynamic impact of the mature believer on the trends of history, a dynamic which is low profile and invisible, unknown to the people who are making history today as far as recognition is concerned. The real heroes of history are the anonymous heroes of history, the believers who daily by their own positive volition toward doctrine walk through the door of opportunity. The Lord has opened the door of opportunity and only He can shut it. As long as it remains open it gives us the opportunity of turning the tide of history completely. You can do more to change the conditions in this country by your daily attitude toward doctrine than the President, the Congress, the Supreme Court, than any form of local government. There is no substitute for positive volition in the dynamics of history. The dynamic impact cannot be hindered by the power of Satan nor by the influence of the cosmic system, nor by any dictator, nor by any system of human evil. The active voice of the infinitive: both angelic and human creatures in opposition to the plan of God for the Church Age produce the action of the verb, namely their inability to shut the door of opportunity. They cannot close the door of opportunity for historical uptrend. Only you can do that by your negative volition toward doctrine and your refusal to live in the divine dynasphere. This is the infinitive of actual result and with the relative clause it is translated into the English except for the intensive pronoun “it,” “which no one is able to shut.”

We have so far then: “I know your accomplishments [Christian production, lifestyle, modus operandi]: now hear this, I have placed before you an open door which no one is able to shut.”

With this open door, the opportunity for historical impact, there is a threefold explanation. The rest of this verse eight is devoted to this explanation. The King James version is a pitiful translation at this point. The Greek does not say “thou hast a little strength.” First of all we have the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, simply translated “because.” Then we have the present active indicative of the verb e)xw, “because you have [possess].” The descriptive present tense is for what is now going on for believers in phase two, the challenge, the open door, and how we can utilise the open door of opportunity for historical impact. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb in time only. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the open door of opportunity. This is the dispensation where history and historical trends are controlled by the attitude of born-again believers toward doctrine. Negative volition: historical downtrend; positive volition: historical uptrend; believers fulfilling the plan of God and residing and functioning inside the divine dynasphere as over against believers living in the cosmic system. Every uptrend and downtrend of history in the Church Age depends upon whether believers are living in the divine dynasphere, advancing from gate four to gate eight, the momentum of the Christian life, or whether they are living in the cosmic system. So we possess something. The indicative mood: the reality of the open door provided through the grace provision of the divine dynasphere and logistical support from God. The major provision here is time for advancement inside the divine dynasphere. God has given each one of us since the day we believed in Christ time. This is one thing we have going for us at the moment. Time is the open door. The door closes for each one of us when we die or when the Rapture occurs. Then the opportunity is gone, not only the opportunity for historical impact but the opportunity for the eternal order of chivalry.

The major provision here is for walking through the door of opportunity, and the first thing we have is an adverbial accusative of time from the adjective mikroj. And notice that the adjective is put with the word “power,” but this is an adverbial accusative of time and therefore it means “a little time.” It should be translated, “because you possess a little time.” This is part one in the threefold explanation of the open door of opportunity. The reason we called it “a little time” is because between salvation and what time we have left on this earth compared to eternity is mikroj, it is small. Time is just a drop in the bucket compared to eternity. When the accusative is used to indicate a point of time it is part of a continuous period implied in the context, and this implication is not possible in the locative of time. That is why we have the adverbial accusative of time. The point is that once you accept Christ as saviour you may have done a lot of things to destroy your health and everything else before you believed in Christ but God is fair and there never has been a believer, and there never will be a member of the royal family of God in the Church Age, who does not have ample time to fulfill and execute the plan before his departure either by death or by resurrection. You will have time but that time is very small compared to eternity. We all have “a little time.” There is one thing that we must spend wisely and that is time. Time plus free will equals opportunity. You are going to have a lot of tests to decide daily what your priorities are. What is more important to you than anything else in life? Once you straighten out your priorities then everything else will fall into place and you can make daily decisions which advance you to maturity.

We also have another word, the accusative singular direct object from the noun dunamij, which means power. This is where we get our word “dynasphere,” duna [power] and sfaia [sphere], a system of power devised by the Lord for the royal family of the Church Age. It was used first in prototype by our Lord Jesus Christ in the incarnation. We possess two things for utilising the open door of opportunity. First we possess “a little time,” phase two, and secondly, the divine dynasphere, the power system.

We have a second explanation in the threefold explanation. We have the conjunction kai which introduces a result from what precedes. It should be translated here “secondly,” in keeping with the context of the open door. Remember that the context is giving three reasons for the open door in the Church Age which no man can shut, the opportunity that is yours as long as you are alive and breathing. The first reason was the logistical provision of phase two, logistical grace in the form of two specifics: time and the divine dynasphere which is the power system for the execution of the plan of God.

With this, secondly, we have a verb: the aorist active indicative of the verb terew which means to guard, to hold, to guard something that belongs to self, to keep. A good way to translate here is “secondly, you keep [or guard].” The constative aorist tense is for a fact extended over a period of time, namely phase two, the “little time” we have. The keeping or guarding of the Word of God includes the function of gate four, perception and application of doctrine. All momentum in the spiritual life is directly related to your attitude toward Bible doctrine, perception of doctrine: gate four, the function of the royal priesthood; application of doctrine: gate four, the function of the royal ambassadorship. Every believer must live his own life as unto the Lord. He must have information from doctrine but no one can do it for him. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb. The positive believer assigns number one priority to Bible doctrine and therefore immediately he has an organised life. A lot of people today are just simply disorganised. The most maddening thing in the world is to be around disorganised people, they are a pain in the neck. What really determines whether you are organised or not are your priorities in life. Once you establish what is most important and what is next and what is next, then you can figure out a way to get dressed in four minutes! So we have the principle behind all this: the organised life versus the disorganised life; the stable versus the unstable; the good decision versus the bad decision.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun logoj, which means doctrine, thought, word, truth, “secondly you keep [guard] my doctrine.” What does it mean to keep or guard doctrine? Doctrine is number one priority, therefore your first decision should build your life around getting doctrine, whatever it takes. And you are going to be challenged on your priorities. Doctrine one day might become second place to some beautiful doll, or some wonderful party that you couldn’t miss for anything in the world, the party of the century, or whatever it is. These tests only come to people who are really positive toward doctrine, so there might be some marvelous party just around the corner just for you, as a test! With that we have the possessive genitive from the personal pronoun e)gw, “my doctrine.” So, “secondly, you keep my doctrine.” The second factor then in operation open door is Bible doctrine, both perception and application as well as priority in perspective.

The third explanation is found in the rest of the verse. Kai introduces a further result from what it precedes. The phrase concludes the threefold explanation of the open door. First explanation of the open door in terms of logistical grace: the provision of the divine dynasphere in time. Secondly, the explanation of the opportunity of the open door, perception of doctrine and resultant momentum. The third explanation indicates avoidance of the cosmic system, the aorist middle indicative of the verb a)rneomai, plus the negative o)uk, “you have not denied [repudiated].” The culminative aorist views life in the divine dynasphere and avoidance of the cosmic system in its entirety but emphasises it from the standpoint of existing results. You manage, when you get your feet wet in the cosmic system, to get out in a hurry. This really means two things. Sometimes you avoid temptation and sometimes you don’t. When you don’t you rebound. You are consistent in rebound and in avoiding temptations as you understand the. And you have a dynamic middle voice emphasising the part taken by the subject in the action of the verb, avoidance of life in the cosmic system and resultant denial or repudiation of the Lord. If you stay in the cosmic system long enough you are going to deny the Lord Jesus Christ. You haven’t lost your salvation, you just simply have reached rock bottom in the field of reversionism. The declarative indicative is for the reality of the believer living in the divine dynasphere and avoiding cosmic involvement. “Thirdly you have not denied my person,” the accusative singular direct object of o)noma, which means name, person, knighthood, all kids of things. This means the cosmic believer repudiates Christ but this denial does not mean loss of salvation. The cosmic believer is a loser at the judgment seat of Christ but he cannot lose his salvation. The cosmic believer usually departs from this life under maximum punishment of the sin unto death but he does not lose his salvation, only his rewards, decorations, at the judgment seat of Christ.

Verse 9 — the neutralisation of opposition or how cursing is turned to blessing. Once again we begin with the demonstrative particle i)dou. The first section of this verse is Jewish disorientation to the Church Age. You have to remember that the first client nation in history was Israel. In BC 1440 God called out the first client nation. He made that a priest nation to Himself even though they had a specialised priesthood from the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron. Throughout the course of the Old Testament history the client nation to God was Israel. They were the custodians of truth, they were responsible for internal evangelism and then external evangelism through missionary activity, as illustrated by one of their greatest missionaries, Jonah. They were responsible for the maintenance historically of the laws of divine establishment.

Occasionally Israel became very arrogant. With category #1 truth, with evangelism, with spiritual growth, Israel became extremely prosperous many times in history, and with prosperity came the test: Do you maintain the same priorities or not? Is Bible doctrine still number one priority? Many times they failed simply because of one thing — arrogance. Yes, they had a marvelous heritage and when you follow the truth in a marvelous heritage you have prosperity, but when you become arrogant about your marvelous heritage you have great adversity. And so we have studied from time to time the function of the cycles of discipline as they related to the first client nation in history.

But the time came when our Lord Jesus Christ came in the first advent as prophesied, and in all of these prophecies He fulfilled each one individually. “He came unto His own but His own received Him not.” They did not accept Him as the God of Israel and yet even in the first forty years of the Church Age they still functioned as the client nation to God. They were warned, however, that if they did not change their attitude toward Christ and toward Bible doctrine as it related to the dispensation of historical trends then they would go out under the fifth cycle of discipline.

They had a special warning that Isaiah mentioned in chapter 28. They were to be warned by Gentiles; they were to be evangelised not by Gentile individuals but by Jews speaking Gentile languages and speaking them in a miraculous way, the gift of tongues. The gift of tongues was the last historical warning to Israel. It was to last only for a short time and it was directed to Israel as a client nation to God. Jews were evangelised in Gentile languages, beginning on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem and going all the way to August of AD 70. In August of AD 70 for the last time the Jews were put under the fifth cycle of discipline. They were removed from history as a client nation to God, the very purpose for which they were called out of Egypt on the day of the Passover and, with it, no longer was the gift of tongues ever used legitimately. A brand new thing began at that time called the times of the Gentiles. The rest of the Church Age is characterised by two things: historical trends and no prophecy, and the times of the Gentiles. Both of these run coterminously from AD 70. We live in a time when there are no prophecies to be fulfilled. We also live in a time when only Gentile nations can function as client nations to God.

The times of the Gentiles and historical trends are going to terminate simultaneously with the next prophecy which is the resurrection or the Rapture of the Church. Then every believer receives a resurrection body and will participate in the great genuflect in the sky in the presence of the Lord. Then comes the judgment seat of Christ where believers are going to be distinguished. Some believers will merely have a resurrection body — low on the totem pole. Some will have a resurrection body plus the uniform of glory. Some will have a new knighthood given to them at this time. Some will have the crown of life, the crown of righteousness. Some will have in addition to that the order of the morning star and a new escutcheon of glory, the order of chivalry for the Millennium and for eternity.

We live in the times of the Gentiles and therefore the tremendous challenge to each one of us. This challenge is brought out by the demonstrative particle i)dou, which is taken from the aorist middle imperative of the verb o(ra which means to see. This particular form in morphology becomes a particle in the Greek. It is translated in the King James version “behold,” which is slightly anachronistic. So there are two ways to approach this particular word. The first is to translate it into the Latin. It actually means note bene, note this. Or we can translate it “now hear this.” That immediately gets everyone’s attention and that is the purpose of this particle. With this we have the late omega form of didomi which is didw, and this is in the present active indicative and is translated “I will cause.” That brings us back to the fact that Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb in the active voice, He controls history. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event which has not yet occurred but which is regarded as so certain that in thought is may be contemplated as already coming to pass. In the active voice not only does Jesus Christ control history but He produces the action of the verb: the punishment of any Jew who is cosmic inspired, living in Philadelphia. In other words, the Jews are living in the cosmic system and God will deal with them, not only at that time but now. The same thing is true of Gentiles but opposition to the church in Philadelphia was coming primarily from a very large and a very prosperous and successful Jewish population. They had become very arrogant because of their prosperity and they had become very intolerant of others. In their intolerance they began to persecute the church in Philadelphia and therefore our Lord gave them the title “the synagogue of Satan”; “synagogue” being a Jewish word; “Satan” indicating the fact that they are living in the cosmic system. All of those who reside in the cosmic system, whether Jew or Gentile, are the servants of Satan. The declarative indicative mood of the verb is the reality of our Lord’s neutralisation of opposition to the local church in Philadelphia.

Then we have our prepositional phrase e)k plus the ablative of sunagwgh, plus the descriptive genitive of the proper noun satanoj, translated “Satan,” “Now hear this, I will cause those from the synagogue of Satan.” Judaism had been religionised through involvement in the cosmic system. Moses would not have recognised the Jews to whom this is addressed, except that he had so many recalcitrants in his own day. The Jews as a race are very smart and talented people but the problem with a group who are smart or an individual who is smart is arrogance and vanity. Arrogance and vanity cancels whatever God-given abilities and talents one possesses. Judaism in arrogance had taken truth and turned it into religion. The Jewish truth of the Old Testament became a religion. Religion is the devil’s ace trump. It is the greatest distracter in history, it is a blinder of souls, a producer of both blackout of the soul and scar tissue of the soul. Religion is man’s works trying to gain salvation; Christianity is the work of Christ providing salvation as a free gift through faith in Christ.

With a maximum number of Jews involved in cosmic one and cosmic two the Old Testament scriptures had been distorted. The Jewish nation twenty-six years before they had been removed as a client nation and was now persecuting. They had learned nothing from history, from historical trends. One of the great historical trends of the Church Age is the principle that God will destroy any client nation which fails in its mission to maintain freedom, to evangelise under principles of freedom, to send out missionaries, and for believers to grow in grace through daily perception of doctrine. So they had ignored history. As bright as they were they could not see it because arrogance is a blinder. You lose whatever you have when arrogance intrudes and they had learned nothing from what had happened twenty-six years before in August of AD 70. Philadelphia now had a large population of Jews who were negative toward all three categories of truth. They were living in the cosmic system. They were motivated by arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, all of which are characteristics of gate one, cosmic one. And they are called the synagogue of Satan for their cosmic involvement had made them the servants of Satan.

The Jews were motivated by arrogance and therefore they made a proclamation which is given in the next phrase, “who say [proclaim, declare],” the articular present active participle of the verb legw, which can also be translated “allege.” It is a communicating verb. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes Jewish racial arrogance when involved in the cosmic system.

A word about racial arrogance. There is no ascendancy of race that demands or calls for any form of arrogance at any time of history. Some races or groups of people have succeeded because of very hard work or because they were bright. Sometimes the fact that they were bright meant that they became arrogant about it. Some races have done absolutely nothing and therefore have demonstrated a general historical stupidity and they are arrogant about that. The thing that destroys people racially is that they are either in the top success bracket or they are in the stupid failure bracket, and both have one thing in common: they are very arrogant. They may be demanding rights which they already possess through freedom. They may be dealing out rights which they have won through success. But arrogance is the leveler, the destroyer. Here the Jews had racial arrogance because of their involvement in the cosmic system.

The active voice of the participle: the Jews who are negative toward all three categories of truth produce the action and this is a circumstantial participle translated therefore as a relative clause. Then we have the accusative plural of general reference from the reflexive pronoun h( a)utou, correctly translated “themselves.” This is the accusative of general reference and therefore it acts as the subject of the infinitive. Translation: “that they themselves are,” the present active infinitive of e)imi, the verb to be. This is a progressive present tense, it signifies the action in a state of persistence, therefore present linear aktionsart. The active voice: racial and religious Jews, not born again Jews living in the divine dynasphere, who have taken the superiorities of their race and through arrogance had translated them into a religion called Judaism. The infinitive of purpose expresses the action of the finite verb, “who proclaim [declare, allege] that they themselves are.” And then the accusative plural direct object from the proper noun I)oudaioj, translated correctly “Jews.” Actually they are claiming that they are true Jews, that they are God’s people and therefore these “upstart” Christians had no right to come along and try to supersede anything that the Jews had established in Philadelphia. This is a matter of arrogance. They use religion as a base for persecution. In the history of the Church Age the greatest persecutors of people in the past have been religion. Any religion can come along and be a great persecutor. A recent example is the persecution of Rhodesia and South Africa by the National Council of Churches who actually gave money for terrorist activities that finally overthrew the Governments of those countries. Wherever there is religion there is persecution and it holds all records for persecution in history.

Next to religious persecutors of people are born-again believers living in the cosmic system. You will face, sooner or later, what we call people testing in which you are going to see cosmic believers persecuting you. They have no right to, they have no reason to; and yet, they are going to malign, they are going to judge, they are going to gossip, they are going to persecute you. So you remember this passage because born-again believers living in the cosmic system are the servants of Satan. The three sources of persecution in the world today: a. religion; b. the persecutional system of socialism (communism); c. carnal or cosmic Christians.

When it says that these Jews are “of the synagogue of Satan” we are not talking about Moses, one of the two greatest men who has ever lived. We are not talking about Isaiah, Elijah, Zechariah or David, we are talking about people who were negative toward doctrine, about people who in their arrogance rejected Christ as saviour, Jews who have all the potential in the world but are involved in the cosmic system.

Arrogance is the common denominator from the cosmic system and the only way that you can ever have equality among people is through arrogance. That is why communism is a system of great arrogance. That is why socialism is a system of arrogance, a system of arrogance devised by the arrogant, executed by the arrogant and received by the arrogant. The only way that people can reach a common area of unity and equality is through arrogance. Arrogance is the source of all equality movements in this life.

The Jews in Philadelphia had come to the position that they definitely were going to persecute the Christians. Religion persecutes the truth. The greatest persecutor of truth is religion. Apart from religion communism in its various forms is a great persecutor. All of this persecution comes from arrogance. The Jews came under the concept of religion and they were very active in attacking the church at Philadelphia. From this principle we have a historical trend. People and nations, races, cultures, groups of any kind, start out historically with great vigour and often with the truth. By following the truth they have great prosperity. And then as the prosperity test becomes overwhelming they switch from the humility which is necessary for the truth to function — truth only functions through humility, it does not function in arrogance — and they become arrogant. And as they become arrogant they phase out the truth. As they phase out the truth and become arrogant their prosperity disappears and moves to other areas where truth exists. Then they become the persecutors of the truth. That is exactly the pattern we have in the first part of verse nine. From the greatest heritage and the greatest background in the world it has all been destroyed by arrogance. And what happens to nations so that nations come and go? It happens to believers and unbelievers alike in their personal lives. They have some talent, some ability, some success, some promotion, some greatness, some form of recognition, until they reach the point of where they can’t stand the prosperity and they become arrogant.

This gives us the feel for the synagogue of Satan. The synagogue of Satan can be any religion, any nation, any group of people who try to interfere with your personal freedom, your privacy, your property, your God-given rights.

“I will cause those who are from the synagogue of Satan, who allege that they themselves are Jews.” Our next word is the connective conjunction kai, the emphatic use of kai. It emphasises a fact that is surprising, unexpected, namely that all racial Jews or religious Jews are not real Jews in the Old Testament sense, in the sense of the Word of God; they are not a Jewish client nation to God. When John wrote the Jewish client nation had died twenty-six years before. Furthermore, there will not be another Jewish client nation during the Church Age. During this dispensation we live in the times of the Gentiles and only Gentile nations are qualified to be client nations. The next Jewish client nation to God will occur at the second advent when the unconditional covenants to Israel will be fulfilled. Furthermore, these racial Jews involved in the cosmic system of Satan are religious and a religious Jew is not a real Jew from the standpoint of the Word of God. So we could translate: “in spite of that allegation,” rather than “and.” And then the present active indicative of the verb e)imi plus the negative o)uk, “they are not.” They are not really Jews from the standpoint of the Word of God. Racially, yes; religiously, yes; from the standpoint of regeneration, no; from the standpoint of the laws of divine establishment which came from Moses, no. The retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present. They are Jews by race but not regeneration. They are Jews by religion but they are not Jews from the standpoint of the laws of divine establishment, from the standpoint of their client nation heritage. The active voice: Jews who are negative in all three categories of truth produce the action of the verb. The declarative indicative is for a dogmatic statement of fact or Bible doctrine.

With this the adversative conjunction a)lla sets up a contrast to their allegation. They are not really Jews, what are they then? That is introduced by the word a)lla which means “but”, in contrast to their allegation. These Jews are the present middle indicative of the verb pseudomai, which means they are liars. The iterative present tense, also known as the present tense of repeated action, is used to describe what occurs at successive intervals or is conceived of in successive periods of history. The Jews had moments of fantastic greatness, more than any other nation. They have also had moments of fantastic failure and this is one of them described here. This is not a motivator for any form of anti-Semitism, this is simply a recognition of a historical trend. The middle voice is the dynamic middle which emphasises the part taken by the subject in the action of the verb. The declarative indicative is a dogmatic statement of a historical trend that no matter how great you were yesterday, no matter how great a nation is in the past arrogance is the corrupter and destroyer of the individual or the nation.

“but they themselves are lying” is the literal translation and we are going to translate it, “in spite of that allegation they are not really Jews but they are liars.” They themselves are telling lies.

1. Jews by birth are only racial Jews, not real Jews, so that the real issue is never racial. You never make an issue of any race unless there is arrogance involved.

2. Jewish heritage and culture is the greatest in world history but it only leads to arrogance apart from regeneration and spiritual growth from perception of doctrine.

3. All real Jews follow the principle of their origin and heritage. That is, they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

5. Religion attacks the truth of the gospel and Bible doctrine, while revolution attacks the truth of establishment. So between religion and revolution they attack all three categories of truth in the Word of God.

6. The worst Jews — called here the synagogue of Satan — are those racial Jews who are both religious and revolutionary. Their cosmic involvement attacks every category of truth in the Word of God.

“Now hear this, I will cause those who are of the synagogue of Satan who allege [proclaim, declare] that they themselves are Jews, however in spite of all of that allegation, they are not really Jews but they are liars.”

This anticipates the next sentence in this verse. The Jews are living in the times of the Gentiles, the Church Age. This is the dispensation of historical trends, not the dispensation of Israel. The Jews in negative volition to truth have failed to understand and apply historical trends to the Church Age. That is why they get burned occasionally and suffer from intense persecution. Failure to interpret historical trends guarantees destruction of segments of society. Therefore by refusing to believe in Christ for salvation — and that is their privilege under freedom — they refused to receive Him as their saviour. But then of course this puts them in the cosmic system where the worst comes out in anyone. They have lost out in time and in eternity as a result. Many Jews in the Church Age will believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and they are the exception to what we are studying here. They will recognise the significance of what has now been taken over by the religious Jew from Deuteronomy 6:4, “Shamah Yisrael [Hear O Israel]!”

“Adonai Elohenu [Jesus Christ the Lord is our God],” the Alpha glory, Jesus Christ is God.

“Adonai echad [Jesus Christ is unique]!” that is the first advent, the hypostatic union, the God-Man and true humanity in one person forever.

This is the problem for the Jews. They recognise the Alpha glory of Jesus Christ. They recognise Him as eternal God. But since the first advent He is the God-Man; He is echad, unique, and this is what they reject, the Omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. From this rejection is cosmic involvement and from the cosmic involvement comes the arrogance, the vanity, the pride, the religion. Religion is merely a system of arrogance just as revolution is a system of arrogance. And so throughout history in this dispensation the Jews who have rejected truth are either religious or revolutionists. Both are detrimental to society.

The corrected translation of verse 9 as far as we have gone is as follows: “Now hear this, I will cause those who are from the synagogue of Satan, who allege that they themselves are Jews, however in spite of that allegation they are not really Jews, but they are liars.”

One thing we did not note in closing out that last phrase is the fact that anyone who lives in the cosmic system becomes a liar. His life is a lie and therefore it is inevitable that every facet of his life will be a lie, whether it is conversation or whether it is his own mental attitude, divorcement from reality, the lie covers the whole situation. It is impossible for anyone who is in the cosmic system and therefore living a lie to have any true capacity for happiness, love, blessing, success, prosperity, promotion, or anything else. Therefore the cosmic system becomes a source of unhappiness whether people achieve or fail to achieve. And whether it is a believer or an unbeliever both serve Satan in the cosmic system.

This is the dispensation of the Church, not the dispensation of Israel, and therefore these Jews are very jealous and resentful of the fact and principle that in the past theirs has been the most glorious history of all. The first client nation to God from BC 1440 to AD 70 was Israel. With the third administration of the fifth cycle of discipline the times of the Gentiles were ushered in and there will be no Jewish nation as a client nation to God until the second advent of Christ; at which time our Lord will reassemble all Israel, there will be the judgment called the baptism of fire, the unbelieving Jews will be cast into fire whereas the believing Jews will form part of the nucleus for the Millennium. But in the meantime the times of the Gentiles is the order of the day and that means that no Jewish nation will ever function as a client nation to God.

The second concept in verse nine is Jewish orientation to the times of the Gentiles and the Church dispensation. Again we have to start out with i)dou, the demonstrative particle taken from the aorist middle imperative of o(rao, “Now hear this.” And then we have the future active indicative from the verb poiew, which means to make, perform, to do, to manufacture, to produce, to bring about, to accomplish. Here it means to cause, “Now hear this, I will cause.” The predictive future tense anticipates the fulfillment of 1 Corinthians 14:24 when the Jews are converted through exposure to the gospel. The active voice: unbelieving Jews at the point of their conversion or thereafter produce the action of this verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of Jewish respect for Gentile believers in the royal family of God, as per 1 Corinthians 14:24,24. “I will cause them” refers to the fact that Jesus Christ controls history but the object of the verb is referring to Jews who are converted.

1 Cor. 14:24,25, “But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everyone is prophesying [teaching doctrine], he will be convinced by all who teach, he will be judged by all who teach; in fact the secrets of his right lobe are disclosed so that he will fall down and worship God, declaring with confidence that God is among you,” setting up a contrast between the teaching of doctrine and its power and the function of the gift of tongues which has no power, no meaning, no definition after the fall of Israel in AD 70.

With this we have the accusative plural direct object from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun since the third person personal pronoun of the Attic Greek did not get into the Koine, a)utoj is used instead. It is referring to Jews who at the moment are unbelievers living in the cosmic system of Satan. But in the future many of these are going to believe in Christ because of a very important principle: believers in Philadelphia, those who were positive to doctrine, had great wisdom. They didn’t run around and antagonise all the unbelievers. They didn’t flaunt the truth, they lived the truth and they proclaimed the truth with great lucidness when necessary, and when the opportunity afforded. The principle: In time of adversity which includes discrimination from higher ranks — which includes prejudice from management, which includes abuse, you do not react to the abuse — you keep on doing your job as unto the Lord. The result is a fantastic dynamic, dynamic for evangelism that cannot be duplicated by all of the hoopla Bible school “Brother are you saved?” nonsense. You keep on doing your job and you don’t quit.

We have a principle here and it comes out of the fact that many of these Jews who were bullies, who were unfair, who were poor leaders, who underpaid and abused their employees, because they were arrogant — in the cosmic system — and as always is the mistake with industrial complex success they thought money was power, which it isn’t. Christians in Philadelphia were being persecuted by the wealthy successful classes who were Jewish people with money. These Jews were using their money, their position in management, to persecute Christians. But the Christians lived their lives as unto the Lord because they had some doctrine. And because they lived their lives as unto the Lord they didn’t bluff, the didn’t succumb, they didn’t react, they didn’t become arrogant. The real ploy of arrogance in management, in authority, in power is to bully people until they protest, and the moment they protest they are arrogant too. It is a system of Satan whereby you have arrogance evangelism and one of Satan’s great cosmic evangelistic systems is for arrogant people with power and authority to bully people, either through religion or some other form, into becoming arrogant too. As long as you do your job and live your life as unto the Lord you are impervious to bullying, but the minute that you succumb and cry “unfair” and start to resent, or “I’ll show you,” then you too are arrogant and you have been evangelised.

“Now hear this, I will cause them.” Then we have an interruption. We have a conjunction i(na to introduce a final clause. The final clause denotes a purpose, aim, goal or objective. I(na is translated “that.” This phrase is quoted from Isaiah 60:14. It is a prophecy of the Millennium when Gentiles come and bow down to the Jews of the client nation Israel. Isaiah 60:14 finds Gentiles coming to the Jews as a client nation, but John quotes it to reverse the situation; not to show the Millennium in its interpretative context but in its application. He quotes it here in reverse for the converted Jews in Philadelphia are going to come and do homage to Gentile believers. And the point is this will be a trend of the Church Age. The persecutor finally develops a respect for the persecuted and responds to the message of the gospel.

Isaiah 60:14 was addressed to the Jews. “And the sons of those who persecuted you,” here the Jews are being persecuted by the Assyrians and by the Chaldeans, “will come bowing down to you [in the Millennium], and all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet; and they will call you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” So it is a prophecy in Isaiah; it is an illustration in Revelation 3:9.

Then we have following the future active indicative of the verb h(kw, which means to come. “Now hear this, I will cause them [Jesus Christ controls history] that they shall come,” and this is after their conversion, after they have received some doctrine. The predictive future tense anticipates that Jewish management antagonistic toward Christians in Philadelphia will be converted and change their attitude toward Gentile believers of the royal family of God. Active voice: certain Jews who will receive Christ as saviour will be terribly impressed by the fantastic faithfulness of people who are Christians and who work under their supervision. These Jews produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this prediction. Hence the neutralising of opposition to Christianity through living their life as unto the Lord and not reacting to unfairness.

Next we have the connective conjunction kai, and another future active indicative from proskunew, which means to pay homage, to become respectful, to express respect. It also means to venerate and in certain conditions it means to worship but it doesn’t mean worship here. It means here to express respect, or to show respect. And with the improper preposition e)nwpion plus the genitive plural of pouj, “show respect at your feet.” The word “your” is the possessive genitive of su, the personal pronoun second person, “your feet,” the feet of the Gentile believers who persisted in living their lives as unto the Lord no matter how they were persecuted and treated unfairly.

Since believers and unbelievers have no contact in eternity and since this context refers to the Church Age it is concluded that this passage refers to the neutralisation of Jewish opposition in the Church Age, the dispensation of historical trends. And it is not only Jewish opposition, it is any kind of opposition. Opposition is opportunity, that is the principle. But your arrogance, your reaction neutralises the potential. Evangelism, regeneration, life in the divine dynasphere, the daily perception of doctrine, causes one to live his life as unto the Lord, motivating virtue. This in turn neutralises the opposition of persecution. Instead of fighting opposition to Bible doctrine the believer should stick to the plan of God and let the plan of God run interference for him. By focusing attention on the plan of God and perception of doctrine the believer lives his life as unto the Lord which paves the way for the Lord dealing with the opposition and the antagonism to you as a believer. Live in the divine dynasphere, let the Lord handle the opposition. In this way the believer avoids making an issue of himself, he avoids the trap of arrogance whereby he is evangelised into the cosmic system. So you must avoid making an issue of yourself and clear the way for the Lord Jesus Christ to be the true issue. And you can never do it by reacting, you must respond to doctrine.

This anticipates the final phrase in this verse which is the fact that people are less likely to tamper with the life of that one who is loved by God. We begin again with the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai plus repetition of i(na and it is correctly translated “also that.” With that we have the aorist active subjunctive of ginwskw, “also that they might know.” The culminative aorist tense views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: Jewish respect for Gentile believers, or the persecutor coming to respect the persecuted. The active voice: Jewish converts produce the action of the verb by a change of attitude toward Gentile believers whom they formerly despised and persecuted in Philadelphia. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive, it implies a future reference and is qualified by the element of contingency.

Next comes the conjunction o(ti introducing the content of the future knowledge of the persecutor. It introduces the content of the future knowledge when conversion to Christ and persecution of doctrine inside of the divine dynasphere has been neutralised where opposition has gone, “also that they might know.” Next is the word e)gw, the nominative subject referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, “also that they might know that I.” And then the aorist active indicative of a)gapaw, “that I have loved,” the accusative singular direct object from su, “you.” The culminative aorist tense views our Lord’s love of believers in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the neutralisation of the opposition. In this case the opposition comes from Jewish unbelievers whose racial arrogance, therefore prejudice, has resulted in persecution of Gentile Christians. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of divine love directed toward Gentile believers of the Church Age, “also that they might know that I have loved you.”

Corrected translation: “Now hear this, I will cause those who are from the synagogue of Satan, who allege [proclaim, contend, declare] that they themselves are Jews, however in spite of that allegation they are not really Jews but they are liars; now hear this, I will cause them that they shall come [after their conversion] and express their respect at your feet, also that they might know that I have loved you.”

1. Jesus Christ controls history. This means that all opposition to your life which is genuine must be neutralised by the Lord for it to be effective. Therefore you must stay out of the way. To stay out of the way you must continue to respond to unfair and even cruel authority rather than react to it. Your reaction complicates the situation.

2. This is accomplished in several ways. First, in context, through conversion and doctrinal inculcation. The opposition is converted, impressed by your life of faithfulness. This is tantamount to freedom from the cosmic system as the motivation for persecution. A second way in which this is accomplished: the function of the overruling will of God as in operation Balaam, or as expressed in the Abrahamic covenant which says to the Gentile world, he who persecutes Israel I will deal with. A third way in which this is accomplished: the wall of fire which functions when the believer lives inside the divine dynasphere.

3. Opposition or persecution which Jesus Christ does not neutralise He intends for your momentum testing or your divine discipline, one or the other, depending on your status location; whether you are living in the divine dynasphere or living in the cosmic system. If you are living in the divine dynasphere it is momentum testing, if you are living in the cosmic system it is divine discipline. 4. Our status location is either life inside the divine dynasphere or involvement in the cosmic system of Satan.

5. For the believer involved in the cosmic system the same fact remains true: believers in the cosmic system also provide opposition and persecution for believers in the divine dynasphere.

6. This opposition from born-again believers can be neutralised in several ways. First through the administration of the sin unto death of the cosmic believer. Secondly, they can rebound and through doctrinal inculcation produce a change of attitude toward you and everyone else. Thirdly, the cosmic believer becomes so preoccupied with his self-induced misery plus the divine discipline added to it that he cannot find time to continue persecuting you while he is so busy being miserable. This principle of Revelation 3:9 is amplified in Romans 8:28-38.

The last phrase, “that they may know that I have loved you,” requires that we stop long enough to recognise the classification of divine love. The ones who are said to be loved in verse nine are mature believers, those who have advanced from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere through persistence in the perception of Bible doctrine.

God is eternal, infinite, and therefore God possesses eternal and infinite love, eternal and infinite justice or integrity. Anything that God has is beyond the scope of space and time and is perpetuated forever and ever, not having a beginning nor having an end. God is immutable and therefore the love of God is unchangeable. It is also compatible with the perfect essence or the perfect character of God. God is holy, therefore the love of God possesses perfect integrity or holiness. God’s holiness or integrity is the basis for the function of divine impersonal love toward mankind and the function of God’s perfect subjective and objective love toward the other members of the Trinity.

God has love toward other members of the Godhead and in the case of our passage He has love where people are concerned. God is love, always has been love, always will be perfect love; God therefore does not fall in love. The characteristics of God never change. Furthermore, God does not increase or decrease in love. God’s eternal love exists with or without an object.

That tells us something: virtue exists in you with or without an object, provided you have it, and you do not have it unless you live in the divine dynasphere and take in doctrine. When love exists in you it exists as a capacity. You don’t look at someone and say, “I love you,” it is a capacity that is there, it is virtue and integrity directed toward all. It is manifest toward all people — impersonal love. In impersonal love there is only humility. There is no arrogance in impersonal love; there is no racial issue in impersonal love; there is no social issue in impersonal love. Impersonal love is directed toward all. It is a system of integrity, you either have it or you don’t have it.

God is love, His love is not sustained by a worthy object, by attraction. Integrity says that you treat the repulsive the way you treat the attractive. You treat them with virtue, honour and integrity which is in you. The repulsive have none! Whether they are nice to you or not is not an issue. And what is the origin of this impersonal love? The origin is the love of God. What makes these Jews of verse nine, after they have been converted, come and respect the Christians in Philadelphia? Why do they respect them? Because they discover that God loved them and that impresses them. And how do they know that God loved them? From the integrity and virtue, the follow-through, from their own function in the divine dynasphere. So God’s love is not sustained by a worthy object, by attraction, by promotion, or any form of physical stimulation. Since God is perfect His love is never motivated by self-promotion or self-indulgence, nor is God attracted to people because they can do something for Him.

Obviously God’s love is virtuous. It is devoid of sin, human good or altruism. It is devoid of evil, it is free from hypocrisy and human blemish. But mankind tends to superimpose his own concepts of love on God. This results in misunderstanding of God’s love as well as misapplication and blasphemy such as, “How can a loving God do this to me?” By saying that man takes all of his bad decisions and paints them right out. It originate from man’s failure to comprehend the true nature of God’s love, his cosmic involvement, his arrogance. There is no personality conflict when you have virtue. It takes two for a personality conflict and that is what broke through to these Jews. They were evangelised because the Christians who were working for them, though they were bullied daily and persecuted, kept right on doing their job as unto the Lord.

Verse 10, deliverance from historical disaster. There is always some part of the world where historical disaster exists. Right now throughout the world people are suffering some form of disaster. There are born-again believers amid these disasters. The question arises, then: Do these believers living in a hot-spot, living in the centre of some form of disaster, have any right to deliverance? The answer in verse ten is yes. People of all races, all nationalities have positive believers facing disaster all over the world. Is there a wall of fire for believers located anywhere in the world who are facing various categories of disaster, economic depression, social degeneration, military disaster, violence, criminality? The answer is yes. That is the answer in verse ten. You may not pick up the answer immediately because of the King James version and its anachronistic old English. It says, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth …”

We have the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, translated “because.” We have the aorist active indicative of the verb terew, which means to keep, to guard, to keep in the sense of not losing something, to keep in the sense of protecting, to keep in the sense of paying attention to something important, like perception of Bible doctrine in the divine dynasphere. We translate: “Because you have guarded.” That means to maintain or to keep doctrine by living in the divine dynasphere. This anticipates what we have in this verse, and that is, for the believer who resides and functions inside of the divine dynasphere, no matter what the historical climate may be, that believer has a wall of fire around him. In the most dangerous place in the world you are perfectly safe. The wall of fire becomes a major issue for believers and the wall of fire belongs not to the cosmic believer living in the cosmic system. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views life in the divine dynasphere in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the advance to maturity and the retention of doctrine in the right lobe. The active voice: the mature believer produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a statement of historical fact that in every generation there are always some believers who live in the divine dynasphere and advance to maturity through perception and application of doctrine, no matter how evil and how bad or how good and how prosperous that particular segment of history happens to be.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from logoj used here for doctrine, a synonym for doctrine. We now have the beginning of a passage: “Because you have guarded [maintained by living in the divine dynasphere] the doctrine.” Then we have the ablative of means from the noun u(pomonh, which also has a number of meanings, patience, endurance, fortitude, perseverance, steadfastness. We are going to translate it, since it is the ablative, “by means of perseverance.” With this we have the possessive genitive from the personal pronoun e)gw, and correctly translated “my,” “the doctrine by means of my perseverance.” This is our Lord’s residence and function inside of the divine dynasphere during His earthly ministry. The noun u(pomonh connotes courageous endurance, it refers to residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. God the Father invented the divine dynasphere to sustain the humanity of Christ during His incarnation. The original divine dynasphere was a Christmas gift from God the Father to God the Son on the first Christmas day. Because of the virgin pregnancy and the virgin birth when human life was imputed to the embryo foetus, Adam’s old sin nature was not imputed. Therefore our Lord was born as Adam was created, perfect. There was no genetically-formed old sin nature. There was, however, the simultaneous imputation that is the gift of the original divine dynasphere. Because of this fact the prototype divine dynasphere was given at birth and the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ occupied the prototype divine dynasphere. He was filled with the Spirit from birth; He had perfect impersonal love; He had enforced and genuine humility; at a very early age through His perception of doctrine in His humanity He advanced from gate four to gate eight. His love of God was perfect even when He said, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me”. He was being forsaken because “He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Our Lord had no old sin nature so the source of His temptation did not come from within but from the outside. And because our Lord was inside of the divine dynasphere He faced greater temptations and pressures than we will ever face and yet totally apart from sin. In Isaiah 11:2 we have the prophecy of the divine dynasphere, “The spirit of the Lord will rest on him”; or Isaiah 42:1, “I will put my spirit on him,” fulfilled in Matthew 1:18. John 3:34, “For he whom God the Father has sent speaks the doctrines of God for he does not give the spirit by measure”; Luke 4:14, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the spirit.” Our Lord’s function inside the divine dynasphere began at birth and continued throughout His life time.

Take for example, gate three, enforced and genuine humility which is the key to capacity for life, the key to happiness, the key to blessing. You can have the accouterments of blessing without the capacity for blessing and therefore be miserable. You can be promoted, you can be successful, you can be prosperous and everything that is associated with happiness and still be very unhappy. Reason: happiness must depend on capacity, not on achievement. Therefore, of course, our Lord fulfilled this principle. Our Lord was born into a home. The home happened to be in the dynasty of David. Joseph was descended from David through Bathsheba’s son, Solomon; Mary was descended from David through Bathsheba’s son, Nathan. So He was born into the dynasty but He was born into organised humility. The parents provided enforced humility and our Lord responded to the authority of His parents and that became the principle of genuine humility, gate three of the divine dynasphere.

The home or divine institution #3 is provided by God for the human race to make the most difficult transition in life: from authority in the home as child to freedom in life as an adult. Many human beings fail to make this transition because they reject parental authority, they reject parental policy. The result is that they become a physical adult but mentally a child — the soul of a child inside an adult body. Human immaturity or lack of enforced and genuine humility cannot make proper use of freedom but distorts it into evil by rejecting authority in life. Freedom and authority must go together. Furthermore, such a person will not and cannot take the responsibility for his own decisions. But our Lord Jesus Christ responded to parental authority — Luke 2:51,52.

The Lord also had another challenge to gate three of the prototype divine dynasphere. He was born under the plan of God the Father, organised humility. Therefore He had a divine parent — using the Father for the humanity of Christ — and the divine parent with all of His essence which included His sovereignty provided enforced humility. And our Lord continually responded to the plan of the Father and the will of the Father and that was His genuine humility, gate three in the prototype divine dynasphere. For example, Hebrews 10:5-9. The first thing that came from our Lord was the statement that He came to accomplish the Father’s plan. In His humanity He subordinated Himself to the plan of God the Father. Our Lord’s function inside the divine dynasphere is found in Philippians 2:5-8. John 15:10 adds to that — “If you keep my mandates, you will reside in the sphere of my love complex; just as I have fulfilled the mandates of my Father, and I reside in the sphere of His love complex [divine dynasphere].”

So we have the same concept right here in this passage, Revelation 3:10. Impeccability is the issue that comes from it. “Because you have guarded [maintained by living in the divine dynasphere] the doctrine by means of my perseverance,” our Lord pioneered residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. That is the major issue when He said: “My perseverance.” Even though He was tempted far beyond anything we will ever know or ever face we recognise that He pioneered the way.

1. The mature believer guards or maintains Bible doctrine — the doctrine of our Lord’s victory in the first advent — by using the same means, the same vehicle, the divine dynasphere.

2. Just as the prototype divine dynasphere sustained our Lord to the point of impeccability so the current divine dynasphere sustains the believer to the point of spiritual maturity and sustains the believer in all kinds of historical circumstances. You can have disaster or prosperity but you are sustained by the same divine dynasphere. The divine dynasphere works in time of historical prosperity; it also works in time of historical disaster. In time of disaster it is the wall of fire.

3. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ executed the Father’s plan at the first advent, and He did it through the prototype divine dynasphere, so we as Church Age believers, royal family of God, execute the plan of God the Father through that same residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

4. The ablative of source and the ablative of means are very close and related grammatically. The ablative of means is not the regular case for expressing means, that would be the instrumental case. However when the expression of means is accompanied by the implication of its origin or its source the ablative is used instead of the instrumental case.

5. The prototype divine dynasphere was used by our Lord’s humanity to sustain impeccability and fulfill the Father’s plan for first advent, the strategic victory related to the cross. The cross must come before the crown; the first advent must come before the second advent. And between advents our Lord has received the third patent of royalty, the one He will use at the second advent. Our Lord would not be qualified to bear our sins on the cross if He had sinned and therefore the importance of the prototype divine dynasphere as the means of maintaining impeccability.

During the incarnation impeccability means our Lord did not sin. The first Adam was temptable and peccable in the garden of Eden. That is, he was capable of being tempted and he was capable of yielding to that. All he had to do was use his volition and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, was able not to sin and He was not able to sin because of the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is God, coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and as such He is not able to sin. As humanity Jesus Christ was inside the divine dynasphere and being in the divine dynasphere from birth He was able not to sin. The humanity of Christ was temptable and peccable but through His human volition of soul inside the divine dynasphere our Lord remained in the purity of impeccability. The deity of Christ was neither temptable nor peccable, therefore in hypostatic union as God Christ was not able to sin. He remained inside the divine dynasphere in His humanity and therefore in the divine dynasphere He was able not to sin.

The corrected translation so far in verse 10, “Because you have guarded [maintained by living in the divine dynasphere] the doctrine; which came by means of my perseverance.”

Bible doctrine came to us, the royal family, through the perseverance of our Lord in the divine dynasphere. Church Age doctrine results from our Lord’s residence and function in the prototype divine dynasphere during the first advent and incarnation. All the doctrine of the Church Age relates to that fact, even as the divine dynasphere is only available to Church Age believers. Mature believers and positive believers guard doctrine by means of the same divine dynasphere now made available to the entire royal family but only used by positive believers. The plan of God for the Church Age believer cannot be executed apart from residence and function in the divine dynasphere and this relates to the individual believer’s advance to maturity, his recruitment for the pivot, his historical impact related to the client nation, his glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the anonymous heroes of history during the Church Age are mature believers living inside the divine dynasphere contributing to the historical uptrend. The heroes of past dispensations are not anonymous.Since everything around the first advent is fulfilled there is a dead spot, in the Church Age there is no prophecy to be fulfilled. The next prophecy is the event that terminates the Church Age, the Rapture, the resurrection of the Church. That is why the Rapture was imminent and why it could have occurred, as Paul said, in his day. That is why the Rapture could occur tomorrow, the next day, or a thousand years from tomorrow, because all prophecy concerning the first advent was fulfilled. And since it was fulfilled the next prophecy doesn’t begin until the Rapture. So we are in a dead spot; we are between prophecies. So instead of prophecy we live in the dispensation of historical trends.

The plan of God for the Church Age believer cannot be executed, therefore, apart from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. This relates the individual believer’s advance to maturity and that, of course, is the great issue. This is the only dispensation in which the heroes of history are anonymous. They are those who continue and persist and persevere inside the divine dynasphere, therefore guarding Bible doctrine and using it for momentum and advance to maturity.

1. The humanity of Christ in hypostatic union was sustained by the prototype divine dynasphere contributing to the strategic victory of God over Satan as the ruler of this world.

2. The believer or royal family Christian is sustained by the same divine dynasphere contributing to historical impact and uptrend plus tactical victory over Satan as the ruler of this world.

You cannot have in military science a tactical victory unless first of all you have a strategic victory. It is the strategic victory that provides the logistics for tactical victory. The strategic victory was the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. The follow-up tactical victory is the believer who lives inside of the divine dynasphere during this Church Age.

We come now to the next phrase in verse 10 which deals with the wall of fire which God provides for believers living in the divine dynasphere in time of disaster. It begins with a contraction . It is made up of two words, the conjunction kai plus the pronoun e)gw, and it is contracted into kagw and is translated “I also.” The future active indicative from the verb terew is next, “I also will guard.” The accusative singular direct object from su is correctly translated “you.”

“Because you have guarded [maintained by living in the divine dynasphere] the doctrine by means of my perseverance, I also will guard you.”

The gnomic future tense is for a fact of future performance which may be rightfully expected under normal conditions inside the divine dynasphere. The statement of fact of performance is the wall of fire which God has provided for those believers who live in the divine dynasphere. You can be in the most dangerous spot in the world, the most dangerous situation that can possibly exist, and if you are living inside the divine dynasphere you are protected by the wall of fire. Only believers living in the divine dynasphere have the wall of fire. Believers living in the cosmic system do not have a wall of fire, all they have is warning discipline and if they ignore that then there is intensive discipline and eventually the sin unto death, maximum disaster, maximum pain in dying and being removed from this world. The sin unto death means loss of all the rewards we have been studying — the uniform of glory, the new knighthood and the order of the morning star, etc. So where you live your life determines whether you will ever advance spiritually and execute the plan of God or not. It also determines the difference between happiness and misery as a believer. You cannot distinguish the cosmic believer from the unbeliever, except that some unbelievers are much nicer!

“I also will guard you,” the active voice: our Lord Jesus produces the action of the verb, He provides the wall of fire around the believer living inside the divine dynasphere. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the wall of fire as a protection for believers who live inside the divine dynasphere. The wall of fire relates to the divine dynasphere only, there is no wall of fire for cosmic believers.

With this we have the preposition e)k plus the ablative from w(ra, and with this we also have the concept of a limited portion of time. It is translated “from the time” and the word refers to a period marked out by a train of circumstances and the train of circumstances is historical disaster. The noun w(ra can refer to sixty minutes or a few seconds or a period of time in history. It is mistranslated in the King James version because they transliterated it. It does not refer to an hour. Generally it refers to a shorter period of time of a much longer period of time. So it should be noted that w(ra means right time, favourable time, a fixed time. It also means a “right time” as here, for Jesus Christ controls history, the first principle of the concept of historical trends. He administers historical punishment at the right time. Also our Lord Jesus Christ brings testing into the life of the positive believer for his spiritual advancement acceleration, the application of Bible doctrine to adversity. There are two general reasons why Christians suffer; there are actually 24 categorical reasons. We suffer either for discipline or for testing, all suffering comes under these categories. All divine discipline is related to cosmic involvement whereas suffering for testing and blessing is related to involvement in the divine dynasphere. When the believer is in the cosmic system he is going to have a lot of suffering that he brings on himself. This is generally the concept of warning discipline and if the suffering does not alert him to the need to rebound, to recover from the cosmic system, to get back into the plan of God, i.e. the divine dynasphere, then it goes on to intensive discipline. If that doesn’t work eventually he goes out under the sin unto death — but not until he has been used by Satan for cosmic evangelism. Cosmic evangelism is directed toward positive believers who are advancing from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere.

Next we have the descriptive genitive of the noun peirasmoj, and it means either testing or temptation. Here it means testings. The noun is derived from the verb peirazw, which helps us to understand the exact meaning of the noun. Peirazw means to test someone. Of course, the noun “testing” to determine good or evil comes from the verb — to test someone to find out if they are good or bad, to find out if they are virtuous or not virtuous, to find out what they really are because what a person really it is not when things are going right but when they are under pressure. So the believer living in the cosmic system is destroyed by historical disaster or pressure; the believer living in the divine dynasphere is benefited by suffering, disaster, pressure because he is behind the wall of fire from where he profits from the testing.

We have here a specific reference to the ten special persecutions of the Church which we studied previously in chapter two, verse ten. That is the time of testing, the historical disaster. And this is the wall of fire that the Lord places around every positive believer living inside the divine dynasphere. The believer involved in the cosmic system has no wall of fire and is often punished by God during historical disaster. God used historical disaster to punish and to often eliminate cosmic believers. Too many cosmic believers becomes a reverse pivot and if you have too many cosmic believers the human race becomes self-destructive. The human race actually would destroy itself were it not for the fact that God eliminates from the human race X number of cosmic believers every year. Cosmic involvement produces economic disaster, social degeneration, and military defeat.

With the wall of fire we have another concept: historical disaster to the client nation. This is based upon our study of the doctrine of historical trends where if you have a large pivot of mature believers and a small spin-off of cosmic believers then the nation is blessed, prospered. But if you have a small pivot of mature believers and a large spin-off of cosmic believers then the nation begins the cycles of discipline. The wall of fire still protects even when God removes a nation. When He removed Israel as the client nation to God in AD 70 He still preserved the small pivot. The pivot is always delivered. The historical disaster of the client nation is brought up here because the fifth cycle of discipline of a client nation is the worst thing that could happen to believers living in that client nation. But the wall of fire still applies. Even though a nation may be destroyed the pivot of mature believers is always delivered.

We begin with an articular present active participle from the verb mellw, and it means “about to be.” We are going to translate it, “which is about to.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun referring to the time of testing or historical disaster. The customary present tense denotes what may be reasonably expected to occur both in the personal life of a believer and the function of a Gentile client nation to God, i.e. testing and discipline. That’s testing for blessing for those in the divine dynasphere but suffering for discipline for those in the cosmic system. The active voice: historical disaster or testing produces the action of the verb, this is a circumstantial participle. “I also will guard you [believers living in the divine dynasphere] from the time of testing which is about to ...” Then we have the present active infinitive of the verb e)rxomai, “which is about to occur [to come].” The futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain in thought that it may be contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: historical disaster or a time of testing produces the action of the verb. This is the infinitive of conceived result which follows the nature of the case, namely the historical trend that both individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions.

1. There are no tragedies in history because both individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions. Tragedy belongs to drama; disaster belongs to history.

2. Individual decisions produce environment, not environment decisions; collective decisions produce environment in the nation, and environment in the nation does not produce the decisions.

3. No one can become mature without taking the responsibility for their own decisions. Arrogance blames everyone else but integrity takes the responsibility.

4. As goes the believer so goes the historical trends at any point in the Church Age. Believers living in the divine dynasphere — uptrend; believers living in the cosmic system — downtrend. So the uptrend and the downtrend in the client nation is determined by the daily attitude of believers toward Bible doctrine.

5. Residence and function inside the divine dynasphere means historical uptrend while involvement in the cosmic system means historical downtrend eventuating in historical disaster.

6. People individually and collectively are the products of their won decisions. This is why decision creates environment, not environment decision.

7. It all begins with arrogance, personal arrogance, many many people becoming involved in arrogance. Arrogance blinds the people or the nation to its own inconsistencies and the consequences of its evil.

8. Arrogant individuals or nations never see the disastrous consequences of their bad decisions related to the cosmic system and this is why innovation apart from truth and integrity boomerangs in to disaster. When Hegel said, “We learn from history that we learn nothing from history”, he stated the case that arrogance is unteachable. No nation learns from the mistakes of other nations; no people learn from past history.

With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the genitive of o)ikoumenh. E)pi plus the genitive means “on.” O)ikoumenh does not refer to planet earth, it refers to some inhabited part of planet earth. While o)ikumenh means the inhabited earth it is used in the New Testament in a technical sense for the Roman empire. “Which is about to come upon the Roman empire” is what it means. The Roman empire was the first Gentile client nation to God of the times of the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles began in AD 70 with the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel. This introduces the concept of the client nation and how these things come about, and why a nation can be great in one generation and in the next generation turn around and be a pitiful nation.

We should note once again that the Roman empire was the first Gentile client nation to God in history. The time of the Gentiles is partially coterminous with the Church Age. It had a different beginning but it ends at the same time. The Church Age has no prophecy, it is a dead spot as far as prophecy is concerned. The next prophecy in history will be the removal of the Church by the Rapture which precedes by seven years the second advent. During this dispensation of the Church we have historical trends only, no prophecy. Then prophecy begins and the second great sphere of prophecy deals with the second advent of Christ, preceded by the Rapture, preceded by the Tribulation — Revelation chapters 6-18. The book of Revelation is a history of the world from AD 96, the time of John, to the end of time.

In the Church Age we also have the times of the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles did not begin at the same time as the Church Age. The Church Age began circa AD 30; the times of the Gentiles began forty years later in AD 70. There were forty years into the Church Age before the Jews were removed as a client nation to God and the Jews will never be a client nation to God again, even though Jewish nations exist periodically in history, until the second advent of Jesus Christ. In the meantime it is impossible for any Jewish nation to be a client nation. This is the times of the Gentiles when only a Gentile nation can be a client nation to God. That means, of course, that starting in AD 70 with the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel the Jews as the first client nation in history came to a close. Beginning in AD 70 the Roman empire became the first Gentile client nation in history.

By the way, during that forty years between 30 and 70 AD, the last forty years of Israel as a client nation, the Jews were warned constantly by the use of the gift of tongues. They were evangelised by Gentiles even thought they were still a client nation, that is, they were evangelised in Gentile languages. They were warned in Isaiah 28 that when the time comes that you are evangelised in Gentile languages your time is coming to a close as a client nation to God. That is exactly what happened. The gift of tongues did not survive AD 70 and no one has legitimately spoken in tongues since that time.

A priest or client nation is responsible for the custodianship of the truth. The truth comes in three categories: category #1, the laws of divine establishment; category #2, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; category #3, Bible doctrine to the believer. Before Israel such custodianship of truth involved divine revelation apart from scripture. There was no Bible before Israel became the first client nation to God and that was in the time of Moses. Moses is the father of the Jewish nation as a client nation or priest nation to God just as Abraham is the father of the Jewish race. From Adam to Moses there was no Bible and there was, therefore, no client nation or priest nation to God. Custodianship of truth came as a result of divine revelation apart from scripture and it involved custodianship given to various people like Abraham, like Adam. It was an individual custodianship. Additional custodianship was never assigned until the first client nation was born in BC 1440 when the Jews came out of Egypt and out of slavery. So the client nation or priest nation are synonyms and they emphasise a certain responsibility that belongs to a group of people at any given time in history. For example, when the Jews became a client nation to God in the time of Moses then Moses began to receive divine truth reduced to writing. So the canon of scripture was begun and throughout the dispensation of Israel there was a constant addition to the canon of scripture until it was completed some 500 years before the Church Age. Israel was responsible then for the truth and the truth was revealed in the Old Testament.

The laws of divine establishment are clearly delineated by the first two categories of the Mosaic law: the first category, codex #1 actually describes freedom in terms of the decalogue; codex #2 is a description of our Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of the gospel; codex #3 is a detailed description of the laws of divine establishment. So in the Mosaic law itself we have everything necessary for the function of a client nation or a priest nation to God. Basically the functions were very simple. First of all there was the function of evangelism inside of the client nation; outside of the client nation the same thing as a part of missionary function. So there was the function of missions as illustrated from time to time by various missionaries in the Old Testament, the most prominent being Jonah. In addition to that there is the dissemination of truth to the nation and this is absolutely impossible apart from the laws of divine establishment which guarantee freedom. So the entire function is encapsulated in the laws of divine establishment which define freedom plus the sacredness of freedom and self-determination, the sacredness of property and the sacredness of life.

The most important priest nation in all of history until the Roman empire was Israel, the only one. In fact in Exodus 19:6 our Lord revealed through Moses , “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Immediately you understand that when it says “a kingdom of priests” every person in Israel was not a priest. In fact only a few people were priests in client nation Israel and they were called Cohen, and it referred to the tribe of Levi only, and in the tribe of Levi to the same family from which Moses came. So there are two categories of priesthood in the Old Testament: the specialised priesthood of the Levitical priesthood, beginning with Aaron, the brother of Moses; secondly, the national priesthood which was the Jews function as a client nation to God. They were responsible for the fulfillment of the laws of divine establishment whereby freedom was maintained, the proper environment for self-determination, and at the same time property, and at the same time the importance of human life. All of these things gave everyone the opportunity to choose for or against freedom, to choose for or against the gospel, and as believers to choose for or against Bible doctrine. Gentile nations were not client nations to God technically until Rome came along, until AD 70, the Church Age.

Negative volition toward doctrine destroys the client nation. This was the warning of the prophet Hosea when in chapter four verse six he warned the northern kingdom of Israel that they were about to be destroyed as a client nation. They were suffering from the same problems we face today, economic problems of one type or another, social degeneration and military disaster.

Why do these things come upon a client nation to God? Just as the Roman empire was the first Gentile client nation so we today are in the line of perpetuation of client nations to God and we are a client nation to God in the same sense as the Roman empire in the first century was a client nation to God. What happens to client nations? Hosea 4:6, “My nation [client nation] is destroyed.” What destroys a client nation in the time of Hosea, or later on the Roman empire, or even perhaps the United States today? “ … from lack of knowledge [of doctrine],” the maturity maladjustment to the justice of God; “Because you have rejected the principle of knowing doctrine, therefore I will reject you as being a priest to me. Since you have neglected the Torah [the doctrine] of your God, I, even I, will neglect your citizens.” And the fifth cycle of discipline was administered at least three times in Jewish history. The Jewish nation until AD 70 was a client nation to God, minus 70 years. First of all in BC 721 Sargon II took Samaria and the northern kingdom ceased to exist as a client nation to God, and was destroyed and went in to slavery. In BC 586 the southern kingdom of the Jews, called Judah, was taken by Nebuchadnezzar. This was the second administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. But after 70 years there was a recovery of the southern area of Palestine and there was a third Jewish client nation called Judea, and it fell in AD 70 when Titus and his Roman legions overran Jerusalem. The failure of Israel resulted in the times of the Gentiles in which Gentile nations become client nations to God. While Chaldea and the Persian empire had large groups of coverts technically they were never client nations to God.

Israel is going to be restored in the future but that is a prophecy and will not occur until the second advent of Christ. The prophecy of Israel’s future as a client nation is found in Isaiah 49:5-8, “And now says Jehovah [God the Father], who formed me [the humanity of the incarnate Christ] from the womb to be his servant [reference to the first advent] to bring Jacob back to him,” the first advent was the cross and the cross becomes the means for the second advent, the crown. By putting the cross before the crown there will be a future Jewish nation in the Millennium as a client nation to God. To bring Jacob back to Him is the restoration of Israel as a client nation at the second advent; “in order that Israel might be gathered to him (For I [Jesus Christ] am glorified in the sight of God the Father, and my God shall be my strength [the strength of the divine dynasphere]), He says [decrees the Father], ‘It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I [God the Father] will also make you [Christ] the light of the nations [occurs at the second advent] so that my deliverance will be to the ends of the earth’,’’ the deliverance of Israel at the second advent, “So decrees Jehovah, the redeemer of Israel [Jesus Christ], the Holy One, regarding the despised One [Jesus Christ, first advent], regarding the One abhorred by the (Jewish) nation [first advent], regarding the servant of rulers [Jesus Christ in His third royal patent], Kings shall see and arise, Princes shall also bow down [second advent]; because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you. So decrees the Lord, ‘At the right time I have answered you, therefore in the day of deliverance [second advent] I have helped you; consequently I will keep you and give you [the Jewish nation] for a covenant of the people,” the restoration of Israel is the fulfillment of their unconditional covenants, “to restore the land of Israel, to make them inherit the desolate heritages [desolate after the Tribulation].”

The thing that makes a client nation tick, whether it is Israel in the past and in the future — second advent, or Gentile client nations in this dispensation of the Church, is the requirement of advance of believers to maturity. In the times of the Gentiles Gentile nations should do a far better job of representing the Lord as a client nation than Jewish nations in the past. The reason is that they are given additional power that did not exist in the Old Testament. The power is the divine dynasphere. The eight gates of the divine dynasphere is the function of the Christian way of life, the modus operandi of the royal family of God. As goes your life as a believer so goes the client nation. Positive believers mean a strong, vigorous, prosperous client nation. Negative believers mean a client nation in decline and eventually going through the five cycles of discipline. The key, then, to the success of any client nation is the individual attitude of the believers in that client nation. Historical trends are determined by the volition of the believer.

The promise to Israel as a client nation has application to us. One of the first promises to Israel as a client nation is found in Exodus 19:5,6, “Now therefore, if you will obey my doctrine and keep my covenants [establishment truth], then you shall be my special possession [client nation] among all the peoples of the earth, for the earth is mine [even though Satan rules the earth]; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests in a holy [client] nation.”

Now you will notice what is necessary to function as a client nation. “Obey my doctrine, keep my establishment principles, then you are my special possession.” In the past the United States of America has been the special possession of our Lord. Whether that continues or not depends on your attitude toward Bible doctrine.

There is a Millennial reference to Israel as a client nation in Isaiah 61:5-7, “Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, foreigners will be your farmers and wine producers. But you will be called the priests of the Lord [not the Levitical priesthood but the entire nation of Israel]; and you will be spoken of as ministers of our God [all believers in Israel]. You will eat of the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame [today Israel is under a shame ban from the Lord, 5th cycle of discipline] you will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation [historical disaster] you will shout for joy over their portion [restoration of Israel]. Therefore they [the Jews of the Millennium] will possess a double portion in their land, everlasting happiness shall be theirs.”

Now the present role of the United States, a Gentile client nation to God or a priest nation, is very important then. We are taking up the slack during the time of Israel’s shame or disgrace. The times of the Gentiles was prophesied by our Lord in Luke 21:20-24. He prophesied in a very similar passage to where He said there will be wars and rumours of wars “until I come.” He also pointed out to the Jews that they had dropped their military. Herod the Great didn’t, he had a magnificent army and he wasn’t attacked, he was a friend of the Romans. But now that the Roman army was in Palestine the Jews said, “We don’t need an army.” And this is what happened to them, Luke 21:20, referring to the Roman army that came in AD 66 and stayed until they destroyed Israel in AD 70, “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies then know,” the aorist active imperative of the verb ginwskw, you must know historical trends. This is a mandate. Learning doctrine and understanding historical trends is a mandate. The aorist tense is a constative aorist gathering up into one entirety learning of all mandates. Active voice: believers must know historical trends. The imperative mood is a mandate to believers, “that her desolation [fifth cycle of discipline to Israel] is near. Then let those in Judea flee to the mountains,” a mandate to believers who are mature. Get them out of the area, “and let those who are in the middle of Jerusalem get out. Furthermore, let not those who are in the country enter into Jerusalem,” don’t get into the trap, Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, “because these are the days of vengeance [justice, 5th cycle of discipline], in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled,” the prophecies of the end of client nationship through the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel, “also Jerusalem will be trampled under foot until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” The times of the Gentiles will not be fulfilled until the resurrection of the Church, the Rapture. In the meantime we have a long succession of Gentile client nations.

Revelation 3:10c, the last phrase: We have an aorist active infinitive of the verb peirazw, which means to test for the purpose of determining what you have, of what stuff you are made: good or evil, what are your priorities? what is important to you in life? what is your integrity status? And then we have the accusative plural of the definite article touj, it is part of the direct object and it is used as a personal pronoun and translated “those,” “to test those.” The culminative aorist tense views historical disaster in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the determination of the believer’s status quo in client nation Roman empire. The active voice: historical disaster produces the action of the verb and the infinitive of intended result when the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate plan or purpose. Intended result blends the plan with the result. Then we have the present active indicative of the verb katoikew, and it means to live, to dwell somewhere and to live there, “to test those who live,” the descriptive present tense for what is now going on. The active voice: believers living on the earth at that time produce the action just as believers living in the United States right now also produce the same action. The participle is circumstantial. Then we have finally a preposition e)pi plus the genitive of the noun gh and it is a reference to believers in phase two living on planet earth. It is translated, “to test those who live on the earth.”

The corrected translation of the entire verse: “Because you have guarded [maintained by living in the divine dynasphere] the doctrine which came by means of my perseverance [our Lord’s residence and function in the divine dynasphere], I will also guard you [wall of fire around the divine dynasphere] from the time of testing [historical disaster] which is about to come upon the entire Roman empire.”

Notice the principle of the definite article, “those.” The definite article refers to believers who are tested by historical disaster: believers tested by historical disaster at that time and believers tested by historical disaster today. The most obvious test is the fact that historical disaster, like historical prosperity, is a test regarding the believer’s relationship with the plan of God. Whatever the believer’s relationship with the plan of God happens to be, that determines prosperity or disaster. The plan of God for this dispensation calls for every believer to reside and function inside the divine dynasphere, not the cosmic system. In the cosmic system there is only one thing you have and that is arrogance. Personal arrogance will destroy your life and overflow into the national entity. Historical disaster tests believers living in the divine dynasphere and gives them passing marks, hence blessing in disaster. Historical disaster tests believers living in the cosmic system and flunks them, which means they are punished by such disaster, often by the sin unto death. Historical disaster is a test for Christian residence either the divine dynasphere or in the cosmic system. The historical disaster then demonstrates that believers in the divine dynasphere are either winners or believers in the cosmic system are classified as losers.

Verse 11, the perpetuation of spiritual maturity is the challenge to any circumstance in life. Whether it is adversity or prosperity you can have happiness and blessing in any circumstances. Inside of the divine dynasphere there is capacity for life, there is happiness, there is blessing.

The word “behold” in the King James version is not found in the original text. Next we have the present active indicative of the verb e)rxomai, and here it means to come. The verb is often used for both the occurrence of natural events or fateful happenings. Therefore it is not surprising that e)rxomai is used here for divine discipline for the believer. Without the adverb, however it would mean something else. The adverb is taxu, and it means quickly, rapidly or at once. The present tense of e)rxomai is a pictorial present, it presents to the believers in mind a picture of divine discipline from cosmic involvement. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through the administration of divine punishment to the cosmic believer. The indicative mood is the reality of divine discipline even to mature believers who get out of the divine dynasphere and slip into the cosmic system. If they get into the cosmic system they start out getting into cosmic two, and then of course cosmic one if they get into gate one which involves the arrogance and motivating evil factor. If they get in for just a short time, rebound, and get back into the divine dynasphere they are called while they are in the cosmic system, carnal. If they stay there and perpetuate life in the cosmic system the they become reversionists. These are simply technical terms to describe the length of time and the spiritual disaster to the individual involved. Corrected translation: “I come quickly” — i.e. to punish cosmic involvement.

1. Maturity must be achieved and maintained. Once you crack the maturity barrier and go from gate four to gate eight it has to be maintained. The attainment of maturity is no guarantee against cosmic involvement, you still have free will. Good decisions result in options for greater decisions and blessing; bad decisions destroy those options. Even mature believers can make bad decisions.

2. The believer, after the achievement of maturity, must continue to learn doctrine. He must continue to reside and function in the divine dynasphere. He must continue therefore to maintain the right priorities of life. Number one priority must always be Bible doctrine.

3. Many mature believers can pass the adversity test. All mature believers have learned how to handle adversity. But they lean so hard into adversity that when they have a change of pace in prosperity they really don’t know what to do. So many mature believers can pass the adversity test but they flunk the prosperity test. You do not handle prosperity the way you handle adversity.

4. Divine blessings must be kept in their perspective so that the mature believer never forgets the source of blessing. The source of blessing comes indirectly from God through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, daily perception of doctrine at gate four, the advance to gate eight, passing the eight momentum tests.

5. Forgetting the source of prosperity is easy when a mature believer changes his priorities. You cannot stay out of the divine dynasphere very long without changing your priorities. You get so busy with what you are doing in life and so preoccupied with yourself in life that you forget something: the life that you have, the time that you have on this earth is courtesy of our Lord — logistical grace.

6. All too often the mature believer seeks to maintain his prosperity and perpetuate his material blessings rather than maintain the source of his prosperity and perpetuate his spiritual maturity inside the divine dynasphere.

7. Arrogance infiltrates when the mature believer associates promotion or success with himself rather than with the source, the source being the integrity of God, divine justice imputing logistical grace to the indwelling +R, and as you advance to maturity imputing supergrace blessings to that same +R. The source is the Word of God; the source is life in the divine dynasphere.

8. Therefore when the mature believer suddenly becomes involved in the cosmic system the Lord comes suddenly with divine discipline to warn him of his danger and to bring him back to the reality of the divine viewpoint.

9. So far we have the phrase “I come quickly,” referring to warning discipline. We have an other reference to it in chapter three verse twenty: “Behold, I stand at the door and keep knocking”. Knocking is also warning discipline. So we have analogies: “I come quickly”; “I keep knocking.” This phrase refers to warning discipline to the mature believer who has suddenly become arrogant through involvement with the cosmic system.

“I come quickly” to punish the mature believer who has moved into the cosmic system. Now there is a mandate to that mature believer. Rebound is necessary, the warning should take care of that for a mature believer. But now here is a warning: present active imperative of the verb kratew, and it is translated “hang on.” We might say, “hang in there,” the progressive present tense for action in a state of persistence, continued residence in the divine dynasphere, “hang in there” in the divine dynasphere, the perpetuation of the perception of doctrine beyond the point of maturity. The active voice: the mature believer must produce the action by “hanging in there.” The imperative of command is for the mandate to perpetuate spiritual maturity inside the divine dynasphere. Once you’ve arrived, keep going. Keep your priorities straight.

Next we have the accusative neuter singular from the relative pronoun o(j, translated “to what.” Since this is the neuter we translate it, “hang on to what.” Then finally the present active indicative of e)xw, “to what you have.” The retroactive progressive present of e)xw denotes what has begin in the past, residence in the divine dynasphere, the attainment of spiritual maturity, and continues into the present. The active voice: the mature believer produces the action by logging maximum time in the divine dynasphere. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the possession of spiritual maturity through the advance from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. So here is the command to hang in there: “hang on to what you have” as a mature believer.

1. This means avoid arrogance, avoid an erroneous scale of values, maintenance of supergrace blessings in their proper perspective. When you get out of fellowship rebound immediately, don’t waste any time fooling around in the cosmic system.

3. Prosperity is a sedative making the believer forget the source of his prosperity.

4. The source is related to the divine dynasphere and logistical grace provision. But if you get arrogant you become hypersensitive and hypersensitivity completely blocks out the right priority which is Bible doctrine.

5. Every breath we take is courtesy of our Lord Jesus Christ but prosperity has a way of breeding arrogance so that the believer associates all form of blessing with some form of human merit or human ability.

6. This results in preoccupation with self, a rationalisation we call the narcissus syndrome.

7. Cosmic involvement destroys grace thinking, therefore cosmic involvement causes malfunction of the faith-rest drill so that the believer forgets.

8. Cosmic involvement means that the believer forgets doctrine, forgets the right priorities. He forgets the source of doctrine and his former humility in the divine dynasphere is converted into arrogance and arrogance into vanity. From there it is a short trip to warning discipline and disaster.

The reason for all of this is found in the next phrase, the purpose for the warning mandate. The conjunction i(na introduces a purpose clause, “in order that.” Then an adjective used as a substantive and therefore the subject, mhdeij, which means “no one.” It refers to cosmic believers with influence in the Christian community elsewhere. “No one” refers to believers in the cosmic system, and they have influence through their personality, through their success, attractiveness, whatever it is. With this we have the aorist active subjunctive of lambanw, which means to take away, “in order that no one take away.” The culminative aorist tense views the believer in the cosmic system in its entirety but it emphasises loss of reward because he was evangelised by other cosmic believers with influence. The active voice: generally it is a close friend or loved one who is the cosmic believer who produces the action of the verb, cosmic evangelism, a Satan-inspired modus operandi using believers to drag people out of the divine dynasphere and away from doctrine. The subjunctive mood: this is the potential subjunctive, and the subjunctive plus i(na introduces a purpose clause. It is a potential subjunctive because it implies a future reference and is qualified by the element of contingency. In this case the contingency is your own bad decisions. Your loved ones, your friends, or someone becomes more important than Bible doctrine.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from stephanoj, which refers to reward, the second highest reward that God can give. Plus the possessive genitive of the pronoun su, which indicates that those involved have not yet reached the place of historical impact which brings the highest decoration, but they at least have the crown of life. By reaching gate eight they have a crown. Now, by maintenance and moving on in gate eight they can have the order of the morning star.

Corrected translation: “I come quickly [to punish and warn the mature believer in the cosmic system]: hang on to what you have [as a mature believer], so that no one takes away your crown.”

When the mature believer becomes so involved in the cosmic system that he loses his rewards at the judgment seat of Christ it is because, generally, of a person. It can be either a person or a thing in life that is put above Bible doctrine. The principle is a very simple one: people influence people; believers influence believers; cosmic believers influence mature believers where mature believers do not separate mentally from their cosmic friends. When social life is perpetuated with cosmic believers and close friendships continue it always works the same way. Just as one bad apple spoils a barrel of good apples, so one cosmic believer lures the other believers away from doctrine, away from daily perception of doctrine, away from the divine dynasphere. If you continue to associate with cosmic believers you will shortly adopt their false scale of values. This is talking about social life, not business life.

So with supergrace prosperity mature believers become very vulnerable to flattery and attention from cosmic believers. Cosmic evangelism is conducted by cosmic believers under the control of Satan’s power system. The cosmic evangelist’s appeal is generally conducted through arrogance; through the arrogance of either direct flattery or it may be disguised by a facade of intellectuality or affection or passion, or whatever it is. So when the believer in the divine dynasphere is led away by his love, by his affection, by his response to flattery, the result means that he is evangelised for the cosmic system and loses his rewards.

This is a very important verse that is quite unusual. An entire system of theology is based upon the concept that we have here. Wrong decisions are a system of self-punishment. We administer punishment to ourselves and through erroneous use of our own volition or free will we manufacture and create our own misery. There is a very fine line in some case as to when self-induced misery ends and divine discipline begins, but in many cases where the believer rebounds he has made a good decision whereby he is able to offset the problems of self-induced misery.

Man makes a fool of himself every time he makes wrong decisions because these wrong decisions of entrance into the cosmic system inevitably result in manufacturing his own misery. But most people in the cosmic system will not take the responsibility for their own decisions or their own actions and as a result of this they find someone else to blame. And when you blame someone else for your own failures, your own sins, your own problems and your own misery, then you have fallen into this very serious problem. As long as you do not take the responsibility for your own decisions and actions you are going to remain in the cosmic system with a cosmic viewpoint. When people reach maturity they often develop a new sensitivity, and in this new sensitivity of life they often find themselves slipping into a very serious trap of blaming others for their own failures. This is the background for this passage.

The principle behind verse 11 and the fact that you can lose your crown goes back to the fact that the Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy. Instead it is a dispensation of historical trends and that means that all of the prophecies regarding the first advent of Christ have been fulfilled in detail. The major system of prophecy and the doctrine of eschatology in the Bible is centred around the first and second advents of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the first advent we have the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. In the second advent we have the tactical victory of the angelic conflict and there is a tremendous amount of Old Testament prophecy which was fulfilled with the first advent of Christ. Once our Lord was seated at the right hand of the Father the last of the great prophecies of the Old Testament regarding the first advent were fulfilled — Psalm 110:1. There He received His third royal patent and this is the one which is so important to us and makes this the dispensation for the forming of a royal family for that royal patent. Also there is no prophecy; we are an interlude between eschatological events. There will be no prophecy until the Church Age is terminated by the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church.

In the meantime historical trends are very pertinent. Church Age doctrine which all revolves around life in the divine dynasphere is extremely pertinent to us because it includes every principle of application of doctrine. We apply doctrine to our own personal lives, we apply doctrine to the great concept of this dispensation which isn’t prophecy but virtue and integrity. First of all motivational virtue directed toward God in the divine dynasphere and, secondly, functional virtue toward man and circumstances as a function of our royal ambassadorship. This is the major emphasis in the period of historical trends. Once we understand historical trends then we do not get upset about what we consider to be the great reverses in history, for there never has been a nation or group of people which is not the product of its own decisions. Therefore we bring our failures on ourselves. We must take the responsibility for our own decisions and whether we do this or not it is going to happen at the judgment seat of Christ, for at the end of verse 11 we have this phrase: “hang on to what you have [as a mature believer stay in the divine dynasphere] so that no one takes away your crown.” The implication is that even after cracking the maturity barrier you can lose your rewards at the judgment seat of Christ.

It all begins with 2 Corinthians 5:10. All of us are going to face an evaluation of our spiritual lives in the future. All of us are going to face an evaluation of what we did with logistical grace. God has capitalised every believer with logistical grace from the moment of salvation. We are given, for example, a certain amount of time on this earth; we are given food, shelter, clothing, everything necessary to function in life; we are given freedom and opportunity therefore to respond to Bible doctrine or reject it; we have options in time. We have logistical grace support from the justice of God imputed to believers to the indwelling divine righteousness, one of the things we received at salvation. And we are free to make decisions. We have positive volition toward doctrine and that has to do with good decisions. We have negative volition toward doctrine and that has to do with bad decisions. All of these things tie in together so that we as believers are either going to be highly successful by divine standards or we are going to flunk. Failure does not mean loss of salvation but failure means loss of rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. As our passage says, “hang on so that we do not lose our crown”. This is actually a reference to the crown of life which was previously mentioned in chapter two and has to do with residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

There is no such thing as equality in life; there is such a thing as equal opportunity. All opportunity comes through freedom and through free enterprise. The principle here should be very obvious. You and I find ourselves unequal today but we do have one area where we do have equality. We do have free will in our souls; we do have volition. We have the opportunity to make decisions and those who make positive decisions are going to advance to maturity inside the divine dynasphere. Those who make negative decisions toward doctrine are going to retrogress into such phraseology as carnality [one category of cosmic residence] or reversionism [another category of cosmic residence]. So it all adds up to this: your attitude toward Bible doctrine after salvation determines your status quo in time and in eternity. On this earth we have a tremendous difference among believers. Believers who are positive advance to maturity; believers who are negative or cosmic believers are failures, they have flunked the Christian life, they have failed to utilise the tremendous capital made available by the grace of God, logistical grace support. So we have vast differences in time but these differences are going to be dramatised in eternity for there we are going to have even greater differences. In heaven which is a perfect place there are going to be the mature believers, those who are able to hang on through the daily perception of doctrine. And they will have the order of the morning star, they will have various crowns, they will have all kinds of decorations, they are going to become famous as rulers of nations in the Millennium, they are going to be famous in the records system of heaven forever, they will have a chapter devoted to them in the permanent historical records of history. This will be a record that cannot be destroyed because the records will be in the temple of heaven.

The loss of reward is the subject of 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, “No man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ”. In other words, we are talking about those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. “When anyone builds on the foundation either gold, silver or precious stones,” the modus operandi in the divine dynasphere; “or wood, hay, and stubble,” this is modus operandi in the cosmic system. Modus operandi in the divine dynasphere is rewardable; modus operandi in the cosmic system means loss of reward — “Each believer’s production will become evident [manifest]; for the day [judgment seat of Christ] will show it, because it is revealed by fire; in fact the fire itself will test what quality each one’s production is.” So we are not talking about salvation, we are talking about quality of production. The only production which is rewardable is that which is related to the divine dynasphere and all production which is related to the cosmic system is not rewardable, “If anyone’s production which he has built on it [the foundation of imputed righteousness] remains, he shall receive a reward. If anyone’s production is burned up, he shall suffer loss of reward; but he himself shall be delivered, yet so as through fire.” So the believer who fails is going to be there and that is all. The believer who succeeds is going to have fantastic rewards.

The doctrine of eternal security is a guarantee that you are free to use your volition to succeed or fail without ever making a decision that will take away your salvation. The worst decisions you can make will never cancel the one decision you made when you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is irreversible, it is perpetuated forever, it is not subject to any form of cancellation. You can make no bad decisions that will take away your salvation. Eternal security therefore becomes a base for freedom, freedom in the spiritual life, the ability to choose God’s plan as over against Satan’s plan, the cosmic system. Therefore you should have confidence in time, 1 John 3:21, “Beloved [royal family of God] if our right lobe does not condemn us [life inside the divine dynasphere] we keep on having confidence before God.” That principle of confidence then overflows to the judgment seat of Christ.

The cosmic believer loses confidence in God through his own function of volition but the believer who lives inside the divine dynasphere gains confidence in God, especially through function at gate four, the perception and application of doctrine. So while the cosmic believer is losing rewards at the judgment seat of Christ he will also have a time of discomfort which we might call shame or embarrassment. The fact that the mature believer does not have this embarrassment is taught in Romans 5:5; Philippians 1:20.

The divine dynasphere and the judgment seat of Christ guarantee great blessing for all eternity. They also guarantee special blessing in time. For example, in James 1:25 the one who looks intently into the perfect law [perception of doctrine at gate four] that gives freedom,” good decisions open options for greater decisions and for the believer who lives inside the divine dynasphere there is freedom and options for more and more decisions; “and continues to do this” [momentum inside the divine dynasphere], not forgetting what he has heard [e)pignwsij doctrine is applicable] but doing it [from e)pignwsij comes production], this believer will be happy in what he is doing, so there is blessing in time for modus operandi inside the divine dynasphere. That is why James 2:12 says, “So keep speaking and so keep doing as those who are going to be judged [evaluated] by the law that gives freedom,” Bible doctrine produces a freedom to make greater and greater decisions. That is why it says: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Truth comes in three categories: the laws of divine establishment, there is freedom in establishment; the gospel, you are free to accept Christ; Bible doctrine for the believer, and that is what is meant be freedom or liberty here. This principle, then, becomes a challenge to each one of us to reestablish our priorities and put Bible doctrine first. There is also the concept of application of virtue to the judgment seat of Christ, which keeps us from gossiping and maligning and judging other believers. There are many analogies in the scripture to the judgment seat of Christ.

The future is what we have in Revelation 3:11, “I come quickly” is our Lord coming to punish and warn any mature believer in the cosmic system. When we become the recipients of divine discipline it is a warning. God’s punishment makes you realise something. It alerts you to the fact that you are living in the cosmic system. Now you hurt, and God says that you are going to keep on hurting until you are aware of the fact that you must rebound. And so the only thing that divine discipline does is to motivate rebound. Suppose you ignore warning discipline and you are still in that same arrogant rut of self-pity. Then you get intensive discipline. If you ignore intensive discipline then you are simply used as an aggressor against other believers until the Lord takes you out under the sin unto death. And in eternity you will demonstrate forever and ever that you were too unteachable, that you couldn’t learn anything. The demonstration will be that you will be a peon forever; all you will have is a resurrection body.

Note: The worst people in the world are not dumb people; the worst people in the world are unteachable people. Unteachability is the first sign of arrogance.

“that no one take away your crown,” crowns are military decorations. This is the way it is used in the Greek. The word is stefanoj, and the equivalent to it in the Latin is corona, the highest decoration that the Roman soldier could receive. The Romans had six categories of crowns. In Christianity Paul has given us only three by way of analogy: the crown of life for maximum time logged inside the divine dynasphere with the inevitable results of advancing to maturity; the crown of righteousness for production, the production of virtue and integrity inside of the divine dynasphere; the crown of glory which is limited to those who communicate doctrine under some spiritual gift.

You may be in a position right now where you are going to have a crown. So notice what it says here: “Hang on!” If you don’t, you can lose it. That is the principle behind this verse.

The principle is found in Luke 19:12, “He said therefore, ‘A certain aristocrat went into a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return,’ that is analogous to our Lord Jesus Christ. Going into a far country is the ascension and His return is the second advent. Immediately we know that this is a reward for Old Testament saints and does not directly apply to the Church Age, but the analogy is here; there is a principle behind it, ‘And he called his ten slaves [Old Testament believers], and he gave them ten minas [money],’ this indicates that God has a different system for believers in the Old Testament to advance to maturity, but it is the same principle: logistical grace. Our Lord capitalises the Old Testament believers just as He capitalises us in logistical grace. But logistical grace is different in each dispensation. In the Old Testament it does not include the divine dynasphere and the 36 things we received at salvation. One mina was given to each servant. That is logistical support of every believer, ‘But his citizens [client nation Israel] hated him, and sent an embassy after him saying, “We do not want this man to reign over us,” indicating why our Lord went into the far country, ‘And it came about when he returned, after receiving the kingdom [second advent], he ordered that these servants to whom he had given the money [logistical support], be summoned to him that he might know what they had gained with it,’ this is the evaluation of Old Testament saints, ‘And the first appeared saying, “Lord, your mina has earned ten times more,” that is a mature Old testament believer, ‘And he replied to him, “Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, take charge of ten cities” .’

Now we learn something from this. We have already seen that the holders of the morning star are going to come back with the Lord and in the Millennial reign of Christ they are going to rule nations, Gentile nations. But these Old Testament saints are going to rule cities, indicating that the royal family of God is in the higher echelon of concept than the Old Testament saints. The point is that they will be ruling cities.

‘And the second came, saying, “Lord, your mina has made five minas.” And he said to him, “You are to rule over five cities.” And another came, saying, “Lord, behold your mina which I kept and laid away in a piece of cloth,” this is the believer who has eternal salvation and that is all, and it is an illustration of a lot of believers in the Church Age, resurrection body and nothing to show for it; “For I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man,” not true. At the time He was ignored, negative volition; “you take up what you did not put down, and reap what you did not sow.” This person is even antiestablishment, he is anti-free enterprise, ‘And he said to him, “By your own words I will judge you, evil servant,” he is a servant but he is an evil one, he lived in the cosmic system; “You knew did you that I am a hard man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow? Then why did you not put the money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest?” And he said to the bystanders, “Take his mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten minas.” And they said to him, “Lord, he already has ten minas.” And I say to you, that to everyone who has more it shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does not have shall be taken away’. He failed to use logistical grace in time, he will have absolutely nothing but a resurrection body in eternity. And there is no excuse for it.

So obviously then rewards are related to historical trends because right in the middle of our historical trends context we suddenly have this concept. We have already noted that there is the gazebo in the garden which is the ultimate in eternal happiness. And this is for those who hang on and gain the order of the morning star, Revelation 2:7.

Those believers who advance to maturity are anonymous in history at the present time but they will become famous because they will be kings for 1000 years, the last 1000 years of history. After that, of course, they will be in the highest order of eternal chivalry forever and ever.

Verse 11, “I come quickly.” The subject is the Lord Jesus Christ and it refers to the function of the justice or the holiness of God in the administration of punishment to cosmic believers; to punish and warn, not only cosmic believers as such but mature believers who linger too long in the cosmic system. “I come quickly” means to come with a sense of surprise, to come violently, to administer terrible punishment. Therefore our first doctrine that we are going to harvest out of the two verses we have been studying is the doctrine of divine discipline.

1. Definition. Divine discipline is the sum total of punitive action taken by the justice of God to correct, punish, encourage, train and motivate the believer’s free will toward the person and the plan of God. Divine discipline is distinguished from divine judgment in that discipline is for believers only, whereas divine judgment is for the entire human race, all categories under certain circumstances. Believers become involved in the cosmic system under two categories: carnality, a brief stay in the cosmic system which is rapidly rooted out by warning discipline; reversionism is a prolonged residence in the cosmic system, failure to rebound, and generally not blasted out either by warning discipline or by intensive discipline. Divine discipline must also be distinguished from self-induced misery. Bad decisions not only destroy future options in life but they result in originating your own misery from your own soul totally apart from any divine administration of punishment. We pay for our bad decisions under the principle that as a man soweth he shall also reap. Sowing and reaping has nothing to so with divine discipline, it has to do simply with making bad decisions and facing the unpleasant results of them. In other words, believers are constantly making decisions which result in their own misery, unhappiness and discomfort, totally apart from punitive action from God. All people are the products of their own decisions, good or bad. Decisions create environment for life, not environment for decisions. Punishment from God often follows the self-induced misery, it never precedes it. All wrong decisions, including carnality and reversionism, relate to cosmic involvement and cosmic function. All wrong decisions in life are connected with some form of arrogance. The difference then between self-induced suffering and divine discipline is the source. We personally are the source of our self-induced misery, whereas God is the source of divine discipline.

While God is the source of divine discipline, man’s free will is the source of his self-induced misery, and at the outset it should be noted that regardless of the category of suffering or discipline divine punishment of the believer does not imply or include loss of salvation. No believer can lose his salvation for any reason whatsoever. All divine discipline, except the sin unto death, is designed to coerce the believer, to teach the believer, by motivating him to recover from the cosmic system and slavery to Satan who is the ruler of this world. Therefore, divine discipline is often beneficial and profitable, but only when the believer responds through the use of the rebound drill, recovering residence and function in the divine dynasphere. The principle: believers must accept the responsibility for their own bad decisions, and further, accept the responsibility for all categories of divine discipline to which one is subjected.

2. The principle of divine discipline. While judgment is punitive action from God to all mankind divine discipline is God’s punishment of believers only, and it is punishment designed to teach, punishment designed to motivate. All Church Age believers are royal family of God and God’s punitive action directed toward the royal family is obviously by definition a family affair, as illustrated by the relationship between a loving parent and a wayward child, Hebrews 12:5,6; Proverbs 3:12. Divine discipline to the believer is parental training within the royal family, it is designed to inculcate humility for without humility none of us are going anywhere in life. Divine discipline teaches the believer when he refuses to learn from doctrinal teaching. Therefore we have to classify divine discipline as the believer learning the hard way: learning through pain, through hurting in some way.

Divine discipline is a warning that we as believers are out of bounds as far as the plan of God is concerned. Football is a game played inside of boundaries on a playing field and it is therefore analogous to the plan of God. The plan of God is a perfect plan designed to be executed inside of boundaries. The boundaries are described, of course, in terms of the divine dynasphere. Just as the referee blows his whistle when the play goes out of bounds so God blows the whistle on believers when they are out of bounds as far as His plan is concerned. God’s whistle is a loud whistle, not in the sense of hurting your ears but simply in the sense that it hurts.

There are two systems, therefore, in learning as believers. All believers have to learn one way or the other, or both. The first system of learning is the communication of doctrine from one’s own right pastor. We might classify that as an unlimited system of learning. The only limitations are put on yourself by negative volition toward doctrine — refusing to expose yourself to it or hearing it and rejecting it. So we have an unlimited system of perception that will take us into the unlimited heights of supergrace A, supergrace B, or ultra-supergrace; but there is a second way in which to learn, a limited system — divine discipline. You are limited as to what you can learn and you are limited as far as your advance is concerned. Divine discipline is a fantastic teacher and it can only teach one or two things: rebound, get back into the divine dynasphere, and then once you get back in there get cracking so that you won’t have to go through this again.

So number one, the unlimited system, is unlimited in the sense that it results in both spiritual maturity and fantastic blessing. The second system, the limited system, is learning the hard way through painful experience. Furthermore, while divine discipline can teach some lessons well and produce great respect for God’s authority it cannot bring the believer to maturity, only e)pignosij doctrine can accomplish that. So we have to call divine discipline, then, a limited system of learning. Nevertheless, divine discipline is a teacher and often produces teachability. Therefore it must be regarded as another form of blessing and a glorious opportunity to exercise one’s options for the grace of God and the plan of God. And furthermore, divine discipline provides opportunity for believers to reverse the results of bad decisions and start making good decisions again. If you cannot learn from the humility of gate three of the divine dynasphere you can learn from hurting — divine discipline.

So that is the principle that is so important in our passage, “I come quickly,” says our Lord. In other words, if you won’t learn from humility you will learn from hurting. Take your choice. To continue to learn from hurting is only to distort the purpose for logistical grace and to depart from this life, phase two, in misery and disgrace called the sin unto death. If you do not learn the lesson of divine discipline as a believer you will live in the cosmic system until you are destroyed by divine discipline. One nice thing about limited learning: God will never stop teaching you if you live in the cosmic system. He will keep punishing you, giving you warning discipline, intensive discipline, and eventually dying discipline. One way or another He will persist in teaching.

3. Divine discipline relates also to the general subject of suffering. There is suffering for divine discipline and suffering for testing and blessing. That reduces all suffering for the believer to two categories and in each case there are six principles. Suffering for discipline has an issue and suffering for blessing has an issue. When you suffer for divine discipline the issue is sin, carnality, reversionism; the issue for suffering for blessing is spiritual momentum and supergrace blessings. Then there is the second approach called status. The status of suffering for discipline is cosmic involvement; the status for suffering for blessing is the divine dynasphere.

There is also a third category which is category. The category of divine discipline is unbearable suffering . God can’t teach you unless you hurt enough so that He can get your attention, therefore the category is unbearable suffering; whereas suffering for testing and blessing is bearable. The fourth category is the viewpoint involved. The viewpoint for suffering for divine discipline is arrogance and subjectivity. It is very difficult to teach people when they are subjective and arrogant, and therefore before you can get their attention God says they must hurt. The viewpoint of suffering for testing and blessing is humility and objectivity.

Then, of course, there is category solution. The solution to suffering for discipline is the use of the rebound technique, whereas the solution to suffering for blessing is the three stages of the faith-rest drill.

Finally, in each case there is a result. In suffering for discipline the result is that cursing is turned to blessing, when we use the solution, plus any suffering left over is now designed for blessing, whereas the result in suffering for blessing is blessing plus the acceleration of the spiritual life.

So categorically there is a relationship between divine discipline and the overall subject of suffering. After the believer recovers fellowship with God through the rebound technique the suffering may cease, as per 1 Corinthians 11:31. If the suffering does not cease after rebound the suffering has a different purpose, blessing, and the believer is able to bear it under the principle of 1 Corinthians 10:13.

When suffering is designed for punishment or discipline the believer cannot bear it, but when suffering is designed for testing the believer can bear it and even derive great blessing from it, but only inside the divine dynasphere. Therefore once rebound has occurred the purpose of suffering changes from punishment to testing for blessing, and with that the believer once again becomes teachable under the unlimited system, the perception of doctrine at gate four of the divine dynasphere. Only rebound, then, can change cursing into blessing in the field of suffering. All Christian suffering in the cosmic system is punitive; all Christian suffering in the divine dynasphere is testing for the purpose of blessing.

4. The spheres of divine discipline. The first sphere of divine discipline is punishment in time — Hebrews 12:5-14.

“And so you yourselves have forgotten the principle of doctrine which teaches you as sons, ‘My son, do not make light of correcting discipline from the Lord, nor be fainting when you are reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves he disciplines and punishes [in time] every son whom he welcomes home.’ Because of corrective discipline, endure [inside of the divine dynasphere]; for as a result God deals with you as sons; for what one [member of the royal family] is a son whom the Father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all believers have become participants, then you are bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we had our human parents for corrective discipline and we respected them; therefore to a greater degree you will become subordinate to the Father of our spirits, and continue living [in the divine dynasphere]. For they [human parents] on the one hand disciplined us for a short time [childhood] according to what seemed best to them, but he [God] on the other hand disciplines us for our benefit, in order that we might receive a share of his integrity [blessing inside the divine dynasphere]. So on the one hand all discipline while in progress [in time] appears to be an occasion not for happiness but for sorrow; on the other hand, afterwards [recovery from the cosmic system through rebound] it pays back with interest prosperous gain [resumed momentum in the divine dynasphere] to those believers who are trained [or taught] by the same discipline. Therefore, restore to power [to the divine dynasphere] the listless hands [analogy to life in the cosmic system] and restore to power the disabled knees [analogy to function in the cosmic system — a mandate to rebound], and be making straight tracks by means of your feet [momentum from gate four to gate eight] in order that the cripple [the believer involved in the cosmic system] may not be put out of joint permanently [through living in the cosmic system], but rather be restored [to the divine dynasphere]. With all the royal family of God keep moving toward the objective [advance to gate eight] which is prosperity, likewise aspire to integrity without which no man will see God” — the integrity or sanctification is, of course, salvation sanctification, reception of +R at the point of faith in Christ.

No divine discipline during the interlude of blessing between physical death and the Rapture is a very important principle. Between physical death and the Rapture we go to heaven: absent from the body, face to face with the Lord. It is a time of great happiness and the interim body is implied by 2 Corinthians 5:8. There is no difference during that interim period in heaven. All believers have an interim body which resembles their body and facial expressions on earth. Each one is recognisable. Then comes the Rapture, the big genuflect in the sky, and the judgment seat of Christ. And we at the Rapture receive our resurrection bodies and they are all the same, there is no difference, and when we all gather as the entire royal family of the Church Age to worship our Lord Jesus Christ, again there is no difference. But at the judgment seat of Christ two categories of Church Age believers become apparent, the losers and the winners. The losers are defined as believers in Christ who spent most of their Christian lives in the cosmic system. Winners are those who spent most of their time in the divine dynasphere. Hence the importance of that phrase from 2 Timothy 2:15, “we should be workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” That’s learning the easy way, learning through perception of doctrine, and that is the key to great blessing.

5. The purpose of divine discipline in time. Revelation 3:19, “Those whom I love [God’s personal love for all believers based on their imputed +R], I reprimand [warning discipline] and I punish [intensive discipline]: therefore be zealous [be motivated by divine discipline], and rebound”.

The purpose of divine discipline is to motivate the believer to recover his residence in the divine dynasphere through the use of the rebound technique. It is a warning that the member of the royal family, the believer, is out of bounds. God blows the whistle on him. The boundaries of the plan of God are defined in terms of the divine dynasphere, both residence and function at eight gates. God uses divine punishment to warn the believer that the cosmic system is out of bounds and its function will lead to cosmic death. The believer must recover from the cosmic system to live in the divine dynasphere to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Inside of the divine dynasphere logistical grace is exploited to the glory of God, but in the cosmic system logistical grace is distorted into support from God while you are serving Satan.

The cosmic believer who does not learn the lesson of divine discipline is eventually removed from this life under the most painful of circumstances, the sin unto death. Learning the easy way through perception of doctrine in the divine dynasphere, gate four, exploits logistical grace and results in spiritual maturity and the fantastic blessings that result thereof. Learning the hard way through divine discipline can only motivate the believer to get out of the cosmic system through rebound and therefore it has a limited though very necessary objective, another way of saying that no believer can advance to maturity on the basis of mastering the rebound technique.

Rebound is the means of living in the divine dynasphere while doctrine must be learned once you are inside. The purpose, then, of divine discipline is to motivate rebound; the purpose of the whole realm of doctrine is the fulfillment of the divine plan, advancing to maturity, and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. The limited objective of divine discipline, then, can only motivate your recovery from the cosmic system, whereas the unlimited objective of learning through Bible doctrine is the advancement to maturity and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. While divine discipline has a purpose in bringing the believer back to the classroom for learning Bible doctrine, bringing him back to the filling of the Spirit which gives him the ability to learn, it has a limited function. Therefore divine discipline is never profitable unless the believer will assume the responsibility for his own personal decisions. Divine punishment causes the cosmic believer to accept the responsibility for his bad decisions and to parlay them into something that is acceptable to God through His grace, through the function of the rebound technique.

Verse 11, “I come quickly” to punish and warn. The warning here is for mature believers because if mature believers get into the cosmic system, as inevitably they will, and stay there, there is no hope for the Roman empire as a client nation to God. The same principle is facing us today, right now. Mature believers have turned their backs on doctrine, they have changed their priorities, they have rethought their position.

We have also studied the phrase, “hang on to what you have.” Hang on to what you have because your attitude toward doctrine, your residence and function in the divine dynasphere is the only thing that can save us. You can’t operate a domestic policy or a foreign policy on principle without a pivot of mature believers. That is the concept.

Inevitably all nations of the world must make their own success or failure by their own decisions. The trouble is that ever since Franklin Roosevelt became the president of the United States we have been telling other people how to run their business, and Franklin Roosevelt made decisions that guaranteed that one third of the earth would go into slavery under communism. That’s arrogance.

“Hang on to what you have.” Do you know what you have? If you don’t know what you have you can’t hang on to it. The only people who know what they have are the ones who reside and function inside of the divine dynasphere. But, even knowing what you have you can lose it. To hang on to what you have does not require flattery or feeling wanted, it requires truth. And from truth comes integrity. You cannot hang on to what you have without Bible doctrine and you can’t hang on to what you have without truth. That is why we have the divine dynasphere: to give you the plan of God in terms of its boundaries, in terms of the playing field.

“I come quickly: hang on to what you have,” these are actually alternatives, the alternative between the divine discipline and the divine dynasphere. As a mature believer you must continue in the divine dynasphere. This is the concept of the ultimate objective. To attain and maintain the ultimate objective, the glorification of Christ, which is spiritual maturity, daily perception of doctrine, residence in the divine dynasphere functioning at its various gates. To do this you must have the right priorities and you must never deviate from the right priorities; doctrine must always be first. There is more than your personal blessing involved, there is the blessing of your country, the function of the client nation, the dissemination of truth in other countries.

We have a phrase coming up: “that no one takes your crown.” And that is really the key as far as eternity is concerned. But it could easily have read: “so that no one destroys the client nation, so that no enemy wipes us out, so that we don’t destroy ourselves,” for truth, and that means Bible doctrine, is the stabiliser not only in personal life but in collective lives.

No nation learns from the mistakes of another nation while involved in cosmic arrogance. This refers to the non-client nation where there is not a pivot of mature believers nor freedom for perception of truth in three categories — laws of dive establishment, the gospel, Bible doctrine. The non-client nation serves Satan and he can only survive by being selfish, by selfishly considering only its own national interest.

No nation can survive functioning on principle without a pivot. If a nation doesn’t have a pivot and is not a client nation it doesn’t have enough truth to survive by using its principle for its foreign policy and its domestic policy. The only nation that has the opportunity and the privilege and the luxury of forming its foreign and domestic policy on principle is the nation categorised as the client nation to God. Principle is no good as a modus operandi unless you have truth. It takes evangelism and positive volition toward doctrine for a nation to base its foreign and domestic policy on principle. Principle is based on truth, therefore truth must be backed by truth. If you use truth in your foreign policy you must have a pivot of mature believers thinking truth to concur with that policy when the policy is tested by defeat, by economic depression, or by social degeneration and violence. For principle to be the surviving factor in a national entity that national entity must be a client nation and it must have a pivot of mature believers. So a nation without positive volition and a pivot of mature believers is simply not a client nation to God. The Roman empire not only survived but had fantastic prosperity during the era of the Antonine Caesars, 96-192 AD. They had this prosperity because of the pivot of mature believers in the Roman province of Asia.

The function of principle and integrity in a nation’s foreign and domestic policy is reserved by God under historical trends for the client nation only. Furthermore, for the client nations who are positive to Bible doctrine and possess a large pivot of mature believers so that truth backs both national integrity and the principle by which decisions are made, you have great blessing from that nation. Therefore you have a historical trend. Non-client nations can only survive by being selfish, by placing their own national interests above every other consideration. That is why Israel is surviving and doing well, in spite of our (US) meddling. Only client nations to God can function on principle and integrity and survive. And they survive because they have the pivot. Their survival depends, then, on Bible doctrine.

The American people today live in a utopia of arrogance. We are obviously in the cosmic system as a people, there are exceptions, of course, because we demand that all people adhere to our concepts of civil rights and democracy. Democracy is next to degeneracy as a form of government. We are not a democracy, we are a republic. But what made America great, therefore, was not civil rights and democracy, it was freedom. The real secret to power in history is not the accouterments of freedom mouthed by politicians talking about civil rights. The real issue is the source of freedom, Bible doctrine. That is why our Lord said: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” No truth, no freedom. They go together.

When a client nation to God makes a foreign policy decision on the basis of principle it must be the application of truth based on virtue and integrity, or a pivot of virtue and integrity. But when a non-client nation to God makes a foreign policy decision on the basis of principle it leads to failure since there is no pivot of mature believers to sustain such a policy under the principle of historical trends. Only the client nation to God can function on principle from integrity. Other nations have to be selfish to survive. By that is meant that when a non-client nation seeks to deliver other nations from evil they must first count the cost and consider their own people.

We stick our self-righteous nose into the business of every nation. We ignore the point of doctrine which was stated first in the Old Testament and then the New. Deuteronomy 32:8, “When the Most High God gave nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of Adam he established boundaries for the people,” boundaries for the people of the world are nations, nationalism, part of the laws of divine establishment “according to the number of citizens of Israel.” That is when Israel was a client nation to God. The boundaries were based on the fact that Israel as a client nation had the truth. They were to live by the laws of divine establishment, they were to evangelise their own people, they were to teach Bible doctrine and send out missionaries. Acts 17:26, “He made from one [human race, one blood] every nation of mankind to live on the surface of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation.” All nations must have boundaries and those boundaries must be respected. Every nation must function on the basis of its own self-determination. No nation has the right to tell other nations how to run their business. We have the right to evangelise, to send missionaries where permitted, to reach doctrine where positive volition exists, but we do not have the right to interfere in the sovereignty of another nation unless we are at war with it.

Everything depends on the pivot. The pivot is composed of mature believers, believers can lose their maturity by getting into the cosmic system. Mature believers have advanced understanding and wisdom about many things and they can try to take the truth which they have and superimpose it on others against their will, which is wrong. It is possible to have the truth as a believer and get arrogant about the truth and make the wrong application. It is one thing to have the truth and to see where people are failing, it is something else to superimpose on them against their will your attitudes, your views, your opinions.

The next phrase which we have noted in part is a very simple one made up of three Greek words, kratei o( e)keij. The present active imperative of the verb kratew actually means here to hang on. The progressive present tense is for action in a state of persistence, i.e. continuing residence in the divine dynasphere, continuing function at the eight gates of the divine dynasphere, the necessity of historical impact, the concept of utilising the divine capital for every believer — logistical grace. The active voice: the believer must produce the action. The imperative of mood of command is for the mandate which is to perpetuate spiritual maturity and the necessity for the pivot.

The second word in the mandate for the mature believer is the accusative neuter singular of the relative pronoun o(j. The relative pronoun becomes the object of the verb in the accusative. We can translate it “to what,” “Hang on to what.” And the final word is the present active indicative e)xw, “Hang on to what you have,” which means that you have everything necessary from the point of salvation on to fulfill the plan of God, to have historical impact, to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. The retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun in the past, the attainment of spiritual maturity and the recruitment for the pivot of mature believers. And it continues into the present. The active voice: the mature believer produces the action of the verb, This is a declarative indicative for the reality of the possession of spiritual maturity, the advance from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere.

The problem in the case of hanging on is the problem of prosperity. The believers to whom this is addressed have reached the point of great prosperity. Too often prosperity is parlayed into arrogance. Prosperity is a sedative making the mature believer forget the source of his prosperity. The source is related to the principle of logistical grace, residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. Anytime any group or individual receives prosperity the great danger is to assume that somehow that prosperity is related to their ability, their achievement, rather than through the grace of God and His provision. Prosperity has a way therefore of breeding arrogance so that the people associated with this prosperity forget the origin of it. This results in preoccupation with self. Cosmic involvement therefore destroys grace thinking and causes malfunction of the faith-rest drill, the believer loses his perspective of life and even though he is a mature believer he is in danger of losing out on the most fantastic things in eternity. Cosmic involvement means the believer forgets doctrine, the source of doctrine, and humility is converted into arrogance, arrogance to vanity, and from there it is a short trip to the discipline and disaster which we noted in the phrase “I come quickly.”

In the final phrase we have a conjunction i(na that introduces a purpose clause, “that,” “in order that.” With it we have the adjective mhdeij, used here as a substantive and such it is translated “no one,” “in order that no one.” It refers to cosmic believers who have influence on your life, more when you are in prosperity than at any other time. The source of prosperity is the Lord but once we reach the point of prosperity it is amazing how old friends, new friends, and all kinds of friends suddenly appear on the scene to share our prosperity and to flatter us into the cosmic system. With the subject, the adjective mhdiej used as a substantive, we have the aorist active subjunctive of the verb lambanw, which means here to take away something that belongs to you. And it isn’t just the prosperity, it is the eternal reward. The culminative aorist tense views the mature believer’s cosmic involvement in its entirety but emphasises the results of loss of reward at the judgment seat of Christ, which is the greatest disaster that could ever overtake any believer — to reach maturity and then to get into the cosmic system through cosmic evangelism and then to lose out for all eternity. The active voice: generally it is a close friend, someone you love, someone you admire, or someone who has flattered you into getting your attention. Generally, then, some close friend or loved one who is a cosmic believer produces the action of the verb. But remember you are in greater danger as a mature believer in being led astray by believers, not unbelievers. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive which with the conjunction i(na introduces a purpose clause. The potential subjunctive implies a future reference followed by the element of contingency: this doesn’t have to happen.

Then we have the direct object in the accusative singular, and this is the noun stefanoj. It refers to the second highest system of decoration at the judgment seat of Christ. With this we have the possessive genitive of the pronoun su which is translated “your” crown, something that is your very own, something you have achieved through parlaying logistical grace into supergrace through momentum from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere.

Corrected translation of the verse: “I come quickly [to punish and warn the mature believer in the cosmic system]: hang on to what you have, so that no one takes away your crown [eternal reward at the judgment seat of Christ].”

Hanging on doesn’t mean standing still. No one ever stands still in the Christian life. Hanging on means to continue to advance and reach gate eight. When the mature believer becomes involved in the cosmic system he loses his rewards at the judgment seat of Christ.

The divine dynasphere is the Christian way of life and the divine dynasphere describes the Christian way of life in terms of its eight gates. The believer who lives in the divine dynasphere contributes to the uptrend of history and the believer who lives in the cosmic system of Satan, the ruler of this world, contributes to the downtrend of history. On that basis we now move to the next phrase, “I come quickly [to punish and warn believers],” in this case mature believers in the divine dynasphere. So a mandate is necessary since we are talking about the pivot, for as goes the pivot so goes the client nation to God. No client nation to God can function in its domestic policy or its foreign policy on the basis of principle unless it is backed up by a pivot of mature believers. The secret to the greatness of any client nation to God depends entirely upon the pivot. Therefore your attitude toward Bible doctrine determines the future of this country.

“hang on to what you have,” i.e. hang on to what you have as a mature believer; you must utilise logistical grace. In addition you must also be inside the divine dynasphere as much as possible, therefore the importance of the rebound technique. And then the final phrase, the purpose clause, “that no one takes away your crown.”

The whole purpose of the book of Revelation is to show what happens in history from the point of our Lord receiving His third royal patent to the end of history, with dissertations along the way on the eternal state. One of the longest paragraphs on the eternal state is found in the book of Revelation, it covers six whole verses. Our Lord Jesus Christ was given two titles. One title is the morning star. This emphasises His strategic and tactical victory in the first and second advents. He was also given a second marvelous title in connection with His third royal patent — “King of kings and Lord of lords.” He is the King, starting at the second advent, and as the King He is the King of kings, and the kings are believers who rule Gentile nations during the Millennium. He is also the Lord, i.e., of the Old Testament saints who are going to receive their resurrection bodies at the second advent, and many of them will become “lords,” ie, they will rule ten cities, five cities, one city, in contrast to believers who win the order of the morning star who are going to rule nations. In other words, the believer who is a winner in time during the Church Age is an anonymous hero but he will be a king for a thousand years, the last thousand years of history.

The concept of crowns. We have seen that the Greek word is stefanoj and it is in contrast to diadhma, which is a crown for a king. Stefanoj has a dual connotation. The Greeks used it for winning in one of the games; the Romans used it primarily as the second highest decoration in the Roman army, and one that also had with it various types of remuneration. The Latin equivalent is the word corona. There are three crowns which are awarded.

First there is the crown of life which is that decoration awarded to the mature believer at the judgment seat of Christ for consistent residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. It includes momentum from gate four to gate eight or passing the momentum tests. It also includes perpetuation of life in the divine dynasphere in time of historical disaster. It also is used for the production of motivating virtue. The crown of life is only given to mature believers whose motivational virtue in the divine dynasphere causes them to pass the momentum tests and attain spiritual maturity at gate eight.The second crown is the crown of righteousness, a decoration awarded to the mature believer for production in residence of the divine dynasphere. This production emphasises functional virtue of the mature believer directed toward man and circumstances. Functional virtue is the modus operandi of the believer’s royal ambassadorship. All rewardable production must originate from residence and function in the divine dynasphere. The believer who wears the invisible uniform of honour in time will receive the crown of righteousness at the judgment seat of Christ. The function of impersonal love is the visible manifestation of the invisible uniform of honour in the believer’s soul and the ultimate citation is the decoration, the crown of righteousness. There is some scripture on the crown of righteousness. 2 Timothy 4:7,8, “I have fought an honourable battle [the advance to maturity inside the divine dynasphere, emphasising the production of functional virtue], I have completed the course [phase two, the fulfillment of God’s plan for his life in time], I have retained the doctrine [perception and application of doctrine at gate four of the divine dynasphere]; in the future [the judgment seat of Christ] a crown of righteousness is reserved for me, which crown the Lord, the righteous evaluator, will award me on that day [the judgment seat of Christ]; and not only to me, but also to all who love his appearance.” The crown of life is awarded for living consistently in the divine dynasphere and from that life in the divine dynasphere your production — your virtue, your honour, your integrity, and whatever things the Lord provides for you. Passing the momentum tests is one of the great principles. The crown of righteousness is awarded for function is the divine dynasphere and, as such, the fulfillment of the royal family honour code.

When it says “that no one takes away your crown,” this also applies to the pastor’s “Distinguished Service Cross,” the crown of glory. This eternal decoration is awarded to pastors who communicate Bible doctrine to the royal family faithfully. Study and teach is the order of the day for pastors and with their residence and function inside the divine dynasphere pastors must advance to maturity with the same doctrine he teaches to others. The principle is quite obvious: no pastor can lead his congregation beyond his own stage of spiritual growth.

Generally there are four categories of pastors in the time in which we live. First of all there is the cosmic pastor. He lives in the cosmic system of Satan; he is the servant of Satan. The cosmic pastor is easy to discover. Sometimes he is a believer and sometimes he is an unbeliever but he is distracted by social action, crusader arrogance, total disorientation to reality in life. He is the blind leading the blind and both fall into the ditch. Then there is the baby pastor, the pastor who has never learned any Bible doctrine but who is high-profiling his own personality while low-profiling the Word of God. Because he hasn’t learned any doctrine at best he evangelises his own congregation every Sunday, at worst he is evangelising for the cosmic system. The third category is the adolescent pastor. He teaches some truth but is distracted by various forms of high profile. He is selling his own personality rather than teaching doctrine and he sells his personality by running around calling on people, visiting the sick, all of the things that a pastor is not supposed to do. He is supposed to study and teach, but the issue is distorted by programs, gimmicks and, of course, a great deal of ambition. He has ignored the basic principle of the gospel ministry: when a pastor prepares himself through studying and teaching God provides the congregation; God uses prepared men. Furthermore, if God doesn’t promote you you are not promoted. The more believers learn about doctrine the more they focus on the message of the pastor and not on his personality. A mature pastor is described by Hebrews 6:10, “For God is not unjust to disregard your occupation, also the love which you yourselves have demonstrated toward his person, having ministered [doctrine] to the saints and continued such a ministry.” Or Philippians 4:1, “Therefore my brethren, my beloved ones [the congregation, believers living in the divine dynasphere], my happiness and my crown, in this way [residence and function in the divine dynasphere plus persistent positive volition toward doctrine] keep on being stabilised.” Or in 1 Thessalonians 2:19,20, “For who is our hope or happiness or crown of glorification? Is it not you [believers in the congregation who advance to maturity], in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ [judgment seat of Christ] at his coming [the Rapture]? For you [the believer who attains maturity] are our glory [the crown of glory at the judgment seat of Christ] and happiness.” 1 Peter 5:4, “And when the Chief Shepherd [our Lord Jesus Christ] appears, you [mature pastors] will receive the unfading crown of glory.”

There is a warning regarding crowns, Revelation 3:11. Also 2 John 8, “Look out for yourselves, that you do not lose your momentum that you have accomplished, but that you might receive a full reward.”

There is one decoration which is higher than all of these crowns. This is the ultimate decoration at the judgment seat of Christ, the decoration that carries all of the privileges in the last one thousand years of history as well as in eternity, the order of the morning star, mentioned in Revelation 2:26, “even he who keeps my assignments [fulfilling the plan of God] until the end [the termination of phase two], to him I will give authority over the nations.” This is one of those references to the fact that the mature believer, the believer who persists in advancing to gate eight, this believer is going to be a king in the last one thousand years of history. This is rulership of Gentile nations under the Lord Jesus Christ. The rulers in the Millennium are those believers who received the ultimate decoration, the order of the morning star, at the judgment seat of Christ.

Three passages of scripture explain the phrase “morning star.” The morning star is related to our Lord’s strategic victory in Numbers 24:17, where Balaam said: “I see him [the Lord Jesus Christ in the first advent], but not now,” the first advent was a long way from Balaam’s time “I behold him, but not near” [not an immediate event in history]; a star shall come forth from Jacob [first advent of Christ], and a sceptre shall arise from Israel [second advent].” The description of our Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation 22:16 adds the concept of the morning star, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things to you for the churches.” Revelation was not written for Tribulational believers it was written for the Church, “I am the root [Jesus Christ as eternal God] and the offspring of David [Jesus Christ in hypostatic union, the God-Man], the bright [or glorious] morning star.” Since Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ, as per 1 Corinthians 2:16, it is related to Christ as the morning star in 2 Peter 1:19-21, “We keep on having a more reliable prophetic doctrine,” more reliable than the empiricism of the mount of transfiguration; “with reference to which doctrine you perform honourably [inside of the divine dynasphere] by habitually concentrating in your right lobes,” and then we have the translation of o(j as a particle of actual quality, and so it is translated “on” rather than “as,” “on a lamp [Jesus Christ] shining in a dark place [Jesus Christ controls history], until a day dawn [second advent of Christ ] and the morning star has come up,” a reference to the second advent of Christ under His title the morning star. The order of the morning star refers, then, to the highest decoration that can be given. It is actually sharing in our Lord’s third royal patent, “Knowing this first, then, that all prophecy of scripture [all eschatological doctrine] does not originate from one’s own explanation, for prophecy was never produced by the design, purpose, or will of man, but men communicated from God being carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

There are special privileges and maximum happiness for those who win the order of the morning star. First of all, in Revelation 2:7, “To the winner, I will authorise him to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.” We have studied this in detail as the gazebo in the garden. It is located in the new Jerusalem, it represents the concept of maximum happiness forever and ever, and it belongs to winners only. Maximum happiness will be for those who have had right priorities in the little time that we have on this earth. The gazebo in the garden indicates maximum happiness in the eternal state where degrees of happiness coexist with degrees of reward. The bottom line of history, however, is that these invisible heroes of today are going to be the famous people of the last 1000 years of history. This lesson is taught by sanctified sarcasm in 1 Corinthians 4:8, “You [the Corinthians] are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us.” Paul is a mature believer, he says to the Corinthians, in effect, ‘You are the kings and what are we?’ — “how I wish that you had really become kings so that we might rule with you.”

The real issue is stated in 2 Timothy 2:12, “If we endure [this is consistent and persistent life in the divine dynasphere during time on this earth], we shall also rule [reference to mature believers who are going to be kings for a thousand years] with him.” It also adds that if we refuse to live in the divine dynasphere he refuses us, cosmic believers, rewards, privileges, decorations at the judgment seat of Christ. In other words, no one can rule without authority and the authority to rule as kings is delegated by our Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of the world in the Millennium. Thus, Revelation 2:26, “So the winner, even he who keeps my assignments to the end, I will give him authority over the nations.” The basis for mature believers becoming kings for a thousand years is the strategic and tactical victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The strategic victory centres around the cross; the tactical victory centres around the overthrow of Satan at the second advent. Anonymous heroes of the Church Age become kings by appointment of our Lord Jesus Christ. The appointment and the authority to rule as a king in the Millennium is related to the function of the believer’s royal priesthood inside the divine dynasphere. Therefore, in Revelation 5:10, “And you have appointed them winners and priests to our God; and they will rule on the earth,” a reference to the Millennium. The coat of arms and the heraldry of the winner is the subject of verse 12. We have the eternal reward for maturity and historical impact cited in the coat of arms and the heraldry of the winner. The first half of the verse deals with a special historical award, the pillar in the temple reward.

We begin with the articular present active participle of the verb nikao. It is in the nominative case and when the participle is not accompanied by a noun it may function as a noun itself. It is used as a noun and therefore we have something very similar to a nominative absolute or an independent nominative. When an idea is conceived as independent of any particular verbal relations the expression of it may be left standing alone and the nominative case is used. This is translated therefore “the winner.” Thus employed the nominative names an idea rather than an object and therefore a nominative absolute translated simply by the genetic use of the definite article plus the participle, “the winner.” The subject of this verse is the winner. We have previously defined the winner in terms of advancing to maturity, the believer who forms the pivot in the client nation, who utilises doctrine to the maximum and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ is phase two. The winner is the believer who lives and functions inside the divine dynasphere; the winner is the one who parlays logistical grace provision into spiritual maturity. This is the sixth time we have encountered the winner in the context of Revelation chapters two and three.

With this we have a future active indicative of the verb poiew, which means to do, to make, to produce, and similar meanings. Here it is simply translated “The winner, I will make him.” The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates the judgment seat of Christ plus the decoration of the order of the morning star, along with the crown of life and the crown of righteousness, the uniform of glory, plus the new title of knighthood and, of course, in the future placed permanently in the record section of heaven, the eternal temple of God. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of decoration and reward to the mature believer at the judgment seat of Christ.

With this we have a double accusative from personal and impersonal object. The personal object in the accusative singular from a)utoj. A)utoj is used as a personal pronoun although it is an intensive pronoun, and it is translated, “The winner, I will make him.” The impersonal object of the verb is the accusative of the noun stuloj, and it means a pillar, “I will make him a pillar.” Plus the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of naoj, “in the temple.” And then we have qeoj, the genitive of relationship, the possessive genitive e)gw, “in the temple of my God.”

Corrected translation: “The winner, I will make him [the mature believer] a pillar in the temple of my God.”

The temple is the record room of heaven and it is related, of course, to historical trends. For example, Tribulational martyrs are found in the temple of heaven in Revelation 7:15. The location of the record room is described in Revelation 11:19, “And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder plus an earthquake and a great hailstorm.” This simply records in heaven some of the disasters and the punishments of the Tribulation which come from the temple in heaven as the record department of history. Revelation 14:15, “Another angel came out of the temple [the historical record department].” Revelation 14:17, “And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle” Revelation 15:6, “And the seven angels who had the seven plagues [historical disasters] came out of the temple,” once again, historical disaster related to the record room of heaven. Revelation 16:17, “And the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air; and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, ‘It is finished’ .” While these passages relate the temple of heaven to the Tribulation they do make a point for us. The temple of heaven is the record department of human history, a permanent record department, and it is going to have a very special place for anonymous heroes, the believers whose priorities and scale of values is so correct that they never stop once putting Bible doctrine first in their lives. Nothing is more important to them than Bible doctrine.

1. While the temple of heaven is the record department of history the pillars found in the temple are the permanent records of Church Age heroes, the believers in this dispensation who advance to maturity and have maximum impact in history.

2. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written, so obviously our interpretation of a pillar in the temple must go back to the modus operandi of the ancient world where temple pillars were chapters in history books.

3. Take, for example, a temple where there was recorded history. The temple of Ephesus was 375 feet long and 180 feet wide, a rather large record-keeping area. Inside of the temple were 127 pillars on which were recorded the deeds of famous kings who had contributed to the construction of the temple. On these pillars were hung priceless gifts, trophies of the kings involved. There were tablets and records engraved telling of the deeds of these kings and other heroes. In the analogy the priceless gifts which were on the pillars depict the decorations, the rewards which belonged to the mature believer at the judgment seat of Christ. The written biography depicts the eternal history of mankind with emphasis on the true heroes of history.

The means by which the believer advances to maturity and becomes a pillar in the temple of God, a permanent chapter in the history of the human race, is the daily perception of Bible doctrine. 1 Timothy 3:15, Bible doctrine is both the pillar and the foundation of the Church: “But if I am delayed, I write in order that you may know [function of GAP at gate four] how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which keeps on being the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation even doctrine.” Doctrine taught is the foundation. And when you respond on a regular basis to the teaching of Bible doctrine you are going to become a pillar, a permanent chapter in the heavenly temple, the record centre of all history. The pillar in the Church is the believer who through daily perception of Bible doctrine and residence in the divine dynasphere advances to maturity. The pillar of the church in time has a pillar in the temple of God forever, the reward for historical impact, the reward for being an anonymous hero. The biography of the winner is simple. Today a pillar in the Church, unknown, unseen, like his unseen uniform of honour; tomorrow a pillar in the temple of God forever and ever and ever. The pillar in the temple of God is the mature believer permanently recorded for his impact on history through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

Pillars are used for mature believers in Galatians 2:9, “In recognising the grace that has been given to me, James, Peter and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision.” The pillar in the church is the mature believer with maximum historical impact in this dispensation. Therefore as a future reward he has a permanent chapter in the permanent history of the human race in heaven.

Next we have the permanency of that record. Just as the person who believes in Christ cannot lose his salvation so the mature believer with maximum historical impact cannot lose his place in the permanent history textbook of the world. While the pillars of the temple located in Philadelphia were destroyed by earthquakes the pillars of the Church, i.e. believers advancing to maturity, are parlayed into the pillars of the temple of the eternal God and their record cannot be destroyed.

We begin with the connective use of the conjunction kai, and it simply is going to emphasise what precedes. So we translate it “Furthermore.” It is going to present a result that comes from what precedes. With this we have the aorist active subjunctive of e)xerxomai, which means to go out, to go away, to retire. The verb connotes the occurrence of natural events or fateful happenings. The verb is also used in the sense of “to end,” “to vanish.” With this we have a very strong double negative, o)u mh, the strongest you can get. A double negative is not a positive in the Greek, it is an emphatic negative. The adverb of place with it, e)xw, which means “outside,” is a part of the idiom but is not included in the translation. Then we have another adverb e)ti which means “yet” or “still” but when used with negatives it connotes something which has stopped, hence the translation, “no longer,” but with o)u mh it should be “any longer,” “Furthermore he will not ever get outside any longer.” It is literal in the translation but it is an idiom and what it means is, “Furthermore he will never vanish [from history].” The aorist tense of e)xerxomai is a culminative aorist, it views the reward of being permanently recorded in the history of the world as a winner, and this permanent historical record includes the winner’s impact, historical impact in the Church Age plus his rule in the Millennium. The culminative aorist views this eternal reward from the standpoint of existing results, it cannot be erased. The mature believer of the Church Age is located in a permanent historical record centre of heaven. There are going to be a lot of believers in heaven who have no record of what they did in life, whereas the mature believers will have the entire story of their new knighthood. The active voice: mature believers produce the action through a record of achievements in both the Church Age and in the Millennium, anonymous achievements and well-known achievements. The subjunctive mood plus the double negative is known as the emphatic negative subjunctive and it means that the history textbook of heaven cannot be erased, it will never vanish.

Translation: “The winner, I will make him [the mature believer, the winner of the order of the morning star] a pillar [permanent historical record] in the temple of my God; furthermore, he will never vanish from history.”

The anonymous hero of the Church Age is not only the famous hero of the Millennium but also the eternal hero in heaven forever. Only pillars are eternal heroes. The Bible must again be interpreted in the time in which it was written and permanent or alleged permanent records were kept in various temples in the ancient world at the time of writing. So this became the basis for establishing an analogy. The temple of heaven is the eternal record centre of human history and as the record department of human history each pillar represents a chapter on a mature believer in the Church Age. First, the anonymous record of historical impact now made public and preserved forever and ever in the record section of the heavenly temple. Secondly, the Millennial history of the mature believer’s reign is permanently recorded and as the record and history department each pillar in the heavenly temple represents a chapter devoted to one Christian here, a winner.

That brings us now to the system of heraldry: knighthood, chivalry, and heraldry of the Millennial state and the eternal state. By way of introduction, the Greeks and Romans honoured their heroes with distinctive devices on their shields. So there was an anticipation of heraldry and chivalry as far back as the time of the writing of the book of Revelation. Chivalry, by way of explanation, then, is the integrity and the virtue knights. It is also used in terms of courtesy which is the expression of humility, gallantry, personal honour and thoughtfulness of others. Knighthood and chivalry was not only a personal attribute of honour and integrity but it was a mode of feudal tenure and a system of manners and decorum; not the superficialities of manners but an honourable system expressed through manners.

In the first part of verse 12 we have the principle of the anonymous hero of the Church Age becoming the famous and well-known person of the Millennium, “The winner, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.” We saw that the temple is the record room of heaven related to historical trends. The pillar of the Church is the believer who through daily perception of doctrine achieves spiritual maturity, advancing from gate four to gate eight. The actual pillar is the record of his life, divided into two parts. The first part deals with his anonymous function, historical impact, in the Church Age. The second deals with his fame as a ruler of a Gentile nation in the Millennium. Just as the person who has accepted Christ as saviour cannot lose his salvation, so the believer with maximum historical impact cannot lose his place in history.

In the last half of the verse we have the escutcheon of the winner, the reward of a special heraldry. Going with the new knighthood emblazoned on the escutcheon of this person is a special shield, a coat of honour. The word “knighthood” is from an old German word which is a part of the Anglo-Saxon culture because Anglo-Saxon was a German tribe and group, along with the Jutes. The whole system of liberty and freedom which we enjoy in this country is based upon Anglo-Saxon culture and from it we have the fact that liberty and freedom was enforced and brought about by the aristocracy of England called the baronage. The war of the roses ended the barony and therefore for several hundred years destroyed the freedom in England. It was fought between the Yorks and the Lancasters, the two major families. The first age of chivalry is generally accepted as beginning with the crusades and ending with that war which lasted for thirty years, between 1455 and 1485 and ended with the Battle of Bosworth where Richard the third, Duke of Gloucester was killed. He was the last of the Yorks. Henry, Earl of Richmond then became the first Tudor King as Henry the seventh. The war of the roses received its title from Sir Walter Scott because the house of York had the white rose as one of their emblems and the house of Lancaster the red rose.

So the war of the roses destroyed the baronage of England when one half of the nobility was slain. Those who survived were ruined financially, their estates were wasted or confiscated, and not a single house retained its former wealth or influence. The ruin of English nobility jeopardised English liberty for it was the barons who had forced the Magna Carta on King John. The Magna Carta was one of the great things that happened to England during the course of their history when King John signed away a tremendous amount of his privileges to the baronage. It was the baronage that actually forced this on King John who was a tyrant, and as a tyrant has completely destroyed any possibility of freedom existing in England. But this was all changed very rapidly and in a moment of time by the barons, the nobility of the land who forced the Magna Carta on the king and thus became the guardians of liberty. Their system of liberty and integrity were related to chivalry. The Magna Carta set a precedent for future freedom and liberty, not only in England but, as a result, in the United States. The barons — the English aristocracy — for their attitude toward chivalry were the guardians of freedom. Chivalry and feudalism were actually the basis for freedom and it was not the common people who brought about freedom. (The scum tried to do it in the French revolution but they were more interested in power and they were too arrogant to be able to do it. Scum never produce freedom, their arrogance makes it impossible. The worst tyrants of all are scum with no power who suddenly obtain it through some system of violence) It was not until 1688 that with the fall of the Stuart dynasty that the Magna Carta had its final and great effect.

We begin now with the principle that the mature believer represents exactly what the baronage of England represented from the Magna Carta to the field of Bosworth. The baronage of England was actually the basis for setting up freedom. They gave freedom to the common man; they curbed the power of the king. They came to a point called contract where they agreed to serve the king but the king had to accept certain freedoms and recognise the freedoms and the rights of all of the people of the land. So the common people owed their freedom in England to the courage of the baronage. As a result of this the baronage for many years became the protector of freedom. The concept of chivalry then: Men had honour and integrity which they used to fight for freedom and therefore they set up a system of heraldry.

The mature believer or winner at the judgment seat of Christ is going to receive an eternal escutcheon, a coat of arms. There is a direct analogy here between the tremendous ability of the barons to provide freedom for the people of England and the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ in providing freedom for the client nation to God. We have the responsibility of providing freedom, prosperity and blessing for this nation. As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. And while we have no visible escutcheon we do have a uniform of honour which is the maturity, royal family honour code, maximum doctrine resident in the soul. In the future the believer who advances to maturity is going to be recognised in a very special and wonderful way by receiving an escutcheon of glory.

Basically there are three categories related to the escutcheon, i.e. the shield which is used for the coat of arms. On the left side of the shield it is called “Sinister,” which simply means left-handed; it has no other connotation in heraldry. On the right hand of the shield we have “Dexter” for the right hand. In the centre, “Middle” was used for the middle part of the coat of arms on the shield.

We are going to note first of all the “Dexter” as the first item of heraldry in the eternal coat of arms. We start out with the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai to add another eternal reward to the pillar in the temple, the permanent chapter in history. And to show that you have permanency in history as a mature believer you are given a coat of arms. In addition to having the chapter, the eternal record in history in the temple of God there is the manifestation of it in a coat of arms. No believer, of course, who served Satan in time will have a coat of arms in eternity. Therefore the adjunctive use of the conjunction. Instead of translating it “and” we translate it “also” or “in addition to.”

With this we have the future active indicative of the verb grafw, which means here to write but the verb also refers to the mechanical activity of writing and therefore it means to inscribe, to engrave, or emblazon. In keeping with this passage we are going to translate it “emblazon” — “Also I will emblazon.” “Emblazon” is an English word which means to inscribe heraldry. It means to inscribe with the devices of heraldry or to adorn with the figures of heraldry. The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates receiving a coat of arms at the judgment seat of Christ — mature believers only. The coat of arms goes with the decoration of the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb by giving to the mature believer the coat of arms. This coat of arms comes before his rulership in the Millennium. Every mature believer of the Church Age is going to rule a Gentile nation in the Millennium. In those nations are going to be cities and mature Old Testament saints are going to be rulers of cities. Many believers of this dispensation are not going to have a coat of arms, not going to have a uniform of glory, not going to have the order of the morning star, not going to have crowns. The indicative mod is declarative for the reality of the mature believer receiving a coat of arms, an eternal heraldry, at the judgment seat of Christ.

With this we have the preposition e)pi plus the accusative singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. Though an intensive pronoun it isn’t used that way in the Koine. It is used for the third person personal pronoun and it is translated, “on him.” Then we have the accusative singular direct object from o)noma which means “royal title,” title of aristocracy. With that the genitive of relationship of e)gw and we call that the title of my God, the royal title.

“Also I will emblazon on him [the winner, the mature believer in time] the title of my God [God the Father, the author of the divine plan].”

So the Dexter side of the shield has to do with God the Father who is the author of the divine plan. While our Lord Jesus Christ is eternal God and coequal with the Father and with the Spirit, He often speaks as humanity and that is what we have here. In using the phrase “My God” it reminds us of the cross where He said: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” When He uttered those words on the cross He was speaking from His humanity for it was the humanity of Christ that was judged for our sins. As God, Jesus Christ cannot be judged. So we have therefore a reference to the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent resulted in the award of His third royal patent after the ascension. The third royal patent includes such titles as “King of kings and Lord of lords” plus “the bright morning star.” And since the Church Age believers of the royal family are related to our Lord’s third royal patent the mature believer or winner of the morning star at the judgment seat of Christ receives a coat of arms as a part of eternal chivalry. The freedom of time, the blessing of time, the historical impact of time, everything that is important in time comes in this dispensation from the mature believer only. The cosmic believer has absolutely nothing going for him.

So emblazoned on the Dexter part of the escutcheon is the title of God the Father who is the author of the divine plan for the human race who provided both the divine dynasphere and logistical grace which are parlayed into something fantastic. Only believers or winners possess this royal escutcheon and the Dexter is always the same: it indicates that the individual has fulfilled the plan of God. And just as the baronage of England was responsible for maintaining the freedom of the English people of all classes so we have a divine period in terms of dispensations. In this dispensation all historical impact comes, not from rulers, not from armies, not from great people; historical impact comes from individual believers who form the pivot by advancing from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere. This gives some concept of the importance of Bible doctrine.

Now when believers reside in the cosmic system they often take the phraseology of Christianity with them. They are full of self-righteousness and arrogance, they are full of social action, they are full of self-importance. Whatever they are doing is “to the glory of God,” and all of that is fake. This occasionally happens in the revival of chivalry.

Chivalry has never died. In fact chivalry existed long before it was recognised as such in the middle ages. Chivalry has existed since the royal family came into existence on the Day of Pentecost and the objectives of chivalry have been defined and redefined by all of the apostles in the Word of God. The interesting thing is that doctrine is the heart of chivalry. Doctrine is what gives virtue, honour and integrity to believers, all kinds of believers. Whether you are acceptable in society or not is not the issue. The issue is that society cannot exist unless you take personal responsibility for your own decisions. Bad decisions: you wind up in the cosmic system and in eternity you are going to be a second class citizen. There are degrees of happiness, there are degrees of reward, and down at the bottom of the totem pole are going to be the cosmic believers.

Just as the baronage and the system of chivalry which came from them was the means of providing and protecting freedom for all the people in the realm, so you today have a responsibility since the day you accepted Christ as your saviour. You have the responsibility of growing in grace, of living in the divine dynasphere, of advancing to gate eight of the divine dynasphere — the key to freedom, prosperity, spiritual and temporal blessing, not only in the client nation but throughout the world. Right now the world is suffering from economic depression, from social degeneration, from military disaster. That means that in some parts of the world unemployment is so great and the gross national product is so down that this leads to a desperation which often leads to more violence. We are seeing problems solved by violence and when a problem is solved by violence it isn’t solved, it merely makes ten problems to take the place of the one “resolved” by violence. The reason things are so bad today is because born-again believers are simply not advancing to maturity, they are not living inside the divine dynasphere.

Now who has impact in time? Whose life really counts? As we have already seen, the one who has the crown of life for living in the divine dynasphere, the crown of righteousness for producing virtue from the divine dynasphere, the order of the morning star for maximum historical impact. Names of unbelievers are blotted out of the book of life after the judgment seat of Christ. In eternity the book of life only has a list of believers but that listing includes for mature believers their knighthood, their coat of arms, the whole listing for Millennial and eternal chivalry. Only believers who are winners possess this royal escutcheon which we are now studying.

So far we have seen that Dexter has to do with God the Father who is the author of the divine plan. So Dexter means mature believers have executed the plan of God during their lifetime on this earth. They have the right priorities; Bible doctrine is first. And the royal escutcheon will have Dexter whereas the loser or the cosmic believer of the Church Age does not even possess any part of this coat of arms, “and I will emblazon [inscribe a heraldry] on him [the winner or the mature believer in time] the title of my God [God the Father],” and having the title of God the Father on the Dexter part of the coat of arms is a reference to the honourable fulfillment of God’s plan.

The Middle or second item of heraldry in the eternal coat of arms has to do with the new Jerusalem.

We move on now to the eternal coat of arms of the mature believer. Chivalry connotes guardian of freedom. Individuals who understand freedom take the responsibility of making sure that the common people have it. Freedom starts with leadership, not with the common man. The mature believer will be awarded with an eternal escutcheon and the coat of arms indicates achievement. This coat of arms which we are studying indicates those who have achieved during the Church Age. They are anonymous heroes now; they will be famous in eternity. There is a new order of chivalry which will be entered into the book of life. The book of life in eternity will have the names of only those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Today the book of life includes the names of all people, but when a person dies without personally receiving Christ as saviour his name is blotted out of the book of life. But there are some names in the book of life of Church Age believers who because of their residence and function in the divine dynasphere and because of their advance to maturity are going to have a new knighthood and are going to be part of a new order of chivalry for the Millennium and the eternal state. The sign of their achievement is their personal coat of arms which is described in the last half of Revelation 3:12.

Basically there are three categories related to the escutcheon, the shield of heraldry, apart from the upper part called the chief and the lower part called the base. There is the right side called “Dexter,” the middle called “Middle,” and the left called “Sinister,” sinister from the Latin and having to do with being left-handed.

In the last half of this verse the mature believer of the Church Age is described in terms of heraldry, described in terms of his escutcheon. We begin with the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, the first word in the last half of verse 12. The word means “also” rather than “and.” It is to add another eternal reward to the historical permanence of the invisible, unknown impact of Church Age believers. In addition to having a chapter in the eternal records of history the winner will have a coat of arms which distinguishes him forever from other believers who failed in this dispensation. No believer who served Satan in time will have a coat of arms, it is for the nature believer only, the one who makes good decisions. Good decisions open the door for better decisions and increase the options whereas bad decisions close the doors.

With this we have the future active indicative of the verb grafw which means to write and also means the mechanical activity of writing, therefore it means to inscribe, to engrave, to emblazon. Here the latter is correct. Emblazon means to inscribe with the devices of heraldry or to adorn with the figures of honour. The predictive future tense anticipates the award of the coat of arms to the mature believer which goes with the decoration of the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces he action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the mature believer receiving the coat of arms and eternal heraldry at the judgment seat of Christ.

With this we have the preposition e)pi. E)pi has different meanings depending upon the case of the verb which is the object of the preposition. In this case we have the accusative singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj which is used in the Koine Greek for the personal pronoun of the third person. It is translated “on him” and it becomes the Dexter part of the escutcheon. The possessive genitive from qeoj plus the genitive of relationship from e)gw are the next two words, “my God.” With that, the accusative singular direct object of o)noma refers to a royal title. It can mean name or person or title and here it refers to title — “the title of my God.” This is the title of God the Father, the author of the divine plan. The reason that this is placed upon the escutcheon is because the mature believer has executed the plan of God in time. God the Father is the author of the plan for the Church Age by which at the moment of salvation every believer receives 36 things plus the divine dynasphere, the power for execution. He enters the divine dynasphere at gate one, the filling of the Spirit; gate two, basic impersonal love; gate three, enforced and genuine humility. Gate one provides the spiritual IQ for perception of doctrine; gate two provides objectivity; gate three teachability for the function of gate four, perception and application of doctrine which is the momentum gate. Gate five is love of God; gate six, right man-right woman where pertinent; gate seven, advanced impersonal love; gate eight is spiritual maturity, the construction of the edification complex of the soul. This can only be accomplished inside the divine dynasphere. Of course the believer who fails becomes involved in the cosmic system — cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance; cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred. The cosmic believer is actually said to be the enemy of the cross in the time in which we live.

So there is a great difference between believers in time and a far greater difference between believers in eternity. The difference between believers in eternity is based upon the fact that our Lord invented the system of human freedom and self-determination in order to resolve the angelic conflict. And so after salvation our attitude toward Bible doctrine and God’s plan is the determining factor. Consistent positive volition eventuates in maturity; consistent negative volition eventuates in cosmic involvement, the many categories of discipline and self-induced misery. So we have, then, those who are going to be distinguished forever and ever and the reason is freedom. Freedom guarantees inequality. There is no such thing as equality where freedom exists. Heaven is a perfect place and there will be great inequality in heaven based upon self-determination in time under the principle of freedom.

We start out then with qeoj in the Dexter part of the shield. It refers to God the Father the author of the divine plan. While our Lord Jesus Christ is eternal God, coequal and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, He often speaks from humanity as in this passage in using the phrase, “my God.” He speaks from His humanity and from His third royal patent, the one that broke that back of Satan in the angelic conflict, the one which resulted from the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ in the first advent. Our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent resulted in the award of His third royal patent. That is why history has changed; that is why we have the book of Revelation, because at the ascension our Lord Jesus Christ received a third royal patent the whole course of history has changed and the history of the world from the time of our Lord’s ascension until the end of time is the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is a textbook of world history divided into two categories: historical trends of the Church Age and the prophecy which follows. The third royal patent includes such titles as King of kings and Lord of Lords plus the bright morning star. And since the Church Age believer is royal family and related to our Lord’s third royal patent the Mature believer of the Church Age receives the coat of arms as a part of the order of eternal chivalry. And emblazoned on the Dexter part of the escutcheon is the title of God the Father as the author of the divine plan for the human race. He provided for both the divine dynasphere and logistical grace support and therefore since the mature believer is the only believer who has executed this plan it becomes a part of his heraldry forever.

You must remember that the cosmic believer in eternity only has a resurrection body. There are degrees of happiness in eternity. He will be low on the totem pole as far as happiness is concerned. He can’t lose his salvation but all he has is a resurrection body, and for the short time he spent earth and the capital support given by our Lord Jesus Christ in logistical grace he has demonstrated forever by only having a resurrection body what a fool he was as far as his decisions were concerned. The loser or cosmic believer of the Church Age does not possess a special coat of arms nor the inscriptions of heraldry.

“also I will emblazon [inscribe a heraldry] on him [the winner or mature believer in time] the title of my God,” reference to God the Father and a reference to the fact that he has achieved — achievement through God’s grace, achievement through making right decisions, achievement through the execution of the plan of God in time. He advanced from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere.

The middle part of the coat of arms, the second item of heraldry, is a special privilege related to maximum happiness forever and ever. Again, heaven is a place of degrees of happiness. Just as there are degrees of happiness in the divine dynasphere there are degrees of happiness in heaven, and maximum happiness is only open to those who have attained spiritual maturity through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. So the middle part of the winner’s escutcheon is a pass, a pass which permits him access to the new Jerusalem which in eternity hovers over the earth. This is not the heavenly Jerusalem but the eternal Jerusalem which is located above the earth, and in the middle of this eternal Jerusalem is the famous gazebo in the garden, the paradise of God with the tree of life. And just as a knight had to show his shield at the drawbridge before he could enter the castle, so the believer carries on his escutcheon a special pass whereby he can enter into the new Jerusalem and therefore into the most exclusive parties of eternity, the parties of maximum happiness. In eternity the believers who failed in time have no access. They have happiness but that happiness is limited as far as access. This is for the aristocracy of eternity only, it isn’t for all believers. There are certain parts of heaven that are excluded from believers who failed in time, and this is one part of heaven that is — a place associated with maximum happiness.

We have, then, the genitive of place from the adjective kainoj, and it precedes the proper noun ’Ierousalhm, and it means new in species, new in concept. The new Jerusalem is a place where there is a happiness never experienced or never known, and cannot be experienced by lower orders of believers in eternity in resurrection bodies. New in time is a different Greek word altogether, neoj. But that is not the word here at all. So kainoj is used here in connection with Jerusalem. It means that everything in this famous city that is suspended over the earth is the place of maximum happiness and you can’t get in without the royal escutcheon. The Middle part is the pass. Therefore we have the corrected translation of the Middle part of the coat of arms: “also the new Jerusalem” — a pass to enter the new Jerusalem of the eternal state where the tree of life and maximum happiness is located. The contrast between kainoj and neoj is the difference between the Millennial Jerusalem which is new in time and the new Jerusalem, kainoj,which is an eternal Jerusalem.

There are two new Jerusalems. One is a neoj Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of the Millennium, and there is a kainoj Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of the eternal state. There is a vast difference. You can get into the neoj Jerusalem even if you were a loser in time, but you can’t get into the kainoj Jerusalem, the eternal Jerusalem if you were a loser in time.

Under the Millennial Jerusalem we have natural light but in the eternal Jerusalem there is supernatural light. The eternal Jerusalem will not exist until the end of time, the end of history, and it is a special place for special people, the winners of the Church Age. It has supernatural light, Revelation 21:11, 23; 22:5. According to Zechariah 2:4,5 the Millennial Jerusalem has no walls, it is protected by the fact that our Lord is present there from which He rules the world. On the other hand in eternity the eternal Jerusalem has walls, Revelation 21:12, and the walls give privacy to a superior type of happiness that will never be experienced by losers in their resurrection bodies. It is an exclusive place, it keeps out everyone but the new order of chivalry. On the Millennial side, the Millennial Jerusalem is related to Israel, the inheritance of Abraham, whereas the eternal Jerusalem is related to the royal family of God and to the new order of chivalry. In the Millennial Jerusalem there is a Millennial temple that is described in detail in Ezekiel chapters 40-48. In the eternal Jerusalem there is no temple. People who have maximum capacity for happiness don’t need a temple, Revelation 21:3, 22. In the Millennial temple there will be animal sacrifices in the temple, Ezekiel 40-48, but in the eternal Jerusalem there will be no animal sacrifices for the most obvious reason: ritual without reality is meaningless and the new order of chivalry needs no ritual to sustain it.

People are impressed by ritual and what goes with it, and therefore that means that they must depend on some form of outer form for happiness, which is human and normal. But the eternal Jerusalem is a place of such fantastic happiness, and the new order of chivalry has such great capacity for happiness that there is absolutely no animal sacrifice nor any other ritual. The highest order of believers in eternity do not need ritual, they have total happiness and total reality in one package. In the Millennial Jerusalem living water comes from the temple, Ezekiel 47:1; in the eternal Jerusalem the water of life comes from the throne, Revelation 22:1. In the Millennial Jerusalem unbelievers live in the city, Zechariah 12:6; 14:11; in the eternal Jerusalem you not only have only believers but only one category of believers, winners, in contrast to losers. Those who have their priorities straight in time are the ones who have access to the eternal Jerusalem.

In the Millennial Jerusalem there are trees for food and healing, according to Ezekiel 47:7-12, but in the eternal Jerusalem no one is sick, everyone has a resurrection body, and there is only the tree of life as maximum happiness and as the highest happiness award of eternity, Revelation 22:2. So the new Jerusalem refers to the eternal Jerusalem in Revelation 21:9-22:5, one of the few detailed descriptions of the eternal state. Most people mix up eternity with the Millennium. The “pearly gates” for example, belong to the Millennium. The tree of life in the eternal Jerusalem is that great happiness award and the only detailed description of eternity where you have a sequence of more than five verses is Revelation 21:9-22:5; and that is the new Jerusalem, the kainoj, not the neoj. The new Jerusalem is a part of the winner’s escutcheon indicating the fact that he has access at all times to the only really exclusive part of heaven. The new Jerusalem is the middle part of the escutcheon, a pass to enter the place of maximum happiness for ever and ever and ever.

With this we have a description of where this new Jerusalem originates, the articular present active participle from the verb katabainw, which means to descend, “the new Jerusalem which descends.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun referring to the eternal Jerusalem or the new Jerusalem as the place of maximum happiness beyond anything anyone has ever known. The capacity for this maximum happiness is a part of the reward to the new order of chivalry. The present tense combines the futuristic present with the pictorial present. The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred, i.e. the descent of the eternal Jerusalem, but is regarded as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. The pictorial present presents to the mind an event in the process of occurring. Suddenly from millions and millions of light years away there comes to the new earth created by our Lord, and suspended over the Jerusalem of the earth, a very special city. The active voice: the eternal or new Jerusalem produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. We translate it, “which shall descend.” Then we have the prepositional phrase denoting the source, e)k plus the genitive and a)po plus the ablative. E)k plus the genitive comes first, e)k plus the genitive of o)uranoj, the word for heaven. It is translated “from heaven,” and that means from the immediate source of heaven. But a)po plus the ablative means original source, and the object of a)po is qeoj. It is translated, “from the immediate source of heaven, from the ultimate source of my God.” E)k means immediate source; a)po means ultimate source.

That brings us now to the “Sinister” or the third item of heraldry in the eternal coat of arms. We have an adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, it is translated “also.” This introduces the third item of the heraldry involved. On the eternal escutcheon of the mature believer is the Sinister, the left side. With this we have the possessive genitive of e)gw, translated “my,” “also emblazoned,” and then we have “with my new name.” We have the possessive genitive of e)gw, we have the adjective kainoj again, the accusative of direct object and the word “emblazoned” which is used in the first part is supplied again. This is elliptical because by this time the apostle John is getting very excited, “also emblazoned with my new name,” that is, the third royal patent of our Lord Jesus Christ. The believer carries on his coat of arms the royal title of our Lord Jesus Christ because he served the Lord faithfully in time, living in the divine dynasphere and advancing to maturity. So the mature believer has maximum historical impact, the blessing of the blessing of the supergrace contract, and of course, the ultimate glorification of Christ in time. These are the people who make consistent decisions, who have their priorities straight right from the start. No matter what happens doctrine is first. Those are the winners and those are the ones who keep their priorities straight all the time. They are the unique people of eternity, easily recognised by their uniform of glory, by their crown of life, their crown of righteousness, by their order of the morning star. And they are recognised by the fact that they have a happiness which is infinitely superior to the loser who is glad to be there but whose happiness and blessing is related to grace, they are there by the grace of God, they were losers all the way, and there is a vast difference.

Verse 12, “The winner, I will make him [the mature believer of the Church Age] a pillar in the temple of my God [the permanent record of historical impact]. Further more he will never vanish from history: also I will emblazon on him the title of my God [God the Father], also the new Jerusalem [the pass to enter the new Jerusalem of the eternal state], which shall descend from the immediate source of heaven from the ultimate source of my God: also emblazoned with my new name [the thirds royal patent of our Lord Jesus Christ indicating faithfully serving Him in time].”

We have noted that there is an aristocracy in the Millennium and the eternal state, the final aristocracy, an aristocracy made up of Church Age believers only. When our Lord’s title, King of kings and Lord of lords, was given to Him after the ascension it was broken down into two parts: our Lord is ruler over the mature believers who will be kings over Gentile nations; He is Lord over Old Testament saints who will rule ten cities, five cities, four cities or one city in the Millennium. In other words, those who succeed in this dispensation are going to rule over those who succeeded in the Age of Israel. There is a new aristocracy which will function in the last 1000 years of history and then will go into the eternal state. At this point of time those of you who are alive have the potential of being in that aristocracy but you cannot live in the cosmic system, you cannot have a fouled up system of priorities, you cannot ignore the Word of God and fall into this future category. You cannot lose your salvation but in heaven there are degrees of blessing and there are degrees of privilege and happiness in the eternal state.

The aristocracy of the Millennium and the eternal state is not based on physical birth, it is based on regeneration. It potentially starts at the point of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thereafter the believer is allotted time on this earth and what he does with doctrine on a daily basis is the determining factor. The aristocracy in the Millennium and the eternal state is not based in human ability or human wisdom or human achievement or attractiveness, it is based on advance inside the divine dynasphere. The final aristocracy of eternity will rule with Christ in the Millennium and have special privileges, rewards and decorations for all eternity.

The eternal coat of arms and heraldry of the mature believer, the winner in the Church Age, is given in the last half of verse 12. The mature believer, the winner, will be awarded an eternal coat of arms, an escutcheon of glory. We might call the escutcheon the shield of glory for the coat of arms will be emblazoned on that shield. There are three parts of the coat of arms.

We begin with the study of Dexter, the first item of heraldry in the eternal coat of arms of winners in the Church Age. The adjunctive use of the conjunction kai is to add another eternal reward to the pillar. Kai is used in this passage in order to indicate that you are in the record centre forever, there is a chapter written about you and about your life — you are anonymous in life now but you will be famous forever and ever. In addition to that pillar, that chapter in the permanent record of history, there is something else: you are given a coat of arms — a place in history plus a coat of arms. The winner will have this special coat of arms which distinguishes him forever from all the believers who are losers. No believer who lives in the cosmic system, who is the servant therefore of Satan, will have a coat of arms in eternity. Nor will he be a part of the eternal order of chivalry.

Next we have the future active indicative of the verb grafw. While it means to write the verb also refers to the mechanical activity of writing. Therefore it can be translated engraved, inscribed or emblazoned. Here it means to emblazon. That means to inscribe the devices of heraldry or adorn with the figures of heraldry, “I will emblazon.” The predictive future anticipates the award of the coat of arms to the mature believer. This coat of arms goes with the decoration of the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that anyone of you who advances to maturity, who becomes a part of the pivot, who has maximum historical impact through God’s plan will have this coat of arms. “I will emblazon,” and then we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “on him.” Then we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun o)noma, which means “title” as well as “name.” Therefore it refers to knighthood, “I will emblazon on him the title.” But this is not our title on the coat of arms, it is the title called: possessive genitive of qeoj, which is “God.” With it we also have a genitive of e)gw, the genitive of relationship, and we translate “the title of my God.” This is a reference to God the Father who is the author of the divine plan, the fantastic plan for the Church Age. Inscribed on the Dexter side of the shield is the title of God the Father, and the Dexter side of the shield indicates the fact that the believer involved has executed the plan of God for the believer in this dispensation. In using the phrase “my God” for the first person of the Trinity Jesus Christ is speaking from His humanity. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe. He is eternal God, He has identical essence to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and each three members of the Trinity are coequal and CO-eternal, but our Lord is different in that He is also true humanity. He is different from all humanity in that He is God; He is different from God in that He is true humanity. During His life on earth He lived inside of the prototype divine dynasphere. When He speaks from His humanity He calls God the Father “my God.”

The middle part of the heraldry or the eternal coat of arms is a pass which permits the winner’s access to the new Jerusalem which hovers over the earth in the eternal state. At the end of the Millennium the earth is going to be destroyed, as is this universe. There will be new heavens and new earth. Hovering above Jerusalem in the new earth will be a special partying place for winners only. This is the place of maximum happiness and it is called the new Jerusalem. It is in the middle part of the escutcheon because it is a pass which permits the new order of chivalry access to the new Jerusalem which hovers above the earth. Losers will not be permitted access to the new Jerusalem. Inside of the new Jerusalem is the gazebo in the garden, maximum happiness in eternity. That is the greatest of all partying places of all time, and just as a knight had to show his shield before the drawbridge was lowered to permit him access into the castle so the mature believer carries his own special pass, the coat of arms in the middle part of the escutcheon is the pass into the new Jerusalem and the tree of life. The genitive of place from the adjective kainoj is very important. It means new in species in contrast to naoj, which means new in time. This is an eternal Jerusalem so kainoj is used. There never was anything like this before and their never will be again.

The third part of the heraldry in the eternal coat of arms is the Sinister. We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai again, “also.” It introduces the left hand side of the shield called “Sinister,” meaning left-handed; “also emblazoned with my new name.” This is the third royal patent of our Lord Jesus Christ, it indicates that the eternal order of heraldry belongs to the royal family of God in the Church Age and that believers in this dispensation are eligible. The mature believer has maximum historical impact in time; he is the anonymous hero of this dispensation; he has the blessing of the supergrace contract; he has the ultimate in glorification of Christ in time; he has emblazoned a royal title of Christ as the mature believer, the one who advances to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. He has therefore an eternal memorial to the fact that he logged maximum time inside of the divine dynasphere.

The emblazoned royal title of Christ on the mature believer’s escutcheon is an eternal memorial to the fact that he served the Lord Jesus Christ and not Satan; he executed the plan of God, not Satan’s, while living on this earth; he made right decisions with regard to the divine provision of logistical grace. Only the mature believer possesses this coat of arms and bears forever this royal escutcheon of temporal achievement parlayed into eternal reward.

The corrected translation of the entire verse: “The winner, I will make him [the mature believer of the Church Age] a pillar in the temple of my God [a permanent record of historical impact], furthermore he will never vanish from history: also I will emblazon [inscribe a heraldry] on him [the winner] with the title of my God [God the Father, the author of the divine plan], and the new Jerusalem [which is only open to winners], which shall descend from the immediate source of heaven and the ultimate source of my God: also emblazoned with my new name [the third royal patent of our Lord Jesus Christ, which indicates residence and function in the divine dynasphere, Bible doctrine has number one priority in the life].”

Next we have the future active indicative of the verb grafw. While it means to write the verb also refers to the mechanical activity of writing. Therefore it can be translated engraved, inscribed or emblazoned. Here it means to emblazon. That means to inscribe the devices of heraldry or adorn with the figures of heraldry, “I will emblazon.” The predictive future anticipates the award of the coat of arms to the mature believer. This coat of arms goes with the decoration of the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that anyone of you who advances to maturity, who becomes a part of the pivot, who has maximum historical impact through God’s plan will have this coat of arms. “I will emblazon,” and then we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “on him.” Then we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun o)noma, which means “title” as well as “name.” Therefore it refers to knighthood, “I will emblazon on him the title.” But this is not our title on the coat of arms, it is the title called: possessive genitive of qeoj, which is “God.” With it we also have a genitive of e)gw, the genitive of relationship, and we translate “the title of my God.” This is a reference to God the Father who is the author of the divine plan, the fantastic plan for the Church Age. Inscribed on the Dexter side of the shield is the title of God the Father, and the Dexter side of the shield indicates the fact that the believer involved has executed the plan of God for the believer in this dispensation. In using the phrase “my God” for the first person of the Trinity Jesus Christ is speaking from His humanity. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe. He is eternal God, He has identical essence to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and each three members of the Trinity are coequal and co-eternal, but our Lord is different in that He is also true humanity. He is different from all humanity in that He is God; He is different from God in that He is true humanity. During His life on earth He lived inside of the prototype divine dynasphere. When He speaks from His humanity He calls God the Father “my God.”

The middle part of the heraldry or the eternal coat of arms is a pass which permits the winner’s access to the new Jerusalem which hovers over the earth in the eternal state. At the end of the Millennium the earth is going to be destroyed, as is this universe. There will be new heavens and new earth. Hovering above Jerusalem in the new earth will be a special partying place for winners only. This is the place of maximum happiness and it is called the new Jerusalem. It is in the middle part of the escutcheon because it is a pass which permits the new order of chivalry access to the new Jerusalem which hovers above the earth. Losers will not be permitted access to the new Jerusalem. Inside of the new Jerusalem is the gazebo in the garden, maximum happiness in eternity. That is the greatest of all partying places of all time, and just as a knight had to show his shield before the drawbridge was lowered to permit him access into the castle so the mature believer carries his own special pass — the coat of arms in the middle part of the escutcheon is the pass into the new Jerusalem and the tree of life. The genitive of place from the adjective kainoj is very important. It means new in species in contrast to naoj, which means new in time. This is an eternal Jerusalem so kainoj is used. There never was anything like this before and their never will be again.

The third part of the heraldry in the eternal coat of arms is the Sinister. We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai again, “also.” It introduces the left hand side of the shield called “Sinister,” meaning left-handed, “also emblazoned with my new name.” This is the third royal patent of our Lord Jesus Christ, it indicates that the eternal order of heraldry belongs to the royal family of God in the Church Age and that believers in this dispensation are eligible. The mature believer has maximum historical impact in time; he is the anonymous hero of this dispensation; he has the blessing of the supergrace contract; he has the ultimate in glorification of Christ in time; he has emblazoned a royal title of Christ as the mature believer, the one who advances to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. He has therefore an eternal memorial to the fact that he logged maximum time inside of the divine dynasphere.

To go from gate four to gate eight in the divine dynasphere every believer must pass certain tests. Gate one is the filling of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual IQ for perception of doctrine; gate two is basic impersonal love, objectivity toward the teaching of the Word of God; gate three, enforced and genuine humility which is teachability. No one can learn anything apart from humility. Gate four is the momentum gate, perception of doctrine from our royal priesthood, application of doctrine from our royal ambassadorship; gate five, we start out loving God and this is the basis for motivational virtue and we end up with occupation with Christ if we continue; gate six, right man-right woman where pertinent; gate seven, the crystallisation of virtue in your life, and therefore the ability to make friends and keep them; gate eight, the advance to maturity.

Between gate four and gate eight there are eight tests to keep you from advancing to maturity. These tests require decisions on your part. Satan’s trap is the cosmic system, the 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance and the nine gates of interlocking systems of arrogance, to collect Christians in order to make sure that a pivot does not exist on the earth. This is one of Satan’s objectives as the ruler of this world: to keep a pivot from forming anywhere, to remove client nations from historical scenes. Therefore these tests are designed to keep the believer outside of the divine dynasphere and to bring him into the cosmic system. No one ever gets to gate eight without passing these tests.

1. The first of these tests is probably the most obvious of all — the old sin nature test. The old sin nature is Satan’s inside agent for temptation; it throws up temptation. Why? Because it gives the old sin nature the opportunity of controlling the soul of the individual. Guarding the gate of the soul is human volition and as temptation comes to the gate human volition can stop it or pass it on through. If it is an unknown sin or a known sin it makes no difference. Cognisance or ignorance is not an excuse simply because you wanted to pass it through and you passed it through. The primary consideration of the old sin nature residing in the cell structure of the body is temptation. The old sin nature is not the source of sin, human volition has always been the source of sin. Since sin originates from the volition of the soul man and is responsible for both his sins of cognisance and his sins of ignorance. To use his volition to commit a sin places the believer instantly outside of the divine dynasphere.

The old sin nature test is one that we face constantly and we can approach it two ways. If we commit the sin then rebound becomes necessary, But we could also reject the temptation. No one can sin inside the divine dynasphere, the decision to sin is instant rejection of the divine dynasphere and it results in cosmic involvement, 1 John 3:4-9.

2. The second of the tests is called people testing. People testing is part of a greater subject called cosmic evangelism. Many Christians are led astray because of their love, their admiration and their friendship for someone else and they now live in the cosmic system. And God keeps these friends alive just to test you. These are believers and yet they are serving the enemy. They live in the cosmic system and therefore when you are moving along you are going to be hit by a second test. These people are going to come into your life, they are going to try to influence your life, and therefore they are evangelising for Satan. This is why they are called in Philippians the enemies of the cross. However, people can only become a distraction to perception of doctrine and residence in the divine dynasphere when the believer places human relationship above Bible doctrine, when the believer places people above doctrine in his system of priorities. We all have a scale of values which changes from time to time. Circumstances and pressures and many things may change it. But there is no way that people can distract you from doctrine unless you as a believer have set aside doctrine as the number one priority in your life. Social life, sexual life, business life, often takes precedence over Bible doctrine and life inside the divine dynasphere. Therefore personal love or personal hatred, animosity or attractiveness, can trap a believer into the cosmic system. You don’t have to love a person to be evangelised, there is also evangelisation by hatred. So you must remember that cosmic evangelism has two antithetical systems for evangelism. If one doesn’t get you the other will. You either love people to where they become a distraction to giving doctrine the number one priority or you hate them. The point is, people are a distraction to doctrine and to the daily perception of doctrine. Therefore you can either respond to people and get in the cosmic system or you can react to people and get in the cosmic system. You either love them and follow them or you hate them and join them. The only protection you have is impersonal love.

The solution is the function of the believer’s two commissions in the divine dynasphere. The function of the royal priesthood in producing motivational virtue directed toward God and the function of the royal ambassadorship in the production of virtue such as impersonal love at point gate four.

3. Category number three is thought testing. Thought testing is generally related to the believer’s negative volition toward doctrine. This falls into two categories. There is preoccupation with self resulting in neglect or indifference to doctrine, the function of gate two of cosmic one. When you get into cosmic one you are preoccupied with yourself. In gate two you have rejected Bible doctrine because of preoccupation with yourself, because of arrogance. But when you get into cosmic two this would be gate one of cosmic two and when you get into this one you are actually antagonistic toward doctrine. Cosmic two is the area of antagonism toward the plan of God whereas cosmic one is the area of indifference to the real plan of God. Thought distraction, then, can be related to one’s arrogance, one’s preoccupation with self or hypersensitivity. Thought distraction can also originate from one’s prejudice, one’s inflexibility, unteachability, inability to take criticism from the Word of God. Many times doubts in thought testing result from neglect from systematic teaching of doctrine, wrong priorities, or lack of consistent function in GAP.

All subjects in the Word of God are a part of growth and your indifference to one subject means that there is something missing in your thought pattern, and what is missing will ruin you sooner or later. The entire realm of the Word of God is important.

The solution to thought testing includes rebound and the three stages of the function of the faith-rest drill with emphasis, of course, on the rationales, and the use of the believer’s volition and initiative to reestablish the priorities that God has ordained — motivational and daily routine in the perception of Bible doctrine.

4. The fourth of the categories of testing is system testing. All of us are going to be part of an organisation, or we are. Wherever people are gathered together there is some system involved and so system testing becomes an issue. The world is filled with bad systems which come into existence historically because of the genius of Satan and the evil of the cosmic system. It is not stretching the point to say that some bad systems are the result of folly. Nothing is foolproof because of course fools are so ingenious. History is cluttered with bad systems which seek to destroy the honour and integrity of those in the system. Therefore a bad system always has its victims. Many organisations are legitimate and have worthy objectives but they are neutralised by their involvement in the cosmic system. It could be the government, a professional organisation, a business organisation, but wherever there are organisations there are systems, and the believer in a legitimate system becomes the victim of bad management. Personnel and management get into conflict so that system testing requires the function of impersonal love and the three stages of the faith-rest drill.

If you have a boss that you cannot stand you are in at least two categories of testing. It may be that you are out of line completely. He may have a tremendous sense of integrity and do his job right. It may be because you are sloppy and because you are a Christian you expect extra privileges.

You are going to get someone with whom you have a personality conflict who has authority over you. Many organisations of life are rotten and corrupt when the leadership of that organisation becomes involved in the cosmic system. Illustration: the judicial system which favours criminals and ignores their victims, or judges who gives precedence to sociology over law. When believers are the victims of a rotten system they must use both impersonal love as well as the faith-rest drill. In fact to cope with the injustices of life you have to function under the faith-rest drill. This cannot be emphasised enough. Some of you forget that the faith-rest drill demands claiming promises. You may have forgotten the promises. It demands, therefore, going to the rationales. You may have forgotten the rationales. They may not have been repeated to you enough to remember. These things demand inculcation and inculcation demands repetition, just like close order drill. Under pressure it isn’t what you remember, it is what you cannot forget that you apply. That takes plugging.

System testing is often a source of peer ostracism. System testing may find you low on the totem pole and the first thing you may want to do, and you are wrong, is quit. That is not what you want to do at all. If the Lord opens a door and puts you in a system and you can’t stand your boss or you can’t stand the policy, don’t leave it. Most Christians are so stupid that when they get into system testing what they do is quit. You stick at it until the Lord shuts the door. Then He will open a better one.

5. The direct attack of cosmic one. This is the attack of the twenty-six gates. Each one has its own subtle variations.

6. The direct attack of cosmic two, the hatred complex with its nine gates. This provides nine additional categories of distraction from momentum and making doctrine the number one priority. The direct attack of cosmic two is designed to cause the believer to become antagonistic toward doctrine, toward Christ, toward God’s plan. While cosmic one basically produces preoccupation with self cosmic two results in that antagonism which we have studied in Philippians 3:18,19 where the believer becomes the enemy of the cross.

7. The potential distraction of disaster testing. There are two categories of disaster testing. The first is the personal disaster and it is designed for either blessing, acceleration of spiritual growth, or warning of cosmic involvement. The second is collective or historical disaster which relates to the bad decisions of others. Individuals or people who are involved collectively as individuals are the product of their own decisions and often there decisions merge with others to cause historical disaster. The problem is that decisions create environment, not environment decisions.

Collective disaster results from historical downtrend and historical downtrend results from a maximum number of believers living in the cosmic system. Personal disaster can result from making wrong decisions in your own life, you are responsible for those wrong decisions, but also you can gather with others making wrong decisions and then you have historical disaster.

When personal disaster results from cosmic involvement the believer undergoes either warning or intensive discipline. The cursing is turned into blessing when the believer learns from the suffering and rebounds. When personal suffering, disaster, adversity, results from life in the divine dynasphere then, of course, the believer is going to receive great blessing from it.

8. The potential distraction of prosperity. This is the one the nation has flunked in the past few decades since World War 2 ended in 1945. Like disaster testing prosperity testing falls into two categories. Individual prosperity testing in which some form of testing comes to you as a believer, in the field of business or promotion, or some type of recognition in some activity or profession. Every believer who advances is going to receive personal prosperity.

The question arises: What did you do when you personally became prosperous? What happened to Bible doctrine then? That is the issue.

Collective prosperity testing often results from combining the three categories of manifest destiny — landed aristocracy, the industrial complex, and the undeveloped frontier, under the leadership of the industrial complex. That is what happened to us in the last three decades, we had national prosperity. In collective prosperity testing the entire segment of society involved becomes usually hedonistic. Hedonism, of course, is making pleasure the chief function in life, self-indulgence before everything else. Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure in life to the exclusion of truth or doctrine. Hedonism contends that moral duty is fulfilled in the gratification of pleasure seeking. And, of course, this means following the instincts of one’s desires and modus vivendi. The rise of hedonism among believers indicates their failure to pass the prosperity test. Seeking happiness outside of the divine dynasphere, seeking happiness through pleasure because you have the prosperity to do so, is a dead end. The cosmic system can offer many things in this world, success. promotion, wealth, material prosperity, family name, social and sexual pleasure, anything that people generally associate with happiness. But it is a dead end. It has no capacity for happiness going with it. Prosperity related to happiness is one of the great blessings of the divine dynasphere, but prosperity related to the cosmic system results in misery, unhappiness, frustration with the accoutrements and superficialities pertaining to it. Every believer must pass the prosperity test before he can become a mature believer and enjoy the great blessings imputed in the supergrace paragraphs. Capacity for blessing of supergrace comes from the construction of the edification complex of the soul. Prosperity is the most subtle distraction in life.

No nation can survive the destruction of a one-culture system. We are receiving a tremendous Satanic attack in this area right now. No nation which has the establishment principle in freedom can have more than one culture. We have one culture, it is Anglo-Saxon. You can have many religions and many races but all races and religions must go back to a system of freedom based on that culture. So let us notice first of all how chivalry works into this picture for chivalry was the feudal system of the landed aristocracy in England which provided freedom for the people of England by curbing the power of the crown. It occurred on the field of Runnymede on the Thames, a few miles from London, and the date is very important because it explains why we, the people of the United States, are a client nation to God today, 15 June, 1215. There King John granted a list of demands drawn up by bishops, barons, and some townsmen. These demands were based on the coronation charter of King Henry I, though they extended to include 63 new articles. The document from its great length became known as Magna Carta or the Great Charter and it is one of the most notable documents in all of history. It is the basis for our culture which, in effect, means our freedom. You see freedom doesn’t come from business enterprise, that is a different function. And freedom doesn’t come from the modus operandi of politicians. All freedom which is for believers and unbelievers comes from the culture of a nation, and a multi-culture nation has no freedom, it has conflict. People can come in and have the same freedoms we have but there must not be a toleration of more than one culture. That is why it is so bad to have multi-lingual education in our schools. People do better, as it has been demonstrated many times in the immigrations to this country, if they go into school not speaking our language and be motivated to learn.

There is a very close relationship between category #1 truth and culture, and we have now departed from Anglo-Saxon culture. As a result the problems we face are related to category #1 truth of the Word of God, for category #1 truth is for believer and unbeliever alike. Many of the problems of violence and clashing and multi-lingual education demonstrate a tolerance of other cultures, which is not necessary for freedom. Freedom tolerates people from other countries but doesn’t have to tolerate their culture at all, especially if their culture has not produced freedom for themselves. African, Asian, and even European countries have had long periods where they have had no freedom. So culture becomes a very important issue in the laws of divine establishment.

The Magna Carta is very important to our culture for four reasons. The first reason was the way in which it was obtained. King John did not grant these freedoms willingly. He could choose whether to grant these grievances or not. Furthermore he could choose just what he would grant by way of concessions to the barons as the representatives of the people of England. So it was forced from the King by a group of chivalrous men, the barons of England, the great nobility that existed from the first crusades to the field of Bosworth, the end of the wars of the roses. It was forced from the king by chivalry. The aristocracy of the present is nothing compared to what they had in those days. In that system of chivalry they represented the watchdogs of freedom because the common people, as it were, were under their protection. The common people in England have never until modern history done anything to gain their freedom. They were helpless to do so, incapable of doing so. And good aristocracy is always thoughtful of those who are, in class, inferior to them. (Not what the liberals are doing it for today in this country; they are doing it for power and as a matter of political expediency. And they are hypocrites) So it was forced from the king by chivalrous barons on behalf of freedom; it was forced on the king by the most influential people on behalf of all the people. “Government of the people, for the people and by the people” doesn’t mean that all the people have a say in government because the more people that have a say in government the worse it is. Only the capable people, the smart and honourable ones should have the final say in government. A government of the people doesn’t mean that all the people have a say. Democracy is the worst form of government, in fact democracy is evil. Republic, by contrast, is a great form of government. Democracy is evil because the masses are not capable of chivalry, and that is the principle. Freedom and chivalry go together. It is always a few who provide freedom for everyone. So it demonstrated that if a king do not rule as the people wished he could be made to do so, and that is why Magna Carta is one of the greatest documents in history and in the basis for our culture in this country. The way in which it was obtained: the barons, chivalry, a system of chivalry, a system of virtue, a system of honour of a few great nobles, forced the king into a system of freedom. It therefore demonstrated that if the king did not rule as the people wished he could be made to do so. In other words, you cannot have freedom and have absolute monarchy at the same time — except in the case where the monarch is enlightened, and that becomes not absolute monarchy but enlightened monarchy where a man recognises the fact that in order to give all the people freedom he must allow disagreement, he must allow people to have self-determination as long as they do not violate criminal law.

This was absolutely unusual. They had chivalry in France ruined; they had chivalry in Germany; they had chivalry in Spain, but the nobility of all the countries where they had chivalry were arrogant eventually, power mad, and abandoned the true concept of chivalry which is freedom and self-determination, and therefore the protection of the people under their command. But in England the nobility had the interest of the people — Magna Carta. So the first reason it is important to us as believers and client nation is because of the way in which it was obtained. It was not give willingly by the king but it was done without violence; it was done without overthrowing the king; it was done without disturbing the function of government. Therefore it is one of the greatest advances in history and Anglo-Saxon culture differentiates, for example, from all of the countries south of the USA and going all of the way through South America where they have constantly redressed their grievances by violence, by revolution, by a constant overthrow, constant conspiracy. We are different, and yet because of liberalism we no longer recognise it.

The second way in which Magna Carta was one of the greatest documents in history is that it saved certain feudal principles of government from being superseded by the principle of absolute monarchy. In other words, it protected the people from tyranny. The original principles of feudal government were a people who had ability and became nobility and had the best interests of the people under their jurisdiction at heart. It is the same thing today: people who have style and good manners always treat the help well. That is simply a sense of responsibility. So feudalism included the idea of an agreement between the king and his vassals, and agreement that would give them good government if they gave good service. In this way it saved the feudal principles of government from being superseded by tyranny. In other words, Magna Carta was a contract in which the king had no right to break. Hence it gave ascendancy to chivalry, and out of chivalry came freedom.

The liberal says feudalism is a horrible thing. He doesn’t know his history. Feudalism is a great thing, it was the only way in which people could be divided up in groups in the protection of someone who had the power to protect them and the power to ensure their freedom.

So in the year 1215 freedom became a tremendous reality in England. This is why England became in the last century the greatest power in history since the Roman empire, because the aristocracy had a tremendous sense of responsibility, although there are always exceptions because there are always people who get arrogant with power, and arrogance plus power means irresponsibility and tyranny; but the principle was there and the principle was guaranteed. There was great stability in England for hundreds of years because they were a class society, all classes were protected. And the Magna Carta was a contract which the king had no right to break there were now two parties involved in government, not one. It knocked absolute monarchy out. In English history we discover the very basis for every freedom we have ever enjoyed, and it only came from one country. That is why we have Anglo-Saxon culture. By tolerating other cultures we are destroying the very basis of our freedoms because freedom is always a contract. The contract of Magna Carta made the king a responsible person, but whether a king was responsible or irresponsible the contract stood and freedom stood, chivalry.

Keep these things in mind otherwise you won’t understand the point. There is and has been another form of chivalry which is found in this passage and which doesn’t depend on King John or the barons on the field of Runnymede. It depends on you the believer.

So the feudal theory of contract was revived in England and the barons through their chivalry and integrity provided freedom for all of the people under their command. (Their peasantry was called Yeomanry) It provided a principle of freedom for the Great Charter was an acknowledgement on the part of King John of the principle of agreement. It provided precedent whereby the barons had the right as well as the power to call the king to account. And in this way for the first time in history freedom was not only guaranteed but there was a check and balance system for freedom.

The third reason why this is one of the great documents of history, and a part of our own culture: the content was important. It gave birth to freedom for the common people because it contained definite agreement to refrain from certain illegal actions. The king had power but he didn’t have power just to wipe people out at will or to cease people or to enslave people at will. It was an agreement for the perpetuation of freedom without destroying authority. That is what is so important about our culture: it demands the perpetuation of freedom without the destruction of authority. So whatever the king granted in the charter to the barons they were required to observe toward men below them — the common people — these benefits. The benefits of freedom and responsibility therefore spread throughout the nation to all people without sacrificing anyone’s authority and without solving the problems of society by violence.

There were certain things that King John promised. For example, “No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or dispossessed, or outlawed, or banished, or in any way injured. Nor will we attack him or send against him (send troops) except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land,” recognition of law. Even the king is under law. So the highest authority does not mean that you are excluded from law. Another statement: “To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay the right of justice.” You can’t survive in a nation without a good system of jurisprudence. Although there was very little about trial by jury at that time, or representation of the people and other valued elements of later English liberty, yet the tyranny of the king was restricted by the provisions of the Great Charter so that new rights and freedoms had a chance to grow up. And they did magnificently. That is why England became different from all other nations in Europe and elsewhere. And we take our culture, regardless of what race or religion we are, from Anglo-Saxon culture.

There is a fourth reason. Magna Carta set a precedent for future freedom and liberty. The precedent was established. It is lost from time to time but the precedent is there. (We had a precedent set on the Day of Pentecost, a precedent called doctrinal chivalry, a precedent that still is functional) The barons, the English aristocracy, from their attitude of chivalry became the guardians of English freedoms until they were destroyed by the wars of the roses. The Tudor and Stuart dynasty got back to absolute monarchy and it was not until 1688 that the last of the Stuart dynasty was removed and William and Mary came to the throne, and again the power of the throne was curbed and freedom was again established for all people of all classes. By restricting royal rights and by the integrity of landed aristocracy chivalry was parlayed into freedom. The aristocracy of France by contrast — by example, in the days of Louis XIV, became arrogant and they sought to curtail the absolute power of the king in order for them to have that power for themselves. In other words, power without responsibility. Hence, France destroyed aristocracy by violence in the French revolution, while in England debate and parliamentary procedure replaced that violence and therefore they had a much smoother history.

In the concept, then, of manifest destiny the authority of government eventually moves from the landed aristocracy to the middle class, because in the industrial revolution it is the middle class that have the same sense of responsibility, in the last century and this century — that the barons had on the field of Runnymede. And no nation can have prosperity under manifest destiny without eventually the industrial complex taking over. Any government which takes its power from below the middle class, however, becomes irresponsible, a very important principle, because right now the press takes the lower classes and interviews them and talks to them and they get their opinions and they use them in order to try to take power away from responsible persons. This is why democracy is an evil just as republic as a form of government is great. Actually democracy is the worst form of tyranny because it is not even organised tyranny, it is the tyranny of all the people, and the masses have never had a sense of responsibility and never will. The best they can produce is the Jacobin mentality and in their lust for power they have no concept for freedom and no sense of responsibility toward others. That is why the worst tyrants always come from the lowest class.

So after 1688 the gradual rise of the house of commons in Parliament and the loss of power by the House of Lords made the transition to the industrial complex or the middle class leadership. And it was not until world war one when Lloyd George became Prime Minister that you finally had the lower class rearing its ugly head and the Labour Party taking over, and with it the decline of chivalry or the distortion of chivalry. Chivalry either declined or it was distorted into romantic disorientation and therefore it caused the baronage to cease as being the watchdogs of freedom.

The reverse trend of history is the plan of God for the Church Age. It is the reverse trend because Satan is the ruler of this world. As such he is the tyrant of tyrants and therefore the reverse trend of history brings freedom in the midst of Satan’s tyranny.

1. The plan of God for the Church Age reverses the trend of history where some form of leadership like the barons on the field of Runnymede or great rulers or middle class industrial complex leaders, or in a few cases dictators like Gaius Julius Caesar determine the course of history. These people all have one thing in common: a tremendous sense of responsibility for those under their command and a contract, a guarantee that people shall have freedom and the right of self-determination whether they make good or bad decisions, and that the only bad decisions that are punishable are criminal decisions. That is freedom, freedom for every race and every class of people in a nation — only under Anglo-Saxon culture.

2. The course of history in this dispensation, the Church Age, is determined by the attitude of the individual believer toward Bible doctrine.

3. Born-again believers are composed of every class of society with the majority coming from lower classes, as per 1 Corinthians 1:23-31.

4. Democracy is the lowest form of government with the least amount of responsibility, a total absence of integrity and stability. There is only one thing worse than democracy and that is anarchy.

5. This is because democracy gives a maximum number of scum a say in government, and because they are scum they are least qualified of all human beings to shape any form of government policy.

6. But believers of all coins in life and distinctions of humble origin or inferior ability are not classified as scum, except through residence in the cosmic system.

7. In fact God has made all believers of the Church Age royal family. So no matter what your origin — it may be very humble, it may be very high — all believers in this dispensation are different from believers in other dispensations. They were appointed royalty the day they accepted Christ as saviour through the modus operandi of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore the royal family of God has a mission in this dispensation, to determine the course of history by their attitude to Bible doctrine and the plan of God related to the divine dynasphere. That brings us back to our first principle in historical trends: Jesus Christ controls history. Jesus Christ has delegated some of that control to the doctrine: as goes the believer so goes the client nation, so goes the trends of history in any given generation. Therefore the mission of the royal family of God is to contribute to historical uptrend and national prosperity through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. No longer, then, does human freedom depend on the Magna Carta of Great Britain or the Constitution of the United States. No longer does a chivalrous aristocracy watch over the freedom of the common people. Instead, the watchdog of freedom and the key to historical blessing resides with lower classes, not forming mobs for the degenerate process of democracy or for the evil of violence and terrorism and intimidation, but for the purpose of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. Election is the doctrine of privilege and it is the privilege of you and I as believer, regardless of our origins, regardless of our abilities or race or any other factor, to actually maintain the freedoms of our generation through Christian chivalry, modus operandi in the divine dynasphere and to avoid arrogance and any other factor in the cosmic system which makes us scum instead of chivalrous.

1 Corinthians 1:23-31, “But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews [negative Jews] a stumbling block, and to [negative] Gentiles, foolishness, but to those who are elected to privilege [we have become royal family], both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God [so that our system of chivalry is centred in Christ as the power and the wisdom. The power: He has provided for us the divine dynasphere; the wisdom: He has provided for us His thinking, Bible doctrine]. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men [illustration by anthropopathism to indicate a principle that the essence of God who planned all this is far greater than any system of human wisdom or ability]. For consider your election to privilege, brethren [royal family], that there were not many wise according to human standards, not many mighty [achievers with great ability], not many aristocrats; but God has elected to privilege the foolish,” the accusative neuter plural from the adjective moroj, from where we get out English word “moron,” “of the word that he might shame the wise [human wisdom rather than divine], and God has elected to privilege the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the powerful things [tyranny], and the lowborn of the world,” and then we have a perfect participle from e)xouqenew, and that participle means scum, “and those who are scum, God has elected to privilege those that are not that he might nullify the things that are,” God uses “are not,” and that means invisible means, the whole system of chivalry in the royal family, to handle the things that are visible. The system of our freedom and the historical trends is invisible, “that no one should boast [be arrogant] in the presence of God. Therefore you [believer] are in Christ Jesus [regardless of your background], who became to us wisdom from the source of God [there you have chivalry], and righteousness,” there is the virtue. This righteousness starts out as imputed righteousness and to that imputed righteousness comes logistical grace, the provision of doctrine, and in response to that doctrine the fantastic virtue, “and sanctification [temporal sanctification through the provision of the divine dynasphere in phase two], “and redemption [the work of Christ on the cross became the strategic victory of history and changed the entire trend of history], that just as it stands written, ‘Let him who does his glorifying, be glorifying in the Lord’,” in other words, positional truth makes royal family of God, and royal family of God lives on the earth to glorify the Lord and change the trends of history in the devil’s world. So it is the believer in Christ who is the watchdog of freedom. As goes the believer so goes freedom and prosperity in the client nation. Therefore, regardless of background all believers are elected for a purpose. The aristocracy among believers have a mission, so do the humblest of believers who are members of the body of Christ. It is our relationship with Christ which gives us the mission in this life, and those who succeed will be decorated at the judgment seat of Christ.

The greatest spiritual civil war that has ever existed, where family fights against family, where brother fights against brother, where father-in-law and son-in-law fight each other, is the struggle between the believer in the divine dynasphere and the believer in the cosmic system. The believer in cosmic one and two eventually winds up as the loser and the believer in the divine dynasphere winds up as the winner. And while we are all brethren in Christ we are as different as can be in our attitudes, our modus operandi, in whether we are fulfilling the plan of God or not. In verse 12 of our passage we notice the first words, “the winner.” Not all believers are winners and in this life inevitably the cosmic believer and the believer in the divine dynasphere come into conflict.

“The winner [mature believer], I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God,” the permanent historical record of the mature believers who are the anonymous heroes of the Church Age who will be the most famous people in history when they rule in the Millennium; “furthermore, he [the winner] will never vanish from history,” he is in a permanent chapter in heaven.

We have noted that no nation can be a client nation to God unless it has one culture only — many religions, many races, but one culture. Chivalry was the feudal system of the landed aristocracy which provided freedom for the people of England by curbing the power of the crown. The Magna Carta was one of the great documents of history. It is fascinating to note that the Roman Catholic church was never satisfied with being a religion, it wanted to be the culture and the government. And wherever that church became the culture instead of merely staying as a religion it caused a terrible vacuum in history and today there are literally thousands and thousands of people in South America, Central America and Mexico who are communists because of their antagonism toward the church. No religion should ever be the culture of the nation. The culture must always be related to freedom and the culture must have a relationship to the laws of divine establishment which are for believers and unbelievers alike. So many religions and many races, but one culture. Once a nation becomes multi-cultured it destroys itself. The toleration of more than one culture destroys the freedom of the nation.

Note: The greatest arrogance that exists comes from the gutter. It comes from the Jacobin mentality.

1. The aristocracy of the Millennium and the eternal state is not based on physical birth or anything thereafter in the life, it is based on regeneration, the new birth, which occurred at the moment you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. The aristocracy of the Millennium and the eternal state is not based on human ability or human wisdom or human attractiveness, but on spiritual advance inside the divine dynasphere.

3. The final aristocracy of eternity will rule with Christ. Those who are given a coat of arms at the judgment seat of Christ, those who are entered on the lists of eternal heraldry will rule with Christ in the Millennium and they will have special privileges, rewards, decorations for all eternity that other believers do not have.

4. The final aristocracy of history is the greatest aristocracy of history, the only one which avoids any concept of snobbery since it is not based on class distinction, racial distinction, human achievement or personal attractiveness.

5. Neither race nor nationality has anything to do with the aristocracy of the Millennium and the eternal state.

6. Included in the new order of chivalry will be humble folk, famous folk, the attractive and the unattractive of this life, but they will all have one thing in common: maximum exploitation of logistical grace inside the divine dynasphere. They have used the divine dynasphere and Bible doctrine to advance to maturity.

7. Being born again gives every believer opportunity, it does not guarantee ever believer knighthood forever. It gives opportunity to use your free will, your volition, to achieve spiritual maturity and form that eternal and lasting aristocracy which glorifies our Lord Jesus Christ by its very existence in heaven.

8. While we today associate knighthood and chivalry as a mode of feudal tenure or a personal attribute of integrity, or a scheme of good manners, the aristocracy of eternity is associated with the plan of God for the Church Age believer.

9. Therefore the election to privilege in the Church Age is the greatest opportunity for becoming part of the order of chivalry in the Millennium and the knighthood for the eternal state.

And not only at the judgment seat of Christ will there be the knighting of those who achieve maturity in the Church Age, but with that new knighthood comes a coat of arms. When a person is made a knight he takes up a coat of arms which he wears on his shield and on his breastplate that he takes up from some characteristic of achievement in his life. He also takes up certain colours that are appealing to him, and therefore we have the concept of heraldry given in the last half of verse twelve. The mature believer, the winner, will be awarded an eternal escutcheon, a coat of arms in addition to the uniform of glory. We might call this escutcheon the shield of glory for the coat of arms is emblazoned on the shield.

The doctrine of the reverse trend of history is the plan of God for the Church Age, and not only for the Church Age but for every believer in the Church Age, God’s plan for your life.

1. The plan of God for the Church Age reverses the trend of history, and this only happens when some form of leadership, like the barons on the field of Runnymede or great rulers or the leaders of the middle class industrial complex. But behind every great man in history there is somewhere a pivot of mature believers.

2. The course of history in this dispensation, the Church Age, is determined by the attitude of the individual believer toward Bible doctrine. No man in history who is great, no man who makes great decisions in history during this dispensation, no person who is a leader or group of leaders who function on principle, can make decisions based on honour and integrity without the invisible backing of a pivot of mature believers.

3. Born-again believers are composed of every class of society with the majority coming from lower classes, as per 1 Corinthians 1:23-31.

4. Democracy is the lowest form of government with the least amount of responsibility and with almost a total absence of integrity and stability.

5. Democracy is evil because it gives a maximum number of scum a say in government, and because they are scum they are least qualified of all human beings to shape and form policy in government. When the scum have a say in government the result is disaster.

6. But believers are from all callings in life, all areas where distinction is made. Believers are from humble origin and inferior ability but they are not classified as scum except when they prolong their stay in the cosmic system. And the fact that God has made all believers of the Church Age royal family of God through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of salvation is the significant factor for historical impact in this dispensation. In other words, the royal family of God has a mission in this dispensation. Never before in history has so much depended on so few, the believers in any given client nation. The mission of the royal family is to determine the course of history by their attitude toward Bible doctrine and the plan of God as it relates to the divine dynasphere. The mission of the royal family of God is to contribute to the historical uptrend and thereby provide national prosperity through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. No longer does human freedom depend on the Magna Carta of Great Britain or even the Constitution of the United States. No longer do we have a chivalrous aristocracy watching over the freedom of the common people. Instead the watchdog of freedom and the key to historical blessing resides with people from all races, all classes, all connotations of human origin; not forming mobs for the degenerate process of democracy, or for the evil violence of terrorism, or for some form of intimidation, but for the purpose of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history.

A key word from the New Testament helps us with this concept, the word “election.” Election is the doctrine of privilege in time, it is the doctrine of privilege and the impact of the royal family. It is a privilege to belong to the class of society which is classless as far as historical impact.

The mission is expressed in 1 Corinthians 1:23-31. Furthermore, it is expressed in terms of demonstrating the fact that yesterday you may have been scum but with Bible doctrine tomorrow you will be the unknown, unseen hero of history.

“We preach Christ crucified [the presentation of category #2 truth, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ], to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness [because of their negative volition],” Gentile nations can have many races and many religions, but they can only have one culture. No client nation can survive where many cultures are tolerated. In contrast to those who reject the gospel there are in certain nations, especially client nations to God, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, freedom is the environment for evangelism. Therefore, in verse 24, “but to those who are elected to privilege.” If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, from the moment of your faith in Him you have been elected to privilege. You have the privilege of determining historical uptrend or downtrend in this generation; you are the watchdogs of freedom, “both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God [the divine dynasphere] and the wisdom of God [reference to Bible doctrine, which is called the mind of Christ]. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men,” these are anthropopathisms, God is neither foolish nor weak, “For consider your election to privilege.” As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ God has a plan for your life. It is called here election to privilege, “brethren [royal family of God], that there are not many wise according to human standards.” There is no place for snobbery in the Christian way of life. Those who have responded to the gospel often come from the lower classes” “not many mighty [great achievers], not many aristocrats; but God has elected to privilege the foolish [the accusative neuter plural direct object from the adjective moroj, from which we get our English word “moron”] things of this world that he might shame the wise.” Why are those with high IQ, pseudo-intellectual high IQ type of people, put to shame? Because genius has a way of working out plans that look are they are a panacea for life. Smart people come up with ideas of how everything can be worked out in life, e.g. liberals who are divorced from reality. How does God “shame the wise”? Because anyone can make Bible doctrine his number one priority and advance to maturity and become forever and ever a person in the highest order of chivalry. He can be a king for a thousand years in the Millennium. And why can he do it? Because he isn’t disturbed by arrogance at the moment, he is ground into the dust and therefore there is no problem with arrogance. He is looking for something greater than he is, stronger than he is, and he finds it in Bible doctrine plus residence and function in the divine dynasphere. And the thing that saves our country is not the jackass liberal but the scum of the earth who believe in Christ and then advance to maturity as members of the royal family of God.

“and God has elected to privilege the weak things of the world that he might put to shame i)sxuroj, superior persons.” The “superior persons” of this world have no control over life, and the people that are so respected and so superior can’t even handle life. God has elected to privilege the weak things, and you must come to the point where you recognise that you need something more powerful than yourself, that you have no ability, no wisdom, no greatness or anything that is going to cope with the ruler of this world and his cosmic system, “and the a)gonhj [low-born] of the world, and those who are scum, the perfect passive participle of e)couqenew, which means to reject with contempt, “God has elected to privilege, the things that are not [nothing in this life], that he might nullify the things that are.” In this life people have power, people have fame, people have success people are prominent, they become achievers in some field or they don’t become achievers but they are well thought of. And God doesn’t use those people, only a few of them. He uses those who spend their lives in the divine dynasphere, but He uses them under a new principle: at the point of salvation He makes them royal family of God; He gives them the divine dynasphere; He gives them Bible doctrine, and they are the ones who are controlling the world. If believers fail with Bible doctrine we have historical downtrends; if believers succeed we have historical uptrends. It is the believers of this world, regardless of their background, who make the difference, “and the lowborn of the world and those who are scum, God has elected to privilege, those who are not, that he might nullify the things that are [the people who are famous by human standards] that no one should be arrogant in the presence of God. Therefore, from him [the plan of God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom,” we have a wisdom that exceeds the wisdom of this world, Bible doctrine, “from the source of God [Christ, and doctrine which is the mind of Christ is wisdom from the source of God], and righteousness [imputed righteousness is the basis of receiving logistical grace] and sanctification [the royal family is set apart for a purpose, therefore the provision of the divine dynasphere to accomplish that purpose], and redemption [the work of Christ on the cross which was the beginning of the strategical victory of the angelic conflict, that which changed the entire trend of history], that, just as it stands written, Jeremiah 9:23ff, ‘Let him who does his glorifying, be glorifying in the Lord’,” positional truth makes the royal family of God. The royal family of God lives on earth to glorify the Lord and to reverse the trends of history brought about by the fact that Satan is the ruler of this world. It is the believer in Christ, then, who is the watchdog of freedom. As goes the believer, so goes freedom and prosperity in the client nation to God.

Therefore, regardless of background all believers are elected for a purpose. The scum have a mission, the aristocrat has a mission, because they are blended into a new family on the earth, the royal family of God. This is the only dispensation in which there is royal family; this is the only dispensation in which the baptism of the Spirit occurs at the moment of salvation. It is not an experience, it is something that God does for us. He enters us into union with Christ. Therefore we have a new aristocracy on the earth and that aristocracy has a mission. Part of that mission is to be the watchdogs of human freedom. It is our relationship with Christ which gives us the mission of watchdogs in time. Those who succeed will be decorated at the judgment seat of Christ.

The nest concept, then, is the aristocracy of the future. The aristocracy of the Millennium and the eternal state is based not on physical birth but on regeneration, the new birth which occurs at the moment of faith in Christ. The aristocracy of the Millennium and the eternal state is not based on human ability, human attractiveness, human wisdom, human personality or human power, but is based on spiritual advance inside of God’s power sphere, the divine dynasphere. The final aristocracy of eternity, the new order of chivalry, will rule with Christ in the Millennium as kings for a thousand years and will have special privileges, rewards, and decorations for all eternity. The final aristocracy is the greatest aristocracy of all, the only one that will completely avoid any concept of snobbery since it is not based upon class distinction or human achievement or personal attractiveness. Neither race nor nationality has anything to do with the aristocracy of the Millennium and the eternal state. Included in the new order of chivalry will be humble folk, famous folk, the attractive and the unattractive of this life. But they all have one thing in common: maximum exploitation of logistical grace inside of the divine dynasphere.

Being born again gives every believer the opportunity to use his volition to achieve spiritual maturity and to form that eternal and lasting aristocracy which glorifies our Lord Jesus Christ forever in eternity. While we, today, associate knighthood and chivalry as a mode of feudal tenure or a personal attribute of integrity or a scheme of manners, the aristocracy of eternity is associated with the plan of God for the Church Age believer. In other words, election to privilege in the Church Age is the greatest opportunity for becoming a part of the order of chivalry in the Millennium and the new knighthood of the eternal state. It is the only opportunity for historical impact in time.

We have been studying how that you as believers are the watchdogs of freedom, you are at the controls of this country. As goes your attitude toward Bible doctrine so goes this country, and many of you are distracted by various forms of social action, by social life, by wrong priorities for one reason or another. The survival of this country does not depend on its leadership or on its people in general, it depends on you as a believer specifically. As goes your priorities in life so goes the survival of this country, and you certainly have a right to ask yourself a question: What are your priorities?

Right now we are living on the concept of evil, the scum concept, and we need now to get back to client nation USA and what we have been in the past, and what we should be in the future as a client nation to God. But there is no way we can do this as long as there is anything else in your life is more important than Bible doctrine. Whatever is more important than doctrine to you guarantees you a miserable life and, forever and ever as we shall study in great detail, just where you are going to be in heaven. The winner is the one who makes Bible doctrine number one in his life.

In verse 13 we have the means of momentum, the basis for receiving eternal decorations and rewards. We begin with the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw, which means to have, “He who has.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun referring to the believer who has positive volition toward doctrine and therefore uses logistical grace support for the daily perception of Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere. Since the day you believed in Christ you are the recipient of logistical grace. Logistical grace comes from the justice of God, one half of divine holiness. It is imputed down the grace pipeline to the righteousness of God which is inside of you [imputed righteousness] and every bit of air you breathe, every bit of food you eat, your clothing, everything you have to sustain your life is courtesy of the justice of God. And whether you are a winner or a loser, whether you fail or succeed, whether you live in the divine dynasphere or in the cosmic system it still comes from the justice of God. You and I are nothing without the integrity of God.

“He who has,” the present tense is a static present. It emphasises the fact that every person possesses ears totally apart from human merit or ability. Whatever you are today you had nothing whatever to do with the development of your ears. So it is analogous to the believer through possessing everything necessary for advance to maturity, namely the divine dynasphere, various categories of logistical grace, including time. God has given you one of the most precious things in the world, time. Time demands that you make decisions to organise your life, to organise your life on the basis of priorities, on number one priority, Bible doctrine. You also have opportunity. Time means opportunity: opportunity to advance to maturity, opportunity to live in the divine dynasphere, opportunity to fulfill God’s plan for your life where life has meaning, purpose and definition. You have all the opportunities for making the right decisions. Good decisions open the doors for greater options; bad decisions close the doors and eventually destroy you.

Momentum from gate four to gate eight, then, is achieved through the daily perception of Bible doctrine plus the application of it in the momentum tests. Advancing to maturity mean wearing the invisible uniform of honour, an invisible uniform worn in the soul. Eventually the uniform of honour will be exchanged for the uniform of glory at the judgment seat of Christ.

The active voice: positive believers living inside the divine dynasphere and learning doctrine consistently produce the action of the verb through daily positive decisions related to logistical grace. The participle is circumstantial for the fact that through life in the divine dynasphere and the faithful perception of Bible doctrine believers attain spiritual maturity by the utilisation of their positive volition on a daily basis.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from o)uj, the word for ears. It represents again the divine provision of logistical grace to every member of the royal family of God. The noun o)uj also relates logistical grace to your personal volition. You have open doors today, you have opportunities, you have time to fulfill them. Good decisions open the door for more and greater decisions; bad decisions destroy the options and result in great unhappiness in the Christian life. Every believer, like every nation, is the product of his own decisions. Every believer will take the responsibility for his own decisions at the judgment seat of Christ where positive decisions will be rewarded with many decorations and great blessings and fantastic degrees of happiness. Bad decisions in time mean loss of rewards and embarrassment at the judgment seat of Christ. The vast distinction between believers in eternity related to the principle of Bible doctrine and believers in eternity related to the arrogance of the cosmic system is the great differentiation which will exist permanently in heaven forever and ever. There will be inequality in the perfect environment of heaven.

The ears portray the believer’s attitude toward Bible doctrine for you can turn a listening ear or a deaf ear to the teaching of the Word of God. Spiritual momentum, then, is based on residence in the divine dynasphere, function at gate four — perception and application of doctrine. “He who has an ear,” positive volition plus grace provision equals spiritual momentum. Persistent positive volition inside the divine dynasphere equals spiritual maturity. Therefore the mandate to all members of the royal family of God, all believers of this dispensation, the aorist active imperative of the verb a)kouw, “let him hear.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist for the daily function of GAP. That means daily decisions for Bible doctrine. The constative aorist takes positive volition toward doctrine in this life and gathers it up into one entirety, fulfilling the plan of God. The active voice: the third person suffix of the verb implies that only positive believers obey the mandate even though it is directed toward all believers, positive and negative. The imperative mood is the imperative of command. This is a mandate to you if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. The means of execution: the ministry of God the Holy Spirit delegating authority to the pastor-teacher.

The accusative neuter singular from the word tij, an interrogative pronoun which means, What sort of thing? It refers to Bible doctrine as the sort of thing that God the Holy Spirit communicates through the agency of pastors. The purpose of the filling of the Spirit is to give you spiritual IQ for the perception of doctrine.

Then we have the present active indicative of legw which means to say, to speak, to answer. Here it means to communicate, “what the Spirit communicates.” The customary present tense is for what habitually occurs when positive believers make daily decisions for life inside the divine dynasphere, the perception of doctrine. The customary present also implies that positive believers maintain high-priority rating to Bible doctrine and they never lose sight of its daily importance as spiritual food. Just as you have physical food to sustain your body so you must have spiritual food to sustain your soul. God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb and the indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the Spirit’s ministry in the life of the believer, grace provision without which no one could survive in the devil’s world. The Holy Spirit uses agents and in this case the agent is the pastor-teacher for communication of doctrine.

There must also be some form of a classroom and therefore the last word in this particular verse is the dative plural indirect object of the noun e)kklhsia, and it has five different meanings in the Greek but the one here is referring to the local church as the classroom for learning doctrine. Spiritually the believer must reside in the divine dynasphere; temporarily he must attend some form of a local church. Whatever it is there must be some form of a classroom and there must be strict academic discipline. Hence, not only must all teaching of doctrine be related to residence in the divine dynasphere but it must also be related to attendance in the classroom of a local church. The pastor may or may not be a resident teacher but the people who are listening must concentrate, whether they are in a home, a building, a room to hear the teaching of Bible doctrine. This emphasises the importance of good manners and strict academic discipline in the most important category of worship. Motivating virtue directed toward God is the basis for concentration and positive volition, while functional virtue directed toward man is the basis for academic discipline, no talking, no unnecessary movement, nothing which would be disturbing to others. In other words, good manners are essential just as concentration under the ministry of the Spirit is essential in spiritual growth. Concentration and good manners must prevail, whether Bible teaching is face to face or non-resident; whether sitting in front of a pastor communicating doctrine, or a tape recorder, or a TV, or a radio, or some other mechanical form of communication.

1. The filling of the Spirit, which is tantamount to residence in the divine dynasphere.

2. Positive volition toward doctrine from your own free will, not because someone has coerced, traded out, or pushed.

3. Objectivity toward doctrinal teaching (without it God the Holy Spirit cannot communicate it to you) for functional virtue inside the divine dynasphere. In other words, you must approach your pastor, whoever he is, with impersonal love.

4. Humility, both enforced and genuine, for a continued teachability when faced with a tremendous variety of subjects where personal interest may or may not be involved.

5. Recognition of the authority of the pastor, not for his personality or speaking ability, but for the content of his message.

6. Self-control. That includes poise and continued objectivity when a subject or a message is not very complimentary to your person or to your way of life.

7. The persistence of positive volition toward doctrine in spite of every distraction and ever disillusion.

Verses 14-21, the church at Laodicea. In verse 14 we have a mandate to the apostle John. We begin with, as in most cases with the apostle John, the connective use of the conjunction kai, which is correctly translated “and.” The next word is toi, the dative singular definite article which is the generic use of the definite article used to define or note a specific category. The category coming up is the second estate, the clergy, pastors of local churches. Correct translation: “And to.”

Then we have the dative singular indirect object from the noun a)ggeloj. It is correctly translated “messenger”; it is transliterated “angel” in the King James version. The pastor is God’s messenger, communicator, the one who communicates Bible doctrine. He doesn’t have any special “in” with God, he is a voice, a communicator. Behind the voice, of course, there has to be thought and there has to be knowledge. A)ggeloj can be transliterated and it is legitimate where the angels are in view, but when human beings are involved then it must be reduced to the concept of messengers — “And to the messenger.” So we have a dative of indirect object which indicates the ones [the pastors] in whose interest doctrinal information is provided. It is the pastor who must understand and communicate. He must be under the ministry of the Spirit; those who hear must be under the ministry of the Spirit, and this is the order of the Church Age.

The responsibility puts a pressure on the one who is a pastor that does not exist anywhere else. That responsibility can be described in one word: accuracy. The pastor in the study of the Word of God must be absolutely accurate. Accuracy demands the study of the original languages. It demands that you take apart every sentence, every word, and that you “beat your brains out” doing it. There is no short cut. There is no place in the ministry for anyone who is lazy-minded. If you are physically lazy you are mentally lazy. It requires a tremendous amount of energy to avoid mental laziness. So when it says “and to the messenger” this is the responsibility of the pastor — to study and teach. The teaching is just the tip of the iceberg. What is required by way of preparation for just one verse is phenomenal. That is, if you are going to be accurate.

So this is a dative case, indirect object, and it indicates the pastors in whose interest doctrinal information is provided. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher is meaningless without hard work, the hardest kind of work, mental work. This is also true not only of the ministry but anything where you have to think for a living. Physical work is easy by comparison.

The problem is that the spiritual gift isn’t enough, it is only the beginning and it requires a life time of studying and teaching. The same can be said for certain other communication gifts. For example, evangelism. The average evangelist doesn’t spend twenty minutes preparing. All he does is get two or three “canned” speeches and he never departs from them. Therefore he is often inaccurate in whatever he is teaching and the average evangelist today is a very immature believer because he doesn’t really know enough doctrine to grow up himself.

“And to the messenger of the church,” the genitive singular of e)kklhsia, the genitive of relationship. The definite article in the singular is thj, and the genitive of the definite article is generic, it modifies the noun e)kklhsia and it indicates that the local church is unique, it is categorically different from everything else in two ways: first of all it is for believers to learn doctrine and therefore it is a classroom. It is the classroom that is the basis of all worship. Your basic worship and your greatest worship is learning Bible doctrine. People think they are worshipping God because they are full of emotion or because they are singing or going through some “holy-roller” routine but that isn’t worship at all. But it is different from all other classrooms in that it demands a higher form of concentration, of understanding, of good manners, of poise, of everything that you don’t see in most classrooms. E)kklhsia means an assembly, people gathered together. But it also means one person is talking; no “sharing,” which has become a system of evil as it has infiltrated churches.

“Where two or three are gathered together in my name” has to do not with prayer but with the assembly of the local church, the classroom. And notice that numbers are certainly not important because “two or three” certainly doesn’t indicate that numbers are impressive. The impressive factor is the spiritual growth as a result of assembly worship and not the actual numbers.

And of course this classroom is in a locale — “And to the messenger [future pastors of the church],” e)n plus the locative of Laodikeia, “of Laodicea.” Laodicea was located in the province of Phrygia, forty miles east of Ephesus on the Lycos river where three famous Christian cities were located. The city was founded by Antiochus II who named it after his wife Laodike. The city was populated first of all with Syrian citizens of the Hellenistic monarchy of Syria, Greeks, and some transplanted Jews from Babylon. Many of the Jews who for generations had lived in Babylon as a result of the Babylonian captivity actually moved to Laodicea, so it was a very famous Jewish centre. Antiochus ruled the Syrian empire from 261-246 BC and Laodicea was located on a great highway junction. But it did not come into its own until about 190 BC when it became part of the Roman province of Asia. From this point it became a great industrial centre and very famous for the black wool of its sheep and also famous as a medical centre because there was discovered there by some chemists something called Phrygian powder. It was manufactured and distributed there and so doctors came there and it became a great centre for ophthalmology. It was also known as a banking centre as well as a medical centre and where you have banking and medicine you also have to have entertainment, so it was famous for its race tracks and its theatres.

In about AD 60 the city was destroyed by a great earthquake. It was a very wealthy city and Rome came in and pronounced it a disaster area and offered them money to rebuild. The people said: “No, we will not take your funds, we will do it on our own.” And they quickly rebuilt the city at their own expense. They were therefore a true industrial complex.

The church in Laodicea had many famous pastors, Timothy, Mark, Epaphras. Later on in 166 AD, long after this was written, they would have a pastor by the name of Sagaris who was finally martyred there. In 1071 AD the city was taken by the Turks but in 1119 it was recovered by the Christians under the command of a famous soldier of fortune by the name of John Comnemus. In the 13th century it finally fell into the hands of the Turks permanently and that was the end of the church in Laodicea at that time.

Zeus of Laodicea was the god that most of the heathen people worshipped. He is portrayed on the coins as standing and holding in his extended right hand an eagle. In his left hand he has a spear. Many of the famous skeptic philosophers came from Laodicea and the city gave origin to several royal families of the ancient world. The city was finally abandoned because of earthquakes and is now in a heap of ruins called by the Turks Eski Hissar, meaning the old castle.

During the time of John at the time he wrote in AD 96 the city flourished as a city of great wealth in the Roman empire. But it really wasn’t the kind of wealth the Roman empire needed — a pivot of mature believers. Cicero wrote many of his famous letters while living in Laodicea. Laodicea was a road junction connecting with Miletus, Ephesus and Pergamum. It also had one real great drawback and that was that there was no water supply at hand. Water had to be piped in from a hot springs some distance from the city and they constructed one of the most ingenious pipelines of the ancient world. They took cubicle blocks of stone, hollowed them out and then cemented them together. The pipeline was about three feet in diameter, bored through the centre and cemented end to end. For all of the tremendous wealth of the city there was one they could never produce and that was hot water. The hot water that started at the hot springs some three to five miles away was by the time it got to Laodicea luke warm. And one of the biggest complaints that people had who lived in Laodicea was that they could never have a hot bath. The water was lukewarm.

“And to the messenger [future pastors] of the church of Laodicea.” Now comes the mandate. John is not in Laodicea, John is on the island of Patmos. He is the pastor of Laodicea, he is non-resident so they are accustomed to receiving his letters. His messages are read by someone in the congregation and that is the way they heard John’s messages. In this particular case, therefore, they are not surprised. It was Ephesus which was accustomed to the face to face teaching but when John was banished to the island of Patmos they obviously had to go on the same type of teaching. John as the nonresident pastor had been put on the island of Patmos by the ruling Caesar and he stayed there until this Caesar died and was replaced by the beginning of the Antonine Caesars and then he came back. So people were not deprived of John’s messages and therefore they continued to grow in a non-face to face situation.

So the mandate to John was grafw, “write.” Write is another means of saying communicate. It is that non-face to face type of communication. The Bible was written to people who weren’t there. Spiritual growth comes from perception of doctrine whether it is face to face or non-face to face. And if must be remembered that everything we study was originally given to someone non-face to face. You can grow in a non-face to face teaching situation, sometimes you can even grow faster — not necessarily, but sometimes. The aorist tense is the culminative aorist. It views the writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the completion of the canon of scripture, the encouragement to future pastors to study and teach. God uses prepared ministers and God provides hearers for prepared ministers. The active voice: the apostle John under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood of command is a mandate to the apostle John to write the last canonical book of the Word of God.

The next two words are the key to anyone in the ministry, Tadh legei. Legei is the present active indicative of the verb legw and it means here to communicate. This is an aoristic present tense which sets forth an event as now occurring. We call that punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ as the prince ruler of the Church produces the action. The declarative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. The greatest reality in your life must be Bible doctrine. If Bible doctrine is not a reality there is no spiritual growth; if Bible doctrine is not a reality you can’t live your life as unto the Lord. You see the ideal situation is the one we have in this dispensation. God has given you your free will, you have your freedom, but God has also given you a classroom where you can come in privacy and hear the teaching of doctrine. No one knows your business therefore what hurts you and hits you hard only you and the Lord know. What challenges you, what blesses you, what your particular needs are on any given night when you come to hear doctrine only you know, and that is the way it should be. Therefore under that principle of the privacy of the priesthood you have privacy for perception of doctrine, to live your life as unto the Lord, to make your decisions on the basis of doctrine you receive or to make wrong decisions on the basis of doctrine you reject.

Then comes the direct object of the verb, the accusative neuter plural from o(de, a demonstrative pronoun used originally to introduce the Greek translation of the decrees of the Persian kings. It is an introductory formula for what is about to be communicated, our Lord’s estimate of the situation in Laodicea. If there is anything that is important to us as believers it is to be so consistent in taking in doctrine on a daily basis that we can understand the Lord’s estimate of the situation as far as our own personal lives are concerned. Without it we would be in the dark, we would go off and make mistakes. Without it we would get the wrong impression of what the Lord’s will is. But with Bible doctrine we are protected; with Bible doctrine we know what God’s will is. Therefore we never face a difficult situation, an adversity or a problem, or some form of prosperity or promotion without first of all having information on how to handle them. When we do not have that information and face these things it becomes a beautiful system of discipline because the doctrine was available. We either weren’t there to hear it or we rejected it, and consequently we make mistakes. When we make mistakes we have made our own decisions and we hurt. The more we hurt the more God is dealing with us to get us back on the track.

“And to the messenger [future pastors of the church at Laodicea] write: Communicate these things … ” Now, of course, we need the subject. Who communicates these things? It begins with a title in the Greek, o( A)mhn, it refers to our Lord Jesus Christ and it goes back to the Hebrew version of the word. It is a transliteration here and the title is used to confirm the acceptance of a task or a mission, the performance of which needs the will and the power of God. While “Amen” is used at the end of a doxology to attest the praise of God in response to doxology it isn’t even used that way here. Here it is used for a title of our Lord Jesus Christ who is both God and Man in one person forever — doctrine of the hypostatic union. Both the Hebrew “Amen” and the Greek “Amen” refer to what is sure, certain and valid. Therefore it becomes very important at this time for this reason. Our security doesn’t depend upon us but on God. “Amen” is used for the reality of a system of security above and beyond any human system of security that man has ever devised. It refers to what is definite, what is sure, what is valid, what is secure. Hence, o( A)mhn is the title of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is His title as the One who controls history and the One who will also terminate history. “Amen,” then, means this: until our Lord sees fit to terminate it human history cannot be terminated by any system of angelic or human power. There is no system of sophisticated weaponry or warfare, disease or natural disaster that will wipe out the entire human race. Human beings are going to keep right on living on this earth until the end of the Millennium. How do we know that? The title of our Lord Jesus Christ, “Amen,” the reality of the history of the human race to resolve the angelic conflict, the reality that the human race will move to its conclusion through the Church Age, to the Rapture of the Church, the second advent plus the Millennium reign of Christ. All of these things will occur. The book of Revelation is an historical textbook and as far as our word is concerned, “the Amen.” It is a guarantee that the human race will be perpetuated to the end of human history. Furthermore it is a guarantee that it will be perpetuated under two principles.

a. Grace precedes judgment. There is never a judgment which destroys a segment of the human race until first of all that segment of the human race has an opportunity to repent in the sense of changing their mind and believing in Christ, believers rebounding and starting to take in doctrine. This is always illustrated by Noah and the flood. Noah preached for 120 years before the flood came. That is grace before judgment. And yet the negative volition was almost universal and the human race was reduced to just a few people.

b. For those who repent (change their mind), in the case of the unbeliever repentance is manifest by believing in Christ; in the case of the believer in the cosmic system repentance is manifest by the rebound technique; judgment is followed by grace and there is survival. So grace precedes judgment and grace follows judgment; in the middle we have judgment in terms of historical disaster. Those who survive historical disaster or judgment are the ones who heeded the warning of grace before the disaster. That is survival.

So grace precedes judgment and for those who repent there is survival; repentance is the secret to survival.

“Amen” is a very important title of our Lord Jesus Christ and it is the title whereby He says: “I guarantee the continuation of the human race, and I guarantee your survival in the midst of the greatest disasters that history can produce if you can utilise the logistical grace available to you.” Surviving in the devil’s world, surviving under historical disaster, is a matter of utilisation of logistical grace, the modus operandi of the faith-rest drill, life in the divine dynasphere. The only wall of fire for believers is the wall of fire that goes around the divine dynasphere. If you are a believer living in the cosmic system you have no wall of fire and historical disaster wipes you out just like it wipes out your counterpart unbeliever in the cosmic system. Survival depends on life in the divine dynasphere.

So this title, o( A)mhn, is the title of the Lord Jesus Christ controlling history and as the only one who can terminate history. Generally in the New Testament “Amen” is also used in a liturgical way. It is the liturgical acclamation in Christian worship, as found in 1 Corinthians 14:16, or in heavenly worship of the angelic chiefs of staff of heaven which we will note in Revelation chapters 4 and 5. In the Hebrew the verb Amen also means to believe, and therefore it refers to our response to the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. We simply trust Him under the principle of the faith-rest drill. We trust the one who controls history for our usefulness in life, our purpose in life, our happiness in life, our blessing in life, and our survival in life.

Now we have the beginning of a subject. “The Amen,” Jesus Christ the only saviour, the one who controls history, “communicates these things.” This is not the end of our subject, we have other words coming up in a moment. It should be noted though that Amen in the Hebrew and Amen in the Greek also means truth, doctrine. The Amen is Jesus Christ as the God of doctrine and this is verified for us in Isaiah chapter 65:16, “Because he who is blessed in the earth [the believer] shall be blessed by the God of Amen,” that is what it says in the Hebrew, “and he who swears [that is, when your word is your bond and you are saying that something is true] in the earth shall swear by the God of Amen.” Twice in the Hebrew of this verse we have the title “the God of Amen.” This is the God of doctrine.

Next we have the continuation of the subject. We have three appositional nominatives. The adjective pistoj comes first. Pistoj means faithful. Then we have a noun martuj which means witness, someone who makes an accurate deposition. So we have the phrase, “the faithful witness.” But then since it is a deposition we have another adjective in the appositional nominative, a)lhthinoj, which means “true,” “the faithful and true witness.” Our Lord Jesus Christ in His deposition that history will continue and that believers who are in the divine dynasphere will survive the greatest of disasters, that’s faithfulness, pistoj. Then the fact that He is true, that He guarantees these things, that the Bible is true, that doctrine is true, is found in a)lhqinoj. Our Lord Jesus Christ as the one who controls history has made a deposition and that deposition is given in the book of Revelation. The deposition is faithfulness to the believers who are in the pivot, and the deposition is true. The human race cannot be destroyed by outer space nonsense, nor can it be destroyed by sophisticated weaponry, nor can it be destroyed by conventional weaponry.

So we have a faithful and true deposition. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the faithful and true witness. He made a deposition about history, about God the Father and His plan. Our Lord Jesus Christ is also the manifestation of the Godhead and as the faithful and true witness He presents a perfect deposition of world history. As the faithful and true witness Jesus Christ presents to the world evidence about God, truth about His perfect plan, evidence about human history, and trends and prophecies as to the course of human history. Perfect God can only create a perfect plan and the testimony of God’s plan is given through the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, His first advent.

Our Lord’s testimony began with His virgin birth: the fact of His true humanity and the fact of His true humanity residing inside of the prototype divine dynasphere; the fact that Satan could not destroy the Lord Jesus Christ because His humanity resided inside of the divine dynasphere is evidence — the only place of real security for any believer is the divine dynasphere, the same place our Lord resided during His earthly ministry — His function in hypostatic union, His impeccability, His work of salvation on the cross followed by His physical death, resurrection, ascension and session, the award of His third royal patent which resulted in the Church Age and the calling out of a royal family, the perpetuation of history so that there could be a second advent, a tactical victory to follow the strategic victory of our Lord. All of these things are a deposition to you and to me, a guarantee of our survival in the divine dynasphere, a guarantee of the perpetuation of the human race, a guarantee that this textbook of world history called the book of Revelation will occur in the sequence, in the chronology which is presented in the chapters that follow.

Verse 14, “And to the messenger [future pastors of the church at Laodicea] write: the Amen [Jesus Christ as the only saviour and the God of doctrine, the one who controls history], the faithful and true witness ...”

Now we come to the third part of that subject “which communicates these things.” The subject concludes with an appositional nominative from the noun a)rxh, which while it means beginning it also means first cause, primacy, ruler, rank. It is taken from the Greek verb a)rxw which means to rule. The rulers in Athens were called A)rxonj, and it means here, “ruler.” It is not the “beginning” of the creation of God but the ruler, the prince. And then we have the descriptive genitive of ktisij which means creation. It refers not to the word which was created by our Lord or natural creation, but it refers to certain types of new creatures. It refers to new creatures in Christ Jesus or the royal family of God. Plus the possessive genitive of qeoj. The creatures here belong to God. So we translate: “the ruler of the creation of God [royal family of God].”

Now we have the full subject: “the Amen [Jesus Christ as saviour, the God of doctrine], the faithful and true witness [His deposition regarding the solutions to history], the ruler of the creation of God.” He is the ruler of the royal family and this is the subject which “communicates these things.” It took 36 things at salvation plus the provision of the divine dynasphere to manufacture the creation of God and/or the royal family. The uniqueness of the Church Age believer is based on the first advent of Christ and our Lord’s achievement of His third royal patent. The third royal patent resulted in halting the dispensation of Israel and inserting the Church Age to call out the royal family. Each one of us has two commissions as royal family. We are first of all royal priests, that is the intake of doctrine; and we are royal ambassadors, that is the application of doctrine.

Verse 15, an estimate of the situation. The first phrase, “I know thy works,” is where it all begins. We have the perfect o)ida used as a present active indicative for the function of divine knowledge. God knows long before anything happens exactly what is going to happen. Furthermore, He knows what thinking is behind it, what motivation is behind it, what decision you finally made. The active voice: Jesus Christ as God produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the veracity of God’s estimate of the situation.

With this verb we have the accusative plural from the noun e)rgon. Being in the plural it means works or production or modus operandi, “I know your accomplishments.” God has known all about us from eternity past, we are just now becoming acquainted with Him as we learn Bible doctrine, and learn more and more Bible doctrine.

When He says, “I know your accomplishments” we are looking at God’s knowledge of the Laodicean church, a group of people in that great city. The accomplishment of believers in the Laodicean church was known to God under certain categories, therefore we need to categorise God’s knowledge. God has three categories of knowledge.

The first we call self-knowledge. God is eternal; His knowledge is eternal. God is sovereign, therefore His knowledge is infinitely superior to any creature knowledge. Time has nothing to do with God’s knowledge. There never was a time when God didn’t know everything that would happen, everything in all of human history. The future, therefore is as perspicuous to God as the past. And since God is a person He possesses both self-consciousness and self-determination. Therefore God as a person acts rationally in compatibility, of course, with His absolute will and perfection. God is Himself and because God is Himself eternally and infinitely God knows Himself to be beyond comparison with any being, any creature. Because God is infinite His knowledge has neither boundary nor limitation. Infinity goes beyond time and infinity also goes beyond space. So whatever God has by way of knowledge of Himself it is beyond time and beyond space. Therefore God’s knowledge is never complicated with either ignorance or absurdity. God existed eternally, unsustained by Himself or any other source, and therefore His knowledge is as unalterable as Himself. God cannot change; His knowledge cannot change. God’s knowledge therefore precedes time and precedes space, therefore God’s knowledge is not subject to time or space, as ours is.

God knows Himself, and He also knows the other members of the Trinity. He understands their attributes as He understands Himself. God’s knowledge of Himself has to be classified as perfect subjectivity; God’s knowledge of the other members of the Trinity is classified as perfect objectivity. So in God’s knowledge of God we have subjectivity and objectivity. And since subjectivity has many imperfections related to arrogance and preoccupation with self we mustn’t think of subjectivity in terms of human modus operandi. Subjectivity here refers to perfection. God has perfect subjective knowledge of Himself. God the Father has perfect objective knowledge of the Son and the Spirit, and likewise the Son has perfect objective knowledge of the Father and the Spirit, and so on. God has eternally known Himself. Each member of the Trinity has perfect subjective knowledge of self and all the attributes of deity plus perfect knowledge of the other members of the Trinity and their attributes.

But this particular knowledge is not the one in view when it says in verse 15, “I know your accomplishments.” What is in view is the second category, the omniscience of God. While God’s self-knowledge relates to His divine attributes and the knowledge of the other members of the Trinity omniscience relates to creatures. In our first category God knows God, God knows Himself; in our second category omniscience is a technical word which does not cover all of the areas of God’s knowledge but it deals with creatures.

Omniscience is defined as God’s objective knowledge of the universe and all the creatures in it, angelic and human. The omniscience of God is the key to this verse, “I know your accomplishments.” Since the divine decrees establish reality we cannot separate the divine decrees from the omniscience of God. The divine decrees is the computer and what the omniscience of God puts into the computer is every thought every person ever had and, with that, every motivation that every person ever had, every decision and every action that every person ever had in history. But omniscience also knows the things that didn’t happen but could have happened; it knows probability as well as actuality. Only actuality is programmed in. That is history. What could have happened but did not is probability, and omniscience knows the probability. Omniscience, then, is defined: God knows perfectly, eternally and simultaneously all that is knowable, both the actual and the possible, both the historical and the probable. The actual is fed into the computer of divine decrees to become history while the possible or probable are decisions which could have been made but were not. Every minute detail of both angelic and human history is completely in God’s mind at all times. Therefore omniscience perceives the free as free, the necessary as necessary, together with all their causes and conditions and relations in one indivisible system of things, every link of which is essential to the whole.

There is one other category called the foreknowledge of God. The foreknowledge of God must be distinguished from omniscience. Between foreknowledge and omniscience stands the computer of divine decrees. Foreknowledge is the printout of history, it does not deal with what is programmed in. Omniscience programs the computer of divine decrees with historical facts. Historical facts are made up of your thoughts, your decisions, your actions. Foreknowledge is the printout of the computer. Nothing is foreknown, therefore, until it is first of all decreed. Foreknowledge is therefore limited to what actually comes out of the computer, the unfolding of history. Foreknowledge has nothing to do with probability or the alternatives. Foreknowledge of God, therefore, makes nothing certain, it simply acknowledges what is already certain, the content of the divine decrees. God foreknows all things as certainly future because He has first of all decreed them in His omniscience.

Omniscience comes first, knowing the actual and the possible. Foreknowledge deals only with the actual. While everything was decreed simultaneously, not by stages, the plan of God rationale applies only foreknowledge in this particular case. Foreknowledge means what comes out of the computer. So foreknowledge is applied here as well. God knows our accomplishments, He knows them as they have unfolded. From the standpoint of God’s omniscience what He put into the computer He knew billions of years ago, but His statement now is foreknowledge. God knew what would come out of the computer. And so both omniscience and foreknowledge as distinct concepts of God’s divine attributes are involved in the phrase, the perfect active indicative of o)ida, which we have studied in verse 15.

Next in verse 15 we begin with a negative estimate of the situation. It begins with the conjunction o(ti used after verbs of cognisance to give the content. ”I know you accomplishments, that ...” Next is the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, the verb to be, “that you are.” The present tense is a perfective present, it refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. God knows what we are every second that we spend on this earth. The active voice: believers in the Church Age, namely Laodicea in AD 96, produce the action of the verb. The action they produce becomes a pattern for believers throughout the Church Age who fail. The indicative mood is declarative for a historical reality.

Next we have two negative adverbs, “neither,” “nor,” o)ute, o)ute, and with each of these negative adverbs we have a predicate adjective. The first is yuxroj, and it means “cold”; the second means hot or boiling, zestoj, “neither cold nor hot” is the translation. “Cold” is used for the unbeliever. There were some unbelievers in the Laodicean church. “Hot” refers to believers who have lived inside of the divine dynasphere and who have utilised logistical grace and have advanced to maturity. It becomes obvious then that this passage is not addressed to the unbelievers. In the negative estimate of the situation it is also obvious that because of the cosmic influence there were quite a number of unbelievers in the Laodicean church. As a result neither are there any people who have advanced to maturity. Living inside the divine dynasphere is God’s will for this dispensation and, of course, it is the only way to advance to maturity.

The use of “cold” and “hot” and “lukewarm” refer to categories based on the problem in the Laodicean waterworks. The problem had to do with the kind of pipes they had which were constructed of cubicle blocks of stone carved out of a quarry and which had a hole bored through them. Each block was cemented to another and in that way the pipeline was constructed. When the water left the hot springs it was hot but by the time it had reached Laodicea it was lukewarm. This lukewarm water was loaded with minerals and therefore not very palatable, it was insipid. Everyone complained about the water.

The second problem: What happens to intellectuals when they become arrogant? Arrogance plus intellectuality means pseudo-intellectuality. Believers living in Laodicea were involved in the cosmic system and were influenced by pseudo-intellectuality.

Next in verse 15 the apostle John states a preference with regard to the negative estimate of the situation. His preference is a positive estimate of the situation where either cold or hot would help. If they were cold he could give them the gospel; if they were hot he could give them advanced doctrine; but because they are lukewarm all he can do is warn them, and that is the most unproductive type of teaching.

The category of problem-solving is given in two concepts in this passage: those who are cold and those who are hot. But there is no problem-solving for those who are lukewarm. The lukewarm person is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there is a road back, a very difficult road back. It requires that you make daily decisions under the pressures and the adversities of various categories of divine discipline as well as self-induced misery. And there are those who will never find that road back because it is impossible for them to fulfill the principle of rebound, change their priorities in life, put first things first over a period of time, because there is no instant solution to the category “lukewarm.”

The word “lukewarm” becomes a very excellent illustration, an analogy to the fact that the person in this world who is most disoriented is that believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who is categorised as lukewarm. The cosmic believer is disoriented to life and there is no instant solution to any of his problems. He has to take a road back that requires making decisions that he failed to make in the past: making decisions to rebound, making decisions for Bible doctrine, etc. Divine discipline is the teacher of those who will not learn doctrine. It is limited in what it can teach but at least it does require a concentration from the lukewarm which they do not have in other areas. The “lukewarm” is going to be described in great detail. The lukewarm people are often very wealthy, very successful, very famous, very prominent. They are believers but they have completely and totally failed as far as spiritual life is concerned.

So we have the apostolic personal preference stated in the last phrase in which he states beginning with the particle o)feilon, which is translated “I would” or “I wish.” O)feilon introduces an unattainable wish or desire on the part of the communicator, the apostle John. This is a particle, it used with the imperfect tense to express present time. It is possible that the particle of unattainable wish or desire is taken from the aorist tense of the verb o)feilw, which means to wish or desire. We should understand that this introduces an unattainable desire. The apostle John here would like to simply give a message where the solutions are obvious but that only applies where believers are positive toward doctrine and living in the divine dynasphere. That would represent the category “hot.” Or, if the person is an unbeliever, there is a message that can be given very briefly regarding the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the way of eternal salvation through faith in the Son of God, but that isn’t possible with those who are lukewarm; and the more you personally counsel these people the worse it becomes, because counselling means that they are depending upon you, they are using your volition as a crutch. It is impossible for these people on their own to take the hard road back from being lukewarm. We have studied it as carnality, as reversionism, as cosmic involvement. These are the people who through their own decisions have brought themselves to the place of impossible solutions. And where the solutions are not readily available and require months and sometimes even years of positive volition and daily decisions, and maintaining the right priorities, Bible doctrine first, obviously they are not going to take that solution and they are not going to go that way. Instead they will begin to look for things to alleviate the pain of suffering under divine discipline or from self-induced misery. Therefore they become pursuers of pleasure, they try to find interests in life, they try to find new friends, they try to find an environment of flattery and acceptability in some social structure whereby some of the pain from their own bad decisions can be alleviated. And that is the story of at least eighty per cent of believers in the world today.

The very fact that they are believers means this: that whatever success they have in life, whatever moment of stimulation and happiness may come their way, whatever nice group of people they may meet somewhere, whatever they find by way of a love relationship — category two, success and approbation from mankind in general —, whatever they may find in these areas are simply not a solution to their problem. These things are wonderful for positive believers. Positive believers can enjoy them without being distracted by them. But there is absolutely no answer and no solution for the lukewarm believer in the area of seeking pleasure, seeking new friends, seeking new scenes, changing his environment to something that is more compatible with flattering and with recognition. There is no solution simply because the believers involved will not take the hard road back. It is a very difficult answer because Bible doctrine must be first. You cannot take a believer in the cosmic system and make Bible doctrine number one priority in his life. Because of the tremendous instability it is very difficult to reestablish the right priorities. It takes a tremendous amount of motivation and that motivation generally has to come from two categories of discipline that we will study in detail — warning divine discipline and intensive divine discipline.

For recovery it takes the daily use of the volition to make right decisions. There is only one volitional decision in life that is permanent and that is the decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That one decision guarantees eternal life and means that you have a relationship with God forever.

The tragic thing that occurs then is the fact that in solving any problem in the life it requires consistent daily decisions based on the right priorities. Therefore the apostle is saying very simply, “would that you were cold or hot”, then it would be so easy, then the message would be so simple. But one message today clearly understood is not going to solve your problem because if Bible doctrine does not become your number one priority and if you do not log a maximum amount of time in the divine dynasphere there is no way that you can consistently make the right decisions.

Recovery from the cosmic system is very simple in principle, the rebound technique, but it requires days and days and even months of getting back to doctrine on a daily basis, and it is so easy once you have been in the cosmic system to try it for a week and then go back to the same old way. Eventually there is something that happens to these people, the sin unto death.

The apostle’s personal preference is based on the principle of positive volition. If the Laodiceans were cold they would be unbelievers and the answer to their problem would be very simple: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” A one-shot decision will answer their problem because the moment you are born again the past is blotted out. And as far as the Laodiceans being hot, well they are not. As such they would be believers living inside the divine dynasphere and now ready for another message of doctrinal teaching, but these things are meaningless to the lukewarm believer. If the Laodiceans were hot they would be in the divine dynasphere and ready for the tremendous content of the book of Revelation, beginning in chapter four.

“I would that you were cold or hot,” how easy it would be if that were true. The other six churches all have a fine pivot of mature believers plus a lot of positive believers, with a minimum number of cosmic believers. They are carrying the Roman empire at this time. They will be responsible as a large pivot in only one Roman province for one of the greatest periods of prosperity the world has ever known in human history, the period of the Antonine Caesars, 96-192 AD.

The real situation, cosmic involvement and the potential for maximum discipline, is the subject of verse 16, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” The real status quo is given, beginning with an adverb, o(utoj. It refers to what precedes, and it refers to the apostle’s preference of status, not the real status quo. With the conjunction o(ti it becomes an idiom to indicate, “Let’s face the reality of the situation.” O(utoj plus o)ti means literally, “So because the reality of the situation is now before us.” The reality is given by the simple verb to be in the present active indicative. This is the Greek word e)imi; it gives the real situation. The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past and is emphasised as a present reality in Laodicea. They are not living in the divine dynasphere; “lukewarm” is the issue in this verse. How are you going to get people out of status quo lukewarm? Well, we begin with the phrase, “So because you are.” The active voice: Laodicean believers produce the action of the verb as cosmic believers. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the situation.

Then the predicate nominative gives us our category, xliaroj, which means something that was hot but is now cooled off to the point of being insipid and therefore lukewarm or cosmic involvement. It also refers to the unpleasant taste of the water. “So therefore because you are lukewarm,” the adjective is used as a predicate nominative. It has a dual connotation; the status quo of the reversionistic believer and the status quo from the divine standpoint which has the emetic connotation. “And neither hot nor cold” is better translated, “in fact neither hot nor cold.” John makes it very clear that there is no simple solution to their problem.

Now we have the result of perpetual cosmic involvement: the emetic condition. The emetic condition is not helpful, it is destructive. It is the reason why so many believers die horribly, miserably, before God intends for them to die. It is the story of the sin unto death. It is the basis for one of the greatest tragedies that could ever occur to you as a believer. It is also one of the greatest disgraces.

The final phrase of verse 16 begins with the perfect active indicative of the verb mellw, which means to be about to be. We translate it: “I am about to.” The customary present denotes what habitually occurs when believers persist in living in the cosmic system of Satan. By persisting is meant that they ignore the final teaching that God gives to all cosmic believers. All divine discipline is a gracious act on the part of God to try to teach us what we will not learn the easy way. Learning the easy way is perception of doctrine in the divine dynasphere; learning the hard way is divine discipline. We also have here a futuristic present denoting an event which has not yet occurred, namely the administration of the sin unto death, but is regarded as so certain in thought that it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. With this we have the active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. God the Father has turned all judgment over to our Lord Jesus Christ — John 5:22, 27. The declarative indicative mood is for the reality of maximum discipline to believers who are unteachable. There are two categories of being unteachable. One is the resistance of doctrine and the other is related to it, cosmic involvement. And there are two categories of teaching as far as believers are concerned: the communication of Bible doctrine by the pastor on the one hand and the administration of divine discipline from our Lord Jesus Christ on the other hand.

So He says, “I am about to do something,” and what He is about to do is the aorist active infinitive of the verb e)mew, which means to vomit. The constative aorist contemplates the administration of the sin unto death in its entirety. They are not going to die happily, they are going to die in a horribly miserable way. Vomiting is miserable, so is the sin unto death. It is the last miserable experience that the cosmic believer has on this earth. The infinitive of actual result means that the sin unto death is the terrible reality. With this we have the accusative singular direct object from the personal pronoun su, and this refers to cosmic believers only.

The reason you can’t make decisions to solve your problems in the cosmic system is because in the cosmic system you are the servant of Satan, the slave of Satan.

Then to make things very clear we have e)k plus the ablative singular of stoma, plus e)gw, “out of [from] my mouth.” This has nothing to do with loss of salvation, this is simply the last category of divine discipline. It is your merit badge that you were unteachable. There is one merit badge that belongs to the Christian who stays in the cosmic system. You were totally unteachable by the most stringent forms of divine discipline. God always picks the thing that will hurt you the most and when you cannot respond to that your only excuse for living is to be used as one of the aggressors to try to lure other believers out of the divine dynasphere. After that it is all over. So this is the problem as far as this passage is concerned.

Corrected translation: “Therefore because you are lukewarm, in fact neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit you from my mouth.”

Verse 17, these people who are in this category do have certain kinds of prosperity, but their success and prosperity does not bring them happiness. In fact successful people are twice as miserable when they hurt as unsuccessful people.

We begin with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, correctly translated “because.” Next comes the present active indicative of legw. Legw is a verb which comes from logoj which originally meant thought. In other words, legw is merely verbalising your thoughts, which is what speaking is in most cases, though not all. So when it says “Because you say,” this is the verbalisation of the thinking of these cosmic believers who are said to be lukewarm and whose liability is moving in the direction of warning discipline, intensive discipline and, in some cases, dying discipline. The descriptive present tense is for what is now going on in Laodicea. It is also the present tense of duration for what was begun in the past when these believers were given some prosperity. The implication is that in most cases first they had the prosperity from living in the divine dynasphere. The divine dynasphere was the source of whatever prosperity they happened to have. That is when they were “hot.” Lukewarm means they have cooled off. They were once hot and in the divine dynasphere; now they are in the cosmic system. Lukewarm always means that one time it was hot.

Believers in their advance to maturity inevitably start to get prosperous one way or another. They may have social prosperity, they may have business prosperity; there are many categories to prosperity but whatever it is they have prosperity. But the prosperity came to them in the divine dynasphere. However, they were not able to pass the prosperity test. Now they still have the prosperity in the cosmic system, it is still there. But the prosperity in the cosmic system is going to be a means of setting up for discipline. Prosperous people, like non-prosperous people, are very unhappy people. Prosperity doesn’t change anything. It may change a few overt manifestations in life but it doesn’t change the soul. Inside is the same old person with the same uncertainties, the same problems. The facade is different but inside is a miserable person.

The active voice: the cosmic believers have flunked the prosperity test and they are the ones who produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the situation. Therefore we have next the word o(ti again. The first one means “because” but the second one means “quote,” “Because you say, quote.” Now here is the interesting thing. These people in Laodicea had responded to John’s ministry after salvation, they had begun to grow in grace. They had been in the divine dynasphere and had made some tremendous progress in their spiritual lives so that already logistical grace was being parlayed into the beginnings of some supergrace manifestations. They had prosperity. Now that they have been evangelised for the cosmic system they haven’t lost their salvation and, as a matter of fact, in this case they haven’t even lost their prosperity. But they have changed their status from life in the divine dynasphere to life in the cosmic system.

Now this is what they say, and they have problems which are made by their own volition. You and I have never had a problem in our lives that our volition somehow wasn’t related to. There are certain categories of suffering that are designed for blessing and for growth but apart from that most of the suffering that comes to people comes to them because of their own decisions. (This is true of adults; it isn’t always true of children) “Because you say, I am,” the present active indicative of the verb e)imi. The predicate nominative with it is plousioj which means rich, prosperous, wealthy — “Because you say, I am wealthy.” The progressive present tense is for an action in the state of persistence, therefore it is linear aktionsart. The active voice: the cosmic believer who has flunked the prosperity test produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The reality is the continuation of material prosperity the source of which is the divine dynasphere but its perpetuation in the cosmic system. This is often the status of cosmic believers who are successful and prosperous. People forget the source of their prosperity. Prosperity comes to us because of our residence in the divine dynasphere.

Prosperity testing occurs in two categories: for individuals in the divine dynasphere and for nations where there is a large enough pivot for God to prosper that nation. Prosperity testing occurs for a nation or a city when the three categories of manifest destiny are combined under the leadership of the industrial complex. This means prosperity for unbelievers, cosmic believers and believers living inside the divine dynasphere. Add to this the prosperity of blessing by association and you have a momentum test. The Laodiceans received their prosperity while living and functioning in the divine dynasphere and this means that we have here an expression of arrogance: “Because you say, I am wealthy.” This word plousioj means many things such as success, financial wealth, promotion, fame, approbation, social prosperity, and many other things. When some form of wealth or prosperity comes to the believer one of two things happens. First of all it finds him in the divine dynasphere where the prosperity begins. Either he remains in the divine dynasphere and the capacity stays ahead of the prosperity and he is a very happy person , or he becomes inflamed with arrogance and takes his prosperity into the cosmic system where it makes him miserable sooner or later.

There is nothing wrong with prosperity but all too frequently there is something wrong with those who have prosperity. Prosperity was designed to be a blessing but prosperity can never be a blessing without the capacity. The capacity comes from the divine dynasphere and when you take your prosperity into the cosmic system sooner or later it is going to make you miserable. Wealth or prosperity in the divine dynasphere is a fantastic blessing but wealth or prosperity in the cosmic system is the Laodicean syndrome. The believer flunks the prosperity test when riches or wealth change his priorities so that doctrine is no longer first in his life. That is one of the great problems with the prosperity test. No believer survives the prosperity test when wealth, success, riches, promotion, fame and approbation come between him and Bible doctrine. The prosperity test, then, is far more subtle and far more difficult than the adversity test. Without capacity for happiness and prosperity the wealth in the prosperity test, the success in the prosperity test, the fame in the prosperity test results in a frantic search for happiness. The frantic search for happiness leads the believer into the cosmic system and a dead-end street, for true happiness can only be found inside the divine dynasphere.

“Because you say” — we are talking now about those believers who are in the cosmic system and who fall into many of the categories that we have in this passage — “I am rich.” This is the prosperity test and no one ever goes from gate four to gate eight without facing eight major tests. If you pass the tests it accelerates spiritual growth; if you flunk the test you wind up in the cosmic system. Now we are talking here about cosmic believers. They became wealthy, prosperous, successful, rich while they were still in the divine dynasphere. But they have left the divine dynasphere and they are now in the cosmic system. In other words, they flunked the prosperity test. Prosperity testing occurs not only to individual believers but, of course, nations as well. Prosperity testing is an historical trend as well as an individual test. Prosperity testing occurs to a nation or a city when the three categories of manifest destiny are combined under the leadership of the industrial complex. This means prosperity for unbelievers, cosmic believers, believers living inside the divine dynasphere. So there is a kind of prosperity that comes to all people in a client nation when there is a large pivot. Add to this the prosperity of blessing by association and you have momentum test number eight, the prosperity test. Add to this the fact that the Laodiceans were formally hot, and this is analogous to the fact that they once lived in the divine dynasphere, they had advanced almost to maturity and in some cases they had moved that far. The prosperity test, of course, takes many forms and many of them had different categories of prosperity.

The basic principle that we are going to note out of this is one that is very important: neither rich people nor poor people, nor any category in between can handle any form of prosperity without capacity. Your capacity should always precede, run ahead of your prosperity and that is only possible inside the divine dynasphere. Capacity must come first. When some form of wealth or prosperity comes to the believer one of two things will happen: either he will remain in the divine dynasphere and therefore maintain his capacity for prosperity and therefore have great happiness in prosperity, or he becomes inflamed with arrogance and takes his prosperity into the cosmic system where it makes him miserable. There is nothing wrong with prosperity, only those who have prosperity. Wealth and prosperity in the divine dynasphere becomes a fantastic blessing but wealth and prosperity in the cosmic system is the Laodicean syndrome.

Then we move on to the intensive use of the conjunction kai. The intensive kai is generally translated “in fact.” And then we have an additional phrase, the perfect active indicative of the verb ploutew, which means to acquire wealth. “Because you say, quote: I am rich, in fact I have acquired wealth”. The intensive perfect tense is used here and it means this: when special attention is directed towards the results of the action emphasis on the existing facts is intensified. This is a strong way of saying a thing is. The active voice: cosmic believers have become very successful in business but they do not have any happiness accompanying it. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that they have flunked the prosperity test. Reason: prosperity will take you into the cosmic system unless you have the capacity for it when it comes.

The next phrase deals with the principle of flunking the prosperity test. There are four words: kai o)uden xreian e)xw. The first word, kai, is simply a connective use of the conjunction, it means “and.” The present active indicative of e)xw, “and I have.” The progressive present tense signifies action in progress or a state of persistence, present linear aktionsart, living in the cosmic system. The active voice: the cosmic believer produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the cosmic viewpoint from the standpoint of historical reality. This is the cosmic viewpoint. The whole system of priorities and the proper scale of values is set aside when a person says: “I have need of nothing.”

Next we have the accusative singular direct object from xreian, which means “need.” Next the accusative neuter singular from o)udeij, meaning “nothing”. This implies that the believer does not need Bible doctrine, it implies that he doesn’t need the divine dynasphere, it implies that he does not need logistical grace in any form. In other words, what has happened? By shifting into the cosmic system the believer has lost the right priorities of the divine dynasphere. When he says: “I am rich and that is all I need,” then he has put wealth above doctrine and the divine dynasphere. This implies that the believer doesn’t need Bible doctrine. In effect this is reverse process reversionism. This is flunking the prosperity test. And in reverse process reversionism where doctrine used to be number one, now it is reversed and wealth and riches has become number one. And this changes the priorities and out of this comes a conclusion from the cosmic system: “I don’t need anything. I am wealthy therefore I need nothing.” But in the divine dynasphere doctrine makes you realise that you need the grace of God on a daily and a moment by moment basis.

1. This statement from a believer in the cosmic system indicates scar tissue of the soul. Scar tissue of the soul comes from many things, rejection of doctrine in general, and results in a complete change of priorities.

2. This is the Laodicean syndrome. The Laodicean Christians have been exposed to doctrinal teaching in the past. They have been exposed to the teaching of four great pastors: Epaphras, Timothy, Mark and John. So they can’t say they haven’t heard. Obviously in the Laodicean syndrome they have made wrong decisions against the whole realm of doctrine.

3. Therefore this is a reaction from the cosmic system. The reaction stated here indicates negative volition after first of all being positive. It indicates that positive volition came first but now they are negative. Hence these believers have left the divine dynasphere and they have entered into the cosmic system through flunking the prosperity test.

4. From their own decisions Laodicean believers have succumbed to cosmic evangelism. This cosmic evangelism was functioning when they were in prosperity. They didn’t go into the cosmic system when they were in adversity, they passed the adversity test. But the prosperity test is so different, it brings a whole new set of pressures, and while they could handle adversity by the use of the faith-rest drill in prosperity they just kicked the faith-rest drill out and everything it meant to them.

5. Whatever spiritual advances had been made in the past these were now neutralised by cosmic evangelism.

6. Those who are making this statement under the Laodicean syndrome have rejected the authority of pastors like Epaphras, Timothy, Mark and John. In effect they have rejected their teaching, i.e. the content of their message.

7. Only positive volition toward the content of doctrine from inside the divine dynasphere will maintain the right priorities to avoid the cosmic trap. People change when they become wealthy; people change when they become poor. People are constantly in the process of changing and the stability that avoids change for the worse always comes from the divine dynasphere.

8. Only the daily perception of Bible doctrine in the divine dynasphere will provide the believer capacity for prosperity.

9. Your capacity should always be ahead of your prosperity otherwise prosperity will lead you into the cosmic trap.

There are two side effects that are very tragic. The first effect is the blackout of the soul. This is the status of the believer in negative volition toward doctrine. In other words, in the cosmic system. The cosmic system of Satan includes two cosmic dynaspheres: cosmic #1, where doctrine is rejected because of preoccupation with self; cosmic #2, where doctrine is rejected because of antagonism toward it. The black-out of the soul finds the believer entering gate two of cosmic one — negative volition toward Bible doctrine from arrogance or preoccupation with self. He also enters cosmic two, gate one, in which he is antagonistic toward doctrine. Satan’s kingdom, the cosmic system, is called the kingdom of darkness in Ephesians 5:11; 6:12; Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us [believers] from the domain [kingdom] of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love [the divine dynasphere].” The kingdom of the Son of His love emphasises the divine dynasphere from the standpoint of virtue. For example, there is motivating virtue which is personal love toward God; there is functional virtue which is impersonal love directed toward man and circumstances. So it is called the kingdom of the Son of His love, referring to the divine dynasphere producing virtue, and since the domain of Satan is called the kingdom of darkness those believers who reside and function in the cosmic system are said to walk in darkness, 1 John 1:6; 2:11; John 12:35.

The mechanics of the blackout of the soul are really described in summary in Ephesians 4:17, “Therefore I explain this, and make an emphatic demand by means of the Lord, that you no longer walk like as other Gentiles walk [unbelievers] in the vacuum of their minds.” The word “vacuum, mataiwthj, is the key to this problem that comes to all believers who are in the cosmic system. Every day and the longer you are in the cosmic system the more you lose the divine perspective of life, until it is blotted out completely if you stay there long enough. This means that you no longer understand establishment or the gospel, or Bible doctrine which is the means of advancing to maturity as a believer. The blackout of the soul therefore relates to reversionism.

In stage two of reversionism you have reaction, which is usually a frantic search for happiness. It comes in several forms, asceticism of cosmic one. For example, self-righteous arrogance at gate five is one of the illustrations. This always results in becoming critical of others. The lascivious trend in cosmic two is found in gate two, degeneracy; gate three, antiestablishment; gate six, demonism; gate the eight, the old sin nature; and eventually everything ends up in evil.

The third stage is operation boomerang: the frantic search for happiness bounces back and you are twice as miserable as you were before you started out. The frantic search for happiness is intensified with disastrous results. For example, in cosmic one, gate seven, criminal arrogance; or gate eight, crusader arrogance; gate nine, psychopathic arrogance; gate ten, sexual arrogance. In cosmic two, for example, gate two degeneracy or gate nine, Satan’s policy of evil. Stage three is the emotional revolt of the soul. The holy-rollers are probably the best illustration. Stage five is negative volition toward Bible doctrine and in stage six you have blackout of the soul. If blackout of the soul is not alleviated by rebound — getting back into the divine dynasphere and learning doctrine. Then eventually you go to stage seven which is scar tissue of the soul, and from there the stage we have here in the phrase “I have need of nothing” which is reverse process reversionism. When you get to the point where your wealth, your success, your prosperity says you need nothing, then you have abandoned logistical grace and you have abandoned the divine dynasphere and Bible doctrine. “Having become darkened in your understanding,” Ephesians 3:18, is blackout of the soul; “having been alienated from the life of God,” the life of God is the divine dynasphere, and you are alienated from the divine dynasphere. Why? Because of ignorance.

There was the same problem when our Lord was alive. You would have thought that everyone would have listened to our Lord and responded, but that isn’t true. John 12:37, “But though he had performed many miracles before them, yet they did not believe in him.” Verse 38, “That the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled when he spoke, Lord who has believed our message and to whom is the arm of the Lord [Christ] revealed. For this cause they could not believe for Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes.” How? By simply giving them truth, which they rejected. That is the way you get blackout of the soul. “Lest the should see with their eyes,” the eyes are wisdom or perception of doctrine, “and perceive with their right lobe and be converted and I restore them.” So the problem is always the same, whether it was when Christ was on earth or at the present time. The blackout of the soul becomes a major issue and a major problem, John 6:39-45.

There is an answer to this given by Paul in Ephesians 4:15-18, “But by teaching doctrine in the sphere of the love complex [the divine dynasphere], you may cause them to grow up by the all things of doctrinal teaching with reference to him, who is the absolute authority, even Christ, from whom all the body, being joined together and being taught categorically by every joint of supply [the pastor is the joint of supply] according to the operational power [gate one of the divine dynasphere] in measure” [one pastor for each part of the body of Christ], resulting in an edification complex belonging to himself in the sphere of the love complex [the divine dynasphere]. Therefore I explain this, and make an emphatic demand by means of the Lord, that you walk not longer as the Gentiles walk, in the vacuum of your mind.”

Again, our passage says: “Because you say, quote: I am rich, in fact I have become very wealthy, and therefore I have need of absolutely nothing”. Nothing could be more tragic than to get into this situation. This is reverse process reversionism which means facing in the opposite direction and having the exact opposite priorities from what you should have in life. There are a few verses that should be remembered, like John 15:23 where our Lord says: “He who hates me also hates my Father.” In other words, the fact that believers could hate the Lord is almost unthinkable but it is true where in the cosmic system long enough that is exactly what happens. And so, 1 Peter 5:8: “Be stabilised [inside the divine dynasphere], be on the alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” And he doesn’t personally try to devour you, he has a system. He reaches out with the twenty-six tentacles of cosmic one and the nine tentacles of cosmic two. That is why it says in James 4:4, where all of us are called “female hookers”: “You female hookers, do you not know that the cosmic system keeps on being alienation from God? Therefore whoever has decided [options from personal volition] to be a love of the cosmic system appoints himself the enemy of God.” It says in Philippians 3:18 the same thing: that we [believers in the cosmic system] are the enemies of the cross. In 2 Timothy 2:26 we have another warning: “And that they should come to their senses.” When some believer says, “I don’t need any doctrine,” they have to come to their senses; “from the devil’s trap [the cosmic system], having been led captive by him with reference to a system” — it is a system, he doesn’t come and personally overcome you, he has a system for overcoming you.

That is why it says in 1 John 2:18,19, “Little children, it is the last hour [the entire Church Age]; and just as you have heard that antichrist is coming [in the Tribulation], even now [in the Church Age] there are many antichrists having come on the scene … They [antichrists, believers in reverse process reversionism] have departed from us [they have left the divine dynasphere, they function inside the cosmic system], at least they were not with us; for if they had been with us [second class condition: but they were not] they would have resided with us; that it might be demonstrated that all believers are not with us.”

So again the principle: the cosmic system completely changes your attitude about everything.

1. Momentum testing is designed with two things in mind: first, opportunity for the application of doctrine learned at gate four. Now you don’t apply all the doctrine you have learned every day, you apply different doctrines to different situations and there are some doctrines that have an application that is quite different, and that is in worship or our unseen relationship with the Lord. The opportunity for application of doctrine comes from perception of doctrine, the function of your royal priesthood, whereas the application of doctrine is the function of your royal ambassadorship. Momentum is designed so that you will have the opportunity for application of doctrine. Secondly, momentum testing is designed to accelerate your momentum.

2. No believer attains maturity apart from momentum testing, all eight categories.

3. Spiritual growth results from perception of Bible doctrine, but spiritual growth is accelerated through the application of that doctrine to the categories of testing.

4. All suffering is divided into two categories: suffering for testing and blessing; suffering for discipline and punishment.

5. No believer can fulfill the plan of God and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ apart from momentum testing.

6. Therefore some of the testing in the divine dynasphere is suffering and some of it is prosperity, but the testing actually exists in eight categories for the purpose of application and acceleration of spiritual growth.

7. All categories of testing in the divine dynasphere are designed for blessing. Therefore whether blessing or prosperity, whether adversity or some other form of suffering, the divine purpose is for your good.

8. Human volition plays an important part in testing for the believer must make the right decisions based on his application of Bible doctrine and his residence in the divine dynasphere.

9. Divine faithfulness also plays a very important role in testing. 1 Corinthians 10:13 — “Testing has not caught up with you.” God gives you the opportunity for capacity before the testing, just as He gives you the opportunity for capacity before the prosperity. Nothing is any good without capacity. The real secret to happiness is not prosperity, the real secret to happiness is your capacity for it. Capacity is everything; prosperity or adversity is incidental; “except the human kind; moreover God is faithful [there is the wonderful provision of logistical grace], who will not permit you to be tested beyond your capabilities [your capacity], but with the momentum testing he will also provide a way out [a solution], so that you can carry the pressure [whether it is pressure from prosperity or pressure from adversity].”

In going from gate four, the momentum gate, to gate eight in God’s plan there are eight categories of momentum testing. We have seen the first three so far: old sin nature testing, thought testing, and people testing. These three are the beginning of tests and very few people manage to survive these three so that they can continue their momentum. To pass these three tests is to give acceleration to your spiritual momentum; to fail these tests is to become involved in the cosmic system where there is great unhappiness. Behind all of this is the principle that we must never forget: we are the products of our own decisions. When we come to the place where we have made an especially bad decision, and in that decision great catastrophe has resulted, it is usually a series of decisions that bring us to that point. Bad decisions will destroy your life and make you miserable and long before any divine discipline comes your way you will be the product of your own bad decisions. You will be miserable, you will be unhappy, and you will have brought it all on yourself. Taking responsibility for your own decisions is a part of growing up, and once you begin to take the responsibility for your own decisions as a believer you can then start looking at solutions.

We find that in Laodicea the people were not taking responsibility for their own decisions. The Laodiceans started out living in the divine dynasphere and fulfilling God’s plan. Many of them had already advanced to maturity but somewhere along the line prosperity came along and they couldn’t pass the prosperity test. As a result of flunking the prosperity test they moved into the cosmic system. We are now detailing some of the solutions to failing the prosperity test. In the first three tests we have noted the solution is rebound in the old sin nature test; the faith-rest drill is the solution to thought testing; in people testing the solution is impersonal love.

The Christian way of life actually falls into two general categories which we might classify as invisible and visible. Under the concept of invisible we have the warrant of the royal priesthood; under the concept of visible we have the warrant of the royal ambassadorship. In the invisible part of the Christian life the priest represents himself to God, whereas the visible — the ambassador — represents God to mankind. One demands perception of doctrine (the invisible), the other demands application of doctrine (the visible). The invisible part of the Christian way of life demands as a virtue personal love directed toward God. Personal love is only a virtue when it is directed toward God. Personal love is virtuous in the human race when it is backed by integrity. The counterpart in the visible function is impersonal love directed toward all mankind.

All problem-solving must have a base called virtue. You cannot solve your problem relationships with people or your problem relationships with the circumstances of life unless you have virtue. Motivating virtue is personal love for God, perception of Bible doctrine at gate four. Problem-solving is the application of that doctrine at gate four in the function of impersonal love. You have to build up in your own soul a base not only for problem-solving but also a base for happiness, a base for capacity when you are prosperous. Prosperous people are just as miserable as any other category unless they have the capacity for what they should be enjoying. There are two categories of virtue: motivational and functional. All motivating virtues are manufactured inside the divine dynasphere and directed toward God; all functional virtues are manufactured inside the divine dynasphere and directed toward man. Impersonal love is really the index to your character. It isn’t how personable you are, how attractive you are, how successful you are. The real secret to your life is your ability to function under impersonal love, the highest form of human virtue directed toward mankind. Satan has developed in the cosmic system a substitute. He recognises the dangers of impersonal love to his cosmic system whether you do or not and therefor he has set up a substitute called motivational arrogance — crusader arrogance, the social gospel, social action, etc. Behind it is an attempt to find a substitute virtue in life for impersonal love. It doesn’t work because it is functioning from the wrong base, the cosmic system, because what motivates people in the cosmic system is arrogance. Arrogance has many different manifestations.

Impersonal love toward mankind is virtuous while personal love for mankind is virtue-dependant. In other words, if you are going to perpetuate personal love with other human beings there must be virtue in your life. Functional virtue is manufactured from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, especially at gate four. Impersonal love always emphasises the virtue, the integrity, the honour of the subject. If the subject has honour, integrity and virtue then the object of impersonal love always benefits because the object does not have to seek that love by being attractive, or attentive, or something that is very important to the subject. Personal love always emphasises the object and the object can have virtue or no virtue but the object must have something, however, that the subject likes. Therefore there is a vast difference between personal and impersonal love. For example, impersonal love emphasises the integrity of the subject and this, of course, is the basis for problem-solving using yourself as a base. But the problem with personal love is that it depends upon the attractiveness of the object and therefore it has not virtue in itself, it is simply a basis of attractiveness and that, of course, means a few. The imperative of life is impersonal love; the option of life is personal love. Impersonal love is directed toward all. The object of impersonal love is the entire human race, the attractive and the unattractive, whereas personal love is always directed toward just a few. As a matter of fact impersonal love is motivated by God but personal love is motivated by rapport. Therefore there is a great distinction between personal and impersonal love. Impersonal love is non-discriminating; personal love is very discriminating. Personal love, by the way, is unfair; impersonal love is always fair. Impersonal love is unconditional; personal love is conditional. Impersonal love possesses the highest form of emotion; personal love possesses a limited form of emotion. Impersonal love is a functional virtue; at best personal love (if it is going to be perpetuated) is virtue-dependant. In other words, impersonal love is only a virtue when it is directed toward all mankind. Impersonal love is manufactured inside the divine dynasphere from perception of Bible doctrine. But it isn’t the perception that manufactures the impersonal love, the perception of doctrine manufactures the personal love toward God which motivates impersonal love. Impersonal love is not sustained by the object of love but by the doctrinal content of your soul. Impersonal love functions whether the person is attractive or not, therefore impersonal love does not depend on rapport with the object nor the attractiveness of the object. For this reason impersonal love is a virtue, it is directed toward all mankind. It cannot be corrupted or deceived by flattery or emotion or approbation or exploited by arrogance. In other words, impersonal love is a relaxed mental attitude from spiritual momentum. But more than that it is the application of doctrine to people in circumstances. Therefore impersonal love becomes the antithesis of arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, self-pity, revenge modus operandi, hatred, guilt subordination, etc.

The object of impersonal love can be an enemy or a friend, a person who is unworthy or worthy, a person who is attractive or unattractive, a person who is virtuous or evil. In other words, impersonal love functions consistently whether faced with animosity and antagonism on the one hand or love and admiration on the other hand. Just having that stable base of impersonal love means that you have the ability not to be distracted in your Christian life by people. One of the greatest dangers you face to spiritual growth are the people around you, the people in your circumstances. Impersonal love is not influenced by the attitudes of others toward you, but because of doctrine resident in your soul and occupation with the person of Christ at gate five you are on a solid basis for the application of doctrine to those who are antagonistic toward you. Therefore, you see, impersonal love functions virtuously toward all because of your honour, because of your integrity, not the beauty, or the attractiveness of someone else. Impersonal love is not only the fulfillment of the royal family honour code but it is the means of solving the problems in your life, and it is your only hope for consistent happiness in life whether you have disappointing human relationships or prosperity in human relationships.

The role of personal love should not be ignored at this particular time. Personal love toward man falls into two categories: category romance [right-man, right-woman], and friendship or category three love. Since there is not virtue in personal love for mankind personal love makes the individual vulnerable to the tragic flaws of life. Personal love for anyone is a manufacturing system for problems apart from virtue. Personal love for anyone often makes the individual subjective, hypersensitive, have emphasis on self. This produces subjectivity and hypersensitivity as manifestations of arrogance. Personal love for anyone combines your personal problems with theirs, resulting in the intensification of the stresses in life. Therefore personal love for another human being often causes subjectivity, arrogance, loss of good norms and standards, even sociopathic behaviour, psychosis, and so on. Personal love for mankind is virtue dependent and it can only be sustained by the virtue of impersonal love toward all.

What motivates impersonal love? There are two categories depending on their direction or object: virtue directed toward God which motivates; virtue directed toward man which results as functional virtue. No one is capable of fulfilling the requirements of impersonal love toward all mankind unless first of all he has reached the point of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. And if the Lord is more real to you than anything else your priorities are straight; Bible doctrine is still number one priority. That is so necessary of you are going to be happy in life. Virtue directed toward God motivates virtue directed toward man and personal love for God motivates impersonal love for mankind. Motivating virtue is the motivating virtue of the royal family; functional virtue is the modus operandi.

God has a playing field, as it were, boundaries for the way in which the Christian way of life functions. We call it the divine dynasphere; it is a power system. Gate one is the filling of the Spirit; gate two, basic impersonal love; gate three, enforced and genuine humility. These three gates support the momentum function of the Christian way of life which is gate four, perception and application of Bible doctrine. Gate one is the filling of the Spirit or the IQ. The spiritual IQ is a factor; human IQ is not necessary since momentum demands cognisance of Bible doctrine, in fact inculcation. Gate two is objectivity in approaching the Word of God so as to avoid all personality problems and other distractions that keep you from benefiting from listening to Bible teaching. Gate three has to do with teachability, both enforced and genuine humility are very definitely a part of orientation to life.

Gate four, then, is the function of the Christian way of life. First of all there is the perception of doctrine, the function of our royal priesthood, and then there is application of doctrine, the function of our royal ambassadorship. The function of our royal priesthood is directed toward God. This produces motivating virtue. The application of our ambassadorship is directed toward people and circumstances. It is the function of our ambassadorship which generally lags behind in our spiritual growth.

Gate five is love of God and eventually is parlayed into occupation with the person of Christ. Gate six, right-man, right-woman where pertinent. The is the most personal and most intimate of all categories of love in the human race. Gate seven has the crystallisation of virtue and integrity in the life, also the modus operandi of friendship or category three love. Gate eight is the objective, the advance to maturity.

We have studied in the past detailed mandates with regard to our residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. The Laodicean believers had failed in this matter. Many of them had already advanced to maturity but they had been distracted and they had gone from the momentum line into the cosmic system: cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance; cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred. They had been distracted and as a result of this they had failed primarily to pass the prosperity test, which means most of them had already made great spiritual advances at the time that they failed. We are noting their attitude in verse 17 with regard to that particular problem.

All virtue and all significance and all solutions to the problems of human relationship, social intercourse, are dependent upon the possession of impersonal love. Impersonal love does not relate to any other possession you may have. It does not relate to wealth or success in promotion or any other factors in life that are associated with happiness. It is related entirely to virtue and to integrity in the life and without impersonal love you cannot solve the problems in your life. Without impersonal love you get into gate one, cosmic one, and that of course is arrogance. In gate one of cosmic one your arrogance will destroy any possibility of virtue residing in your life. Instead of virtue in the life you have self-pity, preoccupation with self, all of the things that are related to arrogance. Where you once said to someone, I love you, now jealousy comes in and through that jealousy the expression of various forms of evil; for jealousy is simply arrogance and jealousy and arrogance are simply motivating evils. Therefore whether it is bitterness or vindictiveness or implacability or revenge tactics or hatred where were once there were the allegations of love it is an excellent illustration of the fact that there is no virtue in personal love. The virtue resides in impersonal love and solving the problems of life related to people and circumstances demands the possession of virtue, for it is the virtue of impersonal love that forms the base for solving your problems.

We do not believe in counseling people, and the reason we do not is because counseling means that you are dependent on someone else to solve your problems. You do not come to your problems suddenly, you come to your problems by making decisions. You make decisions with regard to your scale of values, your priorities in life; you make decisions with regard to your modus vivendi in life, you associate with certain people, certain organisations, certain individuals, whatever it is. You make decisions with regard to you locale in life, you constantly make lot of decisions and then eventually down the line you make decision X where the problem breaks out in all of its intensity. Now you have a problem. Then having brought yourself to point X by a number of decisions, and you are responsible for your own decisions, you go to someone else and you seek counsel. And this is ludicrous because the good advice they give you you may or you may not take, but the point is you made the decisions to get there and you have to make the decisions to resolve the problem. Therefore you have to have information to make your own decisions. You not only have to have information but you have to have the integrity to make the right decisions to solve this problem and either get back to square one or move on to square X, Y and Z. It all depends on you. You have to get back to the divine dynasphere. In order to do this you have to take Bible doctrine that you have learned over the years and you have to apply it. And the problem is: Why can’t you take all of this doctrine you have learned at gate four, why can’t you apply the doctrines of the hypostatic union, of divine decrees, the doctrine of our Lord’s impeccability, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, imputation? Why can’t you apply, for example, the doctrine of election which is so important in problem-solving. The answer is that these doctrine pertaining to our Lord and to His plan cannot be applied in your life because the system for application calls for a virtue called impersonal love, and if you don’t have it you can’t make the application. Impersonal love is the sum total of your virtue and your integrity applied to all people — not to some people but to all people — and your attitude toward unattractive people, your attitude toward people who are antagonistic, your attitude toward those with whom you have a natural personality conflict is realty the key to your life and your ability to apply doctrine to experience. If you do not have the attitude of virtue, honour, love and integrity toward those who are antagonistic toward you, toward those you would otherwise despise, toward those who irritate you, then you will never be successful in your personal relationships in life and you will never enjoy a longtime friendship and you will never have the perpetuation of love between yourself and a member of the opposite sex.

The existence of arrogance cuts off any possibility of the application of doctrine to experience. Yet that is why we are here, not only to learn doctrine and grow but to apply doctrine. That is why God has given us in the spiritual momentum line eight different momentum tests. We have to pass those tests to get to gate eight and that is the problem with the Laodiceans, they had moved up very close to gate eight. Some of them were already there and then they flunked some of these tests, and so as goes the second momentum test so goes your life because that is people testing. You can’t live very long in this life without having contact with other people. If you cannot be objective about people you cannot be objective about circumstances and therefore you cannot be objective about life.

While personal love is directed toward mankind in a selective sense, emphasising the attractiveness of the object and related to a few people, impersonal love is non-discriminating. It emphasises the virtue, the honour, the integrity of the subject and it relates to all mankind and fulfills the mandate, “Love everyone.” Impersonal love is very personal but it has a different direction, the direction is your own life. You must be objective, you must have virtue and integrity from life and residence and function in the divine dynasphere. The pattern of impersonal love as the ultimate functional virtue, then, is the essence of God or the interaction of divine attributes in infinite and eternal God and the emphasis on that subject. For example we have studied before the fact that God is love. God’s love is perfect, it is infinite, it is eternal, it is based on His integrity which is His holiness, composed of His righteousness and justice. How can we ever have a personal love for someone unless you can be fair, there is the concept of justice, unless you have enough integrity and therefore enough honour to graciously handle their faults and not take offense. God’s love has always existed without an object and this in itself boggles the mind because God has always been love, there never was a time when God did not exist. He has always been love but He doesn’t have to have an object to be love. That is the secret to impersonal love: the presence of integrity, the presence of virtue, the stability of virtue and integrity in the life, which means that God’s love does not fluctuate, it does not discriminate, it does not depend upon merit or the attractiveness of the object. The attributes of divine integrity become the pattern therefore for human impersonal love, love as a virtue. In other words, for impersonal love as a virtue directed toward all mankind there must be an attitude of soul, there must be an objectivity, there must be everything found in the divine dynasphere. God the Father invented the divine dynasphere as a system for the function of impersonal love.

The functional virtue of impersonal love is the sum total of the believer’s honour, integrity and objectivity manufactured from Bible doctrine resident in the soul. There must be doctrine first, there must be truth. Truth is the basis for the crystallisation of integrity in your life. The emphasis of impersonal love is always the spiritual momentum and the virtue of the believer as the subject of love. Therefore impersonal love is unconditional as far as the object is concerned. It is unprejudiced, tolerant, courteous, considerate, now matter how great the stress of antagonism. The relaxed mental attitude, then, of impersonal love is the antithesis of gate one, cosmic one, where we have arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity, guilt reaction or revenge motivation. Impersonal love, then, as a virtue is not only manufactured inside the divine dynasphere but can only function when the believer resides in that divine dynasphere. Inside the cosmic system any former category of human love becomes hypocrisy. It really becomes preoccupation with self and in effect it says: “I love you because of what you can do for me.” That is the hypocrisy of human love, there is no virtue in that, you love people for all the wrong reasons and there is no happiness in it.

When it is said that impersonal love is unconditional it means that it has no merit as a sign to the object. When the object has no attractiveness is not the issue, that is the issue in personal love, not in impersonal love. All motivation of course for the function of impersonal love must originate in your relationship to God as a Christian. That takes us back to, What is Christianity? It is the function of your royal priesthood, it is the function of your royal ambassadorship. Your priesthood functions toward God, your ambassadorship functions toward man and circumstances. God is invisible to us and is only known through perception of Bible doctrine, and if He is real to you through the perception of Bible doctrine so that you love Him on the basis of doctrine — doctrine is the secret to knowing God and therefore loving Him — then the same principle is applied to mankind under the same principle of impersonal love. Personal love is a motivating virtue toward God; impersonal love is a functional virtue directed toward man. Once you start doing things on the basis of what people do to you, you are a slave. Someone offends you, you offend them back; someone talks about you, you do it right back to them. Once you do that you are in the cosmic system, you are a slave. You are Satan’s slave and you will spend your whole life responding and reacting and being miserable. People who go from response to someone who is attractive to reaction to someone who is antagonistic are unstable and miserable, and if it goes on long enough it can even result in psychopathic and sociopathic modus operandi.

So impersonal love as a virtue originates from the motivation of the love of God. Personal love of people is a distraction to your relationship with God if you put it first. Impersonal love for people is a manifestation of your love of God. But if in his preoccupation with self, his arrogance, his hypersensitivity, the believer kicks his enemies in the teeth and smiles at his friends he is a problem.

So the modus operandi of impersonal love is the problem-solver of our first three momentum tests. And as a functional virtue which can be observed and noted by others it is the obvious manifestation of dynamic spiritual living — that is, impersonal love as a functional virtue. Dynamic spiritual living is residence and function in the divine dynasphere. The divine dynasphere is invisible but the function of its virtue is visible and impressive, the testimony of your royal ambassadorship. This is why impersonal love is imperative while personal love is optional, and the believer in Jesus Christ being both a priest and an ambassador has two functions. His priesthood leads to motivating virtue and his ambassadorship leads to functional virtue and therefore the two functions of gate four are involved: the perception of doctrine and the application of doctrine. Perception of doctrine is related to motivating virtue; application of doctrine is related to functional virtue. This is the problem-solving process. You must have a base from which to solve your own problems, sooner or later you must become spiritually self-sustaining. You don’t have to consult the counsel of others if you are consistent in your intake of doctrine, what you need is to function the base of impersonal love. Many times your problems come from the antagonisms of others, real or imagined, and you have no way of solving these things unless you have virtue, the virtue of impersonal love. The function of impersonal love is the panacea for personality conflicts, the solution to the problems of personal relationships and, of course, human interaction the dynamic impact of functional virtue in society. For this reason personal love is optional in your life but impersonal love is God’s mandate.Unconditional personal love is non-existent for all personal love is conditional and selective. Man saturated with arrogance, preoccupied with himself cannot possibly sustain human relationships. Therefore personal love in the human race depends on virtue. Without honour, integrity, virtue impersonal love will never be successful or genuine. This expresses the principle that personal love in the human race is virtue dependent.

The cosmic system has a lot to offer you. It offers you great unhappiness. For example, the cosmic system often duplicates the blessings that God provides for the believer in the divine dynasphere, it offers you wealth, wealth without honour and therefore misery. It offers you success but success without integrity and therefore unhappiness. It offers you promotion but it promotes you beyond your ability, your capacity and your integrity, and therefore the promotion brings great unhappiness. It offers you approbation without achievement, a hypocrisy designed to make you miserable. It offers you love without virtue and love without virtue is one of the greatest frustrations in life and it results in the functions of a frantic search for happiness. All of these things can be yours in the cosmic system and you will notice what is missing: capacity — capacity for love, capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing. So it is really the integrity of impersonal love that really is the base for solving your own problems. The object of impersonal love can be known or unknown; the object of impersonal love can be an enemy or a friend, it can be someone who is attractive or someone who is antagonistic, someone who is virtuous or someone who is evil. Impersonal love perpetuates its virtue and integrity and honour without discrimination or without making any distinctions. Impersonal love cannot be destroyed by hatred.

Our Lord did not react to the injustice of the cross, the arrogance, the hypocrisy, the self-righteousness and all the evil functions directed toward His person in hypostatic union. He treated the human race with impersonal love. This is described at the Praetorium where he picked up His cross, and therefore the mandate to us: “Take up your cross and follow me.” What is taking up your cross and following Him? Some form of self-sacrifice? No. It is the construction of impersonal love in your life, the construction of virtue through the consistent perception of Bible doctrine. Personal love for God motivated His impersonal love in going to the cross, and the cross includes the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person was motivated by a love for God and in bearing our sins we have impersonal love directed toward the entire human race. That is why the bread of the communion table reminds us of our Lord’s motivating virtue of personal love toward God the Father, while the cup reminds us of our Lord’s functional virtue of impersonal love toward all mankind. Impersonal love, then, follows the precept that we are never to love people as an entity — category “all” — because of who and what they are. That would be personal. But under the virtue of impersonal love we are to love all people because of who and what we are. Believers motivated by personal love for God and functioning under the virtue of impersonal love for all are those who have reached the place of problem-solving in their lives, and with problem-solving comes the stability of great happiness. Because impersonal love extrapolates honour, integrity and virtue from residence inside the divine dynasphere it disregards malice, hatred, hostility, antagonism, implacability, vindictiveness in others. It substitutes the virtue of impersonal love and therefore tolerance and objectivity toward all. Therefore impersonal love is strong, it is dynamic, because it does not depend on approbation. It doesn’t depend upon human recognition or attention or flattery or patronage, but it depends on Bible doctrine which manufactures the motivating virtue inside the divine dynasphere. While the motivating virtue of impersonal love is invisible the function is very visible to all. Sensitivity is the impact of impersonal love in thoughtfulness of others, it manifests itself in good manners and willingness to accommodate one’s self to an individual or group. This is true in business, professional life, academic life, social life, every category of life. This means that the function of sensitivity combines the virtue of impersonal love with the virtue of enforced and genuine humility to make the dynamic person.

What we have today are primarily believers who cannot apply doctrine and this is, of course, hypersensitivity, the arrogant function of the believer in the cosmic system. This was the problem with the Laodiceans. They were lukewarm, they were in category hypersensitivity. Sensitivity is objective; hypersensitivity is subjective. Sensitivity is virtuous; hypersensitivity is arrogance. Hypersensitivity is arrogant preoccupation with self or the subjective function of making false issue out of one’s self. Hypersensitive people function under the demand syndrome and they use a number of strategies to get their own way or to control their own periphery or the people around them. The obsession of self-importance plus preoccupation of subjective arrogance eventuates in superimposing one’s will or one’s opinion on a group and simultaneously be insensitive with regard to the opinions of that group. Hypersensitive people are always insensitive to the feelings of others. The sensitivity of impersonal love is the impact of this functional virtue: no hypersensitivity, no arrogant subjectivity which, of course, is divorced from reality. Sensitivity is a part of impersonal love and it is virtuous, it is objective, it is totally oriented to reality and used as impersonal love to deal with reality and to solve the problems of life. The Laodiceans had failed with regard to this matter.

In verse 17 the particular test is a prosperity test. There are nine momentum tests in advancing from gate four to gate eight. Gate four is the momentum gate with its perception and application of doctrine. Gate eight is the ultimate objective of spiritual maturity. We have already seen the cosmic perspective and its failure in the first half of verse 17: “Because you say, quote: I am rich, in fact I have become very wealthy [prosperity test], and I have need of nothing [flunking the prosperity test].” We have noted that prosperity testing occurs for a nation or city or an individual where the three categories of manifest destiny are combined under the leadership of the industrial complex. The result of flunking the prosperity test on the part of a client nation of God is very simple. There is social degeneration, economic decline, and eventually military disaster.

When some form of wealth or prosperity comes to the believer one of two things happens to him as an individual. He either remains in the divine dynasphere and has the capacity for prosperity from perception and application of doctrine, primarily the application of doctrine, the stabilising of his priorities, maintaining Bible doctrine is number one in his scale of values. That is the one who passes the prosperity test. Or he becomes inflamed with arrogance and he takes his prosperity into the cosmic system where it makes him miserable for life. His misery is not divine discipline, at least not at first. His misery comes from his own decisions. Bad decisions are the cause of misery and unhappiness in life. Each one of us must take the responsibility for his own decisions and when we fail to do so we fail to recognise that we bring about most of the trouble we have in this life. We bring it about by our own personal decisions. God adds to those decisions and self-induced misery eventually by warning discipline.

Wealth or prosperity in the divine dynasphere in the divine dynasphere is a fantastic blessing but wealth or prosperity in the cosmic system is the Laodicean syndrome. The believer flunks the prosperity test when riches or wealth or promotion or success change his priorities so that Bible doctrine is no longer number one priority in his life. No believer survives the prosperity test when his wealth or success or promotion or approbation comes between him and Bible doctrine. The prosperity test id therefore far more subtle, far more difficult than the adversity. Without capacity for wealth and prosperity wealth, riches, fame and approbation result in a frantic search for happiness, and a frantic search for happiness leads to the destruction of right priorities and eventually winds up in the cosmic system, the last place you will ever find happiness. And so the principle we have been studying: Your capacity should always precede your prosperity, otherwise prosperity takes you into the cosmic system and great misery.

“Because you say I am rich.” There is nothing wrong with that. The problem comes from the next phrase: “and I have need of nothing.” The Laodicean Christians had been exposed to doctrinal teaching from four great pastors — Epaphras, Timothy, John Mark and the apostle John. The reaction stated here indicates negative volition after first of all being positive. These people became successful and as they became prosperous they suddenly put Bible doctrine way back in the scale of values and they put other things first. Inevitably they went into the cosmic system so that all of the great Bible teaching which they had was absolutely useless. And, as we shall see, many of them will capsize in life — the sin unto death — for their own decisions had caused the Laodiceans to succumb to cosmic evangelism which functions during prosperity testing. Whatever spiritual advances had been made are now negated. Some of them were actually mature believers. This is why they are described as lukewarm. They had once been hot in a state of maturity, now they had cooled off. Only positive volition toward doctrine inside the divine dynasphere will maintain the right priorities to avoid the cosmic trap, and only the daily perception of Bible doctrine in the divine dynasphere will provide the mature believer for the necessary capacity for prosperity. And, again, your capacity should always precede your prosperity, otherwise your prosperity will become a trap instead of a blessing. That is why we have been studying momentum testing.

We have noted the principles of momentum testing and then the actual categories. The first test was the old sin nature test, the second test was people testing -one of the places where you will discover in a hurry whether you will ever be capable of passing the prosperity test, because people can only become a distraction to perception of doctrine and residence in the divine dynasphere (in other words, the plan of God) when the believer places human relationships above Bible doctrine. So whether it is social life or sexual life or business life or professional life or any category of life that you choose to use, whenever prosperity takes precedence over doctrine because you become too infatuated with people and what they think of you, then you are in trouble and you have made your own trouble. Personal hatred, animosity or attraction can trap the believer in the cosmic system. The solution to people testing is the function of the believer inside the divine dynasphere and the base of impersonal love. Then the third test is thought testing which is generally related to the believer’s negative volition toward doctrine.

There are two ways to be negative toward doctrine. Inside of Satan’s cosmic one there is preoccupation with self; inside of cosmic two there is antagonism toward doctrine. Often this is a combination, preoccupation with self plus antagonism toward doctrine. Certain doctrines are pleasing to you, certain ones are not. We all have areas where doctrine is very critical of us and therefore we must have humility, we must have objectivity, we must have the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and not to take it as a criticism from the person but criticism from the content of doctrine, therefore from God Himself. This is the beauty of having the policy in the congregation of privacy. You come into the congregation as a private individual. If you are a believer you hear under the privacy of your royal priesthood and you can sit under the teaching of the Word knowing that no one knows your personal business or problems. But the point is that if you are ever going to grow there are certain things where the Bible will be critical of your problem — we all have different ones — and when we face this criticism as it is communicated you cannot take it personally as from a person, but we must take it objectively under the ministry of the Spirit as from God. But the issue of privacy is the whole issue in the congregation. You must have privacy so that you can take in doctrine.

Thought testing, then, is generally related to negative volition. Thought distraction is another way of putting it. Thought distraction can relate to one’s arrogance or preoccupation with self, or hypersensitivity. It can also originate from prejudice, inflexibility, unteachability, which is just another way of saying arrogance. For if you have prejudice and inflexibility, lack of teachability (which means lack of humility), inability to take criticism from the Word, this is of course the symptoms of arrogance. Many times doubts in thought testing result from neglect of systematic teaching of the Word of God, plus wrong priorities and lack of consistency in the function of GAP. Too often the believer is not interested in the variety of subjects found in the Bible and is motivated to the function of GAP only when the subject may interest him.

The solution to thought testing includes not only the rebound technique but the three stages of the faith-rest drill.

System testing: Sooner or later all of us get into systems. If you are in the academic pipe you are in a system. If you play in a team you are in a system. If you go to a church you are in a system. If ,you are working in a business you are in a system. If you function in a professional organisation you are in a system. Any kind of group of people organised are a system and the world is filled with both good systems and bad systems. The testing usually comes in a bad system, but not always. It comes into existence historically because of the genius of Satan and the evil of the cosmic system. It is not stretching it to say, however, that some bad systems are only bad because of your approach to them. When you enter some organisation and you seek to undermine the authority of that organisation, you seek to destroy the honour and integrity there, then of course that is your fault. But inevitably all systems are going to react against some person or some individual and a bad system always has its victims. If you are the victim of a bad system you face a test. Are you going to be bitter? Are you going to be vindictive? Are you going to seek to destroy that system? If you have changed jobs from one business to another, if you have changed professions, and one system has maltreated you, it is a test. Are you going to allow the rest of your life to be coloured by what has happened to you in that system? That is the problem. A bad system always has its victims.

Many organisations are legitimate and have worthy objectives but they are neutralised by their involvement in the cosmic system through one of three factors: the problem of personnel, the problem of the policy, the objectives of the system. First of all you look at the objectives of the system. When you enter a system the objective is to make money, to make profit. An organisation will have system of authority. That comes under personnel. And there are certain policies and you may grumble about the policies. But you say, “I am a Christian, I don’t have to do those things, I am above those organisations, I am not going to comply.” That is arrogance and your Christianity is lived under the rulership of Satan in the cosmic system. Therefore believers in a legitimate system can become the victim of bad management. You may have a boss over you who is a nitwit. What are you going to do? Are you going to comply or not? If you stay in the organisation you must comply. If you get out of the organisation then get out of the organisation without disturbing the organisation. You should get out without disturbing the structure of the organisation. If you stay in the system you have to do your job as unto the Lord, and “under the Lord” is a little more complicated than you first realised. It means you are not entitled to any bitterness because of unfair treatment. You are not entitled to any antagonism because you have been maltreated. You are not entitled to any of the functions of gate one, cosmic one, and you have flunked system testing when you become bitter or jealous or vindictive, or you seek to overthrow or undermine the authority structure in the system.

The believer in a legitimate system can become the victim of bad management. That means personality and management conflict so that system testing requires the function of impersonal love. If you have impersonal love you are going to pass most of these tests because, you see, people cannot get to you. You treat people from your integrity and honour rather than treating them on the basis of their attitude toward you. Many organisations of life have become rotten and corrupt when the leadership of that organisation becomes involved in the cosmic system. When believers are the victim of a rotten system they must use impersonal love when dealing with people and they must use doctrinal rationales in dealing with situations. There are two bases then, the one we have studied, impersonal love in dealing with people, and the doctrinal rationales in dealing with circumstances or situations. One requires the faith-rest drill, one requires the application of your integrity. Sooner or later you are going to be unfairly treated by a system and the honour and the integrity of your soul plus the doctrinal rationales will bring you out with flying colours. To flunk system testing is a deterrent to the momentum of your spiritual life, the advance to maturity. To flunk system testing results in the believer himself becoming a new convert to the cosmic system of Satan through reaction to injustice rather than response to doctrine. Self-pity, bitterness, hatred, implacability, vindictiveness, revenge modus operandi, all of which takes the problem of a bad system out of the Lord’s hands, puts them in yours and guarantees no solution. System testing, then, is a major source of peer ostracism and in facing system testing there are the options of separation from the system or the option of living within the system itself and coping with it through the function of your impersonal love, which is the base for the application of doctrine to people, or the function of the rationales of the second stage of the faith-rest drill: the logistical grace rationale, the plan of God rationale, the divine attribute rationale, the imputation rationale. Various doctrines and the rationales are the means of making application of those doctrines to circumstances.

In most cases of system testing it is living within the system that is the most difficult and sooner or later you are going to have to live within a system which is unfair to you, and you should stay with that system until the Lord’s testing in that field is over. Then if you depart from that system you should do so without bitterness, without rancour without complaining about those who have “despitefully used you.” If the rotten system is a church, and there are rotten system churches — one that does not teach doctrine, one that involves the communist party or social action — then separation is the best decision provided you do it properly. The only way to do it properly is to separate without complaining about the pastor or the people or the false doctrine. Just simply get out and do not complain. To the extent that you complain and run these people down you share their discipline.

The direct attack of cosmic one: the 26 gates of cosmic one, the arrogance system.

The direct attack of cosmic two: the 9 gates of cosmic two, the interlocking systems of hatred.

Disaster testing: All of us sooner or later face major disasters. Everything we ever learned, whether it is applied directly to the situation or directly to ourselves. Every time you learn a doctrine that doctrine holds two things for you. First of all it is going to apply to some circumstance in life, and secondly that doctrine is going to apply to you as an individual. When you learn a doctrine it always has something you need to know, and that something that you need to know will some day be applied in the circumstances of adversity. You are going to face sooner or later the great adversities of this life and when you do the doctrine which has strengthened you can be applied to the situation. Once you learn a doctrine as e)pignwsij it becomes a part of you, it becomes a part of your strength and it gives you something that is necessary for application in adversity — flexibility, which is absolutely necessary in adverse circumstances. Every kind of storm requires a different system of seamanship, and all kinds of storms in your life require different applications. But none of these applications are any good if you personally are arrogant. Arrogance destroys application. You must be humble and therefore flexible; you must search through and find the proper application for the proper situation. God is going to permit a certain number of disasters in your life not of your own making. There is testing for blessing, for acceleration of spiritual growth. Remember, there are two kinds of suffering for the believer: suffering for discipline and suffering for blessing. The issue in suffering for divine discipline is sin; the issue in suffering for blessing is momentum — spiritual growth. The status for suffering for discipline: the believer is in the cosmic system; the status for suffering for blessing: the believer is in the divine dynasphere. The category of divine discipline — suffering for discipline: the suffering is unbearable; the category for suffering for blessing: it is bearable and actually contributes to your blessing. The viewpoint of suffering for discipline is arrogance and subjectivity; the viewpoint of suffering for blessing is humility and objectivity. There is you application. The solution to suffering for discipline is the rebound technique; the solution to suffering for blessing is using impersonal love as the base in dealing with personnel problems and the doctrine rationales of the second stage of the faith-rest drill for the circumstances of adversity. The result of suffering for discipline is cursing turned to blessing when the solution is used, and the result of suffering for blessing is spiritual growth and acceleration.

Hedonism is a philosophical concept: the pursuit of pleasure in life to the exclusion of truth and doctrine; the highest function in life is pleasure. This, of course rearranges one’s scale of values. Hedonism contends that the moral duty of man is fulfilled in the gratification of pleasure-seeking instincts as his modus vivendi. The rise of hedonism among believers indicates their failure to pass the prosperity test.

There is a great deal of pleasure and a great deal of happiness for all believers but it doesn’t come by first of all seeking pleasure. It comes from seeking the Lord through Bible doctrine, and then, of course, there is a tremendous buildup of capacity. Capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness must precede prosperity. Seeking happiness outside the divine dynasphere, then, is a dead end. The cosmic system can offer anything in this world: success, promotion, material prosperity, fame, social life, sexual pleasure, anything but happiness. Prosperity related to capacity for happiness is one of the great blessings of the divine dynasphere but prosperity related to the cosmic system results in misery, unhappiness, frustration with all of the accouterments of superficialities of prosperity and happiness. Again, the principle: for happiness capacity must and always precede prosperity, otherwise prosperity is distorted into a system of misery.

1. Every believer must pass the prosperity test before he can achieve spiritual maturity and before he can enjoy the great prosperity and blessings of supergrace.

2. Capacity for blessings of the supergrace status comes from the construction of the edification complex of the soul. Every floor of the edification complex contributes to your capacity for life, your capacity for happiness, your capacity for prosperity.

3. Prosperity is the most subtle distraction to life in the divine dynasphere and therefore the greatest distraction to fulfilling the plan of God for your life. And, again, there is nothing wrong with prosperity, it is what is wrong with the people who can’t handle prosperity.

4. Prosperity cannot bring happiness with it unless the believer is living in the divine dynasphere and consistently taking in Bible doctrine.

5. Therefore for true happiness and prosperity the believer must live in the divine dynasphere. He must function at its various gates, especially gate four [perception and application of doctrine]. Capacity for life, capacity for blessing, capacity for happiness cannot be separated from the filling of the Spirit at gate one, from basic impersonal love at gate two, from enforced and genuine humility at gate three [there is no happiness in life without humility].

6. Therefore the prosperity test is vitally necessary before reaching maturity…

7. … because passing the prosperity test consolidates the believer’s scale of values resulting in stabilising the right priorities of life, and gives the capacity so that prosperity can be enjoyed. Capacity must precede prosperity.

8. Passing the prosperity test gives stability to spiritual maturity. The mature believer never depends on his prosperity but he always depends on the Source of his prosperity. Prosperity can come or go but he Source of prosperity is always there, God Himself and logistical grace.

We have noticed eight categories of momentum tests. We should notice, then, that the mature believer is characterised by consistent victory in these eight categories of human testing. We should also note that only the mature believer is qualified to handle these tests on a consistent basis. This means that all momentum in the Christian life depends on the categories of testing for its acceleration or for spiritual growth in advance to maturity. You see, growth is not simply an extension of the frame, the base, by perception of doctrine. Spiritual growth is the putting on of the muscle and the power and the strength from the application of that doctrine to experience. Every category of testing demands that doctrine should have already been perceived and perception of doctrine means having answers. But the perception is not the whole story, it is the application of doctrine.

The application of doctrine comes from two basic functions: the base of impersonal love and the second stage of the faith-rest drill, reverse concentration in the use of doctrinal rationales. Impersonal love must be a part of the integrity of your life and the second stage of the faith-rest drill must be organised into its proper rationales for instant application of doctrine. Superficial Christians spend all of their lives trying to apply a verse to a situation and you will never get past the sophomore stage of the Christian life that way. You have to have verses in order to give you the ability to think and therefore to apply doctrine. These verses are to remove fear or panic from your soul brought about by pressure, but claiming a promise will not take you past stabilising your soul for thought. It is the reverse thinking that counts and therefore you can claim promises until doomsday and you will never solve your problems. All stage one of stage one of the faith-rest drill is designed for is to remove fear. If you have fear or some extreme emotional activity in your soul you cannot think, and if you cannot think you cannot apply. Therefore probably the greatest weakness we have is failure to apply doctrine, failure to use as the base of all modus operandi impersonal love. You are just simply not passing people testing, prosperity testing especially. Failure to pass the prosperity test results in cosmic involvement and, of course, the retrogression of your spiritual life, whereas passing the momentum tests result s in spiritual growth, the fulfillment of God’s plan in your life, the advance to the objective of spiritual maturity and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one ever loses by glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. Passing a momentum test also results in historical impact, the uptrend of history, blessing by association and the prosperity of contemporary history. As goes the believer so goes the trends of history, as we have noted. After reaching gate eight these tests become the characteristic of the mature believer. The mature believer, ninety per cent of the time, will pass the eight momentum tests. No believer can maintain maturity without consistency in facing the momentum tests and continuing to pass them.

In the next part of verse 17 we begin to see the real situation when you flunk one of the tests. First of all we notice that flunking comes from ignorance, just like in academic circles. If you are ignorant of a subject you flunk it. If you know the subject you pass it in varying degrees of passing it. Ignorance is the most serious of all spiritual problems. Not sin, but ignorance! Sin comes from volition and sin can be handled where there is cognisance of doctrine. Where there is ignorance of doctrine neither sin nor anything else can be handled properly.

So we have the result of cosmic involvement, the ignorance of the cosmic believer. We start out with the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, meaning here “in fact.” Then we have the perfect o)ida, the perfect form of the verb used as a present tense for ignorance in this case because with this present active indicative we have the negative o)uk, “in fact you do not know.” That is the worst problem in the spiritual life. Ignorance: not having doctrinal facts, not understanding. The progressive present tense is for an action in the state of persistence, the ignorance which comes from the believer living in the cosmic system. Human viewpoint, Satanic viewpoint results. The active voice: the cosmic believer produces the action of the verb through ignorance. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the ignorance of the cosmic believer regarding his status quo.

With this we have the conjunction o(ti used after verbs of ignorance to describe the areas of ignorance involved and the human viewpoint developed from living in the cosmic system. This is the ignorance of the believer who flunks the prosperity test in this context. The principle is very simple: ignorance guarantees failure. We are talking about spiritual life failure, failure to follow the Lord. No doctrine; no dynamics. No divine dynasphere; no fulfillment of the plan of God for your life. In place of strength there is weakness and out of this weakness comes disaster from cosmic living.

The present active indicative of e)imi, the verb to be, follows. It should be translated: “in fact you do not know that you are.” The present tense is a descriptive present for the true status of the cosmic believer who flunks momentum testing. The active voice: the cosmic believer produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the true status of the cosmic believer.

There are five words which follow, each word is in the nominative case and is a predicate nominative after the verb to be. It describes the cosmic believer in his failure to pass the prosperity test. The first word is talaipwroj and it connotes no capacity for prosperity when living in the cosmic system. It is a compound adjective, it is made up of the verb telaiw which means to endure and with it we have pwroj means callous or scar tissue. Therefore when you put the two together it simply means to endure calluses on your feet. We translate it to be miserable, wretched, distressed. It also connotes poor in quality, therefore no capacity for prosperity. We will simply translate it: “in fact you do not know that you are miserable.” You can be stimulated by some form of pleasure and during the stimulation not know that you are miserable. The status quo is miserable because you really do not have the capacity for the stimulation of pleasure nor for any form of prosperity which brings it about. Capacity must precede prosperity otherwise prosperity first makes one miserable and then destroys the believer. For the cosmic believer prosperity becomes a source of misery or wretchedness. Only the believer living in the divine dynasphere could possibly have the prosperity and make the prosperity enjoyable — the capacity. There is nothing more miserable than a cosmic believer with money or some other form of prosperity. He is not only miserable himself but he generally contributes to the misery of others in his periphery. Under the historical trend he contributes to the downfall of his country: as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. Wealth plus frustration equals misery, wretchedness. Wealth, frustration and misery result in conversion to Satanic systems — socialism, communism, hedonism, lasciviousness and many others of the distorted kind.

The second predicate nominative is a little shorter word as far as syllables in the Greek — e)leeinoj which means no happiness from prosperity when living in the cosmic system, just as our first one meant no capacity for prosperity when living in the cosmic system. This adjective means pitiful or to be pitied. It also means lamentable or insignificant or despicable, “you do not know that you are miserable and despicable.”

The third one is ptwkoj. The adjective meant begging originally, dependent on others for support. It also came to mean poor, miserable, beggarly, but it also means impotent, loss of strength. When we put it all together it is: “in fact you do not know that you are miserable [no capacity for prosperity], and despicable [no happiness from prosperity], and impotent [poor, beggarly, miserable, connoting spiritual poverty in the cosmic system, lack of spiritual strength guaranteeing cosmic weakness].”

Number four is the predicate nominative tufloj which means no perception or application of doctrine. Believers living in the cosmic system could have learned doctrine, could have notebooks filled with doctrinal principles and cannot apply them in the cosmic system. From the cosmic system there is no application of doctrine and you start a recessive concept of forgetting what you knew the longer you stayed in the cosmic system. We are going to translate it as it is: “blind.” It is an adjective meaning blindness, here is means mental and spiritual blindness, blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul.

Number five is gumnoj which is correctly translated “naked.” It means no uniform of honour can be worn when you live in the cosmic system. The uniform of honour is the invisible status of the mature believer living in the divine dynasphere. He is fulfilling the royal family honour code, he is producing virtue and integrity through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

Translation of the entire verse: “Because you say, quote: I am rich, in fact I have become very wealthy [prosperity test], and I have need of nothing [flunking the prosperity test]; in fact you do not know that you are miserable [no capacity for prosperity in the cosmic system], and despicable [no happiness from prosperity when living in the cosmic system], and impotent [poor beggarly, miserable, connoting spiritual poverty in the cosmic system], and blind [no perception or application of doctrine when involved in the cosmic system], and naked [no uniform of honour when living in the cosmic system].”

The results, then, of cosmic involvement are obvious from this translation. The principle is a very simple one and a very short one: spiritual blindness and nakedness makes the believer helpless as far as God’s plan is concerned. People who are physically blind and, of course, without clothing cannot function in society. Disorientation to the plan of God is what is being said here, but there is more than that being said here. There is no way that you as a believer are ever going to have any happiness apart from God’s plan for your life — the divine dynasphere, residence therein. The function at gate four, perception and application of doctrine, the development of capacity before you receive the blessing. God often punishes people, disciplines them, by giving them prosperity without capacity. When people are punished by adversity they simply grit their teeth and carry on but when people are punished by prosperity it is devastating. To have prosperity and no capacity for it is one of the most miserable conditions in the world and this is what this passage is saying. Without spiritual sight from doctrine and the integrity plus virtue of the uniform of honour the believer cannot survive in the devil’s world. You and I as believers cannot survive in the cosmic system. Blessing when you are in adversity or prosperity comes from being in the divine dynasphere but when you have either adversity or prosperity in the cosmic system it is the worst kind of punishment. So God blesses by both adversity and prosperity to the believer in the divine dynasphere but God punishes by adversity and prosperity the believer in the cosmic system. Believers in the cosmic system are slaves to Satan. They are liable for self-induced misery from wrong decisions, and divine discipline as the only form of spiritual teaching to which they can respond.

Verse 18. We move now to recovery from the cosmic system in verse eighteen. Obviously the first problem in recovery is to rebound. After that to sort out your priorities and decide what is best for you in life and what should have first place in your scale of values. The problems that believers face often come from wrong priorities as well as ignorance and the principle is one we have studied many times before under historical trends: good decisions result in options for greater decisions and great blessing; bad decisions destroy those options and eventuate in the sin unto death. Of course the principle, then, is that every believer, as with every member of the human race, must take the responsibility for his own decisions. Generally it takes a lot of bad decisions to get some crisis point which is destructive to your own life, bad decisions followed by bad decisions followed by bad decisions and inevitably the person is involved in cosmic one, gate one, in their arrogance and preoccupation with self and generally try to blame the whole thing on someone else. We have already seen under the principle of the old sin nature test that even insanity is no excuse. It takes a lot of bad decisions to get to the point of being sociopathic or psychopathic. The sooner we learn to be responsible for our own decisions the better off we are. We are, after all, going to be held responsible for our decisions as they are seen at the judgment seat of Christ.

The Laodiceans are not contributing to the uptrend of history, they are contributing to the downtrend, and all of this can be changed but it cannot be changed without a revaluation of their scale of values and rearrangement of their priorities. Therefore the apostle John begins verse 18 with the present active indicative of the verb sumbouleuw, and it means to counsel, to give advice, to advise, and we will translate it: “I advise.” With it we have the dative singular indirect object from the personal pronoun us, “I advise you.” This brings up the whole problem of pastoral counselling and, of course, we know that there is no place in the ministry for counseling when the ministry functions under its proper principles. You see, you are a priest, you have the privacy of your priesthood, you must make your own decisions. You must make your decisions on the best possible information. Information is given consistently from the pulpit and therefore if you are going to be spiritually self-sustaining you reside in the divine dynasphere, you make your own decisions from two different foundations: from the base of impersonal love which is virtue and, secondly, from the base of the second stage of the faith-rest drill which are the doctrinal rationales. The principle of being counseled then is ludicrous. You have to live your life as unto the Lord, you do not live your life as unto a pastor. The pastor is the final authority in the local church but the pastor’s responsibility and the purpose for the pastor’s authority is to communicate Bible doctrine so that you can make your own decisions on the basis of facts.

Sometimes you do not have those facts and when you do not it is because your priorities have been wrong and you have made wrong decisions. You have neglected Bible doctrine and God often punishes us in divine discipline by simply giving us a problem or allowing our decisions to bring us into a situation where if we had listened in Bible class or we had been in Bible class we would know exactly what the answer is. But not having been there in the first place or not having been there in the second place through not listening we therefore missed the lesson that we needed to know. Everything we learn sooner or later has application, either in our life with God or our relationship with people and our life in facing circumstances.

So we have the phrase, “I counsel or advise you.” This seems to contradict what has just been said but it does not when you remember that this counseling is simply the presentation of doctrine; this is a part of the Word of God. In other words, what he is actually saying and the true interpretation is simply this: the Word of God must be our counsel. We must get our advice from Bible doctrine in the Word of God. The dative indirect object of the personal pronoun indicates the one in whose interest the act is performed. All counseling is conducted through perception of Bible doctrine. In other words, once you learn the doctrine the application is the counseling. You counsel yourself, you live your own life, you make your own decisions as unto the Lord, and you function under the privacy of your own priesthood. Therefore your business remains your business. The church should be one place where no one knows your business. The church is the place where you should have privacy and therefore objectivity in the perception of Bible doctrine.

The present tense of sumbouleuw is the descriptive present for what is now going on, the counseling of the cosmic believers in Laodicea and the Roman province of Asia. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ counsels the cosmic believer through the apostle John’s teaching, not through one on one or private or personal counseling. For the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ there is no need for counseling provided that he is positive toward doctrine. There is no question about the fact that believers who live in the cosmic system can stand some counseling from those who are professionally involved, like a psychiatrist or psychologist, but one person who is not a professional counselor is a minister. He shouldn’t be. There is no profit in a minister doing anything but teaching the Word of God. So the active voice emphasises the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ counsels through Bible teaching, through doctrine. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of divine counsel to believers in the cosmic system. In other words, this is advice for all of us when we become involved in the cosmic system.

1. If you are positive and your priorities place Bible doctrine first in your scale of values then counsel for you must be Bible doctrine. This is a part of being spiritually self-sustaining. Your information in facing the vicissitudes of life should come from doctrine resident in your own soul otherwise you will never live your own life, other people will live it for you. You will make decisions but you will make decisions out of the influence of other people rather than under the influence of doctrine, and therefore your life will be miserable as long as you live. You must live your own life before the Lord. You must take the responsibility for your own decisions, this is a part of even human maturity. Both believer and unbeliever taking responsibility for their own bad decisions have grown up.

2. Every believer, then, must make his own decisions and Bible doctrine perceived gives him options for good decisions, good decisions which glorify the Lord and bring personal happiness into his life, good decisions that provide historical impact and personal prosperity.

3. The ideal counseling or advice comes from Bible doctrine resident in your own soul, i.e. e)pignwsij doctrine. Gnwsij doctrine has no application. This is the major principle of divine guidance in doing the will of God.

4. There are three categories of counseling from the standpoint of Bible doctrine. The first is perception and application of doctrine or the function of gate four of the divine dynasphere. Secondly, there is counseling through impersonal love. Impersonal love gives you the ability to face situations with people who are antagonistic, people who are seeking to destroy you, people who manifest the most heinous animosity, and handle the situation properly — the application of impersonal love. So counsel comes from the presence of impersonal love in your soul. As goes your impersonal love so goes your personal relationships in the human race. Thirdly, there is divine discipline, punishment from God. God constantly counsels the cosmic believer through punishment. This is called learning the hard way, and applying doctrine the hard way. This is a limited academic function.

Being counseled by another believer or a pastor does have hazards, and there are four hazards that you should understand before you run off and become the victim of someone else’s counseling. It may be excellent advice, it may be poor advice. That is not the issue.

a. The believer who is counseling you is someone you admire, someone that you respect, but they may not be mature and they may give you wrong advice.

b. Such counseling demands the compromise of your privacy. The counselor may be a gossip. You were designed in salvation and being born again never to have to surrender your privacy under any circumstances. You must live your life as unto the Lord, that is the privacy of your priesthood.

c. The counselor may have some prejudice which destroys the objectivity of his advice. So prejudice can result in getting bad advice.

d. The believer being counseled may start leaning on the counselor and using him as a crutch, so that the counselor begins to live his life for him.

Notice: When we talk about counseling we are talking about personal problems. You have a right to go to the right professional people for financial counseling, for insurance counseling, for business counseling. So don’t be stupid about this, we are talking about your personal problems, not categories in life where counseling is a professional function.

5. It should be noted from this verb, then, that the Lord counsels or advises but the Lord does not coerce. The Lord mandates but He does not coerce.

6. The believer must make his own decisions from his own free will and take the responsibility for his decisions.

7. No matter how one is deceived or how stupid a person might be in a given situation he must learn to blame himself, otherwise he cannot learn from his own mistakes. He made the decision because he wanted to do it that way, and therefore the believer loses ground spiritually every time he blames someone else for his wrong decisions, his mistakes, and his sins.

Next we have the aorist active infinitive of a)gorazw. This comes from an Attic Greek word a)gora which means the market place, and so it means to buy, to purchase, to invest. Here it is translated, “I counsel you to buy [purchase].” The ingressive aorist tense in which the action signified by the verb is contemplated at its beginning therefore denotes reentrance into the divine dynasphere and the function of doctrinal perception and the application of doctrine. The only way to stay there comes up in this counsel now: “I counsel you to buy [begin to buy].” You have to begin all over. If you stay in the cosmic system for any length of time you have forgotten what you have previously learned and you have to start all over. Once you have the filling of the Spirit you have objectivity or you have IQ for learning doctrine. Then you interlock with gate two, basic impersonal love, and you have your objectivity. You have to have impersonal love to learn doctrine. Impersonal love means that you do not emphasise the personality of the pastor, you emphasise the content of his message, and by so doing you remain objective. Then gate three is the enforced and genuine humility which adds up to one word: teachability. These three gates support the function of gate four coming up in buying gold — gate four with its perception of doctrine from your royal priesthood, gate four with its application of doctrine from your royal ambassadorship. So in the concept of buying gold we have to begin and we begin all over when we spend any length of time in the cosmic system and then finally rebound. So the ingressive aorist denotes entrance into the divine dynasphere and the beginning of doctrinal perception. If when you reenter the divine dynasphere you are negative toward doctrine then you will very quickly get right back into the cosmic system. But this is the road back. The active voice: the cosmic believer produces the action of the verb through reversion recovery, reentry into the divine dynasphere and the modus operandi of gate four, perception and application of doctrine. This is, of course, an infinitive of purpose.

Then, note, we buy from our Lord. The preposition para plus the ablative of e)gw, “buy from me.” This is the ablative of ultimate source, The ultimate source of doctrine is the Lord Jesus Christ. In first Corinthians 2:16 doctrine is called the “mind of Christ.” Then in presenting something of value, the accusative singular direct object from the noun xrusion, which is not really gold. It is actually a diminutive from the word for gold which is xrusoj, but we do not have xrusoj here. Xrusion actually means something of value, made of gold, something that is actually manufactured from gold, coins or jewelry. So it doesn’t refer to gold, it refers to something of value manufactured from gold. The diminutive refers therefore to Bible doctrine or what is manufactured from the mind of Christ. The diminutive xrusion emphasises the fact that Bible doctrine must always be number one in our scale of values and number one in the priorities of life, and that without it we are in a very hopeless situation.

Corrected translation: “I counsel you to buy from me gold,” something of value manufactured out of gold. In this case it is analogous to Bible doctrine.

It just so happens that believers living in the cosmic system are off the gold standard! Cosmic believers have a false scale of values and have the wrong priorities of life. Bible doctrine is the coin of the realm for spiritual capitalism. The only way to advance to maturity and fulfill the plan of God for phase two is to take this advice: the perception of Bible doctrine.

With this we have a further description of the gold coming from the perfect passive participle of the verb purow, and it means to refine through heat. The intensive perfect tense, known also as the perfect of existing state, is the tense of the finished product. When special attention is directed toward the results of the action stress on the existing fact is intensified. In other words, the Greek has an emphatic method for presenting a fact or a condition. Therefore it can be translated close to the English word “refined”. The active voice: Bible doctrine in the canon of scripture produces the action. The participle is circumstantial indicating the reality of the situation. The writing has been tested in every generation by great antagonism and yet Bible doctrine survives untarnished like gold. Gold cannot be tarnished; Bible doctrine cannot be tarnished or destroyed by opposition. The refining is done by a prepositional phrase, e)k [from] plus the ablative of pur [fire].

So the entire translation: “I counsel you to buy [perception of doctrine and application of doctrine] from me [our Lord Jesus Christ] gold [something of value] refined by fire [the concept of inspiration and canonicity]”.

1. By burning and heating gold in the refining process the gold is melted and purified by skimming of the slag. The skinning off of the slag is the skimming off of false doctrine. This is an illustration, then, of the purity of doctrine, the purity of Bible truth. There is no dross, there is nothing false.

2. The purchasing of gold is analogous to your function as a believer at gate four of the divine dynasphere. Spiritual wealth comes from the accumulation and investment of spiritual capital, and your accumulation and investment of spiritual capital is your perception and application of Bible doctrine.

3. The accumulation of spiritual wealth can be translated into spiritual terms, the daily perception of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere, the consistent application of doctrine where necessary.

4. The investment of gold or Bible doctrine or spiritual wealth is the application of that perceived doctrine to experience. In other words, the principle: you cannot apply what you do not know. Ignorance can make no application of doctrine. Cognisance is necessary.

5. Doctrine only becomes personal capital through perception. That doctrine or capital or gold can only be invested through personal application of that doctrine — gate four. To accumulate capital you have the daily perception of doctrine; to invest that capital you have the application of doctrine.

6. The refining process should also be noted — refined by fire. God the Holy Spirit purifies the Word in the original languages of scripture through the mechanics of inspiration. This demands accurate teaching from the pastor and one of the things that should frighten every pastor: he is personally responsible to the Lord for being accurate. The pastor is the banker, he provides capital for investment. The banker must not provide counterfeit currency, he must provide the pure gold of Bible doctrine, that which has been purified and refined by God the Holy Spirit in the formation of the canon of scripture through the mechanics of plenary, verbal inspiration. Refined gold or pure Bible doctrine is the basis for both divine guidance and the daily dynamics of decision in your life.

“I counsel you to buy [perception of doctrine at gate four and it’s application] gold [something of value, Bible doctrine] from me [Jesus Christ] refined by fire [inspiration and canonicity].”

We find gold or pure doctrine is the basis for all divine guidance in life, and people are constantly seeking to find out what the Lord’s will is in a given situation. The problem with trying to explain it to people is that they do not have a basis for understanding the Lord’s will in a given situation simply because they cannot encompass it in a doctrinal area. So we must stop long enough to see that in guiding yourself and knowing the Lord’s will you must have a sphere in which to operate. Therefore we have the principle of divine guidance. How can you know God’s will in a given situation if you do not know the principles by which God functions in your life.

Divine guidance is the doctrine of determining the will of God for your life, and divine guidance is the communication of the divine will through divine revelation. So obviously we go right back to that gold we are supposed to buy which is the perception of Bible doctrine. Today divine revelation is confined to the canon of scripture. In the ancient world it included direct revelation from God through dreams, visions, dialogues and other means. These are not open today. God does communicate to us outside of the Word, we have studied that principle under the doctrine of divine discipline. Often punishment from God is a system of teaching but, of course, a limited agenda. Hence the only classification for knowing what the will of God is is to understand the principles we will note briefly.

First of all, in dealing with the subject, What is the will of God for your life? You must realise two things: first of all you have certain things in common for other believers. In other words, God often has a will for all believers. Secondly, God has a will or a plan for you as an individual. For example, God’s will for your life is residence and function inside the divine dynasphere but that is God’s will for everyone’s life, so you are not alone there. But suppose you are having domestic problems. What is God’s will for me in a given domestic problem situation? How should I handle it? Well that isn’t the same God’s will as single people, they are not having that problem. So we have to look at the problem two ways: what is God’s will for all of us, and then what is God’s will for me in a given situation — in business, in social life, in domestic life, in spiritual life, in relationship with people and with adverse situations, in relationship with prosperous situations.

There are three categories of God’s will which exist in history. First there is the sovereign will of God. The will of God must be consistent with His divine attributes and His personality because God cannot compromise His essence. God is a person, His personality connotes self-determination and self-consciousness. God recognises Himself as a person and as such He thinks, He decides, and above all God always acts rationally. God’s actions are never irrational or irresponsible so you can conclude that any time you are getting into something where your actions are irrational or irresponsible, that’s not God’s will for your personal life.

The sovereignty or will of God is manifest in the decrees of God, the giant computer which we have studied in some detail. We have noted how there are three categories of divine knowledge. God’s knowledge of Himself and the other members of the Godhead, the Trinity. That is one type of knowledge that is always consistent. We have studied it first of all as perfect subjective knowledge, for example the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ about Himself from eternity past. And then perfect objective knowledge, His knowledge about God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

A second aspect is called omniscience. Omniscience takes cognisance of everything that every creature will ever do — angelic creatures, human creatures, all kinds of creatures. God knew billions of years ago in the infinity of eternity past every thought, every motive, every decision, and every action that you and I would ever have. And He entered that into the computer of divine decrees. He also knew the alternatives, the potential activities, and the fact that we rejected them. We could have gone to another city, we could have married a different person, we could have gone to a different school, we could have done this or that. Omniscience takes both the potential and the real of history, and He knows both. Now, only what actually happens was entered into the computer of divine decrees so that the printout is what we call history. From the standpoint of theology we have studied the printout as being election, foreknowledge, predestination, and so on. Omniscience also knows the potential that did not happen and God can tell you in eternity past what would have happened if you had a choice, if you had married someone else, if you had gone to a different school, etc.

Then, of course, foreknowledge of God is one of the printouts. God does not foreknow anything until it is first decreed is the doctrinal principle we have studied. The divine decrees are the giant computer and everything is programmed that will ever happen in history and it’s relationship with everything else. So obviously God has set up certain principles whereby we can determine what His will is, see the alternatives, make our decision either for God or for Satan in the angelic conflict. Everything actually depends on God’s will and nothing is certain apart from God’s will.

We have also seen the permissive will of God as well as the directive will of God. The directive will of God: we know what it is and we fail to do it. Then we go into the permissive will of God. The permissive will of God says simply this: it is the application of logistical grace. What is the will of God? He has a directive will. There is only one way and that is God’s way. But we have free will and therefore we may not want to go God’s way, so there is the permissive will of God. Basically the difference between the direct will of God and the permissive will of God is the fact that even though we do not do God’s will He permits us to stay alive. He continues to provide logistical grace. Balaam was the great illustration of this. God told Balaam not to go to try to curse Israel but Balaam finally went anyway and when he did he immediately came under the category of permissive will of God.

There are certain things that we do that God overrules. When we are in the permissive will of God as believers it looks like this. The directive will of God is your function in the divine dynasphere; the permissive will of God is your function in the cosmic system. But there are certain things that believers do in the cosmic system and God will not permit them. He will not permit the destruction of Israel, for example. So we take believers who want to destroy Israel and they are in the cosmic system — Satan is the father of anti-Semitism — and when they try to do it God will not permit it. God punishes Israel, they are His people, He has a right to punish them, but e doesn’t expect anything from us in that regard. So in the permissive will of God you are still alive but you are in the cosmic system.

Then there is the overruling will of God. There are certain things that God protects. Suppose that you are a believer here and you want to get revenge. You hate some believer and there is no impersonal love, no virtue in your life. You want to get revenge and you want to destroy a believer who is advancing from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. So you try your best to eliminate them, destroy them, cut them down with gossip, maligning, etc. But God overrules and He will not permit that because He is protecting this person in going from gate four to gate eight. That is what we call the overruling will of God.

These are the three factors with which we work in knowing the will of God: the directive will of God, the permissive will of God, and the overruling will of God under which many believers function all of their lives. (The overruling will of God is that under which God permits them to live, to attack believers in the divine dynasphere, He keeps them alive sometimes to use them in momentum testing) We are either in the directive will of God living in the divine dynasphere or we are in the overruling will of God living in the cosmic system.

The believer who lives consistently in the divine dynasphere and advances to maturity contributes to the uptrend of history. The believer who lives in the cosmic system contributes to the downtrend of history. The believer living in the divine dynasphere is in the corrective will of God; the believer who lives in the cosmic system is in the permissive will of God. And then the believer who seeks to destroy the believer who is honouring the Lord and that believer he persues goes right on and is protected by God in the wall of fire area, that is the overruling will of God.

Let’s look at it from the concept of historical trends. Manifest destiny is the origin of any national entity that becomes a client nation to God. First of all it starts with a landed aristocracy, very capable and responsible people who start the ball rolling. But eventually the landed aristocracy runs out of gas and the industrial complex takes over. Eventually in a client nation to God you must have the middle class of the industrial complex run the nation. So you have landed aristocracy, industrial complex living side by side, and the undeveloped frontier. It is impossible under the directive will of God for a client nation to be perpetuated with the landed aristocracy ruling. (Another principle: No nation can ever win a war against a successful industrial complex) Apart from the leadership of the middle class industrial complex the undeveloped frontier could never be absorbed. Apart from that leadership — the Protestant ethic is often how it is called in history — there could be no material prosperity, there could be no spiritual prosperity that would inevitably lead to the full function of a client nation to God, the full function being the sending out of missionaries.

There must be the three factors in manifest destiny: your landed aristocracy who always start the ball rolling and initiate certain things in establishment that must exist; your industrial complex middle class which inevitably must take over and the leadership must come from them; the undeveloped frontier which must be absorbed into the picture before you can have a client nation to God fulfilling client nation principles with regard to freedom, the privacy, the sacredness of property and human life and, therefore, evangelism, Bible teaching and the true function of missionary activity.

The academic concept of divine guidance is a bit different. This is the one we have in our passage which says: “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire.” This brings us to the academic principle of divine guidance, for in principle all divine guidance depends upon Bible doctrine in your soul, your function at gate four of the divine dynasphere. The perception of doctrine must precede the application of doctrine but it is perception plus application that finally leads to understanding the will of God in any given set of circumstances, any situation where you have to make a quick decision or have to make a difficult decision. So we have the principle of doctrine in the soul.

Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you”. There is the principle of divine guidance, God doesn’t do it without Bible doctrine.

Isaiah 58:11, “Therefore the Lord will continually guide you, by satisfying your soul in the scorched places [Bible doctrine], to give strength to your bones; therefore you will be like a watered garden [water of the Word], like a spring of water, whose waters do not deceive.”

Proverbs 3:1-6, “My son do not forget my doctrine, but let your right lobe keep my principles; for length of days, and years of life, and prosperity, will add to you. Do not let grace and doctrine leave you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablets of your right lobe [perception and application of doctrine]; so you will find grace and good understanding in the sight o

f God and in the sight of man. Trust in the Lord with all of your right lobe, do not lean on your human understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct you paths.” The application of doctrine, of course, is the final issue in divine guidance.

The principle of the filling of the Spirit at gate one of the divine dynasphere is also involved. You cannot understand the will of God unless you are filled with the Spirit. This is another way of saying that if you are in the cosmic system then obviously you are under the principle of the permissive will of God, you are not in God’s directive will. Ephesians 5:14 gives us a wonderful concept here: “Therefore, he communicates, Wake up [learn to do the will of God] you sleeping ones [believers who are in the cosmic system] and get up from among the dead ones,” prolonged stay in the cosmic system means the sin unto death; “and Christ will shine on you,” an analogy to the fact that you can do the will of God. Therefore, beware that you walk accurately, not as unwise ones [no spiritual common sense] but as wise ones [application of doctrine to experience], constantly buying time [like buying gold has to do with the perception of doctrine and the application of it in doing the will of God], because the days are evil,” this is the day when Satan rules the world and has a genius system, the cosmic system, for doing so; “Because of this, stop being ignorant,” you cannot do the will of God in ignorance; “but constantly and thoroughly understand the will [the policy, the purpose] of God.”

So divine guidance, then, falls into two concepts: the filling of the Spirit interlocking with gate four, perception and application of doctrine, and both are necessary to do the will of God on the broad scale of your life or to do it on the individual problem situation as these things arise in your life.

There is then a third principle, the principle of spiritual growth. The more you know about doctrine the more you grow, the more you grow the more you know the will of God. That is why 2 Peter 3:18 says: “But grow by means of grace and knowledge of our Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now” — “now” means you can do the will of God now and you can glorify God now; “and to the day of eternity,” that is the time of receiving the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory, the new order of knighthood, the wonderful principles related to the order of heraldry and chivalry bearing the coat of arms of our Lord, all of the things related to the eternal future and the judgment seat of Christ.

Mechanically there are certain things that are good in knowing the will of God and doing it, and certain things that are sometimes a hindrance. There is a place for guidance through prayer but it always is used by people who know a lot of doctrine and have a number of options open and want some additional wisdom. Guidance through prayer is the most overworked thing of all. The person who says, “I don’t know what we should do here, let’s pray about it” is the person who has lagged behind in learning doctrine, because divine guidance is really based on the principle of seeing an issue, relating that issue to the doctrine and the principles in your soul, and making a decision. It doesn’t call for prayer. Most people who say, “Let’s pray about it” are people who are in the cosmic system.

Divine guidance and making decisions according to the will of God require thinking, thinking related to the reality of doctrine and therefore common sense. There are three categories of doctrine: #1, the laws of divine establishment; #2, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; #3, Bible doctrine for the believer. Now the problem is that most common sense principles are related to the laws of divine establishment and other principles are related to Bible doctrine. So between the laws of divine establishment and Bible doctrine we should know the will of God for any situation. For the unbeliever the will of God is very simple: category #2 doctrine, the gospel. So guidance from thinking becomes a great issue: guidance through perception of doctrine, guidance through application of doctrine. Sometimes, if your heart is in the right place when you want to do the will of God, God will provide a valley for you to run down. We call that “providential circumstances.” Guidance through the ministry of the Word and the function of the Holy Spirit is the basic system.

One other thing: no one is ever going to do the will of God without gate three. All good decisions in life are made from either enforced or genuine humility. You cannot make decisions in arrogance that are the will of God — ever. And, furthermore, we have already studied gate two as the base for making application. So the first four gates of the divine dynasphere are the key to divine guidance.

So far in our verse we have: “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire,” the greatest purchasing power in the world belongs to Bible doctrine. Therefore, the purpose clause that follows. Next we have the conjunction i(na, translated “that” or “in order that.” I(na plus the subjunctive mood introduces a purpose clause. What is the purpose here? The aorist active subjunctive of the verb ploutew, “in order that you may become rich.” There is a purpose here: wealth, spiritual wealth. The aorist tense is the ingressive aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb at it’s beginning. It denotes entrance into a state or a condition whereby there is going to be great prosperity as a result. It is recovery from the cosmic system, reentry into the divine dynasphere, continuing one’s momentum at gate four, moving to gate eight, the point of spiritual wealth. Prosperity is actually perhaps a better word here, “in order that you may become prosperous.” Here we have the connotation of spiritual prosperity. Spiritual prosperity does lead to material prosperity but God gives you the type of material prosperity that is befitting your situation in life. It may be promotion, it may be money, it may be property, it may be success in some field or profession. So the ingressive aorist simply indicates you are now on the right track again because you have rebounded, because you have left the cosmic system, because you have reentered the divine dynasphere which is the only place where the plan of God can be executed. The active voice: the believer who is positive to doctrine and who rebounds and who therefore lives in the divine dynasphere produces the action of the verb. He gains capital and purchasing power from his perception of doctrine at gate four. He becomes rich spiritually, the advance to supergrace status with it’s six categories of blessing. The subjunctive mood: this is the concept of the potential subjunctive. Spiritual wealth, advance to maturity, is a potential. It depends on your daily decisions, it depends upon your priorities. Therefore the potential subjunctive implies a future reference and is qualified by the element of contingency.

We have, therefore, the first half of the verse sounding like this: “I counsel you to buy from me gold [Bible doctrine] refined by fire, in order that you may become prosperous [spiritual wealth].” From this, then, comes a motivational and a functional virtue. It begins with the connective use of the conjunction kai, “and.” It is followed by the direct object of the verb implied and is composed of two words, the accusative neuter plural from leukoj, which means “white,” and i(mation which has to do with clothing, “white clothing.” The implied verb is “to wear,” to wear white clothing, and this is a reference again to the uniform of honour. It refers to the motivational and functional virtue developed inside the divine dynasphere. The uniform of honour is invisible, it is worn in the soul. It is worn by those believers whose residence and function is advancing to gate eight of the divine dynasphere. They are passing the momentum tests, they are accelerating their momentum, they are moving to the place of glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the judgment seat of Christ the uniform of honour will be replaced by something that is visible, a translucent uniform of light worn over the resurrection body.

During the Church Age the historical impact of the mature believer is anonymous and invisible; yet it is a very real principle of blessing by association. All blessing that comes to this nation comes from believers who advance to maturity. This is the basis of our prosperity, this is the basis of our blessing. But these believers are anonymous heroes, they are not found on the pages of the textbooks of history. And while not recorded in any historical textbook the mature believer is the anonymous hero of the Church Age, but his anonymous status will be changed at the judgment seat of Christ. The court of heaven will evaluate his life on earth under terms of historical impact. And during the Tribulation he will receive certain decorations and honours, certain crowns. Higher than the crowns he will receive the order of the morning star, he will receive the uniform of glory which will distinguish him from other believers in eternity by the translucent light which covers his resurrection body. He will receive the new order of knighthood and this new order of knighthood will be actually registered in the book of life. He will also be presented at the court of heaven. While other believers will be cooling their heels in some other part of heaven he will actually be presented at court. He will receive a coat of arms which he will bear forever. He will then come back with our Lord Jesus Christ, be present at His coronation, will be present at the wedding supper, and will then be presented to the entire world as a ruler of some Gentile nation for one thousand years. So the anonymous hero of the Church Age will become the public hero of the Millennium.

Beginning, then, at the judgment seat of Christ the invisible historical impact of the mature believer, the one who now wears the uniform of honour, will become known by the uniform of glory. He will become known first of all to the royal family of God at the judgment seat of Christ, then to the elect angels in the court of heaven while the Tribulation is occurring on earth, then to the entire world in the Millennial reign of Christ. Then he will have special privileges which he will have for all eternity. So wearing the uniform of honour means the construction of the edification of the edification complex of the soul, it means the production of both motivating and functional virtue. It means great happiness in life, it means great capacity for life, it means blessing and, according to this context, it means solving your own problems, being able to make your own decisions for or against the plan of God.

The most subtle and the most difficult of all tests in the momentum field is the prosperity test number eight. People who can handle adversity very well and who know how to apply the rationales from the second stage of the faith-rest drill, or know how to utilise the base of impersonal love from application of doctrine, and who have passed the old sin nature test, people testing, thought testing, system testing, the test of cosmic one, the test of cosmic two, and the adversity test, inevitably stumble when it comes to prosperity. The most difficult thing in the world is to be able to handle prosperity properly, to maintain your same priorities to handle the problems that occur.

Prosperity is very subtle in it’s attack upon the human being because inevitably he is so enthusiastic about his newly found promotion or success, or wealth, or acclaim, or recognition or fame, that almost automatically he begins to assign a secondary role to his perception of Bible doctrine and his function in the divine dynasphere. And as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God, and inevitably these believers let down the client nation as well as bringing on themselves tremendous difficulties. This was the problem with the Laodicean church. The Laodiceans did not pass the prosperity test. Many of them in business had become very wealthy, many of them were now highly successful in professional fields. They now were enjoying in a city of 600,000 people all of the fantastic blessings of social prosperity, sexual prosperity, material prosperity. They were receiving the applause and the acclaim of people all around them, society in general, and as a result they lost their priorities.

The problem is stated for us as we have studied it in detail in verse 17, “because you say, quote: I am rich, in fact I have become very wealthy [the prosperity test], and I have need of nothing [flunking the prosperity test].” The prosperity test causes people to fail to apply doctrine. We have already seen that this is one of the major problems in the spiritual life. Learning doctrine is one thing, applying it is something else. No one can apply doctrine apart from the divine dynasphere, apart from the base of impersonal love, and apart from the second stage of the faith-rest drill, the use of the rationales. It is much easier to apply doctrine in adversity than in prosperity. One of the first things that is neglected in prosperity is Bible doctrine.

“in fact you do not know,” the greatest problem in life is ignorance, not having all the facts for perception, not having all of the facts for application; “you do not know that you are miserable,” when you do not know that you are miserable, that is the worst kind of unhappiness. No capacity for prosperity, and no capacity for prosperity comes from living in the cosmic system. It comes from gate one, arrogance, preoccupation with self, and the inevitable results — jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, loss therefore of any inner beauty, loss of impersonal love which is the great key to capacity. We have already seen that capacity for prosperity must precede prosperity. To have prosperity without capacity is to be unhappy and to be miserable. And so, “you do not know that you are miserable,” no capacity for prosperity when living in the cosmic system; “and despicable,” insignificant, pitiful, no happiness from prosperity when living in the cosmic system; “and impotent,” meaning poor, beggarly, miserable, connoting spiritual poverty in the cosmic system; “and blind” no perception of doctrine when involved in the cosmic system; “and naked,” no uniform of honour when living in the cosmic system.

In verse 18 we had to stop and take a look at the evils of counseling. Counseling is one of the worst things that can ever happen to you. Unless it is a medical function, not a spiritual function, you do not need counseling, you need doctrine. You need to learn to counsel yourself. This means that this counseling must come from doctrine that you have learned. Every believer must make his own decisions and Bible doctrine perceived gives him the options for good decisions which glorify the Lord and provide both historical impact and personal prosperity. The ideal counselor and adviser comes from your own soul in which Bible doctrine resides, and we have noted that this is a major principle in divine guidance, knowing the will of God. You are wasting your time in leaning on someone else for spiritual advice. You were never designed to be counseled, you were designed to learn Bible doctrine and counsel yourself.

The white clothes in verse 18 refer to the uniform of honour which is both motivational and functional virtue developed from doctrine in the soul. The doctrine in your soul is not only applied to given situations, it is applied actually to circumstances and people. It is applied to self in counseling; it is applied to God in personal love. Doctrine in your soul; personal love for God. Your relationship with God is your capacity for life. It is applied to self, you do all of your own counseling; it is applied to circumstances and people, the application of doctrine whereby you can meet any of the testiness of this life.

We are now ready for the conjunction in which introduces a purpose clause. The construction of the edification complex of the soul and the production of honour, virtue and integrity inside of the divine dynasphere, plus the concept of the invisible uniform, leads to a purpose clause, in plus the subjunctive, “in order that.” The greatest manifestation of virtue and integrity is the function of impersonal love. It is a sign of having capacity for life, it is a sign of being spiritually self-sustaining. You are never spiritually self-sustaining until you have enough doctrine in your soul to apply it to God who is invisible, and you have a very deep personal love for God which is motivating virtue. You also apply that same Bible doctrine to yourself, you do not go to others for counseling, you do not tell your private business to others, you do your own counseling. Then, of course, it is applied to circumstances and people which is functional virtue. This is being spiritually self-sustaining. This is not only perception of doctrine but application of doctrine inside of the divine dynasphere. Therefore the positive picture of being spiritually self-sustaining is found in the aorist middle subjunctive of the verb periballw, “in order that you may clothe yourself.” The aorist tense is the constative aorist for a fact or action extended over a period of time, phase two of the believer in this life. This use of the aorist contemplates the action of the verb in it’s entirety. It takes residence and function inside the divine dynasphere and gathers it up into a single entirety. The middle voice: the direct middle refers to the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexive force, therefore translated “in order that you may clothe yourself.” The subjunctive mood is potential and implies a future reference and indicates the qualification based on contingency. Contingency is not making a one-shot decision. You have to be consistent. This is what is wrong with the Christian life: everyone wants inspiration, no one wants to make daily decisions. You don’t want to do something you have to do daily, it is like exercise, you work out for awhile and you get lazy. You break your routine and stop it. This is much worse, of course, because it destroys you spiritually.

So you have to constantly make decisions so that your priorities are never challenged, doctrine first. Result: you have love of God. There is where you start to become spiritually self-sustaining. There is your capacity for happiness and your capacity for life. Your objective is gate eight of the divine dynasphere, the place of spiritual maturity, the ultimate. That is where we are all going if we stay with it, but you don’t get there by making one decision. You get there by making thousands of decisions over a period of time, and right decisions.

So the element of contingency which is resident in this particular subjunctive mood actually refers to a residence, residence in the divine dynasphere and all the decisions it takes to stay there or to get back there, depending upon your situation. The subjunctive plus the conjunction i(na therefore introduces the purpose clause. The translation implies a positive purpose related to the function of your volition. Again, good decisions are daily decisions related to life in the divine dynasphere and perception of Bible doctrine. Good decisions provide options for greater decisions; bad decisions are daily decisions related to involvement and function in the cosmic system. Bad decisions for the believer destroy his options, terminate his possibilities for any real blessing from God, destroy his capacity, and often God spanks him, disciplines him, by giving him prosperity. Remember, there are two ways you can learn. You can learn from doctrine the easy way or you can learn from divine discipline the hard way. Divine discipline is designed by God to teach you but it only has a limited lesson, to teach you to rebound, to teach you to avoid the cosmic system, to teach you to get back in the divine dynasphere and stay there. But it is a terrible way to learn and if you do not learn eventually you are going out under the sin unto death, and it will be horrible.

Death is not the end of the results from bad decisions because they actually overflow into the judgment seat of Christ, embarrassment and being ashamed. And then imagine, spending all eternity wondering why you don’t have a uniform of glory, the uniform of translucent light that covers the resurrection body; and why you can’t go into the gazebo in the garden where the big parties are in heaven, and why you can’t go into the new Jerusalem suspended above the earth.

If you are really going to make it you had better start now, because you are not going to be ruling anything for a thousand years, just those who make it; just those who keep on making the right decisions.

Now we go to the negative side of that same purpose clause. That is because we have two words first, kai meaning “and,” and then the negative that goes with the subjunctive, mh. Kai mh, “and not.” Then with this we have a nominative singular subject, a)isxunh, a word which means shame and embarrassment. With the generic use of the definite article this classifies this as the shame related to the judgment seat of Christ. “Nakedness” in the passage refers to no uniform of honour in time; “shame” refers to how you will feel at the judgment seat of Christ. Nakedness is used in this passage not for literal nakedness or lack of clothing, it is used for a spiritual condition. It means you are not wearing the uniform of honour. And it means simply this: if you are in the divine dynasphere and advancing from gate four to gate eight then you are going to be wearing the uniform of honour. But if you are in the cosmic system, functioning at cosmic one and cosmic two, then you are “naked.” Spiritual nakedness is something to be ashamed of. If you are spiritually naked you are going to be ashamed. No one is more confused than a believer who is negative toward consistent doctrinal teaching.

Then we have a possessive genitive as well as a genitive of description from the noun gumnothj, and it doesn’t simply mean nakedness, it is disgraceful nakedness; “and the shame of your disgraceful nakedness,” the disgraceful nakedness describes the cosmic believer in time. The shame describes what happens to him at the judgment seat of Christ where he is going to be embarrassed and ashamed. All of the nakedness of his soul in the cosmic system is going to be revealed. And then we have the aorist passive subjunctive of fanerow, “may not be revealed.” In other words, if you don’t get with doctrine then you are going to have the alternative, the shame of your disgraceful nakedness revealed. You have a choice.

It says in verse 17 it says that the Laodiceans were blind spiritually. Blind people don’t know where they are going, they can’t see, they have to depend on someone else. If you have to depend on someone else for your spiritual life then you are blind. If someone else has to counsel you then you are blind. All of this is a sign of cosmic involvement.

So an offering is made here, “and eyesalve,” kollurion, a famous medicine, an eyesalve invented in Laodicea. Now in order that you might appreciate the fact “that the shame of your nakedness be not revealed at the judgment seat of Christ,” the culminative aorist views that judgment seat of Christ in it’s entirety and emphasises the existing results. The believer who is consistent in advancing to maturity, the believer who is consistent in the perception of Bible doctrine, will never have any regrets forever and ever and ever. Eternity is a long time; we are here for just a short time.

So we have the final solution in the eyeslave and we have a verb here to tell what you do with it. The aorist active infinitive of e)gxriw, and it means to rub it in, “and eyesalve to rub in.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in it’s entirety. It refers to alertness in historical trends extended over a period of time. In other words, “eyesalve” produces the action of the verb and this eyesalve represents the ability of doctrine in your soul to understand historical trends, to understand what is happening in this country now, what is happening in the Middle East, what is happening in Europe, what is happening throughout the world. So Bible doctrine does another thing for us. As members of the royal family of God it is eyesalve. We can see and understand contemporary history.

“to rub in your eyes,” the accusative plural direct object from o)fthalmoj, which means “eyes.” Rubbing it in your eyes is the understanding of historical trends, you are no longer blind as to what is happening in history.

The Laodiceans had no capacity for love, for life, for prosperity, or for happiness. They were living in the cosmic system and life in the cosmic system destroys every blessing that God brings your way. And the regrets are the disgrace, the ashamedness which comes at the judgment seat of Christ. Like I John 2:28, “And now, dear children, keep on residing in it [the divine dynasphere]; that if he should appear [the Rapture], we might have confidence, and might not be put to shame by him at his coming.” The embarrassment of being put to shame belongs to the cosmic believer who often has, as the Laodiceans, great capacity for life missing. The prosperity is there, the capacity is not. Capacity must precede prosperity, and so the tragedy of these people in our context.

As we come to the end of verse eighteen we note once again that at Laodicea there was a medical centre. And one of the things that had been discovered was one of the wonderful Phrygian powders from which eyesalve was manufactured. It did a fantastic job of helping people with eye problems in the ancient world. It’s exact nature we do not know but it’s success was well attested in the Roman world. We have in the Greek of verse 18 the word e)gkriw which means to rub in, to anoint. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in it’s entirety. It refers as far as we are concerned not to literally rubbing in a medicine but to alertness with regard to historical trends in the time in which we live. The active voice: The kollurion produces the action of the verb, and this eyesalve represents the subject of historical trends during the Church Age. The infinitive of purpose indicates that it is imperative that we as believers understand the historical circumstances in which we live. The accusative plural direct object from o)fthalmoj gives us the word for eyes in the Greek — “and eyesalve to run in your eyes,” meaning to understand historical trends. That is brought out in the final purpose clause, i(na plus the perfect active subjunctive of blepw. The present active infinitive of blepw is the actual verb to see. We translate this, “in order that you may keep seeing,” seeing in the sense of being able to understand historical trends. The progressive present tense is for action in the state of persistence, therefore present linear aktionsart. There never must be a time in your life when you do not understand historical trends and relate them properly to doctrine so that you are not discouraged, so that you do not fall apart, and so that you do not become an arrogant crusader, for the solutions to the problems of life are not found in arrogant crusading of any kind, they are found in recruiting for the pivot of mature believers. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive qualified by the element of contingency — the understand and application of historical trends. Too many believers are involved in some form of social action. Too many believers are spending their lives in the cosmic system trying to straighten out this world which will not be straightened out by them under any circumstances. The only hope and the only blessing and the only historical impact of the believer comes from his residence and function in the divine dynasphere, his maximum perception of Bible doctrine, his formation of the pivot from which the Lord blesses the client nation.

Translation of the verse: “I counsel you to buy from me gold [perception of Bible doctrine] refined by fire [the doctrines of inspiration and canonicity], in order that you may become rich; and wear white clothes [the invisible uniform of honour], that you may clothe yourselves [through residence and function in the divine dynasphere], and that the shame of your disgraceful nakedness [believer living in the cosmic system] may not be revealed [at the judgment seat of Christ]; and to buy eyesalve [analogous to the doctrine of historical trends] to rub in your eyes [perception of historical trends], in order that you may keep on seeing.”

Buying gold is the perception of Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere, the basis for advancing to spiritual maturity and resultant spiritual prosperity as well as material prosperity in some form. The wearing of white clothes is the uniform of honour, the fulfillment of both motivating and functional virtue. Motivating virtue is the function of the royal priesthood inside the divine dynasphere. It is directed toward God. All motivating virtue is directed toward God whether it is worship or morality directed toward man and circumstances. Personal love is the greatest of the motivating virtues directed toward God. It’s counterpart is the functional virtue, impersonal love directed toward man, the treating of man in perfect honour and in virtue. The concept of confidence in God is a motivating virtue, and it’s counterpart is courage toward man as the functional virtue. So always in view here: motivational virtues must precede functional virtues just as capacity for prosperity and blessing must actually precede the blessing.

Then we have the rubbing in of the eyesalve which is our understanding of the doctrine of historical trends. We will stop long enough to review some of the concepts that are found in the eyesalve, concepts dealing with historical trends. We have see in some detail that the Church Age is a dead spot as far as prophecy is concerned. There was a great deal of prophecy in the Old Testament about many things, and when our Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh the actual prophecies of the first advent were fulfilled in detail. Once our Lord was seated at the right hand of the Father and had received His third royal patent then the dispensation of Israel came to a close very shortly thereafter and the Church Age began.

The Church Age is a time of no prophecy, it is the time of rest from prophecy. The Church Age is the dispensation of historical trends. The next prophecy is the resurrection or the Rapture of the Church, the subject of Revelation chapters four and five. Chapter four begins with the Rapture of the Church and then everything is fulfilled on a prophetical basis. So the Church Age is located between the two greatest prophetical periods of all human history. The first prophetical period has been fulfilled in relationship to the first advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, all of the things that are entailed in the first advent.

The Church Age is the time of the calling out of a royal family. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not have a royal family for His third royal patent. For His first royal patent He had God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. His title under His first royal patent is Son of God. For His second royal patent He had the dynasty of David. This is the royalty into which He was born and His title is Son of David. But for His third royal patent there was no royal family and therefore the Church Age is the time of the calling out of the royal family. It is also a time of dispensation of no prophecy, only a time of historical trends, the next prophetic event being the resurrection of the Church. Needless to say the dispensation of no prophecy is terminated with a prophecy, the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church.

Therefore the book of Revelation which we are studying becomes a textbook of world history, world history as related to our Lord Jesus Christ and His third royal patent. It starts at AD 96 with the apostle John on the Isle of Patmos and it terminates with the destruction of the universe and the creation of new heavens and new earth and a new Jerusalem. Of the two categories of world history one is now in the process — historical trends. The second category is prophetical and we will study it at a future time. Therefore, of course, the divine counsel to learn historical trends is always mandated, “rub eyesalve in your eyes in order that you may keep on seeing.” This is the purpose for studying historical trends.

1. Even though history is the history of man’s thoughts, decisions, actions, motivations, it is Jesus Christ who controls history. There are two sources of judgment in history: the sovereign decisions of Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind. The emphasis of historical trends is on the erroneous decisions of mankind.

2. Therefore, as goes the believer in his decisions so goes the historical trend at any given point of the Church Age. Residence and function in the divine dynasphere means historical uptrend, whereas involvement in the cosmic system means historical downtrend. We as members of the royal family of God and a kingdom of priests have therefore a tremendous responsibility to the human race. We have the responsibility of advancing to maturity.

3. People individually and collectively are the products of their own decisions. In other words, decisions create environment, not environment decisions. There are no tragedies in history, there are only historical disasters. These disasters are not tragedies since both individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions. The pattern of historical disaster begins with economic depression, moves both to social degeneracy and military disaster. In times of historical disaster the truly great people are the ones who run counter to the flow of traffic. In time of disaster people panic and they fall apart, and they all run in one direction. They try to hide, they think in terms of security, and they lose that keenness of making decisions. As a result they merely contribute to the downtrend in the historical situation.

Decisions are the great issue in life, and one that has been ignored in life by mankind in general. And it isn’t just one decision, it is the hundreds of decisions that you make, or thousands of decisions you make in a given period of time. So the fall of nations is not a tragedy, it is historical disaster. No nation ever falls apart from the accumulated wrong decisions of the people living in that nation. While we may be sympathetic with a nation and say, “What a tragedy,” the historical trend says not a tragedy, these people are the products of their own decisions. The pattern of historical disaster then begins with economic depression. It moves to the social degeneracy which is simply the manifestation of many wrong decisions by many people in a national entity. God often selects the most evil nation to administer discipline to the client nations so involved.

4. Individual subjectivity destroys national objectivity. People are merely the products of their own attitudes and as such the nation becomes the product of the attitudes of the people in that nation. Arrogant people result in an arrogant nation. Arrogant people or arrogant nations never see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of others. Jealous people and envious nations never see their own sins and the production of evil, they only see the sins and the production of evil of others. This is the normal pattern for arrogance and involvement in cosmic one.

Therefore always in historical trends many of the problems we see come from the demand for power, for the demand for power among human beings always exceeds the need for power among human beings. Under the laws of divine establishment or category one truth we have studied many times the various forms of legitimate authority in life. Legitimate authority is necessary so that each one of us might have his freedom and privacy, and that there might be the recognition of certain divine gifts — the sacredness of property, the sacredness of life. Therefore certain types of authority are necessary. But people who do not have authority and become arrogant seek to establish themselves as an authority and so the historical downtrend always includes the demand for power exceeding the need for power. The need for power is determined, then, by the laws of divine establishment which defines all legitimate authority in the civil realm. It also defines authority in the business realm. It defines authority in the spiritual realm and the professional realm. There is no area of life where authority does not exist. For example, when the authority of the coach is superseded by the demand for power by the players, then you have disaster. The demand for power, then, is always determined by some form of motivational evil in cosmic one and some functional evil in cosmic two. Legitimate power always functions within the context of legitimate authority delegated by God through the laws of divine establishment. That authority is defined for any category of life whether social life or business life or personal life, professional life, national life. Evil and it’s destructive power exists to the extent that cosmic arrogance exceeds the restraints of legitimate power and authority. This principle is true whether in a football game where the referee loses control, or a national entity where the government fails to protect the freedom, the privacy, the property, the life of it’s citizens; the local church where the pastor does not teach Bible doctrine, or in the home where parents have no control over their children. Since we are the products of our own decisions and self-determination rather than our own environment motivational and functional evil in the cosmic system can all be restrained through gate three of the divine dynasphere, which is enforced and genuine humility.

Historical trends, then, are related to the conflict between objective reality in life in the divine dynasphere versus subjective reality of life in the cosmic system. Believers are not only the products of their own decisions (not their environment) but the nation in which they reside is affected by their good or bad decisions. Good decisions relate to life in the divine dynasphere; bad decisions relate to life in the cosmic system. Arrogant groups of individuals or nations never see, then, the disastrous consequences of their cosmic involvement. For that reason, of course, there is nothing but trouble in the glen, as it were. The problems can obviously be corrected then by following the mandate at the end of verse 18. Eyesalve has to do with historical trends and the whole story of it as a doctrine — “Rub it in your eyes [perception of historical trends] in order that you may keep on seeing [the application of historical trends to the time in which we live].” And, of course, preoccupation with self to the exclusion of objective reality becomes the greatest blindness problem in life. As we saw at the end of verse 17 they were blind, they had no perception of doctrine, they had no concept of the cosmic system, they did not understand historical trends, they were merely contributing to historical downtrends. They were said to be blind and naked and therefore the clothing of one’s self is the development of virtue through perception of doctrine in verse 18. Anointing of the eyes with eyesalve “in order that you may see” is the understanding of historical trends and it’s application to circumstances.

There is no progress in the innovations of society unless it is backed by truth, and this is true in our personal lives. There is no progress spiritually unless we can apply doctrine to experience, the second stage of the faith-rest drill with it’s doctrinal rationales and, above all, the existence of impersonal love in the life, for it is impersonal love, love for all, that makes it possible to make right applications. Therefore innovation becomes a basis for expression of arrogance rather than advance or progress in life in science. Innovation without truth is historically disastrous while innovation without a system is destructive. Innovation without a system includes such things as modern art, religious cults, rock and hard music, weirdo poetry, everything from Gnosticism to socialism, communism to the welfare state; all these things are innovations, and innovation therefore becomes destructive. Nothing could be more destructive to the prosperity of this nation than the welfare state, than socialism, than communism. Innovation imposed on others without their consent runs the gamut from arrogance to tyranny.

Too often, then, history is the story of how the weak control the strong. Weak, insecure, irresponsible, thoughtless, arrogant people often (though not always) control procedure and function in people. In social life they do it, in cultural life, in business, in government, in churches. Through arrogant self-centredness and preoccupation with self the weak in society control and manipulate the strong. Weakness is characterised by one thing: arrogance.

The problem in Laodicea was the practical application base, not the academic application, those are the rationales. The practical application base is impersonal love. There is no application to life, to people, or to circumstances unless you impersonal love as a base. We have already seen how impersonal love has direction. In part of worship it goes toward God with personal love. Impersonal love is directed toward people in relationships; it is directed toward capacity. Without impersonal love you have no capacity for life, without impersonal love you have no capacity for personal love. Until you can handle all the people you cannot possibly handle one person or a few people you call friends. You have no application, no base for it. Impersonal love is not impersonal, it is the whole system of integrity and honour in your life. It is unconditional; it is directed toward all alike. The same courtesy you would give to someone you love, you would give to a stranger because you have virtue, integrity and honour. Impersonal love toward mankind therefore is the highest virtue directed toward man. Personal love toward mankind is only virtue-dependant. Impersonal love is always a virtue; personal love is no virtue at all. It may sound strange to you but your attitude toward strangers and your attitude toward enemies and people you do not like is the basis for having wonderful relationships in life with people. You can’t have personal love without impersonal love, it is that simple. Impersonal love gives vigour to a population. We have lost our vigour in this country. Impersonal love is manufactured inside of the divine dynasphere.

While personal love is directed toward mankind in a selective way, emphasising the attractiveness of the object and related to a few, impersonal love is non-discriminating, emphasising virtue, honour and integrity toward all whether the object has animosity, is a stranger, or a friend. Impersonal love as a virtue directed toward all mankind can exist only in the soul. Whether the object is present or absent impersonal love goes right on and acts as a base. People can’t apply in a practical way the principles of Christianity to their lives because they have no base, no way of applying, no channel by which the information in their soul goes out to those who live in your periphery.

Human personal love is weak and vulnerable to destruction through arrogance. Therefore it is virtue-dependant in its function perpetuation and reciprocation. God the Father invented the divine dynasphere as the only way to manufacture impersonal love, the system by which we make application of doctrine to experience. The existence of holiness in God as the subject is the model and the pattern for the existence of virtue in the believer who takes in doctrine consistently. Therefore the function of impersonal love is the sum total of the believer’s honour, integrity and objectivity manufactured from all types of Bible doctrine. And so impersonal love becomes the major problem-solver in this life. The emphasis of impersonal love is always spiritual momentum and perception of doctrine. Impersonal love is always unconditional as far as any object is concerned — unprejudiced, tolerant, courteous, considerate, no matter how great the stress of antagonism. Therefore application depends on impersonal love. You cannot be the victim of gossip, maligning, unfair treatment, unjust treatment; you cannot be the victim of antagonism and actually handle it, unless you have impersonal love in your soul.

Inside the cosmic system any form of human love becomes hypocrisy, it becomes preoccupation with self, it becomes the function of the Narcissus syndrome. Since the object of impersonal love is the entire human race impersonal love must not only be virtuous but unconditional. Unconditional means no merit is assigned to the object. And, again, so many people are failing in their relationships of human love simply because they lack this impersonal love.

The bottom side of this base of impersonal love, the one which applies to people, has something we call sensitivity. How can you apply truth to people unless you are sensitive to people? Sensitivity is a system of alertness, alertness in the field of objectivity. Sensitivity is the impact of impersonal love expressed, then, in understanding others and in thoughtfulness for others. Sensitivity manifests itself in good manners, willingness to accommodate one’s self to an individual or a group; and, of course, it means that you are going to be misunderstood, you are often going to be called weak and bullied, but that shouldn’t bother you at all if you have the strong integrity of impersonal love.

Sensitivity, then, combines with the virtue of impersonal love and with the virtue of enforced and genuine humility to provide the best possible capacity for life, the capacity which is lacking in the Laodiceans. By way of contrast hypersensitivity is arrogance. The person who has impersonal love inside the divine dynasphere has great sensitivity to people. But the person in cosmic one is insensitive to people and preoccupied with self, and therefore becomes hypersensitive. Hypersensitivity is arrogant preoccupation with self, the subjective function of making a false issue out of one’s self. Hypersensitive people always function under the demand syndrome and use a number of strategies to get their own way or to control their periphery. The obsession of self-importance, preoccupation with self to the exclusion of those around you is the trade mark of hypersensitivity. Hypersensitive people, of course, are always insensitive to the feelings of others. And, of course, hypersensitivity and impersonal love cannot coexist and therefore if people live, especially in cosmic one, and they go in through gate one and function there, they are never going to be able to apply one ounce of doctrine though they may know the whole realm of doctrine. There will be no application.

In Christianity in Laodicea there was a conflict in the sensitivity of virtue and the hypersensitivity of arrogance. Sensitivity represents functional virtue, impersonal love toward others; hypersensitivity represents the function of arrogance toward others. Therefore sensitivity versus hypersensitivity is one of the great battles in Christianity. Those who live in the divine dynasphere consistently are sensitive; those who live in the cosmic system are hypersensitive. In the angelic conflict stage of the Church Age the opposing forces are in one dynasphere or the other and one of the great battles to be fought every day is sensitivity versus hypersensitivity. Sensitivity is objective and humble; hypersensitivity is subjective and arrogant.

Just as there is a relationship between motivational and functional virtue, as a result of hypersensitivity there exists a relationship between motivational and functional evil. When confronted with obvious superiority the hypersensitive believer in the cosmic system seeks to destroy that superior person or rationalise his own pseudo-superiority. Thus he divorces himself from reality and intensifies his antagonisms. When confronted with obvious inferiority the hypersensitive believer becomes a bully and a tyrant and, again, he divorces himself from reality. This, of course, results in the destruction of society which results in the destruction of the client nation. And had Laodicea been the only source of support for the Roman empire the Roman empire would have gone down in AD 96. But such is not the case, and there were some people who were ready to learn in Laodicea.

Inside of many of your souls, though obviously not all, there is a tremendous mass of doctrine which we call from its Biblical phrase, e)pignwsij. You have learned that doctrine through residence and function in the divine dynasphere. The key is that when you learn doctrine at gate four you have to apply that doctrine, and the application of e)pignosij to your life and experience falls into two basic categories. There is first of all academic application. Academic application of Bible doctrine to your life is to deal with all circumstances of life, not simply adverse circumstances, whereas practical application is designed to deal with all the people with whom you come into contact, good and bad. You cannot apply doctrine that you have learned as e)pignwsij to circumstances unless you have a base for doing so, and the base for applying e)pignwsij doctrine academically to circumstances is the second stage of the faith-rest drill with its rationales, the plan of God rationale, the essence of God rationale, the logistical grace rationale, all of the various rationales. And then in practical application you must also have a base, and this is the one that people don’t understand. You cannot solve people problems for yourself unless you have the base of impersonal love.

1. The Church Age is not only the dispensation of no prophecy but the dispensation of historical trends without prophecy.

2. Only during the Church Age are historical trends related exclusively to the decisions made by believers in any given generation.

4. This means that decisions of believers and other believers of other dispensations were programmed into the computer of divine decrees and the printout was prophecy. Prophecy determines historical trends in all other dispensations but the Church Age.

5. This is the only dispensation where eschatology does not determine historical trends; this is the only dispensation where the believer’s decisions alone determine historical trends. In other words, your attitude toward Bible doctrine determines the historical trends in this generation. This means both decision and application, then, are the key to historical trends in the Church Age. Your decisions as a believer and your applications of doctrine or failure of application determines historical trends in the Church Age.

The most important base for decision and application is impersonal love, the virtue of the Church Age. This virtue compensates for any lack of equality in any given generation. Equality is always related to opportunity in the Christian life, and not the results. It is true that we have a moment of equality at the moment of salvation when forty things are given to each one of us and that is equality for the moment. But that is a temporary thing. We all, at that point, have equality of opportunity but from there on it is a matter of volition. The fact that you have equality of opportunity guarantees inequality of result. Some are going to be winners because they reside and function in the divine dynasphere and because they are consistent in the perception and application of Bible doctrine. Some are going to be losers. They had their chance at the point of salvation but they used their free will to fail.

This is the dispensation of no prophecy and it is the dispensation of equal opportunity among believers — opportunity only. At the moment of salvation we have the same opportunity as all other believers at the moment of salvation, but thereafter there is a vast difference and great inequalities exist because of failure to utilise logistical grace, or success in the utilisation of logistical grace.

When we talk about love, anticipating verse 19: “Those whom I love,” people often think of love in terms of sex. Furthermore they glorify sex as a problem-solver and a happiness maker. But sex does not solve problems, it is for those who have already solved their problems. To fall in love without the capacity for love is the greatest single sociological disaster in life, and people who are constantly searching for an opposite number therefore stick their necks out and guarantee disaster. They put the cart before the horse. They have no capacity for love but they are constantly searching for someone to love. You can’t have a relationship with a member of the opposite sex without having the capacity first and if you simply focus in on sex then sex doesn’t solve any problems. Sex merely intensifies the problems you have. By this is meant there can be no personal love between a man and a woman unless each one possesses impersonal love — the capacity. Since sex is an expression of personal love between one man and one woman, obviously the blessing of category two love and sex depends upon the possession of virtue, honour, and integrity of impersonal love. In other words, capacity for love precedes blessing in love.

Capacity, of course, takes us back to impersonal love and it inserts virtue, honour and integrity in all human relationships. Those who try to solve their problems through sex intensify their problems. Sex is not a problem-solver but is an expression of capacity for love when there is impersonal love in the life. The principle is: capacity must precede any form of blessing or possible blessing. The real secret is to have the capacity first, then you enjoy the blessing. Otherwise you do not enjoy the blessing.

The concept itself leads us to the other side of the fence. We have been considering the concept of love and we have noted the basis for the Christian way of life as it relates to love. The Christian way of life is divided into two parts: visible and invisible. The invisible is the function of your royal priesthood directed toward God, and the problem with so many people in sex and in other human relationships — where the boss seems to be unfair, where people are unkind, etc. — is the fact that the only personal love that has virtue is directed toward God. And with personal love for God, which is responding to His love for us, then we have something that is fantastic. That must come first and that comes from the perception of doctrine at gate four, and that becomes motivating virtue in life. It becomes the only motive by which there can be happiness and blessing in this life. Then there is the visible function of the Christian way of life, the royal ambassadorship. This is directed toward people as the objects of love; but the virtue is in impersonal love, not personal love, because impersonal love has the virtue, honour and integrity and becomes the functional virtue. If you have love for God in a personal way from your perception of doctrine you will have impersonal love for people as the application of doctrine to experience. And it is the way you treat all people that will actually determine your ability to single out one individual of the opposite sex and treat them in magnificent personal love. But personal love is virtue-dependant.

Verse 19, motivation for recovery from the cosmic system. We start out with the accusative masculine plural from o(soj, a correlative relative pronoun. This relative pronoun of quantity and number combines with a conditional conjunction e)an, and the two words together form a simple idiom: “those whom.” The indefinite pronoun expresses a substantive idea in a general sense as representing a category, that is o(soj. Hence, the indefinite pronoun expresses the category without specifying by name anyone in that category. The idiom is used to state a principle with regard to believers but to state the principle without naming names, not someone by name but a category.

The first encouraging thing is that these who have failed are loved by the Lord just as those who have succeeded, those who are winners. It is obvious that the Lord loves the winner, the one who advances to maturity; it is not obvious that the Lord loves the loser, but He does. This takes us right back to the concept of impersonal love, “I love you because of virtue, honour and integrity in my soul. I do not love you because you are attractive or unattractive, I love you because of who and what I am.” The pronoun here is speaking of God. It is the personal pronoun e)gw in the nominative, first person singular, referring to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit at different times. Here it refers to God the Son who is the prince-ruler of the Church and the one who is dispensing logistical grace in this dispensation. Then we have the verb, the present active indicative of the verb filew. This is rather strange when you would expect a)gapaw which is generally used for impersonal love but the point is that if you have impersonal love directed toward all you are now qualified to have personal love directed toward a few. Here we are talking about the few in the sense of losers, believers who live in the cosmic system, believers who are Christians but not living the Christian way of life. This is not the word for impersonal love. Why do we have the verb for personal love? Well obviously it is a reference to divine personal love, and obviously God could not love losers unless God had virtue, honour, integrity, His perfect essence. And the reason that God can even love personally a loser is because of His magnificent essence. So we have a reference to divine personal love directed toward those who believe in Christ, those who possess God’s perfect righteousness, and while this is a personal love directed toward them it is based upon virtue — impersonal love. When God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the subject and you are a loser and He loves you personally, that should be motive enough to recover from the cosmic system. Therefore filew is used instead of the usual a)gapaw.

Translation so far: “Those whom [Church Age believers] I [the Lord Jesus Christ] love [personal love directed toward those who possess +R but are losers].”

Verse 19, “Those whom I love,” Church Age believers, royal family of God. The subject is the Lord Jesus Christ in His personal love directed toward the few who are believers. The reason for it we will note later.

There are three classifications of divine love. First of all there is God’s love for God; secondly, God’s love for man; thirdly, God’s love for His own policy. So when you think of the love of God you have to think of the object. God, for example, has a love for the other members of the Godhead and for His own perfect integrity. God also has a love for man and for His own policy. These three factors are the principles in the love of God. And they have to be classified.

God’s love for God is classified two ways. Each member of the Godhead loves His own perfect essence, His own attributes. That is called perfect subjective love. He also loves the essence of the attributes of the other members of the Godhead. That is called perfect objective love. However, we are not studying it at this moment since it is not pertinent to our verse. Our verse deals with God’s love for man which is classified into two categories: God’s impersonal love for all mankind, as manifest by the cross, and God’s personal love for those who possess His righteousness or those who are believers in Christ. The concept of God’s love for His policy is classified as an anthropopathism in contrast to the other concepts or principles like God’s love for man direct. The anthropopathism, “I love Jacob but I hate Esau,” is an illustration.

In classifying divine love toward man we have to look at it from the standpoint of the three phases of the plan of God. There is salvation or phase one. When you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you receive forty things and the divine dynasphere. Then there is phase two, the believer in time beginning with his salvation and terminating with his departure from this life whether by physical death or the resurrection. Then there is phase three, the believer in eternity. Each one of these phases of the plan has the connotation of personal or impersonal love. Divine impersonal love is directed toward all, for example, in phase one or salvation. God loves the human race. Illustration: when Christ was on the cross He received all of the sins of the world, they were all imputed to Him and judged. Divine personal love, however, is directed only toward those who actually believe in Christ. At the cross Christ died for all and therefore the love of God for the human race is impersonal, emphasising the integrity of the subject.

But those who believe in Christ have that which makes it personal, they have the righteousness of God. So in the classification of phase one of salvation there is divine impersonal love directed toward the entire human race; there is divine personal love directed toward those who have the righteousness of God. And there are two categories of believers who have this righteousness: believers living in the divine dynasphere who are winners, and believers who are living in the cosmic system and are losers. So when God expresses His love He sometimes expresses it categorically to those who live in the divine dynasphere. In our passage He is going to express His personal love to those who are losers living in the cosmic system. All of us are blessed by God because of who and what God is. Divine personal love is directed toward the few, however, who advance to maturity. In going from gate four to gate eight the mature believer becomes the object of divine personal love, and the same thing is true in the third category of God’s plan: phase three, the believer in eternity.

Our context is referring to divine personal love. We discovered that when we saw the verb filew, used for divine personal love and human personal love where man is the subject. We have seen also that a)gapaw is the verb used for impersonal love. So we are talking about God the Son as the subject and filew is used to indicate the personal love of the Lord, and therefore is directed toward the few, those believers who personally accept the Lord Jesus Christ as saviour under category one. Under category two it is advance to maturity. So obviously when we have filew we are simply looking at losers from the standpoint of the fact that while they are in cosmic one they still have God’s righteousness, they haven’t lost their salvation. While they are in cosmic two they still have God’s righteousness, and that is the status quo of the Laodiceans under the phrase, “those whom I love.” In this case it is personal love because losers have +R.

The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition as perpetually existing. Because of the imputation of +R at the point of salvation God personally loves every believer. Active voice: in this particular context God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, produces the action, and the indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine. That is why you and I are alive. When we fail or when we succeed it makes no difference as far as His love is concerned, He still loves us with the same amount of infinite, eternal, and personal love.

The manifestation of this comes in the next verb, the present active indicative of the verb e)legxw, and it means to convince, to convict, to point out something to someone, to bring to light or reality. It should be translated here, to reprimand or to reprove, “Those whom I love, I reprimand.” The present tense is a customary present, it denotes that which habitually occurs when a believer becomes involved in the cosmic system and is a loser. Such a believer receives warning discipline as a means of motivating rebound. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb through the provision of warning discipline.

When it says, “I reprimand,” it means after you through your own decisions, your own motives and your own actions have made a mess out of your life, and you have made yourself miserable and unhappy. Once you have done that it means that you have prolonged your stay in the cosmic system and somehow you have to be motivated to get out. You have to be taught the difference between man and animal. The animal has instinct; man has to be taught everything. The only time that man becomes instinctive is the time that man reverts to becoming an animal himself in his soul. He ignores the soul by the dominance of emotion. Here we have suffering but the suffering is brought about by your own volition. The only way that you can ever recover is to get out of the cosmic system and get back in the divine dynasphere, and that calls for a positive decision. But since, as you live a long time in the cosmic system, you become instinctive rather than rational. Remember that Christians in the cosmic system become sociopathic, psychopathic and neurotic. They have to be taught again, but they have to be motivated to rebound. Therefore warning discipline is brought about by the Lord, and that is exactly what we have here when it says, “I reprimand”. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb by the provision of warning discipline to the believer in the cosmic system. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of warning discipline as a teaching instrument. It is to teach the believer, that is the whole purpose of divine discipline.

Warning discipline is only the beginning here, for we have a connective conjunction kai and then a third present active indicative. This time the verb is paideuw, a word which is taken from the word paij which means a child, and it means to train the child by punishment, by discipline. So the concept is to discipline with punishment. Paideuw is intensive discipline for the cosmic believer. The present tense is a customary present which habitually occurs when the cosmic believer through his own volition gets into the cosmic system and stays there — no rebound. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb by providing intensive discipline after warning discipline.

Stage one is to alert the cosmic believer to his state of cosmic involvement and to give him the opportunity to rebound. This discipline is both coterminous and coexistent with self-induced misery from bad decisions. In other words, it is tacked on to bad decisions. The cosmic believer manufactures his own unhappiness through his own free will. So there is warning discipline to give him the motivation to rebound.

Stage two is intensive discipline, the intensification of divine discipline is administered by the justice of God to the cosmic believer who fails to heed the warning, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” This is continued negative volition and the perpetuation of cosmic involvement without rebound. This category prepares the cosmic believer for the administration of the sin unto death.

Stage three is dying discipline, the sin unto death, in which the believer is removed from phase two. This discipline is manifest at the judgment seat of Christ through loss of any reward or decoration on the one hand, and there is embarrassment on the other.

The key to the maintenance of life in the divine dynasphere is the perpetual use of the rebound technique when necessary. Therefore, in the last half of this verse there is a mandate to rebound and the only way to recover life in the divine dynasphere. That mandate for recovery from the cosmic system follows. First of all there must be motivation and the motivation, of course, comes from hurting.

All of us have to learn some things the hard way. Your life can be very easily gauged by the number of things you have to learn the hard way. Those who have to be disciplined by God constantly, those who ignore warning discipline and go into intensive discipline, are stupid no matter how high their IQ. They are stupid because they have to learn everything the hard way. How do you know when you are stupid? It is C+C=STUPIDITY. Crisis warning discipline plus crisis intensive discipline equals stupidity. Your stupidity is measured by the number of crises in your life. This is not talking about testing, it is talking about God actually having to discipline you. As soon as the pain of divine discipline is removed then you fall right back into the same old way, that’s dumb! And it is inexcusable because spiritual IQ is not measured in terms of human IQ.

People have to be motivated when they fail even as they have to be motivated when they succeed. People who are going to live their lives as unto the Lord have to solve their own problems, and they have to be motivated to solve their own problems by the perception of doctrine. And if people who fail are ever going to recover they have to be motivated from their own soul and make the decision from their own free will. That is how problem-solving gets started. So we have motivation here, the present active imperative of the verb zhleuw, which means to be eager, to be zealous, or to be properly motivated. We will translate it, “be zealous,” but it really means to be properly motivated. The customary present tense is for what habitually occurs when motivation for rebound is present, either from warning or intensive discipline, or wisdom from past recollection and application of doctrine. The active voice: cosmic believers produce the action of the verb through proper motivation. The imperative mood is the imperative of command which is a mandate for proper motivation to continue rebound modus operandi. You have to be motivated to rebound and that is why divine discipline, otherwise you could simply follow your own destiny with your own volition and destroy yourself in half the time of divine discipline. You have to remember that all of the time that you are under divine discipline you are being kept alive! Under divine discipline the justice of God is still sending logistical grace to the righteousness of God in your soul. Therefore you are being faithfully kept alive while you are under divine discipline. Left to your own devices you wouldn’t be alive. Divine discipline often lessens the intensity of your suffering. You see, it is our decisions that make us suffer.

Divine discipline is a blessing. It is not designed just to make us hurt. We hurt so that we will be motivated to get back into the plan and often divine discipline isn’t nearly as painful as the things we do ourselves with our wrong decisions. Man suffers more from his own volition than he does from the justice of God in divine discipline. All God is doing is motivating us.

The word for zeal in verse 19 indicates the proper motivation for the use of the rebound technique. The inferential conjunction o)un denotes that what it introduces is the result of inference from what precedes, “therefore be zealous.” We have the connective conjunction kai which indicates the fact that rebound is necessary for motivation from either doctrinal wisdom or divine discipline, one or the other. Rebound is one of the most essential functions in your life on this earth. Without rebound there is absolutely no way that you can maintain any kind of fulfillment of the plan of God, staying inside the divine dynasphere, and everything related to it.

Next we have, after the motivation, the mechanics in the verb metanoew. The aorist active imperative of this verb is generally misunderstood. It means to change the mind. The subject of changing the mind is always found in the context. The word “repent” in modern English connotes some form of emotion, feeling sorry for something you have done, and that is definitely not the connotation in the Greek. It means to change one’s mind. Here it is a technical word for rebound, the naming of your sins to God as a function of your royal priesthood in the cosmic system. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for a momentary action. Rebound is a function that should not take long. The active voice: the carnal or the cosmic believer produces the action of the verb by confessing his known sins to God as the only legitimate priestly function inside the cosmic system. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, a mandate from God to the cosmic believer to confess his sins (privately) to God and to leave the cosmic system. The moment of rebound means that he reenters the divine dynasphere.

The mechanics of recovery from the cosmic system is the rebound technique only. In the mechanics of rebound the cosmic believer is free to confess his sins and to recover life in the divine dynasphere or he can ignore the discipline and the warning which comes from it, the warning of discipline or intensive discipline, and continue life in the cosmic system. Life in the cosmic system results in the believer in Christ serving Satan all of his life. It is a life of terrible misery.

Believers generally misunderstand divine discipline. On the pain curve we cause our own pain to self by wrong decisions. We produce our own unhappiness; we are the source of our own misery. The decisions we make result in bringing pain and misery to ourselves and this pain can intensify anywhere from, say, zero to one hundred per cent depending on how long you live in the cosmic system. The cosmic system is merely the circumstances, the environment of pain. And we make our own decisions that bring about our suffering, it is not caused by outside sources. The intensity of pain brought about by our own volition can go all the way to one hundred per cent.

Now divine discipline doesn’t work that way, it is a different story. In administering divine discipline the Lord may tune in when we hit forty per cent with warning discipline. Divine discipline is designed to teach, not to hurt, and it is generally not as painful as the suffering we bring on ourselves. We bring pain to ourselves by wrong decisions and the pain intensifies as we accumulate wrong decisions without a break. When the Lord comes in with warning discipline it is simply a way of saying: “Look, to learn Bible doctrine you have to be in the divine dynasphere. So you are not in the divine dynasphere, therefore you cannot learn doctrine, you cannot grow. But you can get back into the divine dynasphere and this pain is to teach you, to motivate you, to rebound.” But it is not an intense thing. It will be described in the next verse as standing at the door and knocking. God spanks us, reprimands us, as a teaching aid. Unfortunately there is very little that you can learn through it except to be motivated to rebound. Learning the hard way is a limited academic subject. Once you ignore warning discipline then the next time it comes in as intensive discipline. So when you hurt the most in this world don’t say that God is punishing you.

To get out of the divine dynasphere you have to make a decision to sin. Let’s say you are in the divine dynasphere and you are a new believer. Let’s say you are a socialist, or a communist, or some kind of activist, a terrorist even. Now let’s say that you have been saved for five minutes and you haven’t committed a sin. The fact that you are a socialist or a communist or a terrorist or anything else does not knock you out of the divine dynasphere. Being a communist or a socialist or a terrorist motivates you to sin, but the only way you get out of the divine dynasphere is sin. It is not what you are, it is what you do. You can’t get out by being evil. When we are born again we are generally either evil or full of human good and self-righteousness. You cannot get out of the divine dynasphere because you are evil, the only way you can get out of the divine dynasphere is to sin, and when you decide to sin that is the moment you go outside. Because that decision cannot be made in the divine dynasphere it has to be made outside and the moment you make a decision to sin you enter the cosmic system. It is important to understand that the only decision that gets you out of the divine dynasphere is sin.

Life in the cosmic system results in the believer serving Satan. Life in the cosmic system is a miserable existence in time, an embarrassment at the judgment seat of Christ, and means occupying an inferior status quo both in the Millennium and in the eternal state. So obviously then rebound is a pivotal factor. You make a decision by which you get out of the divine dynasphere; you also make a decision by which you get back into the divine dynasphere.

Rebound is as simple as 1 John 1:9, which in corrected translation says: “If we acknowledge [admit, name] our sins, he is faithful and righteous so that he has forgiven us our sins, and cleansed us from all unrighteousness [sins of ignorance].” Usually when we commit sins of cognisance somewhere in the background there are also sins of ignorance that are also cleansed. So rebound is the grace function of the believer which accomplishes the following results: restoration of fellowship with God; recovery of the filling of the Holy Spirit; reentry into the divine dynasphere; recovery from the cosmic system [cosmic one where we are grieving the Spirit; cosmic two where we are quenching the Spirit]. Rebound, then, is the most basic modus operandi of the spiritual life and the most important function of the priesthood outside the cosmic system. Rebound is a part of God’s logistical grace provision for the fulfillment of the plan of God and the execution of the Christian way of life. Without this grace provision of rebound the believer in phase two cannot exploit the positional victory over the old sin nature gained at the point of salvation through the baptism of the Spirit. And apart from the rebound technique no believer can function inside the divine dynasphere and therefore no believer can fulfill the plan of God. There is no execution of divine mandates apart from life in the divine dynasphere for all of them require the power of God the Holy Spirit.

All suffering in the Christian life should be turned to blessing but it is impossible to do this apart from rebound. In suffering for discipline the issue is sin; in suffering for blessing the issue is grace. The category for suffering for discipline is unbearable suffering; the category for suffering for blessing is bearable suffering. The status of suffering for discipline is arrogant subjectivity; the status of suffering for blessing is enforced and genuine humility. The solution to suffering for discipline is rebound; the solution to suffering for blessing is the three stages of the faith-rest drill.

The greatest opposition to rebound, of course, is impulsive arrogance, impulsive arrogance of gate three, cosmic one. Illustration: Matthew 18:23-35. Another great enemy of rebound is the blind arrogance of gate five of cosmic one, Luke 15:11-32. The third great enemy of rebound is the iconoclastic arrogance of gate seventeen of cosmic one, 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.

The dispensation in which we live provides the greatest opportunity for all believers and the greatest challenge that has existed in all of human history, or ever will. The reason for this is because this is the only dispensation or era of history in which prophecy has absolutely no part. Historical trends in all other dispensations determined by prophecy but in this Church Age there is no prophecy. Therefore the dispensation in which we find ourselves is one in which everything depends upon the individual volition of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. As goes your volition, your decisions, so goes the historical trends in the Church Age. This is the dispensation of the mystery. It was so-called according to the books of Ephesians and Colossians because of the fact that there was no prophecy revealed about this age. In all of the prophecies of the Old Testament there is a great deal of eschatology regarding Israel as a client nation to God, there is a tremendous amount of prophecy about the Tribulation, the second advent, the Millennial reign of Christ, and in these prophecies there is a great deal of information with regard to historical trends so that it is easy to conclude that historical trends are determined by prophecy in every dispensation except this one. It therefore becomes very important in the Church Age to realise that your daily decisions and your personal decisions are the difference between prosperity and adversity, and between blessing and cursing as far as the client nation is concerned. This means that you and I as believers have a tremendous responsibility in the intensified stage of the great angelic conflict, generally speaking an unseen conflict. The heroes are, therefore, low-profile and invisible until the judgment seat of Christ. And those who often determine your prosperity and mine are those believers who are faithful in the perception of Bible doctrine and who have advanced to maturity.

By the same token bad decisions mean several things in this dispensation. It means first of all that most of the pain that you suffer comes from your own bad decisions and that when you receive divine discipline it is often less than the pain that you have produced by your own negative volition.

That brings us now to verse 20 which is not a salvation verse. It has nothing whatever to do with salvation; it has everything to do with believers in the cosmic system. It has to do with the fact that believers make their own pain and by making pain for themselves by wrong decisions they spread the pain to others. You cannot manufacture pain in your own life without an overflow into the lives of other people. There are actually three analogies in this verse. First of all the analogy to warning discipline; secondly, the analogy to rebound function; and thirdly, the analogy to life in the divine dynasphere.

The analogy to warning discipline begins with the demonstrative particle i)dou. It is formed from the aorist middle imperative of the verb o(raw, “to see,” and rather than behold it should be translated, “Now hear this.” The perfect active indicative of the verb i(stemi follows, and it means to stand, “Now hear this, I stand.” The reason we translate it like an English present is the intensive perfect emphasises the existing results from the completed action. When special attention is directed toward the results of the action the existing fact of warning discipline is intensified. This is the emphatic method in the Greek of presenting a fact that is, and the fact that it is warning discipline, and warning discipline is punishment from God. But it is not suffering or punishment or pain as we bring on ourselves through wrong decisions and through making poor use of our volition, but rather it is a teaching aid. So in fact the intensive perfect presents the facts of warning discipline more forcibly than either the Greek or the English present tense but translated like the English present. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through the administration of warning discipline. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of warning discipline. The only way sometimes to distinguish between warning discipline and pain that you have brought on yourself is the fact that whatever decisions you have made lead to the pain. And there may be some sphere where you can hurt in a very intensive way that is not related to the hundreds of decisions you have made in a given period of time. Therefore it will be something special that hurts in a very sharp and special way in your life as a teaching aid.

Then we have the preposition e)pi plus the accusative of qura,“at the door.” The door is the only escape hatch from the cosmic system. So immediately our Lord finds believers in this dispensation living in the cosmic system. The door also means something else. Not only is it an escape hatch from the cosmic system and therefore being under the direct control of Satan, but the door is also an opportunity to rebound and to recover from the cosmic system. Rebound also means reentry into the divine dynasphere which is God’s plan for the Church Age and for the believer in Christ. The only priestly function directed toward God on the part of the cosmic believer is the function of the rebound technique. Hence the door is warning discipline. Christ standing at the door is knocking, warning, and indicating the grace way of escape. No believer can escape from the cosmic system, and therefore slavery to Satan, apart from the rebound technique.

Then we have a present active indicative from the verb krouw, and it means to knock. The retroactive progressive present means that warning discipline has begun in the past and continues into the present. Believers in the cosmic system are slow learners. Therefore there is a prolonged type of warning discipline. Warning discipline is the only way that our Lord can get the attention of the cosmic believer. Warning discipline makes the cosmic believer so miserable that he is forced to face the reality of his cosmic involvement and, of course, the only solution which is the rebound technique. The active voice: Our Lord produces the action of the verb, the warning discipline to rescue the cosmic believer from the disaster of his status quo. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of warning discipline as the first step in motivating rebound and recovery from the cosmic system.

The corrected translation should bring out the linear aktionsart, and it is therefore translated: “Now hear this, I stand at the door and I keep knocking.” Warning discipline is a continuous function.

There is in rightly dividing the Word of truth a tremendous distinction between the pain and the misery we bring to ourselves by wrong decisions and the suffering or the reprimand or discipline which comes from the justice of God. Divine discipline is totally fair; pain and misery brought about by our own wrong decisions is totally unfair, exasperating, impossible. Divine discipline teaches but pain brought about by our own erroneous decisions do not have any teaching content at all.

1. Divine discipline is the sum total of punitive action taken by the justice of God to correct, to teach, to encourage, to train, to motivate the believer’s free will toward the person and the plan of God. All divine discipline is designed to bring you back on the correct course of the plan of God.

2. Divine discipline is distinguished from divine judgment in that discipline is a teaching aid for believers only, while judgment from God is directed toward all categories of humanity, believers and unbelievers, under certain given circumstances.

3. Believers become involved in the cosmic system under two categories: carnality, a brief stay in the cosmic system followed by the use of rebound often encouraged by warning discipline; reversionism, a prolonged stay in the cosmic system and the neglect of the rebound technique.

4. Divine discipline must be distinguished from self-induced misery. Bad decisions not only destroy your options in life but they result in bringing about your own pain through your own function of volition. So bad decisions not only destroy your future options but they result in self-induced misery totally apart from the divine administration of punishment.

5. In other words, believers are constantly making decisions which result in their own misery, unhappiness, discomfort, totally apart from any punitive action taken by the justice of God. In other words, self-induced misery is being unfair to yourself. Divine discipline is God being totally fair with you.

6. All people are products of their own decisions, good or bad. Decisions create environment for life, not environment decisions.

7. Punishment from God often follows bad decisions producing self-induced misery, but God is credited or blamed for a lot of misery He does not initiate.

8. All wrong decisions, including carnality and reversionism, relate to cosmic involvement and function.

9. All wrong decisions in life are connected with some form of arrogance, which emphasises gate one, cosmic one. Therefore gate one, cosmic one is what we might classify the cosmic recruiter and the motivator for all evil. Some of the functions of gate one, cosmic one, include arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity, revenge motivation, etc.

Now it should become obvious that the difference between self-induced suffering or pain and divine discipline is the source. God is the source of divine discipline; man’s volition or free will is the source of self-induced misery and pain in his life. At the outset it should be noted that regardless of the category of suffering and discipline divine punishment of the believer does not imply loss of salvation. You cannot lose your salvation. All divine discipline, except the sin unto death, is designed to teach the believer, to correct the believer, to motivate the believer to recover from the cosmic system and slavery to Satan, the ruler of this world. Therefore, divine discipline is often very beneficial but only when the believer responds to the teaching of discipline and is motivated to rebound, thereby recovering residence in the divine dynasphere.

The principle that comes out of all this is a very simple one: the believer must accept the responsibility for his own bad decisions and, further, accept the responsibility for all categories of divine discipline to which he is subjected. You are divorced from reality to the extent that you refuse to accept the responsibility for your own decisions.

While judgment is punitive action from God to all mankind divine discipline is God’s last system for teaching believers only. Therefore distinguish between judgment and discipline. All believers are members of the royal family of God and His punitive action directed toward believers is a family affair — Hebrews 12:5. When God punishes or reprimands the believer it is designed for his blessing; it is parental training in the royal family.

There are two systems of learning in the Church Age. As you learn doctrine you grow in grace. You cannot grow spiritually, you cannot have any momentum in the Christian life except from perception of doctrine. The first system of learning in the Church Age is the communication of Bible doctrine from your own pastor-teacher. This has unlimited academic potential. Secondly, there is divine discipline from God, which is very limited. The unlimited concept of learning doctrine from your pastor results in spiritual maturity and fantastic blessing, but learning the hard way from divine discipline is learning through pain, and that is of course stupid. While divine discipline can teach some lessons well and produce great respect for God’s authority it cannot bring the believer to maturity. Only the perception and application of doctrine can do that. Nevertheless, divine discipline is a teacher and often as a producer of humility it results in teachability. Therefore divine discipline must be regarded as another form of blessing and a glorious opportunity to exercise one’s options for the grace of God and the plan of God. Furthermore divine discipline provides opportunity for the believer to reverse the results of his bad decisions and start making good decisions for the plan of God and the grace of God. The principle that comes out of this: If you cannot learn from humility you can learn from hurting.

Divine discipline is also related to the general subject of suffering, but we should note that the general subject of suffering comes under three categories. First, as it is related to human volition, suffering by self-determination. Then, God comes into the picture to present two other categories of suffering and these are the ones we want to note: suffering for discipline and suffering for blessing.

Suffering for divine discipline is involved in the cosmic system; suffering for blessing involves the divine dynasphere. Suffering for divine discipline is unbearable suffering in contrast to suffering for blessing which is bearable and results in blessing. Each category has its own viewpoint. The viewpoint in suffering for discipline is arrogance and subjectivity; the viewpoint in suffering for blessing is humility and objectivity. In each case there is a solution. If you are suffering from divine discipline the solution is the rebound technique. In this case one of three things can happen. First of all, all the suffering can cease at that moment. In other cases the suffering is simply diminished. In the third case the suffering continues at the same level. If the suffering is either diminished or continues at the same level it is now diminished in the divine dynasphere or in the same level in the divine dynasphere. Therefore in the divine dynasphere the purpose of that suffering is blessing, whereas the purpose of that same suffering in the cosmic system is cursing. So the use of the rebound technique converts suffering from cursing to blessing.

Once that same suffering has continued or is perpetuated either in diminished form or in the intensified form in the divine dynasphere the solution demands that you go right back to application of that suffering. And there is an academic application, the base is the faith-rest drill, the second stage — the rationales. That would apply doctrine to the circumstances of life. And there is a practical application which takes you to impersonal love, and that applies to people.

After the believer recovers his fellowship with God he is back in the divine dynasphere, he is filled with the Spirit. His suffering may cease, as per 1 Corinthians 11:31. If the suffering does not cease after rebound the purpose is changed, cursing into blessing, as per 1 Corinthians 10:13. When suffering is designed for punishment or discipline the believer cannot bear it, but when the suffering is designed for testing and blessing he can, and out of it comes even great happiness. That, of course, is related to the divine dynasphere. Again, this emphasises the importance of the rebound drill. Every opportunity to apply doctrine inside the divine dynasphere is simply the field training exercise for advance to maturity, but rebound has to come first. All Christian suffering in the cosmic system is punitive and painful.

There are certain spheres of divine discipline. Our first one is punishment in time, which is the general subject of Hebrews 12:5-14.

Corrected translation: “And so you yourselves have forgotten the principle of doctrine which teaches you as sons, ‘My son, do not make light of corrective discipline from the Lord, nor be fainting when you are reproved of him’: for whom the Lord loves he disciplines and punishes [in time] ever son whom he welcomes home. Because of corrective discipline, endure [inside the divine dynasphere], as a result God deals with you as sons; for what one is a son whom the Father has not disciplined? But if you are without discipline, of which all believers have become participants, then you are bastards [unbelievers], and not sons. Another point: we have our human parents for corrective discipline, and we respected that: therefore to a greater degree you will become subordinate to the Father of spirits, and continue living in the divine dynasphere. For they [human parents] on the one hand discipline us for a short time [during childhood], and they did so according to what seemed best to them; but he [God] on the other hand, disciplines us for our profit in order that we might receive a share of his integrity [the blessing which comes from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere]. So on the one hand all discipline while in progress [in time] appears to be an occasion not for happiness, but for sorrow. On the other hand, afterwards [recovery from the cosmic system] it pays back with interest prosperous gain [resumption of momentum in the divine dynasphere] from virtue to those believers who are trained or taught by that discipline. Therefore restore to power [the divine dynasphere] the listless hands [analogy to life in the cosmic system: no energy, as it were], and disabled knees [analogy to function in the cosmic system]. Be making straight tracks by means of your feet [momentum from gate four to gate eight] in order that the cripple [the believer involved in the cosmic system] may not be put out of joint [through living in the cosmic system], but rather be healed [be restored to the divine dynasphere]. With all the royal family of God keep moving toward the objective [advance to maturity] which is the state of prosperity [from the supergrace blessings in six paragraphs].”

This, then, is the concept of suffering for discipline in time. But there is another category: no divine discipline during the interlude of blessing after death or after the Rapture. And whether you are a winner or a loser in time, whether you die under the principle of dying grace or whether you die under the principle of the sin unto death, this is an interlude of blessing in which you are in an interim body and recognisable. No distinction is made between winners and losers.

Then there is a third category for the cosmic believer in time. There is great embarrassment at the point of the Rapture of the Church which is followed by the judgment seat of Christ. At this point there is a great distinction made between losers and winners in time. The embarrassment of losers at the judgment seat of Christ is mentioned in 1 John 2:28. Winners, on the other hand, are described as those who will not be embarrassed at the judgment seat of Christ, Romans 5:5.

All wrong decisions, including carnality and reversionism, relate to cosmic involvement and cosmic function. We get into the cosmic system by our own decisions, we stay there by our own decisions and in the cosmic system we cannot make any good decisions except one, namely the rebound technique. All wrong decisions in life are connected with some form of arrogance which emphasises gate one, cosmic one as not only the motivating arrogance but as the system of applying the arrogance we have to life. Just as in the divine dynasphere we apply doctrine to experience through impersonal love so in the cosmic system we apply arrogance to life, and we do it through gate one. The difference between self-induced misery and divine discipline is definitely, then, the source. The source of divine discipline is God and His purpose is always to teach us something. But the source of the pain and the misery and the disasters that overtake us are our own personal decisions, our own human volition.

In learning doctrine in the divine dynasphere the whole realm of doctrine is open and the purpose of learning doctrine is spiritual momentum. But in the teaching of divine discipline the lesson is limited to one: motivation to rebound, motivation to use your royal priesthood in the cosmic system to get out. There is only one way you can get out — rebound.

There are two systems for learning in the Church Age. Man was designed from birth to learn in contrast to animals which function on instinct. It is true that man occasionally reverts to animalhood, and he does so when the emotions of his soul blot out the rationale, the thinking process of the soul. Emotion was designed to be subordinate to thought, not thought to emotion. The illustration, of course, is the holy-roller who becomes an animal and begins to function on his instincts when he says Hallelujah, Amen, and waves his hands in the air, froths at the mouth, rolls on the floor, etc. This is instinct and it is animalism. It eliminates thought and as soon as you eliminate thinking from Christianity you do not have the modus operandi of Christianity. All spiritual advance and all spiritual momentum is related to thinking.

The first system of learning is the obvious one, the communication of Bible doctrine from one’s own pastor-teacher. This is an unlimited system of learning (limited only by the ignorance of the pastor). The second system is divine discipline from God, a limited system which teaches one lesson only: the use of the rebound technique. It is the only way you can get out of the cosmic system and service to Satan and get back into the divine dynasphere. Divine discipline, then, must be regarded as another form of blessing and a glorious opportunity to exercise one’s options for the grace of God.

Learning the easy way requires three things. The first three gates of the divine dynasphere which must interlock for perception and application of doctrine at gate four. The first is the filling of the Spirit [spiritual IQ]; the second is impersonal love for objectivity and concentration on the doctrinal message rather than on the pastor who teaches it; the third is enforced and genuine humility without which the believer is unteachable. Divine discipline is always designed to bring about humility, and humility means recovery of the thinking rationale necessary to depart from the cosmic system. If you cannot learn from humility you can only learn from hurting, the limited lesson of motivation to rebound.

Inside the divine dynasphere logistical grace provides everything necessary for exploitation of the glory of God. In the divine dynasphere you glorify the Lord through advance to maturity and you utilise logistical grace. The cosmic believer, however, who doesn’t learn has to learn another way — divine discipline.

The three things which happen when rebound occurs: the suffering from discipline is canceled and the believer enjoys relief for the moment in the divine dynasphere; or the suffering from discipline is diminished and its purpose is suffering designed now for blessing; or the suffering from discipline is perpetuated at the same level of intensity and the purpose of that suffering is testing for blessing. This is something of the concept in Job 5:17-18, “Behold, happy is the man whom God reproves, therefore do not despise discipline from El Shaddai [God’s title for logistical grace in the Old Testament]. For he inflicts pain [warning discipline], and he bandages the wound; he wounds [intensive discipline], and his hands heal.”

And of course, the ultimate in this life is to advance to maturity after you have had a real session of installment discipline. If the believer rebounds when involved at the point of the sin unto death — you still have your volition and good decisions can still be made right up to the point of death. David made a good decision when he was very close to the sin unto death. His prolonged residence, however, in the cosmic system resulted in the principle of installment discipline, whereas warning discipline and intensive discipline do not usually bring about that kind of situation. When you are approaching the sin unto death and you finally decided to rebound then there is the problem of installment discipline. Installment discipline can only occur after rebound and recovery of residence in the divine dynasphere in this age. It is the alternative to the sin unto death and it means the punishment is spread out over a period of time. This is why Hezekiah who was under the sin unto death, when he finally rebounded lived fourteen more years. It took fourteen years to give him all of his installment discipline. An installment discipline is no longer punishment it is designed for blessing. That requires the proper use of one’s volition.

There are three categories of divine discipline administered to the cosmic believe: warning discipline, intensive discipline, dying discipline. Certain passages of scripture help us to understand this issue. For example in 1 Corinthians 11:30, “weak” [warning discipline], “and sick” [intensive discipline], “and others sleep” [the sin unto death].

In the warning stage of divine discipline the believer has not been in the cosmic system long enough to have lost doctrinal content. Therefore recovery of residence in the divine dynasphere generally means continued momentum. He is a carnal believer and once the carnal believer rebounds the chances of moving on are very good. It is the one who prolongs his life in the cosmic system, as per the Laodiceans, who face the problem of intensive discipline. The intensive stage of divine discipline follows the warning stage and is much more intense as far as pain, hurt, disaster, than even self-induced misery. It is the first type of divine discipline administered that is actually stronger than self-induced misery, pain by your own decisions. The concept is found in Psalm 7:14, “Behold he [the cosmic believer] shall have labour pains [warning discipline] of vanity [involvement in gate one, cosmic one], Because he has become pregnant with frustration [unhappiness involved in the cosmic system], therefore he has given birth to a life of deceit [area of intensive discipline].” The final stage of divine discipline is dying discipline, Revelation 3:16.

The next concept in divine discipline is self-induced punishment and divine discipline set up in contrast so that you can rightly divide the Word of truth where pertinent passages occur. Example: Psalm 7:15,16, “He dug a grave [or shoveled out a grave],” bad decisions resulting in cosmic involvement, “and he explored it [the perpetuation of cosmic involvement], therefore he has fallen into the grave [the use of one’s own volition to create pain in his own life and often in the lives of others] which he has constructed. His frustration shall then return to his own head, his violent oppression of others shall descend on the crown of his head.” Basically this says that most human suffering comes not from God but from the volition of the individual making bad decisions. These bad decisions result in both sin and cosmic involvement. If the bad decision is not followed by the good decision of rebound the believer will remain in the cosmic system until warning discipline comes. Through negative volition toward doctrine and God’s plan we often create our own punishment.

“Now hear this, I stand at the door,” the door is closed but it is a door; it is rebound opportunity, the only decision a cosmic believer can make to start the road to recovery; “and I keep knocking,” warning discipline, lower on the pain scale than what you have manufactured for yourself from the bad decisions that have resulted in prolonged life in the cosmic system. We have distinguished between the carnal believer and the reversionistic believer. The carnal believer is the person who sins, gets out of fellowship and therefore into the cosmic system, but rebounds rapidly and gets out. The reversionist is the believer who prolongs his stay in the cosmic system and does not rebound. So obviously this is addressed to the believer who is prolonging his stay in the cosmic system.

Next we have a conditional clause. We start out with the protasis of a third class condition in order to give us an analogy to the rebound function. All third class conditional sentences are introduced by the conjunction e)an. In the protasis it will be e)an plus the subjunctive. Remember a third class condition is a more probable future condition, a supposition from the viewpoint of reality. For some of you this may be your status, for others it is not your status. So in a teaching situation part of the Greek debater’s technique is used. In this case no one is assuming that you are or you are not. The issue is, What is the principle? not whether you are or are not. Here we have a debater’s technique used as a teaching principle. Why? Because this passage doesn’t come along to us and say in the 20th century, “Look, you are all a bunch of cosmic bums! You are living in the cosmic system, now get out.” It just says that in any given congregation there may be some believers in the cosmic system and some who are not. And it is not for anyone to judge, says the third class condition, let’s just learn the principle. Then, when it does apply to you you use it. The third class condition gives us the opportunity of looking at a sticky subject academically.

So we have our first word, it is translated “if.” It is a supposition from the viewpoint of probability — this will probability happen to you at some time in your Christian experience. And to make it even more impersonal and to avoid any idea that you are personally being reprimanded we have the nominative singular subject from tij, and the Greeks had a marvelous word for it. This is an indefinite relative pronoun which means the substantive, and the substantive idea is simply going to be categorical. It simply represents a category of believer. So we translate it “anyone.” I doesn’t mean everyone, it means anyone.

Note: Principles of doctrine are far more important than our personal lives, and when you get touchy and edgy about your personal life then that means that you are neglecting doctrine and you have lost your objectivity.

This is really an academic concept so whether it applies to you or not isn’t really the issue.

Next we have the aorist active subjunctive of the verb a)kouw, “to hear.” This word is very important here. It doesn’t simply mean that you are listening to the sound of a voice, or you hear even what it says, it merely has to do with teachability. This verb means three things. It means gate one, the filling of the Spirit; it means gate two, the principle of impersonal love or objectivity in learning; it means gate three, teachability from enforced and genuine humility. This is approaching from the standpoint of principle, and even if you are in the cosmic system you can pick up this principle because it is the one principle you can learn without being in the divine dynasphere. You have to get out of the cosmic system and you have to know one principle to do it. You have to make a decision on that one principle. The principle is rebound, the decision is to do it. So you can get that much even inside the cosmic system. “If anyone hears” This is the ingressive aorist tense, which contemplates the action of the verb in its beginning. It denotes entrance into a state or condition, indicating your motivation, your action, your function. The active voice: the cosmic believer is the subject and he produces the action of the verb by responding to warning discipline or responding to intensive discipline. In this passage it is warning discipline, knocking on the door. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive, it implies a future reference from the time of warning discipline and is qualified by the element of contingency — whether the believer actually rebounds or not. Again, there is a beautiful pattern to the Christian life. You have to live your own life as unto the Lord; you are your own priest. Every believer is his own priest and represents himself before God, and as such every believer must learn doctrine for himself, no one can learn it for him. Furthermore, every priest must make his own decisions, positive or negative, and must do it as unto the Lord. So the whole purpose of Bible class, the highest form of worship outside of the Lord’s table, is to give you the privilege and the opportunity of making your own decisions.

Next comes the objective genitive from the noun fwnh. Ordinarily it would be “my word,” logoj, but logoj is doctrine learned in class; fwnh is doctrine learned the hard way under pain, the administration of warning discipline. The word fwnh means voice in contrast to logoj which means word. Logoj is doctrine found in the Bible, fwnh is learning the hard way. So if you are in the divine dynasphere and consistently learning doctrine at gate four, that would be “if anyone hears my logoj.” But if you are in the cosmic system then logoj is gone, you are in a mine field, you have lost your perspective, you have no scale of values, and what you are learning is fwnh, you have to hear His voice. With that we have the possessive genitive of the pronoun e)gw and it is correctly translated “my,” “if anyone hears my voice,” a reference to warning discipline, for God speaks to the cosmic believer through the administration of divine punishment. It is not as great as the pain level you have achieved through your own use of volition. Now you know the purpose of warning discipline: it is to motivate, in one academic field, to use the rebound technique.

Then we have the connective use of the conjunction kai, translated “and,” followed by the aorist active subjunctive of the verb a)noigw which means to open. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the function of rebound in its entirety. You open the door, you make a decision which gives you recovery from the cosmic system. The active voice: the cosmic believer produces the action of the verb. He hasn’t lost his salvation, he is still a priest and he still has the opportunity to straighten out his life. He is still alive and still capable of making the one grace decision, the naming of his sins to the Lord whereby he recovers his fellowship with God. Again we have the potential subjunctive mood: it depends on the volition of the cosmic believer and how he responds to warning discipline whether he gets out of the cosmic system or not.

With this we have the accusative singular from the noun qura, generally used for opportunity, and it is correctly translated “door.” He opens the door. This is rebound function with emphasis on volition involving good the decision to recover residence in the divine dynasphere. This is the protasis of the third class condition. This emphasises probability, therefore the protasis emphasises supposition from the viewpoint of probability. As long as you are alive, living in the cosmic system, you can always get out. It is your move! The probability not only involves the use of your volition but emphasises the fact that as long as God keeps providing a day at a time in logistical grace you have the option of recovery. Believers are the products of their own decisions.

Then we have the rest of the sentence, the apodosis, and the analogy to life in the divine dynasphere. It begins with the future middle indicative of the verb e)iserxomai, e)ij means in or into, e)rxomai means to come, and we simply translate it, “I will enter,” The future tense is a gnomic future, it states an absolute fact of doctrine which follows the use of the rebound technique. The middle voice is the dynamic middle, it emphasises the part taken by the subject in the action of the verb. The subject is our Lord Jesus Christ who acts with a view to participating in the outcome of the believer’s reentry into the divine dynasphere. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of restored fellowship, the reality of recovery of life in the divine dynasphere. Life in the divine dynasphere is described by a prepositional phrase, proj plus the accusative singular of the intensive pronoun a)utoj. Proj plus the accusative means face to face with; a)utoj is an intensive pronoun in Attic Greek but it changed its meaning in Koine Greek. We translate “it face to face with him,” restored fellowship, reentry into the divine dynasphere at gate one, recovery from the cosmic system and the control of Satan, and it means once again you are in the sphere of fellowship with God. This is brought out by the next verb, the future active indicative of the verb deipnew, which means to dine. The predictive future anticipates the restoration to the divine dynasphere and a full-course dinner of doctrine. The active voice: God the Son produces the action of the verb through the logistical provision of Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine provided is the basis for fellowship with God in time and life in the divine dynasphere. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Our Lord provides many courses in the dinner of Bible doctrine. We are dining with the Lord in the sense that we are learning His mind, Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16. The preposition meta plus the genitive of that same intensive pronoun, a)utoj, “with him”; “and he with me,” meta plus e)gw.

Corrected translation: “Now hear this, I stand at the door [rebound opportunity] and I keep on knocking [warning discipline]; if anyone [the cosmic believer] hears my voice [rebound motivation from divine discipline], and he opens the door [rebound function with emphasis on volition], I will enter face to face with him [fellowship with the Lord through recovery of residence in the divine dynasphere], and I will dine with him [the provision of all the realm of doctrine], and he with me [perception of doctrine at gate four of the divine dynasphere].”

Here then is the principle of learning doctrine after recovery from warning discipline. There is only one lesson to learn from warning discipline and that is the importance of rebound when involved in the mine field, when involved in the cosmic system. Warning discipline, then, is a teaching aid. It is given from the justice of God not unfairly but in total fairness. Any pain we manufacture by our bad decisions has no teaching connotation. It is only the pain which comes from the justice of God in grace that has teaching connotation. So warning discipline teaches motivation for rebound. It motivates us to do the only thing we can do in the cosmic system. All the believer’s priestly functions are directed toward God from his residence inside the divine dynasphere. The one exception is the function of the priesthood in the cosmic system producing the rebound technique. Hence rebound is a private matter between the individual believer and God. When the Lord continues as the host and we continue as guests at His table — the table is spiritual food or Bible doctrine — we then parlay logistical grace into supergrace blessings which glorify the Lord. We dine daily with the Lord and this is a guarantee of advance to maturity and rectification of the situation. To dine daily with the Lord is a guarantee of advance to maturity and parlaying supergrace blessings into eternal rewards. That comes up in the first part of the next verse. Dining with the Lord can only occur inside the divine dynasphere at gate four. Inside the divine dynasphere the believer has momentum from perception of doctrine resulting in having a cup overflowing with blessing.

We are living in a time when believers are failing to achieve a status called winners, advance to maturity through the daily function of life inside the divine dynasphere. As goes the believer so goes the historical trend. All uptrends in history are related to the believer living in the divine dynasphere; all downtrends are related to the believer living in the cosmic system.

Verse 21, there is a special reward in history for those believers who are anonymous heroes of the Church Age, for those believers who advance from gate four to gate eight, those believers whose life in the divine dynasphere includes gate 1, the filling of the Spirit; gate 2, impersonal love, the beginning of integrity; gate three, enforced and genuine humility which is teachability. These three functions support perception and application of doctrine at gate four. This is the momentum of the spiritual life. The results are gate five, love of God parlayed into occupation with Christ; gate six, right man-right woman where pertinent; gate seven, the crystallisation of integrity in the life, the function of true friendship; and gate eight which is the ultimate gate, the advance to maturity, the construction of the edification complex in the soul, the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, the winner’s gate.

We begin with the first two words of the sentence, the articular present active participle of the verb nikaw which means to win a victory, to be victorious. However this is a participle which can be translated either in the verbal form or as an adjective or a substantive. The articular present active participle is in the nominative case; it is the subject and when the participle is not accompanied by a noun it may function as a substantive, as here. Used as a noun the participle becomes a nominative absolute or an independent nominative. When an idea is conceived independent of any particular verbal relations the expression of it may be left standing alone in the nominative case and, of course, with some explanatory phrase added. Thus employed the nominative names an idea rather than an object. Here it is simply translated “the winner,” the believer who advances to maturity.

Next comes the future active indicative of the verb didomi, a grace verb which means to give. The future tense is a gnomic future for a statement of fact which may be expected to occur at the judgment seat of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of a reward in a future period of history called the Millennium.

Then we have the dative singular direct object from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun in the Koine Greek for the third person. This is a dative indirect object indicating the one in whose interest the act is performed,“ The winner, I will give to him.” And there is a reward which belongs to the winner in history, not eternity. There are fantastic rewards for the believer in eternity but this is a reward in history.

Altogether the winner is stated seven times: Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21. Both now in time and in eternity believers are classified in two ways. All believers arrive in eternity either as winners or losers, there is no in between. The winners are believers who live in the divine dynasphere, who learn Bible doctrine, who pass the eight momentum tests, advancing to maturity and fulfilling the plan of God. The losers are believers who live in the cosmic system. They are the slaves of Satan, they are constantly controlled by their old sin natures, they are involved in motivational and functional evil, they cannot be distinguished from unbelievers living in the cosmic system. Losers are believers who fail in time but do not lose their eternal salvation. However they do occupy an inferior place in heaven.

Freedom guarantees inequality. The only equality we have after salvation is equality of opportunity. All believers have the same opportunity to fulfill the plan of God. In heaven there will be winners and losers and it will be reflected in eternal rewards to the winners and lack of reward to the losers. All historical blessing and prosperity in the Church Age results from unknown and unnamed believers who are simply classified as “the winners.” They live inside the divine dynasphere, they are constantly positive toward doctrine and they change the course of history when they form a large enough pivot. These mature believers who provide blessing by association also provide historical uptrends and yet they are not recorded in any textbook of world history. Hence they are unknown, they are anonymous, they are unsung heroes of history during the Church Age; but they have lived in the hidden manna provided by logistical grace, the teaching of Bible doctrine, and they have grown spiritually to fulfill the greatest of all objectives in the Church Age.

It says in Revelation 3:5 that the winner shall be clothed in white garments, the translucent uniform of light, the uniform of glory worn over the resurrection body by the holders of the morning star — “and I will never blot his new knighthood [which accompanies the order of the morning star] out of the book of life.” He will be registered in the book of life with all believers but he will be registered with his knighthood — “in fact I will acknowledge [presentation of the morning star winners in the court of heaven] his new knighthood in the presence of my Father, and before his angels.” The order of the morning star, then, includes the new knighthood, the order of chivalry for the royal family of God. The winners also are going to return with Christ. They will have special recognition at the judgment seat of Christ, they are presented in the court of heaven, then at the second advent they return with our Lord.

The authority of the morning star is really the subject of our particular passage. We should note that there are certain privileges related to the winner is eternity. He wears the decorations forever and ever. It is necessary for him to have the decorations because he is going to have certain privileges that do not belong to other believers. He has a coat of arms [Revelation 3:12] which will be recognisable as he approaches the gates of the super city of eternity, the new Jerusalem suspended above the Jerusalem on planet earth; a place of great happiness, of great pleasure, the location of the Paradise of God, the gazebo in the garden, and only winners have the opportunity of entering that city. It is closed to losers. The highest order of eternal chivalry is therefore given to the believer who is a winner forever and ever.

We have noted also in Revelation 3:12 the pillar in the temple, the historical record which exists forever. Biographies of famous people in ancient history were recorded on the pillars in temples and this will be true in eternity in the temple of heave, the record room of eternity. There will be the biography of every believer and it will be divided into two chapters. The first chapter will deal with his success in the Church Age as a mature believer, the anonymous hero. Then, when you get to the Millennium it will have a detailed record of how he was a king for a thousand years and how successfully he ruled during that time. It is the winner that we are about to study for the last time. We should have in mind always that God has special privileges for the winner.

So far we have noted a part of the translation of verse 21, “The winner, I will give to him [meaning to give reward and privilege] the reward and privilege of sitting with me on my throne.” We have the aorist active infinitive of the verb kaqizw, to sit. The culminative aorist views the reward which is given at the judgment seat of Christ in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Our Lord Jesus Christ will rule the world during the Millennium, but as is always the plan of God it is accomplished through various groups we call nationalities. Nationalism or divine institution #4 is not even changed when our Lord rules the world. It is the protection of the freedom of individuals to be a part of a national entity rather than some form of international government. So it is regarded from the viewpoint of existing results. Those who reach maturity and win the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory, the new knighthood and the coat of arms are actually going to rule a nation during the last one thousand years of history. The active voice: the mature believer of the Church Age produces the action of the verb during the Millennium. He sits with Christ on His throne as it says here, which is simply a way of saying that our Lord has delegated the rulership of Gentile nations in the Millennium to those believers who achieve maturity in the Church Age. The anonymous heroes of today will become the famous people of tomorrow. Our Lord delegates authority for the rule of Gentile nations. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result, and the result fulfills a deliberate objective, therefore the blending of purpose and result. With this we have a prepositional phrase, meta plus the genitive from the personal pronoun e)gw, “with me.” This recalls the second advent of Christ, the coup de tat that removes Satan as the ruler of this world and how our Lord replaces him, the coronation, the wedding supper of the Lamb, the triumphal procession, the baptism of fire, the many things that are involved and the exciting events of the second advent. The second prepositional phrase indicates the authority is delegated from Christ as the ruler of the world. The preposition e)n plus the locative of qronoj plus the genitive of e)gw again and translated “in my throne or on my throne. The translation makes no difference since it is an idiom which simply indicates that we are under the delegated authority of our Lord and under His authority we will be a king or a queen, a ruler for one thousand years. The anonymous heroes of the Church Age become the most famous people of history and, in effect, they have the last say, the last function and the last action of human history. The reason why only believers from the Church Age are selected is a part of what we have studied as the mystery dispensation.

Continuing now with the principle that all reward at the judgment seat of Christ is based on the strategic victory of Christ in the first advent. This is introduced by the comparative particle in the Greek, o(j. This comparative particle always sets up an analogy. It introduces an analogy between the strategic victory of Christ at the first advent and His tactical victory and its relationship to the mature believer of the Church Age at the second advent. With this we have a particle and a pronoun, the conjunction kai which is the adjunctive use of the particle here, and with it, again, the pronoun e)gw. They combine to form a contraction but it is retaining its independent force by the phrase “I also.” The first three words, then, “as I also.” And here is the analogy, here is the basis for everything that makes life meaningful to us now and even more so in the future, the aorist active indicative of that same verb nikaw. The participle is translated by the substantive, “the winner.”

“The winner, I will give to him the privilege of sitting with me on my throne, even as I also Have won.”

The verb means to win and it has to do with the strategic victory of the first advent of Christ. The culminative aorist tense views the first advent of Christ in its entirety, it regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results, it adds up to strategic victory. The aorist tense is punctiliar. In the culminative aorist we have first of all the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, how He became true humanity. That leads to the hypostatic union, the God-Man, the unique person of the universe. That leads to His function in the prototype divine dynasphere. Then we have from that the results: the concept of kenosis, which is a part of His motivation for going to the cross, His absolute and total perfection which we have studied from time to time. And all of this adds up to qualification to bear our sins on the cross, to be judged for us, followed by His physical death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, His session at the right hand of the Father where He received His third royal patent. At the virgin birth He received His second royal patent, His first royal patent has to do with His being eternal God. The aorist tense then gathers this into one entirety. But this is a culminative aorist and it emphasises the existing results. This function of our Lord in the first advent has one great existing result. It is the strategic victory of our Lord, therefore the use of nikaw in the aorist tense, “as I also have won.” This is the strategic victory of the first advent. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of our Lord’s strategic victory at the first advent or the incarnation.

To win that strategic victory our Lord Jesus Christ had to become a member of the human race for Satan had won the rulership of the world by defeating the first Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam was true humanity, therefore our Lord had to become true humanity, going back to the point of defeat. That is why our Lord came not as the God-Angel but as the God-Man. He had to go back to where the defeat occurred. Now along comes the second Adam to defeat Satan strategically, providing the basis for the tactical victory of the second advent, for the second advent introduces a tactical victory which results from His strategic victory.

From our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent three tactical victories actually emerge. The first is the victory of the Church Age. Certain believers advance to maturity inside the divine dynasphere receiving those rewards and decorations at the judgment seat of Christ.

Then there is the victory of the tactical victory of the second advent. Jesus Christ returns to supersede Satan as the ruler of this world. Christ rules the world for one thousand years and He delegates authority to mature believers of the Church Age to share His tactical victory by actually ruling Gentile nations. Even the greatest believers of the Old Testament will rule nations in the Millennium. The rewards for Old Testament believers who advanced to maturity are described in terms of cities. Some will rule ten cities, some will rule five, some will rule none. But the rewards described related to believers of this dispensation is the rulership of nations. Gentiles nations of the Millennium are under the authority of those who advance to maturity in this dispensation.

Then there is a third tactical victory which comes at the end of the Millennium, the victory of the Gog revolution. When Satan is released from jail after serving a thousand-year sentence he is able to foment rebellion against the prefect environment of the Millennium. But again the victory belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ even though a third of the population of the earth who have been living in the perfect environment of the Millennium rebel. Satan is put down at that time and the new heavens and the new earth and the eternal state are established.

Next we have a connective conjunction kai, translated “and,” followed by the aorist active indicative of kaqizw, and it is translated “and have sat down.” The constative aorist this time contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and it is a reference to the session of our Lord Jesus Christ after His ascension of the first advent. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produced the action, the resurrection, ascension and session. When He was seated at the right hand of the Father on Him was conferred the third royal patent.

The conferring of that royal patent by God the Father to our Lord Jesus Christ changes everything in history. Up until that time there had been a rather lengthy dispensation called the Age of Israel which came to a halt. The first obvious reason is the fact that when our Lord received His third royal patent He did not possess a royal family. In His first royal patent as eternal God His title is Son of God, His royal family God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. After the virgin birth He received a second royal patent: His title is Son of David, His royal family the Davidic dynasty. But on His ascension the royal patent that is related to His strategic victory in the angelic conflict His title is King of kings, Lord of lords, the bright morning star, but there is no royal family. Therefore the Age of Israel is brought to a halt and at that time the Church Age begins because the Church Age is the dispensation of the royal family. It is the calling out of the royal family; it is the forming of the royal family. This is why in this dispensation only at the point of salvation is there equality. Every believer receives 40 things and has by far the greatest plan and purpose for his life that has ever existed in all of human history. This is the only dispensation of no prophecy. Prophecy determines historical trends in all of the three dispensations of the Old Testament, it determines trends in the Tribulation which follows the Church Age, and then prophecy determines the historical trends of the Millennium. The Church Age is the dispensation therefore where all historical trends are determined by the daily decisions of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The royal family of God determines the uptrends or downtrends of history in this age.

So we are going to “sit down” in the future. That is simply an idiom for sharing the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. “The winner, I will give him the reward and privilege of sitting with me on my throne [the delegation of authority to rule a nation], as I have won [the strategic victory of the first advent], and I have sat down [the ascension] with my Father.” Next we have meta plus the genitive of pater, and e)gw is in the genitive here, “my Father.” And then we have again one more time the preposition e)n plus qronoj, this time the possessive genitive a)utoj,“on his throne.”

We share His authority in the Millennium, that is, those who advance to maturity. And the basis for advancing to maturity is a passage which we have had again and again, and the exegesis never changes. It is still the same “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches” — verse 22.

Notice a few things in closing out this chapter. Again we have the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw. The definite article is used as a personal pronoun, it refers to the believer with positive volition toward doctrine, the one who is going to advance to maturity, the one who is making right decisions. This is the only category of believer who utilises logistical grace the divine capital for glorifying our Lord in time. The static present tense emphasises the fact that every believer has the same opportunity to utilise logistical grace. The only equality in life is when we personally accept Christ as saviour: we all have equal opportunity to advance to maturity. But we also have freedom and we can make bad decisions and wind up under the systems of divine discipline, or make good decisions and advance to maturity. Just as every person possesses ears to hear so every believer possesses the means of perception of doctrine. The reduces the issue to either positive or negative volition toward the Word of God. All momentum from gate four of the divine dynasphere and going to gate eight can only be perpetuated through the daily perception of doctrine. Advancing to maturity, maintaining supergrace status, is the only way to be rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ.

Winners in eternity are going to wear the uniform of glory, that translucent uniform that will distinguish their resurrection bodies from all of the losers. The active voice: only positive believers living inside the divine dynasphere, living doctrine daily, are going to produce the action of the verb, the exploitation of logistical grace and parlaying logistical grace into supergrace blessing in time and phenomenal rewards for the last one thousand years of history and for the eternal state. The circumstantial participle is for the fact that life in the divine dynasphere and consistent perception of doctrine exploits logistical grace. It is making good decisions. “He who has an ear” means that we all have equal opportunity. Spiritual momentum and blessing, then, is related to positive volition toward Bible doctrine. God provides the opportunity for doctrine; you provide the volition. Only your volition is going to make a great deal of difference one way or the other.

We are starting chapter four which most people think is for Tribulational things and people living after the Church Age. Definitely not! It is all for us and there is a reason for every line in the book of Revelation. In the outline of the book of Revelation chapters four and five present the eight things in heaven: the beginning of prophetical historical trends.

The book of Revelation has nine major chapters or thoughts. They do not coincide with the chapters in the English Bible.

We are about to launch into a study of eight things in heaven in chapters four and five. For example, we will see the Trinity in heaven, 4:2,3; we will see the 24 elders who are not elders at all, 4:4; we will see two signs of judgment, 4:5; we will see the Church at rest — 4:6. In chapter 5 we have in the KJV the four “beasts.” Not at all, they are the second highest angelic creatures in the college of heralds. We will see them in all of their glory as the fifth thing in heaven, 4:6-11; we will see in the Doomsday Book with its seven seals which are the historical trends of the Tribulation, 5:1-4; we will see the Judge of the earth or, better, the perpetuation of Jesus Christ controlling history, 5:5-7; will study finally a new hymn, the hymn of the divine plan, 5:8-14.

Before we begin the eight things in heaven we have one introductory verse which is chapter four, verse one, the Rapture or the open door of heaven. The chapter begins with a prepositional phrase, meta plus the accusative neuter plural from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, correctly translated “After these things.” The immediate demonstrative pronoun is for something which is relatively near in thought or next in the sequence of events. After the Rapture we have eight things in heaven. “These things.” The demonstrative pronoun refers to the time in which we live because o(utoj in contrast to e)keinoj is a near demonstrative. E)keinoj is a distant demonstrative and not used. “After these things,” after the Church Age and historical trends based on the believer’s volition.

Next we have a verb, the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, used for visions, used for prophetical utterances. We are now getting into eschatology and we find the apostle John looking beyond the Church Age. What occurs is after the Church Age terminates on earth. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action of the verb as the human writer of the book of Revelation. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this vision dealing with the Church in heaven and what transpires, at least in part, at that time.

Next we have the intensive use of the conjunction kai, translated “in fact.” So we will translate this way: “After these things [the Church Age and historical trends] I looked.” John begins an investigation of prophetical history. History after the Rapture is all prophetical and all historical trends are based on prophecy. That is one sentence. There is another which begins with the intensive pronoun kai, and we begin, then, with the words “in fact.” Next comes the demonstrative particle i)dou from the aorist middle imperative of o(raw. “Behold” is old English and anachronistic. We have already translated this, “Now hear this.” So,“In fact now hear this,” and that is the second sentence.

The third sentence begins with the nominative singular subject qura, for “door.” The perfect passive participle of a)noigw follows, “a door has been opened.”

Translation so far: “After these things [the Church Age and the historical trends] I looked. In fact, now hear this [a transitional sentence to remind us that we are going from the historical trends of the Church Age to the prophetical trends of the rest of human history]. A door has been opened.”

The perfect tense of a)noigw is an intensive perfect, it emphasises the finished product or the existing results of the action. This is an emphatic method in the Greek of presenting the fact that the Rapture has now taken place. John does not cover the Rapture, the covering of the Rapture is left to others like the apostle Paul. The door is opened and the Church is now in a resurrection body in heaven. The passive voice: the door receives the action of the verb. This is a way of saying that the Rapture which terminates the Church Age has already occurred when John begins this series of visions dealing with the rest of human history. The subject changes to world history from the standpoint of its future. The participle is circumstantial for the Rapture of the Church.

The second sentence, “Now hear this,” is a command, a mandate to all believers of the Church Age. We are the ones who must understand these things. The third sentence begins, “A door has been opened,” and then the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of o)uranoj, “in heaven.” The door in heaven has been opened to permit the royal family of God to be transferred from planet earth to heaven, thus ending the Church Age. Hence, this is an introductory verse to the eight things that we will see first of all in heaven. Before we go to the earth to see the rest of human history we have to have some concept of the structure of heaven, the angelic hierarchy, the fact that there is very definite organisation and authority in heaven, and under this organisation and authority there is not only great happiness, great appreciation of who and what God is, but phenomenal and fantastic worship.

There are two concepts of returning from the dead. The first is called resuscitation, there is a lot of it in the Bible. Resuscitation refers to people who have died and are brought back to life in their body of corruption, in their physical body, and therefore at some future time they will die again. There are many illustrations in the Old Testament. Elijah, for example, brought a young boy back to life, and then Elisha did the same thing. Lazarus was brought back to life by our Lord and then subsequently died. He just simply was resuscitated. The same thing is true of the apostle Paul who went to the third heaven and then was brought back to life. Resuscitation is not resurrection and this distinction must be learned because at this moment there is only one resurrection body in the universe and that body belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ. In resurrection the person dies or doesn’t die but he is given a body of incorruption, a body that does not wear out. Resurrection is the beginning of eternity whereas resuscitation is just simply coming back in time, finishing out one’s life and then subsequently dying.

Resurrection is one of the basic doctrines which all believers need to understand. It is an elementary doctrine according to Hebrews chapter six, verses one and two: “Therefore having graduated from the doctrines [the elementary doctrines of Christ] let us advance ourselves toward maturity, not laying again the foundation.” And then the writer mentions six of the things that are in the foundation. A change of mind about dead works is the first thing. You have to change your mind about human good otherwise you will be distracted and never advance to maturity. The first thing that you have to do is to repent, which means to change your mind. The only production that counts is life inside the divine dynasphere and there is service which results from it which is legitimate. The second is faith toward God and that is the faith-rest drill in its three stages. The third basic doctrine is the doctrine of baptisms [plural] of which there are seven, four which are dry and three which are wet. “ … and the laying on of hands,” another system of identification, and we only have one case where it is used and that is in the ordination ceremony where you lay your hand and that makes a person recognised as a pastor. It came from the Old Testament and it was necessary. It is really not necessary today, we just do it without any authorisation. By this sign people usually recognise someone as being a minister. It did have great significance before the canon of scripture was completed and it had greater significance in the Old Testament where the priest put his hand on the head of the lamb and put his hand on your head, and that transferred your sins that you confessed to the lamb. That was the rebound technique as practised in Israel to teach the principle. Then the next one is the “resurrection from the source of deaths,” resurrection from the dead, and that is a basic doctrine; “and of eternal judgment.”

Resurrection is a part of the gospel. It is so stated in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, “Now I make known to you brethren, the gospel [the good news] which I preached to you, which also you received, and in which also you stand; by which you are saved, you hold fast to the word of God which I preached to you, unless you have believed in vain.” In other words, we are talking about the gospel, “For I have delivered to you as of the first the importance of what I have also received, how that Christ died for our sins.” That is good news. When you are presenting the gospel you must always emphasise the good news or you are not preaching the gospel. Christ died for our sins, that is the good news. The fact that we are sinners and the wages of sin is death is the hopeless situation. But the fact that Jesus Christ was judged for our sins is good news, and the emphasis in witnessing, the emphasis in evangelism is the fact that on the cross Christ was judged for our sins. We were not judged for those sins, we were judged for Adam’s sin. When we were born Adam’s sin was imputed to us, “and that he was buried,” the fact that Jesus Christ died physically is also important. It isn’t important for salvation, the saving work of Christ was when our sins were imputed to Him on the cross and He started screaming, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” God the Father was judging those sins while He was alive on the cross, and it was only when He said, Tetelestai which is the perfect tense of telew. It is translated “It is finished” but it should be translated, “It has been finished in the past with the result that it stands finished forever.” Salvation was finished while Christ was alive otherwise He couldn’t have said it. Now, since His work was finished He could die physically and He dismissed His spirit. Christ died twice on the cross. The saving part was His spiritual death, bearing our sins, and while He was still alive He said “It is finished.” You can’t add anything to salvation. Then he dismissed His spirit and He died physically; “and that he was buried.” And why is that important? It has to do with the doctrine of resurrection. When Christ was in the grave for three days His body was in a state of corruption. Then He was given a resurrection body of incorruption. Our Lord in His resurrection body walked out of the grave before it was opened. The grave was opened in the morning to let the people in, not to let the Lord out. Furthermore, resurrection is important because it emphasises the difference between a theophany and a Christophany. A theophany is an appearance of our Lord prior to the incarnation; a Christophany is a technical term for the appearances of Christ in His resurrection body, of which there are nineteen.

The resurrection of Christ is also a part of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, and this is stated in 1 Corinthians 15:20-25. “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep.” There is only one person who has a resurrection body right now, our Lord Jesus Christ, “For since by man came death [Adam is the source of spiritual death, when he sinned he didn’t die physically immediately, he died spiritually], by man came also the resurrection from the dead [the second Adam]. For as in Adam all die, so also Christ shall be all made alive. But each one [notice the corrected translation] in his own battalion: Christ the firstfruits; after that those who are Christ’s at his coming.” The word battalion, or tacij, is a battalion review. There are two battalions, the first is made up of four companies. Alpha company, our Lord Jesus Christ, has already passed in review. Next comes Bravo company, the Church Age believers, this is the open door of Revelation four, time unknown. But once the Church passes in review then we begin chapter four and following of Revelation. Then next is Charlie company made up of Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs. Finally we have Delta company made up of Tribulational believers who go into the Millennium and the Millennial saints. That occurs at the end of the Millennium.

It is important to note briefly that the Rapture as such is not taught in the book of Revelation, it is simply mentioned in the “open door” only. It was the apostle Paul who emphasised this in Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; 1 John 3:1,2; 1 Peter 1:3; Ephesians 5:26,27. In our passage in Revelation the Rapture has already occurred, the termination of the Church Age.

The door is opened and that is where we are right now in the book of Revelation. “After these things [the Church Age and historical trends] I looked [John begins his investigation of prophetical history].” In fact, now hear this: a door has been opened in heaven [to permit the Rapture of the Church and John’s introduction to his prophetical discourse on the rest of human history].”

Because the Church Age is the dispensation of historical trends without prophecy there is no unfulfilled prophecy between Pentecost and the Rapture. Therefore the Rapture has been and continues to be imminent. And since the Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy then the next prophecy has been imminent since Paul so mentioned it as such in his epistles. The fact that people say that this is the Rapture generation is not only speculation but it is emotion overcoming rationale, or it may just be ignorance of history because there have been other times in history which even looked more like the Rapture than it does now.

We start out now with the connective use of the conjunction kai, “and.” With this we have a subject composed of four words. It includes two definite articles, the nominative feminine singular, h( (two of them). There is one before the nominative singular adjective prwth and the other one before the noun fwnh which is the word generally for voice. Translated, “and the first voice” or “and the first sound.” It isn’t a voice, it is a sound. Then we have the accusative feminine singular from the relative pronoun o(j, “the first sound which,” followed by the reference to our Lord Jesus Christ who was previously described in Revelation 1:10 in terms of the sound of a trumpet. You can translate it “voice” because it is our Lord’s voice, but it is also a sound of a trumpet; “and the first voice or sound which I heard.” The aorist active indicative of a)kouw, which means to hear. The constative aorist refers to a momentary action and contemplates that action in its entirety. The active voice: John, the human author, produces the action of the verb by making the transition from the historical trends of Revelation chapters one through three to the subject of eschatological history in the rest of the book of Revelation. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the continuation of world history, with one change: all historical trends in the future are determined by prophecy rather than by the individual volition of the believer. Only in the dispensation of the royal family of God does the individual volition become an historical trend. Your attitude toward doctrine determines the historical trends in this dispensation.

Because of ellipsis we insert the imperfect active indicative of e)imi, John’s growing excitement at what he is seeing in heaven. The door is open and he sees. With this we have a comparative particle o(j which denotes a corresponding analogy. O(j has many uses. As we advance in the book we are going to see o(j used in entirely different ways. Here it is translated “like,” “a door has been opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard was like.” We now note the trumpet. Again we have ellipsis, again the growing excitement, so we would translate, “like the sound of a trumpet.”

The word for trumpet in the Greek is salpiggoj, “the sound of a trumpet.” So it sounds like this: “and the first voice which I heard was like the sound of a trumpet.” It is used here and in Revelation 1:10 preceding a verbal mandate of our Lord Jesus Christ and it indicates the fact that while in heaven there is a wonderful interlude of great blessing, on the earth there is a tremendous amount of confusion. Therefore there is a mandate given. Often the word “trumpet” is used for the analogy to indicate we are getting a command from our Lord.

The trumpet was an instrument which could be heard above the noise of battle. Hence John is involved in the battle of human history and receives at this time a battlefield command, as it were, by the trumpet. Our Lord’s voice is the voice of authority just as the sound of the trumpet is the voice of authority to those in battle at the time of writing.

We begin now with the present active participle of the verb lalew, which means when used of children to babble, when used of adults it means to speak with those with whom you are intimate; hence to speak, to express yourself. We will translate it “speaking.” It has been translated in other categories of Greek to gossip; here it simply means to speak. The pictorial present has the force of presenting to the mind a picture of events in the process of occurrence. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb and the participle is circumstantial. With this we have a prepositional phrase meta plus the genitive of the first person personal pronoun e)gw, “with me.”

“And the first voice which I heard was like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me.” We add because of ellipsis the verb “and.” We have a right to do this because a circumstantial participle can be translated like a finite verb and preceded by the conjunction “and.” Next comes the present active participle of the verb legw, which means to speak, we will translate it “saying.” The historical present is used when a past event is used with the vividness of a present occurrence. In this case we are anticipating some prophecy and a historical present is John’s sense of humour. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces he action of the verb, He communicates the truth plus a mandate to the apostle. The participle, again, is circumstantial, “speaking with me and saying.”

Then we have a command, a mandate which takes John to heaven in a vision. He is still alive, he goes to heaven to see eight things which we will be noting hereafter. The aorist active imperative of the verb a)nabainw, correctly translated “come up,” plus the adverb of place, w(de, which here is referring to heaven. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It can also be a dramatic aorist as a way of emphasis, a device for emphasis. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action by giving John a command: “Come up to heaven.” There are eight things that John is going to report to all generations hereafter. These eight things will prepare the way to understand the rest of human history, the rest of the book of Revelation. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, a mandate to the human writer of the book of Revelation.

Then comes the second verb, the future active indicative of the Greek verb deiknumi, which means to point out, to permit to see, to make known or to reveal to someone or to explain, “and I will point out [explain, permit you to see].” The gnomic future tense is for a statement of fact or performance anticipated in conjunction with John learning the facts about the rest of human history. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb as the teacher, the writer of the textbook of the rest of human history. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that Jesus Christ as God knows the beginning and the end, and the end from the beginning, and therefore His omniscience comes into play as the one who actually puts into the computer of divine decrees all of history before man was created. Remember that omniscience is the second category of God’s knowledge and it has two facts: omniscience knew every thought, every motive, ever decision, every action of every person who ever lived and how it relates to the thoughts, actions motives, decisions of every other person. He also knows the alternatives, the things that could have happened and did not happen. The printout, of course, is foreknowledge. Foreknowledge cannot occur without the function of omniscience. The printout is given in the form of prophecy. Foreknowledge or the printout for all dispensations up to the Church Age, all historical trends, are based on prophecy. The only exception: after the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of our Lord, in the Church Age there is no prophecy, therefore all historical trends are based upon the volition of the individual believer with regard to the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system. Then there is the Rapture and immediately we are going back now to see eight things in heaven and then we will begin to see the Tribulation. The Tribulation will have historical trends which we will see prophetically since the Tribulation has not occurred yet and they will be based on prophecy given in the Doomsday Book with its seven seals of chapter six.

Then we have the dative singular indirect object from su, “I will explain to you [point out to you].” In other words, now we are going to see the rest of human history. This is a dative of indirect object, it indicates the one in whose interest the act of revelation is performed, first to the apostle John and then, of course, to us. This is not only a deposition of future events but it is a text book of world history given to the royal family of God. While the Tribulational saints and Millennial believers will learn something from it in the future the rest of the book of Revelation is for the royal family of God. It is not only our Lord’s deposition as to our future in history, as well as eternity, but at the same time the textbook of world history. So if John is to be the human author he must first master the eschatological events under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and this must be done using his own vocabulary and literary style, his own personality. He will then put down these events in sequence. And they have survived for the last two thousand years of the Church Age and will for how much longer the Church Age exists, and then they will be fulfilled beginning with the Rapture of the Church. You will note again that there is no prophetical history until the Church is in heaven. Hence what will follow is the history of the world after the Church receives a permanent change of station, after the royal family of God is moved permanently to heaven. The transfer of the Bride of Christ, the royal family, to heaven precedes all prophetical events of the book of Revelation. While the Church or royal family remains on the earth there is no prophecy to be fulfilled, merely historical trends based upon your attitude toward logistical grace. That means that the divine dynasphere with its eight gates.

Then we begin with the accusative neuter plural from the relative pronoun o(j, which refers to historical trends. We translate it “what things,” the trends of history in the future after the Church Age, and these trends of history are based on eschatology [prophecy]. Then we have a present active indicative from an impersonal verb dei, not exegeted because it simply is translated “must” and, of course, has to have a supporting infinitive. It is a reference here to the divine computer of history and/or the concept of divine decrees which we have studied. This is followed by the aorist active infinitive of the verb ginwmai, translated here “to occur,” “what things occur [must come to pass].” The constative aorist is for a succession of events from the Rapture to the end of time. The active voice: the sequence of historical events produces the action of the verb. This is an infinitive of intended result from the standpoint of prophecy. It blends purpose with results. The actual result would be from the standpoint of fulfilment of prophecy, the intended result infinitive anticipates.

With this we have a prepositional phrase repeated for the second time: meta plus the accusative of the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, translated “after these things.” It refers to after the Church Age.

Now we have an entire verse and this is the way it sounds: “After these things [the Church Age and historical trends] … ”

(We begin with the phrase “after these things,” we end the verse with “after these things.” The repetition of the preposition says this is merely an introductory verse, this is not a part of the general content of Revelation chapters four and five. Actually we are going to see eight things in heaven but they have not begun as yet)

“ … I looked [John begins his investigation of prophetical history], in fact now hear this: a door has been opened in heaven [to permit the Rapture of the Church and John’s introduction to this prophetical discourse]: and the first voice which I heard was like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me; and saying, Come up here, and I will point out to you [explain to you] what things must occur [must come to pass] after these things [after the Church Age and the Rapture].”

Everything in the rest of the book is pertinent to this statement; everything applies to the Church Age believer.

1. From this point on the content of the book of Revelation is just as pertinent to the Church Age believer as the first three chapters.

2. Everything in Revelation, chapters four through twenty-two has meaning or application to the royal family of God though it deals with subjects other than the Church Age.

3. Everything taught in Revelation chapters 6-18 deals with the Tribulation but it is written for the benefit of royal family, believers in this dispensation. Therefore the symbolism, the visions, the prophecies, the hyperbole, the historical events future to the Church Age, all have spiritual application and are pertinent to us right now.

4. Undoubtedly positive believers of the Tribulation will derive blessing from the application of these things, but they will also derive just as much understanding and blessing from the book of Daniel, the book of Zechariah, as well as Revelation chapters 6-18. But the primary purpose, then, of the rest of the book of Revelation is to brief Church Age believers about future history: things to come, the rest of history. It is a textbook of human history from the time of John in AD 96 to the end of time.

5. We have profited from the historical trends mentioned briefly in the first three chapters of Revelation; we shall also profit from the study of prophetical history in Revelation chapters four through twenty-two.

6. But avoid the curiosity approach which produces sensationalism (Revelation is sensational but that is not what we are here for) and leads to a manifestation of negative volition known as itching ears.

7. The Word of God is designed for our spiritual benefit, not our emotional stimulation. All spiritual benefit comes by the mind and the thinking of the soul dominating the emotion of the soul. There are several legitimate exceptions such as mourning for someone you love and has departed to be with the Lord, and we sorrow not as others who have no hope, but we sorrow. But you must be very careful because if you are not using doctrine regarding the happy condition of your loved-one in heaven then your emotions will go astray. Emotions must always be subordinate to thinking.

8. Inevitably we respond emotionally to certain doctrines but emotion is not the criterion for the spiritual life.

9. Neither should we seek for only those passages which arouse us emotionally but we must consider, concentrate, understand and know the whole realm of doctrine, regardless of where our personal interests lie. The Bible wasn’t written so that you could sort out just what you want to hear and forget the rest. The whole realm of doctrine is what you need.

10. The content of the rest of the book of Revelation, therefore, can either be a trap or a blessing. Therefore do not seek out the sensational but follow along, line upon line and precept upon precept. Concentrate on every verse as we study it.

There are eight things in heaven and the first is found in verses 2 and 3 of chapter four, the Trinity in heaven.

Verse 2, We are going to find that someone has added a great many words from time to time to the book of Revelation. They didn’t heed the warning at the end of the book and they brought in words that are not justified. Occasionally one Greek word will require three or four English words, and occasionally there are certain laws of ellipsis whereby you have the right to put in words that are not there. For example, if you have a circumstantial participle following a verb you are supposed to, and you can, put in the conjunction “and”; and it is not adding to the Word of God, the Greek demands that you put it into proper English. Translation is always the problem but interpretation in the translation is something else. So we are going to find from time to time that we will have to correct the text for many words have been added that are not found in the original text. This verse dose not begin with the word “and,” it begins with the word “immediately,” an adverb, e)uqeoj. Then comes the aorist middle indicative of ginomai which is like the verb to be, it usually means to become, and it means to occur. Now we are going to translate it, “Immediately I was” or “Immediately I became,” both are correct translations. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The middle voice is a dynamic middle, it emphasises the part taken by the subject in the action of the verb. John, as the human author of the book of Revelation, was filled with the Holy Spirit. He wrote under the doctrine of spirituality, hence he is inside the divine dynasphere while writing these things. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of John’s status under the control of God the Holy Spirit, gate one. You cannot see the Son apart from the Spirit; you cannot understand doctrine apart from God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit not only indwelt John but He filled John and this is very important because of the accuracy problem on the original.

Then we have the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of pneuma. And here is what is meant by a translational problem. What is missing? A definite article. Yet we translate it “in the Spirit,” we throw a definite article in. Are we adding to the Word of God? No. The absence of the definite article in the Greek emphasises the quality of the noun and therefore for the quality of the noun when you bring it into the English you add the definite article. In other words, the absence of the definite article in the Greek does what the definite article is supposed to do in the English, emphasising the quality of the noun rather than the identity of the noun. So we add a word, “in the Spirit.” It is not found in the original.

One thing that has not been defined very clearly in the time in which we live is the concept of spirituality. What is a spiritual Christian? How can a spiritual Christian be identified as spiritual? It is your business to identify only your own spirituality or lack of it, not someone else’s. The long proboscis is definitely not spirituality, it is sticking your nose into someone else’s business. Spirituality is the filling of the Spirit and, of course, it links salvation adjustment to the justice of God with maturity adjustment to the justice of God. In other words, all of the power to execute the Christian way of life is in the Holy Spirit and, therefore the filling of the Holy Spirit or spirituality is the means of living the Christian life, the means provided to every member of the royal family of God in contrast to all other dispensations.

Never before in any previous dispensation and only in one future dispensation, the Millennium, is any believer filled with the Spirit. The indwelling of the Spirit occurs, of course, at the moment of salvation. Out of the thirty-seven things we receive at the moment of salvation, five of them are related to God the Holy Spirit. One of them is indwelling. God the Holy Spirit indwells the body of the believer, it is the human body of frailty that needs the sustaining, needs the power. The spirituality is synonymous with gate one of the divine dynasphere and the filling of the Spirit or spirituality is God the Holy Spirit indwelling the body. The soul must be controlled by God the Holy Spirit for spirituality to exist. Obviously inside the divine dynasphere you are not only indwelt by the Holy Spirit but you are spiritual. You could be a spiritual baby, you could be a spiritual adolescent, you can be spiritual as a mature believer but spirituality is an absolute. Once you make a decision to go into the cosmic system you are still indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, you never lose the indwelling of the Holy Spirit but you are now in cosmic one and you are said to be grieving the Holy Spirit. In cosmic two you are said to be quenching the Holy Spirit but you are still indwelt. When you rebound and you get back in through gate one you are filled with the Spirit again and you are still indwelt by the Holy Spirit but now God the Holy Spirit controls your soul. Spirituality is defined as God the Holy Spirit controlling the soul. It is a temporary status and is changed by your decision to sin, the same decision which put you into Satan’s cosmic system. When you are in the cosmic system for a short time the Bible calls you carnal; when you are in for a long time the Bible calls you apostate — or we prefer to call it reversionism.

At the moment of salvation God gives you 37 permanent things. Five of them, again, are related to God the Holy Spirit. The first is regeneration and is one of the things that God the Holy Spirit does for believers in every dispensation, not just in the Church Age. Regeneration means to be born again and to understand being born again you have to establish a fact that is very important: that you are born the first time! If you are not born the first time you can’t be born the second time. Human life was imputed immediately after birth and it was imputed to the human soul. That human life resides in the human soul forever. Adam’s original sin is simultaneously imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature, we are born physically alive but spiritually dead because Adam’s sin is imputed to us. Why? because a lot of people die before they reach accountability and the only way they could be saved is to first of all be condemned. You have to be condemned before you can be saved, or there is nothing to be saved from, for, or about. Therefore condemnation must precede salvation. The old sin nature exists from birth and Adam’s original sin is imputed. Our personal sins are never imputed to us for judgment, they were reserved for the cross and were imputed to Christ on the cross and there they were judged.

Now, when we believe in Christ there are two imputations that occur. One half of God’s holiness is imputed to us. God’s holiness or integrity is composed of His justice and perfect, eternal, absolute righteousness. His righteousness is imputed to us and we have inside of us the righteousness of God establishing a pipeline between one half of God’s integrity and the other half. And down that pipeline comes every facet of logistical grace and every facet of supergrace if you attain maturity. All divine blessing goes from the justice of God to the righteousness of God. Righteousness demands righteousness, justice demands justice. What the righteousness of God demands the justice of God executes.

There is a second imputation. Having the same righteousness that God has is one half of salvation. You can’t live with God forever unless you are as good as He is and there is no way that we can be as good as He is and therefore He has to give us His perfect righteousness. You will have His righteousness forever and you will be qualified to live forever with Him. And you must add something else: you must have God’s life. Therefore eternal life is imputed at salvation. But wait a minute, eternal life has no place to go. Human life is already in the soul, you can only have one life in the soul and that is human life. So where is it going to go? Well, God the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit. The last man to have a human spirit from the start from creation was Adam. Adam was trichotomous, he had body, soul and spirit. The human spirit is constructed by God the Holy Spirit. He actually creates a human spirit and then eternal life is imputed to that human spirit. That is regeneration, that is one of five things that God the Holy Spirit does for us at salvation.

God the Holy Spirit is the agent for the baptism of the Spirit. At the moment we believe God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father; We are in union with Christ; we share His life [eternal life]; we share His righteousness; we share His sonship; we share His heirship; we share His destiny [predestination]; we share everything that Christ has and is. But we share it currently, that is current positional truth. We also are entered into union with Christ retroactively. Christ was judged for our sins but at the cross He rejected human good and evil. Therefore this becomes an issue in our lives: we must reject human good and evil; both are produced by the genius of Satan in the cosmic system. So we are in union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit picking us up by the nape of the neck and entering us into union with Christ.

There is a third thing that God the Holy Spirit does — indwelling. That is permanent also.

The fourth thing He does is sealing, a guarantee that we are to be delivered into eternity.

The fifth thing He does is that He gives each one of us at least one spiritual gift. The exploitation of that spiritual gift depends upon your residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

What is the concept of the spiritual life? For the Church Age there is a mandate which helps to clarify the issue: Ephesians 5:18 which begins with the concept of an imperative mood, the present passive imperative of the verb plhrow. The word means to be fully possessed, to be fully influenced. The first part of the passage says, “And stop becoming intoxicated with wine which is dissipation, but be fully influenced by the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit can only control the soul when the believer is in the divine dynasphere; that is the purpose of the filling of the Spirit. The iterative present tense describes what recurs at successive intervals when the believer is living in the divine dynasphere. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb through the rebound technique. There can be no filling of the Spirit apart from rebound, recovery from the cosmic system. The imperative mood is a mandate for all believers to spirituality through living the spiritual life. The power of the spiritual life and its execution is strictly that of God the Holy Spirit. There is no human talent, no human ability, no human concept of sacrifice or morality that is a substitute for spirituality. The same concept is given in a little different way in Galatians 5:16 where we have the mandate, “Keep walking by means of the Spirit,” a present active imperative this time. We have the negative side in Ephesians 4:39, “Stop grieving the Holy Spirit,” referring to life in cosmic one. Or in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, “Do not quench the Spirit,” referring to life in cosmic two. Another way of describing spirituality is found in Ephesians 5:1, “Become imitators of God as beloved children.” The only way this can be accomplished in through life in the divine dynasphere. It was God who first lived in the divine dynasphere in hypostatic union. The prototype divine dynasphere was the place where the humanity of Christ resided during the first advent.

The idea that there are degrees of spirituality is a delusion. Spirituality is an absolute. There are degrees of growth, but not in spirituality. Any sin, regardless of category, puts the believer in the cosmic system.

“Immediately I was in the Spirit,” gate one of the divine dynasphere. Two members of the Trinity occupy the throne that is mentioned. We have the connective conjunction kai which in this case is translated “now,” plus the demonstrative particle i)dou, “behold” which demands perception. We translate it, “now look at something new.” It is an idiom. What is it? We have the nominative subject of qronoj, a “throne.” With this is the imperfect middle indicative of the verb keimai which means to place, to stand, to recline, to appear, to occur. Here it is simply translated, “no look at something new, a throne is standing.” The progressive imperfect tense denotes action in progress in past time. This is called the progressive imperfect of description. The middle voice is a direct middle describing the subject as participating in the action of the verb. The subject is a throne. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that there is a throne in heaven, and immediately when there is a throne that means that there is a system of authority, there is a hierarchy, an organisation. Heaven is a perfect place, there is authority in heaven. This is in heaven, the preposition e)n plus the locative of o)uranoj, “in heaven.” We have a definite article with o)uranoj. The generic use of the definite article denotes a category that does not have to be translated. “Immediately I was in the Spirit: now, look at something new, a throne was standing in heaven.” Two members of the Trinity actually occupy that throne; one is invisible, the other is visible. God the Father is invisible as the occupant of the throne; God the Son is visible because of the hypostatic union. God the Father was present but invisible to John, as per John 1:18, “No man has seen God at any time”; John 6:46, “Not that any man has seen the Father except the one who is from God,” the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of the hypostatic union our Lord Jesus Christ is visible.

That brings up the word “Trinity.” The word is not found in the Bible, it is a coined theological word and is a legitimate one. It was coined in the fourth century and it is pertinent, of course, the persons of the Godhead. Essentially, the Trinity recognises God as being one is essence but three persons who possess every attribute of deity equally and perfectly. The Godhead has plurality of persons and unity of essence. This is brought out by the basic name for God in the Old Testament, which is Elohim. The suffix im is plural. The plural noun in the Hebrew implies more than one person in the Godhead, and when the persons are distinguished then we go to the tetragrammaton which always refers to one person. That is the word Jehovah. The Trinity is found in this passage. The Trinity is in heaven. There are many passages that prove the Trinity: Genesis 1:26; 3:22; Psalm 110:1; Isaiah 6:8 — “who shall go for us?” The distinction between the persons of the Godhead is often very clear, as in Psalm 2:7; Isaiah 48:16; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Peter 1:2.

In dealing with the human race God the Father is always said to be the author of the plan. For example, the Father planned salvation, the Son executed it, the Holy Spirit reveals it. This generally is the pattern found in anything where God is dealing with man.

We finish verse two with the connective conjunction kai, followed by the present active participle from the verb kaqhmai which means to sit. Here it is translated, “and one sitting.” The perfective present tense denotes the continuation of existing results from the ascension and session of our Lord Jesus Christ. It refers to a fact which has come to be in the past, our Lord’s resurrection and ascension plus the award of His third royal patent. But these are emphasised now as a present reality. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, or sitting on the throne, produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. With this we have the prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the substantive in the accusative, qronoj, “on the throne.” Translation: “and one sitting on the throne. The one sitting on the throne in this case is our Lord Jesus Christ, He is the visible member of the Godhead. Our Lord’s visibility is based on the fact of the hypostatic union plus the resurrection of His humanity.

Verse 2, “Immediately I was I the Spirit: now look at something new, a throne was standing in heaven, and someone was sitting on that throne.”

We are going to see later on in chapter five God the Father sitting on the throne, at least an anthropomorphism, His arm holding a very special book, the Doomsday Book. In the meantime and generally speaking most of the appearances either sitting on the throne or standing on the throne are references to the Lord Jesus Christ. A similar description of our Lord is found in 1 Timothy 6:13-16 which helps us to understand the concept of our Lord’s session at the right hand of the Father.

“I order you before God, who preserves all things alive [logistical grace], and Christ Jesus who has testified an honourable deposition before Pontius Pilate, to keep this mandate unsullied [the mandate has to do with grieving not the Spirit or avoiding cosmic one], irreproachable [quench not the Spirit, avoidance of cosmic two], until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ [the Rapture of the Church], which He [our Lord] will bring about at the proper time. He is the one who blesses and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords; the only one having immortality [at the moment He is the only one with a resurrection body] dwelling in unapproachable light [the uniform of glory]; whom not one person of all mankind has seen [that is, His deity] nor is able to see [God is a spirit and, of course is invisible. His humanity is visible]. To whom belongs honour [the new order of chivalry] and eternal rule. Amen.”

The deity of Christ, like the deity of God the Father, is invisible but the humanity of Christ is visible at the right hand of the Father or, in this case, sitting on the throne. Christ has been sitting on the throne since His resurrection, ascension and session. Like the Father His deity is invisible, His humanity can be seen. Again, we will note an exception to this in Revelation chapter five, verse one.

Verse two anticipates the change of posture. Our Lord Jesus Christ is going to be pictured as standing in chapter five, verse six. Standing best fits the posture of our resurrected Christ when His death is mentioned. Actually, in Revelation 5:6 our Lord stands to take the Doomsday Book of historical trends of the Tribulation from the hand of God the Father, indicating once again that Jesus Christ controls history in all seven historical eras.

We move on then to verse three, the description of what is visible regarding our Lord in the throne room in heaven. Chapters four and five take place in heaven. From the eight things in heaven that we will see we are going to learn a great deal about the future as it relates to the present time. We start out with the connective use of the conjunction kai, used to introduce a result from what precedes, translated “Furthermore.” Then comes the articular present active participle of the same verb kaqhmai, which we have just noted, “sitting.” John never leaves anything to chance. Where you could omit repeating the verb, he repeats it. He doesn’t want anyone to misunderstand. Again, the definite article is used as a personal pronoun referring to our glorified Lord after His resurrection and ascension. It is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ after He has received His third royal patent. The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past after the ascension and the award of His third royal patent. This is emphasised as a present reality. The whole Church Age with its no prophecy and its historical trends based upon the decisions of the royal family, either for the divine dynasphere or for the cosmic system, is a result of our Lord sitting in the throne room of heaven. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action, again a circumstantial participle. The ellipsis demands the use of the verb e)imi, to be, and with it we have a predicate nominative. The very fact of a predicate nominative demands the verb to be. The predicate nominative is from an adjective of comparison called o(moioj, “like.” We translate: “Furthermore he who was sitting on that throne [our Lord Jesus Christ] was like.”

What He was like is now mentioned very simply in a locative singular, o(rasij, which means “in appearance like.” Then we have the instrumental of association of liqoj, a precious stone here although it isn’t always that way, but in the associating instrumental it is. So: “in appearance like a precious stone.” Now why use three precious stones, especially when they are not very identifiable from the old English and taken from a text where stones were called by various things? All we know is that they were very valuable stones. So first of all we will try to identify the stones and then try to explain what they mean in this context.

The word that follows doesn’t help us very much. It is i)aspij, and as is evident someone got the bright idea of translating the iota as a “j,” so it appears as “jaspis” which is as close as they could get to jasper. I)aspij is actually a transparent, translucent stone. From ancient descriptions it only applies to one stone, a diamond. The second stone is described by a second instrumental of association, sardion, and that is a name that comes from where they were mined in Sardis. The sardion has been described for us by ancient manuscripts as deep red or brownish red, and in some passages it refers to a carnelian, used for engraving seals. It is also, used to describe a ruby as well. So it can be either a ruby or a carnelian and, of course, immediately we have the first and last stones on the breastplates of the high priests, according to Exodus 28:17-20; 39:10-13. Our purpose at the moment, however, is to identify without giving any special interpretation.

Why talk about diamonds and rubies? One obvious thing immediately occurs to us. Diamonds, rubies and emeralds all have intrinsic value. What is intrinsic value? Gold has intrinsic value. Paper money has no intrinsic value even though it has a number printed on it which says it is worth something. It simply represents value. So there are two concepts, then, of value: true value, which we call intrinsic value, and then there is representative value which merely represents something which does have value but has no value in itself, like paper money. Now gold has intrinsic value; wherever you find it, it has value. What we are dealing with in this passage are three precious gems, the diamond, the ruby, and the emerald, and we establish something immediately: they are of intrinsic value, they are of absolute value in themselves and when our Lord is being described in heaven intrinsic values are used. Furthermore, these stones are related to the high priesthood of the first client nation to God. Obviously these stones refer to Jesus Christ as our High Priest and it is a reference to our mission on earth as the royal family of God or a kingdom of priests. And that establishes our principle: our Lord Jesus Christ is intrinsic value as our High Priest in heaven; we are of relative value as a kingdom of priests on earth. Our relative value depends on whether we are in the divine dynasphere or in the cosmic system. We are of relative value. When we become arrogant we assign to ourselves intrinsic value instead of assigning intrinsic value to our Lord Jesus Christ. We merely represent Him and our value is determined in terms of following His plan in the representation or not doing so. Therefore we, as believers on this earth, fluctuate as we fail to represent or as we succeed to represent our great High Priest in heaven. Our royal priesthood can only function inside the divine dynasphere where it is directed toward intrinsic value. Related to the breastplate of the high priest and emphasising our royal priesthood is the first and most obvious analogy of these gems since all three of them are actually found in the breastplate of the high priest. The stones themselves even suggest analogies. For example, the diamond emphasises the greatest intrinsic value. So the believer functioning under his royal priesthood and inside the divine dynasphere places the highest value on our Lord Jesus Christ. Gate five of the divine dynasphere becomes occupation with the person of Christ and motivation virtue is always directed toward God. You and I as believers living on this earth have the privilege, no matter what the circumstances, of being related to absolute intrinsic value, our Lord Jesus Christ sitting on the throne. Furthermore, the diamond suggests that number one priority in our life must be Bible doctrine. Just as the diamond has top value so Bible doctrine must be assigned number one priority in the life.

The Sardius, so-called, is not devoid of meaning. As the carnelian the sardius is our Lord’s seal related to His third patent of royalty. As the ruby, the sardius refers to the basis for our Lord’s strategic victory on the cross. “Furthermore he who was sitting [on the throne] was in appearance like a precious stone, a diamond and a sardius.”

Next we have an analogy to the integrity of Christ. We have the adjunctive use of kai, translated “also,” followed by the nominative subject from the Greek noun i)rij, which means rainbow. The significance of the rainbow is first mentioned in Genesis 9:12-16. It is a manifestation of our Lord’s integrity When you relate something of intrinsic value to something of relative value there must be a link called integrity; and, what relates us to the intrinsic value of our Lord is integrity. “Iris” or the rainbow represents our Lord’s integrity, the guarantee that the intrinsic value represented by the throne is brought into our lives as a relative value representing the intrinsic through the integrity of our Lord. No one ever saw a rainbow before the flood. For a few thousand years prior to the universal flood the earth was watered from underneath, there was no such thing as rain. The first time it rained it rained for forty days and forty nights and the entire earth was flooded. There was with it the destruction of the antediluvian civilisation which was necessary for the preservation of the human race and the perpetuation of the angelic conflict in human history. When it was all over God made a promise to Noah as the new representative of the human race, just as Adam had been the representative of the antediluvian human race. He promised Noah and his three sons, from whom we are all descended, that never again would rain destroy the earth, and the rainbow was the sign of God’s integrity. The divine promise to the human race would be perpetuated on planet earth throughout human history is backed by a sign — the rainbow. This means that neither natural disaster nor man-made disaster, like nuclear weapons, can destroy the earth during human history. Nothing will interrupt human history. In fact the next time we have the unbelieving population removed it will be done by divine judgment — the baptism of fire at the end of the Tribulation when all unbelievers will be removed from the earth. That is artificial, He doesn’t use natural resources in order to destroy the earth, and consequently the earth itself will never, never be destroyed again during the course of human history by either natural disaster or man-made disaster. It will be destroyed at the end of the Millennium.

From time to time God permits man-made disaster or provides some natural disaster to destroy some segments of the human race, a pruning out system which is extremely important to protect and perpetuate the angelic conflict. This is done not only to protect the human race from self-destruction but at the same time to guarantee the human race in existence until the end of human history.

The continuation of the angelic conflict demands the existence of the human race on planet earth. The spectrum or colour of the rainbow is caused by reflection of light from the rays of the sun on the mist or the drops of water. Hence, the formation of the rainbow indicates that the storm is abating or about to be discontinued, and this refraction of light from the rays of the sun becomes a marvellous token of the integrity of God based upon His divine essence. To the human eye a pure ray of light is white but actually it contains all of the colours and is in a harmonious blending of all possible combinations. The many colours of the rainbow are analogous to the many attributes of God which combine to form His integrity. One colour is emphasised in the rainbow, green, the colour of the emerald.

That brings us to the adverb of place, kukloqen, and it means to encircle. It is used here as an improper preposition with the genitive of qronoj again, translated “encircled the throne.” The connotation of a complete circle emphasises eternity. Eternal God cannot lie; what He has promised He will do. The integrity of God transcends all the problems of life, man’s failure, man’s success, everything.

Again we have the predicate nominative of o(moioj, the adjective of comparison. This demands again the insertion of e)imi and with that, again, o(rosij, an exact repetition of the phraseology we had before, in order to bring into view one more precious gem. The instrumental of association from the Greek noun smaragdinoj, which is the word “emerald,” “also the rainbow which encircled the throne was like an emerald in appearance.” The emerald emphasises the integrity of our Lord Jesus Christ related to His guarantee that history will continue until the end of God’s plan. Furthermore the green of the emerald is a guarantee of eternal life beyond human history for all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in any dispensation, and a reminder that God has guaranteed the perpetuation of the human race through the entire course of human history. Which means that God will never permit the entire destruction of the human race through either natural disaster or sophisticated weaponry invented by man. The emerald simply says that history is going to go on, with you or without you. History will pass you by in this dispensation if you neglect doctrine but history is going to move on whether you advance or retrogress.

Corrected translation: “Furthermore he who was sitting on the throne [our Lord Jesus Christ] was like a precious stone in appearance, like a diamond and a sardius [ruby or a carnelian]: also the rainbow which encircled the throne was like an emerald in appearance.”

1. Three of the most precious stones, the diamond, the ruby and the emerald, all with great significance far beyond earthly value, are presented in this verse. Each one is related to the principle of value, the key to this verse, intrinsic value, value that does not change as things change.

2. The fact that precious stones are used for the analogy becomes very important as far as believers in Christ are concerned. These stones represent the principle that if we are going to utilise the intrinsic values God has provided, the capital that God has provided, we must have faith-confidence in the integrity of God. We must have the scale of values which belongs to God, which transcends any human system of priorities.

3. The diamond emphasises the fact that the divine scale of values is important. We are often ambitious and often motivated to go for relative values, and our ambition sometimes distracts us from intrinsic values. The diamond is a reminder of this.

4. The believer cannot have the divine scale of values apart from the perception of Bible doctrine and residence in the divine dynasphere. You will never understand intrinsic values apart from life in the divine dynasphere.

5. In the cosmic system human priorities destroy divine priorities; relative values are substituted for intrinsic values, and the true happiness and blessing of life is destroyed.

6. The sardius, either the ruby of the carnelian, emphasises the divine integrity, the link between intrinsic and relative values, and therefore emphasises the fact that the victory in life has already been won by our Lord Jesus Christ and we are not to reinvent the wheel, we are merely to associate ourselves with the strategic victory of the first advent.

7. Therefore the sardius emphasises the doctrine that the cross precedes the crown and that the divine dynasphere precedes our place in the eternal order of chivalry.

8. The cross was our Lord’s strategic victory of the angelic conflict, our advance to maturity is simply a recognition of intrinsic values and giving them first place in our lives. This is tantamount to a tactical victory of the royal family.

9. The carnelian was used for seals. The integrity of God possesses a new seal with His third royal patent. This seal guarantees the Millennial and eternal order of chivalry, or the greatest opportunity that God has ever given to individual believers. You live in the dispensation of opportunity, the opportunity of penetrating the facade of relative values in life and pseudo-priorities, breaking through that mesh of cosmic thinking, and establishing a relationship with intrinsic values. And the believer who fails is like a totally ugly, repulsive, gruesome woman wearing the most gaudy and beautiful gems.

10. The emerald guarantees the perpetuation of the human race, the continuation of history to its proper conclusion, plus the greater guarantees associated with eternal life to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The book of Revelation is the textbook of world history, beginning in AD 96 when John wrote on the Island of Patmos down to the end of time. The history is divided into two categories: the historical trends which occur during the Church Age totally apart from any prophetical concept; and then the rest of human history as given through prophecy. In the seven historical eras or dispensations from the viewpoint of God there is only one in which there is absolutely no prophecy. In all other dispensations historical trends are determined by means of prophecy. That includes four in the past time and two in the future. We are now at the end of the Church Age as far as our study is concerned and we have seen or are about to see the Church in heaven and eight things which occur in heaven. In the first chapter we noted that Jesus Christ controls history; in chapters two and three the historical trends of the Church Age. In chapters four and five eight things in heaven. In chapters six through eighteen we have the Tribulation described in great detail: first of all the panorama of the Tribulation in chapter six, evangelism in the Tribulation in chapter seven, the trumpet judgements of the Tribulation in chapters eight through ten, the two witnesses and the seventh trumpet in chapter eleven, the fall of Satan or the Armageddon motivation in chapter twelve, the two dictators of the Tribulation in chapter thirteen, the principle of grace before judgment in chapter fourteen, the bowl judgements in chapters fifteen and sixteen; in chapters seventeen and eighteen we have the rise and fall of ecumenical religion. In chapter twenty we have the study of the Millennium, preceded by chapter nineteen where we have the second advent of Christ and events related to it. In chapters twenty-one, verses 1-8, the eternal state, and in chapters twenty-one, verses 9 through chapter twenty-two verse five, the eternal Jerusalem. Finally, in verses 6-21 of the last chapter we have the termination of the canon of scripture.

We are in the process of studying eight things which occur in heaven after the resurrection of the Church. In verses two and three we have the Trinity in heaven and that is the basis of our present study. We will move on next to studying the angelic general staff in heaven in verse four, and then the administration of historical judgment in verse five, the Church at rest as a part of verse six, the angelic college of heralds in verses 6b through 11, and then another principle on how Jesus Christ controls history in verses five through seven. Finally, we will terminate chapter five, verses 8-14, with a new song in heaven, the great hymn of victory.

Verse three, “Furthermore, he who was sitting on the throne was in appearance like a precious stone, both a diamond and a sardius.” This becomes very significant when we go back and look at the breastplate of the high priest in the Old Testament. Obviously these stones refer to our Lord Jesus Christ as High Priest because the diamond was the first stone in the breastplate and the sardius was the last stone in the breastplate. The two of them together represent the function of the high priest. In this dispensation our Lord Jesus Christ is the High Priest — this is the subject of the book of Hebrews — and as our High Priest He has certain functions in heaven related to us. This is an unusual time for believers in history because in this dispensation every believer is his own priest. A priest is a person who represents someone to God, and since the day of our Lord’s resurrection and the beginning of the Church Age all believers constitute royal family of God. Each member of the royal family has two commissions. He is first of all given the commission of a priest. Every believer is a priest and therefore represents himself to God. The believer is also an ambassador and therefore represents God to the human race. So we have the function of the priesthood directed toward God inside the divine dynasphere; we have the function of the ambassadorship directed toward man and circumstances inside the divine dynasphere. We are emphasising here the fact that the first two stones find our Lord Jesus Christ functioning as the High Priest in the prototype divine dynasphere, and as such He paved the way for the modus operandi of Christianity in the time in which we live. You as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ privately represent yourself before God and to become spiritually self-sustaining means that you must have certain values and you must understand certain things with regard to that representation. You not only represent yourself before God but that becomes motivation for all virtue. A motivating virtue, for example, is personal love for God based upon the perception of doctrine at gate four. There is a functional virtue which is the counterpart: impersonal love toward all members of the human race. The priesthood is the key to your life on this earth for all absolute values in your life must be related to who and what our Lord Jesus Christ is. So we have a royal priesthood and it can only function inside the divine dynasphere where it is directed toward God. The breastplate with the two stones, the first and the last, is a reminder, then, that the priesthood of the past has been superseded and there is a new priesthood in which every believer represents himself before God.

The stones themselves, of course, suggest many analogies. For example, the diamond emphasises the principle of intrinsic value. This is the major principle that we will be noting. The believer functioning under his royal priesthood inside of the divine dynasphere must learn what is intrinsic value. All intrinsic value, of course, is related to our Lord Jesus Christ who is the ultimate in this field. Gate five of the divine dynasphere becomes occupation with Christ and motivating virtue directed toward God. Furthermore, the diamond suggests that the number one priority in the life of the believer must be Bible doctrine. Since Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ it also has intrinsic value. And the principle that we will note is a very simple one: intrinsic value must precede relative value or relative value has no meaning in life. This is the story, then, of the diamond and the sardius.

In the rest of the passage we also tie in divine integrity before we begin our study of relative and absolute values. The intrinsic value of divine integrity is the subject of the last part of the verse, “also the rainbow which encircled the throne was like an emerald in appearance.” God has great integrity when He says that the earth will never be destroyed again and, as a matter of fact, the earth will never be reduced to eight people ever again. We know this from our study of the book of Revelation where we have so many prophetical concepts. Our Lord Jesus Christ made it very clear that there would be wars and rumours of wars until He came. Man does not have the ability to stop wars, he does not even have the ability to control wars, and we are seeing right now a degenerate trend in our history where people are all upset about nuclear weapons. The book of Revelation makes it very clear that the most sophisticated weaponry that man can design will not destroy the population of the earth. The earth and the people on it cannot be destroyed until the end of history and this is based upon a very important principle: the rainbow, the integrity of God. There are many colours in the rainbow and they are analogous to the many attributes of God which combine to provide His wonderful integrity. In other words, no category of disaster, whether it is a natural disaster or whether it is a man-made disaster such as warfare, will ever destroy the entire population of the earth. From time to time God permits man-made disasters to provide a basis for clarifying issues in the human race and purifying issues in the human race. This is done actually to protect the human race from self-destruction, and therefore to perpetuate the human race under the principle of the angelic conflict. The continuation of the angelic conflict demands the existence of the human race on planet earth. The spectrum of colour in the rainbow is caused by the refraction of light from the rays of the sunlight on the mist or drops of water, and the formation of the rainbow indicates that the storm is abating and about to discontinue. This refraction of light from the rays of the sun becomes a token of the integrity of God and the precious stone related to it is called the emerald. So we have therefore three precious stones in this particular verse.

Three of the most precious stones, the diamond, the ruby or the sardius, and the emerald all have great significance far beyond even their earthly value. The fact that precious stones are used for the analogy as far as the function of believers in Christ and our faith-confidence in the integrity of God. Our scale of values must be based on not relative values but absolute values, values which are intrinsic. There is first of all the diamond which emphasises the divine scale of values. A diamond has intrinsic value, it always has value; and in our context it is important to remember that our subject is not diamonds, rubies and emeralds, it is intrinsic value and relative value. The diamond reminds us by way of application the importance of having a scale of values which is based on what is intrinsic in value, what is absolute in value; whereas the ruby emphasises the divine integrity of the one who won the strategic victory at the cross. The emerald guarantees the perpetuation of the human race and the perpetuation of history to its proper conclusion plus a greater guarantee of eternal life for all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Everything related to our Lord Jesus Christ has intrinsic value rather than relative value. And notice: the intrinsic value is invisible. So since it is invisible to our eyes how do we understand intrinsic value? Our Lord sitting on the throne in His third royal patent is compared to a diamond, a ruby, and an emerald; all of these are stones with intrinsic value but they are visible to us. The greatest intrinsic value in life is invisible and immaterial, therefore it must be understood by analogy.

2. All real values in life are related to the only saviour and the one who controls history, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ.

3. Since the diamond and the sardius are the first and last stones in the breastplate of the high priest they speak of our Lord Jesus Christ as the High Priest of the royal family, and remind us that as members of the royal family of God each one of us is a priest. And if there is one thing that a priest must have clearly in his soul it is understanding of absolute and intrinsic values. Life is meaningless without intrinsic value.

4. Our priesthood has intrinsic value in life and the priesthood functions in the field of intrinsic values just as our ambassadorship functions in the field of relative values. But we bring through relative values the absolutes of integrity, honour, virtue from the production of the divine dynasphere. So our priesthood has intrinsic value in life and its function inside of the divine dynasphere relates our lives to the most important of all intrinsic values — thought, doctrine, truth.

5. For example, gold has intrinsic value while paper money only represents some form of intrinsic value. When paper money is related to gold you limit prosperity. There isn’t enough gold in the world concentrated in one place to bring prosperity by relating paper to gold. You must relate paper money to that which is productive. Gold is not productive it is intrinsic value without production. Intrinsic value which has production must be related to thought, to concepts, to integrity, to courage. There are no intrinsic values unless you can think in terms of truth.

6. Bible doctrine has intrinsic value, while happiness and the pleasure of this life only has relative value. And there is no true happiness unless it is related to intrinsic things. That is why so many people are doing so many things they thought would make them happy but they are not happy at all because true happiness, like everything else, must be related to something intrinsic. When people have doctrine and capacity for life then they often have great happiness and blessing in whatever they are doing.

7. Relative values are only meaningful when related to intrinsic values. Life is only meaningful for the Christian when he relates it to the intrinsic values of Bible doctrine. We are sustained by an intrinsic valuable concept called logistical grace, not by gold and silver, not by diamonds, not by anything that is overt and visible and considered of intrinsic value. Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ and is the only thing of intrinsic value we can claim, own, use and apply for happiness and blessing in this life. The believer who lives in the divine dynasphere has a scale of values which is intrinsic while the believer who lives in the cosmic system has a scale of values which is relative. Relative values cannot bring happiness in this life. Values in the divine dynasphere are all intrinsic — thought, doctrine, truth. The values in the cosmic system are all relative and therefore detrimental. Relative values are meaningless without the backing of intrinsic values.

1. Only people with virtue and integrity have intrinsic value, hence the believer in the cosmic system has only relative value and becomes disappointing to friends and lovers.

2. The relative value of people depends on their beauty or attractiveness. How many people have selected their friends, their wife, their husband, on the basis of overt beauty and attractiveness. But here is the problem with that: that is relative, it isn’t intrinsic. It is what is in the soul that is intrinsic.

3. None of these relative values in people are the basis for permanent relationships of any kind. That is why some people never have any permanent friends. They have nothing in life but relative values and these relative values have no basis in intrinsic value.

6. Integrity from doctrine and the divine dynasphere has intrinsic value in human relationships.

1. Things with intrinsic value include gold, precious gems, manufacturing capabilities including the gross national product. In other words, things that you can see and things that you cannot see, principles which are invisible and real and things which are visible and real. Bonds, bank books, paper money, stock certificates, credit cards, letters of credit, have no intrinsic value, hence they are assigned to the category of relative values.

2. The relative value of things depends upon the intrinsic value represented on the scrap of paper, whether it is a stock certificate or a paper dollar.

3. Therefore relative values cannot exist legitimately without the backing of intrinsic value. The terrible economic collapse of France during the French Revolution came from this principle that there was nothing of value to back their paper currency.

4. Our economy is off the gold standard which means that paper money is not redeemable with gold and silver of intrinsic value. But it doesn’t mean that it is valueless. As long as we have the functions of free enterprise economy and production and markets that currency is far better off than if it were backed by gold. This does not imply that we are devoid of economic intrinsic values, in other words. Our economic intrinsic value is based upon free enterprise manufacturing: in other words, factories, products, markets, profit. When you destroy profits you are violating the very concept of intrinsic value in category #1 of the laws of divine establishment.

Corporations should not be taxed for their profits. The incentive is gone and the ability to redo all of the factories, to refurbish, to bring them up-to-date, to compete with on world markets, demands that they have the freedom to use their own profits to improve their own status, otherwise you destroy intrinsic value. The gross national product represents intrinsic value in our economy and as long as these factories produce goods and these goods are sold at profit we have made the principle of intrinsic value. Free enterprise as the principle of intrinsic value is a doctrine from the Word of God — category #1 truth. Bible doctrine is a far greater principle of intrinsic value and free enterprise is advocated by the Word of God.

1. Intrinsic value is related to truth, John 8:32: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

2. Truth is Bible doctrine in three categories and is the basis for freedom, free enterprise. Truth which makes us free is category #1, the laws of divine establishment, which also includes free enterprise economy; category #2, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; category #3, Bible doctrine for the believer, the manufacturer of virtue and integrity inside of the divine dynasphere.

3. Therefore freedom has relative value and can only exist when based on an absolute value — truth. Freedom is meaningless without truth. Freedom without truth is some form of tyranny, obvious or subtle.

4. The existence and function of freedom depends on truth or Bible doctrine in its three categories.

5. Doctrine has intrinsic value; freedom only has relative value. Freedom is like the paper money in your pocket, it is no good unless it is based on intrinsic value — truth, doctrine.

6. The freedom of the French Revolution, again, illustrates the relative value of freedom for it was not based on truth and therefore it did not exist.

7. Relative values only exist when based on and backed by intrinsic values. So when you see the diamond, the ruby and the emerald in this passage you are merely looking at illustrations of a far greater system of intrinsic value.

The first thing we saw in heaven was the Trinity on verses two and three. Now we notice the second thing in heaven: the angelic general staff or the twenty-four elders. So we begin a study of the organisation of elect angels, a general staff which is going to teach us a great deal about life, even about our own personal lives.

In verse four we begin with the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai which means “also.” With this we have the adverb of place kukloqen, used as an improper preposition with the noun qronoj. Kukloqen plus the genitive of qronoj means “around the throne,” “Also around the throne.” The ellipsis demands the repetition of the verb o(raw, “I saw,” inserted. The direct object is composed of three words, all of which are the objects of o(raw, “Also around the throne I saw,” and then we have the indeclinable number e)ikosi which is correctly translated “twenty.” With it we have the accusative plural of tessarej, “four.” Since these two words go together, four plus twenty, and since four is in the accusative we have no problem in translating it “twenty-four additional thrones.” These thrones are reserved for the angelic general staff who have authority in the heavens during the period of the Church Age, the Tribulation and the Millennium. These thrones are occupied by angels who in the pristine angelic conflict have achieved great status. We might say angels who advanced to maturity. They became very mature, as it were, when there were no human beings.

One thing should be very clear. The person who is going to be happy in this life, the human being who is truly happy, has to be well organised. Being well organised means many things. It means being able to relate yourself properly to time and to the scale of values you possess, utilising therefore your scale of values and your time so that you do what you want to do and what you do the best and give it plenty of time without pressure. If you are well organised you avoid pressurising yourself. If you are smart enough not to make a lot of snap decisions about a lot of things you are even smarter yet. The first thing that we are going to learn about this angelic general staff is that they are well organised. Not only are their lives personally well organised but this frees them to do a job that has to be done in heaven even as it has to be done in any organisation on earth. That job is to collect correct information and relate it to any given situation.

“and around the throne I saw twenty-four thrones.” Then we have a connective kai, and e)pi plus the accusative of qronoj. E)pi means on or upon, “and on the thrones.” Then we have the present passive participle from kaqhmai, they were sitting.

The posture becomes very important when you understand that people who sit think. Action is only meaningful as it is backed by correct thought. It is the people who think in life who make it. The emphasis is on the body when you stand but when you are seated the emphasis is on the brain, and these twenty-four general staff officers are sitting. Sitting is the posture of thinking. There is no integrity in the body, it is all in the soul. The soul must direct the body.

So thy were sitting. The perfect present tense denotes what has come to be in the past — the angelic reward before human history — but is emphasised as a present reality. The fact that they were sitting and the fact that these twenty-four angels out of millions of angels who could have been sitting there is very important. Twenty-four were sitting, not millions of the other elect angels. These 24 are higher in rank, they are smarter, they are doing a greater job, and they are obviously rewarded from something that happened long before man was created in a conflict that existed longer than time and Adam. In that pristine conflict there was the achievement of some over others and as a result of that achievement we now see promotion and eternal success. Twenty-four elect angels are given a higher rank than almost all the other angels. And what a privilege they have. They are allowed throughout all eternity to think, they have the privilege and the opportunity of being able to use their minds and to be able to make decisions throughout all human history.

We have already noted that when the judgment seat of Christ occurs some are going to have the order of the morning star, they are going to have the crown of life, the crown of glory, they are going to be presented in the court of heaven, they are going to have the translucent uniform of glory and all kinds of decorations. They are going to return with Christ and throughout the Millennium they are going to rule a nation for 1000 years. They will exert great authority, they will have great thought and tremendous opportunity.

Long before Adam and the woman there was the angelic conflict in which 24 angelic creatures advanced in spiritual momentum far beyond their contemporaries of elect angels. They were given a special reward: a general staff throughout all of human history from Adam to the end of the Millennium. The passive voice: the 24 staff angels receive the action of the verb and they received it before human history began. The participle is circumstantial. The indeclinable number, 20 plus four, now has something else added to it, the accusative plural of the verb presbuteroj. In Attic Greek the word meant an elder in the sense of someone who was a leader. It was occasionally used for a person who was older in age but it was generally in the sense of a leader, a ruler, someone who has authority. And so while presbuteroj does connote and older person it is used here is the sense of authority. Presbuteroj is used in a spiritual sense for the pastor’s authority over the congregation. It always carries the connotation of authority, of leadership in both administrative and judicial functions. Hence, it means in actuality an office bearer, someone who is a ruler, an administrator with authority to make decisions and provide information for even a greater hierarchy. Since we have a council of twenty-four the term staff officer is used as approximating the meaning here, “and twenty-four staff officers were sitting on the thrones.” The rest of the sentence indicates that these 24 staff officers in the heavenly palace had received the second highest decoration for their part in the angelic conflict prior to the creation of man. This is given in part by the perfect passive participle from the verb periballw which means to be clothed, “having been clothed.” “Having been clothed” means, of course, and honour and a decoration coming up. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect imperfect, it emphasises the completed action in providing eternal reward and privilege for angelic winners. Born again angels are not called born again angels, the Bible calls them “elect.” So this is a special award for winners among elect angels. All elect angels do not have the same status quo. There is special attention on the award of the uniform of glory. The intensive perfect therefore emphasises the eternal results of the action. In other words, this is a strong way of saying a thing is in the Greek. Certain angels prior to human history were winners in that phase of the angelic conflict and were rewarded with the uniform of glory. They were therefore published on the honours list before the creation of Adam. The passive voice: elect angels who were winners in the previous conflict actually received the action of the verb — reward and decoration. The participle is circumstantial for the fact that something comparable to the judgment seat of Christ existed prior to the creation of man, prior to this phase of the angelic conflict.

What they were clothed in is now mentioned. The preposition e)n plus the instrumental of leukoj. Leukoj means white and it also means translucent or shining. With this i(mation means a robe, or simply clothing. The translation would then read: “having been clothed [honoured or decorated] with shining [or translucent] clothing [the uniform of glory].”

Now we can see a parallel. The angelic conflict which preceded the history of man ended up with certain angels receiving high awards and then human history began so that these awards could be exercised both in heaven and on earth, just as at the second advent of Christ believers of this dispensation in resurrection bodies are going to rule nations. They will have the order of the morning star, they will have certain crowns, they will have the uniform of glory, they will have a new knighthood, the new order of chivalry, a new coat of arms. And all of these things are related to the same concept. Angels not only are in eternity but their eternity includes certain supervision and certain activities of blessing for them in the human stage of history. The same thing will be true of human being s in the royal family; they will have certain privileges and honour at the end of human history, the last 1000 years.

“and they had on their heads golden crowns,” e)pi plus the accusative of kefalh which means the head,“on their heads,” the possessive genitive a)utoj. Then we have the accusative and direct object, stefanoj for crowns, xrusoj, “golden crowns.” This is comparable to crowns awarded to winners at the judgment seat of Christ. It is only given to angels prior to human history as a decoration. This means that angelic creatures are already in their eternal state and in eternity past after the fall of Satan they made their decision for Christ and whatever salvation was offered, and they made the right decision. After that there is a long period of angelic conflict after which the elect angels were evaluated just prior to the beginning of human history.

Well, how do we know all of this? The Bible reveals the existence of a higher category of creatures which we simply call angels. The two categories of angelic creatures today are designated saved angels and unsaved angels. However, that isn’t what the Bible calls them. In Mark 8:38 saved angels are called “holy”; in 1 Timothy 5:21 they are called “elect.” In both cases we are talking about angels who have eternal life. But then we also have a large number of angels that are said to be unsaved. They are imprisoned because of Genesis 6:1-9, as related in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6. There are also angels that are not imprisoned. Hades has a place called Tartarus which has millions of angels that are imprisoned from an early part of human history (Genesis 6) but there are still millions of fallen angels that are operative today and they are known as demons. They are covered in some passages in great detail, like Mark 5; 1 Corinthians 10:20,21; 1 Timothy 4:1 and other passages. So we have obviously then the results of a great conflict that existed over an undetermined period of time long before man was created.

During the course of human history the angelic conflict is under appeal. Satan is the chief of the unsaved angels although he is not the highest ranking of all angels. He is a brilliant genius, however, and he had a special job. He occupied the throne room where the four angelic heralds now occupy and he was the most beautiful and attractive and personable of all creatures that came from the hand of God, so much so that he became arrogant. As a result of his arrogance we have the first sin among creatures followed by the first revolution. During the course of time there was a final reckoning in which everyone made a decision. And when the decisions were all made Satan had taken one third of all angelic creatures. These are the unsaved angels, the fallen angels, the demons that operate at the present time, and they operate under his command. Then there came the courtroom scene and when it was all over Satan and all fallen angels were sentenced to the lake of fire, which at this moment doesn’t even exist. Satan, being very smart, appealed his case on a principle: How can a loving God cast His own creatures, i.e. fallen angels, into the lake of fire? That was his appeal and human history results from it.

First of all God answered the objection by saying that Satan had every opportunity to have an eternal relationship with God, as did all fallen angels, and a new creation was necessary to reveal the principle by which these angels were condemned. Angels have super souls and the centre of that super soul is volition. From their own free will they chose for Satan rather than choosing for God. However, two thirds of the angelic creatures chose for God, Hebrews 2:2. The answer to the objection by Satan is found in the character of God, His essence box. He brought into existence creatures who could be self-determining. They could be independent of God or for God and by bringing self-determination into the issue He created man to prove the point of every part of the objection. This is the reason for human history, to resolve the angelic conflict, to resolve the objection of a courtroom case that took place before the creation of man.

The pattern of angelic negative volition is expressed in two ways. First of all in Isaiah 14:12-14 we have Satan’s original sin of negative volition, very similar to Adam’s in certain ways. Angelic rejection of the Lord is hinted in Hebrews 2:2. The creation of man then reveals the fact that the angelic conflict is resolved by the function of human free will. To resolve the angelic conflict an inferior creature is placed on planet earth possessing one thing in common with angels, free will, the bona fide function of self-determination within the environment of a magnificent soul. Human volition is tested exactly in the same pattern as angelic volition. Angels began in status quo innocence; mankind began in status quo innocence. Angels sinned — negative volition of Satan; mankind sinned — negative volition of Adam. God provided salvation for the angels (whatever it was); God provided salvation for mankind. In both cases salvation is acquired or attained by a non-meritorious function of volition. As a result angels are divided into two categories, according to Revelation 12:7, and today mankind is divided into two categories, according to John 3:18, 36.

Just as angels in eternity past were tested under two categories, innocence and sinfulness, so man is tested under two categories, innocence and sinfulness. Under perfect environment mankind was prohibited the use of one tree in the garden, just one. Everything was provided for his blessing, nothing was lacking. There was just one test. There has to be a test. There had to be one tree in the garden whereby man’s free will can result in some form of self-determination and there had to be a prohibition with regard to that tree. No! And that is a test for volition. The only way that man could sin in the garden was simply to disobey one command from God. In status of innocence man can only sin by negative volition toward divine prohibition. Innocence means that morality was not an issue and in the garden. It is an issue in sinfulness but not in innocence. The only way that man could sin was negative volition toward the divine prohibition of Genesis 2:17. The penalty of sin, of course, is spiritual death, Romans 5:12ff. When man sinned through negative volition he died spiritually immediately, the wages of sin is death, and immediately Adam died spiritually. He was still alive physically because the wages of sin is not physical death, it is spiritual death. The issue, therefore, was changed from innocence to sinfulness. When man sinned through negative volition the first time he died spiritually immediately but he did not die physically until 930 years later. This proves that the wages of sin is not physical death, neither then nor at any time. Physical death is merely a result of certain factors of self-determination in the human race.

Sinfulness was another story. After the fall of man salvation is promised and offered to the human race in Genesis 3:15. Such salvation involves Christ dying twice on the cross. The fact that Christ died twice is the subject of Isaiah 53:9; 1 Peter 2; 2 Corinthians 5; Colossians 2, and many other passages. The issue is now positive volition, in the garden it was negative volition. Now it is positive volition toward God’s provision of salvation and, furthermore, positive volition expressed in a non-meritorious manner compatible with grace. The pattern: “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Man’s entrance into the plan of God through faith in Christ destroys the devil’s appeal and resolves the angelic conflict. In all of human history only one person had to be saved but in human history apparently, when it is all over, there will be more people saved than in the angelic realm, thus demonstrating in a saturation situation over a period of unknown thousands of years that Satan’s appeal was wrong. At the end of the Millennium and at the end of the Gog revolution there will be a phrase that will be the final declaration: Appeal denied!

Man’s entrance into the plan of God through faith in Christ not only destroys the devil’s appeal but it also brings up another issue to resolve the angelic conflict. Will man, inferior to angels but equipped with the same free will in his soul, choose for or against the plan of God? — beginning, of course, at salvation. The solution again: if even one member of the human race believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, accepts by faith (non-meritorious function) the plan of God, the angelic conflict is resolved. This is the subject of the first two chapters of the book of Hebrews and Colossians 2:14,15. And it is related to the greater subject, operation footstool, Psalm 110:1; 1 Corinthians 15:24,25; Hebrews 10:13 and other passages.

Because man was created to resolve the angelic conflict it means that we are in the arena and the stands are invisible but they are filled with millions of angels. This is the subject of angelic observation. We have elect angels observing us; we have fallen angels observing us. We have, as it were, a testimony to angels every moment that we draw a breath on this earth. Angels learn through the conversion of the sinner that the free will of man does not necessarily choose against God as Satan and the fallen angels did in pristine times. This explains the rejoicing if elect angels over one sinner who changes his mind in Luke 15:7, 10. And this means that the issue is resolved by faith in Christ.

We have studied before the plan of God for the believer. Phase one: salvation; phase two: the believer in time; phase three: the believer in eternity. Especially in phase one and phase two there is the resolving of the issue. In phase one regenerate mankind is positionally higher than angels in this dispensation. When you accept Jesus Christ as saviour you receive 37 things from God and the book of Hebrews points out that the royal family of God is right now positionally higher than angels. “To which of the angels did he say at any time, Sit down at my right hand?” He didn’t, but He said it to the humanity of Christ after the ascension, and when He said it to the humanity of Christ — and we are in union with Christ — positionally we are now higher than angels. Otherwise, of course, on this earth we are inferior to them in so many ways.

In phase two, the believer in time, through the suffering as well as being the recipient of blessing mankind uses the pertinent doctrines that he has learned in the divine dynasphere, and through his right decisions in suffering and in prosperity he demonstrates to the entire angelic creation that making one decision for Christ, salvation, was not accidental but that it can result in making many, many other decisions in spite of the fact that Satan has invented the greatest trap of all time. The genius trap comes from the fact that Satan has been the ruler of this world since the fall of man, and his trap we have studied before in great detail — cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance; cosmic two with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred. This is the greatest trap of all time and to advance to maturity we have to go through nine different tests in order to reach maturity, each one requiring the application of doctrine which we have learned in the divine dynasphere.

Through the fall of man, then, Satan gained control of the world but not necessarily the control of mankind, for in eternity or phase three the believer will have a resurrection body which is physically superior to that of the angels. The freedom that we enjoy at the present time under the concept of human self-determination or free will makes us, therefore, free agents in the devil’s world. Man can choose between the plan of God, operation grace, and the plan of Satan which is the cosmic system. The issue, salvation through faith in Christ, frees mankind from the control of the cosmic system, but only temporarily. We must make literally hundreds and even thousands of decisions to maintain that status quo and logistically we are given tremendous support to do so. The fact that Satan is the ruler of this world is well documented, 2 Corinthians 4:4; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Ephesians 2:2 are just some of the passages. And the fact that angels are observing us also adds great credence to the concept. Angelic observance of the incarnate Christ is found in 1 Timothy 3:16. Elect angels observe and rejoice over the conversion of mankind, Luke 15:7. Fallen angels are organised under Satan’s command to resist and oppose the believer, Job chapter one is a great illustration, Job 1:6; 2:1-3; Ephesians 6:12. Angelic creatures observe believers in phase two, 1 Corinthians 4:9; 6:3; 11:10; Ephesians 3:10; 1 Timothy 5:21; 1 Peter 1:12 and many other passages.

This also explains other questions that are generally not answered. Why does man exist on this earth? Inside of man’s soul is volition. Linked with the work of the cross it resolves the angelic conflict. Why sin? Sin resolves the issue of phase one of the plan of God. Man’s free will is the source of all sinfulness in the human race. Why suffering? Answered by the same principle. Why the Church? Why chaos on the earth? Why two kinds of spirituality, one for the Church Age and one for the Millennium? All of these and many other things are answered by the angelic conflict. But we are not dealing with the angelic conflict here, we only note its existence and its result, and its result is found in our passage, “Also around the throne I saw twenty-four additional thrones: and twenty-four angelic staff officers were sitting on the thrones, having been clothed [decorated] with shining clothing [the uniform of glory]; and golden crowns on their heads.”

In the concept of the angelic general staff there is the concept of having the smartest and the wisest of all the angelic creatures, wise as far as their perception of doctrine. General staff is a term that is almost obscure, abstruse, meaningless in terms of civilian thinking and, above all, theological thinking. And yet here we are faced with the fact that we are going to have to study from time to time this angelic general staff called “twenty-four elders” and see what applications it has to the lives of each one of us. For starters, every believer is equipped with his own general staff. In effect it is the divine dynasphere and your volition related to the divine dynasphere. Also, as we have seen, no business, no social organisation or spiritual organisation, and no economic organisation can be effective without authority and without a constant feeding of good ideas and the provision of correct and accurate information to whomever is making decisions in a big organisation. Knowledge is power. We have to learn in Christianity that knowledge of doctrine is power and with it the believer has his own built-in general staff. But the general staff isn’t working in the soul of most believers today. They are not organised, they can’t think straight, they can’t discern; yet, that is why they learn doctrine.

In verse 5 we notice the administration of historical judgment. We begin with the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, meaning “also,” followed with the prepositional phrase e)k plus the ablative of source from qronoj, “Also from the throne,” a reference to the throne occupied by God the Father who is invisible and God the Son who is visible. And this prepares the way for the principle that we have noted from time to time: Jesus Christ controls history.

Next is the present middle indicative of the verb e)kporeuomai, and it means to proceed. The customary present tense denotes what habitually occurs when Jesus Christ controls history. The direct middle voice is one in which the subject participates in the outcome of the action. Jesus Christ participates in historical judgment. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of Jesus Christ controlling history through the administration of historical judgment where no pivot exists or the pivot is too small to have historical impact.

Crusading is one the great enemies of historical trends and prosperity. There are two kinds of crusading. First of all there is crusading in your periphery and then there is crusading on a national or international level out of your periphery. All this crusading comes from one source: arrogance. People who are crusaders within their periphery are generally gossips. They are self-righteous, they are gossips, they are maligners; and when they get out of their periphery and into international areas, whether they are liberals or conservatives, arrogance distorts their judgment so that their historical impact is adverse rather than being beneficial. In other words, crusading is a waste of time. The only solution to the problems of life is the formation and expansion of the pivot of mature believers. Crusading is definitely a manifestation of arrogance while the formation of a pivot leads to historical solution and blessing. It is the difference between confusion and the function of the general staff. And, again, you have a general staff in your soul.

“Also from the throne there proceeded.” As yet there is no subject but the subject now follows with three categories of divine judgment mentioned. These are all categories related to divine judgment through nature. Each one of them is in the nominative plural, each one of them is a part of the subject. First of all the nominative plural subject from the noun a)straph, and it means “lightnings” (plural). Lightning always indicates the approach of a storm. In this case lightning indicates the approach of historical disaster in the Tribulation. The tribulation is a period of spectacular historical disasters which culminate a whole section of history. They simply bring together without any restraint left since God the Holy Spirit and the Church have moved out and are in heaven, and therefore all of the bad decisions are brought together to cause great disaster. We are the products of our own decisions. Bad decisions produce disaster and the Lord wraps that disaster up in His own just and fair administration of punishment to the human race, a concentrated period of punishment such as the world has never before known. So lightning indicates the approach of that time of great disaster. There is a second noun, the nominative plural subject from the word fwnh referring to sounds here, the sounds of disaster, the sound of a tornado, a hurricane, a volcano or a typhoon. While lightning is a visual warning of disaster this is an audible warning of disaster.

And then a third, the nominative plural subject from bronth, and it means crashes or peals of thunder. Crashes of thunder, again, the warning of a coming storm, hence it is used in the same connotation as the other parts of the subject, the warning of great historical disaster in the Tribulation. We will translate it this way: “also lightnings and loud noises and peals of thunder [the analogy between the warning of the coming storm and the actual storm] proceed from that throne.” These are only warnings. We are looking at eight things in heaven and this is number three, simply a warning of things to come. This is not the actual historical disaster, we will see that under prophetical historical trends, the Doomsday Book with its seven seals.

The principle behind all of that is that once the Church has been removed from the earth, the royal family has departed and with it concept pivot. There is no pivot as we have known it in the past in the Tribulation. The concept of a pivot of believers who have advanced to maturity is gone. There will be 144,000 Jews who are going to be evangelists; they are not a pivot. The largest pivot that will be seen in the Tribulation is when Moses and Elijah start broadcasting on TV from Jerusalem when they are resuscitated and brought back to the earth. So the concept of pivot is gone. There will be believers reaching maturity, very few of them, and with the fact that the Church has been removed all mature believers have gone to heaven.

We fail to realise that not only is the pivot the basis for prosperity and blessing in a given area but at the same time the pivot is a restrainer. There are two restrainers in history: the pivot of mature believers and God the Holy Spirit. With the Rapture of the Church whatever pivot that exists at the point of the Rapture is gone and with the departure of the pivot we also have the removal of the divine dynasphere, including gate one, God the Holy Spirit.

With the removal of the pivot of mature believers historical disaster becomes characteristic of the Tribulation. What is true in the Church Age is amplified in the Tribulation: no pivot means historical disaster. In the time in which we live a reduced pivot means some form of disaster. But all disaster in the Church Age, no matter how it affects you personally or how it affects others personally, has restraint. Unrestrained disaster does not exist in the Church Age. The restraint on historical disaster is the existence of the pivot of mature believers whose residence and function in the divine dynasphere becomes the means of historical blessing as well as restraint. The Tribulation, however, is characterised by a lack of historical prosperity. There is no historical blessing due to the absence of the pivot in heaven. The Tribulation is only a shortened seven years and there is hardly time for anyone who is really positive even to get to maturity. It can be done and at the end of the Tribulation there will be a small group of mature believers but there will be no pivot as we know it in this dispensation, or in previous dispensations. The pivot is being rewarded and decorated in heaven while unrestrained historical disaster occurs on earth during the Tribulation.

While the Tribulation is the greatest period of concentrated unrestrained historical disaster it is not the worst, it is not the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. That is the Church Age. We will note the difference later on. Even the greatest of historical disasters and judgements will not annihilate great portions of the population of the earth; that will occur in the Tribulation. There is no doomsday for the entire human race except for unbelievers at the great white throne judgment, and that comes at the end of history at the end of the Millennium. So not matter how bad things become historically the human race will never be totally destroyed. God has guaranteed the perpetuation of the human race on planet earth until the end of human history which is the end of the Millennium. Nevertheless, there will be times worse than others and the Tribulation being one of the titles for that historical era comes from the fact that there is unrestrained historical disaster. All historical disasters today have restraint.

The Church Age with its adverse trends in a given generation is still a doctrinal portrayal of the principle of grace before judgment. The Millennium with its perfect environment for 1000 years of our Lord’s rule portrays the principle of grace before judgment. Grace before judgment and grace after judgment therefore become a part of the principle of historical trends. Before the Tribulation can occur there will be great opportunity for people to be saved and to avoid great historical disaster. After the Tribulation there will be perfect environment on the earth with our Lord’s rule, so you have grace before judgment, grace after judgment. This means that there is a certain category of historical disaster as divine judgment which is concentrated in the Tribulation. In fact it is so concentrated that it requires a detailed development and Revelation 6-18 deals with that subject.

Judgment never strikes the earth or its human population without warning and without a chance for people to change their minds, called in the KJV “repentance.” For those who repent grace also follows judgment. So we have grace before judgment: the Church Age; we have grace after judgment: the Millennium; we have judgment, a concentrated dose, in the Tribulation. And yet in that worst of all periods of unrestrained disaster, both human and natural, there will still be the preservation of believers. There will still be the potentiality for great happiness and blessing from the perception of Bible doctrine. In the worst of all dispensations from the standpoint of concentrated disaster there will still be among believers in their own souls a general staff so that they can have happiness and blessing, and in a time of great confusion and disorganisation believers with doctrine will still be organised in their souls. That is the principle.

Many of us have had the opportunity of studying the martyrs of the first century and their tremendous poise and courage and integrity as they went to their deaths. They died in many horrible ways and yet not for one moment were they upset or disturbed. The reason: they had a general staff in the soul. They were organised in their souls, they had doctrinal resources. In other words, they could think under pressure. That is exactly what courage is. The person who is a coward is disorganised in his thinking. He becomes emotional, he becomes upset, he panics. Panic means lack of thought. People get upset and disturbed and frightened by things they can’t understand or explain — the hurricane, the volcano, the typhoon, violence, etc., but one of the great demonstrations we will study in the Tribulation is the fact that a general staff never panics. If you can’t think now when things are quiet what do you think you are going to do in time of disaster?

Divine warning of judgment always gives time to utilise the grace of God in the three areas of divine truth — the laws or divine establishment, the gospel, Bible doctrine — and, as a result survive disaster. God never brings great historical disaster to any group of people without giving them time to learn what it takes to handle the disaster, to develop their own general staff in the soul. The survivors of historical disaster, then, have a grace period in which to fulfil the plan of God for their lives. Today in the Church Age historical trends are used as a doctrinal warning system of the coming storm, of historical disaster in the future. Therefore historical trends accomplish for believers collectively what personal divine discipline accomplishes for the believer individually. So the Millennium with its 1000 years of perfect environment of our Lord’s rule portrays the principle of grace after judgment. The Church Age with its adverse trends in a given generation is still a doctrinal portrayal of the principle of grace before judgment. Grace before judgment and grace after judgment becomes therefore an historical trend in any period of history. Judgment never strikes the earth or its human population without warning and a chance to change your mind or repent, in other words. start making good decisions. Divine warning and judgment gives time to utilise the grace of God in the three areas of divine truth and survive the disaster.

The survivors of historical disaster, then, have a grace period in which they have the opportunity of making good decisions and fulfilling the plan of God for their lives. Today in the Church Age historical trends are used as doctrinal warning systems, warning of the coming storm or historical disaster. In this passage there are three different systems of warning; all people are not warned the same way, “lightnings” [visual]; “loud noises” [audio]; “peels of thunder” [intensified audio]. They are not all sensitive to the same warnings so different categories of warnings are given.

Historical trends accomplish for the believers collectively what personal divine discipline accomplishes for the believer individually. The grace warning gives the opportunity for the exploitation of grace and the fact that grace precedes judgment provides the opportunity for survival in any historical disaster in any era of human history.

Moving on in our verse we have “and,” the connective use of the conjunction kai, followed by the indeclinable numeral e(pta and a noun lampaj, “seven torches.” Then there is the descriptive genitive from the noun pur, “of fire” plus the present passive participle of kaiw, “burning.” The descriptive present tense is for an event in the process of occurrence in the vision. The passive voice: the torches receive the action. The participle is circumstantial and with it we have the improper preposition e)nwpion plus the genitive of qronoj, “before the throne.” The preposition is called improper not because it is immoral but simply because it is an adverb used as a preposition. The definite article can be used as a demonstrative pronoun and it can be translated “that throne,” “and seven torches of fire were burning before the throne.”

In Zechariah 12:6 the flaming torch is a symbol of great judgment or historical disaster: “In that day [the end of the Armageddon campaign] I will make the generals of Judah like a firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume [annihilate] on the right hand and on the left the attacking people [besieging armies], while the inhabitants of Jerusalem will again live in their own homes in Jerusalem.”

In our context there is a similar meaning of the flaming torch: historical disaster in the form of military judgements, religious judgements, economic judgements, social judgements, national or political judgements, natural judgements, disease judgements. Each torch represents a different judgment from the essence of God. At this moment they are burning before the throne, they have not been unleashed upon the population of the earth because there must be a time of grace before judgment.

There are seven flaming torches and they have not yet been thrown into the world. Number one: catastrophe from military judgment; number two: catastrophe from religious judgment; number three: catastrophe from economic judgment; number four: catastrophe from social judgment; number five: catastrophe from political judgment; number six: catastrophe from natural judgements; number seven: catastrophe from disease judgements. All of these seven categories of historical disaster are represented by the seven flaming torches and all of them will be found in the Tribulation. But right now they are in heaven, they are seven torches before the throne not as yet thrown to the earth. Obviously then the Tribulation is one of the most traumatic periods in history.

We have an explanation of the flaming torches in verse five in the phrase beginning with the nominative plural from the relative pronoun oo(j, “even flaming torches which.” We have following a present active indicative of the verb e)imi, correctly translated “are.” The static present tense is for a condition assumed as perpetually existing. The active voice: the seven torches produce the action and, again, the seven torches include military, religious, economic, social, national, natural and disease epidemic historical judgements. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the seven torches having an analogy to the seven spirits of God.

Next we have the indeclinable numeral e(pta, “seven.” With this we have pneuma plus the genitive of qeoj, “which are the seven Spirits of God.”

Translation: “Also lightnings and loud noises and peals of thunder [the analogy between the warning of the coming storm and the warning of comic historical disaster] proceed from that throne: and the seven torches of fire were burning before that throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.”

The seven Spirits of God were first mentioned in the book of Revelation in 1:4, followed by 3:1 and 4:5. The final one is in chapter 5 verse 6. Already in 1:4 we have noted that the seven Spirits before the throne refer to God the Holy Spirit as the power system for both the prototype and the functional or operational divine dynasphere. The relationship between the two is very important and we had to study Isaiah chapter eleven to define each one those Spirits as an attribute of God the Holy Spirit in His special function during the Church Age. Then in Revelation 3:1 we again encountered the seven Spirits. The Lord Jesus Christ is said to be one who has the seven Spirits. And again this is a reference to the prototype divine dynasphere powered by God the Holy Spirit as the means of sustaining the humanity of Christ during His first advent and the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. Then we have the concept in both of these passages that the seven Spirits are merely attributes of one God the Holy Spirit. The seven Spirits are one Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, whose divine power not only sustained the humanity of Christ during the first advent but also believers during the Church Age. The great principle here is that the Holy Spirit has another ministry as well as gate one of the divine dynasphere. It is the restraining of the function of the seven torches, and that is the subject of the end of this passage. The seven torches remain in heaven until God the Holy Spirit is removed with the Church at the Rapture, after which the flaming torches will become part of the historical trends for the Tribulation. That is the principle found in this concept. In order to understand that we must realise that the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the Tribulation is related to judgment whereas in this dispensation it is related to restraint. All disasters have restraint and that should be comforting because neither a nuclear holocaust nor a natural disaster can destroy the population of the earth.

There are two words which help us to understand the concept of the seven Spirits. The first is the word “sustaining.” God the Holy Spirit sustains the royal family as the power system of the divine dynasphere. Later on in chapter five we are going to see the word basileia which is generally translated “kingdom” but it has another meaning that is just as important, royal power, and we are going to see the divine dynasphere called basileia. It is the royal power for the royal family and that is a sustaining function which occurs only in the Church Age. Secondly, as long as the royal family is on earth until the Rapture and as long as the divine dynasphere is the modus operandi of the Christian way of life there is a restraining function, the restraining of the human race, and therefore limiting to some extent the various categories of historical disaster. For example, the flaming torches. They remain in heaven before the throne until the divine dynasphere is removed from the earth. The removal of the restraint of God the Holy Spirit and/or the seven Spirits is actually the subject of 2 Thessalonians chapter two verses three through twelve.

“Let no one in any way deceive you” — you are a deceived believer if two things are true: if you are in the cosmic system and if you are ignorant of Bible doctrine; “for it [the restraining function of the seven flaming torches before the throne] will not come unless the falling away from doctrine comes first, and the man of lawlessness [the anti-Christ] is revealed, the son of destruction [so-called because he makes decisions that bring destruction on himself and on certain portions of the population of the earth]; who opposes and exalts himself above every god [so-called] or object of worship [involvement in cosmic one in maximum arrogance]; so that he takes his seat in the temple of God [the Jewish temple of the Tribulation] displaying himself as being God” — he is the equivalent to the abomination of desolation and the statue of Antiochus as Zeus Olympius which we have noted in relationship to the Maccabaean wars in the past. Once more there will be an abomination in the temple in the Tribulation — “Do you not remember that while I was still with you I was teaching you these things? [People do not remember doctrine because they limit their exposure to it. Inculcation is the real secret to momentum in the Christian life] And you know that what restrains him [the great dictator. What restrains him? The seven Spirits of God or God the Holy Spirit using His power inside the divine dynasphere resulting in a pivot of mature believers that restrains disaster] so that in his time [in the Tribulation] he may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work [there are military, economic, social, and national disasters, etc. in the Church Age, they are already at work]: only he [God the Holy Spirit] who now restrains them will do so until he is taken out of the way [the Rapture of the Church]. And then shall that Wicked [the lawless one, the anti-Christ, the great dictator] be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth [at the second advent], and will bring to and end by the appearance of his coming [the second advent]: that is, the one whose presence is in accord with the activity of Satan [this dictator will be living in the cosmic system and he will be following the policy of Satan].” Restraint on the cosmic system exists therefore at the present time but the restraint on the cosmic system will be removed during the Tribulation, making way for the full impact of the seven flaming torches of historical disaster, “with all power and miracles and false wonders, and with every deception of evil.” Evil is always deception because evil functions on that which is false; “for those who perish; because they do not receive the love of doctrine so that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send on them a deluding influence [the activity of error], so that they might believe what is false [the total life of the believer or unbeliever in the cosmic system. This illustrates the fact that man is the product of his own decisions]: in order that they all might be judged who did not believe doctrine, but approved [or took pleasure in] evil.”

With the removal of the Church at the Rapture or resurrection there is no more pivot of mature believers, no client nations to act as a further restraint on historical disaster, and no God the Holy Spirit of the seven Spirits related to the divine dynasphere, and therefore the seven flaming torches function without restraint in the Tribulation. Therefore the Tribulation is a time of unrestrained historical disaster with emphasis on the seven categories of the flaming torches. The Tribulation is the most traumatic period of human history from the standpoint of historical disaster. Just as the Church Age is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict the Tribulation is the era of unrestrained disaster resulting from human decisions. Never will human decisions be allowed to follow to their own logical conclusions without restraint as in the Tribulation. Therefore the third thing seen in heaven is the anticipation of unrestrained historical disaster resulting from man’s bad decisions. Bad decisions means living in the cosmic system. The manner in which the seven historical catastrophes will be administered is reserved for our study of Revelation chapters six through eighteen.

While planet earth is the place of historical disaster and unprecedented judgment during the Tribulation the Church, having been removed by the Rapture, does not have any more disaster to face. The Church is going to be in heaven and the next half of the next verse will tell us about unprecedented blessing and tranquillity with regard to the Church. The next thing seen in heaven is the antithesis of the turmoil and catastrophe of unrestrained historical disaster during the Tribulation. So we anticipate the sea of glass in heaven which can never be disturbed again. While the Tribulation is occurring on the earth there is a sea of glass or crystal in heaven. This means fantastic tranquillity and blessing which cannot be experienced on earth due to Satan’s rulership.

We move, then, to number four out of the eight things seen in heaven: the Church in tranquillity, verse 6a. We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai and it should be translated “also.” Then the improper preposition e)nwpion plus the genitive of qronoj, “before the throne.” The definite article is used simply as a demonstrative pronoun. This is a reference to the throne of God in heaven and the ellipsis demands the use of e)imi, “there was.” Then the relative adverb o(j as an expanded translation, which is legitimate, “as it were.” This is followed by the predicate nominative from qalassa, referring to the sea. We have an anarthrous construction here which means no definite article. The absence of the definite article emphasises the qualitative aspect of the noun. This is no ordinary sea. While the seas of planet earth are unstable, disturbed by atmospheric pressure, wind, currents and temperature, there is no storm on this sea. With this we have the nominative feminine singular from the adjective u(alinoj and it refers to either glass or crystal. We translate is “sea of glass.” Then we have a particle of analogy, o(moioj, indicating what kind of glass, the best kind of glass, and it means “like,” plus the instrumental of association, krustalloj, “crystal.” The sea of glass is translucent and undisturbed, it symbolises a large group of people which in this case refers to the royal family of God in heaven and the analogy is obvious. The Church is in heaven, it cannot be disturbed by the storms of the Tribulation. It is undisturbable, it is in absolute tranquillity. This means that the resurrection body is enjoyed by everyone and it means also that there is no way that we can again be affected by disaster on the earth.

Number five is the angelic heralds of heaven. Heraldry is going to be one of our greater studies and in anticipation we move to the doctrine which we must have before we can interpret anything else in heaven.

3. Angels do not have wings but there are several exceptions: wings are used as insignia of rank.

4. Insignia of rank belong to the seraphim — “im” is a plural suffix and we would say “seraphs.” The seraphim are found in Isaiah 6:2 in the Old Testament and Revelation 4:8 in the New Testament. Seraphim simply means six wings. They possess the highest rank insignia. The second category of angels that have rank are called the cherubim (Hebrew) or cherubs (English), found first in Genesis 3:24. We will study them in Ezekiel chapter 10 and in note them in chapters 1 and 28:13ff. The cherub possesses four wings as rank insignia plus the uniform of wisdom.

5. The order of rank is found in both the college of heralds and the elect army of angels.

1. Number one rank in the college of heralds is the king of arms or the officers of arms. They are special seraphs like the powerful angel, or as we have in the KJV, the strong angel of Revelation 5:2.

2. Number two in order of rank are the angelic heralds, Revelation 4:6, 8. They are seraphs with rank insignia of six wings.

3. The third order of rank are the pur sui vant, the angels without rank or insignia or wings. They are often called messengers; they appear in the form of man. The man clothed in linen in Ezekiel 10; the death angel of the Passover; the angelic messengers that destroyed Sodom in Genesis 19:13; the messenger pur sui vant who destroyed the sinful of Jerusalem in Ezekiel 9:1ff.

1. Adonai Sabaoth, “Lord of the armies.” Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Commander-in-Chief of the many angelic armies.

2. The archangels who command armies of elect angels. For example, there is Michael, the “prince of Israel” of Daniel 10:21. He commands an angelic army that protects Israel and therefore he is also known as the great prince who stands in the time of conflict for “the children of thy people [Israel],” Daniel 12:1. He also defends Israel from the wrath of Satan, Revelation 12:7. It was Michael the archangel who disputed with Satan over the body of Moses after Moses died, Jude 9; 2 Peter 2:11. Another angel commanding angelic armies is Gabriel who also functions as the king of arms in the college of heralds. It was he who was sent to Daniel to explain the visions of Daniel 8:16 and 9:21. Gabriel is one of the kings of arms or officers of arms who was sent to announce the birth of John the Baptist in Luke 1:11, and the birth of Messiah to the virgin Mary in Luke 1:26. In the book of Enoch, which is an extra biblical book of history, four archangels are mentioned — Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel.

3. The angelic general staff which we have previously studied as the twenty-four elders in verse four.

In the middle of verse six we actually have number five scene in heaven, the angelic heralds of heaven, verses 6b-11. What we are going to see in verse 6b is the uniform of wisdom worn by four cherubs of the angelic heraldry. They are not “beasts” as in the KJV. A better translation would be “living creatures.”

The sea of glass refers to the tranquillity of the Church in heaven during the Tribulation. In the middle of verse six we read in the KJV: “and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.” We note first the location of the angelic heralds. In the rest of verse six we have the uniform of wisdom worn by the four cherubs of angelic heraldry. From now on we should understand the word cherub and the word seraph. These are the insignias of rank. Angels do not have wings, with several exceptions. In the angelic order of battle and in the angelic hierarchy there are five and even six angels out of the billions of angels that were created that were higher than Satan always, but none of them apparently had the personality or the beauty, for Satan is described in great detail by Isaiah and Ezekiel in terms of tremendous beauty. He is said the be the sum total of beauty and have a magnificent personality and these attributes led to the original sin of any creature, which is arrogance, and from that his attempt to overthrow the entire order of God.

But long before we get to Satanology we are going to see a great deal of Christology where we are going to discover that the key to prophecy is the Lord Jesus Christ and that the subject of prophecy is the Lord Jesus Christ.

We resume now with the connective conjunction kai emphasising a fact as surprising or unexpected, and therefore translated “furthermore.” Then the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of mesoj and the descriptive genitive of qronoj, “in the middle of the throne,” and then the connective conjunction kai, “and,” and the locative of place kukloj, which is used as an improper preposition, and finally the genitive of qronoj, “and around the throne.” Kukloj means “around” as a preposition. “Furthermore in the middle of the throne and around the throne” is simply giving the locale of the four angelic heralds. Their identification comes next with two words. The ellipsis demands the insertion of e)imi, “were,” then the predicate nominative from the numeral tessarej, implying that these four took the place of Satan after the fall of Satan. So they occupy a very high rank and place in the angelic hierarchy, and the predicate nominative from the noun zoiwn which is not “beast,” is a living, rational creature. The word has been used of animals but in such cases it is always preceded by an adjective a)loga, which means an unreasoning or non-reasoning creature. When used of man it also has an adjective logika, and when used with zoiwn it means a rational creature, and it is used only for man. Heretical teachers are described by a Greek phrase: a)loga zoia. This means unreasonable animals and is found in Jude 10 and 2 Peter 2:12. The whole cosmos is also called e)n pseuchoj, having a soul, and when it is so described it is called zoiwn, which merely shows why we are translating this way. People point out that “beast” is a good translation here because the word is used for beast. Yes, but always used with the adjective a)loga and never translated “beast” any other way. But here we don’t have a)loga, we have simply zoh plus yuxh which is called zoia and it refers to a living rational creature. It also means a superior rational creature which establishes it as an angel, not an animal. From the descriptions that follow we can tell exactly what type of an angel, an angelic herald.

The word “herald” doesn’t mean just an ordinary messenger. Remember that in the college of heralds you have three categories: the king of arms as the highest category, sometimes called officers of arms; the formal word “herald”; and, pur sui vant, the messenger type. The “living creatures” are the second category and are cherubs or seraphs, and the king of arms is a seraph, the highest possible rank that angelic creatures could have.

Translation: “Furthermore, in the middle of the throne and around that throne [of God in heaven] there were four angelic heralds [four living creatures].”

The heralds were the communicators for the king. A herald, for example, in medieval times held highest rank. He would be a prince or a duke representing the king. In this case the four angelic heralds are representatives in the angelic realm of our Lord Jesus Christ related to His third royal patent. As the messengers of the King they wore the coat of arms of the King as their badge of office. Even the Greek word for a herald was used by Homer for the most trusted person in the king’s order of royalty, khruc, which meant a trusted retainer, the chief under the king, the king’s chief of staff. In performing confidential services for the king the herald became the spokesman for the king and, therefore, the inviolable messenger between states in time of peace or in time of war. In mythology Hermes was the messenger or the herald of the gods. Paul was often mistaken for Hermes because he was eloquent. Even in the Latin the word carried a very high connotation. In the breech of international law by a neighbouring state Rome always sent to that state two heralds to declare the objection of SPQR and a warning to cease and desist on threat of punishment from Rome. The herald was both the representative of a king and the administrator of punishment from the king, and that is its use in this heavenly scene. The angelic heralds not only communicate the policy of our Lord Jesus Christ as the King of kings but they also carry out His plan for history and they lead in angelic worship.

They also have at this time special uniform of distinction, the uniform of wisdom. We have the nominative plural neuter, present active participle of the word gemw. Gemw means to be full, to be covered. The participle is used here, however, as a noun and we will simply translate it that way, “full.” Then the descriptive genitive from o)fqalmoj which means “eyes,” “full of eyes.”

Matthew 6:22 begins to help us with the subject of eyes. What do eyes mean? Obviously these are not eyes working physiologically. It is not a literal eye here. “The lamp of the body is the eye.” Immediately we understand something from that. The eye in the ancient world represented a literal physiological function, seeing, but it also represented something beyond seeing. The eye represented perception. “If therefore your eye is healthy,” a reference to perception of doctrine; “your whole body is full of light,” full of truth, full of doctrine.

We have a phrase that begins in Genesis 18:2 and is used constantly throughout the Old Testament, “to lift up the eyes.” To lift up the eyes means to be inquisitive and therefore to seek information. It often is used for help. In Zechariah 5:5 it means maximum ability to understand truth; in Proverbs 17:24, to “cast the eyes about,” to “cast the eyes to the end of the earth” is synonymous with silly curiosity of a fool, or inability to concentrate on one’s subject and therefore to flitter from subject to subject.

The eyes are used, then, figuratively for doctrinal perception on Psalm 119:18, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things out of your law [Word].” This is not the Mosaic law but the Old Testament. The opening of the eyes has a perceptive connotation, it doesn’t mean to literally, physically open your eyes.

In Ephesians 1:17,18 — “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom [the uniform of wisdom worn by mature believers in time], even from the source of revelation by means of e)pignwsij [full knowledge] knowledge of him.” Why? “That the eyes of your right lobe [not the eyes physiologically], having been enlightened so that you may know [knowledge and perception] what is the hope of his election to privilege, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”. The darkening of the eye is construed as ignorance. Furthermore, the eye is the index of the mind, what you are thinking, what you are not thinking. Eyes also reveal virtue or lack of virtue. In Job 22:29 lowly eyes speak of the virtue of humility; in Psalm 18:27 lofty eyes speak of the greatest of all sins and motivating evil — arrogance; the “seven eyes of the Lamb” which we will study in Revelation 5:6 speak of our Lord’s omniscience. The eyes of the four angelic heralds refer to a special honour, the uniform of wisdom. These four angelic creatures were apparently below Satan at one time. Satan was up high under the title “Anointed Cherub,” but they persisted in the angelic conflict long before man was created. They plugged along and they learned doctrine, they learned doctrine, they were not embarrassed to come to Bible class every night! And when Satan in his arrogance went down they plugged along until they received the highest honour that can be received by an angelic creature for learning doctrine, the uniform of wisdom, a robe “full of eyes” representing consistency in perception of doctrine. In other words, they have replaced Satan as the anointed cherub, they now hold a higher rank. They arrived at that through their positive volition toward doctrine.

The application to us is very simple. It isn’t the smart Christian, the personable Christian, the enthusiastic Christian, the “Ra, Ra, Ra” type, who is going to make it. It is the plugger, the person who learns today, tomorrow, the next day, and the next day. He is the person who is often ridiculed as being an imbecile. The person who sticks with it is the person who is going to make it. This is very important because eternity is a long, long time, and there are going to be great distinctions of believers in eternity. Wisdom demands consistency of perception; wisdom is not “flash in the pan,” it is not instability; wisdom is having all the facts and having accumulated them over a period of time through consistent perceptive activity.

The uniform of glory is awarded to believers at the judgment seat of Christ; the uniform of wisdom was in eternity past a reward to those elect angels who advanced to spiritual maturity prior to human history. The system of advance is delineated by the nature of the award, the eyes, a robe with many, many, many eyes [perception]. The award was given before man was created to those angels whose maximum perception of doctrine and resultant wisdom resulted in the highest achievement in the spiritual life. All spiritual advance, then, whether angelic in the past [the angels are now in their eternal state] or man in human history is related to perception of Bible doctrine, persistent positive volition toward truth. Therefore their eyes represent wisdom, or what is comparable to us: gate four of the divine dynasphere, perception and application of Bible doctrine.

“Full of eyes” in our verse refers to the uniform of wisdom which means maximum perception of doctrine in eternity past, in the angelic conflict after they had gone through whatever was their salvation. They first of all became elect angels, they followed the plan of God in the perception of truth, they advanced to maturity, some more than others, and the highest achievement is found in this uniform of wisdom. At least four of the elect angels possess, therefore, the highest honour of angelic chivalry, the uniform of wisdom. The uniform of wisdom indicates the highest possible spiritual IQ at the time of their evaluation, or whatever their judgment seat was, came to pass, the highest possible IQ for all eternity. These four heralds replace Satan as the guardian of the throne room.

There is another principle that will come out of this as the passage develops: the smarter the creature — the elect creatures in the case of the angels — the more they love God and the more they are motivated by God. We are not talking about human IQ but perception of doctrine and its accumulation in the soul.

Please notice that man or other creatures are not even in the picture. The smarter the person spiritually the more they love God. Man isn’t even in it at this point. All true honour and integrity must come from being motivated by God, not motivated by people. You see, most people in their human relationships are motivated by being attracted to someone. If someone is attractive they are motivated to be nice to them and that becomes the most fundamental motivation in human history, and it is a very false one. Human beauty and human attractiveness is a false motivation. It is a false motivation for a relationship and this is why relationships are unstable, why they never reach any fruition, why they fluctuate in every possible way. This is why people cannot maintain a friendship or love for the opposite sex, because they base everything on human attractiveness. By so doing they eliminate integrity and that is why society declines and moves into degeneracy because the basis for good human relationship is love for God — motivating virtue. These angels in eternity have reached the peak of that concept and they teach us a great lesson. They had during the time of angelic history before the time for eternity for angels began — divided into two parts: elect and fallen angels — they had through their perception of doctrine a greater love for god than any creature. At the point of Satan’s fall through arrogance, “I will be like the most high God,” was the start of the whole thing, and so angelic history began, the angelic conflict began. And Satan who is the most attractive of all creatures coming from the hand of God and who was elevated to the highest position, is out. Now truth is presented in at least two forms, what we call category two, the gospel, whatever it was, and category three for those who believed the gospel [those were the elect angels]. Truth took four angelic creatures even to a higher place than Satan ever occupied because when Satan occupied the highest place he was a cherub. That means he had four wings, the second highest rank. But these four go higher, they go to the seraph rank [six wings], and they did it through perception of truth for that truth gave them a love for God and motivation from God and, therefore, the highest form of virtue and integrity. The more they loved God, therefore, the more they worshipped God.

We often think of worship as genuflecting, as sitting in an uncomfortable chair called a pew, as singing a hymn or doing a couple of things like taking the communion elements. We are going to get an entirely new concept of worship that will come up very shortly.

The more these angels loved God the more they worshipped God but you must understand that this love and worship is the basis for fantastic relationship among creatures. If you put creature relationship above love for God you are going to be miserable all of your life. Your social life is going to be a mess; your spiritual life is going to be a mess. It works that way. Most people have a bad spiritual life because they have a bad social life, not vice versa. It is the social life that goes bad and then the spiritual life goes bad. People are influenced by people rather than being influenced by doctrine and because they are not influenced by doctrine they have a very bad spiritual life. But it only starts with the social life. People leave churches, people get disappointed, people get distracted by people, not by God. God doesn’t distract them. Therefore a bad social life guarantees a bad spiritual life. You will never straighten out creature relationships until you have a genuine love for God. And you don’t hang around singing hymns to work up a love for God, emotion is not love. At best emotion is one of the responders in true love. Expression for loving God comes in two forms: perception of doctrine is the way it is developed and then the response to that doctrine in your soul toward God is worship; and then your love for God in true worship — we haven’t defined true worship yet but we will — comes to motivating love. If you truly love God you have motivating virtue, and if you have then your relationship with people is going to be wonderful. You will have friends who will love you dearly. You can have, if the Lord provides, a wonderful relationship with a member of the opposite sex and you will fulfil functional virtue by your attitude toward all humanity, those who hate you, those who despise you. You will not seek revenge, you will not malign, judge or fight back.

It takes wisdom, maximum doctrine to love God; it takes wisdom [Bible doctrine] to worship God; it takes wisdom from Bible doctrine to produce motivating virtue for this life and no believer can succeed in human relationships or produce virtue toward man and circumstances in this life without love of God, which is a motivating virtue. Motivating virtue is relationship with God through perception of doctrine. Life is meaningless and human relationship is disappointing apart from motivational virtue. Motivational virtue cannot exist even as the believers love of God is not real unless he possesses that maximum doctrine in his soul. And you don’t get it all at once. It takes today, tomorrow, the next day, and so on.

The four angelic heralds are doctrinally the smartest elect angels, that is, in the eternal state. Satan, by his creation, was the super genius. His genius was manifest by his development of the cosmic system for the rulership of the world. But these four creatures are the smartest creatures, even though they were not originally, by attainment. To be smart naturally certainly brings no credit to yourself; to be smart by attainment certainly does. It is far, far better to be learning all of your life and to increase in wisdom than to have been born with great IQ and decline. So the four angelic heralds are doctrinally the smartest of all angelic creatures and they demonstrate their wisdom in several worship passages we will study. They will demonstrate at that time the function of the uniform of wisdom. We have only just begun this study.

1. The eyes (“full of eyes”) must be defined in terms of other scripture. When you have hyperbole, analogy and some form of setting up things that occasionally spiritualised you must have some justification from some other portion of the Word. Our justification begins at Matthew 6:22. What are these eyes? “The lamp of the body is the eye,” meaning perception. Obviously the eye is used here not in its literal sense but in its figurative sense. “If therefore your eye is healthy” — a reference to perception of doctrine — “then your whole body is full of light.” You have doctrine in your soul.

2. To “lift up the eyes” is a phrase used quite frequently, especially in the Old Testament. To lift up the eyes and to look up, or to lift up the eyes and look around means to seek for information and often for help. This is especially true of passages like Genesis 18:2 and Zechariah 5:5.

3. To “cast about the eyes” is also a phrase found in the Old Testament. To cast about the eyes so that they are at the ends of the earth doesn’t mean that your eyes jump out of your head and go to the ends of the earth obviously. In other words, we are talking about a figurative use of the eyes and Proverbs 17:24 says exactly that, and it is synonymous with silly curiosity. There is genuine interest and silly curiosity. This is the silly curiosity of the fool who is unable to concentrate.

4. The eyes are used figuratively for doctrinal perception in Psalm 119:18, “Open thou mine eyes that I might behold wonderful things out of thy law [the Old Testament].”

5. Ephesians 1:17,18, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom, even from the source of revelation [the Word of God] by means of e)pignwsij [full knowledge] knowledge: that they eyes of your right lobe having been enlightened,” the perceptive concept is again the connotation of eyes.

7. The eye is the index of the mind, what you are thinking or not thinking. Lowly eyes speak of humility in Job 22:29; lofty eyes speak of arrogance in Psalm 18:27.

We have been studying the concept of the uniform of wisdom and how it relates to worship, and what the true connotation of worship is from this passage. So we review the concept before moving on.

1. Like the uniform of glory awarded to believers at the judgment seat of Christ the “full of eyes in the front and in the back” is the uniform of wisdom and as such is an eternal reward to certain elect angels who advanced to spiritual maturity in angelic history.

2. The reward, the uniform of wisdom, was given to angelic creatures before man was created and it was given for maximum perception of whatever revelation God gave during the course of angelic history. Whatever form of revelation of doctrine they had there were those who accepted it and those who rejected it, and varying degrees, just a we have it among believers in the time in which we live. A lot of believers are even more anti-doctrinal than liberal unbelievers! And, of course, we have very positive volition, we have negative volition and we have everything in between. This was true in a previous creature history, the angelic conflict.

3. All spiritual advance, whether angels or mankind, is related to perception of doctrine, perception of truth, as it is presented to that phase of history whether it is angelic history before man existed or human history after the creation of man.

4. The eyes, therefore, represent wisdom in the angelic creation, exactly what gate four and its function in the divine dynasphere means to us, the royal family.

5. “Full of eyes” describes the uniform of wisdom which means maximum perception and application of doctrine or its equivalent, in angelic history, that is, pre-human history.

6. At least four saved or elect angels possess this highest honour of wearing the uniform of wisdom.

7. The uniform of wisdom indicates the attainment of the highest possible spiritual knowledge, and that is for all eternity. Therefore the principle out of which comes the concept of worship in this concept: the smarter they are the more they love God, and the smarter they are and the more they love God the more they are motivated by God. That is true for elect angels and it is also true for believers. Being smart here has to do with persistence in positive volition toward revealed truth resulting in the accumulation of information and, where necessary, its application for this is one of the parallel situations between angelic history of the past and human history of the present.

8. The more they love God the more they worship God (worship as a quality, not as a time) filling concept. The expression for loving God comes therefore in two forms which applies to us right now: the expression comes first in the form of worship and, secondly, in motivation — motivating virtue. It takes wisdom or maximum doctrine to love God and there is no love of God apart from cognisance of doctrine. It takes wisdom from Bible doctrine to worship God; it takes wisdom from Bible doctrine to produce virtuous, honourable motivation in life.

In other words, the principle: no believer can succeed in human relationships or produce virtue from self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is arrogance and it destroys virtue. In fact the most evil people are not the most obviously sinful people. The most evil people are the self-righteous, moral people who have the worst form of arrogance and who are constantly trying to change the lives and adjust the lives or malign the lives of other people, and who will not function under the great principle of live and let live. They even build whole systems of what they call Christianity, but it is really religion, on their purity, and they form the “purity circle”: we don’t do this, therefore we are better than everyone else. What they are saying is effect is: “We do not have an old sin nature.” But what they are in reality is involved in Satan’s cosmic system. Self-righteous arrogance inevitably leads to crusader arrogance, they want everyone to be as they are: self-righteous, arrogant, horribly evil people. They are not obviously carnal, they are subtly evil which is far worse. The arrogance factor, once it is linked with some form of self-righteousness, becomes a motivating system for evil. And these people inhabit all kinds of churches and they utter all kinds of pious phrases, and they are always looking down their nose at someone and maligning and judging someone. And yet, they themselves are the lowest form of Christian, and that is truly tragic because they are blinded by their arrogance to their own condition. They are too busy setting themselves up as an example.

One of the most overworked things in Christianity is the setting an example thing. In other words, setting an example in not Christianity. Setting an example is far from it The whole basis of Christianity is the integrity of the soul and all setting an example is is “monkey see, monkey do.” That’s all. It is superficial, it is overt, it is conforming to an overt mould and it is not Bible doctrine in the soul. It isn’t integrity and, above all, it is not love of God. So no believer can succeed in relationship with people or produce virtue toward man and circumstances unless he is motivated by genuine love of God. And that means lots of doctrine. All of your self-righteousness comes from ignorance of doctrine.

Motivating virtue is relationship with God through perception of Bible doctrine. And that same perception that produces the motivation has a base called “love of God,” category #1 love. It produces something in the soul in the individual believer called worship, and they always go together: love of God from perception of doctrine produces worship as the expression of that love toward God and motivation as the honourable function toward the human race. All of this is related to the eyes, the uniform of wisdom. In other words, life is meaningless and human relationship is disappointing apart from the true motivational virtue. The true motivational virtue is love of God. Motivational virtue cannot exist, even as the believer’s love for God (Being a believer doesn’t mean that you love God at all; most believers do not love God) can only be real and genuine and not a superficial, emotional statement when that believer has maximum perception of doctrine. Christianity demands one thing that this generation of believers has ignored: it demands love for God. How can you fulfil the principle of virtue in impersonal love and how can you have good relationships with people if you are a born-again believer and you have no love for God?

The wisdom of gate four of the divine dynasphere is comparable to the uniform of wisdom worn by these four angelic heralds. These four angelic heralds are doctrinally the smartest of elect angels in their eternity. When Satan said, “I will be like the most high God,” he began the history of the angelic conflict. That lasted for an unknown length of time but there came a point of eternity. All of these angels were either what we call saved angels, i.e. elect angels, or they were fallen angels, and the judgment of the lake of fire (Matthew chapter 25) had already been pronounced. The lake of fire was created for the devil and his angels, not for human beings. So Satan made his appeal and in order to resolve that appeal in a totally just and fair manner compatible with the holiness of God, the righteousness and justice of God, then man was created and placed on planet earth so that every reference to angelic creatures in prophecy is where they are already in eternity. The angelic conflict continues but as far as these angels are concerned all of them are in eternity, it is not a question of any more evangelism among angels.

The fallen angels are divided into two categories: demons and those who are in Tartarus as a result of Genesis 6. So whatever their function in the angelic conflict their eternity has begun, just as those who win the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory and the new knighthood and the coat of arms, and all of the other things we have noted, when they return with Christ they return in resurrection bodies and they rule with Christ during the Millennium, but they are in eternity. The existence of their resurrection body means eternity. But there are a lot of believers, like the Tribulational believers who survive the Tribulation, who go into the Millennium under the baptism of fire. They are believers who become a cadre for the new population of the Millennium and they are still in physical bodies, they are still in time. But the believers who rule them will be in eternity. This is very important in interpretation; it is rightly dividing the Word of truth. You must distinguish where eternity begins for any form of rational creature who has a relationship with God or has rejected a relationship with God. That is why the first resurrection is an echelon resurrection, “every man in his own order [tacij, battalion],” says 1 Corinthians 15. Right now there is only one form of humanity that has a resurrection body — Alpha company is the only company that has passed the reviewing stand, and that is the resurrection of Christ. Coming up somewhere along the line, whether today or tomorrow or a hundred years or a thousand years, we have Bravo company. That is the Church. Once the Church passes the reviewing stand that is eternity. The fact that people die during the Church Age and have an interim body and have great interim blessing is preliminary to eternity. It is the resurrection body, the final state of the body, that determines eternity. All angelic creatures are in their final state, they are in eternity and they are functioning in eternity. And then Charlie company will pass in review at the second advent. That is the Old Testament believers. You might point out that they died first so why don’t they get the resurrection body first. The principle is: rank has its privileges. It will always be that way. The believers of this dispensation are royal family and royalty comes first. Then we get Moses and Elijah and the Old Testament saints and the Tribulational martyrs (including the believers who died in the Tribulation, they are not all martyrs). Then there is Delta company made up of the Millennial believers, the people who are evangelised during the Millennium. At the end of the Millennium they will receive their resurrection body without physical death, unless they are criminals because in the Millennium crime is going to be punished by death immediately.

So the principle then: the four angelic creatures are doctrinally the smartest of the elect angels in eternity. There are one or two possible exceptions we will note but they are only possible.

1. God is the most important person to know. If you don’t know God, “you ain’t nothin’.” But being acquainted with God is one of the most detrimental things in life — not in eternity, in life. It isn’t knowing God that counts, it is loving God that counts. You are given time after salvation to love God. You don’t fall in love with God instantly and have maximum love. Love, both in the human race and in any creature situation, is not an instant thing. That is emotion; that is response in ignorance. All true love must be cognisance. If you say you fell in love instantly what you are really are saying is that were attracted to an attractive person in ignorance. You don’t know anything about them, you just liked the way they looked. True love comes from cognisance. The attraction is still there but you have to know the person.

2. The uniform of wisdom, “the eyes,” emphasises knowing God through Bible doctrine and it refers to the angels during the course of their history before their eternity began. And these angels were the highest, so when you are talking about capacity for love you are looking at four great lovers, these four angelic heralds. We are going to see that each one of them bears one quarter of the arms of the King of kings. When our Lord Jesus Christ received His third royal patent He received a complete coat of arms but it is so great that not one herald can bear it. And when you see the eagle and the lion and all of these various symbols that you find in the King James Version we are talking about a total coat of arms, we are talking about the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ from His third royal patent. And one angel couldn’t bear it, but the fact that these angels are bearing the coat of arms and millions and millions of other angels are not tells that they achieved something in their history that no other four angels achieved. They learned enough doctrine to have maximum love for God, the highest perceptive point. They are the smartest of all creatures in the angelic realm and angels, at this point at least, are infinitely smarter than human beings.

3. Furthermore, the uniform of wisdom is an angelic reward for elect angels who advance to the equivalent of spiritual maturity through their positive response to truth [doctrine] as it was presented in angelic history.

4. There are many subjects about which man is ignorant and no one can know everything about every subject, but the gaps of human ignorance is not really the issue in the human stage of the angelic conflict. The gaps of human ignorance comes from the fact that only what the Bible reveals about the prehistoric angelic conflict we can know. Only what we need to know at this time is revealed in the Bible. To have all of the distinctions among angels there had to be certain things that happened in their history. But we don’t know all the things that happened. Only when it is necessary for us to know in order to establish certain things, in order to learn certain principles in order to apply those principles to our own experience. Therefore, inevitably it is the principle that counts.

5. The only way to compensate for human ignorance in the many areas of human knowledge is to know all about God, and God has put in His Word everything we need to know about Him.

6. Therefore Bible doctrine is the one field which the believer cannot afford to neglect.

8. The uniform of wisdom is an eternal reward, a monument to the persistent positive volition toward doctrine on the part of certain elect angels. Their coat of arms is the coat of wisdom and with their coat of arms each one of them bears one quarter of the arms of our Lord’s third royal patent. Understand that bearing arms is the same as carrying a coat of arms. You don’t carry a coat of arms, you bear it.

We now have the two adverbs at the end of this verse, e)mprosqen which means “in front,” and then o)pisqen which means “behind.” Translation: “full of eyes both in front and in back” of that coat of arms.

Anticipating chapter six, these angelic heralds, each one bearing one quarter of the arms of our Lord’s third royal patent, will be proclaiming the judgements of the Tribulation. That is, they will announce as heralds from the throne certain historical trends which will occur in the Tribulation. For example, the first herald, once our Lord breaks the seals, will make the announcement. He will announce the first historical trend of the Tribulation in Revelation 6:1. The second herald will announce the second historical trend, and so on. Secondary to the angelic heralds we will also see the pur sui vant [French for “the pursuers” or “the followers”]. The pur sui vant functions as a state messenger, as an officer who executes warrants under the heralds. There are actually four pur sui vant, that belong in the English college of heralds. There is the red cross, there is the blue mantle, the gate herald of the castle, and the red dragon. That is actually the four pur suit vant that function under anyone who is a herald. In other words, a herald is a high nobleman. Under him there may be a pur sui vant who is a commoner, he has no title at all. But he is learning the thing and some day he may be knighted. He may be, of course, the gate herald of the castle, but some day he may move up and become the red cross, the highest. The from there he may be knighted and then some day he will be a herald. This is the background for this concept we have here. These angels are actually heralds and this is the reason for using it. They actually announce policy of the King and issue mandates in the name of the King.

All of this helps us to distinguish between the various ranks of heralds because what they do in the book of Revelation depends on their rank. The higher in rank the more important things you do; the more you advance spiritually the more important your production for the Lord becomes.

Verse 7, the four heralds bear the arms of the King of kings and Lord of lords. The first herald: we start with the copulative conjunction kai, introducing him under the word “Now.” Then we have the adjective of sequence in the nominative neuter singular from, prwtoj. Then we have that word that is so horribly translated in the KJV. We have the nominative singular neuter subject, zoiwn. The nominative neuter subject is translated “herald.” It means a living creature. These living creatures are designated heralds because they bear the arms of the King [the Lord Jesus Christ] and because of their modus operandi in context through several chapters. The ellipsis demands the verb to be, “Now the first angelic herald was.” Then we have a comparative adjective in order to give the portion of the King’s arms which he is bearing. The instrumental of association of a noun plus a comparative adjective, o(moioj, which means “like.” The noun is leon, “lion,” “like a lion.” The lion is the first part of our Lord’s escutcheon under His third royal title because it goes back to His second royal and relates the two titles He earned from His humanity.

Our Lord, up until the time of the virgin birth, was eternal God. That means He was coequal with God the Father, He had the same identical essence, He had the same sovereignty, the same eternal life, the same infinity, the same omniscience as the Father and the Holy Spirit. But at the point of the virgin birth, the hypostatic union with His deity now linked forever with His humanity, He was born a King. He was directly descended both from His real human mother [of His humanity, not the mother of God] from David and Bathsheba through their youngest son, Nathan, and through His not real father, Joseph he is descended directly from David and Bathsheba through Solomon. So we have two lines. The line of Joseph is traced back to Solomon and the line of Mary is traced through Nathan. So He was born a King and therefore out of this comes His second royal title; it was one into which He was born physically, He is the King of Israel. Immediately you can see where the lion comes in. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

After His death, burial, resurrection and ascension He received His third royal patent but He had no royal family, and therefore the Age of Israel is halted and the Church Age begins so that He can call out a royal family which is formed by the baptism of the Spirit, or being entered into union with Christ at the point of salvation.

The lion, then, is that part of the coat of arms that recognises His relationship to Israel. It refers to Christ as the future ruler of Israel forever. This part of our Lord’s coat of arms refers to His second royal patent and it results from the virgin birth. The title of the second royal patent is Son of David and the coat of arms bears the Lion of the tribe of Judah. This title, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, will be used in Revelation 5:5. As the Son of David, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, our Lord will fulfil the unconditional covenants to Israel. The first herald bears the coat of arms related therefore to our Lord’s second royal patent. This will be exercised at the second advent when He regathers Israel. Generally speaking, this part of our Lord’s coat of arms is comparable to the content of the first gospel, the Gospel of Matthew. Each one of the quarters of the coat of arms will relate to one of the gospels in a general sense. Matthew is the gospel of the King; Matthew is the gospel of His second royal patent.

We have been noting order of battle in the angelic hierarchy, an extremely important principle as far as the interpretation of the book of Revelation is concerned. We have seen several categories of this hierarchy, first by badge of rank: the seraphim with their six wings. Angels do not have wings, only those who have unusually high rank, and the seraph is a six-winged badge indicating the highest rank in the angelic realm; the cherub with four wings in next in order of rank, with four wings; the rest have no wings at all.

There are two categories: the military category; the angelic hierarchy; and we have seen, for example, our Lord Jesus Christ who is described under His title of Adonai Sabaoth [Lord of the armies] and He is the Commander-in-Chief of the angelic hierarchy in the military category. Under Him we have the various categories such as the archangel and the 24 General Staff officers who are called in our passage “elders.” These Staff Officers will play a very important part later on in the book of Revelation. It is the college of heralds that comes into focus at this time since this is the first category of doctrine with which we must deal in understanding the Tribulation and making the proper application to the Church Age.

In the college of heralds we first of all have the king of arms or officers of arms as the highest rank in the angelic creatures. Next we have the actual heralds, four of which we are now studying. Each one of these four heralds, called “beasts” in the KJV, and obviously poor translation that cannot even be blamed on anachronism, bears one quarter of our Lord’s arms, the coat of arms of our Lord Jesus Christ related to His human and humanity patents of royalty. This coat of arms is actually divided into four parts so that each one of these heralds bears a part of it. Then we have in chapter seven, especially verse two, the pur sui vant, the third order in the college of heralds. As we have noted, in the British system of heraldry there are four categories of pur sui vant. There is the red cross, the highest; the blue mantle, the second highest; the gate herald of the castle in ancient times but who now have different functions, the third highest; finally, there is the red dragon.

So pur sui vant has played a very important function wherever royalty has existed in the past, and royalty always means success. Royalty often fails in generations that follow but no one ever achieved any form of royalty without being successful, without being great, without having integrity, without having honour, and without having overcome a tremendous number of obstacles in life. So royalty stands for success in past history and, of course, in angelic history even more so because these are permanent and eternal rewards from infinite God whose wisdom and justice only gives reward on the basis of the execution of His perfect plan in the angelic conflict.

Now we must get back to a principle since we are dealing with the first angelic herald and we are dealing with one quarter of our Lord’s coat of arms. We are dealing with that part of the coat of arms which is related to Israel and His second royal patent. In order to understand this in detail we have to remember another principle, that the book of Revelation is union station for the Bible and many times the explanation for what we find very briefly stated in the book of Revelation is given in greater detail, or an explanation is given of the terms and the usage, in some other portion of the Word.

We have to begin somewhere and we must recognise the fact that all races were defined and classified from Noah and his three sons after the flood, Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. All races come from these three sons. That is, all races except one. One race was invented, descending from Shem, the Semitic side, with the circumcision of Abraham. Abraham was Semitic but the circumcision of Abraham at age 99 was the beginning of a new race, the Jews. From this, of course, we have historical eras.

For example, historical era #1 was the age of positive volition plus perfect environment on the earth — from the creation of man until the fall of man.

Then the next age is the historical era of negative volition — dispensations are merely historical eras from the divine viewpoint — and that went from the fall of man to the Tower of Babel. Internationalism from the first United Nations (Babel) meant that there had to be a system of establishment to protect the human race from destroying itself.

So there is a third category, and that is the historical era of establishment. The laws of divine establishment were presented and nationalism became the order of the day to protect the human race. Number four is the one that is pertinent.

Historical era #4 has some overlaps but it is the first nation to God, Israel. But to become a client nation to God it became necessary to have a new race for from a new race comes a new culture. Establishment wasn’t even working in the third historical era from the Tower of Babel to the times of the Gentiles.

The founding of Israel as a client nation began with a new race and so first of all we have the first era in the Age of Israel which is the new race era. That takes us from Abraham to Moses. Abraham is the father of the Jewish race. Then at the time of Moses and after 400 years of training in slavery, a very important part of Jewish history, they learned many things there that were to help them later on. Then from Moses to Christ we have the age of the nation, the first client nation to God. Israel was the first client nation and the only client nation to God until AD 70. So we have some overlap in these historical eras.

Number five is the era of the royal family of God, the Church Age, and included also is the times of the Gentiles, beginning in 70 AD, which means that today only Gentile nations are client nations to God.

Then there is era #6 which is the Tribulation, also known as Daniel’s seventieth week. It is the era of unrestrained historical disaster, a very short period of history, seven years, and it is shortened because unrestrained disaster perpetuated for any length of time would eventually destroy the population of the world.

Number seven comes at the second advent, the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ where there is 1000 years of perfect environment.

Now the thing that is least understood is this period, the fourth era of human history, as the extension and perpetuation and conclusion of the angelic conflict. The first problem in understanding it is that we don’t understand what a contract is. In the Old Testament the contract was called berith, and it is translated “covenant” but that may not be a very good translation. It is better than “testament” however, there is no such thing as and old testament and a new testament, it is really old covenant and new covenant. Testament is really an inferior translation because it destroys half of the meaning of the berith. When this came into the Greek in the New Testament berith was called diaqhkh, and it means a contract. It means that only once in history has there ever been a contract with individuals and groups totally apart from any other race or people, and that is with Israel.

So in order to understand the first part of our Lord’s royal arms and His second royal patent it becomes necessary to go back and examine very briefly the contracts, the covenants of Israel. The contract simply was a system where God is party of the first part and He makes a favourable disposition toward party of the second part, client nation Israel which came out of the youngest race called Israel. In understanding this we have to go back to the fact that God as party of the first part guarantees the fulfilment of the contract whether party of the second part does their job or not. In other words, nothing depends on the human part of the contract. Eternal God has made a contract with Israel and in this contract He has recognised their failures, their successes. But their failures and their successes, while temporarily eliminating the client nation, cannot eliminate God keeping His promises to Israel in the future.

There are five contracts to Israel, generally classified as conditional and unconditional. Understanding the difference becomes, of course, very important. So let us very briefly, then, begin to look at some of these contracts so that we can appreciate what is meant here in this beautiful coat of arms of the herald. The first angelic herald was like a lion, and all that it means and all that it will mean as it comes up in the future is very important to us. By very definition a contract eliminates the concept of the testament, it doesn’t depend on death, it depends upon the grace of God. It depends upon party of the first part having integrity. God has perfect integrity as indicated by our studies of His holiness, His righteousness and His justice. The primary issue is grace or favour, therefore conditional or unconditional is always a secondary consideration as these covenants are enumerated. The key to the contracts to Israel is Jewish client nation status which, again, eliminates categories conditional and unconditional. Once understood under the client nation connotation neither a conditional nor an unconditional covenant is a proper issue regarding the subject. The law was always called conditional and the others were called unconditional.

The actual contracts are five in number. First there is the Abrahamic contract. God made a contract with Abraham and it dealt with the race for the client nation. Secondly there was a land contract which is called the Palestinian covenant by theologians of orthodox persuasion. This is the land for the client nation to occupy in the future. The third is called the Mosaic law and it is a policy for the client nation, both spiritual and temporal. The fourth is the Davidic covenant or contract and it is the dynasty for the client nation forever. Then there is a fifth called the new covenant or new contract to Israel which deals with the restoration of the client nation Israel at the second advent and its Millennial modus operandi and permanent function as the client nation to God.

Each one of these covenants must be distinguished from other covenants or contracts which are found in the Bible. For example, there are also five contracts dealing with the Messianic line. The Adamic covenant of Genesis 2:15 or Genesis 3:15 talks about the seed of the woman, the woman being Eve, and the seed of the woman, the humanity of Christ or His coming in hypostatic union; in Genesis 6:18 and 8:21 through 9:17 there is a Noahic covenant, the contract to Noah in which the seed of the woman, the humanity of Christ, will descend through Seth the son of Noah; the third is the Abrahamic contract beginning in Genesis 12:1-3, and mentioned in 13, 15, 22; Exodus 6:2-8, in which the seed of the woman, the humanity of Christ, will descend from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This means that our Lord’s humanity is by race Jewish. Then there is the Davidic covenant, the one that is pertinent to our passage in verse 7, found in 2 Samuel 7 and Psalm 89, in which the seed of the woman, the humanity of Christ, will descend from the tribe of Judah in Israel and specifically from the family of Jesse through his son David. Then, finally, there is the new covenant to Israel in Jeremiah 31; Romans 11:27; Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 8 and 10, in which the seed of the woman, the humanity of Christ, will return to the earth at the second advent to restore Israel from its present status. They are scattered and under the fifth cycle of discipline. This means that during the times of the Gentiles which began in AD 70: the Church Age began in 30 AD and the first 40 years of the Church Age, in part, was devoted to warning Israel of coming disaster, the fifth cycle of discipline. In fact that was the only purpose of the gift of tongues because, you see client nation Israel was responsible for the evangelism of the world as well as their own nation. They failed. So the big warning that Isaiah gave was, “Look along are going to come some people who are going to evangelise you in Gentile languages miraculously. You are Jews but you are going to hear the gospel given miraculously in Gentile languages and that is a warning that you are going to be cut off as a client nation and that throughout the Church Age the time will come, 70 AD, when we will have the times of the Gentiles when only a Gentile nation can function as a client nation to God.”

Now a Gentile nation, the USA, is the prominent client nation to God. It is not a Jewish nation. It is true that we have a Jewish nation functioning in Palestine, and periodically throughout the Church Age this has been true and it will continue to be true. There will be Jewish nations and they will continue to come and go. In the Tribulation we will see a Jewish nation and number one target for Satan throughout the Church Age and the Tribulation is the Jewish nation. The reason for this will be dealt with in a detailed study of Revelation chapter twelve where anti-Semitism is covered in great detail, both historically and prophetically. But that isn’t the issue at this time. But there is always one issue: Satan seeks to destroy the Jew wherever he can. While many Jews live in the cosmic system as his slaves it is still Satan’s objective to destroy the Jew, because it is the only way that Satan could ever win that court case that was tried before man existed on the earth.

The court case had to do with the fact that eternity came for all angels and all fallen angels under Satan were sentenced to the lake of fire for all eternity. And Satan appealed the case and as a result man, an inferior creature, was created. He was created with one thing in common with angels: the soul and the volition. And in the creation of man the case is being won and will be won by God because during the course of human history if even one person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ the case is lost. Therefore Satan’s only chance to keep the case from being won is to destroy every Jew on the face of the earth. That is because God has made a contract with Abraham, reiterated to Isaac and to Jacob. He has made a contract with regard to land in the Middle East, land that includes everything from Saudi Arabia to part of Persia. He has also made a contract with David and He also made a new contract to Israel scattered under the fifth cycle of discipline. But the major issue is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lion that is found in Revelation 4:7, for if all Jews can be destroyed before the second advent then God is a liar, does not keep His word, has not kept His word, and He has in effect destroyed His case against Satan.

It all began with Abraham. God promised Abraham that throughout human history there would always be Jews and that if anyone turned against the Jews God would punish that individual or that nation. He also made it very clear that Israel would need punishment but it would come directly from God, and that He did not need any help — same concept that we have with regard to gossip. When people gossip about other people inevitably they are punished for it and they suffer for it. They manufacture their own pain. God doesn’t need any help in handling believers even as God does not need any help in dealing with Israel, whether He is giving them blessing or whether He is punishing them. So we have, then, the concept and it all began with the contract with Abraham. It is called the Abrahamic covenant. This is a grace contract in which God as party of the first part has made a favourable disposition to Abraham. Up until Abraham was aged 99 he had been a Gentile, now he is made a Jew, the first Jew in history. As a Jew he would be the father of Jews, the entire Jewish race. It is a new race and a race which has a purpose as far as the plan of God is concerned. As a matter of fact it has an even more important purpose in heaven for when God established a new race called the Jews and when God gave that race certain promises all Satan has to do is to keep those promises from being fulfilled and in effect he has won his case. And God, as it were, to use an anthropomorphism, stuck His neck out all the way for the Jew. This has nothing to do with the individual personality of any Jew, this has nothing to do with Jews as individuals as Jews or any other factor. It has to do with God. God said he would punish Jews when necessary but He would not tolerate interference from other members of the human race in punishing the Jews. And so we have the Abrahamic covenant defining the Jewish race as the citizens of the first and last client nation to God.

Furthermore, He gave the Jewish race under the Mosaic law a system of culture, a system of spiritual life, and this emphasises the fact that no client nation to God, whether it is a Gentile client nation today or the Jewish client nation of the past, can survive with a multicultural system. One culture, always one culture, and the vigour of any nation historically is dependant upon a single culture. No nation has ever survived a multiplicity of cultures and all vigorous nations have one culture, many religions under freedom but one culture. When you have a multiculture nation you destroy any possibility of continuing as a client nation to God. Multiculture is the greatest attack on freedom.

You see, once you get away from the English language in the United States and go to any other you do not have the whole back ground of our history, our Constitution, our definition of freedom, our concepts of a republic, the responsibility of the voting franchise, all of the individual responsibilities we have as citizens and how these have been defined. These are the things that made us a vigorous nation. The whole concept of free enterprise, the whole concept of the sacredness of property and life, except in the case of criminals who violate those principles, the whole concept that freedom cannot exist without authority, and without establishment. All of these things are lost once you add even one to the culture that gave the vigour to the client nation.

The original presentation of the Abrahamic contract or covenant included both the race and the nation. The real estate promise and the boundaries were also first stated in the Abrahamic covenant. These boundaries, by the way, have never been achieved by Israel even at its greatest point under David and Solomon. It is a future fulfilment. In other words, Israel must have a future to fulfil the Palestinian covenant. The boundaries are first described in Genesis 13:14-16, then in 15:18-21. They include part of Egypt, all of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, a tremendous chunk of land that they have never possessed, indicating the eschatological implications of the divine contract with Israel. The covenant was confirmed to Jacob instead of Esau in Genesis 35:12. Esau was not a Jew under the sense that he was an unbeliever and the Jewish race was founded on regeneration. It took three generations for the Jewish race to crystallise and after that it became a matter of physical birth. But in the first three generations it was a matter of spiritual birth. Then, of course, the covenant was the basis for the divine deliverance of Israel from the slavery from Egypt in Exodus 6-8. The mechanics of the Abrahamic covenant demanded ultra-supergrace, it demanded sexual prosperity, Romans 4:16-21 as well as Genesis 17:1-7. The new race and the client nation was brought together in the Abrahamic covenant as stated in Genesis 17:8 and circumcision is the ritual of confirmation and acknowledgement, Genesis 17:9-14. This is both an individual imputation of blessing to a mature believer, Abraham, as well as by association, the development of the client nation Israel. So we have the Abrahamic covenant which had the basis for all future contracts between God and Israel.

The next covenant was a real estate contract. God as party of the first part made a favourable land grant to Israel as His client nation forever. The Palestinian covenant guarantees a Middle East land grant to the Jews forever. This grant has never been occupied, this covenant has never been fulfilled and will not be fulfilled until the second advent of Christ. Therefore, Israel as a nation today (not as a client nation) must fight to maintain its freedom, its national sovereignty, and the land that rightfully belongs to it from the 1920s until now, a land which will be given to them at the second advent.

This land grant was confirmed to Isaac in Genesis 26 and it was again confirmed to Jacob in Genesis 35. In Exodus 6 it was conformed again to Moses and therefore Moses described in great detail the geographical boundaries of this land grant which is an unconditional contract. Of course, it is a future fulfilment. It is described in Numbers 34:1-12; Deuteronomy 30:1-9. To encourage Joshua to conquer Canaan the land grant was again mentioned in Joshua 1:2-4. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel confirmed the fact that this land grant will not be fulfilled until the second advent, until the Millennial reign of Christ, Jeremiah 32:36-44; Ezekiel 11:16-21; 36:21-38. And the boundaries are very important. For example, the western boundary is the Mediterranean and it includes western Turkey because of the phrase “the land of the Hittites.” The southern border is the Nile, the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia. The eastern border is Trans-Jordania and Iraq. The northern border is the Euphrates river. This is a land grant that will not be given until the Millennium.

In addition to this a contract had to be made with the Jews to provide for them a culture, the greatest culture the world has ever known. It is the only culture that completely defines freedom in terms of truth. It defines freedom in terms of authority, freedom in terms of individual responsibility. It is called the Mosaic law or the Mosaic covenant. It is sometimes simply called “the law.” The recipients of this covenant are the nation Israel, Exodus 19:3; Leviticus 26:46; Romans 3:19; 9:4. It was definitely not given to the Gentiles, Romans 2:12-14. And definitely it was not given to the Church, therefore we do not set aside Saturday, the seventh day of the week, as the Sabbath. All so-called Sabbath laws and Sunday blue laws are wrong — misapplication. Free enterprise is the order of the day and if people want to work seven days a week that is strictly their business and not a matter for legislation.

So party of the first part is Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, while party of the second part is every citizen of client nation Israel. And as the policy for the client nation to God the covenant of Moses was divided into three parts. Part one, the freedom code called the ten commandments: the decalogue defines freedom in terms of morality, privacy, property and authority. The basic heritage of the client nation is freedom, a necessity for self-determination, for evangelism, spiritual growth and missionary function; part two, the spiritual code known as the ordinances, the function of a client nation demands regeneration plus momentum in the plan of God. The spiritual heritage of Israel includes a complete Christology and soteriology taught through ritual and oral communication, but it also includes the structure of the tabernacle and the temple. But in addition to the spiritual heritage there was the third category, known as the judgements. Every principle related to freedom and prosperity is given in this area and this is the cultural side of Israel. For example, freedom, privacy, marriage, military policy, taxation, diet, health, sanitation, quarantine, criminal law procedures, when no nation in the world ever had anything remotely resembling it. In addition to that it included the function of free enterprise. Profit motivation is legitimate and honourable and it indicates that capitalism is the only true base for prosperity. It rejects socialism, the welfare state, revolution or any use of violence against establishment authority and it very definitely delineates the fact that problems cannot be solved by violence.

The Mosaic law establishes both policy and blessing for patterns in any client nation. It authorises the function of the Levitical priesthood, it authorised the function of the tabernacle and the temple, it authorised the blood of animals as shadow dedications in the field of Christology and soteriology. And it was set aside in two ways. One third of the Mosaic law was set aside when Christ went to the cross and received the judgment for our sins. It was set aside as the policy for the client nation when Israel sent out in 70 AD for the last time under the fifth cycle of discipline. And since the Mosaic law has no application to Israel during the times of the Gentiles the question arises: What is the purpose of the Mosaic law in the Church Age? The answer is very simple: a pattern for Gentile client nations because of the truth of establishment, category #1 truth.

Next is the covenant to David. That is the contract that is pertinent to our subject in Revelation 4:7, “Now the first angelic herald was like a lion,” he had a coat of arms, one quarter of our Lord’s coat of arms. He has the coat of arms of the second royal patent of our Lord as the ruler of Israel, the One who will personally fulfil each one of these contracts. In the covenant to David, party of the first part, God, makes a gracious disposition to party of the second part, king David. Part of David’s supergrace blessing was the perpetuation of his dynasty in Israel forever, and while the Davidic line would continue for 400 years in Judah, from about 1000 BC to 586 BC, and 72 years in the southern kingdom, this is not the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant. In other words, the northern kingdom, when they split, only lasted for a few years, 72 years (998-926 BC), whereas the southern kingdom lasted from 1000 to 586 BC. That is not the fulfilment of the covenant. The fulfilment of the covenant is given right here in Revelation 4:7 where part of our Lord’s coat of arms is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. It is Jesus Christ future to the existence of Israel in the past who will actually fulfil this contract. The fulfilment of this contract and the statement of this contract is the subject of 2 Samuel 7:8-17; Psalm 89:20-37, and it is this contract that is so important. For example, in 2 Samuel 7:8, where God said to David: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts [Adonai Sabaoth, ‘Jehovah of the armies,’ the title of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Commander-in-Chief of the elect angelic armies]” — so it is the Lord Jesus Christ functioning as party of the first part, “I myself took you [David as an individual] from the pasture.” It is interesting that the two greatest nations in all of history, one Jewish and one Gentile, both started in sheep pastures. The Romans started as a group of shepherds on seven hills; David started as a shepherd in the hills of Judea, “from behind the sheep to become the prince over my people, over Israel; and I have been with you wherever you have marched, and have destroyed all of your enemies from before you, and I have manufactured [out of grace, out of doctrine] for you a celebrityship, a name of greatness, like the fame of the great ones who have been on the earth [historically]. Also, I will appoint a place for my people, Israel, where I will plant him in order that he may sit under it in prosperity [the Millennium], and no longer be disturbed” — Israel will be restored as a client nation in the Millennium, “because the sons of apostasy will never again oppress him as formerly.” Please notice that any oppressors of Israel are called sons of apostasy.

2 Samuel 7:11, “Even from the day when I ordered judges [dictators] to be over my people, Israel,” there had to be law and order in Israel, “even to the time when I caused this peaceful interlude to you from all of your enemies. Therefore the Lord has made a formal proclamation to you that a dynasty will be yours,” Jehovah will manufacture that dynasty for you, “And it shall come to pass when your days shall be fulfilled, and you shall lie down with your fathers, that which I cause to raise up your seed after you [those who follow you], I will cause to establish the kingdom with them.”

Psalm 89:20, “I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him” — that is the beginning of the contract , “my hand shall be firm with him; my arm shall also make him strong. The enemy [Satan and the policy of evil] will not lead him astray, nor the son of wickedness [the attractive reversionist] control him. I will destroy his enemies before his face, and strike down those who hate him.” But then He goes on to point out what is going to happen in future days. “My faithfulness and my grace will be with him; and in my name his horn [authority] will be exalted. I will establish his hand in the sea [the Mediterranean], his right hand on the rivers. He will call to me, My father, My God, My rock, My salvation … Forever I will guard for him my grace, therefore my contract will be permanent to him [David]. Therefore I will appoint his seed [our Lord] forever.”

David’s seed is Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. He was born directly in the line of David. “If his sons forsake my law, and they do not walk in my judgements [laws of divine establishment], if they profane my ordinances [Codex #3 of the Mosaic law], and do not keep my commandments [the destruction of freedom — Codex #1 of the decalogue]; then I will punish their transgressions.” This is not an avoidance of punishment for failure. “But with regard to him [the progeny of David, the son of David] I will never void my grace, and I will not violate my faithfulness. I will not violate my contract, I will not alter what proceeds from my lips. One thing I myself have sworn and by my righteousness and justice [by my integrity] I will not alter what proceeds. One thing I myself have sworn by my integrity, that I will not lie to David. His seed [Jesus Christ] shall be forever, and his throne as the sun before me [Millennial reign of Christ]. He [Jesus Christ the Son of David] will be established forever as the moon, and the witness in the sky is faithful. Selah [This is it].” This is what is going to happen in the future, therefore it must become a part of the Davidic coat of arms.

But now let us recognise the fact that in the line of David there were very evil kings. For example, the was Coniah. In Jeremiah 22:28, “This man Coniah is a shattered jar [He is a broken jug], an undesirable vessel [as an unbeliever]. Why has he and his descendants been cast out into a land they have not known [fifth cycle of discipline]? … Thus saith the Lord, Write this down, this man will be childless.” In other words they recognised in every generation that between David and Bathsheba that would eventually bring Messiah. There would eventually be four sons to David and Bathsheba. Number one, who was the ruler, was Solomon; number four was Nathan. These two lines would intermingle from time to time but they would remain separate. The line of Solomon went down, for example, to Joseph; the line of Nathan went down to Mary.

Jeremiah 22:30 puts it this way: “Thus saith the Lord, Write down this man [Coniah] childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no man of his descendants will prosper, sitting on the throne of David or ever ruling again in Judah.” At point Coniah that line quit. Coniah had children but “childless” means that this line would not be the seed of David, that the literal seed would come through the virgin Mary and a virgin birth, and the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ would be descended through this part of David’s line.

The second son of Josiah was Jehoiakim or Eliakim and who as king of Judah was made a vassal of Nebuchanezzar after the battle of Carchemish. As a reversionist who not only rejected doctrine but destroyed scripture and ended up under the sin unto death he was disciplined, Jeremiah 36:29ff. He saw his son executed before his eyes and then his eyes were put out. He suffered a terrible thing. The son of Eliakim is Coniah who ruled from BC 597 for three months and ten days before Nebuchadnezzar came back and took him away prisoner. For 36 years Coniah was a prisoner of Nebuchadnezzar. This is called the curse of Coniah. While the line continued to have children — Joseph is directly descended from Solomon and Coniah — they are legal but not the real heirs to the throne. Joseph is the legal but not the real father of the humanity of Christ. The virgin birth fulfils this curse. Matthew traces the genealogy of Christ as a legal genealogy — David, Solomon, Coniah. Luke traces the genealogy of Christ through Mary who is descended from David and Bathsheba through Nathan. This is emphasised in 1 Chronicles 3:5 and is the conclusion of Luke 3:31.

The problem of the physical death of Christ still came into the picture here. Once our Lord Jesus Christ died physically — first of all He bore our sins on the cross then He had physical death — it was said at that point: “God can’t keep His word.” This was the great issue in heaven. But from three days later we have resurrection and ascension and the son of David actually appeared in heaven.

Now they have convocations where fallen angels assemble with elect angels. This was true in Job chapter one, for example, and Satan will never be thrown out of heaven until the middle of the Tribulation. But now when our Lord appeared as the Son of David, the Lion of the tribe of Judah in a resurrection body, He was given His third royal patent. At the virgin birth he received His second royal patent and the combination of the two guarantees the defeat of Satan in the angelic conflict, for God will keep His word. And to make sure that this was understood the highest and smartest of all angels, one of the four, was an angel who came forward as an angelic herald. He was wearing the uniform of wisdom, the mantle with the eyes in front and the eyes in the back, and as he stepped forward a coat of arms was given to him to bear, both then and forever, the great honour to show that God keeps His word and that when God promised David that he would have a son who would reign forever neither the curse of Coniah nor the problem of our Lord’s physical death nor any other human problem can hinder the faithfulness of God. What appears to be a problem when God works it out. Therefore we have a fantastic memorial to the grace of God, the faithfulness of God, and the source of all blessing and solution to problems in life. Our Lord’s faithfulness is depicted in the first angel who will bear forever this part of our Lord’s arms.

The corrected translation as far as we have gone in verse 7 is: “Now the first living creature [angelic herald] was like a lion.” We noted that this has to do with our Lord’s second royal patent. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of David, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Before we continue with the other three parts of our Lord’s coat of arms we need to review two doctrines that are pertinent to the other three heralds. Actually, the doctrines begin with one word found in the Old Testament in the Hebrew: neshimmah. This word explains why you are here and why you belong to the category human race. God imputes neshimmah to every person after birth. The fact that you born is attested by the fact that you are here and at the moment that you were born God took neshimmah and imputed it to your human soul. That means of course that there is no neshimmah in the womb. Life belongs to God, life is the invention of God, life cannot be reproduced by anyone except God for the human race. And human life is imputed to every member of the human race immediately after birth. There is no human life in the womb and that means neither the embryo or the foetus contain human life, not until the foetus emerges from the mother’s womb. At that moment, after birth, God imputes from His own integrity the spark of life.

The home or the target foe that spark of life is the human soul and human life then resides in that soul forever. The fact that you are now living in time simply means that human life residing in your soul is also residing in your human body. But when physical death occurs the human life residing in the soul moves from earth to heaven and therefore the believer is absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. In other words, human life is never separated from the human soul once God imputes it and that is true no matter whether the person is good or evil, saved or unsaved. Human life is never separated from the soul whether the person goes to heaven or to hell. Once God imputes human life, or the spark of life, neshimmah, to the soul that human life resides there forever. Nothing can separate life from the soul, even physical death. At physical death the soul leaves the body but the human body is still there as it moves to heaven. There is nothing that man can do to separate human life from the soul. This includes suicide. Furthermore, even God Himself cannot and will not separate human life from any soul and that means that by that imputation God has a plan for the human life of every human being. Whether the plan is accomplished depends upon the use of volition which is the extension of the angelic conflict.

Simultaneously with this imputation there is condemnation. The justice of God at the same time imputes Adam’s original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature. So we have human life being imputed by God to the human soul. We have Adam’s original sin being imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. The old sin nature is formed genetically, it is passed down through Adam. This is because Adam deliberately sinned whereas the woman sinned in ignorance. So the justice of God imputes Adam’s original sin to every member of the human race for condemnation and just as there is affinity between the spark of human life and the human soul, so there is affinity between Adam’s original sin and the old sin nature. This is the wisest thing that God ever did and this is one of the things that demonstrates that God is wiser than any creature could ever hope to be. In fact, Adam’s original sin is the origin of the old sin nature in the human race, according to Romans 5:12, as well as Genesis chapter three. So factor one, Adam’s original sin, plus factor two, the old sin nature, is an affinity with antecedents dating back to the garden of Eden where Adam deliberately sinned. While the woman was just as guilty she did commit her transgression in ignorance, she was deceived. While the old sin nature originates from Adam’s original sin it is now transmitted through 23 male chromosomes which fertilise the female ovum in copulation. And this imputation of Adam’s original sin to the old sin nature is a facsimile of Adam at the time of his fall. Adam was condemned at the time of his fall and therefore we are born physically alive but simultaneously condemned.

This is, of course, a real imputation. It has two factors: Adam’s original sin and the genetically-formed old sin nature. It demonstrates the wisdom of God for many reasons but included is the fact that condemnation must precede salvation. In fact there is no need for salvation unless there is first of all condemnation. Condemnation must precede salvation just as the cross precedes the crown, and therefore those who do not reach the point of responsibility or accountability are automatically saved because they are condemned at birth. Furthermore, they are not condemned by their own personal sins which follow, they are condemned by the imputation of Adam’s original sin. This means those who die at childbirth are automatically saved. Those who die before reaching accountability are automatically saved. Those who never reach accountability, such as some with mental deficiency of the soul, are automatically saved no matter how long they live in this life. So there are many wonderful factors from that standpoint. But in addition to that it eliminates any possibility of linking your salvation and mine through faith in Christ to any norm of arrogance. All of us are condemned on the basis of the imputation of Adam’s sin at birth. This becomes very important in understanding the coat of arms as we will study it in the rest of Revelation 4:7. No one is condemned on the basis of his personal sins. Condemnation occurs at birth and all the personal sins in the human race are never imputed to any member of the human race for condemnation. Instead, they were all imputed to Christ on the cross for condemnation. This is the basis of our so great salvation. Personal sin is not the basis of spiritual death. One of three manifestations of the possession of the old sin nature is personal sin, the others being human good and evil. Therefore we are born physically alive but at the same time we are born spiritually dead. This brings us to the coat of arms. The coat of arms have several implications. All of the coat of arms is related to the humanity of Christ and therefore it becomes necessary to understand: How can the humanity of Christ come into the world without being condemned, without having spiritual death? For if Adam’s original sin is imputed to Christ at the same time that neshimmah, the spark of life, is imputed to our Lord Jesus Christ’s human soul then there is no way that He is qualified to go to the cross and be judged for our sins. When He comes to the cross He has to be impeccable and that means freedom from imputed sin, freedom from the old sin nature or the inherent sin, and freedom from personal sin; for we, as members of the human race all have three strikes against us. First of all Adam’s original sin is imputed; secondly, the genetically-formed old sin nature in our bodies when life is imputed; and thirdly, the fact that through our own function of free will, volition, self-determination, we sin personally.

This means, of course, that all the cells of the human race are contaminated by the old sin nature. There is only one exception and that is through meiosis and the function of polar body when 23 chromosomes are thrown off in the ovum leaving 23 uncontaminated chromosomes in the female ovum prior to fertilisation. Those 23 chromosomes thrown off through meiosis and the function of polar body are the basis for understanding the heraldry, the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. This phenomenon in the female is based on the fact that when the woman sinned from her own free will she was deceived in the transgression even though she committed a sin of ignorance. Ignorance, in other words, is no excuse. Ignorance does make a difference on who bears the embryo and, of course, it is the woman in the human race who has born the embryo by which the human race is eventually perpetuated. While both man and woman are carriers of the old sin nature only the man can transmit the old sin nature through fertilisation. The woman has in her ovum 23 chromosomes. Those 23 are totally free from the old sin nature. In fertilisation the man brings his 23 chromosomes to fertilise that ovum. These 23 are contaminated by the old sin nature, so we say theologically that the old sin nature is passed down through the man who in the original sin knew what he was doing. He looked at the first sinner and deliberately partook of the fruit, not from the tree but from her hand.

In copulation all people receive the old sin nature but it is passed down through the man. Mary, when she became pregnant according to Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3, had other children by Joseph. In other words, Joseph in copulation provided 23 chromosomes at least seven times. Mary was pregnant at least seven times after the virgin birth and in each case the children had the old sin nature as Mary herself had the old sin nature from her father.

Now the exception. If an ovum, like Mary’s, can be fertilised with 23 chromosomes not contaminated by the old sin nature then it is possible to have a birth without a genetically-formed old sin nature. Minus a genetically-formed old sin nature means you cannot impute Adam’s sin. Therefore the extreme importance of the doctrine of the virgin birth. More correctly, it is the doctrine of the virgin pregnancy. The virgin pregnancy was induced by God the Holy Spirit who fertilised the ovum of Mary with 23 perfect chromosomes. Therefore we have a virgin pregnancy which resulted in a virgin birth. But this birth was quite different. When God the Father took neshimmah and imputed it to the human soul of God the Son He did not impute simultaneously Adam’s original sin because there was no old sin nature. The virgin pregnancy eliminated the possibility. At the same time, of course, there was in our Lord, since He did not have the imputation of Adam’s sin, a human spirit. So our Lord was born as Adam was created, trichotomous. Adam was created with a body, a soul, and a spirit and without any sin nature. Adam’s volition produced his negative volition directed toward the prohibition of God which produced the old sin nature and from then on it was genetically-formed through his chromosomes. The old sin nature resides in the cell structure of the body and moves to the soul when man from his own free will commits a sin. So we have, then, the one exception: the virgin pregnancy resulting in the virgin birth. And remember that while Mary was a virgin she was not perfect, she was not impeccable; only her Son, the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, was perfect. But in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ God the Father imputed human life to His soul but divine justice could not impute Adam’s original sin. There was no target, no home, no antecedent, no system of affinity whereby this could occur due to the virgin pregnancy. Just as Adam was created perfect, so our Lord Jesus Christ was born perfect. And because of the virgin pregnancy, followed by the virgin birth, there was no genetic formation of the old sin nature. There was no sin nature and that meant no imputation of Adam’s sin, and that means that our Lord had to use His volition in this world just as Adam used his volition in the garden. The only way that our Lord could sin was through negative volition and, of course, that did not happen.

That brings us around, then, to the fact that when the embryo of Jesus Christ came from the womb God the Father imputed life, and that was the beginning of the hypostatic union. In the person of the incarnate Christ are two natures which are inseparably united. They are without mixture or loss of separate identity; they are without loss or transfer of properties or attributes. The union is composed of His deity and His humanity, and the union is both personal and eternal as reflected by the coat of arms in Revelation 4:7. In other words, since the virgin birth Jesus Christ is both true humanity and undiminished deity in one person forever. Jesus Christ, then, is the God-Man. He is different from God in that He is true mankind; He is different from mankind in that He is God. He is therefore unique and He is the unique person of the universe. He is infinitely superior to man and angels as humanity he is now superior to all angels and human beings, so that whether you are looking at it from the standpoint of His deity or His humanity we are not only looking at the unique person but we are looking at the perfect person.

The pre-incarnate person of Christ was eternal God. Jesus Christ as God had all of the attributes of deity. In that sense He was coequal and co-eternal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit who had identical characteristics. God is said to be one because they all have the same sovereignty, the same holiness, the same eternal life, in the same amount, infinitely and eternally. But they are distinguished as persons and it is the second person of the Trinity who is unique because He now has, in addition to His deity coequal with the Father and the Spirit, perfect humanity. The issue of perfect humanity: it could have gone the other way if He had made a wrong decision during His thirty-three years of the incarnation, but He did not. He was therefore qualified to go to the cross and bear our sins in His own body on the tree, not in His deity. Because He is true humanity, because He has a physical body, soul and spirit, He is different from the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is coequal with them in His deity; He is different from humanity in that He is God. But He is superior to both man and angels being seated at the right hand of the Father where He received His third royal patent. So the pre-incarnate person of Christ has deity, coequal with the Father and the Spirit, and the post-incarnate person of Christ includes not only His undiminished deity but His true humanity in one person forever. And through the virgin birth Jesus Christ was born without the old sin nature, without the imputation of Adam’s sin.

This is one of the issues that we have noted because at the moment of His birth He was, through the virgin Mary, descended from David and Bathsheba through Nathan. Joseph, who is the legal but not real father of our Lord, is descended from David and Bathsheba through Solomon. Each one of these lines is brought down to the cross. Joseph was cut off through the Coniah curse. At the moment that God the Father imputed life to His Son, Jesus Christ had His second royal patent. He was the Son of David. “Now the first angelic herald was like a lion.” That is the coat of arms of our Lord’s second royal patent as the ruler of Israel under the title Son of David, Lion of the tribe of Judah.

That brings us now to the concept that we must note in some detail. The hypostatic union is a major issue in Christology. Comparing John 1:1-3, describing the deity of Christ, with John 1:14 we have the principle: “the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-born one from the Father), full of grace and doctrine.” “Only-born” refers to the fact that when God the Father imputed the spark of life, neshimmah, to our Lord Jesus Christ it was unique; He was the uniquely-born one.

In Romans 1:3-5 we have: “Concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David,” His second royal patent, “according to the flesh,” at the moment of birth He was the Son of David and is qualified to rule Israel forever, “who has been demonstrated the Son of God by means of power,” the demonstration of His deity is the subject of the gospel of John, “according to the Holy Spirit,” the power according to the Holy Spirit was the prototype divine dynasphere in which His uniqueness was demonstrated, and then once more was demonstrated because of His resurrection from the dead, “by his resurrection from the dead; through whom we have received grace and apostleship.”

Add to that Romans 9:5 where the subject is picked up again: “And from whom is the Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all, the God blessed forever.” So His flesh and His deity are mentioned simultaneously in this verse.

The same thing is found in 1 Timothy 3:16, “And by consent of all great is the mystery with reference to godliness: the unique one [Jesus Christ in hypostatic union] became visible by means of the flesh [the moment of the virgin birth]. The same one [Christ in hypostatic union] was vindicated by means of the Holy Spirit [His function inside the prototype divine dynasphere], he was observed by angelic creatures [this was the major issue in the angelic conflict], he was proclaimed among the nations, he became the object of faith in the world, he was taken up into His place of glory [His third royal patent].”

Hebrews 2:14, “Since, therefore, the children share blood and flesh, he [Christ] also himself in the same manner took hold of the same blood and flesh [hypostatic union] in order that he through spiritual death might neutralise and destroy the one having the ruling power of spiritual death, that is, the devil.”

These are simply a few references to the importance of His hypostatic union. The incarnate Christ, therefore, is deity; Jesus Christ is eternal God. He is so-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, there never was a time when His deity did not exist, there never was a time when He was not coequal with the Father and the Spirit. We, therefore, call Him undiminished deity forever. The incarnate Christ, however, includes true humanity with a body, soul, and spirit [trichotomous]. Because of the virgin birth He was born without the old sin nature, without the imputation of Adam’s sin. Because He lived His entire life in His humanity inside the prototype divine dynasphere He lived a perfect life without any personal sin, and therefore was qualified to go to the cross and become our substitute. To be our substitute, to be judged for us, to bear our sins, absolutely required perfection. He had to be like the first Adam in the garden before sin. So at the point of birth we receive physical life, we receive spiritual death, and we receive the potential for eternal salvation because Christ became flesh.

In hypostatic union the two natures of Christ are united without any transfer of attributes. The attributes adhere to their corresponding natures. In other words, Jesus Christ is eternal God and He has certain attributes of deity that always adhere to His deity. He is also true humanity and He has certain attributes in His true humanity that always adhere to His true humanity. The essence of His deity cannot be changed — immutability. Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday, and forever; the infinite cannot be transferred to the finite. To take from God even a single attribute of His deity would actually destroy His deity but in the hypostatic union His deity remains intact with all of the attributes of deity remaining intact with it. To take from the humanity of Jesus a single attribute of His humanity would destroy His true humanity and therefore would disqualify salvation. No attribute, therefore, is changed in His humanity. For example, Jesus was thirsty on the cross. He said: “I thirst.” That is an attribute of His humanity; His deity did not thirst. Therefore the attributes of each nature always adhered to the nature and they never crossed over to the other nature. That is why it was a legitimate test when the stones were placed in front of our Lord and Satan said to Him: “Turn these stones into bread.” He had the power to do it; He is God. To our Lord it was a genuine temptation because the attributes adhered to their corresponding natures.

In the fulfilling of the Father’s plan for the first advent certain attributes of His deity, however, were not used. He didn’t use His power to turn stones into bread. Instead He functioned in His humanity under hunger and did not in any way try to satisfy His hunger by creating any form of food. This does not imply that these attributes were surrendered or destroyed, that is what we call the false doctrine of Kenosis. In the true doctrine of Kenosis our Lord Jesus Christ from His own sovereignty voluntarily took on Himself the form of mankind in order to redeem man from sin, to reconcile man to God and, furthermore, to propitiate the Father. In completing this mission of the first advent Christ did not exercise His divine attributes for His own benefit or to provide for Himself or to glorify Himself. In other words, He did not use His divine attributes contrary to the plan of the Father. This is why the temptations recorded in Matthew chapter four are absolutely unique. They are above and beyond any temptation that would ever come our way because we do not have the corresponding deity with which to be tempted to solve the problems through our deity.

There is a branch of fundamentalism today that wants God to solve all of their problems. They make a lot of mistakes and they want God to come along and overrule them and bail them out. That is trying to solve a problem by the use of deity and our Lord Jesus Christ didn’t so that. God will manufacture ten grand and dump it back in your lap! Or, Let’s pray about it! Pray about what? Pray about your stupidity in losing your money in the first place? Stupidity cannot be corrected by prayer, stupidity can only be corrected by doctrine, and that takes time.

Our Lord faced this in those temptations in Matthew chapter four. Therefore the union of the divine attributes and the human nature of the incarnate Christ must be considered as hypostatic and personal. “Hypostatic” is a Greek word. It is derived from the Greek noun u(postasij, and it means standing under, it means substance, essence, taking a thing on one’s self, or combining an essence with an essence without compromising either essence. Therefore Jesus Christ took upon Himself true humanity, as per Hebrews 1:3, “Who, being the radiance [flashing forth] of the glory [eternal God], and the exact image of his divine essence, also sustaining all things by the verbal expression of His power.” When Jesus Christ was here on earth during His first advent he also held the universe together. But that is a function of His deity, He didn’t switch it to His humanity or the first and second advents would have blurred into one function. Hypostatic refers to the whole person of our Lord Jesus Christ as distinguished from His two natures. So u(postasij means that when you put the true humanity and the deity together without compromising the essence of either you have an entire person. So hypostatic refers to the entire person of our Lord Jesus Christ from the virgin birth and forever, He is the God-Man. His true humanity in resurrected form will always exist, there never will be a time when the hypostatic union will be broken up, it is that way forever. That is the basis for His third royal patent.

So when we look at the hypostatic union we first of all look at the entire person. But then we have to recognise the personal aspect. From the unique person of Christ in hypostatic union we have His deity and His humanity. His deity is coequal and coeternal with the Father and the Spirit while His humanity is absolutely impeccable. The false interpretation of the hypostatic union came from gnosticism. Jesus Christ, then, is the God-Man and that is the only form of ritual given to the Church. All ritual of the Old Testament was wiped out. We have no ritual, we have no altar, we have no holy temple, we have no sanctuary, we have no animal sacrifices. All that was wiped out. The only ritual that even came over to the Church Age for a little while was water baptism, and it is wiped out. It was a part of Jewish ritual, as per John the Baptist. Now we only have one ritual and to put any other ritual, including water baptism in, is blasphemous. And what is that ritual? The hypostatic union is represented by the Eucharist. The only ritual given to the Church as the royal family of God is that which represents something that never occurred before in history and it will never occur again. Just once, one person in hypostatic union, Jesus Christ the God-Man. And we are to remember Him as the God-Man, therefore the importance of the hypostatic union, not only in the interpretation of the passage in which we are embarked, but in fulfilling the mandate of observing the Eucharist or the communion table. Jesus Christ is the God-Man forever. The attributes of His divine nature belong to the person of Christ. That means that all of the attributes of His humanity adhere to His humanity; all of the attributes of His deity adhere to His deity. They never cross over.

During the first advent Jesus Christ could be simultaneously omnipotent, because He is God, and weak, because he is a human being. This does not mean weak in the sense of being sinful, it means weak in the sense of physical exhaustion. He could be omniscient and at the same time ignorant. You see, attributes adhere to their proper place. When our Lord was born like a baby He in His humanity had to learn. He was omnipresent and yet located in one place at a time.

Why did Jesus Christ have to enter into hypostatic union? Why the humanity of Christ? There are four reasons for it.

First of all, the one who provides eternal salvation had to be true humanity. True humanity sinned; true humanity must bring it out. Adam went from perfection to sinfulness; our Lord went from perfection to bearing our sins. When He reached the cross He was absolutely perfect in His humanity. When He was on the cross it was His humanity that received the imputation of our sins and their judgment, though His deity was there and the hypostatic union was present at the cross. Therefore you never separate the humanity from the deity and there is no problem as long as you remember that the attributes of deity always adhere to deity and the attributes of humanity always adhere to humanity. He was perfect in His humanity, therefore He was qualified to bear our sins on His body [humanity] on the cross. Christ had to be true humanity to do that. As God He can have nothing to do with sin. As God He cannot solicit sin, He cannot bear sin, He cannot do anything except condemn sin. He had to be true humanity, Philippians 2:7,8; Hebrews 2:14,15.

Furthermore, Jesus Christ is said to be the mediator between God and man. There is one mediator between God and man, only one. Why? A mediator must be equal with both parties in the mediation — Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. Jesus Christ as eternal God is coequal with the Father and therefor qualified to mediate on that end. As true humanity He is on a par with man and therefore qualified to mediate on that end. As the God-Man He is the only one who could ever be mediator between God and man. This was taught first in Job 9: 2, 32, 33, and is the subject of 1 Timothy 2: 5,6. Then, of course, you must remember that a priest must be a human being representing human beings before God. The Levitical priest, for example, was from the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron, and he represented the rest of the Jews before God in their Old Testament type worship. The fact that a priest must be a man to represent man to God is taught in Hebrews 7 and 10. Jesus Christ could not become our High Priest until He became true humanity. As true humanity Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father representing us as High Priest. Only the high priest could go from the altar outside of the tabernacle into the holy place and then, once a year, into the holy of holies. The holy of holies represents heaven. Our Lord Jesus as our High Priest is in heaven on our behalf. We are on earth as a kingdom of priests. Each one of us as a believer represents himself to God but we do so as true humanity. Jesus Christ had to be true humanity to be our High Priest and He had to be true humanity to fulfil the Davidic contract.

Therefore these are the four reasons why Christ is unique and had to become a human being: to be our saviour, to be the mediator between God and man, to be our High Priest, and to fulfil the Davidic covenant under His second royal patent. Notice that in each case a royal patent is involved. We will not be surprised, then, to discover in Revelation 4:7 our Lord Jesus Christ as saviour, High Priest, King, mediator. Every verbal communication by Christ during the first advent, came, therefore, from one of three sources. First of all, certain things that our Lord said. Sometimes our Lord spoke from His deity. When He said in John chapter 8, “Before Abraham lived, I existed eternally,” corrected translation of verse 58, that means simply this: our Lord was speaking from His deity. He always existed. There never was a time when His deity didn’t exist and, remember, they picked up stones to stone Him. Sometimes He spoke from His humanity. For example, in John 19:28, “I thirst.” That came from His humanity, His deity didn’t thirst. Then sometimes He spoke from His hypostatic union, the entire person, as when He said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

All of this is necessary to appreciate the coat of arms of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s marvellous coat of arms is so great that it cannot be born by one herald, it is born by four heralds.

We now move on to the second angelic herald. We have the connective conjunction kai, followed by an numerical adjective deuteroj, which means second. Then we have zoion, referring to a living rational creature, the highest of rational creatures, an angelic herald. The ellipsis again demands the use of e)imi, “and the second angelic herald was.” Then the comparative adjective o(moioj, “like.” This is followed by the instrumental of association from the noun mosxoj, which means an ox or a young bull. The best translation is “young bull.” It is a reference to our Lord’s kenosis, the humility of the first advent. It includes such doctrines as the virgin birth, the hypostatic union, our Lord’s humanity residing and functioning inside the prototype divine dynasphere, the resultant kenosis and impeccability which qualified Him to go to the cross and bear our sins under the greatest possible humility. Hence it includes the saving work of Christ on the cross and it is comparable to the Hebrew word par, and it is unfortunately translated in the Levitical offerings, “bullock,” the bullock offering. But it is a “young bull” offering. It is similar to another word also translated “bullock,” baqar. This takes us to the Levitical offerings.

Each one of the Levitical offerings had an expensive animal sacrifice and it went down to cheaper sacrifices, including a couple of young pigeons. The most expensive was what is called in the KJV, the bullock, the ox, or the young bull offering. Next comes the lamb offering, and so on. A young bull represents the victory of the first advent of Christ. It is a direct reference in His shield, His escutcheon, to the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. Anticipating the rest of our study in this verse and the context you will notice that four majestic symbols are on our Lord’s escutcheon: the eagle, the greatest of the birds; the bull, the greatest of domestic animals for power; the lion, the greatest of wild animals; and the man, the highest of all living creatures visible today on the earth. While the first herald bears that part of our Lord’s coat of arms dealing with His sovereignty and rulership over Israel the second herald bears that part dealing with the strategic victory of the first advent of Christ. In other words, just as the first herald bears that part of the coat of arms emphasising Matthew, the second herald bears that part of the coat of arms emphasised in the gospel of Mark.

“Now the first angelic herald was like a lion.” This is the escutcheon of our Lord’s second royal patent as the ruler of Israel, seed of David, Son of David, Lion of the tribe of Judah; “and the second herald was like a young bull,” the coat of arms of our Lord’s first advent emphasising His mission as the Servant of Jehovah to the plan of God the Father and the resultant victory from it.

One of the primary considerations in the study of the coat of arms of our Lord as worn by each one of the angelic heralds is to understand the principle of the hypostatic union. Remember that in this doctrine there is the deity of Christ and also the humanity of Christ united in one person forever. The attributes of deity always adhere to deity and never cross over to humanity. This issue was settled in Matthew chapter four. The attributes of humanity never cross over and merge with the attributes of deity. Each nature has attributes that correspond only to that nature: deity to deity; humanity to humanity. Therefore when our Lord was on the earth everything He said came either from His deity, His humanity, or His hypostatic union. Everything related to the first advent pertains to some facet in our Lord’s heraldry. His escutcheon is divided into four parts and each one of the four angelic heralds carries one of the parts of His arms.

We now resume with the third herald bearing the third part of our Lord’s escutcheon. We begin with the connective conjunction kai, translated “and,” plus the adjective nominative neuter singular from tritoj, translated “third.” With it is the nominative singular neuter from zoion, which is not an animal. It means a living rational being and it refers to angelic creatures, specifically angelic heralds, “and the third angelic herald.” Then we have the present active participle from the verb e)xw. The present tense is a historical present which views the past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: the third angelic herald produces the action. The participle is circumstantial, and with it we have the accusative singular direct object from proswpon, which means “face,” “and the third angelic herald had a face.” And then the relative adverb o(j and the ablative of comparison, a)nqrwpoj, “like a man.” The third angelic herald had a face like a man. That is, he is bearing arms of a man. The heraldry device here emphasises the hypostatic union as the basis for our Lord’s third royal patent. The fact of the man represents the third royal patent of our Lord just as the lion represented His second royal patent. So pertinent to this part of our Lord’s coat of arms is the humanity of Christ in His physical death because His work was finished, followed by His resurrection and session and receiving His third royal patent at the right hand of the Father. The emphasis on our Lord’s third royal patent is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict which produced titles of that patent, including King of kings, Lord of lords, the bright morning star. The heraldry device is comparable to the cask and the plumes in heraldry. Furthermore, the cask faces to the side to indicate royalty. When the cask faces forward it refers to non-royalty. It is from this third royal title that the Age of Israel came to a halt and a new historical era or dispensation was inserted to call out the royal family of God, the body of Christ, the Church Age believer. And, of course, in this dispensation royalty is formed by the baptism of the Spirit at the point of salvation. The third part of the arms is comparable to the gospel of Luke which is often called the gospel of the Son of Man. This cannot be pressed in detail but we have already noted in the three synoptics that the first part of the arms is comparable to Matthew, the second part to Mark, and the third part to the gospel of Luke.

“Now the first angelic herald was like a lion.” This is comparable to Matthew where our Lord was presented as the King; “and the second angelic herald like a young bull” — the heraldry of our Lord’s first advent emphasising the servant of Jehovah which is the subject of the gospel of Mark; “and the third angelic herald had a face like a man,” the coat of arms of our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent, the award of His third royal patent.

Then we move to the fourth. We have a connective kai, plus the numeral adjective tetaroj which means “fourth,” and with it again we have zoion for the herald. The ellipsis demands the verb to be, e)imi, and we have the adverb of analogy, o(moioj, “was like,” plus the instrumental of association from the noun a)etoj, which is the word for eagle. A)etoj means not only eagle but vulture as well. The bird here is the eagle and the translation in the KJV is correct. The instrumental of association from the present active participle petomai tells us the attitude of the eagle. Petomai means to be flying, “and the fourth angelic herald was like a flying eagle.” Petomai is a participle but it is used in the ascriptive sense and therefore becomes and adjective.

The first reference to the flying eagle in the Bible helps us to understand the meaning of this part of the escutcheon, Exodus 19:4, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you [the children of Israel] on eagles wings and brought you to myself.” The eagle is a part of the escutcheon of the original client nation. The client nation was formed by liberation from slavery and it was the Lord who did it all in grace. Therefore the eagle speaks of the client nation connotation. This part of our Lord’s coat of arms denotes two things. First of all He is the founder of the first client nation in history — Israel. Secondly, it denotes the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. There was no way that with Egypt at the peak of its power the Jews could have been delivered from slavery, but they were. The eagle represents the fact that they were weak, they were helpless, they were in a hopeless situation, with absolutely no way they could cope, and so the Lord delivered them. The flying eagle, then, emphasises how Jesus Christ controls history, how He controls it directly through client nations and through historical judgements. The flying eagle even emphasises the fact that he uses a pivot to control history and this is brought out in Psalm 103:5, “Who satisfies your desires with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” This is not individual youth, this is the perpetuation of each generation of the client nation Israel.

They say, and it is a very true statement: “Every third generation, shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves,” meaning that you have one generation growing up. You have ability, you have hard work, and you have success. Then the next generation perpetuates the success. But the third generation becomes decadent and they are on their way down and out. This is generally true in history. The exception is the fact that when Israel first became a client nation for the first 400 years of its function as a client nation there was the perpetuation of those things that made it possible for Israel to fulfil the client nation function and preserve the human race as a part of the angelic conflict.

In controlling history our Lord often removes that wealth and prosperity on which we come to depend instead of Him. This is taught in Proverbs 23:5 in connection with eagles — “When you set your eyes on it,” once God provides prosperity for supergrace believers it includes material prosperity, physical prosperity, wealth, success. And so when you set your eyes on “it,” on the money you have made, the wealth you have accumulated, the success that has been recognised by others, when these things become your number one priority then the next phrase adds it is gone. When you set your eyes on “it,” the prosperity that the Lord gives you, and you begin to assume in arrogance that your prosperity is based upon the fact that you are great, that you have done something, that you are the source of it all, then your prosperity is gone. The money or the wealth or the success may still be around but the capacity is gone — “like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.” In other words, the eagle that brought it [our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history] also removes it. Prosperity is a very wonderful thing when it depends on the Lord because it is obviously there, provided your scale of values is correct, and your capacity is perpetuated. And the easiest thing in the world to do is to perpetuate capacity. That simply requires the daily intake of Bible doctrine.

The eagle is also a symbol of Christ controlling history and this is used for divine judgment regarding time. Job 9:25,26, “Now my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good,” the rapid passing of time without blessing, “They slip by like reed boats [moving gently down the Nile], like an eagle that swoops on its prey,” an illustration of the principle that because man has an old sin nature and because he has a predilection for many forms of arrogance it becomes necessary to teach him the hard way rather than the easy way. The hard way is by suffering, by discipline, by hurting. The judgment of a client nation by military disaster is also compared to the flight of the eagle in Deuteronomy 28:49 — “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down.” The eagle emphasises the fact that Jesus Christ controls history and that He uses any kind of a nation, usually a very evil nation, a very unjust nation, to punish and discipline under the third and fourth and even fifth cycles. The eagle emphasises also divine protection under the principle that Jesus Christ controls history in Deuteronomy 32:9-11, “For the Lord’s portion is his people [Israel as a client nation to God]; Jacob is the allotment of his inheritance.”

When the word “Jacob” is used it means the Jews are presented in all of their worst possible approach to life. In other words, an obnoxious Jew in the Old Testament is called Jacob; a great Jew is called Israel. Many times the vocative “Israel” is used in the Old Testament to indicate the Jews of that generation are honourable and have integrity. Then the word “Jacob” is used when they are obnoxious and evil. And everywhere you find these two vocatives, Israel and Jacob, it is always the Lord who handles the situation. He doesn’t need our help.

Verse 10, “He found them in a desert land,” helpless, in slavery, “and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled them, he cared for them, he guarded them as the pupil of his eye.”

Verse 11, “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, he spread his wings, and caught them, he carried them on his pinions.” This is what we have as a part of our Lord’s coat of arms. The very fact that in every generation of human history since the Jew was begun as a race there will always be Jews in spite of the fact that Satan does everything he can to destroy them. In the angelic conflict the major objective of Satan is to discredit and destroy the Jews. And here is a statement of our Lord’s faithfulness. And the very fact that in spite of every possible type of persecution in so many generations of history the Jew has not only survived but has prospered is indicative of the fourth part of our Lord’s coat of arms. He is the God of Israel; He is also the one who protects them. And Satan with all of his great power and ability the Jews continue to live on the face of the earth.

A description of our Lord’s blessing of the pivot makes reference to the eagle in Isaiah 40:31, “Yet those who have confidence in the Lord will gain new strength” — confidence in the Lord is the momentum of the believer in the Old Testament. “They shall mount up with wings like eagles,” this is not talking about believers in general, it is talking about believers specifically: positive believers, “they shall run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” Interestingly enough the last three lines of Isaiah 40:31 actually deal with the tremendous production of energy, great nervous energy, to those who have spiritual momentum from doctrine resident in the soul.

The eagle device, then, in our Lord’s heraldry emphasises His control of history, not only from the standpoint of His faithfulness to the believer who is advancing but His faithfulness to believer and unbeliever in judgment, divine discipline. Hosea 8:1, “Put the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle the enemy invades against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, they have rebelled against my doctrine.” So the eagle is reversed. The eagle on one side delivers Israel when there is integrity from doctrine. But then the eagle is reversed and is the basis for an army invading. And why does a military organisation destroy Israel? “Because they have transgressed my covenant, they have rebelled against my doctrine.” And who does the disciplining? The Lord, of course. So the eagle has two sides: one side says deliverance for Israel; the other side says punishment for Israel. And the reason that the eagle is on the coat of arms is because God does both without our help.

What happens to the people who try to help God? What happens to the people who say that the Jews are behind all the problems in life? What happens to the people who persecute the Jews? These people become the subjects of terrible divine discipline. None of us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ can afford anti-Semitism. Describing the invasion of the Chaldeans to administer the fifth cycle of discipline, Habbakuk 1:8, “Their horses are swifter than leopards [the cavalry of the Chaldeans], more eager to attack than wolves of the evening.” The wolves, by the way, always attack the weak ones, the stragglers of the flock, implying that the weak ones of Israel would be destroyed by the Chaldean invasion. “Their steeds paw the ground,” they can’t wait to get at you; “Their horsemen come from afar, they fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.”

The eagle on our Lord’s escutcheon says, “Take your choice: blessing or discipline.” You have a choice as a believer and one way that you can get involved in terrible discipline and suffering is to be anti-Semitic. Verse 9 adds: “All of them come for violence.”

The entire college of heralds and the pur sui vant wear the arms of our Lord, as per Ezekiel 1:10 and Revelation 1:7. The highest ranking of the angels are the seraphim. They have six wings. Under them are the cherubs or cherubim. The cherub is an angel with four wings as rank insignia. All seraphs and cherubs possess the uniform of wisdom. The cherub is found first in Genesis 3:24. When God put a guard on the garden of Eden it had to be someone of equivalent rank to the one who got into the garden, indwelt the serpent and carried on a conversation with the woman, resulting in her fall. So the ones who guard the garden of Eden are cherubs and they possess four wings as their rank insignia, plus their uniform of wisdom. The order of rank, by the way, is found in the two categories of angels we will be studying in Revelation. We have the college of heralds and the hosts of heaven, the elect army.

The angelic order of battle includes two categories. First of all, the order of rank in the elect army of angels. Number one in that order of rank is the Lord Jesus Christ who as Commander-in-Chief has the title Adonai Sabaoth — “Lord of the armies.” Number two are the archangels. An archangel commands an angelic army, perhaps of millions. Two are mentioned in the Bible: Michael who commands an army of elect angels whose responsibility in every generation is to defend Israel. He is known as the prince of Israel in Daniel 10:21. In Daniel 12:1 the following translation helps to understand his duties:

“Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people [the Jews in every generation], will arise. And there will be a time of distress [reference to the Tribulation] such as never occurred since there was a client nation until that time; furthermore, at that time [the Tribulation] your people [the Jews], everyone who is found written in the book if life [saved Jews], will be rescued.” The implication is that Michael will have a great deal to do with that.

Michael as the prince of Israel defends the Jews in the Tribulation from the wrath of Satan, according to Revelation 12:7, and Michael in the past fought with Satan over the body of Moses, as per Jude 9 and 2 Peter 2:11.

The other army commander is Gabriel. He is not only an archangel but also an army commander who functions as one of the kings of arms in the college of heralds. He was sent to Daniel to explain his very important vision of Daniel 9. This is found both in Daniel 8:16 and 9:21. It was he who announced the birth of John the Baptist in Luke 1:11, and the birth of our Lord in Luke 1:26. This classifies Gabriel not only as an archangel but as a seraph.

Extrabiblical sources such as the book of Enoch add several more — Raphael and Uriel.

Number three in the order of rank is the angelic general staff composed of the 24 elders of Revelation 4:4,10; 5:11. Number five is the rank and file called “hosts.”

The order of rank in the college of heralds: #1 is again our Lord Jesus Christ under the title of Malak Adonai, the “Angel of the Lord” or “Angel of Jehovah.” It is a reference to our Lord Jesus Christ who is above the order of heralds.

There are four appearances of our Lord in history. First of all He appears as number one in the college of heralds. He appears in the theophany “the Lord of hosts.” The theophanies describe our Lord before the first advent. The incarnation is His second appearance where He appears in the hypostatic union. His third appearance is in the Christophanies, His post-resurrection appearances in hypostatic union. Finally, the second advent where He returns in hypostatic union to supersede Satan as the ruler of this world.

As the Angel of the Lord Jesus Christ is identified as God in Genesis 16:7-13; 22:11-18; 31:11-13; 48:15,16; Exodus 3:1ff compared with Acts 7:30-35; or Exodus 13:21; 14:19; Judges 6:11-23 or 13:9-20. All of these simply indicate that Jesus Christ is number one in the order of the college of heralds.

Number two are the seraphim. Two categories of seraphim exist in the college of heralds: the kings of arms or officers of arms, like the powerful angel of Revelation 5:2. Or, secondly, the angelic heralds or the four living creatures, Revelation 4:6-8. The insignia of rank are the six wings.

Number three in the order of the college of heralds are the cherubim, the angels with four wings as insignia of rank. These are actually officers of the pur sui vant, and just as there is rank among the pur sui vant in the English college of heralds so there is rank among the biblical college of heralds. The pur sui vant officers in the angelic college include those who guard the gates of the garden of Eden in Genesis 3:24, or the chariots of fire in Ezekiel 1 and 10. Satan or Lucifer the son of the morning is also in this category, or was, Ezekiel 28:14. He lost that status although he is now the ruler of the world.

Number four is the rank and file of the pur sui vant, the messengers. These are elect angels without wings, without rank. Most angels without wings who have anything to do with restraining or carrying messengers or stating policy are in this group. For example, the angelic messengers who destroyed Sodom after spending the night with Lot, Genesis 19:13, or the executioners of the city of Jerusalem in Ezekiel 9:1ff, or the man clothed in linen in Ezekiel 10:6 who acts as a messenger for the chariots of fire, or the four angels who hold back the four winds in Revelation 7:1, or the messenger from the east in Revelation 7:2.

We continue our study of the angelic college of heralds in verse eight. Before we finish this verse we will have to examine certain portions of two chapters in Ezekiel and a small section of one chapter in Isaiah. We begin now with description of the angelic heralds in the first part of Revelation 4:8. The usual beginning is the connective conjunction kai, translated “now,” with the nominative plural from tessarej, meaning “four,” plus the nominative plural subject of zoion which can be translated “living creatures,” and it actually refers to the four angelic heralds, “now the four angelic heralds.”

We have also a verb in the present active participle of the verb e)xw, “had.” E)xw is used here as a part of a three-word idiom beginning with the numeral e(n, meaning “one.” The preposition kata, again plus the numeral e(n, “each one of them” is the correct translation.

So we are off to some kind of a start in the verse. “Now each one of the four angelic heralds.” These are the highest rank as far as their insignia, they are seraphim which is the highest rank in the college of heralds, “each had.” The morphology of e)xw includes the present tense which is a historical present viewing a past event with the vividness of a present occurrence; also a retroactive progressive present which denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. The active voice: the angelic heralds produce the action. This is a circumstantial participle followed by the distributive use of a)na. A)na goes back to Homeric Greek for its meaning, it means “each” or “a piece.” And then the accusative plural direct object from the noun pteruc, and it refers to wings. We have noted that most angels do not have wings so when an angel has wings he is in a very special category. With this we know the exact number of wings from the indeclinable numeral e(c, and it means “six.” Remember that only seraphim and cherubim have wings as an insignia of rank. From this passage and the description in Isaiah 6:2 it is concluded that these angelic heralds are seraphs and therefore the highest possible ranking among the angels.

The word seraphim is a Hebrew word, a noun in the plural. The “im” is the plural suffix. We would simply translate it “seraphs.” It comes from the Hebrew word saraph, meaning to burn, and therefore these angelic heralds are messengers of divine judgment on planet earth. Saraph also means to be high and lofty. It is used for nobility, it is used for a prince in two forms: the form sar and then for more than one prince, seraphim. The angels with six wings, then, are seraphs in contrast to cherubs who only have four wings. Again, wings are the insignia of rank. As angelic heralds seraphim always are used to announce the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ in worship, plus announcing the policies of our Lord with regard to His control of history. This means that they announce historical judgements. They do not carry them out, they announce them.

The six wings in our passage are amplified by Isaiah. He said that one pair shields the face, one pair conceals the feet, and the third pair is used for moving rapidly. Mobility is a necessary function for a herald. Therefore heralds lead in divine worship as well as proclaim divine policy. They announce divine punishment or any other expression of the integrity of God. The pair of wings that cover the face are analogous to their humility and equivalent to the function of gate three of the divine dynasphere. The pair of wings that cover the feet are analogous to their respect for authority and equivalent to the function of gate five of the divine dynasphere. The pair of wings with which they fly indicates their function as angelic heralds, the communicators of divine policy. It is very interesting that one of the words for a minister in the Church Age is the Greek word khruc, and that is the word for a herald.

Verse 1, “In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple.” The throne room in the temple of Isaiah is exactly the same throne in the vision of John in chapters five and six.

Verse 2, “Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.”

Verse 3 — “And one [of them] called out to another [seraph] and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of the armies [angelic armies], the fullness of the whole earth is his glory.”

The word holy means integrity, the honour and the integrity of two divine attributes, divine justice and divine righteousness. The seraphs have the privilege of making this statement in the presence of God.

Verse 4, “Now the door sockets trembled at the sound of his [the seraph] voice who called out while the temple in heaven was filled with smoke.”

Verse 5, “Then I [Isaiah] said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips [unclean thoughts]’ ” In other words he recognises the fact of his own weakness, his own helplessness, and therefore he is number one candidate for grace in the time in which he lived, “ ‘My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of the armies’.”

Verse 6, “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs.”

Verse 7, “Then he touched my mouth with it and said, ‘Now hear this, this has touched your lips; therefore your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven’.” That, by the way, was an actual case of where the forgiveness was actually proclaimed by the highest rank in the college of heralds, perhaps one of the same four heralds we are studying, indicating the importance of Isaiah. And notice the basis for his importance: it is in his humility. Humility is the key to happiness in life, blessing in life, and almost everything else that is wonderful in life.

Verse 8, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I replied, ‘Here am I. Send me’.”

Verse 9, “And he said, ‘Go and tell this people: You keep on listening, but you don’t learn anything; you keep on looking, but you don’t understand’.”

Verse 10, “Make the right lobes of these people callused.” How do you make people callused? By consistently teaching them the truth which they reject. They build their own hardness of heart. All Isaiah had to do was be consistent in teaching doctrine. “Make their ears dull.” There is nothing duller than a person who rejects doctrine; “And close their eyes, otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,” systems of perception at the time of Isaiah, “And understand with their right lobes, and turn around and be delivered,” the deliverance of client nation Israel.

Each one of the four angelic heralds had six wings a piece. Next we are going to see the uniform of wisdom for the second time. It begins with two adverbs, the adverb kuklothen which means “all around,” and e)swqen, “outside,” “inside and outside.” Then we have the third person plural present active indicative of the verb gemw, and it means to be full, “inside and outside they are full.” The perfective present tense refers to a fact that has come to be in the past, wearing the uniform of wisdom which they received at whatever is comparable in the angelic conflict to the judgment seat of Christ. Remember that all angels are in their eternity.

The same thing is going to be true in human history at certain points. So far only our Lord Jesus Christ has received His resurrection body but at the Rapture of the Church, the terminating point of the Church Age, the royal family only will have a resurrection body. For them the point of the Rapture is the beginning of eternity. Certain ones who have the uniform of glory and who have received decorations like the order of the morning star, the crown of life, and so on, are going to come back and rule for one thousand years; but they are in their eternity, they are in resurrection bodies just as throughout all human history all angels are in whatever is their eternal and final form.

All this is background for what is described here. Inside and outside they are “full.” The declarative indicative is for the reality of the great decoration, the great honour that has been bestowed upon them, the uniform of wisdom, one of the highest decorations awarded to elect angels. This uniform is described in terms of perception. The objective genitive plural from o)fqalmoj, meaning eyes. They are full of eyes [the uniform of wisdom] inside [perception of doctrine] and outside [application of doctrine]. The uniform of wisdom was awarded to angelic creatures, before man was created, for perception of doctrine and its application. All of the perception of doctrine is manifest in its application. To learn doctrine is not enough, it must be learned so that it can be applied. Therefore it must be e)pignwsij in the right lobe.

In the college of heralds in heaven we have the two ranks, the six and the four wings. Only these two rank groups have the uniform of wisdom. In other words, the highest rank in eternity among angels is determined by perception and application of doctrine, a reminder of the importance of doctrine to us at the present time. Eyes are used for perception of doctrine, as we have previously noted. Believers are warned about spiritual blindness, 1 John 2:11.

Comparing this verse to Ezekiel chapter one this system of rank based on wings in quite apparent. In Ezekiel we have a description of the cherubs as those who have rank in the third order of the college of heralds, the pur sui vant. Remember that the pur sui vant rank lowest. Number one is the Angel of the Lord, Jesus Christ, who heads the college of heralds. Number two in rank are the seraphs who have six wings. There are two categories: the kings of arms, sometimes called officers of arms; and the heralds. Both of these categories have six wings. The third category are the officers of pur sui vant, and finally we have the rank of pur sui vant. The officers of pur sui vant are cherubs, they have four wings. The function of the pur sui vant includes both warning and execution of divine judgment on any client nation to God.

Ezekiel 1:4, “And as I looked I saw a storm wind.” The Hebrew really means a fire storm, the most dangerous and destructive of all fires; “coming out of the north,” the Chaldean invasion of Israel to administer the fourth cycle of discipline. The year is BC 625, “a great cloud with fire flashing out continually [a divine warning of military disaster] and a bright light was around it. Furthermore, the centre of that fire was like glowing metal.”

Verse 5, “And inside of the fire cloud were figures resembling four living creatures,” the four angels we are studying, the four angelic heralds; “in appearance their form was like that of a man.”

Verse 6, “Each one of them had four faces and four wings,” so they are cherubs and not seraphs. The four faces, by the way, represent the four Gentile nations which God used as the fire storm to deal with client nation Israel from Ezekiel’s time onwards from 625 BC -70 AD. The first face is the Chaldean empire which will administer the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom in 586 BC. The second face is the Persian empire which would restore client nation Israel, first through the edict of Cyrus the Great in BC 538, and then in the return of the remnant to build the temple in BC 536. The third face is the Hellenistic empires, the Syrians under the Seleucids, called by Daniel the king of the north, and Egypt under the Ptolemies known as the king of the south. The fourth face is the Roman empire which administers the fifth cycle of discipline in AD 70 introducing the times of the Gentiles.

So we have now four in the college of heralds, but these four are pur sui vant in contrast to the seraphs which are heralds. The four sings are their insignia of rank in the college of heralds.

Verse 7, “Their legs were straight and the soles of their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze,” the bronze speaks of judgment, the sole of the calf’s foot means firmly planted, and therefore the fact that divine judgment of apostate client nations is a trend in history you can count on. No client nation ever gets away with a thing.

Verse 8, “Under their wings on their four sides they had hands of a man.” Note that the pur sui vant are often described in analogies related to man. They appear as man, “all four of them had faces and wings,” the hands of the pur sui vant indicates the temporal and historical security of mature believers in the midst of historical disaster. The hands also speak of grace before judgment. The hands of Christ began human history with creation. Psalm 19:1 tells us that the world was brought into being by the hands of our Lord. Psalm 122:25; John 1:3; Hebrews 1:10; Colossians 1:16 all tell us that Jesus Christ actually created the world. The hands of Christ which created the world are the hands of the saviour — Psalm 22:16. The hands of Christ are the hands of security, John 10:28. While these passages have eternal security in view they also remind us that the mature believer is protected in a special way in time of historical disaster to the client nation. The hands of this verse, Ezekiel 1:8, emphasise grace before judgment, a principle found in Isaiah 65:1,2. The hands of Christ also administer divine judgment, including the fifth cycle of discipline.

The hands, then, of the pur sui vant angels indicate our Lord’s delegation of authority to angels for the actual administration of historical disaster. The last phrase of Ezekiel 1:8 emphasises both authority delegated from God to the administration of historical judgment and the badge of rank in the college of heralds to carry out His justice.

Verse 9, “Their wings [insignia of authority] touched one another; they did not turn as they went, they went each one in the direction of his face.” The joining of the wings, according to verse 11, was limited to the upper pair so that each pur sui vant angel’s top pair of wings was joined to the next one. This means simply that the angels never act on their own in the administration of divine punishment. In other words, the application of professionalism. Their function in the college of heralds is to carry out the policy of God. Of all of the areas of life where professionalism should exist it should exist with fundamentalist Christians. If ever there was an area where believers are absolutely idiotic and non-professional it is the “fundies.” What is meant by professionalism? Good manners, thoughtfulness of others, integrity, honour, many things that “fundies” seem to be totally lacking in.

So divine punishment in historical disaster is the policy of God from His perfect integrity. The angelic heralds merely carry it out.

Verse 10 — “And the form of their faces was that of a man [one of the four sides], in addition on the right all four had the face of a lion,” cf. Revelation 4:7, where they are seraphs, with six wings. The ones in Ezekiel chapter one are lower in the college of heralds, they have four wings. Now you begin to see why it is necessary in interpretation to understand the order of battle, the order of rank in the college of heralds, “and on the left all four had the face of a bull, and all four had an eagle’s face.” These are not the same angels, only a reminder one of the other. The seraph bear the coat of arms of our Lord Jesus Christ, four seraphs, each one carries one quarter of the escutcheon. The cherubs in Ezekiel one, each one has the coat of arms of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The “face of a man” we should remember refers to our Lord Jesus Christ, a part of His coat of arms dealing with His third royal patent celebrating His strategic victory. The face of a lion: our Lord’s second royal patent, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The face of a bull: our Lord’s escutcheon dealing with His first advent in submitting to the plan of the Father bearing our sins on the cross. An eagles face: the coat of arms which emphasises the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. There is, therefore, a parallel between the cherubs in Ezekiel 1:10 and the seraphs in Revelation 4:7. What they have in common is the escutcheon of our Lord Jesus Christ. All the heralds bear the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ in Ezekiel one but in Revelation four each herald simply bears one quarter of the escutcheon.

Verse 11, “And such were their faces. Their top set of wings spread out upward; each one had two top wings touching one another, and two wings covering their bodies.”

Verse 12, “Furthermore, each one went in the direction of his face,” that is, each one went straight ahead; “furthermore, wherever the wind would go they would go, without turning as they went,” this emphasises concentration as well as professionalism. As pur sui vant in the college of angelic heraldry they did not function according to their own will independently of our Lord Jesus Christ in His administration of historical judgment. Historical trends are inevitably the result of human volition whether they are manifest through prophecy or not. This verse implies that as the highest form of angelic life they had volition but they did not use it independently of God in their modus operandi on their historical mission. It is interesting to note that the word “wind” in verse 12 is the Hebrew word ruach, the same noun as used for both wind and the Holy Spirit. Here it refers to wind as historical trends but in Ezekiel 1:20 it refers to God the Holy Spirit. So these angelic heralds follow historical trends to administer both divine warning and divine judgment. In other words, man is the product of his own decisions, and God always gives him plenty of time to reverse those decisions and start making good ones. Bad decisions create historical disaster and the pur sui vant angels first warn in time for that warning to sink in. Then, if it is not heeded, they administer divine judgment for perpetuation of negative volition. Man must therefore take the responsibility for his own decisions, whether good or bad, which includes of course all economic depression, the result of not one person but many people.

Verse 13, “And the appearance of the living creatures [the pur sui vant angels] was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of flaming torches, and the pur sui vant angels went back and forth like bolts of lightning,” and what are they doing? They are simply administering judgment brought on by the volition of the hoi poloi.

In verses 4 through 14 of Ezekiel chapter one we have a description of the officers of the pur sui vant. The pur sui vant angels have officers who are called cherubs. Pur sui vant have two ranks: the rank and file and then their officers.

The seraph is the highest angelic rank. Above the seraph is only the Angel of the Lord. The seraph bears the arms of our Lord, he has six wings. The cherub only has four wings but these cherubs in Ezekiel 1:5 are very special because they each bear the entire escutcheon, coat of arms, of our Lord, whereas each seraph only bears one quarter of our Lord’s escutcheon, as per Revelation chapter four. The reason for that has to do with its placement. The cherubs are placed in Ezekiel, a prophecy pertinent to that day, whereas Revelation is for the Church and therefore has a different connotation.

In Ezekiel 1:15-28 we see the function of the officers of the pur sui vant category.

Verse 15, “Now as I looked out at the pur sui vant [living creatures, the cherubs], behold, there was one wheel,” this wheel is called orphan, “on the ground beside each pur sui vant angel.” We have a wheel of a chariot, an orphon, we have an officer, one of the four cherubs, and he also bears the entire arms of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The first question is, What is the orphon or the chariot wheel? For the exact meaning of the Hebrew we have to go back to Exodus 14:25 where the Egyptian chariots were going through the Red Sea and when suddenly the water moved back over them. The wheels of their chariots were called orphon. In Proverbs 20:26 the wheel of the chariot is used for capital punishment and administered to criminals, “A wise king weeds out the criminals in his kingdom, therefore he drives the orphon over them,” talking about judgment. The chariots of fire represent judgment and the administration of this judgment is in the hands of the officers, the cherubs, the pur sui vant.

Keep this in mind. Seraphs have six wings. Two categories: the kings of arms and the heralds. That is what we have in Revelation four each bearing one quarter of the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ. But cherubs are lower than seraphs, they have only four wings, and they are related here to the chariots of fire in Ezekiel chapter one. They bear the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the vision of the Ancient of Days, meaning the eternal one in Daniel 7:9, we have a description of our Lord’s throne mounted on chariot wheels: “I kept looking until the thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days [the eternal God] took his seat; his robe was white as snow [like Revelation 1:13], and the hair of his head was pure as wool [like Revelation 1:14]. His throne was flames of fire, its wheels a burning fire.” So in Daniel 7:9 we have the chariots of fire which carry the throne of our Lord Jesus Christ. These wheels are the wheels of the chariots of fire. In Ezekiel 1:15 these are again the wheels of the chariots of fire. These are the same wheels as are found in Ezekiel 10:2, “And he spoke to the man clothed in linen [pur sui vant] and said, ‘Enter into the whirling wheels under the cherubs.’ The cherubs are the chariots of fire administering judgment but they merely proclaim and indicate the divine policy. The man in linen carries it out, he is rank and file pur sui vant, or messenger. So the cherubs have under them messengers, ‘and fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubs and scatter them over the city.’ We are talking about the city of Jerusalem. This is the prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem in BC 586, the prophecy of the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline, and you will notice that the discipline came from the chariots of fire.

So on top of the chariots of fire is the throne. This is where our Lord Jesus Christ controls history. At the wheels of the chariot are the cherubs, each one a pur sui vant officer, each wheel of the chariot has a cherub. The man in linen here is simply a rank and file pur sui vant messenger. He goes into the wheels, picks up the coals, carries them to Jerusalem, a prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem in BC 586, the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom. So Ezekiel is prophesying from the standpoint of heaven. The whole point is that it comes from the integrity of our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history.

In this particular prophecy you will notice that the seraphs are not mentioned. Reason: the royal family is not involved. The seraphs that we are studying in Revelation deal with the royal family. In Revelation chapter four we are talking about the royal family in heaven, we are talking about the Tribulation where the highest ranking angels in the college of heralds come forward. Here in Ezekiel we are talking about Israel in the fifth cycle of discipline.

Notice that in Ezekiel 1:15 there were four wheels to the chariot of fire, and by each wheel is a cherub or the officer of the pur sui vant bearing our Lord’s coat of arms. Always, anytime when you are dealing with historical disaster in any form of judgment there is always somewhere the coat of arms indicating exactly who is controlling history. Our Lord is controlling history. His coat of arms merely indicates the fact of His integrity and His right to administer any form of judgment and historical disaster to any group at any time in history.

In Ezekiel 10:5-10 we have exactly the same judgment scene from the chariot of fire. By the way, when Elijah was picked up he was picked up in a chariot of fire. Elijah did not die physically, he was taken to heaven without dying because his work isn’t done. But he also had fouled up by running away from the revival. He will have another crack at it in the Tribulation but when he left the earth he left in a chariot of fire. Ezekiel 10:5, “Moreover, the sound of the wings [badge of rank] of the cherubs was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God [El Shaddai, actually] when he speaks.

Verse 6, “And it came to pass when he commanded the man in linen [a cherub], saying, ‘Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubs,’ and he entered and stood between the wheels.

Verse 7, “Then the cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire [the judgment] which was between the cherubim, and took some and put it in the hands of the one clothed in linen [the rank and file messenger] who took it and went out.”

Verse 8, “And the cherubs appeared to have the form of a man’s hand under their wings.”

Verse 9, “Then I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubs, one wheel beside each cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of an emerald [representing God’s promise to always protect the mature believer no matter how great the disaster].”

Verse 10, “And as for their appearance, the four of them [the pur sui vant officers] look alike, each as it one wheel were within the other wheel.” In other words, they were exact duplications as far as their appearance.

Verse 15, “Now as I looked at the pur sui vant officer [cherub], behold, there was one wheel on the ground beside each pur sui vant angel [living creature] with their four faces” — the four faces are the devices of heraldry on our Lord’s coat of arms.

Verse 16, “And the appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like the flash of an emerald, and all four looked alike.” The emerald represents the fact that no matter how great the judgment God always preserves the mature believer. God always protects the pivot and in our dispensation the wall of fire is for those inside the divine dynasphere; “their appearance and their workmanship was as if one wheel were within another,” an idiom for exact duplication, the wheels were exactly the same.

Verse 17, “And as they moved they would go in any one of four directions the pur sui vant angels faced, the wheels did not turn as the pur sui vant moved.”

Verse 18, “As for their rims they were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around,” maximum perception of doctrine, and this is again a representation of the fact that those who are the recipients of judgment always get a fair shake.

Verse 19, “And when the pur sui vant angels moved, the wheels beside them moved. And when the pur sui vant angels rose from the earth, the wheels rose also.”

Verse 20, “Wherever the Spirit,” now we have the Hebrew, ruach, again. This time it isn’t wind, it is a reference to God the Holy Spirit, would go, they would go in that direction. And the wheels would rise with them, because the Spirit in the pur sui vant angels was also in the wheels.” The wheels are an integral part of the angels. In other words, they are integrated with the chariot. The chariot wheels represent divine judgment during human history, the source being our Lord Jesus Christ. The function of judgment is delegated to the angelic college of heralds. The fact that the wheels have the uniform of wisdom in verse 18 and are filled with the Spirit in verse 20 indicates that the wheels are the judgment administration, and this administration is given to the cherubs who in turn delegate it to the rank and file under their command. The integrity of the divine justice as administered to the college of heralds is stated in Ezekiel 1:21.

Verse 21, “When the former [the cherubs] moved the latter [the wheels] moved also; and when the former stood still, the wheels also stood still.” This indicates, of course, a system whereby motion or lack of motion depended upon the officers. “Furthermore, when the former raised themselves from the ground, the wheels raised themselves beside them; for the Spirit [God the Holy Spirit] in the pur sui vant angels was also in the wheels.”

Verse 22, “Now over the heads of the pur sui vant angels here was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal extended over their heads,” which means there was no help from heaven in the administration of judgment. The cherubs or pur sui vant angels did not turn as they changed direction. They went straight forward, as we have noted, and the wheels moved with the cherubs; hence the cherubs are the moving force in the chariots of fire. The judgements in human history, apart from those which result in bad decisions, are mandated by the sovereignty of our Lord Jesus Christ and are carried out by the officers of the heraldry who delegate the actual detailed function to the rank and file.

Verse 23, “And under the expanse their wings were stretched our horizontally [straight], one toward the other; each one also had two sets of wings covering their bodies, one on the one side, one on the other,” four in all. These four sings are the badge of rank again.

Verse 24, “I also heard the sound of their wings like the roar of rushing waters.” The roar of rushing waters is use as an analogy for the armies invading Israel to administer either the fourth or the fifth cycles of discipline. And, of course, this applies to any client nation at any time; “like the voice of the Almighty, like the sound of an army in bivouac; when they stood still they lowered their wings.” Lowering of the wings means that the cherubs or the chariot of fire do not use their authority apart from the sovereignty of our Lord. While the angelic college of heralds have all kinds of agents for judgment the source of their agency function is always the same: Jesus Christ who controls history. In other words, they do not abuse their authority.

Verse 25, the source of the judgment is now stated. “And there came a voice from above the expanse that was over their heads; as they stood still with lowered wings.”

Verse 26, “Furthermore above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne of sapphire; and high above that throne was the figure like that of a man” — our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history.

Verse 27, “Then I notice that from what appeared to be his waste up he looked like glowing metal as full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire and a brilliant light surrounded him” — meaning that all judgment comes from integrity, is fair, is perfect, and it is never in any way discriminatory or unfair or unreasonable.

Remember once again that we must keep in mind the angelic order of battle. It is the basis for interpretation of numerous verses in the next eight chapters of the book of Revelation. Furthermore, we are going to learn a great deal from angels during our study of Revelation. One of the next things we are about to learn is how to worship. The fact that people do not know how to worship and often think they are worshipping when they are not is one of the great issues in the Word of God. Of course, once a believer in Jesus Christ knows how to worship his relationship with people should improve tremendously for worship is a major factor in category #1 love — occupation with the person of Christ and fulfilment of all the principles related to Him. All motivating virtue and worship is tied in together as far as the divine dynasphere is concerned.

In the angelic order of battle there are two classifications. First of all there is the angelic army, and secondly there is the college of heralds. Number one in both categories is our Lord Jesus Christ. Under the army His title as Commander-in-Chief is Lord of hosts, better translated Lord of the armies, Adonai Sabaoth. As number one in the college of heralds His title is Angel of the Lord, Malak Adonai. Number two in the army is the concept of army commanders. The title is archangels. There are two archangels mentioned in the Bible, Michael and Gabriel. Number two as far as the college of heralds is concerned is made up of a category which we call seraphs. A seraph is simply an angel with six wings. Wings simply denote the rank of angels: six wings, the seraphs; four wings, the cherubs. Most angels do not have wings.

In the college of heralds there are two categories of the seraph. The first is the king of arms or the officers of arms. The second category are the heralds.

Number three in the army is what we have studied as the “twenty-four elders,” and they are actually the general staff. Number three in the college of heralds are the pur sui vant officers. The officers are the ones that we have been noting in Ezekiel chapters 1 and 10. The pur sui vant officers are always cherubs. They are distinguished from the rank and file pur sui vant which are simply called messengers and have no wings.

In Revelation 4:8 the worship function of the angelic heralds is only summarised in the next phrase we will study. It is the same phrase given by Isaiah chapter six but it doesn’t tell us anything about worship, except this: All true worship is based on knowing and understanding the integrity of God, not the love of God. In the rest of verse eight we have the object of worship mentioned but you cannot worship God as a born-again believer until you know those doctrines which pertain to integrity and those doctrines which pertain to Christology. And they are all merely mentioned briefly because it is assumed that by the time you get to the book of Revelation you understand the integrity of God. That is what we studied in the book of Romans.

We begin with the connective conjunction kai emphasising a noteworthy fact about the highest rank of elect angels in the college of heralds. The Lord Jesus Christ is not an angel, He commands the college of heralds. The highest ranking are the seraphs. The kai here, therefore, being used to indicate a noteworthy fact about this highest order in the college of heralds, is translated not “and” but “furthermore.” Then we have a verb that John uses constantly whenever he is describing any category of elect angels and their function, the present active indicative of the verb e)xw, but with this we also have the negative o)uk. In this case they do not have, literally. The descriptive present tense of e)xw plus the negative, and the active voice: the four seraphs or angelic heralds produce a negative action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of a perpetuation of a function in their life in heaven. With this we have the accusative singular direct object from a)napausij, which means a stopping or a rest, “Furthermore they do not have rest.” This is a Greek idiom meaning without ceasing. Then we have two genitives of time: h(mera for day; neuc for night, “day or night,” “saying,” the present active participle from legw. And what follows is simply a summary of their worship. There are six words that are exactly the same and then we have three words which are basic to the title of the object of worship. First of all we have a(gioj three times. It is translated in our Bibles as “holy” and that is all right if you understand its meaning. It is a very nebulous and abstruse word without assigning a meaning in modern English. It means integrity. A(gioj translated “holy” refers to the integrity, specifically of our Lord Jesus Christ but also the other members of the Trinity as well. The noun is repeated three times because each member of the Trinity has the same identical integrity called holiness, made up of two divine attributes, righteousness and justice.

Out of this comes the first of many principles we are going to learn from angels: all worship, which is respect for God expressed, plus all human love for God must begin with the divine attribute of integrity. The basis for worship is understanding and therefore having total respect for the integrity of God. This is where all worship must begin. Divine holiness or integrity is our first reality contact with God in worship. Now our first contact is when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; our first reality contact in worship is understanding the integrity of God.

The triple repetition, “Holy, holy, holy,” is addressed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Each repetition is directed toward one category of His title. All three members of the Trinity have the same integrity but Jesus Christ is the manifest person of the Godhead. He is the saviour and, furthermore, all we know about God is what we know about Jesus Christ. So when they say, “Holy, holy, holy,” they are not excluding the other members of the Trinity but in this particular passage what follows indicates that each one of these titles has the same identity, the same equality of integrity. The first title is kurioj, “Lord,” and it refers to the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also a title of His third royal patent where He is called Lord of lords, and the absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the noun. This would emphasise to us a number of things. Since kurioj is used here in the sense of Lord it refers specifically to His third royal patent. The hypostatic union comes into focus. It was at the conclusion, the resurrection, ascension and session of our Lord, of the first advent that the hypostatic union came to heaven and there received the third royal patent. And remember the key to the hypostatic union is the three factors: first of all Jesus Christ is eternal God; secondly, He is true humanity; thirdly, these are combined in one person forever.

The second title here is o( qeoj, the God. This emphasises the deity of Christ only, the fact that Jesus Christ is eternal God.

The third title is pantokrator, it means “all-powerful one” and is a reference to the total power of Christ over creatures as the God-Man, the uniqueness of His person in the universe. It emphasises His royal patents, all three of them.

“furthermore, day and night they never stopped saying, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’, Lord God the Almighty one.”

Now we have the rest of the phrase which is merely a summary of their worship and not a detailed expression. Our Lord in the past: we have the definite article used with the indicative mood which is Ionic Greek. It is used for both the personal pronoun and the relative pronoun both, which was Ionic rather than Attic. In the Attic Greek you would have the definite pronoun, like su, and then you would follow it by o(j. It would state both. The Ionic Greek doesn’t go to all that trouble, it just uses the definite article. So we have the definite article here indicating both the personal and the relative pronoun, “he who was,” the imperfect active indicative of e)imi, the verb to be. Since there was no imperfect participle the verb e)imi is used in the indicative. Therefore the imperfect indicative is used to denote eternity past plus human history up to the time of the incarnation.

Eternity past is divided into three categories: the time when only God existed [indefinite, eternity past]; the time of the angelic conflict; the time of human history. That is eternity past up until the time of the virgin birth, e)imi being used in the imperfect tense, in the indicative since there is no imperfect participle. The imperfect tense is a progressive imperfect of description representing linear aktionsart in past time — all phases of eternity past, up to the time of the virgin birth, when Jesus Christ was eternal God, coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ as eternal God produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine: Jesus Christ is eternal God.

Next in the item of worship is our Lord at the present time. Again we have the Koine Greek, kai to connect it, the articular present active participle from e)imi. This time it is translated, “and he who is.” We switch from the Ionic to the Koine Greek which used primarily the articular participle. This time the definite article is used as the personal pronoun. The relative pronoun comes from the circumstantial participle. We have a static present tense representing a condition which is perpetually existing, it will go on forever. Our Lord will be unique forever, the God-Man. Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father also possesses in His humanity two royal patents, one which He received at birth — He is the ruler of Israel in the line of David, and one He received after the ascension in which He became the King of kings and Lord of lords, minus a royal family. The active voice: the resurrected Christ in hypostatic union plus His glorified state of His third royal patent produces the action. The participle is circumstantial for the award of the third royal patent.

Finally, we have the articular present active participle of the verb e)rxomai, and it means “who is to come.” The definite article is used for the personal pronoun. The futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not yet occurred, the second advent of Christ and the tactical victory of the angelic conflict. But this is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, this is a reference to the second advent.

The principle: all prophecy after the conclusion of the Church Age with the Rapture focuses on the second advent of Christ. Therefore you will not be surprised to find in the book of Revelation that there will be a number of things on the second advent. There is no prophecy to be fulfilled in the Church Age, this is the dispensation of no prophecy. This is the only dispensation in which a royal family is being called out. All other dispensations have prophecy, in fact in all other dispensations prophecy is the basis for delineating historical trends. But in the Church Age historical trends are delineated by the volition of the royal family, our Lord’s special salute to believers of this age. Your attitude toward doctrine and whether you live in the divine dynasphere or the cosmic system is the determining factor of historical trends. In other words, the uptrend or the downtrend of history depends on the attitude of the believer.

The next prophecy in history is the Rapture of the Church which is and has been since the Church Age began and the Rapture became imminent. All prophetical history centres around the second advent. All prophetical history before the Church Age centred around the first advent of Christ; all prophetical history after the Rapture centres around the second advent of Christ. That is the concept “and who is to come.”

The basis for understanding many of the verses found in this section of the book of Revelation is dependant on our understanding of the angelic order of battle. The elect angels have a very specific order of battle and they are divided into two categories, the army of the elect angels and the college of heralds.

As we approach to subject of worship, for that is the subject of the next three chapters, we find the category seraphim or angelic heralds are going to lead in divine worship. So in our order of battle we are now looking at the heralds who are seraphs. They will be the leaders and on the army side the general staff will have a very prominent place in the worship in heaven. The next three verses deal with the subject of worship and we are going to learn a great deal about worship from these angels in heaven.

We begin verse 9 with the connective conjunction kai, “and,” followed by the temporal particle o(tan which is used with the future active indicative and it means “when,” and it introduces a temporal clause of definite time. Most temporal clauses have indefinite time; this is one of definite time. Definite time means that the time limit may be indicated as a specific point of time when this angelic worship occurs, hence the temporal particle o(tan refers to those periods of worship in the throne room of God which were specified in the previous verse. This doesn’t occur all of the time but it does occur at specific periods. The absence of the particle a)n precludes this from being an indefinite temporal clause and therefore a definite time for worship is specified by this particle, just as there is a definite time for worship among those of us who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in the dispensation of the royal family of God.

A specific time of worship is always set aside. That specific worship of course includes several concepts. We do not worship on the Sabbath, the Sabbath being Saturday — that went out with client nation Israel, but the first day of the week. And the very fact that it is the first day of the week means that if you start the week with a dedication of a certain portion of your day to worship then that is perpetuated throughout every day. In other words, it is a matter of your scale of values and it is a reminder to put first things first. While the first day of the week was the day of assembly worship for the local church even as early as the first generation of the Church Age it was never designed to be anything but a reminder to start your week right, to start it by putting first things first in worship which, of course, basically to us is the perception of Bible doctrine.

Next we have our nominative plural subject zwon, “living creatures,” which refers to the angelic college of heralds and specifically to the four seraphs, each one bearing one quarter of our Lord’s royal arms. Translation: “And when the angelic heralds.”

Then we have the future active indicative of the verb didomi which means to give, and it is translated “shall give.” The gnomic future tense is for a statement of fact or performance which may be rightly expected under normal conditions of angelic worship in the throne room of heaven. The active voice: the angelic heralds produce the action of the verb when worship is conducted in the throne room of God. Again the temporal conjunction o(tan does indicate that worship is not conducted perpetually, only that the angelic heralds have a perpetual function in whatever periods of worship are set aside. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of worship from the angelic heralds, the highest creatures in rank in all of creature activity.

The categories of worship are now expressed. We have actually three of them, each one is an accusative singular direct object from three nouns. There are three categories of worship and they are pertinent to us as they are pertinent to the elect angels. The angelic being are called doca, so the word “glory” is our first word for worship. Doca is translated “glory” and it is found is Jude 8 for angelic beings as well as 2 Peter 2:10. Therefore it becomes a very important concept.

In Jude 8, “Yet in the very same way [as fallen angels of Genesis 6 and the men of Sodom] these degenerate men by dreaming pollute the flesh, reject authority, and slander angelic majesties.” However, the word “angelic majesties” is really doca in the plural and refers to elect angels and the equivalent of our resurrection bodies.

In 2 Peter 2:10 this is especially true of those [mankind in the cosmic system] who follow the old sin nature or “pursue the flesh in its corrupt or abnormal desires and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander angelic majesties.” Again, the reference to whatever elect angels have for resurrection bodies, the word doca in the plural.

This is the word which is used first in our passage, “And when the angelic heralds shall give glory.” This is category #1 worship and it is limited to the eternal state or resurrection body. So there are certain types of worship of which we are not capable as long as we are in the body of this flesh. This category of worship involves, therefore, the eternal state, and it simply indicates that these angels in their angelic conflict, long before history existed, made their right decision [whatever salvation was] and they have all received their resurrection bodies [doca, “glories”] and now are in heaven entering in to a form of worship which is limited to the resurrection body or its equivalent called “glory.” They give glory, and this word “glory” simply means they give a form of worship in the eternal state, a form of worship which we will enter into when we have resurrection bodies. Therefore we learn from the first category that there is a limitation to our worship. God has provided everything necessary for us to worship, He has provided Bible doctrine, but there is still a limitation.

The same thing is true, then, of the believer in the royal family of God. At the point of the Rapture and the big genuflect in the sky, that will be the first time that he will be able to give that same category of worship.

Now the point is that category #1 worship, called glory, is the highest form of worship. It requires the possession of glory and/or the resurrection body for the believer to fulfil it. Elect angels are in their eternal state or glorified state and therefore they can execute this form of worship. Glory means face to face worship in the resurrection body. This form of worship will not exist for human beings until after the Rapture of the Church when believers of this dispensation will receive their resurrection and their resultant capacities for this form of worship.

The principle from this first phrase: capacity for worship must precede the function of worship. The body of corruption cannot give glory to God as the highest category of worship. Corruption must take on incorruption, we must have a resurrection body to fulfil this form of worship. Note also an additional principle: the fallen angels, including Satan, while waiting for the lake of fire, as per Matthew 25:41, are expressing the arrogance of gate one, cosmic one through jealousy and slander of these elect angels. That is the concept that we noted in both Jude and 2 Peter. Remember that Satan himself invented the cosmic system and that all motivating evil comes from cosmic one, gate one. Therefore the tremendous amount of slander that comes to the elect angels in resurrection bodies comes from Satan. It also adds a principle to us: arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity, all forms of pride, absolutely preclude any possibility of true worship. So there is, then, category #1, glory, and it teaches us the principle that capacity for worship must precede the function of worship.

Next we have category #2 worship, another accusative singular direct object from the noun timh. It means honour, reverence, respect, a form of worship which must also demand capacity. All three meanings of timh are used in the concept of worship. The first meaning is respect, the second is reverence, the third is honour, and all three meanings teach us something about the second category of worship.

Let’s start with the word “respect” as a meaning for timh. The believer can only respect our Lord Jesus Christ by knowing His thinking, which is Bible doctrine resident in the soul, for the object of our worship is the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. Without doctrine resident in the soul the believer cannot worship God and therefore respect for doctrine precedes reception of doctrine as a future function of worship. Respect for doctrine precedes the reception of doctrine which is the prerequisite for worship. You will never learn doctrine unless you respect it; you will never learn doctrine unless it is number one in your scale of values. Add to this the filling of the Holy Spirit — gate one of the divine dynasphere — and you have a picture of this category of worship. John 4:24 expresses the principle: “God is a Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit [Gate one of the divine dynasphere] and in doctrine [Gate four of the divine dynasphere]”.

Then timh also means reverence. This is a reference to motivating virtue which is classified as personal love for God inside the divine dynasphere. Remember that when you are living the Christian life there is only one place to live it: inside the divine dynasphere. You have, first of all the function of your royal priesthood which directs your Christian life toward God from inside the divine dynasphere. You have the function of your royal ambassadorship which directs your Christian life toward people and circumstances. All virtue directed toward God becomes motivating virtue. All function of your ambassadorship inside the divine dynasphere toward people and circumstances becomes functional virtue and motivating virtue must precede functional virtue. In this case the motivating virtue is personal love for God which results from the function perception of doctrine at gate four, and it results in that great functional virtue, impersonal love for all mankind directed toward the human race. Out of it comes the concept of timh as reverence. All reverence toward God is the motivating virtue of personal love for God. Personal love for God originates from Bible doctrine resident in your soul and there can be no expression of worship apart from knowledge of doctrine producing this personal love for God, the fifth gate of the divine dynasphere.

Then timh also means honour. To honour God in worship requires both residence and function inside the divine dynasphere plus the production of honour as functional virtue. This, therefore, gives us the three concepts from our second word.

1. Compliance with the royal family honour code and the production of functional virtue is necessary for the fulfilment of the worship principle.

2. The point is that all worship directed toward God must come from virtue, honour and integrity, the production of the divine dynasphere. Remember that in the cosmic system there is both morality and immorality. Satan works through two antithetical concepts, just as the communists do through peace movements and war. He invented the cosmic system as the administration of the rulership of this world, and in the cosmic system there is morality and immorality, he uses both systems. Most moral Christians today, because they are not living in the divine dynasphere where virtue, honour and integrity is produced, are the servants of Satan, their morality is nothing more than arrogance and self-righteousness. This, of course, is a great tragedy because these people have deluded themselves into thinking that because they are moral that somehow they are honouring God. In reality they are serving Satan in the cosmic system for they use their morality as a means of maligning, gossiping and judging, and they use their morality as a system of crusading. You are not worshipping God because you sit in a church and are moral. Genuine morality comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit, it cannot be reproduced by human ability.

4. Honour in the soul must precede the expression of honour in worship so that the principle emerges in point 5.

5. Only honourable believers can honour the Lord or give honour to the Lord. You cannot express worship by giving honour to the Lord if you have no honour to give. The only accumulation of honour to give to the Lord is the honour which you develop inside the divine dynasphere.

7. To give God honour in worship you must possess honour. You cannot possess honour in the cosmic system. Most Christians live in the cosmic system. Worship, therefore, demands momentum inside the divine dynasphere, the function of perception and application of doctrine.

The third category of worship mentioned is the accusative singular direct object from the noun in the Greek, e)uxaristia. It means gratitude, thanksgiving, or the rendering of thanks. This category of worship is open to believers in time also. Category one is open only to the resurrection body, giving glory to God. The second category is honour and, of course, that is open now. The third category is thanksgiving and is open to believers in time also but there must be capacity for thanksgiving before gratitude can be expressed to God in worship. Believers in the cosmic system have no capacity for gratitude therefore they cannot fulfil this category of worship. In order to have genuine gratitude it must be backed by humility.

The principle: Arrogance is devoid of gratitude. No matter what you do for the arrogant believer he will never appreciate it. Obviously then the arrogant believer does not appreciate what God has done and is doing for him in logistical grace. In other words, people who are ungrateful to people are also ungrateful to God.

Believers involved in the cosmic system are arrogant. Arrogant believers never appreciate anything that is done for them. Arrogance destroys capacity for appreciation and consequently capacity for love, capacity for life, and obviously capacity for happiness. Arrogance either destroys worship or distorts worship into a system of ritual without reality.

We close out this verse by noting the object of the worship of the royal family of God, the articular present active participle from the Greek word kaqhmai, meaning to sit. Sometimes as a participle we will translate it “the rider.” When we get to the four horsemen of the apocalypse in Revelation 6 we will translate it “rider.” Here we have someone sitting on a throne. The definite article in the Greek is the dative singular direct object, it indicates that our Lord Jesus Christ is the object of this angelic worship in heaven. Furthermore, as a definite article it is used as per Koine Greek for a personal pronoun and is translated “to him.” It refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. The static present tense represents a condition as perpetually existing. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, He is seated at the right hand of the Father, He has received His third royal patent and, as it were, He is making intercession for us as our great High Priest. The participle is circumstantial.

With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the locative of qronoj, meaning “on the throne.” There are actually two members of the Trinity sitting on that throne, one is invisible [God the Father, the author of the plan], the other is periodically visible in order to delineate certain principles in the visions of John on the Island of Patmos. So we translate: “to him who sits on the throne,” our Lord Jesus Christ. And then we repeat an articular present active participle from the verb zaw, and it means to live, “to him who lives.” And again the dative singular indirect object from the definite article used again as a personal pronoun. The static present tense is for the perpetual existence of our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. As God He exists eternally; as true humanity in resurrected form He also exists eternally. The active voice: Jesus Christ in hypostatic union produces the action of the verb through His third royal patent. This is a circumstantial participle. With it we have an idiomatic prepositional phrase, e)ij plus two uses of a)iwn. It is e)ij plus a)iwn in the accusative plural and then plus the genitive plural. Literally, “unto the ages of ages,” but it is an idiom in the Greek that means “forever and ever.”

Verse 9, “And when the angelic heralds shall give glory [category one worship limited to the eternal state or the resurrection body] and honour [category two worship, only honourable believers in time can honour the Lord in worship] and thanksgiving [category three worship for believers in the divine dynasphere] to him who sits upon the throne [our Lord Jesus Christ], to him who lives forever and ever [the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ will be in hypostatic union forever].”

1. Since Christ is the manifest person of the Trinity worship of Christ is worship of God.

2. Since Christ is the victory in the angelic conflict worship of Christ is recognition of the function and the provision of all three members of the Godhead, all three persons in the divine Trinity.

3. However, without doctrine and the filling of the Spirit there can be no gratitude or capacity for thanksgiving. God has provided for the believer in this dispensation only gate one, the filling of the Spirit, the power for worship; gate two, objectivity in learning doctrine; gate three, enforced and genuine humility, teachability in learning doctrine; gate four, perception of doctrine which must precede worship. So there must be an interlock between gate one and gate four, and the result is gate five. First of all there will be love of God, that is the beginning of worship, but eventually there will be occupation with Christ, that is the maximum expression of worship in the human body of the believer.

4. Love must precede gratitude and the expression of thanksgiving in worship. This love of God comes from perception of Bible doctrine.

5. While capacity for gratitude can be expressed either to a stranger or someone we personally love all capacity for thanksgiving or expression of gratitude must come from impersonal love which is both capacity and the virtue.

6. Without impersonal love there is neither capacity for personal love nor capacity for thanksgiving, the expression of gratitude in worship.

7. Virtue must precede and motivate both personal love and the expression of thanksgiving.

8. When directed toward God thanksgiving is motivated by personal love for God, and personal love for God can only exist to the extent that you have taken in a maximum amount of Bible doctrine. When directed toward mankind gratitude and thanksgiving is motivated by impersonal love. In either case virtue is the basis for all true thanksgiving and all true gratitude, whether expressed toward someone in the human race or expressed toward God in worship.

Four heralds lead in the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenly scene we are studying.

In verse 10 we have antiphonal worship of the angelic general staff. The angelic elect army now comes into the picture with its number two rank expressing the antiphonal part of the worship. In the King James version it is the “four and twenty elders” which is far off base. These are twenty-four angelic staff officers. We have noted before the indeclinable numeral with the nominative plural definite article to indicate the subject. We have noted the Greek word for twenty, i(ekosi, and the word for four, tessarej, and we have seen the nominative plural subject presbuteroj, a word for both the human race and four angelic creatures. We are now talking about angelic creatures and the second highest rank in the elect army of angels, and the future middle indicative indicates their attitude. It is the word piptw, translated “fall down,” “And the twenty-four angelic staff officers will fall down.” The future tense is a gnomic future for a statement of fact or performance which may be anticipated when throne-room worship is conducted by some of the highest orders of angelic creatures. We also noted that they are not constantly doing this, they have other duties, but it is mentioned first because if you start the day under the concept of worship, if you make worship a daily habit, then your priorities are straight. This is why the royal family does not meet on Saturday and this is why the Sabbath connotation is strictly legalism.

There is no specific worship day. The early church assembled on the first day of the week for a purpose. It was not the Sabbath day it was the first day of the week. They started their week properly and with the correct connotation. The principle is a very simple one: if your scale of values is right before the Lord and Bible doctrine has first place, then you start with worship and everything else falls into place. This is the connotation, of course, of the daily perception of Bible doctrine and it is also the concept of the gnomic future in this passage. The indirect middle emphasises the agent or the subject as producing the action rather than participating in its results. The action is produced by four of the highest-ranking angelic creatures. They are seraphs. The indicative mood is the reality of antiphonal worship of the general; staff. It is also the reality of their humility and their subordination as a prerequisite for heavenly worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. If heaven requires humility and subordination for worship the same must be true for worship of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth. Therefore the importance of gate three of the divine dynasphere, not only in the perception of doctrine but in the perception of doctrine as an expression of worship.

Next comes the improper preposition e)nwpion, which means “before,” and sometimes “face to face,” plus the genitive singular of the definite article tou, used as a personal pronoun and translated “before him.” Then the present active participle of the verb kaqhmai, which means to sit. It will simply be translated “fall down before him who sits.” The static present represents the permanent status of our Lord Jesus Christ honoured by God the Father in sharing His throne. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, and He has since His ascension and the reception of His royal patent. This means that two out of the three members of the Trinity are actually depicted in heaven carrying out this particular function. God the Holy Spirit has other functions which separate Him from the throne but not as far as His coequality. This is a circumstantial participle followed by that prepositional phrase e)pi plus the genitive of qronoj.

The corrected translation as far as we have gone: “The twenty-four staff officers [angelic general staff] will fall down before him [our Lord Jesus Christ] who sits on the throne.”

We note now some of the principles related to the army worship. We have seen the college of heralds in their leadership expressing worship and we have learned some principles from them. Now we see the general staff. First of all we note one of the most important functions in worship is humility and subordination to our Lord’s authority. This is a principle expressed by the general staff.

1. God cannot be first in your life apart from enforced humility which is defined here as submission to divine authority as delegated through Bible doctrine. God cannot be first in your life apart from enforced humility and genuine humility. Genuine humility is the capacity for loving God from perception of doctrine. Note then that there are two concepts in worship: the first is submission to divine authority as delegated through the Word, and the second is capacity for loving God through perception of doctrine.

2. Love of God is a motivating virtue which comes from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, persistence in the perception of Bible doctrine.

3. This gives us the result and prepares us for worship. Genuine humility is the result. It is the first issue in two factors: worship of God and happiness in life. Without genuine humility it is impossible to worship God and it is impossible to have happiness in life.

4. Genuine humility increases as perception of Bible doctrine parlays love of God into occupation with the person of Christ. In other words, the function of gate five of the divine dynasphere.

5. The same genuine humility provides capacity for life, for love, for happiness in human relationships.

6. The same genuine humility also provides the base for the function of impersonal love in the application of doctrine to human relationships. Now here is the shocker. There is a definite relationship between worship of God and human relationship. Worship is a successful relationship with God and it results in successful human relationships. Take God out of life and human relationship in a successful pattern cannot exist.

7. This means your ability to worship results in good human relationships. There is a definite relationship between worship of God and human interaction.

8. Without genuine humility and impersonal love the believer is incapable of happiness and blessing in human relationships just as he is incapable of worship in his relationship with God.

9. Both category #2 and category #3 personal love cannot be sustained or perpetuated without the stabilised foundation of impersonal love. Your personal love cannot exceed your humility and virtue.

But we learn a second principle as well from this first phrase of verse 10. We learn something of their efficacious worship. Worship is not worship unless it is efficacious, i.e., having the power to produce the intended effect. This comes up from the next phrase. So we have the connective kai, “and,” followed by the future active indicative of the verb proskunew which means “worship,” “and they will worship.” Again we have the gnomic future for a statement of fact or performance which may be anticipated when the throne room worship is conducted by the angelic general staff. Notice, the heralds begin the worship. They are second only in rank to our Lord Jesus Christ and one or two angels who are kings of arms or officers of arms. The angelic general staff now forms the antiphony. The active voice: the angelic staff produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the highest form of worship from the second highest ranking angels in the elect army order of battle. The highest rank goes to our Lord Jesus Christ and He is not an angel.

Next comes the articular present active participle from zaw which is translated “to live.” The dative singular indirect object from the definite article is used as a personal pronoun referring to our Lord Jesus Christ who is the object of all angelic worship in heaven, “to him.” The present tense is a static present for the perpetual existence of our Lord Jesus Christ in His hypostatic union. It is His hypostatic union that is perpetuated, not His deity, the humanity part and therefore the person of Christ in hypostatic union. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union produces the action of the verb after His ascension and reception of His third royal patent. The participle is circumstantial. Once again we have the repetition of the phrase e)ij plus a)iwn in the accusative plural and the genitive plural which is literally “to the ages of the ages” but is an idiom meaning “forever and ever.”

Translation: “and they [the angelic general staff] will worship him [our Lord Jesus Christ] who lives forever and ever.”

The principle that comes out of this: Only one Man is ever worshipped by angels, that part of the hypostatic union which is the humanity of Christ.

1. The humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ in His glorified state is the object of angelic worship. Man was created lower than angels. In heaven there will be that remarkable phenomenon of angels worshipping the humanity of Christ.

2. The deity of Christ has always been glorified as eternal God with all the divine attributes.

3. The humanity of Christ from the virgin birth to the cross was in a state of perpetual humility, but after He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, then in resurrection, ascension, session and His third royal patent, the resurrected Christ receives a glorification that makes all elect angels worship Him.

4. That glorification includes and starts with His resurrection, ascension, session, the award of His third royal patent. With His third royal patent, though man is created lower than angels, the glorified humanity of Christ is the object of angelic worship.

5. In the state of glorification with kenosis set aside our Lord Jesus Christ is the object of the highest angelic worship. While during the first advent our Lord’s humanity was made lower than angels His same glorified humanity is now higher than angels forever. Therefore angels worship Him. The fact that angels are subordinate to Christ in hypostatic union is the subject of Hebrews chapter one.

The basis for all of this is threefold. The basis for angels worshipping our Lord’s glorified humanity began with the virgin birth, the hypostatic union, the function of the humanity of Christ in the prototype divine dynasphere, the doctrine of kenosis, the doctrine of impeccability. Then comes the saving work of our Lord in humility, His redemption, reconciliation, propitiation and imputation, the four categories of the saving work of Christ on the cross. Then in His glorified state, His resurrection, ascension, the reception of His royal title, and the fact that Jesus Christ controls history brings us now to Hebrews chapter one, the principle that is brought out in the angelic general staff entering into antiphonal worship.

Verse 1, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various places.”

Verse 2, “However, in these last days [New Testament] He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, and through whom He has designed the dispensations [the ages, the historical eras].”

Verse 3, “Who being the radiance of His glory [flashing forth of His glory] and the exact image of His divine essence, also sustaining all things of creation by the word of His power, after He had provided purification for our sins He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty [God the Father] in the highest place [the third heaven].”

Verse 4, “By so much [His resurrection, ascension. session and third royal patent] He became superior to angels, as the royal patent He has inherited is superior to theirs.”

Verse 5, “For to which of the angels did He [God the Father] ever say, ‘You are my Son, This day I have given birth to you [the virgin birth]’? And again, ‘I will be to Him for a Father [not a human father], and He Himself shall be to me for a Son [Christ in hypostatic union]’?”

Verse 6, “But on the occasion when He [God the Father] again introduces His firstborn into the world [second advent], He says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship Him’.”

Verse 7, “And speaking of angels He says, ‘The one who makes His angels spirits and His angelic ministers a flame of fire’.” Cf Ezekiel chapter 1, the chariot of fire.

Verse 8, “But speaking of His Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God [Jesus Christ is God], is forever and ever, and the righteous sceptre is the sceptre of your kingdom’.”

Verse 9, “ ‘You have loved righteousness [our Lord’s humanity in the prototype divine dynasphere] and hated evil [He stayed out of the cosmic system]; therefore God [God the Father], your God, has anointed [or commissioned] you above your associates [the angels are associated with Christ in operation footstool] with the ceremonial oil of optimum happiness’.”

Verse 10, “And, ‘In the beginning, O Lord [Jesus Christ], you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands;”

Verse 11, “ ‘They [the heavens] will perish [at the end of the Millennium], but you remain; and all they will become worn out like a garment [the old universe],”

Verse 12, “ ‘And you will roll them up like an old robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never come to an end’.”

Verse 13, “But to which of the angels has He [God the Father] ever said, ‘Sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet’?”

Verse 14, “Are not they [elect angels] all subordinate servants, spirits sent into action [cf. Ezekiel chapter 1] to render service to those [the royal family] who are about to inherit eternal salvation?”

So we have noted, then, the humility and subordination of the twenty-four angelic staff officers who will fall down before our Lord Jesus Christ who sits on the throne. We have also noted their efficacious worship, “and they will worship him who lives forever.”

Next we note the gift of their glory. They are qualified to give glory because these elect angels have it to give. Not all elect angels have it to give, just as in the future not all believers will have crowns or the order of the morning star or the uniform of glory or the other rewards and decorations.

In the first part of verse 10 in the antiphonal response of the twenty-four staff officers we noted their humility and subordination. The correct translation:

“The twenty-four staff officers [angelic general staff] will fall down before him [our glorified Lord Jesus Christ] who sits on the throne.” Next we noted that their work was efficacious, “and they [the angelic general staff] will worship him who lives forever and ever.”

We move on now to the third part of the general staff worship. We begin with the connective conjunction kai, followed by the future active indicative of the verb ballw, which generally means to throw. But it also means to place or to lay down, and that is the way we are going to translate it, “and they will lay down [or place].” No one does any throwing in the throne room! The future tense is a gnomic future for a fact of performance expected under the conditions of their expression of worship. The active voice: the angelic general staff produces the action of the verb in their antiphonal worship with the angelic heralds. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. And with this we have an accusative direct object composed of the word stefanoj. We have already seen that they are wearing crowns. With it we have the intensive pronoun in the possessive genitive used as a personal pronoun and translated “their crowns.” We have previously noted that these were golden crowns.

Then we have an improper preposition e)nwpion, and with it the object is qronoj from which we get our English word throne, “before the throne.” And then they said something. The present active indicative of the verb legw is the beginning of the recording of their verbal worship, “saying.” The present tense is a progressive present for an action in the state of persistence, when they worshipped. The active voice: the angelic general staff produces the action in the antiphonal part of the worship. The circumstantial participle expresses the attendant circumstances, an additional factor thought which is often best rendered in the English by translating the participle as a finite verb and preceding it with the conjunction “and,” “and say.”

Translation: “they [the angelic general staff] will lay down their crowns before the throne and say.”

This is an antiphonal form of worship without precedent as far as human worship in eternity is revealed in the Word of God. So the question arises: Why? What is the significance?

1. First we note that “casting crowns” is a bad translation. The Greek word ballw implies here placing. When you cast, that implies impulsive and emotional worship rather than rational and spiritual worship. All true worship is rational and spiritual.

1. In placing their crowns at the foot of the throne the angelic general staff made their last and highest decision. This is an optimum expression of creature worship directed toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. At something similar to the judgment seat of Christ for elect angels in eternity past God provided those golden crowns as rewards or decorations for highest achievement in angelic history.

3. In angelic history God had provided what is comparable to logistical grace for all the elect angels who through multitudes of good decisions advanced to maturity during the course of prehistorical angelic conflict. The angelic conflict comes in two phases: angelic history prehistoric; human history historic.

4. Fallen angels under the leadership of Satan oppose elect angels. Therefore elect angels must make decisions in facing that opposition on their spiritual battlefield.

5. Elect angels through positive volition toward the communication of prehistoric doctrine made their thousands of good decisions in expressing positive volition towards God’s plan and God’s truth.

6. The result was decoration and reward such as the uniform of wisdom and the golden crowns.

7. These elect angels subordinated their volition to God in achieving those crowns. Now again they subordinate in worship by removing those crowns from their heads and placing them at the foot of the throne. The same good decisions, the same humility, the same subordination to the authority of God by which they won them is now used in one decision whereby they place them at the foot of the throne.

1. Worship is the expression of both capacity and the appreciation for that divine policy known as the grace of God.

2. Worship is the expression of doctrinal orientation to the person and plan of God. The visible person in the Godhead is our Lord Jesus Christ and we have noted that worship of Christ is worship of the entire Godhead.

3. The capacity for this worship is found in both enforced and genuine humility.

4. Since God is the source of the golden crowns as an eternal reward and decoration placing those crowns at the foot of His throne is the optimum expression of their humility; therefore their capacity for worship. We can see that true worship in the Church can only exist inside the divine dynasphere.

5. The presenting of their crowns at the foot of the throne represents maximum doctrinal application and resultant subordination on the part of the angelic general staff to our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. Included in the ultimate expression of worship is also their personal love for God. God is invisible; God is unseen; and there is no love for God apart from maximum doctrine in the soul.

7. Personal love always expresses itself in giving. So they gave their most precious eternal possession to the Lord as an expression of their love and worship. The most important thing they have for all eternity: their golden crowns. And they set a pattern for worship, they establish a principle: no creature can worship God in giving what he does not possess.

When we worship, first of all we give our concentration. We give the mentality of our soul in concentration on the teaching of the Word of God. We give our attention. Concentration is a combination of thinking and subordination, thinking and humility. We give our time, we set aside time to go and listen to the teaching of the Word of God. We give what we have. You cannot give if you do not have and in the cosmic system we have nothing by which we can give, and therefore no worship.

8. What was more important to them was that they gave to our Lord to express their worship in terms of personal love. Their love was so perfect that they gave the most valuable thing that they had. In giving to our Lord their crowns the angelic general staff still had the source of that gift, they hadn’t lost the Lord. All worship recognises the source.

9. In giving our Lord their crowns the angelic general staff still had the Lord, the source of their blessings forever and ever. In giving their crowns to Him they still have the Lord and, actually, still have their crowns. Under the highest principle of worship everything we have is His.

1. Having the source of blessing means that we never lose the blessing of eternal reward even though we express our love and worship by parting with it. We never have anything of value which came from Him, which is given to Him in worship, which we have lost because we have not lost Him. And since our relationship with Him is secure anything that He gives us is secure, and the highest expression of love is given by taking the most valuable eternal possession and laying it at His throne.

2. Therefore the principle of worship: the source of blessing is more important than the blessing.

4. Therefore worship is a matter of priorities. Doctrine resident in the soul brings us to the place of putting Christ first. Everything else is secondary.

5. With the first always first there are seconds and more seconds both in time and in eternity, and anything that is secondary that comes from Him is never as important as He is. In other words, it is not the gift, it is the giver.

6. When the source supersedes the prosperity then the prosperity can never be distorted, destroyed or lost.

7. Therefore this function of the 24 angelic staff officers gives the pattern for passing the prosperity test in time and relating it to worship. As long as the prosperity does not take precedence over the source of prosperity the prosperity will continue to be a blessing and a source of worship. Prosperity without the right priorities is a trap, a source of misery and unhappiness, and one of the major sources of cosmic involvement. The 24 angelic staff officers teach us an important lesson regarding both worship and the prosperity test.

Verse 11, the liturgical summary of this angelic worship. We begin with the vocative o( kurioj. It is used for deity and it is used here for Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. With this we have the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, “O Lord you are.” The static present tense is for a condition which perpetually exists. The active voice: Jesus Christ, addressed as Lord, produces the action . The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine in angelic worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. Next comes the predicate nominative a)cioj which originally meant bringing up the other beam of the scales, bringing into equilibrium. Then it came it mean deserving of praise, and finally had a connotation of merit. It comes to mean worthy, valuable, deserving, meritorious — “O Lord, you are worthy,” worthy to be praised, worthy of ultimate worship. Jesus Christ is worthy in both categories of His hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is worthy as eternal God; He is worthy as impeccable humanity living inside the prototype divine dynasphere. Jesus Christ is worthy as the strategic victor of the angelic conflict. Jesus Christ is worthy in His three categories of royalty. “You, O Lord, are worthy [possessing the ultimate merit for optimum worship].” As the manifest person of the Godhead Jesus Christ, then, is the object of our worship. In worshipping Christ we are worshipping the Trinity, for God the Father is the author of the plan, God the Holy Spirit is the power for execution of the plan, and our Lord Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe fulfilling that plan by becoming true humanity and our saviour. Of course to understand this we go back to the concept of the hypostatic union, Christ in His prototype divine dynasphere, the function of the doctrine of kenosis and the impeccability of Christ.

The angelic conflict, then, is resolved in the human race; it is resolved by one member of the human race, the humanity of Christ in the incarnation, living inside the prototype divine dynasphere, going to the cross, bearing our sins and taking our place. The creation of one man, Adam, and his fall plus the virgin birth of one Man, Jesus Christ, and His execution of the plan of God on the cross is the basis for resolving the angelic conflict which began with the fall of Lucifer, that cherub called the anointed one.

Three factors in worshipping Christ are now presented. We have an aorist active infinitive of the verb lambanw which means to receive. The gnomic aorist tense is for a fact or truth so fixed in its certainty, so axiomatic in character, that it is described in the aorist just as if it were an actual occurrence. For this idiom we commonly employ the present tense of the English in translation. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb as the recipient of the following three forms of worship. The infinitive is the infinitive of actual result. The actual result of our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent results in certain angels performing worship before the throne room in heaven. “You are worthy to receive,” and then the accusative singular direct object from doca, “glory.” This introduces the first form of angelic worship in the throne room of God. We have with this the generic use of the definite article which sets up this form of worship apart as a special category, “You are worthy to receive glory.” This category

1. Glory is the highest form of worship. You cannot give in worship what you do not possess. At the present time we do not possess glory, i.e. a resurrection body, and therefore are not qualified to enter into this form of worship. The category of worship known as glory demands the eternal state. These angelic creatures are in their eternal state and therefore can give this category of worship.

2. Therefore since elect angels are in their eternal or glorified state they are the only ones at the present qualified to perform this category of worship.

3. The Lord can only receive glory in worship from those creatures who are in their eternal state — which in this context refers to the elect angels.

4. We can, however, learn from angels and we anticipate the time when in our resurrection bodies we will give glory to our saviour, Jesus Christ.

5. Elect angels are in their eternal and glorified state, they are qualified to perform this category of worship.

6. For us this category means face to face worship in our resurrection bodies, at which time we will receive glory from the Lord and will give glory in worship. This refers to the time of the big genuflect in the sky when this will occur for the first time in the royal family of God.

7. This form of worship does provide us with a general principle regarding the subject of worship. We can’t enter into it but we can learn from it. The principle: Capacity for worship must precede that worship. The prerequisite for worship is the capacity for it.

8. The eternal state in the resurrection body provides maximum capacity for optimum worship. In this body of corruption believers do not have the necessary capacity to give glory to our Lord Jesus Christ. When we die and go to heaven we have an interim body but it is not the body of glory; it is not the resurrection body; and we still do not have that capacity.

The second category is also found in the accusative singular direct object of the verb, and this is our word timh, meaning honour. It introduces the second form of angelic worship and it is one in which we are qualified while in this body of corruption. While this context, of course, has in view angelic worship in heaven this category is pertinent to us today under certain conditions. Remember once again that time means three things: respect, reverence, and honour.

The believer can only respect the Lord Jesus Christ by knowing what He thinks. According to 1 Corinthians 2:16 the Bible is the mind [the thinking] of Christ. Worship is the application of doctrine directed toward God. You cannot apply what you do not know. To worship God or to give respect to our Lord Jesus Christ as believers we must know Bible doctrine. Knowledge of doctrine is the prerequisite to worship. There can be no respect in worship apart from perception of Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere. There can be no respect in worship apart from the application of doctrine inside the divine dynasphere — doctrine applied to the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, like the communion table. Hence the importance of the interlocking gates in the divine dynasphere and the principle of John 4:24, “God is a Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit [Gate one, the filling of the Spirit] and doctrine [Gate four].”

The second connotation of time is reverence. Reverence is motivating virtue. This is classified as personal love for God. All love begins with respect and moves to reverence. Personal love for God originates with the perception of doctrine which gives respect for our Lord. Then it moves to reverence as it intensifies. The difference between respect and reverence takes us to gate five of the divine dynasphere. Gate five begins with love of God from perception of doctrine. That is respect. But as you continue to grow — the momentum, moving toward gate eight — that becomes occupation with the person of Christ, and that is reverence. Occupation with the person of Christ is reverence; love of God is respect. So there is an advance in the connotation of worship. There can be no reverence in worship apart from knowledge of doctrine.

Then there is the third aspect of time. To honour God in worship requires residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, the development of integrity and the fulfilment of the royal family honour code. Compliance with the royal family honour code and the production of both motivational and functional virtue is necessary for the fulfilment of worship.

All worship directed toward God must come from a person who has virtue, honour and integrity. You cannot give honour in worship unless you possess honour in your modus operandi; honour in the soul must precede the giving of honour in worship. You can’t give God honour if you have none. Therefore the importance of the royal family honour code. Only the honourable believer can honour the Lord or give honour in worship. You cannot give in worship what you do not possess in life. To give honour to the Lord in worship you must possess honour in the soul. Hence the prerequisite to worship in both residence and function is the momentum of the divine dynasphere; there is no worship of our Lord while living in the cosmic system.

Then there is the accusative singular direct object, the third part of this worship concept. The word dunamij, meaning power, and it is a reference to the divine dynasphere for man’s worship of God and the ministry of the Holy Spirit for angelic worship is involved there. All royal family worship must come from power, and that power is the divine dynasphere. We have the adjunctive use of kai with it, “also power.”

Corrected translation: “You, O Lord, are worthy [possessing the ultimate merit for optimum worship] to receive glory [category #1 worship for the eternal state] and honour [category #2 worship based on residence in the divine dynasphere, maximum perception of doctrine], also the power [worship must be conducted inside the divine dynasphere].”

In the subject of worship there are many things that people associate with worship. For example, prayer, some form of singing, the Eucharist, concentration on the teaching of Bible doctrine, giving, etc. All of these, of course, are not worship unless they are related to the divine dynasphere. Worship, as we have noted, is an expression of love for God. All worship must be conducted inside the divine dynasphere. Worship cannot exist without the perception and application of Bible doctrine, John 4:24.

All of the results of worship are related to gate five. We start out loving God by persistence in residence in the divine dynasphere and as our motivation from gate four moves us toward gate eight that becomes occupation with the person of Christ. Gate seven is the concept of virtue and honour in worship. The ultimate is the ability of the mature believer in the function of worship.

The ultimate reason for that worship is given in a causal clause in verse 11b. It begins with the conjunction o(ti which is correctly translated here “because,” “because you,” the nominative singular personal pronoun su, “you” [the Lord Jesus Christ]. And then the aorist active indicative of the verb ktizw which means to create, “and because you have created.” This is a culminative aorist tense, it views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The existing results in this context include the believer’s worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. The culminative aorist is best translated by the English perfect tense which indicates that the worship is the result of something. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, He is the one who has created. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine. All creation is the function of the second person of the Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ.

With this we have the accusative plural definite article ta. This is a generic use of the definite article representing a category. And the category: all created things whether the material or immaterial, creature or any other category. It is translated with the accusative plural direct object of the adjective paj, “all things,” “because you [the Lord Jesus Christ] have created all things.” Note that the generic definite article is rarely translated, it is not necessary to bring it into English since its use is a designated category not to be a translatable word.

The fact that our Lord Jesus Christ created the universe and all creatures in it is the subject of John 1:3, which says: “All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being”. Or Colossians 1:16-17, “By means of him [the Lord Jesus Christ] all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, the invisible things and the invisible things, whether human governments or systems of authority or rulers or functional authorities, all things were created by him [our Lord Jesus Christ] and for him. And he has existed prior to all creation, and by means of him all things of creation are held together.”

Next comes the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, translated “also.” Then the prepositional phrase dia plus the accusative of the noun qelhma. Dia plus the genitive means “through,” but dia plus the accusative means “because.” We also have a possessive genitive from the personal pronoun su and it is translated, “because of your will [your purpose, your desire].” Qelhma is used here for the will of our Lord Jesus Christ as eternal and infinite God, the second person of the Trinity. It is followed by the imperfect active indicative of the verb to be which is e)imi. The imperfect tense is voluntative, used for the expression of divine sovereignty in eternity past. It is the sovereign decision of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring into existence creation. The active voice: both the material and immaterial are actually created by our Lord Jesus Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine.

The voluntative imperfect tense recognises the existence of creation before it occurred. Long before the universe or any creature, angelic, human or animal, existed or was invented they did exist in the mind of God. The potential existence of all things in God’s will and purpose in eternity past first was in His mind. The imperfect active indicative from e)imi looks at us, then, before we were created.

The next verb mentions the actual creation which followed in the aorist passive indicative of ktizw. The passive voice: “and they were created” is the translation. The constative aorist contemplates action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: all forms of creation receive the action of the verb, whether man or angel or animals. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine.

The principle: The universe and the creatures in it have purpose and design from the standpoint of the plan of God. The purpose and design of creation demands respect for the creator. That respect we have called worship. Any deviation from His perfect plan or design, or the expression of His sovereign will in the function of rational creatures using their free will independently of God is related to the angelic conflict. But every compliance is related to God’s plan and God’s purpose which, of course, centres and focuses on worship. Two categories of creatures were actually given free will and the environment of freedom to express their volition either for or against God. And while it is unthinkable would he ever act independently of the creator or His perfect plan the reality of the situation is that he has through his own arrogance and invention done so. The first creature to act in arrogance was a cherub by the name of Lucifer the son of the morning. That was what started the ball rolling. Recovery from angelic failure or the fall of man sets aside the perfect environment of creation and it substitutes the gracious provision of both creation and recreation, eternal salvation, where creature volition totally apart from human merit chooses for God’s plan apart from arrogance or works. This is illustrated by faith in Christ as the only way of salvation in the human race. There was also some form of salvation, unknown as far as the scripture is concerned to us, where angelic creatures in prehistorical times existed. Whatever the way of salvation for angels the entire angelic creation finally decided one way or the other and their eternity has begun except for the interlude of human history which vindicates the person, the plan, the decision, the sovereign will of God. These angelic creatures, of course, express this concept both in the worship of God in heaven and their observation of mankind on planet earth. While this is only a liturgical summary of angelic worship in verse 11 it does teach the believer in the human race principles of worship.

Translation of verse 11: “You, O Lord, are worthy, possessing the ultimate merit for optimum worship. You are worthy to receive glory [category #1 worship] and honour [category #2 worship], also the power [all worship must be conducted inside the divine dynasphere]: because you [the Lord Jesus Christ as eternal God] have created all things. Also, because of your sovereign will, they existed and they were created.”

This brings us to another problem with regard to worship, and that is that we should have a brief statement on the contrasting forms of worship. We live in the Church Age and the Church Age is quite different from the previous dispensation. For example, in Israel they had an entirely different form of worship than we have in the Church Age. Furthermore, when we get over to the Millennium at the second advent again there will be a different form of worship.

In the Old Testament dispensations mankind functioned under a specialised priesthood. For example, in Israel the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron, became the priests of Israel. They represented all mankind in their periphery to God. Because the canon of scripture was not completed and because Jesus Christ had not come in the flesh (the incarnation) their priestly function was related to the ritual of training aids, the Levitical offerings, the modus operandi of the holy days, the symbolism of the tabernacle and later on the temple, its furniture, its function, its compartments. But once the Church Age began two things contributed to a new form of worship. The first was the incarnation, the first advent of Christ and His strategic victory on the cross. The second was the fact of the universal priesthood of the believer. Every believer now represents himself and he represents himself in something God has provided, the divine dynasphere. So add to this the completion of the canon of scripture and that means that Church Age worship is entirely different from anything that has preceded. That means that the ritual is generally removed. We do not have animal sacrifices; we do not have a specialised priesthood; we do not have holy days, every day is to be lived as unto the Lord. We have, therefore, something entirely new and something entirely different.

The object of worship in the Church Age is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the manifest person of the Trinity and therefore worship of Christ is worship of the Trinity. But Jesus Christ is not only eternal God, He is also true humanity. This is the result of the strategic victory on the cross. He is therefore no higher than angels. That is why we took a quick look at Hebrews chapter one in order to see the fact that these highest of angelic creatures in the angelic order of battle, whether they are on the side of the category of the elect army or the category of the college of heralds, actually worship a member of the human race.

We should also notice in concluding this particular chapter the ingredients of worship. They include, of course, personal love for God, humility, subordination to divine authority. God cannot be first in your life and the object of true worship apart from enforced humility. That is submission to the authority of Bible doctrine. All doctrine is not necessarily interesting to you but in subordination to the authority of the Word of God you must concentrate, understand, every subject as it comes up in a passage whether you are interested in it or not. Before you die you will have need of it. So genuine humility which follows enforced humility is not only the basis for perception of doctrine but it is also the basis for true worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also the basis for capacity for life, capacity for love, and capacity for happiness. It is the basis for all wonderful human relationships. There cannot be true love in any category apart from genuine humility in the soul. The ingredients of worship actually include, then, the first four gates of the divine dynasphere. The result in worship is the function, the modus operandi, of gate five which is best described by 1 Peter 1:8, “Though you have not seen him [the Lord Jesus Christ] yet you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious happiness.” In worship you can give only what you have.

In Revelation 4:10 the 24 angelic staff officers laid down their crowns before the throne as the expression of their worship. The angelic general staff had these crowns because of their utilisation of God’s grace in the prehistorical angelic conflict before eternity began for them. In prehistoric angelic history God had provided for these elect angels something very similar to logistical grace for us and through positive volition toward doctrine and the multitude of good decisions in expression of positive volition toward God and His plan these angelic creatures at the point of their eternity were rewarded and decorated. We have already seen their uniform of wisdom, their uniform of glory, and their golden crowns. These 24 angelic staff officers subordinated their volition to God in achieving these crowns, now they subordinate their volition in worship by removing these crowns from their heads and placing them at the foot of the throne. Worship, then, is the expression of their love, their reverence, their humility, their capacity and thanksgiving directed toward God. In their worship, then, these 24 angelic staff officers gave what they actually possessed and the principle is always true in genuine worship: you cannot give in true worship what you do not possess. If the believer has doctrine in his right lobe he can express worship commensurate with the capacity produced by doctrine; if he has love of the truth or doctrine, he can express worship in giving concentration. Those of you who are concentrating right now are actually engaged in worship; it is the highest form of worship, the concentration and perception of doctrine.

The other highest form is the application of doctrine at the communion table. If the believer can apply doctrines of soteriology and Christology he can participate in the communion service by linking the ritual in which he engages with the doctrine resident in his soul. If he has time he can give time to assemble for the study of the Word or listening to doctrine on a tape recorder. If he has money he can give money but only as God has prospered and only as he is motivated to give, never pressured. While the 24 general staff officers gave their crowns they still had and will always have the source of those crowns. In giving their crowns they still have the Lord, they still have the source. Therefore the final principle of worship: everything we have belongs to the Lord, therefore everything we have is secure. When we part with what we have in worship we express the fact that we haven’t lost anything because we still have the source of that blessing. And because worship expresses our love for the Lord we still have, and always will have, the object of our love. Personal love for God expresses itself in worship which includes giving, our love, our thinking, our time, our energy, our honour, our total respect and devotion. If you do not have the filling of the Spirit and if you do not have Bible doctrine in your right lobe, if you do not have virtue, honour, integrity, you have nothing to offer and, as a matter of fact, you can’t even worship God though you go through the motions. You are in effect Satan’s slave.

The sixth thing in heaven that we note takes up the first four verses of chapter five: the Doomsday book of the Tribulation. In studying the Doomsday book in Heaven we will eventually see how it works out as far as earth is concerned for in the seven seals of the Doomsday book we have the historical trends and disasters of the Tribulation. We will study the four horsemen of the apocalypse as the first four seals or trends of the Tribulation.

In verse 1 we have the sequential use of the conjunction kai and it is translated “then.” Next is the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, translated “I saw.” “Then I saw.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it gathers the vision of the Doomsday book of the Tribulation into one entirety. The active voice: the apostle John is the author of the book of Revelation and as such he produces the action of the verb in a series of visions dealing with the historical trends of the Tribulation, a future period of history which will be unique in that there will be no restraint from God the Holy Spirit and therefore Satan will have full sway. His objectives will be world peace, and yet there will be wars. His objectives will be trying to duplicate what will happen in the Millennium and he will not succeed, proving once again that even though he is a total genius and one of the greatest of all creatures ever to come from the hand of God he is totally and completely incapable with absolute power and authority to produce what he wants to produce — the perfect environment of the Millennium before the Millennium exists. No creature, no matter how great his power and his genius, can produce for you a better world. You are the only one who can produce through your right decisions, which means, of course, living in the divine dynasphere, the better world for yourself as far as your own environment is concerned. We call that better environment “happiness” and it is not available to anyone except the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ making proper daily decisions with regard to the divine dynasphere.

Next we have the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the adjective decioj, and it means “on the right” but it is an idiom meaning “in the right hand.” This is an anthropomorphism referring to God the Father. God the Father is invisible but the arm and the hand and the Doomsday book are visible to John in this vision. We note next in the English order the accusative neuter singular of the word biblion, meaning a manuscript or a book or a scroll. This is what he saw but it does not come up next in the Greek text sentence. We will translate it in modern English, “I saw a book.” The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the noun and we will translate it, “I saw a book in the right hand.”

Next is the articular present active participle of the verb kaqhmai which means to sit, “of him who sat.” With that we have e)pi plus qronoj, “on the throne.” The definite article of the participle is used for a personal pronoun referring to God the Father who during the Church Age holds the Doomsday book of the Tribulation. This is the dispensation of the seven Spirits of God. The Tribulation is the dispensation of the seven seals, and there is a tremendous difference. The Church Age is the most difficult period for the angelic conflict because all historical trends depend upon the volition of believers. Outside of this dispensation Historical trends depend on prophecy. This is the only exception and therefore this is the most concentrated, the most intense, period of the angelic conflict, but it is not the greatest concentration of simple historical disaster. That comes up from the Doomsday book, a book that cannot be opened until the Church, the royal family, is removed from this world. The perfective present tense of the participle refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality, God the Father sitting on the throne restrains the traumatic events of the Tribulation until the Church Age is concluded, until the transfer of the royal family to heaven by the Rapture. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb. He does not release this book until the Church is in heaven. The participle is circumstantial.

So far we have a translation that sounds like this: “Then I saw in the right hand of him [God the Father] who was sitting on the throne a book [the Doomsday book of the Tribulation plus its seven seals for the historical trends of the Tribulation].”

Since Jesus Christ controls history we will see Him take the book from the hand of God the Father in chapter seven. In the meantime we have a very dramatic chapter before that occurs. As a result we will be able to pull together some of the concepts of the orderliness in the book of Revelation, for great portions of the book of Revelation all of the way to chapter eighteen is simply quoting from the Doomsday book. The Doomsday book is the story of Revelation from chapter six to chapter eighteen.

Historical trends are determined by prophecy in the Tribulation. They are all located in the Doomsday book.

1. The Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy, hence it is the age of historical trends without prophecy. As such it is absolutely unique, it is the only historical era in history where prophecy does not determine historical trends. Prophecy is absolutely false and meaningless in this dispensation.

2. Only during the Church Age are historical trends related exclusively to your decisions as a believer, so that the royal family must take full responsibility for any peripheral disasters.

3. In other dispensations historical trends are determined by prophecy or the eschatology pertinent to that age.

4. This is why in the Church Age only: as goes the believer so goes the historical trends of any given generation.

5. Decisions of believers determine environment; environment does not determine decisions.

6. In other dispensations all human decisions were fed into the computer of divine decrees so that the historical trends were programmed and the printout was prophecy. This means that in the dispensation all of the printouts are in the form of prophecy. For example, in Leviticus 26: If you do such and such as a nation you will be hit with the cycles of discipline. It is all laid out prophetically. This was always was a group functional type of thing.

In this dispensation it is entirely different. Omniscience feeds into the computer of divine decrees what the believer decides — the volition of the believer: volition directed toward the divine dynasphere; volition directed toward the cosmic system. And in the printout historical trends always result from where the believers are living. That is why this is also the dispensation of the pivot: as goes the believer so goes the client nation. If there is a pivot there is blessing; if there is not a pivot there is not blessing. But there is no prophecy in this age.

7. Therefore prophecy determines historical trends in every dispensation except the Church Age.

8. This is the only dispensation where the divine dynasphere is the plan of God for the believer, and the believer’s decisions regarding the divine dynasphere and perception of doctrine at gate four actually determine what is going to happen next historically.

9. Therefore only in the Church Age are historical trends related exclusively to decisions made by believers in any given generation without any reference to prophecy or the doctrine of eschatology. That is why the Rapture is imminent. It could happen tonight or a thousand years from tonight. In the Tribulation, however, historical trends are determined by the prophecies recorded in this sealed book, the Doomsday book.

There are extensive books and records in heaven. In fact the library of heaven is the largest of all libraries of all time. There is the book of life which is a registry in time of every person who has ever lived. In eternity it is a registry of believers only. Blotted out of the book of life will be the names of all unbelievers on the point that they die without accepting Christ as saviour. Interestingly enough, the book of life not only has the names in eternity of all believers but the registry also adds the new knighthood and all of the honours lists of mature believers in eternity. There is a vast record that we have noted in the temple of God in heaven including pillars which record biographies of every mature believer in the Church Age. The biography covers the life of the Church Age from the standpoint of its heroes. There will be also other records of other people in other dispensations.

The library in heaven has another series of volumes that go into the millions. It would be classified as it is in Revelation 20:12,13 as the books of works. These books of works have a complete record of every good deed accomplished by every unbeliever in history. At the last judgment, the second resurrection, Hades, one of the four compartments of the underworld, will deliver up its dead and they will stand at the great white throne judgment. Their sins, however, will not be mentioned, they were all judged at the cross, but the fact that they rejected the so great salvation will be a major issue. Christ is the issue, not your sins. In the book of works there will be a page opened, if you are an unbeliever, and every good deed that you have accomplished in all of your life time will be recorded. They will all be there in that book. Then, next, they are tabulated and compared to the perfect righteousness of the one who sits on the throne, John chapter five tells us that all judgment is committed to our Lord Jesus Christ, and when they are added up a second time they come up to minus R (-R), and -R cannot have fellowship with +R, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God’s sight. So the book of works is used as a basis for condemnation at the last judgment, along with the major issue which is rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The library of heaven also includes other categories, including the Doomsday books. It appears to be one book when we start but eventually it is a series of volumes on the historical trends of the Tribulation. Prophetically quoted from them will be everything from Revelation chapter six to Revelation chapter eighteen. The Doomsday books give all of the historical judgements of the Tribulation. This is the volume found in the hand of God the Father in Revelation 5:1.

We note a few things about the Doomsday book: the perfect passive participle of the verb grafw, which means to write. It is translated “written,” the perfect tense of existing state in which the past is practically dropped from the concept in thought and attention is focused on the existing state. This is the same as the intensive perfect which emphasises the results of the verb. Hence it is an emphatic method in the Greek of presenting a fact in a strong way. Usually it is translated by the English present. The passive voice: the book or scroll receives the action of the verb being, filled with writing. The participle is circumstantial. We have two adverbs connected by kai, e)swqen, which means “inside”; and then o)pisqen, which means “outside,” translated “inside and on the outside [or backside].” It is an idiom that really means “on both sides.”

Finally we are introduced to the sequence of historical judgements, the perfect passive participle katasfagizw, and this is the only place in which this word occurs — “having been sealed.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect in which the rhetorical application of the intensive perfect is used. It describes the existing state of the book in a very vivid way. The book remains sealed until the Church Age is completed and the royal family has been removed from the earth, and with the royal family the restraining ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The reason that the Church Age is not more intensive when it comes to disasters is simply because of the presence of God the Holy Spirit, the divine dynasphere for this dispensation.

In the Church Age, again, historical trends depend on the individual volition of the believer, but in the Tribulation historical trends depend on prophecy. Prophecy is held up until the Church Age has been completed, until the royal family of God has been called out.

The passive voice: the Doomsday book of the Tribulation receives the action of the verb, sealed until the Church Age is terminated. The participle is circumstantial. We have with this the instrumental plural from sfragij, the word for seals, and with it the indeclinable numeral e(pta, “with seven seals.”

Translation: “Then I saw in the right hand of him [God the Father] who was sitting on the throne a book [the Doomsday book of the Tribulation] written on both sides, having been sealed with seven seals.”

The seals indicate the sequence of historical trends in the Tribulation. Again, note that these are prophecies. Prophecies denote historical trends in every dispensation except the Church Age. The content of each seal, numbers 1-6, are revealed in the next chapter, Revelation six. The content of the seventh seal begins at chapter eight, verse one, and continues for several chapters. Those will be the trumpet judgements and the three woes. In other words, all historical trends of the Tribulation are determined by prophecy, not by the personal volition of believers in that dispensation. The believer’s historical impact through good decisions related to doctrine and the divine dynasphere is limited to the Church Age only. Never has there been a dispensation where so much depends on the individual believer’s attitude toward Bible doctrine. It will never be that way again, in all other dispensations the historical trends are determined by prophecy, and the prophecies always relate to both man and angelic creatures. In the Tribulation many of the historical trends actually are dependant on angelic creatures — their volition — and we are going to see super demons which right now are in jail in a compartment of Tartarus. But they will be released.

This book of seven seals is the account of the historical trends of the Tribulation. As long as the Church is on earth not one seal will be broken. This book is sealed until the Rapture of the Church takes place.

Verse 2 — the conjunction kai which begins this verse is co-ordinating instead of subordinating and it denotes a temporal designation, a sequential designation. So we translate it “then.” With this we have the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw which means to see, and we will translate it “then I saw.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The human writer, John, produces the action of the verb in the vision. This is the declarative indicative for the reality of this vision which will further to help us to understand and appreciate the historical trends of the Tribulation coming up in the next chapter. The “strong angel” is important. We have the accusative direct object composed of two words. First of all the adjective i)sxuroj one of four Greek words used for strength and we will translate it powerful instead of strong because the word connotes endowed power. Endowed power indicates an angel of very high rank and we will note that this is in the order of the college of heralds, the top rank. This will be one of the kings of arms. Then we have the noun which goes with it, a)ggeloj indicating we are dealing with a higher creation. “Then I saw a powerful angel.”

We have seen the angelic order of battle. At the top is Malak Adonai which is the Lord Jesus Christ as the angel of the Lord, it is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of theophany. Next in the order, number one in the angelic order, is the kings of arms. These are the highest ranking. Number two in the order are the heralds, and the kings of arms and the heralds are seraphs. Number three are cherubs and these are the pur sui vant officers. And then the rank and file pur sui vant are called messengers. This is the order of battle in the college of heralds.

We are now for the first time dealing with number one in the angelic order of battle. Up until now we have been seeing the heralds. All of this rank becomes very important. This angel is the highest angelic creature in the college of heralds. Above him is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is called the king of arms or officer of arms and, as such, he wears and bears the entire coat of arms of the King of kings. To injure or insult the king of arms, even in medieval times, was an affront to the coat of arms he wore but even more so in the angelic college of heralds. This angel is the herald who is the highest of all in rank. Therefore when the highest-ranking angel comes forward it is time for us to note, and we will take very careful notice of what he announces.

The word i)sxuroj refers to the highest rank. The angel is going to do something, he is going to act like a herald for that is exactly what the present active participle of khrussw means, to function as an herald. There is also a noun that goes with it, khruc, the Greek word for herald. Khrussw, by the way, is the command given to ministers; they are to function as God’s heralds in the human race in the teaching of doctrine. So we translate: “Then I saw a powerful angel announcing [making a proclamation]”. The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred but prophecy is regarded as so certain in thought that it may be contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the highest ranking angelic herald makes the announcement. The participle is circumstantial. Furthermore he makes the announcement so that all can hear: the prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental of the adjective megaj [loud] and the noun fwnh [voice], “with a great [or magnificent] voice.” His announcement or proclamation comes in the form of a question mark, the interrogative pronoun tij, “who.” With this we do not have a verb. Ellipsis is a part of the announcement. We can supply the verb e)imi. And then the predicate nominative a)cioj, “worthy.” Next we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)noigw, which means here to break open or simply to open. ”Who is worthy to break open its seals” is the way it is translated. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the point being that this book cannot be opened except by one person and that one person is the one who controls history.

“Then I saw a powerful angel announcing with a great voice, Who is worthy to break its seals and to open the book?”

1. Worthiness is the issue in who controls history. The worthiness issue was settled at the first advent of Christ. The only human being or creature who is worthy to control history is our Lord Jesus Christ — talking about His humanity [the hypostatic union]. In His first advent He went to the lowest point of humility. No one was ever tested in true humility as our Lord was. Finally He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So His worthiness is based on the fantastic enforced and genuine humility and the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. That occurred on the cross where He bore our sins and taking our place.

2. When our Lord became true humanity at the point of the virgin birth, continued to live inside the prototype divine dynasphere, resulting in His impeccability and the function of His kenosis, and then went to the cross and was judged for our sins when they were imputed to Him, He won the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. He broke Satan’s back, in effect, on the cross as well as providing for us our so great salvation.

3. Therefore worthiness belongs to Christ in the hypostatic union, a worthiness expressed in Christ being awarded His third royal patent, i.e. King of kings, Lord of lords.

4. The third royal patent guarantees that Jesus Christ controls history. He controlled it before but the guarantee of His control was strengthened, re-established, by that strategic victory. In fact the true meaning of human history centres around the person of Christ and His victory of the first advent.

5. No one else in history is qualified to open the sealed Doomsday book of the Tribulation. The only qualified person is our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. Our Lord Jesus Christ received two royal patents related to His first advent, one at the beginning and one at the end. At the point of the virgin birth, His second royal patent, He became the ruler of Israel forever. At the end, He became the King of kings and Lord of Lords, the victory of the angelic conflict. Both of these royal patents qualify Him for ultimate worthiness. The first royal patent received at birth becomes an issue at verse 5 — the Lion of the tribe of Judah passage. The second royal patent was received at the point of our Lord’s session after His resurrection and ascension. So that worthiness is the subject of the incarnation, it was achieved at that point.

And then in the order of the Greek, “and to break its seals” comes next. The word for “break” here is the aorist active indicative of luw which means to break. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: at the this point an unknown person is being sought whose qualifications make it possible for the trends of the Tribulation to be presented. Then the accusative plural direct object, sfragij, “seals.” The seals refer to the category of events in the Tribulation in terms of historical trends. The seals are called “seals” and the information is sealed in the Doomsday book because the Church Age is still going strong. The events of the Tribulation will not and cannot occur until the Rapture of the Church, until the Church is removed. Each seal represents a prophecy of Tribulational trends. However, as long as the Church is on earth the seals of the scroll of the book will never be broken. Once the royal family is removed by means of the resurrection the Age of Israel will continue and terminate under the title of the Tribulation — Daniel’s seventieth week.

The first six seals of the book indicate historical trends without reference to chronology, things that will occur from time to time. The seventh seal is the source of both the trumpet and the goblet judgements which are chronologically arranged. Therefore the Doomsday book includes general historical trends throughout the Tribulation, seals one through six, then the historical judgements of the seventh seal which will include the vial or the goblet judgements and the trumpet judgements. So it should be noted that the first six seals of the book are historical trends very similar to the historical trends in the Church Age or any past dispensation. We will have to remember one thing, one great difference: God the Holy Spirit who restrains in this dispensation will not be present to restrain in the Tribulation. So the similarity ends with the source of historical trends. In the Church Age it is the volition of the believer; in the Tribulation it is the doctrine of eschatology or prophecy. The fact that certain trends in the Church Age coincide with historical trends in the Tribulation does not imply that the Tribulation is here, far from it, or that the Church goes through part of the Tribulation. That is heresy.

Verse 3, Again we have the connective conjunction kai, “and,” followed by the adjective used as a substantive, and the subject o)udeij, which is translated “no one.” O)udeijis used because neither an angel nor a human being could come forward and break the seals. No one can break the seals among members of the human race or angelic beings.

Next we have the imperfect middle indicative of the verb dunamai, and it means to have power or to be able. The imperfect of description, the middle voice: this is a deponent verb middle in form but active in meaning, it means that no creature of any category has the worthiness to open or to break the seals. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of absolute reality, absolutely no one. Then the verb demands an infinitive to complete the action so we skip to the aorist active infinitive of a)noigw, no one is able or qualified to break the seals. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. There never was and there never will be anyone in category homo sapien or in the angelic category who is qualified, only the Lord Jesus Christ, as we will see. This is the infinitive of intended result. That means it combines purpose and result. The failure of any rational creature, both angelic or human, is a deliberate divine objective. And time is given for anyone who thinks he is qualified to step forward, “and no one was able to open.” Then we have the accusative singular direct object from biblion which is translated “book” and is a reference to the Doomsday book, the history of the Tribulation.

Next we have three prepositional phrases. The first two are connected by o)udh o)udh, and it is translated “neither nor.” So the first prepositional phrase takes up the first category. No one in heaven was able to step forward, e)n plus the locative of o)uranoj, “in heaven,” no human being or angel in heaven. The Church will be in heaven in resurrection body at this time. The Old Testament saints were transferred at the resurrection of Christ, and while they are in interim bodies they are not qualified. So all of the great people in history will be there in category homo sapien in various stages, some in resurrection bodies and some are not.

The announcement is also made on earth. Next we have the preposition e)pi plus the genitive of the noun gh, the word for planet earth. It is translated “on earth.” On earth there are operational elect angels and there are operational fallen angels called demons. There are all kinds of human beings, believers and unbelievers. No one accepts the challenge of the king of arms on earth.

The third prepositional phrase requires a little more explanation because we have an adverb used as an improper preposition, u(pokatw. With it we have the object of the preposition of the genitive, gh again, and it is translated “under the earth.” Why under the earth? We will study it in great detail when we get to the next chapter. When our Lord was on the cross he said to one of the criminals with Him who believed in Him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” When our Lord died physically His spirit went into the presence of the Father, His body went into the grave, and His soul went into paradise or Abraham’s bosom which is a part of what is called Sheol [Hebrew] or Hades [Greek]. When our Lord said, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” He established the fact that under the earth, in the core of the earth somewhere, there is Sheol or Hades. Paradise or Abraham’s bosom is where all the believers were located up until the resurrection when they were transferred to heaven where all of this is taking place. The other criminal went to a place called torments, the location of all unbelievers since the beginning of time and where they will remain until the last judgment. There is a great gulf fixed between the believer’s compartment and the unbeliever’s compartment in Hades.

There are two more compartments for fallen angels. The fallen angels of Genesis chapter six are in a place called Tartarus. The angels who have to be incarcerated, the demons since Genesis chapter six, are in a place which is called the Abyss. In the Tribulation it is the Abyss that will have some of the most powerful angels of all angelic creatures coming up. Under the earth refers to the unbelievers in torments, the angels incarcerated (in two categories), and there is no one under the earth in Sheol or Hades who can respond to this challenge.

Then it says, “nor to look on it,” the present active infinitive of the verb blepw. The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: no angelic or human creature in heaven, on earth, or in Sheol or Hades, steps forward or is qualified. The infinitive of intended result indicates the fulfilling of a deliberate objective and the blending of purpose and result. With this we have the accusative neuter singular direct object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj used as personal pronoun, third person neuter singular, and therefore a)utoj is translated “it” referring to the Doomsday book. Again, this emphasises and dramatises the fact that Jesus Christ controls history.

Principle: regardless of the dispensation this verse emphasises the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. This also means that Jesus Christ in hypostatic union controls history in the Church Age, it means that Jesus Christ in hypostatic union controls history in the Tribulation, it means that Jesus Christ in hypostatic union controls history in the Millennium, He rules the world in the Millennium. So it is a source of comfort to us as believers that the power of our Lord Jesus Christ is infinitely greater than the power of any man or any angel. And this means that the trends of history should be a comfort to us now matter how disastrous at any given moment, for our Lord Jesus Christ is in control, He knows exactly what He is doing. This is the application of doctrine every believer must make in times of personal or national disaster. There is no place for doubting our Lord. Furthermore, pain and disaster is of our own making, the sum total of our volition combined with others. And since man is the product of his own volition and not his environment all disaster merely reflects bad decisions and man’s infinite capacity to inflict pain on himself apart from good decisions related to the grace of God and to the plan of God.

We resume with the expletive use of the conjunction kai, translated “And so.” With this is the imperfect active indicative of the verb klaiw, which means to weep. There are all kinds of reasons why people weep. Many of them are good; many of them are bad. Many of them relate to capacity for life, and some of them relate to frustration and failure in life. Weeping, therefore, is quite a subject as far as the Word of God is concerned. Weeping is never thinking, it belongs to the realm of emotion as far as the function of the soul is concerned. If emotions are in their proper sequence of thought and capacity for life then weeping is a very honourable and wonderful thing, but if not then weeping is exactly the opposite. As far as the Christian life is concerned weeping which is related to the divine dynasphere it is a wonderful thing. If weeping is related to the frustrations and the functions of the cosmic system then it is very detrimental and, as a matter of fact, even evil.

When it says here “I wept” it is in the iterative imperfect tense. It describes the action as recurring at successive intervals in past time. It is part of an idiom with the adjective poluj which follows and is correctly translated “I wept and wept” or “I cried and I cried.” A natural reaction on the part of the apostle John but totally unnecessary as a rational act. Weeping is the sign of emotion, not the function of the mind and John is overcome emotionally so that he cannot think, and of course he cannot go on. Emotions are great when they respond to thought but they are detrimental when they supersede thought. The pressure of writing the book of Revelation perhaps even exceeds learning it and interpreting it for teaching it as a part of the function of worship. The very fact that he broke down at this point is indicative of the fact that no one ever gets into the realm of angelology as a biblical subject without facing tremendous and unusual pressures. In the chapters to come we are going to see John unfolding the whole realm of the angelic conflict and, more than that, the exposure of the whole Satanic system.

The Tribulation is the ultimate in the manifestation of the angelic conflict as far as angelology is concerned. While demonism is certainly a trend of history today, in the future it is going to be unrestrained demonism and even an invasion of demons from the Abyss which, of course, is going to change the whole course of history. The very fact that we as believers, inferior in power and structure to angels, are able to carry on and to function in the devil’s world again is indicative of the importance of the power of the Word. Nothing is more important than doctrine.

So when John says, “I wept and I wept” or “I cried and I cried” he is actually speaking of his own failure, his own weakness here. The important thing to remember is that no one is perfect. The point is that the failures of the communicator are never an issue in this communication. The book of Revelation would have terminated in chapter four verse five had that been true. John would not have written the book of Revelation. But the very fact that rebound had occurred and the fact that he went on is a reminder once again that in your spiritual life you are dependant on those who have the gift of pastor-teacher and who also study and teach. They are not perfect, they are not to be put on a pedestal, they are not in that sense any better than anyone else, they have an old sin nature. But the content of the message you cannot afford to miss, and when you get the person and the message mixed up your spiritual life is over and you will accept every cheap substitute that Satan has to offer, and he has many.

The omission of liquid from the tear ducts is not really weeping but it is used to express sorrow, lamentation, even emotional stimulation and happiness. There is also frustration and pain so in the Bible weeping is found to express all of these and you must remember that weeping is never an expression of rational thinking, it is an expression of emotion. It is both good and bad.

Weeping as an expression of reversionism in the cosmic system is found in Numbers 14:1,2, it is the most evil category of weeping, “Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept all night. And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses,” they blamed Moses for their own failure. They had been frightened by the reconnaissance report made by the twelve princes of Israel who went into the land of Canaan and checked it out. When they came back and reported about the giants and all of the things in the land the people became frightened and they blamed their own negative volition on Moses. So we have weeping as an expression of negative volition toward doctrine, as a malfunction of the faith-rest drill which requires thinking. This is the thinking of the cosmic system or the weeping of the cosmic system and as a result they always blame someone else. First they wept, then they blamed Moses. Moses was not to blame in any sense of the word.

Weeping is also an expression against reversionism in Philippians 3:18,19. Here we find the great apostle Paul weeping. John and Paul, two of the greatest of the apostles, we find weeping, and also the weeping of Peter when he betrayed our Lord, “he went out and wept bitterly,” says Matthew 26. So there is weeping with all of the great believers of the New Testament. “For many keep walking, concerning whom I have told you many times, and now even weeping.” Here is an aberration, as it were, on the part of Paul, at least just for a moment. The very fact that he was weeping was not compassion for those who were in the cosmic system, it was frustration. He was frustrated by the fact that here were these people who had been exposed to all of this Bible doctrine and yet it did not take in any sense of the word. Instead they went into the cosmic system — “I tell you, they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.” Believers in the cosmic system have eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. They have eternal security which they cannot lose but they are the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ during the time that they are in the cosmic system. Their end is described as the sin unto death — “whose end is destruction, whose god is his emotion, whose glory is his dishonour, and when they think at all they think about earthly things.”

Weeping because of the practice of reverse process reversionism, therefore, is again a great evil. The believer in James 5:1 was trapped in the cosmic system, “Come now you rich ones, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.” What a terrible thing to spend your whole life putting all of your scale of values on money and putting it above doctrine, and as a result coming down to this end. Weeping is a part of the punishment. Why are these believers miserable? Because to them money and wealth and success was far more important than Bible doctrine.

In Hebrews 12:17 we also have the weeping of the unbeliever under the same frustration. “For you know that afterwards, even when he [Esau] kept desiring to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he did not find an opportunity for repentance [he didn’t change his mind and believe in Christ], though having sought this blessing with tears,” he thought he could impress God by crying but he could only impress God by believing in Christ, and this he refused to do. Instead of believing the Lord he used weeping as a substitute. God is never impressed with emotion. Emotion is a blessing that comes from good thought or bad thought but God is never impressed with it. Emotion simply impresses people who cannot think.

Then, of course, the type of weeping that simply reflects the bad decisions we make in life, the weeping of regret. 2 Samuel 14:23,24, “So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. However, the king said, ‘Let him return to his own house, and let him not see my face.’ So Absalom returned to his own house and did not see the king’s face.”

Later on, of course, David wept but he had made a bad decision. He had made a decision that was not a grace decision. Absalom later killed his step brother Amnon for raping his sister Tamar. David was guilty of a half forgiveness. He did not fulfil the principle found in Colossians 3:13, “Bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so you also should forgive them.” David didn’t do this. So in 2 Samuel 14:28, “Now Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem, and did not see the king’s face.” Then when Absalom finally died as a result of his revolution which all began with David’s half forgiveness, verse 33. When the king saw Absalom’s body he was deeply moved and he went to the room over the gate and he wept and wept, and he cried, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son, I wish that I had died instead of you.” Here is weeping mixed with irrational statements of thought. Of all of the people who should not die it is David, he is a great king. Of all of the people who would die sooner or later it was Absalom in his arrogance, in his vanity. Yet we find here the weeping of great regret for David made terrible mistakes with Absalom, not merely the one of the half forgiveness but many other mistakes. In this case, again, his weeping is a negative virtue because it is regret of making so many bad decisions with regard to that person.

There is also a weeping and disaster which is negative: “Then David and the troops who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until there was no strength in them,” that is, when they came back to their encampment at Ziklag, and David then describes in Psalm 42 how he felt: “My tears have been my food day and night.” The weeping here is a case of where he made a mistake and now they all go back and cry about it.

In the Sennacherib invasion of Isaiah 36 the Assyrian army kept shouting at the Jews: “Where is your God?” And they responded by crying. They were afraid of the Assyrians and they said, “My tears have been my food day and night,” the same concept.

The weeping can also be involved in other factors, like rebound, reversion recovery, Psalm 30:5 where David says, “His anger [divine discipline] is but for a moment resulting in a lifetime of great benefit; weeping may last for the night, but celebration happiness comes in the morning”. In other words, the weeping of the terrible divine discipline, the pain that came from it, both spiritual pain of the soul and physical pain, is now changed to happiness.

Psalm 30:11, “You have converted my weeping into dancing; you have torn off my sackcloth and clothed me with your happiness.” So weeping also can stop, and when one rebounds it gets back to a rational function in life.

There is also weeping which is the most tragic of all. When believers are jealous of other believers and living, therefore, obviously in the cosmic system, there is the weeping of sour grapes. In Ezra 3:12, 13, “Yet many of the priests and Levites, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when before their eyes the foundations of the second temple was laid. At the same time many others were shouting for happiness so that the people [who were on the outside ready to attack at a future time and were making a reconnaissance] could not distinguish the sound of the shouts for happiness from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout to drown out the weepers, and the sound was heard far away.” Someone suddenly realised that they were being observed by their enemies, the reconnaissance patrols that were hiding out in the hills, and so they said, “You have to shout louder so that they will not think that we have given up because of these cry-babies.”

There is also the crying drunk. The weeping of drunks in a national disaster is found in the Bible.

Joel 1:5,6, “Wake up you drunks, and start crying again; wail, all of you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth. For the nation has been invaded by a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, and has the jaw teeth of a lioness.”

In other words, once the people are deprived of their pleasures, of the things which are related to prosperity that eventuated in their decadence [although it doesn’t have to], then they start to weep and to wail. Sooner or later a nation such as ours which moves into social degeneracy and economic depression through its own bad decisions, through the shrinkage of the pivot, through indifference to the Word of God on the part of believers, eventually there is the weeping and the wailing of the loss of the pleasures, the loss of the fun, the loss of everything that is associated with prosperity. It is an historical trend that one generation makes prosperity through their virtue, their greatness, through Bible doctrine, through the truth of the laws of divine establishment, through free enterprise and government non-interference.

The weeping of patriots in national disaster is not unusual either. Isaiah 22:3,4 — “All your rulers have fled together, they have been captured by the threat of weaponry [they surrendered because they were afraid of the bow]; all of you who were found were taken captive together, though they had not fled away. Therefore I say, ‘Turn your eyes away from me, let me weep bitterly, do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the citizens of this great nation.’ In other words, Isaiah was weeping because they didn’t even resist. They wouldn’t fight, they were draft dodgers, they were cowards, and they could have stopped the enemy, but they didn’t. They gave up out of fear. Fear is still the greatest weapon in warfare.

In Jeremiah 9:1, “O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I may weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.” Later on Jeremiah wept for those who fought, and this is a legitimate weeping, this is honouring the honourable dead, those who fight for freedom. Whatever they were in life, by giving their lives on the battlefield they have become honourable and they represent the honour of the nation.

Lamentations 1:16, “For these things I weep; my eyes run down with water; because the comforter is far from me, the one who restores my soul; my young people in the country are desolate because the enemy has prevailed.” This is the weeping of patriotism; this is an honourable weeping for a country that had been great through Bible doctrine and now has lost that greatness through cosmic involvement.

The weeping of bitterness is found among women as well. In 1 Samuel 1:10, speaking of Hannah, “She, bitter of soul, prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.” She was the object of scorn and derision because she had not had any children. In the time in which this was written it was considered to be a great disgrace. But she reacted to all of these people who were maligning her and ridiculing her, and she wept bitterly. In other words, she allowed what people thought, their criticism, their maligning, to overcome her.

The weeping of grief and sorrow is mentioned in many passages. In John 11:33 the honourable weeping of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Therefore when Jesus saw her [the sister of Lazarus] weeping , and the Jews who came with her, also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit, and was troubled.” This is legitimate weeping for someone you love who has departed from this life. This is mourning; this is a part of sorrow; and it is legitimate. The same thing is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13.

There is a weeping of judgment. Matthew 8:12, “But the sons of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness. In that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This is a reference to Jews, called the sons of the kingdom because theirs is the client nation, the greatest client nation in history. Yet the very purpose for the client nation is to present the gospel and to teach doctrine. And they have rejected the gospel and therefore they were a client nation with the greatest opportunity for salvation and they rejected Christ as saviour, and therefore there will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 25:30, “And cast out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The worthless slave is Israel. Israel having been a client nation for so many hundreds of years and having been custodians of the Word of God, and having had the opportunity of great blessing from category #1 doctrine, free enterprise, and having heard the gospel time and time again, and having lived in the best environment for becoming a believer, they rejected Christ and therefore the tragedy: their weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Luke 13:28, “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the prophets in the kingdom of God,” same concept again. Many Jews will accept Christ as saviour. For those who do not there will be the weeping of total frustration for lost opportunity.

The weeping of the Lord Jesus Christ is also a very fascinating subject since there are several passages in the Word of God that discuss it. At the tomb of Lazarus, the weeping of bereavement; over the city of Jerusalem, the weeping of patriotism in Luke 19:41; at the cross, Hebrews 5:7.

There is also the cessation of weeping, Isaiah 30:18-20, “Therefore the Lord waits that he may be gracious to you, consequently he will lift himself to have compassion for you. For the Lord is a God of justice; happiness to those who wait on him [trust him]. For a people shall dwell in Zion [Jerusalem], as for weeping you shall stop weeping,” once the Jews are restored as a client nation to God they will never again weep, “As for grace, he will give you grace; at the sound of your cry, when he hears it he will answer you. Although the Lord has given you the bread of privation [Israel lost out as a client nation] and the water of oppression, Yet your Teacher will not hide himself any longer, for your eyes shall be looking on your Teacher.”

Then, of course, in eternity when the believer is absent from the body and face to face with the Lord, Revelation 21:4, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Two things will never exist for the believer in eternity: pain and crying. No believer will ever cry in the eternal state. There is regret, there is ashamedness, there is embarrassment at the judgment seat of Christ, but no more crying and no more tears.

Our passage, then, says: “And so I wept and I wept,” and now he gives us the reason. The causal use of the conjunction o(ti, “because.” Then the nominative singular subject, o)udeij, “no one.” The verb is the aorist passive indicative of e(uriskw, no one “was found.” The culminative aorist tense views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Neither angel nor human was found who has the right or the worthiness to open the book of historical trends of the Tribulation. The passive voice: the subject no one refers to man and angels, they receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the doctrine that Jesus Christ controls history and only our Lord, of course, can break it open. Now John knows this but he has forgotten it temporarily.

One of the greatest aberrations among believers is to forget a doctrine just when you need it. The reason for this is fear or something similar because fear destroys the ability to think. In fact fear is defined as lack of thinking. Once fear comes in then emotion takes over, and that is why John wept. He was weeping for all of the wrong reasons. His emotions were temporarily out of control. He was weeping because no one was found and yet he already knows that Jesus Christ controls history. The declarative indicative mood is for the reality of the doctrine that Jesus Christ controls history. The ellipsis demands the relative pronoun o(j and the imperfect of e)imi, “who was” is the way it is translated. Ellipsis is used here to reflect the emotional condition of the writer and therefore things are left out which are obvious and can be included. And then we have the predicate nominative from the adjective acioj, “worthy,” “who was worthy.”

Then the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)noigw which means to break open or to open the seals. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: neither angel nor human being could produce the action and this is a reminder of the fact that creatures inevitably do not control history. It is God who controls history and it is now the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. The infinitive of intended result combines result and purpose into one concept — the failure of any creature, both angelic and human, fulfils a deliberate objective, the divine objective of the vision. Only Jesus Christ is qualified to break the seals.

We have finally the accusative singular direct object from the word biblion, “the book,” the Doomsday book. In contrast to the Church Age historical trends in the Tribulation are determined by prophecy. Behind each one of these seven seals is a prophecy regarding the trends of the Tribulation.

Then he says, “or to see it,” the present active infinitive of the verb blepw, meaning to see. No one was able to look at it, to see it. The futuristic present denotes an event which is eschatological, a vision which has not yet occurred in heaven because the Rapture or the termination of the Church Age has not yet occurred. But this prophecy is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring, therefore the futuristic present. Neither angelic creature nor homo sapien can produce the action, says the active voice, and that is because historical trends are determined by Jesus Christ. The infinitive: the intended result is when the result indicates the fulfilling of a deliberate objective on the part of God. Finally, the accusative neuter singular of autos which is correctly translated “it.”

Translation: “And so I wept and I wept, because no one was found [neither human nor angelic creature] who was worthy to open the book [the Doomsday book with its seven seals denoting prophetically historical trends in the Tribulation] or to see it [view its contents].”

There is another phrase in the King James version, “and to read the book,” which is not found in the original manuscript.

Once our Lord Jesus Christ breaks those seals in heaven and John through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit records the content in Revelation chapters six through eighteen, then there will be great accuracy and anyone will be able to exegete it who understands the eschatology of the Old Testament.

Man has within him not only the old sin nature but certain very self-destructive principles. In order to protect all of us from these self-destructive principles we have been given under the laws of divine establishment category #1 truth, the principle of the sacredness of life and privacy as the basis for human freedom for everyone. And then as believers we have been given a royal family honour code that adds many principles to this — the avoidance of gossip or maligning or judging, or anything that would be detrimental to the privacy of someone else. The reason for this is obvious: none of us are perfect; all of us have an old sin nature; all of us have manifestations of that sin nature. Therefore in the time in which we live, the Church Age, one of the most evil of all categories is not a demon category but a category of born-again believer who under the principle of arrogance and self-righteousness and the modus operandi of crusader arrogance are trying to reform and change everyone under the principle that they are perfect and that everyone should be like they are. This is the most evil system of morality. The worst evil of all time is the morality of the believer in the cosmic system because instead of being linked to the filling of the Spirit where it is a fantastic gracious function it is linked to the cosmic system and Satan where it becomes arrogance and a tremendous evil. With so many born-again believers entering into the cosmic system and taking their morality and their reform along with them, and adding to it their arrogance as a motivating factor, it provides the most awful kind of society.

In verses 5-7, in observing the seventh thing in heaven, we note that Jesus Christ controls history after His first advent and in His hypostatic union. As we resume we see the worthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ to continue to control history.

In verse 5 we start with the usual conjunction kai. This conjunction not only has eight very definite grammatical uses but possibly as many as ten other ones. The fact that it is constantly translated “and” sometimes detracts. Often there is a sequential kai, which we have here, and it perpetuates a sequence of events and we translate it “then.” Then we have the nominative numeral for “one” which is e(ij. This refers to one spokesman. Note that there are twenty-four general staff members in the angelic group but only one of them is the spokesman at this time. We do not know the exact reason for it we just simply know that this is the situation.

In going back for a moment to the order of rank of angels there are two categories and we need to perhaps add a few things in anticipation of what we will be studying. In the college of heralds the order of battle is: No 1, our Lord Jesus Christ who is not an angel but commands the college of heralds. He is Malak Adonai, the Angel of the Lord, and as such He is the head of the college of heralds.

There are four categories of our Lord’s appearances in history. There is the theophany which is the appearance of our Lord before the first advent. It includes the appearance as the messenger of God the Father and as number one in the college of heralds. His appearances during and after the incarnation or the first advent are simply called the incarnation. Our Lord appears at that time in hypostatic union, a unique personality composed of two natures and the characteristics of each nature never bleed over or overflow into the other, He is truly God and truly humanity in one person forever. After His resurrection there were appearances to human beings and that is called Christophany — post-resurrection appearances of our Lord in His hypostatic union. The seconds advent is the return of Christ in His hypostatic union to supersede Satan, the coup de tat that will make Him the ruler of this world.

Angel of the Lord [Jehovah] refers to our Lord Jesus Christ as an Old Testament theophany which ranks Him above everyone else in the college of heralds. As the Angel of the Lord He is also identified as God.

Number two in the college of heralds are called the seraphim. These are the highest of the angelic order, they have six wings as their insignia of rank. Most angels do not have wings. There are two categories of seraphs in the college of heralds. We have just noted one in Revelation 5:2, the powerful angel who ranks as a king or officer of arms. Under him are the angelic heralds who are also seraphim and they are the four living creatures of Revelation four, verses 6-8.

Number three are the pur sui vant officers who all have four wings and are called cherubs. They are famous for their four wings as their insignia of rank. Just as there are officers in the pur sui vant category in the English college of heralds, so in the angelic college of heralds. The pur sui vant officers in the angelic college include the cherubs who guard the gates of Eden, the four cherubs of the chariot of fire in Ezekiel 1 and 10; Satan or Lucifer son of the morning in Ezekiel 28:14; the messenger of judgment in 2 Samuel 22:11, mentioned also in Psalm 18:10. They are pur sui vant officers.

Number four in the angelic college are the pur sui vant messengers. They are elect angels in the college of heralds, without wings, therefore without rank, but they do have special classification. For example, the angelic messengers who, destroyed Sodom were pur sui vant.

Next in verse 5 we have r(iza Dauid, “the Root of David.” Isaiah 11:1 gives us this first royal title. The root of David refers to our Lord Jesus Christ with His first royal patent. In eternity past our Lord had His first royal patent as the Root of David. As the Root of David, in the Greek text, r(iza, Jesus Christ is God. The Root of David is the title of our Lord Jesus Christ in His deity. At the point of the virgin birth He received His second royal patent, He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah or the Son of David. These two royal titles, of course, are connected with Israel. God’s plan for the human race and God’s plan to resolve the angelic conflict puts Israel in a major role. As a client nation to God, as the recipient of the unconditional covenants, as the Son of David — in the virgin birth our Lord Jesus Christ is descended from David and Bathsheba. So as the Root of David our Lord Jesus Christ has His first royal patent as Son of God; Son of David, His second royal patent. This is mentioned to indicate the hypostatic union which is the basis of fulfilling all unconditional covenants to Israel at the second advent.

This is the subject of Isaiah 11:1, “A root will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots [Christ as eternal God] a branch [Christ in hypostatic union] will bear fruit [second advent].”

Isaiah 11:10, “In that day [the second advent and the Millennium] the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the nations, the nations will rally to him and his place of rest will be glorious.”

It is this particular chapter that gives us the basis for this particular phrase, “the root of David.” This is the title of our Lord Jesus Christ as eternal God and as eternal God Jesus Christ is the founder of the Jewish race. He is not only the founder of the Jewish race as eternal God and the God of Israel, but as the Son of David He will deliver the Jewish race at the second advent.

We now have to have a subject to go with the verb, which is nikaw, the aorist active indicative, and it means to be victorious, to win, to overcome, and we will translate it “has won the victory.”

“Look here, the Lion from the tribe of Judah [our Lord’s second patent], the Root of David [our Lord’s first royal patent as eternal God, the two together make the hypostatic union], has won the victory.” The culminative aorist tense views the strategic victory of the first advent of Christ in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. In this context Christ is qualified to open the Doomsday book to break to seven seals which denote the seven general characteristics and trends of the Tribulation. This emphasises, of course, the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through His strategic victory of the first advent. The declarative indicative mood is for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine.

With this we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)noigw which means here to begin to open because of the ingressive aorist tense. It contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. Jesus Christ, again, produces the action. This is an infinitive, the infinitive of intended result which blends purpose and result in one concept. In other words, a deliberate aim or object is being fulfilled. With this the accusative direct object from biblion, “he has won the victory and is qualified to begin opening the book”. And then a connective conjunction “and,” and the possessive genitive from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “its.” Then we have the phrase “seven seals.”

Translation of verse 5 — “Then one of the angelic staff officers commanded me, Stop crying: look here, the Lion from the tribe of Judah [title of our Lord’s second royal patent], the Root of David [title of our Lord’s first royal patent], has won the victory and is qualified to begin opening the Doomsday book and break its seven seals.”

This, again, is a reference to the historical trends of the Tribulation which are based on prophecy. Only the Church Age, the dispensation of no prophecy, is the exception. All historical trends throughout history are developed through eschatology or prophecy, except in the Church Age. Jesus Christ is qualified therefore to open the Doomsday book and to break these seals as an emphasis on the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. The concept, of course, is the worthiness of our Lord to open the Doomsday book and to break the seals. As eternal God and founder of the Jewish race, as well as client nation Israel, Jesus Christ is the Root of David. As the God-Man in hypostatic union Christ received His second royal patent at the point of the virgin birth: the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Both royal patents combine to present our Lord as the one who perpetuates historical trends, He controls history as the God-Man. He is therefore qualified to open these seals. It is important for us to make the application that the one who controls history now will always control history. No matter how difficult things become circumstantially our Lord will take care of those who are inside the divine dynasphere which is the wall of fire.

It is only after the strategic victory was achieved at the cross and culminated in resurrection, ascension and session, that Jesus Christ received His third royal patent, the one which we have been studying in chapters two and three. When our Lord received His third royal patent it became necessary to insert a mystery dispensation, a dispensation with no prophecy, into history. That is exactly what we have in the concept of intercalation which came from the third royal patent. First royal patent: in eternity past Jesus Christ is eternal God; second royal patent: first advent, Jesus Christ is the Son of David; third royal patent: when Jesus Christ ascended, concluding, of course, the first advent, the incarnation. This was the first time our Lord was minus a royal family to go with that royal patent. The royal family under the first patent: God the Father, God the Holy Spirit; the royal family under the second is the dynasty of David; the royal family, He didn’t have one. He was King of kings and Lord of lords, He was the bright morning star, but He had no royal family. Therefore instead of going right to the second advent and fulfilling the unconditional covenants to Israel there is first of all the insertion of an age to call out the royal family, the dispensation of the Church or the royal family. Then He owes one more period of seven years, called “Daniel’s seventieth week,” to Israel before the second advent. This, of course, is the Tribulation.

Intercalation, a word introduced into theology by Dr L.S. Chafer, is the key to understanding the mystery concept of the Church Age. It means insertion. The Jewish dispensation had seven years to run when our Lord received His third royal patent. It was interrupted by the strategic victory of Christ and the issuing of His third royal patent. So a new dispensation had to be inserted before time could continue for Israel. Intercalation also is the intensification of the angelic conflict. The Church Age is the dispensation of the mystery. This is taught in Romans 16:25,26; Ephesians 3:1-6; Colossians 1:25,26. Doctrines pertaining to the Church Age are never found in the Old Testament. In all of the Old Testament dispensations, there are four of them, historical trends are based on the same thing, prophecy. There was no prophecy of the Church Age because the Church Age could not have prophecy. The Church Age is the dispensation of historical trends based on the volition of the individual believer. It is the dispensation of intercalation; it is the dispensation of the mystery. There is no prophecy during the Church Age. The Church Age is terminated with a prophecy — the Rapture. The first mention that there would be an intercalation came from our Lord Jesus Christ when He said: “On this rock I will build my church,” future active indicative of the verb o)ikodomew, which means it was a future tense, it had not occurred as yet. The rock, of course, was the Lord Jesus Christ, not Peter. Peter is petroj, he is a little chip in the stone. Petra is the rock on which the Church is built, a large mountain, a large rock. The rock, of course, is the baptism of the Holy Spirit by which the royal family of God is formed. Christ is the rock, Christ is the petra on the which the Church, i.e. the royal family, is built. And it is a dispensation in which God changes His policy only once to allow the royal family to determine the historical trends in this dispensation.

So what happens in this dispensation is your decision, your decision to live in the divine dynasphere as over against your decision to live in the cosmic system. As goes the believer so goes this dispensation of no prophecy. It is the dispensation of intercalation; it is the dispensation of the mystery. The mystery is defined as a period of no prophecy to anticipate it, absolutely unknown to the Old Testament saints, according to Ephesians 3:1-6; Colossians 1:25,26. Doctrines pertinent to the Church are intercalated, they are inserted by the New Testament epistles. This means that every time there was a chronological prophecy or a prophecy that might include the Church Age there was a parenthesis between the verses that dealt with it. For example, the great parenthesis occurs between Daniel 2:40, 41. Daniel 2:40 takes us up to the break-off of the Jewish Age, the dispensation of Israel after the ascension. Then verse 41 resumes again in the Tribulation. The same thing is true in Daniel 7:23. It takes us right up to the point where the Church Age would begin; verse 24 jumps right over to the Tribulation. This is also true between Daniel 8:22 and 8:23. Daniel 11:35 takes us right up to the Church Age, and then the mystery; 11:36 starts right into the Tribulation. Hosea 3:4 takes us right up to the Church Age and stops, and then verse 5 starts in with the Tribulation. The same thing is true in Psalm 22 between verses 22 and 23. In one case, Isaiah 61, in the middle of verse 2 you come right up to the Church Age, nothing is mentioned about it, and in the rest of verse 2 you jump right over to the Tribulation. The Old Testament reveals doctrine up through the session of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s ascension and session are mentioned on the Old Testament prophecies. They take us right up to where He ascended and they tell us how He was seated at the right hand of the Father. Then, all of a sudden, it goes from there right into the Tribulation. So it skips over. There is no Church Age doctrine between the baptism of the Spirit and the Rapture revealed in the Old Testament. That is what mystery means.

Verse 6, the strategic victory by which Jesus Christ controls history. We begin by noting again the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then.” We continue with the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, “Then I saw.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Everything that John sees in this particular passage will have has a frame of reference somewhere in Old Testament prophecy, like the seven horns which we will note shortly. The active voice: the apostle John as the human writer produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the vision of the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ in the first advent. The first and second advents were both prophesied in the Old Testament. The Old Testament talks about the first advent and anticipates it in detail. Also, the Old Testament anticipates the second advent. It also prophecies what happens on each side of the second advent, the Tribulation, the Millennial reign of Christ. The last part of the book of Isaiah has six chapters on the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. The only thing that is not prophesied is the Church Age, the dispensation of no prophecy. So what John is seeing here has to do with the strategic victory that brought about that Church Age. So we have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, followed by the aorist active indicative o(raw, “then I saw.” And that declarative indicative mood is very important for the reality of the vision of the strategic victory of Christ resulting in the fact that Jesus Christ controls history as a member of the human race, as the God-Man. That is a phenomenon because angels are created much greater than man and now a member of the human race is actually controlling all of history. In His humanity He is recognised as above the angels. This broke Satan’s back at the ascension.

The phrase “and lo” does not occur in the original. We move on then to the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of mesoj and qronoj, “in the middle of a throne.” This is the throne room of heaven where God the Father and God the Son are seated. This is a large throne. “Then I saw in the middle of the throne.” Next we have the four living creatures or the four angelic heralds. The connective kai adds a second description. We have the numeral tessarej, “four,” and then zoion, “living creatures.” Corrected translation: “I saw in the middle of the throne with the four angelic heralds [living creatures] and in the middle of the angelic staff officers.” We have the repetition of messoj [middle] and this time we have presbuteroj for the angelic staff officers. So once again the angelic order of battle comes into focus.

We don’t even have an object yet of the verb “then I saw.” All we know is where he saw. Once again remember the order of rank in the college of heralds. Number one: our Lord Jesus Christ as the Angel of the Lord [Jehovah]. This is a theophany and it ranks Christ above the college of heralds without being an angel Himself. Number two are the seraphim. There are two categories. We have seen in Revelation 5:2 the “powerful angel.” We will see one other in this particular category and these rank as the kings of arms or officers of arms. Secondly there are the four angelic heralds who are mentioned as being in the middle of the throne. Number three are the cherubim. Satan was a cherub and was lower than at least six angels who outranked him in eternity past called seraphim or seraphs, and number three, then, are the pur sui vant officers. Their insignia of rank are four wings. They are comparable to the college of heralds in England where there are four officers. The pur sui vant officers, four of them, include the following: the cherubs who guard the gate of Eden in Genesis 3:24; the four cherubs, one at each of the four wheels of the chariot of fire in Ezekiel chapters one and ten; Satan or Lucifer son of the morning, mentioned in Ezekiel 28:14, who has been court-martialled and is not present any longer; and the messenger of the judgment, 2 Samuel 22:11; Psalm 18:10. Number four are the pur sui vant messengers and we will see a great many of them throughout the book of Revelation. They are classified, as most angels, without wings. There are very few angels that have wings, only high-ranking officers. The angelic messengers who destroyed Sodom are two of the pur sui vant, Genesis 19:13; the executioners of the evil people of Jerusalem in Ezekiel 9:1ff; the man clothed in linen in Ezekiel 10:6; the four angels who hold back the four winds in Revelation 7:1; and the messenger from the east in Revelation 7:1.

The order of battle in the army: Number one is the Lord of hosts [Lord of the armies], our Lord Jesus Christ; number two: the archangels or army commanders, two mentioned in the Bible: Michael and Gabriel; two mentioned in the book of Enoch: Raphiel and Uriel. Michael commands a special army, the army of angels that guards Israel. Israel is under constant protection, believer and unbeliever, because of the covenants. He is called the prince of Israel in Daniel 10:21. In the past Michael fought with Satan over the body of Moses, according to 2 Peter 2:11; he defends Israel in the Tribulation according to one Old Testament prophecy and one New Testament prophecy, Daniel 1:21. Gabriel is a most unusual angel in that he is an archangel, an army commander, but he is also an officer of arms in the college of heralds. We have noted in the past that he is a very special messenger to teach very special doctrine, as in Daniel 8:16 and 9:21. He was also sent to Zachariah to announce the birth of John the Baptist, he was sent to the virgin Mary to announce the birth of the Messiah, Luke 1:19,26, and in the book of Enoch, chapters 9, 20 and 40 Gabriel is said to be the chief of angels placed over all those who have power or authority. Number three is the one in our context, the angelic general staff, the 24 elders. Number four: the rank and file call “hosts.” This would include guardian angels such as in Psalm 91:11, the river of fire battalions in Daniel 7:10, the angelic armies described in Psalm 103:21 and Psalm 148:2 who spend a great deal of time offering praise to the Lord in worship. When a pur sui vant angel announces to the shepherds the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ he is suddenly joined by heavenly armies praising God, Luke 2:13. The ministering spirits of Hebrews 1:14 are included as a part of the angelic army.

The problem here is that we have something missing. “Then I saw,” it says in verse 6, “in the middle of the throne with the four angelic heralds, and in the middle of the angelic staff officers.” The trouble is that in the Greek the words are in a different position than in an English sentence and it doesn’t tell us what we saw until we get almost through the verse. Now we have the inserted accusative a)rnion e)sthkoj o(j e)sfagmenon. This is quite a lengthy accusative. The actual accusative singular direct object is from the noun a)rnion and immediately we have a problem with a)rnion because we have generations of idiots who stand in pulpits and do not know the Greek. A)rnion is the direct object of “I saw.” A)rnion is considered and has been taught as being a diminutive of a)rnen, the word for sheep. It isn’t true; it is not a diminutive. In the Koine Greek of the New Testament a)rnion is a male sheep, a ram. When John called Jesus the Lamb of God in John 1:29 he used a different word altogether, he used a)mnoj. The same in John 1:36. When he emphasises the saving work of Christ on the cross John always uses a)mnoj and this is true in consistency with the writer of the book of Acts, Acts 8:32; 1 Peter 1:19. Whenever the saving work of Christ is related to the cross it is “Behold the Lamb of God”, or it talks about the Lamb of God. And while our Lord is the Lamb of God we have a different word here. It is still talking about the cross but with an entirely different emphasis. Here it is not the Lamb of God but the Ram of God, a)rnion , which emphasises our Lord’s saving work on the cross but it adds something, namely the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ or the fact that Jesus Christ now controls history. And how did our Lord come to control history? The same way that anyone with ability, anyone with talent, ever becomes successful, through humility. The same way that people become great in friendship, in love, in honour, in integrity. The secret is humility. The ram speaks of our Lord’s humility in going to the cross and bearing our sins. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death. So when John talks about the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world he uses a)mnoj, “became obedient unto death,” says Philippians 2, but when he talks about the humility it took then he talks about a)rnion, and that is the word we have here. The same person, the apostle John who wrote the gospel of John, is the one who wrote a)rnion here instead of a)mnoj.

Our Lord is the most successful human being who ever came to this earth, and the reason is because humility precedes success. Humility is the basis of integrity, the capacity for love, for happiness, for blessing, for anything in life that is worthwhile. We happen to live in a time when the mode of the day is arrogance. People can’t even learn doctrine because they are arrogant, they can’t be consistent, they are preoccupied with self. Arrogance is the life of the average believer today and it is related to the various gates of interlocking systems of arrogance.

Translation: “Then I saw a ram [a)rnion, not a)mnoj]”. The direct object a)rnion is used to emphasise our Lord’s strategic victory of the cross, and the strategic victory of the cross has a base: humility. Even when our Lord did not want to go to the cross and did not want to bear our sins in His humanity He said: “Father, if be thy will let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless [enforced humility] not my will but thine be done.” And then it was followed by genuine humility. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Arrogance is still Satan’s basic and greatest principle. He had a great personality but he wasn’t the highest ranking of all angels. There were at least six angels who were higher in rank than he was. At one time there were five who were in the midst of the throne — angelic heralds. Note that there are only four now. Again, Satan has been court-martialled.

“Then I saw a ram standing in the middle of the throne with the four angelic heralds, and in the middle of the four angelic staff officers [the 24 elders, the third highest rank in the army of elect angels].” So, notice again, the angelic heralds and the elect army of angels are always represented. And our Lord is said to be with them as the ram. The Lamb of the cross who now, because of His strategic victory, we are going to see as the Ram of the seven horns. With His third royal patent and His strategic victory of the angelic conflict from His first advent our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy to break the seals of the Doomsday book and present in eschatological form the historical trends of the Tribulation. But we have to finish out everything that goes with that direct object. The Ram is said to be doing something, an ascriptive participle which is a present active participle from i(stemi, translated “standing.” We are going to find the Ram standing in the middle of the throne but before we do we have some descriptive words that go with this Ram. The comparative particle o(j introduces a descriptive phrase which is important, and we have to understand it before we can get to the seven horns. “As” is the general way in which this is translated. It introduces a characteristic or quality of the unique person of the Lord Jesus Christ. When o(j is used with the participle it provides an explanation of a certain quality or characteristic. Here the characteristic is the strategic victory of the cross.

With this we have the perfect passive participle of the Attic verb sfattw. The trouble is that in the time in which this was written the Romans were no longer an aristocratic people, they had allowed all the scum to come in from everywhere and they couldn’t even pronounce sfattw. So that is why we have the Koine Greek, why the magnificent Attic, Ionian and Aolic Greek, the three which formed Classical Greek. The Attic Greek was the Greek of Athens, the colonies across the way in western Turkey, Ionian, spoke an even higher class of Greek and then, north of them in what is now western Turkey was Aolia, and the three of them put together the greatest of all Greek. So the Romans couldn’t speak that way, it was too much for them, so they have to change all this and get down to a gutter language, sqazw, which means to kill, to butcher, to slaughter as one who has been killed as a sacrifice. The perfect tense is a consummative perfect, it notes the completed action of eternal salvation provided at the cross but it emphasises, not redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation by which we have our so great salvation, but what they produce. That is why it is in the perfect tense. The perfect tense emphasises a completed action and the existing results, the fact that Jesus Christ controls history as the God-Man. Jesus Christ controlled history as eternal God, but what happened when he became true humanity? He continues to control history. The passive voice: Jesus Christ receives the action of the verb as the Lamb or the Ram of God. Jesus Christ was judged for our sins as the Lamb of God, now He is the Ram with seven horns, He has won the greatest victory of all time. The participle is circumstantial referring to the strategic victory of the cross and its relationship to the fact that Jesus Christ continues to control history and is worthy to open the Doomsday book.

Now we get to it: e)xwn kerata e(pta kai. Then it also adds the seven eyes, but first we have the horns, “and he had” a present active participle from e)xw but because it is a circumstantial participle it is translated like a finite verb preceded by “and,” “and he had.” The present tense of duration a descriptive present. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action and the participle is circumstantial which expresses attendant circumstances and additional fact or thought which is best rendered in the English by the conjunction “and” plus the finite translation of the verb. E(pta plus keraj, and we have now cleared the decks for action, “seven horns.” What do the horns mean? A ram has, at best, two horns in all the sheep we see. But here is a special one, e(pta, seven horns. Horns, of course, symbolise human power and authority. In Daniel 7:7 we have the ten horns which are the ten nations of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. In Daniel 8:20,21 we have a ram with two horns which is the Median-Persian empire [one horn represents the Medes, one horn represents the Persians]. They represent great power in history: power to control, power to handle people, power to provide for people. In Amos 6:13 arrogant Israel boasts of a conquest of all other nations which are called “horns.” In Jeremiah 48:25 the horn of Moab was the power of that nation to control the area in which they lived. In Revelation 13:1 we will study ten horns which are ten nations of the revived Roman empire. In Daniel 7 there is the little horn, the dictator that finally overcomes all of western Europe and controls it in the Tribulation. This is the dictator of the beast out of the sea which we will study in detail in Revelation 13. In Revelation 17:12 the ten horns there refer to the nations of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation and, again, from them comes the little horn of Daniel 7. In Zechariah 1:18, 19 there are other horns, each one representing a tremendous power.

For example, the first one is the Assyrian empire which in BC 721 administered the 5th cycle of discipline to the northern kingdom of Israel.

The second horn in Zechariah 1:18, 19 is the Chaldean empire which administered both the 4th and the 5th cycles of discipline to the southern kingdom. In 606 BC, after the battle of Carchemish and the defeat of Pharaoh Necho, “Woe unto those who go down to Egypt for help,” the Chaldeans took Daniel and others into captivity, Daniel 1:1. So the second horn represents that great victory. Then in BC 598 Nebuchanezzar took more hostages, including Ezekiel, and that represents the function of the second horn. In BC 586 Nebuchadnezzar administered the 5th cycle of discipline to the Jews, the destruction of Jerusalem. The Medes and the Persians eventually restored them.

The third horn is the Hellenistic empire of the Seleucids, known as Syria, and the Ptolomies under Egypt.

The fourth horn is the Roman empire which administered the 5th cycle of discipline for the last time to Israel in AD 70, until of course, we come to the great period in the future when Israel will be revived again as a client nation.

All of these are horns. Horns describe nations as having great power. Horns are used for dictators. Horns represent the power of individuals and the power of groups but a power which can never exceed the power of our Lord Jesus Christ who humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Ephesians 3:1-5 begins our explanation in Revelation chapter five. “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you, the Gentiles — if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for your benefit; that by revelation [divine disclosure] the mystery [the historical trends of the Church Age] was revealed to me just as I have previously written in brief. Face to face with which doctrine of the mystery [historical trends of the Church Age] when you exegete [addressed to pastors], you ought to be able to understand by categorical knowledge into the mystery of the Christ [that is, Christ and the royal family of God], which in other dispensations was not revealed to men of other generations, so that now it has been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by means of the Holy Spirit.”

Colossians 1:25-29, “Of which dispensation of the Church I have become a minister [says Paul] according to this dispensation from God which was given to me for your benefit, that I might implement your deficiency of Bible doctrine, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and other generations; but has now been revealed to his saints [the royal family, Church Age believers], to whom God has decreed to make known what is the prosperity of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory [the third hope, the hope of eternal reward. Which we solemnly proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we might present [at the judgment seat of Christ] every man a mature believer in Christ. For this purpose I also labour to the point of exhaustion, competing according to his [God’s] game plan, which is effective in me inside the divine dynasphere.”

Both of these passages take note of the fact that God has divided all human history into eras, and these historical eras are called dispensations or ages, periods of time divided according to the Word of God along the principles of trends. The first of these dispensations is the era of positive volition which began with the creation of mankind and takes us to his fall. In other words, the first dispensation involved two people in the perfect environment of the garden of Eden. Mankind was in perfect environment with only a volitional test as a part of the angelic conflict. He was forbidden to eat from one tree. Incidentally Satan attacked volition in the garden. This dispensation terminated with the fall of man. It was demonstrated at the very beginning of history that even perfect environment [ideal circumstances] is not the answer to man’s problems and definitely not the contributing basis for happiness, and that man can be just as unhappy and just as dissatisfied and miserable in perfect environment as in any other environment.

The second dispensation is the era of negative volition. It starts with the fall of man and it goes to the tower of Babel. This might be called the dispensation of internationalism and it dramatises man’s old sin nature. Internationalism is a total failure, it never has been successful and never will, and it was demonstrated as such in the second dispensation. Whether we are talking about the United Nations or the League of Nations or ecumenicalism, or a political or religious system of internationalism, none of them have ever been successful, none of them have ever been satisfactory and, above all, none of them have ever produced happiness. Internationalism is a total failure. In the case of the tower of Babel it meant one language, one race, one skin colour, and it did not solve man’s problems. Of course the environment of internationalism never has and never will. No written canon of scripture existed at that time and God revealed Himself and the doctrine necessary. Salvation in every dispensation is always the same: faith in Christ. In the era of negative volition Satan attacked, as always, marriage and the family. This, of course, is Genesis six. The tower of Babel was the Satanic attack also against the anticipation of nationalism in the next dispensation, the story of Genesis 11:1-9. The next era, the third one, we call the era of divine establishment, the era or dispensation of nationalism. It began with the destruction of the tower of Babel around 5000 BC and it goes to the establishment of the first client nation in BC 1441. There is always in dispensations a certain amount of overlap. That is true in any historical era. But the key is to distinguish between Jews and Gentiles at this point. There were three basic races with many subdivisions in the dispensation of divine establishment. There were, of course, many languages forcing people to divide into tribes and into nations.

Number four is the era of the first client nation, the dispensation of Israel. It is divided into basically the two parts. The first part is the formation of the Jewish race, from Abraham to Moses, or from BC 2161 to BC 1441. Abraham was the father of the Jewish race. The second part is the function of the Jewish client nation and this goes from Moses to Christ, BC 1441 to AD 70. In this period the laws of divine establishment are defined by the Mosaic law — Codex #1 which is the freedom code, the ten commandments, and Codex #3 which gave the details of establishment modus operandi. There were three administrations of the fifth cycle of discipline to the first client nation. The first in BC 721 to the northern kingdom. It was administered by the Assyrians. The second was in BC 586 and was administered by the Chaldeans to the southern kingdom. And the last one was AD 70 which was administered by the Romans to the kingdom of Judea. Nevertheless, in spite of these three destructions of Israel as a client nation Israel still has a future guaranteed by the four unconditional covenants, the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New Covenants to Israel, which will all be fulfilled at the second advent and in the Millennium. Again, in this dispensation salvation was through faith in Jesus Christ, spirituality was the function of the faith-rest drill.

The fifth era is called the era of the royal family of God, the dispensation of the Church, or the times of the Gentiles. It is the dispensation of intercalation, meaning insertion. The strategic victory of Christ on the cross and the award of His third royal patent brought to a temporary halt the Age of Israel. It resulted in the insertion of the mystery age to provide a royal family for our Lord’s third royal patent. In every case there must be a royal family which goes with the patent of royalty. The first royal patent: Jesus Christ is God — title, Son of God; royal family, the Father and the Spirit. The second royal patent: title, Son of David with the royal family, the dynasty of David. The third royal patent: title, King of kings and Lord of lords, bright morning star, but no royal family. Therefore the Age of Israel came to a halt. The Church, of course, is the calling out of the royal family of God. As the mystery age, according to Romans 16:25, 26 and the two passages we have just noted, the Church dispensation is an era of not prophecy. All historical trends are determined by the volition of the believer. It is therefore unique and different from all historical ages. Historical trends of prosperity result from good decisions on the part of believers to live, reside, function in the divine dynasphere. All bad decisions result in historical downtrends. Bad decisions are classified as any decision to spend time in the cosmic system.

The Church Age, then, as a mystery dispensation is the period of the great parenthesis. Throughout the Old Testament there are many places where the Church Age could have been prophesied but was not. No Church Age doctrine was revealed in the Old Testament or prophecy concerning historical trends of the Church Age. The Old Testament reveals all the details of the first advent or the incarnation, including our Lord’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session, and then skips over to the Tribulation. This is the great parenthesis, there is no Church Age truth revealed in the Old testament. The Church Age is divided categorically in two ways. There is the concept of pre and post-canon periods of the Church Age. That is the first category. The pre-canon period starts in AD 30 and goes to AD 96. Then we have the post-canon period. The pre-canon period has certain things that the post-canon period does not. For example, water baptism was used in the pre-canon period but has no significance in the post-canon period. In the forty years of the pre-canon period we also have temporary spiritual gifts; after AD 96 when the canon is closed, permanent spiritual gifts.

The other categorical development is from the standpoint of the times of the Gentiles mentioned in Luke 21:24. We have from AD 32 to 40, a period of approximately forty years in which the Jews were warned that they were going out under the fifth cycle of discipline, and the warning came through the gift of tongues. The spiritual gift of tongues was a warning given from Isaiah warning that Jews that when they are miraculously evangelised in Gentile languages, the use of the gift of tongues, it is a warning that they are about to go out under the fifth cycle of discipline. Then, starting in AD 70 and going to the Rapture which terminates the Church Age, we have the times of the Gentiles when only Gentile client nations can function as such. There will be no Jewish client nation ever again until the second advent of Christ. There will be Jewish nations from time to time but no Jewish nation can be a client nation to God, this is the times of the Gentiles. These categories help to understand the difference between temporary and permanent spiritual gifts. It also helps us to understand the first 40 years of the Church Age, the concept of the overlap, for it was during this time that tongues and the interpretation of tongues was used; after AD 70, never again. The pre-canon period of the Church Age was the time of such temporary gifts as apostleship, prophecy, healing, miracles, the gift of faith, discerning spirits, tongues, etc. The post-canon period of the Church Age is the time for permanent gifts such as pastor-teacher, administration, evangelism, helps, government, etc.

The unique characteristics of the Church Age are very important. This is the most unusual dispensation and has more emphasis on the individual believer than any other dispensation. The dispensation of the royal family of God at salvation provides something that is never provided in any other historical era, the baptism of the Spirit which forms the royal family of God. This is the first and most unusual event. There is only one dispensation in which God the Holy Spirit takes every believer at the moment of salvation and enters him into union with Christ. Thus when you are born into this dispensation you are not family of God or a child of God, you are a royal son of God, you are royal family of God. Secondly, this is the dispensation of no prophecy. Historical trends are determined by the volition of believers related to the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system. There is no prophecy in this dispensation.

The third unique concept is the universal priesthood of the believer. This is the only dispensation in which there is the principle of every believer being his own priest. In all other historical areas there is a specialised priesthood. In the first three dispensations the head of the family was the priest. In the Age of Israel there was the Levitical priesthood. But now for the first and only time every believer represents himself before God with privacy to live his life as unto the Lord.

The fourth unique factor is the royal ambassadorship of the believer with special challenges to the life that were never given to individual believers before and will never be given again, that is, directing your life toward man and circumstances under the principles of functional virtue, living inside the divine dynasphere. This is absolutely unique.

The fifth unique principle is the fact that only this dispensation provides a divine dynasphere as God’s game plan for the believer. No other dispensation has anything like it. This is the age of the divine dynasphere, therefore this is the only dispensation in which every believer from the moment of salvation for all of his life is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit and, when in the divine dynasphere, filled with the Spirit.

In the sixth place, this is the only dispensation where the completed canon of scripture is the basis for eliminating all dreams, all visions, all trances, all communication directly from God. This is the only dispensation in all of history whereby every bit of communication from God is found in written form in the Bible. In the Tribulation they will have a complete canon of scripture but they will have other forms of communication of doctrine — dreams, visions, trances, things go along with the unusual circumstances of the Tribulation. The same thing will be true for the Millennium. This is the only dispensation that requires more from every believer. Whether you are smart or dumb it demands thought, the ability to think. So the completed canon of scripture, all divine revelation, all doctrine, is reduced to writing and contained in the canon. Therefore, no doctrine in this dispensation after AD 96 is taught through dreams, visions, trances, angels, or the voice of God.

The seventh unique factor: intensification of the angelic conflict which results from our Lord’s strategic victory on the cross. As the Lamb of God He is our saviour; as the Ram of God He controls history. Both point to the strategic victory on the cross.

The eighth unique factor: only in this dispensation do we have the indwelling of the person of Christ for all believers at the point of salvation. This is the first dispensation also in which Christ controls history from His hypostatic union. Always before Jesus Christ controlled history as God, now He controls history as the God-Man. And, again, salvation in this dispensation, like all of them, is through faith in Christ. But spirituality is different, it is resident and function in the divine dynasphere, the filling of the Spirit.

Dispensation number six is the Doomsday era, the Tribulation. When we get to Revelation chapter six we will be noting the trends of history in the Tribulation and their application to us.

Number seven is the era of Christ’s rulership of the world. This is the dispensation of a thousand years of perfect environment, beginning with the second advent of Christ and terminating with the Gog revolution and the great white throne judgment. In the dispensation of the Millennium salvation is through faith in Christ. Spirituality is related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit but totally apart from the divine dynasphere.

The Millennium begins with believers only. Outside of the first dispensation [positive volition] this is the only one that actually begins with believers only. These are the believers who survive the Tribulation and through the baptism of fire they enter into the Millennium, according to Ezekiel 20 and Matthew 25:31-46. There will be a tremendous population explosion from the believer nucleus of the Millennium and out of this there will be children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great, great grandchildren who are unbelievers, who reject Christ under perfect environment.

Perfect environment, by the way, includes the incarceration of Satan, the removal of all demons, and the abolition of religion. Religion is Satan’s ace trump. Christianity is not a religion but a relationship with God through Christ. There will be no cults and no religions through the Millennial reign of Christ. Also, again, it is a period of optimum spirituality from the filling of the Spirit, according to Isaiah 65: 24; Joel 2:28,29, which has nothing to do with the Church Age, it is a Millennial passage, “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh”, etc. Israel will be restored as a client nation and this will mean great prosperity for everyone during the Millennium. The fact of the restoration of Israel as a client nation is found in Isaiah mostly, 5:26-30; 10:19-23; 11:11-16; 65:19; Joel 2:16ff; Zechariah 8:20-23; 10:6-12. All of the unconditional covenants to Israel will be fulfilled at that time — Daniel 9:24.

Perfect environment includes many things in the Millennium. For example, it means universal peace, there will be no war for one thousand years of human history. This means Psalm 46:9; Isaiah 2:4; Hosea 2:18; Micah 4:3, and all these passages say essentially the same thing: “the swords will be turned into plow shares, the spears into pruning hooks, and man shall learn war no more.” That is Millennial, it has nothing to do with this dispensation or the Tribulation. Our Lord said there will be wars and rumours of wars “until I come.”

There will also be great prosperity. Everyone will be rich in the Millennium, there will be no poor people. Universal prosperity is the subject of Psalm 72:7, 16.

There will be perfect world government but it will be divided by nations. Our Lord Jesus Christ will rule the world, superseding Satan at the second advent, and there will be national rulership delegated to national believers who are decorated with the order of the morning star. This is found in Isaiah 11:1,2; Zechariah 14:9; 2 Timothy 2:12 and a host of passages in Revelation, 2:26-28; 3:21; 5:10; 20:4,6.

There will be on the part of everyone, believers and unbelievers, a universal knowledge of God, Isaiah 11:9. But a universal knowledge of God does not mean that everyone will accept Christ. At least one third of the great population of the earth will reject Christ as saviour, and this will come out in the God revolution.

There will also be tremendous longevity. According to Isaiah 65:20 people can live the entire thousand years. The only reason why people will die in the Millennium is because of capital punishment. Crime will be met instantly with capital punishment.

The Millennium is also a time of perfect environment in nature. Creation is going to be released from the bondage of man’s sin, according to Romans 8:19,20. There will be no deserts — Isaiah 35:1-7. Animals are going to lose their ferocity — Isaiah 11:6-9; 65:25. The perfect environment of the Millennium is going to come to a sudden halt at the end of the thousand years — the Gog revolution. Man cannot simply stand perfect environment without capacity. Capacity comes from Bible doctrine. So Satan is released from jail after serving the longest prison sentence on record. He will serve one thousand years and then he will be released and will immediately come back to the earth and start talking it up. And he will start a great revolution. There will be tremendous discontent by at least one third of the people of the earth — Revelation 20:1-7. The lesson is obvious. Perfect environment or ideal environment is not the solution to man’s problems and is not the source of man’s happiness.

3. The Millennium is presented — the gospels where Christ presented Himself as King.

5. The Millennium is plagiarised — the Tribulation with the political and religious organisations of the beast and the false prophet.

6. The Millennium is proclaimed — by the angelic herald of Revelation 10 and a human herald of Revelation 11.

7. The Millennium is perfected — second advent of Christ — Revelation 11:15-19; chapter 19.

Revelation 5:6, “Then I saw a ram as one who had been killed as a sacrifice [reference to Christ, not only as the Lamb of God saviour but the ram who controls history] standing in the middle of the throne with the four angelic heralds, and in the middle of the angelic staff officers [the 24 elders], and he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had seven horns.”

Now we come to the seven horns of the ram. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the ram who has seven horns. The seven horns represent the fact that there are seven eras of human history and our Lord Jesus Christ controls each one of those dispensations or historical eras. In the first four eras Jesus Christ controls history as eternal God; in the last three eras He controls history in hypostatic union as the God-Man. Jesus Christ controls history in the era of positive volition. When perfect environment existed in the garden of Eden for the first parents Jesus Christ controlled history as the first horn and He didn’t terminate history with the fall of man. Jesus Christ controlled history when man lived in the era of negative volition. That is the second horn of the ram. From the time of Adam’s fall until the tower of Babel people continued to live in history. True humanity was not destroyed though an attempt was made by Satan in Genesis chapter six. The reason that true humanity survived is because Jesus Christ controlled history. That was the second horn that preserved true humanity. Jesus Christ controlled history when man lived in the era of divine establishment, the dispensation of nationalism or human government. All during that time our Lord protected the human race from self-destruction. Jesus Christ controlled history during the dispensation of Israel, the fourth horn of the ram. All of that time He preserved Israel when Satan tried to destroy them. The dispensation of Israel as the fourth horn is the Lord controlling history as God. But beginning with the fifth horn we have the fifth era of human history, the Church Age, and now, as we noted in Revelation chapter one, Jesus Christ controls history as the God-Man. That is significant because angels were created greater than man but the humanity of Christ is greater than angels. The sixth era of human history is the Tribulation, shortened to seven years between the Rapture and the second advent so that the human race can survive. Jesus Christ controls history and shortens it down. Then, when we get to the seventh horn, the Millennium, Jesus Christ not only controls history but He rules history. So we have, then, the seven horns on the ram.

We resume now with the Greek where we have a connective kai followed by the numeral e(pta and the accusative plural direct object for “eyes.” E(pta is the Greek word for seven and we have o)fqalmoj for eyes, “and seven eyes.” Then we are going to have an explanation as to what is meant by seven eyes so that we won’t get a lot of wild interpretations. The nominative plural demonstrative pronoun o(j which follows refers to what the seven eyes will be, “seven eyes,” o(j, “which.” Then we have e)imi, “are.” The present tense is a descriptive present. The active voice: the seven eyes produce the action. The declarative indicative mood is for a simple statement of fact. Now we are getting down to what it is. The predicate nominative plural, e(pta again plus pneuma, “the seven spirits.” These seven spirits are sent, perfect passive participle from the verb a)postellw, “which have been sent out.” The dramatic perfect emphasises the results of the action. The passive voice: the seven spirits receive the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. We have a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the word for planet earth, gh, “to all the earth.”

“and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God which have been sent out to all the world.”

We have finished the exegesis of verse six but we must ask the question: What are the seven spirits? They are explained by the context of Isaiah 11:1,2. The seven spirits are actually found in verse 2 but we get our clue from the context beginning in verse 1.

“Then a root that buds will spring from the stump of Jesse [reference to the first advent of Christ, the stump of Jesse is the Davidic dynasty and the root of David is our Lord Jesus Christ], and a branch from his roots [the second advent] will bear fruit [the Millennial rule of Christ on earth].”

During our Lord’s advent our Lord was sustained by the seven spirits of God. Actually the seven spirits refer to God the Holy Spirit in seven different aspects and it all begins in Isaiah 11:2. Remember that Revelation is union station for the Bible and almost every hyperbole and every form of analogy, everything that seems to be inscrutable or abstruse, actually is explained somewhere else in the Bible. There are several exceptions but generally that is the rule.

“And the Spirit of the Lord [the first of the seven spirits or the seven aspects of God the Holy Spirit. This is actually gate one of the prototype divine dynasphere by which our Lord Jesus Christ was sustained in His humanity during the incarnation] will rest on him [Christ at the first advent], the Spirit of wisdom [the second spirit],” the word for wisdom is the Hebrew word chakmah and it refers to the application of doctrine at gate four of the prototype divine dynasphere, “and understanding [the third spirit],” in the Hebrew that is the word binah and refers to gate four of the prototype divine dynasphere, perception of doctrine. In His humanity our Lord functioned at gate one interlocked with gate four in the perception and application of doctrine, “the Spirit of counsel.” The word for counsel is etsa and it means plan or purpose and is a reference to God’s game plan, first for the incarnation of Christ to be sustained by the prototype divine dynasphere, and it becomes God’s game plan for the royal family. The royal family have the same privileges as our Lord and are sustained in their humanity in exactly the same way. This is God’s game plan for the Church Age and there is no game plan apart from residence and function in the divine dynasphere, “and of virtue.” In the Hebrew this is geburah and it refers to the motivational and functional virtue of our Lord’s humanity during the incarnation. One of the ministries of God the Holy Spirit is the production of true virtue and morality in contrast to the false virtue and morality which is produced through arrogance in the cosmic system. There are many, many moral believers who are living in the cosmic system and whose morality is an expression of self-righteousness, crusader activity, and in effect becomes one of the more subtle forms of evil. All true virtue for this dispensation comes from geburah. Only God the Holy Spirit can produce true virtue, honour, integrity and morality — “the Spirit of knowledge,” da’ath in the Hebrew and it is the interpretation of historical trends from life inside of the divine dynasphere, “and fear of the Lord,” the function of gate five of the prototype divine dynasphere. In the Hebrew it is jare and means fear in the sense of respect. From respect comes love.

Therefore in Isaiah 11:1,2 we not only have a prophecy of our Lord’s first and second advents explaining the seven eyes in terms of the seven spirits but it actually explains that these are seven aspects of the sustaining ministry of God the Holy Spirit, first to the humanity of Christ, and then to believers [royal family] in the Church Age. God the Holy Spirit is the power system for both the prototype and the royal family divine dynasphere. These seven descriptions or aspects of God the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 11:2 explain the seven eyes. Hence the seven eyes or the seven spirits are really one person, God the Holy Spirit, but emphasising different aspects of His modus operandi in sustaining first the humanity of Christ and now believers when they live inside the divine dynasphere.

4. The Spirit of counsel, God’s game plan — residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

5. The Spirit of virtue, motivational and functional virtue produced inside the divine dynasphere.

6. The Spirit of knowledge — from the Hebrew it means the interpretation of historical trends from inside the divine dynasphere.

7. The Spirit of the fear of the Lord — the production of love inside of the divine dynasphere.

So God the Holy Spirit is the power system for both the prototype and the royal family divine dynaspheres. These seven descriptions of God the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 11:2 are synonymous with the seven eyes. Notice it says “the seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God,” i.e. the Holy Spirit is the power system of the divine dynasphere, “which has been sent out to all the world [to all believers in this dispensation].” This is the heritage of the royal family during the Church Age. So the seven spirits refer to God the Holy Spirit in whatever context. It is first used to sustain the incarnate Christ resulting in His third royal patent, and now used to sustain the royal family being formed during the Church Age.

Note, then, that the seven spirits as possessed by our Lord — the prototype divine dynasphere was given to Him — has been sent to us, to all believers in the world. The prototype divine dynasphere resides right now in the throne room of heaven but the functional divine dynasphere resides throughout the earth wherever there are believers. The Holy Spirit is the power system of it.

Now let’s return to the perfect passive participle “sent out.” It is a)postellw. The perfect tense is the tense of completed action and since the beginning of the Church Age God the Father has given the divine dynasphere to the entire royal family. This is what we call a dramatic perfect tense, it represents the existing status quo of the royal family on earth. It is only sent out on earth, the prototype is in heaven. The result of the action of the prefect tense is the fact that the royal family has exactly the same power system and the same game plan given to our Lord Jesus Christ during His first advent. The passive voice: the divine dynasphere with its power system — God the Holy Spirit, the “seven spirits,” receives the action of the verb, “sent to the entire earth,” and, of course, the earth in contrast to heaven where the prototype remains forever as a memorial to the grace of God. This is a circumstantial participle for the fact that the power of God the Holy Spirit and the grace provision of the divine dynasphere is just as available to you now as it was to our Lord Jesus Christ throughout the incarnation.

The ram standing emphasises the fact of resurrection and the fact that our Lord is in heaven in hypostatic union, seated at the right hand of the Father, sometimes standing. Seated and standing, whatever the physical posture, always emphasises His humanity. Deity does not sit; deity does not stand.

In the Tribulation there will be no divine dynasphere and God the Holy Spirit will be removed with the divine dynasphere. The Rapture of the Church takes the entire divine dynasphere and the game plan to heaven, and with it the restraining ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

We have noted that this is the mystery dispensation. That is, it is the only historical era in all of human history where trends are determined by the volition of the individual believer rather that the eschatology of the Word of God. In the Tribulation historical trends are determined by prophecy. The book of Revelation was actually written to the Church to give believers the game plan for this dispensation and to remind them of the importance of their own royal priesthood and royal ambassadorship.

This brings us now to the concept stated briefly in verse 7, the perpetuation of our Lord’s control of history in the Tribulational era. The Church Age is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict but the Tribulation is the intensified stage of human disaster. In this dispensation the function of the Christian depends on thinking; in the next dispensation the protection and protection of the believer depends entirely on the power of God and it will be a time of seven years of the most concentrated disasters in history. But God has given us leeway in this dispensation only and we are in the greatest field of opportunity that God has ever given to anyone.

This becomes the dramatic moment in heaven when it says [in the King James version]: “And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.” The connective conjunction kai is used in a sequential sense, translated “then.” The aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai is next. Remember that He came and took the book. In the midst of all of this no one has been able to come and take the Doomsday book out of the hand of God the Father. Then He came. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for a momentary action. The active voice: Jesus Christ as the God-Man who controls history in hypostatic union in this dispensation and the last two produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. “Then he came and”, the perfect active indicative of the verb lambanw, “took.” The perfect tense is a consummative perfect in which the completed process is presented. The consummative process is denoted, therefore it is translated like an imperfect tense. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history produces the action. This is a declarative indicative or a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine. Jesus Christ in hypostatic union continues to control history. Add the word “it” for the Doomsday book, for in the excitement of the apostle he goes into ellipsis, very emotional in this dramatic moment. This is a legitimate emotion in contrast to his crying in the previous verses which was not. The King James version adds the word “book.” It is not in the original although it certainly is implied. “Then he [our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history] came and took it [the Doomsday book of the Tribulation].”

“from the right hand,” e)k plus the ablative of the adjective decioj. Decioj is a word meaning “right” but used with e)k it is an idiom for the right hand. Since God doesn’t have right hands or left hands. God the Father is involved here, He is invisible and this is simply what we call an anthropomorphism [ascribing to God a human part of the body which He does not actually possess, like the eyes of God, the ears of God, etc.]. The arm or hand is showing as an anthropomorphism to demonstrate the sovereignty of God turning all judgment and all control of human history over to our Lord Jesus Christ who as eternal God is coequal with the Father but as true humanity is different from the Father and from the Holy Spirit.

Then we have an additional phrase to indicate that it is God the Father, the articular present active participle of the verb kaqhmai, and it means to sit. With it, of course, we have the phrase “on the throne.” The definite article is in the objective genitive, it is used for a personal pronoun, and it refers to God the Father who up until now has been holding the Doomsday book which is all of the prophecies of historical trends in the Tribulation. All historical trends of all dispensations are given in the form of prophecy except for the Church Age, the mystery age. Our heavenly Father holds the book until the Rapture of the Church and the removal of the divine dynasphere and the seven eyes or the seven spirits of God [God the Holy Spirit], and this clears the path for the traumatic events prophesied in the Doomsday book with its seven seals. In other words, the seven spirits of God of the Church Age are replaced by the seven seals of the Doomsday book, and everything about the Tribulation right up to the end of chapter eighteen comes from this book. In chapter six we will see the opening of the first six seals and these give six general trends of the Tribulation. But from the seventh seal we will see first three trumpet judgements and then the drinking goblet judgements [literal translation], all of which come out of the seventh seal. The rest of the chapters [7-18] will reveal what is in the seventh seal. From this we will have a complete concept of every historical trend in the Tribulation. The present tense is a perfective present, it refers to a fact that has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. God the Father sitting on the throne actually holds back the traumatic events of history whereby unbelievers with help from demons will destroy themselves. He holds all of this back until the Rapture of the Church. The active voice: God the Father produces the action. These things that we are about to study will not and cannot occur until the Church is removed through resurrection. The participle is circumstantial. We have e)pi plus qronoj to terminate the verse, “on the throne.”

Corrected translation: “Then he [our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history] came and took it [the Doomsday book of the Tribulation] from the right hand of him [God the Father] who sat on the throne.”

This means that starting at the Rapture and the judgment seat of Christ, but specifically going to the earth, God the Father has delegated all judgment to the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of His strategic victory of the cross, John 5:22-23,27, “in order that all may honour the Son.” The historical trends of the Tribulation are therefore primarily related to judgment for man in any dispensation is the product of his own decisions.

Verse 8, we are getting ready for chapter six and the beginning of the study of the historical trends of the Tribulation. In verses 8-14 we have the hymn of victory, a new song in heaven. In verse 8 we have the worship of the angelic heralds and the general staff in the order of battle in the angelic elect creatures.

We begin by noting the connective conjunction kai plus the temporal adverb o(te. It introduces a temporal clause, and it indicates the time sequence in which the new hymn was sung in heaven. With this we have the aorist active indicative of the verb lambanw, which means here to take, “And when he had taken.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, a dramatic moment when our Lord took the Doomsday book out of the hand of God the Father. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb in taking the Doomsday book, and the indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. With this we have the accusative neuter singular direct object from the noun biblion, which is actually a scroll but book is a legitimate translation if it is understood that books in those days were scrolls. This is a reference, again, to the Doomsday book of the Tribulation. “And when he had taken the book” is a temporal clause and the function of the temporal clause is to limit the action of the verb in the principle clause by the introduction of a time relationship. This is both contemporaneous time plus the definite temporal idea as indicated in the indicative mood.

Now we have the subject and it is given to us in terms of the angelic order of battle. The angelic order of battle is divided into two categories. First of all we have the college of heralds and secondly we have the angelic army. All angels that serve God function under one of these two categories. At the top of each one of these orders we have the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the college of heralds He is the Angel of the Lord; in the army He is the Lord of hosts. Then we have angels. Number two in each one of these categories: for the heralds we have seraphim or seraphs, six-winged angels in two categories, the king of arms or officer of arms and the heralds. In the third category we have the pur sui vant: the pur sui vant officers come first. These are cherubs. Number four are the pur sui vant messengers.

On the army side, number two are the archangels. Number three: a general staff made up of twenty-four officers. Number four: the hosts, rank and file and various categories.

The elect army and the college of heralds are both represented in the subject. The subject is made up of tessarej plus zwon, the adjective plus the noun, both in the nominative plural. Tessarej is simply an adjective numeral for four; zwon means living creatures, living beings, and it is used for the angelic heralds who in order of rank are seraphs. Then, of course, we have the army represented by the general staff, the 24 presbuteroi, translated elders.

Next we have a verb, the aorist active indicative of the verb piptw and it means to fall down, to prostrate. We will translate it “fell down.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice is for the higher ranks among the two orders in the angelic order of battle, and the indicative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality, it also expresses contemporaneous action in the temporal clause. Then it says “before the Ram,” a prepositional phrase, e)nwpion and the word arnion which means in this case a ram, a male lamb.

Principle: The Ram is the one who took the book from God the Father, and the principle is one that we have noted before: the cross must come before the crown. Before our Lord had the authority in hypostatic union to continue the control of history, which He did in the first four dispensations or all of human history, He had to go to the cross. And when the strategic victory was accomplished on the cross — the work of salvation is that strategic victory, when He took our place on the cross — that is what made the difference. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. We have noted the principle that there is no true success or greatness in those who do not possess humility. The greatest illustration of humility: the cross comes before the crown. Our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent centres around His work on the cross, and because of His strategic victory of the first advent our Lord is qualified [worthy] to take the Doomsday book from the hand of God the Father and to break open those seven seals which actually contain the historical trends of the Tribulation. The worthiness of our Lord is noted by the fact that when Jesus Christ takes the Doomsday book from the hand of God the Father the hierarchy in the throne room all kneel down to worship. The highest ranks among elect angels are prostrated in worship.

All worship, of course, comes from elect angels or born-again believers and neither Satan’s demons nor mankind as an unbeliever participates in this scene. Principle: Worship qualification demands regeneration. Only those who have eternal life are qualified to worship.

The qualifying clause to indicate what the angelic worshippers possess is given next. The qualifying clause does not modify the Lamb or the Ram of God but the angels who fall down to worship. We have the present active participle of the verb e)xw which means to have, or to have and to hold. With this we have a subject, the nominative singular adjective e(kastoj and it means “each one” individually has this. The word “and” is not found in the original text but is the legitimate translation of the circumstantial participle. The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a vision as a process of occurring in a presentation of eschatological information, obviously information we must have for some reason which we will work out once we get the exegesis correct in the translation. The active voice: the four angelic heralds and the twenty-four staff officers produce the action. This is a circumstantial participle expressing the attendant circumstances in which our Lord took the Doomsday book out of the hand of God the Father.

Question: Why do they have harps? Well, this isn’t a harp in the first place, it is a lyre. In the Greek it is kiqara, it refers to a stringed instrument which could be described as a sound box from which rises two arms connected above by a cross bar from which the strings are suspended, very must like a modern guitar. Each one of the four angelic heralds, highest ranking angels (seraphs) and 24 angelic staff officers, next to the archangels the highest ranking in the order of battle of the elect army of angels. That is 28 high-ranking angels all carrying lyres.

No matter how high you go in life, no matter how low you sink, no matter what you do in life, everyone ought to have at least one hobby or interest apart from their profession or job. The four angelic heralds and the twenty-four high-ranking staff officers are not only way up there in rank out of the millions of angels but they have an outside interest. They were interested in music. The point is that they were really expert at what they did and they enjoyed it. These elect angels were not only great in their primary occupational speciality but they were also great in their hobby — music. Every believer needs a hobby. Often believers get too intense and they fall apart simply because they do not know to relax. They need a hobby, another interest — not one that will cut out doctrine, however! People without an outside interest or hobby have a tendency toward the worst form of arrogance — neurotic, arrogant self-righteousness. They become busybodies and gossips and in their preoccupation with self they become the losers in the Christian way of life. God has designed our minds and our bodies so that we can have outside interests for relaxation.

What we have so far: “And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had taken the book [the Doomsday book concerning the historical trends of the Tribulation], the four angelic heralds and the twenty-four angelic staff officers fell down before the Ram, and each one had a lyre.”

Then they had something else, the Attic Greek adjective xruseoj. It is also an accusative plural direct object and it means golden, or adorned with gold, or made with gold. So obviously it is only half of the object. The rest of the direct object is the noun fialh which is translated vials later on in the book of Revelation. But it isn’t vials, it is a drinking cup, a goblet. In this case it is a rather shallow goblet. So we will call it a libation cup, “and they had libation cups made of gold”, golden goblets but definitely not vials. However, they were not full of any beverage but they were full of something because we have a present active participle of gemw, and it is not translated like a participle, this is ascriptive and it is used as a noun, so we simply translate it “full.” Then the genitive plural of description from qumiama, “incense,” “libation cups made of gold, full of incense.” Incense is a material used to produce perfume when burned. The burning of the spices or the gums produces a smoke which has a very pleasant scent or fragrance. Incense was used in the Levitical offerings to denote propitiation, the Father’s satisfaction with the work of Christ on the cross. The explanatory phrase which ends this verse explains incense in terms of effective prayer being offered by believers in the Tribulation.

The explanation of the incense follows and it begins with the nominative feminine plural from the relative pronoun a(i, translated “which.” The antecedent of the relative pronoun is the descriptive genitive again of qumiama, “which incense.” And then the present active indicative of e)imi, “is.” The present tense is a pictorial present, it brings to the mind a picture of the prayers of the believers in the Tribulation in the process of occurrence. The believers in the Tribulation learn quickly how to pray effectively and their prayers are a sweet odour, as it were, in the nose of God. The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred — the prayers of Tribulational believers — but it is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the incense in the libation goblets made of gold produces the action. This is the declarative indicative for the future reality of the prayers of Tribulational believers.

With this we have a definite article, the nominative feminine plural definite article a(i, and it is the generic use of the definite article, it is used to set off in distinction from all others the prayers of people, many of whom are going to die in that seven year period, and many of whom are going to survive, but it will be a time of great prayer, powerful prayer, intense prayer. We have something they do not, the divine dynasphere. Since they do not have the divine dynasphere and God the Holy Spirit does not indwell them, except in certain cases going back to the Old Testament system of pneumatology, they must have something to take up the slack, and they will be far more serious about prayer than we are. The person who prays in prosperity is so rare that you almost can’t find them.

With this we then have the predicate nominative plural from proseuxh, and it is translated “which are the prayers,” and the possessive genitive plural or the ablative of source “from the saints” or “of the saints,” a(gioj. This is a reference to the prayers of the Tribulational believers, it is a reference for prayers which have not been uttered but will be in the future. And it follows the pattern of Psalm 141:2, ”May my prayers be counted as incense before you; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering [or oblation].” The prayer principle in this context is found in Isaiah 65:24 — “It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” This links the principle of prayer to the doctrine of divine decrees.

The generic use of the definite article categorises the saints or believers as belonging to the Tribulation. These are prayers, again, that have not been offered by people who are probably not yet alive but the divine decrees prints out prophetically those believers who live in the Tribulation and who will offer prayers in a time of great disaster. The fact that they can concentrate under pressure in an unrestrained period of historical disaster indicates the spirituality of these people. Their spirituality is the faith-rest drill and they have a very strong faith-rest function in the Tribulation. That is the means by which they survive.

Verse 8 in corrected translation: “And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had taken the book [the Doomsday book of historical trends in the Tribulation], the four angelic heralds and the twenty-four angelic staff officers fell down before the Ram [or Lamb], and each one had a lyre, and libation cup made of gold, full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”

Verse 9, the song of the angelic hierarchy. We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated here “then.” With this we have the present active indicative of the verb a)idw, which means to sing. The implication of a)idw is that they sing with magnificent voices, these are not amateurs. “Then they sang,” the futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the angelic hierarchy, composed of the four angelic heralds and the twenty-four angelic staff officers, produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of music as an expression of worship. The accusative singular direct object is composed of two words. First of all the adjective kainoj which means new in species. This song is absolutely new, it has never been sung yet in heaven and it will not be sung until the future. Then we have w)dh which is the Greek word for song. They sang a brand new song, one that had never been sung before and this, of course, means that it is very significant in relationship to what happens in the book of Revelation.

What follows is the present active participle of the verb legw, which means to say, to speak, to communicate, and many similar type meanings. Only the lyrics are presented to us, we do not hear the actual music. The “saying” of the King James version simply means “the lyrics are as follows.” We are not going to hear them sing it, we are merely going to be told from John what the lyrics of this future song happen to be. The participle is now accompanied by a noun, it may function as a substantive and that is exactly how it is translated here, “the lyrics are as follows.”

This scene in heaven during the Tribulation was anticipated by David in Psalm 144:9 when he said: “I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a lyre of ten strings I will sing praises to you.”

We note our first principle in verse nine: only lyrics are given in the Word of God. The lyrics are far more important than the melody. Lyrics are addressed to the thinking of the soul; the melody speaks to the emotion of the soul. We have here the lyrics only, which means that when we are studying the Word of God our emotions must not get involved before our thinking. We must learn what is there and then respond to it emotionally for worship. Emotion must always be a responder in worship and perception of Bible doctrine is a form of worship, a most important form. Emotions are designed to respond to thought and never to supersede thought. In worship the melody is not to be ignored but the fact remains that lyrics speak to thought. Lyrics involve thinking; melody speaks to the emotions of the soul. All great hymns of worship balance out between doctrinal lyrics and great melody and harmony by the which the words of the hymn are imprinted in the mind. This is a song of victory, a hymn of our Lord’s worthiness to open the Doomsday book. Therefore the emphasis on the lyrics, not the melody.

We begin by discovering what the lyrics are. The present active indicative of the verb e)imi, the hymn is addressed to our Lord Jesus Christ, “you are,” referring to Christ. The static present represents a condition which perpetually exists. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine, the worthiness of our Lord from the victory of His first advent, the great strategic victory. This strategic victory began with the hypostatic union, our Lord’s residence and function in the prototype divine dynasphere after His virgin birth, His kenosis, His impeccability, His saving work on the cross, followed by His death, burial, resurrection ascension, session and the award of His third royal patent. As we have seen, the insertion of the Church Age was to provide a royal family for our Lord’s third royal patent.

Next come the predicate nominative a)cioj, “you are worthy.” The worthiness of our Lord was the subject of chapter one and periodically will be brought out in the middle part of the book of Revelation. Next we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb lambanw which means to take or to seize. In this case it was taken — “to receive.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety, the few moments it took for our Lord to take from the hand of God the Father the Doomsday book of the Tribulation. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. This is what we call an infinitive of actual result. As a result of our Lord’s strategic victory on the cross during His first advent He is now worthy to take the book and to break open its seals. The breaking open of the seals indicates once again that Jesus Christ controls history. With this we have the accusative neuter singular of the word biblion which meant a scroll or, in modern English we would say, a book, the Doomsday book containing the historical trends of the Tribulation presented prophetically.

Next we have a connective kai followed by the aorist active infinitive of a)noigw, which means here to break open, breaking the seals. The constative aorist: over the next five or six chapters we will see what happens in the breaking of the seals. In chapter six, six of the seals are broken. The rest of the Tribulation from chapter seven to eighteen is the seventh seal of the book. The accusative plural direct object from sfragij, which means seals, “and to break its seals.” Each seal is a trend of the Tribulation which cannot be broken until after the Church is removed by the Rapture or resurrection. This emphasises the concept that prophecy determines historical trends in both the Tribulation and the Millennium.

There is a reason for this and the reason is given. We start with the causal conjunction o(ti and it is correctly translated “because.” Then we have the aorist passive indicative of an Attic Greek verb sfatw, a high-class word from Athens and also Ionia. But at the time of John’s writing we have the Koine Greek and they couldn’t pronounce sfatw in that day, so they had to change it to sfazw. Almost every lexicon today fails to recognise the greatness of this word and how it was corrupted, “because you were sacrificed,” sacrificed to the point of death. This is a word for animal sacrifices and, in the case of our Lord, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the three hours when our Lord was bearing our sins on the cross and gathers them up into one entirety.

Remember that human life is imputed by God to each person in the human race immediately after birth — to the human soul. That human life remains in that soul forever. The soul is in the body and, of course, physical death is when the soul leaves the body and when it does it takes human life with it. Human life is indestructible, it resides in the soul forever. At the same time that God imputes immediately after birth human life to each one of us He simultaneously imputes Adam’s original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature. Adam’s original sin, which was the source of the old sin nature, immediately is imputed to it. That means at the point of physical life we have spiritual death. We are dead spiritually so that if anyone dies before reaching accountability he automatically goes to heaven. This solves the problem of children who die. This, of course, is the grace of God and the wisdom of God. But there was another reason for it apart from the accountability principle and it has to do with the fact that arrogance creeps in so many ways. Personal sins were never imputed to any of us. Our personal sins are real, we committed them, they are from our own volition related to the old sin nature. The old sin nature is the source of temptation, the volition is the source of sin. We committed sins and they are real sins, but they have never been imputed to us for judgment. Our spiritual death came from the imputation of Adam’s sin and this means that all of our personal sins, past, present and future, were all imputed to Christ on the cross and judged. That is why we rebound by simply naming our sins, we are naming a case that has already gone to court, our sins were judged on the cross.

It took three hours on the cross for our Lord Jesus Christ to receive the imputation of the sins of the entire world and to be judged for them. The darkness covered the land at that time, no one saw the terrible humiliation of our perfect Lord bearing our sins. But they could hear the screams: “Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani (My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?)” God the Father forsook God the Son because He was made sin for us. God the Holy Spirit forsook God the Son because He was bearing our sins and was judged for us. And so during those three hours they are gathered up into one entirety in this constative aorist of sfazw. The passive voice: Christ received the action of the verb on the cross, He received the imputation of our sins, as per sfatw, and was judged for them by God the Father. Note the importance of the passive voice which emphasises the fact that Christ received the judgment of our sins on the cross. Therefore He became our substitute and as our substitute the only saviour, “Neither is there salvation in any other; there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4:12.

Then the passage goes on with a connective kai, “and,” and then the aorist active indicative of the verb a)gorazw, which means to purchase. It is actually the word for redemption, it means to purchase from the slave market of sin, “and you have purchased.” The word “us” is not found in the original. The ellipsis is because of the emotional state of John at this moment. Obviously it refers to anyone who has believed in Christ. It refers to the entire word but only those who believe in Christ understand and appreciate its significance, “and you have purchased [redeemed] mankind.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the saving work of Christ on the cross in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the salvation of all members of the human race who personally believe in Jesus Christ. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb when He was on the cross, bearing our sins, being judged for them, and this is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. So the declarative indicative mood is for a dogmatic statement of doctrine in the field of soteriology. With this we have a dative of possession from the noun qeoj which, of course, refers to God and is translated “for God,” “and you have redeemed mankind for God.” The dative of possession is a Greek idiom (The ordinary case for possession is the genitive) for which we have no exact equivalent in the English. It is actually what is called personal interest particularised to the point of ownership. The dative of possession is an extension of the dative of indirect object to the point of ownership and now that Christ has purchased us on the cross we belong to God forever from the moment that we believe in Christ. There is nothing we can do to lose our so great salvation.

“you redeemed human beings for God,” and the means of doing so is given in a prepositional phrase e)n plus the instrumental of a(ima, “blood.” We have previously seen that blood is used for literal blood, but in the case of our Lord’s work on the cross the blood has to do with redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, His work in bearing our sins. Redemption directed toward sin, propitiation directed toward God, and reconciliation directed toward man as the presentation of the gospel. So we have e)n plus the instrumental of a(ima plus the genitive of su, the personal pronoun, “by means of your blood.” The blood of Christ refers to His entire saving work. It is not just literal blood which was shed, it is His work in bearing our sins.

The categories of human beings who are redeemed follows at the end of this verse. It starts with a prepositional phrase that carries throughout the rest of the verse, e)k plus the ablative of paj, “all,” and fulh, meaning tribes, “from every tribe.” This reverts, of course, to the nation Israel. Salvation is first offered to Israel since they are the original client nation. It refers to every tribe of Israel, hence Jews are constantly believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation. The scattering of Israel does not hinder their evangelism, their positive volition at God-consciousness, or their response to the gospel when they hear it.

The connective conjunction kai continues the concept, Fulh refers only to Israel, “and from every people.” Then we have the word “language,” glossa, indicating that people had to be divided in the languages. By everyone speaking the same language originally they became very self-destructive, they entered into a form of internationalism which would have destroyed the human race, and that would negate the purpose that God had in creating man to resolve the angelic conflict. So it simply refers to the fact that people will not divide nationally the way that God wants them to in order to protect their freedom and therefore they are given many ways of expressing that others do not understand so that barriers will be created whereby they can be administered in small enough groups to enjoy the benefits of freedom which are presented in the laws of divine establishment, “and from every language.” Then we have a connective kai, “and people.” The word “people” is laoj, referring to people living in undeveloped countries, aborigines, and it indicates the fact that no matter how primitive the living conditions people can find Jesus Christ as saviour if they are positive at God consciousness.

Next comes kai with e)qnoj, “from every nation.” Ethnic is used is the English for race but here it refers to national entities. A national entity can be made up of one race, like the Jews, or it can be made up of many races. When it is made up of many races the only way it can survive is to have one culture. When it says, “and from every nation”, we are talking about civilised nations, nations that have establishment. We are talking about the concept of establishment principles functioning in a nation, and when they do the culture is derived from establishment so that freedom, privacy, the sacredness of property and life all come from the establishment. And this becomes the basis of culture.

The Romans had no culture, they borrowed from the Greeks. But they eventually, by their very system of law as a republic, developed a culture. And that culture with its establishment background became the basis for the most fantastic evangelism in the first century of Christianity.

In the first part of Revelation chapter four, verse six, we noted the tranquillity of the Church in heaven. Tranquillity means many things — happiness, prosperity, blessing — but something the Church will never have on earth, and which is contrary to any concept of historical trend, is unity. There will never be a unification of the body of Christ on earth. The existence of God’s game plan, the divine dynasphere, and the existence of Satan’s game plan, the cosmic system, inevitably attracts believers one way or the other. The fact that there are many churches, many denominations, many opinions, many different concepts, many antagonisms, is based on the fact that the historical trend of living in the devil’s world makes it impossible for any unity among believers. Believers often talk about unity in terms of idealism, that somehow we all ought to love each other because the Bible says so, without even defining the love or understanding the concept, or developing the command as given by our Lord in any given context. So there will be different churches, different denominations, those who are ecumenical and those who are anti-ecumenical. It is the same old story. Everyone has an old sin nature, everyone has a soul, everyone has an opinion, everyone has an idea, and all this makes for disunity in the Church Age. There will never exist on this earth a unified Church. But they will be unified in heaven under conditions provided by our Lord, a resurrection body, minus the old sin nature, minus the cosmic system. And so the first part of chapter four verse six talks about a remarkable phenomenon, something that could never occur on earth, something that demands everything from a resurrection body to the removal of the old sin nature and life in heaven before it can happen. Therefore don’t be shocked when your friends “split,” when they go in different directions, when they disagree. They didn’t agree as unbelievers, the won’t agree as believers. It is the way it should be. Just as to protect the human race in the devil’s world God has ordained nationalism to split people up into groups called nations or tribes so it is necessary with believers. There could not be unity of believers unless Satan was the “archbishop” and running the whole show.

Now we have come to the end of the eight things in heaven, the new song, the hymn of victory, and we resume with verse 10 where we have the present opportunity and the future reward of the royal family. The verse in the King James version does not follow the best manuscripts in the Greek text. All of the suffixes of this verse are mistranslated. The verse is not in the first person plural but in the third person plural, referring to the royal family of God.

We begin by noting the present opportunity of the royal family of God, the intensive use of the conjunction kai is translated “in fact.” Next comes the aorist active indicative and the verb form is second person singular of the verb poiew. Poiew means to do, to make, to produce, to manufacture, to bring about, to, accomplish, and it even means, as here, to appoint. It should be translated, “In fact you have appointed” or “you have made.” The culminative aorist tense views the appointment of all believers of the Church Age to the royal power of the divine dynasphere, the royal priesthood in its entirety, and it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the rewards at the judgment seat of Christ to winners, mature believers, believers who advance from gate four to gate eight in the royal game plan for this dispensation.

The fact that you and I after salvation are left with our volition intact, the fact that God’s game plan does not call for any coercion of your volition, should give you your first understanding of the fact that legalism is never the order of the day. People make wrong decisions with regard to doctrine. People make wrong decisions with regard to hearing it, with regard to applying it, and it is the misapplication which becomes a distortion. The distortions result in morality, arrogance and self-righteousness producing a system which comes from Satan’s cosmic modus operandi: cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance; cosmic two with its 9 gates of interlocking systems of hatred. Many Christians, very moral and self-righteous Christians, live in the cosmic system and their morality is evil. The only legitimate morality is the morality produced in God’s game plan, morality produced inside of the divine dynasphere which we call integrity to distinguish it from the legalism of the cosmic system.

God has taken each one of us at salvation and commissioned us. He has given us two commissions, two appointments, and they are mentioned by the culminative aorist, “you have appointed.” The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb by providing a royal power called basileia which is used here as a synonym for the divine dynasphere, “in fact you have appointed them a royal power.” The Lord Jesus Christ first tested the prototype divine dynasphere during His incarnation. He gave it approval for the royal family as the game plan for this dispensation. But one thing about it: this divine dynasphere is strictly a matter of the believer’s own free will. He has provided the means of operating it. He has given a licence for operating it — priest and ambassador. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine. The Church Age is the only historical era or dispensation in which every believer at the moment of salvation becomes royalty by regeneration. And with that royalty is given two commissions whereby he can function and make his own decisions either to glorify the Lord or not to glorify the Lord, to contribute to the uptrend of history or the downtrend of history.

Next in verse 10 we have a rare triple accusative. The triple accusative direct object of one personal and two impersonal objects. The accusative of personal object is in the plural, it is the intensive pronoun a)utoj used for the personal pronoun third person in the Koine Greek, translated “them” — royal family. This, of course, is an impersonal way of stating the doctrine but a personal way of reminding you that at the moment you believed in Christ you personally became royal family, and at the same time you became a priest. You are your own priest.

Then we have the accusative singular of impersonal object, basileia. The word means “kingdom” or “royal power.” Here it means royal power and it is a synonym for the divine dynasphere. “In fact you have appointed them [Church Age believers] a royal power.” And then the third part of the direct object, the accusative plural of impersonal object i(ereuj, and it is the word for priest. It is in the plural and it is translated “priests.”

The next phrase is “to our God,” “you have appointed them priests to our God,” dative of advantage. The future reward of the believer is given next, “and they,” connective kai. Next we have the future active indicative of winners, basileuw, which means to rule. Today it is basileia, the divine dynasphere, and if you stay with it then tomorrow it is basileuw, you will be ruler. Today you have royal power to choose for or against. If you choose for the royal power you will be a ruler in the future; if you choose against the royal power you will be a loser now and a loser at the judgment seat of Christ. So we have basileuw in the future active indicative, “and they shall rule.” This is a predictive future anticipating the fact that winners, believers who are decorated with the order of the morning star, will rule under the authority of Jesus Christ in the Millennium. The active voice: the mature believer of the Church Age, the one who makes the good decisions and becomes the anonymous hero of this dispensation will come back into history once again. Out of history — Rapture of the Church or death, whichever occurs first; back into history — second advent. Today the believer who makes the right decisions with regard to God’s game plan is a winner. This is manifest by the supergrace blessings in six categories but when he comes back he is going to be a ruler; a winner today, a ruler during the Millennium.

There are going to be believers during the Church Age who are going to be winners. And at the judgment seat of Christ when they are decorated with the order of the morning star and receive the uniform of glory and receive a royal title which goes into the book of life with their name and all of the blessings that go with it, when all of these things are received then you will see above all things in life, not the power of politics, not the power of muscle or physical strength, not the power of personality, but you will see the power of decision. No greater power exists than to have knowledge of God and to make decisions related to Him. This is the greatest system of power in the world and any other attempt to develop a system of power is always disappointing.

When it says, “they shall rule,” the active voice of basileuw refers to mature believers, male and female. In the Millennium with perfect environment women are going to rule nations, and do it successfully. There will be men and women as rulers of nations. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of future fact. Every mature believer, male and female, will be a ruler in the Millennium. And then we have the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the genitive of gh, “on the earth” — “they shall rule on the earth,” a reference to the Millennium.

Translation of verse 10 — “In fact you have appointed them [Church Age believers, royal family of God] a royal power [the divine dynasphere] and priests to our God: and they shall rule on the earth.”

According to what we have studied in Revelation 4:10 there are three categories of worship.

The worship function of gate five begins with the love of God through perception of doctrine and as the momentum of the Christian life continues it eventuates in the highest form of worship which is occupation with the person of Christ. All worship demands that we give to God what we possess — what we have we give. Worship is essentially giving something special to God.

Category #1 of worship is the giving of glory to God. The word which is used in the Greek is doca. In giving glory to God we have the highest expression of worship. This is the form of worship we are studying in chapters four and five. This is the worship of the four angelic heralds, the twenty-four general staff officers, and the entire hosts of angelic creatures. As the highest form of worship it is only operational in the eternal state. Before we can give glory to God we must possess glory and there is no possibility of us possessing glory until after the Rapture of the Church and receiving the resurrection body. The glory we give to God has to be related to something we receive at the judgment seat of Christ: the crown of life, the crown of glory, the order of the morning star, the many decorations, the uniform of glory. The angelic heralds, for example, give glory to God because they possess glory. In worship you cannot give what you do not possess. For the royal family of God, the Church Age believer, this is impossible until after the Rapture of the Church when we receive our resurrection body.

In category #2 we are looking at something that we can give to God, timh, which is generally translated “honour,” though it has three connotations in the Greek and each one is related to worship. The giving of timh means first of all respect. Timh means respect and the believer can only respect our Lord Jesus Christ through understanding His thinking, which is another way of saying that you must reside and function inside the divine dynasphere, especially at gate four. Apart from positive volition toward doctrine and life in the divine dynasphere it is impossible to give respect to God.

There are three categories of believers in growth after salvation. There is the baby, the adolescent and the mature believer. The baby can give respect to our Lord Jesus Christ as he resides and functions inside the divine dynasphere and as he continues to take in doctrine. So timh is something that every believer can give. It is based, of course, by his life inside the divine dynasphere and his understanding of doctrine.

The adolescent believer takes one step further. Timh also means reverence. The adolescent believer is growing, advancing, and therefore he is capable of giving reverence under the concept of category #2 worship. Reverence follows respect. Respect is the worship of the baby believer; reverence is the worship of the adolescent believer. Reverence and respect are simply an extension of each other, both are the function of the believer’s royal priesthood inside the divine dynasphere.

The highest form of category #2 worship, also included in the word timh, is the concept of occupation with the person of Christ. Timh means honour and that is the function of the mature believer. The mature believer can actually give honour to our Lord Jesus Christ. So category #2 is as high as we can go in this life and to give honour to our Lord you must possess honour, and the possession of honour means advance to maturity, the erection of the edification complex of the soul and everything related to it. Category #3 worship is the giving of thanks. Thanksgiving is a most basic form of priestly function on the part of the royal family. The capacity for this worship is gratitude for the plan of God and for the grace of God. Capacity for thanksgiving comes from perception of doctrine and as one’s perception increases so does his capacity. The arrogant believer lives in the cosmic system and whatever thanksgiving he may show is merely superficial. There is something we may learn from this also: People who have no capacity for thanksgiving have no capacity for love. The words are no stronger than the honour, the integrity of the individual.

So we have contrasting forms of worship. We have in the Old Testament dispensation mankind functioning under a specialised priesthood. For example, the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron became priests to Israel. In the Old Testament you had to go to a priest who represented you before God but now in the New testament the contrast is here: you are your own priest, you represent yourself before God. Two things changed the form of worship in the Church Age: the first advent of Christ, His strategic victory on the cross and, secondly, the universal priesthood of the believer in the royal family of God. Add to this the completion of the canon of scripture and you have the elimination of all ritual worship, except in one area, the Lord’s table. Even baptism has not been extended to this part of the Church Age. So we have the completed canon of scripture and we have thought as the basis of worship, i.e. Bible doctrine. Therefore, all ritual except the Lord’s table has been set aside. The object of worship in the Church Age is our Lord Jesus Christ. The Church Age is the first dispensation to follow His incarnation and hypostatic union. We worship Jesus Christ as eternal God; we worship Jesus Christ as true humanity. As God He united with His humanity, as Man He functioned in the prototype divine dynasphere and demonstrated the principle of impeccability which qualified Him to go to the cross. As God He is not able to sin; as true humanity living in the prototype divine dynasphere for 33 years He was able not to sin. His impeccability led Him to the cross where He bore our sins in His own human body [as deity He could not have anything to do with sin]. It is the humanity of Christ that actually achieved the strategic victory of the angelic conflict and therefore made a new strategic situation in many ways. Man was created lower than angels but the Man Christ Jesus is now superior to angels and therefore we worship the God-Man. The ingredients of worship, therefore, must be related to who and what Jesus Christ is. It is impossible for any believer to worship Jesus Christ unless he knows something about Him. So, once again, the Eucharist is a test. When we come to the Lord’s table our ability to concentrate on the person of Christ and His work on the cross is always an examination; it is a way of telling us that we are either failing or succeeding in our spiritual life.

If the believer has doctrine in his right lobe he can express worship commensurate with capacity derived from that doctrine. If he has love of truth or doctrine he can express it in worship, giving concentration to doctrinal teaching. If the believer can apply doctrine, like soteriology and Christology, he can participate in the communion service because he is able to relate the ritual of the bread and the cup with the pertinent doctrine in the Word of God. If the believer has time he can give time to the Lord by his assembly in the local church for Bible class which is, of course, worship. If he has money he can give money but only as God has prospered him.

While the 24 angelic general staff officers gave their crowns they would always have the crowns because they had the source of the gifts. So in giving their crowns they still have the Lord and they still have the source. Therefore another principle of worship is very important: Everything that we have belongs to the Lord. For that reason everything that we have is secure. The Lord is eternal, He cannot in any way be destroyed, whatever He gives us is eternal. And when we give it back to Him in respect and reverence we are expressing therefore the highest form of worship.

The fifth chapter of Revelation deals with worship and we have come down now to the song. They are now singing this great song. The chorus of the elect angels is mentioned in verses 11 and 12.

When it says “I both saw,” the personnel of the angelic chorus described in this verse, “and heard,” this is the song of the angelic chorus. We note the correct translation of verse eleven. “I heard the voice of many angels around the throne plus the voice of the angelic heralds and the angelic general staff: and their number was beyond counting [an infinite number of angels].” Myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands merely expresses billions, an infinite number of angels.

Verse 12, we notice immediately that we have a present active participle from the verb legw, and legw means to say or to speak, but not here. Here it refers to singing. It says that they sang, the instrumental of manner for the adjective of megaj from fonh. Megaj is the adjective and fwnh is the noun, translated generally “with a great voice” or “with a loud voice.”

What they sang is now given. The music with its harmony must have been magnificent beyond description but all we have are the lyrics. The lyrics are the doctrine which closes out this chapter. The lyrics appeal to the mentality of the soul while the melody and the harmony appeal to the emotion of the soul. This, again, emphasises the importance of the mentality of the soul. Only the lyrics are given in the Word of God.

This is what they sang: “The Lamb who has been sacrificed is worthy to receive power.” This is not the way you find it in the King James version. The Lamb, of course, refers to our Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that He is worthy is the basis for the rest of the book of Revelation. He is going to give us the history of the world from the time of the Rapture to the end of the world, and He is going to give it to us by opening the history book, the book of the seven seals. Someone has to be worthy to open it. History cannot go on unless there is worthiness somewhere. You remember this in time of historical disaster and difficulty. History always continues because somewhere someone is worthy, some believer who has advanced to maturity as an anonymous hero in the Church Age. So when it says that the Lamb is worthy this is the subject of angelic singing, of angelic worship. The perfect passive participle of the verb sfatw is beautiful Greek. It was changed in the New Testament to the Koine, sfazw, a slur of sfatw. It means in the original writing of the New Testament, so that you could understand, and since understanding doctrine is the objective, to avoid any abstruse system of mystery we have the common language [Koine], and almost anyone can understand a common or gutter language. We have sfazw, meaning to sacrifice, to give one’s life, and it is a reference to the cross. The dramatic perfect emphasises the results of the action, the saving work of Christ on the cross, the basis of all worship for it is our Lord Jesus Christ who provided eternal salvation, who defeated Satan in the angelic conflict, and who makes our life meaningful at the present time. We are here for a purpose. There never was and there never will be a group of believers in any period of history who have a more meaningful life than we have. The whole outcome of history in our generation depends upon our decisions with regard to Bible doctrine, and therefore with regard to the principle of perception of doctrine.

It says then, “worthy to receive.” The word to “receive” is lambanw and the aorist tense is a gnomic aorist. The aorist tense, being a gnomic aorist, is for doctrine. It is an axiomatic concept to receive honour and this must come from doctrine, the gnomic aorist for a doctrine which is axiomatic. The active voice: our glorified Lord produces the action of the verb through His strategic victory on the cross. This is the infinitive of actual result.

Next comes the seven descriptions of our Lord’s third royal patent. These are all, by the way, in the accusative singular. These are seven direct objects of the verb. The first one is the accusative singular of the noun dunamij and it is correctly translated “power.” In fact, our Lord Jesus Christ received two categories of power which are related to His two advents. In the first advent Christ received power which is the prototype divine dynasphere with its eight gates making it possible for our Lord to be qualified to go to the cross and bear our sins. In the second advent Christ receives another category of power based on the success of the first advent, and that is the power to rule the world. That is the tactical victory over Satan. Satan is superseded at the second advent. In the first advent Christ received the power to sustain His humanity and win; in the second advent Christ receives the power to rule and to win. Notice that in each case dunamij relates to being a winner.

The second description of our Lord’s third royal patent is the accusative singular direct object of the noun ploutoj and this comes from power. It means wealth and abundance, wealth in the sense of money, in the sense of security, that which enriches one, hence prosperity. This is a reference to the prosperity of the Millennium. Our Lord’s rulership of the world will be characterised by prosperity. All temporal and eternal prosperity is related to who and what Christ is.

“wisdom,” this is number three, sofia, which is not only the Bible, the mind of Christ, but all application of doctrine is related to it. It belongs to Christ. Wisdom is the application of doctrine to history. Our Lord’s Millennial reign will be characterised by the greatest wisdom ever known to man. To possess wisdom one must have all the facts. Our Lord will have all the facts about every circumstance in His Millennial reign and He will deal sagaciously with those facts, therefore sound the judgment and discretion of our Lord’s rule, but by application these all belong to us. If they belong to Him because of His wonderful strategic victory these things by application belong to us.

Number four is the accusative singular direct object of the noun i)sxuj. It is another word for power but it is a different kind of power. This is endowed power, ability. With the third royal patent goes the ability to rule in time and eternity. Some of you are never going to reach your potential or your ability without truth. The possession of truth, the possession of Bible doctrine is the basis for exploitation of ability and without it you will never reach your potential in time, and certainly you will never be one of the anonymous heroes so necessary for the perpetuation of our nations history and prosperity. Of course, each one of these descriptive words refers to the humanity of Christ and, again, relates to His third royal patent. His resurrection, ascension and session is His ability, His strength, His energy plus His ability. That is the real key: to have energy plus ability. Many people have energy but no ability. The ability means acquired ability and they have never directed their energy to channels whereby their ability can be acquired. If energy is directed in the wrong channels it is because people have a wrong scale of values and they do not realise what is important in life. They never learn to concentrate so that their energy can be properly directed. The strength to rule combines energy plus ability to rule, to lead, to control. Energy is absolutely no good without ability. That is the great key in this principle.

Number five is timh again, “honour.” The highest honour ever given is given to the humanity of Christ after the ascension. This honour centres around His third royal patent awarded to Him as a result of His strategic victory of the cross.

Next comes glory. Just as honour was given to Christ as a result of His victory of the first advent glory will be given to Christ at the second advent. That will be fulfilled by those who succeed as anonymous heroes in this dispensation.

Finally, our last word is the accusative singular direct object from e)ulogia, which means the act of blessing. It refers to the fact that all temporal and eternal blessing comes from the glorified Lord Jesus Christ. Several categories of blessing are involved. First of all blessings for the royal family in time. We have studied this under the doctrine of logistical grace and the doctrine of supergrace blessing. Secondly, blessing for the royal family in eternity. We have studied this under the profile of the winner, the doctrine of the crowns, the doctrine of the judgment seat of Christ. All blessing for you and for me as Christians, members of the royal family of God both in time and in eternity, is based upon our Lord’s strategic victory at the cross. Hence, all blessing, either temporal or eternal originates from our Lord Jesus Christ and apart from Christ there is no blessing in time. You can have success but success without blessing will make you miserable and disturbed, so simply being successful is meaningless. When it is a blessing then you have the capacity for happiness.

Translation of verse 12: “And they sang loudly, The Lamb who has been sacrificed [the spiritual death of Christ bearing our sins] is worthy to receive power [reference to the prototype divine dynasphere at the first advent and the power to rule at the second advent], and wealth [the prosperity of our Lord’s third royal patent], and wisdom [the sagacity of our Lord’s Millennial reign], and strength [energy and ability to rule the world during the Millennium], and honour [from the strategic victory of the first advent], and glory [from the tactical victory of the second advent], and blessing [both temporal and eternal blessing from the royal family originates from our Lord Jesus Christ].”

We need to emphasise the word i)sxuj, translated “strength.” It is a word that includes both energy and ability. Energy without ability is misdirected arrogance as in self-righteousness, as in self-righteous crusading. Ability without energy is lack of motivation, lack of self-discipline, and therefore becomes the arrogance of laziness. The energy of hard work produces ability, and ability channels hard work into fields of productive success. Energy plus ability equals the true drive in life. Both energy and ability must be related to doctrine and wisdom, in other words, truth, otherwise a pseudo-drive is created. Our Lord’s wisdom coupled with His energy and ability sets in motion the greatest rule in all of human history.

That brings us to the chorus of regenerate mankind singing to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The corrected translation of verse thirteen: “Then I heard every creature who is in heaven.” Now who is in heaven at that time in the future? Believers of the Church Age, the royal family of God. Then we find creatures on earth, living believers at the time of the Rapture, “and on the earth, and under the earth,” dead believers at the Rapture, “also on the sea,” living believers at the Rapture, “and everyone who is in them [who died at sea during the Church Age], singing to him who sits on the throne [God the Father], and to the Lamb [God the Son who executed the Father’s plan].” So at this point believers in heaven join the chorus.

When it says “in heaven” in the first prepositional phrase we are talking about all believers of the Church Age. They are there as the sea of glass which we have studied in Revelation chapter four, verse 6. “On earth” simply indicates the resurrection of living believers at the Rapture. “Under the earth” is the second category which indicates that the people who die before the Rapture are also there. But the thing that is interesting here has to do with the sea. It says in the middle of verse 13 — “and everyone who is in them,” i.e., every believer who died at sea. Why make the sea a separate category? It is a reference again to believers indicating the fact that because about two thirds or more of the earth is covered with water, and since man is quite often found on the sea, the same thing is true for them as on land. The personnel of the chorus in heaven is composed of all Church Age believers, the only members of the human race at that time who will have their resurrection body. They are resurrected from both the land masses and the seas of planet earth. The point here is that all have resurrection bodies.

Both God the Father, the author of the plan, and God the Son, the executor of the plan are honoured in this song. At this point the work of the Father and the Son is accomplished but the work of God the Holy Spirit continues on earth, but it should be noted that any praise and worship to the Father is also praise and worship to the Holy Spirit. His work is not finished until the end of the Millennium but this does not means that He is left out of the worship.

“and power,” ruling power, kratoj, the sovereignty, the ruling power of eternity belongs to the members of the Trinity.

“belongs to them forever and ever” means that eternity will once and for all eliminate all creature arrogance. The thing that destroys mankind is creature arrogance. There will be no doubt either among elect angels or regenerate mankind regarding the source of victory in the angelic conflict, nor the source of blessing or the one who gets the credit forever and ever. Without arrogance and evil competition it produces heaven in the presence of God and it will be a great blessing for all. It staggers the imagination. There is no human genius which can penetrate into eternity and begin to realise the total concept of love, appreciation, worship, glory, which regenerate creatures will be capable of having once they are in the eternal state. It stands at the moment as a principle of prophecy but in the resurrection body it will be a reality of total worship of our Lord. No one has yet to see the tremendous capacity or the total ability of believers in the resurrection body to worship God.

So there is a final response from the angelic hierarchy to what is sung by the Church in verse 13. “Then the four angelic creatures kept saying, Amen [I believe it].” They kept saying this because we have the imperfect active indicative of the verb legw. This is the angelic response to what the Church says. And why are angels responding? Because Jesus Christ as a Man is higher than angels — His third royal patent. We are royalty and in resurrection bodies we are higher than angels, and therefore, at last in eternity angels will be responding to what we sing.

“Then the angelic general staff fell down and worshipped.” This is the silent worship of thinking doctrine previously learned and now applied. It is fitting that angelic creatures who wear the uniform of wisdom should declare the antiphonal response from their maximum knowledge of doctrine. The uniform of wisdom emphasises to us the importance of knowing God from maximum perception of doctrine.

These four angelic heralds are the smartest of elect angels and they demonstrate a principle when they say, “Amen.” The smarter you are the more you can come to appreciate who and what God is. As far as we are concerned, the principle: it is smart to believe doctrine. Believing doctrine is the difference between academic perception and the inculcation of e)pignwsij. The e)pignwsij doctrine will result in spiritual growth and produce the wisdom that one needs to glorify the Lord now and forever. The uniform of wisdom is the eternal decoration given to these four angelic heralds as an eternal reward and a monument to the persistence of their positive volition toward doctrine during prehistory. Their occupation with Christ through maximum doctrine in their souls gives them the privilege of winding up this chapter with the antiphonal response to the hymn of victory in heaven. This is in contrast to the shouting or the shrieking of Amen during sermons in a church, which is superficial, disruptive, meaningless, and even arrogant. For “Amen” belongs to those with wisdom as a part of their eternal worship or as a part of their appropriate congregational response in liturgy.

The physical attitude or posture of the angelic general staff is one of total humility, emphasising the importance of humility in our relationship to the Lord, in our relationship to worship of Him, and in relationship to orienting to life. Note that these are the second highest rank in the order of battle in the army of elect angels and the posture of humility is not hypocrisy here because it is accompanied by thought and the thought is expressed in the posture. The posture without the thought is hypocrisy, it is ritual without reality. Remember that worship is thinking doctrine. Emotion is only legitimate in worship when responding to thought, and these angels are responding to thought.

The last phrase, “that liveth forever and ever,” does not occur again in verse 14.

We will never see the unrestrained disaster which is coming to planet earth after the Rapture of the Church. We now move into chapter six where we begin to see this concept developed. One of the concepts that we have noted briefly is the concept of energy and ability. We noted it in relationship to worship.

1. Energy without ability is misdirected arrogance. Energy without ability produces mental attitude arrogance or inordinate ambition. When people have energy and no ability they become trouble makers, they cause trouble.

2. Energy without ability results in self-righteous arrogance, crusader arrogance. Crusader and self-righteous arrogance always combine to form the person who sticks his nose into someone else’s business, intrudes on their privacy, becomes a gossip, a maligner, the person who tries to run your life, the person who tries to control your life, tries to intimidate you.

3. Energy without ability produces conspiracy arrogance, sexual arrogance, iconoclastic arrogance, morality arrogance, the arrogance of Christian service, all too often. People who have energy but no ability to serve the Lord are always using their energy in pseudo systems of Christian production.

4. Ability without energy is lack of motivation and lack of self-discipline. In other words, the arrogance of laziness.

5. The controlled energy of hard work produces ability, and the ability channels hard work into fields of productive success. Ability is not inherent, it is acquired through hard work, through dedication, through plugging.

7. Energy is basically created in the body but ability is created in the soul, and ability is created in the motivation of the soul, not the IQ in the soul.

8. Motivation in the soul produces the decisions to take in doctrine consistently, every day if necessary, regardless of circumstances, regardless of discouragement.

9. Both energy and ability are harnessed through perception and application of Bible doctrine.

10. Therefore, both energy and ability must be related to doctrine and wisdom, otherwise a pseudo drive is created. All pseudo drives terminate in the cosmic system.

Our Lord’s wisdom and ability during His first advent was derived from His residence and function in the prototype divine dynasphere and it resulted in the greatest of all victories in human history, the strategic victory of the cross. Our Lord’s wisdom coupled with His energy and ability at the second advent sets in motion the greatest reign in all of human history, the tactical victory of the second advent. In the meantime our Lord has provided the divine dynasphere for the royal family so that believers in the Church Age can face and overcome every disaster in life. Our Lord has seen fit through the vehicle of eschatology to give to us an account of the greatest period of historical disaster, duplicated often in our lives and in our lifetime but with a difference. We have the means of meeting any disaster, any tragedy in life and overcoming the situation.

We are now moving away from the concept of historical trends in this dispensation to the concept of historical trends based on prophecy. Historical trends of the Tribulation are determined by prophecy. Therefore we note an introductory principle to Revelation chapters six through eighteen.

1. Historical trends in the Tribulation are determined by prophecy. The Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy. Hence, as an era of historical trends without prophecy they are determined by some means other than prophecy.

2. In other words, during the Church Age historical trends are determined by the decisions, the scale of values, the volition of the royal family of God [Church Age believers].

3. In the Church Age, as goes the believer so goes the historical trends. The dispensation of the Church is the only historical era in which the divine dynasphere is provided for the believers as the means of executing God’s plan.

4. Positive decisions to live in the divine dynasphere produce the historical uptrend.

5. Negative volition and decisions to live in the cosmic system produce the historical downtrend.

7. In all other dispensations or historical eras human decisions and actions were fed into the computer of divine decrees so that historical trends were programmed and revealed through prophecy.

Before we get into chapter six we need to note something about Israel’s time clock after the Babylonian captivity. This is given in Daniel 9:24-27. The Babylonian captivity was the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom by Nebuchanezzar and the Chaldean empire in the year BC 586. It lasted for 70 years. The temple was completed under the ministry of Haggai the priest and Zechariah the prophet in BC 516. The Persians sent back groups of people before this time but the time is measured from the time between the fifth cycle of discipline in 586 and the completion of the second temple in Jerusalem in 516. So we have after this period a new prophecy by which Israel’s historical trends are declared, beginning in 516 BC. This prophecy which would follow is called the prophecy of the seventy weeks. But that isn’t the correct translation, that is the one you get in the King James version. It is actually the seventy times seven, as the correct Hebrew says. So we have a period of 490 years in which one prophecy gives the whole story of the historical trends in Israel.

These historical trends are divided into three increments in the prophecy. The first is called seven weeks or forty-nine years. In that first increment we have the first 49 years of historical trends to client nation Israel. In this period the king of Persia issued a decree in April of 445 BC to restore Jerusalem, to rebuild it. This is the story of the book of Nehemiah and especially Nehemiah chapter two. Forty-nine years after that decree the walls and the streets of the holy city were completed. That is the first 49 years.

The second increment is a period of sixty-two weeks or 434 years. That period, the second increment which follows without interruption, bring us down to AD 32 when Christ was crucified. Between Daniel 9:26 and 27 we have the third increment. These first two increments together bring us down to Daniel 9:26. Then there is a gap, and we have already studied the doctrine of intercalation, so that the third increment of Israel’s historical trends is one week of seven years, and that is the Tribulation. The seven-sealed Doomsday book deals with this same subject. The third increment, the period of the Tribulation, or Daniel’s seventieth week is the subject of this chapter.

As we observe Daniel 9:24-27 remember that there are three increments, two in the Old Testament down to the time of our Lord’s crucifixion [the seven weeks and the 434 years], Daniel 9:24-26, but when we get down to verse 27 we are going to skip the Church Age and verse 27 will be Daniel’s seventieth week.

Verse 24 — “Seventy times seven [490 years] has been decreed for your people [the Jews] and your holy city [Jerusalem], to finish the transgression [in other words, to serve out your sentence under the 5th cycle of discipline. It will begin again in AD 70 and it is finished at the second advent of Christ], to make an end of sin [the baptism of fire at the second advent], to make reconciliation for iniquity [the regathering of Israel at the second advent, their restoration as a client nation to God in the Millennium], to bring in everlasting righteousness [the resurrection of the Old Testament saints at the second advent], to seal up the vision and the prophecy [the second advent will terminate the Jewish Age with the Jews and their 490 years], to anoint the holy of holies [the new temple of the Millennium].” Note that all six of these items will be fulfilled by the second advent of Christ.

Verse 25, “Therefore you are to understand and apply this prophecy [because it is the historical trends for Israel from the time of their coming back in 516 BC into the land to around 30-32 AD] from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to Messiah the Prince [AD 30] there will be seven weeks [or seven times seven, 49 years] and sixty-two times seven [434 years]; it [the walls of Jerusalem] will be built again, with the streets and the moat, even in times of distress [the opposition of Sanballat and Tobiah].”

Verse 26, “Then after sixty-two weeks [after the second increment] Messiah will be cut off and have no one [for Himself, referring to Christ being judged for our sins]. Then the people [Roman people] of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary [the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline in AD 70]. And its end [the end of Jerusalem] with a flood [the Roman army overran the city]; furthermore, to the end [of the fifth cycle of discipline, the times of the Gentiles] wars and desolations are decreed.” The Jews will always have wars during that time.

Between verses 26 and 27 we have the dispensation of intercalation, the Church Age.

Verse 27, “And he [the prince that shall come, the dictator of the revived Roman empire] will make a peace treaty with the many [Jews] for one week [a seven-year peace treaty], but in the middle of the week [Tribulation] he will put a stop to the sacrifice and food offering; and cause the protection of the abomination of desolation [statue of himself], even to the end of the Tribulation. Consequently what is determined by prophecy will be poured out on the desolater [the Roman dictator will be judged].”

Daniel merely gives us an outline and as we move into our passage we are going to get the details not given in Daniel. This outline of Daniel takes us down to AD 30 and then skips over the Church Age for the last seven years. When the Rapture occurs time has stopped for Israel as far as God’s plan for them as a nation is concerned, and time will not resume until the Church is removed. Then they are given seven more years, the seven years of Daniel 9:27.

The first seal: verse one gives us the seal, verse two gives us the characteristics of the seal.

Verse 1, we have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “next.” We have the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw which has to do with seeing, “And next I saw.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the factor action of these historical trends extended over the period of the Tribulation and gathers them into a single whole. In the first six seals we are going to see things that happen throughout the Tribulation. In the seventh seal we are going to see things that happen at a specific time in the Tribulation. The active voice: the apostle John is the author of the book of Revelation, the one who produces the action in seeing this vision. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. We are going to learn a great deal about what is happening now by what is going to happen in the future. People talk about learning from the past; we are going to learn from the future.

Next comes a temporal conjunction o(te which introduces a temporal clause and is translated “when,” “Next I watched when.” And then we have the nominative neuter singular subject a)rnion, translated “the Lamb.” It is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ and His strategic victory at the first advent, His victory at the cross. As the victory in the angelic conflict our Lord is worthy and qualified to open the seals which portray the historical trends of the Tribulation. The seals represent the prophecy of historical trends which is the pattern for all historical trends or dispensations except the Church Age. The Church Age is the mystery dispensation and its trends are determined by individual decisions rather than prophetical dissertation; it is the dispensation of the divine dynasphere, the dispensation of the royal family. In all other dispensations the impact of human volition is the printout of the divine decrees expressing the foreknowledge of God. That is exactly what we are going to see in the Doomsday book: an expression of the divine decrees for the Tribulation, an expression of the foreknowledge of God. Just as the omniscience of God programs the computer of divine decrees with regard to our thoughts, our motives, our decisions, our actions, so the foreknowledge of God takes certain printouts and reduces them to eschatological anticipation. So the foreknowledge of God provides in prophecy seven fat cows and seven lean cows. The seven fat cows are going to be seven years of prosperity; the seven lean cows are going to be seven years of disaster. And they are all going to be merged into one. Now, these seven years of prosperity and disaster in the Tribulation [there are not fourteen years in the Tribulation] are seven years of prosperity and seven of disaster all at the same time, depending on your attitude to doctrine. In time of great disaster you can have great prosperity but in time of great prosperity you can have great disaster.

Most people think that inequality is a bad thing and some people think that inequality is a good thing, depending on which end of the spectrum they find themselves. But actually inequality is an historical trend, an inevitable historical trend. At the end of chapter six we are going to find in the Tribulation seven categories of society and they are all unequal. There is inequality in the Tribulation, there is inequality in the Millennium, there is inequality now in the Church Age, and there has been inequality in the past.

The first thing that we note is that society always exists in a state of inequality. There never has been and there never will be a time in history when equality can be or will be achieved. There are two reasons for this fact. First of all the devil is the ruler of this world and gives preferential treatment to his own cosmic slaves. Secondly, the sovereignty of God has made free will or volition the issue in the angelic conflict, which means the impossibility of equality in the human race. It is impossible. There will always be inequality because free will is the issue in the angelic conflict. That means that for volition to be the issue there must be freedom, and freedom guarantees inequality. Hence, there are two sources of inequality: the evil of Satan’s system and the freedom issue in the divine policy of the laws of divine establishment. A third concept can be added: there is inequality at birth combined with the concept of equality of opportunity to fail or succeed. We are born unequal but we are also born with opportunity. The very fact that God gives us life after birth means that we do have opportunity, opportunity of course to fail or succeed in life. However, inequality continues to exist whether you fail or succeed since we do not succeed or fail even to the same degree. Inequality in itself is not a bad thing, only the arrogance which resents that inequality or the self-pity which fails to adjust to that inequality.

Note further that from the seven categories of humanity which we will find at the end of this chapter that inequality exists in both time of prosperity and time of adversity. The Tribulation is a time of terrible adversity but there will still be inequality. In time of great prosperity there is still inequality. In fact you can’t have prosperity without inequality. If you are going to have prosperity you have to have someone who takes the responsibility, someone who invests, for example. That immediately separates from the ones who are the recipients of their pay.

There is a good and a bad state of inequality. Good inequality exists in the environment of freedom; bad inequality exists in the environment of freedom.

So whether historical prosperity or historical adversity, freedom or tyranny, inequality is inescapable and an unsolvable fact of history. Those who want to solve the problem of inequality, generally the liberals and the arrogant crusaders, always create new inequalities, as illustrated by the French revolution. Equality was the password of the French revolution and by sticking with that password they actually developed new inequalities. The real solution to inequality is not equality but happiness and the pursuit of happiness. There will always be inequality. The point is: the inevitable need within equality is happiness, happiness in all states of inequality. That means the freedom to pursue happiness. Happiness can and does exist in every category of society: some poor people are happy; some rich people are happy. Some failures are happy and some people who are successful are happy. Happiness exists among those who are unequal. We all have the same shot at happiness. Happiness or unhappiness depends on the believer’s attitude toward Bible doctrine.

We are going to look at Joseph. Joseph was high on the inequality scale. He was what we might call top dog in his family. Being one of the younger sons was very bad because there is always a group of people who can’t think straight and say that time and grades should be the issue, not ability; promotion on the basis of, How long have you been here?

What happens when some people are aware that in some way they are on the lower end of the totem pole is that they get into cosmic one, and they get jealous, bitter, vindictive and involved in self-pity. Self-pity is one of the most subtle and one of the worst types of arrogance, because then you start screaming equality from arrogance and you are very unhappy, and unhappy people become troublemakers. All unhappy people have the potential for becoming great troublemakers. The issue is: Are you adjusted to life? Do you have happiness where you are?

Jacob’s favourite son was Joseph, therefore ten of the brothers envied him. The ten brothers say, We are older, we have time and grade, therefore we should be running the thing. But Joseph became their leader. He had integrity, he had honour, he was by far the most honourable. Only eleven were in the picture at the time, Benjamin was too young. So there are eleven brothers and the one at the bottom is promoted over all of them and given his insignia of rank, a coat of many colours. His father gave him a tartan jacket and made him the chief over his brothers. And he reported their failures faithfully! So obviously there was envy and they plotted to kill Joseph. They were going to use murder to solve their problem but Reuben, the oldest brother, had enough sense to intervene and save Joseph’s life. But Joseph goes from the top to being a slave. Joseph has to go to school and school for him is slavery. Being a slave is not necessarily demeaning. It can be but that isn’t really the issue. Joseph is going to be a slave for quite a few years but that is a part of his education. The Jews were slaves for four generations and they stayed slaves for four generations, there was nothing they could do to break out of slavery, and yet there was great happiness in those four generations among certain believers, even though they were slaves and obviously unequal. And it was never changed until Moses came into the picture.

So Joseph goes to Egypt as a slave and that looks the end of the line — life is over, it is all through! All of this happened so that Joseph might realise the importance of our Lord, occupation with Christ, as per 1 Peter 1:7,8, and to prepare Joseph, to educate Joseph to be the greatest man in his generation in history, to be the Prime Minister of the most powerful empire that existed in that generation. To do so means to pass a lot of inequality tests. He starts at the bottom, “down there.” There is nothing demeaning “down there,” he is a believer “down there.” He worked hard “down there,” he had tremendous leadership ability and was a leader “down there”; he will be a leader at the top. And the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

This is the background for historical trends. It all took place in prison. As a result of being in prison Joseph became the greatest man of his day. Not only that, he became one of the greatest believers of all time. By the standards of human success he was the most successful. God provided the opportunity on the basis of the doctrine of historical trends. He will interpret historical trends. A dream is a prophecy; all historical trends are based on prophecy. He will be able to predict fourteen years of historical trends and do it in the area of the economy. The entire world was about to face a great depression, but always before a great depression there is a period of great prosperity which hides and disguises the coming of the depression. Greatest periods of prosperity in history have inevitably resulted in a depression. Great prosperity is often the calm before the storm and when the storm breaks the world will be caught off guard, but not Egypt, because one man is able to interpret historical trends from the Word of God as it existed in that prison and as it was presented to him through the dreams of three people.

The first few words of Genesis 40:1, “after these things” certainly covers a multitude of injustices. A lot of people can say “I was unjustly treated” and they really weren’t, but Joseph really was, so he doesn’t say anything — yet. After being hated and persecuted by his brothers and after being tossed in a pit, and after being sold into slavery and shackled to a caravan, after being sold into slavery in Egypt, after being falsely accused by a frustrated woman and being cast into prison, he certainly shows a remarkable application of doctrine. No bitterness. One thing that none of us can ever afford, even for one second, is to be bitter about anything that has happened to us that has been unfair. Most of us will have realised by now that the ruler of this world simply cannot administer any kind of perfect environment, and sooner or later you are going to receive some unfair treatment. Unfair treatment is always a test to see if you will go in for one of the perhaps more subtle forms of arrogance: bitterness. No person who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is ever going to advance as long as he is bitter. Joseph certainly had an opportunity for bitterness, more than most people, and he certainly was not bitter at this point. So he passed the prosperity test, he passed the persecution test, he passed the success test, he passed the bitterness test.

The cupbearer is the man who always stands at the right hand of the king and makes all presentations to him. The baker is in charge of all of the food in the palace and is a prince. One of these two noblemen decided to poison the Pharaoh. Which one is it? That is the problem that the Pharaoh was facing. So like a smart Pharaoh he put them both in jail until he could find out who was guilty.

Verse 4 now shows us the pettiness of Potiphar. Once a mistake is made like Potiphar did, unjust treatment of someone, and there is no rectification of it, obviously then, he is on his way down. He has now become a very petty person. He probably suspected that his wife was lying and now all of his lands and his castle are falling apart because the only one who could administer them properly is in jail. By a series of events, prosperous and adverse, God is leading Joseph to the place of world leadership, as per Romans 8:28. Potiphar has demoted Joseph from rulership in his castle to being a servant in his prison. So Joseph is now the servant of his two rivals in jail. Potiphar, of course, thought that he was hurting Joseph by doing this. Potiphar didn’t realise it but he was hurting himself, he was pushing Joseph closer to becoming the greatest man of his age. As high court officials the two noblemen were permitted a servant and the pettiness on the part of Potiphar serves to further the plan of God, though it wasn’t intended that way. Later on Joseph would say to his ten brothers: “You meant it for evil; God meant it for blessing,” another way of saying “all thing work together for good.”

As a believer it is almost inevitable that somewhere along the line when you are doing well spiritually you are going to become the recipient of some form of injustice, some act of pettiness. When these things come along they can be very distracting unless you apply the doctrine you have learned. If you fail then you go down in your spiritual life, temporarily or maybe even permanently. Pettiness is intolerable to people who have become oriented to grace and that makes it all the more of a test. Every act of pettiness, while it is designed to hurt you, actually will promote you if you handle it by the application of Bible doctrine. And if God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted. So here is the pettiness test that Joseph passed with flying colours. All great men, all men who are going to be great, all men who are going to reach the peak of success in any field, must as a part of their leadership profile have the ability to overlook pettiness by the application of impersonal love to the situation. Petty and mean people are small people and inevitably, if you succeed in something, you are going to encounter them.

And also, if you are on the other side of the fence, remember that pettiness is a boomerang. You hurt yourself, not the object of your pettiness. While given a very menial task Joseph is faithful, he is uncomplaining. God makes the most demeaning and small tasks in life a source of happiness and blessing. Joseph is now low on the totem pole again. He is a servant, he is a slave, but he is very happy. The two noblemen in the cell are very unhappy. Potiphar who has the castle nearby is also very unhappy. So being successful doesn’t mean being happy. God will provide prosperity to the soul that seeks Him but if you think that you are going to have prosperity without a testing or two you are wrong. Your prosperity will never bring you happiness unless you pass the tests that go with it. The wonderful thing about Joseph is his phenomenal humility, a humility which does not consider any job demeaning. In a place of humility and gross injustice obviously Joseph is keeping his eyes on the Lord.

Verse 5, Eventually the two men, the cupbearer and the baker, had a dream the same night and each dream had a meaning of its own. This is the turning point because the dream is Bible doctrine, before the completion of the canon of scripture. A dream was one way to receive doctrine. The only trouble is that these men are not capable of understanding what they dream because they have no frame of reference from Bible doctrine.

Verse 6, Notice that when Joseph came to them in the morning he was a very happy person. He is in a very difficult situation, yet he has great blessing and happiness. He saw that they were dejected. Note: Humility produces objectivity. Objectivity shows concern for others. In other words, Joseph isn’t standing around complaining about his life.

The two men are very quick to tell Joseph their problem because they are preoccupied with themselves. If Joseph had been bitter or cynical as a result of his circumstances he would have ignored the depressed state of the two noblemen, or he would have ridiculed their situation. So to be great in the adverse circumstances of life there must be the principle of application which comes from impersonal love. That is exactly what Joseph does.

Joseph interprets the dream of the cupbearer but in verse 14 is the first time we have seen a weakness in Joseph. He just couldn’t resist the temptation. Who is the one who is going to make Joseph great in his day? The Lord, the only one who can. When you start to lean on people as Joseph does here you just simply postpone God’s plan for your life. Joseph knows exactly what is going to happen, in three days this man is going to be back standing beside Pharaoh. And what does Joseph do? He was doing so well when he came in that morning and saw them dejected and asked the question. So he says: “When all goes well with you, remember me [put in a good word for me], mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.” There is only one person who can get Joseph out of prison and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph is talking to the wrong person.

After passing the test day after day he now flunks the same test. “For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in prison.” True, but it is just as if he is ignoring the fact that the Lord knows it too. The Lord knew billions of years ago that he was innocent. The Lord will get him out in the Lord’s time.

In life, timing is everything. Better to sit down in a demeaning situation until the Lord decides to move you up. But if you say: “I’m tired of being in a demeaning situation, I’m going to move myself up,” you have just moved yourself down. Joseph, as we will see, lost two years by this little phraseology right here: “I’ve done nothing wrong, get me out of here.”

In verse 16 we have to deal with another dream. Joseph told the chief baker what his dream meant. Notice that Joseph was honest. You have to realise the importance of integrity and one of the principles of integrity is to level with people. This does not mean sticking the nose into someone else’s business. This man asked a question. There comes a time when you will be asked for an opinion and then you have to decide that this is the time for honesty. Joseph is communicating doctrine here. Pharaoh was going to not going to lift the chief baker’s head up, he was going to lift it off, “and hang you on a tree.”

Verse 23, The chief cupbearer has the best memory in the land, he doesn’t forget anything. So notice how he uses his memory: “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.” The chief cupbearer is not the kind of a person who would forget, but the Lord shut down his memory. Why? Because Joseph still has one lesson to learn and he will meditate on it for two years in jail. He will remember that it is the Lord who gets him out of jail, not some influential nobleman. Remember Jeremiah 17, “Cursed is the man who puts his trust in man and makes flesh his arm.” So Joseph failed on this occasion, he went to influence peddling. But it is not accident that a man with a perfect memory forgot Joseph. This was divine discipline, a lesson that Joseph had to learn. Because Joseph relied on the memory of a human being instead of the memory of the Lord the Lord caused the memory of the man to fail. Joseph had to learn the lesson of utter dependence on the Lord before he could be promoted to the palace of Pharaoh. The administration of Joseph’s was the greatest that Egypt ever had outside of the one Moses had for a short time and it was free from influence peddling. In the years to come Joseph must not depend on Pharaoh, Pharaoh will depend on Joseph. It took Joseph two more years to learn this lesson. God’s grace is sufficient for every situation.

Chapter 41 opens two years later. Again, you can fill in the interim very simply: Joseph was learning a great lesson. Now it is time for Pharaoh to have a dream. It is time to advance Joseph again because he has learned his lesson. He had been prepared for all of this by the demands of the faith-rest drill, by the tremendous pressures he had faced.

There are four ways of receiving doctrine in the Old Testament. First of all there are dreams, as we have here. Secondly, visions; third, trances. Visions and trances belong to prophets. Anyone could dream a dream. God spoke to many people before the completion of the canon of scripture, believers and unbelievers, but not now, the canon of scripture is closed. Dreams will open up in the Tribulation but right now it is a closed issue. Trances and visions belong to prophets only and in the time of Joseph the spoken word from God belonged to either a prophet or a priest.

In chapter 41:1-4 Pharaoh received from God a fourteen-year historical trend in the economy of the world, not just Egypt. Then the dream was repeated so that the dullest mind could grasp it. Pharaoh isn’t stupid but he certainly has two perfect illustrations and he could remember them. People often do not remember dreams but these dreams must be remembered, for the most obvious reason in the world: these are not ordinary dreams, this is the Word of God dealing with the subject of historical trends. The problem is that he knew what the dream was but couldn’t understand what it meant. “In the morning his mind was disturbed.” And no one could interpret them. The reason they couldn’t is because it is the Word of God as it existed at that moment. No matter how smart a person is as an unbeliever or a negative believer he simply cannot interpret the Word of God.

Now Joseph demonstrates sheer common sense, brilliant application of doctrine. The Egyptians were also sticklers for cleanliness. Joseph made the people who came to get him slow down so that he could come into the presence of Pharaoh as he should, acceptable, the right type of appearance for the situation.

Verse 16, “God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.” Joseph has tremendous humility. All truly great people have an unshakeable humility. It would have been easy to get proud and put a price on the interpretation. You never bargain with the truth. Note verse 25: “God has told Pharaoh what he is about to do.” Joseph has just said that this is a prophecy. We live in the dispensation of no prophecy. No historical trends are determined by prophecy in this dispensation. We do not have dreams and the interpretation of dreams, we have doctrine and truth. But this was back in part of the Age of Israel and prophecy determines historical trends. What we are about to study in Revelation chapter six are historical trends based on prophecy, just as Joseph is now going to reveal historical trends based on prophecy. The whole future history of the world is going to unfold before us in the book of Revelation and it will do so through prophecy. In other words, outside of our own dispensation, the Church Age, all historical trends are determined by prophecy.

So Joseph explains the dreams and the difference between them to Pharaoh. There will first be great prosperity. Remember the principle: All historical economic depressions always come suddenly. There are signs that they are coming but they come suddenly out of great prosperity. In a period of great prosperity people over extend and build up credit beyond what credit can stand. So there were seven years of great prosperity and then seven years of economic depression. One person understands the doctrine and the person who understands doctrine is the only person who can make the application of doctrine.

Principle: You have to understand doctrine before you can apply it. If you don’t you are going to distort doctrine and you are going to be shocked when things do not turn out the way you think they should. Learn doctrine before you apply doctrine.

Here we have Joseph now making the correct application but he does not ask for the job. This is advice, this is application. All good advice obviously is application of doctrine and he says in verse 33, “And let Pharaoh look for a man who is discerning and wise, and let Pharaoh appoint a commission over the land … ”

Verse 40 — Joseph is promoted and there is the beginning of the greatest man of his day. Joseph had learned his lesson very well.

The principle from all of this: Just as the omniscience of God programs the computer of divine decrees with every thought, motive, decision and action of every person in history, so the foreknowledge of God takes those printouts and reduces them to eschatology (prophecy). Eschatological anticipation of historical trends is necessary for right decisions on the part of the believer. Here our illustration deals with economic decisions. For example, the foreknowledge of God provided the prophecy of the seven fat cows and the seven lean cows. The omniscience of God fed it into the computer; the foreknowledge of God took the printout and reduced it to prophecy. The prophecy was revealed to the pertinent person in a dream.

When Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream — the prophecy of prosperity and depression — he outlined with it in application the policy which resulted in Joseph becoming Prime Minister of Egypt. The dream of Genesis 41 came to Pharaoh as an expression of divine foreknowledge, a prophecy of historical trends for fourteen years. But only Joseph could actually interpret this dream.

The application for us is going to be going to Revelation chapter six, looking at the people of the Tribulation. The Tribulation is a period of seven years, Daniel’s seventieth week. In that seven years there are going to be two categories of people. This is a period of concentrated historical disaster and we will see in chapter six that in the most disastrous period of history from the standpoint of its trends you can have great prosperity and blessing or you can have great cursing and discipline, and that your attitude as a believer toward doctrine determines whether it is going to be prosperity in the midst of adversity and historical disaster or cursing and discipline in the midst of historical disaster. In other words, for us looking at Revelation six Joseph’s fourteen years are compressed into seven. No matter how bad things get economically you can prosper in a time of historical disaster. But you cannot do it apart from doctrine. That is the application. For the positive believer there is prosperity in historical disaster but for the negative believer there is disaster in time of prosperity.

Revelation 6:1 — “Next I watched when the Lamb [the title of Christ in the first advent, referring to both salvation and the strategic victory of the cross].” So we have a subject so far in our verse. Then we come to the verb, the aorist active indicative of a)noigw. It means ordinarily to open but here it means to break open. The constative aorist refers to the momentary action of breaking that seal, the first seal, and we will meet in verse 2 the first horseman. The active voice: Jesus Christ in breaking the seal not only produces the action of the verb but it is indicative of the fact the He continues to control history. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact that our Lord Jesus Christ broke open the first seal of the Doomsday book of the Tribulation revealing the first historical trend. And in anticipation of that the first historical trend is dictatorship. Dictatorship comes when in any republic people lean on government to solve their problems. People ask for special privileges from government, people want government to help them when they are out of work, people demand from government what government was not designed to do in order to take up the slack for bad decisions, poor mental attitudes, and a host of other things that result in economic and historical disaster. In other words, the welfare state, the redistribution of wealth, and all assorted forms of communism which are evil, Satanic, and totally contrary to the issue of freedom. You cannot be free in the true and correct sense of the word in a welfare state or any form of socialism. It denies you the right of using your own free will in the environment of privacy of your soul to make decisions whereby you succeed or fail. The welfare state tries to deny the existence of failure and is therefore a great evil. In times of prosperity the welfare state goes toward democracy and democracy is the worst part of the majority destroying the government. In time adversity it goes toward dictatorship which is the inevitable result of misuse of government, i.e. the government denying the rights that God gave you.

God gave you as a member of the human race certain rights. We have noted them under the laws of divine establishment: the right of privacy, the right of freedom, the right to possess property and the sacredness of that property, the right to live, and all of these things are taken away under the first horseman — dictatorship. This always means that people in the land are weak so that a small group of people can control them, whether it is a junta in South America or a small oligarchy in some eastern European country. This is the tragedy of the time in which we live because all governments have gone in that direction.

The accusative singular direct object from e(ij indicates which seal it is that is opened, the first of the seven seals. With this is e)k plus the numeral e(pta plus sfragij, seven seals. “Next I watched when the Lamb broke open the first of the seven seals,” and this anticipates the first historical trend of the Tribulation presented in the form of prophecy.

With that we move into the concept which is behind all of this. So it says, “then I heard the first of the four angelic heralds speaking as with the voice of thunder.” The hearing is the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw. He gets a command from one of the angelic heralds. He is an apostle and therefore an angelic herald deals with him specifically on this subject. In other words, a high echelon person in the human race gets VIP treatment from heaven.

“then I heard,” the constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. John the human author produces the action in hearing the angelic herald. The indicative mood is declarative emphasising the fact that we use the ear gate in concentration just as with eye gate. And then we hear the first of the four angelic heralds “saying,” the pictorial present tense from legw. The first angelic herald bears the arms of our Lord’s second royal patent, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He announces the first historical trend of the Tribulation: pseudo rulership in the form of dictatorship in contrast to our Lord’s rule in the Millennium.

Then we have the analogy, o(j introduces it, “speaking as with a voice of thunder,” bronth, and thunder is a warning of coming judgment. The rise of dictatorships in the Tribulation is like the foreboding of thunder, the prophetic anticipation of an historical downtrend. With this the verse ends with a command to go to school to learn about the first horseman. The mandate is the present middle imperative of the verb e)rxomai, and the command is simply “come.” The direct middle describes the subject, the apostle John, as participating in the result of the action. He is going to learn and then teach. You cannot teach what you do not know and John must learn before he can teach it. This is the imperative of command, and the phrase “and see” is not only not found in the original manuscript but in each one of these verses introducing the first six seals you will find in the King James version the words “and see.” They are not in the original. So this is a mandate which gives John a front row seat to observe historical trends of the Doomsday book in the Tribulation.

Verse 2, Now we meet the first of the four horsemen. We look first at the conjunction kai which introduces the verse. It is sequential, translated “then.” “Then I looked,” the aorist active indicative of o(raw. He is all attention. When John goes to school he concentrates. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the entire vision of the first horseman, the white horse, and uses concentration in learning what it means. The active voice: John as the human author produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Then we have the demonstrative particle i)dou, derived from the aorist middle imperative of o(raw, it means behold, it means “now hear this.” Then we have a nominative of exclamation which receives great emphasis by standing alone. This is a most unusual use of the nominative case, called the nominative of exclamation, and it is made up of two words: leukoj which means “white,” and i(ppoj which means “horse.”

The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. To the Romans a white horse depicted victory and conquest. The horse of Roman generals in a triumphal procession was as white as they could get it, a good grey, in other words. The rulers of the Persian empire rode white horses at all times as a badge of rank to be seen from a distance. The white horse to the Romans stood for dictatorship, it had the connotation of maximum authority. The white horse in the Bible is a symbol of several things: victory, leadership, rulership, but in our context it refers to dictatorship in the Tribulation as an historical trend.

There have been many dictators in history but the Roman dictator we now face is going to be the last, the greatest, and he will also have the biggest concentration of evil. The white horse represents victory, conquest and dictatorship. The rider comes up next. We have an articular present active participle from the verb kaqhmai which will be used in many ways by John, it was one of his favourite verbs. We have already seen it used for our Lord sitting at the right hand of the Father, “sitting on the throne.” Here it doesn’t mean to sit on a throne, it means to be mounted. The definite article used with the participle is used as a personal pronoun to identify this dictator, the dictator of the revived Roman empire during the Tribulation. There will be many dictators in the Tribulation. The futuristic present tense denotes a famous dictator who has not yet come into existence but his rise in the Tribulation is so certain that in thought he may be contemplated as already existing as a prophecy of a historical trend in the Tribulation. The active voice: the dictator of the revived Roman empire produces the action of the verb.

Now at this time there is no Roman empire, we are living in the Church Age and the last Roman empire has been gone for almost 2000 years. So what is this revived Roman empire? Western Europe, the old Roman empire, will have ten nations carved out of it that are in existence now and will be in existence in the Tribulation. These ten nations will form a confederation and then there will be a struggle in that confederation of united states of western Europe. Out of that struggle will come a dictator who will deceive further nations and the rest will then succumb and we will have a dictator. He is the beast that comes out of the sea, but right now we are noticing him as a trend. Historically there will always be weak people who in the interests of their own selfishness and arrogance will submit to a form of dictatorship. So dictatorship is a permanent trend of history.

“and he who was mounted” is the way we will translate it. The active voice: the dictator of the revived Roman empire produces the action. The participle is circumstantial for a historical trend in the Tribulation: the rise of this dictator. And we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of a)utoj and it refers to the white horse.

“and the rider,” the reason we are going to translate it “the rider” is because whenever you have a participle it can be translated as a verb or an adjective or a substantive, and here it is translated as a substantive. So while it says literally, “he who sat on it,” we are going to translate it “and the rider,” the dictator of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation.

1. The rider is identified as the great dictator among dictators of the Tribulation. He is the dictator of the revived Roman empire and is given five different names in the Bible, all of which are related to eschatological passages. He is called the beast out of the sea in Revelation 13:1-10; he is called the little horn in Daniel 7; he is called the prince that shall come in Daniel 9:25; he is called the scarlet coloured beast of Revelation 17:3ff; he is called the wicked one (literally, the evil one) in 2 Thessalonians 2:7ff. So he is the subject of a number of scriptures and therefore worth a study.

2. In the meantime we note the fact that the Tribulation will be characterised by dictators. We find in our country a lot of people who are crusaders and who want everyone to be a democracy, but there is no way that they are going to do anything but contribute to dictatorship. Dictatorship is not only a historical trend but it is going to intensify. In the next dispensation there will be more dictators than at any time in history, which means the people are generally weak. When people are weak they are inevitably destroyed by their weakness.

3. The historical trend of many dictators means the historical trend of many spheres of influence. Dictators have a hard time, they always come into power because the economy is bad. And when the economy is bad and they come into power, how do they manage to survive? They take a chance and declare war on someone else. Dictators must have something to occupy the minds of the people because they are not on a solid economic footing.

4. The decline of society throughout the world. The removal of the pivot of mature believers at the Rapture, the disappearance of client nations, the removal of God the Holy Spirit as the restrainer, the inevitable results of the rise of dictatorships, and the four great power influences or spheres of power, all result in dictatorships. The principle that applies today applies then: the greater number of dictators in any generation of history means the increase of economic disaster, world-wide depression, social degeneration, and military disaster.

5. All power spheres of the Tribulation will be under some form of dictatorship which is destructive to human freedom.

6. All of these dictators of the Tribulation are the direct result of many evil decisions on the part of many evil people. But remember that the evil factor in this world today is up and this is illustrated by the fact that the USA as a client nation to God has failed to fulfil its function as a client nation in the maintenance of internal freedom, lack of evangelism at home, failure of missionary activity abroad, and the failure to communicate Bible doctrine to believers. In other words, the failure to form a large enough pivot to offset the trends toward disaster.

Next in the exegesis of verse two is the present active participle of the verb e)xw, correctly translated with the conjunction kai, “and he had.” The progressive present tense signifies action in the state of persistence, therefore present linear aktionsart. The Roman dictator of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation produces the action. This is a circumstantial participle which presents an additional fact which is often best rendered in to English by the conjunction “and” with the participle. Therefore we translate “and he had.” Then the accusative singular direct object from the noun tocon, translated “a bow.” Ordinarily the sword or the spear or the chariot is used to represent the conventional function of combat arms in the Bible.

The bow, therefore, requires a little careful scrutiny since we do not find the dictator holding a sword nor a spear nor riding in a chariot, he is riding on a white horse of conquest. The bow in the Bible speaks specifically of the infantry. The bow was an infantry weapon used by the Egyptians, the Assyrians and the Jews. The battle bow is what is meant here and, again, tocon refers to the battle bow of the infantry. The bow as an infantry weapon in the hands of a dictator must have some meaning for us. It represents here the concept of unconventional warfare in contrast to the sword or the spear which emphasise conventional warfare. So the unconventional warfare would mean guerrilla warfare or terrorism. The dictator comes to power mainly by the use of unconventional warfare.

The revived Roman empire of the Tribulation is composed of ten nations which are all part of the old Roman empire. It does not include the United States of America. There will be a jockeying for power as they combine to form a power block and there will be in one of these nations the dictator, but he isn’t known as that yet., and he conquers three nations before all of them finally come into line and form a power block under his dictatorship. When he does he becomes the little horn of Daniel chapter seven. The means by which he conquers three nations and brings all of the others in line is first of all the battle bow.

From time to time in history there is great emphasis on unconventional warfare and in certain generations of history unconventional warfare is the most successful means of conquest. The reason that guerrilla warfare is always successful is because the country that is fighting conventionally against a guerrilla type organisation and it has a lot of cowards at home In such a situation it is inevitable that the guerrilla warfare will be successful. That is what we have under the principle of social degeneration. Guerrilla warfare is successful in a degenerate society and combat arms, conventional warfare, is unsuccessful when it represents a degenerate society. The bow is going to be very prominent in the Tribulation, the sword will be too — the Armageddon campaign — but the bow does not imply that there will be no conventional warfare in the Tribulation, far from it. In verse four we are going to see the red horse and the use of sophisticated weaponry, and we are even going to get into the field of nuclear function in the Tribulation when we get to verses 14-16.

The implication of the battle bow, then, is obvious. This dictator of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation will become the ruler of a ten nation confederation by the use of terrorism to gain ascendancy over those nations. Terrorism is always effective where you have a degenerate society. A degenerate society is intimidated by crime and terrorism. That is the principle of the bow.

In the last phrase in this verse we have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai which is translated “also.” Then we have the nominative singular subject of stefanoj, “crown,” used here to indicate his success. This is a symbol of the dictator. The aorist passive indicative of didomi which means to give indicates that he rides to power on a historical trend. It doesn’t say God gave him the crown, it says a crown was given. The culminative aorist tense views the success, the crowning of the dictator of the revived Roman empire, in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. He will be a dictator for those seven years of the Tribulation. The passive voice: the weakness of society, and the weakness of society includes bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is not good administration, it stifles those who have great potential. Weak bureaucracy, weak leadership, a degenerate society in those ten nations of the revived Roman empire receive the action of the verb, “a crown was given,” the subject is the crown and leadership was given because of their weakness. The indicative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality, therefore declarative presenting a dogmatic statement not only of eschatology but also it is a statement of principle that is always true historically: there will always be times when a weak society acts as a vacuum to create a dictatorship. The society can be weak for different reasons. It can be economically weak. It was an economically weak society that brought Adolf Hitler to power in Germany. It was a degenerate society that brought to power the communists in Russia. Wherever you have these terrible things happening there is a weak society which creates it. When you have this type of dictatorship and this type of problem in history it is the society itself that creates it, not God. And therefore the crown was given. God didn’t give it; weak society, in effect, gives it.

The success of the dictator is given with the intensive conjunction kai, “indeed,” and the aorist active indicative from e)cerxomai, “indeed he appeared.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the rise of the Roman dictator in the Tribulation and his career of conquest. The active voice: the dictator of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of his success during the Tribulation, a success brought to a sudden halt by the second advent of Christ.

We have something missing, an analogy. It comes next in our passage, i(na plus nikaw. I(na introduces a purpose clause, “so that.” Then the present active participle from the verb nikaw, “indeed he appeared as a conqueror” or “so that he might conquer.” We will translate it: “Indeed as a conqueror he appeared.” This means to appear on the scene of history during the Tribulational era.

Now we must remember the facts again. Why all of these dictators? The Rapture of the Church removes all pivots from all parts of the earth, all believers, in fact. It also removes the restraining power of God the Holy Spirit as administered through the divine dynasphere and other means. With all of those things removed you have nothing left but a weak society. There will be great evangelism and out of this weak society people will find Christ as saviour. Some will be martyred; some will live to become the basis for the population of the Millennium. But the weak society will create vacuums and into them walk the dictators.

“Indeed as a conqueror he appeared.” Then we have i(na, “in order that,” and once more the aorist active subjunctive of that same verb nikaw, “that he might conquer.” The constative aorist refers to a fact or action extended over a period of time: the Tribulation. The active voice: the dictator of the revived Roman empire produces the action of the verb. I(na plus the subjunctive mood, a purpose clause: the purpose of Satan who empowers this special dictator.

Corrected translation of verse two: “Then I looked, and behold a white horse: and the rider had a battle bow [the weapon of terrorism and guerrilla warfare]; and a crown [the dictatorship of the revived Roman empire] was given to him: in fact, as a conqueror he appeared on the scene of history so that he might conquer.”

1. While the rider of the white horse specifically represents the dictator of the revived Roman empire he also personifies all dictators of the Tribulation and, by application, all dictators of history.

2. One of the trends of the Tribulation is universal loss of freedom because of dictatorships.

3. In this passage we are not only looking at one dictator but we are looking at dictators in general inspired by Satan, influenced by the cosmic system, entering into a vacuum created by social degeneracy.

4. There is another factor. This means arrogant dictatorship. Occasionally in history there is dictator of great genius and humility who comes along and does something inspiring that last for a hundred years or so. For example, Julius Caesar. But here we are talking about the arrogance of the typical dictator. Principle: Arrogance seeks to dominate its environment whether it is a self-righteous, arrogant Christian in a local church or an arrogant self-righteous dictator in the Tribulation.

5. Arrogance seek to dominate its environment, and being frustrated in such domination becomes a troublemaker for that environment. In other words, arrogance is motivating evil resulting in many functional evils.

6. Arrogance motivates the function of the self-righteous believer in his crusading activity which violates the privacy of any individual and takes away the freedom of many.

7. The arrogant dictator in the Tribulation assumes that he knows what is best for everyone. This justifies his use of violence and therefore creates evil. Therefore he destroys their freedom; he substitutes his volition for everyone under the concept “Big Brother knows best.” He substitutes his own arrogant volition, therefore, for the function of millions of free wills.

8. In the trend of the Tribulation the white horse represents political dictatorship, but in every era of history there are arrogant people who seek dictatorships in other areas: social life, business life, professional life, even spiritual life, as well as political life where dictators flourish.

We are studying in the book of Revelation the historical trends which are presented prophetically. In all dispensations in the past historical trends were also presented prophetically. Prophecy is used to delineate historical trends, except for the Church Age. In this dispensation, the Church Age, all historical trends depend upon the volition of the individual believer. This means, of course, that your decisions as a believer are a determining factor in the survival of our country and it all relates to the fact of the divine dynasphere which is God’s game plan for this dispensation. Along with this is Satan’s counter attack in the cosmic system. The cosmic system is the system for Satan’s administration of the rulership of this world. It is composed of cosmic one which has twenty-six gates of interlocking systems of arrogance and cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred. All believers make decisions every day which cause them to either reside in the cosmic system or in the divine dynasphere.

There is a time coming when the dispensation of the Church will terminate with the resurrection called the Rapture of the Church, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. This removes entirely the pivot, the client nation concept, from the earth and that leads to Daniel’s seventieth week or the Tribulation, the seven years which precede the second advent of Christ and His Millennial rule on earth. Therefore we are studying now the historical trends of this period.

We resume with the second seal which is presented to us in verses three and four. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “and.” We have the introduction of the temporal clause with the temporal conjunction o(ti and is correctly translated “when.” Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb a)noigw used for breaking open the seals. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it refers to a momentary action, the right of our Lord Jesus Christ as the God-Man, the unique person of the universe, the only saviour, to break open the seals. As the God-Man He continues to control history. The active voice indicates this principle: Jesus Christ who controls history produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact: our Lord Jesus Christ broke open the second seal of the Doomsday book of the Tribulation revealing a second historical trend. We anticipate verse four, the second historical trend is warfare.

The corrected translation: “And when he had broken the second seal, I heard the second angelic herald saying, Come.” “And see” is not found in the original, in fact this is the present active imperative of e)rxomai and is correctly translated “come.” This is the aoristic present tense, punctiliar action in present time. This is actually a direct middle voice in which the subject acts with a view toward participating in the results of the action. He will see the vision, he will record the vision and it will become a permanent part of the canon of scripture. This is an imperative of command. Always in the perception of Bible doctrine, always in spiritual growth there is the concept of authority, the authority of God delegating that authority in this dispensation through the Word of God, and then everything that is recognised as authority through that delegation, whether it is authority in civil life, whether it is authority in spiritual life, we have studied the concepts of the laws of divine establishment. Authority is absolutely necessary for humility. Humility is the basis for capacity for love, capacity for happiness, and capacity for blessing.

Verse 4, we see our second trend of the Tribulation. Also we meet the second rider of the apocalypse. We have, again, the sequential kai, and we have the aorist active indicative following of the verb e)cerxomai. The word means to go out, to come out, but here it means to make an appearance, an appearance on the scene of history, “Then appeared on the scene of history.” This is, of course, prophetical and is dealing with the Tribulation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety, the extension of warfare from this age to the Tribulation. The active voice: the wars of the Tribulation actually produce the action of the verb. The declarative mood is for the reality of the second historical trend, a trend that will never be discontinued until our Lord returns. You cannot stop war, you cannot prevent war, except through following the laws of divine establishment, but there never will be any period in history where there will be freedom from war until the second advent of Christ and then the swords will be turned into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks and man shall learn war no more. In the meantime warfare is a normal part of life. Man does not have the power to prevent them except by being militarily prepared.

This horse is called “red” in the King James version. Actually it is a part of the anarthrous nominative of apposition. What we have for a subject is one word, the nominative singular of a)lloj, a very strange subject. A)lloj in the Greek simply means “another,” and we translate “Then another.” Then comes the anarthrous nominative of apposition made up of two words, the adjective purroj meaning a flame coloured horse, and with it i(ppoj for the horse. Translation: “Then another, a fiery red horse, appeared on the scene of history.” Then we meet the rider, the articular present active participle from the deponent verb kaqhmai, meaning to sit, “the one who sat on it.” This is the personification of unrestrained warfare during the entire course of the Tribulation.

“to him was given,” the verb here means to be given authority or power, the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi which means to give. Sometimes it is stated, sometimes it is not. In this context because of ellipsis it is not stated but the implication is that power is given or authority is given, “and to him was given authority [or power].” The culminative aorist tense views the concept of warfare in human history in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. In the Tribulation unrestrained warfare, conventional warfare, guerrilla warfare, nuclear warfare. The passive voice: warfare receives the action of the verb, the authority to function on the earth without restraint. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of unrestrained warfare during the Tribulation as the second historical trend prophesied. Power is given “to take,” the constative aorist of the verb lambanw which means to take, sometimes to receive. Here it means to take. The constative aorist is used for the fact that warfare is extended over the entire Tribulation. The active voice: warfare produces the action of the verb. This is the infinitive of intended result. That is, the intended result of human decisions and volition without the restraint of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. When God the Holy Spirit is removed as the restrainer at the Rapture of the Church this means unrestrained warfare. The intended result is always a blending of purpose and result, the fulfilment of a deliberate objective for the Tribulation. Warfare is not always all that bad. Warfare has evils that accompany it but so does peace. People are victimised as much by peace as they are by war. It is only the liberal who somehow thinks that if you can get rid of war you could improve the environment and solve everyone’s problems. Far from it.

“to him was given the power to take peace from the earth,” the accusative singular direct object from the noun e)irhnh, “peace.” This implies, therefore, that there was or will be a period of peace just either just before the Rapture of the Church or immediately after the Rapture of the Church. There will just be a short period of time when there is peace throughout the earth but once the red horse comes on the scene of history there will be no peace until the second advent of Christ. In the formation of the power spheres of the Tribulation there will be a tremendous amount of warfare. We will note later that the Tribulation is composed of four great power spheres. They include the king of the west, the revived Roman empire; the king of the north which today would be comparable to the Russian communist bloc, the king of the south is the pan-Arabic bloc, and the king of the east is an Asiatic bloc. In the rise of dictators, as we noted in the previous two verses, there is always violence, terrorism and warfare. Satan’s attempt to provide a pseudo Millennium prior to the second advent is going to be a total failure. Satan will not be able to control history in any possible way and there will be tremendous unrestrained warfare. The Tribulation, then, will be a time of both local and world wars, a concentration of battles, campaigns and wars which can only be terminated by the second advent of Christ and His assumption of the rulership of this world. Before there could be any form, then, of permanent peace Satan must be superseded as the ruler of this world. That will occur, of course, at the second advent. This will never happen until the second advent and in the meantime our Lord has given us a prophecy in Matthew chapter 24:4-13.

Next in verse four we have references to the slaughter. The connective conjunction kai is used to introduce what precedes and is translated “and so” or “so that.” We have an idiom here, kai plus i(na, translated “so that” because the connective kai introduces a result and is generally translated “and so.” The future active indicative of the verb sfazw follows, “so that they might slaughter.” The gnomic future tense is for a statement of a historical trend in the Tribulation which may be rightfully expected under the circumstances of unrestrained warfare. The active voice: the population of the Tribulation would produce the action of the verb and the indicative mood is a potential indicative of circumstances, plus a potential indicative of impulse with the removal of the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit after the Rapture.

Then we have the accusative plural direct object from the reciprocal pronoun a)llhlwn, and as a reciprocal pronoun it is presented as effected by an interchange of actions signified in the verb. Therefore we call it “slaughter each other.” The passage goes on to say, “so that they might slaughter each other: in fact a great sword was given to him.” Notice that in contrast to the bow by which dictator came to power on the previous horse we have now a great sword. This time we have maxaira, and this emphasises a tremendous amount of conventional warfare.

Corrected translation: “Then another, a fiery red horse appeared on the scene of history: and to the rider, to him the power was given to take peace from the earth, so that they might slaughter each other: in fact, a great sword was given to him.”

There will be warfare in the southern part of the Middle East during the Tribulation and the slaughter is described in Isaiah 63:6, “In my anger I will trample their armies, and in my fury I make them drunk [intoxicated], and I will cause their life blood to pour out on the land.”

Isaiah 34:5,6, “For my sword is satiated in heaven, it shall descend from heaven for the judgment of Edom, furthermore the people [the invading army] I have dedicated to annihilation on the battlefield. The sword of the Lord is saturated with blood, a great slaughter in the land.”

This anticipates two passages we will study later on in Revelation. Revelation 14:20, “They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and their blood gushed out of the press as high as the horses’ bridle for a distance of two hundred miles.” Revelation 19:15, “And a sharp broadsword proceeded from his mouth [second advent of Christ] in order that with it he might strike and kill the armies of the invading nations.”

The invasion of the king of the north into the land of Israel is described in Joel 2:20, and again we see the tremendous unrestrained slaughter, “I will remove the northern army far from you, in fact I will drive it into a desert area and its vanguard into the eastern sea [the Dead Sea], its rearguard into the western sea [Mediterranean]. Consequently its stench will go up and the smell will rise heavenward.”

Ezekiel 39:2-5, “Now I will turn you around, motivate you to push on, concentrate you from the remote areas of the north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel. I will strike your bow from your left hand, and make your arrows drop from your right hand [decimation of infantry]. And the mountains of Israel will fall, you with all your troops and allies; I will give you as food to all kinds of vultures and predatory animals. You will fall in open field; and I have decreed it, declares the Lord God.”

We are studying the four horsemen of the apocalypse as the first four seals of the Doomsday book of the Tribulation. The Tribulation has special historical trends noted for their lack of restraint. God the Holy Spirit does not restrain during the seven years of that very short dispensation. We can begin to categorise the four horsemen very simply. The first horseman riding the white horse is the great dictator of the revived Roman empire. Therefore he represents political power and the trends related to it during the Tribulation. The rider of the red horse represents warfare. Coming up is the third horse and it is connected with economic disaster or economic depression. There is a relationship between the three. When things become bad politically, when politicians are at the their lowest ebb, lacking integrity, and are full of arrogance and more interested in their own inordinate ambition than they are in the good of the country, then it is inevitable that you become entangled in other types of disasters. Warfare has a definite relationship to economy and always has since the industrial revolution began.

We have already noted the red horse and some of the principles related to warfare. We must continue this before we leave it entirely so we will now notice a few more things about warfare. We will note the principles of warfare and see how they relate to the next horseman which is economic disaster — the black horse. In warfare there are certain principles which have always been true and which have been established from ancient times by great commanders such as Julius Caesar, Hannibal, Gustavus Adolphus, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, to mention a few. They have always followed these principles and these principles are true in life as well as having pertinence to the concept of the profession of arms.

The first principle is called the principle of objective. Many businesses are going to fail in this time of economic disaster because they have not had a clearly defined objective and because they have not remained within the concept of that objective. Many businesses expand too rapidly and as a result they go out of bounds as far as their objective is concerned. In the military, for example, the purpose of a military operation is to attain the objective assigned or designated by whoever is in command. The objective constitutes the guide for the interpretation of orders, the formulation of decisions, and the deployment of troops. The selection of national objectives is called strategy and strategy depends on political, military and economic conditions which are variable. Under the principle of the objective this means that military is always and inevitably subordinate to the political as well as to the economic conditions. The first objective must always be the neutralisation or the destruction of the power of the opposing military forces to fight. This means decisive defeat and destruction of enemy armies. The second objective is to possess localities which contribute to the national objective. The mission assigned to a military force must be compatible with national objectives. So the principle of objective is very important and just as it is important with our first horseman, the political era must define the objectives, therefore it has repercussion with the second horseman, warfare. But where it really hurts the most is when a great nation has no clear cut foreign and domestic policy — and you can’t have one and have a welfare state — it means very definitely that you cannot have economic prosperity. Lack of national policy inevitably means that the government interferes with business, with the function of the military, and with everything in the hope of coming up with a lucky combination.

The second principle in warfare is called the principle of offensive. It is a very simple one: the offence is the only action by which a decision is gained. Offensive brings victory; defence can only avoid defeat. So it is imperative that all thinking, whether it is strategical or tactical, be geared to offensive concepts, not defensive. The only effective way to wage war is to act on the offensive, destroying the enemy armies. The offensive increases the effectiveness of the force adopting it, it raises morale, it permits concentration of effort, it allows freedom of action. This is what makes nation great. The defensive should be used to assist the offensive action elsewhere, to gain time, to utilise good terrain, to compensate for weaknesses. The offensive should be used where there is any reasonable chance of success.

Now, change to the word “marketing” and you have exactly the same concept. A company obviously has to go on the defensive from time to time to compensate for its weaknesses but the offensive is the whole concept of marketing.

The third great doctrine in military history is the principle of mass. Mass is a military term for combat power. Furthermore it means concentration of combat power at the point of maximum effectiveness. Mass or combat power includes numbers, weapons, tactical skills, discipline, fighting ability, resolution, morale, leadership. Success in warfare is attained by the proper employment of mass in a main effort to attack at the proper time and place for the accomplishment of a definite purpose.

What does mass mean economically? Good management. Not good labour, good management. It means courage, honour, integrity among those who invest money. You cannot have economic prosperity without good management. In all of the history of the world the demands of labour in the last three decades have been the highest. When a bricklayer makes twice as much as a college professor there is something wrong, there is no premium on brains and everything gets out of kilter. That is the principle of mass.

The fourth principle of warfare which can never be ignored is the principle of economy of force. Economy of force is the means by which the mass is employed in the main effort. And, again, remember that mass is combat power and includes, numbers, weapons, tactical skills, discipline, fighting ability, resolution, morale and leadership. The time and place of the main effort having been determined men and means are conserved by reducing their employment in other directions to the minimum consistent with safety. This is a principle which can be brought over to the economic very quickly. There has been a tremendous amount of wastage, a digression from the concept of economy of force because the political nature of our country. The demand for a welfare state and its function is opposed to the economy of force principle and the welfare state always tries to make people equal by guaranteed incomes. We have already seen that equality will never exist. It will only exist as a destructive force. So the economy of force is the means by which one successfully co-ordinates the various units in a military organisation for victory, and there must be the successful co-ordination in economy as well.

Number five is the principle of movement. Movement means the manoeuvre of combat elements. In the offensive this principle is used to bring mass into close grips with the enemy in order to secure decisive results. Movement is designed to place mass in the best place for attack. Movement is most effective when concealed. In many cases movement is only possible by the effective employment of fire power. The same thing is true in economy.

The principle of surprise is number six. To obtain maximum effectiveness with minimum loss of life surprise must be employed. It may take the form of time, place, direction, force or tactical weapons. The main factors of surprise are threefold: preparation, secrecy, rapidity. They also can be used effectively in marketing principles.

Number seven is the principle of security. Security embraces all the measures taken to guard against observation and surprise, to ensure against hostile interference with operations, to gain and maintain the power and momentum of free action.

Number eight is the principle of simplicity, simplicity, of course, being a relative term. Military plans should be simple so as not to sponsor complicated movements. Orders should not be ambiguous but direct and free from contingencies. Frequent changes of plans should be avoided. Unity of command must be observed.

Number nine is the principle of co-operation. Teamwork demands that all military units and persons involved in a mission work together to accomplish the mission. To do this co-ordination must be secure.

We now move into verse five: “And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had broken the third seal I heard the third angelic herald say, Come.” We now see what happens: the sequential conjunction kai and the aorist active indicative of the o(raw, meaning “I looked” or “I watched.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the vision of the black horse, the third trend of the Tribulation. The active voice: the apostle John as the human author of the Tribulation produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact which precedes the actual vision of the black horse. We have a connective kai and then the demonstrative particle i)dou which is translated, “and behold.” Then we see what is third, the nominative of exclamation which by standing alone has great emphasis, a nominative of exclamation made up of an adjective and a noun. The adjective is melaj which means “black”, and the noun is i(ppoj, “horse,” “then I looked and behold a black horse.” Black means economic depression which is called in the Bible by the word “famine.” Jeremiah 4:28 explains the word “black,” what it means in the Bible. “Therefore the land will mourn, and the heavens will become black [economic depression], because I have spoken and will not change my mind, I have decided and will not turn my back.”

Now how do we know that black means economic disaster, Lamentations 4:6-10: “For the punishment of my people [Israel as a client nation to God] is greater than that of Sodom which was destroyed in a moment without a hand turning to help them. Their princes were purer than snow and whiter than milk; their bodies more healthy in appearance than rubies, their appearance like sapphire. But now their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognised in the streets; their skin is shrivelled on their bones, it has become dry as a stick. Those killed in battle are better off than those who die of famine [economic depression]; racked with hunger they waste away from lack of food from the ground. With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children who became their food when my people Israel were destroyed by economic depression.”

Why were the appearances of people blacker than soot? Because they were dying of famine. The personification of economic depression follows and there is a tremendous dissertation on the whole story of economic depression and all of the problems related to it.

Jesus prophesied that during the course of human history there would always be three things in history and they would not be eradicated until the second advent: wars famines and natural disasters. And since the Bible advocates free enterprise under the laws of divine establishment any violation of this law inevitably results in recession and depression. When man tampers with the natural laws of supply and demand, when political powers tamper with the concept of capitalism there is inevitably economic decline. Man does not have the power to adjust economy. Since the Bible advocates free enterprise it is inevitable that when anyone tries to tamper with free enterprise they are going to destroy or distort the economy. In the natural course of life, then, economic disaster occurs periodically in history. For example, what should the believer do in time of economic disaster? Well, it isn’t what he should do, it is what God does for him. The mature believer will be delivered in time of economic depression, Job 5:20; Psalm 33:18,19. During the economic disaster of the northern kingdom in the days of king Ahab God provided for Elijah through logistical grace, first by the ravens, 1 Kings 17:6, and then through the widow of Zerephath, 1 Kings 17:9-16. Cf Psalm 37:18,19.

There are two kinds of people who try to tamper with God’s laws as far as economy is concerned : politicians and preachers [false teachers obviously], Jeremiah 5:12, speaking of politicians and preachers: “They have lied about the Lord, they said, ‘He is not; misfortune will not come on us; consequently we will never see military disaster or economic depression’.”

Jeremiah 14:13, “But I said, ‘O Lord, O God, behold the prophets are telling them that they will not see military disaster nor will they have economic depression, but I will give you permanent peace in this place, they promise’.” Here is Jeremiah quoting the prophets and the politicians.

Famine is used to test believers with regard to doctrine and the provision of logistical grace, Genesis 12:10; 26:1.

Famine is used as a divine judgment and a punishment of nations who violate the laws of divine establishment with regard to economics, Isaiah 51:17,19. Cf. Jeremiah 14:15,16; 15:1,2; 29:17; Ezekiel 5:16.

The inevitable results of energy without ability is what we are studying in the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The white horse: political incompetence or political arrogance, or both. Political disaster always has two categorical results. First we have the man riding the white horse — incompetence in government. Regardless of the type of government incompetence exists: in the foreign policy, the red horse or warfare without victory, therefore military disaster; in the domestic policy, the black horse or the government destruction of free enterprise through its interference, regulation, socialism, the welfare state, redistribution of wealth, all of which are disastrous.

The white horse of political disaster, then, results in the red horse of military disaster plus the black horse of economic disaster. Military disaster always represents failure in foreign policy; economic disaster always represents failure in domestic policy. The two are always linked to the white horse, failure in political function. The white horse of political arrogance and incompetence obviously then reflects social degeneration among the citizens of any national entity. Therefore social degeneration becomes the cause of both economic depression and military disaster, and these result in the fourth horse which we have not yet studied: the ashen horse representing disease and death. Death always is the grim reaper, it reaps the harvest of the first three horses: political decline or the white horse, military disaster or the red horse, economic depression or the black horse. Therefore the first four seals, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, ride in every dispensation but are more devastating in the Tribulation because God the Holy Spirit is not functioning in His restraining ministry. Therefore what we are studying is far worse than anything which we face today.

Translation of verse 5 so far: “And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had broken the third seal, I heard the third angelic herald say, Come. Then I looked, and behold a black horse [economic disaster].”

The next phrase has to do with the concept of economic disaster. We notice again that these three seals are all related. Remember the principle: political disaster or poor national leadership results in two related disasters, warfare and economic depression. Hence, the order of the horses is important. Political disaster, the white horse, means two bad policies — domestic: economic depression; foreign: military disaster.

Now we have the personification of economic depression as it will occur in the Tribulation. The connective conjunction kai is followed by the articular present active participle from the verb kaqhmai, to sit. The definite article is used as indefinite pronoun to define a category, economic depression personified. The futuristic present tense denotes the personification of economic disaster as the historical trend of the Tribulation. The active voice: the personification of economic depression produces the action of the verb, the Tribulation is going to be a terrible time of economic depression. The participle is circumstantial for the third horseman of the apocalypse. With this is the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the accusative singular of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “on it.” All of this is simply the literal translation and the idiom should translated “and the rider.” The participle is translated as a substantive and the rider, that is, the one who sat on it, is the personification of economic disaster in the Tribulation.

With this subject, the rider, we now have the verb, the present active participle of e)xw, “and the rider has.” The present tense is a customary present and denotes what reasonably may be expected to occur in the Tribulation because of the white horse, dictatorship or government; and the red horse, military disaster. In other words, poor leadership in a national entity, corrupt or degenerate leadership resulting from a degenerate society results in warfare. Warfare creates special markets and superficial prosperity which results in economic collapse, like France in the reign of Louis the XIV or Germany in 1918. The active voice: the personification of economic depression, the rider of the black horse, produces the action. The circumstantial participle is translated like a finite verb. We have the object of the participle, the accusative singular direct object from zugoj meaning a yoke, a lever of balance or pair of scales. And then the next prepositional phrase, “in his hands.”

Corrected translation: “And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had broken the third seal, I heard the third angelic herald say, Come. Then I looked, and behold a black horse [economic depression]; and the rider had a pair of scales in his hand.”

The pair of scales indicates the scarcity of food. It also anticipates the next verse, inflation, for scarcity of food and inflation always travel together in economic collapse. Inflation is the enemy of economic recovery and the hypocrisy of economic prosperity, the deceiver of people and the road which poor government rides to power. The poor government in the case of our passage, the white horse, is a dictator but it could be just as easily our government.

What does inflation mean? First of all, under an incompetent government like the rider of the white horse it means high taxes, and either no profits or false profits. Inflation is the dream world of those economic standards related to the laws of divine establishment, inflation is a dream. True economic standards must be related to free enterprise and capitalism. Credit must be based on some standard. The standard can be gold or property or the gross national product. It has to be something of intrinsic economic value. When credit is based on inflation minus a standard of intrinsic value and the market place is saturated to the point of destroying supply and demand then paper currency is no longer a promise of a prosperous GNP, it no longer reflects a gold standard or any other concept similar. It is simply hope as a medium of exchange.

The second trend of warfare throughout the Tribulation results in economic depression with its famine, inflation, starvation, millions dying of hunger, and unmentionable suffering. And, of course, not unjust suffering but suffering resulting from the wrong decisions of millions of people. We are the products of our own decisions. Man is still the product of his own decisions during the Tribulation.

Verse 6, we begin again with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “then,” followed by the aorist active indicative of a)kouw, “then I heard.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact related to the vision. With this we have a comparative particle w(j which introduces the characteristic quality of our Lord’s voice speaking from the middle of the throne. It is translated, “as it were a voice.”

“Then I heard as it were a voice in the centre of the four angelic heralds saying,” the present active participle of the verb legw. Our Lord Jesus Christ now describes in terms in which the Bible was written, inflation. The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of inflation in the process of occurrence. The active voice: Jesus Christ in the centre of the throne, as in Ezekiel chapters one and ten, produces the action. This is a statement of judgment as well as the third historical trend of the Tribulation. Now we have the statement, the nominative singular subject xoinic. Xoinic is a dry measure of that time. It is roughly equivalent to a quart. A xoinic of grain was the daily ration for one person. In other words, it was just enough to keep one person alive for one day. And here we have a xoinic of sitoj which means wheat. Then we have the genitive of description or the genitive of price from the monetary noun denarion, which is the Latin denariuj, translated: “a quart of wheat for a denarius.” But that doesn’t tell us what a denarius is. It was actually at this time a Roman silver coin which would be worth about eighteen cents in our concept but that isn’t even the meaning of it. It means a day’s wages. This is taught in Matthew 18:28; 20:2, 9; 22:19; Mark 6:37; 12:15; Luke 7:41; 10:35; 20:24. In other words all you can buy for a day’s wages is just enough to buy enough food to keep you alive for one day. Therefore we are looking at famine prices — inflation. This is tantamount to starvation prices.

Next we have in corrected translation: “and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages.” Barley was the basic food of the poor and it took much more to sustain life. Three quarts of barley could only do what one quart of grain could do. Those who had families had to live on barley and obviously a family of more than two would starve to death in a very short period of time. Again, the barley represents starvation wages. The denarius is just enough to buy a little food and nothing else; no other necessities except a little food which would result in malnutrition, loss of energy, ill health, death from either disease or starvation or both. Even if you worked very, very hard you could not make enough money to live, and inflation is the name of the game here.

Remember the principle: the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. At the time of writing in Revelation a denarius or a day’s wages would ordinarily buy 16 to 20 quarts of wheat. Obviously in normal times one day’s wages or a denarius would buy food, shelter, clothing, and a lot more. But in time of economic depression the denarius or a day’s wages can only buy just enough to stay alive, but not for too long. So we are talking about disastrous inflation, 200 per cent inflation.

Now we have the connective kai used to introduce a result from what precedes and therefore this time kai is translated “furthermore.” With this we have the negative mh, “furthermore do not.” Then we have the verb a)dikew with the negative mh, “do not damage.” The constative aorist is for a negative action extended over a period of time. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: those who have some form of liquidity, some cash flow, or wealth of intrinsic value produce the action in the sense of prohibiting the destruction of luxury items. Those who produce the luxuries receive a mandate. It is always true, even in the greatest of economic disasters, that there are some who are prepared for it one way or another. There are some who have the ability to handle it and their demand is not just to stay alive but they are looking for luxury items. True luxury items are mentioned in this passage. The subjunctive mood plus the negative mh is known as a subjunctive of prohibition, therefore it is a mandate, a mandate for luxury items on the part of a few.

The double accusative gives us the two luxury items. They may not sound like luxury to us but they very definitely were at the time of writing. The first is e)laion which means olive oil. In other words, energy fuel. Olive oil can be construed as both an energy as well as a luxury food. Olive oil was used in preparing foods and in lamps for lights and other energy ways. We also have a luxury beverage, o)inoj, wine. This is another way of saying that in time of economic depression or famine those who have liquidity or those who have capital get richer. The rich get richer always in a time of economic depression. They have the means of supporting or capitalising or gaining at the best possible price those things that would increase their wealth. That the wealthy maintain their way of life is illustrated by luxury food, by energy, and luxury beverage, good wine. There has never been an economic disaster in history without having those who are prepared for it by the possession of capital, and they always survive. They survive under a principle of the laws of divine establishment. Those who have acquired capital and liquidity always survive (apart from those who are evil) because they were prepared for it, and this is a part of category #1 truth, the laws of divine establishment. Wealth is not evil, it is the basis of economy and there is no true economy without someone possessing wealth and therefore investing. Therefore it is inevitable that in time of economic depression there are those who have liquidity and capital who will survive and succeed.

In all economic disasters there are survivors. You as a believer should be a survivor. There is no excuse for not surviving. All you have to do is go back and apply the principle of logistical grace. If you are daily in the Word, if you have been growing in grace, the principle is a very simple one: “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope [confidence]. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is thy faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion’, says my soul, ‘Therefore I will have confidence in him.’ The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.” There is your capital and your liquidity for time of economic disaster.

We came into this world by physical birth and we have life because after we came out of our mother’s womb God imputed life, and imputed life means that God has a purpose for each one of us. In other words, it is God’s desire that each one of us believes in Christ and therefore have eternal life since Jesus Christ suffered for us on the cross, bearing our sins, taking our place. But one thing is certain: we are all going to die, and there comes a time when death gives us our most lucid moments about life. To see things in the light of eternity is one of the principles by which we should live. We should live every day as unto the Lord, every day in the light of eternity, every day in relationship to those around us in a way that expresses the integrity, the love, the honour, and all of the assets of the divine dynasphere. Death is one of the great realities of life. Probably some people never wake up an realise what life is all about until they are dying, and then it is too late. And there is no question about it, with whatever thought pattern is left life does pass before you because the person who is dying does more concentrating, apart from certain diseases where it is impossible, than they ever did in living. So what we need, just once in a while, is just a little bit of the smell of death to really face what life is all about and to appreciate people — loved ones, friends, and to appreciate what doctrine has done, and above all to appreciate the invisible, eternal God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Death means one of two things for every Christian at the point of dying. The point of death means the greatest of blessings, dying grace, or it means the greatest punishment, the sin unto death. There is no in-between. Either you go out under the sin unto death or you go out under dying grace. And there is really only one thing that prepares you for dying and therefore prepares you for living. That is the principle. Whatever prepares you for death prepares you for life. Whatever in dying gives you a true scale of values becomes the means for providing an appreciation for life. The fact that God provides in death is the subject of Amos 5:8, and the fact that death is a promotion for the believer is Philippians 1:21, and the fact that women, because they are responders, have a much more difficult time facing the death of loved ones is taught in Jeremiah 9:20-25, and the fact that the sin unto death does not bring glory to God is taught in Isaiah 38:18, and the fact death is always a matter of the sovereignty of God (God’s decision is based on prior knowledge of all the facts) — Psalm 68:19,20. It is always a good idea to have a relationship with the one who decides that you are going to die. We have seen how God delivers from death, Job 5:20; Psalm 33:19; 56:13; 116:8, and we have seen that there are things that are stronger than death, Song Of Solomon 8:6, “Love is stronger than death.” The fact that God can prolong life has been noted in Psalm 102:19,20, 23,24; 118:18; Proverbs 14:27.

What is even more important is what happens after death. For the believer, we are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord, “no more sorrows, no more tears, no more pain, no more death, the old things are passed away,” the interim body, the time of great happiness.

There is a principle to be noted which is found in Job 5:19ff, “In six [categories of] troubles he will deliver you.” The word for “deliver” is the Hebrew word natsal and it means to rescue or to deliver when you are in a place where you can’t do much for yourself; in other words, a hopeless situation. It emphasises the divine function of logistical grace which in our dispensation is the wall of fire and/or the divine dynasphere. Then the word “seven” means seven categories of trouble, “in seven categories of trouble evil [the function of Satan administered through the cosmic system] will not touch you,” the qal imperfect of naga and it means to meddle. Meddling is irritating. It means not touching in the sense of not meddling with you, irritating you. It doesn’t mean you won’t be there, it means it won’t irritate you.

Beginning in verse 20 we have that logistical grace wall of fire parlayed into deliverance of the believer who cracks the maturity barrier. Out of the six categories of trouble four are mentioned to show us what is meant. The first one is the black horse, “In famine [economic depression] he will preserve you from death.” While people are dying [the ashen horse] you are not going to die, you are going to be preserved. And then there is the red horse, warfare, “and in war from the power of the sword” And that is not just a promise to those who are in the military, it is a promise to civilians.

Verse 21, there is also social degeneration, and social degeneration comes from maligning, judging, society ridiculing and making life miserable for you. “You will be hidden” is the niphel perfect from the Hebrew chabah. The niphel stem is passive voice, which means you can’t yourself ever justify yourself to society. When people malign you and judge you you can’t justify yourself. The niphel stem is passive and it means God will provide your protection. There comes a time when what people think of you is not nearly as important as what God thinks of you, and this is when you face some form of social disaster, social ostracism, and especially when we have social degeneracy which is a part of the first horse, the white horse; “neither will you be afraid,” the qal imperfect of jare, meaning a perpetuation of courage; “of destruction,” the Hebrew word is shod and refers to death, violent death in many cases; “when it comes.” You may be a pariah to society but if you have Bible doctrine you will receive protection from God.

This is the fourth horseman. In the four categories we have out of the six that are mentioned there are six disasters from which we will be rescued. Furthermore, in seven no evil will touch you. The four that are mentioned are the same as the four horsemen of Revelation chapter six.

Verse 22, “You will laugh at death.” In other words, you will be very relaxed in economic depression, and you will also laugh at the wild animals of the earth. You have nothing to fear from them says this verse. The fascinating thing is that we are going to see those same wild animals and study them very shortly in our context. What do wild animals mean? It means at certain times in history animals destroy a great deal of life. The animals can also refer to nuclear weapons, conventional weapons, cars, and a lot of other things. But the believer who is in doctrine is preserved from all of these things.

Verse 23, “For your contract will be with the stones [the weapons] of the battlefield; and the wild animals will be at peace with you,” none of the instruments of death can remove the mature believer from this life until God permits. Only the integrity of God can transfer the believer from time to eternity. No believer can be removed until the Lord is ready to take him home to heaven but once the Lord calls the believer home nothing can retain him on this earth. The believer cannot die until the Lord decides. The exception of course is suicide and that does not mean loss of salvation but it cancels out any possibility of any reward in heaven.

Verse 24, “Therefore you will know that your tent [human body] is in a state of prosperity [dying grace], for you will visit your home [heaven] and you will not forfeit blessing or reward.”

Verse 25, “You will know that your seed will be numerous,” an idiom for prosperity of the loved ones left behind. Not only is there dying grace for you but blessing by association for the next generation. Whoever is related to you in any way who is still alive will have blessing by association; “and your descendants like the grass of the earth,” you will have an impact even beyond your death.

Verse 26, “You will come to the grave in a full age, like a shock of corn it is season,” the illustration is of timing and is taken from agriculture. There is a right and a wrong time to pick corn. God will decide when it is time for you to depart.

Verse 27, “Behold this doctrine, we have investigated it, this is the gist of it; hear it and apply it to yourself.”

Revelation 6:7, we have noted before the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “then” or “and when,” along with the temporal conjunction o(ti introducing a temporal clause, the aorist active indicative of the verb a)noigw. These things occur and recur in each of the verses which introduce one of the four horsemen, one of the first four seals. The constative aorist refers to a momentary action of breaking the fourth seal. The active voice: Jesus Christ who controls history breaks open that seal. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact: our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who controls history breaks open the fourth seal of the Doomsday book of the Tribulation revealing the fourth historical trend — death in the Tribulation. Then we have the accusative singular direct object made up of an adjective for the substantive sfragij, meaning seal, and we have the beginning of our corrected translation: “And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history] had broken open the fourth seal of the Doomsday book.”

Once again we have the repetition of the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw, meaning to hear. John once again records what he has heard, “I heard the fourth angelic herald.” The objective genitive following a)kouw made up of the adjective numeral for four plus again that substantive zoion, and it doesn’t mean a beast, it refers to an angelic herald. The word “come” is a mandate. The aorist of the present middle imperative gives the order, “Come.” The present tense is a aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. John will see in a point of time the vision of the fourth horseman. The direct middle describes the subject, the apostle John, as participating in the results of the action of the verb. He will give us a development of the fourth horseman which is death. The imperative mood of command means this is a mandate and obviously in the order of rank the angelic herald ranks the apostle.

Translation: “And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had broken the fourth seal [of the Doomsday book] I heard the fourth angelic herald say, Come.”

Verse 8, Now we begin the pale horse, the ashen horse. We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai translated “then.” The aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw follows, and it means to look or to see. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the vision of the pale or ashen horse, the fourth historical trend of the Tribulation. The active voice: the apostle John, the human author, having obeyed the angelic herald now produces the action of observing the vision, recording it as the fourth general historical trend of the Tribulation; “and behold,” the nominative of exclamation which by standing alone receives great emphasis and has two words which follow. The adjective is xloroj, an adjective meaning yellowish green. It is a perfect description of someone who is suffering from sea sickness and the phrase that we use in the English, “green around the gills,” pale or ashen. It means death pallor. With this we have the noun i(ppoj, “horse,” “Then I looked, and behold, an ashen horse.” We anticipate this horse as death and therefore we take time to consider the classification of death.

1. Physical death, defined as the separation of the soul from the body so that the person involved no longer lives on planet earth. Death cannot separate the believer from God, Romans 8:38,39. Physical death is a matter of the sovereign decision of God based on His perfect knowledge of all the facts in each case, Psalm 68:19,20. God can and does prolong life on earth, Psalm 102:19, 20, 23,24; 118:18. God also delivers the believer from death, Job 5:20; psalm 33:19; 56:13; 116:8. The believer who attains maturity departs from life under the principle of dying grace, Psalm 23:4; 116:15. Resurrection is the victory over death, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57. Physical death is also defined in terms of no appointment with judgment (for the believer), Hebrews 9:27. Death means the end of pain as far as planet earth is concerned, Revelation 21:4. Death means an eternal inheritance, 1 Peter 1:4,5. Death means a new home, John 14:1-6. It means the realisation of eternal life, it means waiting for the resurrection in the interim body. For the believer whose momentum carries him to gate eight of the divine dynasphere death is profit forever and ever, Philippians 1:20,21. For the believer who spends his life in the cosmic system death is a horrible experience. However, better an end with horror, the sin unto death, than to have horror in eternity, hell or the second death. The believer living in the cosmic system dies under the discipline known as the sin unto death.

3. There is a positional death of the believer, identification with Christ in His death and all of its significance — retroactive positional truth, positional death. Identification with Christ in His death means where He was judged for our sins He also rejected human good and evil, the policy of Satan. Therefore we are in union with Him in His death and we must reject the policy of Satan, we have been given the opportunity of doing so.

4. Cosmic death of the believer which is synonymous with being out of fellowship.

5. The productive mortality of the believer — dead works. This comes from the believer who is most zealous for the Lord but is living in the cosmic system and suffers, of course, from arrogance. The production of Christian service must be totally free from the cosmic system.

6. Sexual death, described in two passages related to one man, Abraham. It explains the origin of the Jewish race actually. It is found in Romans 4:17-21; Hebrews 11:11,12.

Before us, of course, is physical death as an historical trend, the inevitable result of the first three horsemen. The rider on the white horse is dictatorship, the personification of bad government as a recognition [result] of social degeneration in a given nation. There is the red horse, warfare. There is the black horse, economic depression.

Now we have come to the fourth horse. “Then I looked, and behold, an ashen horse.” Next comes the connective kai and the articular present active participle from the verb kaqhmai, to sit. The definite article is used as an indefinite pronoun to define a category, the personification of physical death. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes the rider as the personification of death in the Tribulation. The active voice: the personification of death in the Tribulation produces the action. The participle is circumstantial but the participle is used as a substantive, therefore we translate it, “the rider.” Or it can be translated: “Then I looked, and behold, an ashen horse: and the rider [the one who sat on it, literally],” the personification of death in the Tribulation. “On it” is simply a prepositional phrase made up of an adverb, e)panw. It is used as an improper preposition with a)utoj in the genitive, and that is the intensive pronoun used as the personal pronoun and it is simply translated, “sat on it” or “the rider,” being a simpler translation. Whenever possible simple translations are better because simple phrases are for everyone.

The next four words in the Greek are an idiom of possession and they form what is called an anacoluthon, “and the name to him the death” is the way it is translated literally, the nominative singular of the noun o)noma, “the name.” With this we have the dative of possession from a)utoj again, the intensive pronoun used as the personal pronoun, third person singular, referring to the rider on the horse. Then we have the predicate nominative from the noun qanatoj, “death.” And while it is literally translated “a name to him the death” it is an idiom and is correctly translated into the English, “his name was death.” Death occurs in all dispensations but death is a very special trend in the Tribulation due to warfare, famine, disease, terrorism, violence on an unprecedented scale for those seven years. As a matter of fact in this passage we will see that one quarter of the population of the earth will be taken by death during the Tribulation. Hence, a trend of history becomes an intensified trend of history during the Tribulation. Furthermore, death from natural causes seems to disappear while the mortality rate goes higher and higher.

It is very similar to what we had in medieval times in the middle ages. Life expectancy in the middle ages was very low and at one point went all the way down to the teens. That is exactly what is going to happen in the Tribulation, the shortening of life expectancy due to all of the things we have studied.

We are then introduced to where they are all going to go if they are unbelievers. We have the connective kai introducing a result from what precedes, translated either “furthermore” or “in fact,” “his name was Death, in fact.” Now we come to the problem, the nominative singular subject from a(dhj, called “Hades.” Unfortunately, in the King James version it is translated “Hell” and Hell is not a transliteration of anything. It is not a translation and it is not a transliteration. The translators have taken this word “Hell” and have used it for four Hebrew words and several Greek words, and all of these words in the Hebrew and in the Greek have different meanings — four different places and only two of them are actually synonyms for each other. So we have a problem. First of all we will get the exegesis out of the way and then tackle the problem of Hell. Hades is the word here, and the subject. The final Hell does not yet exist. It has been prepared for the devil and his angels and its existence will come into being and we will see it at the end of Revelation. Hades was the place for all departed dead prior to the resurrection of Christ.

We note first the imperfect active indicative of the verb a)kolouqew. The word generally means to follow, it also means to accompany, to go along with, but here we have its military terminology. It also means in the military to march along with, to keep step with, and we will translate it that way, “his name was Death, in fact Hades was keeping step [marching along with] with him,” the prepositional phrase meta plus the genitive of a)utoj, translated “with him.” The intensive pronoun a)utoj refers to death.

Our problem is to deal with the doctrine of Hades. The Hebrew word is sheol; the Greek word is a(dhj. It all began when our Lord Jesus Christ said to one of the dying thieves: “Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” Paradise is also called “Abraham’s bosom.” Until the resurrection of Christ all born again believers of the Old Testament went to Paradise/Abraham’s bosom in the heart of the earth. They did not go to heaven as such. This compartment of Sheol or Hades, of course, has all the benefits of heaven. Then, after the resurrection of Christ, this compartment of Hades called Sheol or Abraham’s bosom was moved to the third heaven so that all of the Old Testament saints had a permanent change of station as of the resurrection of Christ. When our Lord ascended He was, in effect, the first human being to ever be in heaven. Then, of course, the transfer of the Old Testament saints in their interim bodies, they have no resurrection bodies yet. All of these Old Testament saints are going to return with Christ, and that is when they will get their resurrection bodies. Then they will be involved in the Millennial reign of Christ. The believer of the Church Age gets his resurrection body at the end of the Church Age. The Millennial saints receive their resurrection bodies at the end of the Millennium.

Next, below the compartment called Paradise or Abraham’s bosom there is what is called “a great gulf fixed,” and then the second compartment of Hades is called “torments.” Tormentsis where all of the unbelievers go after death. It is in the heart of the earth. And so when we get to Revelation chapter twenty and we are studying the great white throne and it says, “death and Hades delivered up their dead [the unbelievers],” then you know it is the second resurrection and we have the resurrection of all unbelievers since the beginning of time for the great white throne judgment. That is called “Hades” in Revelation chapter twenty, but it is only one compartment of Hades.

These are the two compartments related to the human race. Now we have two more related to angels. The next two compartments are prisons for angels.

The first of these is called Tartarus. Jesus, when His soul was in Abraham’s bosom, His spirit was in the presence of the Father, His body was in the grave. His spirit went to Tartarus and He made an announcement to the angels in Tartarus. There is a certain brand of fallen angels in Tartarus. In Genesis chapter six there is a category of fallen angels that tried to hinder the true humanity of Christ and the strategic victory of the first advent. So these who were involved are imprisoned in Tartarus.

Then there is another prison called the Abyss and certain demons who are worse than most of the demons, and have caused certain troubles, are actually in the Abyss. The demons in the Abyss are going to get out of jail in the Tribulation and they are going to cause some very special trouble. And, next to Satan, the toughest of all demons is their leader down there whose name is Abaddon. With Satan and Abaddon both loose on the earth you have the full meaning of the word “tribulation.” It will be the worst period in all of history. Demon possession and demonism, and demons using the bodies of certain categories of animals, like scorpions, are going to attack the human race. It is right out of science fiction but it is not fiction. All of this is going to happen in the future.

At the great white throne judgment all the unbelievers are going to be brought up and judged. Then they are going to be cast into the lake of fire. But the Bible doesn’t call it Hell, it is called the lake of fire. That is the final Hell. But it is also called in the Hebrew, Tophet and Gehenna, so we have the final Hell called Tophet, Gehenna and lake of fire. “Hell” is the word used for all of these places in the King James version and it is total incompetence. It destroys these tremendous distinctions that are very important in the interpretation of the Word of God.

The Hebrew word for Hades is sheol, and it refers to a vast subterranean area of the departed dead of the human race and certain categories of angelic creatures. It is estimated to be in the heart of the earth but that is not necessarily it. Several passages imply this but the location is really unknown. The implication comes when Abaddon, the most incorrigible of the demons, is released from the Abyss and there is an opening there and they come right up out of the earth. That is where we decide that it must be in the heart of the earth. The dying are said to go to sheol in Numbers 16:30; Ezekiel 31:15,17. Those who are believers of the Old Testament were said to be delivered into the power of sheol, Hosea 13:14; Psalm 49:16. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation, Hades is used for the Hebrew sheol. Prior to the resurrection of Christ all human dead went to Hades where two compartments were designed to receive them, namely Paradise and Abraham’s bosom. Between the two there was a great gulf fixed. All unbelievers are still in torments until the great white throne judgment. In addition there are two compartments in Hades for fallen angels, and they are separate compartments — Tartarus and the Abyss. Tartarus is reserved for the fallen angels involved in the infiltration and cohabitation of Genesis chapter six. They are called “sons of God,” beni-ha-Elohim. The Abyss is a special prison for certain demons whose restraint is necessary for the continuation and perpetuation of human history. They had to be removed from the scene in order for the angelic conflict to continue.

Hades: the first compartment. Nomenclature: Paradise/Abraham’s bosom. It is defined as the place where all the Old Testament believers went after physical death. Illustration: Luke 23:39-43, “And one of the criminals who was hanging there hurled insults at him [at Christ], saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Deliver yourself and us!’ But the other criminal answered, and rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not have respect for God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? In fact, we indeed justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but he [our Lord] has done nothing wrong.’ And he kept repeating, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!’ And he [Jesus] replied to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise’.” Paradise is the residence, then, of the Old Testament believers who died up until the Church Age.

Our second passage on Paradise is found in Ephesians 4:8-10, “For this reason the scripture says [according to Psalm 68:18], ‘When he [Christ] had ascended up on high, he led captives [Old Testament believers] in a triumphal procession from their state of captivity [Paradise],” hence they were transferred from Paradise to the third heaven. [This is also taught in Matthew 27:52-53] (Not this doctrine only, that he ascended, what does it imply except that he [Christ] also descended into the lower parts of the earth? The one who has descended is the same person also who ascended far above all the heavens),” the third heaven, the new Paradise.

The prophecy is given in Psalm 16:10, “For you will not abandon my soul in Sheol; neither will you allow your Holy One [Jesus Christ] to undergo decay [reference to His resurrection].” His soul came out of Hades, not Hell, for the resurrection, Acts 2:27,31, the fulfilment.

The second compartment is called Torments. This is the residence of all unbelievers until the end of the Millennium. In the great white throne judgment, Revelation 20:11-15, “Hades emptied its dead,” the second resurrection for judgment in the lake of fire. There are only unbelievers in the second resurrection. In Luke 16:19-31 we have the details of Torments and the great gulf fixed. In the description of the last judgment in Revelation 20:13 Hades “gave up the dead which were in it.” Verse 14 says, “Both death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This [the lake of fire] is the second death.”

Tartarus is the residence of a group of fallen angels. They are called in Genesis chapter six, beni-ha-Elohim, translated “sons of God,” a slight misnomer. The concept: Satan has two major attacks on the Lord Jesus Christ. The first one was an attempt to frustrate the incarnation, to keep our Lord from becoming true humanity; and, after becoming true humanity through the virgin birth, to keep Him from going to the cross and being judged for our sins. This attack was first on Adam’s seed. The “seed of Adam” is a title of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the fourth chapter of Genesis Cain murdered Able because Abel was in the line of the seed of Christ. He was motivated by Satan to commit that first murder in the human race; he was motivated to cut off the incarnation and to keep our Lord Jesus Christ from being true humanity.

The second attempt is in our passage — Genesis chapter six. When Satan discovered that the Lord Jesus Christ was going to come in the flesh, not only through the seed of Adam but through Abraham’s seed, there were several attacks at that point. The first attack was when Sarah was in the harem of the Egyptian king in Genesis 12:10-20. The second attack came when Pharaoh commanded to kill all the male line of Israel in Exodus 1:10,15,16. Another attack came when Pharaoh attempted to destroy all Israel in Exodus 14:13-19. Then it was discovered that Abraham’s seed was now boiled down to the seed of David. Therefore Satan made a renewed attack upon the line of David. There was the case of Jehoshaphat’s son. Jehoshaphat was a very famous king who arranged a marriage between his son Jehoram and Athalia, the daughter of Jezebel, 2 Chronicles 18:1. Then Jehoram killed his brothers to hang on to the throne, 2 Chronicles 21:4. Then the Arabians killed all the sons of Jehoram except the son by Azariah called Jehoahaz. Then in 2 Chronicles 21:16ff we have the fact that Athalia, the mother of Jehoahaz, killed all the royal seed in an attempt to destroy any possibility of our Lord coming in the flesh as the seed of David, to head off that promise. One of them survived called Joash, 2 Chronicles 23:3. In the case of Hezekiah, Hezekiah was in the line and he was childless when he was attacked by the king of Assyria, Isaiah 36,38,39. He was preserved until he had a son and an heir.

The next attack is found in the book of Esther, Haman’s plot to annihilate all the Jews. By this time the seed of David had become so widespread from the four sons of David and Bathsheba that this was an attempt to destroy all of the line by destroying all the Jews. The attack also on Joseph’s seed is also a part of the problem: the dilemma of Joseph when he discovered that Mary was pregnant — Matthew 1:18-20. The procedure in those days was to take her out and have her stoned. When he realised that it was the fulfilment of the virgin birth passage in Isaiah chapter seven he understood the issue and did no such thing. Then, after the birth of our Lord, a great attempt was Herod’s command to kill all the children who were born at that time, Matthew 2:13-18.

All of this was an attempt to destroy the line between Adam and our Lord Jesus Christ. There were other attacks as well. So in the Old Testament we summarise by saying that Satan’s main attack was against the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep Him from becoming true humanity and undiminished deity in one person forever — frustrating, in other words, the hypostatic union. Before the cross Satan attacked the line of Christ and the incarnate person of Christ; since the cross Satan’s attack is against the written Word. So Satan attacked, first of all, the living Word in the Old Testament; in the New Testament times his attack is against the written Word. Therefore Satan attacks the royal family of Christ which are the believers of this age, in various ways and through various ministries.

Now in our context we see one of the most dramatic attempts, a conspiracy on the part of Satan to destroy any possibility of our Lord Jesus Christ being the last Adam. In the Old Testament times Satan was constantly trying to find ways to hinder the incarnation. We see Satan’s great attempt to frustrate the virgin birth, the incarnation, the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, the session of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the reception of His third royal patent (the most critical one). The angelic infiltration of this chapter was an attempt to destroy “the seed of the woman,” the incarnation, and what better way to do it than to destroy true humanity on the earth by intermarriage with angelic creatures. The resultant progeny would not be true humanity and Christ could not come into the world except through true humanity. A secondary principle is the fact that in this context we have a complete explanation of classical Greek, the culture, the art, the music, the science, the sex of the ancient Greeks and how they put it all together to finally come to the fifth century BC, the age of Pericles in Athens. It also explains why most of the human race was destroyed.

Genesis 6:1, “Now is came to pass, when mankind had become numerous on the fact of planet earth” — that is when Satan had his idea, “and that beautiful women were born to them.” This verse indicates the tremendous population explosion of the antediluvian civilisation. There have only been four civilisations. Seven dispensations; four dispensations. The first one is called the antediluvian civilisation, from the creation of man to the flood. Then there is the post-diluvian civilisation, from the flood to the beginning of the Millennium. The third is the Millennial civilisation and the fourth is the eternal civilisation. We are looking at the antediluvian civilisation.

The increase of the population, of course, means the increase of sin natures. More sin natures means more evil, more adherence to the cosmic system. More evil means more lawlessness, more violence on the earth as a result of man living in the cosmic system. Also, by the tenth generation from Adam there is no reference to the Sethites and the Cainites as separate families and tribes. In other words, by the tenth generation the line of Seth and the line of Cain had amalgamated. The marriage of Ham and his wife is an illustration. The separation of the two lines was no longer there. The Cainite line was filled with disillusion from a study of science, from their culture, from their urban society, and they, of course, rejected the solution to life and the happiness and blessing God has designed for them, by rejecting Christ as saviour. They entered into intellectual pursuits, they had a very scintillating society saturated with hedonistic pleasure; all of this in the line of Cain which eventually amalgamated with the line of Seth. The antediluvian population was generally unregenerate, reversionistic, lots of saturation in the field of cosmic involvement and, suddenly in one generation a tremendous excess of beautiful women.

The family of Noah, eight people who were the only believers among the millions of people on the earth at that time. There were originally nine on the earth at that time actually. The first believer was Methuselah, whose grandson was Noah. Methuselah died the day the flood came. The antediluvian civilisation had no rain — perfect weather. So there were nine people out of millions who were actually born again at this time when the plot was hatched by Satan.

Verse 2, “Then the sons of Elohim.” This is a technical word, beni-ha-Elohim, and it is unfortunate that it is translated “sons of God” because in Galatians 3:26 you discover that we are the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus, but here we are talking in the Hebrew about a very technical word used for angels only. It is used for angels in Job 1:6; 2”1; 38:7, and it is used once in the Chaldean of Daniel 3:25 also for angels. It is never used for human beings, it is only used for angelic creatures, the incarcerated fallen angels of 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6. When the word “Son of God” in the singular is used it is used for our Lord Jesus Christ; it is one of His titles. When it is used in the plural, “sons of God” in the New Testament it is used for believers, but here in the Old Testament this is a highly technical Hebrew word.

“Then the sons of God,” qal imperfect of the verb raah. The qal imperfect means linear aktionsart, they “kept seeing, [they kept watching] these daughters of men [mankind].”

As a result of these fallen angelic creatures cohabiting with women there were literally thousands of people on the earth who were half human and half angelic, therefore not true humanity, a super race half way between angels and human beings. You can begin to see why the flood. You cannot have a crossing the line between the angelic race and the human race and bring our Lord Jesus Christ to the cross. This was the big issue. “and they took for themselves women from all whom they observed.” In other words, the qal perfect from bachar means that they seduced them.

Verse 3, “Then Jehovah [God the Father] said, “My Spirit [God the Holy Spirit who was restraining mankind as well as using His power in evangelism] shall not convince man forever, in his going astray [his reversionism] he [man] is also flesh; nevertheless his days will be one hundred and twenty years.”

When this statement was made man had one hundred and twenty years to be converted before the flood. That was nothing in that time because people lived almost a thousand years. So “he also is flesh,” that is, man was still true humanity on the earth before the flood. We know of nine, there were others. But the infiltration kept going simply because negative toward the truth, toward the gospel, toward establishment, and toward doctrine. By the end of the 120 years there were only nine members of the human race who were still true humanity.

Verse three is significant because it gives us a principle which we will study in the book of Revelation: grace always precedes judgment.

Verse 4, here is where we are going to meet ha Nephalim. It is mistranslated in the King James version, we will transliterate it.

“The Nephalim [the fallen ones: half human, half angel, the super race] were on the earth in those days [the 120 years before the flood], consequently, when the sons of Elohim [the demons, fallen angels] copulated with the women of mankind, and the women gave birth to these Nephalim, the same were heroes which from ancient times were famous men.”

— ancient times, meaning antediluvian times. Who were some of these Nephalim? Orpheus, Persius, Hercules, Minos, Thesius, Jason, Castor and Pollux, and so on. They were violent and they were lawless. These are the old Greek heroes in contrast to the later Greek heroes of the Trojan war. So we have the Nephalim and they are said to be heroes. This explains why Tartarus became necessary.

The trend of simultaneous progress and degeneracy are a part of this picture. There is a famous author by the name of G.H. Pember who wrote a book called “Earth’s Earliest Ages.” He said on page 214: —

“And hence there sprang up a thick crop of frauds and assassinations, of open quarrels and violence, until the whole earth was filled with corruption and bloodshed”. He made an analysis of this area. He went on to say, “And yet all this seems to have existed side by side with the greatest of luxuries, a refined culture, a love of art and music. Such minglings of things apparently incongruous have not been infrequent in the post-diluvian times. The profligacy, immorality, and sensuous intellectuality of Athens are an example. A parallel also might be sought in the descriptions given by Tacitus, Juvenile and others in the times of the Caesars. For then the whole body of society was corrupted and even the streets of Rome were accustomed to constant violence. And yet the worst of vices, the most absolute immorality, the most profligate gluttony, the most wanton cruelty prevailed in company with splendid magnificence. A high appreciation of music, sculpture and art generally, and a taste for literature, and especially for poetry, so great that recitations and readings were a common amusement.”

So having a high culture in society does not prevent violence and evil. Satan has never been able to work out that particular problem. This passage, then, confirms the fact that behind Greek mythology is the factual skeleton of the Nephalim. If the flood occurred in 2245 BC, which is one of the more acceptable dates, then the angelic infiltration and the age of the older heroes would be 120 years prior to that date. Therefore the age of the Nephalim or the older heroes is roughly around 2500 BC.

Verse 5, “Then the Lord observed that the evil of mankind was great on the earth, and every frame of reference for the thoughts of his right lobe was not only evil but malignant evil all the day.”

The cosmic system reached a saturation point for the older heroes of Greek mythology. Murders, rapes, tyranny, dictatorships, plots, schemes to control power, wide travel for plunder, great robbery and piracy, more saturation of reversionism than the earth had ever known, the presence of the super race, not true humanity. The saturation of evil reached the point where the human race was in the process of destroying itself, and therefore the grace judgment of our Lord in bringing about the universal flood.

Verse 6, “Therefore Jehovah himself repented [He changed His mind] with regard to man that he had made man on planet earth, and was grieved in his right lobe”. These are anthropopathisms. An anthropopathism ascribes to God a human characteristic which God does not really possess, but in order to cause man to understand some divine policy human attributes and functions are used. God doesn’t change His mind, this is simply an anthropopathism.

This prepares the way to understand Tartarus from the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We begin by noticing the corrected translation of Jude 6, “And the angels [the sons of God of Genesis chapter six, verse two, beni-ha-Elohim] who did not guard their own beginning [their own status quo, they did not remain within the angelic realm], but who deserted their own habitation [their proper dwelling place in the first and second heavens], he has incarcerated them in everlasting chains under thick darkness for the judgment of the great day [the judgment of all fallen angels who will be cast into the lake of fire at the end of human history, Matthew 25:41]

2 Peter 2:4, “For if God did not spare the angels that sinned [a reference to the infiltration of Genesis 6:2], but incarcerated them in Tartarus with chains of thick darkness, he delivered them to punishment [judgment] constantly being guarded.”

This prepares the way for understanding 1 Peter 3:18-22, the most detailed passage in the Word of God on the compartment called Tartarus. It explains that while our Lord’s body was in the grave for three days and three nights his soul was in Paradise. He made a trip down to the third compartment called Tartarus to make His victorious proclamation which is recorded in the second chapter of Hebrews.

The word “suffered” in the King James version is incorrect. It is the aorist active indicative of the verb a)poqnhskw, and it means to die, not to suffer. And it has to do with the spiritual death of Christ on the cross at that point when He provided salvation. The culminative aorist tense views the event of our Lord’s spiritual death on the cross in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The existing results include our so great salvation. The active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb with the result of the strategical victory of the angelic conflict, the strategic victory which is celebrated in Colossians 2:14,15 and Hebrews 2:14,15. The declarative indicative mood represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is the mood of certainty and unqualified assertion.

So we begin by noting our Lord’s strategic victory in 1 Peter 3:18, for His strategic victory during the first advent is the basis for His proclamation to the fallen angels in Tartarus. He went down there because these angels are in prison because they were a part of Satan’s great plan to frustrate the coming of the humanity of Christ. Satan realised in the antediluvian civilisation that the only possible way to keep our Lord Jesus Christ from that great strategic victory (in other words, to keep Him from becoming true humanity for only as true humanity could He be judged for our sins. As eternal God He cannot sin, He cannot be judged for sin, He cannot have contact with sin, He cannot tempt, He is absolute total and infinite perfection) was to attack the humanity of Christ to attempt to prevent Him going to the cross and bearing our sins. Once the virgin birth occurred the attacks changed from against Christ to against the Word of God. The original attacks in the Old testament were against the living Word, Jesus Christ; now they are against the written Word, the canon of scripture and Bible doctrine.

So we begin: “Because Christ also has died on behalf of sins, the righteous one on behalf of the unrighteous” —

He was righteous because He lived in the prototype divine dynasphere. Jesus Christ in His hypostatic union is eternal God. As eternal God He has perfect righteousness and cannot sin. But His humanity lived in the prototype divine dynasphere and resisted all temptation though he was tempted far beyond anything we have ever known. So as eternal God in the hypostatic union He is not able to sin; as true humanity living in the prototype divine dynasphere He was able not to sin. This is the true doctrine of impeccability. Our Lord would not have been true humanity in the prototype divine dynasphere if the angelic infiltration of Genesis six had succeeded,

“in order that he might bring all of you [believers] face to face with the God, on the one hand having received death in the flesh, but on the other hand having received life by means of the Spirit.”

God the Holy Spirit had a definite part in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Both the Father and the Spirit were involved in the resurrection of Christ.

Verse 19, we have the victorious proclamation mentioned. “By means of which [Holy Spirit. In other words, the means by which the soul of our Lord in Paradise made the trip to Tartarus for the victorious proclamation and whose ministry was to sustain our Lord during the incarnation] also he [Christ] having received transportation,” the aorist passive participle of the verb poreuomai. The word means to go from one place to another and in the passive voice it means to be transported or receive transportation. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes this occurrence regardless of its extent or duration and gathers it up into one entirety. In other words, our Lord’s soul was in Paradise and by means of the Spirit He was transported to Tartarus, the great prison of darkness. The passive voice: Christ received the action of the verb, He was transported by means of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is a circumstantial participle and it has antecedent action as an aorist participle. In other words, the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb and the main verb was mistranslated in the King James version which has the word “preached.” It is the aorist active indicative of the verb khrussw, and it means to make a proclamation, to make an announcement of policy as a herald. As a matter of fact the human heralds are called by the noun khruc. Khrussw is cognate and simply means to make a public proclamation as a herald, to announce a policy. This is a constative aorist gathering up into one entirety the proclamation of our Lord. The active voice: Christ announced His strategic victory at the cross to those who came closest to frustrating it and destroying true humanity in Genesis chapter six. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic and absolute assertion of doctrine. Our Lord succeeded in the strategic victory of the angelic conflict at the cross. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. This announcement is dative of indirect object, it is made to pneuma [in the plural] “spirits.” Angels are often called spirits. They are said to be “in prison,” e)n plus the locative of the noun fulakh, “prison,” “made a public proclamation of victory to the spirits in prison.” Tartarus is a prison for certain demons.

The spirits in prison are identified in verse 20. We have the enclitic particle pote, and pote means “once.” There is now “which” here. We will translate it with the aorist active participle of a)peiqew. Peiqew means to obey; a)poqeiw means to disobey, “having disobeyed.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it gathers up into one action the angelic infiltration of Genesis chapter six. The active voice: these spirits in prison, the “sons of God” of Genesis 6:2, perform the action. This is a temporal participle having also antecedent action. The action of this aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, therefore in corrected translation we begin verse 20, “Having disobeyed once upon a time when the patience of God himself kept waiting in the days of Noah.”

The patience of God which kept waiting is the imperfect middle indicative of the verb a)pekdexomai, which means to patiently wait, to wait from the ultimate source of one’s own perfect character. Our Lord waited from His holiness and He waited for 120 years for the antediluvian population to respond to the grace message. For 120 years there was a grace period, and they ignored the grace period. Therefore, the flood came and destroyed all but the believers.

In the Tribulation there is a grace period we will be studying in the next chapter where 144,000 evangelists are going to present the gospel in the same intensity by which it was given for 120 years before the flood. When this grace period is over then Satan is permitted to open the door of the Abyss and his number two demon, Abaddon, will come out with a tremendous demon army and they will attack these people who are negative toward Bible doctrine in the Tribulation.

“while the ark was being constructed.” We have here a temporal participle. The ark itself was a part of Noah’s ministry of evangelism, “in which [ark] a few, that is, eight souls, were brought to safety through water.” Being “brought to safety is the aorist passive indicative of the verb diasozw, to be brought to safety. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the events in the process of occurrence but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, 40 days and 40 nights of rain, and water covered earth. The ark floated with eight souls, called “souls” because they had made a decision for Christ, they were aboard the ark for that reason. They were the only believers alive on the earth when the judgment came. That means that all of the unbelievers, the super race, were under the water. The believers were brought to safety “through water,” the same water that destroyed or baptised the unbelievers.

What baptism now saves us? Spirit baptism. At the moment you believe in Christ one of the 36 things that happen to you is God the Holy Spirit entered you into union with Christ. That is the baptism of the Spirit. Water baptism doesn’t save you. Peter makes it very clear that this is not water baptism. Remember that Peter personally heard the prophecy of the baptism of the Spirit in Acts 1:5. Peter declared that the prophecy of the baptism of the Spirit was then fulfilled, Acts 11:15-17.

“not the removal of human dirt as in a bath,” in other words, this is not water baptism. The word rupoj means dirt, “but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.” A good conscience simply refers to the fact that at the moment God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ one of the things that happens is that our sins are removed. We start with an intrinsically good conscience because at the moment of salvation He has blotted out as a thick cloud our transgressions, He has removed them as sins.

The final phrase then adds: “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Again, Spirit baptism is the pledge of a good conscience toward God for all members of the royal family. The possession of an old sin nature makes the pledge of a good conscience toward God impossible. We still have the old sin nature after salvation. But the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which produces both retroactive and current positional truth, not only links us with the strategic victory of the angelic conflict at the cross but provides the basis of a good conscience of a good conscience toward God. For we are identified with Christ in His resurrection and that means the good conscience toward God. That is current positional truth. No one is acceptable to God on the basis of his works but on the basis of God’s work: one of them is the baptism of the Spirit identifying us with Christ in His resurrection. Therefore dia plus the genitive of a)nastasij, “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Then we have that wonderful statement of the completion of the strategic victory of our Lord, the basis of His third royal patent —

“who is on the right hand of God, having gone to heaven, angels and authorities and powers having been subordinated to him.”

This is just briefly the concept we find in this passage. Angels have been subordinated to Him. Our Lord went to Tartarus to make an announcement of His strategic victory to those who did the most to frustrate it and are imprisoned because of it [Genesis 6].

Corrected translation of 1 Peter 3:18-22, “Because Christ also once and for all died on behalf of sins, a righteous one on behalf of unrighteous ones, in order that he might bring all of you face to face with God, on the one hand having received death in the flesh, but on the other hand having received life by means of the Spirit; by means of which Holy Spirit also he [Christ] having received transportation [to Tartarus] made a public proclamation of victory to the spirits in prison, who having disobeyed once upon a time, when the patience of God himself kept waiting in the days of Noah [120 years] when the ark was being constructed, in which [ark] a few, that is, eight souls, were brought to safety through water, water which also corresponds to the baptism that now saves [Spirit baptism] — not the removal of human dirt as in a bath, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God — through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is on the right hand of God, having gone to heaven, angels and authorities and powers having been subordinated to him.”

Verse 9, “But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than angels [the humanity of Christ], now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death [the strategic victory of the cross], so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Verse 10, the result, “For in bringing many sons to glory it was fitting that God [the Father], for whom and through whom everything exists, to bring to the objective through suffering the author of their salvation,” this is what our Lord taught them in Tartarus.

Verse 11, “For both he who sanctifies [Jesus Christ through the baptism of the Spirit] and those who are being sanctified [the royal family of God] are all from one source [God the Father is the author of the plan]; for which reason he is not ashamed to call them [royal family] brethren,

‘Behold, I [our Lord Jesus Christ] and the children [royal family of the Church Age] whom God the Father has given to me.’

Verse 14, “Since therefore the children share in common blood and flesh, he also himself in the same manner shared their humanity [in carnation of Christ], in order that through death [the work of Christ on the cross] he might render powerless [neutralise, destroy] him who had the power of death, the devil;

Verse 15, “and release [or free or liberate] from Satan’s cosmic system who through fear of death was subjected to slavery all of their lives,” the strategic victory of Christ frees people from the cosmic system.

Verse 16, “For obviously he [Christ] in the first advent did not assume the nature of angels, but he did take on the seed of Abraham.” (He didn’t assume the nature of angels, that was cut off in Genesis six. But He did take on the seed of Abraham, that was the true humanity which came from the line of Shem)

Now this briefly is the victorious proclamation, the message given by our Lord Jesus Christ to the “sons of God” or the fallen angels imprisoned in Tartarus, the third compartment of Hades. The infiltration of these “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2 did not frustrate the incarnation or the first advent of Christ. In fact, several factors preserved the human race as true humanity and frustrated the genius conspiracy of Satan to destroy the human race with angelic genes.

First there was the flood which destroyed the progeny of the beni-ha-Elohim, through their human volition gave them the same opportunity for salvation and deliverance that Noah had. The second way in which Satan’s plan was frustrated was when our Lord incarcerated all the fallen angels involved in the sexual infiltration with the women of the human race and the removal of the ability of any angelic creature to procreate so that Genesis six could never be repeated.

The Abyss is the fourth compartment of Hades. It is defined as the jail for a certain category of demons who for one reason or another are incorrigible and had been incarcerated after Genesis chapter six. Tartarus is for the demon infiltration of Genesis six only. After Genesis six certain demons have gone to jail. The word in the Greek for abyss is a)bussoj. It is found under such names as “the deep,” Luke 8:31; Romans 10:7 in the King James version. It is called the bottomless pit in Revelation chapter nine, as well as in 7:17 and chapter 20. The fact that the Abyss is a part of Sheol is documented from Romans 10:7 which is quoted from Amos 9:2 which mentions Sheol, the Hebrew equivalent of Hades.

When our Lord Jesus Christ was dealing with the demon-possessed man of Gadarene across from Galilee, in the dialogue, Luke 8:30,31, the demons had this to say: “And Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered this man. And they [the demons] begged him repeatedly not to order them into the abyss.” So it is concluded from this passage that demons who violate certain rules of the angelic conflict extended into human history are banished into the Abyss.

In the Tribulation these demons will be released from their prison, the Abyss, to be a part of the administration of punishment of unbelievers. When Moses and Elijah finish their great television ministry of the Tribulation they will be killed by the demon Abaddon who is the king of all the demons in the Abyss. He is mentioned in Revelation 9:11. This demon king is called in the Hebrew Abaddon and in the Greek Apollyon.

Revelation 9:11, “They [the demons] have a king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in the Hebrew is Abaddon [meaning destroyer], and in the Greek his name is Apollyon.”

Revelation 11:7, “And when they [the resuscitated Moses and Elijah] have finished their testimony, the supernatural monster that comes up from the abyss [Abaddon] will make war with them, and overpower and kill them.” In other words, the angel demon of the abyss indwells and empowers the dictator of the revived Roman empire. This is taught in the ecumenical religious passage of Revelation 17:8. What happens to ecumenical religion? It will be judged at the end of the Tribulation.

Revelation 17:8, “The beast that you saw [the dictator of the revived Roman empire who is possessed by the demon of the abyss] was [the Roman empire in the time of John] and is not [the fall of the Roman empire in 476 AD], and will come out of the abyss.” What makes this dictator so great? He is indwelt by the super demon who is next to Satan, “and he goes to his destruction.” The abyss, by the way, will be the Millennial jail for Satan where he will serve out a 1000-year sentence while Christ rules on the earth.

Revelation 20:1, “And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

Verse 2, “And he seized the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him [chained him] for a thousand years.

Verse 3, “Then he threw him into the abyss, he both shut and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things [the Millennium] he must be released for a short time [that has to do with the Gog revolution].”

Revelation 6:8 8, “Then I looked, and behold an ashen horse: and the rider, his name was Death; in fact Hades was marching in step with him.”

Now we have one more sentence in verse eight. It is a complete sentence and it begins with the conjunction kai, “and.” This is a connective conjunction introducing a result from what precedes, so we translate it “furthermore.” Then we have our subject: the nominative subject of the noun e)cousia and it means freedom of choice, right, authority, warrant, absolute power. Here it is the ability to do something, “and authority was given,” the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: both death and Hades receive the action of the verb, matching in step with each other. The declarative indicative is for the reality of this historical trend in the Tribulation. With this is the dative plural indirect object from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun, “to them,” “authority was given to them,” i.e. to death and to Hades marching in step, “over,” the preposition e)pi plus the accusative of tetaros, an adjective numeral. And with it the genitive of gh, the noun for planet earth, “and authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth.” “Of the earth” is a partitive genitive, and a noun may be defined by indicating in the genitive the whole of which something is a part. So one quarter of the population of the earth are going to be taken out by death and Hades.

The purpose for that is expressed next in the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)pokteinw, and it means to kill. The constative aorist refers to an action extending over the entire period of the Tribulation. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: Death and Hades, the fourth horseman, produce the action of the verb marching in step. This is an infinitive of actual result. What follows are four prepositional phrases describing the areas in which this power or authority is given to death to kill one quarter of the earth’s population in less than seven years. The greatest killers in the Church Age have been such things as the flea and the mosquito, but in the Tribulation four different categories produce the devastation of the human population of planet earth. The killer will come under the category of the four prepositional phrases, the first of which has to do with war and crime.

The sword is the first one, e)n plus the instrumental of r(omfaia, and it refers to the heavy Thracian broadsword. The sword includes all categories of warfare here. Ordinarily when the word sword is used just for conventional warfare we get maxaira. The Tribulation will be characterised by unrestrained crime, terrorism, violence, warfare, so that people [mostly unbelievers] will die by the millions from this source. Note that a quarter of the population being killed from this trend refers to unbelievers only. A lot of believers are going to die in the Tribulation but we will study them in the next chapter. Note also that since Hades marches in step with death, and since Hades is now the residence of dead unbelievers — only since the resurrection of Christ — it follows that only dead unbelievers are involved in this trend.

So all of Satan’s forces are now in three areas of life. First of all we have planet earth, and around planet earth the first heaven. We call those that are operating under Satan’s command as the ruler of this word, demons. But there are two other categories. In the heart of the earth we have already studied Tartarus which deals with the Genesis chapter six crowd. Then there is the Abyss where the toughest of all the demons are, and they have a king, as we have noted — Abaddon or Apollyon.

It is no accident that one fourth of the population of unbelievers on the earth shall die under horrible circumstances depicted by these four prepositional phrases since they are the products of their own decisions. People are the products of their own decisions in time; people are the products of their own decisions in eternity. It is a matter of decision. There are people who are going to spend eternity in the lake of fire because they made decisions — negative volition at God-consciousness, negative volition at the point of gospel hearing. These four prepositional phrases indicate what happens to the degenerate society of the Tribulation and how they are the products of their own decisions.

There is a second prepositional phrase, and this one refers to economic depression, e)n plus the instrumental of the noun limoj, referring to economic depression or famine, “and with famine.” It means hunger, famine, death caused by economic circumstances. The tremendous and widespread wars of the Tribulation inevitably are going to result in economic disaster. The production of food and its packaging is going to break down in the Tribulation. Logistics will monopolise the food supply of the military and its capability in that field and the removal of one fourth of the earth’s population means death to millions of people from economic depression, malnutrition, starvation. But this judgment from the Lord is a fantastic manifestation of His honour, His integrity, and His faithfulness to the Word. Demon possession at that time is going to reach an all-time high, as we will study in Revelation chapter nine. By their own decisions unbelievers will be demon possessed. They will suffer from demonism as never before in history. In fact, the greatest period of demonism is not in the past but in the future, and the detriment to freedom, life and civilisation, the perpetuation of the angelic conflict to the end of human history, all of these things are involved. Therefore the disastrous results of so many demon-possessed unbelievers will neutralise by millions, and destroy by millions; by war, economic depression, disease and violence.

The third prepositional phrase is a little misleading. Again we have e)n plus the instrumental, this time from the noun qanatoj which is often correctly translated “death.” Qanatoj means death; it also means terminal illness. Hence it has a connotation of disease. We translate here: “and with disease” or “and with deadly diseases,” i.e. terminal illness. Disease will destroy millions during the Tribulation. And you will note that demons and Satan cannot protect unbelievers from loss of health and consequently many are going to die of various diseases.

This brings us to the fourth prepositional phrase: we have the preposition u(po plus the ablative of qhrion. This is the ultimate source connotation in the ablative and while it is translated “and by wild animals of the earth,” it means the wild animals are a direct source. In other words, there is a principle that comes out of this:

1. The retraction of civilisation [civilisation is going to be withdrawn during the seven years of the Tribulation] results in the increase of wild animal life that will prey on human beings.

2. The Tribulation will be a time, for example, of man-eaters in the animal kingdom.

3. In the Tribulation there will be a sudden and dramatic increase of death from wild animals of all categories.

4. Add to this the fact of demon possession of animals, changing their ordinary and shy behaviour into aggression toward man, and you have a tremendous loss of life to wild animals on planet earth; something we have not experienced for centuries in human history.

5. The fact of demon possession of both man and animals is the fact of this phenomenon.

1. Death or the ashen horse is the grim reaper, the inevitable result of the unrestrained function of the first three horsemen of the apocalypse. God the Holy Spirit no longer restrains history after the Rapture of the Church.

2. Political decline, the white horse, meaning also social degeneration, has two categorical results: foreign policy disaster — the red horse, military disaster; domestic policy disaster — the black horse, government destruction of free enterprise, government regulation and interference with free enterprise, socialism, the welfare state, redistribution of wealth, unjust and discriminatory taxation.

3. Therefore the white horse of political arrogance and incompetence reflects the social degeneration of the people of a nation.

4. Social degeneration produces an incompetent form of government and political disaster which in turn results in military and economic disaster.

5. The result is the function of the fourth horseman, death, who reaps the results of the other categories in this adverse historical trend.

Terrorism is simply a play put on for the purpose of attracting an audience with the objective of changing government, or forcing a government policy or philosophy to change. The best place to recruit terrorists and specialists for terrorist activity is in the prisons. Another pertinent remark was that the terrorists strive to create the image of the mass; that is, the terrorist attempt to create in the mind of the government that they are stronger and more powerful than they really are. By using the media and through their violence they begin to obtain the support of the masses which previously was only a mirage. The terrorists also attempt to get the government to react and then to overreact. When the government does overreact then more and more the populace will turn against what they see as a repressive government and side with the terrorists.

2. To alter the public beliefs concerning terrorists to promote the power of the terrorists.

3. To destroy the enemy — which would be government, the military, the police, any form of establishment authority.

4. To exhaust the opponent through anxiety — the up tight mode, Where will they strike next? — leading to overreaction.

5. Live training drills and preparation for all-out revolution. The masses and the people will not fight unless they have been exposed to it.

We are through now with the study of the four horsemen of the apocalypse and move to verses 9-11, the fifth seal. In this particular seal we are going to study the Tribulational martyrs. The very fact that there is unrestrained historical disaster inevitably means that there will be some martyrdom among believers.

Verse 9, we note the Tribulational martyrs. We begin with the connective conjunction kai plus the temporal conjunction o(te, which means we are going to have a temporal clause. Kai o(te, “and when.” The aorist active indicative of the verb a)noigw indicates the breaking open of the fifth seal, “And when he had broken open.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it refers to a momentary action, the breaking open of the fifth seal of the Doomsday book. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, the declarative indicative for a simple statement of fact. Our Lord Jesus Christ broke the fifth seal of the Doomsday book revealing the fifth historical trend, the martyrdom of certain believers during the Tribulation.

Next is the aorist active indicative of o(raw, “and I saw.” The observation indicates a vision. The constative aorist, again, contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the historical trend of believers dying during the Tribulation. The active voice: the apostle John, writer of the book of Revelation, produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of historical fact: there are many born again believers who will not survive the Tribulation. They are said to be “under the altar,” the adverb u(pokatw is used as a prepositional phrase. This is used simply to dramatise the fact that when Tribulational believers die they do go to the third heaven, they are in a place called the altar. The noun refers first to the altar of burnt offering or the altar of blood sacrifices. It is the brass altar in the forecourt of the tabernacle or temple when it was on the earth. Here, of course, it has a slightly different meaning related to martyrdom. The direct object of the verb is the word yuxh and it is correctly translated “souls.” While the soul is invisible the reason that John can see them is because when any believer dies he receives an interim body in heaven, and they are visible because they occupy an interim body waiting for their resurrection [of the Tribulational martyrs at the second advent]. So they have a relatively short time in heaven. This is the time of great interim blessing for these believers of the Tribulation who give their lives for Bible doctrine and evangelism in the Tribulation. The interim body pattern applies, of course, to all believers who die before they receive their resurrection bodies.

With this we have the articular perfect passive participle from the Attic Greek verb sfattw, and it has been corrupted into the Koine to be sfazw. It means to be butchered, or to be murdered in this case. The definite article used as a relative pronoun refers to the believers of the Tribulation who are martyred. Also, of course, this is used as a demonstrative pronoun. And with this the intensive perfect tense represents the completion of the martyrdom and emphasises the existing results, they are located in heaven. This is actually an emphatic method in the Greek of presenting a fact or a condition, hence a very strong way of saying that a thing is. The passive voice: the believers of the Tribulation receive the action, and it is a circumstantial participle.

The corrected translation: “When he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had broken the fifth seal, I saw under the altar [of burnt offering] the souls of those who had been murdered [or butchered].”

While many of these believers have not been saved very long their sacrifice for Bible doctrine apparently counts as maturity. Remember that you have a very short span of time for the Tribulation. While many of these believers have not been saved very long to advance to maturity they still have a profile in heaven that will be rewardable or not rewardable. They will still fall into the same category that we have today: winners or losers. In the meantime, for the short period of time that they are in heaven as martyrs and they enjoy the great interim happiness in the interim body. The fact that they are seen under the altar of burn sacrifices, that is, the brass altar representing the cross, emphasises their fantastic virtue of impersonal love developed through intensive perception of doctrine during the short span of their spiritual life on this earth. Remember that all believers of the world go up in the Rapture terminating the Church Age and the Tribulation begins with no believers on the earth. Therefore the longest anyone could possibly be a believer in the Tribulation is seven years.

These Tribulational believers fulfil the principle enucleated by our Lord in Matthew 16:24,25 — “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to deliver his soul shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul [or life] for my sake shall find it’.”

The perception of doctrine in the Tribulation will have to be concentrated and intense. It will demand, therefore, probably some unprecedented self-denial because of the shortage of time. The taking up of the cross is the motivational virtue of personal love for God and the functional virtue of impersonal love for man. Remember that the Christian way of life in our dispensation is best summarised by words like dunamij or a)gaph, the love complex or the divine dynasphere. God has given us two commissions: priesthood and ambassadorship. All of this is accomplished in this dispensation inside of the divine dynasphere. This concept is represented for the Tribulational believers under this principle: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself.”

Self-denial is really not self-denial. This is one thing that is a little misleading. Self-denial is simply personal love for God, and the only way we can have personal love for God is through perception of Bible doctrine. It is the doctrine we do not apply to mankind and to experience; it is the doctrine we learn that we apply to invisible God. Many of the doctrines we learn in the field of soteriology and Christology are only applied to God who is invisible, and we develop through the perception of these doctrines a personal love for God. This personal love becomes the motivating factor. It is true that in the Tribulation there is no divine dynasphere but the same principle and the same pattern of life for the believer applies. They will have the opportunity for personal love for God as the means of motivation in life, personal love for Him who is invisible. Denying self is the principle for these Tribulational believers. In denying self all they really do is demonstrate from the doctrine that they learn a tremendous personal love for God. The way they take up their cross is their impersonal love directed toward mankind, an impersonal love which results in many cases of martyrdom in the Tribulation. Then, of course, the concept of taking up the cross is simply a functional virtue toward man. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He picked up His cross, was despised and hated, and yet it did not change His impersonal love for mankind. When He went to the cross He was ridiculed by people standing around. Yet He died for their sins. That is impersonal love. And that will be the pattern in the Tribulation as well.

So there is an intense concentration on doctrinal teaching for these people after salvation. And “following the Lord” is the martyrdom of those Tribulational believers who place Bible doctrine above their personal safety and who place love of God above any personal consideration, including loss of life; losing their life on earth but finding a far greater life in heaven. For in Matthew 16:25, again, it says: “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it.” And they find it in being absent from the body and face to face with the Lord under the altar which is described in this passage. The deliverance of their souls into heaven means loss of life on earth but loss of life on earth means finding a far greater life in heaven, the interim body.

There are two reasons for martyrdom in the Tribulation. The first one is given in the next phrase of verse 9, the preposition phrase dia plus the accusative of logoj. With that is the possessive genitive of qeoj, “because of the Word of God.” That means, of course, Bible doctrine. The spiritual growth of positive Tribulational believers through a concentrated effort in learning doctrine is a challenge to the devil as the ruler of the world, and it is a challenge to his cosmic system operating without restraint during the Tribulation. The principle is applicable to any dispensation: the Word of God always has been the greatest opposition to Satan’s cosmic system.

God permits the slaughter of certain believers who have great momentum in the Tribulation but their death does not stop Bible doctrine. No matter how great the believer is who dies with Bible doctrine he is removed because of his positive attitude toward doctrine, but Satan can’t stop doctrine. Bible doctrine is never hindered; Bible doctrine never slows down. Doctrine keeps advancing with or without the believer there to learn it. Nothing can stop the power of doctrine, it is greater than any creature or any system of human power and, what is far more important, any system of Satanic power.

The second reason is also given in the next prepositional phrase. They had a testimony or a deposition of doctrine. Specifically they had a deposition of category two doctrine, the gospel, plus their own personal integrity. This is all brought out by the connective conjunction kai plus dia and the accusative singular of marturia, a deposition or a testimony, and we translate that, “because of the Word of God and because of the testimony [the deposition],” “which they had maintained,” the accusative singular from the relative pronoun o(j whose antecedent is marturia, and the imperfect active indicative of the verb e)xw. This is the imperfect of duration and that is why it is translated “maintained” instead of “had.” The active voice: Tribulational believers produce the action. These are ones who are martyred. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of historical reality.

1. These positive believers in the Tribulation are not only consistent in the perception of doctrine, the use of their time in that direction, but they are also are consistent in the production of virtue. Their lives are dramatically changed at the point of salvation, they get right into doctrine and there is the production of virtue. With the production of virtue comes the function of true evangelism. Virtue should precede evangelism. [E.g. soup kitchens and rescue missions: feed them before the message, which is optional. The whole process should be a grace process. Whether they want to hear a message or not should be a matter of their own volition]

2. These Tribulational believers are not the evangelists of the Tribulation, however, but they are dynamic first in their life and then in their message. By dynamic is meant grace modus operandi.

3. So important was doctrine in their scale of values that they would not compromise the Word to save their own lives.

4. Life was not as dear or happiness as sweet to compromise them by the rejection or the renouncing of our Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word, or Bible doctrine, the written Word.

5. Doctrine was more important than life; integrity was more important than happiness. So these magnificent believers of the Tribulation sacrificed their lives to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Corrected translation of verse 9: “And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had broken the fifth seal, I saw under the altar [of burnt offerings] the souls [the lives] of those who had been murdered [butchered] because of the Word of God [Bible doctrine], and because of the testimony which they had maintained.”

No matter what the dispensation the Word of God is the key to everything. To be positive toward the Word after salvation is the only basis for spiritual momentum and integrity, the only basis for glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no substitute for the perception of doctrine; there is no basis for coping with blessings and disasters of life, and the changes that often occur in our lives between blessing and disaster, apart from perception and application of Bible doctrine.

Verse 10, one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Word of God: imprecatory prayers. In this verse we come face to face with the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational saints. Is there a place for avenging yourself on someone through prayer? In other words, is there a place for the imprecatory prayer?

We start out with the connective conjunction kai, translated this time since it introduces a result from what precedes, “furthermore.” Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb krazw which means to scream, to shriek, to cry out, and it also means to call out and that is how it is used here. It is used as a part of an idiom actually meaning to shout. They shout from under the altar. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: Tribulational believers, martyrs, believers with great rejected integrity, produce the action of the verb. The declarative mood represents the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality in heaven.

We have the rest of the idiom, the instrumental singular of manner from an adjective and a noun. The adjective is megas and the noun is fonh, “with a loud voice.” So we translate it literally: “Furthermore they called out with a loud voice,” but when you put megaj, fwnh and krazw together it means simply to shout. So we will translate it its correct idiom: “Furthermore they shouted.” They are not screaming, they are not crying, they are just merely making themselves heard.

Then the present active participle of legw, used merely to indicate the content of what they shouted, it means to say or to speak. In the present tense it is a pictorial present, it presents to the mind a picture of the event in the process of occurrence, prophetically. The active voice: the Tribulational martyrs in heaven in the future will produce this action. Because the participle is circumstantial it is best rendered in the English by the use of the conjunction “and” with a finite construction of the verb. Therefore we translate, “and said,” “and they shouted and said.”

Then they asked their question by using a temporal conjunction e(wj plus pote, correctly translated “How long.” When they come to the vocative they do not use the word that is used for our Lord in the Church Age, but they are actually in the process of offering an imprecatory prayer. Instead of addressing Him as Lord, kurioj, they used the word despothj, from which we get our English word despot. Despothj is a Classical Greek word. It was used by Pindar to connote an owner or a possessor of slaves. The noun connotes unlimited authority and power. It means absolute ruler, the unlimited possibility for the exercise of power, and they chose the word wisely. When used by the Tribulational martyrs now residing in heaven it emphasises God’s power, God’s authority, and their recognition of the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. And even though they have been martyred they recognise their martyrdom as being a part of God’s plan for the Tribulation, which immediately excludes any bitterness in their attitude. Their attitude is free from anything that would possibly hinder a prayer.

In the New Testament, then, despothj has both a secular use, where it occurs ten times, and it is used for Jesus Christ as the God-Man who controls history. Then question is how to translate it. The best way would be either “mighty Lord” or “sovereign Lord,” “furthermore they shouted and said, O sovereign Lord,” referring to Jesus Christ as the God-Man, Jesus Christ in hypostatic union, the one who controls history.

With this we have the nominative masculine singular definite article, and this is the generic use of the definite article o(. The generic use of the definite article emphasises the uniqueness of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is why it is not translated. The generic definite article does not have to be translated, “How long, O sovereign Lord.” Then follows the adjective a(gioj, used to describe the integrity of the deity of Christ: His righteousness and justice, the two attributes of divine holiness or integrity. Next we have the adjective a)lhqinoj, and that describes the integrity of the humanity of Christ. So “holy and true” does not really give the whole story. Then we put the question: “How long.” And e(oj pote means “How long will it be?”

Then we have the rest of the question: “before you judge and avenge our blood on the population of the earth.” This is a double appeal to our Lord Jesus Christ. When they say, “O sovereign Lord, holy and true,” it has a double appeal, and they appeal to the integrity of Christ as God by using the word “holy,” the appeal to the integrity of Christ as true humanity by using the word “true.” The Tribulational saints certainly understood the doctrine of the hypostatic union and the knew how to apply it to disasters that existed in that period. Again, note the fantastic ability of these Tribulational ability to apply doctrine to a disastrous situation. Instead of addressing Jesus Christ as kurioj they appeal to Him as despothj which emphasises His hypostatic union. They understand how the Lord has entered into the feeling of our infirmities in the hypostatic union — Hebrews 4:15. The appeal to the hypostatic union in imprecatory prayers is compatible with their emphasis on the justice of our Lord Jesus Christ as the one who controls history, the justice of our Lord to rectify the terrible injustices which were done to them by demon-possessed men and demon-possessed governments. While an imprecatory prayer is generally defined as a prayer for vengeance it is used here as an appeal to the justice of God as a part of His divine integrity. And since God the Father has delegated all judgment to God the Son — John 5:22, it is an appeal to the integrity and justice of both the humanity of Christ and His deity in hypostatic union. That means that the adjectives mentioned in the vocative address, a(gioj and a)lhqinoj, emphasise the justice of our Lord’s deity and the justice of our Lord’s humanity with a total emphasis on the integrity of Jesus Christ to deal with this matter. They are not dealing with it, they are asking Him to deal with it, and therefore they are expressing an imprecatory prayer.

Verse 10b, the important phrase in this passage is the word “avenge.” If there is one thing we have learned as believers it is the simple fact that “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.” We do not have the right to take revenge, to get even, to “show” someone. As a part of Christian integrity revenge is out, it is one of the concepts of evil which is developed in cosmic one and cosmic two. Yet here we find believers in the next historical era, the next dispensation, talking about revenge, “How long, O Lord, before you will judge and avenge our blood on the population of the earth?” This introduces the subject of imprecatory prayers.

An imprecatory prayer is generally defined as a prayer which is offered to God in which justice is demanded for some form of persecution, for some form of antagonism and hostility directed toward the one involved. The imprecatory prayer of the Tribulational martyrs was foreshadowed by imprecatory prayers which are the subjects of many of the Psalms. So we go to the Psalms to define, to categorise and to understand the meaning of imprecatory prayer, and to try to answer a question for each one of us: Do you and I as believers have the right to go to God in prayer and demand the execution, the destruction, the ruin of some person, believer or unbeliever?

So we begin by looking at Psalm 13, where in the first four verses we have one of the milder imprecatory prayers. In verse 1 we need only the first two words: “How long?” And then we go to the end of verse 2: “How long will my enemy triumph over me?” Then in verse 3, the beginning: “Look on me and answer, O Lord, my God.” Then verse 4 says: “My enemy will say, ‘I have overcome him, and my foes will rejoice when I fall’.”

The purpose for this is merely to show that we as members of the human race can get very impatient when we are subjected to injustice. Injustice is always a test. If injustice comes from a person it is people testing; if it comes from a system of an organisation it is system testing; if it comes from some form of relationship between man and woman then it is just normal for the time in which we live.

The question is, when you start talking to God in prayer about your problems and about your relationship with other people, do you have the right to pray: “Ruin them, destroy them, kill them, hurt them”? The first thing we note is the frame of mind of such a prayer. Psalm 13:4 gives us our key. At this point it appears the Psalmist is more disturbed about his image than he is about his relationship with the Lord, and therefore obviously that kind of imprecatory prayer is not going to be answered, because he says: “My enemy will say, ‘I have defeated him’, and my foes will be very happy.” The issue there is that this imprecatory prayer is wrong. It is out of line for the most obvious reason: when you are more concerned about what people think of you than the Lord then spiritually you are in trouble. Here it is a case of arrogance speaking: “This is what my enemies will say, they have defeated me.” In other words, this is the prayer of arrogance. Arrogance is hypersensitive. It may just be that the arrogant person here, when he says, “my enemy” and “my foes,” has simply produced these enemies and these foes by his own involvement in cosmic one, the interlocking systems of arrogance.

In Psalm 13 the prayer is not answered. The person who is offering the prayer is in self-induced misery. He has made these enemies; he is hypersensitive; he is wrong. “If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.” The prayer isn’t answered.

Psalm 54, we have a different category of imprecatory prayer. In the first verse and the first word we have the key. This is really a prayer for deliverance.

“Deliver me, O God, by your person, vindicate me by your power.” The prayer for deliverance. It is not so much imprecatory at first though it is included by the time we get to verse 5. But the key here is deliverance and vindication, and the basis for vindication is divine power.

Verse 3, “Strangers are attacking me, and men of violence seek my life; men who have no regard for God.

Verse 5, “Let the evil return to those who slander me,” that is a legitimate imprecatory prayer. This follows the principle of doctrine that when you are slandered and you are maligned, and you do not try to defend yourself but leave it in the Lord’s hands, then the Lord will answer this prayer. The evil will return to the slanderer.

“In your faithfulness, destroy them.” Now notice carefully: the victim here who is offering the prayer does not seek to destroy them himself; he does not retaliate himself. In effect, this imprecatory prayer puts the whole matter in God’s hands. He goes to court and in effect says, “Let the evil return to those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them”. In other words, he does not try to take the option from God. All vengeance on your part against someone else is blasphemous in that they take the option from the sovereignty of God and put it in your hands. Therefore one of the worst areas of sinning is retaliation. You may have a just cause when you start but the moment you retaliate you have lost your just cause.

The entire Psalm 143 is an imprecatory Psalm, but the last two verses are especially pertinent and help to get the feel of an imprecatory prayer.

Verse 11, “for your name’s sake [for the sake of your person], O Lord, preserve my life.” This is a desperate imprecatory prayer because life is in danger.

“In your righteousness [integrity] bring my life out of trouble.” So here is an imprecatory prayer that depends entirely on the integrity of God.

Verse 12, “In your grace silence my enemies, ruin [destroy] all who afflict my soul; for I am your servant.”

This could be classified as a very bold imprecatory prayer, it is not the kind you want to try when you are new to Christianity. This is really a mature believer. Because, you see, if you are wrong in this prayer then the whole thing falls on you.

Verse 4, “May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back and humiliated.” This is no imprecatory prayer to kill someone, to destroy them. Notice the words: “be disgraced,” “put to shame,” “humiliated,” “turned back.” Those words means the frustration of whatever they are doing that is unjust. The injustice is brought out by the fact: “May those who seek my life be disgraced.” He doesn’t ask for their death. To pray for the humiliation of someone is beneficial. This is obviously a mature believer because he is praying for humiliation. Humiliation leads to humility; humility leads to true orientation to life. Virtue begins with humility. Humiliation is enforced humility.

Verse 8, “May ruin overtake them by surprise; may the net [they’d tried to trap him] which they hid to trap me entangle them; may they fall into the pit [that they have dug].”

Verse 15, “But when I stumbled they gathered around and laughed in glee; attackers gathered against me when I was unaware, they slandered me without ceasing.”

Verse 26, “May all who gloat over my distress be put to shame and humiliated; may all who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and disgrace.”

Obviously, in this imprecatory prayer in Psalm 35 he is dealing with arrogance on the part of others — injustice, unfairness — and therefore the various phrases are in line with the Word of God. Everything. however, is left to the integrity of God. The case is stated; God is the judge. Therefore it is legitimate.

Verse 4, “Those who hate me without a cause.” This obviously is a case of where there is unjustifiable antagonism, “are more than the hairs of my head; those who would destroy me are powerful.”

Verse 22, “May their table set before them become a snare; and when they are in prosperity, may it become a trap,” they are trying to prosper at his expense. The table set before them is prosperity, an idiom. For those who are unjustly and unrighteously prosperous their prosperity is a snare. That lines up with doctrine. That is exactly what happens to people whose prosperity comes through sin, evil, injustice, lack of integrity.

Verse 23, “May their eyes grow dim so that they cannot see, and may they suffer from terrible nervousness.

Verse 26, “For they have persecuted him [David] whom you yourself has disciplined, and they gloat over the pain of him [David] whom you have wounded.” The Lord rightfully disciplined David but the Lord doesn’t need help. Therefore the legitimate use of the imprecatory prayer. When one has sinned and been under discipline from God is to pray these things under the concept that, You have already spanked me, I don’t need it from them.

The most powerful of all of David’s imprecatory prayers is found in Psalm 109; it emphasises the legitimacy of this function.

Verse 2, “For they have opened their wicked and deceitful mouths against me; they have maligned me with a lying tongue.

Verse 4, “In return for my friendship [love] they act as my accusers; but I am in prayer [about this].

Verse 6, “Appoint an evil man to oppose him; and let Satan [this is exactly what the Hebrew says] stand at his right hand” — that means to let Satan do the punishing of this slanderer.

Verse 7, “And when he is tried, let him be found guilty; and let his prayers become sin [another way of saying, Don’t let his prayers be answered].

Verse 10, “May his children be wandering beggars; may they seek alms far from their ruined homes.

Verse 11, “Let creditors seize all that he owns; may strangers plunder the production of his labour.

Verse 12, “May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his orphaned children.

Verse 13, “May his posterity be cut off; let their names be blotted out of the next generation.

Verse 16, “For he never thought to show kindness, but he hounded me to death, he persecuted the needy, the broken-hearted, he put to death the despondent of soul.

Verse 20, “May this be the Lord’s payment to my accusers, and to those who speak evil against my soul.”

Imprecatory prayers were legitimate in the Old Testament. The legitimacy of imprecatory prayers in the Church Age is doubtful. It is far better to put the matter in the Lord’s hands is far better than to bring down disaster on someone else. However, in the Tribulation, which is the end of the Jewish Age [Daniel’s seventieth week] as well as a dispensation in its own right, the Tribulational martyrs will offer imprecatory prayers in heaven, and they are legitimate.

To pray for someone’s death, to pray that the Lord will turn Satan loose on them, that the next generation will be beggars and then die, is incompatible with being a member of the royal family of God, even though it is just. In our dispensation the command is to cast you cares on Him who careth for you. Put the matter in the hands of the justice of God. Imprecatory prayers are not recommended.

Remember that in the Tribulation these prayers are legitimate, and when they are legitimate they always follow doctrine. They always appeal to the integrity of God, they always recognise that the sovereignty of God must make the decision. The application of the doctrine of impersonal love precludes offering an imprecatory prayer in this dispensation. We are commanded to love our enemies, not pray them out of existence!

The corrected translation of Revelation 6:10 — “Furthermore they shouted, and said, O sovereign Lord [our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union], holy [the integrity of Christ as God] and true [the integrity of Christ as true humanity], How long will it be before you will judge and avenge our blood on the population of the earth?”

The interim state of these martyrs: they are offering a strong imprecatory prayer, or they are asking the question which is imprecatory. Why did they say, How long? Not because they are miserable.

Verse 11, We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, translated “also.” Then the nominative feminine singular subject is composed of two words, leukoj and stolh, “white robes.” I(mation is the usual word for robes but here we have stole which is a long flowing robe. I(mation was used in Revelation 3:5 for the uniform of glory worn over the resurrection body. I(mation is used for clothing in general as well as the translucent uniform of glory, but stolh, used here, has a different connation. The pur sui vant angel sitting on the empty tomb of our Lord after He was resurrected, Mark 16:5, was said to be wearing a stolh, not i(mation. And by comparing leukh stolh in Revelation 7:9, which is the other passage on these martyrs, with our context it is concluded that the white robes here are the interim body of the Tribulational martyrs. This is not unreasonable since the interim body of believers who die during the Church Age is described as face to face with the Lord. They are said to be face to face with the Lord here and wearing white robes.

“Also a white robe” is in the singular. Note that the white robe is anarthrous, there is no definite article with it. The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the noun and the adjective. This is not the uniform of glory awarded to the royal family who hold the order of the morning star, also called white robes, but it is a different white robe and refers to the interim body of these people. If they have an interim body, as they do, and as it Revelation 7:9, 13 these same Tribulation martyrs are described once again as wearing this white robe or interim body, it indicates great happiness, for the interim body is reserved for great happiness and blessing in heaven while waiting for the resurrection body of eternity.

The pertinent resurrection for these Tribulational saints will be the at second advent of Christ, so they do not have long to wait. There is, however, a split in the born-again people of the Tribulation. Some of the believers in the Tribulation are going to stay alive until the second advent. Some, like the ones we are studying are going to be martyred. They are going to die physically and they will have an interim body and great happiness. So those who die during the Tribulation will receive their resurrection bodies with the Old Testament saints at the second advent. But those who survive the Tribulation become the nucleus for the Millennial population after the baptism of fire and, therefore, will not receive their resurrection bodies until the end of the Millennium.

“Also a white robe [the interim body] was given,” the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi which means to give. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the presentation of the interim body or the white robe to each Tribulational martyr in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the great blessing and happiness of living in heaven in an interim body. This is to establish the fact that the imprecatory prayers are not uttered from subjectivity. All imprecatory prayers must be objective and the greatest possible objectivity exists in heaven in an interim body or, later on, in a resurrection body. The passive voice: the interim body receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the interim body of the believer who dies during the Tribulation.

Next we have a dative singular indirect object from the adjective e(kastoj, used as a substantive and translated “each one.” “Also a white robe was given to each one.” The dative of indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest the interim body is given. It is given to Tribulational martyrs so that they can all have maximum blessing whether they failed or succeeded in life.

We also have a dative plural of advantage, a)utoj the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun, third person, translated “of them” — “each one of them.” Then the aorist passive indicative of the verb femi, sometimes a synonym with legw, only it means to tell, to narrate, “each one of them were told.” Literally, it says “it was told to them,” meaning they were informed. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: Tribulational martyrs in their interim body receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact.

Verse 11 — “they were informed.” Our next word is “that,” i(na. This is the use of i(na introducing a final clause to denote a purpose, aim, goal, objective. And then we have the verb, the aorist middle subjunctive of a)napauw which means to rest or refresh. The aorist is a constative aorist for a fact or action extended over the rest of the Tribulation from the time of their death. In other words, in their interim bodies they are going to have a period of great refreshment, a period of great happiness. A)napaw is actually a synonym for happiness. The middle voice describes the subject as participating in the results of the action of the verb. This is what is called a direct middle reflexive. The subjunctive mood goes with i(na to express the purpose clause. The translation: “that they should refresh themselves.”

Refreshment is one of the great subjects of the Word of God. It is a subject that deals with both time and eternity. It has the connotation of great happiness. It is the happiness of the soul, it places emphasis on tremendous inner happiness.

Proverbs 25:13, Refreshment is described as “Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest.” The time of harvest here was in the heat of the summer. The cold of snow was the only way they could get ice and they would go up on Mount Hermon and have runners haul down buckets of snow. By the time they were down it would melt but the water would be cool. The idea is refreshment, “is a faithful messenger to those who send for him.” The faithful messenger is the one carrying the water and providing the refreshment, “for he refreshes the soul of the harvesters.”

Refreshment in the Bible always refers to the soul. Hence this is an analogy between the water boy carrying cold water to those who are very hot from working in the harvest, and it refers to the communicator of doctrine providing spiritual refreshment to the soul through Bible teaching. The cold water is analogous to Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is the refreshment of the soul. Refreshment comes not from interaction with people but perception of Bible doctrine. That is the key.

The response to the Word of God is always consistently called refreshment. Roans 15:32 — “So that I may come to you in happiness by the will of God, even that I may enjoy refreshment with you.” A responding congregation is a refreshment to the pastor.

This same concept is found in the ministry of Titus to the Corinthians. Their response to his teaching of doctrine was refreshing to Titus. 2 Corinthians 7:13, “For this reason we have been comforted. And beside our comfort, we rejoiced even much more with the happiness of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.”

Mature believers have some form of ministry of refreshment. E.g. certain Corinthian believers in 1 Corinthians 16:17,18, “And I rejoice over the coming of Stephanos and Fortunatus and Achaicus; because they have supplied what was lacking on your part. They have refreshed my spirit and yours [says Paul]. Therefore acknowledge such men.”

Philemon 7, “For I have come to have much happiness and encouragement by your love, because the deep and tender affections of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.”

Philemon 20, “Very well, brother, let me have benefit from you because of the Lord; refresh my deep affections in Christ.”

2 Timothy 1:16, ‘The Lord give mercy to the family of Onesiphorus because many times he has refreshed me, and he was not ashamed of my imprisonment.”

So we have it in our passage in Revelation 6:11, “that they should refresh themselves.” And then we have in the next three words an idiom of time, time which has not yet come: the adverb e)ti, the accusative of the extent of time, xronoj, and the adjective mikroj. When you put these three words together, e)ti means “yet”; xronoj means time; mikroj means little; literally it means “still a little time.” But the idiom should be translated “for a little while longer.” They weren’t to worry about how long their blood was avenged, they were to be concerned about just having a good time for a little while longer, until the end of the Tribulation.

Next we have the main verb first in the Greek. We start out with the temporal conjunction e(wj, translated correctly “until.” It denotes the end of an era, the end of a period of time. E(wj is often remembered as the end of a wonderful era in the famous Scottish song, Auld Lang Syne. That is the concept here, there is the end of an era coming up. So enjoy yourselves until it is over. In this case it is the Tribulation, the end of a very bad era.

We have next the third person plural aorist passive subjunctive of the verb plhrow. It does occur after e(oj in the order of the Greek sentence, “until the … should be completed” is the way we translate it. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the completion of the complement of believers martyred in the Tribulation. In other words, a full brigade is going to be formed. It isn’t all formed yet. Until it is enjoy yourselves, is what our Lord is saying. The passive voice: the Tribulational martyrs receive the action of the verb by the forming of a large corps of personnel. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive implying a future reference qualified by the element of contingency. The explicative use of the conjunction kai is translated “that is,” “until Tribulation martyrs shall be completed.”

Next comes the dual subject. The first subject describes the function of Tribulational martyrs while they on the earth: the nominative plural of the definite article o(i. It is the generic use of it to set aside the future generation of Tribulational martyrs as a special category. Then we have the nominative plural subject sundouloj. Sun means “with”; douloj means “slaves.” It is translated here “fellow servants.” Also we have the possessive genitive of the intensive pronoun a)utoj used as a third person plural pronoun and translated “their,” “that is, until their fellow servants.” That is their function on earth: service to the Lord before they die. Then we have the conjunction kai, translated “even,” and the second subject describes their relationship in heaven. Again the nominative plural definite article, the generic use of it, to set aside future Tribulational martyrs as a special category, the nominative plural subject a)delfoj, “even their brethren.”

Next come the nominative plural definite article, again o(i, used as a personal pronoun, translated “those,” followed by two verbs: the present active participle of the verb mellw, which means to be about to be, “those who are destined,” or “those who are about to be killed.” The customary present tense of mellw is for what may be reasonably expected to occur during the Tribulation. The inevitable printout of the divine decrees for that period calls for an unusual number of martyrs in that short seven years. The active voice: it refers, of course, to the Tribulational believers who have not yet been martyred bit will be before the Tribulation is over. When this announcement is made in heaven they are still on earth. The participle is circumstantial.

Then we have the present passive infinitive of the Attic verb a)pokteinw, and it means to kill or slaughter. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is regarded as already occurring. The passive voice” Tribulational believers receive the action of the verb. This is the infinitive of actual result, “even their brethren, those who are destined to be killed.” And then the rest is very simple: “even as they.”

Translation of verse 11: “Also a white robe [reference to the interim body of the martyrs] was given to each one of them; and they were informed that they should refresh themselves for a little while longer, until they [the brigade of Tribulational martyrs], that is, until their fellow servants, even their brethren, those who are destined to be killed, even as they have been killed, should be completed.”

Until the full number of Tribulational martyrs is completed those already in heaven are given a command: “Refresh yourselves, enjoy yourselves in your interim body.” This implies the greatest possible happiness and fellowship while they are waiting for the end of the Tribulation and for their resurrection bodies.

Verse 12, the sixth seal. We have a connective kai translated “and,” then the aorist active indicative of o(raw again. This is repetition: o(raw means “I looked.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The apostle John now has a new vision: the sixth seal. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the vision of this historical trend. There will be a tremendous number of volcanoes and earthquakes, which means also tidal waves in the Tribulation. We have so far: “Then I looked.” The word behold in the King James version is not found in the original. Then we have the connective kai, “and,” and the aorist active indicative of ginomai which means to become, “And there occurred.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety; the active voice: a great earthquake is the subject and it will produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of natural disasters, one of the great historical disasters of the Tribulation.

Now for the subject. We have the adjective megaj, which means great, plus the noun seismoj from which we get the word “seismic” in the English. Seismoj here means not only a shaking of the earth but the volcanic eruptions as well.

Many of these descriptions include what happens next. So far this verse only mentions a tremendous earthquake. Now the rest of the verse describes the earthquake in terms of volcanic action. Earthquakes and volcanoes always go together. Volcanic ash in the air produces what we see in the rest of this. The sun is blotted out and the moon turns red at night, that is what volcanic ash does. So we conclude from this that we have a Krakatoa type earthquake related to the volcanic action, rather than what could be termed a San Francisco type earthquake in which there was fire and some road disturbance but no volcanic action.

We start out with the conjunction kai which introduces a result from what precedes. We translate it “And then.” We actually have a result of both the earthquake and the volcanic action. The subject is the nominative singular of e(lioj which is the Greek word for “sun,” “and then the sun.” Then the aorist active indicative of the verb ginomai which means to become. What we actually have here is an idiom and would be better translated “with the result that the sun became.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it covers the action extended over a period of time without specifying the actual duration. In other words, with volcanic ash in the air this is the phenomenon that will be noted in the Tribulation. The active voice: the sun produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. And then the predicate nominative is melaj, the adjective used as a noun, “the sun became black.”

An analogy follows from the conjunction w(j, “as sackcloth made of goat’s hair.” The blackout of the sun is caused in the daytime by the volcanic eruption linked with the earthquake.

Next we have “and the moon.” This would be what happens at night. The word for moon is a feminine word, selhnh. The moon is said to have become like blood. In other words, the volcanic ash did this.

The corrected translation: “Then I looked when he [our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history] opened the sixth seal, and a tremendous earthquake [plus a volcano] occurred with the result that the sun became black like sackcloth made of goat’s hair, and the entire moon became red like blood.”

Verse 13, the connective conjunction kai is followed by the nominative plural subject a)sthr, and it means “star.” A meteor is a part of a star or a transient celestial body that enters the earth’s atmosphere with great velocity. The incandescence with the heat generated by the resistance of the air produces a very luminous and beautiful phenomena. In view of the context the best translation should be as follows: “And the meteors from the sky,” the ablative of source from o)uranoj which means heaven as well as sky. With this we have the aorist active indicative of the verb piptw which means to fall. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: meteors produce the action of the verb. The declarative indicative for a simple statement of fact, one of the natural phenomenon of the Tribulation. The prepositional phrase “to the earth,” e)ij plus gh.

Then we have an analogy, and from the analogy we have some spiritual concepts. We have the comparative particle o(j, which introduces the sentence of analogy, translated “like.” Then we have the nominative subject sukh, “like a fig tree” and the present active indicative of ballw, “like a fig tree drops its unripe figs when it is being shaken.”

Corrected translation: “And the meteors from the sky fell on earth like a fig tree drops it unripe figs when being shaken by a great wind.”

The first principle taught by the analogy is the fact that bad decisions destroy opportunities for mankind to live a full life. That is the first principle from the figs dropping from the tree. Life is often cut very short because of so many bad decisions under the historical trend that man is the product of his own decisions. Decisions create environment, not environment decisions. Bad decisions create bad environment which cuts short one’s life on this earth. That is exactly what is going to happen in the Tribulation. The great wind is the analogy to the historical disaster brought on by the accumulated bad decisions resulting from the rejection of the Word of God, Bible doctrine. The great wind of historical disaster causes the unripe figs to fall to the ground, an analogy to death. The unripe figs are both believers and unbelievers who have rejected pertinent categories of truth: for the unbeliever the rejection of the laws of divine establishment and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; for the believer, the whole realm of Bible doctrine.

1. While the divine dynasphere is only pertinent to the Church Age the cosmic system has been operational since Satan became the ruler of this world, i.e. since the fall of man and his expulsion from the garden.

2. Therefore all bad decisions in all dispensations related to believers or unbelievers becoming involved in the cosmic system means historical downtrend. People are the products of their own decisions. Decisions related to the cosmic system inevitably produce historical downtrend.

3. Unbelievers are protected from the cosmic system by category one truth, the laws of divine establishment. This means that unbelievers can have happiness, they can have great relationships and friendships, they can have great happiness in category two love, they can have great blessings in life, because of establishment truth and because of the enforced and genuine humility it produces. On the other hand born again believers can be miserable by cosmic involvement, as can the unbeliever also.

4. The believer in every dispensation is protected from the cosmic system, then, by category two truth — Bible doctrine revealed in that historical era.

5. The unripe figs who fall to the ground under the strong wind of historical disaster in the Tribulation have the complete canon of scripture available plus some very good preachers — Moses, Elijah, 144,000 Jewish evangelists, certain angels in the college of heralds, and so on.

6. Furthermore, in Isaiah 34:3-5 and in Jeremiah 8:13 the falling of the figs from the fig tree is used as an analogy for any nation which has become evil being judged with the fifth cycle of discipline.

Isaiah 34:2-4, “The Lord’s judgment is against all [evil] nations, and his wrath is against all their armies; he will utterly destroy them, he has delivered them to the slaughter. So their dead will be thrown out [no burial, just lined up in rows], and their corpses unburied will give off their stench. Consequently their mountains will be drenched with blood.” This is a statement of historical trend. “All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved [meteorites], and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all their armies will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shrivelled figs falling from the fig tree.”

Jeremiah 8:13, “So decrees the Lord: I will take away their harvest [economic depression], there will be no grapes on the vine, there will be no figs on the fig tree, and their leaves will wither; furthermore, what I have given them in prosperity will also pass away.”

No figs on the fig tree means no pivot of mature believers to carry the nation. The dropping of the figs means cosmic involvement or unripe figs. Furthermore no figs on the tree means leaves only, and the fig leaves are associated with the first act of cosmic morality, the function of human adjustment without doctrine.

When our parents originally sinned and discovered that they were naked, they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves; a representation of works and self-righteousness, the principle being that if I can adjust to my fellow man in sin then I can adjust to God — a nice piece of arrogance. The only legitimate morality is found in relationship to the Word of God, Bible doctrine. In the Church Age it has to do with residence and function in the divine dynasphere.

God permits disaster in this world in order to cleanse the population of a national entity.

In Matthew 21:19 the failure of Israel to produce a pivot of mature believers guaranteed that they would be destroyed in AD 70, just as the fig tree withered: “When he [our Lord Jesus Christ] saw a lone fig tree by the road [analogous to client nation Israel as it existed at that time], he came to it, and found nothing on it except leaves only [arrogance, self-righteousness, legalism, human works]; and he said to it [to the fig tree], ‘No longer shall there ever be any production from you’.” That was the end of Israel as a client nation to God. Maybe right now God is saying the same thing to our nation as a client nation, “Then at once the fig tree withered,” analogous to the fifth cycle of discipline.

In the prophecy of our Lord’s second advent given in Matthew 24:30,31, He illustrates by teaching the parable of the fig tree in verse 32, “Now learn the parable of the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender, and its leaves come out [the evangelism of the 144,000 Jews coming up in Revelation chapter seven], you know that summer [the second advent and the Millennium] is near; even so you too, when you see all of these judgements, you know that he [our Lord Jesus Christ is near] is close to the door [second advent].”

It is obvious then that in Revelation 6:13 unripe figs refer to historical judgment of those who make bad decisions and who live in the cosmic system.

In the parable of the two baskets of figs in Jeremiah chapter 24 the basket of the good figs represents believers who have attained maturity through maximum doctrine resident in the soul, while the basket of evil figs represents believers who live in the cosmic system and therefore contribute either to the temporary or permanent destruction of the client nation.

Part of the sixth seal is the nuclear activity of the Tribulation. We have already noted by way of application that even though there is going to be a tremendous amount of sophisticated weaponry developed in this dispensation that weaponry is not capable of destroying all the people of the earth. Part of the sixth seal is the nuclear activity of Revelation 6:14-16.

Verse 14, this is the prophecy of thermonuclear reaction in the Tribulation. We begin with the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, translated “also.” The nominative singular subject o)uranoj is next, “the heaven,” the atmosphere. The Bible speaks of three different heavens. The first heaven is the atmosphere which is a band around the earth. The second heaven is the realm of angelic activity. It is found in Acts 7:42 and is called the stellar universe. The third heaven is the one we have studied in Revelation four and five; it is the throne room of God beyond stellar space, mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:2.

Our subject here deals with the first heaven, the band of atmosphere around planet earth. It is said in the aorist passive indicative of the verb a)poxwrizw, to separate, to part asunder, “Also the atmosphere was split apart.” The constative aorist refers to a momentary action when chain reaction from some thermonuclear explosion occurs. The passive voice: the atmosphere around planet earth receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of nuclear activity during the Tribulation. The analogy is given next, and in the analogy we see the fact that no matter how great the nuclear activity people will survive by the millions.

The comparison here is very simple: “like a scroll when it is being rolled up.” Because of this analogy we have fusion instead of fission. Affected by nuclear activity would be the band of the atmosphere around the earth approximately 14-16 miles high, characterised by a high ozone content. Ozone is a blue gas until it reaches 112 degrees centigrade at which point it condenses into deep blue magnetic liquids that occur in minute amounts in the air near the surface of the earth, and in large amounts in the atmosphere about seven miles up.

There are going to be changes in the Tribulation, so much so that people without Bible doctrine are going to seek to destroy themselves. They are going to be totally miserable as is always the case in adverse circumstances of life. Believers without doctrine are always miserable. There is no way that you can compensate for the historical disasters which occur apart from Bible doctrine. This is a reminder to us of the importance of the Word of God, the importance of the integrity of God, how important it is to realise His faithfulness to us.

We have now come in our study to the reaction of people in the Tribulation to the earthquakes, volcanoes and tidal waves. Before we can begin a detailed study of verses 15 and 16 where we are going to see six categories of human society who are going to react, we need to study the principle of one of the great trends in life, the principle of inequality. Once we understand this we will understand that people in every category of society can have great happiness or great misery and which ever they have depend upon the decisions they make. We have studied in great detail the principle that we are all the products of our own decisions, not our environment. The six categories mentioned in verse 15 represent different environments but they are not the products of their environment, they are the products of their decisions.

The first thing that we note about the categories in this particular situation is that they are unequal. The “kings of the earth” are, of course, the highest class. Then we have the nobility, followed by the highest military ranks, then the rich, then those with ability plus every slave and free person, the working classes. Obviously they represent different categories.

1. In every historical era, in every dispensation of human history, society exists in a state of inequality. That means immediately that inequality has nothing to do with happiness or misery, except as people make something out of it. Lower classes can be just as happy as upper classes and vice versa, and there is honour and integrity in every category of society and there is great evil in every category. So being in a certain category of privilege doesn’t mean happiness just as being in a category of non-privilege doesn’t mean misery. Inequality is no deterrent to happiness or blessing in life.

2. There are two reasons for inequality among human beings. The first is that the devil is the ruler of this world and as such he gives preferential treatment to those believers and unbelievers who live in the cosmic system. The devil gives preferential treatment especially to believers who live in the cosmic system. Therefore there is a system of pseudo prosperity provided by Satan, a system of pseudo prosperity that ends up with people fleeing to the mountains and screaming for the rocks to fall on them with the intense desire for suicide. Secondly, the sovereignty of God has made man’s free will or volition of the soul the issue in the angelic conflict, which means the impossibility of equality in the human race. Because man has volition and because he can make decisions good or bad inequality will exist in the human race.

3. For volition to be the issue there must be the environment of human freedom, and the greater the freedom the greater the inequalities of society.

4. Therefore there are two sources of inequality in the human race: the evil of Satan’s cosmic system and the principle of establishment freedom as a divine policy stated in category one truth: the laws of divine establishment.

5. The third reason is related to the doctrine of imputation. Inequality exists at the point of human birth and the imputation of human life. We are born unequal physically. We all start over when we are born again and each one has opportunities but the inequality that exists at birth cannot in any way be blamed on the individual. The inequalities that exist at the second birth are directly related to your own decisions in life.

6. Inequality also exists because of degree or failure or success in the use of freedom. People do not succeed or fail to the same degree, therefore degrees of failure or degrees of success guarantee inequalities in life.

7. This means inequality in itself is not a bad thing, only the various categories of arrogance which resent inequality — envy, jealousy, bitterness, implacability, vindictiveness, self-pity, self-righteousness, and so on. In other words, arrogance fails to adjust to life, therefore arrogance fails to adjust to the inequalities of life. This is how arrogance becomes the source of communism, socialism, the welfare state, the redistribution of wealth.

We note from the six categories of humanity we are about to study in Revelation 6:15 that inequality exists in both a time of historical adversity and in a time of historical prosperity as well. So prosperity or adversity makes no difference, there are inequalities both ways and the various circumstances of history do not change this.

All of this adds up to a principle: environment is not the solution to man’s life. Given a better environment some believers would be no better off than they are now. Given a better environment and giving you everything you want isn’t going t make you happy. In the Tribulation, as in the Church Age, inequality exists in a time of historical adversity; in the Millennium inequality exists in a time of perfect environment on the earth.

The thing we need to understand is the good and bad state of inequality. There is a good state and there is a bad state of inequality. Good inequality is exists in the environment of freedom; bad inequality exists in the environment of tyranny. So while historical environment may change from freedom to tyranny inequality doesn’t change. You have inequality under conditions of tyranny, you have inequality under conditions of freedom. So whether historical prosperity or adversity, freedom or tyranny, inequality is an inescapable and unsolvable fact of history. This is not to imply that inequalities in society means unhappiness. Poor people can be happy or unhappy; rich people can be happy or unhappy. Your status in life with regard to inequality is not the issue; your status in life with regard to our Lord and Bible doctrine is the issue. So whether historical prosperity or adversity exists, whether freedom or tyranny exists, inequality is an inescapable fact of history.

Happiness or unhappiness depends on the believer’s attitude toward Bible doctrine. Again, Lamentations chapter three gives us help here, beginning in verse 20: “My soul [historical disaster of the fifth cycle of discipline is the background] still has this in remembrance and is humbled within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion’, says my soul,” so that the issue is not the inequalities of life but the fact that the Lord is his portion, “Therefore I have confidence in him.” The issue is not the inequalities of life but the confidence one has in the Lord. And then he adds in verse 25: “The Lord is good to them who wait for him [the full use of the faith-rest drill], to the soul that seeks him.” In other words, equality or inequality isn’t the issue here, it says “to the soul who seeks him.”

This was written by Jeremiah under the tremendous stress of the fifth cycle of discipline in BC 586 when even fervent prayers of believers in fellowship were not heard regarding the client nation. In that same context Lamentations 3:44 tells us that there is a certain prayer that cannot be answered: “Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud so that our prayers should not pass through.” When the fifth cycle of discipline is being administered no prayer for the preservation of the nation breaks through even from the greatest prayer warrior. And even though there were believers in every walk of life praying for the Lord to deliver the nation the Lord did not do so.

We are going to meet six categories of inequality. These six categories exist now and they will exist in the Tribulation. We will note that all six categories of inequality in this case are miserable. We will note that rank and achievement does not mean happiness, success does not mean happiness. For the believer the pursuit of happiness means Hebrews 13:5, “Be content with such things as you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’.” So regardless of inequalities in life contentment and happiness from doctrine belongs to all believers in the royal family of God. So it is necessary in the structure of the inequality of society to find great contentment and happiness in every walk of life. In this way there is the demonstration of the importance of Bible doctrine, the importance of our relationship to God through the Word of God. So regardless of inequalities in life contentment or happiness from Bible doctrine belongs to the believer of the royal family of God regardless of his status. Philippians 4:11, “I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.”

The six categories are going to include rulers of nations, those with maximum power, military leaders, the wealthy, those who have ability, the working man; and we are going to see that all of these people have their own special brands of misery. So that whatever your status in society it is not the secret to your happiness. The secret to your happiness is Bible doctrine.

We are now ready for the prophecy of the human reaction to all of the things that have preceded. The subject is composed of six categories of human society in the Tribulation. The first thing we note about the six-category subjects is the fact that in the Tribulation, as now in the Church Age and as before in previous dispensations, there is a state of inequality. In every dispensation society exists in a state of inequality. There are two reasons for this: the devil is the ruler of this world and as such he gives preferential treatment to those believers and unbelievers who live in the cosmic system. Secondly, the sovereignty of God has made man’s volition in the soul the issue in the angelic conflict, which means that all of us make decisions every day which guarantee inequality. We make good decisions or bad decisions. We are unequal in ability but that is not really the issue, the issue is the fact that we make decisions with our unequal ability. Volition is the issue and therefore there must be an environment in which volition can function, and the environment is human freedom. Human freedom guarantees inequality. The fact that we are free to succeed or free to fail is the issue, not the fact that some of us have abilities and others have abilities and there are great inequalities among abilities.

Inequality in itself is not even a bad thing. Inequality in history has been the basis of challenging people to become great when they otherwise would not have become great. All of the ruling families in Europe at the turn of this century came from former peasant stock and had there not been inequalities their ancestors would not have been motivated to succeed. If we were all equal there would be no decisions to make and no improvement. The real problem with inequality is not inequality itself, it is arrogance and its manifestations. Arrogance has among its manifestations self-pity, people feel sorry for themselves in a lower status of inequality. There is the matter of guilt complex which belongs to the higher status of inequality in life. Of people whose parents in the past, or whose grandparents have succeeded, who have a guilt complex. But there are people who start out low and reach great heights. Why? They are challenged by inequality. Inequality is the greatest challenge in life. It simply boils down to this: arrogance fails to adjust to life and therefore arrogance fails to adjust to equality. Inequality is no problem in life at all, it doesn’t even demand legislation. It should demand personal motivation. The jealousy of those who have succeeded where you haven’t, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, self-centredness, preoccupation with self, obviously are attitudes which allow you to be defeated by inequality. Inequality is a fact of life, it is inevitable when there is freedom and it is inevitable when there is tyranny. All we ever had in history was either one or the other. Only arrogance makes an issue of inequality.

Verse 15, we start with the first category and we have the nominative plural subject, basileuj, correctly translated “kings.” With it we have the descriptive genitive singular from the noun gh which means planet earth. “And the kings of the earth,” our first category. Rulers and national leaders are not protected from historical disasters by their exalted rank, from the administration of divine judgment through historical trends. It is also a great leveller, it ferrets out people who have the highest rank and shouldn’t have it. In time of historical disaster neither God nor man is a respecter of persons. Holding the highest rank or achieving the highest authority does not provide happiness. By the way, many of these kings in the Tribulation are dictators, they are not kings in the sense of the ancient world they are people who are ruling a country. There is no happiness in being a king or a ruler or a dictator apart from capacity for happiness which comes through Bible doctrine. Achievement and success in itself does not provide happiness. Incidentally, there is no security in being top rank in any country.

Next to the kings of the earth we have the nominative plural of megistan, i.e. megistanej, and this category refers to those who have maximum political power apart from being a top ruler. We would translate this in the old days, “the princes or nobility,” those who have maximum influence and political power. The possession of political power and influence does not guarantee happiness or security. Furthermore, there is no protection against historical disaster because one possesses great power and influence.

Number three category are called xiliarxoj, which means the commander of a thousand or in some cases the commander of thousands. It would probably be better for us to recognise the category of military leaders and translate it “general officers.” Being a high-ranking officer in the army does not provide either happiness or security. Generals are not excluded from divine justice or disaster.

Next we have wealth, the rich man. The nominative plural from plousioj. Being rich does not mean happiness or security.

Number five is kai o(i i)sxouroi, and the nominative plural of i)sxouroj is the issue here. It does not means strong although it can be translated that way, it means ability. Those who have ability takes us into the academic realm, those with a high IQ, those who have talent. They are not protected from historical disaster, they are not provided with happiness and security because they have genius in the academic realm. The thinking of human genius or the muscle of human strength and violence will not prevent the historical trends of the Tribulation.

Number six is kai paj douloj, the first one in the singular, the nominative singular of douloj. It can be translated either one of two ways, either a slave or a servant, “furthermore every slave.” In the time of the Roman empire this noun referred to slaves. Today it has the connotation of labour, those who are working under the category of labour. No matter how powerful the labour unions they cannot protect the work force from historical disaster. Like all other categories in this list they are the products of their own decisions. There is no security in being in the work force. There is no security in being involved in conspiracy, violence, revolution. The continuation of this category is called e)leuqeroj, also in the singular, and that means “free,” “plus every slave and free person.” The two together make the working classes of the labour category of the Tribulation. Both categories will seek security, happiness and better conditions in the Tribulation through some vehicle of political power, which means unions will be stronger in the Tribulation than they are in the Church Age. But no matter how strong the labour unions are, no matter how much solidarity that exists, not matter how much power they accumulate politically, they will not protect the working force from the consequences of historical trends in the Tribulation. Only Bible doctrine resident in the soul can protect the work force and accomplish deliverance, security and happiness in time of historical disaster, whether it is the Church Age or the Tribulation.

Every category of society in the Tribulation has some means of protection or security but none of these systems will provide the necessary deliverance in historical disaster. All deliverance comes through salvation and positive volition toward Bible doctrine. All classes of society in time of historical disaster seek the high places, the mountainous areas for their last stand of security and safety. But these people as unbelievers in the Tribulation are seeking the wrong high ground. The only high ground that will protect them is the high ground of salvation and Bible doctrine, and they have rejected that high ground. Therefore we are going to see them running to the high ground. We are going to see all six categories as refugees, each one having the same opportunity to accept Christ and be free from this terrible situation. We are going to learn that it makes no difference what your race, what your status, how high you have gone, how low you have sunk, the only answer to life is not in success and achievement but in the Word of God, Bible doctrine.

Verse 15, “Both the kings of the earth and their nobility [those with maximum political power], both the highest military ranks and the rich, also those who have ability, plus every slave and free person … ” And that is as far as we have gone.

Next comes the aorist active indicative of the verb kruptw, which means to hide, with the accusative plural direct object from the reflexive pronoun h( a)uton. The reflexive pronoun is very simple to define when the action expressed by the verb is referred back to its own subject it is reflexive, and we will translate it simply, “hid themselves.” Every category from the highest to the lowest, all they could do is hide. No system of security held up for them, no happiness was there, there was no doctrine to sustain them. These are all unbelievers in the Tribulation in time of historical catastrophe and there was nothing that could help them. Apart from Bible doctrine there is no security, protection, or blessing, or even true happiness in this life.

So they hid themselves. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: six categories of society in a state of inequality, some higher, some lower, produce the action of the verb. It is assumed from verses 16 and 17 that the subjects were all unbelievers. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality.

Then a prepositional phrase. Where did they go to hide? Not the high ground of Bible doctrine but the high ground literally. They went first of all into caves. That would mean mountains, high ground, e)ij plus the accusative plural of sphlaion, and it is translated, “in the caves.” No system devised for their happiness, their security or their blessing worked. That is the point. And what do they have left in time of historical disaster? Altogether they had one thing in common: nothing in their system worked. Therefore they hid themselves. But they are not through hiding, it is just the first manifestation of the first phobia, arrogance and psychosis.

Note: all six categories here are arrogant. They are unbelievers, they have rejected doctrine, they have adopted a system in which arrogance plays a major part. They depend for happiness on arrogance, being recognised; they depend for security by preoccupation with their own group. The working man is preoccupied with the working man, the political man is preoccupied with the political man, the rich man is preoccupied with the rich man. All of these six categories indicate total preoccupation within the sphere of the category. There is great inequality here and in great inequality people often seek a system of security.

Then we have the second preposition, e)ij plus the accusative plural of petra. Petra can also be a big rock like a mountain so it still has a connotation of high ground. Then we do have with the word “rocks” to make sure we understand these are big rocks, the descriptive genitive plural of o)roj, which means mountains, “hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.”

This is what they did; we go on to see what they are thinking. Remember that we have rulers thinking this, we have people with political influence thinking this in the next verse. We have rich men, we have working men, we have high-ranking officers in the military, and they have one thing in common: they have the total attitude of arrogance, therefore total insecurity and unhappiness.

1. All classes of society in time of great historical disaster seek the literal high place for security, but they have the opportunity of seeking the spiritual high place, the only real security. You are safe any place in the world if you have found the high ground of Bible doctrine and the advance to maturity. That is true safety and security.

2. These people that are being described here are unbelievers and they are seeking the wrong high ground.

3. The only high ground for historical disaster is regeneration plus Bible doctrine resident in the soul of that believer.

4. Bible doctrine is no help to the unbeliever any more than the cave or the rocks of the mountains is going to be help or security. They will even admit this by taking their own lives.

5. For the unbeliever, regardless of his success or his system of security within the framework of his status, regardless of wealth, influence, authority, or some exalted status in life, or some humble status in life, there is no security, there is no happiness, there is no blessing in the historical pressure of the Tribulation.

6. All of these unbelievers seeking refuge on the high ground of planet earth are the recipients of a principle which never changes: grace precedes judgment. They had a chance to be saved, they had a chance to learn doctrine, they had a chance to accept God’s security package, and these people have all turned it down with the tragic result that we will notice in the next verse. In the next chapter, Revelation chapter 7, we have the lucid account of evangelism in the Tribulation. That is grace before judgment.

7. All of these six categories of refugees had every opportunity to believe in Christ, to learn enough doctrine to be delivered from historical disaster — deliverance with happiness, with blessing, with contentment, with everything that is important as a by-product of perception of doctrine.

8. Analogy: Just as there were 120 years of evangelism before the flood, and just as Jonah evangelised the Assyrians before their judgment, so all the people of the Tribulation will hear the gospel many times, and just as many times they will reject it. They are the products of their own decisions.

Verse 16, We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, the present active indicative of legw, “and they said.” The pictorial present tense of legw brings to mind the picture of these future events from the process of their occurrence, hence a dramatic offshoot of the futuristic present. The active voice: the six categories of society, unbelievers in the Tribulation, produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a statement of future historical fact for our edification, for our understanding, for our application; because we live in the Church Age and just as there will be great historical disasters in the Tribulation so there are great historical disasters in the Church Age, a little more spread out but the same principle. Man is the product of his own decisions.

The expression that follows dramatises the point of doctrine: the unbeliever at the point of maximum pressure does not lose consciousness. We are going to see these unbelievers die, we are going to see some of them survive. Those who survive are going to be judged at the baptism of fire and removed from the earth, and as they are moved into eternity there is a principle: no loss of consciousness. You have to live with yourself in eternity, that is for the unbeliever. The unbeliever not only experiences the maximum pain of the lake of fire but he experiences a soul pain, a sharp eternal pain of the missed opportunities, the failure to use his volition to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is going to be a part of the judgment. These six categories who are now conscious of their insecurity and begging the caves and the rocks to fall on them would like to be buried in oblivion rather than be conscious and face God’s judgment. So when they ask for the rocks to fall on them, when they ask for caves to collapse and bury them they are asking for oblivion. And notice: they demand oblivion by praying to rock, not to God. But there is no such thing as oblivion. This means the torture of being an unbeliever and the soul of the unbeliever is as great as the physical pain he will suffer in the lake of fire.

“and they said to the mountains and to the rocks,” the aorist active imperative. They are praying to rocks. These are kings praying to rocks, these are people with political influence praying to rocks, these are rich people praying to rocks, these are people with ability, people with high IQ, praying to rocks. And why do they pray to the rocks? Because they see in the rocks a chance to be crushed, to have their life crushed and, hopefully, with the crushing out of their life, oblivion. No such luck! That is not the way it is going to go.

We have the culminative aorist tense of the verb piptw, “fall on us.” The culminative aorist views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the desire for oblivion. The pressure is so great that they want to lose consciousness, they want the rocks to fall on them and deliver them from a pressure they cannot stand, a pressure they are not equipped to stand; even though they are rulers of nations, even though they have political influence, great ability, great wealth, even though they hold the highest rank in military organisations, etc., they all want this same thing in common. They are all unequal in social structure but they have one thing in common: they have a mad passionate desire for oblivion. Those who face divine judgment desire and demand oblivion. For the unbeliever of the Tribulation nothing is more desirable than the non-existence of consciousness. However, even if the mountains do fall on them they would have crushed their bodies but the soul would be absent from the body of the unbeliever and continue to possess life after death and a very painful life in the status of consciousness and judgment. Death does not mean oblivion for anyone, believer or unbeliever.

The active voice: the rocks and the mountains are commanded to dissolve them into a nonentity. They recognise at this point that having been the ruler of a nation, having great political power, being a great general, having great wealth does not give them any great happiness. They desire to lose that status, they want to be a nonentity in oblivion, they want to be without consciousness, hence a command given to mountainous terrain to destroy them. They have forgotten of course, Hebrews 9:27, not that they ever knew it: “It is appointed to a man once to die, but after this the judgment.” The judgment is given in a total state of consciousness.

Next we have some prepositional phrases, “fall on us,” e)pi plus the accusative plural of e)gw. They are aware of who and what they are, and they all desire the removal of who and what they are. They want oblivion, “fall on us.” Then the connective kai, and then once again the aorist active imperative of kruptw, “and hide.” The constative aorist for an urgent momentary action, “hide us now.” The active voice: the rocks and mountains are requested to produce the action of the verb, the imperative of entreaty for urgency and request. And again we have the accusative plural, this time as a direct object from e)gw, “they said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us’.” The urgent demand for oblivion will be denied. In their desire for oblivion they know from what they must run away. They want to escape from the Lamb [Jesus Christ] and they want to escape from the one who sits on the throne. So we have two desires for oblivion expressed in terms of their understanding, their gnwsij understanding, of doctrine. First their oblivion from God the Father, “from the presence of him [God the Father] who sits on the throne.” And then the desire for oblivion from God the Son, “and from the wrath of the Lamb.” So they understand salvation, “the wrath of the Lamb”; they understand truth, “him that sitteth on the throne,” and they want oblivion from the very thing that could have delivered them and they are acutely aware of the fact that they have rejected it. They have rejected the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, they have rejected the plan of God the Father, they have rejected the doctrine related to these things. They are running away from what they previously could have accepted, and their desire for oblivion, to be smashed by the rocks and to be blotted out of existence is because they are acutely aware of the presence of God in divine disasters. But it is an awareness of God which is absolutely useless because it drives them to distraction. It drives them to the point of insanity, the desire for oblivion.

Historical disaster is a challenge to apply doctrine for us. Historical disaster is the end of the road and the desire for oblivion. They want to be crushed out of existence, they want to be buried under rocks and forgotten. Those unbelievers in the Tribulation who actually survive all of this will be judged by the baptism of fire, while those who die during the Tribulation will die horribly and then go to Hades and the fire of Hades. Either way they are the recipients of the wrath of the Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ, while they have rejected the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

We now come to the anticipation of the second advent. The seventh seal of the Doomsday book is opened in chapter eight verse one and when it is we are going to see many developments and historical trends in the Tribulation. In the meantime we have one verse which anticipates the second advent of Christ and the judgment of the baptism of fire. By way of introduction to this verse which is a chapter in itself we should notice a principle or two.

1. Up until now in this chapter we have observed the first six seals, the general historical trends and judgements of the Tribulation presented, of course, prophetically. All historical trends are presented prophetically except the Church Age.

2. With the exception, then, of the Church Age all historical trends are presented through the vehicle of eschatology [prophecy].

3. Now we are going to observe the unbelievers of the Tribulation in terms of anticipating the baptism of fire, the great judgment which terminates the Tribulation.

5. This part of the famous day of the Lord is also prophesied in other Old Testament passages. Two of them are pertinent to our study: Joel 2:11,31, “And the Lord utters his voice before his army; indeed his bivouac is very great, for powerful is he who carries out his word. The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome, therefore who can endure it?

[“Who can endure it?” refers not only to the Armageddon campaign but to the baptism of fire which follows]

Verse 31, “The sun will be turned into darkness, the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.”

This is the first of several passages which anticipate our verse. The second one is found in Zephaniah 1:14-18, “Near is the great day of the Lord, near and coming very quickly; Listen carefully, you can hear it! The cry of the day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior will be there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of the trumpet, the battle cry against fortified cities and against castled towns. Furthermore I will bring distress on all the people, and they will walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood will be poured out in the dust, and their entrails will be like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s wrath; in the fire [reference to the baptism of fire] of his zeal the entire world will be consumed with it, for he will make a sudden end of all unbelievers who live on the earth.”

Also in Malachi 3:2, “Who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand up when he appears [reference to the second advent]?

These passages deal with historical trends at the very end of the Tribulation at the point of the second advent, and they emphasise the one judgment which is first mentioned in our passage, verse 17. It emphasises the baptism of fire judgment which is administered to all unbelievers who are alive at the second advent. These unbelievers will stand before the judgment throne of God. There are many Old Testament passages that deal with this subject and they all anticipate our passage, Revelation 6:17. This anticipates one of the greatest judgements of all time.

We might do well for the moment to review the major judgements that begin with the cross. When our Lord Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross this was the first of seven major judgements. Our Lord was being judged for our sins, therefore they were imputed to Him and all judged on the cross. The sins of the entire world were judged when our Lord was hanging between heaven and earth. And when it says that Christ died for our sins it isn’t referring to His physical death, it is referring to His spiritual death, for after He had finished bearing the sins of the world, after the saving work of Christ was completed, He uttered one word in the Greek: tetelestai, “it is finished,” it has been finished in the past with the result that it stands finished forever, a dramatic perfect tense. Now he was still speaking when He said “finished.” If He was dead physically He couldn’t speak. Our Lord died twice on the cross. First of all, and most important, all of the sins of the world were imputed to Him and judged. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and that was the judgment. He died physically because His work was finished. He said it was finished and He died physically because of that fact. So the first great judgment in history was the judgment of Christ on the cross for our sins. He became our substitute.

That set up the second great judgment, a judgment which occurs in the Church Age: the royal family are given a right and a prerogative to judge their own sins, and they do so by simply naming them. Since the sins were judged on the cross each believer is his own priest, therefore he has the privacy and the right to go directly to God and deal with God on the matter of sins. And while it is translated in 1 John 1:9 “if we confess our sins,” it means to name, to cite our sins, o(mologew is the Greek verb. We simply cite a sin which has already been judged, “and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This is the means of recovering the filling of the Spirit, the means of recovering residence in the divine dynasphere. Rebound is the second great judgment.

The third great judgment occurs at the termination of the Church Age. It is the judgment seat of Christ which we have studied extensively in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.

Then, of course, comes the Tribulation and at the end of the Tribulation the terminating event is the second advent of Christ, and when our Lord returns one of the events is the judgment called the baptism of fire. It is divided into two parts. There are unbelievers on the earth and they are divided into two categories: Jews and Gentiles. The unbelieving Jews are removed, that is judgment number four. The unbelieving Gentiles are removed and they are put into fire [judgment number five], so that when the Millennium begins — the one thousand years of our Lord’s reign under perfect environment — it begins exactly the same way that man began on the earth: believers only. That is like Noah and his family after the great flood wiped our all unbelievers. So the fire removes all unbelievers and you start out with believers only.

Then at the end of the Millennium and the Gog revolution we have the judgment of all unbelievers in history, the second resurrection and then their judgment, and they are cast into the lake of fire. That is number six.

Number seven is the judgment of all fallen angels. They too are put into the lake of fire which was prepared for them before the foundation of the earth.

We are studying a very critical area of judgment in this particular passage. The verse itself is very short and appears almost to be innocuous, “For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand.” This is one of the many prophecies of the baptism of fire.

The causal conjunction o(ti is can be translated “because,” because it is, of course, a causal conjunction. That is one of many meanings. Here it is translated “For” as in the King James version. Then we have our subject. The nominative feminine singular subject includes two words: the adjective megaj and with that the noun h(mera, “the great day.” Then with this we have a descriptive genitive of the noun o)rgh, meaning wrath, “the great day of his wrath.” The possessive genitive from the intensive pronoun a)utoj is “wrath.” Actually it is translated, “the great day of their wrath” refers to the judgment of the baptism of fire. It “is coming,” aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai. It is translated “has come.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The entire administration of the baptism of fire. The active voice: the baptism of fire produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine, “for the great day of their wrath has come.”

Then there is a question. The question will be answered by the entire seventh chapter. The conjunction kai connects the two phrases. The nominative singular interrogative pronoun tij, “and who.” We should translate it “and so” because the conjunction kai introduces a result from what precedes, “and so who.” Then the present passive indicative of the verb dunamai which means to be able, “and so who is able.” The static present tense assumes the perpetually existing state of salvation and only those who have eternal salvation through faith in Christ are able to stand. The ability to stand in this judgment belongs to those who believe in Christ during the Tribulation. The passive voice: the Tribulational believers receive the action of the verb. This is an interrogative indicative which assumes that there is an actual fact which may be stated in answer to the question, and the actual fact is the presentation of salvation under the most concentrated system of evangelism the world has ever known. And with this the aorist passive infinitive of the verb i(stemi which means here to stand. The culminative aorist views the judgment of the baptism of fire in its entirety but emphasises it from the viewpoint of existing results. Believers will be able to stand, they will go into the Millennium. The passive voice: the Tribulational believers receive the action of the verb, and this is an infinitive of actual result.

Corrected translation: “For the great day of their [the Father and the Son] wrath has come [the judgment of the baptism of fire]; and so who is able to stand?”

1. The etymology of the word baptism. Prior to the Koine Greek the various words baptw, baptizw, baptizmoj, were used briefly in Homeric and then in Classical Greek. In Homer’s Odyssey, the ninth book, he makes a reference to Cyclops. They were trapped in a cave with Cyclops, the one-eyed giant. They finally found a way to heat up a rather large stick and shove it into his eye. When they did it made a hissing sound. The hissing of the burning eye of Cyclops is compared to the sound of water when a smith baptises or dips a piece of iron into it to temper it. Bapitizw and baptw are used in that context. The Spartans baptised their spears by putting them into a bowl of blood to make them a warrior’s spear. In other words, they were issued a spear but that was a soldier’s spear, not a warrior’s spear. They weren’t warriors until they had gone into combat, and in order to make sure that the weapon was ready for combat they identified it with blood. The identification of the spear with the pig’s blood which was offered in sacrifice made it a warrior’s spear. The concept being from the Classical Greek that baptise meant to identify one thing with another thing so that the characteristic of the original thing was changed into another characteristic by what was identified with it.

Euripides tells us the whole story when a ship sank and the ship was baptised by sinking and going under water. Therefore it was no longer a ship that sailed it was a ship that lurked around Davey Jones’ locker.

So the concept was always there before it came into the Koine Greek. In the Koine Greek we have several words. We have the word baptw which means to die or to dip. The other verb is baptizw which means to dip or to immerse. Then there is a noun baptismoj which means to clean, to wash, the washing of dishes in Mark 7:4. It is also used in a very significant way in Hebrews 6:2 where we find it in the plural. One thing that all new believers should understand is the doctrine of baptisms — plural. There is a similar noun, baptisma, used for the concept of identification. The basic concept of the word “baptism” is found in the Bible. Baptism doesn’t mean baptism because baptism is just a transliteration, and therefore has no meaning. Transliterations only have meanings if meanings are assigned to them. Baptisma means identification. It means ritual identification in Matthew 3:7; it means actual identification in Romans 6:4, used for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is also used as a figure for martyrdom in Mark 10:38 and Luke 12:50. Then there is baptisthj which refers to one who performs the ritual of baptism, Matthew 3:1; 11:11; 6:25. That is where we get John the Baptist.

2. The categories of baptism. There are two. The first is real baptisms because they are actual identifications. For example, in 1 Corinthians 10:2 [verse 1 is telling about passing through the red sea], these are the Jews during the exodus and they all passed through the sea. You have to remember that not one Jew in passing through the Red Sea got wet. The only people who got wet and were subsequently immersed were the forces of Pharaoh, and they weren’t even said to be baptised. So one thing we know immediately: “and all were baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Here is “baptise” and “sea” all in one sentence. The ones that were baptised into the sea were dry! Not a drop of water. So it should occur to someone along the way that the word “baptise” must refer to something besides getting wet. And it does. The key to interpretation of the word is identification. The Jews were identified with Moses in passing through the sea. It is because they were identified with Moses that they were able to get through in what the King James version calls “dry shod.” The Jews were identified with the founder of the Jewish nation, Moses.

There is a second dry baptism, the baptism of the cross, Matthew 20:22, “But Jesus answered and said, ‘You do not understand what you are asking for. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ ” We should be familiar with that cup, it contains all of the sins of the world and drinking the cup is our Lord’s receiving of the imputation of our sins and their judgment. And then He adds: “and to be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised.” He is talking about the cross. The cup gives us the key. The sins of the world were identified with Christ on the cross and God the Father judged those sins on the cross — past, present and future. That is the baptism of the cross, it is a dry baptism.

Number three of the dry or real baptisms is the baptism of God the Holy Spirit, one of the 36 things that happens to us when we believe in Christ. God the Holy Spirit takes each one of us and enters us into union with Christ. We share His life, eternal life, we share His righteousness, we share His Sonship, His heirship, His election, His destiny, everything that He has. We are in union with Christ, that is the way the royal family is formed in the Church Age. So it is used for the formation of the royal family of God and at the moment of salvation, in the Church Age only, God the Holy Spirit takes each one of us and enters us in to union with Christ. We are identified with Christ in His death. In His death He bore our sins but He rejected human good and evil. So we are identified with Christ in His death, says Romans chapter six, therefore we too have rejected human good and evil. And the only way that we can reject them experientially is to stay out of the cosmic system, which means rebound when we sin to get back into the divine dynasphere. We are identified with Christ as He is seated at the right hand of the Father; we are royal family of God through this baptism. Each believer is identified with Christ in His death, hence he is identified with Him in His resurrection, and this is the meaning of the baptism of the Spirit. Furthermore, each believer is identified with Christ in His resurrection, the formation of current positional truth. This concept is found in Acts 1:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:26-28; Ephesians 4:5 where it says, “one baptism,” and the one baptism is Spirit baptism.

That brings us to our subject, the fourth real baptism, and that is the baptism of fire. It is mentioned first in Matthew 3:11; Luke 3:16.

The second category are the ritual baptisms. In ritual baptism water represents something — three things:

First of all in the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 3:13-17 our Lord went under the water. The water represented the plan of God the Father for the first advent. By submitting to baptism our Lord was saying at the beginning of His earthly ministry: “I am willing to go to the cross; I am willing to execute the plan of God the Father.”

Then there was the baptism of John — Matthew 3:1-10; John 1:25-33. Water in this case represented the kingdom of God, and it was presented through the message of John. He was the herald: “The King is here, the kingdom of God is at hand”. Converts who believed in Christ gave ritual testimony to the first advent and the hypostatic union, their faith in the work of Christ on the cross before it actually occurred historically by being baptised. The water, again, represented the kingdom.

Then there was Christian baptism in the book of Acts — Acts 2:38; 8:36-38; 16:15; 16:33, all of these passages in which before the canon of scripture was completed, as a training aid to explain what happened at salvation. The candidate for baptism goes down into the water, the water represents identification with Christ in His death. It is a ritual. It isn’t the baptism of the Spirit, it teaches the baptism of the Spirit. And as the candidate comes up out of the water he is identified with the air, and that is analogous the principle of identification with Christ in His resurrection. And it means that he recognises that he is a member of the royal family.

3. The baptism of fire which occurs at the second advent of Christ. It is actual identification with fire in Hades, in the place we have studied recently, a place called torments — Matthew 3:11-12.

“As for me [John the Baptist speaking on baptism], I baptise you with water because you changed your mind [about Christ], but he [our Lord Jesus Christ] who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not even fit to unlace his sandals; he himself will baptise you with the Holy Spirit [anticipation of the Church Age. The baptism of the Spirit forms the royal family of God in the Church Age] and with fire.” The baptism of the Church is characteristic of the Church Age; fire takes place at the end of the Tribulation [second advent].

The baptism of fire is a little more obscure, so verse 12 explains it, “And his grain shovel [literally, his winnowing fork] is in his hand; furthermore, he will clean his threshing floor [the world being cleansed for the Millennium].” We anticipate here the dividing of believers and unbelievers in this judgment. When our Lord uses His grain shovel at the second advent unbelievers will be taken off the earth and they will go into torments in Hades. Believers will be left on the earth and the Millennium will begin with believers only. As “chaff” [verse 12] the unbelievers will be removed from the world. The baptism of fire is the antithesis of the Rapture. At the Rapture believers are taken off the earth and unbelievers are left behind; at the second advent unbelievers are taken off the earth and believers are left behind — Matthew 24 speaks of the baptism of fire, not the Rapture.

4. The time of the baptism of fire. This judgment occurs immediately after the second advent. It is so mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 — “and to give relief to you who are afflicted along with us [says Paul], when our Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven [second advent] with his mighty angels in a blazing fire, dealing out judgment to those who do not know God, even to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Furthermore, these [unbelievers who survive the Tribulation] will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power,” they are excluded from the Millennium. They are in fire in Hades until they are removed.

5. There are three parables which are very pertinent to this judgment. The parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13; the parable of the good and the bad fish in Matthew 13; the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.

6. The punishment area of the baptism of fire. We have studied this recently in the doctrine of Hades. The location is the compartment of Sheol or Hades known as torments, a place where all unbelievers wait in fire for the administration of the last judgment.

7. The analogy to the baptism of fire is found in Matthew chapter 24:36-41. There is an exact parallel between the days of Noah and the second advent of Christ. When Christ returns to the earth it will be exactly like the days of Noah. In the days of Noah unbelievers were removed from the earth, they were immersed in water; in the day of Christ unbelievers will be removed from the earth, they will be immersed in fire.

There are some very technical passages on the baptism of fire for Jewish unbelievers. They are found in Isaiah 1:25-27; Ezekiel 20:34-38; Malachi 3:1-16; 4:1,2.

There is also a technical passage on the baptism of fire for Gentile unbelievers found in Matthew 25:31-46.

The role of the baptism of fire in the motivation of Jews in the Church Age is found in Hebrews 12:27-29, “And this [referring to Haggai 2:6], ‘Yet once more,’ denotes the removal of those things which are shaken [unbelievers of the Tribulation are shaken by the judgment of the baptism of fire], like the removal of a discarded thing [they are discarded from the earth] in order that ones not being shaken [believers who survive the Tribulation] might remain [for the Millennium]. Therefore, because we have received to ourselves an unshakeable kingdom [royal family in the Church Age] let us hang on to grace [the logistical grace provision of the divine dynasphere], through which we might render acceptable service to God with reverence and respect,” only in the divine dynasphere, “for our God is a consuming fire [reference to the baptism of fire].”

The applications of the baptism of fire: the importance of believing in Christ, the vindication of the integrity of our Lord Jesus Christ as in revelation 19:11, “ … Faithful and True; furthermore, in justice he executes judgment and makes war,” the execution of judgment is the baptism of fire. The baptism of fire is necessary for the beginning of a new civilisation. A civilisation is the divine protection of the human race in its perpetuation during the human phase of the angelic conflict. Regarding termini the civilisation begins with the believers only and terminates with a saturation of unbelievers and great cataclysmic judgment. In the terminating historical judgment God destroys the entire human race except for the believers on the earth. Furthermore, each civilisation in human history has its own climate, its own environment and variations within the species but never transmutation of species. In each civilisation man has a different life span, and animals vary within their species. That is, a horse remains a horse and does not become a horse-cow or a horse with wings like Pegasis.

There are four civilisations in human history: the antediluvian, the post-diluvian, the Millennial and the eternal. The antediluvian began with Adam plus Eve, two believers; the post-diluvian civilisation began with believers only, Noah plus his family. In the Millennial civilisation begins with believers only. The eternal civilisation there are believers only.

We are now going to introduce chapter seven because when it asks, “who is able to stand? ”in the last phrase in chapter six, the answer is found in the greatest period of evangelism the world will ever know and which will occur in the seven years of the Tribulation. So great is that period of evangelism that there will be angels evangelising toward the end of it.

We have already studied Hades and how Apollyon, second only to Satan, will make a great invasion from the abyss, and therefore the tremendous necessity in all of the concentrated demonism of the Tribulation for a clear presentation of the gospel. So we now note the concepts related to the subject at hand which is: “Who is able to stand?” The Tribulation will be a time of great harvesting of souls, many millions of people will actually believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, in every dispensation and in every period of history in every area, there must be evangelism; it is of utmost necessity.

There are three categories of evangelism that have occurred since the beginning of man’s sinfulness and the need for evangelism. First of all there is personal evangelism which is conducted by all of those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, or should be. Secondly, there is evangelism through spiritual gift which is the function of the gift of evangelism, especially in this dispensation where it is a very necessary function. Thirdly, there is national evangelism through the client nation, which is missionary activity.

Personal evangelism in the scripture is often categorised as witnessing. It is the function of the individuals in the royal family in communicating the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to those who have not accepted Christ as saviour. It is the one field of evangelism open to all believers. Witnessing is personal evangelism, it is the function apart from the gift of evangelism and from missionary activity or client nation evangelism. The threefold characteristics of witnessing are found in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, “Knowing, brethren beloved by God, for our gospel did not come to you in word only [the verbal presentation of the gospel, person to person, individual to individual], but also in the power of the Holy Spirit,” there is no presentation of the gospel unless the believer involved is residing and functioning inside of the divine dynasphere, God’s game for the Church Age and the Christian way of life. So there must be the filling of the Spirit for personal evangelism. There must be an understanding of the subject, therefore perception and application of doctrine, momentum in the spiritual life. The more effective the spiritual growth the more effective the witnessing for Christ in personal evangelism, the more effective the function of the gift of evangelism, and the more effective the function of missionary activity or client nation evangelism. All motivation for evangelism must come from gate five of the divine dynasphere which, of course, is occupation with the person of Jesus Christ at its peak but begins as love of God.

“and full conviction,” that is the Holy Spirit as the sovereign executive of witnessing, “just as you know what kind of men we became among you for your sake.” There is the witness of the Spirit, there is the verbal witness of the individual person who is evangelising, and there is the witness of the life. The three are all mentioned in verse 5.

The Holy Spirit is the sovereign executive of all forms of evangelism. Whether personal evangelism or the evangelism of the spiritual gift or the evangelism of a client nation, it is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit which is most important. The unbeliever is minus a human spirit, therefore he has no frame of reference for the gospel. The gospel is spiritual phenomenon. The unbeliever has a human soul and that soul is located inside of the human body. Therefore the unbeliever is said to be dichotomous, but there is no way that a human soul with its two frontal lobes can comprehend the information of the gospel. Therefore, God the Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit when the gospel is presented to the unbeliever.

In John 16:8-11 we have the basic areas in which God the Holy Spirit makes clear the issue of the gospel, “And he [the Holy Spirit], when he comes, will convince the world concerning [three things] sin, righteousness, and judgement [the three aspects by which the gospel is presented in all three categories].”

Immediately when you say “sin” you think of personal sin, and you think the evangelist should stand up there and keep talking about personal sins. Not at all. The only sin which is the issue in evangelism is not the fact that we have personally sinned. That is not an issue in personal evangelism, that is an issue in condemnation. We are sinners; we are sinners by imputation; we are sinners by personal action; we are sinners by the function of the old sin nature. But that isn’t the issue because that was solved on the cross when Christ took our place and was judged for our sins. There is only one sin which God the Holy Spirit uses as an issue in evangelism: “concerning sin because they believe not in me.”

Ultimately, the only sin which condemns man is rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is, of course, dramatised by the last judgement when personal sins are not even mentioned. The reason that personal sins are never mentioned at the last judgement is because all personal sins were imputed to Christ on the cross and judged. And it is only when there is rejection of Christ, negative volition toward the gospel or at God-consciousness, that results in the second resurrection, the great white throne judgement, and being cast into the lake of fire. Sins are never mentioned at the last judgement, only human good as a demonstration of the fact that none of us have a righteousness acceptable to God. The only righteousness that is acceptable is what is imputed to us at the moment we believe in Christ.

“Concerning righteousness because I go to my Father and you no longer see me.” While Jesus Christ is ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father where He received His third royal patent, and we no longer see Him, we do receive at the moment of salvation the imputed righteousness of God the Father, one half of His holiness, the other half being His justice, so that at the moment of salvation a grace pipeline is established between the righteousness of God and the justice of God. At the same time, as we have noted, every one of us who have believed in this dispensation, are entered into union with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit, and therefore we have the righteousness of Christ. As royal family we have a double portion: the imputation of God the Father’s righteousness to us the moment we believe, and we share the righteousness of Christ since we are entered into union with Him at the moment of eternal salvation. The issue in salvation is that if we are going to live with God forever we must be as good as God is. That is impossible, and therefore imputed to us at the moment we believe in Christ is the righteousness of God.

“Concerning judgement because the ruler of this world has been judged.” When Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree it was not only our so great salvation but it was the strategic victory of the angelic conflict.

In 1 Corinthians 2:14 evangelism is in focus: “But the soulish man [the unbeliever] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him, for he is not able to obtain knowledge of the gospel because they are discerned from the source of the human spirit,” and since the unbeliever has no human spirit he cannot understand the gospel.

The third category is client nation evangelism, one of the only effective world-wide systems of evangelism, for it is the function of the missionary going to the various countries of the world, and not only the presentation of the gospel but the entire modus operandi of indigenous missionary activity.

The principle behind all of this: whether it is the one with the gift of evangelism, whether it is personal witnessing, whether it is a missionary, there must be the total reliance upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit, therefore a clear presentation of the gospel is required. Pertinent Bible doctrine or the gospel is the weapon of witnessing. The gospel of the power of God to salvation, Romans 1:16, not our personalities, no our human dynamics, not even the cleverness or the ability with which we present it; it is the gospel which is the power of God with reference to salvation, “to everyone who believes.” First of all “to the Jew” because he was the client nation of the past, “and also to the Gentile” because at the present time this is the “times of the Gentiles” and only Gentile nations are client nations to God. 1 Corinthians 1:18 adds: “For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.” So the power is in the Word; the power is in the gospel. The Bible is the absolute norm for truth according to 2 Peter 1:12-21; the Bible is the source of the gospel, Luke 16:28-31; 1 Corinthians 15:3,4; the Bible is the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16; the Bible is divine power, Hebrews 4:12; the Bible never returns void, Isaiah 55:1; the Bible endures forever, Luke 21:33; 1 Peter 1:25.

The believer priest is the agent in witnessing under category one, and witnessing is the responsibility, therefore, of every member of the royal family under the power of the Spirit. There is the witness of the life, 2 Corinthians 3:3; 6:3; there is the witness of the lips in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21.

Regardless of the category it is the knowledge of pertinent doctrine which is necessary for the effective communication of the Word, because the believer must witness in the power of the Spirit, he must make the issue clear, he must exclude every system of human persuasiveness and salesmanship so as not to create distraction and false issues. The believer must understand both Christology and soteriology, especially redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, imputation, justification, atonement; these are all pertinent to the saving work of Christ on the cross. The believer’s ability to witness depends on his emphasis on the gospel, especially the doctrine of reconciliation as presented in Ephesians 2:14-17. The correct and accurate information from Bible doctrine is always the power involved in the presentation, and regardless of the category, whether it is an individual believer witnessing, whether it is an evangelist using his spiritual gift before a group, or whether it is a missionary in some foreign country the point is that all of us have this responsibility, Romans 1:14-16. Believers must have assurance with regard to eternal security for the stability of this presentation. Therefore not to be excluded is the doctrine of eternal security so that when you witness as an individual, when the evangelist stands before a group of people and speaks, or when the missionary communicates the gospel in some foreign country, they all realise that what they are presenting can never be changed; and that those who are their listeners, if they believe in Christ they have eternal salvation and they cannot lose that salvation through any failure on their part on any failure on the part of anyone else. Eternal security is a major issue in the presentation of the gospel and the confidence and the motivation that comes from telling people about Christ is the confidence that when they believe in Christ, when they personally receive Him as saviour, there is nothing that can cancel it, there is no way that they can lose their salvation.

Witnessing, therefore, is the function of the royal ambassadorship because, first of all the motivation comes from our royal priesthood. Everyone of us as believers is a priest; everyone of us is an ambassador. The function of our royal priesthood is directed toward God; the function of our royal ambassadorship is directed toward man. We are motivated by love of God to communicate the gospel as individual believers, as evangelists, as missionaries. All of us have the responsibility. This is emphasised in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. The ministry of reconciliation belongs to these three categories: witnessing, the evangelist, the missionary.

It is our responsibility to provide the gospel information but to leave the results in the hands of God the Holy Spirit. Therefore we must avoid gimmicks which confuse the issue such as emotional begging, public invitations, raising hands, walking aisles, jumping through psychological hoops. They are all disastrous in the long run because they give a concept of legalism which when people do believe in Christ they never shed the legalism, they must be doing something rather than God doing something for us.

Common grace is God the Holy Spirit acting as a human spirit to make the information of the gospel lucid and perspicuous. Efficacious grace is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the exhale of faith in Jesus Christ.

A prerequisite, then, for the presentation of the gospel is knowledge of the pertinent doctrine. Effectiveness of this depends on the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The responsibility for communication is in three categories as noted. The dynamics of communication depends upon motivation, mental attitude; in other words, life inside the divine dynasphere. Clarity of communication depends on the believer’s accurate understanding of the two deaths of Christ on the cross plus the fact that there was a judgement. Christ did not die physically for our sins. It does say that Christ died for our sins, and that is the imputation of all personal sins to Christ on the cross. That is why at the moment of physical birth, the first time we were born, there was imputed to us the sin of Adam. Adam’s original sin was imputed to our genetically-formed old sin nature and we were born spiritually dead. In the second birth, when we are born again, there is imputed to us eternal life; there is imputed to us the righteousness of God. if we are going to live with God forever and ever we must have exactly the same righteousness He has. We must have His life — eternal life. So there are two imputations: eternal life and the righteousness of God. These imputations leave one thing out: personal sin. Our personal sins are never imputed to us for judgement, our personal sins instead were imputed to Christ on the cross. They were judged at that point and that is a spiritual death, a spiritual death which culminated with our Lord speaking: “It is finished.”

There are some postulates we should note with regard to evangelism. These things will be observed in the Tribulation as well.

First we must always avoid argumentation in the presentation of the gospel. We are not trying to win a debate, we are trying to present Jesus Christ for every soul’s salvation. The responsibility, whether and individual believer, an evangelist or a missionary is to disseminate information, not to argue over its validity.

Secondly we should never be side-tracked by false issues: Is the Bible the Word of God? What about people who have never heard the gospel? These are examples of things that are not an issue in the presentation of the gospel.

Thirdly, we should deal in personal witnessing with the individual alone where possible, recognising his privacy. The evangelist must deal with the individual under the principle of privacy and therefore avoid those gimmicks like trying to get some public confirmation by the raising of hands. That becomes a false issue and produces embarrassment as an issue rather than Christ.

Fourthly, in any presentation of the gospel on the part of an individual believer, on the part of an evangelist, on the part of a missionary, there is always the danger of getting into a rut: using the single approach every time because it worked once before. Different approaches in the presentation of the gospel are necessary for different people and flexibility is one of the greatest issues in evangelism.

Fifth, there should be the avoidance of any false concept that you must speak to a certain number of people every day about Christ in personal witnessing, or that the evangelist must have a large audience, or that the missionary must “beat the bushes” constantly for converts. There is the need to train indigenous people in missionary work among their own people.

Motivation for evangelism must come from spiritual growth, from doctrine resident in the soul, from residence in the divine dynasphere; not human pressure, not spiritual bullying, and not approbation lust. Avoid, therefore, anything in the field of arrogance. Arrogance is the greatest enemy of Christianity but it is especially the greatest enemy of all of us. And we must also avoid judging other believers for their apparent failure to witness. This is a matter between the individual and the Lord, and such judging and maligning brings divine discipline upon yourself and it does not effect any way the evangelism of others.

In the first eight verses we are going to see the evangelists and missionaries of the Tribulation.

In verses nine through fourteen we are going to see the results of their evangelism.

In verses fifteen through seventeen we are going to see what happens to these people who are martyred. Many of the converts are going to be martyred for the faith.

The judgement of the pur sui vant messengers is mentioned in verse one. We do not start with evangelism, we start with historical trends; for all evangelism, all missionary activity depends upon the historical trend of the time in which the events occur. Historical trends have a great influence on missionary activity, on evangelism, and on personal witnessing.

Verse 1, we begin with the simple prepositional phrase meta plus the accusative neuter from the immediate demonstrative o(utoj, “after these things.” The opening of the seventh seal of the Doomsday book is postponed. We have the first six seals only in chapter six and we will not get the seventh seal of historical trends until chapter eight, verse one, in order to answer the question which was given at the end of Revelation 6:17, “who is able to stand?”

Chapter seven answers the question. The answer, of course, is obvious. Only the believer can stand. But there is a problem there. At the moment of the Rapture of the Church which terminates the Church Age and begins the Tribulational age, at that moment there are no believers on the earth for all believers went up with the resurrection of the Church, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. So there are no believers on the earth the moment after the Rapture of the Church. So the question is: from where is the origin of believers in the Tribulation. If only a believer can stand, where are the believers in the Tribulation? Hence, the necessity of explaining how people came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ during the Tribulation.

Evangelism in all three categories continues and thrives in time of historical disaster, and that is one of the first principles we will, learn in this chapter. Historical disaster is opportunity. Most people regard historical disaster with great trepidation but it is a time of opportunity for personal witnessing, it is a time of great opportunity for evangelism, it is a time of great opportunity for missionary activity. Our story in chapter seven is the story of evangelism in one of the most disruptive periods of history, one of the eras of history of unrestrained historical disaster. Therefore, the seventh chapter of Revelation is a parenthesis between the breaking of the sixth seal and the seventh seal in the Doomsday book. The purpose of the parenthesis, then, is to answer the question about who is able to stand. Only believers in Christ are able to stand in time of great historical disasters.

With this, “After these things [the breaking of the first six seals].” We have a verb, the aorist active indicative of o(raw meaning that John is now going to get a good glimpse of history. This is future history; this is the Tribulation. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It refers to evangelism as a fact or action extended over the entire period of the Tribulation. Furthermore, we have all three categories of evangelism used. The active voice of o(raw: John produces the action of the verb by observing the pattern of evangelism in the Tribulation. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of evangelism during the entire course of the Tribulation. “After these things I saw four angels.” What these angels are doing, what their responsibility is, how they function, will be answered in the phrases that follow.

Anyone who is a herald is in the field of nobility as far as the elect angels are concerned. “I saw four angels.” These are pur sui vant messengers who have charge of certain natural forces used by God to judge segments of the human race with historical disaster. Therefore we find next their function in the perfect active participle of the verb i(stemi, and here it means to stand ready or to be on standby alert. In its transitive sense it means to put, to place, to set, to establish, to confirm, to make valid. In the intransitive use of the verb to stand still, to stop, to stand firm, to hold one’s ground, to be alert, to be ready. So we translate: “After these things [the breaking open of the first six seals of the Doomsday book] I saw four [pur sui vant] angels standing ready.” Actually, they are on what we would call red alert to administer divine judgement.

With this we have where they are going to do it. Where are they standing ready? They are called “the four corners of the earth.” This is a prepositional phrase e)pi plus the accusative of the adjective numeral tessarej, plus the genitive of gh, and then one other word, gwnia for “corners.” This is correctly translated “at the four corners of the earth.” And what are they doing? They are said under the present active participle of the verb kratew to be restraining. They are on red alert to release but they are restraining the winds at this moment. So we have kratew, in the present tense, a descriptive present, to indicate what is now going on. The active voice: these pur sui vant angels produce the action of the verb in the restraint of divine judgement until ordered to administer that category of judgement but through the chain of command, through the cherub who acts as the pur sui vant officer.

With this we find out where they are on red alert. They are at the four corners of the earth and under the accusative plural direct object we have again the word “four” and this time we have the noun a)nemoj, and this is fascinating because this is one of three great weather makers on planet earth, “restraining the four winds of the earth.” Then we have i(na introducing a purpose clause, “in order that.” There is a purpose for this. Then we have our subject, the nominative singular subject a)nemoj again and with it the negative mh, and it is translated “in order that no wind.” Then the present active subjunctive of the verb pnew, “might blow,” “in order that no wind might blow.” The present tense is a tendencial present for an action which might occur but at the moment is not taking place. The active voice: the subject is wind — hurricane, typhoon, tornado and other disastrous winds which produce bad weather and historical disaster. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive implying a future reference qualified by the element of contingency, and the element of contingency means that it must come from what we have previously studied, the chariot of fire in which our Lord presides over the administration of these judgements. The rest of it is very simple: “blowing over land or sea or tree.”

Corrected translation: “After these things I saw four [pur sui vant] angels standing on red alert at the four corners of the earth, restraining the four winds [wind cells] of the earth in order that no wind should blow on the land, or on the sea, or against any tree.”

1. Revelation 7:1 introduces a point of doctrine which explains certain natural disasters on planet earth in terms of divine judgement.

2. It also introduces the concept of certain elect angels from the college of heralds, officers and messengers, as the restrainers of natural disasters from turbulent weather.

3. Angelic restraint cannot be understood here apart from a summary of how the world’s weather machine operates.

The sun is the ultimate source of the energy which powers the earth. Solar energy warms our planet and atmosphere. The sun not only warms the atmosphere and the planet but it also evaporates ocean water, heating it into vapour, and moving it somewhere else where precipitation occurs. Because the sun warms the earth unequally, i.e. the tropics more than the polar zones, solar energy stirs the atmosphere into motion producing a giant weather machine. The warning system is called radiation. Incoming solar radiation penetrates the atmosphere after being filtered and some thirty per cent is reflected back to space by clouds, by ice, and by water. Another twenty per cent is absorbed by air, by water, by vapour, ozone, clouds, dust, air molecules. The remaining fifty per cent is absorbed at the earth’s surface, heating the earth and the atmosphere unequally, and therefore triggering global circulation of air and ocean currents. There is where we get weather. The grace of God to humanity is noted in the fact that the incoming radiation from the sun is balanced by heat radiating back into space from the earth. Water vapour and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere intercepts some of this heat outflow, raising the temperature of the earth and the lower atmosphere of the first heavens.

Air warmed in the tropics rises and moves toward the poles where it cools off and descends because of unequal temperatures. The rotation of the earth deflects these air currents in the cells of moving air. Three of these globe-girdling cells are found in each one of our hemispheres. There are actually twelve wind cells, three in each hemisphere or, as our passage says it, “each corner of the earth.” The corners of the earth refer to the hemispheres. In this sense the earth has four hemispheres and in each one there are three wind cells, and there is one pur sui vant angelic messenger in charge of each hemisphere — northern, southern, eastern, and western. The Biblical phrase, the, the “four corners of the earth” is taken from the four hemispheres of the earth. One pur sui vant angel guards a hemisphere to restrain that area from destructive weather forces until so ordered from the chariot of fire which we studied in Ezekiel chapters one and ten.

a. With each circuit of the earth rivers of air pass ultimately over oceans and continents where they climb mountain ranges, sink into flat land, and cross lakes.

b. The moving atmosphere adjusts, creating contrasting weather along each leg of the journey of the circulating air.

c. The repetition of this process forms diverse climates in various regions of the earth.

d. Just as the winds shift from day to day bringing spells of good weather and then bad, so they provide the variations in climate year after year in this stage of the angelic conflict known as human history.

Weather has always been a factor since the flood. The reason for it is that the earth is tilted. It was not tilted before the flood. The tilt since the flood causes seasons in certain parts of the earth. For example, in the western hemisphere in June the north pole tilts toward the sun, and we have summer in the northern hemisphere and winter envelops the southern latitudes below the equator. The barometer measures the atmospheric pressure. We have isobars which trace the movements of these circulating winds. Remember there are three systems in each hemisphere and weather forecasting could be classified as the empirical observation of changes on the earth’s surface caused by atmospheric conditions.

There is a definite connecting relationship between the function of the weather machine and history. In fact, history is one of the historical trends and, as a matter of fact, this is what our verse is saying. Right now weather is being restrained by angelic creatures and when this weather machine goes out of kilter then you have terrible disaster. When the pur sui vant angels are not administering divine judgement they are restraining weather and making it possible for normal weather to exist.

The “four winds” of verse 1 are wind cells, three to each of the four hemispheres, twelve wind cells in all in planet earth, “in order that no judgement [disciplinary wind] should blow on the land or on the sea, or against every tree.”

Verse 2, “Then I saw another angel.” No we find that there is an order, and that there is a system of authority, and these four angelic creatures who are in the nobility class called the college of heralds have an authority and rank over them.

We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “then.” We have the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, “Then I saw.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Then we have the one in authority over those four angelic creatures with tremendous responsibility. They are restraining and therefore moving the wind cells in their proper circuits so that we get only normal weather, but we get abnormal weather by a simple flick of the wrist, they are always on alert. When they get a mandate from heaven from our Lord Jesus Christ all of that can change. There are no accidents in the Christian life, there are no accidents in history, every disaster that occurs in history has a very lucid explanation. It must be remembered that this is a divine decision, a fair decision, and that people are the products of their own decisions resulting in a divine decision.

“Then I saw another angel,” the pur sui vant officer of cherub rank in the college of heralds. Before they can do anything about natural disasters in the Tribulation there must first of all be a period for evangelism. There must be a principle, and the principle is always there: God is fair, always before judgement there is a grace period. Grace before judgement is the concept in this particular passage. The reason we do not go immediately to the sealing of the 144,000 evangelists is simply because there must be first of all an explanation. The explanation is a very simple one: no one has ever been overtaken by a natural disaster without a chance to change their mind, to believe in Christ, to get back to Bible doctrine. Whatever the cause of the disciplinary action from heaven, from the chariot of fire with its four wheels and …

These pur sui vant messengers in our passage are a part of the college of heralds, and while they are the lowest in the college of heralds in order of rank they are still officers compared to rank and file in the order of battle in the elect angelic army.

Verse 2 — “Then I saw another angel [pur sui vant officer, cherub by rank] coming up from the east.” Remember that all weather has to be related some way to the angels. What is not known, apart from the Word of God, is the function of the pur sui vant messengers. They control the weather machine.

Now we have our first relative clause, a present active participle from the verb e)xw, and it means to have, or to have and to hold, “who had.” The present tense of duration denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time, hence translated by the English perfect, “had.” The active voice: the pur sui vant officer commanding the weather machine produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, it is followed by the accusative singular direct object from the noun sfragij, “seal.” With it is the possessive genitive of qeoj, “the seal of God.” Then there is a present active participle of zaw, used here in the acsriptive sense of a participle, “the seal of the living God.” The relative clause belongs after the subject of the verse. Translation: “Then I saw another angel who had the seal of the living God.”

The seal is comparable to the wall of fire which protects believers during the historical disasters of the Tribulation. Certain believers are protected by the wall of fire and live to the end of the Tribulation. Others are permitted to have glorious testimony and then go into martyrdom, and from there into a tremendous interim happiness in heaven during the rest of the Tribulation. The seal also represents the spiritual gift of evangelism which functions under the principle of grace before judgement in the Tribulation.

Then we have the exercise of his command. He is in charge of the weather machine and there are four operators, one for each hemisphere, and he gives them a command. A connective conjunction kai introduces the command, “and,” plus the aorist active indicative of the word krazw which means here to shout, “and he shouted.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer in command of the weather machine produces the action. The declarative indicative mood, a simple statement of fact. It was also given in a great voice or a loud voice, the instrumental singular of fwnh plus the instrumental singular of the adjective megaj. And we also note to whom it was given: the dative plural indirect object composed with three words, the generic use of the definite article toij, and with it we have tessarej, the adjective numeral “four,” and the noun a)ggeloj.

With this we have a dative plural from the relative pronoun o(j, “to whom was given,” the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi. The culminative aorist tense views the authority of the pur sui vant messenger in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the administration of divine judgement to the human race as a command function. God gives the overall policy and it is a command function in the college of heralds. The passive voice: the four pur sui vant messengers receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative.

Then we have an ellipsis, it demands a subject for the infinitive, “to whom was given authority to damage [injure],” the aorist active infinitive of a)dikew which means to injure or to damage, “the land and the sea.” The culminative aorist views the power or authority of these angelic creatures [elect angels] in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. They run the weather machine, they have the power to do great damage to the earth through the wind cells. The active voice: the pur sui vant messengers with this authority or power produce the action and this is the infinitive of intended result which fulfils a deliberate objective, hence a blending of purpose and result. It means to damage.

Translation of verse two: “Then I saw another angel [the pur sui vant officer] who had the seal of the living God coming up from the east: and shouting a command with a loud voice to the four pur sui vant angels, to those who were given authority or power to damage the land and the sea.”

We have previously noted that the angelic college of heralds is used for the administration of divine judgement of the human race. This is the primary function of the category of pur sui vant angels. We have also noted their functions and how they operate from the chariot of fire, the headquarters for judgement. In the Tribulation divine judgement is postponed only for a short time and that is for world-wide evangelism under the principle that grace always precedes judgement. There has never been a nation, a group of people, living in any geographical area of the world who did not have an opportunity of grace before judgement.

Verse 3, we have the restraining order. It is a mandate. “And he said” is present active participle from legw. Notice how it is translated, not as a participle. There is a reason for that found in the Greek syntax of the Koine. The circumstantial participle is an idiom first rendered into the English by the conjunction “and” and the finite verb, “And he said.”

Here is the command: the aorist active subjunctive of a)dikew which means to damage. But with it, what makes it a command is not the subjunctive as such but the negative mh plus the subjunctive mood. Mh plus the subjunctive is a strong negative command. This is an ingressive aorist tense contemplating the action of the verb at the beginning. It is used to denote the entrance into a state or condition but the active voice plus the negative means the pur sui vant messengers are not to produce the action of the verb but are on red alert to destroy certain parts of the earth through the function of the wind machine. They are to, in effect, stand down for a certain period of time. The subjunctive mood plus the negative is the subjunctive of prohibition which in this case is tantamount to a negative command from higher authority. The cherub who commands the weather machine and all those who operate it is the one who gave the command.

Then we have a time limit which is introduced by a temporal conjunction a)xri, “until,” and the aorist active subjunctive of the verb sfragizw which means to seal. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer produces the action, he is in command of the weather machine and he is also going to seal some evangelists for the Tribulation. Therefore the weather machine is to stand down from red alert and not enter into any function that would be detrimental until everyone has had a chance to hear the gospel. There is no such thing as a member of the human race at any time who did not have a chance to be saved.

“until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” There are three connotations to sealing in this verse.

The first one is protection: 144,000 Jewish evangelists in the Tribulation will be protected from every devastating and sensational phenomenon that we are going to study. Even when Abaddon comes out of the Abyss with the super demons to attack, they will be protected. They are protected from the unrestrained disasters of the Tribulation.

God’s function in every dispensation is for believers who are living (in our dispensation) in the divine dynasphere. The only wall of fire is in the divine dynasphere and if you live habitually in the cosmic system there is no wall of fire for you as a believer. You have eternal security and that is all you are going to get, and a lot of judgement before you die.

The second concept is preservation: These evangelists will survive all of the historical disasters of the Tribulation. Note that there are three categories of survival in the Tribulation: the over-survivors (conservatives) who cache ammo and food in different places, etc. ; the liberals under-survive, as illustrated by their crusades for nuclear disarmament, their peace movements, their play into the hands of the communists, their soft attitude toward criminals; the wisdom survival crowd, the third category, includes both the application of doctrine and the flexibility under the direction of our Lord Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If there is a cache of food around they will find it; if there is a weapon handy they won’t need it or they will use it, but if there isn’t they are still going to survive. This is the wisdom crowd.

We have a third concept of sealing and that is validity. This emphasises the message of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation. Everyone has a chance to hear the gospel, many will respond by faith in Christ. Of course, millions will not respond and will die horribly and enter into the torments of Hades.

So this verse illustrates the principle of grace before judgement. Prior to any divine judgement there is a grace period for repentance, changing your mind about Christ [which means faith in Christ]. Not an issue at this moment is rebound. The issue with unbelievers is salvation. Every person who dies will have had a fantastic opportunity to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ under the principle of grace before judgement.

There is probably nothing where such a contrast exists than with a client nation. The first client nation in history began in BC 1440 when the Jews were delivered from their terrible bondage in Egypt, the slavery of some 400 years. When they became a client nation immediately you have the contrast. Many, many nations in the past have not demonstrated the tremendous contrasts that any client nation will demonstrate for a client nation has a major issue which is not faced: What is truth? And those who respond to truth become magnificent and those who fail have all of the obvious failures and evil influence of their failures indelibly printed on the human race. So it was with Israel. There never was a time when a Jew could not say, What is truth? because even in their worship they always repeated these words: “Shama Yisrael, Hear O Israel; Adonai Elohenu, Jehovah [the Lord Jesus Christ] is our God; Adonai Echad, The Lord is unique [one in the sense of unique].” So here we have Jesus Christ as God, Jesus Christ in hypostatic union as the God-Man. That was the basis of the establishment of the first client nation.

Three times this client nation was removed by divine discipline, the fifth cycle, and each time there was a recovery until AD 70. After AD 70 there is no client nation Israel. Right down to this moment Israel is not a client nation and will never be one again until the second advent.

We see the beginning of evangelism in the Tribulation through 144,000 men who will be alive on the earth at that time and who will accept Christ as saviour after the Rapture. These 144,000 all have one thing in common: by race they are Jews, not by nationality but by race, and they will be used in a special system of evangelism.

Verse 4, we do have literally 144,000 people involved in this passage. We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “the,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kuw, and it has to do with concentration. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, concentration under the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact. With this we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun a)riqmoj, from which we get “arithmetic.” It is translated, “Then I heard the number which had been sealed,” the articular perfect passive participle of the verb sfragizw, which means to be sealed. The definite article in the genitive plural is used as a demonstrative pronoun, “those.” The perfect tense of existing state in which the past is dropped from the thought and the attention is focused on the status quo. The evangelism of the Tribulation begins with 144,000 Jewish evangelists. The passive voice: the 144,000 evangelists receive the action of the verb. The participle is a complementary participle, it completes the idea of the action expressed in the main verb. The concept is very simple: before they could be sealed they had to believe in Christ. They believed in Christ by being alert to the transition of historical trends between the Church Age and the Tribulation.

The resurrection of the Church terminates the Church Age. At that point there are no believers on the earth, and at that point they become aware of what has happened, that people have departed from the earth and at that point they become very alert, very interested, and they personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 144,000 of that first wave of people who respond to the unusual event of the resurrection and all that pertains to it are Jews, and these 144,000 Jews live throughout the world. They will respond, they will be sealed and they will function before these historical disasters, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, occurs on the earth.

We have next the source of these people, 144,000 what? What kind of people? Who are they? And next we have again a perfect passive participle, they were sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel, e)k plus the ablative of fulh, “from every tribe.” “Tribe” is technical. Not from every nationality, not from every race. this is a technical word for Israel. This is obvious because we have a descriptive genitive plural and a genitive of relationship, “of the sons of Israel.” And since the Tribulation is not only an era of history but the continuation of the dispensation of Israel, i.e. Daniel’s seventieth week, it is fitting that the evangelists should be taken from the client nation which was operating during that dispensation. These are all Jews by race.

1. The Jews who were scattered over the world during the Tribulation — in fact they are scattered today — are better able to appreciate from their own background and culture the significance of the importance of evangelism in the Tribulation.

2. They are conscious of the fact that they have been a client nation in the past, therefore they have client nation consciousness. Today under apostasy they seek to spread their culture, which is a great culture, and they place emphasis on it; but it demands regeneration, it demands positive volition toward the laws of divine establishment, and it demands what is being ignored today, that Jesus Christ is the God of Israel as well as the only saviour. So while there is no Jewish client nation in the Tribulation there will be a Jewish nation in Palestine.

3. These 144,000 Jewish evangelists must not be confused with the nation Israel at any time. The nation Israel is under the control of the Jewish dictator from the tribe of Dan during the Tribulation. This is the reason why their is no evangelistic representation from the tribe of Dan. As we progress into this passage we will see that twelve tribes are represented. Each one of these twelve tribes have 12,000 evangelists sealed from that tribe. But there are thirteen tribes in Israel due to the fact that when Reuben, who was the firstborn of Israel, lost the privileges of primogeniture, he lost three things: the rulership which went to David and therefore to the tribe of Judah, the family priesthood which went to Levi, the double portion which went to Joseph. Joseph has two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim, and these are included. So there are thirteen tribes in Israel. Only twelve are represented here; Dan is not. Dan appears to be the source of the false prophet, the second beast of Revelation thirteen. This explains, therefore, the famous tribal prophecy of Genesis 49:17 — “Dan will be a poisonous snake by the side of the road, a viper or a puff adder in the path that strikes the horse’s heel, so that the rider falls backward.” The horse is Israel and the rider is the Jewish believers of the Tribulation. The poisonous snake is the dictator. The profile of Dan explains why this tribe is omitted from the 144,000.

1. Dan brought up the rear of Israel, Numbers 10:25, which means dragging the feet and negative volition toward Bible doctrine.

2. Dan was the first tribe to become so involved in the cosmic system that it became idolatrous — Leviticus 24:11; Judges 18:2, 30,31.

3. It is noted from 1 Kings 11:26 and 12:28-30 that it was Dan who set up the golden calf in Israel when Moses was absent during the exodus.

4. Dan was the last tribe to receive the inheritance in the land, Joshua 19:47-49.

5. In the listing of the tribes Dan is always mentioned last as illustrated by 1 Chronicles 27:16-22.

6. Dan was also omitted from the genealogies which are found in Chronicles, 1 Chronicles chapters two through ten.

7. In this context, Revelation chapter seven, Dan is not mentioned — no evangelists from the tribe of Dan.

This, of course, indicates a principle: any form of apostasy inevitably eliminates one from functioning in the plan of God.

We now begin the roster in verses 5-8. There will be no translation of these things because they are well translated and are very simply put. What we have is, first of all, Reuben. He is mentioned first because he is the first-born.

Verse 5, “From the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed. From the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand. From the tribe of Gad twelve thousand.”

Reuben should be mentioned first. Reuben is the first-born; Judah is not. All of a sudden we see immediately that there is a precedence and that this precedence recognises what happened in the formation of the nation Israel. Reuben is the first-born of Jacob. He should receive the entitlements of primogeniture. He lost out because of his sin in seducing Bilhah who was a part of Jacob’s harem and the mother of Dan and Naphthali. He was guilty of incest. It isn’t the incest itself that eliminated him but the mental attitude, the motivation, all that was involved in his spiritual failure and his lack of honour and integrity. Therefore Reuben was guilty of incest, Genesis 35:22-23. But that is not the real reason, incest was merely the result. The reason is stated that Reuben was unstable as water — Genesis 49. Since he was unstable as water it meant that he vacillated between the cosmic system and the spiritual life as a patriarch. Reuben therefore lost the right of primogeniture.

One of the greatest problems and distractions in life is instability, people who vacillate. One moment they are gung ho for doctrine, the next moment they are distracted by something else. They never get their scale of values straight. They can never seem to put first what is most important. As a result they have vacillating, unstable lives, they are constantly seeking happiness, seeking blessing but they never find it. Reuben had the blessing of rulership but he lost it to Judah. Judah is mentioned first therefore as the ruler of Israel in this verse. This emphasises the importance of the dynasty of David. Jesus Christ was born a Son of David and He will rule Israel forever under that title.

The principle is obvious: The advantage of birth [Reuben] becomes a disadvantage in life when one is involved in the cosmic system, not only with its sin and evil but with its human good as well.

We are born, of course, unequal. We live in a society always where there is inequality, where there is unfairness. There are two reasons for this. First, the devil is the ruler of this world and he gives preferential treatment to his own cosmic slaves. Secondly, the sovereignty of God has made free will or volition the issue in the angelic conflict, which means the impossibility of equality in the human race. Volition is the issue and for volition to function there must be freedom. Where freedom does not exist there is still inequality due to tyranny. Hence, there are two sources of inequality: tyranny sponsored by Satan’s cosmic system, and freedom sponsored by the laws of divine establishment.

The third concept is that there is inequality at birth combined with the quality of opportunity, which means that you fail or succeed on the basis of your own volition. However, inequality continues to exist because people who are born with handicaps plug along and succeed, whereas people like Reuben who are born with greatest opportunity fail.

Reuben, therefore, had every advantage at birth. These advantages became disadvantages simply because he was not willing to plug. He was not willing after his salvation to learn doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day. He was not willing to live his life out as unto the Lord and his instability meant loss of his great rank and opportunity. When one is involved in the cosmic system — and that includes its sin and its human good, and inevitably its evil — then that becomes a disadvantage, a handicap. The disadvantages of birth in the case of Judah, Levi and Joseph became advantages through spiritual momentum from doctrine after salvation.

While Judah is the royal tribe and Reuben is the first-born the question arises as to why Gad is mentioned third, even though he is the seventh son of Jacob. Gad means fortune and prosperity. From Genesis 49:19 it is concluded that Gad recovered quickly from defeat and he was never discouraged by temporary setbacks in his life. He regarded every adversity in life as a challenge and never became discouraged and felt sorry for himself. And since Gad means good fortune, good fortune comes to those who regard the adversities of life, not as a basis for complaining, not as a basis for operation cry-baby, not as a basis for indulging in self-pity, but as a challenge to trust the Lord, to apply doctrine and to learn even more doctrine to meet more challenges.

Genesis 49:19, “Gad will be attacked by a company of raiders, he will counterattack at their heels.”

That is the prophecy of Gad. Gad was going to be defeated in an attack by a company of raiders but he had the tremendous flexibility, even though he was down not to give up, and he reorganised and counterattacked at their heels. This is analogous the grace provision of rebound for the believer. There can be no spiritual prosperity apart from the rebound technique. Gad is probably mentioned third in this passage because of the importance of rebound, the importance of flexibility, the importance of understanding the principles of recovery. For us as believers the application is obvious: the Christian way of life, gate one, the filling of the Spirit; gate two, basic impersonal love, the beginning of virtue, honour and integrity; gate three, enforced and genuine humility, teachability in life. These three gates become the support for gate four, perception and application of doctrine; gate five is the principle of love of God; gate six, right man-right woman where pertinent; gate seven, the crystallisation of honour and integrity plus category three love friendship; gate eight is the construction of the edification complex of the soul and spiritual maturity. For us, this is the playing field; this is God’s game plan for the Church Age. We must live and reside and function inside of the divine dynasphere.

So in the very first verse of our roster we meet the first three tribes. “From the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand.” Judah is mentioned first as the ruling tribe. Judah illustrates the principle of being a plugger and therefore — the one who should have been the ruler was Reuben, yet Reuben was too unstable and failed — Judah became the ruler, and it was through integrity and honour and plugging, and the absence of motivating evil such as jealousy, arrogance, bitterness, self-righteousness, guilt complex, etc. All of these things hinder people in life. All of these things have application even to unbelievers as well as to those who have personally trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then we have Reuben, set aside, put in second place because of instability. You cannot regard the adversities of life in terms of self-pity [which is arrogance, preoccupation with self], in terms of complaining and whining, you cannot feel sorry for yourself and ever have any blessing or happiness in life.

Gad is mentioned third in verse five because Gad represents the true concept of prosperity. The concept is one of continuing to be flexible, to counter attack, to never allow a disastrous situation of any kind to destroy your life but to be completely above these things.

Principle: Every believer who is going to succeed in life must be a spiritual counter-puncher. To be a counter puncher you always punch from a stable position. The secret to punching is the stability of your feet. You have to have your feet on the ground. It requires stability. Reuben was as unstable as water; Gad was stable. You will never be a counter-puncher without the stability of maximum doctrine resident in your soul. You have to counter-punch every time you are in adversity and the Lord has to be more real to you than the personality conflicts of adversity and the circumstances of adversity. So obviously, then, Gad represents the person who utilises the grace of God in perception of doctrine. As long as God gives you life on this earth you must function under the principle of never quitting. Rebound and keep moving fulfils the concept of logistical grace found in Lamentations 3:19-25.

Gad means fortune or prosperity, but that fortune or prosperity comes through grace. Grace gives the opportunity for capacity for prosperity and fortune because grace is always accompanied by humility. Gad was a counter-puncher, he was under pressure but he never allowed the pressures of life to in any way inhibit his application of doctrine. It is the arrogance of the cosmic system which destroys all capacity for blessing. In the Tribulation there will be blessing and prosperity in spite of historical adversity. Furthermore, that blessing and prosperity to positive believers will include capacity for blessing in the midst of great historical adversity.

In verse 5 we have the first three tribes and we learn something about evangelism from them. Judah was the plugger and one thing with the gift of evangelism must recognise because they are tempted not to is to keep studying the Word of God. If there is any criticism of those who have the gift of evangelism today it is, generally speaking, that they have stopped studying. They are ignorant of doctrine.

Then there are those like the tribe of Reuben who have a great personality, the first-born, the ruler, the hotshot. These are not the ones who make it. There is great blessing for those who have the gift of evangelism but they must follow the pattern of Judah and keep plugging.

Verse 6, “And from the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand. From the tribe of Naphthali, twelve thousand. From the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand.”

Note that the tribes are not listed according the order of birth as the sons of Jacob. For example, Judah was the fourth son of Jacob. Reuben is the first-born. Gad is Jacob’s seventh son. Asher was the eighth son of Jacob but he appears number four in the order here. Naphthali is the sixth son of Jacob. Manasseh is the eldest son of Joseph and he is mentioned third here in this passage. Joseph was the eldest son of Jacob and Rachel. He was the eleventh born to Jacob.

The 144,000 evangelists never gave up and throughout the entire time of the Tribulation — seven years of every kind of disaster and danger. They refused to surrender, continued to give the gospel, and won thousands and thousands of people to the Lord. Every one of these evangelists survived to the end of the Tribulation under incredible circumstances.

We have noted that the disadvantages of birth belonged to Judah, Levi, and Joseph, but they became advantages through spiritual momentum from the consistent perception of Bible doctrine. While Judah is the royal tribe Reuben is the first-born and therefore he is mentioned secondly in verse 5.

Gad is mentioned third even though he is the seventh son of David. He never gave up no matter how difficult things became. He represents the concept of plugging under grace provision to serve the Lord in spite of failure, in spite of cosmic involvement. Every believer must be a good spiritual counter-puncher. As long as God gives us life, never surrender, never give up. Gad means fortune or prosperity from never giving up. Grace gives the opportunity for capacity for prosperity and fortune because grace is always accompanied by humility. It is the arrogance of the cosmic system which destroys all capacity for blessing and causes people to surrender and to give up in life.

We have to stop and note that Jacob had a harem of two wives and two mistresses. From these four came all of the twelve patriarchs. First of all there was Leah and Zilpa her maid. Then there was Rachel and Bilhah, her maid. Leah had six sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, were the first four. Then two more came a little later. In between was born Issachar and Zebulun. Zilpa had Gad and Asher. Rachel had Joseph and Benjamin. Bilhah also had two, Dan and Naphthali, and if ever there were a couple of real problems these were they.

Since the order in verse 6 is not chronological it is has something to do with the unrestrained historical adversities of the Tribulation. In spite of the historical disasters there will be members of the human race who will believe in Christ, who will have positive volition toward doctrine, resulting in great spiritual momentum. Spiritual momentum or lack of it on the part of Tribulational believers seems to be linked to the order or sequence in which the Tribes are presented here. For example, Judah in verse 5 was first. This implies promotion, high office or success during time of historical disaster. Judah was a plugger and because he was consistent in his perception of doctrine, no matter how great the adversity, he had phenomenal promotion and success.

Here is the principle: No matter how great the adversities may be God honours believers who are faithful in doctrine and He promotes them in time of great adversity. Furthermore, remember that if God doesn’t promote you then you are not promoted. Man may promote you but it doesn’t mean a thing. For man to promote you when God doesn’t means great suffering, pain, a miserable and even a ruined life. In other words, certain positive believers would be promoted in the midst of great adversity and unrest, and the twelve thousand from Judah are illustrations of those who are faithful, of those who learn doctrine as evangelists, and God promoted them.

There will also be many Reubens, believers who have all the advantages of life but after salvation through faith in Christ they were unstable, easily distracted, having a wrong scale of values, negative toward doctrine, living in the cosmic system, preoccupied with self, full of self-pity, pettiness, arrogance, etc.

There will also be some believers who follow the pattern of Gad, whose failures will not hinder their spiritual life. They will be counter-punchers, you can’t keep them down. Because of rebound and the utilisation of logistical grace they will recover and keep advancing in the spiritual life. That brings us to verse 6 and Asher. In this verse and in genesis 49:20 Asher depicts the prosperity of positive believers during the Tribulation. In other words, adverse historical circumstances do not hinder the prosperity of mature believers.

According to the prophecy of Genesis 49:21 Naphthali represents the Tribulational believer freed from the trap of sin after the Rapture by believing in Christ. Actually, in Genesis 49 Gad, Asher, and Naphthali all describe the remnant of believers in the Tribulation. Naphthali means “my wrestling” and reminds us of the tremendous spiritual conflict which will exist in the Tribulation, a time of unrestrained adversity and historical disaster. Nevertheless, in spite of that there is great blessing.

Asher means happiness and reminds us of the fact that no matter how horrible the circumstances of life may become we can have the same happiness that we would have in a time of historical prosperity. Manasseh was one of the weakest tribes of Israel, a reminder that helplessness and humility are ingredients for honouring and serving the Lord. Manasseh is the eldest son of Joseph by his Egyptian wife, and since Manasseh and his younger brother Ephraim were adopted by Jacob on his death bed, and both became tribes of Israel, giving to Joseph the double portion lost by Reuben they depict the concept of blessing by association with those who have strength. Joseph had great strength. They were his sons, they were blessed by association. It teaches us the great principle we have studied before in 2 Corinthians chapter 12: Out of weakness comes strength.

Verse 7, “And from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand. From the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand. From the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand.”

Simeon was the second son of Jacob by Leah. He was cruel, Genesis 34:25; he was deceitful and conspiratorial, Genesis 49:6. He was arrogant, he was hot-tempered, he was devoid of mercy, he was full of his own self-importance. Jacob was shocked by the evil performed by Simeon and Levi, and because of the weakness of this tribe it was scattered throughout the land of Israel. The fact that twelve thousand were saved and sealed out of Simeon emphasises the principle of grace throughout human history .

Levi was everything his brother was, arrogant, jealous, vindictive, full of self-importance on the one hand and self-pity on the other, he was cruel and conspiratorial. He was just like his brother but cursing was turned to blessing for Levi because Levi rebounded. From Levi came Moses, Aaron and the priesthood. Levi was appointed to the priesthood, Numbers 18:20-21. The rebound of Levi with his cursing turned to blessing is documented in such passages as Exodus 32:25-29; Deuteronomy 33:8-11; Numbers 8:5-18; 3:5-9.

Here are two brothers, both evil, both cruel, both vile in every possible way. Yet one of them came to the point of blessing; one went out under terrible discipline. The grace of God extended to Levi in Moses plus the Levitical priesthood is extended into the future where 12,000 believers of the tribe of Levi are sealed as Tribulational evangelists.

Issachar means in the Hebrew, “He will bring reward.” This emphasises the fact that God will reward in eternity those believers, whether in the Tribulation or in this dispensation, who are faithful, who are consistent, who remain in a state of humility, who are never bothered by the problems of gate one, cosmic one. What is clearly stated for us as believers in Christ in the Church Age is also implied through Issachar for believers in the Tribulation. Advancing to maturity will be intensified, they will have less time to do it but they will have great opportunity. However, it will require intense concentration, they can’t do what believers in the Church Age do now and then — miss Bible class. They will not be able to miss at all. They will advance to maturity even though it is a very short and horrible time in history.

Verse 8, Zebulun was the tenth son of Jacob and the last one by Leah. His name means dwelling or habitation. In the prophecy of Genesis 49:13 Zebulun is described as a haven for ships.” This has a messianic connotation since Galilee was where Joseph and Mary found haven after their return from Egypt. During the Tribulation some of the evangelists will actually have places where people can come after salvation, hear doctrine, grow in grace, without being disturbed by the terrible historical events of that age. In the Tribulation 12,000 evangelists of Zebulun will be a haven for many disaster victims of the Tribulation.

Next is the tribe of Joseph. It is actually a reference to the tribe of Ephraim. However, Ephraim is omitted because he was the tribe which led the revolution against the dynasty of David and the tribe of Judah as the ruling tribe of Israel. Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom of the ten tribes. was from the tribe of Ephraim, 1 Kings 11:26. But using Joseph’s name instead of that of Ephraim is very significant because Joseph was a man who never tried to promote himself. Only once in his lifetime did he seek self-advancement and as we have noted it kept him in jail for two extra years. Joseph was a man whose faith in the Lord was so strong, whose application of doctrine was so great, whose personal love for the Lord Jesus Christ was so fantastic that he never got ahead of the Lord, except once. He was a man, therefore, who was laid back, low profile, not pushy, not out in front looking for ways and means to get ahead; not playing the game by normal standards but playing the game by God’s standards. In the Tribulation there will be great leaders: the man for the crisis just as Joseph was the man for the crisis in Egypt. In times of historical disaster the solution lies not with the hotshots, the front runners, the loudmouths, but with those who have a steady intake of divine power. Remember: the Word of God is alive and powerful.

Benjamin is the full brother of Joseph, the last son of Jacob. Benjamin means “son of the right hand” which was an obvious messianic reference, a reminder that the Tribulation will terminate with the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. And just as Benjamin was faithful to Judah in the great revolution which split the nation so Benjamin will be faithful in the dissemination of the gospel during the Tribulation. Benjamin emphasises the importance of faithfulness and one of the greatest manifestations of integrity, capacity for love.

Again, note that Dan is omitted because of the Tribulational dictatorship coming from the tribe of Dan. Because Dan was easily distracted, because the tribe of Dan was the first one to go into idolatry, because Dan was sincere but never had clear, strong concepts of value, he had an erroneous scale of values and could easily be led astray by anyone or anything.

It should be noted that this passage is also the basis for false teaching from the so-called Jehovah’s witnesses, a blasphemous cult which distorts the Word of God.

The passage closes out with a perfect passive participle from the verb sfragizw, “having been sealed.” It is translated like an imperfect tense or a past tense.

Verse 9, then comes the phrase meta tauta. That is the preposition meta plus the accusative neuter plural of the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, “After these things,” after the vision of sealing the 144,000 Jewish evangelists for the Tribulation. Since the Tribulation is Daniel’s seventieth week and the end of the Jewish Age it is fitting that the evangelists are Jewish, even though there is no Jewish client nation to God until the second advent. This prepositional phrase begins the second section of Revelation 7, the result of Tribulational evangelism.

There is other Tribulational evangelism given in chapter eleven. Moses and Elijah are brought back. Then in chapter fourteen even angels are going to evangelise. But in this passage we have the results of the ministry of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists scattered all over the world. So we have the results of the Tribulational evangelism in verses 9-14. The description of the Tribulational martyrs is the first description of result.

In verse 9 we have a description of the Tribulational martyrs. We have noted briefly the prepositional phrase which begins this passage, meta plus the accusative neuter plural from the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, correctly translated “After these things.” It refers to the vision of the sealing of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. Since the Tribulation is Daniel’s seventieth week, as well as the end of the Jewish Age, it is fitting that the evangelists are Jewish although there is no Jewish client nation to God until the second advent.

We have noted the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, translated “I looked.” With this we have the connective kai plus the demonstrative particle i)dou, “I looked and behold.” With this we have the adjective poluj, meaning large or great, plus o)xloj, “a large crowd.” These are the believers martyred during the Tribulation. Add to that the phrase “which no man could number.”

That brings us to the categorical removal of barriers to evangelism in the Tribulation. We begin our prepositional phrase. One prepositional phrase encompasses all four categories, e)k plus the ablative of the four categories connected by the conjunction kai. There are four objects of the preposition e)k, each represents a barrier to evangelism; and in this case each represents a barrier of evangelism removed. So we anticipate the removal of national barriers to evangelism, the removal of racial barriers to evangelism, the removal of social barriers to evangelism, and the removal of linguistics barriers.

1. In evangelism there must be no national prejudice in the presentation of the gospel.

Arrogance plus these three areas of prejudice destroy the effective presentation of the gospel in the three categories: personal witnessing, the evangelistic ministry of those who have the spiritual gift, and national evangelism or missionary activity.

So we begin the removal of national barriers, e)k plus the ablative singular of paj plus e)qnoj, “from all nations.” It is a reference to Gentile nations. E)qnoj is sometimes translated “Gentiles” and sometimes it is translated “nations,” both are legitimate — Gentile nations, therefore a national barrier to evangelism. The principle is that national barriers do not hinder Tribulational evangelism.

1. From BC 14440 to AD 70, over 1500 years of history, client nation Israel had the responsibility of evangelising Gentile nations.

2. The failure of evangelism and missionary activity was one of the reasons for the three administrations of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel.

3. It is obvious then that the responsibility of client nation Israel was the evangelism of Gentiles and Gentile nations.

4. While there is no client nation Israel in the Tribulation mass evangelism will be carried out by Jewish evangelists who will present the gospel to Gentiles and Gentile nations.

5. The principle behind this: There must be no national prejudice in the presentation of the gospel. Why did the Jews fail in the past? They became arrogant about their culture and therefore they became involved in cosmic one and cosmic two. As a result they could not evangelise.

6. When Christ was on the cross He was judged for the sins of the entire world, therefore there must be no national prejudice in presenting the gospel.

7. In spite of the fact that anti-Semitism reaches its peak in the Tribulation [Revelation chapter 12] these Jewish evangelists reach thousands and millions of Gentiles in Gentile nations. These Jewish evangelists will be evangelising under the greatest period of anti-Semitism the world will ever know.

8. Furthermore, Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation perform their evangelistic responsibilities without the support of a client nation. National barriers do not hinder evangelism in the Tribulation. National barriers will be up because of extensive warfare during the Tribulation.

The reason that large crowd was one which no man could count or number is because national prejudice was removed from the thinking of the evangelists.

This is in the next two words, kai plus the ablative plural of fulh, referring to Jewish tribes and therefore to the racial barrier, “and tribes.” The Jewish tribes represent racial barriers. Racial barriers do not hinder Tribulational evangelism. In other words, effective and honourable evangelism in the Tribulation is conducted without any racial prejudice. The application should be obvious for our dispensation. Effective and honourable evangelism [speaking of those who have the gift of evangelism and then about the individual as a witness for Christ] demands the removal of any racial prejudice.

Continuing the preposition e)k, and this time the ablative plural of laoj referring to people in contrast to their leaders. Hence, it connotes the common people and it should be translated “the masses.” In other words, the concept of social barriers. Principle: Social prejudice is a hindrance to evangelism in any dispensation. Our Lord Jesus Christ had no social prejudice when He was hanging on the cross. He was judged for all classes of society. When it comes to the gospel there is no upper class, there is not lower class, there is no middle class; social barriers are excluded.

This time we have the implied e)k as given by the conjunction kai, and the ablative plural of glossa, “tongues.” It refers to foreign languages, “and languages.” There is the removal of foreign language barriers in Tribulational evangelism. Since the administration of the 5th cycle of discipline to Israel in AD 70 and the beginning of the times of the Gentiles the Jews have been scattered throughout the world. They live in many nations and in many places. Their cursing is turned to blessing through the mastery of the languages where they live. So these 144,000 Jewish evangelists are capable of communicating in all of the world at that time.

“After these things [the sealing of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation] I looked, and behold a large crowd which no one could count, from all [Gentile] nations, and [Jewish] tribes, and the masses [the common people], and foreign languages … ”

Notice the location of these particular Tribulational converts. They are said to be standing, the perfect active participle of verb i(stemi which means “standing.” The perfect tense here is an intensive perfect in which special emphasis is placed on the results of the action, therefore the existing status quo is intensified. This is an emphatic method in the Greek language for presenting the fact of Tribulational martyrs residing in heaven in their interim bodies. They are there because of these 144,000 evangelists. It is translated like an English present tense but it presents the existing fact far more forcibly. There are two perfect tenses in the participial form which are translated different from the perfect. In the English we translate the perfect by the word “had.” But there are two perfect tenses, one is translated in the present tense, the intensive perfect, and one is translated in the imperfect or past tense. So it is very important to note that the perfect tense has several translations that do not seem to jibe with our English language. The active voice: believers of the Tribulation who are martyred for their faith produce the action. The participle is circumstantial.

With this we have a prepositional phrase, the improper preposition e)nwpion plus qronoj, “before the throne.” Then we have a connective kai and, once again, the prepositional phrase e)nwpion plus a)rnion which means, “and before the Lamb.” The throne is mentioned for God the Father because He is invisible; the Lamb is visible to them as the only saviour.

The principle about the Father being invisible but the Son is visible because of His hypostatic union: this concept is found in John 1:18 where Jesus said: “No man has seen God at any time; but God the only Son, the unique Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” Cf.. John 6:46; 1 John 4:12. It is only because of the hypostatic union that God the Son is visible. So the invisible member of the Godhead who is seated on the throne is God the Father, and the visible member of the holy Trinity, the Lamb, is visible thanks to the fact that He is in hypostatic union. Therefore the use of the word “Lamb,” not only to emphasise the so great salvation which took place on the cross but also to emphasise the strategic victory and the fact that He is now different from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. He is coequal and coeternal with them in His deity but in His humanity He is unique, He is different from them.

At this point we have the interim life of the Tribulational martyrs, a subject which occurs frequently in this part of the book of Revelation. These martyrs have a fantastic interim life just as today there is interim life for all those who have died as believers in the Church Age. Interim life is defined as the life of all born-again believers who have died. They have gone to heaven, they are in an interim body, they are recognisable, there is no unhappiness or misery, Revelation 21:4. And, remember, the interim life happiness is for all believers who die; winners and losers are not distinguished in the interim life.

In the remainder of verse seven we have the perfect passive participle from the verb periballw which means to be clothed, “they were wearing.” The intensive perfect dramatised is what we have in this particular case, hence the dramatic perfect tense which emphasises the existing state of the Tribulational martyrs. They are living the interim life. For the person who dies there are three lives. First there is temporal life, the believer on earth. Then when he dies, interim life, the believer in heaven waiting for his pertinent resurrection. Then there is resurrection life. All three of these categories belong to the title “eternal life.” We have eternal life the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Note that these categories emphasise the body. We have a physical body in temporal life; we have an interim body in interim life; we have a resurrection body in resurrection life.

The passive voice of the participle indicates the fact that the Tribulational martyrs receive the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, expressing the attendant circumstances of their martyrdom, an additional fact or thought which is best rendered in the English by the conjunction “and” plus the finite verb, “and they were wearing.” Then there is the accusative plural of two words giving us our direct object, the adjective leukoj, “white,” and then the noun stolh, “robes.” The two words together refer to the interim body. White robes do not always refer to the interim body but they certainly do here. The use of stole rather than i(mation emphasises the interim body in heaven prior to receiving the resurrection body. The interim body for the Church Age believer who dies before the Rapture we have noted before in 2 Corinthians 5:8, “absent from the body, face to face with the Lord.” Then we have a connective kai for an additional piece of information. We can translate it either “plus” or “and.” Then the nominative plural subject from the noun foinic, which means a date palm or the branches of a palm tree. We translate it “and palm branches.” And then the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative from the noun xeir. And with this we have a)utoj, the possessive genitive — “in their hands.”

Translation of verse 9: “After these things I looked, and behold, a large crowd which no one could count, from all the [Gentile] nations, and [Jewish] tribes, and the masses, and foreign languages, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb; and they were wearing white robes, and palm branches were in their hands”.

Why do they have palm branches in their hands? We see something of the historical outlook for Israel from their schedule of feasts. There are seven feasts which the Jews celebrated as a client nation to God. They are divided into two sections. There were the feasts regarding the first advent, four of them, and we have the

feasts of the second advent, three of them. The Passover represents the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. It was generally celebrated around 14 April. Next came the feast of unleavened bread which was a seven-day feast and it represents rebound and the advance to maturity. It was in the week 15-21 April.

During that time there was the feast of the firstfruits, the first Sunday after the Passover, and it portrays the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the importance of eternal relationship with God in resurrection. The integrity of God provides great reward after resurrection. Then there was the feast of Pentecost which is fifty days after the Passover. That means it was approximately the first week of June. It represents the setting aside of Israel as a client nation to God through the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. Then came a great gap between the first set of feasts and the second. There were no feasts between June and October and this represents the time when the Church Age, the dispensation of the royal family of God, is inserted. Then came the feasts of the second advent, three of them: the trumpets is the termination of the fifth cycle of discipline, the restoration of Israel as a priest nation, and it is related to the second advent; the feast of the atonement, Yom Kippar, which is the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel [the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New Covenants], and this is what pre-millennialism is all about; the feast of the tabernacles which depicts the Millennial reign of Christ.

The feast of the tabernacles has a great deal to do with the fact that these people, these Tribulational martyrs, are holding palm branches in their hands. In Psalm 118 the real key is in verses 14-26. In the Psalm 118 we have what might be called the ancient national anthem of Israel because it was the anthem of the two advents of Christ and it recognised Jesus Christ as eternal God. On verses 14-26 we will see the national anthem as it pertains to the palm branches in their hands.

Verse 1, “Give thanks” is the first phrase, or “Be thankful,” or “Have a thankful mental attitude.” It is the hiphil perfect of the verb jadah. The hiphil stem is the causative active voice. You have to be motivated to be thankful, you have to be caused to be thankful, and the motivation or the cause comes from Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The key, then, to presenting the ancient national anthem of Israel is Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the believer. There is a relationship between advancing to maturity and the blessing of the client nation. It was true of Israel; it is true of us. For advancing to maturity forms the pivot and all blessing of the nation is blessing by association, therefore the necessity of the believer advancing to maturity. Thanksgiving is one of the principles that signifies capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness. Ungrateful people are never happy. Lack of gratitude indicates arrogance, whereas humility and gratitude go together.

“to the Lord, for he is good” refers to His divine integrity, for the word tob in the Hebrew is

Verse 2, “O let Israel say, His grace is eternal,” a reference to the attitude of the mature

believer. Recognising the eternity of grace he makes the application from eternity back into time. One of the greatest applications in time of disaster is to go from your knowledge of eternity back into time. The application of doctrines pertaining to eternity are brought into time so that you conclude under the faith-rest drill the principle that is found in Romans 8:28, that all things work together for good because God is good, God has perfect integrity. Your life is in God’s hands in time and therefore no matter what happens to you, whether disaster or great prosperity, there is no place for being depressed, for giving up, for being disturbed. The only people who can recover from the disastrous consequences of their bad decisions are believers with doctrine resident in the soul, doctrine in the form of its rationales.

Verse 4, “O let those who are in awe of the Lord say,” those who respect the Lord, and in this dispensation those who respect the Lord function at gate five of the divine dynasphere, respect for the Lord. All true love begins with awe or respect. It is maintained by respect converted into awe, “His grace is eternal.”

Verse 8, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” Inevitably in our lifetime we are going to have conflict between the human viewpoint presented by some friend or loved one and the divine viewpoint which is presented by the Word of God. This is a test we all face when we learn something from the Word and then someone we love or respect comes up with some human viewpoint concept that is contrary to that divine viewpoint. So there the conflict is on and the conflict has to be resolved by going with divine viewpoint as you see it, the three stages of the faith-rest drill, the function of impersonal love, and you come to this conclusion: “it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” Only God can solve our problems and we can enter into the solution by advancing to maturity.

Verse 9, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in politicians.”

Verse 14, the recognition of Israel’s future. Remember that the nation Israel today has no

future, it is not a client nation. There is a nation Israel when the Jews are regathered at the second advent and it has an eternal future.

“The Lord is my power and my song,” we are noting the words of the national anthem. We do not have the tune be here we have the lyrics, “because he has become my salvation [or deliverance].”

Now the two advents, and strangely enough, because the Jews confuse the two issues, in this Psalm the first time we see the two advents the second advent is mentioned first.

Verse 15, the second advent. “The sound of joyful shouting, therefore deliverance is in the

tents of the righteous.” The “tents of the righteous” is a reference to the feast of the tabernacles, the feast that denotes the second advent and the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. The righteous are those who have God’s righteousness. In other words, those who are believers at the second advent will fulfil the feast of the tabernacles.

Now we go immediately to the first advent. The first advent will come before the second advent or the cross must come before the crown. “The right hand of the Lord [title for Jesus Christ] has accomplished integrity.”

Verse 16, “The right hand of the Lord is exalted.” The exaltation began with the resurrection,

ascension and session of Christ, “the right hand of the Lord has accomplished integrity.”

Verse 17, this refers to three subjects: to David, who is the human writer in reversion

recovery; to the nation Israel, anticipating their restoration from historical disaster of the fifth cycle of discipline; and Jesus Christ in resurrection. “I shall not die, but live.” David was under the sin unto death but he is going to live. For the Lord Jesus Christ it is a reference to His resurrection. It is also a reference to the nation of Israel as a client nation to God. They are dead right now. There is a Jewish nation but it is not a client nation and cannot be, we are in the times of the Gentiles; but it is a reference to the fact that in 70 AD when Israel died as a client nation to God it will live again as a client nation — second advent. It must be remembered that the Jews are very enthusiastic about these things, so enthusiastic that they are going to have palm branches in their hands.

— “therefore I will narrate the works of the Lord,” because of these wonderful things which are going to take place.

Verse 18, “The Lord has disciplined me severely,” a reference to David in reversionism, a reference to Israel under the fifth cycle of discipline, a reference to Christ on the cross — He was disciplined in the sense that God the Father first of all imputed all of our sins to Him and then judged them — “but he has not given me over to death,” the restoration of Israel in the Millennium. At this point the Jews sang this much of the national anthem on the feast of the tabernacles, and then they approached the temple. As they entered the temple they sang verses 19-21. Again, remember that this is a hymn that was sung both at the Passover and at the feast of the tabernacles. As a matter of fact this hymn, Psalm 118, was sung at the last Passover in the upper room by the disciples, after the Eucharist. The hymn was also sung at the dedication of the second temple. It was sung at all ceremonies involving any kind of parade to the temple, Isaiah 51:11.

Verse 19,20, entering the temple. “Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to Jah [Lord]; this is the gate of the Lord,” they are entering the temple, “the righteous [imputed righteousness] enter through it.”

Verse 21, “I shall give thanks to you, for you have answered me; because you have become my salvation [and my deliverance].” That was sung as they entered the temple.

In verses 22-23 we have the first advent of Christ; in verses 24-26 we have the second advent of Christ, and it is here that we have the palm branches beginning to shape up.

Verse 22, the first advent. “The stone [Christ] which the builders [client nation Israel] rejected has become the head of the corner.” The head of the corner is the place where the two walls come together. Israel was the client nation and all of a sudden they come to a dead end, they come to the corner. Now the Church Age has client nations. Christ is the head of both Israel and the Church. That is what is means to be the head of the corner. The two walls are Israel and the Church; Christ is the ruler of Israel and the head of the Church. This passage is quoted three times in the New Testament — Acts 4:11,12; 1 Peter 2:4; Mark 12:10.

Verse 23, “This is from God,” from the integrity of God the Father, from the resurrection of Christ: God the Father resurrected the humanity of Christ, “It is marvellous in our eyes.”

Verse 24, then they skip to the second advent: “This is the day the Lord has made,” reference to the fulfilment of the integrity of God to Israel at the second advent. The day of the second advent is the day that the Lord has made; it is a reference to the day of the Lord, the time when Jesus Christ will regather Israel and will fulfil the unconditional covenants, “We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

Verse 25 will be sung by the Jews on the day of the Lord, but it was sung prophetically every

time they had the feast of tabernacles. “Ah now Jehovah, save [deliver] us now please.” That is the corrected translation, but unfortunately verse 25 has a problem. It is mistranslated in Mark 11:9 where they gave us the Hebrew, the hiphil imperative and they transliterated it, hoshiana, by the word Hosanna. And that is the mistake, they never should have translated it “Hosanna.”

Psalm 118:25, the psalm sung by the Jews at the second advent continues: “Ah now Jehovah, save us now please.” We have seen that hoshiana is transliterated in the King James version of Mark

11:9 as Hosanna. Hoshiana means “save please.” “Ah now, Jehovah, send us prosperity please.”

It should be noted that on the first Palm Sunday the second line of verse 25 was omitted. They were afraid to sing this line so they just simply cut it out. They were afraid that the Romans would take it the wrong way.

Verse 26, “Blessed is he who enters in the name of the Lord; we have blessed you from the house of the Lord.” Again, on that first Palm Sunday they omitted the second line of this verse: “we have blessed you from the house of the Lord.” It will be demonstrated from two other passages that the Jews tampered with this hymn, this great national anthem. This hymn was distorted by arrogance, by self-righteousness, by emphasising the political instead of the spiritual. These Jews wanted the crown without the cross; they wanted the second advent without the significance of the first advent. Of course, God always demands the cross before the crown. The maladjustment to the integrity of God was the problem with these people. In other words, the wanted political reform without eternal salvation — the political before the spiritual. Without the integrity of God political reform is meaningless. Freedom and prosperity in a nation can only be meaningful and permanent when related to the integrity of God and a pivot of mature believers. There is no historical blessing for Israel in the generation of our Lord Jesus Christ in His first advent.

First of all the Jews put verses 25 and 26 of Psalm 118 first, and they left out the first advent which we saw in verses 23 and 24. It was the Passover and therefore time to sing the national anthem. Jesus left Jericho and arrived in Bethany on Friday evening after sunset. From Friday evening after sunset to Saturday evening after sunset we have the Jews’ Sabbath. Jesus spent a very quiet Sabbath in Bethany. That evening He had supper in the house of Simon the leper, Matthew 26:6. Other guests included Lazarus, Martha and Mary his sisters, and also present were the twelve disciples. It was at this dinner that Mary anointed the feet of our Lord for His burial, John 12:3. On that same Sabbath afternoon many people had come out from Jerusalem because everyone was talking about our Lord Jesus Christ. Since the resuscitation of Lazarus from the dead people wanted to see Jesus and they wanted to see Lazarus, and word had passed through Jerusalem that they were together in Bethany, John 12:9. This caused envy on the part of the chief priests, the religious leaders of Israel, who held a conference to plot the death of our Lord, John 12:10-11. This crowd from Jerusalem formed the nucleus of the crowd that followed Jesus from Bethany toward Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday.

The next day was Sunday, the Jewish first day of the week, Palm Sunday. That is where we pick up in Mark 11:1-9.

In verses 8-10 we have the reaction of two crowds. In verse 8 we have homage to the King in the terms of two phrases: “Many spread their garments in the road.” That was one thing they always did on the feast of the tabernacles. Now this is approaching the Passover; this is the week before the Passover; this is not the feast of the tabernacles. Then there was the recognition of the King; “while others spread palm branches in the road which they had cut in the fields.” The reason for this is instead of celebrating the Passover, they didn’t want the Passover, they wanted the feast of the tabernacles. They didn’t want the first advent, they wanted the second advent. So they were doing a very strange thing, they were trying to put the tabernacles out of place and put it in with the Passover. This is April, not October. They want to by-pass the cross because they want the crown. So they got into the Palm branch business because of all of the great prophecies regarding Christ the Branch. Christ is the God of Israel; Christ is the Son of David; Jesus Christ is the Branch who will come out of the stump of Jesse, Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5,6; Zechariah 3:8; 6:12,13.

Also they did another very strange thing. They sang from their national anthem, verse 9, “and those who went before [the crowd coming from Jerusalem to meet Jesus], and those who followed after [the crowd from Bethany], were shouting, “Save us now!” not Hossana. In other words, “Ah Jehovah, save us now please.” And then they skipped “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Notice: Hosanna means “save now,” what they wanted was deliverance, not salvation. They don’t want the cross. They are not saying “We want salvation,” they are saying “We want deliverance from the Roman empire.” The religious crowd wanted to control without interference from the Romans and so they immediately skip everything and go to the phrase, Psalm 118:25, the second advent phrase: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” And then they added: “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.” That isn’t found in Psalm 118. They had been told to add that so that Christ would get rid of the Romans for them.

So the crowd distorted the scripture, they omitted two lines of the anthem. First of all they omitted the last line of Psalm 118:25, “O Lord, send us prosperity now.” This was what the Jews wanted but were afraid to mention it since there were Roman patrols on the road. They wanted historical prosperity, including freedom from the Roman government and administration. They wanted political and government reform apart from adjustment to the justice of God through salvation. They wanted everything without God’s plan, first advent and second advent. They wanted political reform but they didn’t want it in the plan of God.

There was a second phrase which they omitted. In Psalm 118:26, the second line, “We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.” This line is not quoted because it requires adjustment to the justice of God through salvation. How can you bless from the house of the Lord unless you are born again? is the point. The crowd had not accepted Christ as saviour, they had rejected Him as saviour. They wanted Him as the ruler of Israel, the Son of David. They wanted Him as a political figure, not as the source of eternal salvation. By the omission of these two lines Israel was saying they wanted the Millennium without the cross. The apostate Jews automatically rejected the first advent, they wanted religion rather than salvation. Religion always teams up with politics to destroy the issue. Political reform without spiritual adjustment is meaningless, useless, hopeless, a dead end.

Satan tried to tempt our Lord Jesus Christ to put the crown before the cross in Matthew chapter four, the unique temptation. Every temptation offered to our Lord in Matthew four was unique. They were temptations we will never have to face. Satan tried to keep our Lord from going to the cross in that chapter; the crowd on the first Palm Sunday tried the same thing, with Palm branches. In other words, these were palm branches out of place, that is why it is called Palm Sunday; it is religious Sunday.

So the issue is made clear: the cross must come before the crown. Man must adjust to God’s plan by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is where it started. Naturally, our Lord did not appreciate what the crowd did and He went into the temple. What did He say? He gave a message, Mark 12:1-11. Verse 1, “He began to speak to them in parables.” Parables are the result of apostasy. As a result of the apostasy of Palm Sunday Jesus now appears to believers because a parable gives an outward literal sense of a matter but requires doctrine in the soul to make a proper application. Only the believers could understand this.

“A man” refers to God, the integrity of God, the plan of God, “planted a vineyard [Israel as a client nation to God, Isaiah 5:1-7], and put a wall around the vineyard [the divine protection of the client nation], and dug a vat under the wine press [the anticipation of production from the client nation, evangelisation in the nation, the spiritual growth of the believers in the nation, missionary activity from the nation], and built a tower [freedom through military victory], and rented it out to tenant farmers [the Jews of Israel] and went on a journey.”

Verse 2, “And at the harvest season he sent a servant [the Old Testament prophets] to the tenant farmers, that he might receive some production of the vineyard from these tenant farmers [the Jews of the client nation].”

Verse 3, Israel’s rejection of salvation meant their rejection of doctrine, which meant that generally there was a very small pivot. “And they took him, and beat him, and sent him away empty -handed”.

Verse 4, “And again he sent another servant [prophet or communicator of doctrine], and they wounded him in the head, and dishonoured him.”

Verse 5, “And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so many others, beating some, killing others,” the history of Israel down to the time of our Lord. One of the last to be killed was John the Baptist.

Verse 6, and then the first advent: “He had one more, a beloved son [Jesus Christ, first advent]; he sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son’.”

Verse 7, “But the tenant farmers [Jewish client nation] said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours’.”

Verse 8, “And they seized him, and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.”

Our Lord is telling them what is going to happen next week! A week from the time our Lord uttered this message in the temple He would be resurrected.

Verse 9, “And what will the Lord of the vineyard do [to Israel as a client nation]? He will come and destroy [fifth cycle of discipline] the tenant farmers [Israel in AD 70], and will give the vineyard [client nation Israel] to others [Gentile nations].”

All of that is a parable, and now He says to them that this is the wrong time to be holding palm branches. “You are a little mixed up, you want the second advent without the first advent.” This is not the time for the palm branches, this is the time for the cross, for salvation.

Verse 10, then He says to them: “Have you not read this scripture [Psalm 118:22,23]:

‘The stone which the builders [Israel] rejected, this became the chief corner stone;

In other words, He said that the first advent had to come first, this is not a time for palm branches, there can be no Millennial kingdom, there can be no future for Israel unless He went to the cross. Therefore Psalm 118:22,23 must precede what the crowd had been shouting while they held the palm branches in their hands. They reversed the order because they had rejected Christ as saviour, they had ignored the real issue. This is the difference between the true and the false Jew. The true Jew believes in Christ, receives Him as his personal saviour. The false Jew does not. The false Jew is manifest by holding a palm branch in his hand the week before Christ went to the cross.

The true Jew is that Tribulational martyr in Revelation 7:9. Many of these Tribulational martyrs were Jews, and how do we know? They had palm branches in their hands, they knew what was coming up next. They were on schedule, they could read correctly historical trends. The Jews of our Lord’s day could not because they did not accept Christ as saviour. The Jews of the Tribulation who believed in Christ are not only in their interim state but they’re in their interim state holding palm branches in their hands, indicating that they knew the schedule, that they were not confused like the Jews of Palm Sunday.

So now we can go back to our passage in Revelation chapter seven, understanding the last phrase of verse nine. These people are believers and they are able to understand the historical trend. They know that the next time that they will be on earth they will be there at the second advent. They are going to come to the wedding supper of the Lamb as the friends of the groom. They are holding palm branches in their interim body because they will be present in their resurrection body the next time they set foot on the earth with our Lord. Therefore the palm branches at the end of verse nine have great significance, and they have great application to us. We cannot read historical trends in the time in which we live unless we are first born again and, secondly, faithful to the Word of God.

There is one other thing before we leave verse 9, and that is the three categories of eternal life.

1. John 3:36 — “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he who does not believe on the Son shall not see [eternal] life, but the wrath of God abides in him”. Attitude toward Christ determines whether we have eternal life or not. To believe in Christ is eternal life. “Believeth [pisteuw]” is in the present tense. You have eternal life at the very moment that you believe in Christ.

2. Obviously then the believer has eternal life the very moment he puts his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. For the believer who experiences physical death, the person who dies physically in time, prior to resurrection, there are three categories of eternal life.

a. The believer has eternal life while living on the earth — temporal life-eternal life.

b. The believer has eternal life after death while living in heaven and waiting for his pertinent resurrection — interim life-eternal life.

c. The believer continues to have eternal life forever and ever in a resurrection body — resurrection body-eternal life.

4. For the believer who does not experience physical death but comes under the category of the mortal taking on immortality there are two categories of eternal life: category #1, temporal life-eternal life during the time that he lives on this earth; category #3, resurrection life-eternal life. This is because he doesn’t die physically. That would be the Rapture generation.

5. For each stage of eternal life there is a body. Category #1, temporal life-eternal life: the believer occupies the physical body of corruption with the old sin nature. Category #2, the interim life-eternal life: the believer has an interim body, a body which is perfect; no old sin nature, not subject to ailments, residing in heaven, in perfect happiness, and waiting for his resurrection body. Category #3, the resurrection life-eternal life. The believer occupies a resurrection body forever and ever.

6. Therefore eternal life exists in two or more categories of life. For the person who doesn’t die, two; for the person who dies, three.

7. Eternal life can only be possessed while the person lives on earth in temporal life. You cannot receive eternal life once you die. If you die an unbeliever, that is the last chance you have of getting eternal life. The only opportunity for salvation exists now, therefore eternal life always begins in time.

8. Therefore these categories do not apply to unbelievers, to the person who rejects Christ as saviour, John 3:18.

10. Each category of eternal life reveals a new aspect of God’s perfect integrity and God’s perfect plan.

11. Only the interim life-eternal life, category #2, makes no distinction between winners and losers in the Christian life, and provides sublime happiness for every category of believer involved. In other words, there is no excuse for offering anything but the greatest of comfort to loved ones at a funeral.

Verse 10, the expression of their worship. We begin the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “then.” With this we have the present active indicative of the verb krazw which can mean to cry, to cry out, to shout. Here it means they shouted. “They shouted and said” is the idiomatic translation, but when krazw is used with is used with the instrumental adjective megaj and the noun fwnh, literally it means that they cried out with a loud voice. But the idiom simply means they shouted.

Then follows the circumstantial present active participle of the verb legw, translated “and said.” The expression of their worship was vocal. The voice expresses the thoughts of the frontal lobes, and since they are dead the fact that they can shout indicates that they have an interim body. The interim body definitely has vocal cords. The fact that their shout has content indicates that the soul resides in the interim body in the third heaven.

The content of their worship is now expressed. It begins with the generic use of the definite article h(. It is used with a noun which is regarded as a specific category of theology known as soteriology. It regards salvation as a category distinct from all other categories. The generic definite article may or may not be used in the translation. Here we do not translate it in the English. The generic definite article represents the whole realm of soteriology, but since soteriology becomes pertinent a little later on we will simply note in passing that this includes the doctrine of reconciliation which is that part of salvation which emphasises man. Man is reconciled to God through the work of Christ on the cross; or the doctrine of propitiation which is directed toward God. God the Father is propitiated by the work of Christ on the cross; or the doctrine of redemption which regards us as being in the slave market of sin and our freedom was purchased at the cross, and the coin of the realm is called the blood of Christ. Therefore, by faith we simply walk out of the slave market of sin; or the doctrine of atonement which regards salvation also from the standpoint of our sins being judged on the cross.

With this we have a dative of possession from qeoj and, of course, the dative of possession is a Greek idiom. The general possession connotation comes in the genitive. As a Greek idiom it has no equivalent in the English. The dative of possession is the dative of personal interest and it is particularised to the point of ownership. So we say: “to our God,” the possessive genitive of e)gw. In other words, this is an idiom and it should be correctly translated into the English, “salvation belongs to our God.” That is a reference to God the Father. God the Father is the author of the divine plan; God the Father is the author of salvation. It also emphasises that part of salvation known as propitiation. God the Father is propitiated or satisfied with the work of Christ on the cross. And inasmuch as He is satisfied with the work of Christ on the cross there is no work that we can add to salvation. When people seek to use some form of human works to gain salvation they become religious and religion is the devil’s ace trump. Christianity is not a religion. In religion man by man’s efforts seek to gain the approbation of God, but in Christianity it is the antithesis. God does the work of salvation and we enter into salvation by the expression of our positive volition in a non-meritorious way.

Next comes the articular present active participle from the verb kaqhmai which means to sit. It is translated, along with the prepositional phrase e)pi plus qronoj, “to him who sits on the throne.” “Salvation belongs to our God [God the Father] who sits on the throne.” This indicates the fact that Jesus Christ is visible as the God-Man but God the Father is invisible.

Then comes the dative of possession from a)rnion, correctly translated “Lamb.” The Lamb has a dual connotation: not only the saving work on the cross but an emphasis on His strategic victory of the angelic conflict. The dative of possession means that salvation belongs to Jesus Christ, the Lamb, as well. God the Father planned salvation but God the Son, the Lamb, executed the work of salvation on the cross. God the Holy Spirit reveals salvation to the human soul which is otherwise incapable of understanding spiritual phenomena as an unbeliever.

Corrected translation: “Then they shouted and said, Salvation belongs to our God [God the Father who planned it] who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb [God the Son who executed it in hypostatic union on the cross].”

One important fact about these Tribulational martyrs: they understand all the doctrines pertaining to salvation. They were not only saved by faith in Christ but they were exposed to very accurate evangelism. They were evangelised with Biblical facts, not with emotional nonsense. They not only understood the issues of salvation but they responded with personal decisions, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The message of salvation must be accurate if the ministry of God the Holy Spirit is to be accomplished. There must be accurate information that God the Holy Spirit can use.

The principle behind all of this is the principle of the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is not designed to tell you what the stock market will do next Thursday. The purpose of the book of Revelation is to demonstrate not only what happens in history, an accurate historical text book from the closing of the canon of scripture, but it is the final testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ, Revelation 19:10. And it is a reminder to us not to be carried away with morbid curiosity but to relate them all to our Lord Jesus Christ, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Verse 11, the worship of the elect angels which accompanies this cry given by the Tribulational martyrs. Here we have the classification of the worshippers.

We have a sequential conjunction again and it introduces an additional thought so we translate in “Furthermore.” With this we have the nominative masculine plural from paj, “Furthermore, all.” And then we have a parenthetical nominative plural from a)ggeloj, and with it the generic use of the definite article to comprehend a category. These are elect angels. “Furthermore, all the elect angels.” Then we have a pluperfect active indicative from the verb i(stemi, and the pluperfect is generally translated like the imperfect so we translate it, “Furthermore, all the elect angels were standing.” This is the intensive use of the pluperfect, it presents the reality of a fact which enables it to be presented with more force than the aorist would do but it is translated in the English by the imperfect. The active voice: elect angels produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the presence of elect angels in the throne room of the third heaven.

Then we have a dative singular from kukloj which is used as both an adverb and an improper preposition and it means “around.” With this we have qronoj again. Then we have another kai and we have a selection of elect angels who are going to be mentioned, “and around the angelic staff officers.” Those are the 24 “elders,” the presbuteroj. Then we have zwwn for the four angelic heralds.

Then we have the phrase, “they fell on their faces and worshipped God.” The aorist active indicative of piptw which means to fall, “falling on their faces.” The culminative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results — the worship which will be studied in the next verse. The active voice: the elect angels in the throne room of the third heaven produce the action.

Note that the mental attitude of worship in any type of creature so involved, humility, gratitude, capacity for love, capacity for life and happiness, appreciation which comes from maximum knowledge of Bible doctrine. In other words, worship is fun if you know what it is all about. These attitudes are developed through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, the perception of doctrine. In other words, residence and function inside of the divine dynasphere.

1. Every action of God, every grace policy of God, results in worship in heaven. [Not on earth because believers are ignorant of doctrine].

2. The elect angels worship in heaven when the 144,000 Jewish evangelists are sealed. They worship when the martyrs arrive. In other words, the importance of worship on earth because obviously anything that is done in heaven and can be done on earth gives great importance to that which can be accomplished on the earth. In other words, angels in heaven are worshipping right now, therefore if angels are worshipping and we are commanded to worship and we are told how to worship then obviously worship ought to be a part of our lives on this earth. And the fact that God has given us the privilege that angels do not have: when angels are operating on this earth they are passing our judgement, they are protecting you, they are functioning as your guardians, they have a lot of jobs but it doesn’t include worship. The only ones who can worship on earth in this phase of the angelic conflict are human beings.

3. The result in heaven is the worship of Tribulational martyrs because they are the beneficiaries of the great evangelistic thrust of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. There is now a tremendous response to their ministry and we find Tribulational martyrs worshipping God along with elect angels.

4. The worship expressed by the converts of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists was the subject of the previous paragraph, verses 9-10. Added to the worship of these converts who have been martyred for their faith is the worship now expressed by elect angels of the throne room of God. In other words, the angels are going to show us. We are going to learn now from the prophecy how the angels worship in heaven.

5. The importance and classification of angelic worship has been previously noted, Revelation 5:11-14, preceded by the worship of the 24 angelic staff officers and the four angelic heralds, Revelation 5:8-10. Worship, therefore, is the normal expression on the part of born again creatures. It is the normal expression of personal love for God on the part of regenerate and elect creatures. Regenerate creatures refers to mankind; elect creatures refers to the saved angels. Needless to say, then, worship is the expression of creature personal love for God. The prerequisite for worship is salvation, after that the things that accompany salvation: the filling of the Holy Spirit, knowledge of Bible doctrine, positive volition toward the plan and the purpose of God, the experience of divine blessing as a believer [including divine deliverance], cognisance of divine faithfulness. After death, the possession of an interim body for blessing in heaven while waiting for the resurrection body. The real challenge to worship is while we are still living in the devil’s world.

The challenge to worship while living in the devil’s world [while we are still physically alive].

1. God has provided for all believers the necessary factors for worshipping God in time.

2. These include (in the Church Age) the commission of the royal priesthood — every believer is his own priest, the divine dynasphere with emphasis on gate one, the filling of the Spirit; gate three, genuine humility; gate four, perception and application of doctrine; gate five, love of God eventually parlayed into occupation with Christ (if you are positive); gate eight, the ultimate expression of worship in time. It is not emotional, it is rational.

3. Furthermore, worship takes time and the time for worship demands both the proper scale of values, both motivational and volitional.

4. Certain things are declared worship which are not generally recognised and accepted by orthodox Christianity. For example, concentration is a form of worship when you are concentrating on the teaching of the Word of God, perception of doctrine under the filling of the Spirit, submission to the teaching ministry of some pastor for learning the content of the Word.

6. All expressions of worship are based on the application of Bible doctrine, whether the Eucharist or singing a hymn now and then, testifying or witnessing, giving.

7. The Eucharist has no meaning apart from understanding Christology and soteriology. In other words, ritual without reality is meaningless. The same holds true for any phase of worship.

That is why it says at the end of verse 11 “they fell down on their faces.” This indicates something very interesting: they had faces in heaven, e)pi plus the accusative plural of proswpon. Notice where the face is when you worship in heaven. It is not looking up, it is down. And then it says that they worshipped, the aorist active indicative of proskunew. The aorist tense is constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the elect angels in the throne room of God, including the 24 general staff officers and the four angelic heralds, produced the action. The declarative indicative is for reality. The dative singular indirect object of qeoj, they worshipped God.

Translation: “Furthermore all the elect angels were standing around the throne, and around the angelic staff officers [the 24 elders], and around the four angelic heralds. Then they fell on their faces before the throne and they worshipped God.”

The Christian way of life is the unique system in the plan of God throughout all the ages of human history for never in any other dispensation was the population of the world left without prophecy. The Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy, all historical trends are determined by the attitude of the individual believer toward Bible doctrine. In all previous dispensations prophecy was used to express historical trends. After the Church Age is terminated with the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church never again will this type of life exist. This is the only dispensation in which the believer at the moment of salvation receives 36 things, the only dispensation in which the believer holds two commissions from God as of the moment of his salvation, the first being his priesthood and the second being his ambassadorship. The priesthood of the believer gives each one of us the opportunity of representing himself before the Lord, of living his own life as unto the Lord, whereas the ambassadorship gives each one of us the privilege as members of the royal family of God of representing our Lord Jesus Christ on this earth.

We continue from verse eleven by noting that human worship is the expression of the believer’s personal love for God. How can you personally love the invisible God? Through Bible doctrine. We see Him who is invisible through our understanding of Bible doctrine. As such it can only be expressed, then, inside of the divine dynasphere. And as the function of the royal priesthood inside of the divine dynasphere demands perception of Bible doctrine as a prerequisite it is impossible for anyone who is born again to truly worship God unless he resides in the divine dynasphere — that means the filling of the Spirit — and he has learned enough doctrine to actually personally love God. Personal love is only a virtue directed toward God.

While worship is the priestly function of the believer it is not a true function apart from the interlock of the first four gates of the divine dynasphere. Worship function, then, is personal love for God at gate five.

There is a principle behind worship. God is a spirit, which means He is invisible to us, and “those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit,” i.e., in the power of God the Holy Spirit, gate one of the divine dynasphere, “and in doctrine,” gate four of the divine dynasphere. This combination gives us a personal love for God so that we can fulfil the principle, “having not seen we love.” Capacity for worship must precede the function of worship. You can only give what you have. If you as a believer have doctrine in your right lobe you can express worship commensurate with what you know about doctrine. If you have personal love for God from Bible doctrine you can express that in the various forms of worship, the most important form being concentration. If the believer can apply the doctrine of soteriology and Christology he can participate in the communion service linking the bread and the cup to the Lord’s first advent. If you have time — and all of us have time — you can give time in the assembly of the local church, in the listening to Bible doctrine, and even functioning in the various administrative and teaching aspects of the local church. If you have money you can give money but never give money unless motivated from doctrine.

Another principle of worship: everything we have belongs to the Lord and therefore everything we have is secure. When we part with what we have in worship, whether it is our energy in concentration under the ministry of the Spirit, or whether it is money, or some function in the local church, of whatever it is, these expressions of worship are recognised in heaven. And because worship simply expresses our love for the Lord we still have, and always will have, the object of our love. Personal love for God expresses itself in worship. If you do not have the filling of the Spirit, of course, it is all meaningless; the filling of the Spirit is as simple as your rebound.

In verse 11 the angels fell down and worshipped. There is a principle involved here. Every action of God, every grace policy of God results in some form of worship in heaven where they are so aware of these things. The point is that worship in heaven as described in the book of Revelation should be a challenge to our worship in time since we are given so much opportunity to do so. Therefore, of course, if worship in heaven is doing this then why not worship on earth? The elect angels worship in heaven when the 144,000 Jewish evangelists are sealed, and as a result there is great evangelism in the Tribulation. The result in heaven is the worship on the part of the Tribulational martyrs who were the beneficiaries of this great evangelistic thrust. The importance therefore of understanding worship in heaven and relating it to worship on earth presents a real challenge to us to utilise time in the devil’s world to fulfil the function of worship. The challenge to worship while living in the devil’s world is the central application of verse eleven. God has provided for all believers the necessary factors for worshipping God in time, and these include the commission of a royal priesthood — every believer is his own priest; the provision of the divine dynasphere with its gates.

Certain things are declared in worship which are generally recognised and accepted by all orthodox Christians: concentration and perception of doctrine under the filling of the Spirit, submission, therefore, to the teaching ministry of the pastor and the extrapolation of systematic theology from his messages. In other words, worship is learning before loving — learning doctrine before loving God. All expressions of worship are based upon the application of doctrine, whether in the Eucharist or singing or testifying, or giving, or any other form of legitimate worship.

Verse 12, we have the content of worship. The first thing we note about this verse is that we have the word “Amen” twice, the ritual of worship. But not just ritual in itself because the word means to believe. “Amen” is used in liturgy of worship but it is also for the purpose of a solemn declaration.

So we begin by noting the present active participle of the verb legw, and with it we have the Greek a)mhn, taken from the Hebrew amen. It means that now that we have brought together some of the concepts of worship that we have noted in other chapters as well as in verse 11 we are now ready to see the ultimate expression of worship in heaven. And what we see is something we can apply and we can use provided, of course, we understand. This is a futuristic present tense in the participle, it denotes a worship event which has not yet occurred in the third heaven but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the elect angels perform this worship in conjunction with the Tribulational martyrs and they do so for our benefit. Here is a future worship that hasn’t occurred yet but we are going to benefit from studying it. This is a circumstantial participle best rendered into English with the conjunction plus the finite verb.

Verse 12, the first phrase we have translated: “And they said, Amen.” While worship includes emotional response it emphasises doctrinal thinking. Therefore it is necessary to know what you are saying or expressing in worship. The content of worship is thought, and not only thought but doctrinal thinking. This thought, of course, is related to our love for God. All bona fide worship is based on cognisance of Bible doctrine and its expression in the power and the filling of the Spirit. The key to worship, then, is personal love for the invisible God. There is no personal love for God apart from perception of doctrine and neither born again believer of the human race nor elect angel can enter into the true meaning of worship apart from knowledge of God which is knowledge of Bible doctrine. Again, cognisance of Bible doctrine, the revelation of God is necessary for the function of true worship. The expression of personal love of God in worship simply cannot exist apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, John 4:24. While this worship is expressed in the throne room of the third heaven, as we have noted, the real issue in the angelic conflict is the expression of worship on earth. The true expression of worship glorifies God and therefore the function of worship in heaven becomes the pattern for worship on earth. This is the eschatological implication of the expression of worship which follows.

What follows in verse 12 are the seven characteristics which are ascribed to God as an expression of worship in heaven, and therefore to be used in that sense as far as we are concerned, with one exception.

“And they said, Amen,” and then we begin a new phrase, and in this new sentence we have seven characteristics of worship. The first is found in the Greek word e)ulogia which means praise, noble speech, and while blessing is rarely the meaning in Classical Greek it does find that meaning in the Koine Greek. The best translation would be either praise or blessing, blessing and praise belong to God. Note that in each case there is a definite article but the definite article is generic and therefore not translated since it simply declares a category of worship. In giving to God praise you have to have the ability to do so, you have something about which to praise Him. Praise means understanding God.

The next word, doca, “and glory,” is the second category of worship. This is the category which is impossible for us to give, it belongs to the angelic creatures and those who are in heaven. People in heaven can fulfil this; people on earth cannot. This is a category that the angelic creatures in heaven can give because of their eternal relationship with God. The have glory, therefore they can give glory to God.

The third category is described in the word sofia, correctly translated “wisdom.” However, when you get to wisdom you have to understand that this wisdom is related to God. This is not human wisdom, this is wisdom which belongs to God. In order to fulfil this aspect of worship today we have to understand the divine attribute of God’s knowledge. Worship centres around the wisdom of God. Our lives depend upon God’s wisdom; we are here because God is wise. We are blessed in times of adversity because God is wise.

It all begins with the fact that there are three aspects to divine knowledge. First of all there is God’s self-knowledge. Since God is eternal this means that His knowledge is eternal. Since God is sovereign it means that in His sovereignty, related to His knowledge, He is infinitely superior to any wise person who has ever lived. That includes the angelic realm as well as the human. The difficult thing for us to understand is the fact that time has absolutely nothing whatever to do with God’s wisdom. Our understanding and whatever wisdom we may accumulate simply is related to time. The future is as perspicuous as the past to God. In fact the past and the future were known to God before they existed. Since God is a person He possesses both self-consciousness and self-determination in relationship to His self-knowledge. Therefore God as a person acts rationally and in compatibility with His absolute will and perfection. In other words, God is Himself and He knows Himself to be beyond comparison with any human being or any creature of any kind. Because God is infinite His knowledge has neither boundary nor limitation. Everything that will ever be knowable in human history and everything that is knowable in angelic history was known to God billions of years ago. And what does this mean? If God’s knowledge is perfect it becomes important for us to be related to it in our daily lives. The wisdom of God has been reduced to writing for us, something that other generations in the past have not had. Because God is infinite His knowledge is without boundary or limitation. Therefore God’s knowledge is never complicated with ignorance, absurdities, stupidities, or emotional reaction.

In worship the wisdom of God becomes simply an expression of your understanding of how God has laid out the plan for you and for me for blessing, for great happiness, for a meaningful life. The only blessing we can have in life is what we can extrapolate from His perfect knowledge through perception of Bible doctrine. The issue in worship is omniscience, God’s knowledge of everything that has ever happened or ever will.

“And they said, Amen.” This is a liturgical Amen and it follows a definite pattern. E)ulogia is the first, praise belongs to God. You cannot praise someone whom you do not understand, therefore the understanding of God is the most basic concept of worship. Secondly, there is glory. You can’t give glory to God until you are in that category for doing so which we have previously noted. Then there is wisdom. We can worship Him on the basis of understanding something of His wisdom. The wisdom which belongs to God is the total sum of His knowledge, the knowledge of God is manifest in the doctrine of divine decrees.

The next category of worship comes under the word e)uxaristia which means gratitude or thankfulness. When people are not grateful in life you can count on it that they are not grateful to God. The thing that destroys gratitude and therefore capacity for life is arrogance. People who are preoccupied with themselves have no capacity to appreciate others. For the new believer thanksgiving or gratitude begins with God’s faithfulness in logistical grace provision. One of the first things we must understand as new believers is logistical grace and the logistical grace rationale. The application of the logistical grace rationale toward man is obvious — the faith-rest drill. The application of the logistical grace rationale toward God is the worship of thanksgiving. For the mature believer thanksgiving or gratitude continues with God’s faithfulness in the provision of supergrace blessing. Capacity for gratitude increases with perception of Bible doctrine.

Next is timh, “honour.” Then comes dunamij, correctly translated “power.” In this dispensation dunamij refers to the divine dynasphere, God’s game plan for the believer. In the Tribulation it refers to other sources of power available to the believer under the circumstances of historical disaster. Dunamij always means God has provided a plan for your life and choosing that plan inevitably leads to fantastic blessing in a place where blessing should technically not occur, in the devil’s world in time.

The next is i)sxuj, another synonym for power. It means strength, might, power, ability. When used in a doxology, as here, it emphasises the eternal being and the attributes of God.

“And they said, Amen: Praise, and glory, and wisdom, and gratitude [thanksgiving], and honour, and power, and ability [divine attributes]… ”

And then we have the final phrase. It is an idiom all the way, none of it can be translated literally, to qeo h(mon e)ij touj a)iwnaj ton a)iwnon. A)mhn. If it was translated literally it would be “to our God, to the ages of the ages. Amen.” And that isn’t what it means at all. It is simply an idiom which means “to our God forever and ever. Amen.” The idiom has the dative of possession and we translate it, “belongs to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Corrected translation of verse 12, “And they said, Amen: Praise, and glory, and wisdom, and gratitude [thanksgiving], and honour, and power, and ability [divine attributes], belong to our God forever and ever. Amen. ”

The fact that angels were uttering this worship does not in any way detract from the fact that we can derive great information from it.

That brings us to a new paragraph in verses 13 and 14 where we have the identification of the Tribulational martyrs. This becomes very important because in chapter eight we are going to see the answer to their imprecatory prayers. Verse 13 provides the question; verse 14 will provide the answer.

Verse 13, we have the adjective numeral e(ij, meaning “one.” With this we have the partitive genitive from the noun presbuteroj which refers to a category of angels. There are 24 of them and they are a part of the angelic general staff. Translation: “Then one of the angelic staff officers” — “answered,” the aorist passive indicative of the verb a)pokrinomai which means to answer, to reply, and even to respond. It is not necessarily preceded by a question expressed but is a reply to a reaction in the context. You will note that while this is translated “answered” or “responded” there was no question, therefore this is simply a reaction to the content of worship. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: this is a deponent verb, passive in form, active in meaning, one of the angelic staff officers who already knows the answer is the one who is given answer. This is a part of wisdom itself: when you know the answer but listen to the answer again you are a wise creature. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact.

With this we have a present active participle of legw, a circumstantial participle translated “and said.” Then we have the dative singular indirect object from e)gw which brings us back to the human writer of Revelation, John. It is correctly translated, “and said to me.” The dative indirect object indicates the one, the apostle John, as the human writer of the book of Revelation, and it is in his interest that the question is asked.

Then we have the answer. Instead of finding the question we have first of all the answer. The nominative plural is of the immediate demonstrative o(utoj, “these.” He wants to know who these human creatures are. “These” he starts out. He doesn’t start out with a question, Who are these? He starts out in the Greek saying, “These who are wearing white robes,” the articular perfect passive participle of the verb periballw, correctly translated “wearing.” The perfect tense is an intensive perfect, it dramatises what has been said here, hence the dramatic perfect tense which emphasises the existing state. These angels who have been worshipping God for a long time are amazed to see in their presence now those who are not angels but members of the human race. Furthermore, they are not yet in their resurrection bodies, they are in the interim bodies. The dramatic perfect emphasises the results of the action, therefore the results of their martyrdom is the perfect happiness enjoyed at this time. Who are these happy people? The interim body, described in verse 9 as “white robes, is a body of great happiness, there is no distinction between winner and loser.

Therefore the dramatic perfect which emphasises the results of the action and as a result of their martyrdom they now have perfect happiness in heaven. The passive voice: the Tribulational martyrs receive the action of the verb, an interim body in heaven while waiting for their resurrection bodies. The participle is circumstantial expressing the attendant circumstances of their martyrdom, the possession of an interim body and great happiness after their death. The interim body is described by the accusative plural direct object composed of two words, the adjective leukoj, “white,” and the noun stolh, “robe.” So they are wearing white robes, the interim body.

Now we have the actual question: the nominative masculine plural from the interrogative pronoun tij, who,” “these who are wearing white robes, who are they?” With it we have the present active indicative of the verb e)imi. This is the pictorial present tense, here are all of the human beings in heaven and, who are they? “and from where have they come?” is the last phrase in verse 13.

Translation: “Then one of the angelic staff officers responded, and said to me [he knows the answers, he is simply doing this for our sake], These who are wearing the white robes, who are they? and from where have they come?”

Poqen is the interrogative adverb, “from where,” plus the aorist active indicative of e)rxomai, “have they come.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety, referring to a fact or action extended over the period of the Tribulation. The active voice: the question is about Tribulational martyrs, and this is an interrogative indicative which assumes that there is an answer to the actual question.

The plan of God for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is basically the same in every dispensation. The only exception is the Church Age where God has provided a more detailed opportunity in the power plant of the divine dynasphere. Rank has its privileges and one of the privileges of the royal family of God is to live in a time when it is easier than any other time in history to live the spiritual life, the plan of God for time.

— the function of the justice of God toward mankind and related to the plan of God for mankind. Imputation functions as an act of condemnation or blessing.

There are two kinds of imputations: a real imputation and a judicial imputation. In a real imputation the justice of God imputes under the principle of antecedents or affinity. In other words, in a real imputation there are two factors. Factor one: what is imputed to factor two with which it has affinity. Factor one: what is imputed from the justice of God; factor two: the home or the target for the imputation. In other words, there is an affinity between the two factors.

In a judicial imputation the justice of God imputes what is not antecedently one’s own. In other words, in a judicial imputation you have factor X imputed without affinity, there is no real affinity, there is no home or target for the imputation. Therefore there is only one factor which is in existence, that which is being imputed. Consequently great emphasis is placed on the source of judicial imputation which is always the integrity of God.

The seven imputations in the plan of God are primarily related to the Church Age. They also have application to believers in the Tribulation. But you never start with the believer. The first imputation in history is the imputation of human life immediately after birth to its target which is the human soul. This is a real imputation, it has two factors: factor one is human life. We receive human life, it was given to us at birth or, you might say, after birth. There is no human life in the womb. God imputed human life in each case. The fact that God imputes human life to its home or the target, the soul, after birth implies that God has a plan for every member of the human race. Whether that plan is realised or not depends entirely upon the volition of the individual.

The life that is imputed to the human soul resides there forever. There is no cessation of life in the human soul. That is true in time as well as in eternity. Human life is in the soul. At physical death the soul leaves the body and goes to its designated place, heaven or Hades. In other words, when God imputes human life and it resides in the soul forever it is indestructible. There is nothing man can to do to separate the life from the soul and that includes suicide. Furthermore, even God Himself cannot and will not separate human life from the soul. God made the imputation. The fact that you and I have life is a gift from God.

Conclusion from the first imputation: God has a plan for your life; God has a plan for every person, and only negative volition at the point of God-consciousness and gospel hearing can hinder the fulfilment of that plan. Simultaneously there is a second imputation that occurs. Imputation number one: human life is imputed to the human soul, therefore human life resides in the soul forever. Imputation number two: Adam’s original sin is imputed to its home, its target, the genetically-formed old sin nature. There is affinity between human life and the soul; there is affinity between Adam’s sin and the old sin nature since Adam’s original sin is the origin of the old sin nature. The justice of God takes Adam’s original sin and imputes it directly to that to which it has affinity, the genetically-formed old sin nature. Just as there is affinity between life and the soul so there is affinity between Adam’s original sin and the old sin nature. Romans 5:12 gives us the fact that Adam’s original sin is the original old sin nature. Adam’s original sin is the origin, it created, as it were, the old sin nature. Therefore there is an affinity with antecedents dating back to the original sin of the Garden of Eden.

While the woman was just as guilty she was deceived in the transgression and therefore her sin is not the basis for that imputation, it is Adam’s sin. The old sin nature originated, then, from Adam’s sin because Adam knew exactly what he was doing and it is now transmitted to 23 male chromosomes which fertilise the female ovum at the point of copulation. The female ovum has 23 perfect chromosomes; the male has 23 sinful, imperfect chromosomes. The imputation of Adam’s original sin to the old sin nature is a facsimile of Adam at the time of his fall. This is a real imputation because it has two factors. Factor one: Adam’s original sin; factor two the old sin nature which is genetically-formed from the 23 male chromosomes. Therefore, human birth or the beginning of human life consists of two simultaneous imputations from the justice of God. This is the wisdom of God for condemnation must precede salvation, and because of that anyone who doesn’t have the opportunity of personally believing in Christ — they die too soon, they do not reach accountability — is already condemned. They were condemned at birth and that condemnation of Adam’s original sin, being imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature, guarantees that if they die before reaching accountability they automatically go to heaven because condemnation must precede salvation. There is no need for salvation apart from condemnation.

So the imputation of Adam’s sin at birth is the basis also for spiritual death — Romans 5:12-21. No one is condemned on the basis of his personal sins, and that becomes a very important factor. In Romans 6:23 it says. “The wages of sin is death.” That means that at the moment of birth Adam’s original sin was imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. Notice: Personal sins are not the basis for the wages of sin. Personal sin is a reality but the thing that condemns us is the imputation of Adam’s sin.

The wisdom of God is quite obvious here because those who die after child birth are automatically saved. Those who die before accountability are automatically saved and those who never reach accountability because of some mental deficiency are automatically saved. That is because they were condemned before any of these factors became a reality.

The imputation of Adam’s sin at birth is the basis of spiritual death. No one is condemned on the basis of his personal sins and that means that all personal sins are not judged by God when they occur because they were all judged at one time, at the cross. They were reserved for the cross. All personal sins were imputed to Christ on the cross and that is when God judged them. That is the basis for the saving work of Christ on the cross, and that is a spiritual death, not a physical death. Christ died physically because His work of spiritual death was completed. So the non-imputation of personal sins to the individual reserved them for the cross. Therefore personal sins is not the basis for spiritual death, it is simply one of three manifestations of the old sin nature. Hence, we are born physically alive [the imputation of human life] and spiritually dead [the imputation of Adam’s sin]. These are the two imputations at birth.

There is one exception to this, the birth of the humanity of Christ. All the cells of the human race are contaminated by the old sin nature. There is only one exception and that exists through meiosis and the function of polar body. Through the function of meiosis and the function of polar body there are 23 chromosomes which are thrown off in the ovum leaving 23 uncontaminated chromosomes in the female ovum prior to fertilisation. These 23 uncontaminated chromosomes are free from the cell contamination of the old sin nature. This phenomenon in the female is based on the fact that the woman was deceived in the first transgression — but was still guilty. While both the man and the woman are carriers of the old sin nature only the man can transmit the old sin nature through fertilisation of the female ovum. But should the woman receive 23 uncontaminated chromosomes, i.e., virgin pregnancy, then the one who is born is born with the imputation of human life to the soul, but minus the imputation of Adam’s sin because there is no genetically-formed old sin nature. The old sin nature is formed genetically through the 23 male chromosomes.

Mary was a virgin when she became pregnant but she still had an old sin nature. She was not sinless. The virgin pregnancy was induced by God the Holy Spirit who fertilised the ovum of Mary with 23 perfect chromosomes. If that had not occurred then there would be no salvation. Jesus Christ had to come into the world without sin, He cannot bear the sins of the world if He has any sin of His own. If Adam’s original sin had been imputed to Christ at birth it would have to be imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. But a virgin pregnancy knocked out the genetically-formed old sin nature. The 23 chromosomes came from God the Holy Spirit. He produced them and fertilised the ovum. In the meiosis and polar body there were 23 uncontaminated chromosomes there, so the virgin pregnancy resulted.

At the moment of birth our Lord entered into the prototype divine dynasphere, designed for His protection but not to keep His volition from normal function. By living for 33 years inside the prototype divine dynasphere He was able not to sin, and because He was God He was not able to sin. Jesus Christ was tempted far beyond any human being who ever lived. He resisted so that He could go to the cross and bear our personal sins and be judged for them.

There is a third imputation. All the sins of the world were judged at the cross, the ones of the past and the ones of the future. They were all imputed and judged. But there wouldn’t be any Lord to believe in had He committed one sin, which He did not.

Men and women both have an old sin nature but the reason women have one is because they have a human father. The old sin nature is received through the man. Jesus Christ is the exception because of the virgin pregnancy.

Human good and evil could have been imputed as well since they are manifestations of the old sin nature but this did not happen. They were rejected at the cross so that human good and evil can continue to be an issue in history. Only sin was judged at the cross.

The second judicial imputation is the one which is described in 2 Corinthians 5:21 — “For he [the Father] made him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” All blessing that comes to the believer in any dispensation comes because of judicial imputation number two. In judicial imputation number two there is no antecedence, just as in number one. In judicial imputation number one our sins are imputed to Christ on the cross and judged. In judicial imputation number two God takes one half of His holiness or integrity [composed of His justice and righteousness] that is, His perfect righteousness, and at the moment that we believed in Christ He imputed that righteousness to us. By imputing that righteousness to us He set up the great pipeline. The justice of God is on one end and the righteousness of God is on the other end, the righteousness of God now indwelling us. All blessing of any category is imputed to us, not because we have lovely personalities, not because we live a good clean life, not because we give money to the church, not because we do any form of good deed, but because we have His righteousness. All blessing comes down this pipeline from the justice of God to the righteousness of God, and the blessings increase as we go from ignorance of doctrine to cognisance of doctrine because cognisance of doctrine increases our capacity and, therefore, because of an increased capacity God can bless us without destroying us. If God gave us everything we wanted right now it would destroy us. We would self-destruct without capacity.

This imputation makes possible the believer becoming the recipient of tremendous blessings from God. It also makes it possible for God to love the believer. That is because God loves His own righteousness. We possess His righteousness, God loves us. Grace, then, is the policy of the justice of God in imputing blessing to the righteousness of God. The principle is always the same: righteousness demands righteousness, justice demands justice; what the righteousness of God demands the justice of God executes. All of this is based on the fact that we have received at the moment of salvation this fantastic imputation.

The imputation of divine righteousness, the second judicial imputation, is also true in the Tribulation. This imputation of divine righteousness which sets up logistical grace blessing and supergrace blessing is the subject in the middle of Revelation 7:14.

Verse 14, the whiteness of the robe is the interim body for these believers of the Tribulation are martyrs and in heaven; the washing of the robe is +R.

We start with the connective conjunction kai which introduces a consequence of what precedes, “Consequently.” Then we have the perfect active indicative from legw, “I said,” followed by the dative singular indirect object from a)utoj, “to him.” The vocative follows, the vocative singular of kurioj. Kurioj can be translated “lord” when deity is involved; when humanity is involved “sir” is better, “Consequently I said to him, Sir [or My Lord],” and with it we have the genitive from mou, “My lord,” the one that belongs to me. Then we have the perfect o)ida used as a present active indicative and it is translated “you know.” The pronoun “you,” su , refers to someone on the angelic general staff. There are 24 elders or staff officers in the angelic order of battle. Obviously the question was not asked for his benefit because the angelic general staff know the answer. The question is inserted by the angelic staff officers to John for the purpose of amplification and clarification. The point is, we must know. It should be noted that the vocative of curio, the genitive from e)gw, “My lord,” is a term of respect and recognition of his authority for this staff officer is teaching John this part of the book of Revelation. John as a human being recognises the order of rank in the army of elect angels. The angelic staff officer, one of 24 elders, is obviously a keen observer of human history and in his wisdom he anticipates the need for clarification. Therefore he asks the question of John, not for his sake but for your sake and for mine, the generation of believers who would live during the Church Age and require an expanded answer. After all, the book of Revelation was written for us as royal family of God, not for the believers of the Tribulation, not for Millennial believers. This is what is said in Revelation 22:16, “I Jesus, have sent my angels to testify to you these things [the content of Revelation] for the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star.” Note that this is addressed to the churches. Cf.. Revelation 19:10.

We are studying a lost battalion of people in the future, people whose lives are very significant, people who are going to have maximum impact in a short period of time between their personal faith in Jesus Christ and the day they are martyred by one of the many trends of the Tribulation. They only have a short time to glorify the Lord and they succeed. They also have a tremendous prayer life, they pray that God will bring vengeance on those who destroy them, and God will, chapter eight. They have a very short spiritual life on earth and a relatively short interim life before they receive their resurrection bodies. But the point is: it isn’t how long you live or it isn’t how short you live that is the issue, it is how much happiness and blessing and dynamic impact you have during that time. When you live too long and stretch it out day after day, month after month, year after year, unless you are really with doctrine you are going to have wide emotional swings between success on the one hand, boredom on the other, and you are going to be looking for your capacity for life. Some of you may have already had success and yet your success is meaningless because you are really not happy.

We are studying a rather phenomenal group of people, the first converts of the evangelism of the Tribulation. We have already noted in chapter six under the fifth seal where they offered their imprecatory prayers, now we are studying them under other conditions. These people are the victims of historical disaster in the Tribulation but since there are no accidents in the life of any believer they are recorded in a very significant way. The dynamics of their dying is only exceeded by the dynamics of their imprecatory prayers and the fantastic time they have in heaven in their interim bodies. So they are standing before the throne and before the Lamb, and they are wearing white robes — the interim body in heaven after death — and palm branches in their hands. The palm branches signify their anticipation of their resurrection bodies and the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 14, the verse where all of these things come together. “ … These are they [the martyrs] who have come out of the great Tribulation, furthermore they have washed their robes...”

This is where we pick it up: the present active indicative of e)imi, “these are,” these people exist, these people have purpose. There never has been a person in the human race for whom God didn’t have a purpose. Human life is imputed by God the Father and therefore life has purpose, meaning and definition. If this becomes obscure then it is because of negative volition.

With this we have articular present middle participle from the verb e)rxomai, “these are they who have come.” The retroactive progressive present denotes what has happened in the past and continues into the present [i.e. the present of the Tribulation]. It is translated by the English perfect tense, and the fact that it is retroactive progressive present means it has application to us even as it is an historical fact of the future, therefore a prophecy. The middle voice: the subject acts with a view toward participating in the results of the action, hence the direct middle. This is what is called the participle of simultaneous action with the main verb e)imi and therefore translated: “these [martyrs] are they which have come out.” Then we have the great Tribulation, e)k plus the ablative of megaj and qliyij. Qliyij means tribulation and can apply to any period of disaster in history but with megaj it refers to a dispensation, Daniel’s seventieth week which occurs after the Rapture of the Church and terminates with the second advent of Christ. Coming out means they died, and even though they died violent deaths they died without any pain. E)rxomai indicates that.

At this point three factors are found in the last phrase of this verse. Factor one: the imputed divine righteousness in time. At the moment we believe in Christ God’s righteousness is imputed. Second factor: the interim body of eternity after death. The third factor: the saving work of Christ at the first advent. These three things are designed to make life in time liveable and, in fact, extremely happy regardless of circumstances. Add to that the fact that as soon as we die we have an interim body and great happiness, and all of this because of the saving work of Christ. These three are brought together in the last phrase.

The first of the factors: the blessing of imputed righteousness in time, the connective kai provides additional information and is translated “furthermore.” Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb plunw which means to wash, “furthermore they have washed.” The culminative aorist tense views the Tribulational believer’s salvation through faith in Christ in its entirety. In other words, it gathers it up into one entirety the moment that these people believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. Therefore the culminative aorist emphasises this part of the entity. In other words, the result is the imputation of divine righteousness. To every believer in the Tribulation, as to us in this dispensation, as to all believers in the past, e.g. Abraham believed in the Lord and it was imputed to him for righteousness.” It is therefore the existing results of the imputation of divine righteousness and, of course, the resultant justification at that moment. At that moment we are justified because when we receive the imputation of God’s righteousness, we also receive the imputation of eternal life and we are justified or vindicated in God’s sight.

The second factor is the fact that the justice of God is one half of divine integrity, His perfect righteousness is the other half, and that imputation sets up the pipeline for all blessing in time. There are two categories of blessing here: one is the logistical grace blessing, the other is supergrace blessing. So the justice of God imputes to these Tribulational saints through divine righteousness all of these blessings whether they earned it, deserve it, or not they receive it. That is logistical grace. The active voice: the Tribulational believer produces the action of the verb: through the imputation of divine righteousness at the moment of salvation he is “washed.” The washing is the imputation of divine righteousness and its implication. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine, in fact a dogmatic statement of several doctrines. What is washed is said to be the robes, the accusative plural direct object from stolh. With it is the possessive genitive of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as the third person pronoun and translated “their,” “furthermore, they washed their robes,” the imputation of divine righteousness at the moment of salvation. This means imputation and, therefore, justification, the imputation of divine righteousness; it also sets up the system for logistical grace blessing. The principle of logistical grace support is the imputation of provision from the justice of God to the righteousness of God. Hence, the imputation of divine righteousness not only means salvation but it means grace provision, everything that they will need to handle the situation in the Tribulation. The washing of the robes refers to the imputation of God’s righteousness at the moment they believe in Christ. Hence, this phrase emphasises salvation in time plus God’s faithfulness to each one of these believers in time.

The second category is the blessing of the interim body in eternity. They were “washed” at salvation; they now have a white robe, the aorist active indicative of leukainw, which means to make white, “and they have made them white.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the fact of the interim body extended over the portion of time from their death to their resurrection. The active voice: the Tribulational martyrs produce the action of the verb in their interim body. The white robe or the interim body is previously noted in Revelation 6:11. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the interim body after their martyrdom. The fifth seal of the Doomsday book of the Tribulation, Revelation 6:9-11, describes this same interim status.

With this we have the accusative plural direct object of a)utoj, again it is the intensive pronoun and it refers to the interim body, it is translated “them,” “they have made them white.” This is the interim body after death.

Finally we have the saving work of Christ on the cross. This is mentioned in one prepositional phrase at the end of verse fourteen, e)n [by] plus the instrumental from the noun a(ima [blood], “by means of the blood.” Then we have a descriptive genitive from the noun a)rnion, correctly translated “of the Lamb,” “by means of the blood of the Lamb.” This emphasises the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. When instead of explaining detail propitiation or reconciliation or redemption or imputation, you want to cover salvation very briefly, the word “blood” is used.

Corrected translation of verse 14: “Consequently I said to him, My Lord [the teaching angel], you know. Then he said to me, These are they who have come out of the great Tribulation, furthermore they have washed their robes [the moment of faith in Christ], and they [the Tribulational martyrs] have made them white by means of the blood of the Lamb [the saving work of Christ on the cross].”

The word “blood”is one of the more misunderstood words in the Bible. Sometimes blood is literal, sometimes it is figurative, and therefore the literal and the figurative use of blood becomes a very important subject.

There are three figurative uses of water in the Bible and there is one figurative use of blood. For example, in the use of water salvation is used in Isaiah 55:1; Revelation 22:7. Water is used for the Holy Spirit in John 7:37-39; water is used for the Word of God in Ephesians 5;26 and 1 John 5:8. So when we come to passages such as 1 John 5 and also where it says they pierced our Lord’s side with a spear and out came blood and water, both the water and the blood have literal significance there. There is one figurative use of blood and that is a reference to the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, but our Lord also physically bled on the cross and that is literal blood. So the literal blood of Christ refers to His physical or his somatic death on the cross — 1 John 5:6. Blood here is literal and it refers to blood in the human body after death, and it is a reference to our Lord’s somatic death on the cross. John 19:34, one of the soldiers pierced His chest cavity [the Greek word pleura, the word from which we get pleurisy, means chest cavity not His side]. This is important because this indicates that our Lord died physically.

In John 19:30 our Lord did not bow His head as it says in the King James version, He pushed His head forward, and that was so the Roman spear would penetrate His chest cavity and not just His diaphragm. This was demonstration of the fact that our Lord died physically. This is literal blood, not the blood we have at the end of verse 14 where it says “by means of blood our Lord saved us”. That isn’t talking about the blood and serum that came out after the Roman soldier penetrated His chest cavity with a spear. In John 19:30, “When Jesus, therefore, had received the wine he said, ‘It is finished’ [salvation was completed while He was alive],” and that is where the spiritual blood of Christ comes in.

In John 19:33-34, “but coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead they did not break his legs; but one of the soldiers pierced his chest cavity with a spear, and immediately there gushed out blood clots and serum.” This demonstrated that the true humanity of Christ was dead and that He did not bleed to death on the cross. When a person dies from excessive loss of blood these blood clots and serum do not form. So there was and is the literal blood of Christ but it has no direct relationship to His saving work on the cross. Therefore the blood clots and serum is not only a witness to the true humanity of Christ in hypostatic union but at the same time medical proof that our Lord did not bleed to death. But it must be remembered that He did bleed from His hands and feet before the blood coagulated and this means that the literal blood of Christ is always associated with His physical death on the cross which we simply call His somatic death. His literal blood was still in His corpse and gushed out when the chest cavity was pierced from the Roman spear.

The blood that we have in our passage in revelation 7:14 refers to the spiritual blood of Christ, the saving work of Christ on the cross. It relates back to the animal sacrifices where the literal blood of an animal was used to portray the saving work of Christ on the cross.

The death which is involved in verse 14 when it says “by means of the blood of the Lamb” refers to our Lord’s spiritual death on the cross. This death is related to the figurative blood of Christ which refers to His saving work on the cross. Just as sins were imputed to the animal on the altar in the Old Testament so all the sins of the human race were imputed to Christ on the cross and judged by God the Father. Cf.. 1 John 1:7 which is a reference to rebound and a reference to the figurative blood of Christ, a reference to His spiritual death on the cross, because the work of Christ on the cross bearing our sins and being judged for them has a dual connotation. It is the basis of eternal salvation and afterward it is the basis for all rebound. When we name our sins or cite our sins, which is what “confess” [o(mologew] means, “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleans us from all unrighteousness” because we are citing or naming to God a sin which has already been judged. That is the basis of rebound. So the judgement of our sins on the cross is the basis of our so great salvation and it is also the basis for recovery of fellowship, recovery of the divine dynasphere, the rebound technique. And the judgement of our sins on the cross is described under the term “the blood of Christ” or, as we saw it in the Greek, ai(ma.

When redemption is discussed as a doctrine it is also related to blood: “in whom we have redemption through his blood”, says Ephesians 1:7. This is figurative blood referring to Christ’s spiritual death on the cross. Cf. Revelation 1:5; 1 Peter 1:18. The figurative blood of Christ refers to His saving work on the cross, His spiritual death. The literal blood of Christ refers to His physical or somatic death on the cross because His work of the first advent was finished. Hence, the blood describes both the spiritual and the physical deaths of Christ on the cross. The passages we have noted are describing His saving work. The Greek brings this out because a(ima has both a figurative and a literal connotation. When someone bleeds, that is literal. When our Lord bled on the cross that was literal. The reason that blood is used in a figurative way to express the saving work of Christ on the cross is to relate it to the Levitical sacrifices, 1 Peter 1:18,19. Romans 5:8,9 describes the figurative blood of Christ or the saving work on the cross when it says, “But God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” When Christ died physically He didn’t die for us. The physical death was because His work was finished. He died for us when our sins were imputed to Him on the cross and judged. That is spiritual death.

Literal animal blood was used in the Old Testament sacrifices to portray the spiritual or figurative blood of Christ on the cross. The blood was the figurative blood which links the Old Testament ritual of the Levitical sacrifices with the historical fulfilment of the work of Christ on the cross, i.e. the saving work. The blood was used for a representative analogy in which the physical death of the animal on the altar represents the spiritual death of Christ on the cross.

The reason literal blood is used in the Old Testament, the animal blood, is because blood is the seat of animal life, Leviticus 17:10-14. In that passage it is very clear that when you cut the throat of an animal his breathing causes him to push the blood out through the throat and he dies in that way. “Any citizen from the house of Israel, or any alien who lives among them, who eats any blood, I will judge that person who eats blood, I will cut him off from the people.” They were not to eat blood. “For the life of the creature is in his blood.” This is animals, not human beings. Our life is in our soul, “and I have given it to you on the altar [the animal sacrifice] to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood which makes an atonement for one’s life.” The blood of the animal contains the soul of the animal. This is not true in human beings, just in the animals. Hence, the animal life resides in that blood. So when the priest cut the throat of that animal it bled to death. Its soul is in that blood, that is the way it dies. The life of a human being, however, is in the soul, not in the blood. Human life resides in the human soul as an imputation at birth, and since animal life resides in animal blood God uses animal blood for a representative analogy for the propitiatory work of Christ on the cross. That is the difference between literal and figurative blood. In other words, the literal blood of the animal is analogous not to the literal blood of Christ on the cross when He bled from His hands and His feet for a few minutes, nor after His death the blood which came out of His chest cavity, but it is analogous to the figurative blood of Christ on the cross, His spiritual death, not His physical death. The physical death of the animal is analogous to the spiritual death of Christ. We call that a representative analogy. If the literal blood of the animal was related to the literal blood of Christ that would be called a literal analogy. This is not a literal or real analogy.

In the last three verses of this chapter we have the interim blessing of Tribulational martyrs. In verse 15 we have the interim state of the Tribulational martyrs which in effect is no different from our interim state except that it deals with a different dispensation and that it deals with imprecatory prayers.

Verse 15, we start out with a Greek idiom, dia plus the accusative neuter singular from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, “Because of this.” It is an idiom meaning “therefore,” but not here because they have believed in Christ, because they have received the imputation of divine righteousness at salvation, because they lived a wonderful life faith, grown rapidly, and have been martyred for their faith. They are now residing in an interim body in heaven and in the perfect circumstances of heaven.

With this we have the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, the verb “to be,” and it is translated “for this reason they are.” Then the present tense here is a descriptive present for what is now going on related, of course, in some way to the futuristic present which denotes an event which has not yet occurred but in thought it is so certain that it may be contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: in this case Tribulational martyrs produce the action of the verb. The declarative indicative is for a statement of doctrine. And with this we have a prepositional phrase, the improper preposition e)nwpion and the object of the preposition is qronoj, “before the throne,” and the descriptive genitive of “God.” Translation: “For this reason they are before the throne of God.” This describes very briefly the interim life.

The second phrase begins with the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, translated “in fact.” With it is the present active indicative of the verb latreuw. It is translated “serve,” and that is legitimate. It means to serve in the sense of worship. Originally in the Attic Greek it meant to serve for remuneration or reward. That is not the meaning in the Koine. It is derived from a Greek noun latron which means wages or reward. But when it came into the Koine Greek of the New Testament it refers to spiritual service and it really means worship. It isn’t serving like you are doing something — witnessing, helping people, and so on — it really is used here as a synonym for worship. The verb is used for praise, prayer, or any other form of worship, “in fact they worshipped.” Then comes the dative singular indirect object from a)utoj, generally used as the personal pronoun third person. Occasionally it is used as an intensive pronoun. This refers to God the Father, “in fact they worshipped him.” The progressive present tense signifies a state of persistence, hence present linear aktionsart. They are doing this a lot and they are enjoying it. They are having a very happy and wonderful time in heaven and a great deal of that time is related to worship and they are very enthusiastic. The active voice: the Tribulational martyrs produce the action. The indicative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Then we have the genitive singular of time used twice: once for h(mera, which means “day,” and then once nuc meaning :night.”

Translation: “For this reason they are before the throne of God, in fact they worship him by day and by night.”

2. The interim body is in a state also of great happiness, great blessing, tranquillity — active happiness [enthusiasm] and passive happiness [tranquillity].

3. Because of all of this happiness and because they need no sleep these Tribulational martyrs are motivated to worship. Their motivation comes from their personal love for God related to their fantastic happiness.

4. Service does not apply to them any longer because they are in heaven, but their service on earth included their witness of life, their honour, their integrity, faithfulness to God, faithfulness to the Word, refusal to renounce Jesus Christ or to reject the Word under pressure. Also they had the message of the gospel in their witness. They were willing to die for their faith. That was their service on earth, that is not their service in heaven.

5. Their service in heaven in the interim body is concentrated in the field of worship — their praise, their adoration, their expression of personal love for God.

6. God the Father is invisible, sitting on the throne. He is worshipped. God the Son is visible, sitting on the throne [or standing in the midst, He is pictured both ways], and He is worshipped.

7. Because of the disastrous and pernicious circumstances of the Tribulation these believers who are martyrs have relatively little opportunity for assembly worship while they are on earth. They obviously took in Bible doctrine. Consequently heaven is a wonderful change in more ways than one. They can worship God every day and every night.

8. We never appreciate the value of our assembly worship and perception of doctrine until we have lost the privilege. God in His grace and faithfulness provides the opportunity in time to learn doctrine. While it is available people rarely seem to appreciate the opportunity. Believers can be so easily distracted by any form of entertainment, social life, business life, any kind of life, any kind of activity. It becomes more meaningful and more important than taking in doctrine, that is just the way people are. But there are those who live in life and discover the secret that when the Lord is first — this includes scale of values, worship function, the perception of doctrine — they have a phenomenal capacity and they have no regrets. And that is important.

9. Happiness produces energy. This carries over to the interim body after death. Happy people are energetic people.

Next we have the prepositional phrase en plus the locative of naw, and with it we have a)utoj in the genitive, “in the temple.” The temple is located in the third heaven and seems to house the throne room of God. Note that the verb latreuw is used for priestly service in the temple and the implication is obvious: while there is no universal priesthood of the believer in the Tribulation we note that every Tribulational martyr functions as his own priest and, therefore, the interim life means that every person in his interim body after death represents himself before God. Principle: Worship is service to God, just as much as any form of spiritual production [witnessing, giving, teaching, praying, etc.] Furthermore, true worship is predicated on personal love for God through perception of Bible doctrine. Therefore, the expression of personal love for God is not only a motivating virtue but it is a function of happiness. When you love someone you are happy to be in their presence. When you have learned doctrine and you assemble you are happy to hear about the Lord. In other words, the negative side of this principle: worship is never a drudge, it is not a good-luck charm, it is never a necessity imposed for hopeful blessing. Worship is the expression of maximum virtue and integrity in personal love for God. Everyone who is normal finds great happiness in the demonstration and expression of love. True worship is the expression of personal love for God. On earth God is invisible to us but in heaven He is visible to the believer in the interim body and the resurrection body. To enter the temple of God in the third heaven and to express personal love in worship is the quintessence of human happiness.

The problem with truth, Bible doctrine, is not the biblical statement of that truth in the canon of scripture but the interpretation of that truth in the many languages in which it is communicated. In other words, the statement of truth is the formation of the canon of scripture, as God the Holy Spirit so directed the human writers, like the apostle John. But the interpretation of that truth is the preaching, teaching, expository communication of any given passage compatible with exegesis, etymology, historical background of that passage, plus its consistency with orthodox or systematic theology.

c. For the first category of eternal life — that is, eternity in time, the believer needs teaching, he needs the inculcation of Bible doctrine.

d. Therefore preaching appeals to the emotion while teaching appeals to the intellect. It is the intellect that must be aroused to love, not the emotion. There is no love in emotion, all love is in the intellect. The emotion of the normal person responds to the intellect.

f. Preaching demands the power of persuasion but teaching demands the power of the Holy Spirit.

Systematic theology has been constructed through the teaching of great men in every generation of the Church Age. So the greatest of worship comes from systematic theology. The inevitable result is a spiritual momentum in the plan of God in every generation, the establishment of a pivot of mature believers for blessing by association and historical uptrend, the manifestations of strategic victory of Christ in the angelic conflict. When Christians are insecure in their doctrinal beliefs they tend to emphasise the apologetical approach, the defence of their faith, rather than the content. When Christians are secure in their perception of doctrine they tend to become aggressive in communication, and delineating rather than defending what they believe. Those who understand doctrine never feel threatened by false doctrine. Hence, they are not pressured to rethink a doctrine or change their beliefs. From the stability of the orthodox system of systematic theology they become very stable. That great stability is the context for stability in happiness, and the stability in happiness factor expresses itself in true worship.

This happiness in worship is carried over into the eternal state. The believer in the interim body waiting for the resurrection body is a very happy person for this reason: they are before the throne of God, in fact they worship Him by day and by night in His temple. And what is the inevitable result of this? It is found in the articular present active participle of the verb kaqhmai, preceded by the conjunction kai, “and he who sits.” The definite article is used for the relative pronoun. The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition which is perpetually existing, it is taken for granted as a fact. The active voice: God the Father in this verse produces the action of the verb, although God the Son is to be included. The participle is circumstantial. With it is the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the genitive of qronoj, “and he who sits on the throne.”

The next verb is mistranslated in the King James version. It is the future active indicative of the verb skenow and it means to pitch a tent over or to bivouac, “and he who sits on the throne bivouacs.” The predictive future tense, or preferably a gnomic future, states a fact which may be rightfully expected under the circumstances of the interim life. God bivouacs with those in their interim body. God the Father and God the Son produce the action. The indicative mood is for a simple statement of fact.

And we have a final prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun translated “over them.” God will pitch a tent over them or bivouac with them. A bivouac implies a temporary arrangement and emphasises the interim life of the believer in heaven who is waiting for his resurrection. The relationship with God is one of maximum blessing. There is no unhappiness in the interim life in heaven whether for the believer who has died in the Church Age or the believer who has died in the Tribulation. In this case the context refers to the Tribulational martyrs but it applies to anyone who dies and goes to heaven. Therefore it requires faith in Jesus Christ to enter that part of the interim life.

Verse 16, a deliverance from their discomfort and persecutions which occurred in the Tribulation.

We begin with a future active indicative of the verb peinaw plus the negative o)u , “They will never again be hungry.” The gnomic future tense is for a statement of fact anticipated in the interim state. There is no hunger in the interim state. The active voice: the Tribulational martyrs produce the action of the verb. The declarative indicative mood is the for the historical reality of the interim life. The adverb e)pi is where we get “no longer.” This implies that they suffered some hunger and many of them were martyred in that way. The implication is that Tribulational believers are persecuted by being deprived of food and other necessities of life and that many of them apparently starved to death. Under the principle of logistical grace God provides for the believer the necessities of life in ordinary times, but the Tribulation is not an ordinary time. Here the very lack of provision indicates the nature of their testimony. In spite of the fact that they were deprived of food — they could have had food if they had renounced Christ — God permits this in the Tribulation for certain reasons which have to do with the fact that Bible doctrine is more important than any necessity in life, any pleasure in life, anything that is real to you in life and associated with happiness. Bible doctrine is far more important, therefore these people are now having great happiness, great blessing, because they have passed one of the most wonderful tests in life — Bible doctrine must be more important than anything else in life: than people you love, than people whom you despise. Bible doctrine is more important than anything else in life, any fame, any success, any necessity of life. Bible doctrine is more important than food, and love of God is more important than life itself.

The reality of their testimony was in the reality of their state of being deprived of food. Hence, they demonstrated the principle that love of God is far more important than love of life and they entered into a far greater life. They have gone into something that is so much greater than anything in this life.

Added to this is a second negative, the negative conjunction o)ude which means “neither” or “never again,” “neither will they thirst any longer,” the future active indicative of the verb dipsaw. Again, this implies that the Tribulational believers were persecuted by being deprived of water so that some of them died of thirst.

The other categories of problem here, the exposure, is mentioned, the negative o)ude again plus the negative mh, plus the nominative subject e(lioj, a misuse of the sun by the cruelty of man, “never shall the sun beat down,” the aorist active subjunctive of the verb piptw which means here to beat down. The aorist tense of piptw is a culminative aorist, it views the event in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: no more persecution, no more privation or suffering on this earth. The active voice: the Tribulational martyrs produce the action of the verb, plus the negative o)ude plus the negative mh becomes a subjunctive of prohibition, translated “never.” They were exposed to torture by sunlight.

“nor any heat,” debilitating heat, a reference to lack of clothing, exposure to very bad weather. While God does and can provide food, shelter and clothing for believers under the principle of logistical grace this becomes that rare exception to demonstrate a principle that we are learning academically but the Tribulational believers will learn it from a practical standpoint. They will understand when they are martyred that life is not nearly as important as Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine goes on forever, temporal life is just a short period of time on planet earth. So the exception is based on circumstances as well. That is why chapter six comes before chapter seven, the four horsemen of the apocalypse help us to understand that principle. The exception, then, is based on the circumstances of the Tribulation where believers demonstrate that motivation from Bible doctrine and personal love for God is far greater than the necessities of life or the pleasures of life, and obviously then, life itself.

Verse 17, by way of contrast, the blessings of the eternal state. “Interim,” again, is defined as the life of the believer after physical death but prior to receiving a resurrection body. The interim life is described in 2 Corinthians 5:8 in connection with the body, “absent from the body, face to face with the Lord”; it is further described in Revelation 21:4, “And he shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ...”

We see the interim life of the Tribulational martyrs from two viewpoints. First of all they have blessings which come from God the Father and, secondly, they have blessings which come from God the Son.

The verse opens with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, correctly translated “because.” The nominative singular of what follows, a)rnion, refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, “Because the Lamb.”

“who is in the middle of the throne.” There are two definite articles here. One is translated like a definite article, one is not. The first, to, is generic, it emphasises the uniqueness of Christ in His hypostatic union. The word “Lamb” emphasises the saving work of Christ. So the first definite article goes with a)rnion and refers to the uniqueness of Christ in His hypostatic union, eternal God and true humanity in one person forever; different from God in that he is man, different from man in that He is God. The second definite article is used for both a personal pronoun and a relative pronoun. With this we have an ellipsis, the omission of the verb “to be,” e)imi, and we have to insert it. Then the prepositional phrase, a)na plus the adverb meson which means “in the middle of.” “A)na” has a number of meanings. Sometimes it means “again” but here it means “in.” The object of the preposition is qronoj, “in the middle of the throne.” We have seen that the middle of the throne merely indicates that He is visible, sometimes seated and sometimes standing.

With this we have the future active indicative of the verb poimainw which means to shepherd. The future tense is primarily the tense of the indicative mood, therefore the element of time is very pronounced in this future tense. However, it does signify the character of the verbal idea but instead of presenting it in progress or linear aktionsart as the leading idea — the present or the imperfect — the general connotation is indefinite. Therefore it is very similar to the aorist tense. As a matter of fact the aorist tense is built on the future. This is because all future events have some connotation of uncertainty. While the aorist indicative narrates the event in past time the future indicative expresses anticipation of an event in future time. Therefore this is the gnomic future presenting the interim life after death as that which may be rightfully anticipated. Death is entry into a far greater system of blessing than anything time has to offer. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb here, i.e. shepherding the people, and the indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of fact.

“Because the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne shall be their shepherd.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ is presented three ways as the shepherd. In John chapter 10, verses 10-11, Jesus Christ is called “the good shepherd.” Our Lord’s title as the good shepherd has to do with His saving work on the cross, the judicial imputation of our sins to Christ, their judgement when our Lord was on the cross.

But then in Hebrews 13:20,21 Christ is called the great shepherd. This title refers to a fortiori blessing, divine blessing to mature believers. The judicial imputation for divine blessing comes at maturity. The blessings that we receive in time come from the great shepherd.

In 1 Peter 5:4 Jesus Christ is the chief shepherd, “And when the chief Shepherd appears you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” The unfading crown of glory which belongs to the chief Shepherd is the eternal state. The chief Shepherd is also a title for our Lord Jesus Christ as we face Him after death in the interim body, “absent from the body, face to face with the Lord.” Face to face implies the interim body itself.

The Lord Jesus Christ as the shepherd in time is of utmost importance to us since we are living in time. There are seven areas in which our Lord provides for us as believers.

First of all the believer, like a sheep, is helpless. A sheep cannot guide himself, he must be guided by the shepherd. That is our status quo right now, we are unable to guide ourselves. Our destiny does not depend on us, it depends on our Lord and our positive volition toward His plan. We cannot guide ourselves we need Bible doctrine so our shepherd has provided for us Bible doctrine.

A sheep, by the way, cannot even clean himself, he must be cleaned by the shepherd. This reminds us of our Lord’s provision as our shepherd of the rebound technique.

A sheep is helpless when injured. As we are injured in life by the various problems of life only our Lord can provide the therapy necessary.

A sheep is also defenceless and therefore depends on the shepherd — just as we must do.

A sheep cannot even find food or water for himself. He must depend on the shepherd to lead him to water. Unless our shepherd would provide for us we would be in the same status quo.

A sheep is easily frightened or panicked. Psalm 23 deals with this subject. A shepherd calms the sheep with his voice or a musical instrument. God has provided for us doctrine in the soul called “songs in the night.”

When the sheep produces wool it doesn’t really belong to him, it belongs to the shepherd or the one who owns the flock. This a part of the concept of the angelic conflict and all of this is in view here when it says in verse 17: “Because the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne shall be their shepherd”. He is their shepherd in heaven as He was their shepherd during their life on this earth during the Tribulation.

The it adds another phrase: “furthermore he will lead them,” the future active indicative of the verb o(dhgew which means to lead or to guide, “furthermore he will lead them [or guide them].” They are now totally under His protection in heaven. This is a predictive future anticipating the activity of the interim life, the great blessings that come at that time. The active voice: the Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, He produces an environment of maximum happiness. There are no distinctions between winners and losers.

Next we have the direction in which He will lead them. We have the preposition e)pi which is always a confusing preposition to Greek students until they learn the secret. The problem with this preposition is that is takes three different cases and therefore has three different meanings. E)pi, for example, often has its object in the genitive case. That emphasises contact. E)pi has as its object the locative case emphasising position. E)pi has as its object the accusative case emphasising motion or direction.

Here we have e)pi plus the accusative case of phgh referring to springs, “Furthermore he will lead them to the springs.” These springs are not on earth, they are in heaven. They are called the “springs of the waters of life,” the descriptive genitive plural from u(dor, the word from which we get our word “water.” In the ancient world water was considered to have great value. Water was greater than coinage and often greater than almost anything else. The most valuable thing of all here is the concept that in heaven there will be great blessing, a very exciting life for those who are in the interim state. The descriptive genitive singular of “life” emphasises this. “The “springs of the water of life” not only refer to eternal life but the tremendous blessings that accompany eternal life.

Interim blessing is also said to come from God the Father in the last phrase of this passage. It begins with a connective kai, the subject is o( qeoj, the generic use of the article is not translated and we simply translate it, “And God.” It is a reference to God the Father who is the God of all comfort. In 2 Corinthians 1:3,4, “Blessed be the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.” “Father of mercies” has to do with life on this earth, temporal life; “God of all comfort” has to do with the interim life and the eternal state. “Who comforts us in all of our pressures so that we may be able to comfort those who are in adversity [pressure], with the comfort by which we ourselves are comforted by God.” God the Father has a special ministry of comfort and this is the ministry of comfort which is mentioned here. It is a ministry that belongs to us in time; it also belongs in the eternal state, as says this particular phrase.

We have the future active indicative of e)xaleifw which means to comfort but it is a specific type of comfort. It is what is called graphic comfort, the wiping away of a tear, the erasing of a tear. It is translated “wipe away” but it means erase. Wiping away a tear is a physical function but it represents a function of God on our behalf and the function is comfort. The gnomic future tense is or interim blessing from God the Father anticipating the resurrection. The active voice: God the Father, the God of all comfort, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of great blessing and comfort in the interim life. The comfort that God provides for believers in time is extended to the interim life.

The final phrase: “all tears from their eyes.” We have an accusative made up of two words, paj plus dakruon, “all tears” or “every tear.” These are in the singular and should be translated “every tear,” “from their eyes,” e)k plus o)fqalmoj plus a)utoj.

Corrected translation: “Because the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne shall be their shepherd, furthermore he will lead them to the springs of the waters of life; and God [the Father] will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

In salvation the soul of the believer is saved. Animal souls are creature conscious but they are not God-conscious. Man’s soul is God-conscious, therefore the possibility of salvation.

Lev. 17:12 adds, “Therefore I communicate a mandate to every Jewish citizen, ‘None of you may eat the blood [of animals], nor any alien living among you, he must not eat blood’.” Animal blood was prohibited for food but not animal meat. Animal blood must be related to the altar, to the holy of holies, the mercy seat, not to the stomach. The eating of animal meat is a picture of faith in Christ as illustrated on the day of atonement when the eating of blood was prohibited but they ate part of the animal sacrifice. The blood of the animal contains the soul of the animal, the loss of his blood means the loss of his life. Hence, the representative analogy must relate to the living resurrected Christ. So in representative analogy the blood is never eaten or digested. Blood is death to the animal but Christ is life for the believer forever and ever. A representative analogy only goes as far as the spiritual death of Christ and takes cognisance of His somatic death and physical resurrection. The altar is more important than the stomach is what Leviticus 17 is saying; salvation is more important than temporal life.

Verse 13, “Any Jewish citizen, or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird which may be eaten [that was permissible and encouraged], must first drain out its blood and cover it [the blood] with earth.” You don’t bury the carcass, you eat it. You bury the blood.

Verse 14, “Because the life of every animal is in its blood. That is why I commanded the Jews, ‘You must not eat the blood of any animal, because the life of every animal is in its blood; anyone who eats it will be cut off’.” The animal blood is a shadow, a training aid, an analogy pointing to the cross and the work of salvation. It is an analogy to the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. Christ died twice on the cross so that we could be born twice. Spiritual death is the imputation of the sins of the entire world to our Lord, and then God the Father judged them. No sin was ever judged except on the cross. God the Father judged God the Son as our substitute, the judgement was made against His perfect humanity.

The challenge: Hebrews 13:12, “Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate” — literally, outside the gate of Jerusalem.

Hebrews 9:12, “and not through the blood of goats and young bulls [literal blood], but by means of his own blood [figurative blood] he [the Lord Jesus Christ] entered into the holy of holies once and for all, having procured eternal redemption for us.”

So that: Hebrews 9:14, “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through his eternal spirit [divine essence] has offered himself without blemish [the impeccability of His humanity] to the God [He offered Himself to the Father].” The Father saw the Son on the cross, perfect, and all of the sins of the world, past, present and future, were imputed to Him, and at that time they were judged.

It is interesting that the book of Revelation which is a prophetic book keeps going back to the work of our Lord on the cross. This is the third time so far that we have had “the blood of Christ” in the book of Revelation.

There are two doctrines of salvation considered to be extremely important in giving a fuller meaning of the blood of Christ. The first is the doctrine of propitiation, the other is the doctrine of reconciliation. The work of Christ is so great that one doctrine cannot cover it, and so we have many doctrines and many categories. For example, the doctrine of redemption is directed towards sin. We were pictured as being in the slave market of sin. Christ paid for our freedom on the cross and when we believe in Christ we walk out, we are redeemed. Redemption means purchasing our freedom. Then, of course, there is the doctrine of propitiation. That is directed toward God. God the Father is satisfied with the work of God the Son. And there is the doctrine of reconciliation — directed toward man. Man is reconciled to God by the work of Christ.

Propitiation, then, is the Godward side of salvation. Propitiation means satisfaction. Propitiation deals with the integrity of God, His righteousness and His justice, as related to our salvation. Propitiation connotes divine satisfaction with the work of Christ on the cross. This forms the basis for reconciliation between man and God.

In the concept of propitiation we have the sins of the human race imputed to Christ on the cross, 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24, and then judged by the justice of God the Father. This satisfies His righteousness. Remember that God is holy [that is the integrity of God]. His holiness is composed of His justice and His perfect righteousness. When the justice of God judged our sins on the cross the righteousness of God was satisfied. Because the righteousness of God is satisfied God can impute His righteousness to us when we believe in Christ.

There are three paragraphs in this chapter. First of all there is the transition from the seals to the trumpets, verses 1-2. Secondly, there is that tremendous sense of destiny on the part of the Tribulational martyrs: the answer to the imprecatory prayers, verses 3-6. Finally, the chapter closes out with the four trumpet judgements, verses 7-13.

We begin, then, with the transition from the seals of the Doomsday book to the trumpet judgements of the Doomsday book, verses 1 and 2 of our chapter. We note in verse 1 the opening of the seventh seal which will contain the seven trumpets. This is a very unusual thing because silence is not the way in which most of the drama and disasters of the Tribulation is expressed. It is generally expressed through noise of one kind or another. But so great are the trumpet judgements and so fantastic their implications with regard to personal or national sense of destiny that when the seventh seal is opened by our Lord Jesus Christ there is great silence in heaven. Silence always has a dual connotation. Silence first of all connotes great respect for someone who is not present but in your memory. Secondly, silence denotes shock. Both connotations are found in this verse.

The seventh seal is the amplification of the various historical trends of the Tribulation, including Satan, demon invasion, dictatorship and the evil function of religion. Out of the seventh seal there are two categories of historical trends yet to be studied: the trumpet judgements of Revelations chapters 8-14 and the drinking goblet judgements of chapters 15:7 to chapter 18.

The silence here is a reference to the shock of the supernatural nature of the trumpet judgements. This one half-hour of silence has to be classified, therefore, as dramatic silence. Up to this point we have noted a tremendous amount of noise in heaven. This half hour changes everything, it is classified by silence. The trumpet judgements are supernatural in character, they are the result of bad decisions, but they have gone beyond bad decisions to a locked-in system of supernatural judgements which bring into conflict the two historical conflicts of history. First of all there is the angelic conflict which existed from before man was created. Then the angelic conflict has now overflowed into human history and the two are brought together for the first time in detail in the Tribulation.

There has always been demonism and demon activity. There has always been supernatural activity on the part of Satan as the ruler of this world, but primarily he administers his rulership through cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance, and cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred. Cosmic one is grieving the Holy Spirit in this dispensation; involvement in cosmic two is quenching the Holy Spirit. This is the way that he operates primarily, he does not have to resort to supernatural activity because of the arrogance of those in the cosmic system. The arrogance produces an evil greater even in many ways than supernatural evil. Nevertheless, in every dispensation there is a certain amount of demon activity but nothing compared to the Tribulation, and for the first time in the Tribulation the armies of heaven will be released against the armies of Satan and there will be angelic fighting in the first heaven [the atmosphere] and on the surface of the earth, along with all of these supernatural judgements against man. It is this that brings about this tremendous silence, the silence of awe, the silence of shock, the silence of respect, the silence where you have nothing now to say. Everyone in heaven is going to be absolutely silent at the awe of these trumpet judgements. They are so great that all are shocked into silence. In fact there would be nothing that could be added to what our Lord is doing. It is fair, it is just, and the silence recognises the fact that the human race without the restraint of God the Holy Spirit in the Tribulation has finally brought itself into a disaster situation of its own making by its own decisions, and therefore the shock of what the human race has done to destroy itself and to bring about these supernatural judgements is almost beyond comprehension. Therefore, silence. So terrifying are all of these judgements that all heaven is silent.

There is also here the silence of worship. Here is a side of the Lord that has been obvious from some types of discipline — His integrity, His holiness, His righteousness — but never has it been seen in such concentration. The silence of shock therefore becomes the silence of worship, as illustrated by certain passages where all worship is related to silence on the part of the congregation, Habakkuk 2:20; Zechariah 2:13. This silence also connotes a recognition of God’s authority, as found in 1 Timothy 2:11,12.

Two things are absolutely necessary for learning. One is silence, concentration on what whoever is teaching says, and the other is submissiveness which is genuine humility. To remain in silence has the connotation of learning and all heaven is going to learn something new about God that has never been revealed before. In a short period of seven years there will be a concentrated system of judgment such as the world has never known. So this silence in heaven is not only a learning process it is a function of worship. It is also a manifestation of subordination to the authority of God and the tremendous happiness in heaven as a result. So this is both learning silence and application silence. All heaven is silent for learning; all heaven is silent for making application at this point in the Tribulation when the trumpet judgements are administered. Lamentations 3:28 gives us another concept of it: “Let him sit alone and be silent” is applied to these who are under pressure in the context. Lamentations 3:26, “It is good that he wait silently for the deliverance of the Lord.” So silence not only indicates worship, respect and honour to the Lord but it indicates the fantastic function of the faith-rest drill.

“Then when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”

Note the contrast of the seals and sealing. In Revelation 7:3 we have the sealing for blessing of 144,000 evangelists of the Tribulation. This sealing is designed for the blessing of mankind through the presentation of the gospel. Now, by way of contrast, in Revelation 8:1 we have the breaking of a seal of judgment from which comes the seven trumpet judgements. Hence, a seal of cursing in. In Revelation seven 144,000 men were sealed to become evangelists, a seal of blessing; these are seals of cursing and judgment. There is a principle here and the relationship between Revelation chapter seven and chapter eight brings out this particular concept: grace precedes judgment. God provides the seal of blessing before He provides the seal of cursing.

As we get into the various trumpet judgements we are going to note that they are supernatural in character; they are not normal things that happen. Our Lord not only created the universe but He sustains it, and in sustaining the universe, therefore, He eliminates a lot of supernatural and extra natural phenomena that would be destructive. The continuation of the universe and its creatures depends, therefore, on who and what Jesus Christ is. The omnipotence of Christ is the means of handling these things. The immutability of Christ is also involved. He is the secret, therefore, to scientific law. There is no such thing really as a scientific law. There is scientific phenomena but scientific phenomena simply do not exist; these are divine laws rather than scientific. Scientific laws are simply the manifestation of God’s faithfulness. These divine laws — rather than scientific — simply say science has no way of enforcing these laws. Science cannot guarantee that they will continue from day to day and operate in exactly the same way. It is the faithfulness of God that provides this. So-called scientific laws are based upon the statistical assumption that the universe which operates according to a fixed norm will continue to do so, yet science can observe but science cannot guarantee any law. In the meantime, so-called scientific laws are often set aside — in the Tribulation only — and supernatural judgements result. Known scientific laws depend entirely, then, on the faithfulness of God which is omnipotence plus immutability plus the veracity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every text and every discovery of the pattern of the universe is therefore a treatise on the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ. By the Word of His power Jesus Christ holds the universe together, Hebrews 1:3. The reason for doing so is to resolve the angelic conflict in human history and “bring many sons into glory,” as per Hebrews 2:10.

To allow grace to run its full course our Lord Jesus Christ is holding the universe together. The laws of the universe belong to God, they demonstrate His faithfulness, His perfect character, His integrity. These laws can be changed or overruled by the sovereignty of God. Therefore scientific laws are simply a dissertation on the faithfulness, the integrity of our Lord Jesus Christ in holding the universe together, and at the same time holding back eternity so that the human race will have the opportunity to appropriate salvation and enter into an eternal relationship with Him.

Verse 2, the seven trumpets originate from the seventh seal, says this verse. The sequential use of the conjunction kai is translated “then.” Next comes the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, which means to see, “Then I saw.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It is a reference to the trumpet judgements and their relationship to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the trumpet judgements.

With this we have an object of the verb. The accusative plural direct object is formed from three Greek words. First of all the definite article touj, the generic use of the definite article, it defines a category. The indeclinable numeral e(pta for “seven,” and then finally the noun a)ggeloj, “Then I saw the seven angels.” These seven angels are pur sui vant messengers in the college of heralds.

1. The Commander-in-Chief, the “Angel of the Lord,” a reference to the ruler of the college of heralds, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a theophany. The elect angels are always under the command of Christ and this would imply that the elect angels had a similar salvation to what we have today. It is related, at least, to the second person of the Trinity.

2. The seraphim heralds. The seraph is distinguished from all other angels as the highest-ranking because of his six wings, Isaiah 6:2. Angels do not have wings, with two exceptions: seraphs and cherubs. Wings are simply an insignia of rank. There are two categories of seraphs. There are the four angelic heralds and there is the king of arms. The king of arms is the highest, the “powerful angel” of Revelation 5:2.

3. The cherubim heralds, pur sui vant officers. The cherub has four wings. There are six categories of cherubs:

b. The four cherubs, one at each wheel of the chariot of fire, Ezekiel chapters 1 and 10.

c. Lucifer the son of the morning, Ezekiel 28:14, who now bears the title Satan or devil and is the ruler of this world.

4. The wingless messengers of judgment, pur sui vant messengers. They include seven categories:

a. The angelic messengers who spent the night with Lot in Sodom, Genesis 19:13ff.

e. The man clothed in Linen who acts as the messenger of the chariot of fire, Ezekiel 10:6.

f. The four angels each having a hemisphere who restrained the wind cells of the weather machine — Revelation 7:1.

g. The angels with the seven trumpets, Revelation 8:6. (Also there are seven angels bearing the wine goblets of the wrath of God)

Moving on with the exegesis of verse two we have the nominative plural relative pronoun o(j, translated “who.” Then the perfect active indicative of the verb i(stemi which means to stand, “who stand,” the perfect tense of existing state in which the past is dropped from the thought and attention is focused on the status quo. It is like the intensive perfect, it is translated usually with the English present tense. The active voice: seven pur sui vant angels produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is for a simple statement of fact. Then the improper preposition e)nwpion, and with it its object qeoj in the genitive, “before God.” “Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God.” There is a definite article in the Greek but it is not translated because it is generic. So here are the seven pur sui vant messengers, they are now on red alert before the throne of God for the purpose of administering the unique judgements, four of which are found in this chapter. These four are against nature and they are supernatural in character.

Added to this are the seven trumpets which are given to them, “and seven trumpets were given,” the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi which means to give. Notice that in each of the three sequences of judgements that something is used that is familiar in the ancient world. We have studied the seal judgements which are in the Doomsday book and noted their significance. Now we go to trumpets, a musical instrument but not a musical instrument in the ancient world. The trumpet was used rather as a system for giving commands. It was an alert system, an alert for something unusual which we have anticipated by the silence in heaven for half an hour. Verbal commands were often impossible, they did not have systems of communication such as we have today whereby voice commands could be given to thousands of troops. Then we are going to look at next the vial judgements which are really not vials at all but drinking goblets. The fact that these angels have different categories of instruments which were used in the ancient world also is significant. So terrible are the trumpet judgements that the trumpet is used because of the din, the confusion, the unusual noises of nature and human beings combined in great agony.

The aorist tense of didomi is the culminative aorist, it views the giving of the trumpets in their entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the answer to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs. The passive voice: the seven trumpets receive the action of the verb. That is, they were given to the pur sui vant messengers for the administration of seven unusual judgements. With this we have a dative plural indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj which is generally, but not always, used as the personal pronoun third person. Here it is used as the personal pronoun in the plural referring to the pur sui vant messengers, “and seven trumpets were given to them.”

Translation of verse two: “Then I saw the seven angels [seven pur sui vant messengers from the angelic college of heralds] who stand before God: and seven trumpets were given to them.”

To understand these seven trumpets we need to go back to chapter six, verse 9 and note again the Tribulational martyrs, for it is these martyrs who are responsible for the seven trumpets. These most unusual judgements in history, supernatural judgements in fact, are the result of a category of prayer we call imprecatory.

“And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had broken the fifth seal, I saw under the altar [of burnt offerings] the souls [lives] of those who had been murdered [butchered].”

While many of these believers have not been saved very long before their martyrdom they have advanced to maturity very rapidly and they have made the ultimate sacrifice. They have given their lives for Bible doctrine, for their faith. In the meantime they are enjoying great interim happiness in their interim bodies in heaven, and the fact that they are seen under the altar of burnt sacrifice emphasises their fantastic virtue. They have given their lives under principles that they had virtue that could not be destroyed by any form of torture. They had perception of doctrine that would not crack under the greatest pressures of life. In short, they had everything that was worthwhile from the Word of God. Remember that all believers of the world go up at the Rapture and that means no believers when the Tribulation begins, and remembering the shortness of the Tribulation, a shortened seven years, you can begin to see the intensity of living in that period. The longest any believer can live would be a little short of seven years and in perhaps one or two years these people take in doctrine in such an intense way that they are able to advance to maturity.

These believers fulfil a principle that is enucleated in Matthew 16:24,25. Self-denial is usually regarded by people with any lust for life as a pain in the neck and it certainly doesn’t fit the average person’s idea of what fun should be. But if you have Bible doctrine, and if you have strong motivation and therefore from this great entrenched happiness in the soul, and if you have learned to entertain yourself, which very few people seem to have done in the time in which we live, you can utilise your time properly. In other words, you are able to have a disciplined system of time, to get organised. Unhappy people never get organised and that contributes to their self-induced misery. This is what Jesus is saying here. He is not saying that you are going to have to grit your teeth and it is going to be miserable, far from it. “Let him deny himself” simply means organise yourself. To take up the cross means to go through life with impersonal love, the highest form of virtue. It means that no matter how antagonistic people may be toward you, no matter how much they hate you, no matter how much they make life miserable, you treat them exactly the same way that you treat everyone, the function of impersonal love. For that you have to have integrity. Once you get organised you have a chance to take in Bible doctrine and then you have a chance to develop integrity. Once you have integrity you are carrying your cross and it is not miserable at all, it is very happy. “Follow me” means fulfil His plan.

The human security system concept is what we have in verse 25 of Matthew 16, “Whoever wishes to deliver his soul [life] will lose it.” That is the person who is not well organised, who has no common sense, who is divorced from reality and who is a product of his own decisions and dies miserably, the sin unto death for the believer. But, “whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it.” In other words, the believer who loses his life for the sake of the Lord dies under dying grace, he has great happiness in time, he moves on into the interim life, as will the Tribulational saints. In an intensified way the Tribulational martyrs advance to maturity, they are well organised, they learn Bible doctrine, they have great common sense and great integrity, and they gave their lives refusing to renounce Christ. They died, it says, because of Bible doctrine, “because of the Word of God [6:9].” The spiritual growth of positive Tribulational believers: through a concentrated effort they were organised, they had a sense of personal destiny, they related their scale of values to number one, Bible doctrine — the Word of God has always been the greatest opposition to the cosmic system —, they loved the Word and Satan was permitted to remove them from the earth through martyrdom. But their death does not stop Bible doctrine. No matter how many believers die Bible doctrine goes on forever. Bible doctrine is never hindered or slowed down and there is no way that Satan by the administration of death can destroy them. Nothing can stop the power of the Word of God.

The second reason for their martyrdom, verse 9, is “because of the testimony they maintained.” This is their deposition with regard to the gospel. These positive believers of the future are not only consistent in the perception of doctrine but they are consistent in the production of virtue, the function of evangelism, their personal testimony. These believers are not the evangelists of the Tribulation but they are dynamic believers living in the Tribulation, and they stand out because the Tribulation is a time of historical disaster and they have fantastic happiness. They don’t die with a grim face, they are happy and relaxed, they are organised people and people with great capacity for life. So the Tribulational martyrs of the future teach us a great lesson.

In Revelation 6:10 we have again the subject of imprecatory prayers. We are now going to relate it to our passage for all of the trumpet judgements are related to the imprecatory prayers which were uttered by these people, “and they said, ‘How long O sovereign Lord’… ” Sovereign Lord refers to the integrity of Jesus Christ as God: His righteousness and His perfect justice. Because God is righteous, because God is justice, therefore because God is holy, He must do something about the injustices under which they were martyred. They have the courage and the boldness to speak up, they have learned a great deal of doctrine, they know when to speak and when not to, they know that they have a point and they make their point at this time for our benefit. They also add to the word “holy,” the integrity of Jesus Christ as God, but they add the word “true” which also means dependable. “How long O sovereign Lord, holy [the integrity of Christ as God] and true [the integrity of Christ in His hypostatic union].” This is a double appeal. It is an appeal to Jesus Christ as God, it is an appeal to Jesus Christ as their great high priest. They recognise that He has the key to the situation.

The appeal to the hypostatic union in the imprecatory prayers is compatible with emphasis on the justice of our Lord Jesus Christ to rectify the terrible injustices done to these believers by a demon- possessed government and demon-possessed people at that time. While imprecatory prayers are generally defined as prayers for vengeance it is used here as an appeal to the justice of God, to the integrity of God, to the holiness of God. And, of course, the prayers are offered in the same way that we offer prayers, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the past this was a legitimate prayer offered by great believers such as King David, who said in Psalm 13:1, “How long?” the same words used by these Tribulational martyrs. And then in verse 2, “How long will my enemies triumph over me?” He prayed these prayers under great pressure from his enemies. He said in verse 3, “Look on me and answer, O Lord, my God,” and added in verse 4, “My enemy will say, ‘I have overcome him,’ and my foes will rejoice with glee when I fall.” Cf. Psalms 54; 143; 35; 59, imprecatory prayers.

The seven trumpet judgements are the answer to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers. Even the martyrs said from under the altar, “How long before these prayers are answered?” They were prayed in confidence. So great were these Tribulational believers, so advanced spiritually, that when they prayed that their persecutors would be ruined and dealt with by the justice of God they were absolutely confident that their prayers would be answered. And their confidence is reflected in these seven trumpet judgements. While these trumpet judgements are horrible don’t feel sorry for the recipients, they had it coming.

These judgements are divided into two categories. Four of them are found in chapter eight, the other three are found in other chapters and they are called “Woes.” The first four judgements are all related to nature. Supernatural things in nature are brought against mankind. These four trumpet judgements are presented in verses 7-13 as a part of the answer to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers. The last three trumpet judgements are directed against mankind. All of these judgements are going to combine to make life horrible for those who persecuted believers in the Tribulation.

The first trumpet is found in Revelation 8:7. It is a judgment against vegetation where one third of the topsoil, vegetation, rain forest, is removed from the earth. We will see what happens under those conditions and how this becomes a fantastic judgment.

The fourth trumpet judgment in 8:12 is going to bring great darkness to the earth and there will be no help for that for a certain time.

The fifth trumpet judgment is called the first woe, 9:1-12. It is a judgment involving a demon invasion from the Abyss, and where we meet the number two fallen angel, Abaddon or Apollyon.

The sixth trumpet is found in 9:13-21. It is a demon invasion from under the Euphrates river.

The seventh trumpet or third woe is found in 11:15-12:17, another woe on demon activity, the demon attack against Israel, the greatest movement of anti-Semitism in all of human history.

In answer to the imprecatory prayers it is interesting to note one principle. In the first four trumpets God does some supernatural things with nature, supernatural because they are very destructive, but the world survives. These are exceptions to scientific laws. But in the last three we have demon attacks. And who do the demons attack? They do not attack believers, they attack unbelievers who are serving Satan. That could be called “confusion in the ranks” for in answer to imprecatory prayers God turns the fiercest of demons into attacks upon people. The imprecatory prayers have tremendous power in their proper setting of the Tribulation for God is going to answer them by turning Satan’s greatest demon armies on Satan’s greatest human servants. And Satan can do nothing to stop it. Now you know where the power is! The power is with God for these three great demon invasions are going to be against unbelievers and servants of Satan only. Again, it is a reminder of the power of prayer.

We are studying the seven trumpet judgements which are in answer to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers. We will see the first trumpet in verse seven, a judgment against vegetation. The second judgment in verses eight and nine is against salt water. Verses ten and eleven: judgment against fresh water. In verse twelve a very unusual celestial judgment. All of these have to do with supernatural activities in nature. Then follows in chapter nine two of the last three of the trumpet judgements and they are called woes. The first woe is the demon invasion from the Abyss in chapter nine verses one through twelve. The sixth trumpet is a demon invasion from the Euphrates in chapter nine verses thirteen through twenty one. The we have to skip over the Revelation chapter eleven verses fifteen through chapter twelve verse seventeen for the third woe or the seventh trumpet which is Satan’s famous attack on Israel, the last and most intensified function of anti-Semitism.

In the paragraph here in verses three through six we note the answer to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational believers.

In verse 3 we begin by noting the conjunction kai, translated “and, followed by the adjective a)lloj which refers to someone different, an angel but a different one in that category. It is translated “another. With it is the nominative singular subject a)ggeloj, a pur sui vant officer of cherub rank in the college of heralds. Next comes the aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai, “another angel came.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The per sui vant officer produces the action of the verb in the active voice. The declarative mood is for a simple statement of fact, but more than that, it demonstrates the fact that these angels have entered into their status quo of eternity. They fought a good fight in the prehistoric conflict between the fallen angels and the elect angels. They have a very definite confidence about them, a confidence that means that while they were in their struggle, long before man was created, they had a tremendous sense of destiny. This is one of the higher categories of angels with that sense of destiny.

Never in the history of the human race has one dispensation had such a fantastic opportunity under the same concept of sense of destiny as the Church Age. You and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are royal family of God. As members of the royal family of God and a kingdom of priests we should have a very great sense of destiny. Our sense of destiny has to do first of all with God’s plan. God has given us as the royal family the same divine dynasphere used by our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity during the first advent. He had the prototype; we now have the operational type.

Long before we existed there were those elect angels who had a very clear sense of their own personal destiny and they related it properly to whatever form of Bible doctrine was given to them before human history began. Because they had this and because through every type of disaster and difficulty they were faithful to the Word of God they now have entered into their eternity and certain angels, like the one in our verse and other angels, is a unique person; he is very high among the officers and the nobility among the elect angels. And so when it says, “And another angel,” that is the story of a person, a creature quite superior to mankind in its present form, but an angelic creature who through all of that conflict was faithful to Bible doctrine.

It pays to have a one-tracked mind until you come to a point where you must have flexibility through the application of doctrine. To be single-minded about your scale of values and to be flexible in your application of doctrine makes a devastating combination. This particular angel has his own biography which is absolutely fantastic and very helpful to us. No matter what the historical climate happened to be at any given time in the past in the angelic conflict before man was created, whether it was historical adversity or historical prosperity, this is one of those successful above millions and millions of angels. For many of the elect angels, like many believers today, had their own status quo carnality, had their own failures, and did not even fulfil the objectives under the plan of God assigned to them in their generation of angelic history.

And so it is today. You have a greater responsibility for what happens in this country and this generation than anyone else. When things go bad we cannot turn around and say it was the fault of anyone else.

And it says, regarding the angel, “he took his place, the aorist passive indicative of the verb i(stemi, and it means that he took his place or he stood or he took a stand. The ingressive aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. He is going to be quite active now in heaven. He has the privilege of being in charge of the administration by which all of the imprecatory prayers of the believers of the Tribulation will be answered, and will be answered from the justice of God. The passive voice: the subject, his pur sui vant officer, this cherub receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact and this is said to be “he takes his stand” or “he takes his place” at the altar. This is e)pi plus the genitive of a very long word. E)pi takes the genitive. When it takes the ablative it means something else. When it takes the accusative it means something else. Here, e)pi plus the genitive emphasises contact, location. The noun is qusiasthrion, and it refers to a very special altar, not the brazen altar but the golden altar of incense. It is first mentioned in Exodus chapter thirty, verses one through ten. It was associated with the Tabernacle and it was the altar which was associated with the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies, according to Hebrews 9:4. This particular altar is constructed of acacia wood and is plated with gold. Hence, it depicts our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union, eternal God and true humanity in one person forever. Therefore being in hypostatic union our Lord Jesus Christ is our high priest. All prayers are processed through Him. And that is not only true for us but as indicated here it is true for the Tribulational believers. The gold represents the deity of Christ, the wood His true humanity. Around the top of the altar was a crown of gold, emphasising our Lord’s third royal patent, and according to Leviticus 16:18 the altar of incense was placed just in front of the second veil. The second veil was the one that separated the holy place from the holy of holies in the tabernacle and, later on, the temple. This is where the angel stands. This is the heavenly original from which the tabernacle and the temple was patterned.

With this we have a present active participle from the verb e)xw, “and he had.” The retroactive progressive present denotes what was begun in the past but continues into the present and even into future time. It is rendered into English by the perfect or past tense. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer, this cherub with his very high rank in the college of heralds, produces the action. The circumstantial participle expresses attendant circumstances and therefore is translated into the English by a conjunction and the finite verb. Even though it is a participle it is translated this way.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object composed of two words. First of all the word xrousouj, and it means “made of gold.” With it we have a very controversial word in the Greek, libanwtoj. This word means several things. It means frankincense; it means a shovel; it means something in which frankincense is burned which we might call simply an incense shovel, and that is the way we will translate it. The controversy comes from what this shovel was like. This is a golden incense shovel.

Here we have a high-ranking angel and he is carrying around an incense shovel made of gold. And it goes on to say, “consequently,” the conjunction kai, something was given to him. And next we have “much incense was given to him.” The verb to give here which comes first in the Greek is the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi, and it is correctly translated “to give.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: the subject is “much incense” and it receives the action of the verb. It is passed over to the shovel and to the cherub who holds the shovel. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of this future event in heaven.

The subject is now composed of two words. First we have an adjective poluj, and whatever it is it came in a large quantity and it took a strong angel to hold it up, and the cherub apparently had great strength. The incense is called qumiama.

What is this incense that was given to him? And why is qumiama such an important word? Qumiama, the incense, is made up of four different things. These four elements are mentioned in Exodus 30.

First of all there is stacti [Hebrew], which means to drop or distil and it refers to myrrh. Frankincense and myrrh were used by the wise men from Persia who came to pay their respects to our Lord Jesus Christ. Myrrh was used for a perfume but it wasn’t used for a perfume by ladies to attract men. It was used for embalming. It was an ingredient also used for anointing oil. It was one of the gifts of the Magi and it was used by them to anticipate the death of Christ on the cross, bearing the sins of the entire world. Also it was used to represent strategic victory. This particular myrrh was used two ways: to embalm the dead and to make an appointment, to anoint, which means to commission. The death has to do with the cross. When our Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross the sins of the entire world were imputed to Him on the cross. He was judged on the cross and that is its connotation in embalming. That is why it is used in this shovel that the angel has. It was also used for anointing, and that indicates the strategic victory of Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and receiving His third royal patent.

The second ingredient was onycha [Hebrew], and according to Exodus 30:34 it was an ingredient of incense used for the ritual in the tabernacle. It is derived from scale or shell, the shell, for example, of a shellfish. Onycha also refers to our Lord’s death on the cross. It emphasises the relationship between propitiation and prayer. When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross God the Father judged our sins and, afterward, He was satisfied [or propitiated] with what had happened. This was why it was used on that golden altar in front of the holy of holies.

In the holy of holies was a box called the ark of the covenant. Inside that box were those things that represent sin. The box was made of acacia wood and gold, speaking of Christ in hypostatic union. Over the top of that box was a throne which was called the mercy seat, and on each end of the throne was a golden cherub, in each case speaking of the holiness of God, composed of His perfect righteousness and His justice. Once a year, on the day of atonement, the high priest came in and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice over the top of the mercy seat. The righteousness of God looked down and was satisfied because it represented Christ bearing our sins, and He was perfect as He hung upon the cross — doctrine of impeccability. The justice of God looked down — the other half of divine integrity — and was satisfied because our sins had been judged on the cross. The concept is called propitiation. So when the mercy seat is brought in to, say, the book of Romans the word for mercy seat is propitiation. Christ became the propitiation [mercy seat] for us.

This must relate also to prayer. When you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you are then commanded to pray. And there are various mandates about prayer. Since God the Father is propitiated or satisfied with the work of Christ on the cross, and since when we are in the divine dynasphere and we offer prayer we offer it through Christ, and God is satisfied with Christ and His work on the cross. And He is now seated at the right hand of the Father as the stamp of propitiation. Any prayer that comes through Christ if we are in the divine dynasphere is going to be answered. That is why onycha was burned as a part of this incense; that is why it burned in the golden shovel in our context.

Then there is a third ingredient called galbanum [Hebrew]. This is a gum resin which has a very pungent odour. When mixed with a fragrant substance it has the effect of increasing and prolonging the sweet odour of the incense. It emphasises the power of prayer from believers in fellowship, believers who have a sense of destiny and are executing the plan of God. It emphasises the power of prevailing prayer from believers in the Tribulation who are under much persecution.

Finally, number four is frankincense. In Matthew 2:11 frankincense was offered by the Magi to our Lord Jesus Christ. The white gum is derived from certain trees. It was used by the Magi to portray the impeccability of Christ inside the prototype divine dynasphere and to emphasise the fact that prayer can only be answered when believers are in fellowship with God [inside the divine dynasphere] and offer those prayers through our Lord Jesus Christ. All prayer must be related to the person of Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Translation of verse 3 so far: “Then another angel came and took his place before the altar, and he had an incense shovel made of gold; consequently much incense was given to him ...”

Next we have the purpose: the conjunction i(na introduces a sub-final purpose clause. There are two kinds of purpose clauses, final and sub-final. Here we have a sub-final purpose clause in which the action of the main verb is directed toward a given result, which result is anticipated. So it is translated, “in order that.” Then we have the future active indicative of didomi, but here it does not mean to give. It has a similar connotation. We translate this correctly, “in order that he might offer it.” The future tense expresses the anticipation of a future event, hence a predictive future. The active voice: this particular angel, one of the highest-ranking in the angelic order of battle, is actually going to do this thing in heaven. He is going to produce the action of the verb by making the offering. The indicative mood is declarative for an unqualified statement of fact as to the subject, as to the function, and as to its meaning. The word “it” is added, it refers to the incense, hence the incense indicates the fact that the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers are acceptable to God like the sweet odour of the incense. God is propitiated by these prayers and therefore they will be answered.

Then we have what it is being offered with — the instrumental of manner, plural, from the noun proseuxh. Since the incense is associated with the prayers of the Tribulational believers we have the instrumental of manner, also the instrumental of association. With this we have the possessive genitive plural from a(gioj, “saints,” indicating that these prayers come from believers. We have an adjective in the genitive plural, paj, “of all the saints.”

Then we have the repetition of that prepositional phrase “upon the altar.” The word for “altar” is the altar of golden incense. With this we have an accusative neuter singular definite article, to, but the definite article is used as a relative pronoun translated “which.” Add the verb to be, e)imi, “which is.”

Then, finally, the prepositional phrase, the improper preposition from the adverb e)nwpion, plus the noun qronoj, “before the throne.”

Translation of verse three: “Then another angel [a pur sui vant officer, cherub rank in the college of heralds] came and took his place before the altar, and he had an incense shovel made of gold; consequently much incense was given to him in order that he might offer the prayers of all the saints [Tribulational believers] on the golden altar which was before the throne.”

Prayer is a weapon and, like any weapon, you have to know how to use it. How does it function? Prayer is the effective function of petition and entreaty to God on the part of the believer in Christ who resides in the divine dynasphere. It is a weapon, it must be treated as a weapon, it must be understood as a weapon, it must be used as a weapon.

God the Father is the recipient of all prayer; God the Son is the means of approach. Each member of the Trinity has certain designated functions according to the Word of God and these functions must be understood to be effective as a believer. Don’t offer prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ, don’t offer prayer to God the Holy Spirit. Prayer is offered to God the Father and Jesus Christ adhered to this rule in His humanity during the period of the first advent.

God the Father receives prayer from three different sources: from believers, Hebrews 4:16; God the Son offers prayer in hypostatic union, Hebrews 7:25; God the Holy Spirit, Roman 8:26, 27.

There is also a prayer that the believer cannot pray because of the intensity of pressure, disaster, shock, and that is why the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings which cannot be uttered in Romans 8:26,27.

In verse four we are introduced once again for the third time to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational saints. The connective conjunction kai is sequential and translated “then.” With this we have the nominative singular subject from the noun kapnoj, translated “smoke.” It is the smoke of burnt incense. And with it we have the genitive plural from qumiama, “the smoke of the incense.” The plural refers to the four categories which are involved in that incense and their significance as related to our Lord’s first advent and His strategic victory at the cross. Then comes the verb, the aorist active indicative of the verb a)nabainw which means to ascend, to go up, “Then the smoke of the incense went up.” This is a constative aorist tense contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety.

These prayers are answered. The dynamics of prayer in the Tribulation is one of the great spiritual phenomenons of that time. The active voice: the smoke of the incense produces the action of the verb. The declarative is the for the historical reality of this future event. There is here the associative instrumental plural from the noun proseuxh, a Greek word for prayer, and with it the genitive of a(gioj meaning saints.

Translation: “Then the smoke of the incense, along with [the associated instrumental] the [imprecatory] prayers of the saints, went up before God from the hand of the angel.”

Just as the smoke of burning incense is used to portray propitiation, so it is also used in the Bible for the concept of answered prayer. The incense indicates that the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational believers are being answered by the seven trumpet judgements. And just as the pur sui vant officer of cherub rank commanded the four angels, the pur sui vant messengers who controlled the wind cell. So the pur sui vant cherub commands the seven angels who will sound the trumpets to administer this judgment. Anticipating the next verse, the answer to the imprecatory prayers call for great judgements and great historical disasters on earth, they are, in effect, supernatural judgements. This brings us back to the chariot of fire which we have noticed in Ezekiel chapters one and ten.

Verse 5, the function of the pur sui vant officer in the answer to these imprecatory prayers. Again we have the sequential kai, “then,” and the nominative singular from the subject, a)ggeloj, and the perfect active indicative of lambanw. He stood at the altar until he was given the command, “Then he took.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect, it describes vividly the ease with which one does a thing. When you are serving the Lord the ease with which things are accomplished is an amazing thing. He is about to something that is about to turn the world upside down with supernatural judgements. The dramatic perfect, then, emphasises the results of the action. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a future statement of fact in the field of eschatology. What is angel took is the accusative singular direct object from libanwtoj which refers to the golden shovel. It is translated in the King James version “censer.” It is a golden shovel in which incense is burned. He took the incense shovel and he filled it with the fire from the altar. So it has a place for coals on it, it heats up and begins the process of the incense being manufactured.

And he threw it. We have the aorist active indicative from ballw which means sometimes to hurl. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the events in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the judgements of the inhabitants of the earth, unbelievers, in answer to imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational believers. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer produces this action in heaven. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the act which is tantamount to a command from the pur sui vant officer, a command which has been relayed from God Himself, to the pur sui vant messengers who have the seven trumpets and who are on red alert for sounding off. Then we have a preposition, “to the earth,” e)ij plus gh. The imprecatory prayers of believers are collected in heaven and then at the exact moment they are approved, resulting in the answer, the judgment of the seven trumpets. Such historical judgment generally originates from the chariot of fire but in this case the judgment originates from the altar because they involve answers to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational saints, chapter 6:9-10. The answer to question, How long? is found in the administration of the trumpet judgements. These same Tribulational martyrs who had offered the imprecatory prayers are described in more detail on chapter 7:9-17.

Now we have the warning of coming judgements. We have the predicate nominative bronth which means crashes or peels of thunder, a warning of the coming storm. Hence, a warning of the coming trumpet judgements to the people of the earth. This is the principle of grace before judgment, there is still time for people to repent and avoid these judgements. No one has ever been judged by God without more than adequate warning. The problems we bring on ourselves and call divine discipline are really not divine discipline at all. We are the products of our own decisions and when we make bad decisions we simply manufacture our own misery. The only warning we get from that is the function of our own soul, but when God does judge, and these judgements originate from God, there is always a tremendous warning system.

The second predicate nominative is fwnh which means voices, sounds or noises. This is the audible warning system, like a tornado, a hurricane, etc. to give people the opportunity of changing their mind.

The third is a)straph and it means flashes of lightning. So we have the warning: “and he hurled it to the earth and there followed peels of thunder, loud noises and flashings of lightnings.” These are all warnings of coming judgment. The flashings of lightning would be the visual rather than the audio approach, it indicates the coming of great historical disaster in the Tribulation.

These first three subjects are connected by the conjunction kai used in its connective sense. Then we have kai one more time and it is used as an adjunctive kai, “also.” But before we get to that we should have “there followed,” the aorist middle participle of the verb ginomai, which means to be, to become, here it means to follow. It is because of this state-of-being verb that we can actually have predicate nominatives here instead of accusative. The constative aorist tense of the verb contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. These signs or warnings of coming judgment allow people to change their mind and avoid the judgment. This is a period of grace before judgment to allow the recipients of the judgment another chance. The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising the subject, the warning of judgment as producing the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

Then comes the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, and then a word in the singular, seismoj, for earthquake. One of the great and terrible earthquakes will occur at this point.

Verse 6, the function of the pur sui vant messengers in answer to the imprecatory prayers. God the Father processed those imprecatory prayers. The Son then put everything into action. From the Son they went to the pur sui vant officer and then to the pur sui vant messengers. Then we will have the seven trumpets. This whole system is to allow time for repentance or change of attitude.

“Then the seven angels [the pur sui vant messengers] who had the seven trumpets,” the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw, “who had.” Then the nominative plural definite article used as a relative pronoun, “who.” The perfective present tense refers to what has come to be in the past but is emphasises as a present reality. These pur sui vant messengers had this category of judgment but it is now emphasised as the reality of the Tribulation. The active voice: the pur sui vant messengers are going to be the administrators. The participle denotes a future purpose for the seven trumpets.

Then we have the accusative direct object of the participle composed of two words: a very simple accusative plural definite article paj, “the”; the adjective numeral e(pta, “seven”; and the noun salpigc for “trumpets.” And “they have prepared themselves,” the aorist active indicative of e)toimazw.

Everyone has to prepare before he can be used by God. No matter how high you are in God’s plan or no matter how low you are, you can’t be anything without preparation. You can’t run off half-cocked. God uses prepared men. The active voice: the seven pur sui vant messengers produce the action and while the preparation modus operandi is not given it does emphasise a principle: preparation is necessary for any function involving the decisions of eternal God. Both elect angels and regenerate mankind must constantly prepare themselves and be prepared to carry out God’s plan for history. Your preparation as a believer is in perception of Bible doctrine. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of preparation necessary to execute the will of God.

And this is a very rare use of a)utoj. Every now and then this word is used in its original connotation of the Classical Greek which is an intensive pronoun. Here it is used as an intensive pronoun, the accusative plural direct object. The function of the intensive pronoun is to emphasise identity, therefore it is demonstrative force intensified. This is the predicate use of the intensive pronoun and that is why it is translated “themselves,” “they prepared themselves.” Their purpose is given in the final phrase, a final purpose clause from the conjunction i(na, “they prepared themselves that.” The semi-final purpose clause is one which denotes the direction or the action of the main verb toward a given result. The result anticipated is the answer to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational believers, “that they might give the signal with the trumpets,” the aorist active subjunctive of the verb salpizw, and it means to give an order with a trumpet, to produce a blast on a trumpet, to sound off. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the sounding of the trumpet call or signal in its entirety but it emphasises the existing result, the answer to the prayers of the Tribulational believers and the administration of terrible judgment. The active voice: each pur sui vant messenger produces the action of the verb in sequence, not simultaneously. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive used to form or construct a semi-final purpose clause.

The first four trumpet signals are directed against nature while the last three trumpets signals are the three woes directed against mankind in a very dramatic way. The drama comes from the fact that demons are allowed to attack people.

As the seven angels prepare to sound it reminds us several facts that we can anticipate. These trumpets judgements are supernatural rather than natural judgements. They are the consequence of man’s erroneous decisions. Man is the product of his own decisions; man is the product of his own adversity through making bad decisions. The natural result of bad decisions is first of all self-induced, self-imposed misery — the concept of we reap what we sow. But these trumpet judgements are much more than that, they are natural consequences of man’s reversionism, his apostasy, his degeneration, but they are supernatural in character. Many believers will survive all of the historical disasters of the Tribulation but they will survive because they have a personal sense of destiny, a fantastic humility and flexibility. The believer in the Church Age living in a client nation to God has a dual destiny they do not have. We have a personal sense of destiny related to the plan of God for our lives and, of course, that means living in the divine dynasphere. But we also have a national sense of destiny related to the advance to maturity, forming the pivot, and that brings us to the point of prosperity for the nation. As goes the believer in this dispensation, so goes the client nation. Only the first category is open to these Tribulational believers, they only have available to them the personal sense of destiny related to the plan of God. There are no client nations in the Tribulation. To survive the cataclysms of the Tribulation the believer must have a personal sense of destiny related to his perception and application of Bible doctrine. (We have far more than that today, we even have a greater challenge) With a personal sense of destiny from Bible doctrine the believer’s confidence is related to his humility which produces fantastic application and flexibility, and there will be many survivors.

We now note the four trumpets of judgment in this passage, verses 7-13. They will be quite different from the final trumpets which are demon invasions and will give us the chance to study the whole realm of demonology.

The first of these trumpet judgements is found in verse 7. The connective conjunction kai introduces a result from what precedes and is translated, “And then.” The adjective prwtoj is a nominative singular and with the generic use of the definite article identifies the category of trumpeters, pur sui vant messengers in the college of heralds. The noun a)ggeloj is the subject and the first of the trumpeters, but we do not have a)ggeloj here in the original although it does occur later on in verse eight. So we will translate it correctly here: “Then the first one [the first angel, a pur sui vant messenger in the college of herald].” This is the first one, a)ggeloj does not occur in the original. It has been included in the King James version.

Then we have the aorist active indicative of salpizw which means to sound a trumpet, to give a signal with a trumpet, and we translate it, “sounded his trumpet.” We will see this verb in this form seven times before we are through, all of the way from this chapter to chapter eleven. “Then the first one sounded [gave a signal on] his trumpet,” for the administration of the first judgment. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes up everything we will note with regard to the first judgment and gathers it into one concept. The active voice: the first pur sui vant messenger actually produces the action. The declarative indicative mood is for a simple statement of fact in the field of eschatology.

Now we see a terrible storm in the phrases that follow. It is introduced with the aorist middle indicative of the verb ginomai. The verb means to be, to become, but here it is translated correctly, “and there followed.” It is giving a sequential result from the sounding of the trumpet. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, again contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes up the first judgment against the world’s vegetation in its entirety. This is a middle voice but being a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning, and again the action is produced by a terrible storm. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of divine judgment. This is a judgment which does not come from man’s bad decisions, it comes from God as a result of the imprecatory prayers. What follows then rescinds the mandate of Revelation 7:2,3. With this order rescinded the first four trumpet judgements are against vegetation on land. The second is against the salt water of the seas and the third is against the fresh water such as lakes and rivers. Finally there is the fourth trumpet which has to do with judgment against the atmosphere. Each category produces a tremendous amount of suffering to the unbelievers of the earth during the Tribulation. This, again, is in answer to the imprecatory prayers.

“Then the first one sounded his trumpet, and there followed ...” The predicate nominative is made up of several words. First of all xalaz, used generally for hail, and then we have another, pur for fire, translated “hail and fire.” The word “fire” is possibly lightning but there is another Greek word for lightning. In Exodus 9:24 one of the great plagues was a terrible thunderstorm and it was described in similar words. It was the worst storm in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. Now we have another one of those supernatural thunderstorms directly from heaven. The first plague of Egypt is very similar except that this judgment is intensified.

With this we have the perfect passive participle from mignumi, and it means to mix, “which had been mixed.” The perfect is a tense of completed action, therefore the action is viewed as a finished product. The perfect tense implies the process of mixing blood with an intensified tropical thunderstorm, but a process consummated and existing in a finished state. So when the storm hits you have everything we have today but you have blood mixed in with it. This is the intensive perfect in which special attention is directed to the results of the action and the existing fact is intensified. The passive voice: the terrible thunderstorm receives the action of the verb, it is mixed with blood. The participle is circumstantial and this is followed by a prepositional phrase e)n plus the instrumental of manner from a(ima, correctly translated, “which had been mixed with blood.” The instrumental of manner indicates that we have here literal blood, not like the blood of Christ which we have studied in terms of redemption, reconciliation, etc., the saving work of Christ on the cross. This blood was first mentioned in Revelation 6:10 which records the imprecatory prayers in summary of the Tribulational martyrs and this same blood is now mixed with this supernatural and therefore unusual thunderstorm. “How long will it be fore you avenge our blood on the population of the earth.” The blood of the Tribulational martyrs is mixed with that tropical storm and then it hits a certain part of the earth. What this really is is wind shear, a down-burst in which a strong wind is actually smashed against the surface of the earth. And it is not only wind shear and its manifestation in a down-burst but it is one that is mixed with blood. In other words, all of the blood that these people shed is going to cover them when this storm hits them. The storm does not destroy people as much as it does vegetation.

How do we know it is wind shear? The aorist passive indicative of the verb ballw, a word that means to throw but it also means to hurl, and we will translate it, “and it was hurled.” This is a down-burst. The passive voice: the thunderstorm, the hail, the fire mixed with blood, receives the action of the verb in a tremendous down-burst. Then we have the prepositional phrase e)ij plus the accusative of gh, “to the earth.” This is how we know that it is a down-burst. Wind shear has only been recently discovered and distinguished from tornadoes.

Corrected translation: “Then the first one [the angel or the pur sui vant officer in the college of heralds] sounded his trumpet [gave the signal] and there followed a terrible thunder storm, hail and fire which had been mixed with blood [of the Tribulational martyrs, Revelation 6:9,10], and it [the supernatural thunderstorm] was hurled to the earth [the phenomenon known as wind shear or down-burst].”

Next we have to notice that there are some results from this activity. All of the results occur in the area of burning. Three times in the result column we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb katakainw. Katakainw means to burn up, to consume, to destroy by fire. The culminative aorist tense views the down-burst of the supernatural thunderstorm in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. The fire or lightning in the thunderstorm has great destructive effect, it destroys one third of the land surface, one third of the trees and one third of the green grass. Later on we will discuss the problem of what third. The passive voice: one third of the land surface, one third of the trees, one third of the grass, receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of these results. We translate: “and with the result that one third of the land surface was destroyed by fire; one third of the trees were burned up plus one third of the green grass”.

By green grass is meant agricultural grains, like hay. Both natural vegetation and cultivated plant life is included. Along with the tress all plant life provides oxygen on the surface of the earth, so this is a matter of general health of humanity from both food and atmosphere. The cultivated part of the land surface is called gh, while the natural plant life is derived from the noun xortoj which is translated “grass” but also includes grain. A destruction of the great rain forests like those in Central and South America, or those in the Congo basin, or the Indo-Malayan rain forests, would be very detrimental to mankind on the earth. The terrestrial vegetation of the world may be classified into three categories of plant life: grassland, desert, and forest. Desert here is not a reference to sand but to the high desert areas and other places where grazing exists. Grasslands of the world actually cover 13,000,000 square miles of valuable grazing land. Of this area three and a half million square miles are suitable for the production of cold weather crops, grass like wheat, rye, oats. Six million eight hundred thousand square miles are suitable for warm weather crops, cotton, etc. Two million seven hundred thousand square miles are suitable for grazing only. That is what the grasslands produce and the grasslands are caught in this judgment so that one third of that is destroyed. A tremendous impact on mankind is therefore provided in the first third of this trumpet judgment.

What about the desert grazing land? The deserts cover some 17,000,000 square miles of good grazing land, good for either grazing or irrigation in farming. The fact that the entire world contains approximately 26,000,000 square miles suitable for grazing, 12,800,000 square miles good for producing warm weather crops, and about eleven and a half million square miles capable of producing cold weather crops, it can be seen immediately that when the desert is hit as well then you are destroying a great portion of the world’s food supply. The natural forests of the world cover an area of approximately 22,000,000 square miles. About 14,000,000 square miles are capable of being converted into crop-producing land. The tremendous devastation of this supernatural storm can be pictured which destroys one third of the high grass savannahs, the tall grass savannahs, the desert grass savannahs, marsh grass, short grass, desert shrubbery, rain forest, etc. The devastation of this judgment staggers the imagination.

The adverse affects on weather, food supply, and many other factors would be devastating to mankind on earth during the Tribulation.

Translation of verse seven: “Then the first one [the angel or the pur sui vant officer in the college of heralds] sounded his trumpet [gave the signal] and there followed a terrible thunder storm, hail and fire which had been mixed with blood [of the Tribulational martyrs — Revelation 6:9,10], and it [the supernatural thunderstorm] was hurled to the earth [the phenomenon known as wind shear or down-burst]: with the result that one third of the land surface was destroyed by fire, both a third of the trees was burned up plus all the green grasses.”

A similar prophecy is found in Joel 1:15-20, “What a dreadful day! [the day of the Tribulation] for the day of the Lord is near [second advent], and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.” Has not food been cut off from before our eyes, yes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? And the seeds shrivel under their clods, the storehouses for food are desolate, barns are torn down; for grain has dried up. How the cattle groan! the herds mill about, because there is no pasture; yes, even the flocks of sheep are suffering. To you, O Lord, I call: for fire has devoured the open pastures, and the flame has burned up all the trees of the forests. Even the wild animals of the field pant for you: for the watering holes have dried up, and fire has devoured the open grazing land.” This is an amplification of the first trumpet judgment.

The judgements which we have noted in Revelation up to the time of the trumpet judgements are the result of man’s bad decisions. Bad decisions result in judgment. But we have now come to a point where God directly judges mankind and the first four trumpet judgements are judgements related to nature. We now move on to verses eight and nine where we see the judgements of the second trumpet.

Verse 8, we have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “then,” and we have the adjective numeral deuteroj which means “second.” With it, again, the same subject as always a)ggeloj, “the second angel,” and it refers to one of the members of the college of heralds, the fourth category, the pur sui vant messenger. Then follows the verb, the aorist active indicative of the verb salpizw, and it means to sound a trumpet. We translate: “Then the second angel [the pur sui vant messenger from the college of heralds] sounded his trumpet.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, this is the second trumpet judgment against nature. The active voice: the pur sui vant messenger produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact. This is a judgment from heaven. This signal on the trumpet begins the second judgment given in direct answer to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers: a judgment against the seas of the world, specifically salt water areas.

The seas of the world with their salt water form ninety-eight per cent of the world’s water supply which means that two per cent of all the water available on the earth’s surface is fresh water. This would be more than adequate were it not that the world’s greatest reserves are locked inaccessibly in our ice caps. The problem therefore is to provide fresh water when and where it is needed and to ensure that it is not used faster than it can be replaced. The oceans of the world are nature’s reservoirs for this. Water evaporates from them to fall as rain and snow over land. So we actually get our fresh water from evaporation of salt water and from the land it returns mostly through rivers to the sea. Therefore the maximum amount of fresh water available depends on precipitation which depends on evaporation from the seas. This judgment is an attack on the salt water seas; the next trumpet judgment will be an attack upon fresh water, lakes, and rivers.

So we have a great mountain of burning fire which is suddenly used at this point, the aorist active indicative gives us our next verb, ballw, which actually means here to hurl. A great mountain of burning fire is hurled into the sea; “and became,” the aorist middle indicative of ginomai, which means to come, to follow, here it means to become; “and a third of the seas became blood.” This is a similar judgment found in Exodus 17:20, also mentioned in Psalm 105:29. It describes the first plague in Egypt and Psalm 105:29 puts it this way: “He [Aaron, serving Moses] turned their waters into blood, and caused their fish to die.” Of course, this came from God through Aaron and Moses. This was a local judgment against the Pharaoh of Egypt but here in Revelation this is a universal judgment against the seas and oceans of the earth.

Translation: “Then the second angel sounded his trumpet, and a great mountain of burning fire it was hurled into the sea: and a third of the seas became blood.”

The significance of the blood here is twofold. First of all it is a reminder to the unbelievers of the Tribulation that they have rejected the only way of salvation which has been given to them through evangelism and personal witnessing under the title: “The blood of Christ, God’s Son cleanses from all sin,” redemption, reconciliation and propitiation. The second reason is that the blood acts as a pollution, a salt water pollution. The importance of oceans and seas in sustaining the natural balance cannot be overestimated. Pollution on the ocean therefore becomes a very serious matter. The great mountain of burning fire will pollute oceans and seas up to one third by turning them in to blood. The Tribulational results of the second trumpet will be noted in verse nine.

Verse 9, When it says that a third of the creatures which were in the sea died, we have the aorist active indicative of the verb a)poqnhskw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: creatures of the sea produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this judgment. Fish and other sea food offer valuable protein in the diet of mankind. Many of the countries of the world depend on sea foods for their very existence. Again, this is reference to the four horsemen of the apocalypse where hunger is one of the great causes for death in the Tribulation.

There is also an effect on shipping, for it says at the end of this verse, “a third of the shipping was destroyed,” the aorist passive indicative of diafqeirw, and it does mean to destroy in the very same sense as death. This is the death to shipping. The passive voice means the subject receives the action of the verb and the shipping itself was destroyed. The economic wealth of many nations depends on their shipping and their trade.

It will be noticed that in verses eight and nine we have a general attack on all salt water, the oceans and the seas, and the shipping. Translation: “Then a third of the creatures in the sea, having life, died; also a third of the shipping was destroyed.”

The largest ocean in the world is the Pacific which covers 63,855,000 square miles, with a maximum depth of 36,198 feet. It is deeper than the highest height, Mount Everest. Next is the Atlantic which has 31,744,000 square miles. When you add these up plus all of the many other seas of the world it can be seen how devastating this second trumpet judgment will be.

That brings us, then, to another body of water, fresh water, in verses 10-11, the judgment of the third trumpet.

Verse 10, We have a word in the Greek which is used at least three different ways, a)sthr. It is correctly translated “star.” Sometimes it refers to a celestial body, sometimes it refers to a planet, and sometimes it refers to angelic creatures. In the Old Testament “star” is even used for achievement.

“Then the third angel [the pur sui vant messenger] sounded his trumpet, and a great star, burning like a torch, fell from heaven.” The word “great” which is used with it, megaj, also is significant. It means “great.” Actually, this time it is not a star. This is a giant meteor, a transient celestial body that enters the earth’s atmosphere with great velocity. It has incandescence with heat. It is luminous and shiny with the heat generated by the resistance of the air. We will translate this then: “ a giant meteor, incandescent like a lamp, fell from the sky.”

“and it fell on a third of the rivers and lakes.” The words “springs of waters” actually means lakes. This contamination is from a giant meteor and it affects one third of the fresh water supply of planet earth, specifically the rivers and the lakes. All of the lakes of the world add up to a considerable body of water, one third of which will be contaminated.

Translation of verse 10: “Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, a giant meteor, incandescent, fell from the sky, and it fell on the third of the rivers and the lakes.”

At this point we stop to notice a principle of interpretation. All three of these first judgements talk about a third being affected. The judgements are literal, they are local, they are lucid, and they are locked in. And these are the three principles that we should note.

First of all the judgements we are studying are literal, they are not to be taken symbolically. These judgements come from heaven, they are related to natural phenomena but they are administered in a supernatural way by the angelic college of heralds.

Secondly we note that these judgements are local. That is, a third of the earth or a third of the seas and oceans, or a third of the lakes and rivers, are affected. It is the local area where the hail and the fire and the giant meteor hits that is the area affected. So when these areas are affected it is wherever the judgment hits and from there it moves out locally to one third of planet earth.

The third thing we note is that these judgements are lucid. No question as to what is affected in the four trumpet judgements.

Finally, we note that these judgements are locked in. The certainty of these future judgements as a part of historical trends of the Tribulation is as certain as the Word of God which lives forever and ever. And by way of application to us in the Church Age, just as certainly as these things will occur so we as believers in this dispensation can anticipate some great historical disaster, which we are now experiencing.

The recipients of these judgements are the unbelievers of the Tribulation. No believers are destroyed by these judgements from God. To the contrary, these trumpet judgements are the results of the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers. Two categories of Tribulational believers exist at this time, those who have been martyred, and they are treated as Old Testament saints, and those who survive the Tribulation to the point of the second advent, they are treated as Millennial believers. The Tribulation then becomes what we would have to classify as a transitional dispensation that marks the dividing line between two categories of believers. And since the Tribulation is the extension of and termination of the dispensation of Israel, i.e. Daniel’s seventieth week, those believers who are martyred are going to be classified with the Old Testament saints. They will receive their resurrection bodies with the rest of the Old Testament believers at the second advent.

In other words, remember the doctrine of resurrection. The resurrection takes place under the Greek word tacij which in 1 Corinthians 15 means battalion, “every man in his own battalion.” In resurrection there are two battalions. The first battalion is made up of believers only, the second battalion is made up of unbelievers only. The second battalion is the resurrection which takes place at the end of time, the great white throne judgment where the unbelievers are cast into the lake of fire. But the first battalion is broken down into four companies and is pictured as a battalion review. Alpha Company moves out first and has already passed the reviewing stand. That is our Lord Jesus Christ. Next comes Bravo Company, the Rapture of the Church. Then Charlie company, the Old Testament saints at the second advent. Delta Company follows last, and that would be the resurrection body given to Millennial saints at the end of the Millennium. So you have four different companies involved in the resurrection and they take place at different times. Since the Tribulation, then, is a separate dispensation preceding the Millennium these believers who survive the Tribulation will become the cadre for the Millennial believers.

Here is the point of application. At the beginning of the Millennium there are believers only because that is the beginning of a civilisation. All the unbelievers of the Millennium will be the children of believing parents or grandparents. Since life is extended in the Millennium that means that all unbelievers have parents and grandparents who are believers. The principle is one that you must never forget and it must never become a source of unhappiness to you. How your children turn out may or may not be your responsibility. In most cases it is not. In the time in which we live because of drugs and because of the evil society in which we live, in which drugs are tolerated, in which you are ostracised through social groups if you

1. The third world is a perfect example of negative volition toward Bible doctrine, rejection of establishment, and the function of the cosmic system.

2. All life is not valuable, criminals must be executed, the enemy killed, the lazy and the degenerate destroyed, as a part of divine discipline.

3. Impersonal love is designed to benefit the human race; personal love is optional, designed for interaction of a few.

4. Virtue is developed through divine laws of establishment — believers and unbelievers, and the divine dynasphere where virtue is developed for believers only.

5. Impersonal love is a problem-solver. Christ solved the sin problem through impersonal love. Personal love is not a problem-solver but often a distraction. Or, personal love is often a distraction to relationship with God; impersonal love is the result of relationship with God.

Energy minus ability, energy without ability, is misdirected arrogance. Energy without ability produces mental attitude arrogance or inordinate ambition. When people have energy and no ability they become troublemakers. They are a source of dissension in any organisation.

Energy without ability results in self-righteous arrogance, crusader arrogance. Crusader and self-righteous arrogance always combine to form a person who sticks his nose into everyone else’s business, intrudes into the privacy of others, becomes a gossip or maligner, tries to run your life and control your life, or the person who tries to intimidate you.

Energy without ability produces conspiracy arrogance, sexual arrogance, iconoclastic arrogance, morality arrogance, the arrogance of Christian service. People who have energy but no ability to serve the Lord are always using their energy in pseudo systems of Christian production.

Ability without energy is lack of motivation, lack of self-discipline. This, of course, is the other side of the story. Ability without energy, lack of motivation, and lack of self-discipline is what we might call the arrogance of laziness.

The controlled energy of hard work, on the other hand, produces ability and ability channels hard work into fields of productive success. This is simply saying that ability is acquired through hard work, through dedication, through plugging. Energy plus ability is the true drive in life. Energy is basically created in the body but ability is created in the attitudes of the soul. The ability is created in the motivational function of the soul, not the IQ of the soul, not the emotion of the soul, not even the self-consciousness of the soul. Motivation in the soul produces the decisions to take in doctrine on a daily basis regardless of circumstances, distractions, or discouragement. Both energy and ability are harnessed through perception and application of doctrine. Therefore, energy plus ability must be related to doctrine and wisdom otherwise a pseudo drive is created and all pseudo drives terminate in the modus operandi of the cosmic system.

Our Lord’s energy and wisdom, His ability during His first advent, was derived from His residence and function in the prototype divine dynasphere and it resulted in the greatest of all victories in human history, the strategic victory of the cross. Our Lord’s wisdom, coupled with His energy and ability at the second advent will set in motion the greatest reign in all of human history. Jesus Christ will rule the world. In the meantime, of course, our Lord has provided for us the divine dynasphere so that we can face and overcome every disaster in life. Our Lord has seen fit through the vehicle of eschatology to give us an account of the greatest period of historical disaster, the Tribulation, duplicated often in our lives and in our lifetime but with a difference: we have the means of meeting any disaster, any tragedy, any situation in life, and overcoming it.

Verse 11, the result of what happened when the meteor struck the fresh water supply. We begin by noting the name of the meteor. We have discussed the word a)sthr which can be a star, it can be an angel, it can refer to a human being who achieves, it also refers to a meteor. “And the name of the meteor is called,” the present passive indicative of legw, translated here “to call.” The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The passive voice: the name or designation of the meteor is going to receive the action of the verb in this verse. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact, and with that comes the fact, the predicate nominative of the Greek word a)psinqoj, transliterated “absinthe,” a very famous wine in France and made more famous by what the French Legionnaires did when they had too much of it. Today the name absinthe is the name of a green alcoholic liqueur containing oil of wormwood and annis. It was famous in the French Foreign Legion by causing nervous derangements and wild hallucinations. But it is translated in our verse “wormwood” and that is a possible translation, the only problem being that wormwood is not a deadly poison and we are dealing with a pollution where fresh water is concerned. Whatever a)psinqoj was it killed many people. Absinthe or wine prepared with wormwood was well-known in the ancient world. Wormwood is a plant. The oil from the plant has a very strong bitter taste. The oil was also used to destroy intestinal worms in the ancient world and was considered a great cure. It was also used to manufacture absinthe in the ancient world as well and since the noun is used for wormwood perhaps a few scriptures will give us an idea as to exactly what the Bible has in mind by calling this meteor “Wormwood.”

Proverbs 5:3,4 — here wormwood is used for hooking up with the wrong doll! “For the lips of an adulterous woman drip honey, and her palate is smoother than oil of frankincense. But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood.” Wormwood here is a frustrated relationship with a member of the opposite sex. A bitter experience is what it connotes here.

The word for wormwood in the Hebrew is not the same as the Greek, it is laanah, and it is exactly the same as absinthe in the Greek. Wormwood is identified generally in the Bible with some form of discipline: to an individual has made some kind of a mistake in a relationship with a member of the opposite sex, or for a nation which has failed as a client nation. The latter is the meaning that Jeremiah assigns to it in Jeremiah 9:15, “Therefore thus saith the Lord of the armies, the God of Israel [our Lord Jesus Chris]; Behold, I will feed this people [referring to Israel about to be punished with the fifth cycle of discipline] with wormwood [wormwood is the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the client nation Israel], I will give them poisoned water to drink.”

The explanation in Jeremiah 9:16 follows: “I will scatter them among the nations [that’s wormwood], whom neither they nor their fathers have known [the Chaldeans in 586 BC; the Romans in 70 AD]: I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them.” This is what wormwood means.

Now we have a giant meteor called Wormwood because it is the vehicle for the administration of God’s justice on unbelievers of the Tribulation. Wormwood connotes divine judgment and the giant meteor is the means of administrating that judgment under the fifth trumpet. We must remember that Wormwood is the name of the meteor and not what pollutes the water. So the giant meteor, incandescent, burning like a lamp or a torch, is a symbol of divine judgment on fresh water upon planet earth. The judgment is literal. We will stay with the translation of the name of the meteor, Wormwood, because it always connotes some form of divine judgment.

“Therefore, thus saith the Lord of the armies, ‘Behold I am going to feed them wormwood, and make them drink poisonous water: for from the prophets in Jerusalem pollution has gone out throughout the entire land’.”

The real pollution in that passage is false teaching from the prophets and this real pollution is the basis for divine judgment, or wormwood. Wormwood depicts the anti-pivot in a client nation, and specifies idolatry in Israel as the gathering point for those who reject Bible doctrine.

Deuteronomy 29:18, “Lest there be among you any man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose right lobe turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those Gentile nations; lest there shall be among you a root bearing poison fruit and wormwood.” Only believers who are positive toward doctrine ever survive wormwood type judgment.

This is the subject of Lamentations chapter three, beginning at verse 15. In verses 15-19 we see the wormwood judgment, “He has filled me with bitterness, he has made me drunk with wormwood.” Now the wormwood is described as a literal judgment. “He has broken my teeth with gravel, he has caused me to cower in the dust. My life has been deprived of its prosperity: I have forgotten the good [I have forgotten what blessing is]. So I think my strength is gone and so has my hope from the Lord: I remember my adversity and my straying, I remember the wormwood, the bitterness [the meaning of wormwood].”

Deliverance by logistical grace from wormwood judgment is mentioned in verses 20-26, a passage which should remind us that no wormwood judgment ever touches the advancing or the mature believer. This becomes important in the interpretation of the next chapter because wormwood judgements are going to include demon invasions, and demon invasions are going to first torture and then destroy unbelievers in the cosmic system, and believers in the cosmic system; believers and unbelievers who are serving Satan. But no believer who is positive toward doctrine and advancing will ever be disturbed by a wormwood judgment.

“Definitely my soul remembers, and is humbled within me. This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope [confidence]. It is of then Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness [great is logistical grace]. The Lord is my portion, thinks my soul; therefore I have confidence in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him. It is good to wait silently or quietly for the deliverance of the Lord.”

And so while the wormwood judgment was being administered as the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel, the subject of Lamentations, it was not true where believers had Bible doctrine and were advancing. And just as Jeremiah was delivered from the wormwood judgment of the fifth cycle of discipline in BC 586 so Tribulational believers will be delivered from the wormwood judgment of the third trumpet.

“And the name of the giant meteor is called Wormwood.” Then we have a description of the wormwood judgment in the Tribulation, “Now one third of the waters [fresh waters: lakes, rivers] became,” the aorist active indicative of the verb ginomai, which means to follow, to be, to become. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the third trumpet and gathers it into a single whole, the pollution of one third of the fresh water supply of the earth. The active voice: the fresh water supply, two per cent of all water on the earth, produces the action of the verb.

The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the pollution of one third of the world’s fresh water supply.

The importance of water for sustaining life cannot be overestimated. Here is an ellipsis generally not recognised, therefore the word “polluted” is inserted between the verb ginomai and the preposition e)ij, plus the accusative of wormwood [e)ij plus a)psinqoj], and it is translated like this: “and the name of the giant meteor is called Wormwood: now one third of the [fresh] waters became polluted [poisoned] because of the meteor called Wormwood; in fact many of the human race [unbelievers] died,” the aorist active indicative of a)poqnhskw, meaning to die. The culminative aorist tense views the death of many people in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The verb denotes the end of judgment for many people in the world. The waters were polluted by some form of poison or disease-bearing germs, many unbelievers drank it and died. The active voice: the Tribulational unbeliever produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the results of water pollution, the judgment of many Tribulational unbelievers. Then we have e)k plus the ablative of u(dor, “from the waters,” and then the causal conjunction o(ti, “because,” the aorist passive indicative from the verb pikrainw, meaning to be made bitter or polluted. It not only means to make bitter, it also means hostility, to become hostile, it also means to be polluted, and that is exactly the way we will translate it: “because they were polluted [they were made hostile or bitter].”

Many diseases are communicated by means of water. Even metallic poisoning, especially lead poisoning, can be transmitted through the water supply. Between 1920 and 1936, a period of seventeen years, there were 412 reported water-born epidemics of disease in the United States of America. This affected 115,000 people and caused 955 deaths. These are just normal functions, not divine judgment.

Pollution of fresh water falls into three categories: a microbe such as virus and bacteria, natural pollution from human or animal waste, environmental pollution such as industrial chemicals and toxic waste, acid rain from polluted air. Streams, rivers, lakes, and small reservoirs should not be used as a direct source of home water supply because of the potential danger from pollution. Modern systems for the purification of water are generally excellent but not foolproof. However, this judgment of the third trumpet far exceeds any problem or any danger hitherto known to man or anything that is related to fresh water problems. This pollution of water is supernatural and will claim the lives of hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of unbelievers in the Tribulation.

The fourth trumpet is the most difficult of all. This is the one that is going to affect the atmosphere.

Verse 12, “And the fourth angel [the pur sui vant messenger] sounded his trumpet, then a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were struck,” the aorist passive indicative of the word plessw which means to strike, to hit. Figuratively, when used of celestial bodies it means to lose, at least temporarily, at least one third of their radiation. So we are talking about loss of light. The stars here refer to the planets in the solar system only. They were struck, meaning loss of light, loss of radiation at its source. The culminative aorist tense views the event in its entirety — the striking of the moon, the sun and the planets — but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: loss of radiation. The passive voice: the sun, the moon, and the planets [stars] receive the action of the verb, they were struck so that their light was lost up to one third. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this divine judgment in relationship to the solar system to celestial bodies.

The gravitational attraction of the sun controls the orbits of the planets. The sun is a rotating nuclear furnace composed mostly of hydrogen and helium which constantly emit energy. Periodically magnetic fields develop on the surface areas of the sun called sunspots. They are darker in appearance simply because they are slightly cooler. Associated with these disturbances which last for weeks are streams of gas which are called prominences. Such activity affects the earth’s magnetic fields as well as its atmosphere and weather. Maximum sunspot activity occurs during eleven-year cycles. From the sun comes the gamma rays, the X-rays, the ultra violet rays, visible light, infra red, and radio waves. These waves are called the sun’s electromagnetic radiation. Only some of the longer waves penetrate the atmosphere and reach the earth’s surface. The atmosphere therefore acts as a filter and it filters these rays. In the final layer around the earth, known as the troposphere, we have nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, which supports life and becomes the abode of circulating air and water which creates our climate. So it can be seen that to knock out the normal function of these things would be a very disastrous thing.

In our passage, when this fourth pur sui vant messenger blows his trumpet, light, solar winds, and radiation is cut down by one third at the source. The same is true of the moon and the planets in the solar system, and that is what the first part of verse 12 is actually saying.

The actual result begins with the conjunction i(na. It is translated, “so that,” “a third of them,” and then we have the aorist subjunctive from the verb skotizw, “were darkened.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: star or planets of the solar system produce the action. The subjunctive mood is for the purpose clause.

“and the day might not shine for a third of it,” the aorist active subjunctive of fainw plus the negative mh continues the purpose clause, “might not give light [or might not shine].” The culminative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the blackout of one third of each day. The active voice: both the day and the night produce the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood is used as a part of the purpose clause. And then it adds in corrected translation, kai nuc o(moioj, “and the night likewise [in the same way].”

Verse13, the message of the eagle herald. We begin by noting the aorist active indicative of o(raw plus the aorist active indicative of a)kouw. This is the beginning of the transition to the demon invasions in chapter nine. “I observed and I heard.” The aorist tense in each case is a constative aorist, it gathers the observation into one entirety. The active voice of each verb: John the apostle produces the action. The indicative mood is for the reality of what he now observes and hears.

We have the objective genitive composed of two words, the numeral e(ij which should be translated “one” and it will be noticed that there is no word for the numeral in the King James version. Then a)etoj is for an eagle, “I saw one eagle.” A problem arises immediately. Is this an eagle or an angel? The Greek says eagle but this is an angel. However, that is an interpretation rather than a translation. The Greek word favours “eagle” but the eagle in reality is the angelic herald of Revelation 4:7 who, it will be remembered, is in the highest echelon of the college of heralds. He is a herald, “the fourth angelic herald [says Revelation 4:7] was like a flying eagle.” So the fourth angelic herald who bears the eagle escutcheon is the one who proclaims the coming of the three woes of the last two trumpet judgements. So what we have is: “Then I observed and heard one flying eagle,” the fourth herald of Revelation 4:7.

Next follows the ascriptive use of the present active participle petomai which means “flying,” and here the present active participle is a complementary participle used to complete the action of the verb. It is said to be flying in mid heaven, referring to the second heaven which is the realm of angelic activity, according to Acts 7:42. Remember, we have three heavens in the Bible. The first is the troposphere plus the stratosphere etc. The second heaven the realm of angelic activity where the fourth herald proclaims these three woes which are synonymous with trumpets five, six, and seven. The third heaven is the throne of God, as we noted in Revelation 4:5.

The angels proclamation follows with the present active participle legw, which means to say, to speak, and many similar things. It means here to make a proclamation. The futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the fourth angelic herald, the eagle flying, produces the action. The participle is circumstantial, and a circumstantial participle can be translated like a finite verb with the conjunction “and,” “and he said [or proclaimed].”

Next we have the instrumental of manner from two words, the adjective megaj and the noun fwnh, “with a loud voice.” Then we have three interjections: o)uai, o)uai, o)uai, which is comparable to our “woe.” The first woe, the first use of the interjection here, refers to the fifth trumpet, Revelation 9:1-12. This woe refers to the invasion of the earth by the first demon assault army, an assault army which at the present time is in jail in the abyss. It will be led by Abaddon or Apollyon who is second only to Satan in rank among the fallen angels.

The second woe mentioned here is the sixth trumpet of Revelation 9:13-21. This is the invasion of the second demon assault army. The difference between these two armies: the first demon assault army will torture men on the earth for five months, the second one is a killer army which will be initiated from under the Euphrates river. Both the fifth and sixth trumpets of the first two woes are demon invasions of planet earth by hard-core armies that are not operational at the present time in the Church Age.

The third woe refers to the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11:15-12:17. This is Satan’s greatest anti-Semitism offensive. Satan himself leads a third demon army in an attempt to destroy all Israel so that the second advent cannot occur because there will be no Jews to fulfil the unconditional promises to.

“Then I observed and heard one eagle [the fourth herald of Revelation 4:7] flying in mid heaven, and he said in a loud voice, Woe, Woe, Woe [trumpets five, six, and seven].”

Then we have “to the inhabitants of the earth”. These are Tribulational unbelievers and Tribulational believers living in the cosmic system. The present active participle is in the accusative case and it is from the noun katoikew, used here as a noun with the generic use of the definite article to describe a special category. The category refers to people who live in the cosmic system and it will include believers and unbelievers. Later on in the next chapter we will make the distinction for believers will be delivered during the Tribulation. They will have their own special wall of fire of positive volition toward doctrine resulting in learning doctrine. But there will also be a tremendous amount of negative volition among some believers and they are also going to be the victims of these demon attacks.

Next we have a very strange prepositional phrase because of the way it is translated, e)k plus the ablative of source or the ablative of origin, sometimes called the ablative of effective cause. It is not translated like most prepositions, e)k. E)k plus the ablative is ordinarily “from,” but when it is e)k plus the ablative of effective cause then it means “because.” Hence it denotes the origin of the reason. This is a presupposition of the last three trumpet judgements and it is correctly translated “because.” And then we have the ablative of loipoj, meaning the remaining, and the word fwnh which here means “blasts,” “because of the remaining blasts of the three angels who are about to sound off.”

Translation: “Then I observed and heard one eagle flying in mid heaven [the second heaven], and he said with a loud voice, Woe [reference to the fifth trumpet], Woe [sixth trumpet], Woe [seventh trumpet], to the inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet from the three angels who are about to sound off!”

We note, then, that Satan has three attack armies composed of hard-core demons. None of them are operational at the present time based on the fact that today they would be wasting their time due to the fact that the Holy Spirit acts as a special restrainer in this particular dispensation, the Church Age. Also, because for the only time in history God the Holy Spirit actually indwells every believer so that demon possession is impossible. Demon influence is possible. Demon possession, of course is the invasion of the body by one or more demons; demon influence is the invasion of the personality and that is possible through residence in the cosmic system. But the believer cannot be demon possessed. Unbelievers can be demon possessed but not believers. Both believers and unbelievers can be under demon influence, the invasion of the personality through residence in the cosmic system. But in the future there will be a new wrinkle added: demon attack — literal, physical attack. It is not possible now because God the Holy Spirit acts as a restrainer.

So Satan has three hard-core attack armies and their mission will be to actually, literally, physically, overtly attack people. This will be noted in passages coming up. The fascinating thing about all of this, however, is that these demon armies, one commanded by Satan [the third assault army], one commanded by his chief of staff, Apollyon or Abaddon [the first assault army], and the Euphrates army commanded by four demons are going to attack in the Tribulation, overtly and literally assault, people living in the cosmic system. That means servants of Satan, for believers and unbelievers in any dispensation living in the cosmic system are the servants of Satan. Although Satan is a fantastic genius he is actually going to turn his hard-core assault armies loose against his own human servants, unbelievers and believers who reside in the cosmic system. Note: Satan seems to be a little ungrateful!

While the power of Satan, then, is very great and his genius is even greater than that he is unable to control or co-ordinate his very own kingdom of darkness which in the last half of the Tribulation will be out of hand and uncontrollable due to the fact that Satan is no longer in heaven and no longer controls his armies from heaven. Demon armies attack and destroy Satan’s human servants. And while it does not make sense and it appears incompatible with Satan’s genius a study of the cosmic system will aid us to understand this interpretive principle, for the interpretive principle at this point is a very important one and one that will come up several times in the next chapter. Arrogance has no loyalty to arrogance. This principle will be expanded in many ways.

1. Loyalty, which is a great facet of leadership, demands integrity, and arrogance has no integrity.

2. Those human beings who live and reside in the cosmic system do not possess integrity. In fact, many people have integrity before they enter the cosmic system but once they enter the cosmic system that cancels their integrity, their honour. Arrogance neutralises integrity.

3. Therefore, anticipating the next chapter, hard-core demon armies attack Satan’s human servants, which implies that Satan has lost control of his demon assault armies. The loss of control is that there is no honour among those who are arrogant.

4. There is no respect for authority where arrogance has the ascendancy. Smart arrogance will pretend to respect authority to gain some objective for all operational arrogance is hypocritical, whether among people or fallen angels versus people.

5. Even Satan himself becomes inconsistent at the end of the Tribulation. he will attack, he will search and destroy on a mad search and destroy mission against all unbelieving Jews who live in the cosmic system in his attempt to destroy all Jews. That means he will attack his own servants who are Jews as well as believers who are Jews.

6. At least Satan’s great attack leading the third assault army against the Jews [the seventh trumpet] has reason behind it.

7. Satan is seeking to destroy all Jews before the second advent of Christ so that God’s promises to Israel are abrogated. The unconditional covenants to Israel demand living Jews at the second advent.

8. This emphasises to us a great principle. Even though the unbelievers have served Satan well in the cosmic system and even though cosmic believers have served Satan well, when Satan is through using them he discards them.

9. This is the modus operandi used by all arrogant human beings. All arrogant human beings live in the cosmic system which intensifies their arrogance, moves it in many directions. Therefore, human beings living in the cosmic system have neither loyalty, gratitude or the integrity to appreciate loyal service from subordinates.

10. Many Christians have been shocked by executives whose promotion and success depended on their hard and faithful service, yet, when they were no longer useful or because of some pressure became a source of embarrassment they were discarded without any consideration.

11. Arrogant leadership or executive function knows no loyalty to faithful subordinates and has no appreciation for past services rendered.

12. So even service in the cosmic system of the devil is no protection from the devil or his hard-core demon assault armies who at this moment are incarcerated in the abyss of Hades, under the water of the Euphrates.

The last three trumpets, also known as the three woes, have to do with three demon invasions of the earth. We have demons on the earth, invisible of course. There are demons who actually indwell unbelievers [demon possession] and we also have what is known as demon influence whereby the demon cannot indwell the body of the believer because it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, but he can, of course, invade the personality. Demon influence is personality invasion; demon possession is body invasion. These are the general functions of demons in relationship to mankind at the present time. Back in Genesis chapter six demons were visible, very handsome, and there was a sexual infiltration which led to the whole system of mythology as we have it today, mythology not being mythology but based on truth. There is in the future, however, in the middle of the Tribulation something that has never occurred before. Three great demon armies are going to invade the earth when Satan is cast down from heaven, never again to be in heaven. So Satan is going to be cast down, at which time he is going to be permitted to release his three hard-core demon armies. They attack human beings physically.

First of all there will be the first demon assault army which we will meet in the first thirteen verses of chapter nine. It is led by the second ranking demon of all time called Apollyon or Abaddon. The attack is going to be made over a period of five months against man. There is only one restriction on the target: only those in the cosmic system can be attacked. Those who are outside the cosmic system, believers, are protected by a wall of fire. These demons will attack and torture for five months. The result is that people will want to die who are being tortured but they will not be permitted to die.

The second hard-core demon assault army comes from the vicinity of under the Euphrates. It is led by four demon general officers and they will kill one third of the people of the earth.

The third demon assault army is the last trumpet [the 7th], the third woe. It occurs at the end of chapter eleven and goes into chapter twelve. It is an attack upon all Jews and it is the greatest wave of anti-Semitism the world has ever known.

The demon attack upon the human race will be unprecedented. There has never been anything like it. There is demon possession today, there is demon influence, in the past their has been demon sexual infiltration, but none of these can in any way compare with what will happen in the last part of the Tribulation.

Chapter nine of Revelation is entitled “Demon Invasions.” There are two of them: the first woe, the same as the fifth trumpet, the invasion from the abyss by the first demon assault army, verses 1-12; the second woe, the same as the sixth trumpet, the invasion from the Euphrates of the second assault army, verses 13-21.

We begin by noting that Satan is the ruler of this world, he is the highest of all fallen angels. There are certain angelic creatures who passed him during the angelic conflict. In his original state from creation Satan was the highest of all angelic creatures. The highest creatures at creation were cherubs and Satan was the anointed cherub, but he lost out along the way and there are at least nine angels out of the millions of angels who have passed him in achievement.

Principle: It isn’t the person who is spectacular who makes a sudden rise, it isn’t the person who has obvious talents; the person who really makes it is the plugger, the one who plugs with Bible doctrine.

Satan was the highest of all angels by creation but he lost his high estate and seraphs are all angels who in the prehistoric angelic conflict thought more of Bible doctrine, doctrine was more real to them, they were persistent and consistent in the perception of doctrine. They were the highest achievers of all time in the realm of Bible doctrine. The only people in the human race to come close to them are people like Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the apostle Paul, the apostle John, and even Peter might be included.

Arrogance inevitably leads to inordinate ambition and there is no greater ambition than the ambition of Satan. He was the highest of all angelic creatures. He is the ruler of fallen angels, according the Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26; Luke 11:18, and many other passages. Therefore we have to recognise Satan as the prehistoric super creature. Embodied in this one creature is all of the beauty and attractiveness and brilliance. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 describe him. In his hard-core second assault army, as well as in his first assault army, we will see some of these characteristics. There are a tremendous number of demons operating in the atmosphere and around planet earth but these of his assault armies are so tough, so hard-core, that they are actually kept out of the picture until the end of the Tribulation until the sovereignty of God permits them to become functional. That is exactly what we are going to be studying, the great Satanic offensive against mankind; mankind whom he rules, believers who live in the cosmic system and unbelievers living in the cosmic system. Satan is going to turn against his own human servants, people who are living in the cosmic system.

Satan has three falls. One of them is mentioned in the first part of chapter nine; Satan has two advents, first in Genesis three where he found man in perfect environment and he destroyed that perfect environment through being very persuasive, very attractive as a personality; secondly in Revelation 20 at the end of the Millennium. Every time Satan has an advent it is always under conditions of perfect environment. Perfect environment in the garden: he came and destroyed it; perfect environment in the Millennial reign of Christ: he will come back and destroy it through the Gog revolution. So he is the central antagonist of the angelic conflict, he is a great organiser and administrator, but his administration will fall apart at the ruler of this world in chapter nine.

He is a murderer from the beginning, according to John 8:44; he is the opponent of Bible doctrine, according to Matthew 13:9,39; he is the enemy of the Church and the royal family of God, as we have seen in Revelation 2; 9,13,24. But always remember, he is the ruler of this world and has been since the fall of man, and will be until the second advent of Christ, according to Luke 4:5-9; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2.

He has a strategy regarding nations; he has a strategy regarding unbelievers in the world to blind them lest they believe in Christ.

“Next to the lie itself, the greatest delusion Satan imposes — reaching to all unsaved and to a large portion of Christians — is the supposition that only such things as society considers evil could originate with the devil — if, indeed, there be any devil to originate anything. It is not the reason of man, but the revelation of God, which points out that governments, morals, education, art, commercialism, vast enterprises and organisations, and much of religious activity are included in the cosmos diabolicus. That is. the system which Satan has constructed includes all the good which he can incorporate into it and be consistent with the thing he aims to accomplish. A serious question arises whether the presence of gross evil in the world is due to Satan’s intention to have it so, or whether it indicates Satan’s inability to execute all he has designed. The probability is great that Satan’s ambition has led him to undertake more than any creature could ever administer. Revelation declares that the whole cosmos-system must be annihilated — not its evil alone, but all that is in it, both good and bad. God will incorporate nothing of Satan’s failure into that kingdom which He will set up in the earth …

“… Since in pursuing his determination to exalt himself above God Satan must oppose the divine undertakings, his opposition naturally will be exerted where God is acting at a given time. Since God has no present program which He is following along the lines of reformation, education or civilisation (and any record that such undertakings are in God’s present purpose will be sought in vain), there is no conflict or satanic resistance in those spheres. The present relation of God to the cosmos, beyond His sovereign permission and restraint of it, is to save out of it an elect people for His heavenly glory. On the other hand, Satan’s twofold objective — to exalt self, and to oppose God — is the key by which much may be known that otherwise would be unknown. It is still further disclosed that the enmity of Satan is not only toward the Person of God from whom he has everything to fear, but also toward every true child of God. Too much emphasis cannot be placed on this fact. Satan has no controversy or warfare with his own, unregenerate people, but there is abundant scripture to prove that he makes unceasing effort to mar the life and service of the Christian ...”

“Since the blood redemption of the cross is the central truth and value of the true faith, it being the ‘power of God unto salvation’ (Rom. 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:23-24), any counterfeit system of doctrine which would omit this essential, must force some secondary truth into the place of prominence. Any of the great scriptural subjects which are of universal interest to humanity, such as physical health, life after death, morality, unfulfilled prophecy, or religious forms, may be substituted in the false systems for that which is vital. And while those subjects are all found in their proper relations and importance in the true faith, the fact that people are universally inclined to give attention to them furnishes Satan an opportunity to make a strong appeal to humanity through them, using these subjects as central truths in his false and counterfeit systems. Many are easily led to fix their attention upon the secondary things, and to neglect wholly the one primary thing. Especially this is true since the secondary things are tangible and seen, while the one essential thing is spiritual and unseen; and Satan has blinded their eyes toward that which is of eternal value...”

“… The idea that man will stand on the basis of personal worthiness has been the chief heresy, opposing the central doctrine of grace, from the time of Christ’s death to the present hour. It so permeates the church that few who preach are able to exclude it from their attempts at gospel preaching. It is safe to say that wherever the element of human merit is allowed to intrude into the presentation of the plan of salvation, the message is Satanic to that extent.”

— Lewis Sperry Chafer, “Systematic Theology”, vol. 2, pp 100-101, 108, 110.

Satan has a strategy with regard to us as believers, the royal family of God. It is so stated in 2 Corinthians 2:11. In many ways this strategy keeps him in heaven for part of the time, for there is where he goes to accuse believers, according to Job 1:6-11; Zechariah 3:1-2; Revelation 12:9-10. He also sponsors various forms of reversionism and tries to get the believer distracted from making Bible doctrine number one in his scale of values. This is taught in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21; 2 Corinthians 11:3; 11:13-15. He seeks to frustrate the will of God in the life of the believer in three categories: mentally, Ephesians 4:14; geographically, 1 Thessalonians 2:18; operationally, James 4:7,8. He seeks to neutralise doctrinal application, especially through worry and anxiety, 1 Peter 5:7-9. He seeks to destroy the believer’s focus in life, getting the believer to get his eyes on people, as per Jeremiah 17:5, or eyes on self, 1 Kings 19:10, or eyes on things, Hebrews 13:5,6. He seeks to get the believer involved in improvement of the devil’s world, hence the reversionistic believer becomes humanistic, occupied with temporal solutions to man’s problems, advocating systems to improve man’s environment; and, of course, this means social action, social gospel, welfare state, etc. Also the inculcation of fear regarding physical death.

Religion plays a great part in the devil’s strategy. Basically, religion has been created by the devil to counterfeit the plan of God. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God through faith in Christ. Religion is a system of works whereby man seeks to gain the approbation of God. In religion Satan has counterfeited almost everything that is true. There is a counterfeit gospel in 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; there are counterfeit ministers in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; there is a counterfeit doctrine in 2 Timothy 4:1; there is a counterfeit communion table in 2 Corinthians 10:19-21; there is a counterfeit system of spirituality based on self-righteousness and competitiveness, inordinate competition in Galatians 3:2-3; there is a counterfeit righteousness in Matthew 19:16-28; there is a counterfeit power and dynamics in 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10 (which includes the tongues movement); there are counterfeit gods in 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4.

So, of course, this means that Satan has false teachers. False teachers have a phoney and hypocritical facade, says Matthew 7:15; Romans 16:18. False teachers use human public relations systems and legalistic flirtation to court believers, according to Galatians 4:17,18; 2 Timothy 5:3-7. False teachers appeal to human ego and human pride, 2 Corinthians 10:12. They promote idolatry as a part of the devil’s communion table, Habakkuk 2:18,19. False teachers promote legalism, self-righteousness, 1 Timothy 1:7,8. And false teachers always encourage people to gossip and malign others, and therefore ignore the principle of privacy.

Satan has a policy which we have studied under the principle of evil as it relates to the cosmic system.

In Revelation chapter nine we note first of all the first woe. The first woe is the first invasion of the demon assault army, it is the same as the fifth trumpet, verses 1-12.

Verse 1, the fifth angel is one of the pur sui vant messengers in the college of heralds. The aorist active indicative of the verb salpizw is the word “sounding.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the signal for the first woe. The active voice: the fifth pur sui vant messenger produces the action of the verb, and this is a declarative indicative mood for a statement of fact. This is the beginning of the first woe. Then we have the phrase, “I saw a star fall from heaven.” The star here is a person, Satan, and it says he had fallen to the earth. We have the perfect active indicative of the verb piptw, and it is correctly translated “to fall.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect, it emphasises the results of the action. In the middle of the Tribulation Satan is confined to the earth. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb and the participle is circumstantial presenting that attendant circumstances of Satan being confined to the earth, whereas at the present time he has access to heaven and the universe at large. The direct object is in the accusative case, it is the noun a)sthr in the Greek. It refers not to a, literal star but to Satan being cast out of heaven.

The documentation for this is found first in Isaiah 14:12, “How you have fallen from heaven, O star,” speaking of Satan in the context of Isaiah 14, “of the morning [son of the dawn]” — The Lord Jesus Christ is called the morning star, as we have seen prophetically. Satan was called the star of the morning, the son of the dawn, “you have been cut down to the earth, you have weakened the nations!”

Satan went from a position of great strength and power — he was the greatest of all creatures — to a position of great weakness, and he made this transition through arrogance, the greatest enemy of man at the present time. With arrogance you can never be in a position of strength, no matter how strong your position may be it is a house of cards and it could very easily crumble unless you have what is necessary to accompany it, and that is humility.

Satan weakened the nations by becoming the ruler of this world; God provided something to protect the nations: the laws of divine establishment. This same fall is mentioned in Ezekiel 28:16, “By you widespread [social] intercourse [or trade] which is the spread of discontent and revolution,” leading to the prehistoric angelic conflict, “you were filled with violence and you sinned,” the violence and the sin has to do with arrogance, “therefore I drove you out of the mountain of God in disgrace: and I have destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire,” the stones of fire was the highest spot in heaven, the highest position occupied by an angelic creature or any creature. Now he has been excluded from that.

Luke 10:18, “And he [our Lord Jesus Christ] said unto them, I saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” Then later on in Revelation 12:7-9 we will see once again this star being cast out of heaven.

So “a star from heaven,” e)k plus the ablative from the noun o)uranoj, and this means that he went from the highest position to the lowest. Principle: You cannot maintain a position of strength as a creature apart from humility. Arrogance immediately puts you into a position of great weakness. No one can survive the damage done by arrogance.

The fact that Satan is called a cherub in Ezekiel 28:16 indicates his place in both the angelic college of heralds and his prominence in heaven. Satan is now the ruler of this earth, he has succeeded in becoming the ruler of planet earth, but in so doing he lost out. He went for the earth. To him the most glamorous thing in the world was to rule planet earth and that is exactly what he did. His inordinate ambition, his desire, was to be the ruler of the earth and he succeeded. He is not happy, he is miserable. There are now seven other angels whose desire was not in the field of ambition. Because of humility their desire was the perception of doctrine, and their perception of doctrine gave them a greater personal love for God than any creature among the angels. Therefore, they had the greatest relationship with other angels, impersonal love directed toward all. This is how the angelic college of heralds was started.

Above them all was the star, but the star fell down from heaven. The star is no longer in top position. The application should be quite obvious to anyone: inordinate ambition is simply a part of arrogance and inordinate ambition always gives people a desire to achieve, to be admired, to be attractive to a maximum number of people. But we are talking about people, and anyone who knows anything about people knows that the worst thing that can happen to you is to have the entire mob, all people, be attracted to you. Tomorrow it will be someone else and then someone else because one thing that characterises people is their fickleness. To seek to gain the approbation of people is the quintessence of human arrogance as well as stupidity. Many smart people are arrogant and as a result they become stupid because they go for people as if somehow if the majority of people like you then God must like you, is their attitude in the spiritual life. If the majority of the people like you then you are right, no matter what you have done, and you are never wrong. So you can rationalise through arrogance just about anything in the world and make yourself miserable for life. Therefore the only answer to this is humility. Satan is the ruler of this earth but he lives in heaven. He commutes to the earth for the administration of his dictatorship. As a part of the angelic conflict certain angels in prehistoric times became higher than Satan though maximum perception of Bible doctrine, the major factor in spiritual growth. These angels are called seraphs, they are the highest-ranking angelic creatures in the college of heralds.

Next we have where Satan was hurled, e)ij plus the accusative of the noun gh, “to the earth.” This takes place in the middle of the Tribulation and onward in human history. Satan will never again be permitted to be in heaven. he is kicked out permanently so that his range of operation for the last half of the Tribulation is his own kingdom that he wanted more than anything in the world. He wanted it so badly that he tried to upstage God and as a result he is going to spend the last three years of his rulership of this earth in his own kingdom. And he can’t get out. With his fallen angels Satan is limited to planet earth and its atmosphere, hence the time is fixed for these demon invasions in the last half of the Tribulation. The three woes or trumpets five, six, and seven occur in the last half of the Tribulation.

Other passages indicate that stars are used to designate angels, like Job 38:7, “When all the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God [angelic creatures] shouted for joy.” Well, Satan is a fallen star in the most literal sense of the word.

The divine dynasphere is where we live as believers when we are fulfilling the plan of God. Inside of something similar to the divine dynasphere we have the seraphs. The seraphs, because of maximum perception of doctrine have a tremendous personal love for God. That is thanksgiving, that is worship. The greater your genuine love for God [personal love is only a virtue when directed toward God] the greater your thanksgiving to God. All true thanksgiving must come from personal love for God. There can be no thanksgiving unless you personally love God. Today we live in a time when the average Christian doesn’t personally love God. He can’t personally love God because that calls for maximum perception of Bible doctrine. You can’t even be grateful to God or even begin to express thanksgiving unless you have a personal love for God. If you have in worship personal love for God you will have that greatest asset, impersonal toward man. And the result is those who are the beneficiaries of your virtue, your honour, your integrity from that impersonal love will also be grateful to God in a secondary way because of who and what you are. There is thanksgiving right there.

Thanksgiving is the order of the day for believers living in the divine dynasphere. If you are arrogant, if your are living in the cosmic system — and only you know that — there is no way that you can fulfil the principle of thanksgiving today, tomorrow or any day because thanksgiving is related to the filling of the Holy Spirit, to virtue in your life, to humility. Without humility there is no way. The seraphs will have a great thanksgiving because they have more doctrine than any of the angels. They also have more humility, more virtue, and therefore they have a perpetual happiness. You will never understand the true meaning of thanksgiving until you recognise that every day is thanksgiving. But there is no way that you can truly have gratitude in your soul unless you are learning doctrine, unless you are consistent in living and residing inside the divine dynasphere, and unless you have a genuine personal love for God.

Satan now understands the meaning of thanksgiving and he certainly will do everything to make sure that you don’t, for it was Satan who learned the hard way that even though he wanted to be like the most high God because he had the approbation of literally millions of angels it didn’t work out that way. But there is someone who even understands it better than Satan. His name is Apollyon or Abaddon, the most ruthless, the most powerful of all the fallen angels. He is second in rank only to Satan himself in the kingdom of demons and he understands what thanksgiving means. And when his turn comes to get out of jail and leads a great demon army he is going to make as many people as he can, millions of people, pay for his frustration; for you can’t get away from arrogance, you can’t get away from yourself, no one can. Therefore you can very easily determine the true meaning of thanksgiving in your life by your own status quo. So the angels which taught us how to worship in chapters four and five now teach us another lesson: arrogance doesn’t pay, never has, never will.

God has given us just so much life on this earth, so many heartbeats, so many seconds, so many minutes, so many hours, so many days, so many years. And we by our own arrogance actually blot out and destroy those wonderful things in life that we could enjoy and have such a great time with. We do it by living in the cosmic system. Every moment we spend in the cosmic system we have just blotted out another heartbeat, your happiness, your blessing, your heritage as a member of the royal family of God.

We learn from the elect angels a great deal about worship. We are now learning from the fallen angels a great deal about arrogance.

The corrected translation of chapter four verse nine: “And when the angelic heralds,” the living creatures who through great faithfulness to the Word of God in the prehistoric angelic conflict learned more doctrine than any other group of creatures in history, and as a result were promoted to a new life that apparently did not exist at the beginning of angelic creation: they were promoted to seraph rank in the college of heralds. Therefore, more than anyone else, because of their perception of doctrine, they know more about worship, they have a greater understanding and appreciation of worship than anyone else. We learn from them a great deal about worship.

“shall give glory,” the beginning of the expression of their worship. You cannot give in worship what you do not possess. When these angelic heralds gave glory it is because they possessed glory, just as in the future many believers who have been faithful in the perception of doctrine and who have grown in grace, who have attained maturity, who have fulfilled the plan of God for their life, are going to receive glory at the judgment seat of Christ. These angelic heralds, members of the college of heralds, have already received their glory, therefore they can give in worship what they possess.

“They shall give glory,” category one worship limited, of course, to the eternal state and the resurrection body, “and honour,” category two worship. Only honourable believers in time can give honour to the Lord in worship. The highest thing you can give to the Lord in worship is honour but you have to have honour to give honour in worship, “and thanksgiving,” category three worship.

Cosmic believers are arrogant and have no capacity for thanksgiving and therefore capacity for gratitude must precede the expression of thanksgiving in worship. You cannot give thanksgiving unless you possess the necessary ingredients to do so. You cannot give in worship what you do not possess. To have gratitude demands residence and function in the divine dynasphere, the filling of the Spirit, honour and integrity, humility, everything that it takes to have capacity for thanksgiving.

Next we notice in verse 10 that we switch from the angelic college of heralds to the angelic order of battle. Second in the angelic order of battle are the 24 staff officers who will fall down before Him who sits on the throne [our Lord Jesus Christ]. And they, the angelic staff, will “worship him who lives forever and ever.” You cannot give in worship what you do not have. They also possess glory, honour and gratitude, and therefore they give in worship the same as the angelic heralds, glory, honour and thanksgiving, “and lay down their crowns before the throne.” In other words, they have crowns, they have decorations which they earned in the prehistoric angelic conflict. Not only have they earned these but they give them back to our Lord as the highest expression of thanksgiving in worship.

Verse 11, “You, O Lord, are worthy [possess the ultimate merit for optimum worship], to receive glory [category one worship in the eternal state] and honour [category two worship based on residence in the divine dynasphere and maximum perception of Bible doctrine] also the power [all worship must be conducted inside the divine dynasphere, the power. That is, of course, the filling of the Spirit]: because you [the Lord Jesus Christ as eternal God] have created all things, also because of your sovereign will [purpose, desire] they existed and they were created”.

Category three worship is open to any believer in the Lord Jesus Christ every day of his life throughout phase two of the plan of God, the believer in time. Thanksgiving is the act of rendering thanks or gratitude to God. Hence, it is a mental attitude, it is humility, it is doctrine, it is the filling of the Spirit, it is the function inside the divine dynasphere. In Ephesians 5:20 we are told to be always thankful for all things in the sphere of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, even the Father. Thanksgiving begins therefore when one believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and begins to learn Bible doctrine. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” To give thanks to God for everything, both the blessings of life and the adversities, both prosperity and disaster. To be able to do this and worship you must have gratitude, you must have humility, you must have the filling of the Spirit, you must have everything contained inside the divine dynasphere. The expression of thanksgiving as worship, of course, again goes back to the principle: You cannot give in worship what you do not possess. You cannot have gratitude to express thanksgiving if you are living in the cosmic system, if you are arrogant or vain or petty or vindictive or implacable or full of self-importance and self righteousness or feeling sorry for yourself. Thanksgiving can only be given in worship if you have gratitude. You cannot give to God in worship what you do not possess.

Psalm 110:3-5, “Know that the Lord himself is God: it is he who made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture”.

Too many times believers get into the cosmic system. We are studying believers in the cosmic system who are about to become the target for the demon assault armies. The first demon assault army of the first half of Revelation chapter nine is commanded by the second highest ranking demon, next to Satan himself, a cherub like Lucifer the son of the morning in the prehistoric angelic conflict. Yet this demon general will lead an assault army which for five months in the Tribulation will torture many many believers as well as unbelievers, those who live in the cosmic system. Those believers who live in the cosmic system have no capability for worship, for the principle of worship, you cannot give to God in worship what you do not possess, and because of arrogance there is no way that you can have gratitude, and if they do not have gratitude, capacity for life, capacity for blessing, capacity for happiness, they are unable to clearly express thanksgiving. It is easy to open your mouth and to enunciate the words, “Thank you Father,” but to actually fulfil the principle of worship requires a great deal more than simply the overt expression of those words.

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise,” this was the courts of the temple; “give thanks to him, honour his name.”

There it is, category three worship: “Give thanks to him”; category two worship: “honour his name.” You cannot give in worship what you do not possess. If you do not have honour and integrity you cannot give it in worship. If you do not have gratitude you cannot express thanksgiving.

“For the Lord is good; his grace is everlasting; his faithfulness belongs to all generations.”

Psalm 116:17 tells us that thanksgiving is a priestly sacrifice. We live in the Church Age, the dispensation of the royal family of God and therefore, as believer priests we have the privilege of expressing thanksgiving on a daily, even hourly, basis to our Lord. But you cannot give in worship what you do not possess. Without humility, without gratitude there is no way that you can express thanksgiving.

“To thee shall I offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call upon the name of the Lord”

Psalm 107:22, “And let them also offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his works with joyful singing.”

Amos 4:5, “And offer up also a thanksgiving offering from that which is leavened, and proclaim free will offerings [make them known]: for, saith the Lord, so you express personal love for God.”

Hebrews 13:15, “Through the same one [Jesus Christ] let us be constantly offering up a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of the lips acknowledging his integrity.”

You cannot give to God as a believer priest what you do not possess. If you do not have the humility of gate three of the divine dynasphere there is no way that you can enter into thanksgiving. “In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you” — 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

Colossians 3:15, “And the blessing and prosperity from our Lord, may it be caused to live in your right lobes, into which you also have been elected to privilege in one body; therefore keep on becoming thankful ones.”

If you are fulfilling God’s plan for your life by residence and function in the divine dynasphere, this day is meaningful to you, you have capacity for gratitude, you have personal love for God, you have great integrity from life and residence in the divine dynasphere. Therefore thanksgiving is a meaningful word.

2 Corinthians 4:15, “For all things are for your sakes, that the grace which is being multiplied to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.”

Logistical grace is the basis for the royal possessing a perfect plan from God. God is perfect, His plan is perfect. He has provided a perfect vehicle for the function of His plan. That perfect vehicle is the divine dynasphere and it depends on our volition. Thanksgiving can only abound to the glory of God if you are living in the divine dynasphere, if you are taking in Bible doctrine, if you are growing in grace, if the perception of doctrine has resulted in that great capacity for life and love and happiness.

2 Corinthians 9:10,11, “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, will supply and multiply your seed for sowing [material blessing], and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will then be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.” Here is the relationship between thanksgiving, prosperity, and the true basis of it, the harvest of your integrity, your honour, inside of the divine dynasphere. Personal testimonies from mature believers indicate the same thing. You cannot give in worship what you do not possess. If you do not possess gratitude from humility you cannot express it in category three worship which is thanksgiving.

Daniel 2:23, “To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom [application of doctrine] and power [the ministry of the Spirit].”

John 11:41, “And so they removed the stone … Now Jesus raised his eyes, and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, at the resuscitation of Lazarus, knew that He was about to bring Lazarus out of the grave and He possessed that magnificent humility which is a part of honour and integrity. And from a base of this indwelling humility, total freedom from arrogance and the cosmic system, He offered thanks to God the Father.

Thanksgiving is motivated by Bible doctrine, Colossians 2:7, “Having been rooted, and constantly edified in him [constantly been stabilised by means of doctrine in the soul], in the manner in which you have been taught, overflowing in thanksgiving.”

1 Thessalonians 2:9, “For what thanksgiving can we offer to God for you in return for all the happiness with which we rejoice before our God on account of you.” A basis for thanksgiving is happiness. Happiness comes from Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

Philippians 4:6, “Stop worrying about anything; but in everything by prayer and supplication after thanksgiving let the thing sought be revealed in the presence of God.” The capacity for thanksgiving in worship is not there unless you have that doctrine, that humility, that gratitude, that personal love for God which is the basis for all true worship. Thanksgiving is category three worship.

Revelation 7:12, “Blessing , and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, belong to our Lord forever.” Worship therefore is the great issue in thanksgiving.

Category two worship is honour. We can give honour to God. Honour comes from love which is developed inside the divine dynasphere. Again, we as believers are royal family of God and we are commanded by mandate to live in the divine dynasphere. We have two commissions from God to do so. Every believer is a priest, every believer is an ambassador. The priesthood must function toward God, the ambassadorship toward man and circumstances. The ultimate in the function of our priesthood is the virtue of personal love directed toward God. That is motivational virtue as well as worship. Also there is impersonal love directed toward man as the highest virtue in that direction.

The personal love directed toward God begins with honour. We can give honour to God. That means love, gate five of the divine dynasphere. All true love begins with respect and the Greek word for honour in this passage is timh and it means first of all respect. And the question should be asked: Do you have respect for God? Respect is impossible apart from the perception of Bible doctrine for you neither know nor understand God, nor have any respect for Him or His plan.

The second meaning of timh or honour is reverence. The concept of personal love for Christ in worship begins with respect but it continues with reverence. Respect is the worship of the immature believer; reverence is the worship of the mature believer in the divine dynasphere. Respect and reverence are therefore possible for the believer in time. Respect and reverence are the function of the believer’s royal priesthood, his motivational virtue and worship. All motivating virtue must express itself in the function of worship for all motivating virtue is directed toward God and demands personal love.

Timh therefore means in the third place, honour. It is so translated in Revelation 4:9. To honour God in worship requires virtue, integrity manufactured inside the divine dynasphere through the daily perception of Bible doctrine. Only honourable believers can glorify the Lord and give honour to the Lord in worship. You cannot give in worship what you do not possess. If you do not have honour you cannot give honour in worship.

Category three: the giving of thanks. Thanksgiving is the most basic form of priestly worship in the royal family of God. The capacity for this worship is gratitude, gratitude for the plan of God, gratitude for the provision of God. Everything is provided on the basis of grace. We do not earn it, we do not deserve it, we do not attain it through any possible system of human merit, it is a gift. The divine dynasphere is a gift, the various categories of gates is a gift, doctrine is a gift, everything is a gift. The logistical grace to be alive, to be healthy enough to be able enough to hear Bible doctrine, to have a sound mind and therefore volition in the sound mind to make decisions for doctrine. The capacity for this worship is gratitude for the grace of God, the plan of God, the person of God, the provision of God. Capacity for thanksgiving comes, then, from perception of doctrine while gratitude is the expression of that worship toward God.

The believers in the cosmic system we will study in chapter nine who are living in the cosmic system are going to be attacked by a demon assault army. They are then going to be attacked by a second assault army. Many of them who are Jews will then be attacked a third time by the third demon assault army. They will be tortured for five months, many of them will die; but they will not die to glorify the Lord, they will die the sin unto death, they will die under divine discipline because they have failed to utilise the plan and provision of God and therefore they have failed in the realm of humility. Arrogance is the total absence of thanksgiving. Arrogance, therefore, is devoid of gratitude no matter what is done for the arrogant person, and that means the arrogant believer, either by God or by man. It is never appreciated. The arrogant believer does not appreciate what God has and is doing for him through logistical grace, he has no appreciation for the integrity of God, he doesn’t even understand it. All that he understands is that he is saved by faith in Christ and he has not advanced beyond that point. Therefore believers who are arrogant, who are ungrateful to man, are also ungrateful to God. Arrogance destroys capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness, capacity for worship and, therefore, capacity for thanksgiving. And all this is a terrible double-edged sword, for the person who is arrogant, who has no gratitude in his soul, is neither a good lover, a good friend, or a good human being. He is the source of all of his own misery and he makes those around him miserable as well. He has nothing to give the Lord in worship and that includes thanksgiving.

The ingredients of worship which include thanksgiving must include personal love for God, humility, subordination to divine authority. God cannot be first in the life and the object of true worship apart from enforced humility. That is, the enforced humility of submission to divine authority as delegated in Bible doctrine. Genuine humility, gate three of the divine dynasphere, is teachability, the teachability of the believer resulting in perception of doctrine, inculcation of the Word of God and love for God resulting in genuine worship. Genuine humility, then is not only the basis for all true worship of our Lord Jesus Christ but it is capacity for love, for life, for happiness, for blessing in human relationships. There cannot be true love in any category apart from genuine humility of the soul. The ingredients of worship, then, include the filling of the Spirit, gate one, the objectivity of impersonal love, gate two, the enforced and genuine humility of gate three, and then, of course, the perception and application of Bible doctrine at gate four. This results in the worship of God at gate five of the divine dynasphere which begins with personal love for God, but under momentum from perception of doctrine results in occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious happiness”. Therefore, of course, true worship is fulfilled. In worship you can only give to God what you have.

The angelic staff officers of Revelation 4:10 gave their crowns before the throne as an expression of their worship. The angelic general staff had these crowns because of their tremendous advance in the prehistoric angelic conflict. In prehistoric angelic history God provided for these elect angels just as He has provided for us as believers. And through positive volition toward doctrine and the multitudes of good decisions in expressing positive volition toward God’s plan in the prehistoric period they were rewarded and decorated with these golden crowns. These 24 angelic staff officers subordinated their volition to God in achieving these crowns, they could not give to God in worship what they did not possess. They possessed crowns; they gave those crowns to Him in worship. Worship, therefore, to them was the expression of their love, their reverence, their humility, their capacity, their thanksgiving directed toward God. And in their worship the angelic staff officers gave what they had. They had golden crowns, they gave them to God.

That is true of the believer as well. The believer has doctrine in his right lobe, he can express that doctrine in worship. The capacity for worship is based upon the amount of doctrine resident in his soul. If he has love of truth or doctrine he can express it in worship giving concentration to Bible teaching. If the believer can apply the doctrine of soteriology and Christology he can participate in the communion service.

We cannot give to God what we do not have, and everything we have belongs to God, He is the source. Worship must recognise the source. If you recognise God as the source of your blessings, if you recognise God as the source of your life, both the physical life which He imputed to you at the moment of birth and the spiritual life which He gave to you at the moment of salvation, if you recognise that you are alive today and that everything that you have and everything that you will be is because of who and what the Lord is, then you have the basis for true thanksgiving. When we part with what we have in worship we express the fact that we still have the Lord, and because worship expresses our love for the Lord we still have, and always will have, the object of our love. Personal love for God expresses itself in worship, which means giving what we have to Him — our love, our thinking, our concentration, our time, our energy, our money (if we have it), our honour, our total respect and devotion. If you do not have the filling of the Spirit, if you do not have Bible doctrine in the right lobe, if you do not have virtue, honour, integrity from residence and function in the divine dynasphere you have nothing to offer God today.

There have been four demon attacks upon the human race. There was the genetic attack in Genesis chapter six; secondly, demon possession; thirdly, demon influence which is a demon penetration of thought and personality. Hence, demon influence on the soul of anyone who resides and functions in the cosmic system. When people live in the cosmic system there is, of course, demon influence. Only unbelievers can be demon-possessed. Believers can be under demon influence. Demon possession affects the body but demon influence affects the soul. Both, of course, can affect the personality. Those who are demon-possessed and demon-influenced live and reside inside the cosmic system and to get there they must use their own volition. Therefore the principle: involuntary demon-possession does not exist, it is a myth. When anyone is demon-possessed it is through the function of their own bad decisions.

Our subject does not deal with the genetic attack which only occurred once and will never occur again. We are dealing here with the fourth attack, the physical attack of demons against mankind. This phenomenon of violence is reserved for the last half of the Tribulation and it involves three demon assault armies.

The first demon assault army will torture residents of the cosmic system for five months. The second demon assault army is actually an army group composed of 200,000,000 demons. It is divided into four armies, forming an army group. It will be released with the sounding of the sixth trumpet to kill one third of the people living at that time on the earth. There is, of course, a previous destruction of people on the earth: one quarter of the people on the earth will be killed by the fourth horseman of the apocalypse. This attack of an army group, the second demon assault army, is described in detail in Revelation 9:13-21. The third assault army is commanded by Satan himself.

The second assault army comes out of the river Euphrates and there is a reason for that.

The third will attack on the sound of the seventh trumpet [which is also the third woe] — Revelation 11:15-12:17. It will be involved in warfare in heaven and will be defeated by the army of elect angels under the command of Michael — 12:7-8. The result of this defeat of warfare in heaven at around the middle of the Tribulation, the defeat of the third demon assault army, will cause the expulsion of Satan and the retreat of that army. They will then be hurled to the earth and there they will be confined to planet earth, according to Revelation 12:9. The third demon assault army then attacks all the Jews of the earth, according to Revelation 12:12-17. Demon torture and killing of men is an historical trend reserved for the last half of the Tribulation. This does not exist and will not exist before that time. Demon attacks on man are limited at this present time to demon possession of unbelievers and demon influence of both believer and unbeliever who reside in the cosmic system Arrogance, of course, is the key to such vulnerability.

Verse 2, “Then he [Satan] unlocked the shaft of the abyss.” That bring us to the connective conjunction kai which is really a result conjunction here. Kai can be used in about five different ways in the Greek and this is a very rare use. Kai is simply used to connect the two phrases and to show a result relationship, “with the result that.” Then we have the phrase, “smoke went up [ascended] from the shaft like the smoke of a giant furnace.” This smoke explains several verses related to the demon prisons in Hades. Remember that in Hades there are two areas where demons are imprisoned. The first is Tartarus, and there is smoke in Tartarus. The second is called the abyss, and there is smoke in the abyss. The description of this is in 2 Peter 2:4, “For if God himself did not spare the angels who sinned [the sons of god in Genesis chapter six], but he incarcerated them in Tartarus with chains of darkness, keeping them for judgment.” Please note: “chains of darkness.” This is the explanation of the smoke. Jude 6, “And the angels [fallen angels] who did not keep their status quo, but forsook their proper dwelling place, he has incarcerated them in eternal chains under thick darkness for the judgment of the great day.” Notice again the phrase, “darkness.” They were chained with darkness.

With the release of this demon army there is the release of smoke coming out of the shaft of the abyss. The affect of this smoke is described in terms of darkness in the next phrase, “and,” we have a connective conjunction (in fact two of them to set up an alternative) kai, “both and,” “both the sun and the atmosphere became darkened.” The word for sun is e(lioj, and the word for atmosphere is a)er. Both the sun and the atmosphere are darkened, the aorist passive indicative of the verb skotow which means here to become dark. The ingressive aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. Once that shaft was opened smoke came out and, with the smoke, darkness began to spread in a certain locale of planet earth. The passive voice: light from the sun and the atmosphere receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of this phenomenon resulting from the opening of the abyss. With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative of kapnoj [smoke], and frear which refers to the shaft, “because of the smoke from the shaft.”

The smoke from the shaft affects probably the troposphere which is the first six miles up, and the stratosphere which is up to twenty-eight miles. This cuts off radiation from the sun and immerses planet earth in a blackout, very thick smoke and temporary darkness. Of course the demons are used to the darkness, they brought it with them as a barrage to hide their advance and their attack. The darkness becomes the environment and the context for the attack of the first demon army which has been imprisoned in the dungeon called the abyss.

Translation of verse two: “Then he [Satan] unlocked the entrance of the shaft of the abyss, with the result that the smoke like the thick smoke of a giant furnace ascended from that shaft; both the sun and the atmosphere became dark because of the smoke from the shaft of the abyss.”

Verse 3, the description and the weapons of the demon army are described. We are going to note two analogies. They are not scorpions and they are not locusts; these are analogous. The function and the modus operandi of the locusts on the one hand and the function of the scorpion on the other hand are the best ways in which, in the ancient world, it was possible to describe the function of the first demon assault army.

We have the nominative plural a)krij, the Greek word for locust. “And from the smoke locusts [the first demon army] invaded the earth.” The destruction of Nineveh, by the way, in the book of Nahum is described in terms of a locust plague. So using a locust plague as an analogy for an overrunning army is used several times and therefore becomes a basis for helping us to understand the passage.

Nahum 3:15,16, “There [Nineveh] the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down, it will consume you like the locust does … You have increased your trade more than the stars of the heaven: and the creeping locust strips you and flies away.” Even though they were having great business prosperity they were going to be overrun by an army and destroyed.

The use of the word “locust” has a principle behind it. It always refers to invading armies when used as an analogy. Locusts invade the land and destroy crops, therefore they are analogous here to the demon army which invades planet earth from the abyss. Locust is a term which applies to insects which function in swarms and are very destructive.

These demons are incarcerated in the abyss and they are solitary, but as soon as Satan opens that shaft they form up in status gregarious [they will be in ranks]. There is one difference between the literal locust and the demon locust army. The literal locust is described in Proverbs 30:27 — “The locusts have no king, yet all of them go in ranks.” This locust army has a king but they still function in ranks. In the solitary stage no one leads them but in the gregarious stage they march in ranks. When locusts travel they convert day into night. Whenever they form up and go into the air their wings make an awesome sound and they literally darken the sky around them. Nothing can stop the locusts. In other words, they provide an excellent analogy for this invading demon army. Nothing is going to stop this demon army at the time of their invasion.

Then we have the invading verb, the aorist active indicative of the verb e)xerxomai, which means to go out, here it connotes invasion, “and from the smoke they went out against the earth.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the locust invasion of the demon army in its entirety. The invasion of the first demon assault army from the abyss is gathered up into one entirety. The active voice: the first demon army from the abyss produces the action of the verb, they invade planet earth. They are not permitted to do so until the middle of the Tribulation. At the present time Satan does not have that key and he not have that key until he is cast out of heaven in the middle of the Tribulation. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of historical trend, a new trend without precedent in history.

We then have the scorpion analogy. The nominative singular subject from the noun e)xousia means either authority or power. Here it means power, “and power was given,” the aorist passive indicative of didomi. And with this we have the intensive pronoun a)utoj in the plural used as the third person personal pronoun and translated here, “to them” — “and power was given to them.” We are talking about that demon army, the personnel of that first demon assault army.

Then we have the comparative particle setting up the analogy, o(j, “like,” and then the second part explains the analogy, the function of this demon army, the nominative plural subject skorpioj, “scorpions,” “and power was given to them like the scorpions have,” the present active indicative of e)xw. The present tense is a perfective present, it denotes a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. Scorpions have a certain kind of power. The active voice: scorpions produce the action. The declarative indicative mood is for a real analogy, “like the scorpions have power,” and then the accusative direct object with the genitive of place gh, “on the earth.”

The scorpion belongs to the spider family. They are five or six inches long. The venom apparatus of the scorpion is located in the tip of the tail. There is a single sharp stinger at the end of two very small orifices in the tail. Two relatively large venom glands feed those two openings. The scorpion string is a very painful sting and is used in the analogy to torture here.

Translation: “And from that smoke [behind the barrage] locusts [the first demon assault army] invaded the earth: and power was given to them, like the scorpions have power on the earth.”

In verses 4 and 5 we do have a diving restriction placed on the demon invasion. The target is going to be made up of people, those who live in the cosmic system. And it is going to be made up of believers and unbelievers of the Tribulation who live in the cosmic system. We have the target restriction in two areas. We have a mandate regarding vegetation and a mandate regarding people in verse four.

Verse 4, the aorist passive indicative of the verb legw introduces the mandate. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the instructions in the entirety. The passive voice: the first demon army receives the action of the verb, a mandate of restriction. This first demon army is restricted; the second demon army is not restricted, though there are people who are protected from it. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of target restriction. The dative plural indirect object of a)utoj, the intensive pronoun, is used as a personal pronoun referring to the demon army. The idiom says: “They were instructed [commanded].” The conjunction i(na introduces a semi-final purpose clause and it is translated “that”, with the future active indicative of the verb a)dikew and, strangely enough, with the indicative, the negative mh. The negative for the indicative mood is o)u or o)uk, but here we have the negative mh. This is not a declarative indicative but a potential indicative, “that they should not injure.” The gnomic future tense is for a fact or performance which may be rightfully expected under the mandate from God. This is a semi-final or sub-final purpose clause, it denotes the direction of the action in the main verb toward a given result which is anticipated by divine mandate. Translated, that means to you and to me that this first demon army is going to have certain restraints. It is going to torture people and, in fact, torture people so badly that they will try to commit suicide. But there is an alternative to trying to commit suicide and that is to accept Christ as personal saviour or, in the case of believers, to rebound and get out of the cosmic system. And five months of torture ought to be motivation enough for anyone. The active voice: the first demon army is prohibited from destroying vegetation. In addition to that they are not permitted to kill their targets, torture only. The reason they are given the mandate is because a demon can kill a human being very easily.

So we have the active voice of a)dikew, the first demon army is prohibited by mandate from destroying vegetation and, later on, killing people. They can torture but not kill. This is the potential indicative of obligation, they are obligated to observe this mandate, which they do. And so we translate: “And they were instructed that they should not injure the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree.” This is the function of the first trumpet judgment and the first trumpet judgment is not to be repeated by the demon assault.

This mandate also keeps demons from interfering with nature and the natural cycles ordained of God. Furthermore, this mandate indicates that demons cannot argue and disobey the power of God. Therefore these restrictions on the first demon assault army stand without contest or even a hint of disobedience. Furthermore, only God who invented the cycles of nature and the weather machine can interfere with them to administer discipline or judgment to the human race. God does not trust demons to tamper with the cycles of nature. And just as God Himself judges man through the destruction of nature in the first trumpet judgment so He will continue the process Himself in the plagues of the wine goblets in Revelation chapter sixteen. When we get to wine goblet number two, number three, number four and number five we will see that God will again use nature as a vehicle of judgment. While demons can perform extra natural and supernatural acts in the environment of planet earth they cannot control anything in planet earth apart from divine permission. And divine permission is only given where it involves the perpetuation of the angelic conflict in human history.

Then we have the elliptical use of two particles e)i mh, an Attic Greek idiom, used to describe the exception to the mandate. Certain people can be attacked, this is an exception to the previous mandate and, therefore e)i de mh in the Attic Greek is translated “otherwise,” just e)i mh, “except.” We must find a translation which connotes the exception, “except the men who do not have the seal of God in their foreheads.” Now they can attack man but there is one limitation. We have seen from Revelation 7:3ff that this refers to the Tribulational evangelists, but it also applies to Tribulational believers who will survive the Tribulation with all of its horrors and historical adversities. These certain Tribulational believers are fulfilling certain principles of spiritual advance that keep them out of the cosmic system. Remember the target is believer and unbeliever in the cosmic system, but there is no permission to attack believers. Today you cannot be attacked if you are inside the divine dynasphere. The divine dynasphere is God’s game plan for the Church Age. Inside the divine dynasphere there is a wall of fire; in the cosmic system there is no wall of fire for the believer. There is no divine dynasphere in the Tribulation but there is the equivalent and the main objective of believers in the Tribulation in growing in grace is to stay out of the cosmic system because demons are going to be permitted to do things in the Tribulation that they have never been permitted to do before in all of human history. To avoid being mugged by a demon you have to stay out of the cosmic system in the Tribulation. So it is not simply those who have the sealing in the forehead who are protected but there are a tremendous number of believers in the Tribulation who will not be attacked, who will be protected, who will be under the principle of the wall of fire. However, we should note that many believers are going to be tortured and, later on, killed by demons simply because they live in the cosmic system.

Translation of verse 4: “They were instructed that they should not injure the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree; except the men who do not have the seal of God in their foreheads.”

They can attack any human being who is not protected by that seal, the 144,000 and believers who are growing in grace, who put Bible doctrine first, and who are utilising that doctrine to stray out of the cosmic system.

Never before in history and up to this time and to the middle of the Tribulation have demons ever given direct violence to people, demons attacking people directly. The demons attack only by possessing someone else and then they use that person as the vehicle for their violence. We do know that there are certain categories of demon possession that are extremely violent. In the middle of the Tribulation there is going to be a dramatic change when Satan is cast to the earth. There are three demon armies that are going to be especially involved in this type of activity.

The target for these demon assault armies is very important to understand because the target includes some believers as well as unbelievers, but they are all involved in the cosmic system. Perhaps this is one of the more dramatic passages in the Word of God warning people to avoid life in the cosmic system. The repercussions, of course, are absolutely horrible.

There is a principle that we should be aware of and one which has to do with the Tribulation as well. The fact that there are believers in the cosmic system in the Tribulation and the fact that there are believers in the cosmic system right now is the principle of cosmic evangelism. Cosmic evangelism is conducted by cosmic believers who are under the control of Satan and his power system. It isn’t some demon who is going to grab you by the ears and haul you into the cosmic system. In fact, no one can put you in the cosmic system but yourself; you have to make the decision to get into the cosmic system — cosmic one with its interlocking systems of arrogance and cosmic two with its interlocking systems of hatred. The cosmic evangelistic appeal is from friends who are Christians; it is conducted generally, but not entirely, by believers; people in your periphery, people with whom you are friendly. It is accomplished through the facade of flattery or intellectuality or affection or passion or something by which you relate to another member of the human race. The objective is to lead you into a state of arrogance in the cosmic system. Arrogance is very easily influenced by evil because arrogance is the source of all evil. That is why 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Be not deceived: evil friends corrupt good morals,” i.e. the virtue and integrity which we derive as royal family from the divine dynasphere.

When the mature believer in the divine dynasphere is led astray by his love for the cosmic believer the resultant arrogance means loss of discernment. His cosmic friends may be moral or immoral but the result is always the same: the moral cosmic believer is affectionate without being passionate and with his affection he lures the believer living in the divine dynasphere into the cosmic system. On the other hand the immoral cosmic believer is also an excellent evangelist. He is passionate without being affectionate and with passion lures the believer in the divine dynasphere into the cosmic system. In the first case of the moral cosmic believer friendship means more to the believer than doctrine. In the second case, to the immoral cosmic believer sex becomes more important than doctrine. Affection comes from the soul and is very meaningful and wonderful when it includes virtue, integrity, honour and capacity for love. Passion comes from the body and is meaningful only as an expression of category two love where virtue, honour, integrity pre-exist it. Where love, honour, integrity and virtue is developed in the divine dynasphere it can be very quickly destroyed by the cosmic system.

It is very hard for believers to realise that they are constantly undergoing change, for the better or for the worse, and that none of us stand still in the Christian life. We are moving in one direction or the other and therefore the importance of the daily intake of Bible doctrine, and far more important is the application of it and the discernment that must be developed. For all of us have met people to whom we were attracted and who were able to lead us astray through the evangelistic system of arrogance. The objective of cosmic evangelism is to get the believer today, who is living in the divine dynasphere, into the cosmic system. The objective doesn’t change. The only thing that changes in the Tribulation is that there is no divine dynasphere; but there is, of course, an equivalent. Arrogance cannot discern, of course, between passion and affection nor relate them to love, honour and integrity and virtue. Therefore arrogance assumes that a show of affection from the opposite sex is an invitation to passion. Arrogance assumes that a show of passion from the opposite sex is a sign of affection or love. Therefore arrogance cannot distinguish and once the believer is hooked, entering gate one, cosmic one, from then on it is all down hill. He is led astray. Most people who are led astray spiritually are led astray by someone they admire, someone they respect, someone they love or someone for whom they have a strong attachment or affection.

Of course you cannot blame the cosmic evangelist, you must assume the blame yourself because you make the decisions in your life. You call the shots in your own life and therefore you have no right ever to blame someone else who leads you astray. You have to assume the responsibility for your own decisions. It is true now, and even more so in the Tribulation, that people are going to find someone else to blame for their failures.

This is the target for these demon assault armies in the Tribulation. Protected from these attacks are going to be those believers who have doctrine and who remain in the plan of God through the daily perception of doctrine. There will be accelerated spiritual growth for positive believers in the Tribulation and they will have their wall of fire protecting them from demons just as we have a wall of fire in the divine dynasphere.

Verse 5, the target limitation regarding people is amplified. They are not permitted at this time to kill any target, they are only permitted five months of torture. The adjunctive use of the conjunction kai is translated “also,” and with this we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi which means to give, “Also he was given.” With this the dative plural indirect object of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, however it is not used as an intensive pronoun in the Koine Greek, except rarely. It is used for the personal pronoun, third person. There is no Koine personal pronoun, third person and as a result a)utoj is used instead. The Koine, therefore, is a sloppy language of communication compared to the Attic or Classical Greek. The dative plural indirect object of the intensive pronoun, used as a personal pronoun, then refers to the first demon assault army.

Next come the introduction of a purpose clause, i(na, and i(na mh following becomes an idiom, “also they were not permitted.” So we are not taking the literal translation because you cannot correctly translate from one language to another unless you recognise idiom when you find it. Then we have the present active subjunctive of the verb a)pokteinw which not only means to kill but it implies very definite violence, “also they were not permitted to kill them,” i.e. mankind living in the cosmic system. Remember the target is the believer and unbeliever in the last half of the Tribulation who is living inside of the cosmic system. It must be remembered that killing will occur later on in this passage, as it has before. The fourth horseman of the Doomsday book was permitted to kill one quarter of the population in the first half of the Tribulation. In the last half of the Tribulation, among the surviving population, the believer and unbeliever living in the cosmic system is first of all going to be tortured by the first demon assault army and then an army group made up of four armies, the second demon assault army group, will do the killing. But the first wave of attack is a torture wave; the second wave of attack will be a killing wave.

Now we have the conjunction i(na plus the negative mh which introduces a negative semi-final purpose clause which directs the action of the main verb toward a given result. First of all it is a negative result. The first demon assault army is restricted regarding their target, they cannot kill, only torture. Then we have the present active subjunctive of a)pokteinw, “that they should not kill.” The present tense is a static present representing a mandate taken for granted as a fact. If they are going to be tortured they cannot be killed. When they die the torture is all over, and they must be tortured for five months. This includes a lot of people who are born-again believers and they are tortured by permission from God, by a negative mandate from God. They are tortured because of their failure to fulfil the divine plan and it is a case of turning them over to Satan for punishment. The active voice plus the negative mh prohibits the first demon army from killing and the subjunctive mood with i(na introduces the negative purpose clause. Also this is a potential subjunctive implying a future reference and qualified by the element of contingency. They must first be released from their present incarceration in the abyss.

Then comes the accusative plural direct object from that same intensive pronoun a)utoj, again used as the personal pronoun, third person, referring to the target of the first demon assault army, the believers and unbelievers who are living in the cosmic system. So their target includes only those people who actually reside in the cosmic system.

The cosmic system is the most dangerous and horrible place in the world. The Tribulational evangelists are protected by the seal in their foreheads while the believers who are advancing under the plan of God through the perception of doctrine are protected by the wall of fire, they are not the target of these demon assault armies. There is no wall of fire for believers, however, in the cosmic system. It will be noted that Satan’s target for the first demon assault army is mankind, man in the cosmic system serving Satan. We have already noted the principle that arrogance has no integrity and owes no allegiance to those who serve faithfully the ruler of this world. Satan is arrogant; Satan invented the cosmic system from arrogance, and there is definitely no loyalty on the part of Satan to his own servants.

Literally, the sub-final purpose clause is translated: “that they [the first demon army] should not kill them [man in the cosmic system].” However, the purpose clause must be translated in its idiom: “also they [the first demon assault army] were not permitted to kill them [mankind in the cosmic system].”

Then we have a positive part to the purpose clause. It begins with the adversative conjunction a)lla. This indicates a contrast with what precedes. What is this demon assault army permitted to do? And with this we have a conjunction to show that there is a mandate on the positive side, i(na. They are allowed to do something, the future passive indicative of the verb basanizw which not only means torture but it means intense torture; it means the object receives genuine pain in every sense of the word: “but that they might be tortured.” The future tense is a gnomic future for a fact or performance that may be expected from this mandate. The passive voice: believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system receive the action of the verb for five months.

When Satan is through with his human servants he has no compunction about making them miserable and eventually destroying them. The wages of serving Satan is torture and misery from his own hand. Arrogance has no integrity, no sense of responsibility toward subordinates. Therefore the arrogant leader is ruthless, using people to establish his position, to provide him promotion, and then discarding them. Therefore, you as a believer should never be shocked or surprised after doing a good job under supervision or command or leadership of someone else to have that person turn on you. It should not even surprise you a little bit. Learn from the Tribulation, learn from the assault of the first demon army that people who are arrogant are not good leaders. They lack the greatest thing in leadership and that is integrity. Integrity takes cognisance of subordinates and is loyal to those who have done a good job.

The subjunctive mood with i(na indicates a purpose clause: “but that they might be tortured for five months.”

1. Satan possesses the optimum of arrogance, therefore he can be classified under arrogant leadership. All arrogant leadership in history in any category follows the same pattern.

2. Arrogant leadership is preoccupied with self and motivated by inordinate ambition.

3. The arrogant person is constantly competing with everyone else around him, including his subordinates in business and his contemporaries in social life.

4. As long as the subordinates are useful or helpful to the business executive, the commanding officer, the department head, he is tolerated or used. This is why we as believers must always do our job as unto the Lord. Even when we are being used we are not doing our job to please someone else.

5. The person who is doing a good job and is tolerated is not the object of integrity or gratitude.

6. The moment something goes wrong the arrogant leadership will turn on you, fire you, make your life miserable, force you out. In other words, the antithesis of gratitude.

7. Many of the people of the Tribulation living in Satan’s cosmic system were serving him even during the last days of the Church Age.

8. But now that Satan’s defeat is near in the middle of the Tribulation he turns on them by permitting his first two demon assault armies to first torture for five months and then to kill.

9. Arrogance in leadership is parlayed into evil by means of outside pressure. Satan’s outside pressure: he is cast out of heaven. It is inevitable that those who are arrogant and under pressure will pass their pressures on to their subordinates. Their subordinates will often absorb those pressures without a murmur and do a good job until, of course, they are discarded.

Before the second advent comes Satan turns on his own kingdom. Remember that he is the ruler of this world and he destroys his own kingdom before the second advent of Christ. Satan is going to terminate his own rulership by his own decision before the second advent. When Christ returns to the earth the world is a shambles. Satan’s whole system is going to collapse under his very nose by his own arrogant decisions.

Translation of verse 5: “Also they [the first demon assault army] will not be permitted to kill them [mankind living in the cosmic system], but to torture them for five months: and their torture is like the torture of a scorpion when it strikes a man.”

The question arises: How can people in the Tribulation avoid being the target for these demon assault armies?

The question arises as to how people in the Tribulation avoid the demon attacks. There are two categories of people who could avoid the attacks: unbelievers through adherence to the laws of divine establishment and believers in their modus operandi within the plan of God as it exists in the Tribulation. About the only thing that is different is the absence of the divine dynasphere which belongs to the Church Age believer only. God the Holy Spirit is removed as a restrainer during the Tribulation and that makes a change in the way of life for believers in the Tribulation. It should be understood that the 144,000 Jewish evangelists who are sealed in their foreheads will not be attacked at all under any circumstance; but there are others who will be attacked who are believers, and that is the problem. Why are certain believers going to be attacked? The problem there is cosmic involvement.

Now the question. Under what conditions do believers in the Tribulation avoid demon attack? The first issue is the old sin nature. You have to know how to handle the old sin nature, Satan’s inside agent for temptation. The old sin nature resides in the cell structure of the human body and because of this fact we are ageing in the human race as well as this being an inside source of temptation. All ageing is the result of man having the old sin nature. Adam and the woman did not age in the garden at all, they could have lived indefinitely in perpetual youth. The primary consideration of the old sin nature residing in the cell structure of the body is temptation. That is the issue.

Guarding the gate of the soul is human volition. When temptation comes your way it is one of two categories: you know it is a temptation therefore it is a temptation of cognisance; you do not know it is a temptation therefore it is a temptation of ignorance. The question is not whether you know it is a temptation or not, the question is, Do you want to do it or not? You never have any problem with demons or sin or anything else apart from your own volition. Volition is the issue.

Suppose it is a temptation of ignorance and you don’t really know it is a sin. You wanted to do it so you passed it into the soul. This is how the old sin nature gains control of the soul — through sin, and this is how we as members of the human race enter the cosmic system and thereby become vulnerable to whatever demon activity, whatever Satanic modus operandi, may be extant in that dispensation of history. So the old sin nature throws up the temptation. It can be cut off at the pass, all you have to do is say no, and that is as far as it goes. If, however, you let it pass through then it becomes sin. Sin originates from man’s volition, not from the old sin nature. The old sin nature can only tempt, it can only make a suggestion. You can accept or reject the suggestion. You may not know that the suggestion is sin but that is all beside the point. You are still responsible because you wanted to do it and you are just as responsible for your sins of ignorance as your sins of cognisance. So whether it is a sin of cognisance or a sin or ignorance it puts you instantly inside the cosmic system. As a matter of fact you can get into two areas of the cosmic system: cosmic one and cosmic two.

In the Tribulation this is vulnerability to demon assault. Any arrogance, any bitterness, any vindictiveness, any implacability, any hatred or self-pity, any guilt modus operandi, any maligning, any gossip or revenge motivation any function, make’s that person instantly vulnerable to the cosmic system. But it will be much worse in the Tribulation. We are going to see later in this chapter that even though the people involved were under attack from the demon assault army they did not repent of the number of things mentioned there. In verse 20 it has to do with idolatry which is a means of demon possession. In verse 21 it has the sins related to the phallic cult. And this is why people are vulnerable to demon assault in the Tribulation. It can be a believer or an unbeliever. Today we have the divine dynasphere. Believers in the Tribulation will not have the divine dynasphere but they will have fellowship with God. The minute any believer sins he loses fellowship with God and enters into the cosmic system. The Tribulation has the same option we have: rebound and get out of the cosmic system. Whenever the demon assault armies attack whatever believers are in the cosmic system are instantly vulnerable. To avoid being attacked in the Tribulation the believers will either have to say no to the temptation in the first place or instantly rebound in the second place.

There is another way in which Tribulational believers will become vulnerable to attack, and that is through people. They will make friends. People can only become a distraction where you permit it, it is a matter of your scale of values. If doctrine is first in your scale of values generally you can avoid this thing, but social life, sexual life, business life involve people and often people take precedence over doctrine. Therefore, people become inadvertently or deliberately the agents of the cosmic system. Once in the cosmic system the believer in the Tribulation will, in effect, be subject to demon attack.

People, then, are always a source of problems or a source of blessing. Whether they are a source of blessing or a problem has nothing to do with your environment or with their deception; it is your responsibility, you still have your own free will. In the Tribulation the same thing is true: people will be a source of cosmic evangelism and as a result of this cosmic evangelism many believers will be caught in the cosmic system when the demon assault armies make their attack. Once they are in the cosmic system they will suffer everything that the unbeliever suffers in the cosmic system. And there is only one possible way for them to recover, the same way we do: the rebound technique.

There is one other factor in the Tribulation. Strangely enough there will be prosperity. There never has been a period of world-wide historical disaster that did not bring prosperity to someone. Prosperity is perpetuated just as disaster is perpetuated and in the history of the world, in times of the greatest adversity, there is always someone who prospers for one reason or another, so that prosperity may not always be evident but it is just as perpetuating in history as is adversity. It is inevitable that any believer who gets a good start in Bible doctrine and has a good scale of values is eventually going to have prosperity, even in times of terrible adversity. Believers have their prosperity in perception of doctrine, and that principle goes right on even in time of great historical adversity. The Tribulation is a time of great historical adversity, a time when there will be disaster piled upon disaster. But in the midst of it all there will be prosperity. Some believers are going to become very prosperous in the historical adversity of the Tribulation. Then they face the greatest test of all. Prosperity testing is one of the most difficult of all problems: individual prosperity testing in which some form of success challenges with regard to priorities; collective prosperity where one belongs to a group who is prosperous, a nation, a city, individuals formed into some business group, etc. where you become very prosperous and therefore in sharing that prosperity there is also the possibility of distraction. So prosperity is probably one of the most subtle and most dangerous attacks against the soul of the believer. Prosperity can only be enjoyed by continuing to put doctrine first. The perception of doctrine gives capacity for that prosperity. But where that prosperity becomes a source of arrogance, a source of loss as far as your scale of values is concerned, then you become a victim of the cosmic system by your own decisions. You associate that prosperity with you rather than the grace of God. You become arrogant about that prosperity and you begin to look down your nose at other people. You find yourself in the cosmic system.

This is going to happen in the Tribulation. There will be a category of believers who will never grow up. Once they accept Christ as saviour one category will always be babies and will go into the cosmic system. Then there will be those who reach adolescence and then go into the cosmic system. Then there will be those who go beyond adolescence to maturity and these face the prosperity test. If they flunk the prosperity test then they are just as vulnerable to demon attacks as the babies and adolescent believers who went into the cosmic system. The Bible does not tell us but perhaps the majority of believers in the Tribulation are going to fail. They are going to be just as much the target for these demon attacks as unbelievers are. As a matter of fact unbelievers can even escape demon attack through the laws of divine establishment, and perhaps there will be a rare few who do so.

If you have prosperity without capacity for happiness the prosperity always is going to cause difficulty. Capacity must precede the actual prosperity and that will be true in the Tribulation just as it is true now.

So basically, then, the answer to the question as to how Tribulational believers avoid these things is very simple: rebound when necessary, have the same attitude toward doctrine that you have as a believer in the divine dynasphere, the scale of values which will not be changed, and the avoidance of any form or system of arrogance.

We have been studying the demon assault armies in the Middle of the Tribulation, that which is without precedent as far as demonology is concerned. It is the only time in history when demons are permitted to make an attack upon members of the human race and to use violence directly against them. It is interesting to note that the function of these three great demon armies is very much like the concept of modern tactics on the battlefield, the concept of war in general. The first demon assault army commanded by Abaddon is the torture army. The second demon assault army is an army group made up of four demon armies from the Euphrates. The third demon assault army comes from heaven when Satan is cast out and it makes a special attack against Israel. Each one of these demon armies is related to one of the three woes.

The Bible has a great deal to say about warfare. Our Lord Jesus Christ made it very clear that there would be wars and rumours of wars until He comes. Until the second advent there will always be warfare. There is no way to hinder war, there is only a way to protect one’s self against war. That is why we have a book of Numbers in the Bible. It is not a book of numbers at all, it is the mobilisation plan of client nation Israel. All of the details of the book of Numbers deal with that subject. In the laws of divine establishment the only way to maintain national freedom is to be well prepared for war.

Numbers 21:14 tells us that “in the book of the wars of the Lord, Jehovah takes in the storm [takes by storm]”. If they would follow the laws of divine establishment found in the book of Numbers they would never have any problem. One of the first things you find in the book of numbers is a draft and all men at age twenty were to spend a certain amount of time in military service. Whenever the Jews were lax in fulfilling the mandates of the book of Numbers they found themselves in very serious trouble, as in Nehemiah 4:8,9ff where they were finally able to pull together a scratch army and save Israel.

What is noticeable in Revelation chapter nine is that the demon armies are assault armies, armies on the offensive. There is not one word about defence in all of Revelation chapter nine and the second great principle of warfare is the principle of the offensive. The offensive is the only action by which a decision is gained in warfare. Offensive brings victory; the defensive can only avoid defeat. The only offensive way to wage war is to act on the offensive, destroying the enemy armies. Offensiveness increases the effectiveness of the force which adopts it, it raises morale, it permits concentration of effort, it allows freedom of action. The defensive should be used to assist the offensive action elsewhere, to gain time, to utilise good terrain or to compensate for weaknesses. The offensive should be used when there is any reasonable chance of success. In the two demon assault armies which we are studying they are always on the offensive. There is not one reference to the defence. They also follow the third great principle of warfare which is the principle of mass. Mass in military terms means combat power. Furthermore it means concentration of combat power at the point of maximum effectiveness. Mass combat power includes numbers, weapons, tactical skill, discipline, fighting and, of course, the resolution, morale and leadership that are so involved. Success in warfare is attained by the proper employment of mass in a main effort, that is, to attack at the proper time at the proper place for the accomplishment of a definite objective. We are going to see that these demon armies are always using the principle of mass.

There is also a principle known as the economy of force, the means by which mass is employed in the main effort, the time and place of the main effort having been determined means that troops are conserved by reducing their employment in other directions to a minimum consistent with safety. That is what we are going to see, especially with the second assault army.

Then there is the principle of movement. Movement means manoeuvre of combat elements. In the offensive this principle is used to bring mass in closer grips with the enemy to secure decisive results. Movement is designed to place mass in the best place for an attack. Movement is most effective when concealed. In many cases movement is only possible by the effective employment of fire power.

There is also the principle of surprise. To obtain maximum effect with minimum loss surprise must be employed. It may take the form of time, place, direction, force, tactics or weapons. The main factors of surprise are preparation, secrecy, and rapidity. The smoke coming from the shaft of the abyss provides a perfect barrage by which surprise is achieved in Revelation chapter nine.

There is also the principle of security which embraces all measures taken to guard against observation and surprise to ensure against hostile interference with operations to gain and maintain power and momentum of free action. This has already been fulfilled by the fact that all of these demon armies have their own security system until they are ready to launch their attack.

One of the greatest and most ignored of all principles of warfare is the principle of simplicity. Military plans should be simple so as not to sponsor complicated movements. Orders should not be ambiguous but direct and free from contingencies. Frequent changes of plans should be avoided. Unity of command must be observed. All of these are fulfilled by these demon assault armies.

There is also the principle of co-operation. There is a tremendous amount of teamwork involved between the first two demon assault armies. So we learn from the principle of warfare that they have not exactly been ignored by Satan in this great co-ordinated attack against the human race in the last half of the Tribulation.

Verse 6, the torture of the cosmic residents. The fact that this army makes its successful assault is brought out in the fact that they are able to torture for five months without hindrance certain categories in the target. They are able to torture those who are in the cosmic system, believers and unbelievers. The result of this is now found in verse six. After five months of being tortured born-again believers and unbelievers living in the cosmic system follow this principle: “And in those days shall men seek death, and not find it: and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”

Normal people, people who are free from arrogance, have a very healthy respect for death. They understand as believers the principle of death. Dying means to be absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. Death means to move into an interim state in an interim body, and therefore a place of great blessing. But once believers become involved in the cosmic system then their attitude toward death changes to one of great fear. And that is exactly what happens to the believers involved in verse six. Their fear is so great with regard to the attacking armies that their attitude toward death becomes abnormal, an abnormality brought on by arrogance from living in the cosmic system. Instead of resisting or doing anything about it they simply seek to die.

The corrected translation will bring out a few differences. We begin verse 6 with the connective conjunction kai, translated here “consequently,” as a result of the attack of the first demon assault army. This introduces a result from what precedes. The assault of the first demon army on those who reside in the cosmic system brings out this result. We have next a nominative plural subject from a)nqrwpoj, used for men. With it we have the generic use of the definite article which sets up a category of man: just those believers and unbelievers who are living in the cosmic system. The believers in the Tribulation will not have a divine dynasphere but they will have doctrine under logistical grace and they will have the opportunity of accomplishing what we do in the divine dynasphere; they will accomplish it through sheer perception of and application of Bible doctrine. But many of them will become involved in the cosmic system and once they do their attitude changes completely. Only when a believer is in fellowship, only when the believer is learning Bible doctrine and using it by way of application, only when he is executing the plan of God and fulfilling the mandates for the Word of God does he have any way of coping with adversity. Here are literally millions of believers living in the Tribulation who cannot cope with this adversity and who do not have the good sense to start reversing their bad decisions. Good decisions result in great blessing and prosperity; bad decisions result in great adversity. And, of course, man is the product of his own decisions and his decisions determine which way he is going in life, something that is true especially in a dramatic way in the Tribulation for the only target for these demon assault armies will be believers and unbelievers living in the cosmic system. As a result of living in the cosmic system they will seek as the only solution to their problems the one solution that is not a solution but a total admission of defeat: they will seek suicide. They will not find it, however, it is not God’s intention to let them avoid the issue. After five months of terrible torture that drives them to the point of suicide they still do not understand the issue. They are alive because they have volition, they could begin to reverse their terrible course of bad decisions, they could begin by making one good decision — rebound, recovery from the cosmic system, the only defence against that demon assault army which is attacking and torturing. And because they have five months we have a very clear principle involved from the Word of God: God always provides grace before judgment; God always provides solutions for the problem. We have never had a problem for which there was not first of all an answer provided. If we have rejected the answer through the perception of Bible doctrine then obviously nothing is left but to endure the adversity. In the Tribulation believers in the cosmic system have five months to rebound; the unbelievers in the cosmic system under attack have five months to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but they do not do so.

We have the generic use of the definite article with a)nqrwpoj indicating believers and unbelievers locked into the cosmic system. It individualises a group rather than a single object and points out that the group is identified by certain characteristics — bad decisions. We are all the products of our own decisions, not our environment. These certain characteristics relate to involvement in the cosmic system. The generic definite article may or may not be translated, and here it is not translated, “Consequently men,” believers and unbelievers.

Next we have a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of the remote demonstrative e)keinoj, and with it the Greek word h(mera, “Consequently men in those days.” That is a very important prepositional phrase because it refers to the last half of the Tribulation and it has absolutely nothing to do with the present time. You cannot be attacked by a demon. You can be attacked by a demon-possessed person but demons today can offer you no violence. The hard-core demon armies are locked up and out of the way until the time of their attack comes, and that will not be until Satan is cast out of heaven and no longer has access to heaven. In the meantime the only two categories of demon phenomenon we have now are demon possession and demon influence. Our greatest danger from demons is our residence in the cosmic system under the category of reversionism. Believers and unbelievers living in the cosmic system “in those days.”

Then we have the future active indicative of the verb zhtew, translated “will seek.” The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates an event expected to occur in future time in the Tribulation. The intense pain from torture resulting in the desire for death, even though death means Hades and greater torture, plus the eternal lake of fire and perpetual torture, is involved here. That is the unbeliever, the believer simply seeks a way out through death. The active voice: believers and unbelievers who have been living in the cosmic system produce the action of the verb. They seek as their only solution physical death, not the use of their volition to rebound in the case of believers or to accept Christ as saviour in the case of unbelievers. Nothing is more defeated than the person who is alive and wants to die. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of future reality and, of course, present application.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun qanatoj, the Greek word for death. It is a reference to physical death to escape the five months torture from the assault of the first demon army. Believers and unbelievers living in the cosmic system are totally preoccupied with self, they have locked-in arrogance, they have locked out all of the good solutions. Arrogance cannot endure torture for arrogance is a state of tenseness, increasing vulnerability to pain. The same humility that provides capacity for life in time of blessing and prosperity also provides the ability to withstand pain in time of adversity. But this humility is the monopoly of life inside of the divine dynasphere or, in the Tribulation, believers positive toward doctrine. Its equivalent in the Tribulation becomes very important, it is the only protection against the demon assault armies. The desire for death is abnormal and results from various categories of arrogance such as self-pity, psychopathic arrogance, emotional arrogance, the arrogance of discouragement and others.

Demons, the fallen angels under the command of Satan, are capable of two categories of violence: indirect violence and direct violence. Direct violence is that in which the demon must use another human being as the vehicle for the expression of his violence. This is the attack of man against man. That means a demon-possessed or demon influenced person attacks another person or persons in the human race. This category is operational today. All terrorism, criminal activity, the function of religious cults, the function of such organisations as KGB, are the result of either demon influence or demon possession. In the case of idolatry and certain religious activities there is demon possession, but much more common than demon possession is demon influence. Demon influence from the cosmic system is the source of most violence at the present time in history. This would include any act of hatred, anger, any form of arrogance. There are exceptions. When the violence involved is the function of the military establishment in the defence of the freedom of a nation there is no demon activity related to it. The support of third-world terrorism by the World Council of Churches is a case of demon influence in the function of the cosmic system. Believers and unbelievers, apart from the perception of doctrine and fellowship with God in the divine dynasphere are vulnerable to cosmic involvement and therefore demon influence.

The second category is direct violence from demons. This is a phenomenon reserved for the last half of the Tribulation. This category uses visible demon armies in a direct attack upon mankind who are living in the cosmic system. The demon attacking force includes three assault armies which do not function on planet earth at the present time.

So far in verse 6, “Consequently in those days men will seek death.” And where does this all begin? Why do believers, for example, get into such a jamb? Romans 12:3 — “For I say, through the grace which has been given to me, to every man which is among you, stop thinking of self in terms of arrogance,” that is entrance into cosmic one, equivalent to grieving the Holy Spirit in this dispensation, “beyond what you ought to think;” that in entrance into cosmic two, equivalent to day to quenching the Holy Spirit, “but think in terms of sanity,” modus operandi of the divine dynasphere, the divine viewpoint of life, “for the purpose of being rational without illusion, as God has assigned to each one a standard of thinking from doctrine.”

1 Peter 5:5, “In the same way, comparative novices, be under the command and authority of pastor-commanders. All of you in the congregation, fasten yourselves to each other with grace thinking: because God makes war against the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble.”

That is the order of the day for the Church Age and that same principle is transferred to the last three trumpet judgements which are also the three woes. God is going to actually permit and use as a vehicle of divine discipline these three great demon armies which at the present time are non-operational. God makes war against the arrogant but He gives grace to the humble. The arrogant believer is the enemy of the cross, he lives in the cosmic system, and God makes war against arrogance in believers and unbelievers. That is why believers in the last half of the Tribulation, living in the cosmic system, are just as much the targets of these demon assault armies as unbelievers.

1 Peter 5:6, “Therefore become grace oriented under the authority of the ruling hand of God, [living in the divine dynasphere] that he may promote you at the proper time.”

Luke 14:11, “Everyone who exalts himself [cosmic one function] shall be humbled; but he who humbles himself [residence in the divine dynasphere] shall be exalted.”

1 Timothy 6:3,4, “If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and does concur with sound doctrine, those doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ, even doctrine pertaining to godliness; he has received arrogance [entrance into cosmic one], understanding nothing; furthermore he has a morbid obsession about controversies and verbal conflicts from which originate jealousy, discourse, and evil speculations.”

All of that is a description of cosmic two and arrogant believers involved in social action, who are trying to straighten out this or that thing, who become hypersensitive about some organisation with which they are associated, are all involved in this. This is why the masses of believers, as well as unbelievers, are today under demon influence which is not the same as demon possession. But under certain circumstances demon influence is just as violent, just as antagonistic, just as hateful, and just as evil as demon possession. Usually the differences in demon influence is the rational approach to killing, to destroying in terrorism and guerrilla warfare, whereas the demon possession is more violent, more irrational in it s modus operandi. But that refers to the function of the dispensation in which we live. In the future God is going to permit these demon assault armies to attack members of the human race but, strangely enough, only those members of the human race who are Satan’s servant in the cosmic system. Satan has many servants today, he is the ruler of this world, but he is incapable of handling the rulership of this world in a way that will bring about the Millennium before Christ returns. He is seeking to do so but he is incapable of doing so, even though he is the greatest creature genius that has ever lived on the face of the earth. In the last half of the Tribulation as a result of a kingdom of darkness divided against itself demon armies literally, physically, violently, are attacking human beings who are the servants of Satan, the word will be in a shambles at the second advent of Jesus Christ. Christ returns to find that Satan has totally failed even before He arrives.

Even believers in the cosmic system will try to commit suicide. All believers living in the cosmic system are under the influence of arrogance, therefore they become the enemies of God and the servants of Satan. When Paul was addressing these people in the third chapter of Philippians he called them the enemies of the cross. Even though they are believers and cannot lose their salvation and will spend eternity in the presence of God, at the present time they are under cosmic influence. This distorts and destroys their perspective of life. Arrogance plus pain or pressure produces the motivation for suicide.

It should be noted that all forms of arrogance do not result in suicide or the motivation for taking one’s life. Some forms of arrogance result in obsession and the desire for destroying others. But in this context five months of torture by the first demon assault army results in the insane desire for suicide. The unbelievers inconsistency should be noted for unbelievers have already heard from the evangelists of the Tribulation that there is a second appointment that awaits them. For the believer death is a source of great blessing and what happiness afterward is even greater. Death is to be absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. It is the place of no more tears, no more pain, no more death, the old things have passed away. The believer has an interim body and great happiness awaiting the resurrection body. Death, therefore, is a great thing as far as the believer is concerned. But for the unbeliever who had heard the message of the Tribulational evangelist, the witness of other believers, who has been exposed and saturated with the gospel, and they know that death means even greater torture than what they are suffering. But arrogance becomes irrational. When a genius becomes arrogant he is no longer rational, he can no longer think straight, and that is exactly what happens to these people, both believer and unbeliever. The influence of the cosmic system is greater than the influence of rational thinking and the truth.

The next three words in the Greek are kai o)u mh and are very important. This kai acts like an adversative conjunction because it has a very strong double negative of prohibition following, the emphatic double negative. A double negative in the English is a positive; a double negative in the Greek is a strong and emphatic adversative. Then we have a future active indicative in the verb e(uriskw which with the negatives is “but they will not find,” the accusative singular direct object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “it,” referring to death. The gnomic future tense is for a statement of fact anticipated under these conditions. The active voice: the targets of the first demon army, believers and unbelievers living in the cosmic system, produce the action of the verb. They try to commit suicide but they will not find it. The indicative mood is declarative for an unqualified assertion of fact, unprecedented like the demons’ attack. Part of their punishment for cosmic involvement is to remain alive and suffer the results of serving Satan in the cosmic system. Life in the cosmic system never pays and the prolongation of their torture proves this. Furthermore, those living in the cosmic system have lost the power of decision, they are not making decisions from a position of strength, they are now making decisions from a position of weakness. In reality they are too weak to make the right decisions.

Many times in life we make bad decisions and bad decisions put us in a place of weakness. When we start to make decisions from a position of weakness we are in real trouble and this applies to many things in life. If you are fired off a job or you say, “I quit,” your decision is from a position of weakness. If you leave a job with high recommendations and regrets on the part of a firm or business or organisation, then you leave from a position of strength, and decisions that you make thereafter are made from a position of strength. If you have some form of illness and you go to a doctor who gives you some kind of medication you are making decisions in life from a position of strength. That medication was designed to keep you living and functioning in a normal way. But if you refuse to go to the doctor and you allow the disease to take over in your life you are then making decisions from a position of weakness. When you start to make decisions from a position of weakness then your whole life becomes weak, you are on the wrong course. To make decisions from a position of weakness is disastrous. The tragedy of believers living in the cosmic system is that they make their decisions from a position of weakness. That means to be under demon influence.

So in this difficult situation in the Tribulation we have believers who could make a decision from a position of strength; there are unbelievers in this difficult situation in the Tribulation and they could make a decision from a position of strength, and yet we go on to read in verse six, a connective conjunction kai followed by the future active indicative of the verb e)piqumew which means to have an intense desire, “and they will have an intense desire to die,” the aorist active infinitive of a)poqnhskw.

But first we look at e)piqumew. The gnomic future tense anticipates the attitude of those under torture from the first demon assault army. The active voice: man in the cosmic system produces the action of the verb, believers and unbelievers living in the cosmic system. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact. What is their decision? To die: the aorist active infinitive of a)poqnhskw. The culminative aorist tense views the desire to die in its entirety but it emphasises it from the viewpoint of existing results, the frustration of intense desire. The idiom is translated by the English perfect tense, hence the insertion of the word “have” in the future, “and they will have an intense desire to die,” the infinitive of purpose. That is their purpose, that is their decision from a position of weakness.

This is followed by the adversative use of kai, “but,” and then the nominative singular subject qanatoj, “but death.” It is followed by the verb feugw which means to elude or to flee, and it is in the present active indicative, “but death will flee from them,” an idiom meaning “but death will elude them.” The futuristic present tense denotes and event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: death produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of fact.

Translation of verse six: “Consequently, men [both believer and unbeliever living in the cosmic system during the Tribulation] in those days [the last half of the Tribulation] will seek death, but they will not find it: they will have an intense desire to die but death will elude them.”

The torture of body and soul, the intense pain of the cosmic servants of Satan functioning from a position of weakness in the use of their volition simply adds to the pain. Once decisions from free will are made to live in the cosmic system the person involved loses the ability to make good decisions from a position of strength. Bad decisions are made from a position of weakness; good decisions are made from a position of strength. Free will loses its power in the cosmic system. All decisions made under the influence of arrogance and evil in the cosmic system, then, are made from a position of weakness; all decisions from the divine dynasphere or from application of Bible doctrine are decisions made from a position of strength. Decisions from a position of strength require the filling of the Spirit, objectivity from impersonal love, the flexibility of humility. The only good decisions which can be made from a position of strength in the cosmic system is for the unbeliever to make the one decision: to believe in Christ for eternal life; and the believer to make the one decision: rebound. This would clear each category from the cosmic system and give them a position of strength in the grace of eternal salvation or in the grace of recovery of fellowship with God. All other decisions in the cosmic system are made from a position of weakness, therefore the inevitability of disaster and torture from those decisions.

The principle: the believer living in the divine dynasphere is designed to make decisions from a position of strength; the believer living in the cosmic system is designed to make decisions from a position of weakness. While the Tribulational believer does not have the divine dynasphere he possesses its equivalent under logistical grace provision of Bible doctrine and its application to experience.

The angelic conflict has extended into human history and man was created to resolve the angelic conflict. This means that the millions and millions of fallen angels under the command of Satan seek to frustrate the plan of God in this regard. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are aware of the fact that God has a purpose for your life, and that life not only has purpose but meaning and definition and that the perfect plan of God is far greater than anything that Satan can throw against you.

There are four great attacks upon mankind. The first one was in the antediluvian civilisation and will never be repeated. It is the story of Genesis six and 2 Peter chapter two, of Jude six and 1 Peter 3:18ff. It is the story of the sexual infiltration of the human race, the attempt to destroy true humanity before the flood, the attempt to hinder the first advent of Christ, the incarnation and the hypostatic union; all of which was necessary for the accomplishment of our so great salvation.

The second and third attacks are in process today and have been during the entire course of the post-diluvian civilisation. These two attacks involve demon possession and demon influence. Demon possession, of course, is the demons penetrating the body of the unbeliever. The believer cannot be demon-possessed, his body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The greatest of all attacks throughout all history until the middle of the Tribulation, however, is demon influence, the function of Satan’s fallen angels in the penetration of the soul and the personality of both the believer and unbeliever in the cosmic system.

There is a fourth category which will not exist until the middle of the Tribulation. That is, demons directly and physically attacking members of the human race. At that point demons will be visible in their attack and they will do great violence both through torture and killing members of the human race.

Demon influence, being the demon penetration of the human soul and personality, is very definitely a problem for believers. Both demon possession and demon influence are impossible apart from human consent and the function of man’s free will related to the cosmic system. Demon possession is a phenomenon, then, related to the unbeliever only in the cosmic system; demon influence is a phenomenon involving both believer and unbeliever in the cosmic system. At the end of the Tribulation mankind in the cosmic system will become the target for the greatest demon attack in history, an attack without precedent. Demons are capable of two categories of violence. One category exists today, the other category is reserved for the passage we are studying. The first is indirect violence. Indirect violence is that in which a demon must use another human being as a vehicle for the expression of his violence. This is the attack of man against man. This is a demon-possessed person or a person under demon influence attacking or doing violence to another member of the human race. This category is operational today and has been observed historically many times — like terrorism, criminal activity, the function of many religious cults, the function of such organisations as the KGB, all of which are the result of either demon influence or demon possession.

Believer and unbeliever, apart from perception of doctrine and fellowship with God in the divine dynasphere, are vulnerable to cosmic involvement and, therefore, demon influence. The direct form of violence does not exist today but we are in the process of studying it in Revelation chapter nine. Direct violence from demons is a phenomenon reserved for the end of the Tribulation. This category of violence used is visible demon armies in direct attack against mankind.

We have been studying decisions from a position of weakness that result in demon influence. The origin of position of weakness is fourfold. Primarily it is the cosmic system with its two cosmic dynaspheres: cosmic one which is grieving the Spirit; cosmic two which is quenching the Holy Spirit. There is also a by-product from the cosmic system and a second origin of making decisions from a position of weakness: arrogance plus ignorance. If you are in the cosmic system and therefore have any degree of arrogance (which you would) then ignorance becomes the basis for making decisions from a position of weakness. Then there is thirdly the lust pattern of mankind, a modus operandi related to the old sin nature. Finally, there are the pressures of life which cause people to make decisions from a position of weakness.

The concept of decision from a position of weakness is relatively simple. All decisions made in the cosmic system are decisions made from a position of weakness rather than a position of strength. All decisions to enter the cosmic system are decisions made from a position of weakness. Only two decisions can be made in the cosmic system from a position of strength. The first is the decision of the unbeliever to receive Jesus Christ as his personal saviour. The second in the decision of the believer in the cosmic system to rebound, to get out of the cosmic system, to recover his fellowship with God. Decisions made in the divine dynasphere are decisions made from a position of strength; decisions made from the cosmic system are decisions made from a position of weakness. Since man is the product of his own decisions it is imperative that he makes good decisions rather than bad decisions.

The target for attack from demon assault armies at the end of the Tribulation is the personnel living in the cosmic system. Two categories of mankind live in the cosmic system: believers and unbelievers. They are the victims of violence from demon assault armies because they have made many decisions from a position of weakness. Therefore they suffer and die from demon assaults of the first and second demon assault armies because they have made their decisions in that way from a position of weakness.

The rationale of Satan in destroying his own servants in the cosmic system is fairly obvious. He is cast out of heaven in the middle of the Tribulation and he is confined to the earth which he rules. Once he is cast out of heaven and is confined only to the earth he makes a shambles out of the earth before the second advent of Christ. Satan cannot use losers once he becomes a losers himself, and since he cannot use losers who have made decisions from a position of weakness he then discards them in the very violent manner we are studying. Satan is losing and that will become obvious to him in the Tribulation and he will not carry losers in his organisation. Satan is arrogant and therefore destroys his own servants.

There is an application to us in contemporary history. Every day many thousands of believers are making hundreds of thousands of decisions from a position of weakness. This makes them vulnerable to demon influence. Many political decisions, in fact most of them, are made from a position of weakness. Like people who decided for a nuclear freeze. That is a decision made from a position of weakness. Antigun legislation is a decision made from a position of weakness. The abolition of capital punishment is a political decision made from a position of weakness. Taxing industry out of existence is a political decision made from a position of weakness. Any government decision which destroy free enterprise or permits bureaucratic interference is a decision from a position of weakness. Through cosmic arrogance and ignorance labour unions make decisions from a position of weakness. They make decisions to strike in time of depression and economic recession.

These contemporary illustrations fall into the same pattern as for residents of the cosmic system in the Tribulation. Both believers and unbelievers make decisions to live in the cosmic system and to remain there. These decisions are made from a position of weakness and they result in one of the most horrible experiences of history, violent attack by demon assault armies resulting in both torture and death. Revelation 9:6 describes how they feel about it.

It is very difficult for people to understand all that is involved in demon influence because so many Christians, in their thinking, are under demon influence today. Perhaps a reminder of some of the gates of cosmic two of the cosmic system will help us to appreciate the situation. Cosmic one are the twenty-six gates of interlocking systems of arrogance. Cosmic two are the nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred. Perhaps more than anything else, apart from arrogance, cosmic two helps us to understand demon influence and decisions made from a position of weakness.

Gate one of cosmic two is negative volition. All negative volition places the believer in a position of weakness. God consciousness is the point at which becomes an issue in the life of any individual. It is the point at which the individual becomes aware of the existence of God and therefore becomes accountable for his relationship with God, since he has free will, since he has two frontal lobes, he has an awareness through this function of God’s existence. The unbeliever enters gate one of cosmic two by negative volition at either God consciousness or gospel hearing, or both, or the truth in between which is the laws of divine establishment, the principle by which he has freedom to be evangelised. Therefore the decision made from a position of weakness — I don’t want to know God — results in rejection of establishment principles and the authority that God has ordained in them. It brings the person to gospel hearing with that same negative volition.

The object of the attack in the Tribulation, the victims of the demon assault army, are people who follow this pattern. They have entered gate one of cosmic two, they are in the cosmic system and are therefore under demon influence. Demons have penetrated their soul and personality with the result that their thought pattern has changed. They have used their own free will to go negative at God consciousness; they have used their own free will to go negative toward the various systems of authority in the laws of divine establishment; and when they hear the gospel as they will many times in the Tribulation they remain negative and their own decision produces demon influence or demon possession. With believers it can only be demon influence. This negative volition which results in demon influence is mentioned in Romans 1:18-25, “ … they exchanged the truth of God for a lie,” and that is a definition of demon influence, exchanging divine truth for a lie. That is the way in which one enters gate one of cosmic two. For the believer it quenches the Holy Spirit; for the unbeliever it is rejection of the gospel. “ … they both worship and serve the creature [Satan] rather than the creator [our Lord Jesus Christ], who is blessed forever.” This is the beginning of demon influence.

A description of them is found in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross [teaching of the gospel] is to those who perish foolishness [that is demon influence]; to those who are saved, however, it is the power of God.”

2 Corinthians 4:3,4, “But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who perish: in whom the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of those who do not believe [demon influence], that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

2 Peter 2:20-22 — “For if after having escaped the defilement of the cosmic system by the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them [cosmic one and cosmic two], and are overcome [demon influence], the latter stage becomes worse than the first,” the latter stage was demon influence; the first stage was God consciousness, “for it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, having known it, to turn away from the holy mandate [to believe in Christ]. It has happened therefore to them according to the true proverb [Proverbs 26:1], The dog returns to his own vomit [a description of demon influence].”

The believer’s rejection of Bible doctrine would also be another way of someone entering cosmic two.

2 Corinthians 6:11,12, “O Corinthians, our mouth is open to you [teaching of doctrine], our right lobe is enlarged [you have to know doctrine to teach it]. You are not hindered from learning doctrine by us [Pastors like Paul], but you are hindered by your own emotions.” Cf. Romans 16:17,18; Philippians 3:18,19.

Gate one is one of the two ways which one enters cosmic two. Gate two is simply the result of it all, and that would be called cosmic degeneration. This is demon influence being parlayed into degeneration such as in Romans 1:24-27. In other words, here is the beginning of making decisions from a position of weakness. Gate one is simply the source of the function of gate two and the degeneration of society is a manifestation of the fact that a maximum number of people in society, believers and unbelievers, are under demon influence.

Gate three then leads to the problem that causes it all. This is that interim principle, the principle between God consciousness and gospel hearing. They reject the laws of divine establishment designed for the freedom and the perpetuation of the human race. Therefore gate three of cosmic two is the antiestablishment gate and every decision directed toward antiestablishment is a decision from a position of weakness. For example, 2 Timothy 3:2-7 — “For men will be lovers of self [involvement in cosmic one], lovers of money, braggarts, arrogant, slanderous, disobedient to parents” — sociology is still trying to explain what has happened these last few generations: the disregard for parents which is the most basic authority in life and the only system of authority that can launch one into life under the principle of humility and capacity for life, “ungrateful,” antiestablishment persons. All degeneracy in society, all antagonism toward the basic systems of authority in society become a part of demon influence. There must be a breakdown of the laws of divine establishment before Satan can have his way with man on planet earth.

Verse 3-5 says: “no capacity for love, implacable, malicious gossips, without self-discipline, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, thoughtless, having become conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; having a form of godliness [often religious], although they have denied its power [the power is the divine dynasphere]; also avoid such men as these [because they are cosmic evangelists].”

Verse 6, “For among them they who creep into homes [local churches] and captivate silly women weighed down with sins, led on by various categories of lusts.” Anytime anyone makes a decision from a position of lust they have made a decision from a position of weakness; “always learning [false doctrine, demon influence] and so they are never able to come to a true knowledge of [e)pignwsij] doctrine.” Therefore, gate three is hatred of establishment. This is brought out in Romans 1:28-32. They hate the police officer, they are antiestablishment. They have rejected the authority of parents, they have rejected the authority of law and order, they reject the authority of the police officer, they reject every form of human authority. The “depraved mind” in Romans chapter one is referring to demon influence.

“And just as they did not see fit have God in their knowledge any longer, God delivered them over to a depraved mind,” demon influence, “to do those things which are not proper.” What do those believers and unbelievers in cosmic two do? They are “filled with unrighteousness, evil, greed, malice; full of jealousy, murder, dissension, strife, discord, deceit, evil motivation; and from that they have become gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent [rejection of authority], arrogant [involved in cosmic one], boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ignorant ones, without understanding, lacking honour and integrity, unloving, implacable; and although they know the ordinance of God [the laws of divine establishment], that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only are they doing the same things, but they give hearty approval to others who practice them.”

Gate four then shows the other side of demon influence. Not only is there degeneracy in society but there is also the concept of arrogance related to cosmic panaceas. Arrogant self-righteous people are always trying to improve everyone in their periphery. This is seeking the solutions to life apart from divine truth in its three categories. This gate rejects the laws of divine establishment with the result that there is a substitution of human viewpoint solutions to life. Hence, the Satanic administration of planet earth. Instead of freedom they demand equality, but equality can only be achieved by the destruction of freedom. Equality means slavery; inequality is a sign of freedom. Equality demands the full mobilisation of the envy and jealousy of those under demon influence. Hence, to promote equality, taxation of the successful, confiscation of property, nationalisation of industry, and therefore demon influence always advocates the destruction of the economic results of the laws of divine establishment. The identity of the human being must be characterised by sameness, says demon influence. They must all be the same. No one must appear better than anyone else, no one must appear superior to everyone else, there must be a standardisation of life.

Cosmic panaceas lean toward big government and little people. The citizen is the slave of the state instead of the state being the servant of the people. Hence, to be different becomes a crime in the eyes of the state. That is demon influence in thinking. The government must not permit autonomous developments, therefore there must be the regulation and destruction of private enterprise, the confiscation of private property, the redistribution of wealth.

This gate includes utopianism, the arrogance of recreating and refashioning all forms of human existence. The cosmic panaceas lead to violence, terrorism, revolution under the principle of social engineering. Therefore always demon influence justifies violence in the name of social engineering, the application of what is false to life. The state must train the children to be oriented to the dictates of the state rather than the authority of their parents. In other words, a total rejection of freedom and authority in the function of the laws of divine establishment. They ignore the fact that without freedom you cannot have a destiny and without authority you cannot have freedom, and therefore cosmic panaceas attack both freedom and authority in the laws of divine establishment. That is a brief idea of what demon influence is in that category.

Gate five is the religious gate. Religion is Satan’s counterfeit of the plan of God for believer and unbeliever. Religion is a part of Satan’s policy of evil. Again, we must always note that Christianity is not a religion, for in religion man by man’s efforts seeks to gain the approbation of God or what he has set up as God. In Christianity man is related to God through faith in Christ and therefore God provides the blessing. Hence, in religion man seeks God through his personal merit and works; in Christianity God seeks man totally apart from works in grace.

Paul describes religious leaders in that fashion in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles for Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds.” Cf.. 2 Timothy 3:7-9.

Gate six is actually the demonism gate. This is the function of fallen angels under the command of Satan. In the case of unbelievers to penetrate the body; in the case of believers to influence the thinking, the penetration of the frontal lobes of the soul, the penetration of the personality. Cf.. 1 Timothy 4:1.

In 1 Corinthians 10:20,21 we actually have the sacrifice to demons mentioned, things which Gentiles sacrifice to demons and not to God, “I do not want you to become a sharer in demons,” i.e. participate in their viewpoint. The believer who is under demon influence in the cosmic system is partaking of the devil’s communion table, he is influenced in his thinking by the Satanic viewpoint. To drink the cup of the Lord you have to be in the divine dynasphere; to drink the cup of demons you have to be in the cosmic system.

Gate seven is the area for those who are suffering from academic arrogance: anthropocentric academic speculation. It is described in 2 John 9 — “Everyone who advances in knowledge out of bounds and does not remain in the field of play.” The field of play is the divine dynasphere; out of bounds is the cosmic system; “by means of the doctrine of Christ, does not have a relationship with God; he who remains with doctrine [inside the divine dynasphere], this one has a close relationship with both the Father and the Son.” So in the field of academic speculation there is the whole concept of all of the philosophical attitudes, psychological attitudes, of human viewpoint.

That brings us to Revelation 9, verse seven. In verses 7-9 we have the locust description of the first demon assault army.

The corrected translation of verse seven: “Now the appearance of the locust demons was like cavalry horses which had been prepared for warfare; and on their heads , as it were, crowns like gold, and their faces like the faces of men.”

Two factors are found in this verse. First, for battle the locust demons of the first assault army are described in terms of cavalry. That means they have mobility, fire power, and shock. They will be able to cover the entire world with their torture of five months. Secondly, they have a military insignia like a gold crown. It isn’t a gold crown, it is a comparative word, “like,” the Greek word o(j. They have a patch which has a gold crown on it. It implies that they think they are a victorious army.

The third thing that we have in this passage is the appearance of the demon. They have faces of men, indicating the fact that demons do appear as men and have greater intelligence and adaptability. The last time that demons appeared as men was in the sixth chapter of Genesis, and from that time until the middle of the Tribulation there is no such appearance. These demon armies which will appear in the future are now incarcerated. The significance of the patch is victory and this first demon assault army comes out of the abyss shouting victory. However, for this demon army it is a false victory since the only combat victory is against those members of the human race who, during the Tribulation, reside in the cosmic system of Satan’s minions. To win a victory over believers and unbelievers who have a profile of making bad decisions, and decisions from a position of weakness, isn’t really much of a victory. Hence, their only victory is against Satan’s human servants.

According to the next verse these men are very handsome. They are attractive as the demons in Genesis six were attractive.

There is no such thing as legitimate exorcism. The exorcist, the one who alleges to cast out demons, is a faker and a liar and therefore to be avoided at all costs. The problem is the same always where there is a person who alleges to speak in tongues or a person who alleges to be a divine healer or whether he is an exorcist. They all fall into the same pattern. The issue in the angelic conflict is volition, the function of man’s free will, and all of these things blur that distinction.

There are two kinds of demon activity today: demon possession and demon influence. Both of them are involvement in the cosmic system. Demon possession is for unbelievers only; demon influence for believer and unbeliever. Any believer or unbeliever in the cosmic system is under demon influence, for demon influence is the invasion of the personality, the thought pattern, the soul of either a believer or an unbeliever. Demon possession is demon invasion of the body. The demons who can do this are invisible; they are disembodied spirits; but all demons are not disembodied spirits. We are studying visible demons who are not operational on the earth today. Visible demons were operational in the antediluvian period of history and visible demons will be operational at the end of the Tribulation.

When people are demon possessed they often have been put in contact with an “exorcist”. There is no such thing as an exorcist. Only one person ever cast out demons legitimately and that was our Lord Jesus Christ during His first advent. And He did not even cast out demons in the power of His own deity, He used His humanity in the prototype divine dynasphere. He said in Matthew: “If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons [first class condition: and I do].” No one else has that power and that ability. Our Lord delegated that power to the apostles as a spiritual gift but whether it is our Lord Jesus Christ or the apostles whom He had delegated authority, only for their ministry and no one else’s, neither could cast out a demon apart from the function of positive volition on the part of the patient, the victim. Every time our Lord cast out a demon or demons the person always came to Him for help, so that volition was the issue. When they came to the apostles the same thing was true: they had positive volition and they wanted “out,” and they came to the one who could help.

In the Tribulation we are going to see something new in demonism: demon assault armies which are visible just as demons were visible in the antediluvian civilisation. We are going to see these demon armies in operation. The victims, the target for these demon armies, are believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system. In other words, believers and unbelievers under demon influence. We are also going to see those who are under demon possession. In the Tribulation the demon army we are now studying tortures for five months. That is grace before judgment, and opportunity to recover, and people can only recover from demon possession or demon influence by their own positive volition. For the unbeliever under demon possession that positive volition must express itself by faith in Christ; for the believer under demon influence that positive volition must express itself by rebound. Volition is still the issue. The major system of demon possession is idolatry; the major system for demon influence is arrogance. When arrogance invades the personality and the thinking of the soul, the decisions of the soul are made from arrogance and the emotion of the soul is related to arrogance, then you have the first form of demon influence. While only unbelievers can be demon possessed both believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system can be under demon influence unless they get out by rebound.

Verse 8, “Furthermore,” taken from the conjunction kai, “they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions.” The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and always in every period of history there are certain buzz words that mean certain things. Long hair on women meant beauty in the time in which this was written. So this is a buzz word for beauty; the woman’s hair depicts beauty and attractiveness. Note the description of Satan, for example, in Ezekiel 28:12. The beauty of demons, of course, is a trap for those who are attracted; a facade to lure victims. The teeth of the lion indicate that behind the facade of beauty is the ruthless desire to destroy. So we have a case here of where beauty attracts the victim. Beauty destroys, and the connotation of attraction is the long hair of the woman; the connotation of destruction, the teeth of the lion. That is the concept of the passage. Beauty can be a source of appreciation or distraction, the key is to know what is behind the beauty. With demons, of course, there is neither integrity, honour, sensitivity, nor capacity for love behind the facade of great beauty. Instead, when contact is made there are the teeth of the lion, hence the formula for torture. Behind the facade of great beauty are the teeth of the lion representing power, cruelty, arrogance, and torture.

Next, in verse 9, we have their battle equipment. “Also they have breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the noise of chariots plus many cavalry horses running into battle.”

The breastplate is defensive equipment. They are on the offensive and the breastplate is merely a picture of them in relationship to their army. The breastplate of iron is mentioned because in the Roman world it was considered the best piece of defensive equipment. It emphasises the fact that demons are not vulnerable to human attack and therefore human beings have no protection against these demon armies unless they are behind the wall of fire. In fact believers do not have power to cope with demons but they are protected by using logistical grace. Again, remember the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, demons cannot possess the body of the believer; but you can come under demon influence which means thought control through the inculcation of cosmic doctrines, culture, philosophy, related to personal arrogance. The only defence against demons, then, is from your fellowship with the Lord. This means for the believer in the Church Age residence and function in the divine dynasphere. That is our wall of fire. What it means for the believers in the Tribulation is walking in fellowship with the Lord.

The breastplate emphasises that demons are not vulnerable to human attack, which means that believers must rely on Bible doctrine, the plan of God, the provision of logistical grace, the wall of fire, the function of God the Holy Spirit. In past eras of history God had to give certain believers, like prophets or apostles, the ability, the delegated power, to cast out demons; but that gift never functioned apart from the volition of the victim. That gift and that authority has not been extended into the Church Age, therefore we must leave this to God and avoid the arrogance of assuming power that we do not possess. Victory over the power of evil includes both the cosmic system and the attack of demons which, of course, cannot be attained by human works or by any self-effort. Positional truth resulting from the baptism of the Spirit at salvation, residence and function in the divine dynasphere: that is our protection. Remember that unbelievers are only potential victims of demon possession, while believers and unbelievers are only potential victims of demon influence. The system for resistance becomes very important.

Demon influence results in distortion of doctrine, becoming involved in the cults, getting involved in the tongues movement, getting hooked up with so-called divine healers, getting involved with exorcism, in ritual without reality. This is the arrogance of human viewpoint, this is pseudo-intellectualism, this is self-righteousness, crusader arrogance that seeks to whitewash the devil’s world.

The demon assault armies do have specified objectives. The objective constitutes the guide for the interpretation of orders, the formulation of decisions, and the deployment. This principle is true with regard to these angelic assault armies. Their orders are related to the type of objective they face. The principle of objective always deals with the decisive defeat of the opposing armies and the principle of offensive is the principle that these angelic armies use. Offensive is the only action by which a decision is gained in the military. That is not only true in the military but it is true of almost everything else in life. Offensive brings victory; all the defensive can do is avoid defeat.

We have noted that the breastplates of iron in verse nine are defensive equipment, but the breastplate of iron is mentioned for only one reason: because they are invulnerable to any counter attack, and as far as their victims are concerned. Any defence against these demon armies must come from other than counter violence or counter attack in any type of a military consideration. The defence comes from an entirely different realm.

In fact believers do not have the power to cope with demons today but they are protected by logistical grace. The only defence against demons is not to counter attack them but to rely upon the power of God. This means for believers of the Church Age residence and function inside of the divine dynasphere which sets up our wall of fire. The divine dynasphere will not be operational for believers in the Tribulation and therefore they will have other means related to the same principles of perception and application of Bible doctrine. One problem which we have today and which will be amplified in the Tribulation is that believers who do not take in doctrine on a daily basis and cannot apply it to their experience are going to lose a personal sense of destiny. The first great wave of attack from the demon assault army panics the believer in the cosmic system and he loses all sense of personal destiny. The real problem is when these demon waves start their assault throughout the world, especially the second demon assault army, because believers are going to lose a personal sense of destiny. As a result of that they are going to fail to make the right decisions to break out of the cosmic system. The right decisions relate to one thing: the rebound technique.

1. The breastplate emphasises the fact that these demon assault armies are not vulnerable to counter attack. This means that believers must rely in the Tribulation, as now, on the daily perception of Bible doctrine, the plan of God as it is revealed for any given dispensation, the logistical grace modus operandi from heaven which is operational in every dispensation, the divine provision of the wall of fire.

2. In past dispensations or eras of history God has given to certain believers like prophets or apostles, the authority, the power, the ability to cast out demons, but very few. No one has the power to cast out demons today. Demons are removed from people under two conditions: when demons are commanded by Beelzebub to get out when there is someone around to whom Satan wants to give credibility with the human race; a false teacher usually. When that demon gets out then the credit goes to the false teacher; and, secondly, the power of God. But the power of God does not counteract human volition. Therefore human volition can make decisions that will separate one from demon possession.

3. Therefore avoid the exorcist syndrome. Some pastors have acquired this and destroyed their ministry.

4. The breastplate of iron therefore reminds us as believers that we have no power or authority to deal with demons in the post canon period of the Church Age. We are protected from them in the divine dynasphere, we have no power to deal with them, the victim himself must deal with the problem by making a right decision from a position of power. The only position of power is grace, God’s grace provision. The only two decisions that will release people from any form of demonism are decisions made from a position of strength.

5. Therefore we must leave the problems of demonism to God and avoid the arrogance of assuming a power which we do not possess.

6. Victory over the power of evil, including both the cosmic system and the attack of demons, cannot be attained by human works or self-effort, by magic formulas or incantations of a pious nature.

7. The whole basis for the believer’s protection today begins at salvation with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that moment when God the Holy Spirit picks us up and enters us into union with Christ.

8. Remember that unbelievers are potential victims of demon possession and demon influence. Believers can only be under demon influence.

9. In the case of demon possession the human body is invaded, whereas in the case of demon influence the human soul and personality is invaded by cosmic thought. Demon influence results in the distortion of doctrine, in getting involved in some cult. It is ritual without reality; it is the arrogance of human viewpoint; it is pseudo-intellectualism.

It says at the end of verse 9, “and the sound of their wings was like the noise of chariots of many horses running into battle.” These are not the wings of the demons. These demons do not have wings. These are the wings by analogy, the wings of the locusts.

1. The locust in flight is never alone. There are hundreds of thousands of locusts in a swarm and the sound they make is awesome. In other words, by analogy the noise going into battle is awesome. The first thing we note about the attack is that before they hit they have already paralysed their victims with fear. One of the great principles of living in the cosmic system is vulnerability to fear. When a person becomes frightened he stops thinking and switches to emotion. Emotion cannot think; it has no common sense; it cannot apply doctrine or truth to any situation or experience. Therefore all fear is related to emotion. The principle is that their sound is intimidating as they take the offensive against believers and unbelievers in the Tribulation living in the cosmic system.

2. Up to this point in the Tribulation all cases of demon possession and demon influence are preceded by the function of human free will to reach that state. The victims of the attack are there because they made bad decisions from a position of weakness.

3. Bad decisions regarding the cosmic system or false doctrine result in unbeliever demon possession. In believers it results in coming under demon influence. No one gets into the cosmic system apart from his own consent.

4. The attack of the first demon assault army in the Tribulation occurs in a literal, visible and audible sense for those who have reached the zenith of bad decisions made from a position of weakness. It is amazing to realise that the greatest power that you carry in your soul is a greater power than the attack of demons — your volition. Your free will is the key to your life because God gave us free will in order to resolve the angelic conflict.

5. Only those living in the cosmic system will be the recipients of torture, a torture which continues for five months.

6. For the unbeliever demon possession is the decision and the responsibility of the one who is possessed. For the believer demon influence is the decision and the responsibility of the one who lives in the cosmic system.

7. Remember that while exorcism does not exist today as a legitimate function our Lord cast out demons on numerous occasions, but only when He was approached by positive volition. He was recognised as Lord, His power was recognised, His saviourhood was recognised, and furthermore Jesus demonstrated the principle of His messiahship, Matthew 12:28.

In the Tribulation the removal of the restraint of God the Holy Spirit is one of the characteristics and therefore demons are permitted under certain circumstances to physically and violently attack and, in this case, torture human beings. This is not permitted today, God the Holy Spirit is the restrainer. When He is removed as the restrainer (2 Thessalonians 2) then certain things will come to pass and at the end of the Tribulation those who are in the cosmic system are vulnerable to something that has never occurred before in all of history. Demons have been seen in the antediluvian civilisation but no one has ever had physical violence from a demon. In demon possession they motivate another human being to attack a human being but they haven’t done it themselves. In other words, before these people are tortured for five months they have made many bad decisions leading to that torture. Note that the two demon assault armies in this chapter are not released until the middle of the Tribulation, until Satan is confined to planet earth.

Today in the Church Age the attack against believers is the doctrine of demons, 1 Timothy 4:1. It is not physical violence but the worst kind, spiritual violence: false doctrine, legalism, antinomianism, asceticism, rationalism, humanism, communism, socialism, welfare statism. These are demon attacks today.

In the middle of the Tribulation that attacks will be visible, horrible, and tactful. So effective will be these demon attacks in the future that Satan’s kingdom will be in a shambles as a result of it. Satan will have destroyed his own rule of the earth through arrogance before our Lord returns. The second advent finds Satan’s kingdom destroyed by the arrogance of Satan. Satan, then, as the ruler of this world is a total failure.

Verse 10, the scorpion description of the first demon army. We have seen the locust description, that is the audible attack, the noise that intimidates. Now we see the torture part, the scorpion description of the first demon assault army.

“Also they had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails was their power to torment, to hurt, to injure those men five months.”

Their limitation comes in the word e)xousia which is delegated authority. Their power and authority originates from God. God never permits this to happen until the end of the Tribulation and the five months of torture without death is one of the greatest illustrations of the justice of God and the grace of God in giving them five months in which they could repent. The demons can do nothing apart from the sovereign will of God, they are limited to torture and their time limit is five months. The aorist active infinitive of a)dikew is the verb involved here. It means to hurt, to injure. Obviously it is a synonym for the word in verse 5 which we have already studied, basanizw, which means to torture. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety, an action extended over a period of five months. The active voice: the first demon assault army produces the action, This is an infinitive of actual results. It is followed by the accusative plural of the definite article touj. The definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun, therefore it is translated “those.” Then there is the accusative plural direct object from the noun a)nqrwpoj, used here for mankind, man as a category. It refers to a specific category of mankind living in the cosmic system, believers and unbelievers who through their own decisions from a position of weakness have entered the cosmic system.

Then it goes on to say, “and in their tails is their power [authority] to torment [to hurt, to injure] those men [living in the cosmic system] five months.”

Now we come to a brief profile of one of Satan’s commanding generals. Satan, by the way, has princes. One of them is Beelzebub who is in charge of manoeuvring disembodied spirits, called demons, in and out of people to give credibility to Satan’s human servants, e.g. so-called divine healing. “We do not war against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against princes of darkness in high places” — Ephesians 6:12, and one of those great princes is the general commanding the first demon assault army.

Verse 11, we have the present active indicative of the verb e)xw, correctly translated “they have,” rather than “they had.” The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. This demon prince has been commanding the first demon assault army based in the bivouac in the abyss for a long time. He is now identified as the commander. The active voice: the first demon assault army produces the action of the verb. Abaddon or Apollyon is the commander of this army. There are four unnamed angels in verse 14 who command the second demon assault army group. The third assault army is commanded by the great red dragon, Satan himself, Revelation 12:3,4. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of a demon general commanding this army. Furthermore, he is a prince in Satan’s realm. The fact that he is called a prince is in the accusative singular direct object from the noun basileuj: it means a king, but it is used here for one possessing the highest power.

Then there is the prepositional phrase which indicates he is in command, e)pi plus the genitive plural of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used in the Koine Greek for the third person personal pronoun, and it is in the plural and translated “over them.” Then we have an appositional accusative from a)ggeloj, the Greek word for angels. With that is a descriptive genitive from the noun a)bussoj, “the abyss.” “They had a king [commanding general] over them, the angels of the abyss.”

The fact that this leader is described as an angel means again a fallen angel or a demon. There are basically two categories of fallen angels: visible or invisible. Visible demons possess a body which is observable by a member of the human race; an invisible demon is a disembodied spirit and therefore not seen by the human race. At the present time the human race is often under attack from the disembodied type of demon under two categories: demon possession and demon influence. Before this leader’s fall he was undoubtedly like Satan, a cherub, the highest rank of angels before the fall. There is now a higher rank called the seraphs. The abyss is one of the compartments of Hades where fallen angels are incarcerated.

This is the hard core first demon assault army. The identification of this commanding general is given, “whose name in the Hebrew language is Abaddon, while in the Greek he is called Apollyon.” In the Hebrew his name is Abaddon, and it is transliterated into the Greek as Abaddon. Abaddon is a word that occurs quite often in the Old Testament. It occurs as a synonym for Sheol or Hades. In Job 26:6 Abaddon is a synonym for Hades, “Naked in Sheol before him, and Abaddon has no covering.” Abaddon means place of destruction. In Job 28:22 Abaddon is personified. The question in the context deals with wisdom. The answer begins in verse 20, “Where then does wisdom originate? and where is the place of true understanding? Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the sky. Destruction [Abaddon] and death say, With our ears we have heard a report.” Abaddon is personified in this passage.

Proverbs 15:10,11, “Stern discipline is for him who forsakes the way: he who hates reproof shall die. Sheol and destruction [Abaddon] are unveiled before the Lord: how much more the frontal lobes of men?” Again, Abaddon is a synonym for Hades.

Psalm 88 — we have a prayer for deliverance from the sin unto death. Verse 10, “Will you perform wonders for the dead? will departed spirits rise and praise you? Will your grace be declared in the grave? Will your faithfulness be known in destruction [Abaddon, here a synonym for Hades and it means place of destruction]?” Hence, Abaddon means place of destruction and is a synonym for Hades. But Abaddon is also the name of a demon prince, the commanding general of the first demon assault army, which is at the present time incarcerated in that section of Hades known as the abyss and will remain there ready to attack, but not able to attack, until released by Satan himself in the last half of the Tribulation.

When Jesus Christ was on earth He cast out demons and He sent them to the abyss, according to Luke 8:31. In Proverbs 27:19,20 we see again Abaddon linked with Hades, “As in water face reflects face [like a mirror], so in the right lobe of man he reflects man,” you know what you are like by what you think, is what this proverb is saying, “Sheol and destruction [Abaddon] are never satisfied; nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied.”

From the name Abaddon, used for Hades, and the meaning of it in the Hebrew [place of destruction], comes the name, then, of this demon prince who commands this first demon army. His name means destruction. His name in the Greek also has a similar meaning, A)polluon, and it can be seen that it is very close to the Greek word for Apollo. Apollo, next to Zeus, was one of the top demons involved in the attack on the human race in Genesis chapter six, beni ha Elohim, which means sons of God, a technical word used only for angels. A)ppolluon is very close to that, it is taken from the verb a)pollumi which means to destroy. So his name in the Greek means destruction or, even a better translation, exterminator. In that case Apollyon, as we call it in the English, is simply a participle meaning the exterminator. In the Hebrew he is called destruction; in the Greek he is called the exterminator. Next to Satan he is the highest-ranking demon out of millions of demons who followed Satan is the prehistoric angelic conflict.

Translation of verse 11, “They have a king [commanding general] over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in the Hebrew is Abaddon [destruction], while his name in the Greek is called Apollyon [exterminator].”

Verse 12, we have the woe count. “One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.”

We start out with the ordinal mia, translated “one.” The ordinal is also dealing with succession, “One woe [o)uai]”. With it we have the aorist active indicative of the verb a)perxomai which means “is past,” “Behold, one woe is past,” the attack of the first demon assault army, “behold two woes are still coming after these things.” We have the present active indicative this time of e)rxomai, translated “are coming,” and then, “after these things.”

1. By way of anticipation there are two demon assault armies who are to attack at the end of the Tribulation; three altogether but three in this context.

2. The attack of the second demon army is synonymous with the sixth trumpet judgment, the second woe. The attack of the third demon assault army is the third woe, the seventh trumpet.

3, While the first demon assault army under the command of Abaddon is limited in its target function to torture, the second demon assault army group under the command of four demon generals, verse 15, is a killer army.

4. The third woe, which is the seventh trumpet judgment, is mentioned first in Revelation 11:15 but the actual attack does not occur until 12:17.

5. The third demon assault army is led by Satan himself. It is the elite guard army and the target is all the Jews of the world.

6. The bivouac of each demon army is also noted. For example, the first demon assault army is bivouacked in the abyss and are not allowed on planet earth yet. The second demon assault army is under the Euphrates river and the third is located in the second heaven and will be forced out of heaven by an army of elect angels under the command of Michael.

7. Satan’s attack does not terminate with these woes or demon army offensives. This is merely the account of demon army attacks.

8. Next, Satan uses people to attack Tribulational believers, like the two great dictators of Revelation chapter thirteen, but the Lord counterattacks in Revelation chapter fourteen.

9. Then comes the judgment of the seven plagues or the seven drinking goblets of chapters fifteen and sixteen.

10. After this comes Satan’s final attack against the human race, the attack from ecumenical religion, chapters seventeen and eighteen. Then comes the second advent of Christ in chapter nineteen.

There is a parenthesis in Revelation 10:1 through 11:14. Then there is the third woe from 11:15 through 12:17. This is followed by the great attack of Satan from the two great dictators of chapter thirteen. The Lord’s counterattack is in chapter 14 followed by the drinking goblet judgements in chapters 15 and 16. Satan’s trump card, his final great attack, is the attack of ecumenical religion in chapters 17 and 18. Then comes the second advent in chapter 19. Therefore the Satanic attacks upon mankind during the Tribulation are varied: three demon assault armies, two human dictators. But our Lord counter attacks by the resuscitated Moses and Elijah in chapter 11:1-14, plus the intensification of evangelism in chapter 14, plus the judgements of chapters 15 and 16. But the greatest of all of Satan’s attacks does not come from direct demon assault, it comes from demon inspired religion, chapters 17 and 18.

1. The real problem with the first two woes of this chapter is the fact that Satan uses his demon assault armies to destroy his own servants in the human race, believers and unbelievers living in the cosmic system.

2. While it does not make sense to us and appears incompatible with the genius of Satan a study of the cosmic system helps us to understand the principle involved.

3. Here is the first principle involved, one that applies to you and to me right now: arrogance has no loyalty to arrogance. Believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system are arrogant. Satan, the inventor of the cosmic system, is arrogant. Therefore, sooner or later, arrogant people having no capacity for love and no integrity seek to destroy those in their periphery.

5. Those who live and reside in the cosmic system either lose in the first place, or they do not possess in the second place, integrity. Hence, the arrogance of the cosmic system cancels integrity, honour, virtue, capacity for love, capacity for friendship, capacity to command.

6. In the first two woes Satan launches two hard-core demon assault armies against his own servants. Once Satan is confined to this earth and no longer has access to heaven and the presence of God, which he has at the present time, he demonstrates with all of his genius and great ability the principle of no capacity to command, no capacity to rule, no executive ability. He is going to leave his kingdom, the earth, in shambles before Christ returns.

7. The first demon assault army is commanded by Abaddon, the second is commanded by four angels. In the third woe Satan leads his own imperial guard, the third demon assault army, his last reserve. It will be against Jews, and many of those Jews are his own servants.

1. Even though unbelievers and believers alike may serve Satan well through residence and function in the cosmic system, when Satan no longer has any use for them they will not only be discarded, they will be destroyed.

2. Human beings who live in the cosmic system use exactly the same pattern. Those living in the cosmic system, believer or unbeliever who have positions of authority and possess at the same time arrogance, means lack of virtue, lack of honour, lack of capacity for love or loyalty, and it also means ruthlessness. Therefore, such leadership lacks sensitivity, a sense of responsibility for those under their command or supervision or responsibility.

3. Lacking integrity and virtue they possess neither loyalty no gratitude, and under pressure they either ignore or fail to appreciate loyal service from their subordinates.

4. Many Christians have been utterly shocked by executives, senior officers, supervisors, whose promotion and success resulted from their own hard work and faithful service, are discarded.

5. Yet, when they were no longer useful or a source of some petty pressure or appeared to jeopardise their own exalted position, then they turned on faithful subordinates and persecuted them out of the organisation.

6. This happens in business, professional organisations, political organisations, social, religious and cultural organisations, wherever any arrogant leadership exists.

7. Arrogant leadership knows no loyalty to faithful subordinates, has little appreciation for past service. Consequently, service to Satan in the cosmic system is not protection from Satan’s pettiness and vindictiveness, as illustrated at the end of the Tribulation by the violent assault of theses demon armies.

The second woe is synonymous with the sixth trumpet. It is the invasion from under the Euphrates river, Revelation 9:13-21. We are now going to meet the second demon assault army group. It is not an army but an army group.

Translation of verse 13: “Then the sixth angel [a pur sui vant messenger from the angelic college of heralds] sounded his trumpet, and I heard one voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God.”

The golden altar is analogous to the golden altar of incense which was in the tabernacle and the temple, and it represents the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational saints which we studied in chapter 6:9-12. It reminds us one again that all trumpet judgements are administered in answer to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers. This explains the dilemma of how Satan’s demon assault armies attack, torture and destroy Satan’s human servants who have been carrying out his will faithfully in the cosmic system during the Tribulation. These servants, of course, are both believer and unbeliever. The four horns of the golden altar reminds us that all answers to prayer, including imprecatory prayers, are related to the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. No animal sacrifice is ever tied to the golden altar, only to the brass altar. But each one of those horns is there to demonstrate the fact that all prayer is answered because Christ went to the cross and took our place. We have entered into a relationship with God through faith in Christ which gives us the privilege and the opportunity of answered prayer. So no animal sacrifices are going to be tied down there. The point is that the Lamb of God has already gone to the cross and that is the basis for answered prayer in the Church Age as well as in the Tribulation.

“and I heard one voice,” this is the voice of the pur sui vant officer of Revelation 8:3. He has cherub rank in the college of heralds. He answers from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. The one voice, then, belongs to cherub-ranked angel who commands the trumpeters. The trumpeters are pur sui vant messengers but the one who commands them is a pur sui vant officer. Note that the divine administration follows the chain of command. It goes from God to the flying eagle, he herald of Revelation 8:13, the fourth herald of 4:7 who is the seraph in the college of heralds, he is in charge of the three woes. From the herald the command is relayed to the altar and the officer who commands the pur sui vant messengers.

It is a reminder by way of application to us of a verse of scripture found in 1 Corinthians 14, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” Administratively there is no excuse for being sloppy in the administering of spiritual affairs of the local church and everything related to it. God uses good administration and He follows a chain of command in the administration of these judgements.

Verse 14, the order to release the commanders of the second demon assault army group. The recipient of the order is the pur sui vant messenger. He is the lowest rank in the college of heralds. The present active participle is the basis for communicating the order, and legw is the participle form, “And he gave the order,” rather than “And he said.” The descriptive present tense indicates what is now going on at that moment. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer commanding the seven pur sui vant messengers who have the seven trumpets produces the action. Ordinarily legw means to say, to speak, to communicate, but in this context it connotes giving an order. The circumstantial participle is translated like a finite verb with the conjunction “and.” “And he gave the order to the sixth angel who had the trumpet.”

We have the aorist active imperative of the verb luw which means release. It is the command to release demon princes, a command which has been restrained up until now and will be until the middle of the Tribulation. The command is restrained because the only demons who are allowed to operate on planet earth at the present time are disembodied spirits who cannot do violence to the human race. Physical violence directly will not occur until the end of the Tribulation. This command is a mandate to do violence, starting with the four demon generals, each of whom commands a great demon assault army, “Release the four angels.” The ingressive aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. Once you release them they will know what to do. They will attack the human race. The active voice: the pur sui vant messenger in charge of the administration of the sixth trumpet judgment produces the action. This is the imperative mood of command. With it we have an articular present passive participle from the verb dew which means to bind, to put in prison, to incarcerate, to imprison. It is translated “who have been incarcerated.” These demon armies all have bodies, they have weapons systems, they have armour, they have uniforms and patches; they have a full military organisation. They are not permitted on planet earth at this time. The definite article in the participle is used for a relative pronoun whose antecedent is the four demon general officers who command each one a demon army in the army group. The perfect tense is intensive for a completed action of incarceration with emphasis on the existing state intensified. They are held back, there is no way they can counter the power of God. Their prison is locked and there is no way they can come out until God permits it. These four demon generals have been in prison for a very long time, during the entire course of human history. Obviously, they were imprisoned for something which happened in the prehistoric angelic conflict before man was created. The passive voice: the four demon general officers receive the action of the verb in prehistoric angelic conflict. The incarceration of these high-ranking demons is not without precedent since Satan himself will serve a prison sentence of a thousand years between the second advent of Christ and the Gog and Magog revolution. This is a complementary participle, it completes the idea of action expressed in the main verb.

With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus a number of words. With e)pi we have the accusative case which emphasises position. Here we have e)pi plus the definite article de, and then we have potamoj, the word for river. The entire phrase says “at the great river Euphrates.”

So the entire translation would be: “And he [the pur sui vant officer of cherub rank] gave the order to the sixth angel [the pur sui vant messenger in the angelic college of heralds] who had the sixth trumpet, Release the four angels [the demon army commanders] who have been incarcerated at the great Euphrates river.”

The Euphrates river is 1700 miles long. In the ancient world it was the boundary between the land of Israel, which is given in the Palestinian covenant, and Gentile nations. The boundary was stated in Genesis 15:18 and Joshua 1:4. It is also the boundary between the Roman empire and the Parthian or Persian empire at the time of writing the book of Revelation. The preposition e)pi does not infer where along the river they were incarcerated or whether it is along the entire 1700 miles of the river below the surface. In keeping with the context of Hades below the surface of the earth it is assumed that their prison is underneath the Euphrates and the 1700 miles of river would also be long enough to provide a barracks for 200-million demons. These are demons with bodies. In essence, the 1700-mile length of the Euphrates is a landmark for many things, including the barracks where this army group is presently stationed. Note that the first order from the pur sui vant officer of cherub rank to the pur sui vant messenger holding the sixth trumpet is to release the general officers. It is not to release the army, they will do that. So fierce was this army group that it was imprisoned in a separate place from the demons who are in Tartarus. This is a very hard-core search and destroy army group. The river Euphrates is one of the four rivers which flowed from the garden of Eden, hence a river of great significance.

Verse 15, the time and the objective of the second demon assault army. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai which we translate “then,” “then the four angels [the demon army commanders] were released,” the aorist passive indicative of that same verb luw. The culminative aorist tense views the release of the four demon generals in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the formation of the second demon assault army group. The passive voice: the four demon generals receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the formation of the second demon assault army group and the release of the four demon generals is the planning stage of their campaign. Their objective is stated at the end of the verse. They are released first in order that they might put into operation their plan and issue the necessary orders for the assault on that part of the human race which at that time will live in the cosmic system. There will only be one exception: certain demon-possessed unbelievers will be exempted from their attack. The reason is because they are going to make the final attack in the Tribulation against God’s plan. That final attack will be religion.

Next we have D-day, the time of the attack. This is a relative clause to be inserted after the subject, the four angels. The relative clause is formed from the articular present passive participle of the verb e)toimazw which means to prepare, “and the four angels who have been prepared.” They have kept in a state of readiness, they have a plan which can go into operation immediately. The definite article is used for a relative pronoun whose antecedent is the four demon generals. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect indicating a past completed action with a state of readiness or red alert intensified. The passive voice: the demon generals receive the action of the verb for they have been prepared by God in the prehistoric angelic conflict for the hour of their attack. The participle is complimentary, it completes the action expressed in the main verb.

Notice the prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of o(ra for a specific time, right down to the second, “for this hour,” the hour of the attack. This hour is permitted by God and it falls on exactly the right day, month and year. Hence we have the ascensive use of kai and we translate it “even the day.”

So we have so far: “Then the four angels [the demon generals] who had been kept in a state of readiness for this hour, and day, and month, and year, were released.”

That brings us to the end of the verse where we have a purpose clause, the purpose of the attack, i(na plus the subjunctive mood, “in order that.” Then the present active subjunctive of the verb a)pokteinw which means to kill, “in order that they might kill.” The futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the second demon assault army produces the action of the verb under the command of these four demon generals. The subjunctive mood is used to form the purpose clause with i(na. The potential subjunctive also implies a future reference qualified by the element of contingency. Contingency is confined to a year, a month, a day, and hour in the Tribulation when the attack is launched. The subjunctive means we are in the Church Age, it cannot happen now. We in the Church Age will never face a demon in a body. It is sometime after the middle of the Tribulation at a specific time that God permits this to occur and it is all is related, of course, to imprecatory prayers, the nature of the Tribulation, the entire situation. A point to remember is that nothing can happen in history apart from divine consent; nothing can happen to you apart from divine consent. The bad things that generally happen to you have nothing to do, however, with divine consent, they have to do with your own volition. We make our own misery by the use of our own volition in the cosmic system and under the principle of demon influence.

“that they might kill a third of mankind.” Those killed by these four demon armies in one army group are only those who reside in the cosmic system, believers and unbelievers. There is one exception as far as God is concerned: believers who are positive toward doctrine have the wall of fire and they are protected. The one exception in the demon attack plan as far as Satan is concerned is the demon-possessed persons mentioned in the last two verses of this chapter.

Corrected translation: “Then the four angels [demon generals] who had been kept in a state of readiness for this hour, and day, and month, and year, were released in order that they might kill one third of mankind.”

1. While demons in past human history have attacked the human race the only visible attack occurred in the antediluvian civilisation. It was a genetic attack; it was a demon invasion through sex.

2. There is in the future the direct assault on the human race by demon armies with bodies. They will be visible. They will not be operational until after the middle of the Tribulation, after Satan is cast out of heaven.

3. Once Satan is confined to the earth and no longer has access to heaven he has no need for the majority of those human servants who serve him in the cosmic system, believers and unbelievers. Therefore Satan uses this second assault army group to destroy his own human servants.

It should be pointed out that when it says that they are going to kill one third of mankind, that is the one third in existence in the last half of the Tribulation. We have already studied the fourth horseman of the apocalypse called death, and we have seen that he is going to wipe out one quarter of the population in the first half of the Tribulation. The population in the second half of the Tribulation, is what is left after one quarter of the world’s population is wiped out in the first half of the Tribulation.

4. Certain demon-possessed unbelievers will survive this attack but they do not change their attitude toward demon possession. They had a warning in the first demon assault army. For five months torture gives everyone a chance to make the right decision. We have already seen how that under that torture they could break out and get away from that five months of demon torture. This is grace before judgment, God’s grace opportunity. But no one makes a decision, in fact they go the opposite way with their decision.

This brings us to a point: Once you get away from doctrine, once you become involved in the cosmic system, once you are tainted with that arrogance brush, you are incapable of making good decisions. The decisions we make can destroy us so quickly and we do it ourselves to ourselves. Bad decisions build scar tissue on the soul and when you get so much scar tissue on the soul you lose the motivation, the desire, to reverse the course. Too many negative decisions made from your own free will cannot be reversed even in the face of awful judgment.

One of the great principles of military warfare is the ability to move troops by different routes to a designated spot and concentrate them so that when they make the attack in the tactical situation on the battlefield they have the most troops present. This is a very old principle and one that has determined success and failure in many campaigns of history. Concentration of troops becomes a very important principle in modern warfare and with the use of armoured forces concentration is even more of an issue. The speed with which modern armies move makes that possible. This is exactly the problem that Satan faces today in the angelic conflict; his forces are scattered. They are scattered in heaven because Satan still has access to heaven; they are scattered throughout planet earth and called demons; they are also bivouacked in the heart of the earth in Hades, under the Euphrates and other places that we have noted in this book of Revelation. So today the full fury of demonic attack is not apparent to us. Nevertheless by demon possession and demon influence we certainly, even in this 20th century, have seen a great deal of tragedy in many many difficulties. The last half of the Tribulation is a time of great concentration of demon armies and with that concentration comes the greatest of all demon attacks.

Verse 16 — we have the nominative singular subject of a)riqmoj, “number.” With this we have a sequential and intensive conjunction kai, translated “in fact,” “In fact the number.” Then to show that we are talking about the army group rather than one army we have the possessive genitive plural from strateuma, which means “army.” The corrected translation would read: “In fact the number of the armies of cavalry.” The word for cavalry is a genitive of description from i(ppikoj, and it means cavalry because at the time in which the Bible was written that was the mobile force in armies. Today it would be comparable to our armoured forces. Be we will stay with the translation “cavalry,” remembering that this means mobility, firepower and shock, and would be comparable to armoured forces today.

“In fact the number of the armies of cavalry is,” and then literally from the Greek it says, “twenty thousand times ten thousand.” That is 200,000,000 and is the way we will translate it, “two hundred million.” Then he adds the aorist active indicative from the verb a)kouw. This is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that while he could not see 200,000,000 at one time, he could hear them and he was so instructed as to their number, “I heard their number.” The apostle John could not and did not count them, the number was furnished for him. Because of the verbal plenary inspiration of the scripture the number is accurate. The size of the army group is fantastic. Four demon generals imply four demon armies in the army group. If the armies are divided equally among the four demon generals that means that each one had 50,000,000 demons assigned to him. These are shock troops, not invisible demons such as we have in the world today which are disembodied spirits and invisible. These are very visible and they possess bodies.

Verse 17, the description of the second demon assault army group is given. The book of Revelation is literal, not spiritual. The only time that you can take anything from a spiritual standpoint is when analogies are set up. The word often for setting up analogies is the Greek word o(j, translated “like” or “similar to.” Therefore the analogy helps with the interpretation. But apart from analogies everything is literal. This is a literal army group of 200,000,000. “Greater is He that is in you that he that is in the word” is always a source of encouragement to us when we are studying these things.

We begin by noting, then, the connective use of the conjunction kai plus the adverb o(utoj, and kai plus o(utoj means “like this,” “and so.” “And so” means, “Look, you are now going to have some analogies.” You can’t take the analogy literally, it means something; it stands for something. “And so I saw in the vision the horses and their riders.” In other words, from the previous verse he didn’t see all of the 200,000,000 but he saw enough of them pass in review and he knows exactly what they are like. This is a literal army, an army that will attack in the future.

He does spend a good deal of time on the breastplates, “each having,” present active participle of e)xw, indicating the fact that one is issued to each; “breastplates,” the accusative plural direct object from the noun qorac. This is the old word for breastplate and it is used even in medicine today. With this we have the accusative plural adjective purinoj, which actually means “red,” it is the colour of fire. Also another word is brought in, u(akinqoj. This reference to the flower “hyacinth” originated from the blood of Hyacinthus a young Spartan who was accidentally killed by Apollo. The blood which flowed to the ground and stained the herbage was converted into the flower of that name. So it comes to mean “blue.” Apollo is not a god but a demon, so there is a demon connotation in hyacinth, but here it is only the colour that is important. The colour of the breastplate is red, blue, and then the next word is the accusative plural qeiwdhj which means sulphurous, but here it refers to the colour of yellow.

It is fascinating that we have three colours on the breastplate. Instead of having a military patch as did the first demon army, this demon army group has three colours on their breastplates. In the time in which the Bible was written that meant a distinguishing insignia for a military organisation. The three colours on the breastplates of the second demon assault army group is significant to us, it means combat arms. Certainly that is the connotation here. Undoubtedly these colours go far beyond any relationship with modern combat arms, except that the fact remain the same: this is the killing army group and combat arms is extremely important in it. This is an army strictly of combat arms and the three colours of the breastplate indicates simply the distinctive insignia of this army group. Furthermore they combine in their attack features of combat arms. We will see four weapons systems used by this great army group.

We begin now with the heads of the horses, “like the heads of lions.” It is the comparative particle which tells us that this is not a literal lion’s head on a horse. W(j simply indicates an analogy, and the analogy is to the fact that a lion has tremendous teeth. But that isn’t even important, it is the jaw muscle that is important. The lion has a phenomenal jaw muscle. This is a comparative connotation and it has the idea of power. The whole point is that the lion’s head is always in front of the lion, and when he attacks he never backs into his victims! When that is understood it is understood that this is an assault group that attacks straight ahead with great success, with great power, and with great shock. You have mobility, power and shock altogether.

Next, from this, we have also the present middle indicative of the verb e)kporeuomai, the word that means to go out, to issue. It would be used of firing a weapons system and whatever comes out of the weapons system, whatever hits. The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of the emission from the mouths of the horses as a process of occurrence in attack. The middle voice views the subject as participating in the outcome or the action of the verb. The active voice would emphasise the action; the middle voice emphasises the subject or the agent producing the action. In other words, the middle voice in the Greek relates the action more intimately to the subject. This is an indirect middle in which emphasis is placed on the agent as producing the action and therefore great emphasis on the attack of this demon assault army group. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

Three things are emitted from the mouth of the horses whose heads are like lions. The first is called pur, “fire.” The second one is called kapnoj, “smoke.” The third is qeion, “sulphur.” So fire, smoke and sulphur are emitted from their mouths.

Corrected translation: “And so I saw in the vision the horses and their [demon] riders, each having breastplates the colour of fire, hyacinth [blue], and sulphur [yellow]: and the heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions; and fire plus smoke and sulphur came out of their mouths.”

It is tempting to relate sulphur to gun powder, hence, weaponry designed to kill. The fire is quite obvious. In modern warfare it would be comparable to flame-throwers, napalm. The smoke certainly connotes chemical warfare. These are killing agents because they are called plagues in the next verse, the word plhgh means a killer. The tendency in modern warfare is toward armoured forces and mechanised infantry. By way of anticipation, the demon assault army group takes no prisoners. The casualty list in the next verse is one third of the world’s population in the last half of the Tribulation. The casualty list includes only those members of the human race who are living in the cosmic system.

Verse 18, we have the weaponry of the second demon assault army. This is found on both verses 18 and 19. The human casualties are mentioned in the first part of verse eighteen. Notice we have the words “fire” and “smoke,” and then the word “brimstone” is used in the King James version. The word “brimstone” is the Greek word for sulphur.

The human casualties are called tritoj, which means a third, one third of the human race in the last half of the Tribulation. And it is called the human race, the descriptive genitive of the noun a)nqrwpoj which means mankind. It is the generic word for mankind. They “were killed,” the aorist passive indicative of the verb a)pokteinw. It is an interesting principle because most people today don’t go out and kill someone when they cannot get their own way. Under the laws of divine establishment life is sacred and life must continue until the Lord takes people out through physical death. The sacredness of human life and property and the sacredness of your privacy are the very foundation stones for the function of human volition in the angelic conflict. You will note that it is Satan who does not regard the laws of divine establishment and this demon assault army group will simply and completely ignore those principles. This demon army has one objective and that is to kill everyone and everything which is a target in the cosmic system. A)pokteinw in the aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Hence, this was the total casualty list from this one army only. The passive voice: one third of the human race in the cosmic system receives the action of the verb, killed by the attack of the second demon assault army group. The declarative indicative represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, future reality at the end of the Tribulation. Again, this killing of one third of the population of the world is not to be confused with the fourth horseman of the apocalypse. He functioned in the first half of the Tribulation; this army functions in the last half. This attack is strictly from the second demon assault army group and the casualties result from the weaponry which they use. There are no prisoners on the casualty list because the dead are already prisoners or the servants of Satan through their residence and function in the cosmic system. All casualties are killed in action.

Protected from this demon army group are those believers who are positive toward Bible doctrine and who have gained spiritual maturity through maximum doctrine resident in the soul. They are protected by the wall of fire, that same wall of fire which protects us when we live in the divine dynasphere. But these believers and unbelievers living in the cosmic system are victims, they are already the prisoners of Satan. Satan kills his prisoners. This is not, again, one third of people in the cosmic system who are slaughtered but one third of the population, indicating the tremendous number of people who are in the cosmic system.

Notice the final prepositional phrase in this part, a)po plus treij plus plhgh. This is correctly translated, “from these three plagues [or weapons systems],” a)po plus the ablative of means. Ordinarily the instrumental case in the Greek is used to express means, but when the means is accompanied by the impact of origin then the ablative is used. Then we have the three weapons systems mentioned again: fire, connoting flame throwers and napalm; smoke, connoting chemical warfare attacks; sulphur connoting the use of conventional weapons.

Verse 19, the fourth weapons system is given. The King James version translation is incorrect. The correct translation is: “For the power of the horses is in their mouths and their tails.” The power of the horses ‘is,’ the present active indicative of e)imi, “keeps on being.” These weapons systems remain constant. The present tense is a progressive present denoting action in a state of persistence, hence linear aktionsart. The active voice: this is the power or the authority to kill. The indicative is a declarative for a statement of fact. Altogether there are four weapons systems, three of which we have noted. Now “in their tails.” You do not come up behind these “tanks,” they are also operational in the rear.

So we have: “for their tails were like snakes, having heads.” Notice the word “like.” This is not a tail with a snake having heads. This language is all to convey information; “and with them they cause pain,” the present active indicative of the verb a)dikew, which means to do harm but also to cause pain. The word for a snake’s head here refers to a poisonous snake head. To be struck by a poisonous snake is a very painful thing and that is the idea in mind here. This is not a literal snake it is simply a weapons system.

In anticipation of the next verse there are some cases of demon possession, unbelievers who are protected from the attack of this army group. Hence, some cases of demon possession do provide immunity and the last two verse in this chapter will provide information on this principle. The reason why these are immune is because they will be involved in the greatest of all attacks. They will be involved in the last Satanic attack in history, human beings against human beings, the attack of religion. Satan’s greatest power isn’t even in demonology as such, it is in religion; religion is the devil’s ace trump.

We now begin to note the results of the attacks from the demon assault armies: the arrogance of the cosmic survivors. The survivors of this attack, as far as the cosmic system is concerned, are certain demon-possessed people. These people have been reserved for a special operation just before the second advent. That operation has to do with religion; it is still Satan’s greatest attack, greater than demon activity, greater than anything else, it is the attack of man on man.

In verse 20 we have the nominative plural definite article, followed by the aorist passive indicative. The definite article is simply used as the relative pronoun, o(i. With this we have the aorist passive indicative of a)pokteinw which means to kill. It is translated, “And the rest of mankind who were not killed.” The culminative aorist tense views the attack of the second demon army group in its entirety. That means all of the four weapons systems we have noted, all of the various concepts with regard to that attack. But it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Certain demon-possessed unbelievers were definitely not killed. The passive voice: the demon possessed survivors receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The reality is that Satan deliberately spares some of his own servants, certain ones who are demon-possessed and who are going to form a special human attack against man in the form of religion. This would imply, then, that residents under demon possession in the cosmic system will be the chief targets for this attack.

“And the rest of mankind [certain demon-possessed unbelievers living in the cosmic system] who were not killed in these plagues,” and again we have e)n plus the instrumental of plhgh, and it should be translated “by these plagues.”

Certain types of demon possession were made immune to the attack of the second demon assault army group, and this was by mandate from Satan. Certain types of demon possession were necessary for Satan’s human attack on the human race just before the second advent. While millions of believers and unbelievers under demon influence were slaughtered by the weapons systems of the second demon assault army group, there were those who were spared and these are hard-core demon-possessed people whose modus operandi includes idolatry, religion, the phallic cult. This is the reason why they were spared.

The attitude of the demon-possessed survivors is expressed in the negative conjunction o)ude, translated “did not even.” With that we have the aorist active indicative of the verb metanoew which means a change of mind. The old English translates it “repent,” but it means a change of mind, change of thinking, a reversal of a decision. We will translate it: “also they did not change their minds.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The inconsistency of Satan and the power of God did not even phase these demon-possessed types, and having made hundreds of wrong decisions they now have locked-in negative volition, a locked-in negative attitude toward any divine appeal, either through grace and doctrine communicated to them or maximum divine discipline which is administered in their direction. This aorist tense gathers up the entire process by which these people became hard-core religionists. The active voice: certain demon-possessed unbelievers, very hard-core, produce the action of the verb. The declarative indicative mood represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Man can make so many bad decisions from a position of weakness, he can lose all concept of any personal sense of destiny, and having lost all of these things he finally makes decision after decision which produces scar tissue of the soul. The scar tissue of the soul becomes locked-in negative volition.

Then we have the preposition e)k plus the ablative of e)rgon, “about the works of their hands” or “because of the works of their hands.”

“And the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, they did not even change their minds about the works of their hands.”

The works of their hands is the manufacturing of idols and the modus operandi of the phallic cult which includes human sacrifice. Then we have a purpose clause indicating that idolatry is the worship of demons. And it is a negative purpose clause, it is introduced with the conjunction i(na plus the negative mh. And with it we have the future active indicative of the verb proskunew which means to worship, “so that they did not stop worshipping.” The word “stop” comes from the negative mh. The future tense is a progressive future, plus the negative mh, or better, the imperative future plus the negative mh which indicates that they did not stop what they had been doing. They had been making decisions from a position of weakness, they had lost all personal sense of destiny, and therefore they had this continued. The active voice is going to take some explaining. The active voice always means the subject produces the action of the verb.

1. Demon-possessed unbelievers of the Tribulation who survive the attack of the second demon assault army group produce the action of the verb by refusing to be delivered through faith in Christ. Any one of these people whom Satan had spared to be used at the end of the Tribulation could have changed his mind and believed in Christ. They are living in the cosmic system.

2. Bona fide exorcism does not exist, except in the case of our Lord’s ministry during His first advent, and that was because demon-possessed people used their volition to come to our Lord Jesus Christ or He spotted in the temple their volition. He didn’t cast out all the demons, only where there was positive volition, a desire for the solution. He gave the disciples and several of the apostles the power to exorcise demons. The true gift of exorcism does not exist today.

3. There is no exorcism apart from positive volition on the part of the one who is demon-possessed. Today, in all cases, where the demon-possessed person loses the demons it is through making one decision, the decision to believe in Jesus Christ. That decision removes the demon from that person and never again can that person be demon-possessed, that person’s body is now the temple of the Holy Spirit. Exorcism is not necessary, only the decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

4. From their own free will the demon-possessed came to Jesus Christ and recognised His power to deliver them, as illustrated by Mark 1:24, 34; 5:7.

5. When it says that Jesus cast out demons with a word, as it does in Matthew 8:16, it was a word of His authority not some ritualistic incantation or magical formula.

6. The Pharisees implied that Jesus cast out demons through the power of Beelzebub the prince of demons, the one in command of all demon undercover operations — Matthew 12:24.

7. This was the popular theory, that the way to cast out demons was to have some magical formula or ritualistic incantation by which one entered into an alliance with Beelzebub.

8. But Jesus corrected this myth by pointing out that demons were evil, and control over demons cannot come by compromising with evil but by opposing evil by the power of God. The power of God for deliverance from demons is twofold is this dispensation of the completed canon of scripture, the Church Age: to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for the unbeliever; when out of fellowship, to rebound. Any prolonged stay inside the cosmic system will inevitably produce demon influence among believers.

9. Our Lord did not even cast out demons through His own divine power but inside the prototype divine dynasphere He used the power of God the Holy Spirit at gate one. This is taught in Matthew 12:28, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God [and I do, 1st class condition] then the kingdom of God has come to you.” He therefore made it clear He did not even use His own divine power to cast out demons, a power He could have used. But the fact that He did this in His humanity in the filling of the Spirit, inside the prototype divine dynasphere, was the great issue.

10. Jewish exorcists alleged to cast out demons through spells and incantations. However, exorcism does not occur except in two cases in any time of recent history, and that is the ministry of our Lord and the apostles in opposition to evil. Exorcism does occur in the evil function of operation mole in which Beelzebub withdraws demons to establish the credentials of false prophets, Satanic evangelists, and even Satanic pastors.

1. Our Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles had the power to cast out demons, but only if the subject was positive. No one has ever been able to cast out demons where the subject was negative.

2. Today deliverance from demon possession or demon influence can only occur where the subject of his own free will departs from the cosmic system.

3. For the believer to depart from the cosmic system he must make the positive decision to rebound. Such rebound is the believer’s repentance.

4. For the unbeliever to depart from the cosmic system he must make the positive decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving Him as his personal saviour.

5. The only hope for Tribulational persons in the cosmic system is the same positive volition. The unbeliever can be delivered by trusting in Christ. The subject of our two verses is the unbeliever. These are unbelievers who did not repent (receive Christ as their saviour).

Finally, we have the declarative indicative mood for the reality of demon possession — possessed unbelievers involved in a religious activity called idolatry, involved by their own positive volition toward these things and toward the cosmic system. This is the declarative indicative for the reality that unbelievers have developed so much scar tissue of the soul that they have locked-in negative volition.

Next we have the accusative plural direct object from the noun daimonion, one of several Greek words for demons. It refers to fallen angels and that is why it is transliterated “demons”. It also refers to divinities or gods, like the gods of Mount Olympus, the gods of the Canaanites, which were always demons. The other Greek noun which is very similar is daimwn. Both daimonion and daimwn were Greek words used to denote the gods of polytheistic idolatrous worship. Disembodied demons were called in Classical Greek “shades.” They were the ones who had gone to Hades or the underworld. While daimon covers all categories of demons the word we have in this passage is daimonion, it refers to a category or specific group within the field of demons. Daimwn can refer to either disembodied spirits which are invisible or visible demons such as the ones in Genesis chapter six, beni ha Elohim, translated “sons of God,” but that is not a good translation, it should be translated “the sons of the gods.” The sons of the gods are a technical group of people, the descendants of the Titans of which there are thirteen.

Here we have the word daimonion which only refers to a specific category, and with the genetic use of the definite article, ta, it refers to invisible demons, disembodied spirits of fallen angels which seek to invade the body of idolaters. Idolatry is giving positive volition to demon possession. The demons worshipped by idolaters are, again, a certain category of disembodied spirits. They once had bodies in antediluvian times, now they are disembodied spirits. So they did not stop worshipping the demons; and then a connective kai, and then the accusative plural direct object from the e)idwlon, translated “idols.”

So far we have: “And the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, they did not even change their minds about the works of their hands [the manufacture of idols, the modus operandi of the phallic cult, the function of human sacrifice], so that they did not stop worshipping demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of bronze, and of stone, and of wood: idols which are not able to see, or hear, or walk.”

While these idols cannot see, hear, or walk they are the place for establishing demon possession. The worship of an idol of the positive volition for demon possession. Demons cluster around idols and invade the bodies of the worshippers in idolatry. Idolatry, therefore, means demonism. In fact, idolatry for the unbeliever is the quickest road to demon possession.

Leviticus 17:7 — “And they shall no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demon [or saters] to whom the prostitute themselves [the function of the phallic cult]; Deuteronomy 32:16,17, “They angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed to demons who are not God; to gods [demons] they have not known, gods who recently appeared”; Psalm 106:34-39, “They did not destroy the peoples [during the invasion of Canaan] as the Lord had commanded them: but they mingled with the nations, they adopted their customs. They worshipped their idols which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons, they spilled innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with their blood [human sacrifice, one of the great characteristics of demon possession]. They defiled themselves by what they did, by their deeds they played the whore.”

Idolatry is a basic contact with demons for idolatry gives human volition an opportunity to allow demons to order the bodies of the ones involved, that is, if they are unbelievers. Of course, this is all that demons can do today. The demons once invaded to bodies of women sexually. That was the genetic attack of the antediluvian civilisation. Now they invade bodies as disembodied spirits, and this is in many ways a greater attack outside of the concept of the true humanity of Christ. Demonism is always related to idols and to false doctrine — 1 Corinthians 10:14-21; 1 Timothy 4:1,2. Doctrines of demons are all found in the gates of cosmic two.

Volition, then, is still the issue in the angelic conflict. When human volition makes bad decisions resulting in demon influence or demon possession in the cosmic system only that same human volition can make the decision to get out of the cosmic system, which means deliverance from demon influence or demon possession.

The subject we are studying is a very technical one: the demon attacks upon the human race during the last half of the Tribulation. In each case of demon attack in human history God has provided a grace protection, He has provided whatever is necessary to avoid these things. No demon attack of any kind ever occurs apart from human consent. The key in getting involved is volition; the key in deliverance is volition.

“And the rest of mankind [certain demon-possessed unbelievers in idolatry/religion] who were not killed by these weapons systems did not even change their minds about the works of their hands [the manufacture of idols, the modus operandi of the phallic cult, great emphasis on the human sacrifices], so that they did not stop worshipping demons.”

We have spent time with the future active indicative of the verb proskunew, which means to worship. With the negative mh it means that they did not stop worshipping. This is an imperative future plus the negative, indicating that they did not stop what they were doing even though they had had every opportunity to stop. All they had to do to be delivered from their demon possession and their demon problems was simply to believe in Christ. One decision, but they wouldn’t change their minds.

Paul laid it on the line when he said in 1 Corinthians 10:14, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” Why? “I speak to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless [the cup of the communion table], is this not the fellowship with God from the blood of Christ? [Of course it is] The bread which we break, is it not the fellowship from the source of the body of Christ? [Absolutely, yes] Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body for we all share that one loaf. Look at client nation Israel: are not they who eat the sacrifices sharers of the altar? [Yes, they are] Therefore, what am I saying to you? that which is sacrificed to idols, is anything? [No] Is the idol anything? [No] But the sacrifices which pagans offer, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God: therefore I do not want you to become a sharer with demons. [That would be a believer under demon influence] You cannot drink the cup of the Lord [in the divine dynasphere], and the cup of demons [in the cosmic system]: you cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and the table of demons.” So believers have a choice. Either live in the divine dynasphere, and therefore the Eucharist will be meaningful, or live in the cosmic system and have communion with Satan himself.

Demon influence is related to false doctrine: 1 Timothy 4:1-2, “God the Holy Spirit explicitly communicates that in latter periods of time [between the first and second advents of Christ] some believers will [become apostate] revolt against doctrine, paying attention [concentrating on] to deceitful spirits, and the doctrines of demons; by means of hypocrisy from the source of human liars.”

Human volition is the issue in the angelic conflict. When human volition makes bad decisions resulting in demon influence or demon possession in the cosmic system only that same human volition can make decisions to get out of the cosmic system, which means deliverance from demon influence or demon possession. There are, again, no bona fide exorcists today. Only God has the power to cast out demons; only Satan has the power to withdraw demons. Even our Lord during the first advent did not cast out demons in the power of His deity, but He did through the power of the Spirit inside the prototype divine dynasphere. Alleged exorcists appear to have occasional success because Beelzebub withdraws the demon to give credibility to one of Satan’s servants. Every demon-possessed person who came to Christ had positive volition and the Lord cast out the demon, but there were literally thousands and hundreds of thousands of people living on the earth during our Lord’s ministry and the demons were not cast out; only those who came with positive volition.

Verse 21, the last verse in our passage begins with the connective conjunction kai, translated “furthermore.” Then comes the aorist active indicative of the verb metanoew plus the negative o)u, “Furthermore, they did not change their minds.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Over the entire period of the attacks by the two demon assault armies, a period of two woes or the fifth and sixth trumpets, they did not make one positive decision to break out of the cosmic system, they wallowed in the phallic cult. The active voice: cosmic residents of the Tribulation produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for statement of future historical trend. They did not change their minds. Then the preposition e)k plus the ablative, which usually means from, or out from, or away from. Here it means “about.” With this we have the ablative or genitive of reference from fonoj which refers to human sacrifice, it means murders. They did not change their minds about their murders. This would be both human sacrifice and homicide since criminal activity is always related to religion as well as well as acts of fanatical violence.

Demon influence and demon possession is the cause of all violence in the human race. You have to be in the cosmic system to get violence. This concept includes the function of the old sin nature as the source of temptation, but the old sin nature cannot do anything reprehensible apart from human volition and human consent. Human volition is the source of all sin; the old sin nature is only the source of temptation. Once the decision is made to sin the person enters the cosmic system. He enters cosmic one through gate one. The believer living in the cosmic system is under demon influence. Every act of demon influence or demon possession involves the consent or volition of the individual involved. Both murder and human sacrifice occur in the phallic cult, both now and in the Tribulation.

Then the passage goes on to say, “nor about their sorceries.” This is occult activity, black magic, witchcraft, necromancy, all related to the drug addiction. The Greek word here is farmakeia. Many people get into demon possession as unbelievers or demon influence as believers through using their volition toward something where they make a decision from a position of weakness which eventually gets them into demon possession. One such decision, and the most common outside of idolatry and the phallic cult, is drug addiction. Drug addiction is related to demonism in every possible way. Next, “nor about their fornication,” the operation of the phallic cult, “nor about their thefts,” a demon-inspired criminality, a reference to stealing as a part of demonism. In other words, crime motivated by either demon possession or demon influence. Theft is an attack on the sacredness of property as the principle of freedom in resolving the angelic conflict, therefore related to demonism. Murder is an attack upon the sacredness of life as a principle of resolving the angelic conflict. Idolatry is antiestablishment, anti-gospel, anti-doctrinal, and therefore is often the key for many forms of demon worship.

Corrected translation of verse 21: “Furthermore, they did not change their minds about their murders [human sacrifice and homicide], nor about their sorceries [the occult activities], nor about their fornication [phallic cult], nor about their thefts [demon-inspired criminality].”

The Tribulation, then, illustrates man’s negative volition under demonism plus the extreme pressure of divine judgment. It started with demonism, it ends up with divine judgment, but neither pressure causes any change of attitude. The Millennium illustrates man’s negative volition under perfect environment and the blessing of prosperity from God. So we have a contrast. Man doesn’t change his mind under demon pressure; man doesn’t change his mind when God adds judgment to that demon pressure. In the Millennium man’s negative volition is related to perfect environment and the blessings and prosperity that come from God.

One decision to believe in Christ would deliver any of the unbelievers involved in verses 20 and 21, for these are unbelievers involved here. This is definitely demon possession. They are being reserved for the great attack of religion which comes just a few days before the second advent. But we have 2 Corinthians 4:3,4 to explain why they refuse, “And even if our gospel is veiled [obscure], it is veiled to those who are perishing [unbelievers in the cosmic system]: in whose case the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

One decision of Tribulational believers to rebound would deliver them from Satan’s cosmic system, as illustrated by Ephesians 6:10-17, “Finally [in the future], my brethren, keep on becoming strong in the Lord, even by means of the rule of his endowed power [the divine dynasphere]. Put on the full armour from God, that you may be able to hold your ground against the tactics of the devil [the cosmic system]. Because our combat [spiritual warfare] is not against blood and flesh [human beings], but against rulers [like Abaddon, Beelzebub, the demon generals], against authorities [demon commissioned officers], against world rulers of this darkness [evangelists for the cosmic system], against spirit forces of evil in the heavenlies. Therefore put on the whole armour from God in order that you may be able to resist in the evil day [the attack of Satan or demon influence in the cosmic system], even after we have done everything to stand [residence and function in the divine dynasphere]. Therefore stand fast, after you have buckled on your combat gear around your waist by means of doctrine [the function of gate four, divine dynasphere], also having put on the breastplate of righteousness [motivational and functional virtue]; also having put on combat boots, put them on your feet by means of the alertness of the gospel of peace [the doctrine of reconciliation]; in addition to all this, take up the shield of faith [the function of the faith-rest drill] with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles from the evil one. Also take the helmet of salvation [reference to the divine dynasphere which was initially received at the moment of salvation], and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God [the perception of Bible doctrine].”

We have studied the doctrine of worship and we have noted several things. The principle that should be emphasised is the fact that you cannot give to God in worship what you do not possess. For example, we cannot give glory to God in worship because we do not possess glory. And even after the judgment seat of Christ when we have a resurrection body only those who are rewarded will have glory to give. There is a category of worship in which today we can function. We can give to God, as we noted before, timh, which means honour; but it has three meanings actually. First of all it means respect, then it means reverence, and then it means honour. From that one word we have the threefold connotation.

This we can give in worship. We can respect our Lord Jesus Christ through understanding His thinking, another way of saying perception of Bible doctrine, and apart from positive volition toward Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere it would be impossible to respect our Lord. So respect is the system of worship for those who are new believers, or believers who have been saved for a long time but still babies. Secondly, it means reverence, and the concept of personal love of Christ through worship begins with respect [love of God in gate 5] and continues into reverence which is occupation with the person of Christ. The respect is the worship of the immature believer who is positive; reverence is the worship of the mature believer living in the divine dynasphere. Both worship and reverence are possible for believers in time. If you have respect you can give it in worship; if you have reverence for God you can give reverence in worship. But the highest category is honour. To honour God in worship requires virtue and integrity manufactured inside the divine dynasphere through the daily perception of Bible doctrine. Only honourable believers can give honour to the Lord in worship. You cannot give in worship what you do not possess.

There is also another category, the giving of thanks. Thanksgiving is the most basic form of priestly worship on the part of the royal family. The capacity for this worship is gratitude which comes from perception of doctrine. Gratitude comes from capacity, capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness, capacity for thanksgiving. All of it, of course, means perception of doctrine.

The believer in the cosmic system has no capacity for gratitude and therefore he cannot fulfil this worship. You cannot give to God what you do not have. If you do not have gratitude and appreciation for logistical grace you cannot give thanksgiving in worship. The arrogant believer does not appreciate what God has done for him and is doing for him through logistical grace, he has no appreciation for the integrity of God and therefore he cannot give in worship what he does not have — thanksgiving. This, of course, has application in many fields — you cannot give love to God in worship unless you love God, and this comes from doctrine; you have to have humility to submit to divine authority delegated through Bible doctrine to even begin to worship. Genuine humility is not only the basis for true worship of the Lord but capacity for life, love and happiness and blessing. Of course, this means function inside the divine dynasphere.

The believer can give certain things to God. He has a right lobe and through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit he can concentrate. If he has any ability to think he has the ability to concentrate, and therefore can give concentration to the Word of God, and this is the expression of your worship. But if he is stupid and has no brains and can’t concentrate, he can’t worship. The most basic form of concentration is perception of Bible doctrine. If the believer has time he can give time in worship. You cannot give to the Lord in worship what you do not have.

1. Under the principle of true worship you can only give to God what you actually possess; you cannot give to God what you do not possess.

2. Certain angels, like the 24 elders, possess glory. They gave glory to God in worship.

3. Certain positive and mature believers give honour to the Lord because they possess honour; they give integrity to the Lord because they possess integrity, i.e. in worship; they give reverence and respect to the Lord because they possess reverence and personal respect; they give personal love for the Lord to the Lord because through perception of doctrine they have personal love for the Lord.

5. Under the principle of true worship when you give what you have in worship you still have the Source.

6. Personal love for God expresses itself in giving time, energy, honour, concentration on doctrine, money, whatever it is.

7. Religion has a system of false worship. Religion demands that you give what you do not have. In the function of some religions, like idolatry, you give to demons what you do not possess — human sacrifice, the operation which violates the sacredness of human life; you give to demons someone else’s virtue in the fornication of the phallic cult, a violation of both privacy and human virtue. Demon religionism takes someone else’s money, which violates the sacredness of human property and gives it to the religion. Hence, false worship demands that you give to demons what you do not have.

These two verses are very significant because we have just concluded in our study of the two great demon attacks on the human race at the end of the Tribulation. They are without precedent because they involve demons in bodies physically doing violence to members of the human race. The members of the human race who are the target of these demon attacks are those who are the servants of Satan in the cosmic system: demon-possessed unbelievers, and believers and unbelievers under demon influence, in the cosmic system.

Therefore, since this is without precedent it brings into focus the subject of the demon attacks on the human race since the beginning of history. There are five major demon attacks throughout all of history: the genetic attack of the antediluvian civilisation, Genesis 6:1-13; the attack of demon possession which the attack on the post-diluvian world; the attack of demon influence; the physical attack of the demon armies at the end of the Tribulation; the Gog and Magog revolution at the end of the Millennium, Revelation 20:7-10.

The antediluvian civilisation began with the creation of man and terminated with the flood. The flood destroyed the entire population of the earth except for eight believers, Noah plus his family. Each civilisation begins with believers only and terminates with great divine judgements and self-induced human judgements, all of which are the result of the failure of that civilisation. Each civilisation has its own climate on planet earth, it has its own environment, and has characteristics of creatures involved within the species only. Man has a different life-span in each one of these civilisation. The earth rotated on its axis as it does now but from a different degree and angle, almost straight up instead of tilted. Each species of animal life have differences but there are no transmutations of species, i.e.. a horse may vary in each civilisation but a horse is still a horse.

We have three civilisations in which demon activity is different. The first is the antediluvian civilisation. Antediluvian is simply a technical term for before the flood. This is the period of human history in which demons are involved in a genetic and sexual invasion, and is recorded in Genesis 6:1-13; Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4,5; 1 Peter 3:18-22. We call this a genetic attack upon the human race because it was Satan’s greatest effort to destroy the human race for mankind and, therefore, to win the angelic conflict. The major thrust of the attack was to destroy true humanity on the earth. The post-diluvian civilisation begins at the termination of the flood with Noah and his family. It concludes at the second advent of Christ. In the post-diluvian civilisation there are three demon attacks: the attack of demon possession, the demon invasion of the human body of the unbeliever; the attack of demon influence which applies to believer and unbeliever in the cosmic system; the physical attacks by demon armies in the Tribulation on believers and unbelievers living in the cosmic system.

Whenever a person is demon-possessed there are various battalions of demons. There are demons that produce illness, that produce violence, once they possess the body of an unbeliever. There are three reasons why anyone is ill. One of them is physiological, the second is psychosomatic, and the third is demon possession. When a person is demon-possessed and has demon-induced illness along comes this faker, this liar, Satan’s very own man, believer or unbeliever, who tries to exorcise demons. When this happens, often, since this is Satan’s man, Satan tries to give credibility to this knuckle head who is being used by him. So Beelzebub gives a command to the demons: “Get out.” And they go out, and there is instant miraculous healing, the source has been removed. This person then gets the credit. So his false doctrine, his lies, his imbecility, his stupidity is quickly in the Satanic camp and he is being used of Satan. Satan has given him credibility. This explain so-called divine healers.

There is one battalion of demons called e)ggostramuqoj, and they take control of the vocal cords and they speak in tongues. Of course, all tongues is either demon possession or demon influence. No one has legitimately spoken in tongues since 70 AD when Jerusalem finally fell. All of this is a part of the demon attack upon believers today. Any born-again believer involved in the tongues movement is under demon influence; any unbeliever is under demon-possession. And there is no such thing as a divine healer, no one has that power but God Himself and He has not delegated it since the completion of the canon of scripture.

Then in the Millennial civilisation, which begins at the second advent, at the end of 1000 years of perfect environment on the earth under our Lord’s rule, Satan will be released from prison and this attack will be studied as the God revolution in Revelation chapter 20.

It should also be noted, by way of introduction to our subject, that the antediluvian attack and the Tribulational attacks involve visible demons. Demon activity today includes demon possession, demon influence, but the demons are invisible to the human eye, they cannot be picked up by the process of empiricism due to the fact that they are disembodied spirits. All demon activity today is related to involvement in the cosmic system, it will not exist in the Millennial civilisation until the thousand years of perfect environment are completed. There is also a subject called ethnic demonology which is related to the polytheism of the Greeks and later the Romans who copied from the Greeks; the demonology of the Germanic Indo-European group, as well as the ethnic demonology of the Phoenician Canaanitish mythology. All of this includes human sacrifice, the function of the phallic cult, the modus operandi of idolatry, great violence, great criminal organisations.

Demons, then, appear to fall into two categories: visible demons possessing bodies of some sort; invisible demons or disembodied spirits which are the only category permitted to operate on planet earth today. There will be no visible demons on the earth until the middle and end of the Tribulation. When demons invade the body of an unbeliever today they produce great violence. In fact, all violence in history is directly related to demonism — either demon influence or demon possession.

There are two factors that Satan understood, even as Moses understood it. First of all there must be from Adam plus Eve a line that would go all of the way to Christ, and that line must be true humanity. When Satan saw this in the antediluvian civilisation he made his first great assault on the human race. He made a genetic attack.

Under the doctrine of the hypostatic union, which is the doctrine of the uniqueness of Christ, Jesus Christ in His incarnation, from the moment of His virgin birth and on forever in His person, has two natures: divine and human. They are inseparably united, there is no mixture or loss of separate identity, there is no transfer of properties or attributes. The union of eternal God with true humanity is personal and eternal. In other words, Jesus Christ is true humanity and undiminished deity in one person forever. Jesus Christ is the God-Man, different from God in that He is mankind; different from mankind in that he is God. Jesus Christ is unique in the universe. As God He is infinitely superior to man and angels; as humanity He is now superior to all angels — the subject of Hebrews chapters one and two. The pre-incarnate person of Christ is eternal God, coequal with the Father and the Spirit. The post-incarnate person of Christ includes His undiminished deity combined with His true humanity in one person forever. But in the combination of His deity and humanity there is no transfer of attributes from one to the other. Through the virgin birth Jesus Christ was born without a sin nature, without the imputation of Adam’s sin, and in His humanity, therefore, He was born as Adam was created: trichotomous. We are born with a body and a soul and only acquire a spirit through regeneration.

In John chapter one verses 1-3 we have that wonderful statement about the hypostatic union: E)n a)rxh h)n o( logoj has to do with the deity of Christ: “In a beginning which was not a beginning [eternity past] there always existed the word [o( logoj]”. Jesus Christ always existed, there never was a time when He didn’t exist, that is John 1:1. “In the beginning” [which was not a beginning],” e)n a)rxh. There is no definite article there in the Greek, the absence of the definite article emphasises the importance of the noun. It is a way of referring to eternity. There never was a time when Jesus Christ did not exist as eternal God.

But in John 1:14 that same Word became flesh, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory [His glory inside the prototype divine dynasphere], as the uniquely-born one from the Father, full of grace and doctrine.” Our Lord, by the time He was twelve had advanced to maturity.

Romans 1:3-5, “Concerning his Son, who was born the seed of David according to the flesh,” and the very fact that the seed of David is found in Romans 1:3 means that Satan’s great genetic attack on the human race did not succeed, “who has been demonstrated the Son of God by means of power [the power of the divine dynasphere] according to the Holy Spirit because of the resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord through whom we have received grace and apostleship, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh who is over all God, blessed forever.”

1 Timothy 3:16, “For consent of all great is the mystery of doctrine [with reference to our Lord Jesus Christ]: the unique one [Christ as eternal God] became visible by means of the flesh [His humanity]. This same one was vindicated by means of the Holy Spirit [prototype divine dynasphere], He was observed by angels, He was proclaimed among the nations, He became the object of faith in the world, He was taken up into His place of glory.”

Many passages tell us about the hypostatic union. He never made an issue out of the fact that He was equal with the Father and the Spirit. In other words, true humility inside the prototype divine dynasphere. Only arrogance makes an issue out of such things. Only arrogance makes an issue out of one’s race, only arrogance makes an issue out of one’s background or standing as being superior to someone else — or inferior.

The necessity for all of this becomes apparent: Jesus Christ had to be true humanity. He had to be true humanity to be our saviour. As God he could have nothing to do with sin, it was His humanity that bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He is also said to be the mediator between God and man. In order to be a mediator it means that you must be equal with both parties in the mediation. God is party of the first part; humanity is party of the second part. Jesus Christ is the only mediator because He is God, therefore equal with God; He is true humanity, and superior humanity, therefore equal with humanity. He therefore becomes the mediator. There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

Then, of course, Jesus Christ cannot be a priest unless He is true humanity, for a priest by definition is a man who represents man to God. The universal priesthood belongs to the royal family of God, but we have to have a high priest and for Jesus Christ to be our high priest He had to be true humanity Hebrews chapters seven and ten.

Jesus Christ had to be a King, and He had to be true humanity in order to be a King, 2 Samuel 7:8-16; Psalm 89:20-37, the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ to Israel that David would have a son who would reign forever. This is why in Romans 1 He is called the seed of David, for Jesus Christ is directly descended from David and Bathsheba.

Therefore it was the objective of Satan to make it impossible for Jesus Christ to come in the flesh, to make the incarnation and hypostatic union an absolute impossibility. And Satan came up with a plan. The only way to do it was to intermarry human beings with angelic creatures, for in the antediluvian civilisation all demons had bodies. All demons had reproductive organs and therefore if there could be an intermarriage between angelic and human races it would destroy true humanity and frustrate the cross.

We have completed the study of the ninth chapter of the book of Revelation. We have seen in this chapter two unprecedented attacks in all of human history. Demons today fall into two categories: those who have bodies and those who are disembodied spirits. The attacks that we have studied are from demons who have bodies. Today demons with bodies do not operate on this earth. They are either under the earth in barracks or they are in the second heaven. In the future, as we have noted, there will be an attack from demons with bodies. The target is only the believer and unbeliever inside the cosmic system.

We have noted that there are five great demon attacks on the human race. First of all there is the genetic attack in the antediluvian civilisation, an attack by demons with bodies. The second attack is demon possession, the third is demon influence which belongs to believer and unbeliever who live in the cosmic system.

In the field of arrogance in the cosmic system there is the arrogance of achievement. Achievement belongs to God; happiness belongs to the believer. When the believer makes the decision to live in the cosmic system he becomes preoccupied with success, he is bitten by that bug called inordinate ambition and inordinate competition. Instead of being occupied with Christ he is more concerned about the opinions of his contemporaries. Arrogance motivates him to strive for success, to outdo his contemporaries, and hence all decisions are made from a position of weakness. The idea of a day-by-day happiness based on the faithfulness of God, the provision of logistical grace, is exchanged for decisions to compromise in order to get ahead. His arrogant desire for success destroys his true scale of values, obliterates his sense of destiny from perception of doctrine and, as a matter of fact, his perception of doctrine evaporates. The retention area of the perception of doctrine is gone. The arrogant desire to achieve and attain greater success than his contemporaries takes him down the bumpy road to fame and great unhappiness. Doctrine is neglected, virtue is ignored, ambition is in the saddle and driven by arrogance. Yet, through the function of humility inside the divine dynasphere and doing one’s job as unto the Lord the believer not only possesses great happiness on a basis of the perception of doctrine, he has great happiness on a daily basis and leaves achievement in the hands of the Lord. Achievement often comes his way under the principle that God has promoted him. As a matter of fact, if God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted.

The fourth attack is the physical attack in the middle and end of the Tribulation, the physical attack of demon armies. There will be in Revelation chapter twelve, verses seven through seventeen, the story of the third attack, the third demon assault army led personally by Satan.

Satan’s greatest attack in all of history was against our Lord Jesus Christ — against His incarnation, His true humanity. This antediluvian attack and the Tribulational attacks involve demons who are visible, who have bodies.

We begin in Genesis chapter six with the genetic attack in the antediluvian civilisation. The object of this demon attack was to frustrate the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, to prevent His true humanity from coming to the earth in hypostatic union and to hinder His going to the cross to become our saviour. Satan tried many times to destroy the line of Christ and therefore the true humanity of Christ. In addition to the attack we note here that he made many attacks of a different nature on people after the flood. The great dividing line is the flood which divides the antediluvian civilisation from the post-diluvian civilisation. The genetic attack occurred in the antediluvian civilisation, it was an attack made by demons with bodies. The many attacks after the flood were made by demons who are disembodied spirits, so the attacks therefore are different in nature.

We note the passage in Genesis 6:1-3. “Now it came to pass, when mankind had begun to become numerous on the surface of planet earth, that daughters were born to them,” it was the ladies again who attracted Satan in a great thrust against the incarnation.

Verse 2 — “Now the sons of God.” This particular translation is challenged for several reasons. Notice the word in the Hebrew: beni ha Elohim — “beni ha” means “sons of the”; Elohim is generally used for God when more than one person of the Trinity is involved, but it can also be used for the polytheistic expression of many gods, false gods. That is the way we will translate Elohim here. The “im” is plural in the Hebrew. It should be translated “the sons of the gods.” This is a very unique expression which is only found in this passage and in three verses in Job [1:6; 2:1; 38:7], and once in Daniel 3:25. In all of these passages it only refers to angels, it does not refer to human beings. The Son of God refers to our Lord in hypostatic union; children of God, or “you become the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus” in Galatians 3, refers to believers. But this is a Hebrew word and it only occurs a few times and always it refers to angels.

Who are the sons of the gods? The answer is demons, demons which would include the Titans of mythology plus the progeny of the Titans.

Genesis 3:15, “I will put hostility [the hostility of the angelic conflict] between you [Adam or Satan] and the woman [the woman is the true humanity and the source of Christ], between your seed [Satan and his demons] and her seed [Christ in hypostatic union]; He will crush your head [the defeat of Satan at the second advent], and you [Satan] shall crush His heal [the bearing of our sins at the cross].”

The son of the gods are the sons of the Titans and, as such, they are a special core of demons that have the ability to reproduce.

Now in Genesis 6:2, “the sons of the gods [demons with bodies] saw the daughters of mankind, that they were beautiful; so they took to themselves women whomever they selected.”

Verse 3, “Then Jehovah said, ‘My spirit [referring to God the Holy Spirit in the function of common grace, revealing the gospel to the unbeliever] will not contend with man forever in his going astray [his fornication with the demons]; he is flesh [true humanity], therefore his days will be one hundred and twenty years.” From the time this was said there would be 120 years to the flood and the destruction of the human race. By that time the human race was half human and half angelic and called the super race. They would all be destroyed and then again we would start with a new civilisation, Noah and his family. From Noah and his family all of us are descended today. So the time would come when the Lord would shut down the human race and destroy the opportunity for the exercise of volition.

Verse 4, The corrupted humanity is described in verse 4 by one Hebrew word, ha [definite article] Nephilim. Nephilim means the fallen ones literally, hence it is a reference to fallen angels, the demons involved in the genetic attack on the human race. They are easy to describe since we have so much tradition from mythology. Mythology is not false information; mythology is merely the traditions on which ethnic organisations are developed. “Fallen ones” is a perfect description for all demons; they fell with Satan, they made their choice. Hence, they were not disembodied spirits like demons today.

“The Nephilim [fallen angels, demons] were on the earth in those days [in the antediluvian civilisation], therefore also afterward, when the sons of the gods went in [had sex, the demonic sexual invasion of the human race] with the daughters of men [females of the human race], and had children by them [sons were born to them, literally]. These [children] were heroes who from ancient history were famous men.”

If corrupted humanity had reached the entire human race there would be no cross because there would be no Christ in the flesh. Without Christ coming in the flesh there is no way that salvation can exist. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and this is the reason for the attack of Satan.

That brings us now to verse five which says: “Then the Lord observed that the evil of mankind was great on the earth, and every motive of the thoughts of his right lobe was only evil all the time.” As a result of demons operating on the earth in bodies, as a result of the genetic invasion, as a result of the destruction of true humanity, except in one family, the civilisation was brought to an end, only one family was preserved. From Noah came our Lord Jesus Christ through his son, Shem. From Shem came the entire line of Christ and, therefore, our Christmas and everything related to it.

Genesis 6:5-13. We are dealing with the development of a very technical concept: demon attacks on the human race. We are in the process of studying the genetic attack of the antediluvian civilisation.

By way of definition, we should be very careful about this in view of what we are studying at the present time:

“A Fable,” according to Dr Charles Mills Galey, formerly the Professor of English at the university of California, “is a story, like the Fox and the Grapes, in which the characters and the plot neither pretend reality nor demand credence. They are fabrications used as a vehicle of a moral or a didactic instruction. Myths, on the other hand, are stories of anonymous origin of some ethnic events prevalent among primitive peoples, and by them accepted as truth. They usually give the origin of some ethnic group, like the Romans or the Greeks or the Norse or the Germanic peoples. They concern supernatural beings and events, or natural beings and events being influenced by supernatural agencies.”

We have seen in Genesis 6:2 that the translation “sons of God” is incorrect. it should be “sons of the gods.” In the Hebrew it is beni ha Elohim, and beni refers not to any human being. In fact there isn’t a passage in the Word of God where it does. This is a Hebrew word, it is a technical word, and this refers to the sons and the grandsons of the Titans and those that preceded their sons. This has to do with demonology and it has to do with the Greek explanation of demonology. The Titans here are the gods and these are the sons and the grandsons of the Titans which is the basis for all English and western European culture. It is all based on the story of the Titans and the children of the Titans, the gods of Mount Olympus. This is all the basis for explaining many of the things of the ancient world. In fact, it is the human extra-biblical explanation for Genesis chapter six.

Verse 5, human sacrifice was one of the things that resulted from this demon invasion. Human sacrifice and the function of the phallic cult produced international degeneration. One other factor must be added to it because this one factor is the basis for a great deal of demon influence and demon possession — drug addiction. The genetic destruction of true humanity was highly contagious and was spreading throughout the entire world. The half-angelic, half-human creatures possessed super intellect, super strength, so that violence and arrogance were unrestrained — high IQs in strong bodies. The story of the gods of Mount Olympus or the gods of the Canaanites and Phoenicians are filled with every category of evil and this is only a small picture of what is meant by this verse. Not only was true humanity jeopardised by this demon invasion but the saturation of evil on the earth was self-destructive to the human race. Both evil and genetics were destroying the very purpose for which God created the human race.

Verse 7, “Then the Lord decreed, ‘I will blot out mankind whom I have created from the face of the land [the surface of the earth], from man to animals, to reptiles, to birds of the sky; for I have changed my mind that I have made them.”

Verse 8, “But Noah acquired grace in the eyes of the Lord,” which means that Noah was born again and Noah was still true humanity.

Verse 9, “Noah was a justified man,” a believer and had received the imputation of divine righteousness. The next phrase is very important as far as our salvation is concerned. Christ had to come as true humanity into the world: “[Noah was] uncontaminated in his genealogy.” From Adam to Noah, through Seth, there was a line of true humanity uncontaminated by the genetic attack of demons. Furthermore, “Noah walked with God,” a positive believer advancing to maturity through perception of doctrine as it was given to him in those days. The importance of the perpetuation of the line of true humanity in the post-diluvian civilisation is something we have noted.

Verse 11, “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God [the effect of the demon genetic attack], furthermore the earth was saturated with violence.”

Matthew 24:37-41 gives us a story of the same thing. The same antediluvian civilisation and what happened when this infiltration occurred, but it gives it from a slightly different standpoint, the standpoint of culture.

Verse 37, “For the coming of the Son of Man [the second advent of Christ] will be like the days of Noah.” The genetic attack in the time of Noah is compared to the violent assaults of the three demon armies at the end of the Tribulation.

Verse 38, “For in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking,” normal functions. The next phrase says, “they were marrying and giving in marriage.” There is nothing wrong with getting married but here that isn’t the point. The demons were marrying and being given in marriage to the women of the human race, “until the day that Noah entered the ark.” This passage can only be understood in the light of Genesis chapter six. It is the social life with the demons that is involved at this point. It was the social life of the demons which had to be cut off by the universal flood which destroyed the entire population of the world, minus eight believers.

Verse 39, “And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away,” they didn’t understand the jeopardy in which the human race was involved, “and so shall it be in the coming of the Son of Man.” It will be exactly the same way at the end of the Tribulation, as we have noted from Revelation chapter nine. It will be noted that there was no effective client nation to God in the time of Noah, therefore the absence of the laws of divine establishment meant unrestrained demon activity. The social life with demons inevitably led to sexual life. It is always and interesting thing that except in the case of criminality, all fornication, all sex of any kind, always begins on a social basis. The social basis is the concept of human consent. In the days of Noah there was no client nation to restrain demon activity.

Verse 40, “Two men shall be in the field [before the second advent]; one shall be taken, one shall be left.” The one who is taken is the unbeliever destroyed by the baptism of fire at the second advent.

Verse 41, “Two women shall be grinding at the mill; one shall be taken, one shall be left.” This is the antithesis of the Rapture. The people who stay on the earth go into the Millennium; the people who are taken off are judged in exactly the same way as the super race of Nephilim were judged at the time of the flood.

Genesis 6:12, “Consequently God looked at the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” This is the effectiveness of the genetic attack by demons on the antediluvian civilisation. True humanity was almost extinct. If true humanity had been totally destroyed then Satan would have won the angelic conflict, there would have been no salvation; Jesus Christ would have not gone to the cross and been judged for the sins of the world, there would have been no way that He could come into the world as true humanity. The line of Christ must be true humanity all the way back to Adam. Hence, the necessity of destroying the hybrid race, the half-human, half-angelic creatures.

Verse 13, “Then God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before me [meaning: I’m thinking about destroying the whole human race]; for the earth has become saturated with violence because of their presence [because of the demon sexual infiltration and evil function of their progeny]; and behold, I am about to destroy them [corrupt humanity] with planet earth’.” Corrupted humanity from fallen angels were to be removed from planet earth: the corrupted humanity to torments in Hades waiting for the great white throne judgment; the demon Nephilim were to be incarcerated in Tartarus.

In 2 Peter 2:4 we have a reference to this judgment of the demons, the fallen angels involved in the infiltration, the genetic attack on the human race: “For if God did not spare the angels [demons called sons of the gods] when they sinned, but incarcerated them in pits of darkness, and delivered them to be constantly guarded for future judgment.” This is just a brief explanation but used as an analogy, which means that in explanation of Genesis chapter six there is no question about the fact that the angels made the infiltration. Jude 6 is another passage making a brief reference to Genesis chapter six: “And the angels [demons] who had not kept their status quo, but abandoned their proper residence [angels socialising with angels], he has guarded them in eternal chains under thick darkness for the judgment of the great day.”

By way of summary of this genetic attack, the demons involved in that attack are now imprisoned in Tartarus of Hades until the judgment of fallen angels at the end of the Millennium. The corrupted part of the human race was destroyed by the flood [those who were alive]. They are in torments of Hades waiting for their trial and the judgment of the great white throne. The demons who at present function on planet earth under Satan’s command have no bodies. No demons are permitted to function on planet earth with bodies any longer. The genetic attack is over, there is no way that a demon as a disembodied spirit can have sex with anyone of the human race or can physically attack anyone in the human race. He has to possess another member of the human race or he has to influence another member of the human race to do that. Demons who at present, then, function on planet earth under Satan’s command are disembodied spirits, which means their sexual capabilities, their ability for violence, has been taken from them. Furthermore, they are now invisible to mankind. Disembodied demons seek to invade the soul of mankind through demon influence and the body of mankind through demon possession. Present day invasions of demons do not include either sex with the human race or any personal attacks of violence. Hence never again, until the end of the Tribulation, will the human race be genetically attacked or physically attacked by demons with bodies. All demon sex must be accomplished either through demon possession [the phallic cult] or demon influence where a believer or unbeliever is involved in this religious activity of Satanism and they use the body of someone else. Demons no longer and never again will have sexual contact with the human race. demons will, at the end of the Tribulation, attack the human race with physical violence. However, demons do get into the sexual act by de on-possessing the body of an unbeliever involved in the phallic cult. When they do, the result is fornication, which looks quite normal compared to the acts of bestiality, homosexuality, pederasty, and other things that are involved. The genetic attack on the human race has been defeated and will never again be repeated. This means, of course, the inevitable and eternal victory of our Lord Jesus Christ in coming through the virgin pregnancy and birth, and then the fact that he went to the cross.

The inevitable victory of the cross is described very briefly in 1 Peter 2:24, “Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree.” When our Lord Jesus Christ died physically on the cross His spirit went into the presence of the Father; His body went into the tomb; His soul went to Hades [Paradise]; but while He was there He went down from Paradise, through torments to Tartarus to tell the fallen angels that they had not succeeded in the genetic attack, 1 Peter 3:18-22. The humanity of Jesus Christ is now at the right hand of the Father. The content of His message to the fallen angels in Tartarus is found in Hebrews 2:9-16. The genetic attack did not succeed. It was the first and most dramatic and unusual attack ever made by fallen angels on the human race. As a result of it there were some changes in the rules for the post-diluvian civilisation. You can’t see demons in the first place because those who operate on the earth are disembodied spirits. Nevertheless their attacks are much more insidious because they are invisible. Furthermore, no demon can attack a member of the human race as a disembodied spirit apart from human consent. You have something in your soul called volition; it is a fantastic power. You can say no to the cosmic system and that stops the whole thing.

We now move on to the second demon attack. The first attack was made by demons with bodies. There are two kinds of demons, those who still possess bodies and those who do not. We now consider the attack of demon possession. Demon possession is defined as the demon invasion of the body of an unbeliever. The believer cannot be demon-possessed, his body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is contrasted with demon influence which is demon invasion of the soul and the personality of those who are in the cosmic system. All demon activity, then, is related to man’s free will, human consent. Most of that human consent comes from a position of weakness to enter the cosmic system. All demons are fallen angels under the command of Satan. All demons recognised our Lord’s authority during the incarnation, and that takes us to Luke 4:32ff.

Verse 32, “And they were continually amazed at his teaching, for his doctrine carried authority.” This is the people who listened to our Lord in and about the area of Palestine.

Verse 33, “And there was a person in the synagogue.” The very fact that he was in the synagogue indicates that he had positive volition to be released from this terrible condition; “possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon [fallen angel], and he screamed out with a very loud voice.”

Verse 34, and what came out of the vocal cords was either Ho or Ha. And what came next? “What do we have to do with you [a Greek idiom for, What do you want with us?], Jesus of Nazareth?” It is obvious that the demon-possessed man was not doing any talking. He is throwing up positive signals but his vocal cords were controlled by the demons. “Have you come to destroy us? [Not the man who is demon-possessed, but the demons]. In other words, they had a question: Is the first advent when the demons are going to be destroyed? Of course, the answer to that is no. “I know who you are [says one of the leaders who is possessing the body of this man], the Holy One of God!”

Verse 35, Our Lord doesn’t do any explaining. He doesn’t teach demons, He doesn’t teach negative volition. These are locked-in negative volition types whose eternity has already begun. They had made their decisions in eternity past in the prehistoric angelic conflict. “And Jesus reprimanded him, saying, ‘Be quiet and come out of him!’ And when the demon had thrown him down in their presence [the demon left in a pout!], he came out without injuring him.”

Verse 36, “And all the people were amazed, and began discussing the incident with each other, saying, ‘What is this doctrine?’ They heard the dialogue between demons and our Lord and they were trying to figure out what the doctrine was, ‘For with authority and power he gives orders to demons [evil spirits], and they come out’.”

Our question is: What is this doctrine? Demons are found in the Old Testament. There is a noun in the Hebrew “shed.” In the plural shedim is used for demons, Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 106:37. There is another noun called sair, which means hairy, shaggy, rough, and is used for both a goat and for a certain category of demon called “sater,” Leviticus 17:7. This particular category was definitely a category that had been disembodied. In the destruction of Babylon prophesied by Isaiah there is a desolation passage, Isaiah 13:21, “And Sater demons will frolic there.” The same concept is found in Isaiah 34:14.

In the Greek we have four words. We have the word daimwn from which we get demon. it refers to a disembodied spirit almost always, as in Matthew 8:31; Mark 5:12; Luke 8:29; Revelation 16:14. There is also the word daimonion referring to a specific category of demons as opposed to all other demons and in the context always tells us what the category is. Then there is an adjective, daimoniwdhj, and that means demonic, as in James 3:15. Then there is a verb for being demonised, daimonizw, and it generally means to be demon-possessed but it can also be translated to “be tormented” by demons.

This is merely to establish the fact that we are dealing with a biblical subject. The distinction between demon possession and demon influence is very important. We note some of the means by which demon-possession is accomplished. How does an unbeliever get to have demons indwelling his body? Some of the demons carry disease, some of the demons control the vocal cords, they do weird things. Abnormal strength comes to the body with demons. How does this happen? First of all, anything that gets an unbeliever in the cosmic system, any decision that a person makes to get in the cosmic system. All sin puts the individual inside the cosmic system and therefore vulnerable to demon possession. Once in the cosmic system there are many approaches, like the Satan mass which is designed to use your volition to worship Satan in the same way that believers use their volition at the communion table to worship the Lord.

There is a Greek word, farmakeia, which means drug addiction. If a person of his own free will gets involved with drugs of any kind it is inevitable, if he is a believer, that he will come under demon influence; and if an unbeliever he will become demon possessed. if he is anti-authoritarian, antiestablishment, like the hippies of California, he may well become demon possessed and become involved in human sacrifice and live on drugs. Even men having long hair like women is a part of giving tacit consent to allow demons to have control or have possession of the faculties. Any dabbling in the occult, sensitivity to mediums, the function of necromancy, Isaiah 8:19, and the function of the phallic cult. There are certain total abandoned concepts of sex which eventually involve demon influence for believers and demon possession for unbelievers, Luke 8:2. The function of the phallic cult, the emotional revolt of the soul in which emotion blocks out thought and self-determination, and abandons itself to outside forces. For this reason sacrifices to demons were prohibited in Leviticus 17:17, “They shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat demon with which they play the harlot [the function of the phallic cult].” Deuteronomy 32:17, “They sacrificed to demons, not to God; to those they have not known from doctrine, new things, demons who come lately, whom your ancestors did not know [or fear].” Psalm 96:5, “For all the gods of the people are idols [or demons]: but the Lord made the heavens.”

Demon possession was the basis for capital punishment in Israel, Leviticus 20:27. “A man or a woman who is demon-possessed, a medium, a spiritist among them, emphatically they shall be put to death.” This indicates the fact that once demon possession starts in a certain place it spreads through the numerous systems of either cosmic involvement, the Satan mass, the involvement with drugs, the phallic cult; any of these things will do it; “they will be stoned with stones: their guilt will be upon themselves.” No one ever gets involved with demons apart from his own consent.

The firstborn judgment against Egypt at the time of Moses and the exodus included a judgment against demons, Exodus 12:12, “I will go through the land of Egypt in the night, and I will strike down all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast; also against the demons of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.” Here is a fascinating thing. One of the things that was keeping Israel in slavery was demonism, and in all of the demonology involved in the slavery of the Jews these demons were to be judged.

It is fascinating to note that in Isaiah 19:3 that demons are powerless to change the course of history. We have noted in the past that certain human beings, like Adolf Hitler, were demon possessed, yet they could not change the course of history. “Then the demons of Egypt will become demoralised within them [i.e. indwelling the Egyptians]; and to the mediums and the spiritists [demon-possessed counsellors].” Even though they resorted to every form of demonism they simply could not stop the course of history or change it.

It is obvious then that demonism is one of the reasons that client nations are judged. Deuteronomy 18:9-12, “When you enter the land which the Lord your God has given you, you shall learn to avoid [not to imitate] the abominable practices [demonism] of the nations who were before you. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire [a demon sacrifice], nor anyone who uses divination [practised by demon-possessed persons], nor anyone who practices witchcraft, nor anyone who interprets omens, nor any sorcerer, nor anyone who casts a spell, nor a medium, nor a spiritist, nor anyone who calls up the dead [necromancy]. For whoever does these things s detestable to the Lord: furthermore because of these things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.”

The practice of necromancy was the basis for the judgment of Saul and his death. He died as a believer the sin unto death, 1 Chronicles 10:13,14. Saul rejected doctrine and that, of course, put him into the cosmic system; not under demon possession but under demon influence.

In the reign of King Manasseh evil is associated with demonism in 2 Kings 21:2-16. Demonism helped to bring about the fifth cycle of discipline in Isaiah 29:4. Satan and demons are often used by God in the administration of the sin unto death, as in 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Timothy 1:19,20. Satan is used as a warning for discipline in 1 Timothy 3;6,7, “Do not be an immature believer lest having received blind arrogance you might fall into condemnation of the devil. he must also be having an honourable reputation from those outside the local church in order that he might not fall into the disgrace [under the influence of evil] and the snare of the devil [the cosmic system where all demonism exists].”

Satan, as the ruler of all demons, has certain powers. he can blind people through religion. He can shorten life, according to Psalm 109:8. He can also remove people from authority under certain conditions, says Psalm 109:8. Verse 9 says he can kill; he can persecute children, verse 10; he can remove wealth, verse 11; he can turn everyone against you, verse 12; he can cut off posterity to the second generation, verse 13. These are all under certain conditions where cosmic involvement exists. Satan as a killer has the power of death, 1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14,15. Satan killed the children of Job, Job 1:12,18,19. He motivated Cain to murder Abel, John 8:44; 1 John 3:12. He is given opportunity to execute believers under the sin unto death principle, therefore. Satan produced illness in Job, according to Job 2:6-8. Satan used demons to produce disease in human beings as, for example, in Matthew 12:22; Luke 13:16; Acts 10:38. Certain types of diagnosed diseases are not physiologically induced, they are not even psychosomatic, they are simply cases of demon-induced illness, the dumbness in Mark 9:17 or Luke 11:14 was caused by demon possession, dumbness and deafness in Mark 9:25, dumbness and blindness in Matthew 12:22, epilepsy in Mark 1:26; 9:20; Luke 4:35. Satan is also the source of abnormal behaviour through demon possession: convulsions, Mark 1:26; abnormal violence, Matthew 8:28; abnormal strength, Mark 5:4; self-mutilation, Mark 5:5; foaming at the mouth, Mark 9:20; sometimes take off their clothes in a public place, Luke 8:27; they live among corpses, Mark 5:3; a certain type of grinding of the teeth, Mark 9:18; occasionally attempt suicide, Matthew 17:15.

2. Some form of decision made from a position of weakness [bad decision] which results from demon invasion of the human body of the unbeliever.

3. These decisions are related to cosmic involvement. First of all the decision to get into the cosmic system, then the decisions once made, you are in the cosmic system: decisions which relate to idolatry, certain categories of religious activity, dabbling in the occult, consulting mediums, the function of necromancy, drug addiction.

4. The phallic cult which uses both human sacrifice and idolatry and unrestrained sexual lust, as in Luke 8:2 where Mary Magdalene had been released from seven demons of this category.

5. Idolatry is a basic system for demon possession, Luke 17:7; Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 96:5 in the Hebrew; Psalm 106:37-39.

6. Passive submission to demons is accomplished through, therefore, drug addiction, idolatry, the function of the phallic cult, and the deliberate development of emotional revolt of the soul. Also, the Satanic mass and any prolonged involvement in the cosmic system.

7. Active submission to demon possession can be both violent and painful — Luke 13:11-16.

Because demon possession involves human sacrifice, which is murder, it was the basis for capital punishment under the laws of divine establishment, Leviticus 20:27. In control of the historical trends of history our Lord Jesus Christ often judges demon activity as we noted in Exodus 12:13 where He judged the demons of Egypt. Demons are powerless, therefore, to control history, Isaiah 19:9. Demon activity, both demon possession and demon influence, results in the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. The great Canaanitish nation was destroyed because of demonism. Deuteronomy 18:9-12 tells us that story. Demons are often used by God for the administration of the sin unto death and, furthermore, demonisation of a nation results in the destruction of that nation, Isaiah chapter 47; Jeremiah 27:6-10.

Ministers who faithfully teach the Word of God are targets for demon influence, 1 Timothy 3:6,7, “the condemnation of the devil” is demon influence. Demon-possessed illness, of course, leads to an abnormal form of behaviour. All is related to the demon controlling the body. Satan uses certain demons to produce disease, Matthew 12:22; Luke 13:16; Acts 10:23. Certain types of diagnosed diseases are neither psychological nor psychosomatic.

Let’s take the illustration of so-called divine healing, a miraculous case of healing. There was a gift of healing given to the apostles to establish the credibility. The gift of healing was a temporary spiritual gift. Once the apostles’ authority was established it was removed immediately. it was not to alleviate suffering, it was to establish the credibility of the apostle. This spiritual gift has not been perpetuated into the post-canon Church Age; no one has the power or the gift of healing. There is a legitimate practice of medicine and that, of course, is not instant healing.

A pseudo gift has been devised under the sponsorship of one of the princes of demons, Beelzebub. The apostle Paul, for example, had the spiritual gift of healing to give credibility to his ministry. This was demonstrated in Acts 19:11,12, but once Paul was recognised as an apostle the gift was withdrawn so that Paul could not heal his closest friends, Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:27; Trophimus in 2 Timothy 4:20. All Paul could do was pray for them, he could not heal them. Occasionally God will perform a sovereign act of healing, but not generally.

Since certain demons have the power of disease when they invade the body of a person they produce disease in that person. When Beelzebub gives the order to leave the victim he is instantly healed. And there is always someone standing around with hocus pocus who pronounces his incantations, Beelzebub commands the demon to get out, the person is instantly “healed” because the source is removed, and it looks like a case of divine healing, but it is not. It is a pseudo act of healing. The demon enters for the purpose of setting up the illness; the demon leaves in order that credit might be given to some false teacher. The victim is instantly healed and this gimmick is used to give credibility to Satan’s human servants who allege to be healers. Through demon possession the gift of healing, then, is counterfeited, as it was in Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9; Revelation 16:14.

Demon possession is also a source of both extra natural and supernatural power. It explains certain cases, not only of miraculous healing and speaking in tongues, but also contact with the dead. Occult phenomena includes demon possession as well as, in some cases, demon influence. The rise of certain world leaders like Hitler and Stalin are directly related to demon possession. Anti-Semitism is motivated either by demon possession or demon influence.

We are in the process of studying the demon attacks on the human race and are now ready for the third attack on the human race: the concept of the attack of demon influence. By way of anticipation and introduction demon influence is related to individual involvement in the cosmic system of Satan. The cosmic system is composed of two dynaspheres and is the means by which Satan administers the rulership of this world as well as providing thought transference. Not all demon influence is thought transference, however. Some of demon influence is non-thought transference in the form of emotional activity. For example, emotional revolt of the soul.

In our study of demon influence we will have to review the doctrine of the cosmic system. Cosmic one is composed of twelve interlocking gates of arrogance.

We will also note in cosmic two which is Satan’s interlocking system of antagonism toward God that it is composed of nine gates.

The four are four mandates from the Word of God directed to the Church Age believer, members of the royal family of God. These four mandates are related to the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. Two of the mandates are positive and refer to God’s game plan for the Church Age, God’s plan for your life and mine. They are related to the divine dynasphere.

The first relates to gate one. The command is very simple: “Be filled with the Spirit.” That, of course, is entrance into the divine dynasphere.

There are seven other gates involved in the divine dynasphere and are covered by the mandate of Galatians 5:16 — “Walk by means of the Spirit.” That is the second mandate.

The third mandate has to do with cosmic one and its twelve gates of interlocking systems of arrogance. It is the command, “Grieve not the Spirit” — Ephesians 4:30. In other words, the believer in cosmic one is grieving the Holy Spirit.

The fourth and final mandate is related to cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of antagonism: “Quench not the Spirit” — 1 Thessalonians 5:19. The believer who is residing in cosmic two is quenching the Spirit.

This immediately divides all born-again believers. The believer who has entered the divine dynasphere at the point of salvation [faith in Christ] or at the point of rebound [he has recovered to the divine dynasphere] is again filled with the Spirit. The believer under the filling of the Spirit who functions at the other seven gates, or any of the other seven gates, is walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is relative. An immature believer walking in the Spirit does not have the same function at these gates as a mature believer walking in the Spirit. Nevertheless, he is fulfilling this mandate up to his capacity.

Then there is, of course, the believer living in cosmic one who is grieving the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit still indwells his body, which means that he cannot be demon-possessed, but there are certain conditions of demon influence that are even worse than demon-possession. So he is grieving the Holy Spirit and in cosmic two he is quenching the Holy Spirit. The one who is quenching the Holy Spirit and grieving the Holy Spirit is under demon influence as a believer.

This doesn’t cover the unbeliever. The unbeliever can be in the divine dynasphere on a limited basis related to the laws of divine establishment, especially gate three which is the gate of humility, and gate six which is the gate of right man-right woman. However, the unbeliever who gets into cosmic one or cosmic two is immediately vulnerable to either demon-possession or demon influence, or both. Generally it starts with demon influence in cosmic one which is related to arrogant thinking and all of the facets of arrogant thinking. On the other hand, the unbeliever getting into cosmic two is definitely under demon-possession.

Staying out of the cosmic system involves using your volition: using your volition to resist temptation; using your volition in connection with what you know. Your volition is no good to you unless you have some cognisance of life. The more you understand life the better you can use your volition. You have greater options through knowledge. To that extent, then, knowledge is power. And, of course, knowledge of Bible doctrine is great power because it opens up the tremendous options in the use of your volition. Probably the most powerful instrument in your soul is your volition. Its proper use when related to knowledge becomes fantastic; its use when related in erroneous ways — to emotion — makes it very disastrous. Emotion is a very wonderful thing and a part of our happiness but when emotion overcomes cognisance, overcomes the mentality of the soul, then it is a disaster situation, and it becomes either an active or a passive system for the unbeliever to be demon-possessed and for the believer to be under demon influence. So staying out of the cosmic system always involves the use of volition. Getting out of the cosmic system also involves the use of volition: volition in rebound.

Cosmic one emphasises arrogance: preoccupation with self; cosmic two emphasises hatred or antagonism toward the person of God, the plan of God, and the Word of God. The target of arrogance in cosmic one is self, and the target of antagonism in cosmic two is the Word of God. So that each one of these cosmic dynaspheres is different. There will be some apparent overlap. Cosmic one emphasises self in contrast to God; cosmic two emphasises human viewpoint in contrast to divine viewpoint. Cosmic one reflects Satanic attitudes at the time of Satan’s fall; cosmic two emphasises Satan’s attitudes at the time of man’s fall. Cosmic one represents the philosophy of Satan in the prehistoric angelic conflict; cosmic two represents the philosophy of Satan in the historical extension of the angelic conflict. Through entrance into cosmic one the believer becomes inculcated with the attitude of Satan before man was created; through entrance into cosmic two the believer becomes inculcated with the attitude of Satan after the fall of man. Cosmic one reflects Satan’s philosophy as the leader of fallen angels; cosmic two reflects Satan’s philosophy as the ruler of this world. Man’s involvement in cosmic one makes him a slave to self; man’s involvement in cosmic two makes him a slave to Satan. Cosmic involvement means vulnerability to the two categories of demonism.

Life in the cosmic system makes the believer a loser in time; life in the divine dynasphere makes the believer a winner in time.

1 John 2:15-18, “Stop loving the cosmic system, or anything in the cosmic system. If anyone keeps loving the cosmic system, the love of the Father is not in him.” How can the love for God the Father be in the believer in the cosmic system when he is under demon influence? “Because all that is in the cosmic system, the lust of the flesh, the lust from the eyes, and the arrogant pattern of life [the function of cosmic one], is not from the Father, but is from the cosmic system. In fact the cosmic system and its lust will pass away: but anyone who performs the will of God [life in the divine dynasphere] keeps residing forever,” residence in the divine dynasphere in time is the means of glorifying God in the angelic conflict, while residence in the divine dynasphere in eternity is a memorial to the grace of God forever; “Students [children, believers at the point of reception of doctrine], it is the last favourable time to use the divine dynasphere: and just as you have heard that antichrist will come [the eschatology of the Tribulation], even now [in the Church Age] there are many antichrists [believers and unbelievers involved in the cosmic system, the demonised part of the human race]; therefore we have come to realise that it is the last favourable time [for glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ through the divine dynasphere].”

That brings us to cosmic one. The mandate is “Grieve not the Spirit,” Ephesians 4:30. This is Satan’s interlocking system of arrogance, his philosophy before the fall of man. It is a dynasphere, a power system or sphere.

Gate one of cosmic one is attitude arrogance, a system of thinking. Attitude arrogance includes pride, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, self-pity, the guilt syndrome, operation over-think, and revenge motivation. All of these involve a system of thought and in this system of thought self is predominant. Self is predominant in pride, in jealousy, bitterness or implacability, self-pity, the guilt syndrome, etc. Arrogant persons are always satisfied with themselves but never satisfied with others. Pride, vanity and conceit is the basis for mental attitude sins of the creature. This originated with Satan but is transferred from the thinking of Satan to us through residence in the cosmic system, Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:14-17. Pride is not only exaggerated self-respect and conceit but is a total preoccupation with self which divorces the individual from the realities of life. In any state of arrogance the individual is divorced from reality.

Arrogance is a real or imagined sense of superiority which distorts life and the true perspective of human frailty, resulting in a presumptuous self-righteousness and a false sense of destiny. E.g. crusaders have a false sense of destiny. Distinction should be made, of course, between arrogance and ego. Arrogance is sinful; ego is normal and simply the function of the self-consciousness of the soul. Arrogance is not ego but egocentricity, which is self-centred, preoccupied with self, and subjective in its thinking. Egotism is the practice of arrogance in contrast to humility.

Proverbs 16:18 gives us a slant on gate one. “Pride precedes destruction, and before a fall arrogance of life.” Demonism is destruction. If you are demonised as a believer, demon influence, you are destroyed, though you still have your volition to break out.

Psalm 25:8,9, “Good and honourable is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. In divine integrity he guides the humble, consequently he teaches the humble his way [emphasising gate three: humility and teachability].

James 4:6, “He gives greater grace,” grace after salvation: logistical grace for all believers; supergrace for the mature believers, “That is why the scripture says, God makes war on the arrogant but he gives grace to the humble.” God makes war on us as believers when we are demonised by cosmic one, for the believer in cosmic one is arrogant and it is impossible for him to grow in grace, it is impossible to fulfil the plan of God, it is impossible to make any decisions from a position of strength, it is impossible to have any sense of personal destiny, in a state of arrogance.

1 Peter 5:5,6, “In the same way, comparative novices, be under the command and authority of elder pastors. All of you in the congregation fasten yourselves to each other [interrelate or relate] with grace symptoms: because God makes war against the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble. Therefore become grace oriented under the authority of the ruling hand of God, that he may promote you at the proper time”.

If God doesn’t promote you, you are not promote you. Hence, the problem of arrogance of achievement. Achievement belongs to God; happiness belongs to the believer. True achievement is in the hands of God. There is pseudo-achievement which is not achievement at all.

When a believer makes the decision to live in the cosmic system he takes on the arrogance of gate one. He becomes preoccupied with his success, if he has any, and consequently he is bitten by that bug called inordinate ambition and competition. Instead of occupation with Christ from life in the divine dynasphere he is more concerned about the opinions of his contemporaries; he susceptible to the flattery of others, arrogance becomes his motivation. Arrogance motivates him to strive for success instead of to achieve under God. He competes with his friends, he excels and surpasses his contemporaries. All of his decisions, as a result, are made from a position of weakness; he has become involved in achievement arrogance, also a part of gate one.

The biblical concept of daily happiness based on a personal sense of destiny from life in the divine dynasphere, and the faithfulness of God in providing logistical grace is exchanged for the decisions of the cosmic system. These decisions include the philosophies to transcend, to outdo, to surpass, to gain the ascendancy over one’s contemporaries, to achieve in cosmic living. The believer’s arrogant lust for ascendancy and success destroys his true scale of values as they relate to Bible doctrine. His desire to outdo his contemporaries also destroys his sense of destiny from the perception of Bible doctrine. The arrogant desire to achieve and to attain greater success than his contemporaries becomes the bumpy road to uncertain things filled with the potholes of unhappiness. When arrogant ambition is in the saddle doctrine is neglected, virtue is ignored, and happiness becomes evanescent.

On the other hand, through the function of humility inside the divine dynasphere, the believer not only does his job as unto the Lord but he possesses fantastic daily happiness by doing a tough job under difficult circumstances. He leaves achievement to the Lord and he does his job as unto the Lord, not to get ahead, not to ingratiate himself with his boss or others, but to glorify the Lord in what he does. Therefore he operates under the principle: If God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted.

Proverbs 11:2, “When arrogance comes, then comes dishonour.” Arrogance is involvement in cosmic one, gate one.

Proverbs 16:18, “Arrogance precedes destruction, therefore before a fall, arrogance of life.”

Proverbs 29:23, “A person’s arrogance will bring him low, but a spirit of humility will attain honour.”

The speech of Elihu in Job 33:16,17, “Then he opens the ears of men [the function of GAP at reception], and seals their instruction [the function of retention, gnwsij becomes e)pignwsij], that he may turn aside from his discipline [the function of recall], and protect man from arrogance,” reception, retention, recall, related to doctrine protects man from arrogance.

Isaiah 13:11, “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity [cosmic involvement]; I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud.” Why? Because the arrogance of the proud is just another way of saying human beings who are demonised; “and I will humble the pride of ruthlessness [or tyranny].”

1 Timothy 6:3,4, “If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and does not concur with sound doctrine, those doctrines from the source of our Lord Jesus Christ, even doctrine pertaining to godliness [life in the divine dynasphere]; he has received arrogance, understanding nothing, furthermore he has a morbid obsession about controversies and verbal conflicts, from which originate jealousy, discord, and eventually evil speculation.”

Arrogance is the most basic sin. It is the foundation for all evil and all human good in the field of hamartiology. Arrogance was the original sin of Satan, and what Satan thought at the time of his fall is transferred to the believer who enters into gate one of the cosmic system. This becomes demonisation, the demon influence of the believer. Arrogance, then, was the original motivator of Satan in his fall and the motivator in the first revolt against God by our first parents and all revolutions in human history. Arrogance not only rejects doctrine but becomes a distracter to the plan of God, the provision of God. It distorts life’s true scale of values so that all decisions are made from a position of weakness. Arrogance is opposed to perception of doctrine, to spiritual momentum. But you have to be very wary about arrogance, it is not negative toward doctrine. Far from it. It is only in cosmic two that the believer becomes antagonistic toward doctrine.

Arrogance is opposed to perception of doctrine and spiritual momentum, and the human mind, regardless of how high the IQ, becomes totally helpless without doctrine. That state of helplessness is a vacuum that sucks in to the human mind demon thinking (demon influence). Influence is the transference of thought from one philosophical thought in the mind to another mind that is helpless and has no knowledge, no thought. The demonisation of born-again believers is today reaching an all-time high. Helplessness and uselessness is the state of the mind without Bible doctrine, without truth in three categories. The human personality cannot cope with life apart from Bible doctrine in all three categories. Category one: the laws of divine establishment. Some believers will listen to Bible doctrine but will not accept establishment truth, and they become demonised, not because they are neglecting Bible doctrine but because they do not accept the authority of establishment.

Perception cannot exist apart from positive volition. Arrogance blinds the mind so that truth is rejected. It is possible to come to Bible class every night demonised, and therefore to get nothing in the field of perception, and having received no blessing or benefit in the field of reception there is no retention. If there is no retention there is no application; therefore, what you hear in Bible class is distorted. This distortion comes from the fact that they come in a demonised state; they cannot take in what is taught, they cannot see it objectively. Therefore there is no retention and there is no application, and they take gnwsij and distort it into something ghastly.

Arrogance divorces the believer, then, from personal as well historical reality in life. Arrogance rejects human authority as well as divine authority so that the Word of God is resisted and the communicator of doctrine is rejected. Arrogance destroys capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, capacity for generosity. Arrogance in thinking leads to irrationality, for arrogance destroys personal capability and resents capability in others. Arrogance motivates inconsistent modus operandi, the wide swing from self-pity under pressure of adversity to self-righteousness in time of prosperity. Arrogance lives on flattery and, of course, believes the lie. Arrogance hears truth to distort it, to ridicule it, to reject it.

So arrogance, then, becomes the distorter of Bible doctrine and anything that distorts Bible doctrine means that you cannot learn doctrine. If you can’t learn doctrine you can’t grow in grace — “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ.”

There are three areas where doctrine can be distorted then: at the point of reception; the point of retention, the ability to remember afterward what was taught, gnwsij in the left lobe transferred into e)pignwsij in the right lobe; and the point of retrieval, the point of recall of Bible doctrine, the application factor. Spiritual growth comes in two ways. First of all, from what is retained; secondly, what is recalled or retrieved at a given moment when you need it. Direct growth comes from retention. Recall also is a way of growth because when you pass a momentum test through recall of doctrine, retrieving for application, then that gives accelerated growth.

Arrogance distorts what is heard in the gnwsij state due to lack of concentration, lack of objectivity. Subjectivity bends what is taught to suit one’s purpose. Arrogance attacks the e)pignwsij stage by making doctrine your servant instead of your master, and arrogance attacks in the application stage by relating it to personality self-righteousness or using it for personal self-justification.

The philosophy of arrogance always gives a false perspective of life. For example, the arrogant believer who rejects the doctrine of eternal security. Of all of the areas of arrogance, anyone who does not believe in eternal security is involved in the cosmic system. The reason for this is the system of arrogance. Any person who assumes that he can commit a sin, that he can enter into a system of evil that is greater than the work of God, is arrogant. It is the worst form of arrogance: “My sins are greater than the work of Christ on the cross,” is what this says. That is arrogance. When our Lord died on the cross He was judged for all sins. He provided perfect salvation. When the individual assumes that his sins are greater than the plan of God that arrogance creates a vacuum which becomes a system for demonic telepathy which we call demon influence, demon penetration of the soul.

The believer is arrogant who succumbs to the pressure of adversity or injustice. Life is filled with injustice. When one is the victim of prejudice or injustice then this is a great temptation for arrogance. To assume that one’s sufferings are greater than the plan of God when the victim of injustice or prejudice, is arrogance. Many a person becomes filled with self-pity because he assumes that his sufferings are greater than the plan of God. This is merely the manifestation of being demonised, transference of demonic false doctrine to the soul of the individual who practices self-pity in time of injustice or prejudice.

The believer is arrogant when he depends on emotional activity for spiritual blessing. This would be the tongues movement which is a demonised movement. Believers in the tongues movement are under demon influence; unbelievers in the tongues movement are under demon-possession. But there are other emotional activities: dedication ceremonies, the faggot on the fire type of thing; inspirational speakers; singing “Do Lord” until you are blue in the face; receiving personal attention from counsellors, “concerned” Christians, and so on. The person finally comes to the erroneous conclusion that his feelings and experiences are greater than Bible doctrine. Once he reaches that point he is under demon influence.

The believer is arrogant when he listens to the teaching of Bible doctrine with preconceived notions, distorting the acquisition and perception of doctrine.

The believer is arrogant when he uses e)pignwsij doctrine which he has retained to serve him rather than to lead him.

The believer is arrogant when he applies doctrine to justify himself or to establish himself in a system of self-righteousness.

We have noted that all demon influence is related to Satan’s cosmic system. The divine dynasphere which is God’s game plan for the Church Age finds the believer under a certain system of mandates. The first: “Be filled with the Spirit.” That is entrance into the divine dynasphere which occurs at the moment of salvation and thereafter at the moment of rebound. Gate number two: the beginning of virtue, emphasis on the doctrine of impersonal love toward man and personal love toward God in worship. Gate three: enforced and genuine humility. These three gates interlock to form the momentum of the spiritual life which is perception and application of Bible doctrine.

Some distinctions should be made between cosmic one and cosmic two. Cosmic one emphasises arrogance, preoccupation with self; cosmic two emphasises hatred, antagonism toward the person of God, the plan of God and the Word of God on the part of the believer or unbeliever. The target of arrogance in cosmic one is self; the target of antagonism in cosmic two is the Word of God. Cosmic one emphasises self in contrast to God; cosmic two emphasises human viewpoint in contrast to divine viewpoint. Cosmic one reflects Satan’s attitude at the time of his fall, whereas cosmic two emphasises Satan’s attitude at the time of man’s fall. Cosmic one represents the philosophy of Satan in the prehistoric angelic conflict; cosmic two represents the philosophy of Satan in the historical extension of the angelic conflict. Through entrance into cosmic one the believer becomes inculcated with the attitude of Satan, the philosophy of Satan before man was created. Through entrance into cosmic two the believer becomes inculcated with the attitude of Satan, the philosophy of Satan after the fall of man. Cosmic one, therefore, reflects Satan’s philosophy as the leader of fallen angels, whereas cosmic two reflects Satan’s philosophy as the ruler of this world. As the ruler of this world Satan administers through the cosmic system. Man’s involvement in cosmic one makes him the slave to self; man’s involvement in cosmic two makes him the slave of Satan.

Cosmic involvement means vulnerability to two categories of demonism: demon-possession, which is the demon invasion of the body. Only unbelievers can be demon-possessed, and only with their consent; demon influence, which is the demon invasion of the human soul and personality. It is open to both believers and unbelievers and in many ways it is far worse than demon-possession. Demon influence is by far the most effective Satanic weapon. Thought transference from demons to mankind is the great issue in demon influence.

The cosmic system is the policy of Satan plus the vehicle of Satan for his administration of the rulership of this world. Life in the cosmic system makes the believer a loser in time; life in the divine dynasphere produces the winner for both time and eternity.

The mandate with regard to the cosmic system is given in 1 John 2:15-18. “Stop loving the cosmic system, or anything in the cosmic system. If anyone keeps loving the cosmic system the love of the Father [motivating virtue of personal love for God] is not in him. Because all that is in the cosmic system, the lust of the flesh [the old sin nature], the lust from the eyes [the mental function from cosmic two, demon influence], and the arrogant pattern of life [the function of the believer in cosmic one], is not from the Father, but is from the cosmic system. In fact the cosmic system and its lusts will pass away: but anyone who performs the will of God [life in the divine dynasphere] keeps residing forever. Students, it is the last favourable time [to use the divine dynasphere]: and just as you have heard that antichrist will come [the eschatology of the Tribulation], even now many antichrists exist on earth [believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system]; therefore we have come to know that it is the last favourable time [for glorifying God in the divine dynasphere].”

We now move over to gate two of cosmic one: arrogant negative volition. The interlocking relationship with gate one results in either the rejection of the content of doctrine or the rejection of the communicator of doctrine. When anyone is preoccupied with self to any degree, when any believer is living in cosmic one, gate one, and he comes to church, the point of reception of Bible doctrine, he goes negative to doctrine unless something please him very much. Unless some illustration captures his attention at the point of reception he is preoccupied with self and he has therefore only subjective thinking through transference in demon influence and is therefore incapable of understanding what is being taught. Both the message and the messenger of doctrine are rejected when one lives in gate one of cosmic one. Defined then as the rejection of doctrine and the resistance of truth based on preoccupation with self this is the function of subjectivity in life. This subjectivity is demon influence, transference of thought. The negative volition at gate two of cosmic one is not the same as the negative volition we will study later on in cosmic two, gate two. Cosmic one has gate two, negative volition. Cosmic two also has a negative volition but the two categories of negative volition are entirely different. The negative volition of gate two, cosmic one, and negative volition of gate two are entirely different. For example, negative volition in cosmic one is related to preoccupation with self, therefore it hinges around subjective negative volition. But negative volition in cosmic two is related to antagonism toward doctrine, antagonism toward truth, and therefore it is objective, aggressive antagonistic negative volition toward the truth. Negative volition toward doctrine intensifies the arrogance in the life and results in both the blackout of the soul and scar tissue of the soul. Blackout of the soul is the first stage in which demon transference of thought under the principle of demon influence occurs. Furthermore, negative volition toward doctrine results in countless decisions made from a position of weakness plus the loss of any personal sense of destiny. Furthermore, negative volition results in slavery to the circumstances of life which means that prosperity produces self-righteous arrogance while adversity produces self-pity arrogance. Self-righteousness plus self-pity produce the guilt complex, and the wide swing between self-pity and self-righteousness under varying circumstances of life is the system of slavery in gate two of cosmic one.

Negative volition includes the arrogance of ignorance, defined as failure to make the transition from ignorance to cognisance in life. The transition must exist in the temporal realm as well as the spiritual realm. Human maturity requires making the transition from authority in the home to freedom in life. The home was designed by God for mankind in the formative years of his life. The home is organisational humility and the parents are the authority in the home. This authority is the basis for inculcation, normal teaching, training, developing certain things, e.g. poise, which is thinking under pressure just as courage is thinking under pressure. The person who has poise in normal circumstances will automatically have courage in abnormal circumstances. That should all be developed in the home; it is the responsibility of the parents and the function of the volition of the individual. The parent may be unfair, unjust, periodically or all the time, but response to parental authority is the whole basis for life as a human being. Rejection of authority in the home brings a person out of the home who is immature, an adult body with an immature mind. It is generally the adult body of a believer under demon influence, or an unbeliever under demon influence for the same reason, because all organisation in life which brings us to the point of freedom is guaranteed by authority in life. If you destroy authority you have no freedom, they stand or fall together. The response to mankind en masse to authority establishes freedom as a principle. It establishes privacy as a principle of freedom, it establishes property and the sacredness of human life. The whole structure of society collapses under the principle of the arrogance of ignorance. Arrogance rejects all authority and this produces about everything in social degeneration: criminality, homosexuality, drug addiction, etc.

Each transition in life requires virtue. Genuine humility is necessary to make the transition from authority in youth to freedom as an adult. Perception of doctrine in the divine dynasphere is necessary to make the transition from ignorance at salvation to cognisance as a believer inside of the divine dynasphere. The arrogance of ignorance is failure to make the transition from the ignorance of doctrine to the cognisance of doctrine, just as the child in the home rejects authority in the home or by-passes authority in the home and then comes into society. That person will never make the transition. He is disoriented to life in general and this is a system of arrogance, this is demon influence. The most difficult transition is to go from home to life. The other one is after salvation: to go from ignorance of doctrine at salvation to cognisance of doctrine, which requires of course, residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.

God has a plan for your life but that purpose will never be realised or understood apart from perception of Bible doctrine. You have to remember that achievement belongs to God; happiness belongs to you. But the happiness that belongs to you, your heritage as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, will never become a reality unless you personally make your daily decision for the perception of Bible doctrine, for rebound when necessary, for all of the mechanics that result in residence and function inside the of the divine dynasphere.

Revelation chapter 10:1 to chapter 11:14 is parenthetical and deals almost extensively with angels. Therefore it is necessary to understand once again the order of the angelic college of heralds, an order that belongs to elect angels.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is called an angel, the angel of the Lord, and as such He is the Commander-in-Chief of the angelic college of heralds under the title of the angel of the Lord. This, of course, is a theophany, a manifestation of our Lord in Old Testament times before the first advent when He appeared quite frequently as an angel. Therefore, He is classified as the ruler of the angelic college of heralds. The fact that Jesus Christ is called the angel of the Lord is a separate study.

For actual angels, the highest ranking elect angels in the universe are called seraphim (the “im” is a Hebrew plural). When we transliterate it we should transliterate it “seraphs”. This is an order of rank that was created as a decoration, like the order of the morning star for believers who advance to maturity and have maximum glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. Most angels do not have wings, wings are a badge of rank — so when angels do have wings they function as the highest insignia of rank. As we have noted before, seraphs have six wings and are the highest rank ever to exist, a rank that was created as a reward for angels who achieved maximum glorification of Christ during the prehistoric angelic conflict. There were no seraphs before the fall of Satan. Before the fall of Satan the highest ranking angel was a cherub, having four wings. Satan himself was one of the highest ranking angels before the angelic conflict began, but at the conclusion of the prehistoric angelic conflict a new rank was created as a reward for the greatest of the elect angels during that phase of the angelic conflict. The reward is related to the fact that part of the escutcheon of the seraph is the uniform of wisdom: they are said to be full of eyes within and without. “Full of eyes” is a title for maximum perception of doctrine during the prehistoric angelic conflict.

The description of the seraph in Isaiah 6:2, “Seraphs stood above him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.”

The pair of wings which cover the face is analogous to the integrity and humility of the seraphs. In eternity past the issue was the same as it is among members of the human race: who is arrogant and who isn’t. The first sin of any creature in all of history was the sin of arrogance. The sin of arrogance spawned all of the problems and the antithesis of arrogance is genuine humility. And so as with human beings it is in the angelic realm: arrogance versus humility continues to be the great issue. The various forms of arrogance, some are more subtle than others, are so fantastic that Satan actually developed a system out of it which we have studied as cosmic one, the twelve gates of interlocking systems of arrogance.

The pair of wings which cover the feet refer to seraph respect for divine authority. There are two things that we must have in life if we are ever going to go anywhere as far as spiritual things are concerned and as far as life in general. One is genuine humility which is the basis for all integrity, all character, all capacity for life and happiness; the other is respect for authority. Obviously, respect for authority is enforced humility whereas the basis for all integrity in life is genuine humility. So the pair of wings which cover the feet of the seraph indicate his respect for divine authority.

The principle behind all of this: the highest ranking type is always the servant of all, whether angelic or human. The highest ranking type is the seraph. They are the ones who serve the Lord the best of all.

The pair of wings with which the seraphs fly indicate their modus operandi which is the communication of divine policy at the highest level. In the case of Isaiah a seraph provided information which gave him a sense of destiny and led to his dedication to serve the Lord in Isaiah 6:6-8. There is no question about the fact that we as believers must have a personal sense of destiny from our perception of Bible doctrine; we must have control of our own lives through the application of doctrine in the faith-rest drill. You can face the greatest of disasters and have all kinds of horrible things happen to you, as inevitably do to believers in time of historical disaster: economic historical disaster, social historical disaster, or the obvious military disaster in warfare. So the seraph which provided the information is very important because it related Isaiah to his personal sense of destiny. He understood the plan of God for his life, it gave him the basis for getting control of his life, and then the follow-through which is making decisions from a position of strength. There seems to be a relationship in eternity past with those who make it in time. The seraph is connected with Isaiah because the seraph did it in the prehistoric angelic conflict, just as Isaiah made it in human history.

There are three ranks among the seraphim who are in the angelic college of heralds. The highest ranking seraph in the college of heralds is called the King of Arms, which follows the concept of the college of heralds in human history, and this King of Arms is the one we are about to study. He is the mighty angel in Revelation 10:1. We have already studied one King of Arms in Revelation 5:2. At a critical point in history the angelic college of heralds comes into the picture to reveal the modus operandi of God in that terrible period of the Tribulation. The highest ranking of all angelic creatures is used to conduct this activity, for out of the three ranks of the seraphs the King of Arms is the highest.

Second in rank in the angelic college of heralds is called the Officer of Arms, an angel with great authority. We will meet one in Revelation 18:1, or the angel with the key to the abyss in Revelation chapter 20:1-3.

The third in the rank is called the herald. This is the full title of herald, not the function of herald. In Revelation 4:6-8 we have the four living creatures who are full heralds. They were “full of eyes,” the uniform of wisdom for perception of maximum doctrine during the prehistoric angelic conflict, “both inside and outside.” It takes a tremendous amount of self-discipline, of decision from a position of strength, of understanding the plan of God for your life and how it relates to your life and takes control of your life, and it takes a personal sense of destiny to be consistent in the perception of Bible doctrine. And it is true in the prehistoric angelic conflict just as it is true in human history as the extension and conclusion of the angelic conflict. It all ties in together. Once more, in Revelation 10 as in Revelation 18 and chapter 20 we are going to learn from angels. It is very difficult for believers to be consistent. It is almost impossible for many simply because they have established, one way or another, too many distractions in their life so that they no longer have control of their lives, they no longer have a personal sense of destiny. And, of course, they are constantly making decisions from a position of weakness.

So it says in Revelation 4:8, “… Furthermore, day and night they never stopped saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the almighty one, who was [Christ as eternal God, His first royal patent and title Son of God] and who is [the glorified Christ in His hypostatic union with two more royal patents, one at the birth where He was called son of David, one at the ascension where He was called King of kings] and who is coming [the Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent].”

It is interesting that in Revelation 4:8 where these three aspects of our Lord are presented — Jesus Christ as eternal God; Jesus Christ as true humanity; Jesus Christ as the one who controls history and who will return. When all of these things are brought together it is the seraphs who are there to appreciate it. Why? Because they have the capacity to do so. We miss a lot of things in life and a lot of blessing because we simply do not have capacity, and capacity is a matter of your own personal decisions. All of us are the products of our own decisions. Our capacity for happiness, for life, for blessing, is related to our ability to make decisions and to stick with the plan no matter how many distractions and pressures and difficulties come along. Our failure to do so does not mean that God punishes us, which does occur at a certain stage, but we punish ourselves.

In the next area, the lower aristocracy, we have the cherubim. It must gall Satan to realise that God created a much higher echelon, just as it galls a lot of human beings when someone whom they regard with disdain is actually elevated by the grace of God. And so we have the cherubim heralds. The cherubs rank lower than seraphs, having four wings as their badge of rank. However, in eternity past and prior to the fall of Satan the cherub was the highest ranking angel in that category of creation. For the King of Arms, Officer of Arms, we have pur sui vant as the key word. At this point the cherubs fall into the category of pur sui vant. Pur sui vant was originally an old French word. It came into England as a borrowed word and it meant a follower. It is simply a designation for the lower order of aristocracy.

The pur sui vant as a badge of office wore the coat of arms of their Lord. In the system of aristocracy there are higher categories and lower categories. In England, for example, the royal officers of arms were made a corporation by Richard the third, and at present the members of this corporation are known as the college of arms or college of heralds. While pur sui vant originally meant an attendant it became technical for the functionary aristocracy, ranking below a herald but ranking higher than the rest of the people.

There are four systems of aristocracy under pur sui vant. First of all there is the red cross; secondly the blue mantle; thirdly the herald of the castle; fourthly the red dragon. Each one of these is related to a medieval system. In our analogy pur sui vant officers are simply cherubs, the angels with four wings, and are pur sui vant officers who are described in Ezekiel chapter one, verses four through six.

In Revelation chapter 10 we are going to encounter several categories from the college of heralds. The fact that teaching angels go back to Moses and Mount Sinai, the Jews were taught by angels; and the ones who taught, this was a privilege given to them because of their fantastic history in the prehistoric angelic conflict. It was a decoration or a reward.

The fourth category of the college of heralds is the wingless heralds. These are generally messengers of judgment. They would follow the same principle in the English college of heralds under the title of pur sui vant messengers. There are quite a number of pur sui vant messengers in the Word of God. There are at least nine different categories. For example, category #1: the angelic messengers who spent the night with Lot and destroyed Sodom the next day, Genesis 19:13; category #2: the destroying angel of 2 Samuel 24:16 is a pur sui vant messenger; category #3: the destroying angels of Psalm 78:49; category #4: the executioners of the city (Jerusalem), Ezekiel 9:1ff; category #5: the man clothed in linen who acted as the messenger for the chariot of fire in Ezekiel 10:6; category #6: the four angelic creatures who restrain the weather cells of the weather machine, Revelation 7:1; category #7: the angels with the seven trumpets; category #8: the seven angels with the seven plagues of Revelation 15:1, the same angels who have the vials and libation bowls in Revelation 16; category #9: the seven thunders are pur sui vant heralds who accompany the King of Arms in Revelation 10:3,4.

There are also human heralds for each advent as well as angelic. A the first advent of Christ we have the angelic heralds in Luke 2:9-15, but we also have the human herald in John the Baptist in John 3:28-31. In the second advent of Christ we have the angelic herald who is a seraph, the King of arms, the mighty angel of Revelation 10:1. We are also going to meet in Revelation 11:3-12 the human heralds of the second advent: Moses and Elijah brought back for a special ministry at the end of the Tribulation.

In the meantime we are looking at a parenthesis. It begins at Revelation 10:1 and concludes in the middle of chapter 11, verse 14. The outline of this parenthesis is very simple: The angelic herald of the second advent, Revelation 10:1-11; the human heralds of the second advent, Revelation 11:1-14.

One point of application: These heralds function as the highest form of aristocracy. They are aristocracy in the angelic realm from the prehistoric angelic conflict and they are aristocracy in the human realm from their function in human history. The whole principle of aristocracy is not titles handed down from father to elder son, it is not some system of primogeniture. Aristocracy is related to the key to happiness and blessing in life — integrity. That is why we spend so much time studying the system behind the divine dynasphere, because the system behind the plan is integrity. Our point of contact with God is through His integrity, not through His sovereignty as per hyper-Calvinism and not through His love, as per emotional fundamentalism. We deal with the integrity of God. We deal with the justice of God as the originating point for His integrity; we deal with the righteousness of God as the recipient of His integrity. When the justice of God the Father imputed all of our sins to Christ on the cross that established a principle: the justice of the Father set aside His eternal love for the Son in order to accomplish our so great salvation. The justice of God the Father imputed our sins to Christ on the cross, the justice of God the Father judged those sins. Therefore, the justice of God the Father is our point of contact with God, and has been since the fall of man. The justice of God condemned man at the fall; the justice of God provides salvation for man at the cross. The justice of God imputes the other half of divine holiness to every one of us at the point of salvation so that a grace pipeline is established between the justice of God and the righteousness of God. And every blessing that you will ever have from God in this life comes from His justice and is imputed directly to the indwelling righteousness of God which you possess. This is to keep you from falling into the pattern of Satan in the prehistoric angelic conflict. The pattern of Satan was arrogance, “I will be like the most high God.” The most destructive thing that can ever happen to you is what can happen to the soul under the principle of arrogance. Arrogance destroys everything that is meaningful or wonderful or marvellous in this life. Arrogance is a destroyer of every part of us and as a result of arrogance you can have and develop in your life the most excruciating forms of misery. And it isn’t discipline from God, it is the natural and logical result of your own bad decisions.

The believer who recognises that he is dealing with the integrity of God and that the integrity of God has set up a grace system, then gets into a way by which he can develop integrity which glorifies God. Integrity is the means by which we glorify God. Serving the Lord in “Christian service” is merely a by-product of integrity.

So, here in Revelation 10:1 we have the angelic herald of the second advent, the triumph of integrity in eternity past, the triumph of integrity in the prehistoric angelic conflict. We meet in verse 1 the King of Arms from the college of heralds. Chapter ten begins a parenthetical section for the purpose of introducing the heralds of the second advent, the human and the angelic.

The parenthesis begins with this kai. The conjunction kai has at least 25 different uses and this one’s primary function is to start a parenthesis. The parenthesis means that we stop our study of the Tribulation as such, the sequence of events, the chronology of events. We have to be filled in on certain things before we can get to the seventh trumpet which starts in Revelation 11:15. We are now developing an honours list, one angel and two human beings who stand high in their relationship with God both in time and in eternity.

The next word after kai which introduces our parenthesis is the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, “Then I saw.” Inside of the parenthesis we are going to see something. Instead of continuing the sequence of events with the seventh trumpet John interrupts the vision and he presents the heralds of the second advent. With this we have the actual scene which is a constative aorist that contemplates chapter 10:1 through chapter 11:14 in its entirety. It pulls it all together in the constative aorist of o(raw. This is what he saw, it does not advance the chronology but fills us in on certain principles that are necessary. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action. The indicative mood is indicative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object, made up of three words. First is the adjective a)lloj. This adjective is used in the sense of different from the sixth angelic trumpeter who is a pur sui vant messenger but the same in that he is also an elect angel. So we are not seeing another trumpeter at this time. This is an angel but different from the previously-mentioned ones who blew the first six trumpets. With this we also have a noun, a)ggeloj and it means an angel. And with this the accusative singular direct object from i)sxuroj, meaning powerful, mighty, strong. This is the accusative of apposition and so we are going to translate it “the powerful one.” Actually, it is the same angel as in Revelation 5:2, the King of Arms, the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds. When the King of Arms becomes involved in anything it becomes extremely important to understand. His power comes not from his muscle but from his integrity. He is pictured in the present active participle of katabainw, he is descending, coming down. This, of course, is not a reference to Christ who does not come down to the earth in the middle of the Tribulation or near the end of the Tribulation, and this word katabainw cannot be used for Christ until the second advent. This is not the second advent.

Then we have the preposition e)k plus the ablative of o)uranoj, “from heaven.” The King of Arms, then, comes from the throne room and he comes for a purpose. He is going to claim planet earth for the Lord before the Lord returns.

Next we see the escutcheon of the King of Arms. There are four parts to his escutcheon. We begin by noting the cloud, then we will see the feet, and then a couple of analogies; and all these four will form the escutcheon of the King of Arms. The perfect passive participle of the verb periballw is where we resume. It means to be clothed. We will translate it in the passive voice: “And he was wearing.” The intensive perfect tense is one in which special attention is directed toward the results of the completed action of the verb. It is the emphatic way in the Greek of presenting a fact. He is wearing a cloud. The passive voice: the King of Arms receives the action of the verb as a part of his escutcheon which is a circumstantial participle designed to function as a finite verb and be preceded by the conjunction “and.” The accusative singular direct object from the noun nefelh is in the singular here, he was just wearing one cloud. The cloud represents the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and becomes the first fourth of his escutcheon.

Clouds have many meanings as we have studied before and here it has a special meaning, the glory of the Lord. At the mount of transfiguration in Matthew 17:5 the bright cloud overshadowing them was representing the glory of the Lord. The cloud represents the presence of God and the King of Arms comes directly from heaven and is therefore the representative of God on a very special eschatological mission. The cloud also represents the glory of Christ in His strategic victory of the first advent and which is noted in the ascension in Acts 1:9, “a cloud received him out of their sight.” Clouds also represent the power and wisdom of God, as in Psalm 135:6,7; 147:8; Proverbs 8:28.

The cloud here represents the power and wisdom of God in dealing with human history plus the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in His strategic victory at the first advent.

The second part of the escutcheon is a rainbow. We have a connective conjunction meaning that we are continuing the story of the escutcheon of this particular angel, kai. Next is the nominative singular subject i)rij, the Greek word for rainbow. With it is a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of kefalh, “head.” With that the possessive genitive of a)utoj used as a third person personal pronoun and correctly translated, “and a rainbow over his head.”

The rainbow is the visible sign of the integrity of God in permitting, of course, the continuation of human history to resolve the angelic conflict. The integrity of God was seen in the antediluvian civilisation when, as a result of the demon genetic attack on the human race, God protected the only line of true humanity. That line belonged to Noah and his family. So to perpetuate human history God in His perfect integrity [His justice] destroyed all the contaminated part of the human race with a general flood, a disaster which devastated the earth. Afterward the rainbow was given as a sign that God would never again destroy the earth by such an historical disaster — Genesis 9:12-16. Therefore, the rainbow is used here as a visible sign of God’s perfect integrity which is man’s point of contact with God in the historical phase of the angelic conflict. By integrity we mean the holiness of God, His justice and His righteousness. The key to everything is how the justice of God superseded the love of God at the cross. God the Father loved God the Son with an eternal love but at the cross He set aside His love, and justice made the contact. Justice imputed all the sins of the world to Christ on the cross and then the justice of the Father judged them. That is the saving work of Christ. And then to anyone who believes in Christ then the other half of divine holiness is imputed — divine righteousness. Every believer has divine righteousness, establishing the grace policy down the pipeline between the justice of God and the righteousness of God. Our point of contact is always the justice of God and man’s point of contact has been the justice of God since man’s fall in the garden. And because we possess God’s righteousness God loves us but that is still not the point of contact. Therefore the integrity of God is always man’s point of contact.

This angel, the King of Arms, the highest representative of the angelic college of heralds, comes down to the earth carrying, as a part of his escutcheon, the principle of the integrity of God. The rainbow was the visible sign of the integrity of God related to historical disaster. The earth is never again to be overtaken by any such form of catastrophe. In other words, the integrity of God guarantees that God will never destroy or permit the destruction of planet earth during human history. Human history is to be perpetuated. The earth will not be destroyed until human history has been terminated, which means at the end of the Millennium when the angelic conflict will be permanently resolved. That is the major issue at this point. This part of the escutcheon of the King of Arms has a tremendous implication, such as the sophisticated weapons of man in this nuclear age will never destroy the earth or its population. The greatest destruction of mankind will not even come through nuclear activity, it will come in the Tribulation. Warfare and economic disaster are going to be the great population destroyers, not nuclear weapons.

The implications are tremendous. History will be perpetuated, the guarantee is the integrity of God, the sign is the rainbow. The rainbow also connotes the fact that the human race is protected from self-destruction. Given any kind of an opportunity the human race would destroy itself long before it could invent any destructive weapons. Man will continue to live on planet earth until the end of the Millennium, the end of human history. God does not permit any destruction to interfere with the use of history as the extension of the angelic conflict. God does permit man-made disaster and God does continue to judge certain segments of the human race from time to time; but God will not destroy the human race nor planet earth until the end of the Millennium. That is the subject of 2 Peter 3:5-15.

The principle from this second part of the escutcheon is the fact that divine integrity is not only the point of contact for mankind but divine holiness or integrity has total intrinsic value. This means that man has three things as a result: a personal relationship with the integrity of God and proper relationship with the integrity of God. First of all, from the doctrine he learns which establishes this relationship he has a personal sense of destiny. Secondly, the believer has control of his life through cognisance and execution of the plan of God. Thirdly, the believer makes decisions from a position of strength rather than from a position of weakness.

1. The rainbow, in addition to the connotation just noted [the integrity of God], is a reminder of the believer’s eternal and temporal security.

2. Every believer at the moment of salvation is in the plan of God in time as well as in eternity. The plan of God has two aspects for you: time and eternity.

3. Therefore, no matter how great the historical disaster the plan of God and temporal security for the believer [in the divine dynasphere] continues.

4. The only exception to the temporal security of the believer is either self-perpetuating misery in the cosmic system or divine discipline terminating in the sin unto death.

5. No matter what personal testing may come your way God has a purpose for your life and He will provide under the principle of logistical grace.

6. The pattern of the integrity of God is seen in the logistical grace provision for the believer, for all blessing of logistical grace flows from the justice of God, one half of divine holiness, to the indwelling righteousness of God, the other half of divine holiness.

7. Therefore, whether you know it or not you have it. If you know it you have a sense of security. If you don’t know that you have temporal security then you are not aware of it and you are anxious and worried and full of fears. Therefore the believer’s sense of security must originate from cognisance of divine integrity — that is the rainbow — plus the mechanics of logistical grace provision.

8. This is part of the essence of God rationale used in the second stage of the faith-rest drill, designed to accelerate your spiritual growth. The thing that delivers a nation is spiritual growth, and this includes adversity as well as prosperity testing.

9. The use of the second stage of the faith-rest drill, then, becomes the means of awareness of temporal security. No matter what happens to you, you are still in the plan of God in time.

10. The more the believer knows about the integrity of God the greater his personal sense of destiny. The rainbow as the second part of the escutcheon of the King of Arms is a reminder of the integrity and the faithfulness of God.

The third part of the escutcheon is the face analogy. It begins with the consecutive conjunction kai, translated “and,” and the nominative singular subject from the noun prospwpon plus the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “and his face.” We have an ellipsis here, we insert e)imi, “and his face was.” Then we have the comparative conjunction o(j, and it is translated “was like.” Finally, we have the appellative nominative e(lioj, “and his face was like the sun.”

The King of Arms as the highest seraph in the college of heralds wears the escutcheon of our Lord Jesus Christ. In that sense our Lord is the sun King. Beginning at salvation and continuing into every facet of life Jesus Christ is the source of blessing. He is the source of our energy, our enlightenment and, as it were, here we bask in the warmth of His encouragement. Were it not for the sun, of course, the world would be enshrouded in darkness as it was before the creation of man. Christ means that our life has purpose, definition and meaning. This is represented by the face analogy. The only way to escape the kingdom of darkness [the cosmic system] is to first believe in Christ and then to live in His plan, the divine dynasphere. When we do we have the principle, “He who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?” Whether personal or collective adversity comes our way only the warmth of divine blessing, the warmth of logistical grace, can penetrate the darkness of historical disaster.

The fourth part of the escutcheon is the feet analogy. We have the connective kai introducing this fourth pat. We have the nominative plural from pouj, and with it the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “and his feet.” Again, because of ellipsis, we insert the verb to be, “were,” and then “like,” the same comparative conjunction o)j. Then we have the nominative plural of stuloj, correctly translated “pillars.” It also means columns. With it we have the descriptive genitive singular from the noun pur, which means fire. Translation: “and his feet were like columns of fire.” Those columns of fire represent the divine protection of the positive believer in time of historical disaster, whether it is historical disaster right now or whether it is the historical disaster of this context, the Tribulation. It refers, therefore, to the wall of fire — “columns of fire” — the divine protection of the positive believer in time of either personal or historical disaster. The wall of fire in the Church Age is the divine dynasphere and only believers living in the divine dynasphere are protected. While there is no divine dynasphere in the Tribulation, the point of context, the believers of the Tribulation are protected by the plan of God and their association with it. This means that believers in the cosmic system are never protected by the wall of fire, they are subject to the sin unto death. So God has provided the wall of fire for every believer in fellowship with God throughout human history and only believers living in the cosmic system are excluded from this wall of fire during historical disaster. In fact historical disaster is used by God to execute believers with the sin unto death.

Translation of verse one: “Then I saw another elect angel, the powerful one, coming down from heaven: and he was wearing a cloud, and a rainbow was over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet were like columns of fire.”

There is one other principle, that of freedom and security. People are all too often, in time of historical disaster, willing to exchange freedom in a trade-out for security. They are often willing to surrender their national freedom to a national government if that national government will provide them temporal security. So the exchange of freedom for security is to sell one’s soul for a mess of pottage and destroy the very purpose of human history as the extension of the angelic conflict. Today socialism, the welfare state, social security, redistribution of wealth, are very popular concepts. That is because in this time of economic disaster they offer security rather than freedom. The principle: Freedom is necessary to glorify God; security is not.

In glorifying God security isn’t even an issue; freedom is. Nevertheless, God’s grace policy from His integrity has provided both eternal and temporal security for every believer. Eternal security is settled at the very moment that we believe in Christ. We are born again, we are entered into union with Christ, we can never lose our salvation. But also there is temporal security. This is settled as a result of faith in Christ, the imputation of divine righteousness, one half of divine integrity, to every believer. The point is, the believer cannot work for, earn, or deserve eternal security; he cannot earn, work for, or deserve, temporal security. The grace policy of the integrity of God excludes working for the security He provides. The escutcheon of the King of Arms reminds us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ that God is perfect, therefore His plan is perfect. His perfect plan includes temporal as well as eternal security. Man separates freedom from security by greed, arrogance, inordinate ambition, worry, fear, anxiety, and therefore he sacrifices one for the sake of the other. But God in His perfect wisdom and in His plan has provided both freedom and security as the extension of His integrity and grace policy. And He reveals it in the escutcheon of the King of Arms.

There are many things that happen in life whereby we are able to interpret the historical trends through the doctrine of the Word of God, inasmuch as historical trends is a subject of the Word and especially in this dispensation of the Church; for this is the dispensation of no prophecy, and since prophecy is not used to interpret historical trends we have to go to the doctrines which are involved. We have studied these doctrines in the past. For example, we are the products of our own decisions individually and collectively rather than the products of our environment.

In Revelation 10:1 we are meeting for the first time the angelic herald of the second advent. Once the second advent occurs Satan will be superseded by our Lord Jesus Christ who will rule forever. The rainbow over the angel’s head indicates the fact that this herald of the second advent, the King of Arms, is declaring to us that the world will survive all disasters and that there will always be people on planet earth, and that these people with their volition, positive or negative, will continue to fulfil the principle of the angelic conflict. The angelic conflict will be resolved by the volition of mankind.

The third part of the escutcheon of the King of Arms: “his face was like the sun,” the provision of logistical grace in times of historical disaster, “and his feet were like columns of fire,” a reference to the wall of fire, the divine protection of the positive believer in time of either personal or historical disaster.

Logistical grace is defined as the divine provision and support of the believer on planet earth. This includes historical disaster. The background for logistical grace is found in 2 Corinthians 9:8, “God is able to make all grace abound toward you.” This means that in time of historical disaster, in time of economic disaster, God is able to make all grace abound toward you, “that always having sufficiency in everything you may have an abundance for every good deed.” God’s plan has a system of logistics. God is perfect, His plan is perfect. That means that His logistical system is also perfect. We have to understand that as long as we are in the plan of God in any possible way we are logistically sustained. Even the many believers who have eternal life and are outside of the plan of God in the cosmic system are being sustained by logistical grace.

Ephesians 1:3, “Worthy of praise and glorification the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one having provided us benefits by every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.”

If God has a plan for your life, as He does, it is God’s responsibility to sustain that, to provide whatever is necessary whereby you can continue in this life to fulfil His plan. It is true that some believers are removed by the sin unto death because they have spent too much time in the cosmic system and the system of demonisation in it. And, of course, some believers are under divine discipline, but by and large the majority of believers are not even under divine discipline when they have disaster; they are simply the products of their own decisions, they have brought on themselves the disasters they face. Nevertheless, there is an overriding principle and that is the fact that for believers in the cosmic system who have failed they are still alive, even though hurting and facing some form of disaster. That is logistical grace. There are believers who are suffering for blessing; they are under logistical grace. There are believers who have succeeded and are doing very well in the divine dynasphere. There are believers who have failed. All of these believers have one thing in common: they are being kept alive by the grace of God. We are kept alive for a purpose, and that is to get into the plan of God and grow by means of grace, logistical grace, and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Logistical grace must come before knowledge; before you can learn Bible doctrine you have to be alive.

Logistical grace keeps alive the worst of believers and the best of believers. Sometimes logistical grace simply keeps alive the worst of believers so that the best of believers will have people testing, and pass it and move on to greater things. But the whole concept is that God supports and sustains in this life those who are personally believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Logistical grace is based upon the integrity of God. It is based, therefore, upon His faithfulness. Therefore, we as believers facing historical disaster need to understand this principle, Lamentations 3:20-25.

All believers living in God’s plan live inside the dynasphere. Believers living inside of the divine dynasphere are aware of the fact that there are three things that they will have in historical prosperity or in historical disaster. They will have a personal sense of destiny, they will have the control of their lives, and they will generally make decisions from a position of strength rather than a position of weakness. As a result of these three things they will orient to any disaster through the rationale of logistical grace.

Worry is a malfunction of the faith-rest drill, it intensifies your problems. Worry causes you to approach life emotionally rather than rationally. Worry is cowardice whereas courage is the ability to think under pressure. Poise is courage under normal circumstances.

Matthew 5:25, “Stop worrying about what you shall eat and what you shall drink; nor for your body as to what you shall wear. Is not the fact that you are alive more than food? And is not the fact that you have a body more than clothing?” The Lord says, in effect, “You are alive, you are a believer. God has a purpose for your life. Why are you worrying?” Worrying compounds the problem. The amazing thing is that God provides logistical grace for people who worry, even though worry is their unbelief and their rejection of the whole principle of logistical grace. Logistical grace works whether you deserve it or not.

Matthew 5:26, “Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, neither do they reap,” they are not functioning under the laws of free enterprise. We sow and reap under the principle of economy; “neither do they gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of greater value than they?”

Verse 27, “Which of you by worrying can add eighteen inches to your height?” You cannot solve your problems by worry, fear, anxiety. This is cowardice, this is facing reality and becoming coward.

Verses 28, 29, “Why are you worried about your clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not work, neither do they spin [manufacture cloth]: in fact, I say to you, That even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.” We need clothing. We do not have to be the best dressed person in history. But above all the problem is not clothing in itself, it is worry about clothing.

Verse 30, “In fact if God keeps clothing the common grass of the field … will he not do much more for you, O believer with very little faith-rest?” In other words, this was written to people who were worried, people who were not using the faith-rest drill. If God provides clothing for grass, it follows a fortiori, that He will not withhold clothing from the believer.

Verse 31, “Therefore, do not worry, thinking, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? With what shall we clothe ourselves?” Those are questions that come readily to mind when you have lost your job, when you are in some form of economic disaster. And, by the way, it might even be your fault but that is not even the issue. The issue is not whose fault it is, the issue is the reality of it. So it no longer becomes a matter of blaming yourself or blaming someone else. Of course, again, we are all the products of our own decisions. That is not the issue, the issue is reality: I do not have a job, I do not have the means of bringing any money into the household whereby I can survive.

Verse 32, “(In fact the Gentiles eagerly search for all of these things:) furthermore, your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.” Now we are getting back to the basic and fundamental concept of the first stage of the faith-rest drill: the application of omniscience to the situation. You do not even have to tell Him.

Verse 33, “Consequently.” Look, now you are in trouble, now you are in a jamb. Now you have real problems and you are facing reality: it looks like you are going to starve to death, or go naked through the streets, or you are going to wind up living in a gutter or under a bridge somewhere. Now, where are you going to start? “seek first the kingdom [salvation through faith in Christ], and his integrity.” How do I seek it? With doctrine. Start with doctrine; “and all these things [logistical grace support] shall be provided for you.” Our meaning in life as believers must be related to Bible doctrine. We have no other purpose for being here except to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ. There is only one way we grow in grace and that is through the perception of Bible doctrine, so that is the place to start.

Verse 34, “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow: for tomorrow will take care of itself.” How? Through logistical grace. If God lets me live until tomorrow He will provide for tomorrow. “Each day has enough evil of its own.” By evil He means things with which you have to contend through the faith-rest drill. So why are you trying to project faith-rest out there to tomorrow when you haven’t even handled today? Once you get into the habit of worrying about today you will worry about tomorrow, and worry cuts you off at the pass.

So the issue of logistical grace is found at gate two in the faith-rest drill. The issue is that God keeps the reversionist alive under logistical grace just as much as He does the believer in the divine dynasphere. Through logistical grace God maintains a cadre of reversionistic types in order to function under the principle of people testing.

Basically, what are the provisions of logistical grace? The first is the perpetuation of human life in time. God sustains the life of the believer in spite of the opposition of Satan and his genius policy of evil. No believer can continue in life apart from logistical grace support for Satan has the power of death, according to Ephesians 2:14,15. But God delivers from death, Job 5:20; Psalm 33:19; 56:13. Death, then, is a matter of the sovereign decision of God, the plan of God based on prior knowledge of all the facts. And again the principle: When God decides to take you home nothing can keep you here; when God decides to keep you here nothing can take you home to heaven.

Secondly, there is the formation and the preservation of the canon; thirdly, there is the logistical support of the laws of divine establishment which provides both authority and freedom in correct balance in order that we might have the opportunity of making decisions that resolve the angelic conflict. For freedom is the heritage of birth plus the resulting imputation of life as the target or the home of the human soul. Freedom is the extension of the function of our soul: the volition, the mentality, the function of our conscience, even our emotions. Freedom exists therefore for the purpose of resolving the angelic conflict and freedom belongs to us, even options in time of disaster. Divine authorisation of the local church: God has provided certain local churches where doctrine may be learned. The provision of a right pastor is a part of logistical grace, and the provision of the royal priesthood of the believer for perception of Bible doctrine plus the ministry of God the Holy Spirit provided for every one of us. Logistical grace, therefore, has every category of provision we need to meet the historical crisis of the present time.

We are all in a war called the angelic conflict. All of us are going to face adversity and prosperity. These are antithetical tests but we are to pass them both. One is more subtle than the other. On is an obvious pressure situation and one is an abstruse pressure situation but we have to pass both tests to glorify the Lord. God has a plan for our lives. We are the products of our own decisions and it is also true that to fulfil the plan of God we must make decisions from a position of strength rather than a position of weakness. We must have, from our study of the plan of God, a personal sense of destiny and we must be in control of our lives. That means that we are going to be tested to see if we can pass and grow in grace or flunk and fail miserably. Interestingly, when we fail we simply make ourselves miserable from our failures. Our failure merely intensifies our unhappiness, our disorientation and our misery. So to fail is to guarantee misery as a Christian. As a believer you are going to have moments of great unhappiness as long your own volition is functioning in your own soul, and what often passes for divine discipline is really divine discipline at all, it is simply making a bad decision.

God has created man as an extension of the prehistoric angelic conflict and that is why, prior to the second advent, there are both angelic and human heralds. Right now we are studying the angelic heralds of the second advent and are dealing with the closing days of the Tribulation.

Verse 2, the King of Arms has a ministry on this earth which begins in the verse with the title deed of planet earth. He has come down as the herald of the Lord Jesus Christ to make an announcement that our Lord is going to take over the earth, that in effect He has purchased it on the cross and has allowed history to run its course but that He will come to superseded Satan at the second advent.

We begin verse 2 with the conjunction kai, which is this case is a translational conjunction and it correctly translated “and.” The present active participle e)xw follows, and the present tense is the aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: the King of Arms of the angelic college of heralds produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, therefore translated like a finite verb, “And he had.”

Then we have the prepositional phrase, “in his hand,” followed by the accusative singular direct object from biblaridion, which means a little book, a little scroll. It actually refers to the title deed of planet earth. With this we have the ascriptive use of the perfect passive participle of the verb a)noigw to tell us the condition of the book. It means it is open, “a little book open.”

Because of our Lord’s strategic victory at the cross He has the right to rule planet earth. The earth belongs to the Lord and will be claimed by Him at the second advent. The earth is a very small part of our Lord’s creative work. He owns the earth on the basis of the fact that He created it but He never makes that the basis for His claim. The basis for His claim is the first advent and His work on the cross. He is going to regain the rulership of the earth as the last Adam. Since the earth belongs to the Lord the unbelievers at the second advent are going to be removed under the baptism of fire. So the small book opened, or the title deed of planet earth, describes our Lord’s purchase of the human race at the cross. The book or the title deed is open for the plan of salvation is the basis for that purchase. As a matter of fact the book has been open since the fall of man and the cross is the purchasing price. So when our Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross He actually went for the entire human race. That is why the book is open. No personal sins were ever imputed to us for condemnation. Instead they were imputed to Christ on the cross and they were judged. In effect, that opens the book for the entire human race. The sins of every person who has ever lived — past, present and future — were imputed to Christ on the cross and judged. Therefore it is an open book, it means that any member of the human race can share in the eternal rule of Christ and the Millennial reign of Christ.

Then we have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “then,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb tiqemi, which means here to place, “then he placed.” We have the constative aorist tense which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the King of Arms produces the action, and the indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the significance of putting his right foot on the sea and the left one on the land.

This gives us our translation: “And he had a small open book in his hand: and he placed his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land.”

What is the significance of this act? It is very much like explorers who, travelling about the world a few centuries ago, encountered some land that appeared to belong to no one and would claim it for their sovereign ruler. They usually had one foot on the land and one foot on the sea by which they approached the land when they would utter their words: “In the name of [their sovereign] I claim this land for ...” This is what the angelic herald was doing. He had his right foot in the sea and his left foot on the land. There are several reasons for this but the one that perhaps is most interesting as far as present application is the fact that a few decades ago the Russian communists discovered that the secret to strategically controlling land is to control the sea. There is much more sea than there is land and the key to controlling continents is to control the sea. When the Russians realised this they began to build their navy. Today the Russians have the most modern and the largest fleet in the world today (1982) and the reason is that they understand a point of strategy: You must control the sea to control a continent.

It is not surprising then that the right foot is in the sea. This means that strategic control of all continents. But then he put his left foot on land to indicate the control of every land mass in the world. When our Lord Jesus Christ comes back He will have complete control of planet earth, both the sea and the land masses. So we have the principle. He is holding an open book, the title deed, and this is the announcement that our Lord Jesus Christ is returning to take over the world at the proper point in history. This gesture confirms the fact that Christ will supersede Satan as the ruler of this world. The concept of the title deed is nowhere recorded — we will see why — but the meaning is obvious: Jesus Christ will set aside Satan as the ruler of this world. Jesus Christ has the right to supersede Satan through His work on the cross where He provided eternal salvation for all mankind. Satan took over the rulership of this world through man’s sin. Adam lost to Satan. But our Lord takes over the rulership of this world through being judged for man’s sin. The basis, of course, of Satan’s coup det tat in the Garden of Eden is set aside by our Lord’s saving work on the cross. Satan gained the rulership of the world through Adam’s sin but our Lord regained the rulership of the world through bearing all the sins of the human race on the cross. Christ is the winner in the angelic conflict.

Now the question arises in the application of this verse: Will you, as a believer and member of the royal family of God, be able to share in any way in that victory? That will be determined at the judgment seat of Christ but it has been determined by how we handle life right now. Inasmuch as believers of the Church Age are royal family of God those who meet and pass the eight momentum tests are going to rule segments of the earth. At the present time such believers are anonymous. The winners are anonymous and they appear to have no influence on history while they form the pivot that makes the difference between whether we survive or not as a client nation to God. But in the future the believers who are anonymous and not found in the history books are going to make history for 1000 years. They are those believers who pass these tests and advance to maturity through their daily perception and application of Bible doctrine. They are going to rule for 1000 years.

Verse 3 begins with the aorist active indicative of the verb krazw which means here to shout. He shouted with a loud voice just as a lion roars. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The entirety includes the announcement of the King of Arms that Jesus Christ is the legitimate ruler of the world and that He actually purchased the world on the cross. The active voice: the King of Arms produces the action of the verb. Just like a herald of old he shouts his proclamation. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the declaration of the King of Arms as the herald of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The analogy “just as a lion roars,” the present middle indicative of the verb nukaomia. When a lion roars it is a very chilling type of sound. The pictorial present picks that up with the middle voice. The lion produces the action of the verb, a sound which can be heard at great distance. Hence, the indirect middle emphasises the agent as producing the action of the verb. When a lion roars it always has a note of confidence; when the herald gives his announcement it has tremendous confidence. The declarative indicative mood is for the reality of the analogy. “Then he shouted with a loud voice, just as a lion roars.”

The proclamation which follows is called the proclamation of the seven thunders. We have the connective conjunction kai plus the temporal adverb o(ti, translated “and when he had shouted.” Then we have a subject, the seven thunders are now mentioned. The seven thunders are not actual thunders, they are angels, pur sui vant messengers who accompany the King of Arms and, in effect, they rebroadcast the proclamation of the herald throughout the world. The aorist active indicative is the relaying of their proclamation: the aorist active indicative of the verb lalew, which simply means here to relay the proclamation. The culminative aorist views the proclamation in its entirety but regards it from the standpoint of existing results: the entire universe knows of the coming of Christ and the proclamation made by the King of Arms. The active voice: the King of Arms produces the action by claiming rulership of the world for our Lord Jesus Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the proclamation.

The accusative plural direct object of the noun fwnh is used for voice. It means sound as well as voice. With it we have the possessive genitive plural from the reflexive pronoun h( a)utou used as a reciprocal pronoun and “their own.” “He [the King of Arms] shouted with a loud voice, just as a lion roars: and when he [the King of Arms] had shouted the seven thunders [pur sui vant messengers] relayed the message with their own voices.”

The meaning of this has to be taken with the next verse as well where we have the censorship of what is said. Whatever the content of the proclamation John understood exactly what was being said when it was relayed by the seven thunders. The apostle assumed that the information should go into the Word of God and he was about to write it when he was interrupted. First of all the content of the proclamation was not to be recorded in the Word of God. Both here and in verse eight the voice from heaven is God the Holy Spirit acting as the censor, indicating what is to go into the Word of God and be recorded and what is not to be recorded. This fulfils the principle of the doctrine of inspiration.

Verse 4 — the temporal conjunction o(te starts this out with kai, “And when.” In other words, once this has taken place, once the King of Arms has made the proclamation and it has been relayed by the seven thunders then something strange happens that is unexpected. John is permitted to record what happened but he has to cut off the message.

“Now when the seven thunders [the pur sui vant messengers of the angelic college of heralds] relayed their proclamation.”

John then says: “I was about to write.” The imperfect active indicative means he was already taking notes, the imperfect active indicative of the verb mellw followed by the present active infinitive of graqw. The present tense of graqw means that he already had sketched out notes and he was now about to make it a part of the Word of God. He is about to write what he had heard, and that is the major issue — he concentrated on the message, he got the message. Here is an interesting place where John listens very carefully to the proclamation, first of all as the King of Arms gives it, and secondly as it is repeated by the seven thunders. And he understands it clearly because he concentrated, the aorist active indicative of a)kouw emphasises his concentration. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety.

When this herald put one foot on the land and one on the sea, and opened the book and made his proclamation, John listened very carefully. That is concentration. He not only had concentration but at the same time he was filled with the Spirit and he was already making notes, getting ready to make this a part of the canon of scripture, a part of the book of Revelation. Now, all of a sudden he gets a command to censor it. The important thing is the message and the message is censored. It is not only given, it is repeated. When something is repeated it is to be learned. Once it is learned it is to be applied. But here is a case of where he is learning the message, he knows it, and now he is told to scratch it; once you understand it, forget it. The aorist active imperative of the verb sqragizw, “seal it up [cancel it out, forget it].” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. This is a prohibition in the aorist tense, meaning a mandate against doing something which he has not yet begun to do, he has not yet entered it into the Word of God. The active voice: John, who is writing the book of Revelation, is commanded by God the Holy Spirit: “Do not write what the seven thunders said.” The imperative is the imperative of prohibition.

Next we have the nominative neuter plural from the relative pronoun o(j which in the neuter means “what things [content].” The command is the aorist active subjunctive [not the imperative] of grafw plus the negative mh, which is tantamount to a prohibition. It means you understand it, you can write it down very easily, but don’t write it, “do not begin to write.” The ingressive aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. The active voice: the apostle John is prohibited from entering this message into the Word of God. The subjunctive mood plus the negative mh is a subjunctive of very strong prohibition.

Translation: “Now when the seven thunders [pur sui vant messengers] relayed the proclamation, I [John] was about to write it down: but I heard a voice [God the Holy Spirit] from heaven saying, Seal up [close down] what the seven thunders have communicated, and do not write it down.”

1. God is not responsible for any bad decisions made by any member of the human race. When we make bad decisions we make them, God doesn’t make them.

2. The message of the seven thunders was a message of victory. It was a victory bulletin but this victory bulletin does not comply with the rules of human volition in the angelic conflict. The one thing which you and I possess as members of the human race which resolves the angelic conflict is human volition or free will, the ability to make decisions good or bad. This is one of those messages, a victory bulletin, which is incompatible with the rules of human volition. Apparently the content of the message was of such a nature than anyone upon hearing the message and understanding it exegetically in the Word of God would sit down and say, “Okay, that’s it.” And that would be the end of it. In other words, everyone would be sitting on their hands. The whole concept is that people would say, “I have no part in this victory, I am not a participant, I am a spectator.” But you are really not, you are a gladiator. You are supposed to be on the playing field and the playing field is the divine dynasphere. The content of this announcement which will be made just before the second advent is of such a nature that to allow them to understand it as a part of eschatology would mean that you would no longer be participating in the angelic conflict. You would say in effect that the decisions are already made.

This message will be given in the future. The one danger of certain areas of eschatology is that people distort it into a system whereby they no longer live the Christian life.

3. Divine censorship acts so that man will not hear those things which would prejudice his thinking and destroy his objectivity. There is nothing in the Word of God to give you a prejudiced viewpoint of anything, and there is nothing in the Word f God to destroy your objectivity. Therefore, when you are prejudiced and when you lose your objectivity and it gives way to subjectivity you manage to do that on your own, totally apart from Bible doctrine.

4. In addition man must take the responsibility for his own decisions and through hearing the content of the victory bulletin man would shift the responsibility of his personal decisions to the sovereignty of God, and that is blasphemy.

5. Furthermore, the content of announcement of the seven thunders would violate the principle of2 Corinthians 5:7, “We walk by faith and not by sight.”

In verses 5-7 we have the modus operandi of the King of Arms. If he won’t speak to us maybe he can show us something by his actions.

Verse 5, the spectacular gesture of the King of Arms. The subject is a)ggeloj, it refers again to the King of Arms, “Then the angel.” We have the demonstrative pronoun o(j in the accusative, translated “whom,” and then the aorist active indicative of o(raw. We are still talking about the King of Arms, John is still seeing him, “I saw.” He can’t report what he said but he is still watching him because the message from this paragraph comes from what the angel does rather than what he says, the reverse of what we usually have, “Then the angel whom I had seen.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action in its entirety. John produces the action as the human author of Revelation. The declarative indicative represents the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. And then what he had seen to identify him again, the perfect active indicative of i(stemi, he is till standing in an attitude of claiming planet earth for our Lord. The King of Arms as the angelic herald of the second advent is till in his posture, is still claiming planet earth for our Lord Jesus Christ at the point of the second advent.

Now he does something: the aorist active indicative of a)irw, he raised his hand. The accusative singular direct object of xeir for hand. It is his hand, not someone else’s. One word is found in the Greek which is not found in the King James version, the word decioj for right. The King of Arms is right-handed. He raised his right hand, and then two more words forming a prepositional phrase: e)ij plus o)uranoj, “toward heaven.”

Translation: “Then the angel whom I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toward heaven.”

This is the motion of a salute. We are not going to get the message but we are going to get the action. He is directing a salute toward the one who is coming, the Lord Jesus Christ. Heaven is the direction of the salute because heaven is where our Lord Jesus Christ now resides on His glorified state of the hypostatic union. And the salute is directed toward heaven, toward our Lord Jesus Christ who won the victory. The content of the message we are not going to get but the salute we are going to understand. Our Lord has a right to rule the earth, He is about to supersede Satan as the ruler of the world, and He is saluted.

The salute has to be recognised. The Bible has to be interpreted in the time in which it was written. The raising of the right hand has to do with a military salute. The Romans had two salutes at this time. One was for when they were in the presence of the emperor or some high-ranking officer. They simply brought up their fist doubled and moved it across their armour. The other salute had to do with visors and came into prominence after this was written and thereafter for a thousand years. The Greeks started building helmets with visors and you would lift the visor in order to see. The raising of the visor was a sign of recognition. When the visor was down you were going into battle, you were going to fight; but when you raised that visor it meant it was a friend and you recognised him. And by raising the visor they eventually brought it up to a salute. That was the concept. The salute is the best way of greeting and has been for several thousand years. It became a form of greeting among knights and nobility, and the salute finally came to mean not just a friend or a recognition of rank but something more important. During the days of the baronage in medieval times it was a recognition of a system of integrity. The salute indicated the fact that the knight involved was a part of a system of integrity and that the system of integrity was greater than the individual knight, no matter how high his rank in the baronage happened to be. That, of course, is the connotation here: the recognition that our Lord regained the earth through a system of integrity. We are a part of that system today.

This salute recognises both the sovereignty of Jesus Christ as God and the third royal patent of the humanity of Christ gained by His work on the cross. While we are not privileged to understand the content of the announcement of the seven thunders we do understand the angelic herald looking toward heaven and saluting. He is recognising the uniqueness of the person of Christ: eternal God and true humanity in one person forever. The salute also recognises the right and the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ to rule the earth, a right He possesses now but will not take now because He wants to give the royal family a chance to function in the plan and to demonstrate to all fallen angels that we can make decisions for the Lord where they made decisions against. So the salute recognises that Satan has been conquered at the cross, and when our Lord returns to the earth [second advent] He will claim what already belongs to Him, the rulership of the world.

Again, in the human race, the salute was used by men of honour to recognise men of honour. In effect, this angelic category of royalty, the college of heralds, is expressing his royalty in the only way that is permitted for us to understand at this time, and it is a reminder that we as believers in Jesus Christ are members of the royal family of God, and today we have the opportunity of expressing our royalty. And in that expression of our royalty, residence and function in the divine dynasphere, we are fulfilling in this Church Age exactly what that angelic herald is fulfilling in a future dispensation.

Verse 6, This brings us to the proclamation of the king of Arms, what he is permitted to tell us. This is the only part of the message that we are allowed to hear. Since we are in time and this does not apply directly to us the reason it is given is to show us that the time will come when all of these things will take place. Prophecy deals with future things, there is no prophecy in the Church Age.

The authority of the King of Arms comes out in the first verb of this verse, the aorist active indicative of o)mnumi. The word means to swear, to affirm, to confirm by an oath, to make a proclamation by the power or in the authority of someone else. He made an oath, a solemn proclamation. He makes a proclamation in the authority of Jesus Christ, even though he is the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds and had great authority of his own. There is a higher authority and that is the secret to this angel’s greatness — humility. Even though he holds the highest authority in the world he recognises a higher authority. This is the difference between a great ruler and a dictator. A dictator recognises no higher authority. A great ruler possessing absolute authority in a kingdom recognises the higher authority of God and conducts himself accordingly. He becomes a great ruler.

Principle: No matter how high we go in life there is always a higher authority around, and it is not degrading for us to recognise that authority. It is necessary to keep order in life. Humility is never upset by the fact that it encounters an authority higher than its own. Humility, therefore, is oriented to life whereas arrogance never is. All dictators are arrogant; all great rulers with equivalent authority are humble. The difference in any form of life between happiness and orientation to life, objectivity, and the subjectivity of misery is the ability to identify, recognise and function under an authority higher than your own.

The herald took a solemn oath, he produces the action of the verb. But it says he took a solemn oath or made a solemn proclamation “by Him who lives forever.” He didn’t do it on his own, he did this in the power of recognising the authority of someone else.

“And he [the King of Arms] made a solemn proclamation by him who lives forever and ever.”

That is the secret, that is the basis for everything that is important. He did not take this stand on the basis of his own power, even though he had more authority than Satan himself, he was a seraph. He had the highest authority in the angelic college of heralds, his humility is what made the difference. And by whom does he make this solemn oath? By the one who “created both heaven, and the things in it.” When it says “who created” this is the aorist active indicative of ktizw and refers to a much higher authority. This is the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds but he recognises a higher authority.

Note: No matter how high you go in this life your life will only stay in perspective if you remember to stay within the bounds of authority.

Authority orientation is life orientation, it is honour and humility. The greater the authority over people the greater the responsibility to people. The more authority you have in life the greater is your responsibility.

1. This is the principle of the salute toward heaven from the King of Arms. The King of Arms is a seraph, he is the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds; and even though he is higher in authority than millions and millions of elect angels the King of Arms recognises higher the authority in heaven, and he does so by means of a salute.

2. The principle: No matter how high we go in life or what rank and authority we attain there is always the higher authority which must be recognised to permit and perpetuate humility. Humility is orientation to life. Only arrogance rejects higher authority; only criminals reject all authority.

3. Humility not only orients to life but to authority. That is the basis for freedom and order in life. Freedom and order means civilisation.

4. The difference between a dictator and a great ruler is the fact that the great ruler recognises authority and the dictator does not.

5. No matter how high we go in life or what success we attain there is always some system of authority higher than we are, always some system of authority that controls us and, as a matter of fact, protects others from the evil use of our power. The fact that people have power is a potential for evil, not an evil in itself. Authority protects from the potential evil in the use of our power.

6. Only Satan does not recognise any authority beyond his own, and only Satan does not recognise divine authority and how it has been delegated through the laws of divine establishment, through the structure and order of life.

The highest-ranking herald in the college of heralds, having achieved this authority as the King of arms, demonstrates his tremendous integrity, his virtue, his honour by recognising a higher authority. The King of Arms is saluting heaven expresses, therefore, the honour, the integrity, the humility, the grace orientation which made him one of the great leaders in the prehistoric angelic conflict. It is important for all of us, therefore, to remember that no matter how much authority we achieve in life, or no matter how high we go in life, there is always a superior authority to be recognised and to restrain our power and add to our sense of responsibility. The higher we go in life the greater our responsibility to all. Achievement with integrity demands greater responsibility.

Verse 6, “He [the King of Arms] made a solemn proclamation by him who lives forever and ever.” Then it goes on to say: “who created,” and the word for created is the aorist active indicative of the verb ktizw. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and it recognises that everything that we are or ever will be, everything that ever exists in our periphery and environment, everyone with whom we have contact, all of it together has been produced and created and made possible by the Lord Jesus Christ. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb as the creator. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine that our Lord Jesus Christ is both the creator and the sustainer of the universe. The baby in the cradle on the first Christmas day was at the same time sustaining the universe.

“who created the heaven, and the things in it, and the earth, and the things in it, and the sea, and the things in it.” Speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, John 1:3 says, “All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Colossians 1:16,17, “For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, both the visible things and the invisible things, whether thrones or powers, or rulers, or systems of authority: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things [above all human authority], and by him all things hold together.” Hebrews 1:10, “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth; and the heavens are the work of your hands.”

The authority of the King of Arms and the one he represents is our Lord Jesus Christ. And although the King of Arms has the highest possible authority his humility, his integrity, his honour, keeps him from ever being carried away by all of that authority. He is responsible to our Lord Jesus Christ. And, of course, as far as we are concerned, apart from His saving work on the cross our Lord had prior claim to rulership of the earth as creator, and the arrogance of Satan resulted in that revolt against God whereby angelic creatures in heaven followed Satan, a creature revolt against the creator. The revolt spread to the earth where human creatures joined angelic creatures in the Satanic revolution, the creatures against the creator, the infidel against the only way of eternal salvation.

We can never revolt against our Lord Jesus Christ and come out winners. Satan is a loser; all who follow Satan in the angelic realm are losers; all unbelievers are losers; and those believers in time who become involved in Satan’s cosmic system are losers. One of the problems in the world and the reason we have so much trouble is because we have so many losers.

Now for the proclamation. We do not know what was in the title deed, that is forbidden and sealed up, but we know that a proclamation is now made. It begins with the conjunction o(ti, used for the content of the solemn proclamation. We translate it “that.” Then we have the future active indicative of the verb e)imi, “that there shall be.” The future tense is a deliberative future used to answer a question of uncertainty. It is an idiom. The question of uncertainty deals with the time of the second advent. The active voice: time is running out. Time produces the action of the verb in the idiom. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that time is running out in the Tribulation.

Then we have a negative adverb o)uketi which is a part of the idiom, it means “no more.” Then the subject comes last, xronoj, which means a period of time and here it refers to the Tribulation. Literally, the proclamation says that time shall be no more, but it is an idiom and it should be translated, “that there shall be no more delay.”

Translation of verse 6: “And he [the King of Arms] made a solemn proclamation by him who lives forever and ever, who created both the heaven and all the things in it, and the earth and all the things in it, also the sea and the things in it, that time [the Tribulation] should no longer be delayed [time being the end of the Tribulation, the second advent].”

The Greek idiom means that there will no longer be delay before the return of Christ. This is actually a reference, then, to the termination of the Tribulation as a period of time, and it is terminated by the second advent. Hence, the King of Arms, is announcing that very shortly the Lord Jesus Christ is going to return to claim the rulership of the earth and to dispose of Satan and his angelic coup de tat. There is no more delay and that means that the seventh trumpet is about to occur. With the seventh trumpet and what comes out of it there will be the last horrible series of disasters and then the second advent. Actually this announcement by the King of Arms is related to the events of Revelation chapter nineteen. This proclamation, by the way, is amplified in Revelation 11:15-19. That means that chapters 11-18 are a detailed discussion of the events at the end of the Tribulation with their causes and results. This is the first announcement that time has run out for Satan and that his judgment is about to be executed in Revelation chapter nineteen.

Verse 7, the announcement of the termination of the Tribulation. When the whole clause is compared with part of it we are going to see something different. Whole clauses are often compared by the use of a)lla, so a)lla which is ordinarily an adversative conjunction also has other meanings. When you are comparing a clause with a clause, instead of translating it “but” it is translated “yet,” or “nevertheless”.

“Nevertheless in the days,” e)n plus the locative plural of h(mera. It refers to the sounding of the seventh trumpet. The word which is translated “voice” in the King James version can be translated “voice” [fwnh] but that isn’t its basic meaning. Its basic meaning is sound, and that is the way we will translate it. Then we have a verb which is going to be the beginning of an incomplete indefinite temporal clause, a most unusual Greek construction. The reason for it is that there are so many chapters before chapter nineteen. John is just saying that he will get back to us on this subject of the second advent, but in the meantime … That is the reason why we have what is called an incomplete indefinite temporal clause. The temporal clause is introduced by the temporal adverb o(tan, translated “when.” When you have an indefinite temporal clause you often have the verb mellw. Here we have it in the present active subjunctive. The subjunctive indicates that this is an indefinite clause, mellw means to be about to be and the subjunctive mood gives us an indefinite time. Before we get to the second advent we have a number of things to discuss, says the writer, and while this Greek idiom is a little obscure for people who are accustomed to English this is perfectly normal Greek for saying, “Look, I’ll get back to you later on this second advent that the herald announces. In the meantime I want to tell you a lot of other things.” The present tense of mellw is a tendencial present, it represents what will occur but has not yet occurred, everything is indefinite. The active voice: the seventh angel will sound his trumpet, but before he does we have some things to learn. The infinitive is the intended result infinitive which blends purpose and result, and it is translated, “when he is about to sound his trumpet.” The word for sounding the trumpet is salpizw. So mellw in the present active subjunctive plus the present active infinitive of salpizw is what we have.

Translation: “Yet in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet.”

This is a reference to the last days of the Tribulation before the second advent and the overthrow of Satan as the ruler of this world. Note that mellw does not mean to begin, as in the King James version, it means to be about to be.

With this we have the connective conjunction kai and the nominative singular subject of a new phrase. The subject is musthrion which refers to doctrine known only those who have joined the fraternity. The major mystery doctrine in the Word of God is the doctrine of the Church, but that is not the mystery we have here. For those who know their eschatology this is understandable; for those who do not, those who are not believers, they cannot discern historical trends without understanding the prophecies of the Tribulation. In other words, this is what musthrion means. In the Church Age there is no prophecy. That means that we learn historical trends through Bible doctrine apart from eschatology. Prior to the Church Age all historical trends were determined by prophecy. Once the Rapture of the Church occurs [the next prophecy] then in the Tribulation every historical trend is determined by prophecy; in the Tribulation you have to know prophecy. The second advent is prophesied, the Millennium is prophesied, we are studying the prophetical details of the Tribulation. Understanding these prophetical details means understanding historical trends. If you don’t know your prophecy of the Tribulation, for those who will be living; we won’t be there, then what is going to happen next is a mystery, you don’t know it. Only those who know their doctrine will understand what is going to happen day by day in the last half of the Tribulation. That is the use of mystery here, so that it should be translated: “But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, and the mystery of God,” “of God” is the possessive genitive of qeoj, “has been accomplished.” The “mystery of God,” then, is that body of eschatology relating to the second advent and the Millennium, and what will happen prior to the second advent.

The mystery has been expressed in Revelation through the concept of Christ being Alpha and Omega, and this is the mystery to the unbelievers of the Tribulation, and that includes Jewish unbelievers. The Jewish unbelievers are going to be very confused, they are going to face the greatest holocaust of all time and their confusion will come from the fact that they do not understand eschatology, that they have never been able to distinguish between the first and the second advents. They have never yet been able to understand their own ritual uttered every Sabbath day in the synagogue, “Shamah Yisrael [Hear O Israel], Adonai Elohenu [The Lord is our God; Jesus Christ is the God of Israel], Edonai echad [Jesus Christ is unique].” They have never been able to distinguish between the first and second advents of the God of Israel. Unique means that Jesus Christ is God and true humanity, Jewish humanity, the son of David in one person forever, the hypostatic union. That is why it is called a mystery; unbelieving Jews have never understood it.

Next we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb telew. It means to be completed, to be finished, to be accomplished, “the mystery of God has been accomplished.” The accomplishment of the mystery of God is going to be the regathering of Israel, the restoration of Israel as a client nation, and for believers in Israel to recognise Adonai echad. The culminative aorist views the second advent in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of the Millennial reign of Christ. The passive voice: the mystery doctrine of the second advent, as distinguished from the first advent — Jesus Christ is Alpha and Omega — receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the mystery doctrine being completed. Eventually, even the unbeliever of Israel will understand when Jesus Christ returns the second time as Messiah. Messiah comes twice, not once. And they were even given a very clear sign that He would come twice: He would come by a birth, but not just an ordinary birth, a virgin birth, as per Isaiah 7:14. The sign that was given to Israel was the most obvious of all. So this verse doesn’t say that the mystery is accomplished, it means it will be accomplished, eventually with the sounding of the seventh trumpet. This is an indefinite temporal clause and it relates to a contingency carrying a conditional element. Before the mystery doctrine can be cleared up for Israel the second advent will take place, but this is an indefinite temporal clause, the second advent is indefinite at this point. This indefinite temporal clause anticipates the third attack of Satan’s elite guard under the seventh trumpet, the greatest function of anti-Semitism in the history of the world. So the clause is not completed at this time.

The key is the conjunction kai, “and.” It is generally mistranslated “then” or not translated as all, as in the King James version. But here is an incompleted temporal clause which can only be completed by chapters 11 through 18. What occurs to complete the indefinite temporal clause is found in the rest of the book. Actually it is found in the book which the apostle John will eat very shortly, but all of the information we need to understand the mystery will be forthcoming in chapters 11-18.

Next we have a comparative particle o(j, translated “just as.” It is translated to bring out an analogy, “just as he” referring here to God the Holy Spirit, and the aorist active indicative of the verb e)uaggelizw which means to announce good news, “just as he announced the good news.” The constative aorist refers to an action extended over a period of time in which the Old Testament was formed. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: God announces the good news of the second advent and the Millennial reign of Christ to the prophets. God also announced the first advent of Christ. So both advents were announced. The good news has to begin with the first advent, not the second advent. The second advent is not good news to the Jew who does not accept Christ. What makes the second advent good news is the fact that there was the first advent and the good news of the saving work of Christ on the cross. When He was judged on the cross He was judged for the sins of the entire world. The direct object in the accusative plural is composed of five words, like the generic use of the definite article, used twice; the reflexive pronoun h( a)utou, translated “his own.” It is in the possessive genitive singular. Then we have the accusative plural douloj which means slaves or servants, “his own servants.” Next is an accusative plural in apposition from the noun profhthj, “prophets.” This is a reference to the Old Testament prophecies regarding both advents. For example, we have Isaiah’s reference to the first advent in chapter 53; the prophecy of the second advent in Zechariah chapter 12; Isaiah 63:1-6. So we have these prophecies clearly presented so that the Jews would understand the last phrase of Deuteronomy 6:4.

Verse 7, “But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, and the mystery of God has been accomplished, just as he [God the Holy Spirit] proclaimed the good news to his own servants the prophets.”

Verse 8, once he recognised authority from heaven John is given another command. This command is given by God the Holy Spirit. “And the voice which I heard from heaven communicated with me again.” Then we pick up the story with the connective kai and the present active participle, legw, “and said.” This is what was communicated now. Legw introduces a second command. The command is given to John, he has be censored, he can’t write what the proclamation of the seven thunders was, and now he is going to get a second command. He has learned from the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds the importance of authority and he is about to be tested with regard to authority.

Then we have the command, the present active imperative of the verb u(pagw. First of all his volition is going to be tested, he is given a command; u(pagw means to go. The verb connotes going in a certain direction, going in a specific direction. This is addressed to John. Note the structure of the passage. First we have the King of Arms, the highest-ranking angel is the college of heralds. Under him is a category of heralds called the officers of arms. Under them the heralds, and under them the pur sui vant officers and finally the pur sui vant messengers. Now we have the highest-ranking person alive among human beings at this time, the last of the apostles. This is John, the highest-ranking Christian left at the time of the writing of Revelation, and just like the high-ranking angel he has to recognise a higher authority than himself. And that is exactly what he does. He is tested. The present tense is a pictorial present, it presents in the mind a picture of John being commanded, being tested, with regard to his volition.

Life is a series of volitional tests. Every day you make volitional tests. You have in your soul volition and every day you make decisions from that volition. Those decisions fall into two categories: good decisions and bad decisions. Good decisions are decisions you make as a believer from a position of strength, and the position of strength is the logistical grace provision that provides doctrine; when you make decisions on the basis of doctrine, on the basis of truth, the laws of divine establishment. Bad decisions are made from a position of weakness and they fall into two categories: decisions to go into the cosmic system and decisions made from the cosmic system. So every day our volition is tested and we are making either good or bad decisions. If you are making good decisions from a position of strength you have control of your life. Control means your happiness, your virtue, your honour, your blessing, everything that makes life wonderful. You don’t even have to have good circumstances but you do have control of your life. If you make decisions from a position of weakness you lose control of your life and you become a loser. The one who has control of his life through the good decisions from a position of strength, decisions made to re-enter the divine dynasphere or decisions to function in the divine dynasphere are good decisions. If you are making good decisions daily from a position of strength you not only have control of your life but you have a personal sense of destiny, you understand God’s plan for your life and you relate to it constantly. But if you are believer making bad decisions from a position of weakness you not only lose control of your life but you have no sense of destiny at all and therefore you can be knocked over with any feather of adversity.

(Sometimes the most insignificant things are significant tests and they indicate whether you really have virtue or integrity)

So the verb means to go in a certain direction. The active voice: the apostle John, the highest-ranking Christian is given the command. The imperative mood: this is a direct command of the higher authority just recognised by the King of Arms.

“and said, Go,” go in this direction only. There is a second command, the aorist active imperative of the verb lambanw which means to take or to seize. In this case it means to take. He is going to have to go to his counterpart and he is going to have to take something from him. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Instant action. The active voice: John is commanded to produce the action, and it is that same imperative of command. You go in a certain direction, the direction of the king of Arms, that high-ranking angel. And what is he to take? The accusative singular direct object of biblion, “book.” It refers to the title deed of planet earth; “which has been opened,” the articular perfect passive participle of the verb a)noigw. The book has already been opened. It has been opened since the cross actually. Our Lord has a right to rule the earth and He will at the second advent. In the meantime the angelic conflict pursues its course according to plan. The definite article in the participle is used as a relative pronoun, it refers to the title deed. The dramatic perfect tense represents the existing state of the book, it has been opened in a dramatic way, it was opened at the cross where our Lord provided eternal salvation, where He was judged for our sins, where He took our place. And the fact that it is mentioned as a dramatic perfect is just another reminder that the believer’s point of contact with God is the justice of God. The justice of God the Father set aside His own personal love for the Son. Love was superseded by justice and the justice of God the Father imputed the sins of the world to Christ on the cross and then He judged them so that when we believe in Christ [the point of salvation] that same justice imputes the other half of divine holiness to us — divine righteousness, the grace pipeline. Our point of contact is always the justice of God, not the love of God and not the sovereignty of God. And so when the dramatic perfect represents the existing state of the book it is going back to the cross where the book was opened. The book was closed at the garden because man lost control of the earth to Satan; it was opened at the cross. It is open because the King of Arms has read from it the proclamation that Christ is going to return to supersede Satan as the ruler of this world. The passive voice: the title deed receives the action — open. The participle is circumstantial.

“Go, take the small book which has been opened.” In this particular context of the book of Revelation we have now seen two books. We are also going to see at the last judgment the book of works by which unbelievers are judged. We are going to see the Lamb’s book of life. But in Revelation chapters 5 and 10 we have two books. We have studied now, in part at least, the second book and we have studied the first.

In Revelation chapter five we have the book with seven seals; in Revelation chapter ten we have the title deed of planet earth showing our Lord’s rightful claim: He has a clear title to planet earth because of His work on the cross. In chapter five the book with seven seals is a book of Tribulational judgements but in chapter ten the book of our Lord’s right to rule the earth is the subject. In chapter five the book is in the hand of Christ but in chapter ten the book is in the hand of the King of Arms, the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds. In chapter five we noted that the book was closed but in chapter ten we have an open book. In chapter five the book is gradually opened, the seals were broken by our Lord Jesus Christ, but in chapter ten the apostle is about to eat the book.

The prepositional phrase which follows is e)n plus the locative of xeir which means hand. It is literally translated “in the hand.” Then we have a possessive genitive a)ggeloj, “of the angel.” It should be translated with the verb “from the hand of the angel.” Lambanwplus the prepositional phrase means “from” rather than the usual “in” the hand of the angel.

Then we have the articular perfect active participle from the verb i(stemi which means to stand, “who has been standing.” The King of Arms is standing there under orders waiting to have the book taken from his hand. The active voice: the King of Arms produces the action. The participle is circumstantial.

Translation: “Then the voice which I heard from heaven [God the Holy Spirit] spoke with me again, and said, Take the little book [containing the title deed of planet earth] which has been opened from the hand of the angel who has been standing on the sea and on the land.”

Having recognised higher authority by his salute the angel now has been standing fast under orders. And the principle of the salute: No matter how great one’s achievement, no matter how extensive one’s power, there is always a higher authority to be recognised. The greater the authority in life the greater the integrity which must accompany it. For authority and power to be used properly there must be honour and integrity, and integrity must keep pace with achievement otherwise achievement and success is destroyed by arrogance. When the King of Arms saluted heaven it was an expression of humility and it was also the acknowledgement that he was to stand fast until John came to him and took the book.

Out of this comes the principle that greatness cannot be measured in terms of achievement unless that achievement is associated with humility, objectivity, honour, integrity, and virtue. Only virtue can assume great authority without abusing the power thereof.

Now it is John’s turn to salute higher authority. John as the apostle possess the highest spiritual authority, he is top Christian at this time in history. There is no higher authority than John possesses as an apostle. To exercise his authority the apostle John must also possess objectivity, humility, honour, integrity and virtue. This will be demonstrated. It will be demonstrated by eating a book.

Verse 9, the apostle who is writing a book stops long enough to eat a book. We need to note Jeremiah chapter 15:15, the middle of the verse, for a precedent: “Know that I bear reproach for your sake.” Jeremiah was bearing a twofold reproach for Israel. He had top authority among the prophets and in this authority he was using that responsibility and taking responsibility for the people. He was bearing the reproach from friends. The people looked down their nose at prophets. He also was bearing reproach from his right woman and his congregation. So he was carrying a load, but he wasn’t crying about it and that comes out in verse 16. So he turns now to God and he says, “I recognise your authority above all else”: “Your words [doctrines] were found [he studied] and I ate them”. When someone eats a book it always illustrates one of two things: in the normal realm that the person is psycho; but in the spiritual realm it represents perception of Bible doctrine.

“Your doctrines were found [the first stage of the doctrine of GAP, reception, gnwsij in the left lobe, giving it a hearing whether you accept it or not].” Now in the eating of the Word remember that eating is always a non-meritorious function. The whole system for assimilating food belongs to the good, the bad, and the ugly, and this illustrates grace. Jeremiah ate a book and this illustrates the retention of Bible doctrine. Hearing is the beginning, it is a stage, it is not the end. If it is understood it is comprehensive reception. It is the attitude toward it that counts. Are you going to eat it or are you going to push your plate away and ignore it? Gnwsij does not contribute to spiritual growth, the only spiritual growth is where gnwsij becomes e)pignwsij. E)pignwsij is retention. In retention gnwsij is converted to e)pignwsij, and it is e)pignwsij that causes spiritual growth.

What is the difference between gnwsij and e)pignwsij? When you understand and take the attitude, “I understand what you are teaching but I don’t believe it,” it remains gnwsij; or, “I understand what you are teaching and I believe it,” then it becomes e)pignwsij. When you say, “I understand what you are teaching and I believe it,” that’s like eating. It is analogous to eating. You eat it, you retain it, it becomes a part of you. The food that you eat becomes a part of the energy of your body, of the structure of your body, and so on. That’s eating. For the person who says, “I don’t believe it, I understand what you are teaching but I don’t believe that,” it remains gnwsij, it has no spiritual value therefore.

Verse 16, “Your words [doctrines] were found [reception] and I ate them [retention], therefore your doctrines became for me happiness [happiness comes from retention, not from reception].” Happiness is also the recall of doctrine, the third stage. Recall is the application of doctrine [e)pignwsij] to experience. From retention or e)pignwsij we have normal growth; from recall we have accelerated growth. All spiritual growth is based upon the second and the third stages in the doctrine of GAP, “and the delight of my right lobe.”

In Ezekiel chapter 2, beginning at verse 8, Ezekiel had to eat a book. So the eating of the book is not without precedent. Here again eating is analogous to the perception of doctrine, and in Ezekiel’s case, for the purpose of teaching it. The Lord said to Ezekiel: “Now you, son of man, listen to what I have communicated to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house [client nation Israel of verse 3]. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you. Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me; and lo, a book was in it. When he spread it out before me, it was written in the front and on the back ...”

Chapter 3:1, “Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what you find; eat this book, and go, speak to the house of Israel.’ So I opened my mouth, and he fed me this book. And he said to me, ‘Son of man, feed your stomach, and fill your inner parts with this book which I am giving you.’ Then I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak to them with my doctrine’.”

So there is precedent for eating a book. We anticipate, therefore, the eating of this book in Revelation chapter ten, verse nine. “Then I went to the angel.” John obeyed the first command of God the Holy Spirit which was communicated to him, and it is given here. First of all the sequential kai, “Then,” and the aorist active indicative of a)perxomai is the obedience of the first part of the command, “he went.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The command was to go. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action of the verb in obedience to the first mandate from God the Holy Spirit. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. And proj plus the accusative of a)ggeloj means “fact to face” with the angel.

The next phrase is the present active participle of legw. Legw is sometimes used for asking a question, especially if the context indicates that. Legw means to say, to speak, to communicate, to talk, and so on. “I went to the angel saying” is the way it is generally translated, but we are going to translate it, “Then I went to the angel and asked him,” the aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: John, again, produces the action of the verb in obedience to the first mandate from the Holy Spirit, a circumstantial participle translated like a finite verb, preceded by the conjunction “and,” “and asked him,” not “and said.”

With this we have the dative singular, indirect object, from the intensive pronoun a)utoj which is used as the personal pronoun, third person in the Koine Greek since the Attic third person was never brought over, “and asked him.” The dative of respect is involved here. He had respect for the authority of the King of Arms.

“Then he replied to me and said, Take it, and eat it”. Again we have the same connotation. Taking it is a matter of reception, receptive comprehension, perception of doctrine, the point of hearing, analogous to putting the book in the mouth.

The prediction of the King of Arms accompanies this. The King of Arms is allowed some leeway, he is permitted to make a statement, “and so it will make your stomach bitter.” He starts with the stomach and the reason for this is because the bitterness in the stomach is the eschatology of Satanic desperation, the eschatology of Satan’s modus operandi from the time he was thrown out of heaven in the middle of the Tribulation to the second advent. The last half of the Tribulation is the time of Satan’s desperation. The time is short and he knows that he is going to lose.

We have a future active indicative of the verb pikrainw. The word means to make bitter. The accusative singular direct object koilia is translated “stomach,” “it will make your stomach bitter.” The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates the closing events of the Tribulation beginning with the sounding of the seventh trumpet which throws Satan out of heaven. The active voice: the content of the little book will be the closing events of the Tribulation: how our Lord claims the earth. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of terrible events which terminate with the second advent. This is classified as the eschatology of Satan’s desperation for bitterness begins when Satan is cast out of heaven. We have yet to feel the power of Satan’s desperation. The reason is because at the present time Satan spends most of his time in heaven. Even though he is the ruler of the earth he is in heaven constantly, he has access to heaven as do fallen angels. But the time of his desperation is when the door of heaven is closed and he is confined to the earth. Satan is extremely bitter. He has brought upon himself by a series of terrible decisions the whole thing. But typical of so many creatures who through bad decisions have brought upon themselves a desperate situation he becomes bitter and blames it all on someone else. Satan becomes bitter, he blames it on the Jew and we have the greatest holocaust of all time. The bitter period of that time, just after Satan is expelled from heaven, far exceeds any other. It will be the time of Satan’s implacability and he has the power for the greatest implacability of any creature.

We have the adversative conjunction which follows, it is translated “but,” a)lla in the Greek. The adversative conjunction sets up a contrast with the preceding clause. Then we have the future active indicative of the verb e)imi, the verb to be, “but it will be.” This is the future tense, “in your mouth.” We have e)n plus the locative of stoma. He takes the mouth last and he reverses the order of eating because he is dealing with results, “in your mouth it will be.” The predictive future anticipates the second advent of Jesus Christ, the removal of Satan from the earth. Jesus Christ takes command of the earth and at that time He will regather Israel, restore Israel, and fulfil the four unconditional covenants to Israel: the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New covenants. The sweetness comes from the deliverance of the true Israel, those Jews who believe in Christ in the Tribulation. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of wonderful events: the eschatology of blessing which follows the eschatology of Satan’s desperation, the second advent, the incarceration of Satan, the restoration of Israel as a client nation, the coronation, the wedding supper of the Lamb, the perfect environment of the Millennium. This will be classified, then, as the eschatology of sweetness, the eschatology of our Lord’s tactical victory of the second advent, the inevitable triumph of our Lord. The word “sweet” is glukuj in the Greek.

Then we have the analogy, o(j, and then the word meli for honey, “sweet as honey.” The contrast, then, between bitterness in the stomach and the sweetness in the mouth is the difference between the eschatology of Satan’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation, and the eschatology of our Lord’s inevitable tactical victory at the second advent. The sweetness like honey, then, is the victory gained by our Lord at the second advent.

To continue the historical trends of the future John must master the contents of the little book. Future history of mankind cannot be understood apart from eschatological doctrine from the Word of God. Therefore by his obedience to a higher authority John will finish the book of Revelation. If he had not eaten it this is as far as he would have gone in Revelation, but his obedience to higher authority, even though John is the super achiever of the first century, means that you and I have the book of Revelation.

The Jews were in Egypt for about 400 years, from the time of Joseph to the time of Moses. For four generations they were slaves to the Egyptian empire. As slaves they lost many of the concepts that are so important that go with freedom and the only possible way that they could understand that freedom demands authority was to learn it in the home. And because of the oppression of the Egyptians only a few homes actually taught respect for authority. We know from the parents of Joshua and the parents of Moses that authority was taught in those homes. But Moses had to leave his home where only Aaron and his sister remained and become almost the ruler of the Egyptian empire in order to understand the issue which is found in Revelation chapter ten, the issue of authority: that no matter how high we go and how much we achieve under freedom there is always some system of authority that we must recognise. This is a very healthy thing and a wonderful thing.

When the Jews were finally freed from slavery they immediately had some very serious problems. This became obvious for as soon as they cleared Egypt and were on the peninsula of Sinai, Moses went up Mount Sinai and received the laws of divine establishment so that the Jews would understand the true meaning of their freedom. The Jews were now free, and when people have been enslaved or oppressed in any way they are inclined to distort the meaning of freedom when they have the opportunity. The Jews did exactly that. Now that they were free they were going to do what they wanted to; they had to pay attention to no authority. The Jews who came out of slavery never had military training which often acts as a stopgap measure to train people in the importance of authority in life, and how you cannot have freedom without authority nor authority without freedom. They must go together, for freedom without authority is anarchy and authority without freedom is tyranny. The two must balance out. Therefore, Moses went up Mount Sinai to get the first instalment of the laws of divine establishment and the true meaning of freedom. In fact, that is what the ten commandments actually teach: the relationship between freedom and authority in life.

When Moses came back he found immediately that he had no “congregation.” The ex-slaves who were now free were using their freedom as a licence and they moved into idolatry, no restraint to hinder them, and into the licentious functions of the phallic cult. He immediately smashed the first tablets and had to go back up the mountain and get another set.

For one generation most of the Jews were failures though they had the truth and were now the first client nation in history. The reason they failed is that they could never appreciate and understand that for freedom to exist for everyone they must have restraints, and that no matter what you achieve in life there is always a system of authority that you must recognise. This they failed to do. Their first military attempts were pitiful and only God saved them from military disaster, for without that military victory or two in the wilderness they would have lost their freedom.

It is one thing to be manumitted from some form of slavery but it is something else to think like a free person. This is almost impossible unless people are willing to accept some form of authority — authority in government, authority in life, authority in business, authority in academics, authority in the military, authority in the home [above all, the home], authority everywhere. We are always surrounded by authority. Obviously slavery is an abuse of authority; slavery means no freedom and all authority; and so people react to slavery, as the Jews did and lost out for one generation. They were not even capable of entering the land and for forty years they wandered because they could not enter the land until they could do so to conquer it. It was God’s plan for them to use the military but they were not capable of doing so. They had no authority orientation and so one generation had to die off in the wilderness over a period of forty years because they could not learn that freedom and authority are wedded and can never be divorced without the most horrible consequences.

The apostle’s obedience to the second mandate is presented in verse ten. The aorist active indicative of the verb lambanw is the first word we encounter. It means obedience, a recognition of authority. He was ordered to take the book and he took it. The book is described by the accusative singular direct object from the noun biblaridion which means a little book, a scroll, a title deed. And he took it from the hand of the angel. So the first part of the apostle’s obedience is fulfilled.

Now the real issue: Is he going to do all of it? When authority gives a clear command, will it be obeyed en toto or will it be simply going through the motions? At this point John faces a problem. In his own hand now is a scroll but there is no way that it is going to be made palatable to John. He can take the book and discard it but he fulfils exactly what was meant by the authority. So we have the aorist active indicative of the verb katesqiw. He not only ate it, he swallowed it. We simply translate it, “and I ate it.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, which means he chewed and chewed and then swallowed the book. So he did exactly what he was told. Here is the humility of the top Christian in the first century at this time. Orientation to authority is absolutely necessary for greatness and there is no greatness in achievement apart from that humility, that integrity, that honour that recognises authority. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for John’s assimilation of the eschatology of the book, the eschatology of Satan’s desperation plus the Lord’s tactical victory of the second advent. With this is the accusative singular of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used as a personal pronoun and here it is translated “it,” referring to the little book or the scroll.

Now we have the inevitable triumph of Christ recorded in the reaction. And then he adds, “Furthermore, it was.” The word kai is a sequential kai adding something to what has been given in the previous clause and the best way to translate it is “furthermore.” With this we have the imperfect active indicative of e)imi, it was just as he said, “it was in my mouth sweet.” Again we have that predicate nominative neuter singular from glukuj, “sweet,” “sweet as honey in my mouth.” This is the eschatology of our Lord’s tactical victory of the second advent. It includes our Lord’s triumph over Satan at the second advent plus the baptism of fire [which was not as sweet as honey but involves blessing for those who avoid it], the blessing for the Church Age believer who returns with Christ, the tremendous coronation, the rulership of our Lord, the appointment of nations to believers who have achieved the highest spiritual activity in life, gate eight of the divine dynasphere; and so the whole thing is a wonderful triumph at the second advent. It was as sweet as honey also to the elect angels involved in the incarceration of Satan, it was a sweet as honey to the entire cadre of born-again believers who form the basis for the Millennial population.

But there is also with this the eschatology of Satan’s desperation, brought out in the next phrase, “but,” the use of kai to set up a contrast. We translate it correctly “but,” just like the adversative conjunction because we have with it a temporal conjunction o(te, “but when,” “but when I had eaten,” and the aorist active indicative of the verb now is different from the one we have just had. This is e)sqiw, he has now eaten it. No longer is he chewing and swallowing; that’s over. The culminative aorist tense views the assimilation of the eschatology of the little book which is the last half, by the way, of the book of Revelation. The eating of it is the sign that he had dedicated himself to learn that eschatology and write it down so that we would understand the historical trends right up to the end of the world. The result is the cognisance of Satan’s desperation. Satan is going to be cast out of heaven in the middle of the Tribulation. He is going to be confined to planet earth and that is the time of his desperation and, therefore, the time of his greatest function of evil. The active voice: John masters the eschatology to the end of the Tribulation which begins with the sounding of the seventh trumpet. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of John’s cognisance of the eschatology of the rest of the book of Revelation.

“Then I took the little book from the hand of the angel, and I ate it; and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth: but when I had eaten it, it was bitter in my stomach.”

The aorist passive indicative of pikrainw means bitter, but when used with the Greek word for stomach (koilia) it also means to be sour. Probably we could translate that, “but my stomach was made sour.” This is the eschatology of Satan’s desperation in the Tribulation.

And then the mandate to continue the book of Revelation comes out of this obedience. No one was ever entrusted with the details of what happens in history down to the end of the world, and how the world will be destroyed at the end of history, and how a new heavens and a new earth will be created, except John. And he has just passed his test to give him an opportunity that not even the apostle Paul was ever given, though Paul alluded to parts of these things and so did Peter. Only John was given this highest of all honours.

Verse 11, we have first of all the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “then.” Then we have the present active indicative of the verb legw, which means here to communicate or to say. Legw is in the third person plural suffix, so for once we have to note that it says literally, not “then he said unto me,” but “then they said unto me.” That is what the Greek says. So first we must discover: Who are “they”? The plural suffix translated “they” refers to God the Holy Spirit as the voice from heaven in verses four and eight, plus the King of Arms who is holding the little book. Both had higher authority than John. The present tense is a historical present, it denotes past events with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit as the voice from heaven and the King of Arms as the ruler of the angelic college of heralds produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

“Then they [God the Holy Spirit and the King of Arms] said.” And then we have the dative singular indirect object from e)gw, “to me.” The indirect object means that whoever is involved is benefited by the action of the verb. John is benefited. This is also dative of advantage, it was to John’s advantage to spend his life slowly developing and achieving spiritually but never allowing his achievement to lead him to arrogance. From the plural suffix it is assumed that the mandate for John to continue Revelation originated from God the Holy Spirit who relayed the message to the King of Arms who in turn gave the mandate to the apostle John. Note that the mandate goes through channels. The eschatological material for the rest of the book of Revelation came from the little book which John has digested.

Basically there are three major subjects in the rest of the book of Revelation. The first is the eschatology of Satan’s desperation, chapters twelve through eighteen. Secondly, the inevitable triumph of Christ or the tactical victory of the angelic conflict, chapters nineteen and twenty. Thirdly, the termination of human history as the extension of the angelic conflict, chapters twenty-one and twenty-two.

The King of Arms who stood with one foot on the sea and one foot on the land and held the little book in his hand is the angelic herald of the second advent. And just as the King of Arms is the herald of the first advent so the King of Arms is the angelic herald of the second advent. At both advents we have both human and angelic heralds. The human herald of the first advent was John the Baptist; the human heralds of the second advent are Moses and Elijah.

Luke 2:8-15, (At the first advent the King of Arms was accompanied by an army of elect angels who passed in review and gave glory to God, but at the second advent the King of Arms has a little book and seven pur sui vant messengers) “And in the same region there were shepherds living outside in the fields, guarding their flocks at night. And the angel of the Lord [the King of Arms] stood before them and the glory of the Lord shined around them; and they were extremely frightened. And the angel said to them, ‘Stop being frightened; for behold, I bring you good news producing great happiness which shall be for all people; because today in the city of David there has been born for you a saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of burial cloth [this baby was born to go to the cross to bear our sins and take our place], and he will be lying in a feeding trough.’ And suddenly there appeared with the angel [the King of Arms] a large number of soldiers from heaven praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest place [the highest place in heaven], and on earth peace on those men whom he favours.’ And it came to pass when the angels had passed in review from them into heaven, the shepherds said to each other, ‘Let us go to Bethlehem then, and see this doctrine which has occurred [the perfect active participle of ginomai] which the Lord has made known to us.’

The content of the mandate in Revelation 10:11, the impersonal verb dei denotes compulsion of duty, therefore it is translated “must.” The accusative singular personal pronoun su is used with it, “you must.” The accusative of su means it is the accusative of general reference, it is the subject of the infinitive. However, it is easier to say that su is the subject even though it is in the accusative. Then we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb profhteuw, “you must prophesy.” The constative aorist tense refers to the action of writing the rest of the book of Revelation as a fact extended over a period of time. Regardless of how long it takes John it gathers it up now into a single whole. The active voice: John as the human author of Revelation produces the action, and this is the infinitive of intended result. Then the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate objective, hence the blending of purpose and result. You must purpose to write the rest of this with the result that the canon of scripture will be completed. We will translate it simply: “You must prophesy again.” The word “again” is the adverb palin.

Then we have the preposition e)pi plus the dative plural of reference. Hence it is translated, “concerning” or “about.” And then we have four categories, the objects of the preposition, all in the dative plural. The first object: laoj refers to people but here it is referring to crowds of people. Therefore we translated it: “you must prophesy again about many people,” the masses. Masses of people are going to search through the book of Revelation. The second category is the dative plural from e)qnoj, “nations.” So we are going to see many nations in the rest of the book of Revelation. The third category is the dative of glossa, which is languages. It refers to languages spoken throughout the world in the closing days of the Tribulation. Finally, we have the dative plural of basileuj, “kings.” We are going to see great dictators, kings and rulers. With this we have an adjective which is attached to these nouns in the dative plural, the adjective poluj, translated “many.”

“You must prophesy again about many peoples, both nations, and languages, and kings.” This is the mandate that is given to John to complete the book.

The first fourteen verses of chapter eleven conclude the parenthesis dealing with the heralds of the second advent. In these first fourteen verses we have a study of the two human heralds for the second advent.

One of the great privileges is to be a herald and before we look at the two human heralds of the second advent there are several passages which deal with the human herald of the first advent. The first of these is found in John 1:6-8, “There came into being a man,” That is the way the herald is introduced in the corrected translation; “sent from God whose name was John. This same one came for a witness, that he might bear witness concerning the light,” A witness means a herald, and he was a witness concerning the light, the first advent of Christ, “that all might believe through him [i.e. believe in the Lord Jesus Christ]. He was not that light, but came that he might bear witness to the light [the Lord Jesus Christ] ....”

Verses 14,15, “And the Word [the Lord Jesus Christ] became flesh [eternal God became true humanity], and tabernacled among us.” The word ‘tabernacled’ is used rather than ‘dwelt’ in the Greek because the presence of the Lord in Israel was the Shekina glory in the tabernacle, and the Shekina glory has come to earth; “and we beheld his glory, the glory of the uniquely-born one from the Father, full of grace and doctrine. John witnessed [or made a pronouncement] concerning him, and shouted, saying, ‘This is he of whom I spoke, “He who comes after me [first advent of Christ] has a higher rank than I, for he eternally existed before me”.’

Verse 29, “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’ ”

The herald of the first advent emphasised something entirely different than the second advent. He came to die; He came to go to the cross; He came to provide eternal salvation, the first time; the second time He comes to rule the world.

In John 3:28, “You yourselves bear witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ’ but, ‘I have been sent before him,’ as a herald.

Verse 35, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.” That is why in verse 36 John was the one who made the issue clear: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

This is documentation for the fact that at the first advent of Christ there was both angelic and human heralds.

The setting for the two human heralds of the second advent are given in verses one and two of Revelation chapter eleven. The setting is the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem restored as a Jewish temple.

Verse 1, we have the sequential use of the conjunction kai translated “then.” Next we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi. It means that he was given a surveying instrument. The subject is called kalamoj and it is a surveying instrument. The surveying instrument or measuring rod is compared to a staff or a rod, it was like a pole: the instrumental of association from r(abdoj, translated “rod” or “pole.” “Then a surveying instrument was given to me.” “To me” is the dative of indirect object from e)gw. The aorist tense of the verb to give is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: John as the apostle received the instrument. The declarative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality.

The next phrase, “and the angel stood,” is not found in the original. It simply is translated, “and someone said,” the present active participle of the verb legw, “and someone said.” That “someone” is the King of Arms of the angelic college of heralds. The aoristic present is for punctiliar action. The King of Arms produces the action, the participle is circumstantial.

Now we have a mandate from the King of Arms. First of all, the present active imperative. Notice that John is still under authority. We have the verb e)geirw which we will translate “go up.” It means “get up and go.” In the imperative this form is used as an idiomatic formula, and it can be translated either come or go, here it is go. Then the aorist active imperative of metrew means to measure, “go up and measure.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and implies the construction of a Jewish temple in Jerusalem in the middle of the Tribulation. The active voice: the apostle John is to produce the action, the imperative mood of command. “Go up and measure,” and then the accusative singular of direct object from the noun naoj, meaning temple, and with it the possessive genitive of qeoj, “the temple of God.”

Right now where the temple of God should be is an Islamic temple. The temple will contain, of course, the duplicates of all of the sacred furniture which describes the person and the work of Christ in the first advent. There would be the holy of holies containing a duplicate ark of the covenant, a mercy seat that would be constructed as before of gold and acacia wood, representing the hypostatic union.

Translation of verse one: “Then a surveying instrument was given to me [the apostle John]: and someone [the King of Arms] said, Go up and measure the temple of God.”

In front of the curtain separating the holy of holies from the holy place would be a golden altar of incense. This would be speaking of the fact that Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, is also the great High Priest through whom prayer is offered and answered. There would be the table of shewbread duplicated from Exodus chapter 25 and chapter 37. The table would be constructed of gold and acacia wood, emphasising the doctrine of the hypostatic union. On the table would be twelve loaves of bread which are a memorial to the twelve tribes of Israel. Placed in two parallel rows within the encircling crown is a reminder that God will fulfil the four unconditional covenants to Israel at the second advent. The twelve loaves of bread in the Tribulational temple are a reminder that God will sustain Israel — true Israel; being racial Israel is not enough. Jewish believers will be sustained during the Tribulation, they will have to learn from the temple things.

When John is measuring this temple in the middle of the Tribulation everything that tells the true history of Israel is there. All of the furniture is duplicated, even the lampstand which speaks of Christ the light of the world. John said that he came to bear witness to that light, that he came to announce Him. The Tribulational temple has all of these things and yet in spite of all that there are hundreds of thousands of Jews in that future day who will not believe in Christ.

The altar is mentioned specifically. The Greek word is qusiasthrion. It refers to the altar of burnt offerings in the forecourt of the temple at Jerusalem. The altar speaks of the saving work of Christ on the cross. The brass of the altar is a reminder that God the Father judged our sins after they were imputed to our Lord Jesus Christ. The burnt offerings speak of propitiation, the peace offering speaks of reconciliation; again, they talk of the saving work of Christ.

The temple in the middle of the Tribulation will have been reconstructed by Jews. However, the temple is rebuilt by unbelieving Jews who have ignored or rejected the doctrine found in the Torah, the Old Testament scriptures. They also have the book of Hebrews which the unbeliever will also reject. Temple worship for them will be ritual without reality. Temple worship in the Tribulation is revived under the dictator of Israel posing as Messiah and carrying the title “the false prophet.” In the middle of the Tribulation the false prophet or dictator of Israel permits a statue of the dictator of the revived Roman empire to be placed in the holy of holies. This is translated “the abomination of desolation” and it is found in Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11; Matthew 24:15. Hence, two dictators, one Jewish and one Gentile, are the devil’s two witnesses or heralds of Satan’s being cast out of heaven and confined to the earth.

One more phrase: “and those who worship in it. The articular present active participle from the verb proskunew. We have learned the principle that you cannot give in worship what you do not have. This is false worship because these are Jewish unbelievers. They are going through the ritual but they do not have the reality. The definite article is used as a demonstrative and relative pronoun, “those who.” The pictorial present tense show presents to the mind a picture of events in the process of occurrence. The active voice: Jewish unbelievers and proselytes to Tribulational Judaism produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

We have a prepositional phrase, e)n plus a)utoj, “in it.” He is to note the fact that the temple is jammed with worshippers. The Jews worshipping in the Tribulational temple are unbelievers who have failed to understand that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. They have failed to see the sign of the virgin birth.

The entire verse: “Then a surveying instrument was given to me [the apostle John]: and some one [the King of Arms] said, Go up and measure the temple of God, also the altar, and those who worship in it.”

We note from this verse the two witnesses or heralds of the second advent, and the setting is the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem during the Tribulation. Two men are one day going to walk dramatically into this temple and they will begin to teach there. The Jews will listen. There are those who will want to destroy them but will not succeed, they are under a special divine protection. Their message will be so dynamic that very soon they will be preaching by satellite to the entire world. They are the two great evangelists of the middle part of the Tribulation. They succeed the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and they will have the most dynamic message of all.

Measuring the worshippers at the end of this verse is another way of saying that thousands and thousands of Jews who are unbelievers flock to the temple, not only from Jerusalem but from all over the world. They come to enter into the ritual. They are impressed with the ritual. And the principle: Those who are impressed with ritual never have reality. Ritual without reality is religion without salvation. Ritual without reality is a system of religion used to blind the minds of those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Only the two human heralds will have the power and the authority to relate the sacred furniture in the temple to our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that these worshippers are Jewish unbelievers because the believers of Israel living in Jerusalem at that time have already left town. They left town under the command of Matthew 24:15-20. Only the unbelievers remain, in the pattern of 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12. The two witnesses walk into Jerusalem where you have unbelievers only at that time. The second advent will expose the false worship in the temple. In the meantime the two heralds have that job, they will use it as the basis for preaching the gospel, especially everything relating to the first advent. Those who become believers under the ministry of these two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, will form a citizen army to resist the king of the north at the siege of Jerusalem, according to Zechariah 14 and other passages.

There are two kind of Jews, then, in Jerusalem during the Tribulation. There are the Jews who believe in the first half whose order was to leave when they saw the abomination go up in the temple. And so all the Jews who were saved in the first half of the Tribulation, generally under the ministry of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, will leave town. When the two witnesses come all of the believers have left town, according to Matthew 24. Then there is the second group who will accept Christ as saviour. They will listen to the message of Moses and Elijah; they will also hear the message of certain angels who will evangelise at that time; they will stay in Jerusalem and they will fight. They will be the heroes in the last battle of the Armageddon campaign. Each group in their own way are the heroes of the Tribulation.

There is one part of the temple that John is not to measure, given in verse two. The exception is based on the fact that the ministry of the two witnesses or human heralds of the second advent is a Jewish matter, it is not an issue as far as Gentiles are concerned. The problem with the Gentiles is international religion which we will study in Revelation chapters 17 and 18.

We begin with the phrase, “And,” and then the command: the aorist active imperative of the verb e)kballw, and it means to expel or throw out or exclude. We will translate it, “And exclude the outer court.” The outer court of the temple was surrounded by high walls with several gates. There were porches running around the outer court with roofs of cedar supported by marble pillars. This will be duplicated in the Tribulation. Gentiles were permitted into the outer court, it was called the court of the Gentiles.

“and do not measure it.” This time we have the aorist active subjunctive of the verb metrew, but with the negative mh we have the subjunctive mood giving the order instead of the imperative. So we have a constative aorist, active voice: John is prohibited from producing the action. This is the prohibitive subjunctive which carries the power of the negative command.

Since the outer court is the court of the Gentiles it is not the setting of the ministry of the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, who have special heraldry ministries to Israel. The reason for this: a causal conjunction, o(ti. Now he is given a reason, the aorist passive indicative of didomi, “because it is given.” This is the culminative aorist tense viewing the action of the verb in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results. Because the Tribulation is a time when the Gentiles still control. There never will be a time when Gentiles do not have influence in the middle east until the second advent of Christ, “because it has been given to the Gentiles.” “The Gentiles” is the dative of indirect object from e)qnoj, sometimes it means nations and sometimes Gentiles, “and they [the Gentiles] will,” future active indicative of the verb patew, “trample,” “for forty-two months,” the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. The revived Roman empire will take over and take charge.

The ministry of the two heralds of the second advent, Moses and Elijah, will run coterminously with the Gentile control of the city of Jerusalem during the last half of the Tribulation. The question arises as to how the Gentiles gain control of Jerusalem for the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. The answer is found in Revelation chapter thirteen, second Thessalonians chapter two (verses 7-12), Daniel 9:27; 11:31: 12:11; Matthew 25:15, and other passages.

For the first three and a half years of the Tribulation Israel and the holy city enjoy a period of autonomy and prosperity. But the rise of power spheres changes all of that. There will be during this first half of the Tribulation power politics. There will be the king of the west, the revived Roman empire which does not include the USA. There will be a king of the north which today would be comparable to the Russian communist bloc, but if the Rapture doesn’t occur for, say, 500 years that could be someone else from the same area. Then there is the king of the south, the pan-Arabic bloc. There are the kings of the east which today would be comparable to the Chinese communist bloc. All of these are going to put the squeeze on the middle east, and because of the proximity of the Arab nations of the king of the south and the problem there the dictator in Palestine looks for help from the king of the west, the centre of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. The dictator does a deal with the king of the west and he does it through religion. And so since they are going to accept the ecumenical religion with Rome as the headquarters they are compelled to put a statue up in the temple to show their sincerity in the deal which is a mutual protection pact.

Simultaneously something else will be going on in heaven. There will be a war in heaven in which Michael and the army that passed in review to the shepherds at the first advent will defeat the army of Satan, and Satan and all fallen angels will be cast down to the earth. As a result of these two events the middle of the Tribulation becomes a hot-spot situation, and in that hot-spot situation God sends Moses and Elijah, the two heralds, to preach.

So the alliance between Israel and the king of the west has an ecumenical taste to it. The statue of the dictator of the revived Roman empire becomes a warning to all Jews who are believers in Christ during this first half of the Tribulation through the tremendous evangelism which has occurred.

In Matthew 24, beginning at verse 15 we begin to see the picture as to what is going on. What is the problem here? Why are there no believers when the two witnesses come to Jerusalem in the middle of the Tribulation?

This is addressed to Jewish believers in the first half of the Tribulation. “Therefore when you see the Abomination Of Desolation [the statue put up in the Tribulational temple] which message was communicated to you through the prophet Daniel [9:27; 11:31; 12:11], standing in the holy place (let the believer discern),” this is recall, third stage of the faith-rest drill, “then let those of you who are in Judea flee to the mountains [the high desert country of Edom, Moab, and Ammon]; let him who is on the roof of his house not go down and take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back for his coat. But woe to those who are pregnant and who are nursing mothers in those days! But pray that your flight will not take place in inclement weather, or on the Sabbath; for then will be great tribulation, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now, and never will be equalled again. If those days had not been cut short no one would survive; but for the sake of the elect [you, Tribulational believers, elected to privilege] those days will be shortened.”

That is the situation and why there are no believing Jews in Jerusalem when Moses and Elijah walk in. They walk in to face a hostile audience and the hostility is increased by the fact that Satan is no longer able to get into heaven. The Gentiles will begin to control Jerusalem at this time, the Jewish believers will have fled, as per the mandate of Matthew chapter twenty-four. Jerusalem will be filled with unbelieving Jews who worship in the temple contradiction, the contradiction between the statue put up by the dictator of the revived Roman empire and the furniture that speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ. The statue of the dictator and demonism will now be involved in the temple: that which speaks of Christ and that which is Satanic, the very centre of the angelic conflict in the Tribulation will focus right there. Worship in the Jewish temple will be all ritual, no reality, until the two witnesses make their appearance and challenge this farce. This is the challenge of their ministry.

There have been as a result of man’s volition some very unusual and drastic periods of history, periods of terrible disaster when it appeared as though everything was going to come to an end. But the world has not come to an end and will not come to an end, except under the plan of God and under the right circumstances, and before the world can come to an end there is going to be one thousand years of great prosperity which we call the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Just before that great period of prosperity we do have one of the most unusual, if not the rarest type of period of history, the eschatology of Satan’s desperation, a period of time which begins in the middle of the Tribulation with a battle in heaven. The battle in heaven results in Satan being confined to the earth and thrown out of heaven for the first time. Even in his first fall Satan was not thrown out of heaven. And so he is cast down to the earth in the middle of the Tribulation and that begins the time of Satan’s desperation. It continues until the second advent of Christ, and therefore it is a period of roughly three and a half years of history. It is actually the story of the last half of the book of Revelation. It begins, for example, in Revelation chapter twelve with the great holocaust, the greatest attack of anti-Semitism in all of human history, carried on by Satan and his third demon assault army. In chapter thirteen are his two witnesses, his two dictators, one Jewish and one Gentile. In chapter fourteen we see a great principle. We discover that even though this is the worst period of all history it is still a period of great evangelism. But even the evangelism of that period is most unusual, it is in the extra and unusual phenomenon type of period. In chapters fifteen and sixteen we see that it is also a period of divine judgment: the seven last plagues administered by pur sui vant angels. Those seven last plagues are also called the seven goblets, mistranslated in the King James version “vials.” In chapters seventeen and eighteen we see the greatest attack of Satan on the human race in ecumenical religion. The ecumenical religion of the world in the last half of the Tribulation is the most devastating period of religion in all of history. In chapter nineteen we see the eschatology of Satan’s desperation coming to a close with the second advent which destroys Satan’s great empire on earth. In chapter twenty, verses one through three, we see the incarceration of Satan where he is put into the abyss for a thousand years and terminates the eschatology of Satan’s desperation. So all of the way from chapter twelve to chapter twenty, verse three, we have this great period of eschatology. We are getting ready for it now in chapter eleven by showing some of the most unusual events which occur at that time. It is an unusual period of history and therefore calls for some unusual evangelism under the principle that grace always precedes judgment. There is no preparation for this most devastating period of history apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ, apart from the possession of eternal life. The principle of facing death in that particular period of history worse than in any other three and a half years in all of historical events. For example, the person who faces death without eternal life is not prepared for death.

Eternal life comes in three categories. It comes in the first category, a human body at the point of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we receive not only the imputation of divine righteousness but we receive that life which is necessary to be a part of the plan of God. At the moment of human birth human life was imputed to each one of us but it was imputed to the human soul. Having human life in the soul is no guarantee of salvation, it merely gives the opportunity for it by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Simultaneously Adam’s original sin was imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature giving us spiritual death. We were born physically alive but we were born under condemnation. Our personal sins are not the basis of our condemnation but the imputation of Adam’s sin to each one of us at birth is. Personal sins became the basis of our Lord’s condemnation on the cross, His saving work where all of the sins in the history of the human race were imputed to Christ and judged on the cross. And so when a person believes in Christ he receives in this dispensation 36 things, but two things are also true for every dispensation: the imputation of divine righteousness and the imputation of eternal life.

Eternal life occupies three different bodies. We start out with eternal life in the human body and when we die physically that eternal life goes with the soul out of the body into the presence of the Lord. In the presence of the Lord we receive an interim body and that interim body also has eternal life present in it, along with human life. When the resurrection or the Rapture of the Church occurs we receive a resurrection body, and that resurrection body also has eternal life. So eternal life begins the moment we believe in Jesus Christ. We are in a physical body. If we die before the resurrection occurs then we are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord and we are in an interim body where there is great happiness and blessing in heaven. Then at the point of the resurrection or the Rapture of the Church we receive a resurrection body so that eternal life resides first of all in a human body, then in an interim body, and eventually in a resurrection body.

This is very important when we face the fact that apart from the resurrection of the Church all of us are going to die physically. This mortality is not going to take on immortality except for one generation. The Church Age, the dispensation of the royal family of God, terminates with the resurrection. Those who happen to be alive at that moment are caught up without going through physical death. They miss, therefore, the interim body in heaven and the great happiness that is related to it, but they have, of course, the resurrection body forever and ever at that point. Death has lost its sting therefore for all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and as we face disaster this becomes a very important doctrine: to recognise that no matter how bad things become on this earth we still have a great life forever and ever with God. We are free from divine condemnation, we are not going to be thrown into the lake of fire, and no historical disaster is greater than the plan that God has for us. The only problem is, are we in the plan of God in time? That means being in the divine dynasphere.

There is a time coming after the Rapture of the Church when we are going to see death as a great and real factor, and the world will seem to be falling apart for that is the period called the Tribulation. And it is in the middle of the Tribulation that we see this tremendous thing happening: Satan cast out of heaven for the first time. Satan has access to heaven and always has had access to heaven.

One of the things that is going to happen in the middle of the Tribulation is the fact that two people are brought back to life. In all of the history of the human race very few people have been resuscitated under the plan of God. Lazarus was resuscitated, he was not resurrected. Resurrection means receiving a body of incorruption, a body which will house our eternal life for all eternity; resuscitation means coming back in a physical body and subsequently dying. Lazarus came back in his physical body and eventually died. The purpose of the resuscitation of Lazarus was an evangelistic appeal to the Jews of our Lord’s day, and while many of the Jews believed many thousands of Jews saw the miracle of the resuscitation of Lazarus and rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Because of their rejection of Messiah they miss the whole point of that great miracle of resuscitation.

But there is a resuscitation which has a different connotation in the middle of the Tribulation. Two men are brought back to life. Both of them had a very mysterious death. God told Moses to go up to the top of a mountain, disappear and die. That is exactly what he did. In Jude we discover that there was a great fight over the body of Moses after his soul and spirit departed to be with the Lord. This great fight was between two of the highest military leaders of all creatures: Michael, who in the elect order of battle of angels is the senior commander of the armies of heaven, and he fought with Satan. Satan, of course, is the highest ranking and most powerful of creatures to ever exist, he was created a cherub. There was a reason for this fight. Both understood the theology involved. The theology involved begins in Revelation chapter eleven, verse three, where Moses is resuscitated, brought back from his interim body in heaven for a special mission.

Elijah also had a very strange death. He was seen to get into a chariot and he disappeared from the earth. They both went to heaven, they were transferred and given their interim bodies where they have had many hundreds of years of great happiness and blessing, but both of them are coming back for a special mission. These two would not come back for a special mission were it not for the fact that the greatest period of anti-Semitism and the greatest holocaust of all time is about to occur, so that their ministry gives every Jew the opportunity of being prepared and even being protected from that great holocaust.

Before we begin verse three we have to identify the two witnesses. Verse three simply says, “And I will give to my two witnesses,” the human heralds of the second advent. But we must identify these witnesses if it is possible. There was one other person in the Old Testament who had a strange death, his name was Enoch. Enoch is often identified as one of the two witnesses because he departed from the earth without dying. However, it should be remembered that the Tribulation is the last seven years of the Tribulation of Israel, the seventieth week of Daniel, and the two witnesses have to be Jews under that concept. Enoch was a Gentile and as a Gentile he was not qualified. These two witnesses are Jews coming back to Israel. Both of them have to be great public speakers because they are going to evangelise in Israel. So it should be remembered that as the Tribulation is the last seven years of the dispensation of Israel it is the Jews that are in focus here. The Jews are responsible for the dissemination of the gospel in the Jewish Age and they are responsible for the dissemination of the gospel in the Tribulation at the end of the Jewish Age. That is why we have 144,000 Jews being used as evangelists in the Tribulation. Both witnesses are human heralds of the King, the King is a Jew, the heralds of the King must be Jews following the pattern of the first advent where John the Baptist was a Jew as the herald of the first advent.

Now that we have eliminated Enoch the question is, who are the two witnesses? Actually, Jesus Himself reveals the two witnesses of the second advent on the mount of transfiguration. In Matthew chapter 17, verses 2 and 3, our Lord makes it very clear who the two witnesses are. The background to this passage is the fact that before some of the disciples died they were going to see our Lord as He would appear at the second advent. Peter, James and John are the three who had that opportunity. A part of the transfiguration scene is Matthew 17:3, “And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them.” Moses and Elijah are identified as the human heralds of the second advent.

Of course there is a problem with John the Baptist and Elijah. That problem is one that is covered in Malachi 4:5, “Behold, I am going to send to you [the Jews in the Tribulation] Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day [the last three and a half years of the Tribulation] of the Lord.” Notice that Elijah is coming before the great and terrible day of the Lord which is the last half of the Tribulation. John, as the herald of the first advent of Christ, has the same Holy Spirit and power as Elijah will have as the herald of the second advent but John is not coming just before the second advent as a herald.

In Luke 1:17, “And it is he [John the Baptist] who will go as a herald before him,” that is, a herald before Christ at the first advent in the spirit and in the power of Elijah. John the Baptist would be a herald for the first advent and he will have the same Spirit and the same power as Elijah in the second advent. What this is saying in effect is that there is a modified divine dynasphere used by John the Baptist which will also be used by Elijah as well as the two heralds of the second advent. The priests and the Levites, of course, approached John and quizzed him regarding his identity. He made it very clear that he was not the Christ and he also made it clear that he was not Elijah returned from the dead. So it was understood by John and by the priests and by the Levites that Elijah was coming back from the dead at some time, John 1:19-21.

The priests and the Levites were religious. Religion is a form of arrogance. The difference between Christianity and religion is very simple. Religion accepts the ritual; Christianity accepts the person. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God. The greatest attack Satan ever made on our Lord Jesus Christ was religion. The Jews took their ritual and ran with it in unbelief. That’s religion; it is ritual without reality. They are not the only ones who have a religion. Any group of people anywhere in the world who reject Christ as saviour accept the substitute which is religion. They accept the sugar-coated pill that will take them all the way to hell — religion. There are many organisations which call themselves Christian but they are not, they are religion. We will see this in great detail when we get to Revelation chapters seventeen and eighteen for the last great struggle of Satan in the eschatology of Satan’s desperation is his religious attack on the human race. The greatest function of religion in the history of the world will occur at the end of the Tribulation. But religion is always the devil’s ace trump. Satan uses religion to blind the minds of them that believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them. So we must learn to distinguish between religion and salvation. The two have nothing in common. Religion is related to the cosmic system and, of course, our relationship with God is related to the divine dynasphere.

Ritual without reality is meaningless and Israel has never discovered that. And that is why, “Are you Elijah?” and John said, “I am not.” The Jews could not distinguish between our Lord’s Alpha and Omega glory, and its consequences. If Jesus, however, had been accepted as Messiah at the first advent then Elijah would have been the herald of the first advent. That is what we have in Matthew 11:9,10 — “But why do you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet [John the Baptist]. This is the one about whom it has been written [Malachi 3:1], ‘Behold, I send my herald before your face, who will prepare your way before you’.”

That is John the Baptist, the herald of the first advent. He is sent first to prepare the way for our Lord. Then Jesus explains that it is the Jews who if they had accepted Him during the first advent then John would have been Elijah.

“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist … and from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men seize it for themselves. For all the prophets and the Torah [the Old Testament] prophesied until John. And if you wish to receive it, he is Elijah, who is to come.” But they didn’t do that and so John is the herald, Elijah is one of the two witnesses in Revelation 11:3.

The “iffy” approach, then, says in effect that if Jesus Christ had been received by Israel as their Messiah and King, then Elijah would have been the herald of the first advent. But the omniscience of God knew that Christ would be rejected by Israel at the first advent. Therefore it was necessary to have heralds for two advents. John the Baptist is the human herald of the first advent; Elijah is one of the two human heralds of the second advent. Jesus Christ clarified this point while coming down from the mount of transfiguration — Matthew 17:10-13:

“Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” And he [Jesus] answered and said, ‘Elijah is coming and will re-establish all things; but I say to you, that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognise him [John the Baptist], but they have done to him everything they wished. So also the Son of Man is about to suffer by them’. Then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them about John the Baptist.” They were now getting it straight: John the Baptist was the herald of the first advent; Elijah the herald of the second advent.

The conclusion of the whole thing is found in Matthew 17:3 where we read of the two witnesses of the second advent: “And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them.” That is the decision factor right there.

In Revelation 11:3 we begin with the future active indicative of the verb didomi. The future tense is a predictive future and it anticipates an event expected to occur in future time, the last half of the Tribulation. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. In other words, all during the worst period of disaster in human history, all during the time of the eschatology of Satan’s desperation, we have two men who will have a magnificent ministry and will once more declare the difference between the first and the second advent, and will explain Deuteronomy 6:4: that Jesus Christ had to come the first time to guarantee promises to Israel, promises of salvation, promises of the future of Israel, promises of the function of client nation Israel in the Millennium. All of these things to be fulfilled demanded salvation. He came the first time to die; He comes the second time to rule. The two heralds will explain all of these things.

We actually have in the Greek here an ellipsis which demands the accusative singular direct object from dunamij, the word for power. He is going to give them dunamij, and that is a very significant gift, “And I will give to my two witnesses power.” This is a modified divine dynasphere.

Believers after the resurrection of the Church do not receive the divine dynasphere. The divine dynasphere is a present first given at the virgin birth of Christ. At the first advent of Christ our Lord, while He was born and slept in a feeding trough, was also given the divine dynasphere and the humanity of Christ lived in that divine dynasphere all the way to the cross where He was judged for our sins. When Christ was ascended, seated at the right hand of the Father and given His third royal patent, He was minus a royal family. Therefore the Age of Israel was stopped, Church Age was inserted in order that we might have a royal family. You and I as believers in the Church Age are royal family of God. Once the royal family is completed it is resurrected — the Rapture of the Church. Then we go back to Israel, the Tribulation. Of course, with the resurrection of the Church the operational divine dynasphere goes too. But there is for just a couple of people a modified divine dynasphere in the Tribulation and it is given to Moses and Elijah as the heralds of the second advent. The divine dynasphere was given to the royal family only, but that is the operational. There are three divine dynaspheres: the prototype, which was the one used by our Lord’s humanity resulting in His impeccability; the operational divine dynasphere which is God’s plan for the believer in this dispensation, residence, function, momentum in the divine dynasphere; then there is a modified divine dynasphere for several people like Moses and Elijah as the heralds of the second advent. That is mentioned right here in verse three.

He also says, “I will give it to my two witnesses.” We have the generic use of the definite article toij which is in the dative plural, dative of indirect object. Then we have the word duw, “two.” And with that in the dative plural indirect object we also have the word martuj, “my two witnesses [or heralds].” Martuj is used for a witness that bears the divine message, therefore a herald. And we have the possessive genitive from the pronoun e)gw, “mine, they belong to me.” They are the heralds of Christ at the second advent. The dative indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest the modified divine dynasphere is given. With the modified divine dynasphere the two human heralds of the second advent possess both the power and the authority for their ministry, for they minister in the most difficult period of human history, the time of the eschatology of Satan’s desperation. They live in a time when miracles and extra natural phenomena in all categories will exist: miracles from Satan, miracles from the power of demonism and, of course, miracles from God, both supernatural and extra natural categories of miracles. And miracles are always a distraction to the perception of Bible doctrine. It is a sort of a short-cut system. In other words, why have deliverance through the use of Bible doctrine and the second stage of the faith-rest drill when you can stand around and just say, “Lord deliver me,” and He performs a miracle? People who are the recipients of miracles rarely ever advance in the spiritual life. They want God to do something special for them, they are arrogant. They do not want to learn day by day by day, Bible doctrine and apply it to experience.

Moses and Elijah had a crisis personality and during their first tour of duty on earth both were the key men in historical situations, especially adversity. They were designed for crisis, they provided leadership for historical crises. Moses was a crisis personality for both Egypt as well as for the beginning of client nation Israel. Elijah was a crisis leader during the apostasy of the northern kingdom. The two greatest crisis personalities return to serve the Lord at this stage of the Tribulation, the time we are calling the eschatology of Satan’s desperation. The two men that we are studying can be classified as men of crisis personality. No man in history was ever loved or hated more than Moses or than Elijah. They qualified eminently for the title “crisis personality.” Not only were Jews jealous of Moses but he received great jealousy in the court of Egypt, for it was Moses the adopted son of the Queen who actually took charge of the Egyptian empire. When three great Egyptian armies had been defeated by the invading Ethiopians it was the military genius of Moses that actually took a crack army and went out and defeated the Ethiopians and saved Egypt. Moses was a crisis personality and he demonstrated it throughout his 120 years of life on this earth. Elijah is also a crisis personality and he also departed from this life in a strange way.

We continue now with the extend of the ministry of Moses and Elijah. Their ministry will be run, of course, coterminously with the eschatology of Satan’s desperation. We begin with the future active indicative of the verb profhteuw, “and they will prophesy.” The word prophesy means two things. It means first of all to foretell the future, and also means to teach Bible doctrine. Both were true of Moses and Elijah during their first tour of duty on earth and both will be true of their second tour of duty on earth, for they will be teaching Bible doctrine in the most difficult period of all human history and against the greatest possible opposition.

Sometimes people like to reduce the meaning a little bit by saying that the word prophesying means forth telling as well as foretelling. Foretelling is what Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all of these men who had the gift of prophecy in the past, did. They foretold the future. But for all of the prophecies we find in the great books of the Old Testament which are listed as prophecy we also discover that they preached a tremendous number of sermons.

So we have the connotation here in verse three of teaching Bible doctrine and evangelising on the part of both men. The two heralds of the second advent, Moses and Elijah, will teach Bible doctrine related to the duplicate sacred articles of furniture found in the temple. We noted this briefly in verse one.

Furthermore we have an accusative plural of direct object, h(mera, and the word h(mera means days. And with it we have the exact number of days. In the Greek that would be one thousand two hundred and sixty days, roughly three and one half years. That three and one half years is the last half of the Tribulation. The ministry of Moses and Elijah as the heralds of the second advent, then, covers exactly the same period as the time of the eschatology of Satan’s desperation. Their resuscitation is not resurrection for the Old Testament saints will not be resurrected until the second advent. So we have the future tense of the word profhteuw, it is a predictive future anticipating a crisis ministry of two great crisis personalities. The active voice: Moses and Elijah produce the action of the verb in three ways. First, they will teach the true meaning of the sacred articles of furniture in the Tribulational temple in Jerusalem while at the same time exposing the false implications of the statue of the dictator of the revived Roman empire which will be set up in the holy of holies. Secondly, they will prophesy in the sense of teaching the eschatology of Satan’s desperation. They will teach the historical trends of the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. And we will study exactly what they are going to teach for we have the format. Beginning their ministry they will teach what is found in chapter twelve, the great holocaust of the last part of the Tribulation. In chapter thirteen they will expose the dictators found there, the dictator of the revived Roman empire, the beast out of the sea; and the dictator of Israel, the beast out of the land. In chapter fourteen they will lay the groundwork for greater evangelism from angelic creatures. They will teach in chapters fifteen and sixteen, before it occurs, the seven last plagues of history which are comparable to the vial judgements which should be translated goblet judgements. They will also warn of Satan’s last trump in history, the greatest attack he will ever make on the human race, the attack of ecumenical religion. They will also teach the doom of Satan. Satan will hear from them time after time messages on how he and the two dictators are going to be incarcerated and destroyed. They will also exegete and interpret certain passages from prophecy in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Zechariah, and of course the passages noted in the book of Revelation. The indicative mood is declarative for the great ministry of Moses and Elijah.

1. When the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, begin their ministry in the middle of the Tribulation the believers converted in the first half of the Tribulation will have fled from Jerusalem and the country of Israel in general. We have noted this in Matthew 24:15-20. There is an order there for Jews who are believers and who were converted in the first half of the Tribulation through the ministry of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists.

2. The Gentile apostate religion of the revived Roman empire, i.e. the ecumenical religion of the world at that time, will have been generally accepted by the Jews as a part of a treaty between the dictator of western Europe and the dictator of Palestine.

4. The two heralds, Moses and Elijah, will both evangelise and teach Bible doctrine. They will announce the approach of the second advent and they will challenge the apostasy of ecumenical religion.

5. As a result, as we only have unbelievers when they arrive, there will be a tremendous harvest of believers. Thousands will respond to their ministry, not only in the middle east but throughout the world. And, as a result, there will be a second group of Jewish believers in Palestine and they are the ones who are going to fight in the siege of Jerusalem which is the last of the four battles of the Armageddon campaign in that three and a half years. They will be the pivot that will be delivered at the second advent, the story of Zechariah chapter fourteen, verses one through nine.

The uniform of the two witnesses is also mentioned, “clothed in sackcloth.” The perfect passive participle of periballw introduces the fact that they are going to be clothed. With this we have the accusative plural direct object from sakkoj, translated sackcloth. Sackcloth is a mesh, a coarse texture of cloth made from goat’s hair, so-called because it was often used for making sacks. It was a very finely-woven material. We assume from this that because of the very fine weaving systems that they will be dressed magnificently. This is not something sloppy. Ambassadors are always well-dressed within the framework of the country where they find themselves, and that is exactly what we have here. This sackcloth does not mean that they come in as sloppy Joes to preach. To be accepted before a crowd they don’t dress like scum. They aren’t hippies and they don’t look sloppy. Moses and Elijah are high-class people and they are not going to be rejected because they have style and class. Even the scum will notice that these people have something they do not, and they will listen not because of the way they dress but because of the power of God. By this time, in the middle of the Tribulation, the world will be crawling with scum and they will listen.

So we have sackcloth emphasising the fact that they are well dressed, well groomed, and this of course is in great contrast to many of the people to whom they speak. But the fact that they are so dressed does not detract in any way from their ministry. You do not have to “establish contact” by doing what the natives do, as it were. They stand up in the midst of all kinds of people who would ordinarily resent the fact that they are even well groomed. And why are they heard? Because of the power of God through the dynamics of their doctrinal understanding.

Note, then, that Moses and Elijah are men of great action. They are crisis personalities during their lifetime. We think of Elijah on Mount Carmel — action. We think of Moses leading the people of Israel — action. But when they come back, God’s sense of humour, and there is no action; it is all talk, talk, talk. They are going to teach, they are going to communicate. While they were in their lifetime great prophets, spiritual leaders, men of action, crisis personalities, when they come back they come back with the greatest power they have ever had, the power of the completed canon of scripture, the power of Bible doctrine. The real power of spiritual leadership is involved in the communicating the doctrine of the Word of God under the power of God the Holy Spirit — accuracy of exegesis and interpretation and categories. They will come back with the Bible in their hands, they will teach from the Bible. They will teach the Word of God accurately, magnificently. The real greatness for crisis is not what you do but what you think. That is what we are to understand in bringing these two men back. They were men of action, men of deeds; now they are men of thought, men of doctrine. What do people need in the crisis more than anything else? Action? No. Doctrine, right thinking. These men do not come back to perform miracles, they do not come back as men of action, they come back as men of wisdom, teaching Bible doctrine. Why? Because in the greatest crisis of all of human history, the last three and a half years of the Tribulation the greatest need, as in any historical crisis, is Bible doctrine in the thinking of people.

While they were on earth the first time Moses and Elijah were men of miracles and dynamic action but their contribution to their contemporaries will be an even greater contribution to those to whom they minister in the last half of the Tribulation. Nothing, then, is as important as the teaching of the Word of God. Nothing carries the dynamics to so many from so few as the Word of God properly taught. In any historical crisis the outcome is determined by believers with Bible doctrine resident in their souls — the pivot concept. In the Tribulation the same factor holds true. While thousands of believers find Christ as saviour under their ministry it is those who keep on with doctrine who are going to stand in the breech. We will study them when we get to Revelation chapter sixteen. No action in life has more merit than a clear, concise communication of Bible doctrine. And it will be said at the end of the Tribulation that never in the history of the world have so many owed so much to two men — Moses and Elijah. They will have their greatest ministry for they will have the entire canon of scripture and they will communicate in great power.

Verse 4 — the Old Testament analogy to the two witnesses. We have the nominative plural subject from the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj which is translated “these.” This refers to Moses and Elijah as the two heralds of the second advent, the crisis personalities for the most crisis period of history, the period of the eschatology of Satan’s desperation. During this entire period of time after Satan is thrown out of heaven, he is confined to the earth, and he knows that his time is short.

Just as Moses and Elijah as the two witnesses are associated with the Tribulational temple in Jerusalem in this context, so we have the original two people who are mentioned by the two olive trees. They are Joshua and Zerubbabel who were associated with the reconstruction of the temple in Jerusalem in the year BC 516. Now we have a Tribulational temple and in that Tribulational temple we have Moses and Elijah identified with it. This will help us to add a few concepts to the principle of the crisis personality, for Moses and Elijah in their ministry at the end of the Tribulation are compared in this passage to Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel who led the first colony of Jews back from Babylon. These two men are compared to Moses and Elijah in the reconstruction of the temple and the ministry thereto.

We have a present active indicative of e)imi, “These are.” And with this we have the predicate nominative — three words. First of all we have the definite article, a(i, and it is the generic use of the definite article. Then the indeclinable numeral duw, and the noun e)laia, which refers to an olive tree. We have here a reference to the two olive trees, “These are the two olive trees.” We are talking about Zechariah chapter four, verse three and Zechariah chapter four, verse eleven.

The first of the two olive trees is Zerubbabel. The Jews had received the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline from the Chaldeans in BC 586 when Nebuchadnezzar took client nation Israel out for seventy years until BC 516. (There is a reason why it was to last for seventy years. It had to do with the fact that the Jews had missed seventy Sabbatical years in the first four hundred and ninety years of their history. They had never observed a Sabbatical year so the Lord gave them to Israel all at once) The year 516 BC was the year that Zerubbabel finished rebuilding the temple. He was from the tribe of Judah, the family of David, and he led the first wave of Jews back into the land in the first year of Cyrus the Great — 536 BC. So for fifty years they had remained in Babylon but Zerubbabel led them back in 536. Accompanying Zerubbabel was Joshua the high priest who was from the tribe of Levi. On the second month of the second year of their return to the land the foundations of the temple were laid. This is the famous passage in Ezra where some were crying and some were cheering. The cry-babies were those who remembered the old temple and said, “This isn’t as large”; the cheering were the younger crowd who were saying, “We are going to have a temple. Who cares whether it is smaller?”

Before the temple could be built the Samaritans infiltrated and wanted a part of the reconstruction. Zerubbabel refused. He was a real crisis personality. So they went and complained to Cyrus the Great and stopped the construction of the temple for about sixteen years. During this time the people forgot all about the temple and began to build lovely homes on the hillside for themselves. Then suddenly God raised up two prophets: Haggai and Zechariah. They said to the people, “Look at these lovely homes you live in. Take a look at the Lord’s house. Nothing has been done.” So these two men got the Jews working again on the temple and the work was resumed under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest. So the Jews had both a spiritual and a civil leader. They finished the temple in four years — 516 BC, which marks the end of the Babylonian captivity.

One of the big encouraging factors to get Zerubbabel and Joshua motivated was the vision of the two olive trees — Zechariah chapter four. It illustrated the leadership necessary to rebuild the temple: civil leadership and authority, and spiritual leadership. Joshua the high priest was the spiritual leader, Zerubbabel was the civil leader, and you will note that they separated “church and state”, as it were (there was no church, it was not the Church Age). They separated the civil from the spiritual. You cannot have freedom by combining the civil and the spiritual.

Zechariah 4:2, “ … ‘I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowl [an oil reservoir] on top of it, and seven spouts belonging to each lamp which are on top of it; also two olive trees beside it [beside the lampstand], one on the right side of the bowl and the other on the left side of the bowl’.”

The point here is that we have one olive tree representing civil government and one olive tree representing the spiritual side of the client nation.

Verse 4, “Then I [Zechariah] spoke to the teaching angel and said, ‘What are these, my lord?’ Notice the respect Zechariah had for this teaching angel.

Verse 5, “Then the teaching angel answered and said,” and we will pick up what he said in verse 6, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of the armies.”

Verse 7, that great question: “What are you, O great mountain?” The point is this: there is a mountain in the way. Someone is trying to stop the building of the temple, someone named Satan. Someone was trying to hinder Zerubbabel as the civil leader and Joshua as the spiritual leader. The mountain means the hindrance to the completion of the temple. And here is the problem. In Ezra 4:1-3 we have the infiltration of the Samaritans. Satan comes as an angel of light but doctrine motivated separation. In Ezra 4:4 we have distraction by other enemies. In Ezra 4:5-24 we have legal opposition. Then there are fourteen years when there is no work on the temple while the people build their own homes — Haggai 1:4. During those 14 years the people did not prosper because while they were building their own homes they did not go to Bible class, Haggai 1:5, 9-11. After the building was resumed there came opposition from Tattenai, the Persian governor, Ezra 5:3-6:13. However, the mountain of opposition is going to be removed.

Zechariah 4:7ff — “ ‘What are you, O great mountain before Zerubbabel? You will become a plain; and he [Zerubbabel] will place the headstone on the wall with shouts, “Grace, grace, grace to it!” ’

“Also the word of the Lord came to me saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house [BC 536], and his hands will finish it [BC 516].

Verse 10, “For who has despised the day of small things? [All of those wimps who were complaining about it not being as big as the original].”

Verse 11, “Then I spoke and said to him, ‘What are the two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?’ ”

Verse 14, “Then he replied, ‘These are the two anointed [“sons of oil” literally from the Hebrew] ones [Joshua and Zerubbabel] who are standing by the Lord of the entire earth’.”

These two men are crisis personalities, special people for difficult times. Crisis personalities are people who are there when the mountain looms up and people who have the ability to turn the mountain into a plain. Joshua and Zerubbabel were the men who stood in the gap when the second temple was being rebuilt. Moses and Elijah are resuscitated as crisis personalities for the greatest crisis of all human history, the period of the eschatology of Satan’s desperation. So we have another temple crisis in the Tribulation. It seeks analogy in the Old Testament [Zechariah chapter four], therefore the reference to the two olive trees. While the temple crisis is different in each case two men are always related to the solution, two men filled with the Spirit and full of Bible doctrine. In the building of the second temple in Zechariah chapter four the solution is related to the two olive trees — Zerubbabel and Joshua. It takes civil function and spiritual function to keep a client nation going or to get one cranked up, and the two must be separated; therefore two men, not one. In the profaning of the Tribulational temple in Revelation chapter eleven the solution is related to the two olive trees, only this time it is Moses and Elijah the two human heralds of the second advent.

Revelation 11:4, “These are the two olive trees.” Then, because the ministry of these two witnesses is different [they are the heralds of the second advent] a second analogy is necessary. The adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, translated “also,” then the predicate nominative plural from the generic use of the definite article, a(i. With it we have the predicate nominative plural luxnia which means lampstands. Lampstands give light, and the two witnesses give light from their doctrinal teaching regarding the Tribulational temple. The thing that strikes you in the Old Testament about Moses and Elijah is their action. Now they come back as men of doctrine, for the greatest crisis of history demands doctrine, and the real answer to crisis is doctrine resident in the soul. And they do not come back as men of action, they come back as men of doctrine — two great communicators of Bible doctrine. Lampstands give light; Moses and Elijah give light to their doctrinal discourses. They also give light as the human heralds of the second advent. They are two brilliant lights in the darkest age of history, the age of the eschatology of Satan’s desperation. These are the two olive trees.

“also the two lampstands,” Moses and Elijah are two lampstands. Now we do not have civil authority and spiritual authority, we have two men with spiritual authority, we have two lampstands.

Next we have the articular present active participle from the verb i(stemi, “who are standing.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun whose antecedent is Moses and Elijah, the two witnesses, the two crisis personalities for the last part of the Tribulation. The dramatic perfect tense represents the status of Moses and Elijah, they stand through their entire ministry. Nothing shakes them, nothing deters them, they do not fall apart, they are true crisis personalities, they meet the crisis without any failures of any kind. The active voice: Moses and Elijah produce the action of the verb at the end of the Tribulation, the last one thousand two hundred and sixty days of the Tribulation. The participle is circumstantial.

Next we have an improper preposition, e)nwpion, plus the genitive of kurioj, “before the Lord.” This is a reference to Jesus Christ as the ruler of the world at the second advent. And with this is the possessive genitive of the noun gh, referring to the earth, “who are standing as heralds before the Lord of the planet earth,” Jesus Christ at the second advent.

Translation of verse 4: “These are the two olive trees, also the two lampstands [Moses and Elijah communicate doctrine, they are the light for the crisis] who are standing as heralds before the Lord of planet earth [Jesus Christ at the second advent].”

A further analogy develops. The olive tree analogy refers to the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Moses and Elijah in teaching doctrine. The most important function is the filling of the Holy Spirit and the teaching of doctrine. The lampstand analogy refers to their doctrinal message during the Tribulational ministry of Moses and Elijah. It is impossible for anyone who is a believer to face a crisis of any kind and be a crisis personality without Bible doctrine. The key to crisis is doctrine. These men have the key and they teach it courageously in the midst of the greatest opposition the world has ever known for Bible doctrine.

We see now in verse five the wall of fire provided for the two human heralds. These men are men with a message, they are not men of violence. The only time that they use anything that can be construed as violence is in self-defence because they must continue their mission. The reason for that is because they have a tremendous personal sense of destiny. Anyone who is going to be a crisis personality must have a personal sense of destiny. You as a believer should begin to have a personal sense of destiny because as a believer you are in the plan of God, you are royal family of God.

We have in verse 5 the first of several conditional clauses. We begin with an inferential explicative use of the conjunction kai, and we translate it “furthermore.” Then we have a conditional particle e)i. It introduces the protasis of a first class condition, a supposition from the viewpoint of reality. So whatever is coming up we are looking at it from the standpoint of reality. Next we have the enclitic indefinite pronoun tij, and it is always used to represent a category, in this case the category of the human race. In fact it is a very interesting category, those who are antagonistic to the teaching of doctrine during that period are antagonistic, therefore, to the two human heralds, Moses and Elijah. Hatred, antagonism and implacability is there; they are in the cosmic system and they don’t like Moses and Elijah. And everything is intensified in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation so that when people generally do not like someone else they generally try to remove them from life. These are Tribulational believers and unbelievers residing in the cosmic system.

Then we have the present active indicative of the verb qelw which means to wish to desire, it expresses volition. Generally it expresses volition related to emotion. “Furthermore if anyone [the demonised population of the last half of the Tribulation] desires [resolves, is motivated].” The present tense is a progressive present, it signifies action in a state of persistence, present linear aktionsart. The active voice: the believer and unbeliever involved in the cosmic system, demonised, produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative used to indicate the first class condition, the reality of the fact that Moses and Elijah, two of the greatest speakers who ever lived, are not liked by everyone.

Any time you have a crisis personality you are going to have great dislike or great admiration. There is no middle ground with a crisis personality. Crisis personalities are going to be disliked and when someone dislikes you they are going to do something about it. This is exactly what Moses and Elijah face constantly. They can’t walk around with a wall of fire and they do not have the wall of fire in the ordinary sense. They open their mouth and preach and people are saved and people are blessed. Other people are antagonised. Doctrine always antagonises as well as blesses, it depends upon the individual attitude. And when you find a situation where Bible doctrine does not antagonise you are probably looking at a place where there is not very much freedom. Doctrine antagonises and doctrine blesses, and that is a manifestation of freedom. Here there are those who do not want to hear Moses and Elijah, or in hearing them, dislike them. They desire to do something to them. We have the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)dikew which goes with qelw. It means to injure, to damage, to hurt, and probably to harm covers everything. The active voice of qelw, believers and unbelievers involved in the cosmic system, produce the action. The indicative mood indicates simply the first class condition. But when we go to the aorist active infinitive we now have a change from the present tense to the aorist tense. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for a fact or action extended over one thousand two hundred and sixty days, the period of the ministry of Moses and Elijah as the human heralds of the second advent. The active voice: both believers and unbelievers involved in the cosmic system have the freedom to express antagonism in terms of harm. The infinitive is the infinitive of purpose expressing the aim of the direction denoted by the finite verb, the finite verb being the verb qelw.

What does all this add up to? It all adds up to a principle, but first we need to get the translation. We have an accusative plural direct object from a)utoj, an intensive pronoun never used as an intensive pronoun, or rarely does. In the Koine Greek they forgot to bring all of the personal pronouns over from the Attic Greek, and they forgot to bring the third person personal pronoun o(u or its plural sfeij. Since they didn’t bring them over they had to find a substitute and that is why a)utoj is used hundreds of times as a personal pronoun, third person, and rarely ever used as an intensive pronoun. Here it is the direct object and it refers to Moses and Elijah once again. So what we have so far is: “Furthermore if anyone [demonised population, believer and unbeliever in the cosmic system] desires to harm them [Moses and Elijah].”

Then we have the apodosis. The protasis of the first class condition verifies the fact that they are going to have opposition. In the apodosis the first word is the word for fire in the Greek, pur. Next we have a verb, the present active indicative of e)kporeuomai and it really should be translated, “fire shoots out of their mouths.” The e)kporeuomai is a pictorial present tense, it brings to the mind a picture of this event in the process of occurrence. These two great men on their second tour of duty in history are permitted a weapon. They are permitted to kill with a very important weapon. Reason: they are so wise, the great pressure does not bring out any antagonism in them, they can use this weapon strictly for defence. They never abuse the wall of fire given to them. They are so wise, so objective, so filled with personal responsibility and integrity that the weapon is safe in their hands. Therefore they are permitted this weapon of protection for remember that the last three and a half years of the Tribulation is the greatest period of violence in all of human history. While the active voice emphasises the action of the verb the middle voice emphasises the agent producing the action. The indirect middle emphasises the agent as producing the action rather than participating in its results. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of this weapons system in the hands of these two men. Principle: Always in this world there are those who can be trusted with weapons. They have a great sense of responsibility, they have virtue, integrity and honour, and they never use the weapon to gain power or authority for themselves but strictly as a matter of defence. That is exactly the principle here.

So fire shoots from their mouth. We have e)k plus the ablative of stoma for the mouth. The question always: Is it literally from their mouth or not? In this case it doesn’t make any difference, it is still a weapon, it is still effective. The Bible doesn’t satisfy our curiosity. What the Bible does tell us is that it is effective and the principle behind it: those who have integrity have the right to weapons. Moses and Elijah have a special weapon. They are either evangelising and teaching believers on the one hand or they are antagonising the whole cosmic system — believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system, all the fallen angels who have been thrown out of heaven. They are antagonising everyone and if you antagonise that many people one of them is going to get the idea that you should be eliminated. So before they left heaven they were given this special weapon. Note that God gives them the weapon. The police system in Jerusalem in the Tribulation is not going to protect them, no one is going to protect them, they are on their own and they are going to survive magnificently until it is the Lord’s time to take them. No system of evil, no power in the world, no system of weaponry no matter how sophisticated, can take a person out of this world until God says it is time to come home.

The next phrase is, “and it destroys.” The connective conjunction kai followed by the present active indicative of katesqiw means to eat, to masticate, to chew up, swallow and completely digest. What it comes to mean is to destroy, to consume in the sense of destroy, “and it destroys” is the correct translation. The static present tense is for a condition taken for granted as a fact. When God gave them a weapon the weapon was designed to destroy. That is what weapons are for! God didn’t give them this fire to impress everyone. Notice that God will abolish warfare in the Millennium but until then weapons are legitimate. The active voice: fire from the mouth of Moses and Elijah produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this defence weapons system which acts as a wall of fire protecting these two men while they carry on their ministry.

When we react is when we are at our most dangerous self. In this period of the Tribulation a lot of people are going to react to Moses and Elijah and they are going to react with violence. So what is the correct thing to do when people are out to destroy you? Exactly what the Bible says here: “and it destroys their enemies,” the accusative plural direct object from e)kqroj which means enemies. Note that this weapons system is defensive. A defensive weapon is designed to match wisdom and integrity. Until the Lord calls you home you have a right to stay alive and a defensive weapon is to be used simply to defend your right to stay alive.

A weapons system is a defensive system, it is not to be used to achieve power. It is used to protect your right to live in this earth as an individual. You have a right to live until the Lord calls you home. You have a right to live to fulfil God’s plan for your life. You have a right not only to live but you have a right to property. Your life and your property are both sacred. Property is anything you own. As an offensive weapon system it would be a system of tyranny; as a defensive weapon it is a system of freedom. That is why God gave the two heralds this weapon.

The two heralds were permitted to use weapons in defence of their lives. God had a purpose for their lives and that purpose did not agree, of course, with Satan who in the time of his desperation will seek to destroy every effective communication of Bible doctrine. And so demonised people will seek to annihilate, to destroy, to assassinate Moses and Elijah during their second tour of duty to this earth. They are given one weapon by which they can kill those who try to kill them.

There are two principles here: It is important that their message be disseminated; Every human being has a right to live until he has forfeited that life to crime or until it is God’s time to take him home. Life is sacred under the laws of divine establishment. Life and property are both sacred and are not to be tampered with. In the protection of them the use of violence is legitimate.

This weapons system which will be used to protect and preserve the lives of the two heralds from destruction so that the plan of God can be fulfilled in the communication of doctrine. As a defensive weapon used against their enemies it is a killer in the most honourable and righteous sense. Arrogance on the part of these two men could result in them turning the weapons system into an offensive weapon for their personal advantage, a seizure of power, but they didn’t do it. All weapons must be compatible with the Word of God in a given situation. In the military to kill with weapons is an honourable thing but the use of weapons in society to eliminate someone you hate is an evil thing. In this situation God is not using Moses and Elijah as commandos from heaven to kill the enemies of the cross, He is using them to communicate Bible doctrine to people who can therefore use their volition to accept it or reject it.

1. In time a weapon exists, whether it is a conventional weapon or a sophisticated weapon — a missile, a nuclear bomb, a machine gun, or what ever it is — the weapon must be compatible with the mission and objective.

2. As such this weapon, the flame thrower in the context, was designed to keep them alive, not to kill those who live in the cosmic system. Why didn’t God protect them? you say. God never stops the function of the angelic conflict which is volition. In the volition of certain demonised people they want to kill Moses and Elijah, but God does not stop the function of their volition. If God coerces evil volition God can coerce good volition; but God doesn’t coerce any volition, that is the name of the game in the angelic conflict. Therefore recognising that people are going to try to kill them God provides them with something where their volition is involved. When you use a weapon in defence of your life your volition is involved. God does not destroy positive or negative volition, good or bad volition, they both function. Moses and Elijah have a weapon, therefore they have volition with the use of that weapon, just as those who hate them and despise them and want to kill them have volition and weapons and try to kill them. So the whole of the time of Satan’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation, is still volition. God has never tampered with volition.

No one can function in life and utilise divine power delegated to him unless he understands his mission.

3. There is no abuse in the use of this weapon on the part of Moses and Elijah. They didn’t use it for their personal glory or to gain control of the world. Why didn’t they? Because they understood their mission.

4. Moses and Elijah were selected for this mission because they would not abuse this sophisticated weapon for their own benefit but they would use it for the glory of God in the sense that they were glorifying God by teaching doctrine, and to continue to teach doctrine they had to use it in defence of their lives.

5. The purpose of a defensive weapon is to keep a person alive for the fulfilment of his mission.

6. Therefore they are to give people Bible doctrine and only to kill those who would seek to kill them and who would seek to hinder them from teaching doctrine. In other words, those who would try to stop their mission by killing them. Life is sacred and no one has a right to take their lives.

7. When you have power in your hands you must be alert to use that power in the context of your mission, not as a means of gaining power for self.

8. The most difficult weapons to use in the Christian life are those weapons designed for defensive action only. Therefore the principle: No one can function in life and utilise divine power delegated to him unless he understands his mission in life, the meaning of his life in relationship to logistical grace. And the application to us: to understand our mission in life. We are members of the royal family of God, we are given offensive weapons like impersonal love toward man. Our defensive weapon is residence and function in the divine dynasphere, the wall of fire. Our offensive system is perception and application of Bible doctrine.

Verse 5, “For if anyone desires to harm them,” the two heralds, Moses and Elijah, “fire shoots out of their mouth, and destroys their enemies.” Their enemies are both born-again believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system. They are first of all enemies of the cross, demonised, and they become the enemies of Moses and Elijah.

There is a second conditional clause. We begin with the inferential expletive kai, and with it a conditional conjunction e)i. It introduces ordinarily a second class condition, but here we find e)i plus the subjunctive and it is therefore a third class condition. That means a more probable future condition, it introduce the protasis of a third class condition. The enclitic indefinite pronoun tij follows, used for a category. It represents a category of the human race, those people in the Tribulation living in the cosmic system involved in degrees of demonism. If they are believers they can only be under demon influence which motivates them to evil and terrorism; or they can be, as unbelievers, both under demon influence and demon possessed, which influences them to do exactly the same thing. The result is the same. Technically there is a difference as to what can happen to a believer in the cosmic system.

Then we have the aorist active subjunctive of the verb qelw. This is a potential situation which will finish up the concept of this verse. Qelw means to wish or to desire and sometimes even implies the relationship between motivation and action, “also if anyone would desire.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and places emphasis on motivation and the function of free will of those believers and unbelievers in the Tribulation, living in the cosmic system. The active voice: the Tribulational believers and unbelievers living in the cosmic system and are involved in their demonisation process produce the action of the verb, and people undergo personality change.

Weak people undergo personality change because of bad environment but environment is no excuse for personality change, personality degeneration. Strong people undergo personality change through perception of principle: unbelievers, principle; believers, Bible doctrine. No two people are ever the same in life. As long as you are exposed to varying circumstances of life you will undergo personality change. And, of course, it can be for the better or for the worse. It is generally for the worse unless you have the ability and the power to think, the ability and the power to perceive in terms of principle — doctrine, truth. If your life is not regulated by some system of principle of truth and doctrine then your changes are always for the worse.

The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive qualified by the element of contingency. Life in the cosmic system is the contingency and it motivates antagonism toward those who teach truth. Believers and unbelievers alike in the cosmic truth are antagonistic toward any communication of the truth.

“also if anyone,’ demonised population residing in the cosmic system, “would desire.” Then we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)dikew which means to harm or to do some form of evil. In this case it has to do with assassination, terrorism. The constative aorist tense is for a fact or action extended over the period of the ministry of Moses and Elijah in the time of the eschatology of Satan’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation. The active voice: the believer and unbeliever living in that period of time produce the action of the verb, and this is an infinitive of purpose expressing the aim of the action denoted by the main verb, qelw. With it we have the accusative plural direct object from a)utoj, which is the intensive pronoun used as the personal pronoun third person because it was not carried over from the Attic Greek. It is translated “them,” “also if anyone would desire to harm or to hurt them.” That is the protasis.

The apodosis follows and begins with an adverb which refers to what precedes, o(utoj which should be translated “in this manner.” It is a reference to the weapons system and all of the uses of weapons which we have studied. It is a reference to the weapons system of the human heralds, the fire which is said to shoot out of their mouth. The details of the weapon are not the issue. Suffice to say it is a weapon. It is a good weapon because it is a lethal weapon, it does what a weapon is intended to do, kill. This is the only way that freedom can be maintained in the face of terrorism, paramilitarism, criminality, and all of the other systems whereby people seek to gain control of you by force, by threats, by violence. Intimidation by violence is the name of the game in a degenerate society.

We have the impersonal verb of necessity which follows, dei, and it is translated “must.” Then we have the accusative of general reference of a)utoj again, this time in the third person singular referring to the demonised person motivated to use terror against Moses and Elijah, translated “he.” The accusative of general reference is not properly the subject of the infinitive but an accusative of reference but an accusative of reference used to describe the person producing the action of the infinitive. So we simplify the matter by calling it the subject of the infinitive.

Next we have the aorist passive infinitive a)pokteinw which means to kill, “he must be killed” is the translation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it refers to the momentary action of being killed by the weapons system from the hands of the most spiritual men on the face of the earth. Spirituality does not mean that you should lie down and let people step all over you. There are always principles whereby you withdraw from any act of violence but there are also principles whereby violence becomes a necessary function. Violent people only understand violence. They do not understand reason, they are irrational, they are antiestablishment, and they want to settle everything in the manner of degeneracy, the use of violence. When you are faced with that kind of person then you must have a greater system of violence than they possess. Moses and Elijah possess a greater system of violence and they use it.

“in this manner they must be killed” is in the passive voice: the subjects, the demonised assassins receive the action of the verb, killed by the weapons systems in the hands of Moses and Elijah. This is the infinitive of actual result. Remember that demonisation in the cosmic system as we have recently studied it includes criminal arrogance. These assassins who reside in the cosmic system must be executed quickly by the two heralds. There isn’t time even to take them to court, they must be executed immediately in order that the mission assigned to them might be continued, the mission of communicating Bible doctrine.

The fact that Moses and Elijah had to kill quite a few people in Jerusalem did not in any way hinder their ministry or the plan of God. If it was going to hinder the plan of God then God would not have entrusted them with a weapons system before they left heaven for their next tour of duty. They are not irresponsible people with weapons. Irresponsible people should never have weapons. But we are not dealing with irresponsible people, we are dealing with people who when faced with the message of Bible doctrine are so antagonised as to immediately resort to violence and the fact that they are instantly killed does not hinder the ministry of Moses and Elijah. These assassins who reside in the cosmic system must be executed quickly and the speed of their punishment is effective, it cause other demonised human beings who have the same idea to be restrained. In effect this weapons system which came from the hand of God becomes a system of law. That is what law is all about, it is to restrain evil instincts, to restrain violence, to bring civilisation into society. If people do not have enough norms and standards that would restrain them then they must have something to fear that will restrain them, and that is the issue of law. This weapon in the hands of Moses and Elijah is so effective it produces fear.

Note: If you were smart you would never want anyone to fear you, only respect. Fear has to be used professionally in order to have effectiveness, but watch out for the people who fear you, they are the most dangerous people of all.

However, in this case the people who fear are less dangerous because they are so impressed by the use of that weapon.

Translation of verse 5 — “Furthermore if anyone desires to harm them, fire shoots out of their mouth, and it kills their enemies: also, if anyone would desire to hurt them in this manner, they must be killed.”

Principle: As long as God has a plan for your life there is no power or combination of powers on this earth which can remove you by death or torture, or destroy you in any way. In other words, remove you by violence.

No harm will come to the two heralds of the second advent until their ministry is finished, and then they will be the objects of violence. When people really understand what is taught they either respond or react. Moses and Elijah are so great at teaching doctrine that eventually there will be a reaction, but not until God permits it. One of the adjuncts to God’s plan for the believer is to security and protection to accomplish the divine mandates, but God never protects a person in such a way as to eliminate the volition of those who are evil because evil people must be responsible for their own evil. Evil people must be responsible for their own decisions. God provides a system of security for these two men, a system of security that does not in any way hinder the volition of evil people. They leave heaven with this weapon and they do not use it in any evil way, it is dormant unless it is necessary to save their lives. In this way God protects them.

As long as the believer is alive on the earth God has a plan for his life, and only those believers who are consistent in perception of doctrine have a personal sense of destiny, and the execution of the will of God demands exemption from any harm, including physical death by violence.

The key to the crisis personality is abnormal pressure, unusual situations and circumstances. Abnormal pressure comes generally from historical disasters. The crisis personality, either through thought or speech or action, or a combination thereof, leads and dominates in disaster. There are three ways in which the crisis personality can meet a disaster: thought, speech, action. Sometimes it is a combination. The crisis personality can think, speak and act in abnormal circumstances of adversity, and therefore the crisis personality, through these three systems, dominates in disaster so that the people involved in the adversity are delivered, encouraged, changed, or in some other way profit from the disaster.

The profit is not always victory but some form of blessing at that time or a later time. The crisis personality may be a good or a bad person, he may be pleasant or obnoxious, he may be attractive or unattractive, but he is always controversial. The crisis personality emerges as the man of the hour in the greatest historical disaster, like Winston Churchill. The crisis personality has the ability to think under pressure, the true definition of courage, and he may even be a great public speaker whose message in historical disaster turns the tide. Often, but not always, the crisis personality does not appear to adjust too well to normal times and normal circumstances, like the hero who cannot adjust the routine of garrison duty or civilian life. Generally speaking the crisis personality possesses great honour, integrity, has a strong sense of responsibility plus great leadership ability which reaches its peak of expression under disastrous circumstances. Once the crisis is past the crisis personality is all too often forgotten. Illustration: Ecclesiastes 9:14-15 — “There was a small city, with a few men in it; and a great king came to it, and surrounded it, and constructed huge siege works against it [that is the crisis]: and there was found in it [the besieged city] a humble but very wise man [crisis personality], who delivered the city by his wisdom; yet, afterward no one remembered that humble yet wise man.” He was the crisis personality but he was forgotten.

In time of disaster people follow the leadership of the crisis personality, but once the disaster is over the same people are often embarrassed by their bad decisions which created the disaster in the first place. Therefore they blot out the embarrassment of their own failures and simultaneously they blot out the one who rectified their failures.

1. The believer with momentum inside of the divine dynasphere is designed to be a crisis personality. He is prepared to be a crisis personality by continued momentum.

2. The believer as a crisis personality must have a personal sense of destiny. This comes from gate four of the divine dynasphere, the momentum gate, perception and application of doctrine.

3. The believer as a crisis personality must have control of his life in normal times so that he will have control of his life under pressure. No one can be a crisis personality unless he has control of his life in normal times, for it must go over to control of his life in abnormal times, under pressure. If you do not have control of your life in normal circumstances there is no way that you will have control of your life under pressure.

4. The believer as a crisis personality must make good decisions from a position of strength. If he does it under normal circumstances he will make good decisions from a position of strength in time of pressure and disaster.

5. The believer as a crisis personality must possess right priorities. These right priorities must come from his perception of Bible doctrine: the function of honour, integrity, virtue under pressure, and at all times, of course, orientation to the plan of God. Right priorities are not developed in a crisis, right priorities must be developed before the crisis. Right priorities developed before the crisis mean persistence and consistency in perception of Bible doctrine.

6. Therefore the believer as a crisis personality is spiritually prepared for disaster. Nothing greater exists than to be spiritually prepared for disaster and any abnormal circumstance of life.

7. Sometimes the pattern of the crisis personality is low profile during normal times, but emerging from obscurity to stand in the gap during the crisis.

8. The crisis results from a maximum number of bad decisions on the part of someone, therefore the crisis was created by the failure of the general public. All crises are the result of a number of bad decisions on the part of the general public. God uses that crisis to introduce His man of the hour — like David in Israel. The crisis personality then combines the use of divine power with acquired spiritual resources. The divine power is always there but you, through your own positive volition, must acquire the spiritual resources. No one can do it for you and there is no way to be a crisis personality without it. God uses prepared men. God’s prepared men emerge in time of crisis — like Moses in the Exodus, David in the Goliath crisis,. Elijah in the Ahab crisis, Isaiah in the Assyrian crisis, Paul in the Nero crisis, and in the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation, Moses and Elijah, facing the greatest historical crisis of history.

We move now to other special powers given to these men. To whom much is given, much is expected, and God does not give any system of power to the believer unless he has the sense of responsibility, the integrity to handle that power and that authority. So we recognise immediately that Moses and Elijah on their second tour of duty in the time of greatest historical crisis were qualified to receive and to utilise these special powers.

We begin verses 6 with the nominative plural from the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, it is referring to Moses and Elijah. It is correctly translated, “these,” the two great human heralds of the second advent, two great crisis personalities. With this we have the present active indicative of the verb e)xw which means to have. Anyone who is a crisis personality must have the necessary spiritual resources and others deemed necessary by God, in order to fulfil their mission. The progressive present tense signifies the action of a state of persistence, present linear aktionsart. The active voice: Moses and Elijah produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative represent the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. These men are given supernatural powers to fulfil their ministry. They will fulfil their ministry and not be distracted by supernatural powers. Only the arrogant are distracted by being given unusual ability or extra-natural power.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from e)cousia, which means “authority.” It refers here to the great authority of Moses and Elijah. God does give great authority to anyone who is not prepared to use it. In order to exercise authority properly one must have honour, integrity, virtue, the divine perspective in every sense of the word, must avoid all forms of arrogance [cosmic one with its various gates of interlocking systems of arrogance]. The only possible way, therefore, to exercise this power properly is to do so in a state of true humility. Both Moses and Elijah possess these characteristics, though in their first tour of duty on this earth they failed with regard to this principle. Moses and Elijah, the human heralds, have the authority or the power. Authority, of course, means power, and that is why in the Greek it is often used both ways. We can translate it, “these have the power.” It includes great authority.

Then we have the verb in the infinitive form: the aorist active infinitive of kleiw. Kleiw means to shut, and with the accusative singular direct object o)uranoj it means to shut down the sky. It is an agricultural term. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and it refers to economic disaster. That is exactly what authority they have, to bring about economic disaster. Why economic disaster? Because of all the systems of disaster that make the individual realise the fallacy of his volition, his failure in taking responsibility for his own decisions, economic disaster does this in the best possible and objective way. Once people face economic disaster they face the realities of life. They can see where they have failed or succeeded. Some people come through economic disaster very well and some do not, and it is always a very clear-cut picture as to whether we have failed or succeeded in making good or bad decisions — good decisions from a position of strength; bad decisions from a position of weakness.

But there is even a greater reason for this and that is the fact that economic disaster brings a maximum number of people to a point of helplessness. Helplessness can go in either one of two ways. A helpless person or a helpless population can either become a hopeless population or they can rise to the occasion and be a crisis population. It is the difference between being a winner or a loser. A helpless population always gives up and when it does it always becomes hopeless and goes into some form of slavery or becomes some category of loser. As a result of being a loser enslavement is in order. The communists have discovered this principle and that is why they work overtime to make populations of various countries feel hopeless so that they can be exploited for communist conquest of the world, and these people become losers in their helplessness. But to face the crisis in a helpless state and to have spiritual resources from the Word of God causes the individual to become a winner. Moses and Elijah are winners and they are going to give that particular concept of doctrine to the population.

“These [Moses and Elijah] have authority and power to shut down the heavens [the sky].” The constative aorist tense has to do with the fact or action extended over a period of time. They can cut it off and they can start it again. The active voice: they have this power. The infinitive of intended result is used when a result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate objective. The objective is to bring people back to reality in a time of hopelessness and helplessness. That means to bring them first to the reality of the cross, the reality of eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, for this is the beginning of solution in time of hopelessness. Hopelessness and helplessness combine often to open up for the first time the volition of the individual. People who have rejected the gospel, people who have rejected Bible doctrine as believers, people who have become discouraged through a series of events, then have the reality that only God can intervene on their behalf, and they become positive toward the things of God, Bible doctrine as communicated in this case by Moses and Elijah. Moses and Elijah pull brands from the burning. That is, they evangelise and many people are saved in this time of great historical crisis. Also many believers who have been living in the cosmic system, whose priorities are all mixed up and who have put Bible doctrine on the bottom priority, now raise it to the top and begin to enter into a system of solution in their personal lives in time of national or international crisis. Economic disaster forces people to face reality, and being forced to face reality at that point in the crisis, they become either a winner or a loser. The crisis means permanent winner or permanent loser in the spiritual realm. For some believers in becoming losers in time of economic crisis eventually die the sin unto death. Their lives are absolutely useless and they merely demonstrate the power of God in disciplining the believer for his failure to have a personal sense of destiny from perception of doctrine, his failure to make decisions from a position of strength, and his failure to maintain control of his life through spiritual resources provided under the concept of logistical grace.

Next we have a sub-final purpose clause. It begins with the conjunction i(na. Why are they given these unusual powers? This is a time of great crisis, three and a half years of the most concentrated crisis in all of history, the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The conjunction i(na introduces a sub-final or a semi-final purpose clause which denotes the direction of the action in the main verb toward a given result. This given result is anticipated. We translate it “so that.”

With it we have a negative verb. We have the negative mh plus the present active subjunctive of brexw, “so that rain may not fall.” Again, we are talking about an agricultural economy at the time of the writing of the Bible, and lack of rain meant economic disaster. In our country today economic disaster means lack of basic industries. (High technology is no good without basic industry to support it) No system of economy will work unless it has a good foundation.

The crisis has only one solution, and this is why Moses and Elijah were sent by God in this time of the devil’s desperation. The solution is a spiritual solution, a spiritual solution which begins by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and then the daily decisions which must be made in the face of every form of disaster: the decisions to put the Word of God first, the decision to grow in grace above everything else, the understanding of the utilisation of logistical grace, the function of the three stages of the faith-rest drill, the importance of the rebound technique to avoid cosmic involvement. Getting back to basics is the thing that counts as far as the solution is concerned. And from those basics, growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ.

When these two men came people were so mixed up during this last half of the Tribulation. Believers were mixed up because they had ignored doctrine; unbelievers were mixed up because of the usual problems of involvement in the cosmic system. And so two men were sent from heaven by God in the middle of the Tribulation to face the most mixed-up population the world has ever known — filled with confusion and false ideas about almost every subject. How are they going to get the attention of the world? How are they going to focus their attention on the fact that it is spiritual solution that is necessary in historical crisis? Well, they are going to do it by having certain authority, certain power, certain ability, certain talents that will eventually focus attention on the message. They are going to be given extra-natural powers, not to gain control of people, not to build any personal empire, but to focus attention on Bible doctrine in a time of great adversity.

So the translation: “These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain may not fall.” The customary present tense denotes what reasonably be expected to occur following the pattern of Elijah’s original ministry in 1 Kings 17:1, “Now Elijah said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, definitely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word’.” It is a duplication of the power given to Elijah in the great crisis of Ahab as the king of northern Israel. God raised up Elijah at that time and in order to get the attention of the people and to make them realise that the most important thing in life is Bible doctrine he was given certain supernatural powers. And they related to the economy for when people hurt economically that is when they begin to look around for answers, and that is exactly what happened. Cf. Luke 4:25; James 5:17. All power on the part of Elijah is going to be demonstrated so that people will listen to Bible doctrine. That is the proper use of power, to give the Word of God a hearing.

The active voice: Moses and Elijah as the two human heralds of the second advent will have the power to shut down the economy in order that people will listen to Bible doctrine. The subjunctive mood plus the negative mh is the subjunctive of prohibition. With this we have accusative of the extent of time which has as its final object h(mera, meaning days, “during the days of their prophetic ministry.” The word for prophetic ministry is a descriptive genitive from the noun profhteia which means communication of doctrine. It doesn’t mean teaching prophecy although it is translated “prophetic ministry”. It is actually a doctrinal ministry, for as we have already seen both the Greek words and the Hebrew words simply mean preaching doctrine, which we call forth telling. Then from that doctrine comes the future, and that would be foretelling. So the words prophet and prophecy don’t mean predicting the future as it is used in a modern connotation, it means someone who communicates doctrine. And, of course, the communication of doctrine deals with the past, the present, and the future. And so “in the days of their prophetic ministry” means the communication of Bible doctrine.

While the first authority or power given to these two heralds of the second advent is related to the ministry of Elijah, the second authority or power is related to the ministry of Moses. Moses had the power to turn water into blood in Exodus 7:19-25.

In focusing on Moses and what is coming up in the next phrase we need to go back and remember Moses for a moment. Moses grew up in the palace of the greatest line of Pharaohs that ever lived in the greatness of that country, when Egypt was the greatest empire in the world. He grew up with the royal family. Moses was going to be the next Pharaoh of Egypt, he was by far the smartest and the greatest and with that in mind he was groomed for his future position. He studied extensively in all of the Egyptian colleges, he became a great architect and built two of the treasure cities, the treasure cities through which he marched during the Exodus. He also was a great military man. He was also a musical genius and a great writer. In fact, he was multitalented in every possible way.

But about the time when Moses was about to take over as Pharaoh Moses discovered his own race, the Jews in slavery, and that is when he identified himself with them. Eventually that great passage in Hebrews 11, “he did not fear the wrath of the king, but was occupied with the Lord”. As such he identified himself with his people and renounced the throne of Egypt. He had great training, he met many a crisis while he was preparing to be the king of Egypt, but the crisis was even greater when it came to removing the Jews from slavery. He was a man who had great humility and combined with his ability that made him one of the greatest men of genius in all of history. He was therefore given by God fantastic power. He would never abuse that power, he would never use that power to gain ascendancy over anyone. He did not use his power to liberate the Jews to become his slaves, he used that power to make them a free people even though they couldn’t handle freedom and even though the first generation failed completely in freedom.

So Moses became the great liberator in Israel. In order to do that he had to face a very jealous son of the jealous father. For his rival had died while he was forty years in the wilderness and when he came back to Egypt he faced his son, Amenhotep II, who had all of his father’s stubbornness without his father’s genius. So God gave great power to Moses in the liberation, the freedom from slavery of the Jews. And now this is mentioned in the middle of Revelation 11:6. It begins with the conjunction kai, followed by the present active indicative e)xw which, again, is used for God giving special power to special people, “and they have.” The progressive present tense, present linear aktionsart. The active voice: Moses and Elijah as the two human heralds produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. And, again, we have that same accusative direct object from e)cousia, and it means both power and authority. It is anarthrous, there is no definite article, emphasising the qualitative aspect of the noun rather than its mere identity. This is said to be in the prepositional phrase that follows, e)pi plus the genitive of u(dor, “over water.” He was given “power over the waters.”

What power was given to him is mentioned in the infinitive that follows: the present active infinitive of the verb strefw which means to turn. The descriptive present or pictorial present. The active voice: Moses and Elijah had the power, the infinitive of intended result. In time of terrible economic depression one of the worst things to have go bad is water. So he is going to deny them the use of water, “to turn the waters into blood.” In Exodus 7:20 Moses had that same power. That was the first plague of Egypt.

Next we have the intensive use of the conjunction kai, translated “in fact.” Then the aorist active infinitive from patassw which means to strike. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and therefore over a period of their ministry, three and a half years, they will have this power. How much they use it is not recorded. Moses and Elijah as human heralds produce the action, this is the infinitive of intended result in which a deliberate objective is being fulfilled. The objective is to focus attention on Bible doctrine. In fact “they strike the land with every plague”; “every plague” refers to the plagues which Moses performed in BC 1441.

Corrected translation: “These [Moses and Elijah] have power to shut up the sky, so that rain may not fall in the days of their prophetic ministry: furthermore they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, in fact to strike the land with every plague as often as possible.”

Principle: Both Moses and Elijah will function in the Tribulation as they had in their past ministries. For one thing is obvious: neither man ever abused the extra-natural and supernatural powers given to them. No man can ever be great in history, in any area, if he abuses power and authority. All true greatness in every field of life depends upon the proper use of authority without its abuse. Moses and Elijah demonstrated the fact that no matter how much authority, how much power, how much of supernatural activities were assigned to them they would never abuse it. They would never use it for any form of self-gain but they would utilise these things to focus attention on the Word of God. They would teach doctrine under the power of God the Holy Spirit and they will verify their ministry with these miracles they will perform. But notice: there is the basic power for communication of doctrine; the greatest power of all, the filling of the Holy Spirit; but there is also another system of power and this power is in the performing of certain miracles.

We live in a time when the performing of miracles is not necessary. The reason is that we have the completed canon of scripture and the Word of God is alive and powerful. But before the canon was completed and during this period of the last three and a half years of the Tribulation miracles are a power, a sign. The problem always comes in realising, Why miracles? Are miracles simply to alleviate suffering? Never. Miracles are designed to focus attention on the gospel. If miracles were designed to alleviate suffering then why didn’t Jesus heal everyone while He was on earth? He didn’t. He only healed a few when there was an opportunity to present the message. It is the doctrine that has the greatest power, and so under the ministry of the Holy Spirit Bible doctrine is communicated to people with free will so that they can accept it or reject it. Miracles are merely designed to get people to be positive long enough to hear doctrine. Most people, of course, abuse such power as miracles by simply using it to draw attention to self and in order to gain control over people. But the objective of miracles is not to gain control over people but to give people an opportunity to focus attention on doctrine. Then they can say yes or no to the doctrine. The key, then, is doctrine.

So two kinds of power are given to Moses and Elijah, the power of miracles. They will not abuse it, they will use it properly in order to focus attention on their message. Never has the land of Israel had such great opportunity to be saved as during this ministry of Moses and Elijah for they will speak under the power of God the Holy Spirit and they will perform miracles so that their message is heard. The land has its greatest opportunity for salvation and spiritual growth. Never will the power of negative volition, however, be so great for this is the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. Satan is now confined to the earth and in his desperation he is going to fight these two men with every possible miracle, with every use of power, with every system of aggrandisement. Miracles or plagues are not necessary, again, in the Church Age to give credibility to the teacher, but they are necessary in the Tribulation where God the Holy Spirit only indwells a few, those who communicate doctrine, and miracles are used to focus attention on the message of Spirit-filled men. Once the canon of scripture was completed doctrinal communication became the order of the day without verification from miracles. The reason is obvious. Every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit in this dispensation plus the fact that ever believer has the divine dynasphere which replaced the need for miracles in verifying the message. And since this is the dispensation of the divine dynasphere it is not necessary to provide any credibility to miracles. We do not live in the age of miracles. God still performs supernatural acts under certain conditions but all of the miracle gifts have been removed.

In the Tribulation, however, miracles are used as a system of authority to focus attention on the message of Moses and Elijah. They function from Jerusalem and will have a world-wide ministry, possibly through television and some satellite system which will be in operation at that time.

Verse 7, the murder of the two witnesses. No man is able to assassinate them, they will be assassinated by Satan’s number two man in his organisation, Abaddon, the prince of all of Satan’s undercover and terrorist activities.

We begin with the conjunction kai, translated “Now” since it is sequential. With this we have a very important temporal conjunction o(tan, it means that as long as God’s plan for their lives continues nothing will harm them. But once it is finished that is something else, “Now when.” This temporal conjunction introduces an indefinite temporal clause in which we are going to discover that there will come a time when this great ministry of these two men will be concluded. Next is the aorist active subjunctive of the verb telew, “Now when they had finished their testimony.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the completion of their testimony in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. They will be removed by death. The active voice: Moses and Elijah produce the action on their second tour of duty, and the subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive used to form an indefinite temporal clause, therefore a potential subjunctive implying a future reference qualified by the element of contingency.

Finally, we have their ministry summarised in the accusative singular direct object from marturia. Marturia means testimony in court. They have come from heaven to testify with regard to God’s plan for the lives of mankind. We have the possessive genitive plural from a)utoj, “their” testimony.

Here are two of the greatest men in all of history as far as communication of doctrine is concerned, and from them we are going to extrapolate a principle:

1. There comes a time when the best of ministries are completed and the Lord recalls His servant to heaven.

2. No matter how great the ministry there is a time in human history when that ministry is completed and another must take its place.

3. God uses many different people in many historical situations, different people for different situations.

4. For example, the men God used in the Reformation would be very ineffective today, and vice versa.

5. No one is indispensable in the Lord’s service. God has a right time for the right man — when he should begin and when he should terminate.

6. The question arises: How is the right man determined? He must be a believer, obviously. He must have a spiritual gift of communication. He must be dedicated to the study of the Word of God above all else, and with that dedication God will provide all forms of preparation. There are those who have the gift of pastor-teacher who never succeed because they have no dedication to the study of the Word of God.

8. However, no matter how great the communicator, no matter how great the man, there comes a time when his work is finished. When his work is finished God removes that man by physical death, although in some case he may be permitted to remain on earth to enjoy some of the results of a faithful ministry — but not too often.

9. Humility accepts this principle of doctrine while arrogance fights it to the bitter end. Without humility the teacher of the Word of God has neither happiness nor a sense of personal destiny.

10. So it boils down to the fact that no matter how great the servant of the Lord has been and no matter how he has been used of the Lord, he is not indispensable. Only the Lord who provides and sustains His servants is indispensable, and in His great wisdom the Lord provides the minister to meet the needs and the volitional status of a specific generation.

Therefore the great differences in personality and communication from one generation to another is not the issue. The issue is: Is he God’s man?

Moses and Elijah had great ministries in the past but ministries not completed, for Moses did not lead the Jews into the land and Elijah was replaced by Elisha. Moses was replaced by Joshua. God had a time for their ministry and then it was all over.

The principle is that God only uses prepared men. Too often either cosmic involvement or lack of training hinders a potential minister. A minister is only a potential servant of the Lord until he is prepared. This means both academic preparation, adversity preparation, personality preparation (arrogance versus humility), and that dedicated scale of values which always places Bible doctrine first. Moses and Elijah are those two great servants of the Lord who did not complete their ministries during their lifetime on this earth. Both were hindered from completing their ministries through arrogance. For Moses it was the arrogance of self-righteousness, “Must we bring water from this rock”; for Elijah it was the arrogance of self-pity when he said in 1 Kings: “I, only I am left, and they seek my life to take it away.” Now Moses and Elijah are permitted to finish their ministries on their second tour of duty to the earth. The completion of their ministry results in their dramatic death and resuscitation. But until their ministry of announcing the second advent and the teaching of doctrine and the evangelising of positive volition is completed Moses and Elijah have a world-wide ministry and message from Jerusalem. As the heralds of the King Moses and Elijah are faithful in teaching the Word, emphasising the approach of the greatest of all eschatological events, the time of our Lord’s tactical victory.

“Now when they had finished their testimony.” We have noted the principle that no one is indispensable but the Lord. There comes a time when the best of the Lord’s servants have finished their ministry and the Lord calls them home to heaven. Another must take their place. Moses and Elijah are those two great servants of the Lord who did not complete their ministry during their lifetime on this earth, and both were hindered from the completion of their ministry through their own failure during their first tour of duty. Moses was the most humble man in the world but one point of arrogance ended his ministry as far as leading the Jews into the promised land. But now Moses and Elijah are permitted to finish their ministry in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. The completion of their ministry results in a very dramatic death and resuscitation but until their ministry of communicating doctrine and announcing the second advent is completed Moses and Elijah have a world-wide testimony.

1. The reason for antagonism against Moses and Elijah emphasises the effectiveness of their ministry. The reason for antagonism is that any form of apostasy, any form of cosmic involvement, becomes antagonistic toward the truth. When those who are involved in the cosmic system hear the truth they may not even identify it as truth but it arouses their antagonism.

2. For centuries people have tried to solve their problems through the key word “improvement.” People go on great crusades to improve environment, improve the circumstances of life. And that word “improvement” is a distraction to the solution of problems, for countless times in history crusaders and historical trends have resulted in the improvement of environment, have resulted in times of great freedom for segments of the population of this earth, but improvement has never been the answer, and never will be the answer. It was demonstrated at the very beginning of history that perfect environment is not the answer because man has free will and man is free to fail even as he is free to succeed. He is free to reject truth or to accept truth, and the only way man can maintain a system of blessing and happiness in this life is through the perception and application of truth. Our first parents demonstrated the fact that perfect environment was not the answer to their problems and the last dispensation in history, one thousand years of perfect environment, will again demonstrate that same fact. For when Satan is released from his one-thousand-year imprisonment there will be a Gog revolution against perfect environment. All of this demonstrates once again that improvement of society is never the answer. “Improvement” is not really a key word. Instead the key word should be “regeneration” because regeneration goes with truth; improvement goes with better environment. But what good is better environment without capacity for it.

3. People need truth rather than better environment. There is no way that you can pass environmental laws that will deal with the volition of the next generation. If the next generation wants to turn every national park into a concrete jungle the hours that people have spent trying to protect the environment are ridiculous. We in this generation can only answer for our own decisions from our own scale of values. We cannot in any way pass laws or enter into crusades that will either hinder or help the volitional function of the next generation. Every generation must make its own way by its own decisions, decisions from its own scale of values. The one thing that goes from one generation to another are not the laws of the land and the crusades of this generation, but truths. In every generation truth will exist; truth will not be destroyed. The Word of God lives and abides forever, there is no way to destroy truth. Therefore Moses and Elijah are on the right track for they recognise this principle. They teach truth; they communicate Bible doctrine; they do not try to change the environment. They have the power to kill all the bad guys but they do not do so. The only ones they kill are the ones who threaten their right to free speech, those who have locked-in negative volition and would actually eliminate truth. Therefore we can learn something from the Tribulation: crusaders are inevitably arrogant. Their crusades which are going to change the world never change anyone or anything because the key to the angelic conflict is human volition and you can’t change human volition, even God will not coerce human volition. All crusading is a total waste of time.

Everyone is looking for some way to improve the environment, to improve themselves, but the people who really improve themselves are the people who learn Bible doctrine, daily, consistently, truth. People are working vigorously today to change things, not realising that what is changed today (perhaps for the better, perhaps not) can be changed for the worse tomorrow, and that change based on the crusader arrogance principle never does any good. Better environment is only made by truth in the soul. When you have truth or Bible doctrine in the soul you provide better in the soul which manifests itself in better environment around you.

5. This is God’s last lesson to the human race: the historical lesson of the Millennium with its perfect environment. And these men announce that Millennium as they teach the gospel and teach other areas of Bible doctrine.

6. Moses and Elijah teach the lesson that even perfect environment cannot solve man’s problems. Man needs a challenge; man needs to work by the sweat of his brow. The woman needs to learn to entertain herself or to get into business herself.

7. Along comes Moses and Elijah saying that environment is not the solution. Man does not need improvement, man needs regeneration.

Well, this aroused the antagonism of the masses. People believed in improvement of the world rather than the regeneration of mankind. Even in the last half of the Tribulation people were trying to improve the world. Without regeneration improvement of environment is meaningless because man does not have the capacity to deal with better or even perfect environment. Moses and Elijah do not seek to improve the devil’s world but to rescue mankind from cosmos diabolicus. This arouses the antagonism of Satan as nothing else will do. Once everyone has been face to face with the truth and the issues of truth the ministry and testimony of Moses and Elijah is finished. That is why we have this phrase, “When they had finished their testimony.” That means an assassination is coming up.

Verse 7, “Now when Moses and Elijah had finished their testimony.” We move on now to see the assassination of Moses and Elijah on their second tour of duty into this world in serving the Lord.

We start out with the nominative singular subject of the noun qhrion. Like another noun, zoion, in the book of Revelation it is also translated “beast” in the King James version. The word qhrion means monster wild animal or beast. In this verse the word qhrion refers to the prince of the fallen angels that we studied in Revelation 9:11. His name is Abaddon. This is the person who is Satan’s super hit man, he is the prince and the ruler of the terrorist activity under Satan. After leading the first demon assault army in Revelation chapter nine this demon prince is assigned other duties such as the assassination of Moses and Elijah.

With this we have an articular present active participle which helps to identify him. The verb is a)nabainw and it means to ascend, and with it we have the noun for the abyss. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun; the present tense is dramatic. The active voice: Abaddon, the prince of demons, produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

When we put it all together we have: “Now when Moses and Elijah had finished their testimony, the beast monster [the demon in charge of terrorist activities] who comes up.”

And then the preposition e)k plus the ablative of a)bussoj [abyss], “from the abyss.” The terrorist activity of Abaddon is now described, beginning with the future active indicative of the verb poiew, which means here to make, “he will make.” The future tense is predictive. The active voice: Abaddon produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a statement of future history. And with this we have the accusative singular direct object from polemoj, meaning war, “he will make war,” or it can be translated in the idiom form, “he will fight against.” “He will make war against them”; “against them” is the preposition meta plus the genitive of a)utoj used as a personal pronoun, against Moses and Elijah.

We now have two more verbs, both in the future tense. The first one is the future active indicative from nikaw which means to win, to overcome, to have victory. The predictive future anticipates the fact that the ministry of Moses and Elijah in their second tour of duty has now come to an end. The active voice: Abaddon, the prince of demons, is the terrorist commander for Satan. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this event in history in the future. Then we have the accusative plural direct object, again referring to them. We have one more verb, the future active indicative of a)pokteinw which means to kill by violence, “and will kill,” “he will both overcome and kill them.” The active voice: Abaddon is the hit man and does the assassinating. At this particular time the ministry of these two men is over and their defensive weapon is no longer operational.

Translation of verse 7 — “Now when they [Moses and Elijah as the heralds of the second advent] had finished their testimony [their ministry], the beast monster [Abaddon, the demon ruler of Revelation 9:11] who comes up from the abyss will make war against them; he will both overpower and kill them.”

1. This principle explains the reason for so much violence in the human race. The content of violence simply measures the content of arrogance in the human race. Arrogance and violence go together.

2. It also explains Satan’s use of violence to seek victory in the angelic conflict. Satan, before even human history began, used violence to try to solve his problems.

3. Neither Satan nor the human race has ever learned the great lesson that violence does not solve problems. In fact, conversely, violence intensifies problems and creates new problems.

4. The assassination of Moses and Elijah is the manifestation of frustrated arrogance.

5. When any creature uses violence, including murder, to try to solve or remove a problem he destroys the very structure of civilisation and removes freedom from human modus operandi.

6. When people or any creature [angelic] murders to remove a problem they suffer from that malady of arrogance which tries to solve one’s problems through the ultimate in violence, the murder of someone who seems to be the problem, or people who seem to be the problem, like anti-Semitism. It is a sign of stupidity.

7. Only God has the right to remove life or permit the removal of life from this world. In the case of Moses and Elijah He permits it. Until the conclusion of their ministry they are absolutely invulnerable to all Satanic attacks.

8. Only God’s law specifies under what conditions man will kill man legitimately. Under the laws of divine establishment human life is sacred, not to be tampered with except under two conditions: a. law enforcement and capital punishment; b. the killing of one’s country’s enemies as a representative of one’s nation in the military establishment.

9. The murder of Moses and Elijah does not solve Satan’s problems, it does not provide for the victory of the devil in the angelic conflict. In fact, it will intensify his problems as is always the case with murder.

10. Frustrated arrogance is never satisfied with the function of violence to solve the problem. To alleviate the frustration of arrogance people murder. Murder is the sign of an inner sin before it becomes and overt sin. The inner sin is arrogance. People murder because they are preoccupied with self and they see some person standing in the way and therefore forming an extension of their arrogant frustration. Frustrated arrogance is never satisfied by the violence it produces and motivates. Frustrated arrogance is intensified when the violent one becomes psychopathic, disoriented to life, disoriented to the rationales of life, and this frustration of arrogance gravitating to violence is going to be manifested in a very unusual way in the next chapter, the great Jewish holocaust at the end of the Tribulation.

1. The key to freedom in all of human society is restraint from the basic virtue of humility. There can be no freedom without two factors: authority and virtue. But authority is a restrainer when the authority of the law is feared. Now we are talking about self-restraint from virtue, if you have it. Even with law many people do not have freedom. The legitimate authority does not always guarantee freedom. In a civilised society freedom is guaranteed by the virtue of the people in that society, and the basic virtue is humility. Humility imposes self-restraint.

2. Freedom demands privacy plus the sacredness of both property and life. Under the laws of divine establishment both property and life are sacred and you cannot have freedom without the sacredness of property and life.

3. For this Bible doctrine in the realm of establishment to be fulfilled man must use his freedom to practice restraint. Since all of us have freedom all of us cannot express our freedom without someone (and a lot of someone’s) practising restraint. Restraint is the manifestation of the basic virtue of humility.

4. Differences of opinion often lead to quarrels and where arrogance is involved quarrels lead to violence.

5. This explains murder within the framework of divine institution #3, the family. This is a very common practice in an arrogant society.

6. Arrogance removes restraint and self-control because arrogance is the antithesis of humility. Humility is a virtue; arrogance is the most basic of all sins, and not only is it a sin but it is a sin complex, as per cosmic one. With arrogance man seeks to solve his problems through violence which results in various categories of murder. (Arrogance has other ways of solving problems but we are looking at this one factor. Arrogance also tries to solve its problems through sex and makes sex a system for solving problems, which is a disaster and leads to terrible social degeneration).

7. Authority in life is designed to restrain the function of arrogance in man so that all members of the human race can use their freedom to fail or to succeed.

8. This is why we have governments, law-enforcement agencies, a judicial system. A judicial system may not be working too well at times but it is better than no judicial system, which is what vigilanteism is.

9. Respect for the law restrains the arrogant while virtue and integrity restrains the humble. Virtue restrains in a magnificent society; law restrains in a sick society. And when a sick society no longer fears the law then it becomes a degenerate society. In other words, restraint requires humility and the only way a society can ever properly express its freedom is to have a maximum number of people with virtue in that society. Virtue means humility. When you have, as we have today, an arrogant society, often disguising itself under self-effacement then you have first a hypocritical society, then a sick society, and then a degenerate society.

Neither Satan nor his hit man, Abaddon, are humble. They are saturated with arrogance. They form the conspiracy which leads to the murder of Moses and Elijah.

Principle: The Christian minister or Christian organisation or individual believer who advocates civil disobedience is both arrogant and evil.

1 John 3:12, “Not as Cain, who was motivated from that evil one [Satan, the inventor of the cosmic system], and consequently he murdered his brother with a sacrificial knife. And for what reason did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil.” The question arises: Why were his deeds evil? Because he was arrogant. Humility practices restraint; arrogance practices evil, “and those [deeds] of his brother were righteous [honourable, virtuous].” And so the first murder was committed in the human race and it forms one of the patterns for the expression of arrogance. Murder is one pattern, lasciviousness is another expression. These are expressions of arrogance in society. Many murders are merely the reflex of arrogance, for you see arrogance removes all restraints from the person who has it. When Satan became arrogant he removed all of the restraints on his own life and he said, “I will be like the most high God.” And the arrogant person takes all the restraints off his own life. “The laws are for the rest of you but not for me,” says the arrogant person, “I can kill anyone I want to, I am above the law.” That is the concept.

So murder always means the unlawful taking of someone’s life, since there are lawful ways in which someone’s life is taken. One of the most important of the lawful ways, and acts as a substitute for humility, since obviously in society in any given generation there are going to be a lot of people who are not humble, is the law with teeth in it, and the teeth in the law is capital punishment. It is ordained of God, it is not a man-made concept. In Romans 13:4 it is referred to as being a restraint. If people are arrogant they can only be restrained by the law, and they must fear the law, they must fear for their life. The only restraint an arrogant person understands is that he might lose his own life, that if he commits a certain crime or enters into a certain act of violence he might lose his life. And he is restrained because in his arrogance his life is more important to him than anything else in the world. Arrogance can only be restrained by capital punishment. And when in society you have no capital punishment the arrogant people have no fear of the law, and if they have no fear of the law it is easy under the right conditions to step over the law and enter into some form of lawlessness, whether it is lawlessness or something else.

So in Romans 13:4, “It [the law and government] is a minister of God to you for the purpose of good [the free function of the entire society]. But if you do evil [the source of evil is arrogance] keep on being afraid,” The only way you are restrained if you are an arrogant person is to keep on being afraid, “for it [the law] does not wear the sword for nothing; for you see it [the law] is the minister of God for the purpose of divine wrath on him who practices evil.”

You cannot restrain an arrogant society apart from capital punishment. A virtuous society is different, it is self-restraining and doesn’t have to be concerned about fear of the law. But a virtuous society depends on humility.

In Genesis 9:5,6 God ordained capital punishment for the human race as the only possible way for freedom to be perpetuated in history because the great enemy of freedom is arrogance. The French revolution can be summarised very simply: it was a maximum saturation of arrogance, it was the function of ego-mania. And you always have this terrible violence like the reign of terror in the French revolution when people are out from under restraint and have no virtue. In the case of the French revolution no one was practising capital punishment, except evil was murdering right and left. It took France a long time to recover from the evils of the French revolution. Arrogance must be restrained. The best way to restrain it is self-restraint and the worst way to restrain it is fear of the law, but both are restrainers. Virtue restrains arrogance individually, and that is the honourable way to go, but law is designed to also restrain arrogance.

Another form of legitimate killing of course is the soldier representing his country on the battle field. He functions impersonally and professionally to preserve the freedom of the nation. Were it not for war the human race would not be cleansed of its total degeneracy. Warfare is one of the few ways in which the human race recovers its freedom, so periodically warfare is a good thing.

Violence was originated by Satan, John 8:43,44. “Do you not understand what I am teaching you [Jesus asked]? It is because you cannot hear my word in the cosmic system. You are from your father the devil, and the desires [the policies] of your father [the devil] you wish to accomplish.”

Jesus is saying in effect that He has demonstrated the arrogance of the people in the time in which He lived. Then He adds: “He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning.” Why? Arrogance produces all motivation for murder, “furthermore he does not stand in the truth, because there is no doctrine in him. Whenever he [Satan] communicates the lie, he speaks from his own personality: for he [Satan] is a liar, and the father of it.”

Under the same principle lying is motivated by arrogance. Why do we lie? Because in arrogance we don’t want to be shamed, we don’t want to be caught. So arrogance motivates lying just as arrogance motivates murder. That is why in this passage in John 8:44 the devil is described as not only a murderer from the beginning but he is also described as a liar and the father of it.

Jude 10,11, “But these reversionists malign what they do not understand; furthermore what things they do not understand by natural instincts [by emotion — most people do all of their learning by emotion; that’s why they are stupid, because emotion has no ability to think], as unreasonable [as emotional] creatures, by these false doctrines they receive for themselves corruption. Woe to them! They have gone the way of Cain [violence, terrorism, murder], they have rushed from illegal profit into Balaam’s error, they have been destroyed in Korah’s revolution.”

All of these have the same source, revolution, illegal profit, violence. All have the same base of arrogance.

In fact, in Romans 1:29, discussing a degenerate society, “Having been filled with all unrighteousness [lack of integrity and virtue], evil, greed, malice; full of jealously, murder, strife, deceit, conspiracy, slander,” all of these describe the degenerate society.

In Hosea 4:1-6 one of the things that destroyed the northern kingdom were these very things. “Hear the word of the Lord, ye sons of Israel: because the Lord has a lawsuit against the inhabitants of his client nation, because nothing about doctrine is being taught, nothing about grace is being applied, so that there is nothing of knowing God in the nation. Instead there is lying [the malfunction of justice in court], deceiving, and homicide, stealing, they use violence to rape, therefore blood reaches out and touches blood,” they have become a degenerate society, “Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away, even the animals in the field [are hurt by it], the birds of the air, the fish in the lake are dying off. Only let no one bring a lawsuit, let no one accuse another [in other words in a degenerate society people abuse and distort the law and start suing each other]: for your people are like those who bring charges against the priest [lawsuits to discredit the one teaching doctrine]. Therefore you have stumbled in the daylight, even the false prophet will stumble with you in the night [darkness], and [by the cycles of discipline] I will destroy your country. My nation is destroyed for lack of knowledge [of doctrine]: because you have rejected the principle of knowing doctrine, therefore I will reject you from being a client nation to me: since you have neglected the doctrine of your God, I will neglect your citizens.” In other words, I will let you follow your own volition. That means they will destroy themselves, which they did.

Murder, by the way, is the only overt sin listed in the classification of the seven worst sins in Proverbs 6:16-19. (In verse 17, murder is mentioned). “There are six things which the Lord hates: seven which are an abomination to his soul: arrogant involvement, a lying tongue [that comes from arrogance], hands that shed innocent blood [murder], conspiracy [that is from arrogance], feet that are quick to rush to evil [arrogance], a false witness who pours out lies against other people [that is arrogance], the person who causes dissension among brethren.” These are the worst of all sins and arrogance is behind them all.

Exodus 20:13, the corrected translation: “You will not commit murder.” It does not say “thou shalt not kill.” It is the qal imperfect of ratsach, “You will not murder.” Murder is the ultimate in the destruction of human freedom in the angelic conflict, it violates the principle of the sacredness of human life and the right of every individual to follow his own volition to his own destiny, failure or success.

In verse 8 we see the desecration of the dead bodies of the two human heralds. We begin with the connective conjunction kai translated “and,” and the nominative singular subject of ptoma which refers to a corpse. Generally it is used of a corpse where the person died from some form of violence. Regardless of how a person dies a corpse is an empty house. It has been vacated. Once death has taken place the soul, or in the case of Moses and Elijah, the soul and the spirit has vacated the body. What happens to the body is absolutely inconsequential. The body no longer has any meaning once the soul has departed from it in physical death. Taking this physical body and leaving it in the streets for all to see indicates the deadness of the souls of those arrogant persons involved in the cosmic system.

“And their corpses.” We have a possessive genitive plural from a)utoj used as a personal pronoun. The ellipsis demands some verbal form, so we insert “will be displayed,” “And their dead bodies [or corpses] will be exhibited [or displayed].” Then we have a prepositional phrase e)pi plus the genitive of plateia, “in the streets.” It is in one specific street. Then the descriptive genitive singular from megaj polij, “of the great city.” It is a reference to the city of Jerusalem where the Tribulational temple is constructed and where the two human heralds of the second advent have their ministry. Jerusalem is where the law was designed to restrain the arrogant, and virtue was designed for self-restraint. But the arrogant distorted lawmaking in the great city resulting in the fact that Jerusalem is now described as Sodom, after a city, and Egypt, after a nation.

The description of the great city from the spiritual standpoint: the nominative feminine singular of a qualitative relative pronoun o(stij. We translate it “which,” or a more detailed translation, “the sort which.” Then we have the present passive indicative of the verb kalew which means to call, “which is called,” “which is designated,” “which is named.” The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The passive voice: Jerusalem receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for s simple statement of fact, the state of Jerusalem at this time in the Tribulation.

The next word is an adverb and is very important. It means we are not to take this literally. It is the adverb pneumatikoj, and it means either spiritually or figuratively. We are to interpret the next words figuratively. There is a typical resemblance, an emblematic resemblance. In other words, pneumatikoj as an adverb means expressing one thing, Jerusalem, in terms normally denoting something else, like Sodom and Egypt. Translation: “And their dead bodies were displayed in the street of the great city which is called figuratively [spiritually, emblematically].” And then we have the words “Sodom” and “Egypt.” Sodom is Jerusalem’s moral degeneration during the closing days of the Tribulation; Egypt refers to the cosmic involvement of its citizens. Demonisation is very prominent in Jerusalem. Cosmic involvement in the sphere of religion as the devil’s ace trump has taken over there. Moral degeneration and religion, by the way, always go together, they compliment each other. Remember that Christianity is not a religion. Moral degeneration, social degeneration and religion always go together.

The adverb pneumatikoj raises a special question. The interpretation of the book of Revelation is in view. Too often the literal in Revelation is interpreted allegorically, and therefore that is wrong. There are many things in Revelation which are literal. The figurative or allegorical always has something in context to help us out, to help us understand. For example, when we noted “these are the two olive trees” we know that we were talking about a prophecy in Zechariah. Therefore we could go back there and identify and interpret without any problem. But sometimes there is no reference except in an allegorical sense and there will be something that will indicate that. For example, the conjunction o(j is one way of indicating that something is allegorical or figurative. In this case we have an adverb. The only reason, of course, for allegorised or spiritual interpretation is when the language of the original Greek somehow indicates that this is the way we must go. The Greek authorises it grammatically.

The identification of the city is given in the last phrase, beginning with the adverb used as a particle of place, o(pou, translated “where.” With this we have a conjunction kai, translated “even.” Then the subject, the nominative singular subject from kurioj, and a)utoj, used so many times, “their Lord.” Then the aorist passive indicative of staurow, which has to do with the saving work of Christ on the cross, “where their Lord was crucified.” The aorist tense is constative, contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The key death of our Lord on the cross: His first death bearing our sins, becoming our substitute; His second death, His work was finished and therefore He died physically, just as the work of Moses and Elijah is now finished and they have died physically. The passive voice: Christ receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine.

Translation of verse 8: “And their dead bodies will be exhibited in the street of the great city, which is figuratively designated Sodom and Egypt, even where their Lord was crucified.”

Taken from the phrase: “and their dead bodies will be exhibited in the street.”

1. It is arrogance or ignorance or both to display the corpses of those who have died, and in this case the corpses of two men who have been murdered because they taught Bible doctrine. It is arrogance on the part of the murderers and those in charge of the city to allow these corpses to remain on public display. They’re not lying in state, they’re lying in the gutter, and thousands of people are going by and laughing and ridiculing.

2. The death of those who teach doctrine, however, does not stop doctrinal teaching. Doctrinal teachers may die but the Lord always raises up others. By killing someone who teaches doctrine Satan has not won any victory over doctrine, he is still a loser. The display of the corpses is merely an attempt to say, “We have won, we have won,” kid’s stuff.

3. Doctrine is the power of God and God’s power does not stop because the teacher of doctrine is assassinated.

4. The death of the prophet does not cancel the prophecy; the death of the preacher does not stop the teaching of the Word of God.

6. Neither Moses nor Elijah are occupying dead bodies, they are back in heaven enjoying their interim bodies after a job well done. They are in a place of great happiness and blessing and all of the ridicule and all of the desecration of those dead bodies is not going to change a thing.

7. The vulgar display of a corpse is not a sign of victory but of defeat on the part of the displayers. They have actually advertised the fact that they are losers.

8. For killing the communicators of doctrine does not cancel the message of doctrine. They have made their point, they have led people to the Lord, they have helped believers grow in grace, their ministry is finished, and the results go on and on. Killing them hasn’t changed a thing.

9. The death of the speaker of truth does not imply the death of truth. Truth never dies, merely those who communicate it.

Because of the ministry of Moses and Elijah lives have been changed forever in one of the most desperate periods of all of history, the last half of the Tribulation. Therefore, the death of the communicators does not in any way hinder the impact of doctrine. Vincet Omnia Veritas — doctrine conquers all.

Note how Jerusalem is designated. First, “the great city.” That is because of David and of David’s greater son, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the great city because it is the capital of the first and last client nation to God. What made the city great was Bible doctrine; what ruined the city was rejection of Bible doctrine.

The city is also called, in the second place, Sodom, referring to social degeneration, spiritual declension. Jerusalem in the middle of the Tribulation has been captured by negative volition. It is also called Egypt, after the empire Egypt. The empire of Egypt represent religion without reality, culture without truth, therefore power without principle, superficiality resulting in self-destruction.

The final designation: “even where their Lord was crucified.” Jerusalem is the place our Lord chose to die for our sins, to provide for us eternal salvation. The fact that Jerusalem does not respond to the message of Moses and Elijah in detail indicates that Jerusalem is the city of lost opportunities. In other words, living in a “holy” city doesn’t make you holy. It isn’t where you live that makes you holy, it is what you are that makes you holy, and only perception of doctrine can do that.

In verses 9 and 10 we note their celebration under the title “The devil’s Christmas.”

Not only did the evil people in Jerusalem go by and gloat over those corpses but there was a world-wide television coverage of the event. We have a saturated world-wide gloating for three and a half days.

We begin verse 9 with a connective conjunction kai, “and,” and the present active indicative of blepw, “And they will view.” Belpw ordinarily means to see; here it means to view. The present tense is a descriptive present, even a futuristic present denoting an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring. In other words, this is a very dramatic thing. The world-wide television coverage of the event is, of course, a major item of news for three and a half days. The active voice: the television viewers as well as the personal viewers produce the action of the verb.

Then we have a prepositional phrase describing the general subject, those who view the dead bodies from all over the world. It is described by one preposition plus a number of nouns in the ablative: e)k plus the ablative case, “from.” The first phrase is poorly translated in the King James version, laoj, which means “people” generally but here it means “masses,” and laoj refers to the people living in Jerusalem. The second ablative is fulh, and it means tribe or tribes and refers to Jews who are living in the middle east, Jews from all the tribes of Israel, not just local Jews in Jerusalem. They are those who are especially interested because they have rejected the message of Moses and Elijah. A third ablative goes with the preposition, the ablative plural of glossa, meaning foreign languages. This will be given in many different languages. This news item will be broadcast in all of the languages of the world. Finally, we have one more ablative plural, e)qnoj, Gentiles come into the picture, “and nations.”

Verse 9, “And they from the masses and from tribes and many foreign languages and Gentiles nations will view their bodies for three and a half days.” The “three and a half days” is the accusative plural direct object, and the accusative plus the accusative of the extent of time. They will be viewed for three and a half days.

Because of the dynamic impact of their ministry and the antagonism of the fourth estate, a period of international gloating begins immediately after the assassination; and after it is reported both locally and throughout the world, probably by satellite. Obviously, something therefore akin to TV coverage by satellite is involved so that people all over the world in many nations can enjoy this moment of desecration, indicating the fact that the social degeneration implied in Jerusalem is an international problem among many nations and many people. The power of the press is seen in the reaction to the ministry of the two heralds, whose ministry has caused fear and anxiety both in the press and among the people of the world. This is obviously the fourth estate at their worst.

The purpose of the fourth estate is to report news but in time of arrogance and degeneracy this is distorted into that is called “slanting” the news, tampering with the facts and using the freedom of the press to propagandise one’s personal viewpoint. This is all involved in this phrase. This is a part of self-righteous crusader arrogance. Hence, the news media at the end of the Tribulation are just as demonised as the population whom they serve. And since the forces of evil obviously control the press at the end of the Tribulation this is neither sympathy nor outrage at the desecration of the corpses of the two witnesses. This is gloating. No sympathy, no outrage is reported by the press.

Note the principle that the fourth estate, the news media, can be a factor that either good or evil. Whether good or evil the freedom of the press is essential to human freedom, by the way, and the repercussions in any given generation merely reflect the general trend of human volition at that point of history. What are we to assume from this? Regardless of how poor the news reporting may be at any given time, one thing you should always be clear about: you should always be for the freedom of the press. No matter how much the press may abuse that freedom at any given time it doesn’t change the principle: freedom of the press is an essential part of free speech which is absolutely essential for the modus operandi of freedom.

Next we have a connective conjunction kai, emphasising a fact as surprising and noteworthy, and we translate it “furthermore.” Then we have a present active indicative of the verb a)fihmi plus the negative o)uk which goes with the indicative mood, “furthermore they did not permit.” The progressive present tense signifies the action in a state of persistence, present linear aktionsart. The active voice: not only the authorities in Jerusalem but the population in general are included in this verb. This is desecration of their bodies, a popular decision though obviously many believers and Jews in Jerusalem were not in agreement with it. However, they recognise the fact that neither Moses nor Elijah are occupying those bodies and therefore they are not disturbed by it.

Principle: Be careful what disturbs you. Most people get disturbed by inconsequential things and the best thing you can say for them it that it is loss of energy plus ear and tear on the soul.

Then we have the aorist passive infinitive from the verb tiqemi, “to be placed.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, burial is in view here; “furthermore they did not permit their dead bodies to be placed in a tomb.”

This desecration was the arrogant reaction of those who assumed that an unburied body exposed to ridicule is the maximum insult of life. Actually, they are not insulting him at all, they are just showing how stupid they are. Death means that the body is no longer occupied, therefore the insult boomerangs. Those who desecrate their bodies will be miserable while they are still alive. There is no greater manifestation of total unhappiness than being a gloater. The ones guilty of desecration are miserable, not the ones who are the recipients of their gloating. Moses and Elijah are very happy in heaven enjoying marvellous things. The principle applies in every area of life: there is no happiness in gloating. Gloating is the sign of a very disoriented and unhappy person. You cannot build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness. Gloating is the sum total of arrogance expressing itself in malignant satisfaction. The malignant satisfaction is temporary and the arrogance signifies permanent unhappiness. Add to this another principle: gloaters have no virtue, no happiness, no capacity for life.

Patrick (St. Patrick) was born in Scotland just a few miles from what is now called Glasgow in the year 396. He died on 17 March, 493. The day of his death became known as St Patrick’s Day.

His father was a Celtic Christian. He was not a Roman Catholic and never was. He wrote a book called Confessions, which has 25 chapters and he never mentions Rome and he never mentions the Pope. When he was a boy he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and was sold into slavery to a chieftain in northern Ireland. He escaped, was recaptured, and escaped a second time and boarded a ship that was going to Britain. While in Britain he became a refugee in an area where he found Christ as his saviour.

A few years later he returned to his home as a young man. One day while he was studying the scriptures he had what appeared to be a vision. He heard voices from the Irish coast calling for help. So he went to Ireland as a missionary for Celtic Christianity which, at that time, was not the same as Catholic Christianity.

When he arrived in Ireland he started preaching in fields. He had a tremendous amount of opposition from Celtic chiefs and the Druids, especially the Druids. In spite of the demon-possessed Druids the Lord was with him and he began to have a tremendous amount of evangelistic success. He won literally thousands and thousands of people to Christ through the preaching of the gospel and he established hundreds of churches throughout Ireland. Later on many of these churches (most of them, not all of them) were infiltrated by the Roman Catholic church, but that was after his death.

The doctrinal teaching of Patrick has been said by many to be very similar to Protestant Christianity in nature. Actually, his teaching was very similar, not to Protestant teaching of the Reformation, but more like fundamentalist Christianity today.

Quoting from one of his chapters in his book: “I am a great debtor to God who has bestowed His grace so largely on me when multitudes were born again through my ministry.” Then he explains the multitude: “the Irish, who never had any knowledge of God and who worshipped only idols and unclean things, have lately become the people of the Lord and many of them are children of God.” To Patrick the Bible was the Word of God and nothing outside of the Bible was ever accepted as the Word of God.

He was one of those people whose ministry was distorted later by Romanism when they claimed him and made him a saint — the hypocrisy of Romanism because he was never even a Roman Catholic. One of the tragedies is that history gets distorted and people build legends out of the wrong thing.

Verse 10, “tormented them” with the teaching of the gospel; “tormented them” with Bible doctrine; “tormented them” with truth in three categories: establishment, gospel, and doctrine for the believer.

We begin with the conjunction kai, translated “And.” The substantive use of the articular present active participle katoikew. It is not translated like a verb, participles are also used as nouns. Instead of translating it, “two dwell” we translate it, “And the inhabitants,” plus the preposition epi plus the noun gh, “on the earth,” reference to the unbelievers and born-again believers who are living in the cosmic system. In other words, the people who are living in the cosmic system are going to produce the action. And what is the action? With the assassination of Moses and Elijah, two of the greatest doctrinal teachers of all time, they are going to rejoice, the present active indicative of the verb xairw. They are going to constantly rejoice. The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred but which is regarded as so certain that in thought it is regarded as already coming to pass. The active voice: the demonised people of the cosmic system, and that includes believers as well as unbelievers of the Tribulation, produce the action of the verb. This is a declarative indicative or a statement of fact. People celebrate when a good teacher of doctrine dies. That is the point. Of course, what kind of people celebrate is the issue: those who are Satan’s slaves, those who are involved in cosmic one and cosmic two.

The rejoicing is declared with a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the locative of the intensive pronoun autos used as a personal pronoun, translated “over them,” “And the inhabitants of the earth will rejoice over them.” The dead bodies of Moses and Elijah lying in a street in Jerusalem, not lying in state.

Then we have another verb to tell how everyone feels, in fact two verbs. The present middle indicative of e)ufrainw which means to celebrate. They celebrate the death of Moses and Elijah. This is a pictorial present representing to the mind a picture of the event in the process of occurrence. The middle voice is a direct middle emphasising the agent as participating in the result. Everyone involved in the cosmic system, both believer and unbeliever, all over the world celebrates in a very special way the death of Moses and Elijah. They are celebrating for a reason, because they have finally been shut up!

As a result of this we have the devil’s Christmas, the future active indicative of the verb pempw which explains the exchange of gifts, “and they will send.” And with this the accusative singular direct object, dwron, “gifts,” just like Christmas. The future tense is a predictive future anticipating the devil’s Christmas toward the end of the Tribulation. The active voice: believers and unbelievers involved in the cosmic system produce the action of the verb.

Many, many people have a great deal of problem with the fact that the behaviour of Christians is often shocking to them and they try to explain it by saying that these people aren’t really believers. But they really are. There is nothing an unbeliever can do that a born-again believer in the cosmic system cannot do. So the idea of trying to explain away the salvation of some people by saying that they really didn’t believe in the first place is ludicrous. Let’s face the fact: there is no difference in the overt behaviour between a believer and an unbeliever in the cosmic system. They are always motivated by arrogance and whatever arrogance produces, they produce.

The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality, and they will send gifts. They celebrate during the entire time that these bodies are on display. The dative plural indirect object is from the reciprocal pronoun a)llhlon, and is correctly translated “to one another,” or “to each other.” That is literal, of course. There is a better way of translating it. The reciprocal pronoun, when used with a plural subject, represents as affected, of course, by the interchange of action, an opportunity for an idiom. The Greek idiom would be translated this way: “And the inhabitants of the earth [believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system] will gloat over them; they will both celebrate and exchange gifts.” This is the devil’s Christmas, great celebration, exchanging of gifts to commemorate the death of Moses and Elijah as the human heralds of the second advent. This is a gloating operation. They have been tormented by the great doctrinal messages, by the dynamic and Spirit-filled ministry of these two men. Obviously, the population of the earth who reject the ministry of these two men celebrate their death.

Whenever you are antagonistic toward someone and you resent them because they represent an attitude not your own, and they die, you have a chance to check your own virtue — privately, without anyone knowing anything about it. Every time you gloat over the death of someone whom you despise, someone who did not agree with you in any way, someone who has aroused your ire or antagonism, you have no virtue. Virtue and integrity do not gloat over anyone’s death. Furthermore, gloating, like most forms of antagonism, uses up a tremendous amount of energy, and when you utilise all of that energy you are just wearing out your own body. You’ll pay for it eventually, biologically as well as spiritually.

One of the signs of professionalism in any area is to be able to think clearly in the area of your profession, whether it is law or medicine or doctrinal teaching or whatever it is, without reacting to anyone or anything involved in your profession. The tremendous syphoning off of energy is a loss to your own personal ability.

Obviously the population of the earth who have rejected the ministry of these two men are celebrating what we have called “the devil’s Christmas.” The reason for it is because they have already assigned blame to Moses and Elijah for all of the problems that are occurring in the last half of the Tribulation, which is a time of historical disaster. It is the old story of blaming others for our problems. In reality, this is an avoidance of reality and this is how people become psychopathic, psychotic, sociopathic, disoriented to life. Obviously, then, for us as believers it is very detrimental to our life. We lose civilisation and the background for civilisation in virtue when we gloat over the death or the failure of enemies.

Often, of course, the blaming of others takes the form of gossiping. Gossiping is merely a by-product of arrogance. The person who gossips is so arrogant that he feels that he can talk about others’ sins, real or imagined, from the viewpoint of not being a sinner himself. Gossip is a sign of lack of virtue. Conspiracy is another form: blaming everyone’s bad decisions on some person or group. We make our own decisions. We make bad decisions; we make good decisions. We want to take credit for our good decisions but we want to blame someone else for our bad decisions. We must take credit for all of our decisions in order to stay oriented to life.

In this case we have a demonised population inside the cosmic system, and they have been brainwashed. They have therefore been going around ever since these two men have been teaching doctrine to the entire world and saying this is the “ME” [Moses and Elijah] conspiracy, and looking down their self-righteous noses and saying “we must get rid of the ME conspiracy. We are having problems because of the ME conspiracy,” etc. The ministry of Moses and Elijah by satellite has antagonised a large group of people in this world. And it doesn’t really have to be a large group, all it has to be is a loud group. Loud minorities cover the silent approbation of sane majorities. For those who reject their gospel message [which includes, by the way, the message of the baptism of fire] they will be very resentful, very implacable, very antagonistic, and they will assume that because these two men have finally been murdered that their message is now cancelled, and they don’t have to worry about hellfire in the future. And things are now going to get better because the cause of all of their problems has been eliminated, by prince Abaddon, the greatest hit man of history, they think. So the devil’s Christmas is the function primarily of gate one, cosmic one: arrogance, vanity, jealousy, bitterness, self-righteousness, a false sense of destiny, and a guilt complex.

The devil’s Christmas is based on cosmic involvement, which means two categories of demonisation: in a few cases demon possession, but in all cases demon influence. The thinking is influenced so that we have the human race tragic flaw of assuming that once you kill those who teach the truth, you cancel the truth. Somehow the truth will stop. It never does, it rolls right on. The devil’s Christmas, then, is one of the greatest manifestations of arrogance in the human race, and such arrogance is self-destructive. Only the fact that Jesus Christ controls history keeps the human race intact to finish its destiny and resolve the angelic conflict by the end of history, the Gog revolution. The arrogance which results from negative volition toward doctrine produces a very temporary false hope as the wrong reason for celebrating. Furthermore, the fact that the majority of the earth’s population join in the celebration does not provide any basis for security. The principle is generally true, almost always true, when applied to a situation like this: the majority is never right. The majority is usually the non-thinking part of the population, those who are easily duped, that part of the population of the world that is conned easily. And there is no security in majority decision based on demonisation, based on arrogance in the cosmic system. So obviously the devil’s Christmas is going to be very short-lived, for it will terminate in the baptism of fire which follows the second advent of Christ. In fact, many of the local celebrities and those who are celebrating in Jerusalem will be destroyed by an earthquake which is coming up in verse 13. There will be a personal answer from the Lord almost immediately.

The basic reason for the devil’s Christmas is given, beginning with a causal conjunction, o(ti in the Greek, correctly translated “because.” With this we have a subject made up of three words: an immediate demonstrative pronoun translated “these,” an indeclinable numeral translated “two,” and the noun profhth, meaning a communicator of truth, “because these two prophets”. This is why they are celebrating, this is why the devil’s Christmas, this is why they are exchanging gifts, this is why they suddenly assume their troubles are over. Simple-minded people are always disappointed in life. Why? Because they always see from their simple viewpoint what is wrong with the world, and once it is eliminated they assume that everything will be all right. They are called stupid optimists. But it never is all right. Simple-minded people never understand man’s old sin nature and they never understand the total depravity of man as a doctrine. Therefore they always assume that once you kill off a couple of people or a group that they associate with the problems of the world that everything is going to be all right. And, furthermore, when people try to solve the problems of life by violence they introduce greater problems than heretofore existed.

Why were they celebrating? The verb is the aorist active indicative of basanizw and it means to torment, “because these two prophets had tormented.” The culminative aorist tense views the ministry of Elijah and Moses and their messages in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Where people did not respond positively by accepting Christ, or believers did not respond in a positive way to their doctrinal teaching, they reacted. The instant reaction to truth when you hear it is torment of soul, and no one like to be tortured in their soul. This is why people are so extremely arrogant and antagonistic when they reject Bible doctrine as believers. They’re tormented in their souls. The active voice: the ministry of Moses and Elijah has produced the action of tormenting, by teaching the truth, the souls of unbelievers. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this reaction, the reality of negative reaction to the truth, establishment truth, gospel truth, doctrinal truth for believers. The accusative plural direct object from the articular present active participle, again, katoikew, “the inhabitants of the earth.

Translation of verse 10: “And the inhabitants of the earth [mankind in the cosmic system] will gloat over them [the death of Moses and Elijah]; they will both celebrate and exchange gifts because these two prophets had tormented the inhabitants of the earth.”

The same satellite communications system which disseminated the messages of Moses and Elijah now depicts their death through the news media. And not only their death but their desecration. They are constantly televised in terms of their bodies, their corpses in the streets. The warning of the second advent, the warning of eternal judgment for those who reject Christ, the warning of the baptism of fire which will follow the second advent, produced a tremendous amount of fear of punishment. Furthermore, it did something else. People who are negative toward truth inevitably do not want to think about death. They build up in their minds a mental block where death is completely removed from their thinking. They live their life in the reality of living but never in the reality of the inevitability of death. Therefore, when a message or a messenger comes along and intrudes into their thinking with the reality of death and eternal judgment for those who reject Christ, it is more than they can stand, because in effect truth rips away this tremendous mental block by which people live in the present and never think of what is going to happen in the eternal future. And once you rip away the mental block that has made them appear to be very civilised people, the civilisation and the restraints of civilisation are gone. They are totally barbaric. All barbaric festivals involve someone being slaughtered or sacrificed. Barbaric festivals of the past: human sacrifice. In effect this devil’s Christmas is a barbaric festival.

The two people who have ripped away the facade and destroyed the mental blocks about the future are now dead, and the population assumes that with the death of these people that they can recover the mental blocks and start living in the present. And they do live in the present and they do the very normal thing in the present: they celebrate, they exchange gifts. They have the devil’s Christmas. But the death of Moses and Elijah, therefore, appears to nullify their message. They no longer fear the wrath of God because the messengers of God are dead, and there are their corpses in the street and every day they want to see more and more film on those two corpses. You see, they’re dead, they have no power, their message was not true. We can now go back and live in the present, is what they think. We can forget about death and eternal judgment. They again recover, partly, their mental blocks about the future. And how do they do it? Arrogance. Arrogance reasserts itself. All mental blocks in life must be directly related to the amount of arrogance in the soul of the person who has them. Even though the two heralds have died there is failure to realise that their message will go on, for what they do in these three and a half days of the devil’s Christmas by celebrating is that they re-establish their mental blocks. In other words, we call it putting scar tissue on the soul. They block out the dynamic message that if you don’t believe in Christ you are going to spend eternity in the lake of fire. Even though these two men have died their message will go on, death cannot destroy the power of truth, the power of the Word of God.

But for the moment the devil’s Christmas and the wild celebration obscures reality, and they must so celebrate as to ignore reality. Actually the world goes mad. When people sit down at the TV sets and gloat over a couple of corpses, and go out and celebrate over a couple of corpses, you go right back to barbarism. From the point of this great celebration, the devil’s Christmas, the world goes into the greatest era of barbarism it has ever known. Cultured people overnight become barbarians. People with a veneer of virtue from establishment lose it, and the horrible things that man does to man in the rest of the book of Revelation go right back to this hour of the devil’s Christmas. They are tormented, and when they get temporary relief from their torment from the convicting ministry of God the Holy Spirit, when they can celebrate, when they can forget the reality of those messages and go back to the reality of living in the present, living life in terms of pleasure. They will remove all of the restraints they previously had. This fulfils our Lord’s message on “the latter state is worse than the first.”

The demonised numbers of the human race living in the cosmic system assume erroneously that by killing off the messengers everything is going to be all right, that the death of the messenger cancels the message. But the death of the messenger never cancels the message. The message will continue right down to the moment of the second advent and the silencing of the prophets does not nullify the message, it advances God’s plan for the rest of the Tribulation. For apart from God’s permission Abaddon could not have assassinated Moses and Elijah. Their assassination is a part of the plan and the celebration. The exchanging of gifts which characterises the devil’s Christmas will be no comfort when these people face our Lord in judgment and when they face the reality of what is about to occur. They celebrate but when the celebration is over the people with whom they celebrate are going to be strangers to them, for what that celebration did was to create monsters out of the people involved. There is going to be more murder, more rape, more violence, more stealing, because after three and a half days of celebration bringing them back to their own little world of the present moment they are going to come back as barbarians. Actually, what we are going to see is a total schizophrenic change in the population of the world. People who were exchanging gifts yesterday are going to exchange violence when it is over.

And they did it to themselves. Many of these people are going to die after the devil’s Christmas horribly. They are going to die before the second advent. They are going to see the results of their own folly. They are going to see what happens when you reject one portion of truth, for when you reject one portion of truth you reject truth en tote. If you reject establishment you are going to reject the gospel; if you reject the gospel you will reject establishment. Once you have no respect for the law you are lawless, you are a barbarian. We make monsters out of ourselves. Remember that all sin comes from our volition, not from the sin nature. The sin nature can only make a suggestion, it can only tempt.

There is a principle that comes out of this that we can use right now. When people derive their pleasure and their happiness from the misfortune of others, today they have no happiness, tomorrow they have disaster. Gloating over the adversities and the tragedies of others is the sign of today’s misery and tomorrow’s insecurity, for all capacity for life and happiness is based on truth, doctrine in its three categories.

These celebrating people have rejected doctrine which is their only source of happiness and their only hope for eternal life. Furthermore, they have rejected doctrine from the two most eloquent speakers who ever lived. They have rejected the doctrine presented in great power. These people who celebrate the devil’s Christmas preferred a few days of celebrating to a life of blessing and eternity of blessing beyond their imagination. Without Bible doctrine it is impossible to understand historical trends and they have totally miscalculated and, therefore, they have become the last disaster before the Millennium.

Verse 11 begins with the connective conjunction kai, translated “and.” Immediately following is a prepositional phrase meta plus the accusative of the extent of time. A number of words which are all in the accusative follow: the accusative of the extent of time h(mera, meaning “day”; the indeclinable numeral meaning “three”; and the accusative neuter singular h(misuj, which all simply adds up to “after three and a half days.”

The next word becomes very important, not only because of its meaning in this passage but because of its significance in understanding the whole realm of doctrine, and in order to set aside one of the greatest arrogances of history. Arrogance is the foundation for every form of evil and one of the great evils of our time is the idea that man has the ability to create life.

“the Spirit of life” as it is translated in the King James version is the nominative singular subject from pneuma. Sometimes the word means “spirit” but its original meaning is “breath,” the breath, the air of life, plus the possessive genitive of zwh, “life.” Those two words tell us the origin of life. There is no life in the womb, never has been and never will be, the concept is one of the greatest arrogances of all history. Man does not create life and, of course, copulation does not produce life. Pregnancy is not life and there is no life in the three embryonic stages in the womb. God gives life in every individual case. The woman who thinks that she carries life in her womb is suffering from terrible arrogance. There is no life in the womb and the beginning of humility and understanding of life is the fact that God imputes life to every person after the embryo emerges from the womb. God imputes life, and with that doctrine goes the fact that God has a purpose for every life, regardless of the genetic problems or accidents or happy combinations of genes that form the individual. God has a purpose in imputing life to that combination of genes, be it fortunate or unfortunate. This helps to understand the tragedies of children who die at a very early age with some form of disease, a vulnerability which came through genetics, and it helps to understand that God’s purpose for that life terminated at that point, and to become bitter about God’s purpose is to have a life of total misery.

Now here are two bodies lying in the streets of Jerusalem. These two were once embryos and then they emerged from the womb. God imputed life after birth to Moses and Elijah. When life is imputed it is imputed not to the body but to the format soul, and that soul, once it receives human life causes man to become a living soul. Until then he is a dead soul in the sense of s format soul. That soul is inside the body, and when the soul leaves the body, with that human life in it, that person is dead.

Moses and Elijah were in their interim bodies. They had both departed from this life under unusual circumstances. They left their interim bodies and moved back down and took their physical bodies. This is not resurrection, this is resuscitation. The soul and the spirit of Moses rejoined his body and the same was true of Elijah. Then they had their fantastic ministry which covered the better part of the last half of the Tribulation. When their ministry was finished Abaddon assassinated them and the soul and the spirit left the body in each case, went back to heaven and rejoined their interim bodies, and they again had the great period of interim happiness which belongs to all believers.

Those bodies were in the streets for three and a half days. They were empty. And once again they returned and the breath of life functioned in those bodies. So we read: “And after three and a half days the breath of life,” referring to the origin of life. Life is never formed in the womb. Note that when they returned and were resuscitated, they didn’t start out as embryos in a womb. Life is the monopoly of God.

Next we have a prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative of source from qeoj, “from God,” “And after three and a half days the breath of life from God.” The ablative of source implies that the original situation contributed to the present character or state. The original situation is not the Greek word sperma, or the word bioj, it is the Greek word qeoj, “God.” Life is from God.

Then we have the aorist active indicative of e)iserxomai, “entered into,” “the breath of life from God entered into.” And then one more prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative plural of a)utoj, “into them.” Please notice the breath of life from God enters into, is not formed in, the womb. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The constative aorist refers to a momentary action which causes the resuscitation of the two human heralds. Resurrection means to have a permanent body which you will have forever and ever. The only resurrection body in existence right at this moment is our Lord’s in heaven. There is no other person resurrected. Resuscitation means to come back into the body of corruption and to subsequently die, like Lazarus. So we have the constative aorist referring to a momentary action which causes the resuscitation of the two heralds. The active voice: the breath of life from God produces the action of the verb. It is the spark of life. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of future history. The translation: “And after three and a half days the breath of life from God entered into them,” resuscitation.

Then we have a sequential use of the conjunction kai this time, translated “then.” with the aorist active indicative of the verb I(sthmi which we are going to see several times in these two chapters. I(sthmi means a number of things. As a transitive verb it means to stand, or something similar to that; as an intransitive verb it means to take a stand. We are dealing with the transitive use.

The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Everyone was gloating one day and then three and a half days afterward all of a sudden Moses and Elijah stood up and smiled at them! Can you imagine the shock? When the Lord put the breath of life back in them they just simply got up. The active voice: the two witnesses produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of fact. And it even tells us “they stood on their own feet,” e)pi plus the accusative from the noun pouj, “feet.” This, again, is resuscitation, not resurrection. Resuscitation is the restoration of human life in the physical body of corruption in contrast to resurrection which is life in the resurrection body forever. The resurrection body is not subject to death. Moses and Elijah, the human heralds of the second advent, will not receive their resurrection bodies until the second advent of Christ.

The second result of resuscitation begins with the connective use of the conjunction kai, “and.” Then we have a subject made up of two words. This is the second result and it is followed instantly. We have the adjective megaj and the noun foboj in the nominative case, “and great fear.” This is the second result. Fear is characteristic of demonisation. People in the cosmic system, both believers and unbelievers, are subject to fear. A believer can be courageous one day and if he starts living in the cosmic system he has a personality change and becomes frightened. So fear is characteristic of residence and function in the cosmic system. Fear is also a total disorientation to life, and that means for the believer a total disorientation to the plan of God. Fear is arrogant and emotional subjectivity. Fear is inability to think under pressure, the normal reaction to pressure in the cosmic state. On the other hand, courage is the ability to think under pressure; fear is the failure to think under that same pressure. Confidence toward God is motivating virtue — gate five of the divine dynasphere, while courage toward man and circumstances is the functional virtue of gate six of the divine dynasphere. Fear is a motivational evil, then, of the cosmic system. Cowardice is the function of that fear under pressure. Mankind in the cosmic system fears the truth of Bible doctrine in all three categories and, of course, man in the cosmic system fears the circumstances of life, whether it be death, disease, or disaster, the three “D’s” that are usually associated with disaster. Fear in contemplation of these things is often called worry. Worry is the anticipation; fear is the actuality. Fear in our Bible study means loss of a personal sense of destiny. Our personal sense of destiny comes from perception and application of Bible doctrine.

The resuscitation, then, of the two heralds, Moses and Elijah, causes fear of them, fear of historical trends, fear of their eternal future; and with the resuscitation of Moses and Elijah the devil’s Christmas comes to a screeching halt. In other words, the party’s over. For three and a half days they have celebrated the devil’s Christmas with gloating but their pleasure and their partying does not sustain them now. Now they have pressure on them and all of the fun that they had does not sustain.

The principle is very obvious: your pleasures and your fun will not sustain you in any form of adversity. Pleasure has no sustaining power under pressure. Pleasure is a temporary stimulus not to be confused with happiness. Happy people can indulge in pleasure but this is not what we are discussing here.

Three and a half days of celebration provided no strength for the future, no virtue, no honour, no courage. Nothing during the course of the three and a half day party throughout the world prepares these people for what now occurs.

“and great fear,” then we have a verb, the aorist active indicative of the verb e)pipiptw which means to fall upon, “great fear fell on them.” The culminative aorist tense views fear in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, inability to cope with these unusual circumstances, the resuscitation of the two witnesses. The active voice: the great fear produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing a result, a verbal action, on the viewpoint of reality. The accusative singular articular present active participle of qeorew means to view, “those who were viewing them.” The definite article, by the way, is used as a personal pronoun for people throughout the world who are watching on television, gloating, and those who are personally observing, walking by at the time. The present tense is a progressive present for action in a state of progress. The entire world was watching and the media were giving everyone a chance to gloat over the desecration of these two bodies. The active voice: the entire population of the world produces the action of the verb, and the participle is circumstantial.

Translation of verse 11: “ And after three and a half days the breath of life from God entered into them [resuscitation]. Then they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who were viewing [observing] them.”

Verse 12: the third result of their resuscitation. This result deals with Moses and Elijah. We have the connective conjunction kai followed by the aorist active indicative of a)kouw, which means to hear. Everyone is either seeing or being afraid or hearing. With these two it is hearing. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: Moses and Elijah only heard this command. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact.

With this the objective genitive singular from two words. What they heard was megaj again, this time it isn’t fear, and the noun fonh, “great voice,” “And they [the two heralds] heard a loud voice.”

The source of the voice: e)k plus the ablative of o)uranoj, “from heaven,” and the present active participle legw, “saying.” The futuristic present tense denotes the event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: God produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. We have a dative plural indirect object referring to Moses and Elijah, and again we have a)utoj which is the intensive pronoun used as the personal pronoun, and it is translated “them,” “saying to them.” The dative of indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest the mandate is given. The mandate is now given: the aorist active imperative of a)nabainw which means simply “come up.” And with it the adverb of place, o(de which is translated “here.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it means “come now.” The two heralds will produce the action and this is an imperative of command. Obviously they have the ability at that moment to move out of sight.

Their obedience is then mentioned, the aorist active indicative of a)nabainw. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist this time, however, because it views the ascension or the departure of the two heralds in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, a permanent change of station for Moses and Elijah. They have now completed their work in the human body. Moses and Elijah, two great prophets who never finished their work during their first tour of duty on earth: Moses did not complete his work because he did not lead the Jews into the land and was replaced by Joshua; Elijah did not complete his work because he ran away at the peak of the great revival in the northern kingdom, and he did not learn the lesson of the cave in 1 Kings 19. He was replaced by Elisha. So it is fitting and compatible with God’s grace policy that these two great prophets should return to earth and complete their mission in the most difficult period of all human history, the time of greatest disaster, the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The active voice: Moses and Elijah produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative indicating the fact that they obeyed implicitly the mandate.

Their departure is in a very special vehicle, e)n plus the locative of nefele, a special cloud designed to take them out. This parallels our Lord’s ascension, the only difference being that our Lord was in a resurrection body. This cloud takes them back in their physical bodies, they are transferring to heaven where they will receive their interim bodies.

Note the concentration of those who were antagonistic, who are called “their enemies.” We have the connective kai, translated “and,” or “while” in this case, plus the nominative plural subject from e)xqroj, “while their enemies.” Now, of course, their enemies are viewing them, qeorew again in the aorist active indicative.

Translation of verse 12: “Then they [the two heralds of the second advent, Moses and Elijah] heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, Come up here. And so they went up to heaven in a cloud; while their enemies [negative volition toward their ministry] observed them.”

The principle: Those who reject the teaching of truth or doctrine in any dispensation are the enemies. Rejection of doctrine always produces antagonism. Negative volition makes the person who has it an enemy of the truth, and therefore an enemy of the communicator of the truth, Moses and Elijah in this case. Hence, those who have rejected their doctrine, believer and unbeliever, are said to be enemies. There is no record of any of these millions of viewers changing their minds, and that it a point of great significance. They had been watching a miracle. They had been gloating over the death of Moses and Elijah for three and a half days, they were watching a miracle. The doctrine which Moses and Elijah had been teaching for the last half of the Tribulation was far more dynamic than any miracle. Now they see a phenomenal miracle, resuscitation. They were negative at the point of doctrine; they remain negative at the point of the miracle. Negative volition is consistent and it also demonstrates another fact: miracles change nothing, it is truth that changes people. People who reject truth will reject miracles from the truth. Miracles in themselves are meaningless, they change nothing. The population’s persistent rejection of the message resulted in scar tissue of the soul. Miracles never change scar tissue, only truth can change scar tissue. People develop scar tissue through negative volition toward the truth; people lose scar tissue by positive volition toward the truth, truth in all categories.

Any scar tissue that is developed can only be changed by going from negative to positive volition. So what is the issue? The issue is volition. Miracles are not an issue and you never lose any scar tissue by seeing a miracle. Miracles make no difference; doctrine makes the difference. If you do not accept the message the miracle will not change your mind, for the power is in the message, not in the miracle.

We have learned that an arrogant society inevitably becomes a degenerate society. Arrogance always destroys the concept of what we might call “selectivity.” Always a few people succeed in any particular generation and the rest do not succeed. Success is always limited to a few no matter what the field happens to be. Obviously Bible doctrine is designed for the happiness of all but attainment and success, no matter by what standard it is measured, always emphasises the few who do it.

In a society of virtue and integrity, and therefore humility, the emphasis is always on the few: their success, their standards, their hard work, the means by which they reach attainment in whatever profession or business or activity in which they entered. Once the society becomes arrogant, because the society benefits from the success from the few, then the emphasis goes back to the masses, the “dignity” of being lazy, loss of integrity. And as the emphasis goes back to the masses eventually the glorification of the masses leads to economic destruction and social degeneration. The stupidity of the masses eventuates in war. Once social degeneration and economic declension begins it is inevitable that the masses will then put pressure upon whatever government they have.

The masses regard the success of the few as a challenge to their security. When the masses are glorified then inevitably you have redistribution of wealth, the welfare state and socialism, and the thing that breaks a nation (It broke Rome three times) is trying to feed the masses. The welfare state is the second stage of historical degeneration. Lack of class, lack of good taste in almost any field, lack of honour, lack of virtue, is simply once again a recognition of the terrible degeneracy which now exists in this country. The decline of good music: Punk rock, any kind of rock. That isn’t music and those people aren’t even musicians, is an example of the things that the masses without any norms or standards go for. You could see it beginning a long time ago through culture, you could see it through spiritual life, you could see it in “religion” (not Christianity), you could see it in almost every factor. And, of course, it reflects itself in economic disaster.

We noted in verse twelve of this chapter that the person who rejects the message of doctrine is never impressed by miracles. And we have also learned a principle: miracles never change anything, miracles have no permanent results in life, and miracles do not even impress those who have rejected doctrine. The only thing that is permanent and meaningful in life is Bible doctrine, the truth.

In verses 13 and 14 we have the first conclusion in this chapter, the divine judgment of the devil’s Christmas. It is fitting that it should be mentioned in terms of an earthquake because natural disaster always causes people to think. Even if they go back to their old ways and do not learn from that disaster, at least it gets their attention. Earthquakes are always a warning of great natural disaster. Natural disaster will get the attention of these people where miracles had absolutely no effect. The person who will not accept the simplest of truths will never be impressed or changed by miracles.

Here is a fascinating thing. These people were absolutely indifferent to the tremendous miracles that they had witnessed during the ministry of the two men, Moses and Elijah, the heralds of the second advent. But as soon as they get into disaster then God has their attention. Disaster causes a temporary slowing down of negative volition and gives options to those involved to switch from negative to positive.

The connective kai begins the verse, correctly translated “and.” With it we have a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of the remote demonstrative pronoun ekeinoj, and plus the noun w(ra, “in that hour.” The remote demonstrative is used to differentiate things already named from others. In other words, it is used here for a period of time ascertained from the context. Here these people had had first of all the greatest opportunity of a lifetime, truth from Moses and Elijah. From that truth they said no, negative. That truth was accompanied by great miracles. Miracles were meaningless and merely strengthened negative volition and caused these people to say, So what! The only person who is impressed by a miracle is a person who is positive toward the truth.

Truth and miracles combined cause nothing but negative volition in degenerate society, but historical disaster caused this negative volition to pause, and the option now opens in historical disaster. For those who are the strongest of negatives, who have greatest influence on others, historical disaster wipes them out. In the city of Jerusalem we have noted that group. So the option is always there in historical disaster and generally speaking most people who have been negative in the face of truth, in the face of miracles, are also negative in the face of historical disaster.

We have the beginning of a verb form here in order to show what occurred, the aorist middle indicative of the verb ginomai, translated “there was.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the earthquake and regardless of its duration gathers it up into one entity, one great disaster right there in the city of Jerusalem. This is a middle voice but it is a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning. It is the earthquake that produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of an option from disaster. Disaster always has meaning and purpose whether it is in our lives as individuals or whether it is collective and therefore described as historical. Any time we face disaster God is giving us opportunity to pay attention to something in life that we have ignored through normal channels, the teaching of truth. “And in that hour there was a great earthquake.” This is a predicate nominative, the verb to be always takes the predicate nominative. We have the adjective megaj for “great,” and seismoj for “earthquake.”

This is, of course, a fitting end to the devil’s Christmas in Jerusalem. The great earthquake was divine judgment obviously on negative volition, but also it was a warning, it gave a last option for many. Elijah was the great evangelist, Moses was the great Bible teacher, and the earthquake in Jerusalem emphasises the reality of judgment of those who reject Christ as saviour. Earthquakes, like any type of natural disaster, always remind us that it is time to face reality. Arrogance removes a person from the reality of his situation, and as arrogance moves us away various types of suffering, including personal disaster and historical disaster, come along to remind us that we must get back to reality and face reality with truth. For the believer it is Bible doctrine; for the unbeliever it is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; for the masses of people it is the laws of divine establishment. All of these things must be put together. It is imperative, therefore, that we get back to reality. That is what disaster is all about.

Note what arrogance does in disaster. In personal disaster the arrogant person blames others in his periphery; he blames someone else. In historical disaster the news media blame whomever they dislike. This is always the way it is and always the way it will be.

The earthquake, then, is so designed, as any historical disaster, with two things in mind: to punish and to eliminate from society those who are negative to truth, so that society and life and history can be perpetuated; it is also designed to bless and deliver those who are involved in truth, those who are positive to doctrine. For example, in Matthew 24:7 “earthquake” used as a sign if the second advent was a warning, the last great evangelistic appeal before Christ returns to the people of the Tribulation: “look, you still have a chance to be saved.” Here is historical disaster in terms of earthquakes. Or other historical disasters, same verse: “nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be economic depression and earthquakes.” All of these things are to bring people back to reality. If you won’t face reality under normal circumstances then you will have to face abnormal circumstances, you are going to have to hurt, suffer, come face to face with an issue. In Revelation 11:19 earthquakes signify the second advent of Christ as a warning to the population. The same thing is true in Zechariah 14:5. These thing are not merely for punishment; these things are always a warning. Even while man is being punished for his rejection of truth he is being warned and given options, producing a principle: as long as there is life there is hope. You can always turn things around but it must be your decision and it must come from your volition.

In that hour, then, there was a great earthquake. Just as the resurrection of Christ was accompanied by great earthquakes so the death and resuscitation of Moses and Elijah is accompanied by a great earthquake. As in the case of an earthquake which split the Mount of Olives a short time after this one, earthquake is a blessing to those who make decisions from a position of strength. The earthquake, by the way, also produces local terror. People can approach all disasters from the standpoint of knowledge or the standpoint of ignorance. Whenever we face any kind of a personal problem in our lives we either approach it from knowledge or from ignorance. Knowledge comes from doctrine. You can know doctrine and face any kind of suffering, any kind of disaster, and handle it magnificently because the power in your life is the truth in the right lobe. But if you approach that thing from ignorance you suffer both in the soul and physically in the body as well.

Now it says a tenth of the city fell. The aorist active indicative of piptw indicates that great and beautiful buildings, things that people had spent a great deal of time in investment and construction, were destroyed. One tenth of the city became rubble and this will form the great fortification in the Armageddon campaign. “And in that hour there was a great earthquake and one tenth of the city fell.”

The casualty list is mentioned next. Literally, it says in the Greek, “and the names of men, seven thousand.” It is an idiom and should be translated, “also seven thousand people were killed,” the aorist passive indicative of a)pokteinw. We know something about these seven thousand. They were the ones who had the most scar tissue of the soul and would never change. These would never be impressed by anything but their own emotions, their own feelings, their own life. Therefore, these seven thousand were a millstone hanging around the neck of Jerusalem which very shortly would be under siege. And they were removed because they would have an adverse effect on the defence of Jerusalem in the great attack from the king of the north. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. God knew every one of these seven thousand people. He personally imputed human life to the soul of each one of these people. God had a purpose for each one of the seven thousand but they failed. So seven thousand received (the passive voice) death. In the passive voice in the Greek the subject receives the action of the verb. They received it, they were passed any hope, they had made their last bad decision from a position of weakness. They had enjoyed the devil’s Christmas, they had lived it up, they had had a marvellous time on that occasion. Now it is over. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this death list, and it occurred, as it says, in the earthquake.

There is always a positive result because disaster is not designed to put man down or to destroy man on the earth, disaster is designed to benefit man. Man can only stand so much prosperity and then he has to have disaster to be benefited. Many people learn from disaster, “and the rest,” the nominative plural subject of loipoj, the “survivors,” “became,” again the aorist active indicative of ginomai. This is a culminative aorist, however, it views the disaster in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Fear or terror became the motivation for many people coming back to reality. People can actually be frightened into facing reality. The active voice: the survivors of the earthquake in that section of Jerusalem produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that the survivors were motivated by terror.

And so we have the predicate nominative of e)mfoboj, “terrified,” “and the survivors became terrified.” By producing local terror the earthquake as a natural disaster resulted in positive volition. Some unbelievers were converted; some believers actually got out of the cosmic system. This, of course, means there was benefit.

But here is the tragic thing. The believers living in Jerusalem at that time had two of the greatest communicators of all time. They could hear Moses as believers, and Elijah. No matter how great the public speakers, and these two were the most dynamic, they were teaching truth, doctrine, doctrine, believers were distracted and lost control of their lives. They made numerous decisions from a position of weakness, and therefore got into the cosmic system. They wouldn’t learn from truth and there is only one other way to learn, the hard way. Basically then, you can learn through doctrine or you can learn through disaster.

In time of great historical disaster often a nation will come to a point of great revival. What pulls a nation back together is the spiritual factor, Bible doctrine. Disaster tends to destroy fantasising, it blows up dream castles, and it causes one to see the weakness of his own personal arrogance. So a principle emerges: Disaster and resultant fear temporarily cancels out the distractions of arrogance. The “terror” mentioned here puts them into a position of forced humility, and from that position of enforced humility they start making right decisions. From enforced humility comes teachability to those who through arrogance had no teachability. Therefore disaster becomes terror and terror becomes the means of enforced humility. And, of course, enforced humility results, as in this case, in some responding to the gospel, responding to truth. In other words, disaster brings people to the end of self and it clears the way for facing the issue of the gospel.

Before many of the people in Jerusalem could respond to the message that they had actually heard from the two witnesses they had to come to the end of self in a dramatic way. The terrors and the horrors of the natural disaster, and the resultant destruction of the temporary security which they had built up over three and a half days of the devil’s Christmas, was replaced by a fear that produced an enforced humility and teachability. This is why at the end of the verse they gave glory to God, the aorist active indicative of didomi, and didomi here means volition is behind this. The culminative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the conversion of many people through historical disaster. The active voice: the people of Jerusalem who in a state of terror were reduced to enforced humility which temporarily set aside their arrogance were free to respond to the gospel, and they did. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of giving glory to God as the manifestation of enforced humility through historical disaster.

“and they gave glory to God,” the dative singular indirect object of qeoj. They had heard the message and had been irritated by it. So they “gave glory to the God of heaven.” They were able to link the message that irritated them with the resuscitation of the two witnesses and their departure into heaven, and they called Him “the God of heaven.”

This is not the same as giving glory in worship. Giving glory in worship is the worship of the mature believer in the resurrection body. It goes with the uniform of glory and wearing the order of the morning star after the judgment seat of Christ. You cannot give to God what you do not have. So these are not believers giving glory to God, these are unbelievers accepting Christ as saviour. So here, giving glory to the God of heaven is the expression of the enforced humility, not of worship. This is a way of describing the fact that this disaster which killed many was also profitable for many for they personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and received Him as their saviour.

We now have a transitional verse 14 which is the woe count. The word for “woe” is taken from Greek drama, o)uai. We have the interjection ouai used as a substitute to denote calamity or great disaster. The adjective deuteroj which goes with it tells us that this is the second one. We have seen already two categories of disaster. We have seen spiritual disaster, historical disaster in the field of social degeneration, economic disaster, and warfare on the horizon. “The second woe” is the corrected translation. With this is the aorist active indicative of a)perxomai, and it means to go away and depart and is better translated, “has passed.” The dramatic aorist tense states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. The active voice: the second woe or the sixth trumpet produces the action of the verb. We have finished with it now. We studied the sixth trumpet or the second woe in Revelation 9:13-21, and this is another way of telling us that what we have been examining is parenthetical to prepare us for the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, “The second woe has passed.” Coming up is the third woe which will be the greatest period of concentrated disaster in all of human history.

We have a demonstrative particle to go with it, the dramatic particle idou and this is also taken from drama. With idou it means that something is now going to come up that is even worse, and it is described under the numeral used as an adjective, tritoj, “the third.” The third is the worst of all, “Behold, the third woe comes.” We change from the aorist tense to the present active indicative, and not a)perxomai but the simple verb e)rxomai. The futuristic present denotes an action which is about to take place in sequence with the first two woes and is even worse as far as disaster is concerned. The active voice: the third woe produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact, and that isn’t enough just to put the verb in so we have an adverb to go with it to intensify it, taxu which means quickly, in a short time, soon. An adverb and a verb together in this particular sequence indicates something far worse is about to occur.

Woe, of course, anticipates great catastrophe. Hence, it becomes the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The three woes are synonymous with the last three trumpets (5,6,7) except that the seventh trumpet is only the beginning event of the third woe. The third woe is the entire eschatology of the devil’s desperation. It starts with the seventh trumpet, the expulsion of Satan from heaven, and it ends with the second advent. Therefore the woe count is very important at this point. “The second woe is past; behold, the third woe follows soon.”

1. It begins with the seventh trumpet or the greatest of all Jewish holocausts. The greatest wave of anti-Semitism in all of history will occur in the last half of the Tribulation. It is the first event to follow the expulsion of Satan from heaven. We will study it in Revelation chapter twelve.

2. The devil has two witnesses. His demon attacks fail so he must go back to human beings and he has two men that he has selected who are to become dictators and he will try to rule, to control, to destroy through them. The devil’s two dictators: Revelation chapter thirteen, the Gentile dictator in verses 1-10; in verses 11-18, the Jewish dictator. Just as God sent Moses and Elijah, so the devil has two special leaders.

3. The perpetuation of evangelism during the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation — Revelation chapter fourteen. One thing that is always the solution to life is truth. Bible doctrine is truth, and truth will continue in the most desperate period of all human history.

4. Divine judgment will also continue. Divine judgment is designed to be a blessing to those people who have a volition which will respond to disaster when it will not respond to anything else. Therefore, we have divine judgment during the period of the devil’s desperation, Revelation chapters fifteen and sixteen. In chapter fifteen it is called the seven last plagues and it is exactly the same as chapter sixteen where it they are called the seven vials (drinking goblets).

5. We have Satan’s last desperate attack on the human race and when everything else has failed there is the attack of religion. Religion is the most powerful of all Satan’s attacks. It is the last desperate attack on the human race and it will come in the form of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation, Revelation chapters seventeen and eighteen. In chapter seventeen we have the function of ecumenical religion; in chapter eighteen we have the judgment of ecumenical religion.

6. The termination of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation, Revelation chapters nineteen and twenty: the second advent of Christ in chapter nineteen; the judgment of Satan in chapter twenty.

We move on now to a new subject: the seventh trumpet, which is only a part of the third woe. At this point we have an outline because the seventh trumpet goes from 11:15 to 12:17.

We begin now with the anticipation of the Millennial reign of Christ. We begin verse 15 with a temporal kai which is an Attic Greek concept. It is translated “when”. Next we have the nominative singular subject from an adjective numeral, e)bdomoj, and it means seventh. With it is the noun aggeloj, taking us back to the angelic order of heralds. It refers to a pur sui vant angel, “When the seventh angel.”

Next comes the aorist active indicative of the verb salpizw and it means to sound a trumpet, “When the seventh angel had sounded his trumpet.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It really hasn’t begun yet, but when it does certain things will happen. The active voice: the seventh pur sui vant messenger from the angelic college of heralds produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The angel hasn’t sounded the trumpet yet, and before he does we are going to get a message.

The message is given by the kai again. This is the adjunctive use of kai and it is translated “also.” The seventh trumpet is going to begin a time of great historical disaster and we will see many principles dealing with historical disaster and its meaning in the time in which we live. We will see the blessings which come from historical disaster and the greatness which comes from it. We will see how failure is developed in historical disaster, why people give up, why they are distracted, why people are divorced from reality.

With this we have the aorist middle indicative of ginomai, “there were also.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The middle voice is the deponent verb, therefore middle in form, active in meaning. Loud voices are going to produce the action of the verb. These loud voices have been studied before in 5:11 where we read in that passage, “I both saw and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, plus the voice of the angelic heralds and the angelic general staff: and their number was beyond counting ...”

The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. It is time once again to see that even though things are bad on the earth, as illustrated by the third woe, God has control of everything from heaven. Once again this is noted by the predicate nominative plural composed of two words, megaj, “loud,” and fonh, the word for sound. Once again we are going to have loud voices or loud sounds. The loud voices are explained by 5:11. They include the four angelic heralds representing the angelic college of heralds, the 24 angelic staff officers representing the elect angel order of battle, plus billions of elect angels. And they were saying something, the present active participle of legw. The pictorial present presents this to the mind as something to refresh before we get back into disaster. The active voice: the three categories of elect angels actually produce this fantastic sound of worship. The circumstantial participle can be translated as a finite verb or as a participle, and can be translated “which were saying” or “and said.” The sounding of the seventh trumpet takes us to the point of the second advent of Christ in the sense that it begins the eschatology of the devil’s desperation and/or the third woe.

The content of the message which is given in worship follows. Certain things are very important in worship as we have noted before. You cannot give in worship what you do not possess. Those in heaven possess something to give in worship that we do not possess today. Certain categories possess glory and therefore they can give glory to God. That is the highest thing that can be given in worship. We on this earth cannot give glory to God, we do not have the qualifications because we do not possess any glory on this earth. Those who advance to maturity inside of the divine dynasphere will have glory to give in the future, when they receive their crowns, when they receive the uniform of glory, and when they receive the order of the morning star. So the highest thing anyone in heaven can give is glory, and that is what these three categories of angels are going to do. The highest worship that man can possess must come from truth [doctrine] in his soul. Doctrine resident in the soul is the means of the highest expression of worship. When truth is absent then there must be something else as a worship substitute which is false and which is related to arrogance. It can be some form of ritual without reality or it can be some form of works which glorifies man instead of the principle, as with the angels, which is giving glory to God.

Arrogance negates the truth, therefore, in another way. Arrogance destroys worship. It is impossible to enter into worship and to give truth to God in worship as long as arrogance is present in the soul. You cannot give in worship what you do not possess and, of course, all worship is based around the perception of Bible doctrine. Arrogance is a distraction to that perception. All worship is based on the application of Bible doctrine. The worship of the communion table is the application of the doctrines of soteriology and Christology to the ritual in which we engage. Ritual is therefore legitimate in that particular situation because arrogance is eliminated. You cannot concentrate, you cannot apply doctrine at the communion table if there is any form of arrogance involved. That is why rebound is so necessary. But the same thing is true as far as learning doctrine is concerned. Learning doctrine means doctrine in the soul. Once doctrine is in the soul you can give it in worship as you give it in application to your experience in life. Therefore the person who succeeds is always the person who has doctrine.

Spiritual success is for the believer who has Bible doctrine. Those who have Bible doctrine have something to give the Lord. The more doctrine they have the sooner they come to maturity, and when they come to maturity they form a pivot. As goes the pivot so goes the prosperity and blessing in any given generation of people. This pivot also becomes a basis of honouring the Lord because periods of prosperity in history are related to that pivot. From this concept of having truth, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” comes the highest concept of worship in giving recognition to God.

The elect angels in heaven all declare before we start the details in chapter twelve, the details of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation, the greatest period of historical disaster in all of human history. Before they even start the angels announce what happens at the end. It is going to turn out all right. In the meantime, a message in angelic worship to the population on the earth who are positive, those who have positive volition toward doctrine. No matter how bad things get God still has control of history. Not only does He have control of history but your life is in His hands and in great disaster God has a purpose for your life even as in times of great prosperity. Even before this eschatology begins we have this wonderful statement in heaven: It will all turn out all right. Not only will it all turn out well but for those believers living on the earth with Bible doctrine in their souls but they are going to have the privilege of living in one of the most exciting times in history and surviving it perfectly. God’s grace is just as strong in time of adversity as it is in time of prosperity. God’s provision does not go out with adversity, it never changes.

The first announcement of the Millennium is given in verses 15-19. So we have an outline because this part of the passage should go with chapter twelve.

We have first of all the anticipation of the Millennial reign of Christ in verses 15-19.

This anticipates the time of perfect environment on the earth, the Millennial reign of Christ, beginning in 11:15-19.

Verse 15, “When the seventh angel had sounded his trumpet there were also loud voices which were saying.”

What is the content of the message? First we have a subject in the nominative singular and it is basileia in the Greek, translated “kingdom.” It refers here to the fact that we are about to anticipate kingdoms in poor environment suddenly becoming kingdoms in perfect environment due to the second advent of Christ. With this we have another aorist middle indicative from ginomai, meaning to be or to become. It should be translated, “the kingdom of the world has become.” This is a culminative aorist, it views the coup de tat of the second advent in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, perfect environment on the earth for one thousand years before eternity begins. The active voice: (actually a middle voice but a deponent verb, active in meaning) the kingdom of the world produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of historical reality. The historical reality is the second advent. Then we insert the accusative direct object, “the kingdom of our Lord,” the objective genitive from the noun kurioj. We have with this the possessive genitive of e)gw, “our Lord,” remembering that the elect angels in heaven are speaking and they call God the Father “our Lord”; on earth the world “Lord” is used for the Son.

We have a connective kai and the objective genitive of Xristoj, and with it we have a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun, third person, and it refers to God the Father, “and his Christ.” The word improvised provides that angels are speaking in this context. They refer to God the Father as Lord and God the Son as His Christ. Believers on earth use kurioj for God the Son; elect angels use kurioj for God the Father. The principle: In order to accomplish this Jesus must return in His hypostatic union to remove Satan as the ruler of this world. By removing Satan He has removed one of the greatest problems but the problems are not going to change. He has removed Satan as the ruler of this world and He has established perfect environment but perfect environment plus the old sin nature immediately gets out of hand. The angels speak of God the Father and God the Son because of the major issue involved: Does God keep His word? The answer, of course, is obviously yes.

The Davidic covenant is unconditional, which means it has not been fulfilled to Israel. The covenant simply says in 2 Samuel chapter 7 that David is going to have a son who will reign forever. This is an unconditional promise to David. This immediately brings up an issue: Will God keep His word to David? If God keeps His word to David, God will keep His word to Israel.

Daniel 9:24 gives us the concept of how things develop for the second advent and the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel. All of this brings up a major issue: Does God keep His word? It is demonstrated that He does.

“Four hundred and ninety years have been decreed for your people [Israel],” this was a message given to Daniel dealing with the principle that after the termination of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel in BC 516 and the completion of the walls of Jerusalem in BC 445, the Jews would have 490 years. 516 BC was the year that the temple was completed under the ministry of Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest, “and your holy city [Jerusalem].” The key date here is the date 445 BC. This is the date when the clock begins for the next increment of 490 years of Jewish history. They were to be give another 490 years; they had just completed 490 years.

In 586 BC 490 years had been completed, and that was the year that the Chaldeans came for the third time under Nebuchanezzar and took the Jews into captivity, destroying the city. Fifty years later in BC 536 Cyrus the Great, king of Persia issued a decree which made it possible for a remnant of Jews to return to rebuild the temple. They returned under Zerubbabel the ruler and Joshua the high priest. The temple was finally completed in 516 BC. But while that ends the fifth cycle of discipline it does not start the time clock. The reason that the fifth cycle of discipline lasted for seventy years is because in the first increment of 490 years the Jews disobeyed a command. The command was to observe their sabbatical years, a part of economic concepts and prosperity. They did not observe these sabbatical years so God gave them all of their sabbatical years at one time — 70 years, from 586 BC to 516 BC. That completed the fifth cycle of discipline but it did not begin the time clock, however.

The time clock is not going to start until 445 BC, but in 458 something else had to happen. The Jews had to get back on to Bible doctrine and the importance of Bible doctrine, so God selected the great man Ezra to go back and remind the Jews of the importance of doctrine. Then in 445 Artaxerxes sent Nehemiah back to rebuild the walls and the streets of the city of Jerusalem. BC 445 begins the second increment of 490 years. Between the second and third increments is the Church Age.

Daniel 9:24 continues with six things to be accomplished at the end of the second increment of 490 years. At the end of that increment, which will be the second advent of Christ, God is going to fulfil His unconditional promises, the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants. But that isn’t the only thing to be fulfilled. Six things are to be fulfilled; God keeps His word. These six items are all accomplished at the second advent of Christ.

The first of the six, “to finish the transgression.” The second advent of Christ terminates the fifth cycle of discipline which began in AD 70.

The second of the six, “to make an end of sin.” This is the baptism of fire which eliminates Jewish unbelievers of the Tribulation.

The third of the six, “to make a propitiatory covering over iniquity.” (Note the corrected translation). The propitiatory covering over iniquity is the regathering of the Jews at the second advent to become the client nation in the Millennium. This regathering terminates the fifth cycle of discipline. The fourth six, “to bring in everlasting righteousness” — the resurrection of the Old Testament believers, and specifically the Old Testament Jews and the Tribulational martyrs.

The fifth six, “to seal up the vision and prophecy”. This is the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel.

The sixth six, “to anoint [or dedicate] the holy of holies”. The dedication of the Millennial temple.

All six of these items are fulfilled at the second advent of Christ and are a part of His tactical victory.

Next we have in verses 25 and 26 the chronology between the two administrations of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel. This is a prophecy of that period between 445 BC down to 30 AD and 70 AD, when the fifth cycle of discipline is administered.

The second 490 begins in 445 BC but it is not a continuous period. There is a break, as we will note. Daniel 9:25, “You must know then and understand [“Know” is perception; “understand” is application] that from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince [the first advent] is 483 years,” the remaining seven will be in the Tribulation. The time is measured in lunar years and the lunar year is not the same as our calendar year. A lunar year is 360 days.

The problem with 483 years is how to get a date from it that makes sense. From 445 until Messiah we have 483 years, so we start with the fact that we have 483 years in that increment, as per this passage in Daniel. How are we going to determine a date there? But when we subtract 445 from 483 we find a very serious problem because the difference is 38 years. It has to come up 30 or 32, not 38. We can knock out one more year because of the transition from BC to AD. So our magic number is now 37. But Christ did not die in AD 37.

The problem is very simple. Daniel’s prophecy is in lunar years; our calendar works on the calendar year. There are five extra days in the calendar year. All we have to do then is to multiply 490 times five. That gives us the extra day problem. Multiplying 490 by 5 gives us 2,450. Dividing that number by 360 gives us five days short of seven years. That makes 30 AD the date.

But if you say that we are dealing with 483 years here, and we are, we can take 483 and multiply it by five. We get 2,115. Then, again, divide it by 360 and you get almost 5. And 5 from 37 is 32, for those who prefer the 32 AD date. Christ died in April of either 30 or 32 AD. The reason for using 490 rather than 483 is because when it says the Tribulation is going to last seven years, it is seven lunar years. It is putting all of the calendar in one basket.

Continuing in verse 25 — “it [Jerusalem] will be built again, with streets and moats, even in times of distress.” That is the first 49 years, a reference to Nehemiah chapter two and following describing the opposition to the rebuilding of the walls. The first increment of the 49 years terminates in BC 396, just after the completion of the book of Malachi. The book of Malachi takes up the social problems in Israel when the Jews were already failing. One of them was marriage and the other was taxation. After Malachi was completed that first increment was completed; just as after Revelation was completed you have the greatest period of prosperity in all of history. The Old Testament ended with pivot failure; the New Testament ends with pivot success.

In verse 26 we have two great events at the end of the 483 years. “Then after 434 years [added to the 49] Messiah will be cut off and have no one [“and have no one” is a Chaldean idiom meaning “not for himself”],” When Messiah is cut off He is not going to die for Himself, He is going to die for the sins of the world, “and the people [the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70, Luke 21:20-24].”

While 434 takes us to the point of the cross the actual administration of the fifth cycle of discipline did not occur until AD 70. Between 30 and 70 AD we have the grace period, grace before judgment. Why wasn’t the 5th cycle administered in 30 AD? Because grace precedes judgment always. The grace period is mentioned in Isaiah 28: Jews who had the responsibility for evangelising in their client nation status are going to be evangelised in Gentile languages, the function of the gift of tongues, that is when it was used legitimately.

“and the people of the prince,” the prince is not there, he is said “to come.” Notice: “the people of the prince who is to come.” The people are SPQR, Roman empire; the prince who is to come is the future dictator of the revived Roman empire. There is an historical Roman empire and there is a prophetical Roman empire. The historical Roman empire ended in 476 AD; the prophetical Roman empire begins in the Tribulation. So we have “the people of the prince who shall come.” The people are the Romans in the time of this prophecy and the prince who is to come is the Roman dictator of the prophetical Roman empire of the Tribulation.

“who will destroy the city,” the people destroy the city, not the prince who is to come, “and the sanctuary [the temple],” and that is August of AD 70, “and its end [in AD 70] will come like a flood. Furthermore, to the end [of the Jewish Age],” this skips over the cross and the Church Age, and the Rapture of the Church and the Tribulation. The “end” refers to the second advent of Christ, “wars and desolations [historical disasters] are decreed.”

Verse 27, the Tribulation or the last seven [lunar] years. “And he [the dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation].”

Who is this “he”? He is described in the scriptures in eight different ways:

e. He is the personification of the abomination of desolation in Daniel 11:31; 12:11; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14. The abomination is a statue of this dictator set up in the holy of holies in Jerusalem.

g. He is the anti-Christ in 1 John 2:18. (The problem is there are two anti-Christs in the Tribulation. The word “anti” means a. “against”; b. “instead of”) The dictator of the revived Roman empire is the “against” type. The dictator, the false prophet, of Israel in the Tribulation, passing himself off as the Messiah, is the “instead of”.

h. He is the scarlet coloured beast on whom the whore rides — Revelation 17:3, 8-13.

“will make a firm covenant [treaty] with the many [the Jews of the nation of Israel in the Tribulation] for one week,” that one week is the last seven years of the Age of Israel, the Tribulation. Shortly after the Rapture the revived Roman empire will make a treaty with Israel, and it will last for one week, seven years, “but in the middle of the week [Tribulation] he will put a stop to the sacrifice and food offerings; and under the protection [wing] of the abomination [ecumenical religion of the Roman dictator] there comes one who causes desolation [the Roman dictator] until the end [of the Tribulation]. Then what is decreed will be poured out on the desolator,” i.e. it is decreed that he will go to the lake of fire at the second advent.

Revelation 11:15, “and he shall reign for ever and ever.” We have the intensive use of the conjunction kai, “in fact,” and the future active indicative of the verb basileuw, “he will reign.” The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb for the last one thousand years of history, perfect environment on the earth. But it says at the end here, “forever and ever,” e)ij touj aionaj ton aionon, which is literally, “unto the ages of the ages” and means “forever and ever.” In other words, the Millennial reign of Christ, starting at the second advent, is the last one thousand years of history and the great test to demonstrate that perfect environment is not the solution to man’s problems. At the end of that there will be the Gog revolution, and that first 1000 years is the end of history but the rule of Christ will go on forever and ever.

The angelic conflict began in human history with perfect environment in the Garden of Eden; it will terminate with perfect environment throughout the world in the Millennium. Man failed in the perfect environment of the garden and man will fail in the perfect environment of the Millennium.

Perfect environment does not bring happiness. The key to happiness is virtue. Those who have virtue in perfect environment will be very happy and very prosperous; those who do not are going to be very miserable in perfect environment, and when Satan is released to start the Gog revolution they will be right there with him.

Another principle that comes out of this which may seem rather remote at first: the masses have no mentality. You can never trust the masses, the mobs of people, people who always want something without responsibility, want something for nothing, always demanding something. Masses are arrogant because they have the mob syndrome, the demand syndrome.

In verse 15 we read: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord,” that is the beginning of the Millennial reign of Christ, “and his Christ; in fact he [Christ] will rule forever and ever.”

As we move into verse 16 the subject, again, is worship: the worship of the 24 angelic staff officers who are always the leaders in worship. The posture of worship is noted first. It isn’t often when worship is taught in the Bible or mentioned, or is brought into the context, that the posture is so emphasised. So we note first the posture of these second highest ranking angels in the angelic order of battle.

We have a consecutive conjunction kai translated “then,” We have the nominative plural subject which is the 24 angelic staff officers. We have a verb, the present middle participle from the verb kaqhmai, correctly translated “who were sitting”, the descriptive present tense for what is now going on. Apparently they do their work sitting, and this has a very significant verb. People who work sitting work with their brains. These are smart elect angels. Even at that stage of the angelic conflict — they are now in human history — they are still thinking, they are still using their minds.

Principle: Your life is never better than your power of thinking. Without thought running through your soul your life is nothing. Without the ability to think, without the vocabulary to think, without the desire to think, without enthusiasm about something that requires thought, your life is useless.

The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, it is middle in form and active in meaning. The 24 angelic staff officers sitting produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. And they are not sitting on their seats, as per the King James version. The Greek clarifies the issue for us, e)pi plus the accusative plural of the noun qronoj. These are not seats in the sense of chair, these are thrones indicating achievement, achievement by thought. Spirituality can never be divorced from thinking. Basically, as we define it, spirituality is the filling of the Holy Spirit, but the purpose of the filling of the Spirit is perception of doctrine. Perception of doctrine is thinking.

So they were sitting on their thrones, indicating achievement, indicating the greatest possible type of achievement, the only achievement that is eternal in nature. For we have another prepositional phrase, the improper preposition e)nopion. And with it we have the genitive of qeoj, “before God”. They have made their achievement in the past, in the angelic conflict before human history, “before God.” Therefore they sit before God, “Then the twenty-four angelic staff officers who were sitting on their thrones in the presence of God.” This is the highest and the ultimate in spiritual achievement. For the angels are already in their eternal status quo and these 24 angelic staff officers occupy thrones in the presence of God, indicating the ultimate in spiritual achievement, and indicating that this ultimate in spiritual achievement was acquired through whatever system of spirituality God had for the angels. But it was related to, and not divorced from, thought.

Now they leave their thrones. It is time for worship and the change in posture is very important. On the throne they are doing something that they have always done well — the ability to think. But here is something that is very important: they now change their posture. They go down on their faces and they are going to go into worship. The important thing to learn from this change of posture is that worship is not emotion, worship is thought. They move from thinking on the job as staff officers to worship. They make the transition and they tell us a story by doing it. The story is told in two ways: first by the content of their worship, thought, application of doctrine, and, secondly, by moving to a new posture and thinking. Change of posture does not mean changing from thinking to emotion.

There is a lesson here. Happiness is a state of the soul, not the body. The body can be stimulated. The connection between the soul and the body is emotion. People often think that because they are emotionally stimulated that somehow they are happy. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The soul was designed to think. Happiness cannot be divorced from thinking. And that is why Bible doctrine is so important because Bible doctrine is a system of thought. When your soul leaves our body in physical death you take with you your thinking, and your thinking goes to heaven in your soul. Then you get an interim body and you will think in that interim body, and that is the period of great happiness but it is because you took your thinking with you and you are now in heaven, the perfect environment for thinking. The earth is not the perfect environment for thinking, this is the devil’s world. Arrogance destroys thinking. Arrogance is related to emotion, not thought. Arrogance is subjectivity, and subjective thinking simply depends upon emotion or environment or something that is related to the body or the earth. So it becomes imperative to realise that spiritual life is devoted to thinking. And spiritual life includes, as we have noted before, worship. Your true worship is thinking.

When the 24 angelic staff officers changed their posture to prostration in the presence of our Lord by falling on their faces they are still thinking, as will be noted in a moment by what they say in verse 17. They have something to say because they are thinking. And we have already noted the principle: You cannot give what you do not have. If you don’t have thought you can’t worship the Lord, as illustrated by the communion table, the Eucharist. You can only worship up to the point of your ability to think.

The aorist active indicative of piptw is the change of posture from working [sitting on the throne] to worship. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes up everything they are going to say in the next verse or two and gathers it into one entirety, because that is their worship. The fact that they fell on their faces before God is not worship; the fact that they were thinking something is worship. The change of posture is merely to show us that all worship is based upon, not only the filling of the Spirit, but on doctrine and humility. The posture is the posture of humility, they fall on their faces before the throne. Every time the 24 angelic staff officers are mentioned in terms of worship what they say is of the utmost importance. It is the content; it is the thought. Along with the four angelic heralds they express the epitome of worship in the glorification of Christ, the glorification of God. You glorify God by what you think and by what you express in worship, not by what you emote.

We note the reason for their prostration. The posture of worship emphasises the fact that all worship is the function of humility. Enforced humility: you concentrate even though you are tired; genuine humility: you are concentrated because you are interested. The posture of worship, therefore, emphasises both enforced and genuine humility. Worship cannot exist in the Church Age apart from royal family residence, function, and momentum inside the divine dynasphere. The 24 angelic staff officers worship in heaven; our worship is conducted inside the divine dynasphere. Worship cannot exist in the Church Age apart from the system: the divine dynasphere.

Then we have the phrase, “and they worshipped.” We have the connective conjunction kai for “and.” Then the aorist active indicative of proskunew which means to worship. The culminative aorist tense views the worship of the 24 angelic staff officers in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results.

The message of verses 17 and 18: their message is significant enough to make it a part of the Word of God forever and ever. What they say becomes a pattern for thought in worship, a pattern for principle in worship, a pattern for application in worship.

The active voice: the 24 angelic staff officers produce the action of the verb, as they did in Revelation 4:10-11.

We also have a dative singular indirect object from the noun qeoj. The dative indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the act of worship is performed. They worship God; it is in His interest.

Translation of verse 16: “Then the twenty-four angelic staff officers, who were sitting on the thrones in the presence of God, fell on their faces, and they worshipped God”.

The angelic general staff cannot give in worship what they do not possess. They have a complete knowledge of doctrine, they possess that in their souls. They have a complete knowledge of the doctrine of eschatology related to the second advent of Christ and His Millennial reign. Note that the 24 angelic staff officers in the expression of their worship are pre-Millennial. Therefore, in their worship they express doctrine resident in their angelic souls. Only cognisance of doctrine can express that doctrine in worship. You cannot express in worship those doctrines about which you are ignorant. The more doctrine you know the greater becomes the expression of your worship toward God, the greater your love for God expressed in worship. Again, therefore, the principle: Worship requires thinking. Ignorance of doctrine has no basis for worship.

Remember the principle of this passage: You cannot offer in worship what you have not acquired by grace. Therefore you cannot give in worship what you do not have.

The first word of verse 17 is the word “saying,” the present active participle of the verb legw. Now we are going to get the content of worship but we have to assume that this was not all that was involved in the expression of their worship. They said many other things but only those things which are pertinent to us as believers were actually recorded in the canon of scripture. In verses 17 and 18 we have a very short message expressed in worship and it begins with the expression of thanksgiving.

The present active participle of legw indicates that we are now going to get a part of what they said in their worship, the part that applies to us. The descriptive present tense of legw indicates what was then going on or will be going on in the future. Then active voice: the angelic general staff composed of the 24 elders produces the action of the verb, and it is a circumstantial participle. We can translate it, therefore, “and said” rather than “saying.”

The first thing that we note in that which is recorded is thanksgiving: the present active indicative of the verb e)uxaristew, “we are thankful” or “we thank you.” This expresses the first concept in worship. Thanksgiving is a very rare thing in time of national degeneracy. People are not appreciative and this is always true when any country involves itself in socialism of any form. Socialism, in effect, says that no matter how terrible a person is the government owes them a living. There is no government without taxation and what happens, in effect, is that successful people are constantly bailing out people who have totally and completely failed. As long as you stay on the free enterprise system that is all right, but when you bring socialism in any form into to the picture then immediately you destroy something in the personality of the people within a national entity. You destroy their capacity for life, for love and for happiness.

Thanksgiving is an expression of individual capacity. No two people have exactly the same intensity of thanksgiving. There are no two people in the world who are to the same degree appreciative. But it takes certain things to be thankful. First of all, it takes humility. Those who are oriented to life and free from the subjectivity of arrogance have the ability to be thankful. They have true gratitude in their souls; they are appreciative of anything that is done for them. Thanksgiving is not only a part of prayer but here it is an expression of worship.

“We are thankful,” we have the perfective present tense which refers to what has come to be in the past and is emphasised as a present reality. The active voice: the 24 angelic staff officers produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of their thanksgiving in worship.

With this we have the dative singular indirect object from the pronoun su, “we are thankful to you.” With it we have a vocative singular kurioj referring to our Lord Jesus Christ and translated, “O Lord.” This is actually addressed to the Lord Jesus Christ who is there, and He is now called “the omnipotent God.” We have a nominative singular of appellation or a nominative of apposition from two words: qeoj and the noun pantokrator. Pantokrator originally meant “all-powerful,” for the word pan, meaning all, and pantor which meant “ruler.” Each noun is preceded by a definite article. The basic function of the Greek definite article is to point out individual identity, hence to point out the object and draw attention to it. Hence, the definite article points out the particular object, and the particular object about which they are thankful is the omnipotence of God. The article is used with the name of Christ as God because of His hypostatic union and it is assumed that this doctrine of the hypostatic union is well-known to the reader. The definite article can be construed also as generic since it takes deity and sets deity apart as a separatory and worthy of worship, unique and different from creatures who are doing the worshipping. “We are thankful to you, O Lord, the omnipotent God.”

The omnipotent God refers to the deity of Christ though this is addressed to Him in hypostatic union. Along with this is a reference to the strategic victory of Christ at the first advent. This is accomplished with the participle e)imi used twice. It is the verb to be, used as the articular present active participle and translated “who is.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun. The present tense is a static present representing a condition which is assumed as perpetually existing, the omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in His hypostatic union. The omega glory of Christ refers to His third royal patent which he received after His ascension and the strategic victory of the first advent. The active voice: Jesus Christ in His glorified state produces this action. And, again, we have a circumstantial participle representing the omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then we have the connective kai, “and,” plus the definite article used as a relative pronoun, “and who always existed,” the perfect active indicative of e)imi. The imperfect tense is a descriptive imperfect, it is used for linear aktionsart in past time. In His alpha glory Jesus Christ has always existed. The active voice: Jesus Christ as eternal God produces the action, and the indicative mood is declarative for the fact that Jesus Christ is not only true humanity but in this passage He is eternal God. The words “and art to come”, as in the King James version, are not found in the original.

We have the alpha and omega glory combined in the form of the strategic victory of Jesus Christ on the cross. In His alpha glory Jesus Christ is eternal God; in His omega glory Jesus Christ is in hypostatic union.

We need to remember that this worship expressed by angels is directed toward the Lord Jesus Christ who is unique. The essence of God comes from this same verb o)usia from which we get “essence,” the very being of the deity of Christ. God is a spirit. His attributes, His qualities are invisible to human perception which means that we cannot understand God through rationalism or empiricism. The believer, of course, is totally dependant on what the Word of God has to say. In the doctrine of divine essence we recognise the fact that God has always existed in three persons, and one of them is in view here — God the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus Christ is eternal life there never was a time when He did not exist; because Jesus Christ is immutable there never was a time when His deity could be changed or jeopardised. The fact that God exists in three separate and distinct persons is well documented in the Word of God and each one of these persons has identical essence.

We are here interested in the attributes of deity as they relate to the Person in our context, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ as God has two categories of divine attributes. He has, first of all, the intransitive or the absolute category. These are primary and cannot be communicated. The relative attributes are transitive, secondary and communicable, and it is through the relative attributes that we come to understand the absolute attributes of our Lord as God.

All thanksgiving must relate to the absolute, God Himself. When thanksgiving is divorced from its relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ as the God-Man then it loses something; and no matter what people do for you, if you do not understand His attributes, His plan, if you do not have His virtue [gates 5 and 6] people are going to do thousands of things for you and you will never appreciate any of them. That very lack of appreciation is the arrogance or the subjectivity which will make you miserable all the days of your life. To the extent that you have genuine gratitude in your soul, not something that is worked up because you know you are supposed to do it — it is based on doctrine in the soul. It isn’t the gift you appreciate, it is the giver. And that is the way it is with the Lord, and before you will ever be on a true thanksgiving basis you are going to have to appreciate the Lord.

Notice that the angels in verse 17 do not mention anything about what they have been given. They have been given crowns, they have been given great decorations. The said: “We are thankful to you, O Lord.” Thanksgiving must be directed toward the person who gives, not the gift itself.

“who is,” Jesus Christ in His omega glory is the God-Man, “who was,” the alpha glory of Jesus Christ as God in eternity past. And why the order? Why do we have the omega glory first, “who is”? Why the God-Man? Because this is the greatest gift of all. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son”; “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” Always the gift that is most important comes first, and the gift that is most important is eternal life purchased for us on the cross.

We now have a reference to the tactical victory of our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent. It comes up with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti which means “because.” With it we have the perfect active indicative of the verb lambanw. This means a dramatic perfect which emphasises the results of the action. It is the description of the fact of a vivid and realistic gift, something He has done. The active voice: the glorified Christ in hypostatic union produces the action. The indicative is the declarative indicative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine.

The accusative which follows is the direct object and is composed of three words, megaj, meaning “great”; dunamij, meaning “power”; and autoj, used here for the third person personal pronoun. It is translated, “your great power.”

— “because you have taken your great power.” The angels are power conscious, they have just gone through the angelic conflict, the prehistoric part. You can be power conscious in an evil way and you can be power conscious in a good way. The good way is where you have gratitude, where you recognise authority, where you possess personal humility, where you have virtue. This power consciousness is a good power consciousness, it is something that isn’t abused. But then there is a pseudo power consciousness in which arrogance intervenes and makes it a system for the abuse of others.

The final phrase: “and you have begun to rule,” the aorist active indicative of basileuw which means to rule or to reign. That refers to the Millennial reign of Christ. The angels are thankful for something that hasn’t happened yet, so there is a sphere of gratitude in the sphere of eschatology. But it also has application. At the time that John wrote there was a need for God’s power, not their own. There was the use of divine power that made the age of the Antonine Caesars, immediately after writing Revelation, one of the greatest periods in all of history.

The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist, it contemplates the action of our Lord’s eternal rule at its beginning, the second advent of Christ. The active voice: Jesus Christ in His hypostatic union, omega glory, produces the action, He begins His rule. The indicative mood is declarative for a statement of doctrine related to the second advent of Christ and His tactical victory. The Millennium begins with the second advent and the maximum use of divine power. What the angels are anticipating and are thankful for is that great power, that maximum power. That maximum power is not being used in the Church Age. Why? Because the Church Age, more than any other dispensation in the history of mankind, demonstrates the importance of making good decisions which utilise the power of God without abusing the power of God. So God has deliberately limited His power. Since the canon of scripture is completed miracles are out. The great power that He has given us today is not the power of miracles, it is the power of the divine dynasphere. Jesus Christ is not using raw power as He will at the end of the Armageddon campaign in Revelation chapter 19, He is utilising His power through believers who can accept or reject that power. Acceptance versus rejection is what you do with gate four (perception and application of doctrine), the momentum gate.

The most powerful nation in all of history was SPQR, the Roman empire. During the course of the Roman republic and then during the empire after the second Punic war, the masses had their way with regard to one thing — socialism. The Roman government was supporting as many as a million people with free food and other things at a time when populations were very thin. Whenever this happens, as long as you have a strong industrial complex, a strong economy, you can pay for socialism. All socialism is taxing the rich to feed the poor and, in some cases, scum. As a result, eventually socialism wins, the masses demand more and more, and they destroy the nation. This was the reason for the destruction of the Roman empire. Socialism can only exist as long as there is a major capitalistic system to support it. That means good business function.

Verse 18, the restoration of Israel at the second advent. Why do we study the Millennium when we are not yet through with the Tribulation? The point is to encourage Israel, for no one will be persecuted in the Tribulation as much as Israel. All of the previous holocausts involving Israel will be nothing compared to what Satan will try to do in the Tribulation, and therefore Israel must constantly have before them a true hope, and the hope is mentioned in this passage. The born again Jews of the Tribulation plus all of the resurrected Jews in the first resurrection will be regathered at one time to form a great nation in the middle east. So the Jews need encouragement, especially those who have personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who understand the true meaning of the ritual of Israel, “Shamah Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai echad.”

In response to this type of thing the masses are always angry. Demagogues and evil nations always react to the truth. We find, therefore, in verse 18 the reaction to this type of message, “And the nations were angry ...” The nations always react to anything that is truth and they always stick their nose into someone else’s business.

We start out with the conjunction kai which introduces a result from what precedes, translated “and so.” Then we have the nominative plural subject from e)qnoj which refers to nations, plus the aorist active indicative of the verb o)rgizw which means to be angry. The anger is one that generally comes from emotion. We have noted before that emotion has no power to think, it has no power to rationalise, it has no standards of any kind. Emotion was designed as a part of the soul to be a responder to thought. O)rgizw is a Greek word for emotional anger, anger which is senseless and useless, anger which is typical of people who cannot think, who have no truth and no standards by which to decide what is right and what is wrong. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: the nations of the world receive the action of the verb at the second advent, at the coronation of Jesus Christ. They react to the fact that now there is going to be perfect government on the earth. Actually, evil people are never worried about perfect government, they simply want power to exercise. And when anyone who is evil exercises power it is always tyranny, for they do not care about rights and freedom, they only care about themselves and their power lust. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

There is one prophecy about this anger mentioned in Psalm 2:1-3. “Why do the nations rage, and why do the people plot [or form conspiracies] in vain?” So the first verse in Psalm 2 poses two questions regarding nations in the Tribulation. Why do people react against anything that is perfect? God is perfect, He has a perfect plan for us. He has a perfect system by which nations can govern their people.

Verse 2, the explanation. “The kings of the earth take their stand [against our Lord],” in the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation, we find that nations are raging against God. There are four blocks of nations in the Tribulation: the king of the north, the pan-Arabic bloc, the oriental bloc, and the revived Roman empire. So we have spheres of influence. Nations form blocs of nations to protect themselves, “and the rulers conspire together against the Lord [God the Father], and against his anointed [God the Son], saying, Let us destroy their restraint, let us throw off their chains.” The restraint here refers to God’s restraint in history under the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. Were it not for divine restraint we would not be alive, nor would there be any people on the face of the earth for people all have a tendency of self-destruction. “Throw off their chains” means that God the Father, God the Son so function in the Tribulation to preserve a large population for entry into the Millennium.

So we have as a result of this the anger of God the Father. This is an anthropopathism ascribing to God a characteristic which He does not possess but explains divine policy in terms of human frame of reference.

We have the temporal use of the conjunction kai translated “then”, plus the nominative singular from the subject o)rgh. God meets anger with anger, as it were. God is perfect, God cannot be angry, but this describes something of God’s attitude in our verse 18. It is translated, “Then your anger.” This is a reference to the anger of God the Father as portrayed in Psalm 2:4-6.

“And he [God the Father] who is enthroned in heaven laughs: the Lord scoffs at them,” so the divine anger toward these nations is described as laughter, as if the creature could ever challenge the creator.

“He [God] will speak to them in his anger, he will terrify them in his wrath,” a reference to the closing events of the Tribulation and the second advent. This speaking to them in His anger refers to the Armageddon campaign and how He will terminate it. It refers to the baptism of fire and how the unbelievers of the earth will be separated from believers: believers will go into the Millennium but the unbelievers will be cast into fire.

“But for me [God the Father], I have installed my King [Jesus Christ, the son of David] on Zion, my holy mountain.”

Then we have the phrase in our passage in Revelation 11:18, “then your anger came,” the aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai. E)rxomai means the anger of God trumps the anger of nations. This has always been true to some extent but this is the last trump ever played by the second advent of Christ. In the meantime God controls the nations of the world and permits the continuation of man on this earth under the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. In this way we know and we have a guarantee that right down to the end of history there will always be large populations on this earth and that no sophisticated weaponry will destroy the entire population of the earth. The only thing that will ever destroy the population of the world, or a large segment of it, will be the Lord Himself at the second advent or the baptism of fire when a new civilisation begins with believers only.

“your anger” refers to God the Father producing the action of the verb in the following way: He turns over all judgment to Christ who separates the wheat from the tares at the second advent. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the baptism of fire. With the baptism of fire we have the resurrection of Old Testament saints.

“also the time,” the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai and the nominative singular of kairoj. With kairoj we have the adverbial genitive of reference, nekroj, “the time with reference to the dead.” Nekroj refers to those who are physically dead, the Old Testament saints who are going to be resurrected. The Old Testament believers include Jews and Gentiles but the emphasis in this passage will be on the Jews who are resurrected. The Tribulational martyrs will also be included, they are resurrected at the second advent of Christ.

The regathering of Israel demands that all Israel be present, including Abraham, the father of the Jewish race, and Moses, the father of the client nation Israel. And. of course, the resurrection of any category of persons demands their evaluation or judgment. In this case we have the resurrection of believers which means their evaluation of their time on earth. Some will receive reward and decoration and some will not. Hence, a situation which is comparable to the judgment seat of Christ. However, this is at the second advent.

The corrected translation of verse 18 so far: “And so the nations were angry, then your anger came [the second advent of Christ, the baptism of fire], also the time with reference to the dead [the resurrection of the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs].”

The next word in this sentence is the aorist passive infinitive of the verb krinw which means to evaluate or to judge. Here it means to be evaluated. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the evaluation of all the Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs in its entirety. This evaluation is comparable to the judgment seat of Christ. The passive voice: just as you and I as believers will be evaluated at the Rapture of the Church so these believers of the Old Testament and Tribulational martyrs will be evaluated at the second advent. The infinitive is an infinitive of actional result, it is the actual result of the second advent and the regathering of Israel. In the regathering of Israel many of the Old Testament saints are going to receive great reward and high decorations. Therefore, many of them are going to rule ten cities, twenty cities, five cities, and some none.

We have a conjunction which follows but the conjunction is used in the expletive case. Kai sometimes is only used to render an explanation, and when that happens it is translated, “that is.” Then we have another infinitive, this time the aorist active infinitive of didomi which means to give. The culminative aorist tense views the decorations which are going to be given at that time but regards them from the viewpoint of existing results. The Millennium is going to be a time when there will only be great rulers. Most of the rulers will be in resurrection bodies therefore they will be able to rule under the principles of perfect government, perfect environment and blessing for all. The active voice: Christ produces the action and this is an infinitive of actual result.

“to be evaluated, that is, to give,” what is given is mentioned as the accusative singular direct object from misqoj, reward, decoration. Those who rule in Israel when Israel is regathered in the Millennium, and those who rule Gentile nations in the Millennium will be rulers in resurrection bodies. They will have staffs of those who are in resurrection bodies. With their resurrection bodies they will be able to accomplish many unusual things. The will move vertically or horizontally, they will function under great wisdom, the solutions to problems will be instantaneous, and perfect environment will continue throughout the Millennium.

Next comes the dative plural indirect object from douloj, used here for servants, those who serve the Lord properly in life. Service always begins with virtue. There is no plan of God that does not put virtue first. Virtue and integrity must reside in the believer before anything that he does is significant. So we have the dative of indirect object, “to your servants.” This indicates the ones in whose interest the act of reward is performed, Old Testament believers, Tribulational martyrs who achieve maturity during phase two.

Then we have the dative plural indirect object of hagioj which refers to the saints, the Old Testament believers who attain maturity. We have two dative plural indirect objects. One is profhthj, the prophets, and the other is hagioj, “to the prophets and to the saints.” Then we have a third category, those who respect or reverence his person. That would be the Tribulational martyrs. We have a dative plural indirect object from the present middle participle fobew which can mean either fear or respect. Here it means respect. Those who are martyred during the Tribulation have more respect and love for the Lord than for their own lives. The indirect object indicates Tribulational martyrs who achieve maturity in phase two. It is to their advantage to receive rewards and decorations at the second advent and they will be resurrected ahead of their peers who survive the Tribulation.

In this passage where we have fobew we have a perfective present tense denoting a fact which has come to be in the past, phase two of the Old Testament prophets, and so on. Those who have functioned to glorify the Lord in past time, and it emphasises a present reality. They are going to receive rewards and decorations. In the middle voice the subject, mature believers of the Old Testament, Tribulational martyrs — act with a view toward participating in the outcome. They are going to be rewarded, they are going to be rulers in the Millennium. The middle voice relates the action of the verb more intimately to the subject, and since the verb here is fobew these believers, first of all, have motivating virtue. They respect the Lord. They will not have, as we have, the divine dynasphere but they will have the equivalent of gate five. They will have great love for the Lord, and that love for the Lord is motivating virtue which is the basis for all reward. Rewards are given to them for their functional virtue as a result of motivating virtue, so the same policy applies in every resurrection where believers are concerned. If you have virtue first then your production is meaningful; if you put production before virtue then there is no reward. That production is the wood, hay and stubble of 1 Corinthians 3, it is burned at the judgment seat of Christ. Only Church Age believers possess the divine dynasphere to accomplish this.

A new plan has to be brought into focus for the Tribulation. Reason: the Church Age so far has lasted nearly 2000 years. We do not know how long it is going to last but when the royal family is completed there will be the resurrection of the Church. Our way of life is the divine dynasphere. But the Tribulation is going to last only seven years, therefore the plan of God for Tribulational believers must be an accelerated plan so that believers can advance rapidly to maturity. It will be an accelerated spiritual life such as has not been seen in the history of the world.

This middle voice is called a dynamic middle because it emphasises the part taken by the subject in the action of the verb. These believers who are rewarded are winners. The participle is circumstantial and we translate it: “and to those who respect.”

Next comes the accusative singular o)noma which means the person or the name. Here it refers to the person. With this we have the pronoun, “his person,” “and to those who respect his person.” That is personal love for Jesus Christ. How do you know when you are advancing in the spiritual life? You know it because of gate five in the divine dynasphere, you have a personal love for God. That is the ultimate in virtue. The only virtuous love that is personal is personal love for God. Personal love for God as the motivating virtue produces gate six, the functional virtue of impersonal love for all mankind. All production comes out of gate six and it must be prefaced by gate five. There must be personal love for God before there can be production in the Christian way of life.

“and to those who respect his person,” personal love for Christ, motivating virtue, occupation with Christ. The adjectives which follow are classified as an anacoluthon which is in the form of an accusative absolute without any participle. The accusative absolute is grammatically independent of the rest of the verse. We have two adjectives which follow. There is the accusative plural of mikroj, and mikroj is not going to mean what it appears to mean in the King James version. It refers here to the humble and the insignificant and it is simply a way of designating the lower classes, people who have not achieved as others have, people who are in lower classes of society. Here, what is ordinarily translated “little” means the lower classes. Then the second accusative plural is the adjective megaj, and in the anacoluthon this means the upper classes, “both lower and upper classes.”

1. Note that the lower class believers have the same opportunity to achieve spiritually and to become winners as the upper class or the privileged class. Because one is in a lower class of society it does not hinder him from becoming a winner. God has a plan that goes right through class distinction.

2. Class distinctions and racial distinctions are never issues in the spiritual life, only positive volition toward doctrine which causes the believer to advance to maturity. Class distinction is set aside for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. These Tribulational believers present in their resurrection bodies at the second advent are classified as Tribulational martyrs in contrast to the Tribulational believers who survive the Tribulation and go into the Millennium to form the population in the Millennium. There will be class distinctions, even in the Millennium.

We have one more phrase in verse 18 which deals with the tactical defeat of Satan. It begins with the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, meaning “also,” plus the aorist active infinitive of diafqeirw which means to destroy, “Also to destroy.” The culminative aorist tense views the expelling of fallen angels or demons from the earth plus the imprisonment of Satan in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Christ becomes the ruler of the world and perfect environment will exist for one thousand years. This is the tactical victory of our Lord which complements the strategic victory at the cross. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, and this will be amplified in Revelation chapters 19 and 20. This is the infinitive of actual result, the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ.

With this we have the accusative plural direct object from the definite article touj. With it we also have the present active participle again of diafqeirw, and here it means again to destroy but it is in the present tense, “to destroy those who keep on destroying the earth.” The present tense is a perfective present referring to a fact which has come to be in the past: the fact that five demon assaults on the earth have been the source of destruction. The active voice: from the fall of man to the second advent fallen angels have been producing the action of the verb. The particle is circumstantial for the angelic conflict extended to human history. Then the accusative singular direct object from gh referring to the earth.

Everything mentioned in verse 18 must occur before Israel can be restored as a client nation to God in the Millennium. The removal of Satan as the ruler of this world plus the destruction of the entire Satanic organisation is necessary for the restoration of Israel. Before Israel can be restored and become the recipients of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New covenants there must be this clearing the way for it. Until that time Israel is always the target for Satanic attacks.

Translation of verse 18: “And so the nations were angry. Then your anger came, also the time with reference to the dead [resurrection of the OT saints] to be evaluated; that is, to present the rewards to your servants, namely to the prophets, and to the saints, and to those who respect his person, both the lower and upper classes; also to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

The signs of the restoration of Israel are given in verse 19. There are a few words that are mistranslated in the King James version. We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “then,” with the nominative subject naoj referring to the temple in heaven. The temple that was in existence at the time of the Exodus (in the form of the tabernacle), and the temple which was built in the days of Solomon, is simply a counterpart to the great temple in heaven, the temple which portrays all of the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict, breaking the back of Satan in the strategic victory of the cross and then the tactical victory of the second advent. This is the temple with the possessive genitive of qeoj, this is the temple of God. This temple resides in heaven and has always been in heaven and, of course, the counterpart has been as per the instructions given in the Word of God for the building of the temple.

So we have a subject. The heavenly sign is the fact that there is a temple in heaven. And immediately we ask, Why is there a temple in heaven? Why is it necessary?

This temple is Jewish. It is the Jewish temple which portrayed the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, every facet of the temple. Every bit of it is to demonstrate to Israel that in heaven there is the fact that the Jews will always exist and that Satan will never be able to destroy the Jews. Remember that Satan has access to heaven and spends a great deal of time there. Satan has to pass this temple periodically and he knows the significance of it. The significance of the temple in heaven is the fact that God keeps His word, that God is faithful, that there never will be a time when God does not keep His word. The illustration is Israel. God keeps His word to Israel and Israel will always exist in spite of every Satanic attempt to destroy the people of Israel. God keeps His word through His unconditional covenants; God keeps His word through the Lord Jesus Christ, for every bit of the furniture in that temple speaks of Christ.

Next we have a nominative neuter singular from the relative pronoun o(j, translated “which,” rather than “who.” We insert the verb e)imi because of ellipsis, “which was.” Then we have a prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of ouranoj, telling us that this temple is in heaven, “which was in the heaven.” This temple of God is in heaven as a guarantee and a reminder to all the fallen angels who live in heaven and a reminder to us who will live on earth, that God will keep His word to believers, and that there is a group where believers and unbelievers exist where God will keep His word. God always keeps His word when He makes a promise.

Then we have the aorist passive indicative of a)noigw, and it means to open. The culminative aorist tense views the opening of the heavenly temple in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The existing results are implied in the next passage, the regathering of Israel, the restoration of Israel as a client nation to God, and Israel going into the Millennium as the client nation to God for the last one thousand years of history and forever. With this we have a passive voice: the temple receives the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this sign from heaven: Israel has a future. As goes the Jew so goes the future of eschatology and there will always be Jews alive on this earth.

Next we have a connective kai and a nominative singular subject, kibwtoj, which refers to the ark. With this we have the possessive genitive singular diaqhkh, meaning covenant, “the ark of his covenant,” we have a possessive genitive singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj used as a personal pronoun.

The ark of the covenant is a box made out of acacia wood and overlaid with gold. It is the symbol of the Lord’s presence and the client nation status of Israel. It was located in the holy of holies. How do we know that Israel was a client nation when it came out of slavery from Egypt? Because they had the ark of the covenant with them. How do we know that they were a client nation in the Old Testament? They had the ark of the covenant. They lost the ark of the covenant when they were taken into captivity in 586 BC, the fifth cycle of discipline, and again in 70 AD. The original is in heaven and there in heaven they have the sign that there will always be Jew in every generation in history, and that there will come a time, second advent, when Israel will be restored.

“Then the temple of God which was in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant was seen”. Again, the ark of the covenant is the symbol of the Lord’s faithfulness and the Lord’s presence in the client nation Israel. It is located in the holy of holies of the Jewish tabernacle, then the temple, but there is no Jewish tabernacle or temple today and the original is in heaven itself.

It is called the ark of the covenant because it contains the tablets of the Mosaic law, but it also contains the promises dealing with the unconditional covenants to Israel. As the symbol of the Lord’s presence in the client nation status of Israel the ark was always carried in advance of Israel on the march. We notice this first in Numbers 10:33; Deuteronomy 1:33; Psalm 132:8. The ark remained in Shiloh until the time of the priest Eli when it accompanied the army in a campaign against the Philistines. It was taken along for good luck in battle but it turned out not to be good luck in battle, it was a misuse of the doctrine. The doctrine speaks of the Lord’s faithfulness, it was not a good luck charm, and when they decided in the days of king Saul to take it into battle as a good luck charm then immediately it was abused and misused, and that was the end of it. Distortion or misuse of doctrine results in great discipline from God. They were defeated by the Philistines and the ark was captured. It was brought back eventually by David.

When the temple was constructed the ark was then again placed in the holy of holies. The ark of the covenant of God is described in detail in Exodus 25:10-22; 37:1-9. The acacia wood represents the humanity of Christ; the gold represents the deity of Christ; the construction of the box represents Christ in hypostatic union. The guarantee of eternal salvation for anyone who believes in Christ, the guarantee of the future of Israel is based upon the fact that Jesus Christ, eternal God, became true humanity and went to the cross and was judged for our sins. The ark represents the fact that Jesus Christ is the God of Israel, and He is both the saviour and the deliverer of Israel. In the structure of the ark we have the uniqueness of our Lord Jesus Christ. The ark represents the fact that Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, is also the saviour of the world, and only Jesus Christ, the son of David can fulfil the unconditional covenants to Israel. But the ark also reminds Israel that there must be a first advent for provision of eternal salvation before Christ can come again and regather them.

The ark also reminds us of another factor because inside of the ark are deposited three categories of sacred articles. We know this from Hebrews 9:4. First of all, the tables of the law which defined freedom for the client nation to God and were the basis for the laws of divine establishment. Freedom. in turn, must be related to the future of the nation for even though God has promised the Jews would have a future their positive volition is demanded for entrance into that future. That means that every Jew, like everyone else, must personally believe in Christ for eternal salvation. If he is going to see the fulfilment of the future of Israel this is absolutely necessary.

Secondly, there was the urn of manna representing the principle of logistical grace. God has provided for all believers under logistical grace and has especially provided for Israel in this regard. It also emphasises the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. Then there is Aaron’s rod that budded which represents the spiritual factor in the function of the client nation: the function of the priesthood, the importance of the pivot of mature believers, for the dissemination of doctrine was primarily in the hands of the Levitical priesthood. Later on God had to raise up prophets in order to strengthen the function of Bible teaching in Israel. Aaron’s rod that budded advises us of the separation of temporal and spiritual powers. It is a part of the laws of divine establishment that freedom cannot exist without all temporal and spiritual power being separated, and there must never be an overlap of one into the other.

Over the top of the ark was the lid, and on top of that lid was a solid gold throne. On each end of the throne there was a cherub. These cherubs were looking down toward the seat of that throne. In the box we have the articles; they also represent sin. Sin is a violation of divine law, divine standards. In the use of the pot of manna, this was sin in the sense of rejection of divine authority. Aaron’s rod that budded had the same connotation, rejection of logistical grace. Everything in the box, then, also speaks of man’s failure and man’s sin.

On the top of the ark is the mercy seat. It is described in Exodus 25:17-22. It was constructed of solid gold representing the essence of God. On each side of the throne was a cherub with gold wings. The cherubs represent the believer’s point of contact with God which is the integrity of God. One cherub represents the perfect righteousness of God, the other represents the perfect justice of God. That is our point of contact with the integrity or holiness of God.

Once a year on the day of atonement the high priest would come in and sprinkle blood over the top of that mercy seat. The righteousness of God looks down and sees the blood and is satisfied — propitiation; the justice of God looks down and sees the blood and is satisfied, for the justice of God judged our sins — that was the representation of the animal blood, and the righteousness of God can therefore be imputed to anyone who believes in Christ. That opens the door for the justice of God providing logistical grace to every believer, because whether the believer is a winner or a loser that grace pipeline is open. Everything that sustains us in life comes from the justice of God down this great pipeline to the righteousness of God. Again, it delineates the faithfulness of God to each one of us.

“was seen,” the aorist passive indicative of o(raw. It was actually seen in heaven. It is not on earth; it is simply seen, a manifestation once more that in view of what is coming up in the next chapter Israel will survive it all and there will always be Jews alive in every generation, including the generation of the Tribulation. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: the ark receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Once again we have e)n plus the locative of naoj, “in his temple.”

Translation to this point: “Then the temple of God which was in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant was seen in his temple.”

What follows are the earthly signs of judgment against anti-Semitism. These are merely weather signs and it is bad weather for anyone who seeks to persecute the Jew. It is a warning that God never allows anyone to get away with anti-Semitism. The aorist middle indicative of the verb ginomai is translated, “and there was.” Then we have the signs. We have a)straph, correctly translated “flashes of lightning.” As flashes of lightning it means that there are many people who are punished for anti-Semitism that realise why they are being punished. There are those who apparently understand the issue. Many people, of course, do not know why they are being punished for anti-Semitism and so we have other warnings.

Next we have the predicate nominative plural from fonh which should be translated “noises.” Some people have delicate ears and a very sensitive form of hearing, and noises shatter them. This means that a lot of people who are sensitive about normal things are going to be shattered because of their anti-Semitism.

Next we have the predicate nominative of the noun bronth, “thunder.” So there are flashes of lightning and noises and thunders.

Finally, we have two more: the predicate nominative of seismoj, “earthquake,” “and great hail storms.”

Corrected translation: “Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant was seen in his temple: and there followed flashes of lightning, and noises, and thunders, both an earthquake and great hail storms.”

First of all, the restoration of Israel is preceded by the events of Revelation chapter 12, the greatest anti-Semitism movement in history personally led by Satan. It will be the attack of Satan’s third demon assault army.

Secondly, the seventh trumpet does not begin formally until Revelation 12:12-17. This seventh trumpet is a part of the third woe which precedes the restoration of Israel at the second advent. Of course, the third demon assault army makes many attacks, one is upon the Jew. So while the seventh trumpet is a part of the third woe it is not the entire third woe.

Thirdly, we note that the seventh trumpet is the greatest and most awful Jewish persecution in history. It is the holocausts of holocausts.

Fourth, we note that the divine guarantee of the restoration of Israel in this paragraph tells us that Satan’s attack will fail. But it will be used to judge many Jews who have rejected Christ as saviour.

Finally, the events in Revelation chapter 12 can be classified as retrospective exposition. They occur before this paragraph we have just studied, as far as chronology is concerned.

We begin verse 1 with the connective use of the conjunction kai which brings us into the time of the devil’s desperation, the background for the seventh trumpet. The nominative singular subject is composed of two words. The first word is the adjective megaj. With it is the word shmeion, translated “sign” but actually means a great deal more than that, “And a great sign.” Inasmuch as the Bible says it is great it is something that requires a great deal of analysis. Next is the aorist passive indicative of the verb o(raw, “was seen.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: the subject, the great sign receives the action of the verb. It is seen. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this sign which will in effect explain the origin of the humanity of Christ.

Next we note that this great sign is in heaven, therefore all the more reason why we should observe it, e)n plus the locative of o)uranoj. This is a legitimate sign, a sign that is going to tell us a great deal.

It is the word shmeion that we must stop and observe. What does a sign mean? What is the meaning of shmeion? It connotes a wonder, a miracle, that which is contrary to the usual course of nature, something extra-natural, something even supernatural; in this case, like the origin of the Jewish race at the point of Abraham’s circumcision. Hence, a sign is a miraculous function of divine origin, something that is performed by God totally apart from human modus operandi.

There are actually seven signs mentioned in the book of Revelation. This is the first of the seven. There will be a second one in Revelation 12:3, a third one in 13:13,14, a fourth one in 15:1, the 16:14 and 19:20 complete the signs. Signs, then, are miracles and these miracles are accomplished by the Lord. Signs and miracles are also said in Revelation to be accomplished by Satan in 13:13, 14. The dictator of Israel during the Tribulation performs “signs,” 19:20. The seven pur sui vant messengers which introduce and blow the seven trumpets are followed by seven pur sui vant messengers who have seven bowls or goblets of judgment which are related to the sign in Revelation 15:1. Certain demons perform signs or miracles, according to Revelation 16:14. So signs are related to both supernatural and extra-natural activity. Signs are usually connected with future events. The rainbow was given as a sign to Noah in Genesis 9:12,13, the covenant of Noah that never again would the earth be destroyed by rain. Circumcision was the sign that Gentile Abraham would become a new race, and his son Isaac would perpetuate that race. All the races of the world, of course, come from Noah after the flood. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. The Semitic line comes down to Abraham. As a Gentile at age 99 Abraham became a Jew. This was shmeion, a supernatural act. This was the newest race and it was called out so that there could be in Old Testament times a client nation to God based on one race and one culture. From this race and from this client nation and from this culture would come the humanity of Christ and our so great salvation.

The plagues against Egypt were called shmeion, signs of divine displeasure, Exodus 4:8ff; Joshua 24:17. The miracle of the first advent was called a sign to attest the hypostatic union and our Lord’s unique relationship with God the Father, Matthew 12:38. The Jews wanted signs or attesting miracles rather than doctrine. Their great problem was that when the Jews were delivered from slavery in Egypt they didn’t want doctrine, they wanted signs, they wanted miracles. Negative volition toward doctrine is often manifest by the sign movement today, especially in fundamentalist circles, e.g. the tongues movement. God does not speak to us by the use of miracles today. Once the canon of scripture was completed the age of miracles was shut down. It is negative volition to look for a miracle when God has provided the royal family of the Church Age the greatest of all miracles, Bible doctrine resident in the soul. Faith must stand on doctrine, not on miracles.

The great sign begins with Abraham at age 99 when he was sexually dead. But Abraham believed God’s promise that he would have a son and that from that son would come race and nation. Even though he was sexually dead once he circumcised himself that was the function of the faith-rest drill in the second and third stages. By circumcision, the cutting away of the dead flesh, God revived the use of his sexual organs and he had a son, Isaac. Abraham became a Jew, along with Sarah, at age 99 under the act of faith-rest, believing the promise in the Abrahamic covenant. He believed that promise and God honoured his faith.

Then we have his son, Isaac, and “in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” Isaac had twin sons. Esau, the eldest of the twins is a Gentile, but the younger son was Jacob, and Jacob is the Jew. The difference between the two, even though they were twins: one was a believer, regenerate, born again; one was an unbeliever and therefore is the father of the Edomites, the Gentile nations south of Palestine.

So we have the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ is eternal God and therefore as eternal God there is no way that He can go to the cross and bear our sins. As eternal God he can have nothing to do with sin: He cannot bear sin; He cannot receive sin by imputation; He cannot be judged for sin; He cannot solicit to sin. Therefore Jesus Christ, to bear our sins on the cross, must become man — true humanity. Furthermore, He must go to the cross as perfect humanity, and a second sign after circumcision was given. We go from circumcision to Isaiah 7:14 where we have the virgin birth. This is the sign of the virgin birth, this is the declaration that Jesus Christ would come into the world. But He had to come through a virgin birth, a miracle. Why?

We have to go back to Adam and Eve. Adam wilfully sinned, he knew what he was doing when he sinned. Eve was deceived, she did not know what she was doing but she was guilty. Therefore, the old sin nature was passed down through the man in copulation. The old sin nature is in the 23 chromosomes which the man provides to fertilise the female ovum. The 23 chromosomes in the female ovum are totally free from the old sin nature because Eve was deceived, and even though she was guilty these are the only chromosomes in the entire body that are free from the old sin nature. Therefore, man through copulation provides the basis for the old sin nature so that when human life (which does not exist in the womb) is given by God after birth and imputed to the human soul, simultaneously Adam’s original sin is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. The word “sign” becomes very important because when we receive life we also receive spiritual death. God does not wait until we sin personally. Our personal sins have never been imputed to us for judgment. The wages of sin is death and we are under spiritual death because Adam’s original sin is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. When Adam sinned originally the old sin nature was created through that sin and therefore there is perfect harmony between Adam’s original sin and the old sin nature. This also means that if anyone dies before reaching accountability he is automatically saved.

All personal sins are never imputed to us, they are to be imputed to Christ on the cross. But how can our Lord get to the cross? The only possible way is to by-pass those 23 male chromosomes which fertilise the female ovum. They carry the old sin nature. Man and woman are born into the world with an old sin nature because of copulation. Therefore, in the case of the virgin birth this is cut off and God the Holy Spirit provides 23 perfect chromosomes to match the 23 perfect chromosomes in the womb of the virgin Mary. In this way we have a virgin pregnancy and, as a result, a virgin birth. John 3:16 says that “he gave his only begotten son”, but the Greek word monogenhj means “uniquely-born.” This human life was given by God the Father because He loved the world and it was imputed to the human soul of our Lord. But Adam’s original sin could not be imputed because there was not an old sin nature. Therefore, instead, God the Father gave the prototype divine dynasphere which was imputed to the human spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this is the second sign — Isaiah 7:14.

The third sign is the woman clothed with the sun and the eleven stars, Revelation 12:1. This is the one that comes into focus at this time. We have the nominative singular subject of the Greek word gunh, which means woman. It is a reference to the nation Israel. We have the sign of the race in circumcision, we have the sign of salvation, the saviour of the world and the hope of Israel in the virgin birth; now we have the sign of the nation. So we have the nation Israel emphasising the nation as the source of the humanity of Christ and the hypostatic union. First it was the race: Jesus Christ is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then it was the nation: Jesus Christ is born son of David, the ruling dynasty of the nation.

Next we have the perfect passive participle of the verb periballw which means to clothe, to wrap around, “clothed with the sun.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect emphasising the results of a completed action. The race became a nation. The passive voice: the woman as Israel receives the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. The accusative singular direct object from h()lioj brings us into focus with the verb. The sun is a reference to Jacob. What is the difference? The sun is light. Jacob is one of the twins. Esau was his older brother but Esau was negative, an unbeliever. Jacob as a believer is the “light” picture and the Jewish race, therefore, begins with regeneration. Abraham was a believer, Isaac was a believer, Jacob was a believer. The Jewish race was founded on regeneration. Therefore Israel becomes very significant to all of us and becomes a major subject in the Bible, because it is the race founded by regeneration.

Jacob is the sun. There is also a feminine counterpart in the accusative singular direct object from selhnh which means moon. The moon refers to the wives of Jacob. They reflect his glory in the sense that the moon is a reflecting object, “under her feet” [under Israel’s feet] refers to the fact that Jacob had two wives and two mistresses. The twelve patriarchs came from the two mistresses and the two wives.

Next we have “a crown of twelve stars on her head.” So the woman Israel was started as the wives of Israel as the moon, Jacob as the sun. The twelve stars are the twelve patriarchs.

The sign of the woman is completed with the nominative singular stefanoj, “crown.” Sovereignty begins with the tribe and the tribe has twelve children, the twelve patriarchs, the cadre which forms both racial and national Israel.

Translation: “And a great sign was seen in heaven; a woman [Israel] clothed with the sun [Jacob], and the moon [wives and mistresses of Jacob] under her [Israel’s] feet, and a crown of twelve stars [the twelve patriarchs] on her head.”

We must remember first that the source of the humanity of Christ is racial Israel. Israel is not only unique for the fact that the humanity of Christ originated from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah, but both racial and national uniqueness is existing here. These miracles [signs] all add up to remind us of the uniqueness of the person of Christ, Jesus Christ in hypostatic union.

Romans 9:1, “I am communicating doctrine, I am not lying, my conscience bearing joint testimony with me in the Holy Spirit,” the information that Paul gives comes from his right lobe and it comes from that part of his right lobe called the suneidhsij or conscience. Paul had learned through reception the doctrines he is about to give us. They entered his left lobe, resided there briefly as gnwsij, and by faith they were transferred to his right lobe and became e)pignwsij, and he is now giving us from his conscience these particular principles of doctrine.

Verse 2, “I have great sorrow and constant pain in my right lobe,” which is related to Israel.

Verse 3, “For I could wish that I myself were [cherim] cursed,” but it isn’t possible. There is only one in all of human history who has truly been cherim, and He has been cherim for the entire human race. That is the Lord Jesus Christ when He was hanging on the cross. When our sins were imputed to Him by God the Father He became cherim, and God the Father then judged those sins. Our Lord was cursed on the cross for us. So Paul’s desire here is an impossible desire. That is why it is translated “wish” instead of “pray.” Paul knew better than to pray for it and so it is a wish, “separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren,” and when he says “brethren” he is not talking about the Romans, he is talking about the Jews. He is using “brethren” in its racial sense, “my fellow countrymen,” the national Jews because in the past he had served as a Pharisee, “according to earthly descent,” not according to citizenship, but according to earthly descent, the genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Verse 4, “who are Israelites, to whom is the adoption.” Adoption means that you are not a true son but you are adopted into the family and become one. The Jews had been adopted by God, and that is the principle here. And when were they adopted by God? When Abraham was circumcised (the first sign), “as sons and the glory.” This refers to the Shekinah glory, the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was the light in the holy of holies, the Shekinah glory [the sign of Christ, the light of the world] as the God of Israel. That Shekinah is exactly identical with the phrase, Adonai elohenu (Jesus Christ is our God) “and the covenants and the gift of the law,” not only the laws of divine establishment but also the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and doctrine for the believer. All three categories are found in the Mosaic law, and this is the sign of authority in client nation Israel, “and the worship,” the worship of the true God in contrast to the cultic activities of the Romans during the time of SPQR and the republic, “and the promises,” the eternal heritage of any Jew who had become a true Jew, not by birth but by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ by recognising that last phrase, Adonai echad.

Verse 5, “from whom are the fathers,” the regenerate ancestry in the formation of Israel, “in fact from whom is Christ, the one who came in the flesh.” And there it is, the third line of Deuteronomy 6:4, Adonai echad, “the one who is God, ruler over all,” and that is the second line, Adonai elohenu, “extolled forever. Amen.”

Verse 6, “However, this is not to imply that the word of God has failed.” Paul stops now and makes a very important point. In every generation outside of the client nation very few Jews were born again believers, and therefore true Jews. And immediately this is an implication: Has the Word of God failed? No. And why hasn’t the Word of God failed? It isn’t the Word of God that has failed in any given generation, it is the volition of the Jew that has failed. The same thing is true today, of course, with the Gentiles; the same thing is true with us. It isn’t that the Word of God ever fails, it is that we fail by our negative volition, “for not all who are from Israel [not all who have the genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob] are really Israel [born again Jews].”

Verse 7, “neither because they are Abraham’s posterity are all racial Jews the children of the internal inheritance, but: In Isaac [not Ishmael but born again Isaac] your posterity shall be designated [elected to privilege, i.e.. client nation to God].”

Verse 8, “This means that the descendants of the flesh [racial Jews] are not the children of God, but the children of the promise [the born again Jews who believe in Christ] are imputed for the seed,” i.e. for true Israel.

So we return to Revelation 12:1. Since the day that Satan discovered that Israel was to be the source of the incarnate Christ Israel has been the target for the devil’s hatred and antagonism. There is an historical and eternal relationship between the uniqueness of the person of Christ and the uniqueness of Israel. The spiritual heritage of the Jew gives him the greatest possible opportunity for eternal salvation through personal faith in Christ. Everything in his heritage and culture speaks of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Self-determination is the issue in the historical phase of the angelic conflict: he can believe in Christ and be saved, he can reject Christ and be a racial Jew which is not a true Jew. Every Jew has the opportunity, then, of believing in Christ or rejecting Him from very ancient times. The very content of divine revelation to Israel plus the ritual by which they were taught communicates this principle.

Take, for example, the Levitical offerings. There was the burnt offering. It taught propitiation, emphasising the work of Christ on the cross bearing our sins. Then there was the meal or the food offering, propitiation emphasising the person of Christ. So you have the signs, the sign of the person of Christ, the hypostatic union. Then there is the peace offering, reconciliation. Jesus Christ came as a Jew. He went to the cross as a Jew. He received the imputation of our sins as a Jew, and as a Jew provided eternal salvation. The sin offering, rebound, emphasising unknown sins. The trespass offering is rebound emphasising known sins.

The interesting thing is that all of the Jews could enter into these offerings because they had grades that went from the very expensive to the very inexpensive. If all you could afford was a pigeon or a turtledove, an inexpensive offering, you could enter into these rituals and understand the principles of the Levitical offerings.

Take, for example, the feasts or the holy days. The feasts and the holy days in Rome were designed to give cruelty the expression of sentimentality; the feast days in Israel were designed to give great spiritual emphasis to our Lord Jesus Christ. The first was the Passover, the necessity for salvation to true Israel. There was the feast of unleavened bread, fellowship with God as a believing Jew; the feast of the firstfruits the first Sunday after the Passover, emphasising the resurrection of Christ, the guarantee of the resurrection of all true Israel. The feast of Pentecost [fifty days] representing the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel as a client nation to God but the perpetuation of true Israel as a part of the royal family during the Age of the Gentiles. Then came the great gap between the feasts, from June to October. Pentecost occurred in June and then there was no feast until October. The gap represented the times of the Gentiles, the Church Age, the perpetuation of true Israel by being brought into the royal family of God, like the apostle Paul. Then the feast of the trumpets, the termination of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel, the restoration of Israel at the second advent of Christ. Israel again becomes the client nation. Born again Jews who survive the Tribulation will enter the Millennium to become client nation to God for the last 1000 years of history. Then the feast of atonement, the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel at the second advent.

The principle of Romans 2:29, “But he is a Jew who is one by hidden birth [being born again]; and circumcision [the first sign to Israel] is that which is of the right lobe, by means of the Holy Spirit, not by means of the letter [keeping of the law]; whose approval is not from man, but from God.”

Finally, there was the feast of the tabernacles representing the Millennial reign of Christ whose perfect environment fulfils the unconditional covenants to the restored Israel, but the restored true Israel, the born again Jew.

1. No one ever had to take more time off to learn how Israel became unique than the Jews. The Jews were ordered to take time off for learning. The time off for learning was first of all the Sabbath day. The time off were the feast days — seven each year. The time off were the sabbatical years. Every seventh year the Jews were to stop everything and to spend that entire year in intense study of the Word of God as they possessed it and as it was presented to them through the ritual of the priesthood and the communication of the prophets. The continual annual sacrifices were designed to show exactly how Israel became unique. Everything in Jewish culture is really a spiritual factor. Israel has the only culture totally based on spiritual things — doctrine.

2. Jesus Christ is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is the major subject of the law and the prophets, the Old Testament canon.

3. Every ritual reveals some aspect regarding Christ, so that the Jews could not miss the point except by deliberately refusing to do so, negative volition.

4. The tragedy of negative volition toward Christ is the tragedy of neglected opportunity.

The tragedy of the Jews is that so many of them are unbelievers. But God doesn’t wait until they’re dying, God provides for them a special sin unto death and He gives them, young and old alike, but not without purpose and not without reason, the holocaust. But that doesn’t mean that we approve of any holocaust in any sense of the word or any other type of persecution of any people.

Arrogance on the part of Israel is unteachable, and even though the Jews as a race have greater IQ than almost any race they are still unteachable. While the Jews have great men of art, literature, business, and with great perspicacity and great IQ, they still cannot learn the greatest thing of all: Jesus Christ is the only saviour; He is their God. So for this reason there is a holocaust.

Genesis 37:9-11 explains interpreting the woman in Revelation 12:1 as Israel and the twelve stars as the patriarchs. Joseph received truth through a dream. This was before the canon of scripture existed. God revealed Himself to Joseph and therefore this dream is truth, Bible doctrine.

Romans 9:25, “As he has also communicated in Hosea, ‘I will call those who were not my people [Gentiles], My People’,” this recognises when the two races finally came together for the benefit of the Gentiles. The Roman people and the Jewish people both failed at the cross, their system of law broke down. But while they failed at the cross at the time that John was writing in AD 96 they had finally come together for one of the greatest periods of all of human history when Nirva came to the throne as the first of the Antonine Caesars. This brought together the doctrine of Israel [Bible doctrine] with the greatness of Roman law and administration to form the first Gentile client nation, the empire of Rome. The greatest period of history went from 96-192 AD. It brought together the Jews as the apostles, John, Peter, and Paul, as the three great ones, communicating doctrine which led to the first great Gentile client nation. The Jews provided the truth and the Gentiles became vigorous in the Roman empire.

— “and those who have not been loved [the Jewish nation during the times of the Gentiles] as those having been loved.”

That is a prophecy of the restoration of the Jews at the second advent. But before the Jews can be restored they will go through one of the greatest periods of holocaust they have ever known.

Verse 26, “And it shall be in the place [Israel] where it was said, ‘You are not my people,’ in that place [Israel] they shall be called the sons of the living God,” because Israel will be absorbed by the Roman empire and will become a part of the Roman province of Judea.

Verse 27, “In fact, Isaiah speaking in an emergency with reference to Israel, ‘If the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be delivered’.” And that is true of the Tribulation. Jews will have multiplied on the face of the earth and a remnant shall be delivered.

Verse 28, “For the Lord will execute his word upon the earth,” second advent. And this is to the Jews. A remnant will be delivered at the end of verse 27, “completing what he also decreed,” the unconditional covenants.

Verse 29, “And so just as Isaiah has prophesied, ‘Except the Lord of the armies [Jesus Christ, the God of Israel] had left us a seed [the spiritual seed of Abraham], we [the Jews] would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah.” Sodom and Gomorrah were two branches of the Canaanites who did not survive. They were all killed. And the Jews would be that way too were it not for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of the armies.

Verse 30, “Therefore to what conclusion are we forced? That the Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness,” that is one of the big problems of the Jews. They allowed the Mosaic law to flatter them instead of challenge them, and so demonstrated that they were in the cosmic system and therefore vulnerable to flattery. The Romans did not have the Mosaic law. God did not reveal Himself to the Romans, “have attained righteousness.” How did they attain it? Because the Jew came to them and said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,’ “that is, righteousness from the source of faith,” faith in Christ.

Verse 31, “in the meantime Israel, who pursued after the law [with self-righteousness. They used the law as a system of flattery. ‘I’ve kept the law; I’m a great person], has not accomplished the purpose of the law.”

Verse 32, “Why? Because they did not pursue it by means of faith,” they rejected Christ as saviour, “but as by means of works. Therefore they have tripped over that rock [Christ],”

Verse 33, “just as it stand written, ‘Behold I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling, even a rock which arouses opposition, nevertheless he who believes on him will not be humiliated’ ”

— the origin of the Jews in the past was regeneration. The Jews are the only race that has ever been founded on regeneration.

The self-righteous Jew in keeping the law for salvation is religious without being regenerate and therefore the arrogant Jew accepts the ritual without accepting the person behind the ritual. Every once in a while throughout history this gathers up a tremendous momentum and leads to great disaster. The pattern for eternal salvation and becoming a true Jew is established by the precedent of Abraham, the father of the Jewish race, Genesis 15:6. This establishes the holiness of God as the point of contact for Israel. Cf. Psalm 85:10. This contact with the justice of God as one half of divine righteousness was manifest by the appearance of the Shekinah glory in the holy of holies.

Jesus Christ as the God of Israel is the Shekinah glory which was manifest in the Old Testament times between the cherubs in the holy of holies. But with the incarnation or the first advent Jesus Christ became the Shekinah glory in a different sense, John 1:14, “And the word became flesh and tabernacled in our presence, (and we beheld his glory, the glory of the uniquely-born one from the Father,) full of grace and full of doctrine.”

The true Jew cannot be a true Jew, then, simply because he possesses the genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The only way for a Jew to be a Jew is to possess the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Shekinah glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. And to become part of Israel’s eternal heritage there must be regeneration, the possession of eternal life. The Jew who rejects Christ as saviour will never see the glorious fulfilment, then, of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New covenants to Israel. However, the failure of some Jews to believe in Christ does not cancel or abrogate God’s promises to the rest. Individual or collective failures never hinder the plan of God, nor the validity of the Word of God.

The term double entendre is French for double meaning. By definition a double entendre is an expression capable of two interpretations. A double entendre in verse two results from the fact that the Jews had been pregnant for two thousand years without delivering. That is the basis for this double entendre. The reason that they cannot deliver, even though they want to deliver as a group, is simply because they have failed in part and in general to recognise Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, as their Messiah. In general the Jews rejected the sign of the first advent. The first sign is the sign of circumcision. That is how the race began. The second sign is the virgin birth, the basis for fulfilment of all Israel’s covenants in the future — the virgin birth leading to the hypostatic union, our Lord Jesus Christ coming in the flesh, the God of Israel coming to Israel, the first advent. The third sign is the woman Israel, referring to the nation, for the Jews who are the only people in the world today who are both a race and a nation. In addition they are a culture. They have the distinction of having all three.

The Jews ignored the pregnancy sign and therefore God the Holy Spirit, speaking through the apostle John, uses pregnancy under a double entendre to show their problem; to show the pain of Israel, the difficulty of Israel. The Jews rejected the first advent and its sign, Isaiah 7:14. Therefore the virgin birth of Christ is the first part of the double entendre. The virgin birth was more than a sign, it was the means by which Israel could recognise the coming of Christ. Just as Mary as a virgin was pregnant, so for 2000 years since Mary Israel has been pregnant. Mary delivered a son who 33 years later went to the cross and was judged for our sins, took our place, became the saviour of the world and at the same time became the basis for the fulfilling of the unconditional covenants to Israel. Mary’s son was the son of David, the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant.

But for 2000 years Israel has been in labour pains. That is the problem. Why is the Jew different? Because the Jew is pregnant. The Jew is having labour pains and these labour pains can only be alleviated by going back to the sign and recognising that Mary delivered the Messiah, and that the Messiah has come, that He went to the cross and was judged for the sins of every Jew who ever lived. “But to the Jews Christ is not yet come”, Christ has not yet been born, therefore the sign has not occurred yet. That means the Jews are in labour pains for 2000 years. It means that every Jew is under a special stress that no one else has. The race is unique from the standpoint of its stress. The only release for the labour pains of Israel is for the Jew to personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The holocaust pregnancy is all pain and no delivery. To the unbelieving Jew the baby is still in the womb, he has rejected the true meaning of Isaiah 7:14. Therefore we have in this passage one of the greatest double entendres in history: the virgin pregnancy and the holocaust pregnancy.

We are studying in this passage the double entendre pregnancy. Why do the Jews become the victims of terrible persecution periodically here and there throughout the world for the last 2000 years? And then, of course, why racial persecution anyway? A free country has no rights to persecute any race or any particular group of people.

There are four approaches to this verse 12 in chapter 12: the interpretation; the exegesis; the virgin pregnancy; the holocaust pregnancy.

First of all, the interpretation of the verse. It all begins with a double entendre, a word which has come into the English from the French which means double-meaning. A double entendre is an expression capable of two interpretations. It usually results from ambiguity of meaning arising from language that lends itself to more than one interpretation. The double entendre in this verse results from the fact that the Jews rejected the sign of messiahship at the first advent. The sign that they rejected was the virgin pregnancy of Mary which was followed by the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the beginning of His hypostatic union and His fantastic ministry of the first advent resulting in the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. Because the unbelieving Jews rejected the first advent and its sign, the virgin birth, we have a phenomenon called holocaust.

Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be pregnant [the real sign is the sign of the pregnant virgin] and she will give birth to a son [second half of the sign, the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ], and she will call his name Immanuel [God is with us, a reference to the hypostatic union and the uniqueness of our Lord Jesus Christ].”

Therefore the birth of Jesus Christ is the first part of the double entendre. Because so many of the Jews rejected the sign of the virgin birth to them Christ was never born, there is no first advent. Under that sense the embryo is in the womb of Israel waiting to be delivered and in very intense pain. Hence, the second part of the double entendre is the holocaust pregnancy, all pain and no delivery. The Jews who do not accept the birth of Messiah, the first advent, His saving work on the cross, are in a perpetual state of misery: the pain of pregnancy without any relief of giving birth to the embryo. To the unbelieving Jew the baby is still in the womb because there is no virgin birth, they have rejected the true meaning of the sign in Isaiah 7:14. This sign is also recorded in the last line of their greatest portion of ritual, Deuteronomy 6:4, and it is definitely related to the holocaust:

The first line says, Shamah Yisrael. The qal imperative of the verb shamah which means “listen.” “Listen O Israel.” If ever a Jew should listen it is to the meaning of the next two lines.

The second line talks about the God of Israel under His sacred name, the Tetragrammaton, pronounced Adonai, translated sometimes “Jehovah,” Adonai Elohenu, “Jehovah [or Adonai] is our God.” That is a reference to Jesus Christ as the God of Israel, and it is His alpha glory. But that is not the source of the holocaust. All of the holocausts of history have their source in the final phrase.

The third line: Adonai echad. There is the issue: “The Lord is unique.” The uniqueness of Jesus Christ begins at the point of His true humanity. Therefore it begins at the point of His virgin birth. Mary had a virgin pregnancy; our Lord was virgin born.

The uniqueness of our Lord, the last line: Adonai echad, is the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is both undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. To become true humanity apart from sin there had to be the virgin pregnancy, then the virgin birth. In this way neither Adam’s original sin nor the old sin nature existed in the humanity of Christ. This, of course, resulted in the fact that while our Lord’s humanity was temptable He was impeccable because he continued to reside inside of the prototype divine dynasphere.

To the unbelieving Jew the Lord was never born; he ignores and rejects the first advent of Christ. Therefore his historic suffering will be called in this study “the holocaust pregnancy,” persecution, pain, suffering, without deliverance. Rejection of the sign of the virgin birth produces the double entendre, an analogy to the woman, Israel. Israel is in a constant state of pain, a constant state of suffering, still waiting for the coming of the Messiah. To the unbelieving Jew He has not come as yet and, therefore, we have a beautiful double entendre. All members of the human race are the products of their own decisions, not their environment. In the case of our Lord we have the 23 chromosomes, not provided by the male [that would make our Lord a sinner] but by the Holy Spirit, fertilising the 23 chromosomes in the female ovum, in this case the virgin Mary.

Though polar body and meiosis we have 23 cells that are totally free from the old sin nature — the old sin nature resides in the cell structure of the body. And so we have a virgin pregnancy which eventuated in a virgin birth and the uniqueness of our Lord Jesus Christ, Adonai echad. But unbelief cuts this off. So what we have is a double entendre in which we find Israel compared to a pregnant woman in terrible pain and torture, and no deliverance. Therefore, in this passage we have one of the greatest double entendres of history because it explains why anti-Semitism, why historically there have been so many holocausts.

But before we note the second phase of this particular verse, the exegesis, we have to have an improved translation from the Greek. We begin with the conjunction kai which begins this verse and is used here to emphasise a fact as surprising, noteworthy, and unexpected. So instead of translating it “and” the correct translation should be “Nevertheless.” Next we have a technical idiom for pregnancy, a prepositional phrase which follows the kai: e)n plus the locative of gaster. Gaster means the womb, and it is literally “in the womb.” Next is the present active participle of the verb e)xw which means to have. Literally, it is translated “having in the womb.” It is an idiom, however, and it means she was pregnant, “Nevertheless she was pregnant.” The historical present tense views the past event of the virgin birth and its consequences with the vividness of a present occurrence. The historical present is an idiom from the primitive syntax of the Indo-European branch of languages. There was a time when time relations were indicated by the context rather than by inflexions, just like in the Hebrew and other Semitic languages. Hence, there was a time in the Indo-European languages when differentiation between the imperfect and the aorist tenses did not exist. This point of syntax, the historical present, antedates it. This is why we translate a present participle in the past tense. The active voice: under the concept of the double entendre both the virgin Mary and the nation Israel produce the action of the verb.

Because the Jews have rejected the virgin pregnancy of Mary and the virgin birth of Jesus Christ they suffer the birth pangs of a child never born in their thinking. This explains the whole principle of historical holocaust related to Israel.

The participle is a circumstantial participle which is often rendered into the English by a finite verb. Furthermore, the action of the present participle is coterminous with the action of the main verb. The main verb is presented next after a connective conjunction kai. It is the present active indicative of the verb krazw, usually translated to cry or to cry out. It really means to scream or to shriek, “and she screamed.” The present tense is a historical present viewing past holocausts with the vividness of a present occurrence, that same point of pre inflexional Greek syntax; but it is also construed as a futuristic present in that it anticipates the context where the Jews at the end of the Tribulation suffer the greatest wave of anti-Semitism in all history, the super holocaust. The active voice: the emphasis of the verbal entendre now shifts from the virgin Mary to the Jews at the end of the Tribulation who now produce the action under the double entendre. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical as well the eschatological reality plus the sign of the main verb in coterminous action.

Next we have a present active participle of the verb o)dinw, and it means to suffer in labour pains. It means excruciating pain in this case. The present tense is a futuristic present denoting the holocaust at the end of the Tribulation which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the nation Israel under the principle of holocaust produces the action of the verb — the holocaust pregnancy, the pregnancy where the birth pangs continue and are perpetuated all of the way to the second advent and no birth ever takes place. The participle is circumstantial plus the fact that the action of the present participle is coterminous with that main verb, the screaming verb.

Note how the emphasis of the double entendre changes after the second conjunction kai. We go from the historical present to the futuristic present in order to change the emphasis from the first advent of Christ which unbelieving Israel has rejected to the second advent when the Jews are anticipating deliverance. But the unbelieving Jews will never have it. The Tribulation is the period of the greatest holocaust in history; it is, again, the third woe or the seventh trumpet and Satan personally leads the third demon assault army.

So far the translation: “Nevertheless she was pregnant and she screamed, suffering from labour pains.”

Now we have the final kai, translated “and,” plus the present active participle of the verb basanizw which means to torture, to be in excruciating pain. Again, the futuristic present denotes the holocaust at the end of the Tribulation, the future attack on the Tribulational Jews personally led by Satan. The greatest wave of anti-Semitism has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain in thought that it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The passive voice: the Jews of the world in the Tribulation receive the action of the verb and this unmasks the double entendre. The Jews are the products of their own decisions. God gave Israel the fifth cycle of discipline but He does not give them, as a point of discipline, the holocaust. The holocaust is inevitably the result of their own decisions. Regardless of the holocaust, the outbreak of anti-Semitism, the pattern is always the same. First the Jews make a decision from a position of weakness and they reject the sign of the virgin birth. This means they reject Christ as saviour. But it means more than that in the double entendre, it means that the embryo is never delivered. The unbelieving Jew will not, as it were, permit Christ to come from the womb and therefore the mother, Israel, is in great, great pain because there is no delivery, there is no birth. The birth pangs have been going on now for almost two thousand years and there is no delivery. Remember that we are dealing with unbelieving Jews, they are the ones who are the victims; but they are the victims of their own decisions from a position of weakness.

So first of all the Jews make a decision from a position of weakness and enter into a double entendre: Christ is not born, there is no first advent. And a mother who cannot deliver and continues in that state then comes into a situation of great torture, that great pain in the holocaust whenever it occurs.

Secondly, in a decision from a position of weakness they lose control of their lives and as victims of their own bad decisions they suffer the pain, the birth pangs, perpetuated without relief. They become victims of some terrible holocaust.

Thirdly, the holocaust is brought on by their own decisions, and remember the principle that man is the product of his own decisions, not his environment.

This does not means that we in any way condone any holocaust, far from it. We go back to the Abrahamic covenant. We understand as believers that we are never to contribute in any way to the discomfort of any Jew, or, as a matter of fact, to any race, it is a violation of the doctrine of impersonal love, gate six of the divine dynasphere.

Fourthly, as a result the Jews lose all sense of personal destiny since they cannot relate properly to the Messianic passages of the Old Testament prophets. So they make decisions from a position of weakness, they lose all personal sense of destiny, they have no control over their lives, and with those three factors they are just like a woman who is in a stage of birth pains but can’t deliver. The pain goes on but the delivery does not occur. That is the double entendre. The participle is circumstantial.

Next and the final word in verse two is the aorist active infinitive of the verb tiktw which means to give birth, to be delivered. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety: they want it but it doesn’t occur; they are looking for the Messiah but He doesn’t come. Instead comes some form of a holocaust periodically, whenever there is a collective number of bad decisions resulting in bringing about disaster for themselves. The active voice: the remnant of Jewish believers produce the action of the verb at the second advent, they will be delivered. They will not only be delivered but they will be delivered under the restoration of Israel as a client nation to God, they will pass through the baptism of fire unscathed, they will become the cadre for the population explosion and the client nation Israel in the Millennium, and they will be the beneficiaries of the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel, the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants. This is the infinitive of conceived result which is assumed as the consequence of the second advent. However, only born-again Jews are delivered at the second advent. Unbelieving Jews follow the analogy of the double entendre. Their unbelief means that Christ was never born, and since Christ was never born they can never be delivered. Inasmuch as Christ is still in the womb they are never delivered as per the analogy to child birth.

Note how the double entendre makes the point in the first phrase and then fades out to give way to the interpretation that Israel in past history and Israel at the end of the Tribulation suffer terribly from anti-Semitism led by Satan. They suffer because they have never given birth to Christ, as it were. They have rejected the sign of the virgin birth, they have rejected the last phrase of something they utter on every Sabbath day: Adonai echad.

Translation of verse 2: “Nevertheless she [a double entendre which includes both the virgin pregnancy of Mary and the holocaust pregnancy of unbelieving Israel] was pregnant, and she [unbelieving Israel of the holocaust pregnancy] screamed, suffering labour pains [the periodic holocausts of history], and she was tortured [the great holocaust at the end of the Tribulation] to give birth [the be delivered from the anti-Semitism by the coming of Messiah].”

The Jews want the Millennium without the virgin birth. In other words, unbelieving Israel wants the crown without the cross. But the doctrine remains: you cannot have the crown without the cross. You cannot by-pass the cross, you cannot by-pass salvation whether Jew or Gentile. Hence, the analogy between the Jewish holocaust and the torture of the pregnant mother who cannot deliver the child. Israel cannot deliver the child but the child can deliver Israel. The child cannot be born unless the Jews of the Tribulation are born again by faith in Christ. Deliverance comes, first spiritually through regeneration, being born again, before deliverance can come physically for Israel through the wall of fire that protects them to the point of the second advent. The principle always remains: the cross must come before the crown. There is no deliverance for Israel apart from recognition of our Lord’s omega glory which starts at the virgin birth. The unbelieving Jews must learn the meaning of the last phrase of Deuteronomy 6:4 — Adonai echad, “our Lord is unique”.

Now we move to the virgin pregnancy. All the cells of the human race are contaminated by the old sin nature, with one exception. Through meiosis and the function of polar body 23 chromosomes are thrown off in the ovum leaving 23 uncontaminated chromosomes in the female ovum prior to fertilisation. This phenomenon in the female is based on the fact that the woman was deceived in the garden. The woman was the only one who took the forbidden fruit from the tree. The only way that man or woman could sin was by an act of volition. There was no immorality in the garden, there was no temptation to any form of sin related to a system of morality. No system of morality existed, everything was perfect: perfect environment and two perfectly constructed people created by our Lord Jesus Christ.

The woman broke down first under the temptation from Satan. The appeal to the woman was identical to the appeal to Satan himself in the prehistoric angelic conflict; it was an appeal to her arrogance. Satan discovered that the woman could be flattered. Arrogance makes anyone weak, man or woman. Whenever we get into arrogance we are in a state of weakness, we are involved in cosmic one, gate one, and we are now candidates for demonisation, demon telepathy or demon influence.

The woman took the fruit from the tree. She disobeyed, she was in a state of arrogance and she succumbed. But the woman was ignorant of what she was doing, she committed a sin of ignorance. Adam looked at the first woman, took the fruit out of her hand, and committed the original sin of cognisance.

The old sin nature resides in the cell structure of the body. The old sin nature is the source of temptation and the objective is for the old sin nature to gain control of the human soul. Guarding the gate of the soul is human volition. It may be a sin of ignorance or it may be a sin of cognisance but whether we know it is a sin or not is not the issue. The issue is: do we want to do it? If it is a sin of ignorance and we pass it through we are guilty of sin. All sin comes from human volition. It can be a sin of ignorance or cognisance but it makes no difference, we are responsible for our own decisions. We make a decision to sin whether we know it is a sin or not. Where the difference lies is in the original sin. The woman committed a sin of ignorance, therefore she became the child-bearer. Therefore, for the first time she had a womb, and periodically through meiosis and polar body there are 23 cells that are uncontaminated by the old sin nature. The man in copulation provides the other 23 and they are contaminated by the old sin nature. All members of the human race, including the virgin Mary, have old sin natures. That is because Adam sinned a sin of cognisance, and therefore the man is the source of the old sin nature. Whether it is a boy or a girl in embryonic form it eventually emerges and God imputes life but the fact remains that everyone gets the old sin nature.

The old sin nature comes through the male in copulation. Cut that off and God the Holy Spirit provides 23 perfect cells for a virgin pregnancy, and that excludes the old sin nature being formed with the embryo. It excludes, therefore, the imputation of Adam’s original sin.

When we are born into the world human life is imputed after birth to the human soul. Simultaneously, Adam’s original sin is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. That is because of the affinity factor which always exists in real imputation. There is affinity between Adam’s original sin and the old sin nature because it is Adam’s sin that started the old sin nature. The old sin nature is genetically-formed through the 23 male chromosomes which fertilise the female ovum, and so because of this marvellous device we are born physically alive and, in the wisdom of God, spiritually dead so that if we die before reaching accountability we are automatically saved. What happens to our personal sins? They are never imputed to us for judgment. Instead, they were imputed to Christ on the cross for judgment, opening the door of salvation — the saving work of Christ. We are condemned by Adam’s original sin.

When our Lord came into the world human life was imputed by God the Father to His soul. Human life resides in His soul forever, as with us. But Adam’s original sin could not be imputed because there was no male providing 23 contaminated chromosomes. Instead, He had a human spirit, He was born trichotomous. Adam’s sin couldn’t be imputed and, of course, there was no old sin nature. Through His human spirit was given the first and greatest form in spiritual life: the prototype divine dynasphere. Now the Holy Spirit, gate one, filled Him from the womb. Secondly, we have the tremendous development of His objectivity, His enforced and genuine humility, the rapidity with which He grew in favour with God and man. It is also said: “We beheld his glory, the glory of the uniquely-born of the Father”. So He moved rapidly in all of the prototype divine dynasphere, and He qualified to go to the cross because His humanity never moved out of the divine dynasphere, doctrine of impeccability. Because Jesus Christ is God he is not able to sin; because Jesus Christ is true humanity inside of the prototype divine dynasphere, given as the first Christmas present imputed to His human spirit, he was able not to sin. He was therefore qualified to go to the cross and be judged for our sins.

No one understood this better than Israel because Israel had the first sign, the clearest sign. The sign of Israel in Revelation 12:2 is that Israel ignored the signs, ignored the doctrine, ignored the message, rejected it. Yet, today Israel still says Shamah Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai echad, Jehovah is our God, the Lord is unique. They say it in ritual but they reject it, so they are just like a pregnant woman and the birth pains have begun. And they continue and they continue. She is overdue 2000 years and the pain goes on. The pain is called holocaust. The is the greatest double entendre of all time. The Jew who rejects Christ as saviour says in effect that He isn’t born. As a result he is like a woman with an embryo not born, not delivered, in pain constantly. He is uncomfortable all the time as an unbeliever, he faces terrible holocaust periodically brought on, of course, by the function of his own volition.

So we have the concept of the virgin pregnancy of Mary and the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, and there can be no efficacy to the saving work of Christ on the cross without the virgin birth which led to His efficacious, saving work on the cross. The virgin birth was the sign to Israel but the Jews rejected it so they had to become a sign themselves throughout history. The very fact that periodically throughout history there is a holocaust is because he has rejected his own sign to become a sign. The sign was a virgin birth, and so in the double entendre the birth doesn’t take place. To the unbelieving Jew, Messiah the Son of God doesn’t exist and therefore the birth doesn’t take place.

Unbelieving Israel is like a pregnant woman, uncomfortable. Then comes the time for delivery — birth pains, holocaust. In between they, of course, get shorter as delivery occurs and they are going to get shorter as the second advent approaches, they are going to come closer together in the Tribulation. But there will be periodically a holocaust, that is the message of the double entendre. The holocaust is based upon decision. Everyone is responsible for his own decisions and the Jew is responsible for his decisions. He has a marvellous heritage and yet he rejects his heritage because his heritage really begins with the virgin birth — salvation. And so when he says no to that, well, he is pregnant and trying to deliver and can’t. That is a picture of the holocaust and gives us the rest of the double entendre.

Then, the final thing in this verse is anti-Semitism, an historical fact. Satan is behind anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is the co-operation of the volition of the Jew with the Satanic plan to destroy him. There is only one other thing for us to realise as a believer: our function at gate six, impersonal love, includes Israel, and we are never to engage in any form of anti-Semitism. We do not have to glorify the Jew but we must treat him with the virtue of the divine dynasphere, that virtue-love that integrity produces, the same attitude toward him that we would have toward any Gentile.

Those Jews who have refused to see in Christ at the first advent the fulfilment of the sign are still waiting for deliverance from Messiah, and this, of course, results in holocaust.

In Revelation 12:2 we start out with the conjunction kai, used here to emphasise a fact as noteworthy and unexpected. It is translated “Nevertheless.” Next comes a technical idiom for pregnancy made up of three words: the preposition e)n plus the locative of gasthr, “in the womb,” and with it the present active participle from the verb e)xw, “having in the womb,” literally. It is an idiom meaning “she was pregnant.” Translated: “Furthermore, she was pregnant.” “She” refers to the double entendre, the virgin pregnancy of Mary and also to Israel who is the first sign in verse one. In the participle we have a historical present viewing the past event of the virgin pregnancy and its consequences with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: under the concept of the double entendre both the virgin Mary and the nation Israel simultaneously produce the action of the verb. Because the Jews have rejected the virgin pregnancy of Mary and the virgin birth of Christ they suffer the labour pains of a child never born in their thinking. This leads directly to holocaust. This is a circumstantial participle which is often rendered in the English by the finite verb. Furthermore the action of the present participle is coterminous with the action of the main verb.

We have a connective kai, “and.” Then the word for labour pains, the present active indicative of the verb krazw which means to scream, “and she screamed.” The historical present views the past with the vividness of a present occurrence. This may also be construed as a futuristic present in that it anticipates the context where the Jews at the end of the Tribulation suffer the greatest wave of anti-Semitism in their history. The active voice: the emphasis on the double entendre now shifts from the virgin Mary to the unbelieving Jews at the end of the Tribulation. The declarative indicative mood is for the historical as well as the eschatological reality, plus the sign of the main verb which is coterminous with the action of that participle.

Then we have another present active participle from the noun o)dinw which means to suffer from labour pains. The futuristic present denotes the holocaust at the end of the Tribulation but it will also explain every holocaust up to that time. This has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain in thought that it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: the nation Israel (the first sign in verse 1, the woman) produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial plus the fact that, again, the action of the present participle is coterminous with the action of the main verb. Note that the emphasis of the double entendre changes after the second kai. We go from the historical present to the futuristic present to change the emphasis from the first advent to those events which immediately precede the second advent. The end of the Tribulation is the period of the greatest Jewish holocaust in all of history. It is a part of the third woe, that part known as the seventh trumpet, and Satan personally leads this all-out attack.

Then we have another conjunction kai, translated “and,” and another participle, the present active participle of basanizw referring to torture. These are all words of great pain. Again we have a futuristic present denoting the holocaust at the end of the Tribulation, the future attack of anti-Semitism. This time we have the passive voice: Jews of the world in the Tribulation receive the action of the verb. The double entendre is now unmasked, the unbelieving Jews of the Tribulation are the products of their own decisions. The pattern of holocaust, therefore, is always the same. First, Jews make a decision from a position of weakness: they reject the sign of the virgin birth. Secondly, a decision from a position of weakness means that they lose control of their lives, and therefore they will become the victims of a terrible holocaust. Thirdly, the holocaust, therefore, is brought about by their own personal decisions collectively amalgamated. Fourthly, as a result the Jew loses all personal sense of destiny since they cannot relate properly to the Messianic passages of the Old Testament. So the pattern of every holocaust is brought out by the passive voice of this participle.

The final verb in this passage is an aorist active infinitive from tiktw which means to give birth or to be delivered. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. And it emphasises the obsession of a woman in labour, the obsession to get rid of the foetus. The active voice: then remnant of Jewish believers produce the action of the verb at the second advent — the restoration of Israel, the fulfilment of their covenants. This is the infinitive of conceived result which is assumed as a consequence of the second advent.

Translation: “Nevertheless she [the double entendre which includes the virgin pregnancy of Mary and the holocaust pregnancy of Israel. In one case Mary was delivered so that 33 years later we might be delivered. In the second case there is no delivery, just a perpetual labour pain] was pregnant and she screamed, suffering labour pain [anti-Semitism since the cross], and she [Israel in the Tribulation] was tortured [the great holocaust in the last half of the Tribulation] to give birth [to be delivered by the God of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ].”

1. Only born-again Jews are ever delivered from holocaust. Deliverance for the Jew is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the first good decision, and after that all the good decisions that relate to doctrine. For the dynamics of spiritual life are never found in action, they are found in thought. Good action that glorifies the Lord is only meaningful if it is preceded by thought. The motivation must be right for the function to be acceptable to God. The dynamics of spiritual life is in thinking.

2. Unbelieving Jews follow the analogy of never being delivered. All unbelieving Jews in the last half of the Tribulation, as well as in this 20th century, go through the process of being pregnant, coming to the point of labour pains, and never being able to deliver. This is essentially the definition of holocaust.

3. The Jews want the Millennium without the virgin birth. In other words, unbelieving Jews want the crown without the cross. But the doctrine remains: You cannot have the crown without the cross. Therefore the analogy between the Jewish holocaust and the torture of Israel as the pregnant mother who cannot deliver the child. Israel cannot deliver the child but the child can deliver Israel is the message of this passage. The child cannot be born unless the Jews of the Tribulation are born-again by faith in Christ. Deliverance comes first spiritually through regeneration before deliverance comes physically through the wall of fire. In other words, the cross must precede the wall of fire that protects the believing Jew from the holocaust.

4. The virgin pregnancy and the holocaust pregnancy are the issue. Without the virgin pregnancy of Mary and the virgin birth of Jesus Christ there can be no efficacy or saving work of the cross. The virgin birth was the sign to Israel that the sign was rejected and the stubbornness of Israel results in the holocaust of Israel. Since the unbelieving Israel says that the baby has never been born they suffer the perpetual torture, the perpetual birth pangs, the holocaust of history.

Verse 18, “Therefore thus says the Lord with regard to Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah.”

Jehoiakim was the name given to a young prince by the name of Eliakim. He was given this by Pharaoh Necho. The world at the time of Jeremiah was a fight between the great Chaldean empire and Egypt. Between the two is Israel. The ruler of Egypt is Pharaoh Necho, a very brilliant ruler. The ruler of Chaldea is Nabopolassar, very shortly to be replaced by his son, Nebuchadnezzar. There would be a great battle on the Euphrates river at a place called Carchemish which would cause the rise of the Chaldean empire and the fall of Egypt. But the Jews often had problem of betting on Egypt and that was the foreign policy of Israel at the time of Jehoiakim. He was the second son of Josiah and when his father died in battle Jehoiakim became the client king to Pharaoh Necho, and Pharaoh Necho gave him the name. So Jehoiakim was put on the throne by Pharaoh Necho because he was anti-Chaldean in his policy.

After the battle of Carchemish where Pharaoh Necho was defeated Nebuchadnezzar came into Jerusalem. He captured Jehoiakim with the intention of taking him back to Babylon in chains. But he changed his mind when news came that his father Nabopolassar had died and that if he wanted to succeed his father he had better go back to Babylon in a hurry for he had some enemies there. So he said to Jehoiakim: “You are now my vassal king, pro-Chaldean and anti-Egyptian. I will leave you on the throne.” And he left. But Jehoiakim began to be pro-Egyptian which led to all the trouble.

In his function of evil Jehoiakim is compared to Manasseh in Ezekiel 8:5-17. He was a very petty, arrogant, vindictive ruler. One of the great ministers of the time, a prophet name Uriah, was pursued and murdered personally by the king. He also did everything he could to destroy Jeremiah. After three years Nebuchanezzar came back and took over from Jehoiakim.

Verse 19, we have the story of what is going to happen to Jehoiakim. He will have the burial of a jackass, “Dragged off and thrown beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”

Verse 20, “Go up to Lebanon and cry out,” they are going to have historical disaster. “And lift up your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim ...” the various areas where historical disaster will occur.

Verse 21 — “I [Jeremiah] spoke to you [Jehoiakim] in your time of prosperity.” There is the key always: the people who face death and face life successfully are those who listen to doctrine in time of their own prosperity. God gives every one of us a chance to learn the whole realm of doctrine and it is called “our time of prosperity.” If we fail and we go negative then God substitutes for prosperity disaster, our own personal holocaust. That is what happened to Jekoiakim.

“But you replied, ‘I will not listen!’ [negative volition]. This has been your pattern from your youth [negative volition, bad decisions from a position of weakness in time of prosperity]. For you will not listen to my teaching.”

Verse 22, The wind [judgment] will blow away all your shepherds [pastors],” there were teachers of Bible doctrine everywhere at that time but the people would not listen, “in their time of prosperity.”

Remember that Israel is simply a personal photograph of each one of our souls. God never allows a believer to go without a time of prosperity, i.e.. a marvellous opportunity to learn Bible doctrine and to grow in grace.

“And your lovers will go into captivity [slavery].” So whatever it is that you did when you rejected doctrine you are going to be separated from that. Part of your punishment will be to lose your pleasure. This adds up to a very simple point of doctrine: Pleasure is not pleasure without doctrine first. Doctrine becomes the basis for capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, and capacity for pleasure.

It needs to be understood that there were three times before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Israel he came to see them. The first time was in the year 605 BC after the battle of Carchemish, the second was in 598 BC, and the third was in 586 BC. The intervals were times of prosperity when they had a chance to recover.

After the battle of Carchemish Nebuchadnezzar took hostages for the good behaviour of Jehoiakim. So in 598 when he came back because of the Jehoiakim revolution Nebuchadnezzar returned and besieged Jerusalem. During the siege the Jews got chicken-hearted and sent a deputation out to Nebuchadnezzar and said: “We are not in this. The king made us do it. To show you our good faith we have assassinated the king and we will not even give him a burial.” And they pointed to the gate of Jerusalem out of which they came, and at a nod a corpse came over the wall and bounced on the dust. That was Jehoiakim. That was the funeral of the jackass!

They went back and made his son Coniah king. Coniah ruled for 100 days and then Nebuchadnezzar’s armies broke through and took the city. Coniah was taken back as a prisoner. Then a new man was put on the throne, the last king of Israel, Zedekiah who ruled from 598 to 586 BC. Zedekiah began in obedience to the Chaldeans but later led a revolt, and that was the time when Nebuchadnezzar came back and took everyone, the fifth cycle of discipline administered.

Verse 23, “You who dwell in Lebanon.” Why did Jeremiah mention Lebanon? Because Lebanon was where all of the wealthy people and all of the aristocrats had their summer palaces. “Who build palaces with cedars.”

Now, how can you communicate to the negative Jew that he is going to have a holocaust? This has the same connotation as Revelation 12:2.

Because Jehoiakim had made bad decisions from a position of weakness he lost all personal sense of destiny. He therefore lost control of his life. With those factors going against him he was in labour pains. Nebuchadnezzar came back in BC 598 and that was the end for him. There is the holocaust and it was brought on by the Jews, not by the Chaldeans. God used the Chaldeans to destroy negative volition in Israel so that true Israel could be perpetuated. There cannot be a holocaust without negative volition by a certain number of Jews making thousands of bad decisions from a position of weakness.

Jehoiakim was murdered by his own palace guards and thrown over the wall. The curse goes down to the next generation. This is a four-generation curse: Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, Coniah, Shealtiel, and the curse stopped on the fourth generation. Shealtiel will have no surviving children and he will adopt the greatest man of his age, Zerubbabel. We call this the Coniah curse because it not only has a connotation here but it has a connotation further down the line with Joseph.

Zerubbabel is in the line of Joseph legally — the line down through Solomon — but he is not the real son of Shealtiel. He is put in the genealogy as the son but he is the adopted son. His real father and grandfather are in the other royal blood line that came down from David and Bathsheba through Nathan.

Verse 24, “ ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord, ‘even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring [succession in the royal line] on my right hand, yet I would still pull you [Coniah] off my finger’.”

This means that Coniah is rejected as the blood line. He is still in the blood line of Christ but he is rejected; he is in the second generation of the curse. Coniah had a son, Shealtiel, who adopted Zerubbabel as his legal heir, so that Zerubbabel is the fourth generation where the curse ends because he is not in the blood line. Our Lord Jesus Christ is never associated with Coniah or Jehoiakim or Shealtiel, that part of the line is out.

In Matthew 1:12 we have the legal line; in Luke 3:27 we have the blood line, the switching of the blood line. And who was the real father of Zerubbabel? His grandfather was Neri; his real father was Pedaiah. Jehoiachin or Coniah and Neri were cousins. Shealtiel was the cousin of Pedaiah. When Shealtiel did not have an issue then he adopted Zerubbabel and the blood line moved from the Solomon side of the fence to Nathan’s side. The virgin Mary was descended from Nathan’s side, and she married the legal side as represented by Joseph. But the blood line switched at Zerubbabel.

Matthew 1:12 gives the legal line, and it says: “And after the deportation to Babylon [in 586 BC], to Jeconiah [or Coniah] was born Shealtiel; and to Shealtiel, Zerubbabel.” In Luke 3:27 we pick up the real grandfather, Neri. Who was the real father of Zerubbabel? Pedaiah, says 1 Chronicles 3:19. Neri is the great great grandson of Nathan. Pedaiah is his son and Zerubbabel is his grandson. Jeconiah or Coniah is the great, great, great grandson of Solomon. They are both royal line. But this was the legal line. The blood line was Solomon but they switched at Zerubbabel and went over to Mary’s side of the fence. Joseph and Mary eventually brought the two lines back together. But when Joseph and Mary had children outside of our Lord Jesus Christ none of those children would ever occupy the throne of David. The Lord Jesus Christ does that and, again you see, they’re out.

1. The Jews made a bad decision from a position of weakness where they rejected the sign of the virgin birth, which means that they rejected Christ as their personal saviour. (This is a general situation and does not refer to Jews who have personally trusted in Christ) Idolatry characterised the rule of Jehoiakim, 2 Kings 23:37. He was number one in the four-generation curse — Exodus 20:3-5. His idolatry was merely a manifestation of his rejection of Christ and his negative volition toward the doctrinal teaching of Jeremiah and other great men of that time. So inevitably the bad decision from a position of weakness is the cause of all historical disaster, whether Jews or Gentiles.

2. A decision from a position of weakness means loss of control of their lives. This means that they become the victims of some terrible holocaust. So the holocaust for Jehoiakim and his son Coniah was the terrible disaster of 598 BC, plus the four-generation curse which switched the blood line of the Davidic dynasty from the genealogy of Solomon to the genealogy of Nathan, a point which is extremely important.

3. A distinction from a position of weakness amalgamated with other distinctions from a position of weakness means a maximum number of responsible people in a nation lose control of their lives. Therefore they become the recipients of historical disaster. Remember the historical trend: people are the products of their own decisions and not their environment.

4. The holocaust is brought on by personal decisions, so that the holocaust is the product of many bad decisions from a position of weakness (cosmic one and cosmic two, Satan’s system). Holocaust only overtakes adults who are involved in the cosmic system.

5. As a result the Jews lose all personal sense of destiny since they cannot relate properly to Messianic passages, their own doctrine, in the Old Testament. By negative volition, rejection of Jesus Christ as saviour, inevitably they come to the point of the pregnancy leading to the time of delivery, and the delivery is the holocaust. They refuse to accept the virgin birth so to them the baby is not born and they suffer the labour pains of no birth, a holocaust.

6. The holocaust syndrome always follows the same pattern. It is, of course, a Jewish syndrome in part. It is also Gentile syndrome where the people of any client nation to God in the Church Age are involved. First of all, bad decisions from a position of weakness; secondly, bad decisions result in loss of control of one’s life; thirdly, loss of control of one’s life results in loss of a personal sense of destiny.

7. Therefore the holocaust syndrome is just as pertinent to Gentiles as it is to Jews.

Jeremiah 22:25, “and I shall deliver you into the hands of those who are seeking your life [Nebuchadnezzar], yes, into the hands of those whom you fear, even into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.” This was fulfilled first in 598 BC.

Verse 26, “I will hurl you and your mother who gave you birth into another country [Babylon] where you were not born, and there you will die.” Coniah was influenced by his mother, but they are going to a land where the were not born.

Why the sin unto death for Coniah? 2 Kings 24:8,9. “Jehoiachin (Coniah) was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father [Jehoiakim] had done.” According to Ezekiel chapter 19 that Coniah learned all of his evil from his mother.

Verse 27, “But as for the land [Israel] to which they [the Jews] desire to return, they will not return to it.” The only one who would return is Zerubbabel. The Coniah generation would die in slavery; with the lifting of the curse in the Zerubbabel generation he would return to the land in BC 536 and complete the temple by 516.

Verse 28, “Is this man Coniah a despised and shattered idol? A broken pot no one wants?” — even on the throne he was a broken pot.

1. All you have to do is make negative or bad decisions from a position of weakness — life in the cosmic system.

3. You will lost your personal sense of destiny which comes from advance, from momentum, gate four of the divine dynasphere.

“Why has he [Coniah] and his descendants been thrown out [of the blood line of David] and hurled into a land [Chaldea] they have not known?”

Not only did Coniah lose the throne but, more than that, he is under a curse, the curse of being eliminated from the blood line of Christ. This curse was fulfilled finally through the virgin birth of Christ. Joseph is the legal line and Mary is the blood line descended from Zerubbabel. Coniah was cut off twice under the curse. First he was cut off with the adoption of Zerubbabel as his grandson and, secondly, the virgin pregnancy leading to the virgin birth. The virgin birth, then, completes the curse on Coniah and the cut-off which is prophesied in this passage.

Jeremiah 36:27, “Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king [Jehoiakim] had burned the scroll [a portion of the book of Jeremiah], even the words which Baruch had written at the dictation of Jeremiah, saying, ‘Take again another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned. And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall communicate, “Thus says the Lord, You have burned the scroll, saying, ‘Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon [Nebuchadnezzar] shall certainly come and destroy this land,’ a prophecy of the fifth cycle of discipline which occurred in 586, ‘and shall make man and beats to cease from it?’.” This was his excuse for burning that portion of the book of Jeremiah. “ ‘Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, “He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David,’ never again would anyone in his genealogy ever occupy the throne of David, ‘and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. I will also punish him and his descendants [Coniah and Shealtiel] and his staff for their iniquity, and I will bring on them [BC 598] and the inhabitants of Jerusalem [BC 586] and the men of Judah [BC 586] all the historical disaster [or holocaust] that I have declared to them — but they did not listen [to me]’.”

They never do listen. There never is a holocaust of Jews or a holocaust of Gentiles without warning first. And this is the epitaph: “They did not listen to me.”

Jeremiah 22:30, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Record this man [Coniah] childless, a man who will not prosper during his life; furthermore none of his line will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Israel’.”

1. David’s line through Nathan is recorded in Luke chapter three. David’s line through Nathan started out the legal line, and at the time of Zerubbabel it became the blood line. We know this from verse 31 where it says, “The son of Nathan, the son of David.”

2. In this line is Zerubbabel, mentioned in the Nathan line, Luke 3:27, “the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri.” In other words, Shealtiel adopted Zerubbabel because Neri was his true grandfather and Pedaiah was his true father.

3. Zerubbabel is also mentioned in the Solomon genealogy: Matthew 1:6, “and to David was born Solomon.”

4. Zerubbabel is adopted into this line according to Matthew 1:12. Zerubbabel occurs in both lines. “And after the deportation to Babylon, to Jeconiah [Coniah] was born Shealtiel.” But notice the next phrase, the word “born” is no longer used: “and to Shealtiel, Zerubbabel.” He adopted him.

5. Zerubbabel’s real father is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 3:19, “And the sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel and Shimei.”

So there is a four-generation curse — three or four, it all depends on when the hate stops. Hate has to do with involvement in cosmic two. Jehoiakim was involved in the cosmic system, that is where it began. Then his son Coniah followed in his footsteps. Shealtiel was the end of the line so that he adopted Zerubbabel, his cousin’s son, and thereby perpetuating the line. The blood line then switched. The legal line and the blood line are both found in 1 Chronicles 3:17-19. The legal line: 1 Chronicles 3:17, “And the sons of Jeconiah, the prisoner, were Shealtiel and his [adopted] son [Zerubbabel].” The blood line: verse 19, “And the sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel,” mentioned first. He is called the son of Shealtiel in a number of passages, Ezra 3:2; 3:8; 5:2, because Shealtiel adopted him. Also in Nehemiah and Haggai 1:1, 12, 14.

1. The Jews made a decision from a position of weakness when they rejected the sign of the virgin birth, which means that they rejected Christ as their personal saviour. 2 Corinthians 4:3,4, the blinding of the mind occurs in the cosmic system: scar tissue of the soul.

2. Decisions from a position of weakness means loss of control of their lives. This means that they become the victims of some terrible historical disaster or holocaust.

3. A decision from a position of weakness amalgamated with other decisions from a position of weakness mean loss of control of the lives of a maximum number of people in the nation so that they become the recipients of historical disaster or holocaust.

4. The holocaust is brought on by personal decisions so that holocaust is the product of many bad decisions from a position of weakness, involvement in the cosmic system.

5. As a result the Jews lost all personal sense of destiny since they cannot relate properly to the Messianic passages of the Old Testament.

6. The holocaust syndrome always follows the same pattern: a. Bad decisions from a position of weakness; b. Bad decisions mean loss of control of one’s life; c. Loss of control of one’s life results in loss of personal sense of destiny.

7. Therefore the holocaust syndrome is just as pertinent to Gentiles as to the Jews. It just so happens that our passage is dealing with the Jews by way of interpretation. The concept is the same.

That brings us to the vocative in Jeremiah 22:25, Eretz, eretz, eretz. It doesn’t mean earth, it means land, the land of Israel: “O land, land, land, hear the doctrine of the Lord.” That is the only way that we can be delivered.

Verse 30, “Record this man childless” the word ‘record’ is the word kathab and it has to do with making their genealogy, “a man who will not prosper during his life.” Why? Because for the believer or the person who has the opportunity [the unbeliever] lack of prosperity comes from one source only, negative volition toward doctrine. A man who will not prosper during his life, “for none of his line will prosper.” That is Coniah and Shealtiel. “Record this man childless,” then, depicts Israel both in the Church Age and during the Tribulation. Specifically it depicts unbelievers of Israel, those who have rejected Christ in the time in which we live. The unbelieving Jew has rejected the sign of the virgin birth.

We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then.” Then we have a nominative neuter singular from the adjective a)lloj, “Then another.” With that adjective comes the subject, shmeion, translated a sign but it means a miracle that a lot of people see and draw conclusions from. It means a miracle, something that is contrary to the usual course of nature.

We have noted that there are seven signs found in the book of Revelation, the first was Revelation 12:1. We also have noted that the Jews constantly seek signs or attesting miracles so that they are distracted from Bible doctrine, 1 Corinthians 1:22; John 4:48. The sign about to be revealed in the eschatology of Revelation is one the Jews would never constantly seek, and having found it they would never believe in Christ as a result of it. The sign given to Israel in the Tribulation is the source of all anti-Semitism. “Then another attesting miracle [sign].”

The aorist passive indicative of o(raw comes next in our passage. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the observing of the sign. The passive voice: the subject, the second sign of anti-Semitism receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the second sign, the reality of terrible anti-Semitism reaching its peak in the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation, but very much in evidence in the world somewhere in every century.

Next we have a prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative singular of o)uranoj. As we have anticipated that this sign deals with Satan as the source of anti-Semitism we should note where Satan is located when the sign is presented. He lives in heaven. While Satan is the ruler of this world he commutes in order to run this world. He actually resides in heaven and will until the time of the devil’s desperation which is the middle of the Tribulation. Then we have a connective kai, “and,” followed by a demonstrative particle, i)dou, taken from the aorist active imperative of o(raw and is translated “behold.” The nominative of appellation uses three words to follow (A nominative of appellation is quite unusual, especially when we are expecting it to be a nominative subject), megaj, purroj, and drakwn. Megaj is an adjective describing this dragon; purroj means red; the noun drakwn is transliterated “dragon.”

The word drakwn is derived from an Attic Greek verb derxomai which means to see clearly. In the book of Revelation it always refers to Satan and it is a fascinating derivation. It should be noted that drakwn was used in Attic Greek for serpents because there was snake worship at Delphi and other places. As a matter of fact the priestess who handled the snakes was called in the Greek puqon, translated “python” in English. Drakwn is referred to a snake who can see clearly, and the snake who saw clearly was the snake who became to woman’s pet in the garden and, as a result, persuaded her. First of all, to sell her he had to get her into a state of arrogance. He persuaded the woman by appealing to what became her vanity. He saw clearly the issue and he saw that he could not attack the man in the form of the serpent because the man, Adam, was in charge. Adam would simply order the woman to eat and then she would be innocent because she would simply be obeying her husband. But by attacking the woman first and getting her to eat the forbidden fruit, and then getting her to act as his agent for the man, then you have the fall of both. Therefore, dragon or drakwn has come down to us from the connotation of the beginning. Every culture has the serpent or dragon related to demonism, the python of Delphi in Greece, for example.

The great red dragon, by the way, is also described in the Old Testament in Job 26:13 under such titles as rahab where it is translated “leviathan” and, of course, means a great snake or dragon, also, in Isaiah 51:9ff. It is also interesting to note than in Job 40:15-24 this same dragon is called “behemoth.” In Isaiah 27:1 he is called “leviathan.” But the best translation is the one we get in Genesis 3:1-5, “Now the serpent was the most subtle of all creatures.” Amos 9:2 develops the same concept. So whichever term is used we are still talking about Satan.

Next we have a present active participle from the verb e)xw, and it means here to have. The present tense is a descriptive present for what occurs during the Tribulation. Therefore we call it a futuristic present which denotes Satan’s control in the Tribulation. He is still the ruler of the world and, as a matter of fact, for the first time in all of his rulership since the beginning of history Satan is forced to live on the earth, he is cast out of heaven. While the Satanic influence of nations in the Tribulation has not yet occurred it is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb in the Tribulation. The participle is circumstantial used for a relative clause.

We now have two accusative plural direct objects composed of a number and a noun, e(pta and kefalh, “seven” and “head”; “and he has seven heads.” Then we have a second accusative deka [ten] and keroj [horns], “and ten horns.”

Before we can examine the seven heads or the ten horns, or the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation, we should finish up the verse which simply says, “furthermore on his heads were seven crowns.” But we should notice what is not used here. We would expect stefanoj because it is so frequently translated as crowns. Instead we have in the Greek diadhma referring to crowns of rulers, not crowns which were decorations for Roman soldiers or crowns of Ivy leaves won at some of the games in the Roman empire. We are never going to sort this out until we go to Daniel chapter seven.

Daniel 7:2, “Daniel spoke and said, ‘I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven’ ...”

We have studied the wind machine and how they control weather. Here they are used to indicate that Jesus Christ controls history: the rise and fall of empires.

“… ‘were stirring up the great sea [referring to the peoples of the world], and four great beasts were coming up from the sea, differing from one another [in other words, they emerged as evil powers]’.”

In verse 4 we meet the lion and he is the Chaldean empire, the first one coming up out of the sea. Here suddenly we have a great empire which in 606 BC at the battle of Carchemish completely destroyed the Egyptian empire of Pharaoh-Necho.

In verse 4 the bear is the rise of the Persian empire and the rise of the greatest people in the ancient world. In verse 6 we have the leopard, the rise of the Macedonian empire followed by the Hellenistic monarchies.

It is the fourth beast of verse seven which comes into focus here with heads and horns, the Roman empire. “After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful [Rome’s conquests] and terrifying [as a result of all of these conquests, and starting with the second Punic war, Roman mobs developed in the cities and a form of socialism was developed] and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet [the expansion of the empire]; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it [it became the first Gentile nation to God and the environment for the rise of Christianity], and it had ten horns [the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation].”

No nation ever survives the negative volition of its own population. And when a nation comes to the point where it is no stronger than the masses of people in that nation — generally described historically as the unthinking masses — they do not survive, they destroy themselves. Every one of the nations we are studying in Daniel chapter seven was great and powerful and had tremendous influence, and they lost all of these things in time of prosperity. They all had one thing in common: the pattern of greatness followed by destroying themselves. We are the products of our decisions individually; we are the products of our decisions collectively.

The fourth beast of Daniel 7:7 is the Roman empire. The Roman republic could not function as a client nation to God, it had to become an empire. This beast is called “dreadful” and it is a very accurate prophecy. The people who hold all records for cruelty in the ancient world are the Romans but their cruelty was harnessed to great self-discipline. So instead of arousing antagonism through cruelty alone they disciplined their cruelty so that they simply aroused fear which made conquest easy. “Dreadful” refers to the Roman conquest of the Mediterranean states by which they became a world power, and this took place between 264 and 146 BC. Rome conquered all of the Hellenistic monarchies, the Syrian empire of the Seleucids, the Egyptian empire of the Ptolemies, the Macedonian empire, the Carthaginians, and the Mediterranean became a Roman lake. The word “terrible” refers to the Roman mobs which resulted from the second Punic war and the beginning of socialism which coexisted with Rome as a republic and as an empire. The record for socialism existing in the world is still held by Rome, from the second Punic war until 476 AD, a little over 650 years. That is the longest running record for socialism. From time to time it sapped the strength of the Roman empire, destroyed it economically resulting in all kinds of dictatorships and eventually ruined everything. No nation ever survives socialism. Sooner or later it destroys it. “Extremely strong” refers to Julius Caesar and his famous five years between 49 and 44 BC when he put his genius to work and developed a system which would provide the stability for five hundred years as an empire. Except for the Antonine Caesars the rulers of the empire were unstable but it really didn’t make any difference because Caesar devised a system whereby the rulers had very little to say, and so that the empire had stability no matter what monster was ruling in Rome.

The Roman empire “was different from all of the beasts that were before it.” This difference is because it was the first Gentile client nation to God, it was the beginning of the times of the Gentiles, and it was the environment for the rise of Christianity. It was different for another reason. Basically, all of the conquering groups before, such as the Egyptians and the Assyrians, were unicultured and generally relatively racially pure, although not altogether. They had one culture and they built everything around one culture and did very well with it. But the Romans were multiracial, multicultist (they had many cults and religions), and the thing that held them all together and made them so very strong was a system of government to which all kinds of cultures, all kinds of attitudes, all kinds of races and religions, could subscribe. Therefore, it became the environment for Christianity.

We move now to the Tribulation and the revived Roman empire. We are studying two empires: the historical Roman empire which began in BC 30 with Octavius Augustus and ended in 476 AD; the prophetical Roman empire which is the Roman empire of the Tribulation and will be referred to as the revived Roman empire. And when it said “it had ten horns” it is referring to the revived Roman empire.

Verse 8, “And while I was contemplating the horns.” Rome as a client nation to God officially terminated in 476 AD. From 476 there were many other Gentile nations which functioned as client nations to God. The ten horns of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation are simply ten nations because horns refer to nations. Ten nations out of the old Roman empire will come together to form a new Roman empire, a power bloc in order to have economic, military and all other advantages. We don’t know exactly who the ten horns are except that they are parts, nations, which were part of the old Roman empire. Their major advantage is that they will eventually become the ecumenical religion of the world. Remember that religion is Satanic.

“behold, another little horn” — this is a dictator who decides to take over this confederation. It starts out as a confederation of nations. This dictator is obviously Satan’s man, he “came up among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted before it.” So there is a little horn who is a dictator and there are three big horns, and what he does is to defeat three out of the ten so that the other seven surrender to the dictator. That is how we get seven crowns. There are originally ten nations, three are defeated by the dictator and the seven decide it is better to surrender and become part of the big team. So there are seven crowns but ten nations before the war took place. This is a war in the first half of the Tribulation moving toward the middle of the Tribulation. By the middle of the Tribulation this little horn will not only be dictator of the ten nations, the revived Roman empire, but he becomes the religious leader of ecumenical religion.

“and behold, this horn [dictator of Revelation 13:1-10] possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth that spoke arrogantly.” The eyes like the eyes of a man is an idiom for this dictator’s genius, his evil genius. He is an animal in his modus operandi but he is an evil genius. “A mouth that speaks arrogantly” refers to great eloquence.

Verse 9, “I kept looking until the thrones were set up.” These are the nations of the Millennium to be ruled by mature believers of the royal family, “and the Ancient of Days [literally, “the eternal one,” Jesus Christ at the second advent] took his throne [Matthew 25:31]; his vesture was like white snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was a flame of fire [the judgment of individuals and nations in the Tribulation, especially the baptism of fire], its wheels were a burning fire [the judgment of the nations of the Tribulation at the second advent].”

Verse 14, “And to him [our Lord Jesus Christ] was given dominion, glory and sovereignty, that all peoples, nations, and languages might serve him [Millennial reign of Christ]. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away [it will continue beyond history into eternity]; furthermore his kingdom is one which cannot ever be destroyed.”

Verse 18, “But the saints [regenerate or spiritual Israel] of the Highest One [the Lord Jesus Christ referred to as Adonai echad] will receive the kingdom [they will receive Israel as a client nation to God, the fulfilment of the Palestinian covenant] and possess the kingdom forever and ever [fulfilling the covenants].”

Verse 19, “Then I desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast [the Roman empire], which was different from all the others, most terrifying, with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, and which devoured, crushed, and trampled under foot whatever was left,”

Verse 20, “and the ten horns which were on its head, and the other horn [the dictator] which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely, that little horn which had eyes [genius] and a mouth that spoke arrogantly, and whose appearance was more arrogant that his contemporaries.”

Verse 21, “ I kept looking, and the horn was making war against the saints,” now we are back to anti-Semitism and exactly where we are in Revelation chapter twelve, “and winning over them”

Verse 22, “until the Ancient of Days came [second advent], and pronounced judgment in favour of the saints [the born-again Jews or spiritual Israel] of the Highest One [Jesus Christ the God of Israel], and the time arrived when the saints [Tribulational believers] took possession of the kingdom [the Millennial Israel].”

Verse 23, “Thus he said: ‘The fourth beast will be the fourth great empire on the earth [Roman empire], which will be different from all of the other empires, and it will devour the whole earth, both tread it down and crush it.’

Verse 24, ‘As for the ten horns [the revived Roman empire], out of this kingdom ten kings will arise [in the Tribulation]; and another [little horn] will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.

Verse 25, [The last half of the Tribulation] ‘And he [the dictator, when he takes over] will speak against the Host High and will oppress the saints [Jewish believers of the Tribulation plus Gentile believers], and try to change the times and the laws; and they [the saints] will be delivered into his hands for three and a half years [the last half f the Tribulation].

Verse 26, ‘Then the court will sit [second advent of Christ], and his empire [power] will be taken away completely and destroyed forever ...’ ”

From what we have noted: There will be in the Tribulation a ten-nation confederation [in the first half of the Tribulation], the revived Roman empire. Then comes the dictator who will rise up in the middle of the Tribulation and will conquer three of the ten nations resulting in control over the remaining seven. This power bloc of the Tribulation will be studied in Revelation chapter 16 as the king of the west, and in Revelation 17 and 18 as the religious ruler of ecumenical religion

Revelation 12:3, “Then another sign was seen in heaven; and behold a great red dragon [Satan] who had seven heads and ten horns,” the revived Roman empire is one of his instruments to seek to gain control of the earth before the second advent, “furthermore on his head seven crowns [the seven surviving nations of the little horns (of Daniel 7) conquest].” We will study this man in detail in Revelation 13:1-10. We will see him later on in Daniel 9:26 as “the prince who shall come,” — “the man of sin” in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and the scarlet beast of Revelation 17:8-13. Satan completely controls this man.

When Jesus Christ was being directly tempted by Satan during His first advent, Satan took Him to a high spot where He could see the kingdoms of the world. And he said: “If you will fall down and worship me I will give you all of these kingdoms.” Satan is the ruler of the world, he has the power to give all the kingdoms of the world to someone who is dedicated enough to follow him. Our Lord said no, but in the Tribulation there will be a brilliant man of genius who will find a way to be so dedicated to Satan that he becomes a ruler of at least a quarter of the world, for a short time. In eternity past Satan wanted to be like the most high God, he wanted to rule in place of God, and that arrogance immediately limited him. A creature is limited. We as creatures can never challenge God.

The fact that Satan controls the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation provides information regarding this control over mankind. We begin with the connective conjunction kai which can be translated “and” or “then,” plus the nominative subject o)ura for the tail of the dragon. O)ura represents the throwing off of a harness. The dragon’s tail is not controlled, it is totally out of control. As a result you have the worst kind of barbarianism, the masses of people without any harness of self-discipline, of honour, integrity, enforced and genuine humility. Then we have the possessive genitive from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, referring to Satan under the dragon image. The tail of the dragon [Satan] represents the persuasive power in his prehistoric angelic conflict. Satan, as Lucifer the son of the morning, was the first creature in all of history to throw off the harness. In throwing off the harness, to reject every restriction which had previously existed on himself, and because of his great authority as the anointed cherub, there were very few restrictions. But arrogance removed them all, and in arrogance Satan said: “I will be like the most high God.”

When anyone throws off the harness they inevitably can get other people to go with them. There are always people out of harness just waiting to line up with some leader who throws off the harness. That is how we have, right now this day, millions and millions of demons, two categories: the disembodied spirits and those who have bodies. The origin of these creatures were decisions from a position of weakness, and from those decisions came the tremendous concept of loss of control of their lives, followed by loss of a personal sense of destiny which made them followers of Satan. These followers are mentioned first by the present active indicative of the verb surw which means to drag, to pull. When a leader throws off the harness there are always those who are ready to be pulled. They are lawless; they are without harness; and the basic characteristic of being without harness is arrogance, rejecting all authority, feeling threatened by anyone who seems to be better in any category of life, and therefore trying to compete with that person and often doing so by maligning, gossiping and, in many cases by the use of violence.

The historical present tense views the past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. It is a pattern set by Satan in the prehistoric angelic conflict which has continued through human history right down to this moment, and will continue throughout the rest of the Church Age and after the Church Age in the Tribulation. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb in the prehistoric phase of the angelic conflict, and he did so by ceasing to function in the purpose for which he was created.

The tail of the dragon dragged away in revolution. And then we have what it did: “a third of the stars of the heaven,” the accusative singular direct object of tritoj, plus the descriptive genitive plural of a)sthr, and a possessive genitive singular from o)uranoj.

The question is: what are the stars? Stars are used for angels in Job 38:7, “When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God [angels] shouted for joy.” The message of Bildad to Job in Job 25:1-6, “Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, ‘Dominion and respect belong to him who establishes order in the heights [heaven]. Can his troops [the elect angels] be numbered? and on whom does his light not rise?’ ”

The light does not rise on fallen angels, they have thrown off the harness. There came a time when certain angelic creatures also threw off the harness. Satan was the first. He took one third of the angelic creatures with him; two thirds remained in harness. God created all of us for a purpose. When you throw off the harness the purpose is gone.

“ ‘How then can a man be righteous before God? Or how can one who has been born of a woman be pure? Even in the moon has no brightness and the stars [fallen angels] are not pure in his sight, how much less man who is but a maggot, and the son of man who is only a worm!’ ”

Isaiah 14:11b, “Maggots are spread out beneath you, and worms are your covering.” That is a description of barbarianism, a description of people — an individual or a group of individuals, or a national entity. When the people of a nation throw off the harness they are self-destructive. This verse describes Satan’s fall and those who followed him.

Verse 12, “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the Morning [Satan], son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations!”

What does Satan do to weaken nations? He weakens nations by getting people to throw off the harness. Verse 12 in essence describes the second fall of Satan which occurs in the middle of the Tribulation.

Verse 13, “But you said in your right lobe, ‘I will ascend to heaven [the thinking of Satan when he threw off the harness at the time of his first fall]; I will raise my throne above the stars of God [angelic creatures]. I will sit enthroned in the mount of the assembly [the assembly of angelic creatures in heaven] in the uttermost extremity of the north.

Verse 14,“I will ascent above the heights of the clouds [angelic masses]; I will make myself like the most high God.”

Answer to that: verse 15, “Nevertheless you will be cast down to Sheol [third fall of Satan which occurs at the second advent], you will be thrown in to a corner of the abyss.” No one as an individual can throw off the harness of life and survive, it is self-destructive.

Note that in Isaiah 14:12 Satan is called the morning star, while in verse 13 the angels are called the stars of God. And just as the stars are used for angels in Job 25:5, 38:7; Isaiah 14:12, 13 so stars are used for angels in Revelation 12:4.

The harness for the royal family of God in this dispensation is the divine dynasphere and the believer without the harness resides and functions in the cosmic system. Therefore the harness protects the believer against the cosmic system with its demon influence. When the royal family of God is in the harness of the divine dynasphere they make decisions from a position of strength, the have control of their lives and have a personal sense of destiny. Furthermore, when the royal family of God is in the harness of the divine dynasphere they advance to maturity forming the pivot which preserves, blesses and prospers the client nation. Without the harness of the divine dynasphere there is no pivot of mature believers, no Christian dynamics, and that means that the client nation suffers as well as the individual. The worst thing, of course, is no glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible talks about a harness in terms of a yoke in Matthew 11:28-30. Often the word yoke is used as a part of the harness, “Come unto me, all ye that labour [work to the point of exhaustion] and are burdened down [by problems], and I will give you rest [eternal salvation and then the harness of the divine dynasphere].”

In verse 29 where Jesus, anticipating the royal family of God, says, “Take my yoke [harness, the divine dynasphere] upon you,” this is the harness of life inside the divine dynasphere, “and learn from me [Gate four of the divine dynasphere],” for I am virtuous [life inside the divine dynasphere] and humble in the right lobe [Gate three]; and you shall find rest for your souls.” The “rest for your souls” is, first of all, having made good decisions from a position of strength, having control of your own personal life, and having a personal sense of destiny. Therefore, you feel threatened by no one, or no situation.

Verse 30, “For my yoke [or harness] is pleasant, and my load [residence, function, and momentum inside the divine dynasphere] is light.”

The translation of Revelation 12:4 so far: “And his tail [Satan’s power] dragged away [that is, the revolution in heaven] a third of the stars of the heaven [the fallen angels].” Continuing, we have the intensive use of the conjunction kai which is translated “in fact”. Then the aorist active indicative of the verb ballw which means here to throw or to hurl, “and he [God] threw.” The culminative aorist tense views our Lord’s casting of Satan and his fallen angels out of heaven in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the greatest wave of anti-Semitism in all of human history. This verb refers to the second fall of Satan.

We have to look at the falls of Satan under three categories. The first fall of Satan was the prehistorical fall, the revolution which began in heaven in which he took a third of the angelic creatures with him. This occurred before the creation of man. The second fall occurs in the middle of the Tribulation when Satan is cast out of heaven and begins the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The third fall is the second advent when Satan is removed from rulership of this world and incarcerated for one thousand years. We are noting now the verb which relates to the second fall of Satan.

In the active voice of the verb God Himself produces the action of the verb in the middle of the Tribulation by removing Satan and all fallen angels from heaven. They are confined to the earth and this is the beginning of the closing in and the closing out of Satan’s activity as the ruler of this world. Right now Satan has access to any part of the universe and his headquarters is in heaven though he commutes to the earth to rule the cosmos. Then, of course, in the middle of the Tribulation he will be confined to the earth. At the end of the Tribulation he will be confined to Sheol where he will serve a thousand-year sentence. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of Satan being cast out of heaven with his fallen angels in the middle of the Tribulation.

The result of this brings out all the genius of Satan. Satan has a concept that is brilliant but he is not going to have the nerve to complete it. He is going to try to destroy in desperation certain categories that have always been a thorn in his side. One will be believers, the others will be all Jews whether they are believers or unbelievers; and we are looking at that phase of his desperate plan, the attempt to destroy all Jews on the face of the earth. All anti-Semitism originates with Satan and this is his last desperate chance.

“in fact he [God] threw them [Satan and all fallen angels],” the accusative plural direct from a)utoj, “them,” referring to fallen angels plus their leader. This is where the desperation begins. Then the preposition e)ij plus the accusative of gh, “to the earth.”

Once Satan is confined to the earth he expresses his frustration and his wrath together with his genius to formulate a very bold plan: use everything at his means, including the third demon assault army plus ecumenical religion which will be formed under the dictator of the revived Roman empire, plus all other means at his disposal to eliminate all Jews on the face of the earth. There are a lot of reasons for that. One of the most obvious is that God has not yet fulfilled His promises to Israel. He is waiting until the right time. God’s timing is absolutely perfect and at the second advent all of the unconditional covenants will be fulfilled. They have never been fulfilled up to this moment. There is one paragraph of the Abrahamic covenant which is being constantly being fulfilled: God punishes and destroys believer or unbeliever who seeks in any way to be anti-Semitic. In order to fulfil the Palestinian covenant Jews must be alive at the second advent. David will have a son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will reign forever and the New covenant to Israel guarantees that the Jewish nation which is restored at the time of the second advent will be a client nation throughout the Millennial reign of Christ and throughout all eternity.

The point is that the faithfulness of God versus the genius of Satan is the great issue from the middle of the Tribulation, the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation, the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. This is the great time when Satan will try to do several things, one of which is to destroy the Jews, and another is the use of religion. Religion always has more power than culture and when religion becomes the culture of a nation or a people or a tribe or a group you have exploitation. Satan will use religion, unconventional warfare, conventional warfare, and he will use anti-Semitism.

We have next the nominative singular subject drakwn, referring to Satan who is the author of anti-Semitism, “then the dragon.” Then we have the perfect active indicative of the verb i(stemi, “stood.” This is the usual translation but when followed by the improper preposition e)nwpion it has a different meaning. Often the meaning of Greek words are determined by the words around them. It is translated correctly, “in fact he [God] threw them down to the earth: then the dragon stood before the woman.” When it says to stand before the woman it means to stand in the sense of antagonism. The dragon sought to destroy the woman is what it means. The dragon appeared before the woman and he appeared in a hostile sense, so i(stemi while it has the connotation of attack and we can translate it “stood,” it really means “then the dragon appeared before the woman with hostile intent.” The woman in past history was the virgin Mary but the woman in the Tribulation is Israel. The perfect tense is the perfect of existing state in which the past is dropped from the thought and attention is focused upon the existing state. The active voice: Satan as the author of anti-Semitism produces the action of the verb, and the indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the intensified anti-Semitism prior to the second advent. We have the improper preposition and we have the genitive singular gunh with it, and it means Israel.

Again we go back to the double entendre because this happened twice. Satan sought to destroy Israel at the point of the virgin birth because while the Jews didn’t understand it as a sign, Satan did. And just before the second advent Satan will once again go after the woman which is Israel in the middle of the Tribulation.

The articular present active participle of mellw is the verb that means about to be. The futuristic present denotes a future action because the virgin birth was already firmly resolved in the plan of God. The active voice: the virgin Mary produces the action of the verb. The participle is used as a relative clause. With this we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb tiktw which means to deliver, to give birth. The aorist infinitive denotes that which is eventual or particular, while the present infinitive indicates a condition or a process. The culminative aorist views first of all the virgin birth in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the strategic victory of our Lord in the first advent as a result of that virgin birth. So it goes back to the first advent and gives us at the point of the virgin birth the hostility of Satan which will be analogous to the hostility of Satan toward the Jew in the Tribulation. The active voice: first of all the virgin Mary produced the action of the verb in history, and then Israel will produce the action of the verb in the future: Israel is about to be restored, they are about to give birth to a new nation. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result where the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate objective. “Then the dragon [Satan] stood before the woman who was about to deliver a child”.

We have noted the virgin birth, the hypostatic union, the impeccability of Christ, and the reason why Satan tried to frustrate these things. So we see Satan as the loser in the angelic conflict because of the virgin birth and because Christ went to the cross, and because He won a strategic victory in bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. There is no way that any creature can defeat the creator. Satan has challenged the creator before in the first advent; he will challenge the creator in the middle of the Tribulation. These are the two greatest challenges he has ever offered though he is constantly in a state of hostility toward our Lord. One of the great problems that Satan faces is the extension of the prehistoric angelic conflict into human history and this means the problems of the angelic conflict in the Tribulation. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict. Satan recognises this and therefore has taken control of man as the ruler of this world. One of the major problems of Satan in human history is Israel and it has been Satan’s objective to destroy Israel. Satan understands the Davidic covenant and he has two chances to hinder its fulfilment: one which occurred in the first advent, and he failed; the other will occur in the Tribulation when he will fail again.

Satan is especially sensitive to the Davidic covenant and its significance. Satan attempts to frustrate the incarnation, he has always understood the consequences of the Davidic covenant and with this in mind when Adam was given a wonderful promise concerning the Messiah, how Christ would come as the seed of the woman. Satan understood that and therefore he motivated Cain to murder Abel. The demon genetic attack on the human race in Genesis 6:1-13 were attacks on Adam’s seed. But then when Satan discovered that it was no longer Adam’s seed, because Adam’s seed was now very extensive and had narrowed down to Abraham’s seed, then he limited his attack. Now all he had to do was to attack the seed of Abraham, so Sarah wound up in the harem of an Egyptian king in Genesis 12:10-20, and Pharaoh commanded to kill the entire male line of Israel in Exodus 1:10, 15,16, and Pharaoh attempted to annihilate Israel at the Red Sea in Exodus 14. All of these were, of course, hindered; they were attacks on Abraham’s seed. Then once again it narrowed down to David and Satan worked on the seed of David. We have the case of the son of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat arranged a marriage between his son and Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel, uniting two systems of evil: the apostasy of Israel at that time with the phallic cult of the Phoenicians. Then Jehoram, when he came to the throne, killed all of his brothers, and the Arabs killed the sons of Jehoram and only one person was left, and that was Jehoahaz, 2 Chronicles 21. Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel and the mother of Jehoahaz, killed everyone in the royal seed, and so it narrowed down to Joash of 2 Chronicles 23. So Satan was so successful that the line came down to one person. At that point we have the development of the seed again: God protected that very fine thread.

Then we have the case of Hezekiah who had no children when he was attacked by the king of Assyria and his great army. He was surrounded and about to be wiped out and God delivered him and preserved him until he had a son to perpetuate the line. Haman’s conspiracy to annihilate the Jews in Esther is another illustration. All of these were attacks on the seed of David.

“Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to deliver the child.” That is first of all the virgin Mary and the child was our Lord Jesus Christ, but there was a revival of the woman Israel in the Tribulation, one of the tremendous impetuses of Israel which occurs often in history. The point is, Satan’s number one target has been and always will be the Jew.

By rejecting Messiah throughout its history Israel is pregnant and frustrated because the pregnancy always come up to the point of delivery, the labour and the labour pains which is the holocaust, but they never, never deliver. Israel followed the principle of throwing off the yoke of their great tradition in the Old Testament, in the Word of God, and therefore periodically they are going to have terrible labour pains in which they scream in their torture which is the holocaust. But we have also noted that there are Gentile holocausts for the same reason. God protects the human race from barbarism by destroying those segments of the human race, Jew or Gentile, who would destroy the human race. Therefore it is inevitable that there would be holocausts for Israel and holocausts for Gentiles.

We resume with the purpose clause which is going to bring us into the subject of anti-Semitism. The purpose clause contains the expression of Satan’s anti-Semitism related to the first and second advents of Christ. It is introduced by the conjunction i(na, translated “that” or “in order that.” We have a secondary conjunction which introduces a temporal clause, o(tan, ordinarily translated “when” or “whenever.” It introduces a temporal clause in which the action of the subordinate clause precedes the action of the main clause. So the subordinate clause is introduced by the word “when,” “In order that when.”

This is followed by the aorist active subjunctive of tiktw, which means to give birth, taking us back in history to the virgin birth, “when she gave birth.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the virgin Mary produces the action of the verb, starting with the virgin pregnancy and ending with the virgin birth. The subjunctive mood is used in the subordinate clause to indicate a purpose clause with i(na. This would be a potential subjunctive implying a future reference and qualified by the element of contingency.

Then we have Satan functioning, “in order that when she gave birth he [Satan].” Satan’s objective from the moment of the virgin birth. All previous attacks of Satan on the line of Christ have failed. Now we have a whole new set of attacks and one of them is anti-Semitism. In throwing off the yoke in eternity past Satan became the greatest barbarian of all time and therefore it is inevitable that he will use barbaric methods against anything that stands in his way, and more than anything else the very existence of any Jew on the face of the earth stands in his way. Therefore the inevitable holocausts. God protects and preserves the Jew. The Jews who are involved are the Jews who are involved in the pregnancy-holocaust, they are in labour pains but they never deliver. Those are the ones who are destroyed by the holocaust.

“he might destroy her,” the aorist active subjunctive of katesqiw which means to devour, to eat completely, so it comes to mean to totally destroy. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the potential action of the verb in its entirety. Satan has never succeeded in destroying all of Israel in any holocaust. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb under the policy of anti-Semitism. The potential subjunctive which is qualified by contingency that Satan is able to accomplish his objective. Satan will never accomplish his objective even at the point of his greatest power in the middle of the Tribulation.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object teknon referring to the Lord Jesus Christ historically, and with that a)utoj, the possessive genitive feminine, “her son” referring to the woman Israel throughout history and referring specifically also to the virgin Mary under the double entendre.

The attack of Satan is accomplished through Herod the Great — Matthew 2:12-19. Herod the Great is descended from Esau and is one of the great men of genius in history. Herod ruled the middle east and he did so as a client king to Rome. His genius at the end of his life was harnessed in a most unusual way to seek to destroy our Lord. Matthew’s account was the protection of our Lord from Satan’s greatest attempt to destroy Him during His childhood.

Anti-Semitism is the determining factor in the historical trends of Gentile nations. The fall of great men and great nations is directly related to their attitude toward the Jew. Anti-Semitism is first of all blasphemy. God does not need any help in His discipline of the Jews. But, secondly, it is the great barbarian activity of throwing off the yoke.

“It is a noteworthy fact of history that great conquerors such as Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon always treated the Jew well. On the other hand lesser men endowed with narrower outlooks have failed to recognise the Jew and have sought to crush him. But such methods are contrary to nature, and tyranny, whether toward the Jew or toward any others, has never secured any permanent results. The same policy, anti-Semitism, has characterised subsequent dynasties from the Assyrians to the Romanovs and the same fate has overtaken them. The Jews have survived their disappearance from history” — Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 14th edition, vol. 13, p5.

In verse 5 we find the strategic victory of the first advent in the middle of Satan’s great plan to destroy. We noted in verse four his tail, Satan’s power, dragged away in the prehistoric revolution in heaven “a third of the stars of heaven.” They threw off the harness. They were the fallen angels who followed Satan in the prehistoric angelic conflict, “in fact he [God] threw them [Satan and all the fallen angels] down to planet earth.” That is the future time when the devil’s desperation begins; “then the dragon [Satan] stood in opposition to the woman [Mary] who was about to deliver a child [anticipating the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ] in order that when she gave birth he [Satan] might destroy her child [the humanity of Christ in the first advent].” This was one of the greatest attacks Satan ever made on our so great salvation, our spiritual life, and on the true meaning of the angelic conflict. But it did not succeed, according to verse 5.

One of the things that stands out is the efficiency of God’s plan so that inordinate competition against it could not succeed and never will. A second thought also comes out before we even get into the passage, and that is the great principle of the harness: the tremendous self-discipline and the tremendous system of authority and discipline that will exist in the perfect environment of the Millennium so that at the end of 1000 years of perfect environment where there will be no death except capital punishment, where everyone will have the perfect environment for happiness, where the world will not lack anything by way of food or water or any natural resource, where everything will be perfect environment. But perfect environment must have a harness and at the end of 1000 years of perfect environment we will see that the harness is thrown off.

We begin now with the incarnation in the first advent. We have the conjunction kai introducing a result from what precedes. In spite of Satan’s great plan and his great power as the ruler of this world he does not succeed. The aorist active indicative tells us why: the aorist active indicative of the verb tiktw which means to give birth to a child, “And then she gave birth to a child.” The aorist tense is a reference to the virgin birth of Christ as the first fulfilment of the Davidic covenant, hence a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: national Israel, along with the virgin Mary, is producing the action of the verb under the double entendre. National Israel produces the action of the verb through the tribe of Judah, the family of David, the virgin Mary. The indicative mood is declarative for the virgin birth, the incarnation, the hypostatic union.

“Then she gave birth to a child,” the accusative neuter plural. The child: even though Jesus Christ came in His humanity as a man, we notice that the accusative neuter plural direct object of u(ioj which means a son is in the neuter gender because of the uniqueness of the person of Christ and what He had to do for us. We also have an accusative of apposition, a)rsen, a male son, our Lord Jesus Christ at the first advent in hypostatic union. It is interesting that we would have the words “male son,” which is the corrected translation, in the neuter gender and in the feminine gender, for a)rsen is a feminine gender. Why? The neuter gender indicates a great personal sense of destiny; the feminine gender indicates that Jesus Christ in His humanity had to constantly respond to the will of God the Father, and therefore the dynamics of the phrase, “a male son.” The first advent was necessary to accomplish the strategic victory of the angelic conflict related to eternal salvation. The second advent of Christ is the time of fulfilling unconditional covenants; it is a tactical victory.

Next we have a reference to the first advent. The strategic victory of the angelic conflict took place at the cross. Our Lord’s personal sense of destiny led Him to the cross. He was perfect in the prototype divine dynasphere in His humanity, He was qualified to go to the cross and bear our sins. As He approached the cross He expressed the repugnance of bearing our sins, “Father, if it be thy will let this cup pass from me.” The feminine gender of the word “male” simply indicates the fact that He responded to the Father’s will: “nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” He was single-minded, says the neuter gender, and He went to the cross, and on the cross He received the imputation and judgment of our sins. This is the basis of our so great salvation.

Now the second advent is mentioned briefly, starting with a relative pronoun, o(j which refers to Christ at the second advent because personal sense of destiny means His return and the establishing of His Millennial reign under the system of harness. The present active indicative of mellw means that it hasn’t happened yet. Mellw is a verb talking about a future event which is brought close to you, not in time but in thought. We do not know when the Millennial reign of Christ will begin. We translate: “who was about to.” The futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain in eschatological doctrine that in thought it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the second advent and His Millennial reign. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the Millennial reign of Christ which is 1000 years of perfect environment following the second advent.

So we have “who [the Lord Jesus Christ] was about to rule,” the present active infinitive of poimainw, which doesn’t mean to rule ordinarily, it means to shepherd. Poimainw for His rule in the Millennium means that people in perfect environment are exactly like people in the environment of today. People en masse are no good! They still have the old sin nature, they are still fickle, up today and down tomorrow, changing their minds constantly. That is the principle. Therefore they must have: not basileuw, which would be rule in the sense that we use it, but poimainw, a shepherd with a stick. Sheep are stupid, therefore they must have a harness to enjoy perfect environment. There will be no revolutions, no activists, no Christian activism in the Millennium. Again, we have the futuristic present denoting an event which has not yet occurred but is brought into our thought to see the principle, “who is about to rule.” This is the Millennium. With this we have the accusative plural direct object composed of an adjective paj, “all,” and a noun e)qnoj, “all nations,” followed by e)n plus the instrumental of r(abdoj plus the instrumental from sidhroj, “a rod of iron,” an iron sceptre. The iron sceptre is the harness. Our Lord has a yoke for the harness today which is easy: “Come learn from me, my yoke is easy, my burden is light.” What lightens burdens are the three stages of the faith-rest drill! But here we have a different harness, an iron sceptre emphasising our Lord’s absolute power and the use of it in the case of anyone who gets out of line. Apart from the integrity of our Lord Jesus Christ and His iron sceptre there is no way that perfect environment on planet earth can be perpetuated for 1000 years. It is impossible to maintain perfect environment when man has an old sin nature without a harness, the old sin natures requires restraint. While Satan’s cosmic system is not operational during the Millennium human volition plus the old sin nature can still get out of hand very quickly and must be controlled for maintenance of perfect environment. God has provided for us today the laws of divine establishment so that without perfect environment we can still fulfil the functions of the angelic conflict: the use of our own free will, self-determination.

The system which has been designed, the divine dynasphere, for the royal family in the Church Age is specifically to give the opportunity of receiving great blessing from life in historical prosperity or in historical adversity. No one can challenge the creator, our Lord Jesus Christ. A demonstration of this principle is the fact that even though it has been Satan’s objective since human history began, and specifically with the beginning of the Jewish race, to annihilate the Jews and to remove them from the earth so that God cannot keep His word to them at the second advent. There must be Jews living in every generation from Abraham down through the Tribulation and to the point of the second advent of Christ. The Jews themselves — those who are unbelievers — cannot understand this even though they are constantly reaching out and groping.

When we come to second advent and perfect environment we have the principle that apart from the integrity of our Lord Jesus Christ and the authority of His iron sceptre there is no way that perfect environment on planet earth can be perpetuated for the last 1000 years of history, the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sceptre of iron shatters human vessels, which emphasises capital punishment, the suppression of concepts such as crime and other concepts where violence is used to solve problems. Under the laws of divine establishment only capital punishment provides fear of the law on the part of criminals and respect for the law on the part of law-abiding citizens.

We have noted in the past that there is a legitimate violence which biblically is used in three areas: the function of law enforcement in line of duty operation, the function of the military establishment in defence of one’s country — and there should be in both cases the freedom to use violence, and a third area: you have the right as a law abiding citizen to protect your privacy, your property, and your life. In a barbarian society violence is necessary to protect your privacy, your freedom, your property. In such a society there is always a liberal element that tries to abolish violence. These are the people who are in favour of a nuclear freeze, the yellow-bellied cowards who are afraid of military service, the people who are constantly popping up here and there who have no concept of historical reality.

The divine policy regarding the use of unlawful violence becomes pertinent at this point. Who uses unlawful violence? Criminals, gangsters, terrorists, paramilitary organisations, mercenaries, religious fanatics like Islam and its so-called holy wars. There are three exceptions which are the lawful use of violence, as we have noted.

The divine policy is first given to us in Genesis 9:5,6, “Most emphatically, I will require your lifeblood [if you try to solve your problems by violence and you therefore infringe upon the freedom of someone else], I will demand an accounting from [not just human beings] every animal [which kills a human being]. And from every man [who murders man], from every man’s brother I will demand the life of the man [who murders]. Whoever sheds man’s blood by man [in authority] his blood will be shed,” the judicial modus operandi resulting in the establishment yoke and the administration of capital punishment. You cannot suppress crime and unlawful use of terrorism without the proper professional use of capital punishment, “for in the image of God he made man.”

What does it mean that man was made in the image of God? It is not referring to overt appearance at all. It means three things that relate to the soul. In the essence of God are three factors which we have in the essence of man’s soul. It means first of all self-consciousness, awareness of one’s own existence, which is absolutely necessary to establish the awareness of the existence of others. No person can ever be thoughtful and sensitive of others unless he is aware of his own existence because he starts from a base of virtue from his own existence; secondly, moral reasoning power. Key words: “I ought”; thirdly, self-determination: “I will.” That is the image of God. We have volition, free will, and we have the right of self-determination.

So the policy of God in Genesis 9:6 is capital punishment. A second declaration of this policy was given by our Lord Jesus Christ to Peter when Peter tried to solve a problem by violence. Peter began to understand that the Lord was in danger and when in the garden the temple guard came to arrest our Lord he was determined to defend Him. He pulled a sword and hacked off an ear. Matthew 26:52 tells us what our Lord said. He again declared the divine policy regarding the use of unlawful violence: “Return your sword to its scabbard; for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” That does not refer to the military or to law enforcement, and it doesn’t even refer to a person protecting his own life. “For all who draw the sword” is the unlawful use of violence. For those who use unlawful violence the divine policy is that they will be destroyed by unlawful violence or legitimate violence. Violence will overtake them. If it is legitimate violence they will die by capital punishment. Those who live by violence have thrown off the harness.

Romans 13:3,4 gives us the third statement on divine policy: “For government authorities are not a cause for fear for moral function,” moral function means civilisation, harness, and the solving of problems apart from violence, “but for evil function,” the use of violence. “Really, is it your desire not to fear authority? If that is your desire, keep on doing good.” In other words, be a law-abiding person. Resolve your problems within the framework of legitimate establishment authority, “and you will have recognition from it [the protection provided by legitimate government]; for it [client nation government] is a minister of God to you for the purpose of good,” protection of your freedom, privacy, life and property. “But if you do evil,” civil disobedience, the use of violence, to solve problems, “keep on being afraid; for it [the government] does not carry the sword [capital punishment] in vain.”

Capital punishment must be a legitimate function of government and certain criminal must be continually, habitually executed. A criminal has no rights. Those who make the decision to commit crime, those who use violence in crime — murder, rape, armed robbery, whatever it is — should die by the sword [capital punishment], not be put up at taxpayers’ expense. Fear of the law is a restraint, a harness for those who are tempted.

“for you see it [government of a client nation] is the minister of God for the purpose of administering punishment to him who practices evil.”

The principle of the divine policy was stated in Exodus 21:12 — “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall emphatically be put to death.” Numbers 35:30, “If anyone murders a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses, however no person will ever be put to death on the evidence of one person.” Capital punishment is not arbitrary, it is a judicial process the termination of which is execution.

There is a lot of injustice in the world, a lot of violence by which people appear to get away with it. They don’t get away with it because of the court of final appeal which is mentioned in Romans 12:19, a mandate to us as believers: “Never take your own revenge, beloved, instead give place to punishment from the justice of God [let the High Court doe the punishing], for it stands written [Deuteronomy 32:35], ‘Judgment [punishment] belongs to me, I will repay, says the Lord’.” In other words, no one ever gets away with unlawful violence. If the courts do not seem to do anything about it, if law enforcement seems to have overlooked it, if the military establishment has not been able to take care of it, leave it in the Lord’s hands. He will take care of it: the application of the essence rationale in the second stage of the faith-rest drill to the situation. The justice of God which provides your blessing will be the means of resolving the problem.

Again, in Revelation 12:5 the iron sceptre is simply an extension of the divine policy throughout human history. The divine policy rejects the unlawful use of violence and punishes it judicially through the laws of divine establishment and through category three doctrine; the Lord intervenes. The iron sceptre also administers national punishment to criminal nations during the Millennium as during history.

1. The Millennium is a time of perfect environment, therefore the Millennium is a time of prosperity. Consequently, though there must be the iron sceptre of law enforcement and capital punishment to pass the prosperity test during the dispensation of perfect environment.

2. For freedom to be perpetuated there must be authority. Authority cannot exist without the sword of capital punishment: it puts teeth in the law.

3. Therefore a principle of history: you cannot have freedom without authority and you cannot have authority without freedom. Freedom and authority, therefore, must coexist.

5. The same principle holds true in the spiritual realm. Freedom without the authority of doctrine is antinomianism; authority without freedom is legalism.

6. In the Millennium freedom plus authority will provide the basis for legitimate self-determination in the perfect environment of our Lord’s rule. If there was no capital punishment in the Millennium there would not be perfect environment very long. In other words, you cannot have good environment today and perfect environment in the future Millennium without authority.

7. Therefore the volitional issue of the angelic conflict will continue in the Millennium, and people will be evangelised because of freedom and they will have freedom because of the Lord’s authority. Furthermore, people will be saved through the use of their own volition in the environment of freedom and salvation will be the same as it has always been since the beginning of history: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

8. That same freedom of the Millennium will permit the rejection of Christ as saviour without any form of spiritual or temporal bullying.

9. Freedom in the Millennium means exemption from arbitrary control of the volition. Freedom in the Millennium is maintained by our Lord’s iron sceptre, hence the iron sceptre of Christ will guarantee privacy, the sacredness of property and human life in the Millennium. Freedom is the policy of God in the creation of the human race and the perpetuation of human history to resolve the prehistoric angelic conflict. Freedom, therefore, will exist under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Millennium.

Hence the principle: You cannot rule with a golden sceptre of perfect environment without the iron sceptre of authority and integrity. Law enforcement, honourable jurisprudence, strict punishment, are necessary for restraining the principle of trying to solve problems by violence.

Psalm 2:10-12, a passage dealing with the Millennium. “Therefore you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with respect, and rejoice with anticipation. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way [capital punishment], for his wrath is kindled for a little while. How blessed are those who take refuge in him.”

Kissing in the ancient world was a sign of submission to authority. Kissing the Son is recognition of His authority and thereby avoiding punishment and discipline from His iron sceptre. The relationship between the first advent and the second advent with the iron sceptre is stated in that same Psalm in verses 7-9:

“I will proclaim the decree of the Lord [God the Father]: he said to me [God the Son], ‘You are my Son, today [first advent] I have begotten you [virgin birth]. Ask from me, and I will give you the nations [the Millennium] as your inheritance [coronation at the second advent], plus the very ends of the earth as your possession [the Millennial reign of Christ]. Therefore you will rule them [the nations of the Millennium] with an iron sceptre, and you will shatter them like pieces of pottery [capital punishment in the Millennium]’.”

You will note that the iron sceptre of our Lord’s authority in the Millennium shatters both individual criminals and conspiratorial nations, those who seek to disturb the peace.

The genius of Satan has used the question, “How can a loving God send his creatures to the lake of fire?” as the appeal to the sentence, and as a result, in order to resolve the whole issue and to demonstrate the fallacy of the devil’s argument in court, man was created. We are here as an inferior creature but possessing one thing in common with the angels: self-consciousness, moral reasoning power, self-determination, the image of God principle. That is why man was created in the image of God. Man was created in the image of God to resolve the angelic conflict.

Man is able to make moral decisions. We set up certain standards and once we determine what is right we say, “I ought to do what is right; I ought to do good rather than evil; I ought to do right rather than wrong; I ought to do this rather than sin.” And all of these concepts and functions are being observed by millions of angels, and this observation is a great court. Human history is simply a higher court resolving the problem of the fall of Satan and the third of the angels that he took with him.

The answer to this objection by Satan is found in the essence, the character of God, and a new creation was necessary to make an objective approach to the subject. It could have been pointed out very easily as it was in the original trial how and why and under what conditions every fallen angel failed, and when he had the grace opportunity, whatever form of salvation was offered, and he used his reasoning power to reject it. He was aware of his condition under self-consciousness, he was aware of the grace of God offer, and in self-determination he went negative and said, “I won’t.” That happened long before man walked on the face of the earth.

Any limitations on divine power are self-imposed to resolve the angelic conflict, to allow you to follow your own volition to its logical conclusions of failure or success. God is perfect; He can do no wrong. Satan, in his defence of the fallen angels, implies that God did a wrong thing when He created angels because He gave these creatures volition. But forget volition for a moment, it is absolutely useless without self-consciousness. Animals do not have this same self-consciousness, but the key to the human soul is the fact that it has self-consciousness. Self-consciousness, that part of the right lobe we call the conscience where we develop norms and standards, gives options in life under the principle of volition. That is what man has in common with the angels. The angelic body is superior in every way to the human body.

Everything that God has done for us is a manifestation of His perfect essence. Salvation manifests the sovereignty of God, the love of God, eternal life, His immutability, His virtue and integrity, etc. Logistical grace brings out His faithfulness. So we see the manifestations of His perfection. The pattern of angelic negative volition is expressed in two ways. First, Satan’s original sin of negative volition, and the angelic rejection of Christ. The creation of man to resolve the angelic conflict had to start on the same high note as the original creation of angels. Therefore, so as not to complicate it, there was one man and one woman in the garden, perfect provision and perfect environment, but there had to be a test for man’s volition right from the start. Man was not created with a volition locked in positive, that wouldn’t be volition.

Man and woman were self-conscious, they were aware of each other in perfect environment. They had the daily conversations with our Lord Jesus Christ which established the principle of their conscience, and they were told, not once but perhaps many times, that is was forbidden to eat from one tree named the knowledge of good and evil. They didn’t know good and evil.

Man was the ruler of planet earth not knowing, of course, that Satan had been the previous ruler because it was his headquarters. Before the earth was prepared for man’s habitation of it God took the ice pack off the earth and made man the ruler of it, which was immediately a challenge to Satan. But Satan, in his investigation of the situation, saw something immediately: Adam was not only the ruler of the world but he was the authority over the woman, so Satan realised that he had to make his attack on the woman. And he did. When the woman held out her hand and extended the fruit Adam had the function of his volition: the woman outside of the garden or Jesus Christ in the garden. He chose for the woman outside of the garden. The punishment was pronounced on the man and on the woman. The woman was made subordinate to the man, which she didn’t like, and in Genesis 3:21 she decided she would always do something about it …

“And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” He was demonstrating that He was going to give them both a great volitional opportunity and that He was going to make this opportunity available not only to them but to their progeny. The killing of an animal always correctly depicts the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Notice that in verses 17 and 19 man was to be the bread winner. In all of this development of the curse the woman would always have to face a very special volitional problem: would she accept the authority of man or not? In effect, chapter three of Genesis says that this is a man’s world. There is no way to get around it, it is a man’s world and that is a part of the harness.

The woman said in Genesis 3:13, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” The woman with a perfect soul was subject to deception. She, every day, along with the man had heard our Lord Jesus Christ make dissertation after dissertation, and yet the woman had failed. Arrogance was her first sin, like Satan’s. She sinned first. She didn’t know what she was doing, therefore the man who knew what he was doing is the basis for the old sin nature.

Verse 16, “To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow you shall bring forth children; and your desire shall be to your husband,’ a normal desire, ‘and he shall rule over thee’,” the basis for human history: the man will always rule over the woman. The woman is a responder. She is going to conceive; in sorrow she is going to bring forth children. And why does it say, “and thy desire shall be to thy husband”? Why even mention it? For the simplest of all reasons: the woman, like the man, will have her own harness to fight. The desire is put there as the harness, because the woman is going to resent and fight it, reject it. And she has to have something to accept or reject. Without that desire civilisation could not exist.

Everything that is stated in Genesis chapter three by way of judgment is not something like Satan’s great trial (and the fallen angels) whereby you could say, “We can’t do it, we are not going to do it, it is unfair.” But God gave man and the woman in that trial the same deal that He gave Satan. Satan said, “How can a loving God cast His creatures (fallen angels) into the lake of fire?” That is the great issue. So when God condemned man everything that He mentioned had to do with temporal life, not eternal life. Everything in Satan’s trial had to do with eternal condemnation. Why the difference? Because when you get down to that one verse on the coats of skin you have it. The issue was going to be a new tree of life, the cross, and throughout the Old Testament that cross would be depicted by an altar, and an animal would be on that altar. The blood of the animal would depict eternal salvation and the coat of skin would be the righteousness imputed, so that human history would exactly parallel divine history of the angelic conflict. So the angels could now watch the volition of man. Man failed the first test and from then on man would reproduce and the angels would observe.

The creation of man, then, resolves the angelic conflict and answers the appeal of Satan. To resolve the angelic conflict an inferior creature, man, is placed on one planet, the earth, possessing one thing in common with the angels as rational creatures, the image of God factor, the bona fide function of volition, Psalm 8:3-5; Hebrews 2:7. Human volition is therefore tested in exactly the same pattern as angelic volition. Angels began in status quo innocence; mankind began in status quo innocence. Angels sinned, Isaiah 14, the negative volition of Satan; the angels that followed him, Revelation 12:4. Mankind sinned: negative volition of Adam and the woman. God provided salvation for the angels, unknown as to its nature but the opportunity was there; God provided salvation for mankind. As a result angels are divided into two categories, according to Revelation 12:7; mankind is divided into two categories, according to John 3:36.

Two tests have been instituted, then, for man’s volition. Under perfect environment mankind is prohibited the use of one tree, just a volitional test, and man could only fail by negative volition. There was no sin in the perfect environment of the garden until man brought it in by volition. There would be no sin in the garden until man used his volition to sin: disobedience to God’s prohibition. In the case of the woman it was arrogance; in the case of the man it was a desire for the woman. Therefore it was switched: the woman will desire the man.

Then in sinfulness after the fall of man salvation is promised and offered to the human race, Genesis 3:15. Such salvation involved Christ dying twice on the cross, Isaiah 53:9; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Colossians 2:12. The issue is different from the garden and perfect environment. In the garden the issue was a prohibition, therefore it emphasised negative volition: no, don’t do it! But after the fall of man it is positive volition toward the new tree, the cross. Positive volition expressed in a non-meritorious way, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Faith is non-meritorious positive volition. Man’s entrance into the plan of God through faith in Christ destroys the devil’s appeal; it resolves the angelic conflict. The issue: Will man, inferior to angels and equipped with the same free will (volition, self-determination), choose for or against the plan of God, the grace of God? The solution: if even one member of the human race receives Jesus Christ through personal faith the angelic conflict is resolved, Hebrews 1:4-14; the entire chapter two; Colossians 2:14,15. Therefore operation footstool, Psalm 110:1; 1 Corinthians 15:24,25; Hebrews 1:13. This is why angels are watching and why we have angels rejoicing over one person, one sinner, who repents — Luke 15:7,10. Angelic observation is the issue. As a result of the angelic conflict, then, there is the plan of God in its three phases for mankind — phase one, salvation: faith in Christ; phase two: the believer in time; phase three: the believer in eternity. Through the fall of man Satan gained control of the world, however; but even though Satan is the ruler of this world he is not necessarily the controller, the ruler, of man as an individual. Human volition and/or free will makes man a free agent in the devil’s world. Man can choose between the plan of God or Satan’s plan: the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system. The issue: Salvation through faith in Christ frees mankind from Satanic control and domination. The exception, of course, is the cosmic system. Hence, after salvation the more the believer learns doctrine, the more he advances inside the divine dynasphere, the greater his freedom and the greater his capacity to operate independently of the cosmic system. Satan is the ruler of this world, 2 Corinthians 4:4; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Ephesians 2:2.

Angels observed Jesus Christ from the time of the virgin birth until the ascension, 1 Timothy 3:16. Fallen angels are organised under Satan’s command to resist and oppose the believer, as in Job 1:6; 2:1-3; Ephesians 6:12. Angels are watching all of us as believers, according to 1 Corinthians 4:9; 6:3; 11:10; Ephesians 3:10; 1 Timothy 5:21; 1 Peter 1:12.

The angelic conflict, then, answers basic questions: Why man on the earth? Inside of man’s soul volition is linked to the work of the cross, the new tree, and the cross resolves the angelic conflict. The victory of the angelic conflict is inevitable according to Colossians 2:14,15; Hebrews 2, because in every generation of human history there are those who believe in Jesus Christ. It answers the question: Why sin? Sin resolves the issue of phase one in the plan of God. Our sins were never imputed to us for judgment, they were imputed to Christ on the cross. It explains: Why suffering? It explains the plan of God and the royal family at the present time. It explains why we have chaos on the earth. It explains the principle that God’s blessing for the believer who advances to maturity is as valid in a time of historical disaster as it is in a time of historical prosperity. And, of course, we learn that there are two kinds of spirituality: one for the Church Age, the filling of the Spirit must be compatible with the absence of Christ from the earth. Hence the filling of the Spirit produces what Christ would produce were He on earth because when He was on earth He functioned inside the prototype divine dynasphere; He has given us the operational divine dynasphere. In the Church Age the filling of the Spirit is never characterised by emotion. Emotional stimulation can be produced by a lot of things, but not by the filling of the Spirit in this dispensation. However, in the Millennium when Christ is present on earth the purpose of the filling of the Spirit is appreciation of Christ, and in the perfect environment of the Millennium the filling of the Spirit will be characterised by emotion and ecstatics, as per Joel 2:28,29. Such emotion and ecstatics at that time cannot be distorted by the presence of demons and the presence of Satan who are incarcerated during the Millennium.

So the angelic conflict explains much: the superiority of the law of spirituality over the Mosaic law; if Christ is greater than angels then revelation through Christ is superior to that which is administered by angels. The Mosaic law was disseminated and taught by angels, according to Acts 7:38; Galatians 3:19; Psalm 68:7; Deuteronomy 33:2. That is why the doctrine of the Church Age is a mystery doctrine.

The doctrine of the ascension is mentioned in the last phrase of Revelation 12:5. This final phrase begins with the conjunction kai, translated “furthermore.” The nominative subject teknon, “child,” goes back now to the first advent of Christ. With this we have the possessive genitive of a)utoj which in the feminine refers to Mary and her son. Then the verb which brings into view with the doctrine of the ascension, the aorist passive indicative of a(rpazw which means to be caught up, to be taken up, and it is a specific reference to our Lord’s ascension. The culminative aorist views the ascension of Christ in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The result is obvious: our Lord receives a new royal title and, of course, this is the basis for the Church Age in this aorist tense. The passive voice: Christ receives the action of the verb, He receives ascension which terminates the first advent. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the ascension of Christ. To guarantee that it is the ascension we have two prepositional phrases. In each case it is the preposition proj plus the accusative. Proj plus the accusative has several meanings. It means face to face with, in the presence of, before. We have proj plus qeoj here, “face to face with God [God the Father],” followed by proj plus qronoj, “before the throne.” There is a conjunction kai between them, and it is translated “even.” So the translation would be: “furthermore her son was caught up face to face with God, even before his throne.”

The ascension is that doctrine of Christology pertaining to our Lord’s first change of residence in hypostatic union. Beginning with the virgin birth Jesus Christ came into the world, first advent, and became unique as the God-Man. He was on the earth for thirty-three years, culminating with the cross, resurrection and ascension. The ascension is the first permanent change of station. It terminated the first advent and Jesus Christ went to heaven for the first time as the God-Man. It is followed by another doctrine which is always connected with it: the doctrine of the session where our Lord was told to be seated at the right hand of the Father in the place of honour. These two doctrines always go together and actually explain why we have the Church Age.

It was the ascension of our Lord and His session at the right hand of the Father which gave Him His third royal title. That was the first time our Lord had a royal title minus a royal family. His first royal title deals with the fact that He is God: His title is Son of God. He has a royal family: God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. His second royal title is son of David: when He became true humanity He came in the Davidic dynasty. He had a royal family: the family of David. But when He ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father and was given His third royal patent — King of kings and Lord of lords, the bright morning star; there was no royal family. Therefore, God the Father who is always the planner did something that had never been done before in history and would never be done again, and that is to form a royal family on earth. Believers in this dispensation, the Church Age only, are this royal family. This royal family is called “Church,” “body of Christ,” “royal family.” All of this means that as royal family we are a part of an unusual and special plan.

The ascension and the session of our Lord at the right hand of the Father is the basis for changing the dispensations, the basis for an entirely different way of life which incorporates everything that believers were mandated to do in the past, such as the faith-rest drill, a new power, a new system related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit did not have a ministry with every believer in any past time before the Church Age. And God the Holy Spirit will not have a ministry with every believer in the Tribulation, only in this dispensation and the Millennium. So it is entirely different and for this reason we cannot go to the Old Testament for the details of the royal family plan. This is why the royal family plan is often called the doctrine of the mystery. “Mystery” means not known to those who are not in the fraternity. In the ancient world a mystery was the doctrine that belonged to a Greek fraternity and only the initiates understood the doctrine. And this is what we have. The Christian way of life was never known or revealed by the Old Testament prophets, it is a modus operandi for the royal family only. In the Christian way of life blessing belongs to the believer who advances to maturity even though he lives in a time of no prosperity historically. That is another great change.

The historical account of the ascension is given in Acts 1:9-11, (Our Lord had predicted the beginning of the Church Age with two doctrines: the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:5 and 8), “And after he had said those things, he was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And as they gazed intently into the sky while he was departing, behold two men in white [teaching angels] clothing stood beside them; and they also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven’.” This is the first announcement of the ascension. They did not know His destiny; they could not see His destination because His destination was the third heaven.

The significance of the session of Christ is brought out in many ways. For example, in Psalm 110:1 it was prophesied as the terminating point of the first advent: “Sit down at my right hand” is the doctrine of the session. The session and the authority of Christ is found in Romans 8:34. The ascension and session are related to present ministries of our Lord and divide them from the past ministries where He was judged for our sins on the cross and where He began with the formation of the royal family. The ascension and session of Christ is always related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. It is the boundary line between the Old Testament functions of God the Holy Spirit to a few, like kings and prophets, and the universal ministry of God the Holy Spirit to every believer (every believer does not have the filling of the Spirit but every believer is indwelt by the Spirit). The line of demarcation between the Church Age ministry of the Spirit and the Old Testament is the ascension and session of Christ. Ephesians 1:20, “which power [of the Holy Spirit] had been operational in Christ [in the prototype divine dynasphere], the Father having raised him from the dead [resurrection of His human body], and having seated him at his own right hand in the heavenlies.” “Having seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies” is the ascension and session of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore there is a new mental attitude mandated as a result of this doctrine. This new mandate is found in Colossians 3:1,2, “If therefore you have been raised in Christ [we are in union with Christ] keep on desiring to possess and endeavouring to obtain the above things [the doctrine given in the first two chapters of Colossians] where Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father. Keep thinking objectively about the above things [Bible doctrine], not the things on the earth [the things of the cosmic system].”

The cosmic system can only function in Satan’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom is on earth. And so inside of the divine dynasphere the ministry of God the Holy Spirit is to provide us perception, and therefore objectivity about categories of doctrine, and we have to be objective about all of them to fulfil the plan of God. In that very context where this mandate is given we are told that Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. This is what differentiates us from the Old Testament saints and gives us a far greater opportunity.

The ascension and session of Christ is also related to the celebrityship of Christ, Hebrews 1:3, where a description of the Lord is as follows:

“Who being the radiance [the flashing forth] of the glory and the exact image of his essence.” The flashing forth of His glory is the fact that His resurrected body has that uniform of glory that radiates from the body. The exact image of His essence is Jesus Christ as God. So here we have a statement of the hypostatic union with emphasis on resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“also sustaining all things by the verbal expression of his power.” The universe is held together by the verbal expression of our Lord’s power.

“Having himself accomplished the purification of sins [the cross, where He was judged for our sins], he was caused to sit down at the right hand of the Majesty in the highest places.”

In other words, taking this hypostatic union from the cross where He accomplished purification from our sins He was caused to sit down. That means resurrection, ascension and session, and that is His present status quo as the God-Man.

In Hebrews 1:13 again the subject of the ascension and session is mentioned, and this time in relationship to the angelic conflict: “But to which of the angels has he ever said ant any time, ‘Sit down at my right hand, until I appoint your enemies the footstool of your feet’?”

That is a question that demands a negative answer in the Greek, “to no angel at any time.”

Prior to our Lord’s ascension and session mankind always operated under a specialised priesthood. In Israel the priesthood was the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron, and only those who descended from Aaron were priests. By definition a priest is a man representing humanity to God. Outside of Israel there was the family priesthood: the head of the family was the priest. Abraham was the head of his family, therefore he was a priest. Both priesthoods were specialised. That means that if you at a certain period of time wanted to worship, you took an offering, went to the priest, and told him your sins. The priest had one hand on the head of the one who was announcing or confessing his sins, and that was a transferring of the sins that had been mentioned over to the lamb [representing Christ], which is an illustration of what happened on the cross — all personal sins were imputed to Christ and judged by God the Father. Now, in the Church Age, every one of us in the royal family of God is his own priest. We do not go to any priest to represent us before God.

Hebrews 8:1 — “Now the main point of what has been communicated is this: we have such a category of high priest [Jesus Christ], who has sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,” therefore Jesus Christ starts a new priesthood, a royal family priesthood; and if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are a member of the royal family, you represent yourself to God. We are our own priest and that has never been true before.

Our passage in Revelation 12 says: “her son was caught up face to face with God, even before his throne.” That broke the back of the devil. In Hebrews 10:12 — “But this one [Jesus Christ], when he had offered one unique sacrifice on behalf of the sins for all time, sat down on the right hand of God.” This verse is extremely important for this reason: When we came into the world God imputed human life in every individual case and, at the same time He imputed Adam’s original sin to that genetically-formed old sin nature so that we were born physically alive but spiritually dead. And we were not dead on the basis of our personal sins: “the wages of sin [one sin: Adam’s] is death”; “for by one man sin came into the world, and by one man death by sin.” Death by sin is the spiritual death; Adam’s sin is imputed to our genetically-formed old sin nature and our personal sins are definitely not judged by being imputed to us, they were imputed to Christ on the cross; that is the unique sacrifice.

So we have the principle that the ascension of our Lord and His session at the right hand of the Father is the basis for occupation with Christ: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame [of bearing our sins], and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” So this doctrine is constantly emphasised.

The strategic victory was not overlooked by the apostle Peter when he said in 1 Peter 3:22, “[Jesus Christ] who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels [fallen angels] and authorities [the authorities who rule the world: Satan and his demon system] and powers had been subordinated to him.” So the session confirms the celebrityship of Christ, Acts 2:33; 5:31; Philippians 2:9.

The ascension of Christ verifies the efficacy of the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross, Hebrews 9:23,24, “Of necessity, therefore, on the one hand the models of things in heaven be cleansed with the shadows, but on the other hand the heavenly realities themselves with better sacrifices than the shadows [of animal blood]. But Christ has not entered into the holy of holies made with hands, the model on earth, but instead into heaven [the reality] heaven itself [into the presence of God] on behalf of us.”

The ascension means the strategic victory of Christ and therefore the ultimate defeat of Satan, operation footstool mentioned prophetically in Psalm 110:1, and quoted in Luke 2:42, 43; Acts 2:33, 34; Hebrews 1:13. The second advent will terminate operation footstool: Christ will supersede Satan as the ruler of this world, Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15. The ascension of Christ indicates the completion of His mission in the first advent; it indicates the complete victory in the angelic conflict: it has already been won. The second advent, then, is merely a tactical victory to complete the coup de tat. Furthermore, the ascension of Christ reveals the postponement of the Millennial resign of Christ to permit the calling out of the royal family of God which gives us the greatest opportunity that believers have ever had. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you have options and opportunities that did not even exist in the lives of the greatest believers in the past. Satan can do nothing about the formation of the royal family of God. He can attack it, he can pick at it, but he can’t stop it. The royal family of God is being formed in Satan’s kingdom right now. Satan has no power to stop the formation of the royal family of God, and when the royal family is completed and the resurrection or Rapture of the Church occurs, and Satan recognises the Tribulation as the end of the Age of Israel when he is cast out of heaven in the middle of the Tribulation and comes to the earth, that is the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation.

The ascension also indicates the failure of Satan to destroy Christ during the first advent as per his plan stated at the end of Revelation 12:4, “then the dragon [Satan] stood before the woman [the virgin Mary & Israel] who was about to deliver a child [anticipating the virgin birth] in order that when she gave birth he [Satan] might destroy her child.” He did not succeed in that objective in the first advent.

The principle that comes out of this is very simple: No creature has the power to challenge the creator. Therefore when we as creatures try to challenge the creator, our Lord, it comes from arrogance, and arrogance is false power. Arrogance is blind and irrational; arrogance is self-destructive; arrogance rejects divine authority and seeks to overthrow it; arrogance resents human authority, especially establishment authority. The Satanic revolution was demonstrated a complete failure by the death, burial, resurrection, ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ; and anyone who sides with Satan by being involved in the cosmic system becomes a loser. The only way a believer can become a loser is to become involved in the cosmic system and, therefore, share Satan’s defeat even though he has eternal life. The fact that Satan could not pre

vent the ascension of Christ, even though billions of angels formed up to try to stop it, merely confirms the fact that Satan will never be able to prevent the second advent and the tactical victory of our Lord.

Verse 6 is the divine protection of Israel from the great holocaust of the Tribulation. Already there is an application before we begin: no one is going to take you out of this world until God permits it. No personal disaster, no national disaster, no conspiracy or plot of any kind can remove you from this life until God permits it.

The King James version of verse 6: “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand, two hundred and three score days.”

We begin the translation with the connective conjunction kai, translated “And so.” The nominative singular subject h( gunh is “the woman,” true Israel, Jewish believers facing the greatest of all holocaust situations in the Tribulation. True Israel follows the pattern of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by personal faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. And because of their faith in Christ, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were selected instead of their brothers for their perpetuation of the Jewish race. Hence, the woman does not refer to racial Israel, she refers in this passage to the Jewish believer in the Tribulation. Furthermore, we will see that it is referring to the Jewish believer of the first half of the Tribulation who was give the command to flee. In the second, those who were saved in the second half of the Tribulation, before the second advent, are given a different command and that is to fight. Notice that these are antithetical commands given to Jews who believe in Christ in the Tribulation. Gunh refers to Jews who believe in Christ in a future time. These Jews were evangelised by the 144,000 Jewish evangelists which we studied in chapter seven.

Next we have an aorist active indicative from the verb feugw which means “fled,” “And so the woman fled.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, it takes the obedience of the regenerate Jews of the first half of the Tribulation who follow the instructions of Matthew chapter 24 and gathers them into one entirety. If they are going to survive to fulfil the plan of God they must run.

In other words, you have to be flexible when you get into the plan of God. The inflexible thing in the plan of God is Bible doctrine, but you have to be flexible. What you do by way of application to a certain situation demands that you have a detailed knowledge of God’s plan and the ability to make more than one application in the variety of situations in this life as a believer. One thing characterises the legalistic believer: he is inflexible — about people, situations. Flexibility is extremely important. The active voice: the regenerate Jews or true Israel of the first half of the Tribulation produce the action: they ran. They probably wanted to stay and fight; that would have been inflexibility. The true application to their situation in their half of the Tribulation is run; in the last half of the Tribulation it is fight. So in application, you have to know when to fight and you have to know when to run. Your survival doesn’t depend on what your instinct is. If you as a believer live by your emotions or what is sometimes called “your instincts” you are not going to make it.

The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of their obedience to the divine instructions resulting in their preservation, their prosperity, their blessing.

Then it says in a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of e)renoj, “into the high desert country.” The wilderness or the high desert country refers to Moab, Edom, Ammon and places like Petra. Next we have a particle of place, o(pou, “where,” followed by the verb, the present active indicative of e)xw. The present tense is a customary present denoting what may be reasonably expected to occur under the protective care of God when that is related to the three stages of the faith-rest drill. The active voice: God produces the action by providing a place where Jews saved in the first half of the Tribulation can have a refuge. In other words, o(pou or “where” denotes there is only one place where the Jews in Palestine can go and be absolutely safe for the rest of the Tribulation. They not only have to go there in the first place, but they have to stay there in the second place. Once you get in the will of God there is also the staying power: two facets of the faith-rest drill. The indicative mood is declarative for a refuge for Jews saved during the first half of the Tribulation.

Then we have two more words, the accusative singular direct object from topoj, “place.” And with it we have the adverb of place e)kei, translated “there.”

“And so the woman [true Israel, believing Jews evangelised during the first half of the Tribulation] fled to the high desert country [the mountains of Matthew 24:16, or Edom, Moab, and Ammon of Daniel 11:41] where she had a place of refuge.”

This place of refuge is prepared by God, the perfect passive participle of e)toimazw, “which has been prepared.” God does not neglect the believer in time of disaster. Only the believer neglects God in time of prosperity and often loses out in disaster. By prosperity is meant opportunity, not prosperity in the sense of success. We all have an opportunity to learn doctrine, so this is a period of opportunity. We may not have this period always. The dramatic perfect tense emphasises the results of the completed action of the verb, a haven for believing Jews who are saved during the first half of the Tribulation and delivered by the grace of God in the last half.

We notice first the remnant evangelised in the first half of the Tribulation. Generally they are evangelised by 144,000 Jewish evangelists. In obedience to the Word of God they flee to the high desert country of Edom, Moab, and Ammon, Daniel 11:41. The second category are the remnant evangelised in the second half of the Tribulation and generally they are evangelised by Moses and Elijah, the two witnesses that we have studied. Instead of fleeing, their refuge is in Jerusalem and they fight the king of the north in the final phase of the Armageddon campaign, Zechariah 14:1-7. So in category #1 we have the fleeing remnant in the first half of the Tribulation; in category #2 we have the fighting remnant in the last half of the Tribulation.

This dramatic present tense refers to the first group, those who run in obedience to the Word of God. The passive voice: the place of refuge receives the action of the verb, i.e.. a haven being prepared for refugee born-again Jews. The participle of circumstantial. Then we have the origin of this refuge, the preposition a)po plus the ablative of source, qeoj, “from the source of God,” or we could translate this also the ablative of means, “prepared by God.” Generally the ablative is not the regular expression of means, the instrumental case is, but when the expression of means is accompanied by implication of origin or source then the ablative is used. So we have, “which has been prepared by God.”

Daniel 11:41, “He [the king of the north] will invade the Land of Beauty [Israel during the Tribulation], and many [Jewish people involved in the cosmic system] will fall; but [by way of contrast] these [true Israel, believing Jews evangelised in the first half of the Tribulation] shall escape danger from his hand: in Edom, Moab and the foremost cities of the sons of Ammon.” That is the place prepared by God.

Note: A place of danger is a place of refuge if you are in the divine dynasphere. No matter how bad things become historically the prosperity provided in the last four gates of the divine dynasphere is extended to believers in disaster as in time of historical prosperity. So historical prosperity or historical disaster has nothing whatever to do with your blessing. The world can be in the worst type of disaster and that does not in any way hinder your blessing from momentum. The world can be in a time of prosperity and if you are in the cosmic system then you are going to have your own personal disaster. Therefore, as a believer related to the plan of God, phase two, you make your own prosperity or your own disaster. Therefore you do not run with the trends of history. The only time the trends of history are meaningful to you: if you are in the cosmic system God will often use historical disaster to punish you, and all other believers in the same status quo. But inside of the divine dynasphere you make your own blessing; inside of the cosmic system you make your own disaster. While historical trends apply to groups of people in this world they have no application to you unless you are earmarked in this year for the sin unto death or some special divine punishment. To have a personal sense of destiny you must live in the plan of God so that you know personally that you are not going to be destroyed by historical disaster and, in fact, you will find great blessing. The same blessing God would give you in historical prosperity He will give you in historical disaster. You make your own way. You make your own failures by bad decisions, and all bad decisions relate to the cosmic system; you make your own prosperity by good decisions from a position of strength. Therefore you, from making good decisions from a position of strength, have control of your life in historical disaster, in historical prosperity, and you have a personal sense of destiny no matter how bad things become. That is true for these Jews no matter how bad things become in this greatest holocaust of all history.

Matthew 24:15, the amplification of this passage: “Therefore when you see what is called the Abomination Of Desolation [the detestable idol of destruction, the image of the dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation] which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the doctrinal one make application).”

The Jews living in Jerusalem have responded to the message of the 144,000 evangelists and have accepted Christ by the hundreds of thousands. They have spent a couple of years in doctrine and they now have a very important message. Right in the middle of the Tribulation in the temple, in the holy of holies, up goes this statue called the Abomination of Desolation or, literally, the detestable idol of destruction. It will be broadcast all over town, everyone will know about it, because a deal is made between the Jewish dictator of Israel and the Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire. In this treaty which is beneficial to Israel apparently, according to that dictator, instead of Judaism there will be an overt acceptance of ecumenical religion. When that happens an idol will be placed in the holy of holies in the temple, and this is the warning given by Daniel in 9:27; 11:31; 12:11. But here the Jews are growing in grace, they have heard Bible doctrine, they are learning many wonderful things, they are enjoying prosperity, and all of a sudden they are warned to move to their place of refuge because the wall of fire for the Jewish believers of the first half of the Tribulation is a geographical location — Edom, Moab, and Ammon.

Verses 16-20, “Then those same ones [Jewish believers positive toward doctrine] in Judea [the Tribulational State of Israel] flee to the mountains [high desert country]; let him who is on the roof not come down to pack needed things that are in his house; and let him who is in the field [people in business] not turn back to get his coat,” don’t go home to get anything; as soon as you hear, get out! “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!” It is difficult to travel under those conditions, “Furthermore pray that your flight does not occur during inclement weather, or on the Sabbath day;” traffic problems.

So this is the signal to leave; those who remain will die. The believers who go in obedience to the Word of God, making the right application, the faith-rest drill, are going to make it. The negative believers are going to die. Here is a great lesson that ignorance is one of the greatest destroyers. Ignorance is self-destructive, not only in the Church Age but in the dispensation which follows the Rapture.

When mother stops, God takes over. That is the story of the Word of God. The mother is pregnant but there is not life in the womb. No mother ever created life; no mother and father ever produced life. They produce the basis by which the human race is perpetuated to fulfil the angelic conflict. Therefore, the concept that somehow pregnancy is glorified merely goes back to the fact that pregnancy is a part of the curse on the woman for her part in the fall. But what happens after that is extremely important because human life is the monopoly of God. Only God can create human life and only God has created human life. After the foetus has emerged from the womb that human life is imputed to the format soul of the foetus from the womb, so that God imputes life after birth. The mother’s job is over after birth as far as that person is concerned in relationship to what follows — human life. And the fact that God imputes human life to male and female after the foetus emerges from the womb becomes an extremely important principle of doctrine for it basically means that God has a purpose for every person who has ever existed.

Matthew 24:15, note how these believing Jews were able to escape to a place of refuge. “Let the doctrinal believer make application”. There comes a time in historical disaster when all the doctrine you have learned in historical prosperity must be applied to the situation; when the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ demands that you think clearly, think under pressure, therefore to possess courage, for courage is the ability to think under pressure, to make application from what you have learned. That is exactly what we have here, “Let the doctrinal believer make application.” During those three and a half years of the first part of the Tribulation many of the Jews are very positive to doctrine. They learned and they understood the eschatology which they had to apply when it became history. When eschatology becomes history only those believers who are positive toward doctrine and have done their homework are able to survive.

The passage we are studying is Revelation 12:6, and this is the first half of Matthew 24, but as we examine now the purpose clause which follows it will give us opportunity to go back to Matthew 24:21. But in Revelation 12:6, note the corrected translation as far as we have gone in our study, a translation which applies to a future time but has application to us now. God has a purpose for your life. If you have a personal sense of destiny from the perception of Bible doctrine then you will recognise God’s purpose for your life, you will have a personal sense of destiny, you will have control of your life, you will continue to make good decisions from a position of strength, and in time of historical disaster you will be magnificent, first in your thinking and then in your application. You will function automatically under the three stages of the faith-rest drill, you will constantly have in the front of your mind, as you do now, the essence of God rationale, the plan of God rationale, the logistical grace rationale, the imputation of God rationale. These four are the most basic rationales in the function of your spiritual life and without cognisance of them you cannot function effectively in time of historical disaster. And that isn’t all. Neither can you function effectively in time of historical prosperity. In time of historical prosperity you will lack capacity; in time of historical disaster you will fall apart, you will make the wrong decisions because you have no personal sense of destiny. Until you understand these rationales you aren’t even in a position to make major decisions in life. The same great blessings that God gives in prosperity He also gives in disaster to those who are prepared for it through daily perception of Bible doctrine.

Revelation 12:6, “And so the woman [true Israel, believing Jews who have been evangelised during the first half of the Tribulation] fled to the high desert country, where she has a place of refuge which has been prepared by God.”

“Prepared by God” applies to you today. God has a place of refuge for you. In time of prosperity your place of refuge is in the perception of Bible doctrine which gives to cognisance of God’s plan for the royal family, the modus operandi of the divine dynasphere. But God also has a plan for you in time of historical disaster; He has a place prepared for you.

Now we move in the middle of verse 6 to divine provision. We begin with the conjunction i(na which introduces the purpose clause. We translate it “that,” or “in order that.” With this we have the adverb of place, e)kei referring to a geographical location. With us it is not a specific geographical location in time of disaster. You are safe as a positive believer living inside of the divine dynasphere. Safety is not a geographical location in this dispensation; it will be in the future. Safety is your position in Christ and your residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. So this purpose shows us that in the future, in the Tribulation, there will be a geographical place of safety, i.e. for those who are Jewish believers in the first half of the Tribulation. In the second half the Jewish believers are going to be in a hot spot where they are going to fight and terminate the battle of Armageddon.

“that there they may sustain her [Israel],” the present active subjunctive of the verb trefw which means to nourish or to sustain. Trefw is used for a mother nourishing her child, but it comes to mean to sustain or to support. The progressive present tense is for an action in the state of persistence. The active voice: guardian angels produce the action of the verb in sustaining that area, cutting it off and isolating it from any Satanic attacks, either direct or through human activity. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive, it implies a future reference and indicates that all believers will not be smart enough to know when to get up and move. The potential subjunctive is also qualified by the element of contingency: they must remain there in the place of refuge for the rest of the Tribulation in order to survive to the Millennium. Whether they remain or not is the subject of Matthew 24:21-27.

Matthew 24:21, “for at that time [moving now to the last half of the Tribulation] there will be great oppression such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world,” it will be the greatest holocaust of all time, a Jewish and Gentile holocaust but here we are dealing with Jews and therefore it applies to them, “until the present time, nor ever will occur.” In other words, this is the greatest human disaster in history.

Verse 22, “And unless those days [the last half of the Tribulation] had been cut short, no human life would have been delivered; but for the sake of the elected to privilege,” in every period of history, in every generation there is always the election to privilege that belongs to any believer. In this case the elected to privilege are Jews who have accepted Christ as saviour, who must be alive for the return of Christ at the second advent for the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel, for the perpetuation of the human race in the Millennium, “those days will be cut short.”

Verse 23, At that time they are going to be tested. You cannot make a decision, you cannot fulfil the highest function of the faith-rest drill, which is the application of a rationale, not a verse; and when you have control of your life, without having it challenged. Here is the challenge in the middle of verse 23: “Then if anyone shall say to you, ‘Here is Christ,’ or ‘There is he,’ do not believe that person.” Now you have taken a stand and you have to switch gears and refuse to believe what is false. In the application of the rationales avoid getting into some emotional activity, something that is false.

Verse 24, “For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear on the scene and will show great signs and miracles, to deceive, even the elected to privilege.” How do you avoid being deceived? By listening to people? No. You avoid it by applying Bible doctrine from your own frame of reference, your own right lobe. There is always someone standing around to counsel you. You must always choose between that person and what Bible doctrine in your right lobe says. The minute you start being counselled by legalistic Christians you have lost control of your life, you have no personal sense of destiny, and you will begin to make bad decisions from a position of weakness. “Do not believe,” it says at the end of verse 23. How do you avoid this sort of thing? The answer is found in the essence of God rationale, the plan of God rationale, the logistical grace rationale, and the imputation of God rationale. There is no substitute for these things. The whole point is that you must become spiritually self-sustaining before historical disaster, because you will never make it after historical disaster. You do the counselling you have learned and not from the false prophet.

Verse 25, “Behold, I have told you in advance.” Our Lord has said this to the disciples over and over again and Matthew remembered the words of our Lord, “I have taught you these things.” Underline two words: “in advance.” You learn in advance, you learn in time of prosperity for times of historical disaster.

We have with this in our passage, Revelation 12:6 — the accusative singular of a)utoj, “to sustain her [Israel],” the Jews who were smart enough to go to the place of security; but are they smart enough to stay?

Verse 26, “Consequently, if they shall say to you, ‘Behold, there he is out in the desert,’ do not go out of the refuge, or, ‘Behold, he is in one of the inner rooms,’ do not believe him.”

Verse 27, How will they know? “For just as lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”

The principle: Whenever there is a time of historical disaster for believers who have been positive toward doctrine it always clear exactly what they should do. They will have no problem in making the right decision from a position of strength: their perception and understanding of doctrine. No greater illustration could be used than lightning. One thing about lightning: if it is on the horizon you can always see it. If it is right up on you, you don’t see it but you do hear it. So you know when lightning is around; and, by the same token, when the true second advent occurs, when Messiah returns, these Jews will know it. It will be just as clear as lightning that you can see on the horizon. And just as lightning can be observed by all, so also the second advent. Everyone on earth will see Christ when He returns, according to Revelation 1:7. Lightning travels fast, with great speed, and so also the second advent will occur quickly, Revelation 22:7,12.

One other sign is given regarding the second advent, in Matthew 24:28, “Wherever there is a corpse, there the vultures will be gathered.” So if there is any doubt about it look out from the high desert country and look toward Jerusalem and you will see more vultures than you ever dreamed possible on this earth. The vultures will be gathered because of the tremendous destruction of the armies in the state of Israel during the last phase of the Armageddon campaign. From the high desert country the believing Jews who fled in the middle of the Tribulation will be able to see literally thousands, and perhaps even millions, of vultures feasting on the carrion of human bodies. In fact it will take seven months to bury the dead, according to Ezekiel. Those who are killed in Palestine during the last phase of the Armageddon campaign, their corpses will be strewn throughout the country. So obviously, then, it will be clear. They will know when it is time to come down. They will see more vultures than they have ever seen.

Revelation 12:6c, we have one more phrase: “one thousand, two hundred and sixty days.” That is the shortened last half of the Tribulation. It is listed by days under the principle that every believer must live every day at a time as unto the Lord. This time is 42 months or three and a half years, shortened up a little. This is the time of Satan’s desperation, the time which begins with the abomination of desolation in Jerusalem and goes to the second advent. Hence, this is the last half of the Tribulation and during this time Satan will launch the greatest attack in history against the Jews. The objective will be to wipe out all Jews prior to the second advent of Christ so that when Christ returns there will be no Jews to regather, there will be no Jews to receive the unconditional promises of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants to Israel.

There are two applications of doctrine to those surviving this great holocaust. The application is to flee if you are saved in the first half of the Tribulation. Regenerate Jews must understand the eschatology of the abomination of desolation. Once they have arrived in the place of refuge they must apply the doctrinal principle we have noticed, which is of course, to stay there and not be deceived. The same doctrinal principle is found in Exodus 14:13,14 where Moses said to the people: “Do not fear! Stand fast and watch the deliverance of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today.” Moses was appealing to them to be able to think, to use the plan of God rationale which had been so clearly delineated prior to leaving Egypt. You have to be able to think under pressure, that is courage; thinking doctrine under pressure is courage. “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” They were all whining and complaining, typical of people under pressure when they become cowards and emote. They were to wait for orders, and they would get them. Once the Red Sea parted they would know exactly what to do. This means that they would depend at this point upon the leadership of Moses.

Mobs cannot think and people under the control of their emotion cannot think. They were just a stupid mob. They were bright people but you take Jews and mass them all together with their high IQs and they are just another stupid mob. Principle: The masses cannot think. When you join a mob you are just another stupid jackass! You can’t think in mobs. The mobs that cheered Pompey one day during his great triumphal procession, jeered him before he died. The mobs that cheered Caesar assassinated him later on. The mobs have never changed, and people don’t change; and when you join a group and start advocating something, you are no brighter than the dumbest person in that mob, and you have reduced your IQ to zero. So you have to avoid crusades; you have to avoid getting emotional and joining some mob for some alleged rights. Mobs cannot think. It is very easy to join the mob because the mob always comes up with propaganda. All the cults are designed for mob organisation; all the songs and all the slogans are designed for mobs.

So what did Moses tell them? What you have to understand when you face historical crisis, just as much as the Jews did when they came to the Red Sea and the armoured forces of Pharaoh behind them were closing in: “Stand fast! Watch the deliverance of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today… the Lord will fight for you, while you keep silent.”

What is the difference between a mob and a military organisation? The military organisation is silent, they wait for orders. Someone is in authority and gives orders. With the mob, someone stirs them up and runs them down the streets screaming. God would give the orders to Moses and he would relay them to the people.

This same principle applies to the place of refuge. These Jews are to stand fast for 1260 days, or three and a half years. They were to do nothing, they were to remain where they were. There God has provided for them a wall of fire, and there they are protected and not anywhere else. By listing this time in terms of days the obvious principle emerges: believers are to live one day at a time. Psalm 25:5 — “Guide me with your doctrine and train me, because you are the God of my deliverance. All day long I have confidence in you.”

Undoubtedly the Jewish refugees were offering the prayer of Psalm 90:12, “teach us to number our days [“correctly” is added in the Hebrew], that we may achieve a right lobe full of wisdom [the proper application of doctrine].”

2 Corinthians 4:16, “Therefore we are not discouraged, for though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is renewed day by day.”

The provision of logistical grace is the sustaining factor for Jewish believers of the first half of the Tribulation, for outside of that refuge is going to the greatest holocaust of all time and for them they will know the truth, then, of Lamentations 3:20-25. Recall is the application of doctrine, and you need humility to apply doctrine just as you need humility to learn doctrine. There is no virtue in life without humility; there is no dynamics without it. “The Lord’s compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion [my provision],’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I have confidence in him.’ The Lord is good to those who trust in him, to the soul who seeks him”.

The counterpart for the royal family is found in Ephesians 5:14,15 — “Therefore, he communicates, ‘Wake up you sleeping ones [get out of the cosmic system], Get up from among the dead ones [the believer involved in cosmic two], And Christ will shine on you [life in the divine dynasphere].’ Therefore beware that you walk accurately [doctrine, thought], not as unwise ones [cosmic involvement], but as wise [believers living, residing, functioning, inside the divine dynasphere], constantly buying time [one day at a time], because the days are evil.”

Proverbs 3:16, “Length of days is in her [doctrine’s] right hand; and in her left hand are riches and honour.”

The motivation for the holocaust of the Tribulation has to do with Satan being expelled from heaven. In verse 7 we have warfare in heaven, the last campaign to ever be fought in heaven, and this is the only time that it will be of such as nature as to include the clash of soldier-type angels.

In the past we have noted the angelic order of battle. It begins with our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Commander-in-Chief of the army of elect angels, under the title of Adonai Sabaoth, translated generally, “the Lord of hosts.” The word “host” meant “army” two or three hundred years ago when the King James version was translated. So He is the Lord of the armies, His title as number one in the angelic order of battle. Number two in the order are the archangels or army commanders, and two of them are mentioned in the Bible, Michael and Gabriel. Two are mentioned in the book of Enoch, an extra-biblical source, Raphael and Uriel. Michael commands the army of angels who defend Israel. For this reason he has an additional title: he is called the prince of Israel in Daniel 10:21. In the past Michael fought with Satan over the body of Moses, according to 2 Peter 2:11 and Jude 9. Michael defends Israel in the Tribulation, according to several prophecies, Daniel 12:1; Revelation 12:7.

In Daniel 12:1 we read, “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people [the Jews in every generation of human history], will arise. For there will be a time of great distress [the Tribulation] such as never occurred since there was a [client] nation,” since the time of Moses and the Exodus, “until that time [the Tribulation]; furthermore at that time your people [the Jews], everyone who is found written in the book [of life], will be rescued [by the second advent].”

Gabriel is not only an archangel or army commander but is an officer of arms in the angelic college of heralds. He is commissioned to explain to Daniel the vision of the ram and the he-goat in Daniel chapter eight. He was sent to Zecharias to announce the birth of John the Baptist.

Number three is the angelic general staff, studied before in Revelation chapters four and five in connection with leading in the worship in heaven. Number four is called Sabaoth, and this would be the rank and file of angelic creatures. It refers to the fact that there are a number of categories among elect angels in that particular group, including the guardian angels in Psalm 91:1ff; a river of fire battalion mentioned in Daniel 7:10; the angelic armies is described in Psalm 103:21, “Bless the Lord, all you angels who are in his armies, you who serve him doing his will”; Psalm 148:2, “Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his armies of angels!” And when a pur sui vant angel announced to the shepherds the birth of our Lord he was joined by a multitude of heavenly armies praising God, according to Luke 2:13. At the time of the birth of our Lord the entire elect angelic army of angels passed in review. We have ministering angels included in this group, according to Hebrews 1:14. It is quite an extensive group even though there are only four categories in the order of battle.

Revelation 12:7 begins with a connective conjunction kai, translated “and,” followed by the aorist middle indicative of the verb ginomai, “And there was.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety: warfare in heaven. Right now there are two categories of angels located in heaven: Satan and his special imperial guard plus all other categories of fallen angels; also a great many of the elect angels. Right now there is a sort of an armed truce in heaven but it will break out into open war when God gives permission. That occurs in the middle of the Tribulation. In the meantime Michael is itching to get his hands on Satan, being most anxious to prove that he is as tough as Satan. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb which is, of course, middle in form, active in meaning. The warfare produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the last battle in heaven. This battle in heaven, by the way, precedes the Armageddon campaign which breaks out shortly thereafter on earth. Reason: Satan is confined to the earth. Today Satan is not confined in any sense of the word.

The next word is a predicate nominative which goes with ginomai, the word polemoj in the Greek which is very rarely used as “war”; it is used generally for a battle or for a campaign. Here it appears to be more of a battle than anything else. This translation is used in contrast to the angelic conflict in heaven which has been going on for millions of years and during all of human history. So polemoj means that this is an actual armed conflict between elect angels and fallen angels. The area for the battlefield is given in the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of o)uranoj, “in heaven.” Translation so far: “And there was a battle in heaven.” The conflict finally breaks out but God holds it in check until the middle of the Tribulation. One of the most important things about making staff decisions is timing. It is always better to choose your own battlefield and your own time. In that way the person who has control, who actually makes the choice of battlefield and timing, inevitably wins the battle and the campaign; and of he does it often enough wins the war.

One of the greatest blessings in life is to have good timing. There is a right time to do a right thing. You can do a right thing at the wrong time and it is still wrong; you can do a right thing at the right time and it is right. It is arrogance that motivates a believer to do a right thing at the wrong time. For example, to try to straighten someone out when it is none of your business. You may be right but in trying to do it you are wrong. God’s timing is perfect. If God straightened out the person it would be the right time; when you try to straighten out someone it is the wrong time.

We see now the antagonists. First of all, on the Lord’s side we begin with the army commander. This would be Michael and his army of angels “fought against,” the aorist active infinitive of polemew which means to fight a battle. The culminative aorist tense views the angelic battle in heaven in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing angels. Michael and his elect angels won the battle. In the Greek you generally have the winner mentioned first. Satan and his demon assault army were driven out of heaven and confined to planet earth. The active voice: Michael and the army of elect angels produce the action. The infinitive of actual result. This is the way it will happen in the middle of the Tribulation.

We have a prepositional phrase to show the antagonists with the protagonists, meta plus the genitive of drakwn. Meta generally means “with,” but it is translated correctly here “against.” Then we have the dragon, who is Satan of course, and his army mentioned. We have a dual subject: drakwn is a part of the nominative: “the dragon and his angels fought back.” We have the aorist active indicative again of polemew. Altogether it simply says: “Now there was a battle in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon [Satan]; furthermore the dragon and his fallen angels fought back.”

Note that the initiative belongs to God. Because God has control of the timing the initiative belongs to Him. From the word order it is concluded that the attack was initiated by Michael and his elect angels. At present and during to course of human history up to the middle of the Tribulation Michael is restrained from either verbal or military attack against Satan. Michael is the greatest illustration of leadership in the angelic realm because of his tremendous self-restraint. The man who controls great armies must first of all control himself. Michael is the perfect illustration of this principle. You cannot control others if you do not have control of yourself.

In Jude 9 we read: “But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said to him, ‘The Lord rebuke you’.”

In other words, this is restraint. Michael would love to tear into Satan. Even though Satan was created greater and stronger than Michael, Michael is now greater than Satan. He is in that new order of seraphs.

Principle: Even people who deserve to be slandered are not to be slandered. That is the principle of casting all your cares upon Him; that is the principle of putting it in the Lord’s hands; and that is the basis for avoiding that piece of arrogance called crusader arrogance. Even people who are wrong, even people who are evil, are not to be slandered. Why? When you slander someone else you are blaspheming God. You are saying that God is not in control.

Verse 8, the outcome of the battle, the victory of the elect angels: “And [they] prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.” This is merely the continuation of the last half of verse seven moving into verse eight. We have the connective conjunction kai again, followed by the aorist active indicative of i)sxuw which means to overcome, plus the negative o)uk, “they did not succeed.” They did not have the power; they did not win. And with the idiom we have a conjunction kai emphasising a noteworthy fact, therefore translated “nevertheless,” “nevertheless they did not win.” The aorist tense of i)sxuw is the culminative aorist, it contemplates the defeat of Satan and fallen angels in its entirety. We don’t know how long the battle lasted; it took place right in the middle of the Tribulation; but this passage emphasises its existing results in the culminative aorist. Satan is cast out of heaven, his army is driven out of heaven and confined to the earth, resulting in the greatest wave of anti-Semitism the world will ever know. The active voice: Satan produces the negative action of not being able to overcome Michael, while the suffix, a third person singular, includes the third demon assault army as well. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of what we might call the eschatological reality of a future event that happens in the middle of the Tribulation.

When Michael is finally permitted to launch his attack against the fallen angels with his angelic order of battle, he succeeds completely. He is prepared for that day.

Principle: Whether angels or human beings God uses prepared people, prepared creatures. The preparation is the perception of Bible doctrine plus its application within the framework of motivational and functional virtue. You are never prepared, nor can you be prepared as a believer living in the cosmic system. You can only be prepared by living consistently in the divine dynasphere, utilising every provision to live and to function there at gate four, getting the momentum that will take you to gate eight. There is where prepared people live. Our usefulness to God does not depend upon our zeal, i.e. like the people who are going to run out and “do great things for God.” Zeal is no substitute for being prepared.

One thing about Michael: he will have the greatest hour of any army commander in the history of the universe, and it will represent every category necessary for preparation, his leadership ability, his self-restraint, his total rejection of any form of arrogance, his ability to be patient and to maintain a high level of motivation and performance in that great angelic army that he commands. This is a reminder for all of us that there is no substitute for being prepared — which has nothing to do with zeal. You have to be able to think doctrine if you are going to be prepared. When Michael is prepared he is given a command, and he is ready. God uses prepared people, but remember: he wins under God’s orders; he never gets out from under God’s authority. No one is ever great who gets out from under authority; it destroys greatness.

Resuming in verse 8, the negative conjunction o)udh is translated “neither.” With it we have a temporal adverb e)ti, meaning “no longer.” We translate it “in fact a place was no longer found.” The word “place” is the nominative singular from topoj. This is a place in heaven. Then the aorist passive indicative of the verb e(uriskw, “found.” The culminative aorist tense contemplates the vacancy in heaven in its entirety. It emphasises it from the viewpoint of the existing results. Satan was not only thrown out of heaven but so were all fallen angels, and they are now confined to planet earth. The passive voice: the place receives the action of the verb — negative place, “no place found.” This is a part of the idiom of Satan’s excommunication from heaven. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of Satan’s permanent expulsion from heaven.

With this we have the objective genitive plural from the intensive pronoun a)utoj which is rarely ever used as an intensive pronoun. Instead, it is used as a personal pronoun, third person plural, referring to both Satan and his entire army of fallen angels. It is translated “for them,” both Satan and the third demon assault army. Then the prepositional phrase en plus the locative of o)uranoj, “in heaven.”

“Nevertheless he [Satan] did not win the battle of heaven; in fact a place was no longer found for them in heaven.”

Until this time, and during the entire course of human history, Satan has lived in heaven. So has his special imperial guard, the ones that lost the battle and went out with him. Though he was the ruler of this world Satan always lived in heaven. He wanted to take over heaven; he was never able to take over heaven though he always tried. That access is denied for the fist and only time in the middle of the Tribulation, which means that for the entire course of human history Satan has lived in heaven and merely comes to the earth at times in the ruling of his kingdom. This begins, of course, the eschatology of the devil’s desperation which is covered in detail in Revelation chapters 12-19. One of the functions of Satan in heaven today is to slander and malign believers. Our advocate is the Lord Jesus Christ who defends us in heaven.

By definition the devil’s desperation begins at this moment when he is expelled in heaven. This will be in the middle of the Tribulation. We will be in heaven. Once Satan is confined to earth he is desperate to avoid certain judgements. He realises that he has lost the battle and therefore in his desperation Satan attacks Israel in the greatest of all holocausts which is the seventh trumpet and the beginning of the third woe. The third woe is actually the entire course of the devil’s desperation. It is broken down into six parts:

Part 1, the beginning of Satan’s desperation, the great holocaust of Israel, the seventh trumpet which is the beginning of the third woe, Revelation 12:12-17.

Part 2, we meet the devil’s two witnesses, the two great dictators of the last half of the Tribulation. One is a Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire; the other is a Jewish dictator of the state of Israel in the Tribulation. We meet them in Revelation 13.

Part 3, evangelism continues on the earth in spite of the fact that all of the demons are on the earth, both those who are disembodied spirits and those who have bodies, and it is the worst time of tribulation the world will ever know — Revelation 14.

Part 4, Revelation 15 & 16. While Satan is still ruler of the world in the last half of the Tribulation, and now confined to the world, his kingdom has become his temporary jail, divine judgment is administered through the seven last plagues or the seven goblet judgements.

Part 5, Satan’s last attack on the human race. The devil finally plays his ace trump just before the second advent. Religion has always been the devil’s ace trump and in the last half of the Tribulation he has organised the greatest system of ecumenical religion the world has ever known — Revelation chapters 17 & 18.

Part 6, The second advent of Christ where Satan and his whole system, both angelic and human, is defeated and destroyed. Satan is imprisoned for 1000 years.

Satan’s tyranny and frustration will be seen in the policies of his dictators in Revelation. The consequences of Satan’s desperation will be studied in the Armageddon campaign — Revelation chapter 16:12-16. The greatest attack of Satan’s desperation coming from religion will hit the entire human race, but especially Israel, the last half of chapter 13 as well as chapters 17 & 18. Satan’s human armies of the Armageddon campaign are destroyed; Satan’s two dictators are cast into the lake of fire; and in Revelation 20:1-3 Satan himself is dethroned and incarcerated in the abyss for 1000 years, his last 1000 before he is freed for a short time. His sentence was served in full during the Millennium and once he is let out the first thing he does is start the big revolution called the Gog revolution. From that point on it is all down hill into hell and the lake of fire forever.

Therefore, the eschatology of Satan’s desperation begins with the expulsion of Satan and all fallen angels from heaven in the middle of the Tribulation and concludes with the second advent of Christ three and a half years later. Essentially then, it is the last three and a half years of the Tribulation and the last half of the book of Revelation which is devoted primarily to the devil’s desperation — chapters 12-19.

Verse 9, the result of the victory and the beginning of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation begins. We begin, as usual, with kai , the sequential conjunction translated “Then.” The conjunction gives the final results of the battle of heaven mentioned briefly in verses 7 & 8. The subject is composed of several words: the nominative singular from the adjective megaj and the noun drakwn. “And the great dragon,” “was thrown out,” the aorist passive indicative of the verb ballw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Once Michael is permitted to go into action it is no problem at all. It is a very short battle; Satan doesn’t have a chance. The only reason Satan can flex his muscles today is simply because God permits it as part of the angelic conflict and part of the options we as members of the human race, and specifically born-again believers, exercise in relationship to the flexing of Satan’s muscles. The passive voice: Satan receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of cleansing heaven of all fallen angels led by Satan himself. “Then the great dragon was thrown out of heaven.”

As a result of the victory of the battle of heaven Satan and all fallen angels were thrown out, and it indicates they were thrown out with ease. For the first time since the angelic conflict began in eternity past heaven was cleansed of all fallen angels. That is not true today, it has never been true both in the prehistoric angelic conflict and in the human history phase of the angelic conflict. This can be classified, then, as the second fall of Satan.

We are studying the phrase in verse 9 where the great dragon was thrown out of heaven. The first fall of Satan occurred in prehistoric times and was the first revolution of any creature, the prehistoric fall which actually began the angelic conflict.

Isaiah 14:13,14, the principle of this fall: “But you said in your right lobe [thought], ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God [angelic creatures], and I will sit enthroned on the mount of the assembly in the uttermost extremity of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds [angelic masses]; I will make myself like the Most High [God]’.”

Ezekiel 28:12-18 notes that same fall of Satan: “You had the seal of perfection,” he was absolutely perfect as a creature from the hand of God, “full of wisdom and perfect beauty.” He was smart enough to know that he was the most beautiful creature that ever came along and he was handsome enough as a creature to try to use his brains, his genius to his own advantage. If there is anything that destroys talent, beauty, brains, anything that can be considered worthwhile, it is arrogance. First there is the thought of arrogance and then there is the action of arrogance or the decision of arrogance. With Satan, first he thought it, then he decided it, and then he did it. He led the first great revolt in the prehistoric angelic conflict.

Verse 13, “You were in Eden, the garden of God,” he was also in perfect environment. The original sin of angelic creatures was like the original sin of human creatures, it occurred as a decision in perfect environment. Adam was perfect in beauty and in brains just as Satan was, and the environment was perfect. So immediately we know that there are three things that you can do without as far as happiness in life is concerned: a. To be a genius mentally; b. Physical beauty in some form; c. Perfect or improved environment. And yet it is interesting that people associate happiness with these three things although they are the least important things in life as far as happiness is concerned. These three factors do not bring happiness to the one who has them. Happiness is a state of mind, the capacity of one’s soul. It is the absence of arrogance and vanity, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability. Happiness is something that all members of the human race are born without. We are not born happy, even as we are not born free [we were born helpless]. Happiness is not the beauty you acquire from birth, or the lack of it, the brains, IQ or lack of it, it isn’t the environment. Those things do not make happiness. Happiness is acquired with or without these things by the amount of truth that goes into the human soul. That is the way it was with the angels.

Satan was created an adult with perfect beauty, with the greatest genius of any creature, and with perfect environment. He did not have to acquire these things, he had them from the start of his life. He was the sum total of perfection. So he made a decision. He wanted something more, God’s power. And so a new factor comes in: arrogance promotes ambition [inordinate ambition]. The lust for power has its roots in arrogance. It is much more than simply having the ability to manipulate people. The arrogance part that starts it all says, “Look at me.” It is self-preoccupation, a desire for recognition.

What is the most unstable type of life on the earth today? People when they get together in a mass. When they start striking; when they start this or that type of march; everyone is reduced to the lowest common denominator, the dumbest person in a crowd of a thousand parading or marching for some cause. Whoever the dumbest is everyone has reduced himself to that point. Why do they do it? Because as an individual they can’t attain anything so they get into a group where they think they can attain it; they are recognised in a group. But masses are the most unstable thing in the world. By comparison a den of wolves is much more stable. There is nothing more disgusting than a mass of people pulled together by their arrogance and their lust, looking for something to make them important for they associate being important with happiness. Mobs have lost their individuality, they are no longer making decisions from their soul, from the truth that they have. They are slaves to a demagogue. Mobs or masses have no control over their lives. There is no cause in the world that is worth joining a mob going somewhere to be stupid. That’s activism. Far more dangerous than nuclear weapons are mobs.

Verse 15, “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.” The first sinner of all creatures was Satan. He had everything to make him happy but he lusted for power.

Verse 17, “Your right lobe was lifted up [arrogance] because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your glamour.

Verse 18, “By the multitude of your iniquities in dishonest transactions [conspiracy], you have desecrated your sanctuaries.”

That was the first fall of Satan and that is why man was created: to resolve the angelic conflict. That is why we have one thing in common with the angels, the various parts of the soul.

The second fall of Satan comes in the middle of the Tribulation when Satan is cast out of heaven, the beginning of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. That is found in Isaiah 14:12; Ezekiel 28:16; Luke 10:18; Revelation 12:7-9.

The third fall of Satan is at the end of the Tribulation. Once Satan is confined to earth he has passed the peak of his power. His power is limited because he is confined to earth in the last half of the Tribulation, but he is still the ruler of this world. But when the second advent of Christ occurs he loses his power completely. Isaiah 14:15 says, “Nevertheless you will be cast down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit [the abyss].” Revelation 20:1-3 gives us that fall in detail.

The eschatology of the devil’s desperation is coterminous with the second and third falls of Satan. It is the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. Satan resides in heaven from the time of his first fall in the angelic conflict and he continues to reside in heaven until the middle of the Tribulation. The devil’s desperation is a system of eschatology that cannot become history until Satan is cast out of heaven and can no longer have access to that place. The eschatology of the devil’s desperation is the period of maximum creature power pitted against the omnipotence of God. Its termination demonstrates the doctrine that the creature can challenge the creator because he has the volition, but he can never win. When you are involved in a battle you cannot win you can never be happy. Born again believers as well as unbelievers in the cosmic system are challenging the creator, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why in Philippians chapter three certain believers are called the enemies of the cross. The creature who challenges the creator is a loser and losers are never happy. There is no excuse, of course, for a believer being a loser. Any believer who gets in the cosmic system makes bad decisions from a position of weakness, loses control of his life, has no personal sense of destiny, and is a loser. No greater tragedy exists in this life than to use human volition to side with creatures, and Satan, against the creator. This is siding with two categories of creatures: fallen angels and people living in the cosmic system, believers and unbelievers. Human history is the account of man’s volition deciding for either creature power or the divine power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And since creature power has lost, and always will, all creature power is related to what is false and what is deceptive. So it is always false, deceptive and minus virtue. But creator power, the creator being our Lord Jesus Christ, is always true [Bible doctrine], always gives the person involved integrity, and instead of deceit the development of a winner. So man’s volition only has power as it identifies with creator power rather than creature power. The power man possesses is no greater than the power with which he identifies. You can join the masses and mobs who are seeking glory, seeking happiness, seeking power, seeking recognition, or you can remain an individual and identify with the creator power, the system which God has provided in this dispensation, the divine dynasphere. Nothing is more important than identifying with the power of God, and this begins with the decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the rest of verse 9 we have the identity of the dragon. We have some nominatives of appellation. The first of these is o)fij, an onomatopoetic word born by imitating the natural sound of the snake. With this we have the adjective a)rxaioj, translated “ancient,” “the ancient serpent.” The serpent was the most beautiful of all lower creation and therefore was the pet in the garden. Before the serpent crawled it walked, and when the serpent walked it was the most beautiful of all creatures. The serpent of the present time is one of the most repulsive; it is not the serpent of the garden. These nominatives are in apposition to drakwn and so we translate, “the great dragon, the ancient serpent,” Genesis 3:1.

We have an articular present active participle which follows, kalew, “who is called.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun translated “who.” The present tense is a perfective present referring to a fact of nomenclature which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The passive voice: the dragon or drakwn receives the action of the verb, a circumstantial participle used to introduce a nominative of appellation. He is no called by the appellative diaboloj meaning slanderer, accuser. It is derived from the Greek word diaballw which means to slander. He is the maligner, the accuser, the slanderer. That is what devil means. The word diaboloj translated “devil” in English is synonymous is kathgor which means accuser. Devil means slanderer, gossiper, accuser. When it says in the next phrase, he is “called the devil,” this means he is the accuser, the slanderer of the brethren. We will see this in verse 10 where he is said to accuse believers.

Believers continue to sin after salvation, 1 John 1:8,10. Satan accumulates a sin file on every believer, taking cognisance of the activities of any and every believer in cosmic one and in cosmic two. The longer one stays, the bigger the file! Then Satan goes into the presence of the Father in heaven and slanders and accuses the believer. But every believer has a defence attorney in heaven, Jesus Christ, who defends our case when Satan brings accusation into the court of heaven — 1 John 2:1. The basis of our Lord’s defence is the fact that these sins which Satan mentions in heaven were judged on the cross, according to 2 Corinthians 5:21. All personal sins in history were imputed to Christ on the cross and judged. Therefore when Satan accuses the believer in heaven the case is always thrown out of court. After this the sins of the believer become a family matter for the administration of discipline.

The final nominative of appellation is the word Satanaj, “Satan” which is taken from Aramaic. Satan is the enemy of God, he is the enemy of the believer, he is the enemy of Israel. God has logistically provided for every attack of the devil.

1. Satan was the highest of all angelic creatures before the fall. He was the anointed cherub.

2. But Satan is now lower than a new order that was created as a result of the angelic prehistoric conflict, the order of the seraph. The cherub only has four wings; the seraph has six wings. The fact that Satan commands all fallen angels is taught in Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26; Luke 11:18,19. Satan is the ruler of this world — Luke 4:5-7; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2.

4. As far as human history is concerned Satan has two advents. He entered the garden of Eden to tempt the woman, Genesis chapter 3; he also returns to the earth a second time at the end of the Millennium and in a conspiracy starts the last revolution of history, the Gog revolution.

5. The devil is the central antagonist of the angelic conflict in human history, Hebrews 1 & 2.

6. Satan has an organisation to defeat mankind — Ephesians 6:10-12. Since Satan means “enemy” he is the enemy of the Church, Revelation 2; he is the enemy of doctrine, Matthew 13:9; he is the original murderer of the human race, John 8:44; he is the enemy of Israel, Revelation 12:13; he is the enemy of Christ, Revelation 12:4.

7. The devil has strategy to control nations, Revelation 12:9; 20:3; he has strategy to control the human race. In the development of the cosmic system he has found the perfect way of doing it, 2 Corinthians 2:11, we are not ignorant because we have a detailed profile of him in the Word of God.

Moving on in verse 9 to the verb of deception, we have the articular present active participle of the verb planaw, translated to “deceive.” We translate it as a relative clause because the definite article is used as a relative pronoun, translated “who,” “who deceives.” This is a progressive present tense, it denotes action in the state of persistence, therefore present linear aktionsart. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial and it is a reminder to us that no matter how bright or smart you are, no matter how much doctrine you have learned, Satan is smarter than any of us as a creature. Only residence in the divine dynasphere, persistence in the perception of doctrine is going to protect us from this type of deception.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object composed of two words. First of all an adjective, o(loj, which means entire. O(loj refers, in this case, to the entire human race. With this we have a noun meaning the world in the sense of all of its inhabitants, o)ikoumenh. In the time of the Roman empire o)ikoumenh referred to people living on the earth. In fact it was often used for the inhabitants of the Roman empire and as such it refers to mankind in general. It is translated “the entire inhabited earth” but it is referring to mankind on earth.

In the middle of the Tribulation Satan and the fallen angels are cast down to the earth, as we have noted in the great war in heaven. Again, it is repeated under the aorist passive indicative of the verb ballw. With all of his tremendous ability he cannot challenge the power of the creator and so he was hurled down. Furthermore, he was hurled down by his contemporaries, Michael and his army. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the eschatology of the devil’s desperation which is the last half of the Tribulation. The passive voice: Satan receives the action of the verb after having access to heaven during the entire period of the prehistoric angelic conflict.

Our of this verb and the passive voice comes a concept which has to do with us. What are our abilities? What are our achievements? What makes us great or better than our peers, or better than others? What is the thinking in our soul whereby we can say that we have success and others do not, whereby we regard ourselves to be above others, superior to others, better than others? Whatever it is, whatever the system of competition, if it is inordinate competition it is in cosmic one and is the basis for weakness. Being in cosmic one is preoccupation with self; being in cosmic two is antagonism toward truth; and the thing that we have to remember is that no matter how great we are or how strong we are, no matter what abilities or what achievements we have in life there is always someone better. If our happiness is based on being better than anyone else in a certain sphere, in a certain activity, it is a concept totally detrimental to Christianity. We have to recognise that no matter how good we are or how great we are someone is always better, and the fact that they are better doesn’t make them happy and it certainly doesn’t make us happy. The point is: none of us are actually strong no matter what talent or achievement we have. Therefore we must find a power greater than ourselves. That power can be found in one of two ways: through truth; what we think is the important factor, the motivation in life, the greatness; or through a system of arrogance and inordinate ambition, a system of recognition and praise, of striving and competing, and this of course is the cosmic system. All believers after salvation make this decision: basically to go with the truth (Bible doctrine), or basically they make a decision to go with the cosmic system. It is the cosmic system, of course, that is so destructive: where believers have such a miserable time on this earth, and where they lose out.

Satan was hurled down to the earth, so all of his achievement ends in being hurled to the earth. The preposition e)ij plus the noun gh, “to the earth.” In the meantime Satan, the greatest achiever of all time, is very unhappy; he is the most miserable creature in the universe and he continues to evangelise through misery. Note that he took all of his crowd with him, “and his angels [fallen angels],” the nominative plural subject a)ggeloj plus the intensive pronoun a)utoj. This is the beginning of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. Satan only has a short time before the second advent, three and a half years. Once the second advent occurs, however, both Satan and all of the fallen angels are going to be incarcerated. Satan will be imprisoned in the abyss for 1000 years — Revelation 20:1-3. Then he will be given his freedom for a short time and he will start a conspiracy on earth, the Gog revolution, and again he will be cast into the lake of fire. The fallen angels will be thrown directly into the lake of fire at the second advent, according to Matthew 25:41. This is what we call the baptism of fire.

Translation of verse 9: “Then the great dragon, the ancient serpent who is called the Devil, and Satan, who keeps on deceiving the entire world, was thrown out of heaven: he was hurled to the earth; furthermore, his angels were thrown out with him.”

Verse 10, a proclamation of victory. We begin with the sequential conjunction kai, translated “then,” and the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw which means to hear, to listen: and it means that the one who is listening or hearing is teachable; in fact, one of the most teachable of all persons in the history of the Church, the apostle John himself whose humility made it possible for him to master a tremendous amount of information. He was always teachable, he had no problem of arrogance.

The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In order to learn you have to listen; you can’t talk and learn at the same time. The active voice: John as the human author of Revelation produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. He not only listened but he listened and learned.

The accusative singular direct object is from two words: the adjective megaj which ordinarily means “great” but here means “loud”; and then the word fwnh, “voice.” With this the prepositional phrase to tell us the place from which the loud voice originated, e)n plus the locative of o)uranoj. “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven.” The present active participle which follows is simply translated “which said.” It is the participle of the verb legw, the verb that is built upon the noun logoj which means word, doctrine, principle, and many other things. This is the basic verb of communication. The descriptive present tense is for that which is now going on in the narrative. The active voice: while the author of the loud voice is not identified it seems to belong to the highest of all angels in the college of heralds. He is an officer therefore of seraph rank. This is a proclamation dealing with the defeat of Satan, an angel, therefore it belongs to the realm of angelic heraldry.

The interesting thing is that we can learn something from the one who made the proclamation. As the king of arms he has now been promoted to a rank which did not exist when the angelic conflict began. The highest-ranking angel prior to the angelic conflict in prehistoric times was Satan the anointed cherub. A seraph is an angel who was lower than Satan when the angelic conflict began but he was a plugger who hung in in faithfulness to the Word and to truth; and eventually, because of truth, he became a winner and now is ranking superior to Satan for all eternity. The message we receive from him: It pays to be a plugger; it pays to stay with truth; it pays to stay with Bible doctrine.

Next we have the announcement of the second advent and this is a victorious proclamation, but it is not the announcement of the greatest of all victories because the greatest occurred at the first advent. So we have to learn to distinguish between strategic and tactical victory.

Strategy is the military science of everything that is involved in troops up to the point of the battlefield. It has to do with logistics, mobilisation plans, organisation, order of battle, how troops move in logistics to a point of concentration. Once they reach a point of concentration and a battle ensues the movement on the battlefield is called tactics.

In strategy our Lord Jesus Christ broke Satan’s back by the first advent. His strategic manoeuvre was to become true humanity and the God-Man. As the God-Man Jesus Christ came into the world and received human life: the doctrine of the hypostatic union. The reason for all of this is because when we come into the world human life is imputed to our soul after birth. Adam’s original sin is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature, and that means that all personal sins are never imputed to us for judgment. The wages of sin is death and we are spiritually dead at birth because Adam’s sin is imputed. Our personal sins are never imputed to us for judgment, instead they were reserved for our Lord Jesus Christ and were imputed to Him for judgment on the cross. When our Lord came into the world through the virgin birth, inside the prototype divine dynasphere, in His humanity He continued to live a perfect life though He was tempted far beyond anything we have ever known. When He went to the cross His humanity alone could be judged for sin — as God He could have nothing to do with sin — and therefore He was judged on the cross. When that judgment was completed He said, Tetelestai, “if is finished,” and when He said those words Satan had been strategically defeated. That was the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The strategic victory, however, was not completed until He died physically. His death on the cross bearing our sins is spiritual death. It was followed by spiritual death: Christ died twice on the cross. He was three days in the grave followed by resurrection and ascension, and when He was told by God the Father to “Sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet,” he was speaking to the humanity of Christ. Jesus Christ as God does not sit; Jesus Christ as true humanity does, and that is when He received that great third royal title, the one which called for the Church Age. There was no royal family to go with that title; we are the royal family. The Church Age was inserted into history at that point and the royal family is being formed at this time. The reason the royal family is being formed at this time and not some other time is because our Lord Jesus Christ did not receive this royal title until after the ascension, and the moment that He sat down the strategic victory was completed. This was a strategic victory.

Now there is still a tactical victory, and that comes in three parts: the first part is anyone, any member of the royal family, who during the Church Age lives inside of that same divine dynasphere, God’s plan for the royal family in this dispensation. After the Rapture of the Church there is the Tribulation, and in the Tribulation there is also a way of life which goes back to the spiritual life of the Old Testament believers: the three stages of the faith-rest drill. And there is individual tactical victory for anyone who resides and functions, and has momentum, inside the divine dynasphere, achieving gate eight. But the tactical victory culminates when our Lord returns to the earth at the second advent. At that point Satan is overthrown as the ruler of this world and we have 1000 years of perfect environment on the earth. That is all part of the tactical victory. The tactical victory, then, begins at the Church Age and goes all of the way through to the Millennium.

So we have the announcement now of the tactical victory. We begin with the adverb of the present in general which is called a)rti, and it means “now,” referring to the present in general terms. With this we have the nominative singular subject from the word swthria. Sometimes it means salvation in a personal sense of redemption but more often than not, as here, it simply refers to deliverance and that is the correct translation here. “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven which said, Now deliverance.” The second advent is a time of deliverance for those believers who are winners in the Tribulation. The winners generally survive, a few of them are used as martyrs to demonstrate the power of doctrine, but the second advent is the time of their deliverance; they survive the last half of the Tribulation.

The first advent was swthria, i.e. salvation in terms of the cross, Jesus Christ taking our place, but the second advent is physical deliverance, and therefore the corrected translation: “Now the deliverance.” The deliverance refers to the second advent of Christ, His deliverance from violence, tyranny, religion, persecution, warfare, anti-Semitism, the demon assault army, deliverance therefore from demons who are disembodied spirits and demons who have bodies, deliverance from the cruelty of unbelievers, and the terrible cruelty of born-again believers who live in the cosmic system. So the deliverance is very meaningful.

Next comes the aorist middle indicative of the verb ginomai. Ginomai has two connotations. It means to become something you were not before (when speaking of an individual); also it has to do with something that appears on the scene in the sequence of history. In the sequence of history in the future the second advent is said to come. “Now the deliverance [the second advent] has come.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the period extended over a period of time. It recognises, for example, the succession of events leading up to the second advent, and with the adverb a)rti it refers to the events of the last half of the Tribulation. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning. The deliverance produces the action of the verb. This is, of course, an announcement of victory, therefore an announcement of proclamation for winners. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality.

Then we have the adjunctive use of kai, translated “also,” and an appositional nominative from the noun dunamij, “power,” a reference to Christ as God, therefore His omnipotence. It is also a reference to the true humanity of Christ in hypostatic union, therefore Christ in the prototype divine dynasphere. Jesus Christ returns to the earth in His hypostatic union. That is the concept of this part of the proclamation. Jesus Christ returns in the power of His hypostatic union which includes His omnipotence as deity and His impeccability as resurrected humanity.

With this we have the conjunction kai translated “even,” and then the nominative of exclamation from the noun basileia and it refers to the Millennial kingdom. It is a reference to the Father’s plan for the last 1000 years of history. God the Father plans for Jesus Christ to rule the world, beginning at the second advent. Satan is superseded and put into prison for 1000 years. That is the time of perfect environment on the earth. This kingdom is characterised by perfect environment: no warfare for 1000 years, very little crime and the criminals executed — the only occasion of death in the Millennium, and the lion and the lamb will lie down side by side.

This kingdom belongs to God, the descriptive genitive of qeoj, “the kingdom of God.” Furthermore, to understand that John is a believer we have the possessive genitive plural from the personal pronoun e)gw, and it is correctly translated “our God.” We have a personal relationship with God forever, and while the Millennium is still human history and is a thousand years in length it is not eternity. In the Millennium those who are winners in the Church Age are going to rule something.

Then we have a connective conjunction kai translated “and,” then a nominative of exclamation, e)cousia which generally means authority. It has a secondary meaning of power but the ordinary word for power is dunamij. This word really means authority. Of course, with authority goes power; that is how the Greek derives its secondary meaning. “And the authority.” But whose authority? The possessive genitive from the noun Xristoj, the authority of Christ. And we have again the possessive genitive of the intensive pronoun a)utoj used as a personal pronoun for God the Father, “and the authority of his Christ.”

Translation of verse 10 so far: “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven which said, Now the deliverance [second advent] has come, also the power [Jesus Christ in hypostatic union], even the kingdom of our God [God the Father’s plan for the Millennium], and the authority of his Christ.” Christ has authority under the plan of God the Father to rule the earth for the last dispensation of history, a dispensation lasting 1000 years. With this authority Christ’s rule will provide perfect environment so that human history will terminate as it began. Human history began with our original parents in the garden, Adam and the woman, living under perfect environment for an unknown length of time. History began with perfect environment; history will terminate with perfect environment.

In the first period of perfect environment, operation Eden, the woman was deceived and determined to destroy it. The man took his cue from the woman and did likewise. So we have man rejecting perfect environment. In the last dispensation of human history, the Millennium, there will again be perfect environment. At the end of that time Satan is released and he is going to find malcontents under perfect environment. Why? There are no solutions, temporal or eternal to man’s problems apart from salvation through faith in Christ. Perfect environment is not a solution but a status to be enjoyed by believers who have maximum doctrine resident in the soul. Without capacity for life, for happiness, perfect environment is meaningless. Environment is neither the cause of happiness nor the cause of failure. People do not fail because they come up in poor environment. People like to blame their failures on their environment and, of course, people think that good environment is a way of happiness; but environment is neither the cause of happiness nor the cause of failure. Man must use his volition to make right decisions in both adversity and in prosperity. Man’s volition continues to resolve the angelic conflict even in the perfect environment of the Millennium. The perfect environment of the Millennium requires two important facets: the perfect planning of God the Father and the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ — authority becomes a major issue.

We are responsible for our own decisions in life and with that responsibility we have the concept of authority. We are in effect, through our own volition, the authority over our lives and good decisions mean that we will have control of our lives and a personal sense of destiny. Bad decisions, of course, imply that we will lose control of our lives and have no personal sense of destiny. The difference in decisions is the difference of whether we execute God’s plan for our lives or not. It is also the difference between blessing and cursing, between happiness and misery, a meaningful life on this earth or a meaningless life on this earth. Believers are constantly making decisions with regard to the cosmic system versus the divine dynasphere, God’s plan for the Church Age believer. We have to make these decisions for ourselves, no one can make them for us. Decisions are always an important thing and decisions must always be made with a sense of responsibility, therefore under the concept of true authority.

Even in perfect environment authority is absolutely necessary. In the perfect environment of the Millennium those things which constitute freedom are going to have complete expression in every possible way. Privacy and freedom absolutely go together, you can’t have one without the other. Privacy will be sacred, life will be sacred, property will be sacred, and law enforcement will be so great that it will be very rare to find any kind of crime, “and the authority of his Christ.” Everyone will have maximum opportunity under perfect environment to express his own freedom, to make his own decisions. But it is possible to make bad decisions even in perfect environment that will destroy your own personal blessing and have an influence on others. Christ has the authority under the plan of God the Father to rule the earth during the last 1000 years of human history, and with this authority Christ’s rule will provide perfect environment so that human history will terminate as it began. Man was given a tremendous responsibility at the beginning of human history, he was given perfect environment in the garden. The only way that he could destroy that environment was to make a bad decision and in order that there might be a volitional test one tree was forbidden in the garden. Any time that the tree was touched perfect environment would be destroyed, so man and the woman had a responsibility. The man had the greatest responsibility because he had a job, he was the ruler of the world. The woman also had a job, she was the responder to the man. They had everything going for them but eventually they rejected perfect environment.

Actually it was the woman who started the ball rolling. Satan knew that when he attacked the human race he had to attack where there was no authority. Therefore he chose the woman for his attack. She had no authority as far as the rulership of the world was concerned. Had he begun with Adam and succeeded in tempting him the woman would have merely responded to Adam’s command and therefore would have no responsibility. So Satan had to attack the human race in a way so that responsibility would exist in both cases. Therefore he started with the woman. The woman was responsible for her own decisions and he attacked her on that basis. The woman’s act was simply negative volition which destroyed perfect environment for the woman and resulted in the first sin in the human race. The man who was in authority did not even have to go to the tree, he took the fruit right out of the hand of the woman. So perfect environment was destroyed by negative volition, and this was the first sin. Therefore, of course, man and the woman had to take the responsibility for their decisions and from that time on Satan became the ruler of the world; and throughout human history the man and the woman have struggled with an imperfect environment, improved by good decisions and destroyed by bad decisions — the exchange between civilisation and barbarianism throughout human history.

God set up another tree, the cross, so that positive volition could reverse what happened in the garden, and therefore “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” But all of this is under the rulership of Satan. When Christ returns to the earth He will establish again perfect environment on the earth and man’s volition will still be the issue. Perfect environment in the garden: volition is the issue; in the stage of sinfulness and evil on the earth, volition is still the issue; in the last 1000 years of human history, the Millennial reign of Christ, volition continues to be the issue, and it always starts with personal volition.

In this verse we have the words, “the authority of his Christ.” This rule will be a demonstration that perfect environment is not the solution to man’s problems, only regeneration. In other words, Jesus Christ will use maximum authority to provide maximum freedom, maximum self-determination. But there is no eternal life apart from your own decisions. The rule, then, will be a demonstration that even though God provides 1000 years of perfect environment and the authority to enforce perfect environment against bad decisions, perfect environment is never the solution to man’s problems.

There are no solutions, temporal or eternal, to man’s problems apart from salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the only freedom option that is open in a time of great disaster. Perfect environment is not a solution, it is a status to be enjoyed by believers who have maximum doctrine resident in the soul and therefore capacity for happiness, capacity for life, capacity for blessing. Without capacity for life and happiness perfect environment becomes meaningless. Environment is neither the cause of happiness nor failure. Man must use his volition to make right decisions in both adversity and prosperity, and man’s volition continues to resolve the angelic conflict in the perfect environment of the Millennium as well as the obvious imperfect environment of the time in which we live historically, and yet a time when the greatest challenge to human volition exists.

Perfect environment is maintained by authority just as imperfect environment is maintained by authority. People often fail to recognise that freedom demands responsibility. It demands humility and virtue. So the demands of freedom for its perpetuation become very important. First there must be a personal sense of responsibility and, with it, there must be virtue to make right decisions for freedom. Thirdly, freedom cannot exist without authority. So personal authority and freedom must always recognise true authority or options for freedom are lost. In the Millennium our Lord Jesus Christ provides perfect freedom for the citizens but perfect freedom does not mean that all will be winners. It simply means that they are free to make their own decisions.

Next we have the announcement of Satan’s defeat in the battle of heaven. We start out with a causative conjunction o(ti and it is correctly translated “because.” With this we have the nominative singular subject, a synonym for Satan who is the present ruler of the world, kathgor, which means accuser, a word used for a prosecuting attorney. And who is this accuser prosecuting? The genitive plural of relationship from a)delfoj, the royal family of God at the present time: “because the accuser of our brethren [fellow believers].” This function will continue until Satan is cast out of heaven. Note that Satan confines his slander and his accusations to believers only. The inconsistencies, the malfunctions, and the failures of unbelievers, since they are in his control and under his kingdom, are not mentioned. These accusations are made in court and the court convenes in heaven.

“who constantly brings charges against them,” the accusative plural direct object from a)utoj. Satan is constantly making accusations against believers.

The participle which follows is taken from the verb kathgorew. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun. The progressive present tense is for an action in a state of persistence: he will do this until he is thrown out of heaven. That means that during the entire Church Age, every time that the court convenes, Satan is always there loaded with accusations about individual believers. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb, and the participle is circumstantial. And he does this “before our God,” a prepositional phrase which is followed by the adverbial genitive of time from two words: the word for day and the word for night.

The translation from the middle of verse 10, “because the accuser [Satan] of our fellow believers who constantly brings charges against them before our God day and night.”

Then the last phrase which is eschatological does not apply to us but comes at a future time. The Greek word here is ballw, “has been thrown out of heaven.” The culminative aorist tense views the expulsion of Satan from heaven in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. No longer will Satan be allowed to accuse believers in the court of heaven. Therefore the termination of Satan’s slander in heaven begins the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The passive voice: Satan receives the action of the verb, he is excommunicated from heaven and forced to live upon the earth during the last half of the Tribulation. The declarative indicative mood is for the reality of Satan’s expulsion.

Principle: While the devil persecutes believers on earth he prosecutes believers in heaven. As long as we are alive he will put pressure on us on earth but he will also go to heaven and prosecute.

We are studying the casting our of Satan in the middle of the Tribulation and then the time of the devil’s desperation. After Satan is cast out of heaven he is no longer able to accuse believers, therefore he is going to spend all of his time in attack upon two categories: believers and Jews in general in order to head off the inevitable tactical victory of the second advent.

In verse 11 we have the triumph of the Tribulational believers under maximum pressure. There are three bases for victory in this passage. The first has to do with eternal salvation, the doctrine of soteriology indicated by the “blood of the Lamb.” Secondly, there is the application of Bible doctrine to experience, “the word of their testimony.” Thirdly, they had absolutely no fear of death.

One of the great things that destroys human function in this life is the fact that so many people are afraid of death. Apart from the Rapture of the Church death is inevitable. The real key is first of all to be prepared for death and that preparation requires personal faith in Jesus Christ. After eternal salvation through faith in Christ the next step in preparation for death is the daily perception of doctrine, for life and death are dealt with in a victorious and a wonderful manner in exactly the same way: the perception of doctrine and its application to the situations of life and situations related to dying. Once death occurs there is no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more death, the old things have passed away. At that particular point we are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord, so for the believer it is a time of great blessing, but it is knowing these things and applying these things that is important. Those who understand death and can face death without fear have capacity for life and happiness and blessing, for actually the two go together. Really, living and dying are a part of the same package and that is why it is included in verse eleven.

Before we get into the eschatology of the devil’s desperation we need to know that believers came out on the long end as far as that terrible time is concerned. Therefore, even before we begin our study there is a reminder to all of us as believers that the same blessings that are promised to believers who have advanced to maturity are promised to the individual believer in time of historical adversity as well as in time of historical prosperity. The greatness of the believer in time of extreme historical disaster is really the subject of verse eleven. We must anticipate this verse by recognising that while the devil prosecutes believers in the court of heaven he persecutes believers in his kingdom on earth.

Today Satan attacks us in two ways. He builds up a file on the believer, takes it to heaven, and slanders us in the court of heaven. We have our own defence attorney there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He not only attacks us through the cosmic system on earth then, but he attacks us behind our back in the court of heaven. Once Satan is cast out of heaven in the middle of the Tribulation, then, he can no longer prosecute believers, slander believers, accuse believers in heaven. Therefore, one option is left: the persecution of believers on planet earth, and this is intensified during the period we are about to study. No matter how intense the persecution of the Tribulational believer is there are many winners against Satan. Doctrine is greater than any adversity this life has to offer, and those who have doctrine resident in the soul and can apply it and use it on a daily basis, and those who can make decisions from this perception of doctrine, are on top of every situation and every circumstance in this life.

The basis for victory over Satan during the time of his desperation is presented by three principles in this verse: the positive decision to believe in Christ for eternal salvation; the many decisions from a position of strength after salvation — this means perception and application of doctrine and having control of your life; the personal sense of destiny which makes Bible doctrine so important in life itself. Therefore each of these three principles is related to some phase of the spiritual life.

First we see the tremendous victory of regeneration. The first great decision we make in this life in regard to anything spiritual is the decision to personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. As usual we begin with the connective conjunction kai introducing a result from what precedes. It is translated “Furthermore.” Next we have the nominative plural subject from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “they.” “They” refers to believers under pressure from Satan, the people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ at a future time in history. These people are going to be able to overcome every bit of intensified hatred that Satan can bring in their direction.

With this we have the aorist active indicative of the verb nikaw, the verb for overcoming, to win a victory: “Furthermore they overcame him,” a)utoj, Satan. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the occurrence of faith in Christ, the moment of that one decision, gathers it up into a single whole — the instant, the momentary action, that moment when someone makes a decision — and continues it forever. That is the kind of constative aorist we have here. The active voice: people in the time of greatest historical disaster execute the action of the verb by believing in Christ. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the standpoint of reality in the most difficult period of all human history.

“Furthermore, they,” believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, “overcame him,” the accusative singular of the direct object from a)utoj. How did they do it? We have three principles now: first of all the preposition dia plus the accusative singular of a(ima, “through the blood”; and with this we have the subjective genitive form the noun a)rnion, “Lamb,” one of the titles of our Lord Jesus Christ in His saving work, “through the blood of the Lamb” or “because of the blood of the Lamb.” This is the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are two concepts of the blood of our Lord on the cross. There is His physical death and there is His spiritual death. There is one figurative use of the blood of Christ on the cross and there is one literal use. In both cases it has great significance in as much as when our Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross He died twice. The question arises quite frequently whether we have the literal blood of Christ here or the spiritual blood of Christ, since a(ima is used both ways. The literal blood of Christ always refers to His physical death, 1 John 5:6. This is the sign that the saving work of Christ was completed. In John 19:4 and 1 John 5:6 we have a reference to the somatic death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and wherever the somatic death is mentioned we have literal blood. Of course, all of these passages came from the fact that the Gnostics claimed that Christ was never true humanity and the cross was an optical illusion. Therefore John wrote to refute this blasphemy and we have references to the blood of Christ which are referring to the literal blood of Christ. But the blood was not shed; this blood was still in His body.

The somatic death of Christ makes irreversible changes and they begin at various rates after the cessation of breathing. These changes include the cooling of the body, the development of muscular rigidity plus autolysis, and when we have a reference to the physical blood of Christ on the cross it generally refers to autolysis, the breakdown of the cells and their relationship to gravitation, the gravitation of the blood to the dependant parts plus the clotting of the blood. When our Lord’s heart and lung action ceased His blood began to sink to the dependant parts of the body, His internal organs. Jesus Christ did not bleed to death, in fact He bled very little.

In John 19:30 our Lord “bowed His head,” it says. But the Greek says he pushed His head forward,” so that the Roman spear would penetrate His chest cavity and not His diaphragm. As a result, some time later when the Roman soldier came by to check and see if He was dead he plunged the spear into His chest cavity. In 19:34, “but one of the soldiers pierced His chest cavity with a spear, and immediately there gushed out blood clots and serum.” By pushing His head forward as He died physically our Lord prepared His body, now dead, for the thrust of that Roman spear which would reveal not only the true humanity of Christ but demonstrate the fact that He did not bleed to death, and that any reference to blood in salvation was a figurative reference to blood, not the literal blood of His physical death.

This emphasises a very important fact: Jesus Christ on the cross did not bleed to death. After His physical death most of His blood was still in His body and due to gravitation had settled in the right and left ventricles. That is because He pushed His head forward on the cross when He died. So when the soldier’s spear penetrated the chest cavity of our Lord’s corpse blood clots and serum gushed out. John’s observation of this fact at the cross was medical proof of His somatic or physical death, therefore proof that our Lord was true humanity united with undiminished deity forever.

When the blood clots separated into blood clots and serum it was proof that our Lord did not bleed to death. If a person dies through excessive loss of blood these blood clots and serum do not form inside the corpse. Whatever blood remains in the body when the cause of death is bleeding the process of autolysis does not occur. If a person dies from excessive bleeding the blood remaining in the body exists in the same whole red form that you see when you cut your finger. External bleeding was not the cause of our Lord’s death so the literal blood of Christ has no direct relationship to the saving work of Christ on the cross. His blood is simply a sign that His saving work was completed, and because His work on earth was finished He died physically. If there had been internal haemorrhaging there would be very little blood left in the heart and the blood clots, of course, would not gush out when the Roman soldier penetrated the chest cavity with the spear thrust. Therefore the sight of blood clots and serum is not only a witness to the true humanity of Christ in hypostatic union but at the same time medical proof that our Lord did not bleed to death.

Actually, what we have in our passage, “Furthermore, they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb,” refers to the spiritual death of Christ which preceded His physical death, and the blood we have in this passage refers to the figurative blood of Christ, His spiritual death on the cross, His saving work. Just as sins were imputed to the animal on the altar in the Old Testament to illustrate the cross, so sins are imputed to Christ and judged when He actually went to the cross. The blood of the animal sacrifice is literal but the blood of the cross is figurative.

When it says “because of the blood of the Lamb” there has to be something else that is there. What does it mean? What they did was believe. Blood represents three major doctrines of soteriology: redemption, which is directed toward sin; propitiation, which is directed toward God; reconciliation, which is directed toward man — man is reconciled, God is propitiated or satisfied, sins are forgiven because they were judged on the cross, and redemption plus propitiation plus reconciliation equals the figurative blood of Christ. And that is exactly what we have. People hear the doctrine of redemption and believe, or they hear it from the standpoint of propitiation and believe, or they hear it from the standpoint of reconciliation and believe.

Remember the doctrine of reconciliation: there is a barrier between man and God made up of sin and the penalty of sin, and so on. When Jesus Christ was being judged for our sins every item in the barrier was removed so that there is now no barrier between man and God. Therefore man simply steps over the line by believing in Jesus Christ. That is the doctrine of reconciliation: man is reconciled tom God.

Take the doctrine of redemption: man is born in the slave market of sin and Jesus Christ purchases his freedom; man hears that news in the slave market and he is free. All he has to do is get up and walk out — believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ paid for our freedom on the cross and therefore when we believe in Christ we simply walk through that door into freedom, the freedom of eternal life.

Or taken from the standpoint of propitiation. Propitiation was portrayed in the holy of holies. Inside of the ark of the covenant were the three items that represented sin. Over the top of the ark of the covenant was the mercy seat, the golden throne. On each end of the golden throne was a cherub. One cherub represented the righteousness of God; one cherub represented the justice of God. On the day of atonement when the high priest came in and sprinkled blood over the top of that mercy seat it meant that blood covered for our sins, and it meant that the righteousness of God looked down at that blood and was satisfied. Christ was judged for our sins, the justice of God looks at the blood and is satisfied, the justice of God judges those sins. So that sins are covered [atonement] by the fact that God the Father is propitiated by the work of Christ — the blood of the lamb represents the work of Christ; the righteousness and justice of the Father are satisfied.

So there are many ways of looking at the imputation of our sins to Him but it all adds up to the figurative blood of Christ, the work of Christ on the cross for our sins, the saving work of Christ that provides eternal salvation.

How do people overcome Satan in the last half of the Tribulation through the blood of Christ, as per this passage? They understand some portion of soteriology, some portion of the gospel, and they make a positive faith decision: they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Once they have made that positive non-meritorious decision to believe in Jesus Christ they have joined the millions of people before them who have broken the back of Satan by believing in Christ. For at the end of the prehistoric angelic conflict Satan said, “It is not fair for a just God to put His creatures in the lake of fire”, and the fact that any creature believes in Christ demonstrates the fallacy of that position. But in a time when Satan is personally on earth and confined to earth it is intensified. Therefore the first stage of overcoming the cosmic system of Satan is to believe in Christ, for another thing happens when people believe in Christ beside the imputation of divine righteousness, regeneration, the possession of eternal life, and so on: they are immediately lifted out of the cosmic system. In the cosmic system there are two forms of demon activity: demon influence [demon telepathy, control of the mind] and demon possession, which is demon control of the body. When a person believes in Christ he is immediately pulled out of the cosmic system and out of the control of demon influence and demon possession; he is taken out of the kingdom of darkness and is brought into the kingdom of the marvellous light of His son. So this is a tactical victory which goes with the strategical victory, “they overcame him because of the blood of Christ.” The first great victory over Satan is the victory of a one-shot decision: personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The first step, then, in overcoming Satan in the Tribulation, or in any period of human history, is to personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The decision to believe in Christ is the basis for victory of the angelic conflict, therefore victory over Satan. It is freedom from the cosmic system. It may be only temporary but freedom it is. Note that volition is involved as the solution to the angelic conflict, volition is always the issue, and once again, as always in life, self-determination is the great issue. You have in your soul, no matter how weak you are, free will. You have human volition and that human volition can make decisions linking up with the power of God and therefore breaking the power of Satan in the life. This, then, is the beginning of victory in the life; this breaks the back of the ruler of this world. Think of it: there is no system of strength, no system of personality dynamics, no system of power on this earth whereby we can cope with the super creature, Satan, who is the ruler of this world. Therefore we must recognise our weakness and link our weakness with God’s strength, and the linking of our weakness with God’s strength comes in three phases of a system.

From the time of our birth we are under the laws of divine establishment which is a divine system of authority to protect us so that we can reach adulthood and make that great decision, the decision to believe in Christ. The way of salvation is a system in itself: God provides the salvation and we simply respond in a non-meritorious way by believing in Christ. And then the third part of the system is God’s plan for the believer in time, and while in our dispensation it has to do with the divine dynasphere certain aspects of the divine dynasphere carry over.

Spirituality in the Old Testament was primarily the three stages of the faith-rest drill, after perception of doctrine, and they did have a system of spiritual growth through perception and they did have the attainment of maturity. It is not exactly the same as the divine dynasphere for God the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament did not indwell believers — only a few, to give them special power for a special mission. The same thing is true of the Tribulation: you go back to Old Testament spirituality. But there is a system and that system is the basis for overcoming Satan. Satan is overcome when unbelievers use the laws of divine establishment to stay out of the cosmic system, but if they get into the cosmic system and stay there the decision to believe in Christ immediately pulls them out of the cosmic system and puts them back into God’s plan plus giving them eternal life. Then God’s plan for the believer in every dispensation of history is of such a nature to give tactical victory over Satan in time. But it all begins at the cross and the reason that we get to the cross, the reason that there is civilisation, the reason that client nations exist, the reason that people have freedom to hear the gospel, freedom to be evangelised, freedom to accept or reject Christ as saviour — is based upon the laws of divine establishment and the authority pertaining to it.

The decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is the thing that breaks the back of Satan. The next decision is related to Bible doctrine. Once a person accepts Christ as saviour he is now in a new combat, he is on the side of the Lord in the angelic conflict. He has, again, options but instead of a one-shot option he has daily options, developing the principle that good decisions result in great blessing; bad decisions, the antithesis. The person who constantly makes good decisions from a position of strength has control of his life and has a personal sense of destiny which is absolutely necessary for historical disaster, and there is no greater historical disaster than the last three and a half years of the Tribulation: the time when Satan and all fallen angels are confined to the earth and cosmic evangelism is at its strongest point. All of that demands that good decisions be made from a position of strength, and believers do it, and that becomes the victory of Bible doctrine.

We continue in the middle of verse 11 with the connective conjunction kai, “and,” followed by a prepositional phrase: dia plus the accusative singular of logoj. Logoj here means doctrine, and it is correctly translated, “and because of doctrine.” Next comes the ablative of means singular from the noun marturia. The ablative is not the regular case for expressing means, the instrumental is, but it may be used when the expression of means is accompanied by the implication of origin or source. The doctrine or logos is the origin or the means of their testimony during the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. “Because of doctrine,” and we have to supply a word because this is elliptical, “applied by means of their testimony. The word “their” is the possessive genitive of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “their testimony.” “Because of doctrine applied by their testimony” gives us our second victory.

Translation: “Furthermore, they overcame him [Satan] because of the blood of the lamb [1st victory: the saving work of Christ on the cross. The victory is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ] and because of the doctrine applied by means of their testimony [second victory].”

Three things are necessary to glorify the Lord in any period of time. First of all a personal sense of destiny from the inculcation of Bible doctrine, requiring hundreds and even thousands of positive decisions. Secondly, constant decisions from a position of strength and the application of doctrine to experience. Thirdly, the believer must remain in control of his life through the avoidance of the cosmic system.

Principle: Perception and application of doctrine during the last half of the Tribulation produces all three factors and becomes the basis for the second victory over Satan. In the last half of the Tribulation abnormal circumstances demand the intensification of inculcation of doctrine, daily application in the time of the devil’s desperation, and therefore momentum tests are intensified. The testimony of the winner in the last half of the Tribulation is the application of doctrine to abnormal circumstances of historical disaster. But by way of understanding the principle today, the victory over Satan on the part of the believer is the application of doctrine. A lot of people are really confused about what constitutes reward at the judgment seat of Christ. It has nothing to do with witnessing for Christ or any form of Christian production or works. This is a falsification and distortion of Bible doctrine. You don’t have to hustle and work for God in order for reward. The result of becoming a mature believer is production but production is not the means.

The testimony of the winner in the last half of the Tribulation is the person who has spiritual growth under these abnormal circumstances — spiritual growth through perception of doctrine. The perception of doctrine leads to the application of doctrine. One of the great doctrines that will be applied with great results is the doctrine of the physical death of the believer. Because of the shortness of this period every minute counts and the believer cannot afford to miss even one lesson taught by Moses or Elijah or angels or other sources of communication of doctrine in the last half of the Tribulation. Historical trends will be delineated by means of eschatology, especially the eschatology of the devil’s desperation.

Proverbs chapter eight, probably more than any other passage, dramatises the situation with regard to doctrine in any dispensation, but above all the last half of the Tribulation — the personification of Bible doctrine and its implication for our lives.

Verse 1, “Does not doctrine cry out,” doctrine has an invitation. Cry out here means not to be in pain but to be inviting you. As a believer doctrine invites you, “Does not perception of doctrine raise her voice?” From now on the feminine pronoun, third person, refers to doctrine.

Verse 2, “She [doctrine] takes her stand on the high places by the road, where paths meet,” doctrinal teaching at intersections where people come together and form crowds.

Verse 3, “She [doctrine] extends her invitation beside the gates of the entering of the city” — where the news media hang out! In other words, places for communication, “At the entrance [city auditorium] of the doors she cries out.”

Verse 4, “To you, O mankind, I communicate [doctrine is speaking], and I lift my voice to all the human race.”

Verse 5, “You who are ignorant [believers], gain knowledge of doctrine; and you fools [negative believers], understand doctrine [before it is too late].”

Verse 6, “Listen, for I [doctrine] shall communicate noble things [honour code]; and the opening of my lips will communicate integrity.”

Verse 7, “For my mouth will communicate truth; evil is an abomination to my lips [doctrine does not encourage evil or anything related to the cosmic system].”

Verse 8, “Integrity shall be all the communication of my mouth; nothing is twisted or perverted.”

Verse 9, “All of them [doctrinal categories] shall be integrity to the one who is caused to understand, and accurate to those who find doctrine.”

Verse 10, “Take my instruction [doctrine is more valuable than anything in life], and not silver, and knowledge of doctrine rather than finest gold.” [Your scale of values changes when you begin to grow in grace. It isn’t the material standards of values that are important, it is doctrine that is important]

Verse 11, “Doctrine is more valuable than jewellery; and all desirable things cannot be compared with her [doctrine]”.

Verse 12, “I, doctrine, live with wisdom [if you have doctrine you can apply it; wisdom is the application of doctrine], and I gain knowledge of man’s thinking [if you want to understand people, learn doctrine]”.

Verse 13, “The respect for the Lord is to hate evil; interlocking system of arrogance, also the evil modus operandi [function], therefore I [doctrine] hate the perverted mouth.”

Verse 14, “Counsel is mine [doctrine is all the counsel you need] and sound wisdom; I [doctrine] am understanding, integrity belongs to me.”

Verse 15, Those who are successful in life and in positions of authority, like kings: “By me [doctrine] kings reign, and rulers decree righteousness [make laws that are just].”

Verse 16, “By me [doctrine] both rulers and nobles govern, including all righteous [honourable] judges.”

Verse 17, “I [doctrine] love those who love me; and all those who diligently seek me [positive volition] will find me.”

Verse 18, Material blessing, part of the supergrace blessing that comes to the believer who advances to maturity. “Riches and honour are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness.”

Verse 19, “My production is better than gold, even pure gold, furthermore my profit surpasses choicest silver.”

Verse 20, “I [doctrine] march in the way of honour [integrity], in the middle of the road of integrity.”

Verse 21, “Giving wealth to those who love me [if God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted], that I may fill their treasuries.” Supergrace blessings imputed to the mature believer overflow under the principle of blessing by association.

Verse 22, “The Lord possessed me [doctrine] at the beginning of his plan, before his works at the beginning of time.”

Verse 23, “From eternity past I [doctrine] was established [doctrine is the mind of Christ, therefore doctrine pre-existed all creatures], from the beginning, before the world began.”

Verse 24, “Therefore before oceans I was born, before there were springs abounding with water.

Verse 25, “Before mountains were placed on the earth, before the hills I was born”.

Verse 26, “Before he made the earth and places outside [space outside of earth], or any of the dust of the earth.”

Verse 27, “When he established the heavens, I [doctrine] was there, when he decreed boundaries for the oceans I was there.”

Verse 28, “When he made form skies above, and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,

Verse 29, “When he set the sea and its boundary, so that water should not overstep his command, then I [doctrine] was with him [Christ].”

Verse 30, “I [doctrine] was his delight day by day, stimulated always in his presence.”

Verse 31, “Rejoicing in the earth, his world in fact, my delight was in the sons of Adam.”

Therefore Bible doctrine must be the life of the believer, says verse 32 and following:

Verse 32, “Now therefore, my sons, listen to me [to doctrine]: happinesses to those who guard my ways.”

Verse 33, “Concentrate on the communication of doctrine and become wise, and do not reject it.”

Verse 34, “Happinesses to the one who listens to me [doctrine], guarding daily at my gates, waiting at my door posts.”

Verse 35, “For he who finds me [doctrine] finds capacity for life, furthermore he receives grace from the Lord.”

Verse 36, “But he who misses the mark with me [doctrine] injures his own soul [we are also the products of our own negative volition toward doctrine]; all those who hate me love the sin unto death.”

Note: The first half of verse 36 talks about residing in cosmic one; the last half of the verse talks about residing in cosmic two. “He who misses the mark with me injures his own soul.” We are talking about believers who are preoccupied with self in the twelve gates of interlocking systems of arrogance. They are preoccupied with self, they are not anti-doctrine at all, they just don’t have time for doctrine. There are too many other things that they consider more important. This is called grieving the Holy Spirit, and the believer who grieves the Holy Spirit isn’t against doctrine, he is just not going to be consistent in his intake of doctrine.

When you get over to cosmic two you have antagonism to doctrine — the nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred, or quenching the Spirit. That is mentioned in the last half of the verse, “all those who hate me [doctrine] love the sin unto death,” eventually they will have to be removed from this life.

Basically, that is the concept we have in verse 11 of Revelation chapter 12. There are two parts to the angelic conflict as it extends into history. There is the strategic angelic conflict and there is the tactical side of the angelic conflict. When our Lord died on the cross that was the strategic victory; when our Lord returns there will be the second advent and the tactical victory. In the meantime, anyone who believes in Christ is a winner strategically in the angelic conflict so that in effect all believers are strategical victors. But it is the tactical victory that is in view with Bible doctrine, it is the believer in time, phase two of God’s plan and daily attitude toward Bible doctrine in both perception and application becomes the tactical victory. So you can be a strategic winner and a tactical loser. A strategic winner has eternal life but in eternity he doesn’t have anything to show for the time he spent on earth. And what this second phrase is emphasising is the importance of being a tactical winner in time.

What this second phrase, “they overcame him … because of the doctrine applied by means of their testimony” is emphasising is the importance of being a tactical winner in time, the importance of growing in grace, the importance of daily perception of doctrine, the importance of application of doctrine to the eight momentum tests that every believer must pass before he becomes a winner. That is why we are left on this earth: to become winners. The tactical winners are the ones who are going to be decorated with the order of the morning star, the various crowns; they are going to be the ones who will have the uniform of glory, the ones who are going to be on the honours list so that while the Tribulation is occurring on earth they will be presented in the court of heaven. Not all believers will be presented in the court of heaven, only those on the honours list. Then, at the second advent, those who are tactical winners are going to rule a nation in this world. There are going to be billions of Christians in heaven but there may be less than a million that are winners and are going to have all of these tremendous eternal advantages. The difference is your daily decision with regard to Bible doctrine.

There is no equality in heaven. Heaven in a perfect place and a perfect place is based upon self-determination. You get into heaven by non-meritorious self-determination, i.e.. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” That is a one-shot decision and that is your strategic victory, but after that tactically you have to make a lot of decisions. The decisions you make on earth determine your status quo in eternity. No one can do it for you, and if you are bullied into making these decisions then you are not going to last, only until the bully is gone because you are leaning on the bully for a crutch and you can’t do that. It has to come from you. You must be self-motivated for self-determination, for tactical victory. Tactical victory is strictly your business.

If you have the tactical victory it wipes out fear in your life. The you can fasten your seat belt for the great disaster that is coming, ride it out, see it through, and watch it with fascination.

Self-determination is destructive without doctrine for you have no information on which to make a decision from a position of strength. But the person who in self-determination is positive toward doctrine and a tactical winner is not going to lose out. He is going to gain no matter what the historical circumstances may be.

One of the first signs of becoming a winner is that you are not afraid of death. Death has no fear for the mature believer, the one who has tactical victory. Believers who are losers are always afraid of death and Satan has the power to give them fear of death because it is one of his principles inside of the cosmic system.

The victory over maximum pressure starts with the intensive use of the conjunction kai, “in fact.” It goes to the aorist active indicative of the verb a)gapaw plus the negative o)uk, “they do not love.” The culminative aorist tense views the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The existing results include the Lord, Bible doctrine, being the most important things in your life. The active voice: Tribulational believers who are tactical winners produce the action. The declarative indicative mood represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun yuxh, referring to the soul. With the possessive genitive from a)utoj, “their life.” Then we have an improper preposition a)xri plus qanatoj, “to the point of death.” The living Word, Jesus Christ, and the written Word, Bible doctrine, were more important than life itself. They were strategic winners because they had believed in Christ; they were tactical winners because they had advanced to maturity in a very difficult time.

This passage does not imply martyrdom as such (In certain cases, of course, it would include it), it really deals with right priorities. Doctrine must be more important than life itself. When doctrine is more important than life itself life itself becomes wonderful and you have no fear of death. When reality is found in Bible doctrine instead of life the reality of life is harnessed to the greatest power in human history, the Word of God. Bible doctrine must be more real than the reality of historical adversity and pressure. In the time of Satan’s desperation only Bible doctrine can cope with the realities of terrible historical disaster, and after that, persecution. The believer in the cosmic system will avoid reality and the reality of historical disaster will fall down upon him with great pressure. The believer with doctrine and right priorities will cope with the realities of historical disaster.

Translation: “Furthermore they overcame him [Satan in the time of his desperation] because of the blood of the Lamb [strategic victory, the saving work of Christ on the cross], because of doctrine applied by means of their testimony [tactical victory: perception and application of doctrine]; in fact, they did not love their life to the point of [being afraid of] death.”

There are two categories if winners in the Christian way of life: the strategic winner and the tactical winner. Every Christian is a strategical winner. The one who believes in Christ is a strategical winner in the angelic conflict. The result is eternal life and a resurrection body. The tactical winner is the believer who resides, functions and continues his momentum inside the divine dynasphere. He is the one who achieves gate eight. The fact that every believer is a strategic victor is simply based on the saving work of Christ and one decision, but it is the hundreds and even thousands of decisions after salvation that produces the tactical winner. So, again, the believer in Christ is a strategic winner with the potential of being a tactical winner in the angelic conflict. In other words, it is possible and God has so designed the Christian way of life, His plan, so that we can be a double winner. To be a double winner the believer must make consistently good decisions from a position of strength and remain inside the divine dynasphere, recover the divine dynasphere as quickly as possible. The believer who is only a strategic winner becomes a tactical loser. To be a tactical loser means to reside and function inside the cosmic system. The believer who is both a strategic and tactical winner will receive great blessings in time and greater rewards at the judgment seat of Christ.

2. The tactical winner glorifies Christ through his advance to maturity inside the divine dynasphere.

3. The strategic winner receives a resurrection body and eternal life but loses eternal reward.

4. The tactical winner in addition receives supergrace blessings in time plus eternal reward in the eternal state.

5. The strategic winner is supported by logistical grace while the tactical winner is supported by both logistical grace and supergrace blessing.

6. Therefore, God’s grace provision for the strategic winner is the saving work of Christ on the cross plus, of course, logistical grace support, plus maximum divine discipline in time. The strategic winner only, lives in the cosmic system, so he gets maximum divine discipline.

7. However, God’s grace provision for strategic and tactical winners adds the provision of logistical grace, supergrace blessings, plus momentum testing, and his suffering is for blessing.

8. Again, all believers are strategic winners by virtue of having believed in Christ, so all believers are strategic winners in the angelic conflict because of the saving work of Christ on the cross. 9. Only the unbeliever is a strategic loser in the angelic conflict, therefore the unbeliever will share the destiny of Satan forever and ever, and he lives under Satan’s system in time which is the cosmic system.

10. The carnal or cosmic believer, then, is a strategic winner but a tactical loser in the angelic conflict. We are left on this earth after salvation to be a tactical winner.

11. The believer who is both a strategic and tactical winner has made thousands of decisions from a position of strength, generally has personal control of his life and has a personal sense of destiny from the inculcation of Bible doctrine and its application to his circumstances.

12. In addition the tactical winner possesses an edification complex in time plus the uniform of glory to go with his resurrection body in eternity.

We as believers have one certain victory which is strategic: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” That is the strategic victory. When you believed in Christ that moment is the moment of strategic victory for you. Then there is the reason why we are left behind, and that is the tactical victory. The grace provision for the strategic winner is the saving work of Christ; the grace provision for the tactical winner is the divine dynasphere. All believers are strategic winners but not all believers are tactical winners. The tactical winners are the ones who advance to maturity.

1. Under strategic victory we have the one-shot decision, faith in Christ. This produces a strategic winner in the angelic conflict in contrast to the unbeliever who is a loser in the angelic conflict. In the tactical victory we have a contrast. Instead of a one-shot decision you have to make thousands of positive decisions with regard to the plan of God, the system, positive decisions toward the plan of God which is the divine dynasphere, and the Word of God which is Bible doctrine. This produces a tactical winner. You make a lot of decisions with regard to all of the gates. You make decisions with regard to re-entering gate one, a rebound decision; you make decisions with regard to the use of the faith-rest drill, the function of gate two; you make decisions with regard to authority, enforced humility leading to genuine humility; you make decisions every day with regard to Bible doctrine, perception, and decisions with regard to application. This results in gate five, your motivating virtue toward God; gate six, your functional virtue toward man; gate seven, the basis for all momentum is the eight momentum tests; and gate eight, the winner’s gate, tactical victory.

2. Under strategic victory Christ is glorified by one decision, the positive decision to believe in Christ; but on the tactical victory side Christ is glorified by many decisions.

3. Under strategic victory we have a result, eternal life plus a resurrection body, but no eternal reward; whereas on the tactical victory side, for those who have it, the result is eternal life, a resurrection body, plus the uniform of glory with the resurrection body, plus fantastic blessings in time and eternal rewards. So for the believer who wins the tactical victory there is a phenomenal system of blessing in time, supergrace blessings, but even a greater system of reward and blessing in eternity. That is, reward above and beyond what the believer with only the strategic victory possesses.

4. Under strategic victory the strategic victor who fails to advance lives in the cosmic system, and he fears death; whereas on the other side, the tactical winner lives in the divine dynasphere and has no fear of death.

5. The strategic victor is sustained in time by logistical grace only whereas on the tactical victory side he is sustained in time by both logistical and supergrace blessings.

6. The cosmic believer is a strategic winner but a tactical loser; the believer in the divine dynasphere is both a strategic and tactical winner, a dual winner instead of just a single winner.

7. That means that the strategic victor glorifies God only in the eternal state whereas the tactical victor glorifies God in time and in a special way in eternity.

8. The strategic victor only is disciplined in time. His life is characterised by great frustration and failure, and he is always mixed up and confused, never gets straightened out and jumps from one thing to another; whereas on the tactical side all suffering is for blessing, he is oriented, he knows what he is doing, he has control of his life.

9. The strategic victor only makes wrong decisions after salvation. His life is characterised by wrong decisions whereas the life of the tactical victor is characterised by right decisions. Wrong decisions means that while he has eternal life he is going to be low on the totem pole in eternity.

Ephesians 4:11-16, a concept we have to constantly remember. You can’t have a tactical victory without a pastor, a right pastor, a consistent teacher of the Word of God. And you have to be consistent in exposing yourself to his teaching. One of the differences between a strategic winner only and a tactical winner is the fact that a tactical winner always finds a right pastor and sticks, whereas the strategic winner only is running around looking for the right pastor, looking for something to soup up his life and compensate for his discipline, his misery, his frustration, and his confusion.

Revelation 12:12 is where we actually begin the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. Here is where we begin the great holocaust against the Jews. This is also the seventh trumpet and the beginning of the third woe. The seventh trumpet is the holocaust against the Jews but the third woe includes the entire eschatology of the devil’s desperation and starts at verse 12 and goes to chapter 20, verse 3.

The contrast between heaven and earth after the expulsion of Satan is the general subject of verse 12. We begin with the celebration in heaven. Once Satan is cast out it is like cleaning the stables. The stench of the fallen angels in heaven since prehistoric times down to the Tribulation is removed. Therefore we begin with dia plus the accusative of the immediate demonstrative o(utoj, literally translated “Because of this,” but it is an idiom and it should be translated “For this reason.”

Next we have a present middle imperative of the verb e)ufrainw which means to be glad, to rejoice. Actually it is not the usual word for rejoice [xairw], this word means more to celebrate, it connotes jubilation over God’s eschatological act of judgment. He has thrown Satan and all fallen angels out of heaven, “For this reason keep celebrating.” The progressive present tense signifies the action in a state of persistence, present linear aktionsart. The middle voice is a dynamic middle emphasising the part taken by the subject in the action of the verb, and it refers to all of the elect angels in heaven plus all of the believers in heaven at that time, some have resurrection bodies, like the Church, some have interim bodies waiting for their resurrection. All the Old Testament saints are in interim bodies waiting for the second advent when they will have their resurrection. But everyone is included in the celebration; everyone is qualified to celebrate. The interim body is designed for great happiness. The imperative mood is the imperative of permission in which the imperative complies with inclination on the part of the object of the command. Note that this also implies no gloating. The elect angels, the royal family of God (Church Age believers), the Old Testament saints, celebrate in the purest and most virtuous sense of the word. There is no gloating.

If it is true that there is no gloating in heaven then it is also a part of the plan of God. There is no place for gloating at any time, under any circumstances, for the born again believer to gloat. To the extent that you gloat you have not only transferred from the divine dynasphere to the cosmic system, you have not only committed a sin, but the very content of gloating eliminates virtue, honour, integrity in the life. Locked-in gloating is a sign of instability and unhappiness in your life. Avoid gloating like the plague for gloating is a plague guaranteed to destroy your happiness. Gloating is the destroyer of virtue.

“For this reason keep on celebrating.” To whom is this addressed? The vocative plural of o)uranoj, “O heavens.” The plural of the vocative indicates three categories. First of all the elect angels, those who entered into an eternal relationship with God during the course of the prehistoric angelic conflict. Secondly, believers with resurrection bodies. In the middle of the Tribulation this will be believers of the Church Age. The third category is believers in an interim body, the Old Testament saints and the Tribulational martyrs of the first half of the Tribulation. This is a great celebration because everyone involved has capacity to celebrate without arrogance, without gloating; to celebrate in the purest, finest sense of the word; to celebrate with total capacity for happiness. This celebration in heaven is coterminous with the seventh trumpet, the beginning of the third woe on earth, the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The vocative plural refers only to those in heaven. There will be happiness on the part of certain believers in the last half of the Tribulation who have tactical victory.

Next we have the articular present active participle from the verb skhnow. The word is derived from skhnh which means tent, often referring to the human body. Skhnow means to bivouac, it means to be living in a tent in heaven. Hence, it refers specifically to the believers in the interim body. In John 1:14 this verb is used for Christ tabernacling on earth in the first advent. Here, of course, it refers to the fact of Tribulational martyrs and also the Old Testament saints, “and you who tabernacle [live in an interim body].” The definite article is where we get the words “you who.” The perfective present tense is for what comes to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. Since the moment of their physical death the Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs have been living in the state of perfect happiness in the interim body. The active voice: the Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs produce the action. The participle is circumstantial, plus the fact that the action of the present participle is coterminous with the action of the main verb.

“For this reason be celebrating you heavens,” that is the elect angels in heaven plus the Church Age believers in resurrection bodies, and Old Testament believers plus Tribulational martyrs who live temporarily in the interim body. While there is celebration in heaven there is the greatest historical disaster in human history on earth, the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. It begins here when the third woe which begins with the seventh trumpet is mentioned. Then we have the Greek onomatopoetic word o)uai, the way they said woe. The word is used for extreme pain, nausea, etc. It says woe to planet earth first because the planet earth is described as both land and sea. The second woe was the sixth trumpet, Revelation 9:13-21; the third woe begins at Revelation 12:12 with the seventh trumpet. The seventh trumpet is in 12:12-17. The third woe covers the time from Satan’s expulsion from heaven to his imprisonment in Revelation 20:1-3. While the third woe and the seventh trumpet occur simultaneously they are not the same. The seventh trumpet is the great holocaust of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation. The third woe includes this great wave of anti-Semitism but includes all of the events in the last half of the Tribulation.

So we have “Woe,” and the woe is directed according to two accusatives, both are direct objects: the first is the word gh which means “earth,” and with it, qalassa, referring to the sea. It should be translated, “Woe to both land and sea.” That means woe to the planet earth. This is the third woe of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation.

We now get a brief explanation with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, translated “because.” Then we have our subject, the nominative singular from diaboloj, “because the devil.” Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb katabainw “because the devil has come down.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist viewing expulsion of Satan from heaven in its entirety, but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results, the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The active voice: the devil or Satan produces the action of the verb, he is thrown out of heaven; he has come down. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that never again will Satan or the fallen angels, the demons, ever be in heaven. In other words, that period of time from the expulsion of Satan from heaven to the second advent now begins. It is called the third woe or the eschatology of the devils’ desperation.

Next we have a prepositional phrase, proj plus the accusative of the personal pronoun su, and it is translated “face to face with you.” The expulsion of Satan from heaven results in levelling him to the place of human history. He is confined now to human history; he is out of the prehistoric phase. He therefore is very frustrated.

When you have made your own mistakes through your own bad decisions it is inevitable that there will be a certain amount of self-justifying frustration, the attempt to justify yourself because all of your house of cards has tumbled down and instead of blaming it on yourself you blame it on others. Arrogance always blames it on others. This is the difference between arrogance and humility in disaster. The person who has made some bad decisions and is now in the state of humility takes the responsibility for his own decisions, but the person who is involved in the cosmic system is arrogant and the same disasters resulting from his bad decisions he always blames on others. The person in the divine dynasphere has the good sense to blame himself. If you blame yourself you move on but if you blame others you spend the rest of your life trying to get even — for your own bad decisions.

Next we have the present active participle of e)xw, “and he has.” With this we have an accusative singular direct object of two words, megaj and qumoj. When this is put together it is really an idiom. It is literally, “he has vehement anger,” but the idiom means that he foams with fury. Frustrated arrogance produces maximum anger directed toward others. Arrogance always blames others for one’s own mistakes or bad decisions. If you are in a state of humility you recognise your own bad decisions and you take the responsibility on yourself. Therefore you can recover. The recovery is based on the fact: “So I have made mistakes. I am still alive so I’m just going to keep rolling.” But arrogant people, when they make bad mistakes, always blame others. They have no virtue and they never recover. This means that arrogance always produces in disaster a vehement rage. The idiom here means foaming with fury. Qumoj is derived from the classical Greek verb quw which means a violent movement of air, water, ground. It means to boil over. So foaming with rage is what our word means.

Principle: Bad decisions in the cosmic system produces frustration. The frustration, however doesn’t exit until your own bad decisions produces adversity. With this adversity you have frustration and the frustration says, “Look, I’m not going to take responsibility, that would be virtuous. I’m going to blame others.” Others then become the object of your frustration which expresses itself in anger, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, irrationality, and often revenge. People actually take revenge on others for their own bad decisions. Satan doesn’t’ take responsibility for his decisions; he invented the system. Revenge generally motivates terrible violence and great historical disaster.

In the final phrase we have the present active participle of the verb o)ida, “knowing that his time is short.” He knows this because he knows eschatology. We have the conjunction o(ti denoting the content of Satan’s knowledge followed by the present active indicative of the verb e)xw, “that he has,” the static present for something to be taken as a fact. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. With this the accusative of the extent of time from two words: o)ligoj, which has all kinds of meanings, “little” or “few,” and with it the noun kairoj for “time,” “knowing that he has a little time,” which is simply an idiom meaning “knowing that his time is short.”

There are all kinds of situations where people simply realise the time is short, or they think the time is short. In this case it is true, he has three and a half more years of freedom before he goes to jail and he has that short time to prevent going to jail for a thousand years. There are two kinds of people who face the facts of life from time to time. One way or another the time is short. There are those who are minus virtue, integrity, honour, and there are those who have virtue, integrity, and honour. Those who have integrity and honour have made good decisions from a position of strength, they have personal control of their lives, and they have a personal sense of destiny. Self-determination leads to a personal sense of destiny. Those who are minus virtue have made many decisions from a position of weakness. They do not have control of their lives and they are minus a personal sense of destiny. Satan falls into this category. It is almost impossible for us to realise the implication of this last phrase in verse 12. The reason: Satan is the greatest genius creature of all time. He has more talent, more ability, more personality than we have in thousands of talented people in this world today; and it is very frustrating for a creature who knows that he is superior to all other creatures to realise that they are passing him by every day through truth, the Word of God, Bible doctrine. That’s why in the translation of verse 12 he foams with fury. He has great anger, great rage, knowing that his time is short.

There comes a realisation in the lives of people, both good and bad, when they know that in some way the time is short. Those who feel this pressure and who are minus virtue always come up with a series of evils. This series of evils is based on arrogance, vanity, pride, vindictiveness, implacability, and hatred, and it always brings out the worst in them. They also come up with a system of modus operandi which is minus common sense and everything they do turns to evil because of the principle of their lives up to that point. Satan, of course, is the quintessence of evil. Up to that point those who have virtue relax, they don’t panic, they don’t try to accelerate anything, they carry on as usual because they are living day by day in the plan of God, making all their decisions from a position of strength. The fact that the time is short doesn’t change a thing because even if the time ran out they would still be doing the same thing. If the time is short and your lifestyle is right, you carry on as usual. When you have the right kind of a lifestyle you have control of your life. You don’t change your lifestyle and go in for accelerated loss of common sense; in other words, accelerated nonsense. The last three and a half years of the Tribulation is the acceleration of Satan’s bad decisions. He must crowd all of the evil in his system into three and a half years. That’s why those three and a half years are called the “great” Tribulation. Whenever it creeps into your consciousness that the time is short you immediately accelerate whatever you have in your soul, but for the person who has done it right, made the right decisions, the believer who has advanced to maturity, he carries on as usual.

Satan with all of his genius, being the inventor of evil, having made more bad decisions than any creature in history, has three and a half years to crowd all of his evil into that short period of time before he goes to jail, before he loses rulership of the world. So everything we are about to study is accelerated. Satan has always hated the Jews and, of course, he is going to attack the Jews.

Verse 13, begins Satan’s attack on Israel. The first thing he does is express hatred, vindictiveness, implacability. Satan has no love, no virtue; he is evil. So we now begin the third woe with the seventh trumpet.

We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Now,” and with that we have a temporal conjunction o(te, “Now when.” Then the subject: the nominative singular drakwn, “dragon,” referring to Satan. “Now when the dragon,” followed by the aorist active indicative of o(raw, he now becomes aware of the shortness of time. “Now when the dragon saw.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb at the beginning of the time of his desperation. This is the beginning of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. He has been thrown out of heaven and he knows that he has three and a half years left. The indicative mood is declarative representing the pressure on the greatest creature genius of all time.

With this we have the conjunction o(ti indicating the content of his realisation. “Now when the dragon saw that he was thrown out of heaven,” the aorist passive indicative of ballw. He is aware that the time is short because the beginning of the short time is being cast out of heaven. As an observation he made he cannot escape the reality of the plan of prophecy, and he reads the prophecy into historical trends. The aorist tense of ballw is a culminative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The pressure is on because the time is short. The culminative aorist indicates that the results are going to be the intensification of all evil that he has possessed and developed over the period of the prehistoric angelic conflict and the few thousand years of human history up to this point. For a creature as smart as Satan that is enough to accumulate a tremendous amount of evil. Once it is clear that the time is short then all of the monster comes oozing out. Satan has what might be classified as relatively unchecked power and he has all of this genius and ability to go with it. His first act of going berserk is to express the hatred and cruelty of his soul — well disguised but there. His hatred and cruelty is going to be expressed toward the Jew. Actually, the eschatology of the devil’s desperation runs into the tactical victory of our Lord’s second advent, but the Lord’s tactical victory includes all the events of the second advent plus His Millennial reign on earth. The Lord’s tactical victory, then, begins with the second advent and terminates with the Gog revolution when Satan gets out of jail.

The passive voice: the dragon or Satan receives the action of the verb. He receives the realisation that he is now confined to the earth and can no longer travel to heaven, which means that God has taken away from Satan and all of that demon army the ability to travel through space much more rapidly than the speed of light. For the first time none of them have any access to heaven and Satan and all fallen angels feel the implications of being helpless. There is nothing worse than a person who suddenly is helpless and who has practised evil all of his life. In desperation he tries to use the power of evil to break out of the pressure, i.e.. the time is short, and he still thinks he can win.

People who lose control of their lives and have no personal sense of destiny are always going to be winners, they think to themselves. They rationalise: “We’re going to get doctrine later on. As soon as we get things straightened out we’ll start taking in doctrine.” Those are the ones who never can handle any kind of adversity or any kind of pressure. Satan gives us the perfect illustration of the problems that come with that pressure. There comes a time when you think you have the world by the tail, like the devil does, and suddenly you discover that even though you are the ruler of the world and have all the high-sounding titles that go with it that you are absolutely helpless. What good is it, asks Satan, if I am the ruler of the world and can’t carry on the fight in heaven? As far as he is concerned it is no fun to be the ruler of the world and live in the world. Satan doesn’t want to live here, he just wants to run it. Most people don’t live in the factory they own, they live out in the country in much more pleasant circumstances. Satan lives in heaven at the moment, he just rules this earth. What a terrible thing it is going to be when he has to live here!

The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of this point of eschatology. Then we have the prepositional phrase e)ij plus the accusative of gh, “to the earth,” a reference here to planet earth. He no longer has any access to heaven.

People who have no control of their lives are people who always say they are going to do the right thing later on, “I know I should get doctrine, I know I should do this, but I have all these things I have to straighten out first.” Those are the people who cannot take pressure when it comes. They are the ones who say they know doctrine is important, they like doctrine, “But right now I just don’t have the time.” And when the time is short and the pressure has come it is always the same thing: they are always absolutely helpless to face disaster. When helpless people face pressure they always fall apart; they can’t take it. They therefore perform evil through one of two avenues: evil through sin, evil through human good, or evil through both.

Many Christians are lined up with evil as soon as they get some pressure simply because they never establish a system of priorities on a daily basis. You must have a daily system of priorities. It is your daily perspective through doctrine that gives you the power and the ability to face disaster. If your daily priorities include doctrine first then this is going to be a wonderful day and tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day because you establish a routine by which you make positive decisions for doctrine; you have personal control of your life, and you have a personal sense of destiny. You have it on a daily basis so that when you go into the storm of pressure and adversity there is no problem at all, you are ready for it, you have established a routine of proper priorities. The life that doesn’t have routine is not organised for either adversity or prosperity. What is meant here is routine in terms of priorities in life. What are your priorities in life? What is first? What is important? If your priority is doctrine and you are consistent you are going to make right decisions with regard to doctrine and your daily life is going to be wonderful.

“Now when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to earth.” We now have two eschatologies, one leads into the other. This will be the rest of the book of Revelation. We have the eschatology of the devil’s desperation and we have the eschatology of the Lord’s tactical victory. There are three concepts. The eschatology of the devil’s desperation begins with the expulsion of Satan from heaven, a disaster. But interestingly enough Satan is kicked out of heaven and he goes down to the earth which he rules and where he is miserable and will now express all the evils of his person. But the Lord’s tactical victory begins when He comes to earth. He isn’t thrown out of heaven, He has control of His life and He comes of His own volition. Satan wants to stay in heaven and cannot; the Lord comes to the earth because the Lord has control of His life; Satan has no control of his life. Our Lord has a plan that is related to everything that is virtuous and wonderful, and Satan’s plan is doomed because Satan is kicked out of his house. The Lord comes to the earth because He has a purpose in doing so and the day of the second advent is the day of His tactical victory, a moment of great happiness and rejoicing. He is in control, He has power, He has made all the right decisions. Satan has made all the wrong decisions and when he is tossed to the earth he is frustrated and angry.

The eschatology of the devil’s desperation ends at the second advent; the Lord’s tactical victory ends at the Gog revolution. The second advent puts Satan down but the Gog revolution also puts Satan down. Satan comes back after being in jail for a thousand years, and did he learn anything? He did not. As soon as he gets out he starts a conspiracy. He finds again perfect environment on the earth, this time under the rule of the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. In that situation what does he do? He destroys perfect environment for quite a few people and that revolution ends in disaster because any revolution ends in disaster. Arrogant people are unteachable. You can put arrogant people in Bible class for one thousand years and they still haven’t learned anything! When you are preoccupied with yourself you cannot learn anything that is worthwhile. Satan learned nothing, he is thrown out again, only this time there is only one place for him to go. At the second advent he is simply put into jail which is the abyss; he is in solitary confinement for a thousand years, but as a result of the Gog revolution he is thrown into the lake of fire for eternity. So he never did learn anything and, of course, never have a lot of people in this world.

In the eschatology of the devil’s desperation we have his confinement to the earth for three and a half years. And what does he do with this power that he has been exercising in prehistoric times and throughout human history? Does he use it to any advantage? No. He simply accelerates the use of his unchecked power to produce the greatest disaster in human history, the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. In the eschatology of the Lord’s tactical victory he has another confinement: to the abyss for one thousand years. And he learned nothing. So we go back to a principle that we must never forget: to the extent that you entertain any form of arrogance in your life, it can be self-righteousness. Self righteous believers do not like a ministry that pops them good! And self-righteous believers can only learn certain things. It takes consistent day-by-day humility to be teachable and without that daily humility you learn nothing, arrogance distorts but never applies correctly because arrogance uses truth, arrogance does not learn truth.

The time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation is the beginning of a series of confinements and restrictions which terminates with Satan spending all eternity in the lake of fire. Think of it: the greatest and most attractive creature that ever came from the hand of God will spend eternity in the lake of fire. First Satan is confined to the earth for the last three and a half years of the Tribulation where he desperately tries to frustrate the inevitable tactical victory of Christ. At the second advent Satan is seized and cast into the abyss for 1000 years — further confinement and restriction.

When people will not use self-control and will not limit themselves in the field of evil or sin or human good, then God will lock them up in one or another category of prisons. We must regulate our own lives. Only you can regulate your life; only you can control your life.

At the end of the Millennium Satan is released from his prison and he begins another conspiracy against Christ and the perfect rule of the Millennium which results in the Gog revolution. When the revolution is suppressed Satan is cast into the lake of fire forever. Being in jail for a thousand years didn’t teach the devil a thing about his own responsibility to himself. So the devil’s desperation defines the confinement and the restriction of the devil, beginning with his expulsion from heaven.

From the middle of the Tribulation his freedom to roam the universe is curtailed, he is no longer free to move around. He is in his own kingdom which he has created as a jail and since he has this great anger and frustration we have a tough time on the earth. As he becomes more desperate he takes his arrogant frustration out on people. In essence, by the function of his own volition Satan seeks to destroy his own kingdom in order to frustrate the plan of God. He seeks to destroy the human race which he rules. He does not succeed though his power to do so is far greater than any other creature. Nevertheless Satan is still a creature.

And the principle: no creature, no matter how powerful, can ever successfully challenge the creator. To attempt such is a blasphemous thing, the epitome of creature arrogance. In any creature arrogance is the ultimate destructive force. No creature, man or angel, has ever profited from arrogance and no creature ever will. The essence of cosmic one should teach us this very important lesson.

We have already studied in the first part of chapter twelve the concept of the holocaust syndrome. We have seen how the Jews made a decision from a position of weakness when they rejected the sign of the virgin birth, which means that they rejected Jesus Christ as their personal saviour. Historically all of us are the products of our own decisions and the great tragedy which overtook Israel in AD 70 was the result of many decisions from a position of weakness. Idolatry characterised the rule of Jehoiakim in the past, before they went out the second time under the fifth cycle of discipline. In 2 Kings 23:37, speaking of king Jehoiakim: “He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done.” With Jehoiakim begins the four generation curse which is found in Exodus 20:3-5 and terminates by saying, “visiting the iniquities of the fathers on the children of the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.” After the fourth generation things change but in three or four generations a nation can be destroyed. A decision from a position of weakness means loss of control of one’s life and when a maximum number of people make decisions from a position of weakness then it means loss of freedom to a national entity. Everything from a nuclear ban to every form of anti-military which is so prevalent today is an illustration which overtakes a nation of a social degeneracy, a spiritual degeneracy, an economic degeneracy, which spells doom for a nation unless there is an enlargement of the pivot of mature believers. Without that pivot there is not even the opportunity of fighting for freedom.

A decision from a position of weakness means, then, loss of control. This means that those involved become the victims of some terrible holocaust. It meant the holocaust of Jehoiakim and his son Coniah. The four generation curse meant loss of control of the lives of many people in Israel at that time, and so the holocaust came and they were destroyed. In the fourth generation Shealtiel had no heir so he adopted Zerrubabel causing the blood line to switch from Solomon to Nathan for our Lord Jesus Christ. We have noted, then, that a decision from a position of weakness amalgamated with other decisions from a position of weakness results in those involved becoming the recipients of a great holocaust. While this passage with which we are involved studies the Jewish holocaust there are many holocausts in history. There are Gentile as well as Jewish holocausts. Any group of people who continue to make bad decisions over a period of three or four generations inevitably become involved in a terrible national or racial disaster, and that national or racial disaster is the holocaust judgment which comes from their own bad decisions; not from outside sources, for any group of people whether a nation or a race must inevitably make bad decisions over a period of three or four generations before they are overtaken by historical disaster which destroys them.

The Jews lost all personal sense of destiny. They lost this through the rejection of Bible doctrine. Their culture was not strong enough, no culture ever is, for their culture was based on Bible doctrine which they had rejected; and so, of course, they could not relate properly to messianic passages. They could not understand, for example, the various signs given to Israel, the sign of the virgin birth, so that to them the baby is not born and they continue in their holocaust pregnancy. This has happened many times in history, the holocaust syndrome always follows the same pattern, bad decisions from a position of weakness. Bad decisions resulted in loss of control of their lives, and loss of control of their lives resulted in loss of personal sense of destiny. The result was seen historically in our own generation between 1933 and 1945, the great holocaust with Jews standing passively in line to enter the gas chambers and to be destroyed. This is the holocaust syndrome. It results, of course, from loss of motivation, loss of desire for freedom, loss of the ability to have principles upon which to fight for one’s freedom. Slavery exists because people do not resist, because they have the holocaust mentality. But Satan is a very special way is antagonistic toward the Jew, and so while the holocaust is always caused by those who are the victims in a period of either three or four generations the victims have made wrong decisions from a position of weakness. They have rejected truth, they have rejected Bible doctrine, they have no will to resist, they have no will to fight, and therefore they are caught up in historical disaster. It could happen to us as well just as it happened to Israel many times in the past as well as it will in the future.

In verse 13 we begin with the great holocaust of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation. We resume in the second half of the verse with the aorist active participle of diwkw which means to persecute, “and he persecuted.” One of the first things that frustrated people always do is to persecute. Unhappy people become natural bullies. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. We have the action of anti-Semitism which occurs over the entire three and a half years of the last half of the Tribulation. Specifically this constative aorist contemplates in its entirety the several major waves of anti-Semitism. The first attack occurs in verse 15; the second attack occurs in verse 17. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb, he is the author of anti-Semitism throughout human history. The participle is circumstantial and therefore translated as a finite verb.

Whom does he persecute? The accusative singular direct object from the noun gunh, the same word we found in verse one, “woman,” referring to Israel, “and he [Satan] persecuted the woman [Israel].” This is the greatest wave of anti-Semitism in history.

It is fascinating to study the end of medieval times and historically how they blend in with the Renaissance and the Reformation, and probably two of the most interesting of all of the centuries of human history occurred in the 15th and 16th, and even the 17th centuries. Those three centuries are transitional historically, not only for western Europe but for the world, and in that time we have some of the major holocausts against Israel. That period of time was a period of toleration and persecution amalgamating to form a great deal of confusion to historians. It was one, of course, where we see the great principle of religion destroying virtue and the natural instincts of grace. Religion was the Roman Catholic religion on the one hand and Islam on the other, and it is fascinating to see that all of a sudden Islam would tolerate the Jews because the Roman Catholics were persecuting them. Then, when Islam began to persecute the Jews the Roman Catholics would tolerate them. This went back and forth during the middle ages. When Islam started to grow in the seventh and eighth centuries it began to attack the Jews, so the Jews went to Spain. But when they were settled in Spain for a couple of hundred years, forming the middle class (all of the great doctors in western Europe were Jews, the bankers were Jews, the whole system that made Spain so great just before the Renaissance began and into the Renaissance up to the time of Charles the 5th and Philip the 2nd was this tremendous middle class made up of Jews and Moors) Charles the 5th and then Philip the 2nd immediately attacked the Moors and the Jews. The toleration was gone. But by this time Suleyman (Solomon) the Magnificent, the great Ottoman Turk ruler of the 16th century, became very tolerant and so the Jews moved back into Tunisia, North Africa, Turkey, all of the places where they were welcome, meaning that the Jews during the medieval times were battered around like a tennis ball, back and forth across the net. Sometimes they were safe under the religion of Islam and sometimes they were safe under the religion of the Roman Catholics, but they were never safe at the same time in either place and they could never really settle down. In other words, they suffered terribly throughout the middle ages.

2. Religion produces arrogance and ignorance which overrides tolerance, high IQ, and substitutes cruelty. (Remember that Christianity is not a religion) Arrogance plus cruelty lowers the IQ of the people involved to zero.

3. A religious society cannot think and therefore emotes in the presence of mobs to cause persecution, cruelty and destruction of life.

4. Religion — and this was true of Islam at certain times and the Roman Catholic church and the Greek Orthodox church at certain times, and even farther on in India it was true of Hindus, and others — rejects the function of free will and the option of self-determination for others. In other words, “You can only be free if you accept our religion.”

5. Therefore Medieval history right up through the time of the Renaissance and Reformation not only caused the rise of cities but the inevitable rise of city mobs to function under terrorism.

6. This includes the rise of anti-Semitism for arrogance becomes a substitute for reason and produces a victim, a target for hatred, vindictiveness, implacability. Since 70 AD that target has all too often been the Jew.

7. Such a target was the Jew in the middle ages linking up to the time of the Renaissance and Reformation. Mobs had all the arrogance of unchecked power roaming the streets of medieval towns and cities, and all too often selected the Jew as a target.

“he [Satan] persecuted the woman.” This is the greatest wave of anti-Semitism in human history coming up in the future in the last half of the Tribulation. Satan’s objective at that time is the total destruction of Israel — racial, religious and regenerate — the objective of Satan as related to the understanding of pre-Millennialism.

Pre-Millennialism is the only system of eschatology which recognises the fact that God has unconditionally promised Israel certain things. He has made unconditional promises in certain paragraphs of the Abrahamic covenant, in the Palestinian covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the New covenant to Israel. These have never been fulfilled and will not be fulfilled until the second advent, so when Christ returns He must find Jews to be the recipients of these unconditional promises. If Satan can destroy all Jews then our Lord would not be able to keep His word. Satan understands this issue even though a lot of believers today do not. At the second advent Israel will be regathered, purified by the baptism of fire, and the true Israel of regenerate Jews will enter the Millennium as recipients of these unconditional promises.

First there will be the regathering of Israel at the second advent, which means Jews will be scattered throughout the earth. This is taught in Isaiah 5, 10, 11; Joel 2; Zechariah 10. Then follows the baptism of fire which separates Jewish believer from unbeliever. The Jewish believer goes into the Millennium; the Jewish unbeliever goes into the lake of fire. Then follows the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to the born-again Jews, as per Romans 11:27 — “Also this is the covenant to them [Jewish believers] from me [Jesus Christ at the second advent], when I have removed their punishment for sins,” the fifth cycle of discipline will be removed at the second advent. The devil understands this doctrine so well that he will be happy to enlist people at any time in a wave of anti-Semitism. Don’t ever be sucked into such an evil thing for this is a Satanic principle and it is a guarantee to make your life miserable. Those who attack Israel must recognise the principle of divine discipline against themselves.

The next phrase, and the last phrase in this passage before we get into the holocaust concept, begins with the nominative feminine singular from a qualitative relative pronoun o(stij, translated “who,” and it indicates that certain persons belong to a category, and the ones that are being persecuted are in category Israel. Next we have the aorist active indicative of the verb tiktw reminding us of verse two and the double entendre, “who gave birth.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the virgin pregnancy, the virgin birth, it its entirety. The active voice: Israel is the source of the humanity of Christ and the resultant hypostatic union, therefore Israel produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that out Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh through Israel, the tribe of Judah, the family of David. And it is translated “who gave birth to.” The accusative direct object is made of several words meaning a male child, Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. It is a reference therefore to the first advent of Christ, the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. As a reference to the first advent and the strategic victory it also is a reminder of Satan’s attempt at the end of the Tribulation to try to head off the fulfilment of all the unconditional promises to Israel by the destruction of Israel. Satan has been defeated strategically and he is trying to head off being defeated tactically.

Without the cross there could be no crown for true Israel, and Gentiles of the Old Testament who are believers, the body of Christ, the royal family of God, all depend upon the first and second advents for the complete fulfilment of God’s plan for each one of us. The cross must come before the crown and only through the cross can there be members of the human race to be delivered at the second advent.

The translation: “Now when the dragon [Satan] saw that he had been thrown to the earth he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.”

1. Passive arrogance demands the function of active arrogance against it. Basically that is why we have historical disasters of all kinds.

2. Passive arrogance is generally associated with the enjoyment of freedom and prosperity for three or four generations.

3. The freedom and prosperity originates from a large pivot of mature believers plus the principles of establishment like freedom through military victory, free enterprise economy, a vigorous uniculture, and the universal recognition of the sacredness of freedom, privacy, property and human life. All of this becomes the basis for the development of passive arrogance. The victims of any holocaust are always involved in passive arrogance, they attract active arrogance against them.

4. Passive arrogance accepts freedom and prosperity totally apart from human virtue and a sense of responsibility. It assumes that one has a right to all of those blessings without any adherence to the laws of divine establishment.

5. Passive arrogance on the part of the Jews of the dispersion results in active arrogance on the part of their persecutors.

6. No nation or race ever experiences a holocaust without the historical demand for it.

7. Hence, negative volition, apostasy, and passive arrogance of indifference creates the vacuum which attracts the persecution of active arrogance, holocaust, and historical disaster.

1. Evil demands evil, cruelty demands cruelty, because passive arrogance demands the function of active arrogance against it.

2. Active arrogance punishes passive arrogance until the active arrogance through prosperity also becomes passive. There is a constant series of historical disasters because active arrogance is hungry and it punishes passive arrogance.

3. Today a nation can be the instrument of punishment through active arrogance and tomorrow the victim of holocaust through enjoying prosperity too well and entering into the condition of passive arrogance.

4. The punishing nation or group generally has to be very cruel to punish cruelty. The punishing nation must be evil to punish evil in another group. Not only do individuals have to take responsibility for their own decisions but so do nations.

5. This has always been the pattern of history, therefore it is part of the historical trend which explains not only the Jewish holocaust but the rise and fall of nations and empires.

6. Satan with his active arrogance frustrated by his fall from heaven is the instrument of punishment of the Jews’ in the last half of the Tribulation. They through their own cosmic involvement have entered into a state of passive arrogance, and passive arrogance always attracts active arrogance against it.

7. Therefore the group, the nation, or the people who practice anti-Semitism generally possess an active arrogance plus evil. This causes them to gravitate to passive arrogance and attack it from a position of evil. In other words, passive arrogance is the victim of active arrogance.

8. This does not justify anti-Semitism but explains it in terms of historical trends.

9. The Jews who will be the victims of Satan at the seventh trumpet in the middle of the Tribulation are those apostate Jews who have developed passive arrogance through their residence and function in the cosmic system. Passive arrogance attracts persecution from active arrogance.

1. Both ideology (like communism) and religion destroy virtue and with the destruction of virtue the natural instinct of grace and tolerance.

2. This is because religion, unlike Christianity, produces arrogance, ignorance, cruelty and persecution which overrides tolerance. It substitutes for tolerance cruelty. When tolerance leaves cruelty arrives.

3. Since a religious society cannot think or reason it becomes emotional with blind arrogance. This emotion produces mob violence, persecution of passive arrogance, cruelty resulting in the holocaust for its victims.

4. In other words, religion stifles freedom — illustrated by Spain in the time of Charles the fifth and Philip the second — the function of free will and self-determination. Therefore religion loses toleration as the essential part of freedom.

6. Religion does not allow others to make mistakes but persecutes them vigorously.

7. Medieval history not only records the rise of towns and cities but the inevitable rise of mobs to function under the principle of arrogance and intolerance, therefore terrorism of active arrogance. Mobs are emotional and they tend toward the terrorism of active arrogance.

8. Therefore anti-Semitism alternates with tolerance toward the Jew but never for more than three or four generations.

Active arrogance always seeks and attacks passive arrogance. The Jews had developed passive arrogance before they were persecuted under the principle of anti-Semitism. Hence the principle: All of us as individuals and nations — not just the Jews, Gentiles as well — are the products of our own decisions, and when our decisions lead us to the point of passive arrogance there is always some barbaric group, like the communists, with active arrogance ready to attack. Again, this does not justify anti-Semitism for a part of Christian virtue of impersonal love toward all includes the Jews.

1. A great nation is built on humility, never arrogance. Humility tolerates; arrogance persecutes. Humility produces virtue; arrogance produces evil.

2. When humility and virtue existed, and wherever it existed, the Jews were tolerated and accepted. But where arrogance existed the Jews were persecuted under the principle of anti-Semitism.

3. However, the Jews themselves who were the victims had developed a passive arrogance to attract the active arrogance of anti-Semitism. This is not only true of Jews, it is also true of Gentiles, it just so happens that our subject in Revelation twelve is anti-Semitism.

4. Active arrogance is inspired by an outside source, Satan and his cosmic system, but passive arrogance is produced from an inside source, by bad decisions from a position of weakness.

5. Passive arrogance is subjective toward its victims while active arrogance is objective toward it victims and therefore initiates the anti-Semitism, the cruelty. This is also true in historical disasters among Gentiles.

6. Active arrogance is motivated by hatred, implacability, vindictiveness. Passive arrogance is motivated by a sense of superiority, self-righteousness and hypocrisy. That is what happened under the Third Reich.

7. Passive arrogance persecutes in a civilised way — through sarcasm, through ridicule and slander; active arrogance persecutes in a barbaric way through violence, cruelty, destruction.

8. Passive arrogance does not kill its victims directly but active arrogance tortures, mutilates, murders, annihilates.

9. When active arrogance attacks active arrogance we call it war, but when active arrogance attacks passive arrogance we call it persecution.

1. Many Jews have escaped anti-Semitism. That is because they lived in the environment of Christian virtue which emphasises residence, function, momentum, in the divine dynasphere and therefore results in impersonal love toward all, which means tolerance.

2. In the environment of toleration the Jew is accepted, loved, respected and, again, even tolerated under principles of establishment freedom.

3. Such environment requires a large pivot of mature believers and general prosperity in the client nation.

4. That large pivot of mature believers becomes the nucleus not only for the client nation to God but for its prosperity. Inevitably such a nucleus provides that blessing by association known as national prosperity.

5. From national prosperity often comes arrogance, failure to pass the prosperity test. The leaders and the majority of the citizens become involved in the cosmic system which has various categories of arrogance which destroy the client nation.

6. The arrogant nation under the influence of the cosmic system develops two basic categories of failure: holocaust, in which active arrogance persecutes passive arrogance; historical disaster, which includes social degeneration, economic depression, and military disaster.

7. The nation involved might be classified as apostate and have a triple collective identification, identified through the principle that national decisions from a position of weakness: firstly, like socialism and activism that destroys the nation; secondly, historical loss of a national sense of destiny, or even a false sense of destiny like self-righteous interference in the local affairs of other nations; thirdly, national loss of control through bad foreign or domestic policies, or both.

1. Under the principle that passive arrogance attracts persecution from active arrogance it must be concluded that the holocaust cannot exist apart from bad decisions on the part of the victims.

2. Individuals and groups must take the responsibility for their own decisions, and many bad decisions from a position of weakness on the part of the victims cannot be ignored.

3. The Jews who rejected Christ as Messiah and saviour at the time of the Roman empire had rejected through their own free will the signs which God had provided for Israel. All of these signs are rejected by strong negative volition which in turn creates first passive arrogance in cosmic one and then active arrogance in cosmic two. This means that the Jews are the products of their own negative decisions, even though they continue to use Deuteronomy 6:4 in their ritual.

1. Like the double entendre which we studied in Revelation 12:2, to the unbelieving Jew the Messiah has never been born, there has been no virgin birth. Therefore his historic suffering is called the holocaust pregnancy — anti-Semitism during the time of his dispersion. Unbelieving Israel in the Tribulation “was tortured” — that is the future holocaust of the last half of the Tribulation, “to give birth.” To the unbelieving Jew Christ is not yet born and has not yet come and the labour pains continue in the last half of the Tribulation.

2. Since to the unbelieving Jew the virgin birth of Christ has never taken place his historical and eschatological suffering from anti-Semitism is classified as holocaust pregnancy, the intense labour pains with no delivery.

3. Therefore the holocaust syndrome basically has three parts. First, the Jews make negative decisions from a position of weakness when they reject the sign of the virgin birth, which become tantamount to rejecting Christ as saviour. So there are always negative decisions, rejection of truth, as the first phase of the holocaust syndrome. Secondly, this decision from a position of weakness means loss of control of their lives because they are outside of the plan of God and do not have the protection of the plan of God against holocaust or historical disaster. Thirdly, the Jew who rejects Christ as saviour cannot properly relate to the messianic passages of the Old Testament, therefore he has no personal sense of destiny without these passages. So the third part of the holocaust syndrome is of loss of personal destiny.

4. Since man is the product of his own decisions, not his environment, he brings on the holocaust of anti-Semitism through his own personal decisions. This does not mean that because the Jews have made wrong decisions we should enter into any antagonism against them.

1. In the eschatological holocaust of the Tribulation born-again Jews are delivered by the second advent. Hence, under the analogy of the double entendre the deliverance of Christ at the virgin birth is analogous to the deliverance of believing Israel at the second advent.

2. Believing Jews with Bible doctrine come through those three and a half years of holocaust that is anti-Semitism totally unscathed because they are in the plan of God for the Millennium.

3. Unbelieving Jews of the Tribulation follow the analogy of never being delivered, for to them Christ has not yet been born. Hence, they are not born-again but continue in the labour pains of holocaust.

4. The unbelieving Jews want the crown without the cross. They always assume that the Millennium is going to come but they have not accepted Christ, hence the analogy between the Jewish holocaust of the Tribulation and the torture of the pregnant mother who cannot be delivered. The labour pains of the holocaust continue unless the Jew is born-again through faith in Christ. Until they accept the virgin pregnancy and birth they possess the holocaust pregnancy from which deliverance can only come through a spiritual birth, i.e.. faith in Christ.

Verse 14, the deliverance of regenerate believers or true Israel in the first half of the Tribulation. We have the tendency to think that once we get into unstable times, once we get into any form of historical disaster, that somehow the opportunity is gone for the believer. In fact, the opportunity and spiritual impact is even greater. We do not need historical prosperity for Christian blessing. Christian blessing comes in any circumstances. There is no question about the fact that we are in a transitional period as far as human history is concerned. Therefore there are terrible uncertainties, many instabilities, many people losing out, many people gaining, that is always the way it is in history, and people become very concerned and insecure. One of the manifestations of the insecurity is the phenomenal drug abuse today. But, again, no matter how great the disaster, whether it comes from war, famine, disease, economic depression, social degeneration, it does not change God’s plan for your life and it does not hinder your opportunity for impact nor the fantastic blessing that can come to you through the daily exercising of your options.

We begin verse 14 with the conjunction kai, emphasising a fact as surprising and noteworthy. It should be translated “Nevertheless.” The subject of this verse is composed of seven Greek words. First we have a nominative plural from the definite article a(i, and with it we have an indeclinable numeral duw. Then we have a nominative plural which is the actual subject from pteruc which means “wing.” Then we have two definite articles in the genitive singular, tou, and the possessive genitive of a)etoj which is used for an eagle, sometimes a hawk, and sometimes a large buzzard. This is followed by the descriptive genitive from the adjective megaj. Altogether it says, “Nevertheless the two wings of a great eagle.”

In Exodus 19:4 the Lord was speaking to Moses and to Israel, and said, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians [at the Red Sea], and how I carried you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself.” The Jews weren’t picked up on eagles’ wings and carried to the Lord. They didn’t die and they didn’t ride eagles! It simply is used here for the Lord’s logistical grace protection of the Jews in their Exodus wanderings. They wandered into every kind of trouble, they made a lot of trouble for themselves, and along the way a lot of people made trouble for them. But the point is, eagles’ wings in Exodus 19:4 are simply used for systems of divine protection.

In Deuteronomy 32:9-12 another eagle passage is pertinent to this. “For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the allotment of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land [in slavery in Egypt], and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him [God cared for the Jew and the Jew didn’t care for God], he guarded him as the pupil of his eye. Like an eagle [an analogy] that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, takes them out, and spreads it wings and catches them: so the Lord alone guided him, and there was no foreign god with him.” So it is the spiritual training of Israel during those forty years. “Like an eagle” is an analogy.

The Bible dictates divine protection for true or regenerate Israel in the first half of the Tribulation. There is a great evangelistic push right after the Rapture when 144,000 Jewish evangelists have a phenomenal response to the gospel. This divine protection may be administered through angels but actually the divine protection, the eagle, is administered through the content of the scriptures, such as Matthew 24:15ff. Here is an eschatological warning to true Israel or believing Jews living in Palestine in the middle of the Tribulation. These people have been evangelised by the 144,000. They are now warned to flee to the high desert country, and in obeying that command they are going to be protected, as per our passage, “Nevertheless the two wings of a great eagle [divine protection of true Israel].” Both groups of Jews in the Tribulation, those who believe in the first half and those who believe in the second half, are delivered by the second advent of Christ as per the Word of God, but they must follow the Word, otherwise they wind up martyrs. All to often, but not always, martyrs are the stupid ones, the non-flexible ones. There are a lot of martyrs in the Tribulation because they are stupid, arrogant, inflexible. Each group must use the faith-rest drill but with a different application. One group runs away and the other group stays and fights. True Israel in the first half of the Tribulation must flee using God’s logistical grace described in the context of the two wings of the eagle; the second group of true Israel in the second half of the Tribulation must take the opposite application: they must stand and fight. To stand and fight for the first group means certain death and, conversely, for the second group to flee is certain death. Each group must make the faith-rest application from the rationales and it will result in the flexibility which will preserve them.

Next phrase in our passage is the aorist active indicative of the verb didomi. Anything given by God is always a matter of grace. It isn’t given, it isn’t deserved, and therefore this is classified as logistical grace provision. “Nevertheless the two wings of a great eagle [divine protection of Israel] had been given.” “Had been given” is the translation of the culminative aorist tense, contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results, the protection and the eventual deliverance of those believers of Israel in the first half of the Tribulation, those who follow instruction, those who utilise the general mandate for the faith-rest drill and the specific mandates for fleeing to the high desert country. The passive voice: the regenerate of Israel receive the action of the verb, specifically those of the first half of the Tribulation. The declarative indicative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality, and the reality is simply this: the positive believer advancing to maturity in any time of historical disaster is not an any way deterred by the adversities of history, from the blessings that belong to that individual who advances to the winner’s gate, gate eight. There is no promotion, no system of prosperity, that you cannot have in the greatest time of historical adversity.

Principle: God’s plan continues and has the same blessings, the same rewards, the same promotions, in historical adversity as in historical prosperity. God’s plan does not take cognisance of circumstances; God’s plan works in all circumstances of life. So no matter how bad things become God’s plan for your life doesn’t change, the momentum factor does not change as a mandate from God, and you are not deprived of any blessings because you move into a time of historical adversity.

With this we have the dative singular indirect object from the noun gunh, referring here to Israel, specifically regenerate Israel in the first half of the Tribulation. The dative of indirect object has the connotation of indicating the one in whose interest the act is performed. This becomes, therefore, a dative of advantage. It is to the advantage to be a believer in times of historical disaster. The advantages of being a believer are obvious eternally but the advantages of being a believer are just as great in time of historical adversity as in time of historical prosperity.

With this we now have a purpose clause and it is introduced with the conjunction i(na, translated “that” or “so that,” and with it we have the present middle subjunctive of the verb petomai which means to fly, “that she might fly.” We notice the futuristic present denoting an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already happening. This is a way of emphasising the assurance of deliverance to those who follow instructions given in doctrinal form. Those who follow Bible doctrine never lose but they have to be persistent and they have to be consistent in the perception of doctrine. Those who follow instruction through the application of eschatological doctrine to the historical circumstances are going to come up winners in time of the greatest historical disaster in all of history. The futuristic present here is dealing with a future eschatological function, the direct middle in which the subject acts with a view toward participating in the outcome, the deliverance from anti-Semitism in the last half of the Tribulation. The potential subjunctive mood implies a future reference and is qualified by the element of contingency, namely the perception of pertinent doctrine and application through the function of the faith-rest drill.

The question arises whether this is a literal or a figurative use of flying. The Bible does not say certain things. What the Bible does say is that flight from Jerusalem and Judea is necessary. The means is not specified. The trouble is that people like to be sensational when they come to eschatology and the eagle is not an aircraft as some of the more sensational have tried to indicate. But God’s logistical grace and deliverance in time of disaster is the issue. They are not actually literally flying, they are being delivered by logistical grace.

We then have a prepositional phrase in this sentence, e)ij plus topoj plus the descriptive genitive of a)utoj, “in her place,” feminine because the woman is the feminine gender referring to Israel, “so that she might fly to her place.” This place of refuge is described three times in eschatological passages: Daniel 11:31, the land of Edom, Moab and Ammon; Matthew 24:16 — “the mountains”; Revelation 12:6, “the high desert country.” All three descriptions are accurate. God has prepared a special place of refuge for those regenerate Jews of Palestine who accept Christ as saviour during the first half of the Tribulation. The place is the provision of logistical grace and the challenge to perpetuate the faith-rest drill once they have arrived.

Next we have the temporal clause which is the provision of logistical grace. Always remember that no matter how great the adversity to an individual or to people collectively as a nation God still has a plan for your life and logistical grace is still functional. So the temporal clause begins with the particle of place, o(tou, translated “where,” plus the adverb of place e)kei, “in that place.” The adverb of place emphasises the fact that the plan of God at the right place at the right time is only arrived at by the use of Bible doctrine previously given. You are not left in the dark. So that if you are not in the right place at the right time it is your responsibility — negative volition. God has never left any generation of believer without a place of refuge, without protection, and the fact that believers are destroyed in any given generation, overcome by historical disaster, simply means they have been negative toward doctrine. They have rejected the Word of God, they are the products of their own decisions. We are always the product of our own decisions, not our circumstances.

The next verb is the present passive indicative of the verb treqw. Treqw means to be sustained. If ever there is an important verb for us as we face the possibility of historical disaster in our own time, and for those in the future, and those who have adversity in the past, it is this word trepqw. It means to nourish when dealing with children but when dealing with adults or people under adversity it means to be sustained. Again, we have the futuristic present denoting an event which has not yet occurred but is so certain in thought that it is contemplated as already occurring, even though it wont happen until the Tribulation. The passive voice: those Jews, true Israel, who believe in Christ in the first half of the Tribulation and who follow the instructions of the Word of God, receive the action of the verb in the form of logistical grace provision. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of logistical grace support of those Jewish believers who obey the instructions —Matthew 24:15-20.

The subject “she” refers to regenerate Israel of the first half of the Tribulation, “where in that place she [regenerate Israel of the first half of the Tribulation] will be sustained [the provision of logistical grace].”

We have one more phrase for time. Time is used in the singular for one year, xairoj, plus times [two years], and then we have the phrase for a half year, e(misuj, “for three and a half years,” the last half of the Tribulation. Then there is one more phrase in the verse which has to do with the serpent or Satan: the preposition a)po plus the ablative of separation from proswpon which some time means face and sometimes means presence. Here it means from the presence of. Then the possessive genitive from o)fij, the general word for snake, “from the presence of the serpent.” The serpent is used instead of Satan or devil because during the last half of the Tribulation Satan will attempt to lure or get born born-again Jews to leave their place of refuge. They are safe as long as they stay in their place of refuge and apply Matthew 24:21-30 as a part of the faith-rest drill. Just as the serpent tempted the woman in the garden so the serpent will tempt the woman Israel in the place of refuge — Matthew 24:23,24. Satan knows that the Jews are safe in that high desert place and therefore must lure them out of their place of safety, their place of refuge.

Translation: “Nevertheless the two wings of the great eagle [divine protection of true Israel] has been given to the woman [logistical grace provision for regenerate Israel in the first half of the Tribulation] so that she [true Israel] might fly to her place of refuge [Edom, Moab, and Ammon], where in that place she will be sustained for a time [one year], plus times [two years], plus one half time [one half year], from the presence of the serpent [Satan].”

We now move to the first attack of the third demon assault army in verse 15. The nominative singular subject is o)fij, the word we noted in verse 14, an onomatopoetic Greek word as so many words in ancient languages happened to be. The o)fij is the hiss of the serpent, defined in the context (Revelation 12:9) as the title for Satan. With this we have the sequential use of the conjunction kai indicating that this attack follows Satan’s expulsion from heaven, and it begins the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The first item on the agenda of the third woe (or the time of the devil’s desperation) is the seventh trumpet or the great Jewish holocaust of the last half of the Tribulation.

The aorist active indicative of ballw follows. The word means generally to throw. It is used, however, with the ablative singular of the noun stoma which means mouth, and e)k plus stoma plus ballw reads: “Then the serpent projected from his mouth.” The word “his” is the possessive genitive of the intensive pronoun a)utoj used as a personal pronoun, third person. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Here the action is the attack of the third demon assault army. “Projected from his mouth” means he gave the orders for the attack. The active voice: Satan commanding the third demon assault army personally produces the action of the verb. The accusative neuter singular direct object from u(dor is translated “water”. Water is used here as in Isaiah 8:7,8. Water as a flood is often used for invading armies, and here it refers to the third demon assault army which has been defeated in the battle of heaven and the remnants of it, along with the first and second demon assault armies have been pulled together for this last great historical disaster.

We have a comparative conjunction which follows, o(j, translated “like” or “as.” It connotes that what is coming is going to be an analogy. Then the appositional accusative potamoj, another word for water: water in a river. It usually means a river but it actually originates from an Attic Greek word, the verb petomai, and it means to move with a tearing speed, hence it is used in noun form for water rushing quickly. It is used in the Attic Greek as an analogy for violence. So we translate it, “water like the violence of rapids” or “like the force [power] of a flood.”

Then we have an improper preposition o)pisw plus the genitive singular of gunh, used here for Israel, “after [overtaking] the woman [Israel].” Israel overtaken, destroyed in the holocaust, refers to unbelieving Jews. Those believing Jews who followed the instructions of Matthew 24 are safe. The attack of the third demon army is compared to a helpless person about to be taken in the rapids or a wall of water of some kind of flood and drowned. It is obvious from the analogy that Israel is helpless apart from divine intervention. But God keeps His word and there will be live Jewish believers to receive the promises of the unconditional covenants at the second advent. While Satan seeks to destroy all Jews in this great attack the evangelising of Jews, their following the Word of God, growing in grace, learning doctrine, using the three stages of the faith-rest drill, will ensure their survival.

Principle: Believers with spiritual maturity not only survive in times of disaster but, more than that, they even have fantastic blessing. The function of supergrace blessings to winners who achieve gate eight continues in historical adversity as well as in time of historical prosperity.

This means that there never was a disaster in history that did not have its survivors. Survival is not a matter of reading books on it but having a phenomenal flexibility and having developed already as a believer the habit of making good decisions from the application of doctrine. So that survival is a matter of grace, not a matter of great wisdom in planning. When disaster hits you must always be flexible. Flexibility starts with the ability to think and to improvise from thought solutions in the place where you are located. It means the absence of fear. Fear is the inability to think under pressure. The greatest thing you have going for you is not some plan that you have developed and everything related to it, the greatest thing going for you is the ability to think under pressure. And you have to start out with a spiritual factor: God has a plan for your life, you are still alive, God has a purpose for your life; and since God has a plan for your life and a purpose for your life you must improvise in whatever area God has placed you. Flexibility is one of the marvellous things that accompanies the development of virtue in the divine dynasphere.

So we have survivors, and these people survive because of this phenomenal flexibility, but flexibility isn’t the whole answer, it is only the attitude you must take when you find yourself in disaster. The grace of God always meets the flexibility of believers who apply doctrine in adverse conditions. Without God’s grace all the flexibility in the world cannot survive but while this flexibility is manifesting itself in the application of doctrine — the use of the three stages of the faith-rest drill, whatever it may be — the grace of God is always providing that way of escape, whatever it is. Disaster limits what you can own and have and possess but disaster is unlimited in the field of thought and flexibility and application for survival. Grace provides options for grace-oriented people but you have to recognise the way of escape, you have to be able to apply the doctrine, you have to have common sense and use it. Historical peril and greatest dangers from disaster do not shut down the volitional options of the Jews who are the recipients of this attack. God imputed life to all of us; God has a purpose for our lives, at salvation He imputed eternal life; God has even a greater purpose and therefore God’s purpose can be accomplished. The people who do not survive, the losers, are simply those who didn’t have the doctrine, the preparation, the grace orientation, to make the right decisions when the time came.

There’s nothing like enjoying and having capacity to enjoy the wonderful blessings that you have in historical prosperity, but you must never permit the great blessings of historical prosperity to suddenly become the greatest source of danger in historical disaster. It is always a possibility unless you are very flexible. You must be able to enjoy what you have and to walk away from it at any time that the balloon may go up.

The objective of Satan’s attack is given in a purpose clause. It is introduced with the conjunction i(na, “that,” Next we have the aorist active subjunctive of the verb poiew, and we have an accusative singular direct object from a)utoj, “that he might cause her.” Now how do we get the word “cause” out of pioew? The culminative aorist views the objective of Israel’s destruction in its entirety. Satan has a plan: destroy Israel. He now has his third demon assault army and the remnants of his first and second demon assault armies and pulls them altogether to destroy Israel. So the culminative aorist tense views the objective of Israel’s destruction it its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its potential results: no Jews left to receive the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants. He wants the return of Christ with not a Jew left alive and, therefore, Christ will not be able to keep His promises. So he is going to try to destroy all Jews first. Now, where do we get the word “cause”? The active voice. This is a causative active voice in which Satan as the subject performs the action through intermediary means. In other words, he does it through the demon assault armies, he doesn’t personally lead the attack. This is equivalent to the hiphil stem in the Hebrew. The idiom often occurs in using an intransitive verb in a transitive sense. The subjunctive mood is potential, it forms a purpose clause and implies a future reference. The potential subjunctive is qualified by the element of contingency. The contingency is based on the potential success of the attack made by the third demon assault army.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from a compound noun, potamoqhthj, and it means to be drowned in a flood water. So we have: “that he [Satan] might cause her [Israel] to be swept away by the rapids [or, drowned in the flood waters].” The objective of Satan, then, is twofold: to bring Israel to the point where she has lost control of her own destiny, like a person swept away in a flood and drowned, and to destroy Israel so that she has no destiny. This adds up to frustrating the plan. Frustration of the plan of God is always Satan’s objective. Only those Jews who believe in Christ and learn Bible doctrine will have a personal sense of destiny in this crisis. They will maintain control of their lives in this crisis and they will continue to make decisions from a position of strength in this crisis; and for those reasons they will be able to survive. Those Jews who had believed in Christ and advanced through the perception and application of doctrine continued in the greatest adversity to have a personal sense of destiny, to maintain control of their own lives, and continue to make good decisions from a position of strength. From the time of Abraham to the present and continuing into the Tribulation and up to the second advent Satan has always been the enemy of Israel. Israel only has a personal sense of destiny when related to Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, and when not related to Jesus Christ the Jews flounder in their terrible attacks from Satan which we call holocausts. To be a racial Jew does not imply a personal sense of destiny. To be a racial Jew and to reject Jesus Christ as saviour substitutes arrogance for a personal sense of destiny. Apart from faith in Christ no one can have a personal sense of destiny for the plan of God begins at the cross.

Strictly speaking, the waters in this verse could just as easily have been flood waters or rapids or tidal waves, or any great flow of water which has a power representing the principle of great adversity. The attacks of the third demon assault army, the devil’s guards, are pictured as a wall of water pursuing Israel. To be overtaken by the wall of water, whether it is a tidal wave or rapids, and drowning is the destruction of Israel by analogy. Hence, to be more consistent with the completion of the analogy in the next verse rapids probably can be used to represent this passage.

Translation: “Then the serpent [Satan] projected from his mouth water [the third demon assault army] like the rapids [great force and violence] to overtake the woman [Israel], in order that he [Satan] might cause her [Israel] to be swept away by the rapids [drowned in the flood waters].”

Dictators are people who always know what is best for everyone else and seek to impose that knowledge on others without their consent. Therefore a dictator rejects freedom of choice and self-determination as the right of every individual. Dictators can be social, political or religious, seeking to impose their ideas on what is best for you totally apart from the function of your own volition. They refuse to permit you to make your own mistakes, they only want to make mistakes from their bad decisions, not yours. Consequently, dictators are both arrogant and self-righteous since the two characteristics are joined in the unholy matrimony of tyranny. Dictators use force to superimpose their will and ideas on the masses and therefore dictatorship inevitably rejects the principles and doctrines related to human freedom, self-determination, and the laws of divine establishment. Dictators insist on having their own way because their arrogance assumes that their way is superior. Hence, dictators assume perfection for themselves and imperfection for everyone else. They can only exist and function in the atmosphere of the cosmic system. A maximum number of people living in the cosmic system creates a vacuum for the rise of dictatorships while only the pivot of mature believers creates environment for the dynamic function of human freedom.

The dictatorship of Satan reaches its historical peak in the last half of the Tribulation because a maximum number of people in the world at that time demand such evil. Satan moves into that vacuum created by their negative volition. The mind must be exploited by Bible doctrine to make significant decisions for freedom.

One of the most fascinating periods of history is the Renaissance which preceded the Reformation. Most people think that the Renaissance was a time of tolerance but historically it was one of the greatest periods of intolerance in all of history. The new discoveries, the great talent, the rise of neo-classicism, all of these things produced one of the strongest areas of intolerance in history. The Roman Catholic church was intolerant of the Renaissance. The Renaissance resented the Roman Catholic church so the active arrogance of the church and the passive arrogance of discoveries such as Galileo’s inevitably lead to great conflict.

Since a religious society cannot think or reason it generally becomes emotional with blind arrogance. This emotion produces first intolerance, an active form of arrogance, then violence and persecution, and the persecution is always directed toward passive arrogance, and cruelty results in some form of holocaust. Religion stifles freedom, the function of free will and self-determination, therefore religion loses toleration as an essential part of human freedom. Religion does not allow others to make mistakes but persecutes them vigorously.

There is no such thing as the perpetuation of tolerance, for the perpetuation of tolerance demands historically the perpetuation of humility. They go together. There never has been in the history of mankind the perpetuation of tolerance and humility for more than four generations. After that some form of active or passive arrogance rears its ugly head and the trouble begins again.

The Jews had to develop passive arrogance before they were ever persecuted, however. That is one of the basic principles of anti-Semitism. Passive arrogance demands persecution from active arrogance and there is always some form of stupid, ignorant active arrogance to persecute those who are in passive arrogance. Hence the principle: all of us as individuals and nations are the products of our own decisions.

Verse 16, the divine deliverance of Israel. God always delivers winners. Their preparation does not have to be of the nature where people are doing special things for survival, they have their survival built up and constructed in their soul through the perception of Bible doctrine and with this they have that innate ability to be flexible in every circumstance of disaster.

Verse 16 is a continuation of the analogy. This time instead of the analogy of disaster as in verse 15 we have the analogy of deliverance. We begin with the conjunction kai emphasising a fact as noteworthy, hence it is translated “Nevertheless.” With this we have our subject in the nominative singular gh referring to planet earth. Sometimes it refers to the land of Israel. The word has a number of meanings but here it refers to land as opposed to water in the analogy. Land means safety from water and therefore in the analogy God provides safety for Israel through the greatest holocaust of history. However the safety is only provided for those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and those who have advanced to maturity, those who would be classified as winners. “Nevertheless the land”, which means safety from water. For regenerate Israel in the first half of the Tribulation land would refer to a literal land mass. It refers to Edom, Moab and Ammon of Daniel 11:41, the mountains of Matthew 24:16, the high desert country of Revelation 12:14. This is the area designated for safety provided by God for those Jewish believers converted by the 144,000 evangelists in the first half of the Tribulation. In the analogy, however, there is more land mass than flood in this case and this becomes a picture of divine deliverance of Israel during the greatest holocaust of their history, the land mass protects from the water. The land can be construed both literally and figuratively and still communicates the concept of God’s faithfulness to Israel, their deliverance from the floodwaters of anti-Semitism both in the future as well as now.

Then we have the first verb, the aorist active indicative of bohqew which means to help, to furnish aid. We will translate it “helped.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: by analogy there was more land mass [divine power] than water [Satan’s power], therefore the land mass or divine power used as an analogy for the deliverance of believers, specifically believing Jews in the middle of the Tribulation when this terrible holocaust begins. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of eschatological reality.

Now how can we derive some understanding or blessing from this since it doesn’t apply to us directly? You always have to have the interpretation first. In this passage the interpretation deals with a future time, the middle of the Tribulation. But it does have some application to us today and it was written for our admonition as well. When you have tried everything to try to find a way of escape in time of historical disaster, whether it is economic, social or military, you go back to the principle: God has a plan for your life. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ God has a purpose for your life. His plan and His purpose mean that He will deliver you in time of historical disaster provided, of course, that the historical is not used for your punishment. The protection, then, from historical disaster and the deliverance from historical disaster inevitably comes from your perception of Bible doctrine; for it is the function of the soul, the use of your free will, the decisions that you make, your thoughts, your ability to look at life from the divine viewpoint that makes it possible for you to be delivered. Deliverance is not physical. Deliverance is in the soul for those who are in the plan of God. If God is not using disaster to punish you He is using disaster to demonstrate His power, His grace, His deliverance and, above all, to reorient us to His grace; a process which has to continue all of the time. It is very easy for us to forget the grace of God as soon as we have any prosperity, any blessing. As soon as we get our eyes on the source, of course, we remember but by getting our eyes off the source of blessing, the source of everything that we have, and getting our eyes often on the gifts, we lose track of life and fail to remember that God still has a purpose for each one of us. No matter how great the disaster may be God can very easily deliver you from the worst situations that life has to offer.

“Nevertheless, the land helped the woman,” the dative singular, indirect object from the noun gunh, referring to true Israel. The dative of indirect object indicates the ones in whose interest the act is performed, and the act in this case are born-again Jews in the Tribulation. The analogy to water in the form of flooding represents the tremendous power of Satan in the form of the attack of his demon assault army. The land mass represents the power of God which dissipates and neutralises the violence of historical disaster. In other words, the strong current of the water does not have power over the stable land mass.

We have the conjunction kai again, this time it is the emphatic use translated “in fact.” Again we have the nominative subject gh referring to the land mass as the power of God in the analogy, in fact the land mass [divine power] protecting the believer in historical disaster. Then we have a second verb, the aorist active indicative of a)noigw, used here in the sense of opening, “in fact the land mass opened.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety: the deliverance of Israel from Satanic attack in the Tribulation. The active voice: the land mass, representing divine power, produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a statement of eschatological doctrine in the Tribulation.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun stoma which means mouth, but here we probably have more of a connotation of some draining system to drain off water, “opened its mouth and.” Then we have the deliverance in the aorist active indicative of the verb katapinw which means to swallow, to drink down. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In the analogy the flood waters represent again the power of Satan and the third demon assault army. The land mass represents the power of God protecting Israel in the greatest hour of its need, the holocaust of the Tribulation, the time of the devil’s desperation. All Satanic attacks are made against the grace of God (one of the greatest is religion). The grace principle is the key to the land mass.

The accusative singular direct object of potamoj which follows represents the flood waters of the seventh trumpet, the anti-Semitism of the Tribulation. Again, water is often used in scripture for masses of people as invading armies, and here the water represents the assault of the third demon assault army. Just as land mass dissipates the power of flood waters or tidal waves so the land mass as the power of God neutralises the violent attack of the third demon assault army. Of course, the question is pertinent: What Jews are delivered in this greatest holocaust of all? Obviously this is true Israel, those Jews who personally accept Christ as saviour, who have followed the doctrinal mandates given in Matthew chapter 24, beginning at verse 15. They have utilised the faith-rest drill to be in the right place at the right time.

This brings us to a principle that applies to us today, those of us who are members of the royal family of God in the Church Age. To be in the right place in the right time is one of the highest achievements of life. It is impossible for any person to second-guess and decide what is being in the right place at the right time. The ideal in life is not to make money, not to go in for some form of achievement. Achievement is something you do not seek if you are in the right place at the right time. Achievement finds you, success finds you, greatness finds you by being in the right place at the right time. So for those who feel that they don’t have much going for them, don’t feel as though they are really achieving much in life, and therefore feeling a little despondent about lack of success, should remember this principle: being in the right place in the right time is often the key to success. How can you be in the right place at the right time in historical disaster? There is only one way and that is to firm up in the plan of God the modus operandi designed for you: residence, function, momentum inside the divine dynasphere. God has a plan for your life. That plan has been in existence since the day you believed in Christ as your saviour. It is very easy for you to spend all of your time under the plan of God in discipline. That means you will be in the right place at the right time for discipline. You will be functioning in a state of terrible misery. But for those who move on with Bible doctrine, for those who have consistent positive volition, there is the great principle of being in the right place at the right time provided by God. David would still be a shepherd and we would never have heard of David had it not been for the fact that he was in the plan of God. As a shepherd boy in the plan of God he wound up on the battlefield in the right place at the right time. He was the only one who heard the challenge of Goliath, the great Greek giant, and actually met that challenge. Why was he in the right place at the right time? Because he had taken in maximum doctrine, he had lived in obscurity, he had lived in a marvellous state of humility and virtue, and God put him in the right place at the right time. The right place at the right time with God’s help means success, inevitable success. It means that you will succeed in life and that you will fulfil the plan of God, and your success will glorify the Lord. The Jews who glorify the Lord in the last half of the Tribulation are in the right place at the right time.

The source of Tribulational anti-Semitism is then given in the last half of this verse — the accusative singular of the relative pronoun o(j, “which,” refers to the water, the tidal wave, the attack of the third demon assault army called “flood” or “rapids.” Then we have our subject, the nominative singular from drakwn referring to the dragon. It is a reference to Satan himself. Then the aorist active indicative of the verb ballw referring here to throwing out or projecting, “which the dragon projected.” The aorist tense is the constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: Satan personally commands this demon assault army. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the eschatological attack of the third demon assault army with the stated objective of destroying all Israel on the earth — “which the dragon [Satan] projected from his mouth,” e)k plus the ablative of stoma again gives us the concept as to where the attack initiates.

Translation: “Nevertheless the land mass [referring to divine power] helped the woman [Israel], in fact the land mass opened its mouth and swallowed the flood waters [the seventh trumpet, the attack of the third demon assault army against the Jews] which the dragon projected from his mouth.”

This results in a second attack against regenerate Israel, given in verse 17. When there is frustration and anger arrogance intensifies. Therefore the arrogance of Satan intensifies and expresses itself in his rage.

The conjunction kai introduces a result from what precedes, translated “then.” We have the nominative singular of drakwn, “then the dragon.” The verb is the aorist passive indicative of o)rgizw referring here to rage or anger. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety: rage which results from frustrated arrogance. The most dangerous people in the world are the people whose arrogance has been cornered and put down, people who are cowards, weak, unstable. Once you get them in a corner they are like a wild animal because their arrogance has been frustrated. Frustrated arrogance is motivation for a great percentage of the evils in the world, not just sin but sin combined into some form of evil. Satan himself, the inventor of evil, is in that category at this moment, “the dragon was enraged.” The passive voice: Satan receives the action of the verb from his frustrated arrogance. He has intense anger, resentment, animosity, indignation. He was infuriated because he was frustrated in his endeavour to destroy Israel. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of Satan’s extreme anger, and it is directed toward Israel, e)pi plus the locative of gunh, referring to the woman, Israel. It is always amazing that the arrogant person, when he attacks someone else and does not succeed in his attacks, becomes perpetually resentful toward that person.

The last half of the Tribulation, then, is characterised by a series of Jewish holocausts, the greatest in all of human history. Anti-Semitism as a policy of the last half of the Tribulation is therefore stated in the next phrase. We have the connective use of the conjunction kai, “and.” Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb a)perxomai, “and he went off”. Often when there is frustrated arrogance there is also some form of neurosis or psychosis. In Satan there is psychopathic behaviour with regard to the problem. He will not take the responsibility for his own decisions and therefore frustrated arrogance gives him the motivation to continue trying to destroy the Jew right down to the point of the second advent. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Satan again is producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of Satan’s action based on the policy of anti-Semitism.

We can learn something from Satan’s tantrum. Once you are in a state of arrogance and that state of arrogance is frustrated by some relationship with someone, and you become angry or enraged, this becomes motivation for a lifetime of vengeful activity: a lifetime, not just of sin but of intensified sin parlayed into evil, and therefore a life of self-induced and self-perpetuated misery.

What did Satan go off to do? The aorist active infinitive of poiew means to produce something. What is produced is determined by the accusative object of the infinitive which is polemoj which means to make war. So he went off to make war. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for an action extended over a period of the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb. He still has his arrogance, he still has his frustration, he still has his anger, he is therefore motivated to spend the last three and a half years as the ruler of this world in trying to destroy the Jews. The infinitive of intended result means simply that when the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate objective, the destruction of Israel, it is so used.

With this we have the fact that while the demon assault army destroyed a great many Jews they did not destroy the remnant, those who were believers and were advancing to maturity. They are mentioned in the preposition meta plus the genitive of the adjective loipoj, referring to those who were delivered and will continue to be delivered, the remnant, the survivors, plus the possessive genitive singular of sperma referring to the Jews specifically. It is generally translated “seed”, here it refers to posterity.

“Then the dragon was enraged with the woman. Consequently he went off in a huff [arrogance plus anger] to make war against the survivors of her posterity [those Jews who survived the initial holocaust in the Tribulation].”

By this time the remnant of Jews who had survived were mostly believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, as indicated by the word loipoj meaning remnant, survivors. Obviously some Jewish unbelievers were still alive to be dealt with at the baptism of fire when Jewish unbelievers will be cast into the lake of fire forever and ever, according to Isaiah 1:25-27; Ezekiel 20:34-38; Malachi 3:1-6; 4:1-2.

That brings us to the holocaust target for the next three and a half years. That target is specified in an interesting way by the articular present active participle of the verb terew. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun, “those who.” The present tense is progressive for the action of obedience on the part of those who survive. They survive not because they were in some safe place out of town but because they had doctrine resident in their souls and they were flexible. The active voice: the Jewish believers or true Israel produce the action. The participle is circumstantial, “because those who kept observing”.

Then we have the accusative plural direct object from e)ntolh referring to the mandates of doctrine. These mandates are said to belong to God, the possessive genitive of qeoj, “those Jews who kept observing the mandates of God.” The mandates of God have to do with Bible doctrine. These commandments or mandates are not the Mosaic law but divine commands given to regenerate Israel in the middle of the Tribulation. The concept of e)ntolh can be expanded to include the whole realm of doctrine, which implies application of doctrine to their own situation. Of course, this doctrine had to be learned before it could be applied.

Next we have a connective kai followed by the present active participle of e)xw, the verb meaning to have or hold or both, “those who keep on having.” The present tense is a progressive present for action in the state of persistence, present linear aktionsart. The active voice: Jewish believers, true Israel, produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, translated like a finite verb. The accusative singular direct object of the word marturia has to do with the testimony of life as well as lips; their testimony before God, before angels, primarily. It also has something to do with their testimony before the world but if the testimony before God is correct everything else falls in line, “and those who keep on having the testimony of Jesus”. The subjective genitive means that the noun produces the action. It could also be a possessive genitive, the testimony belongs to our Lord.

Translation: “Then the dragon was enraged with the woman. Consequently he went off in a huff to make war against the survivors of her posterity, those believing Jews who keep on observing the mandates of God and who keep on having the testimony of Jesus.”

1. Bible doctrine in the right lobe of the mentality of the soul is the greatest power in life. No matter how great the historical disaster Bible doctrine is greater. Vincit omnia veritas: “doctrine conquers all.” The mind must be exploited by Bible doctrine to make significant decisions for freedom, for glorification of the Lord, for advance to maturity.

2. So it is with these Jewish believers who are delivered in the last half of the Tribulation. Through perception and application of doctrine they obey the mandates of God. They are the ones who are attracting persecution from Satan, not because of passive arrogance but because of active testimony for the Lord.

3. Through perception and application of doctrine they keep on having a witness or testimony to our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. While Satan is a genius and the ruler of this world he cannot contend with the active power of Bible doctrine perceived and applied in his domain, the world. Of course, doctrine is useless unless it is loaded into the gun -loaded into the right lobe. E)pignwsij doctrine is the only doctrine that can be applied.

Remember that man is inferior to the angels by creation, and through regeneration and perception of doctrine man as a believer is able to contend with fallen angels and their five attacks on the human race. In the next chapter, Revelation 13, Satan will fight believers both Jew and Gentile through temporal power. The temporal power includes both a Gentile and a Jewish dictator. Believers in the Tribulation will face both demonic [angelic] and human opposition, and never will there be a greater demonstration of the power of Bible doctrine resident in the souls of believers than in that future stage of human history.

In our Bibles we find seventeen verses in this chapter. However, in the Greek there is one more verse. It is not found in the English.

It starts out with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “and.” Then there is a verb, the aorist passive indicative of i(stemi. It means to take a stand, “Then he [Satan] took his stand.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Since i(stemi is an intransitive verb that means to offer resistance the verb means to take a stand. The passive voice in the intransitive use of i(stemi in the passive, which means that Satan or the dragon produces the action of the intransitive verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of Satan’s continued opposition to all categories of believers in the last half of the Tribulation. The place where he took his stand is mentioned by a prepositional phrase: e)pi plus a)mmoj. And with that we have qalassa, “Then he [Satan] took his stand on the sand of the sea”.

The sand of the sea refers to the next chapter and the two dictators who serve Satan during the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The sea refers to the sea of nations during the last half of the Tribulation. The sand refers to the fact that Satan is confined to the earth during the last half of the Tribulation. This verse is found in all the best manuscripts; it is not found in the King James version of 1611.

Here we have a chapter where prophecy is interpreted by history and the Roman empire is the background for the passage. Rome, while still a republic, became an empire. The historical Roman empire became the first client nation to God and the preserver of western European civilisation. This is going to become a very important principle when we get to chapter fourteen because in that chapter we are going to see several very valuable principles. The human race cannot be destroyed by anything that man does or anything that man constructs. The human race cannot be destroyed by man’s volition or by any nuclear weapons of any kind. The human race is going to continue until the end of human history. This means that while man is capable of destroying himself God intervenes with divine judgment before this happens. All divine judgment comes from the same source as divine blessing, the justice of God, and some of the greatest blessings that come to the human race come in the form of judgment, because certain segments of degeneracy are wiped out and certain segments of religion are wiped out. The greatest enemy to the destruction of the human race is not in the field of sophisticated weaponry, not nuclear weapons, but on the one hand degeneracy and the inevitable result of self-righteousness in religion on the other. Religion and degeneracy are far more dangerous than any nuclear weapons or any human power that has ever existed on the face of the earth. So God blesses us with judgment. He also blesses us individually with adversity and some of the greatest blessings that come to us come in time of adversity, not just in time of prosperity. Prosperity is obvious, adversity is not obvious and yet it should be for the believer who understands the system and has advanced to gate seven in that system, the divine dynasphere.

We learn also that many of the things that we are going to study in this passage about dictatorships and about the use of human power are prophecies of the future but they are interpreted in terms of history of the past. Therefore this becomes a very unusual chapter and it leads to another unusual chapter: how God uses divine judgment in order to, preserve the human race. The human race has been preserved many times by civilisation from a Gentile client nation but many more times the human race has been preserved by divine judgment. Divine judgment is one of the greatest things we have going for us and that means that adversity for the believer is not designed to destroy him or to make him distraught in any way but is designed to bless him. Our blessings come in rather strange packages as far as unbelievers are concerned or human viewpoint thinking of believers, and therefore you can count on it that when you are in a time of adversity there is blessing in it for you just as in a time of prosperity. The source of the blessing is the same — the doctrine you have accumulated and the ability to recognise and have a personal sense of destiny, and to utilise the doctrinal rationales in that connection.

Out of the historical Roman empire there emerges an eschatological empire of the future. We are going to study in chapter thirteen the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. We will also study in the last half of the chapter Israel as it will exist as a nation in the Tribulation, not as a client nation to God but, first of all, as a source of antagonism and, secondly, as the objective of the ecumenical world religion system, where they finally get to Israel with ecumenical religion. It must be kept in mind, then, that ecumenical religion is Satanic and it is just as dangerous as any other form of adversity in life. Degeneracy and religion are man’s two greatest enemies for both are the products of man’s volition, and man uses his own volition to destroy himself. We would not be here today were it not for the fact that God has judged the human race periodically. These judgements are the perpetuation of the human race, not its destruction. They only destroy certain portions: the religious portion and the degenerate portion.

The revived Roman empire of the Tribulation will not exist in crystallised form during the Church Age. We see constantly in the news people advocating and looking toward a united states of western Europe, the combining of western European powers, and we see, of course, the economical factors already there, the military factors there in NATO. There are already those particular areas which foreshadow what will happen in the Tribulation, but this might be a very temporary thing unless, of course, the Tribulation is going to occur in this or the next century. We have no way of knowing when the Tribulation will begin and we cannot say dogmatically that this is a sign of the times because there are no prophetical signs for the coming of the Tribulation. No man knows the day or the hour of the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church. What we see are historical trends but not necessarily indicative of the fact that the Tribulation is just around the corner. Nevertheless, when the Tribulation comes certain things will be true. There will be a very strong state in the middle east called Israel and there will be a revived Roman empire, a united states of western Europe. The revived Roman empire of the Tribulation, however, is not going to exist in any crystallised form until after the Rapture.

This chapter, then, is the prophetical message regarding the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation and its relationship to the nation Israel during the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. In this particular area we have to note certain principles. We have to note, first of all, that in the first ten verses we will study a Gentile dictator, the ruler of the revived Roman empire in the last half of the Tribulation. We will also study a Jewish dictator in verses 11-18. He is the ruler of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation. Both of these dictators are found throughout the scripture and therefore they are called many things by different writers of the scripture.

The general historical situation in the Tribulation: it is a time of power politics, a time when nations band together with nations, not in loose treaties as in the past but in strong spheres of influence. The state of Israel is a hub in the Tribulation from the middle and toward the end, and this hub is in a very precarious situation. After the first three and a half years of the Tribulation four great spheres of influence emerge in history: the king of the north, the kings of the east, the king of the south [Pan-Arabic bloc], and the western union. The king of the west plays a big part in our passage. The king of the west is the united states of western Europe which we call the revived Roman empire.

Rome of the past will be revived but the Romans of the past will not be the Romans of the revived Roman empire because the Romans of today are not the Romans of the past. There have been the invasions of many races and the Romans of today are made of almost every combination of people imaginable. The peninsula of Italy has housed many nations.

The Jews and the Romans are the major factor in our passage. The two greatest people of the ancient world were the Romans and the Jews. They were great for different reasons but there is no group of people in all of ancient history who are as great as the Jews in certain areas or as great as the Romans in certain other areas. Therefore it is fascinating to find them in the future having as great a future in the Tribulation as they had greatness in the past. It was inevitable that the two peoples whose history extended over a thousand years should encounter each other at various times in the course of past history. The Romans and the Jews met at the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ where the two greatest systems of law in the ancient world combined to put our Lord on the cross. The Jews were the only client nation of the Old Testament times and of ancient history, and when the Romans administered the 5th cycle of discipline to the Jews in AD 70 they became the first Gentile client nation in history. So the only client nation of ancient history, the Jews, were followed by the first Gentile client nation, the Romans. At the same time all the blessings of the ancient world had their source in Israel just as the blessings of modern history originate from the same source, the Word of God, for both the Old and the New Testaments were written by Jewish authors. The only possible exception might be Luke. It is inevitable that these two greatest peoples of ancient history should meet, then, in the future.

A word about dictators. Dictators are people who always know what is best for everyone else and they seek to impose that knowledge on others without their consent. Hence the dictator rejects self-determination, freedom of choice, as the right of every individual members of the human race. Dictators reject the laws of divine establishment, they reject privacy, private ownership of property, and they reject the sacredness of life, for dictators generally are bad administrators and when they are the simplest solution to administration is to get rid of the opposition. Dictators can exist in every area of life. There are social dictators who dominate a social scene through intrusion into the privacy of others. There are political dictators, religious dictators, and others for the purpose of superimposing their ideas regarding what is best for you totally apart from the function of your own volition or any form of self-consent. Dictators refuse to permit you to make your own mistakes and in that sense they can be classified as arrogant crusaders seeking to run your life by their own standards, or lack of them, and that means that in their philosophy of tyranny dictators only want you to make their mistakes from their bad decisions. They want to make the decisions for everyone. Dictators are arrogant and often very self-righteous since the two characteristics are joined in the unholy matrimony of tyranny. Because dictators use force and violence to superimpose their will and ideas on the masses they inevitably reject doctrines and principles of establishment related to human freedom and self-determination.

Perhaps the greatest danger comes from those who have great power and use that power to intrude upon the privacy of others. For example, the news media. They face a great temptation. They have tremendous power today and when they use their power to intrude upon the privacy of others then it becomes tyranny. They are no longer dealing with news, with what is actually going on, but they are actually on crusades and they intrude upon the privacy of people in order to put them down, to eliminate them as a check on their crusades.

Dictators can only exist, function, and succeed in the atmosphere of untruth and the atmosphere where Bible doctrine is rejected or distorted, in the atmosphere of the cosmic system of Satan, and in the atmosphere of the historical environment where the cosmic system has major influence. We see it today in two trends in our own country: the rise of religion as over against Christianity which is not a religion, and with the rise of religion the rise of degeneracy. They always rise together. There are those who react to degeneracy — like homosexuality — and get into self-righteous religion, and there are those who react against self-righteous religion and get into something like drug addiction or some hell-raising activity which is simply a reaction.

A maximum number of people, then, living in the cosmic system always creates a vacuum historically, and into that vacuum is drawn some demagogue who has the qualities and the qualifications to become a dictator or a tyrant. The only defence against this is the pivot of mature believers. This creates the environment for the dynamic function of human freedom. The mind must be exploited for truth to make significant decisions for freedom.

The Gentile dictator of the Tribulation is found in the first ten verses of our chapter and beginning in verse one we have the empire of the Gentile dictator. In verses 1-10 we are now studying the Gentile dictator of the last half of the Tribulation. He actually becomes a dictator in the first year or two of the Tribulation.

In verse one the first problem we have to face is the textual problem. “And I stood on the sand of the sea” is not found in the original text. It is a correction of the missing verse of the previous chapter. Chapter 12:18 says, “and he [Satan] took his stand on the sand of the sea.” As in Daniel chapter 7:2,3 the sea represents the nations of the world. The sea may be calm or it may be stormy, a picture of the interaction of nations in human history. The calm suggests peace and the storms suggest warfare. The various functions of the sea portray the various interactions of nations in history. The currents of the sea are like the political trends in any given generation.

During the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation Satan takes a stand on the earth because he no longer takes a stand in heaven. That was the significance of the missing verse that we studied in chapter 12:18. Satan is confined to the earth during the last half of the Tribulation. This chapter actually begins, then, with the phrase, “And I saw a beast rise up out of the sea,” and since that is where the Greek text begins, that is where we begin, with the revived Roman empire.

We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, correctly translated “Then.” Next is the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, “Then I saw.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the apostle John’s vision in its entirety. It takes the rise of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation, during the time of the devil’s desperation, and gathers it up into one entirety. What John sees in this context parallels what Daniel saw in Daniel chapter seven. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action of the verb. We saw that Satan took a stand on the sands of the sea but it was John who saw the vision. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of John’s vision as a part of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation.

The accusative singular direct object from the noun qhrion is used for the first dictator. It certainly is an apt word, it is “beast” in the sense of a real animal but it is also used for people of a bestial nature. Here the noun has a human connotation. Confusion is added to the problem by the fact that the King James version translates two Greek words the same. The other is zoion which simply means a living creature. The noun zoion is used for elect angels, the four angels of Revelation 4:6-9. Qhrion is used, and has been used in Revelation 11:7, for Abaddon the prince of demons, the murderer of the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah. Qhrion is also used for those unbelievers who are completely demonised in the cosmic system. We have two in this chapter: two dictators. One is the dictator of the revived Roman empire, the other is the dictator of the state of Israel in the Tribulation. So we translate it: “Then I saw a beast monster,” the dictator of the revived Roman empire. The most demonised members of the human race are these two dictators.

This dictator receives his power from Satan under two principles. Firstly, he is demon-possessed to the maximum in the cosmic system. In other words, his rise is based upon his advance into evil in the cosmic system. He is also under demon influence and demon telepathy which is transference of thought from Satan to this dictator. Secondly, this dictator uses to the maximum the power of evil. The cosmic system is his contact with the supernatural power of Satan.

The dictator uses his great power of evil to gain his rulership, and there is a principle here. The power of evil can never penetrate a group apart from that group’s consent or apart from that group’s characteristic of evil. In other words, the power of evil can only succeed where evil exists. If, instead of the power of evil, there is the power of doctrine, there is the power of a pivot, there is the power of the Word of God, then the power of evil simply cannot make any inroads at all.

The power of evil belongs to Satan but the power of evil is delegated in various components of strength to those who live in the cosmic system, and Satan uses believers and unbelievers in the function of the power of evil. The sad thing is that you can’t recognise the power of evil by the personality because some of the sweetest, most righteous, moral people that you ever see have received from Satan the power of evil. They will come in very subtly and malign and gossip and question and produce doubts and make their infiltration into any organisation of any kind. The power of evil is designed, one way or another, to distract you from Bible doctrine, from the daily intake of Bible doctrine, from growing spiritually in grace. The power of evil is always going to attack, therefore, any area where there is a possibility of forming a pivot. And it always starts with sweet people maligning, gossiping, expressing jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability. The power of evil always infiltrates through motivational evil, it never starts out through functional evil. Functional evil always follows motivational evil.

So we must understand that the two men that we are studying, the dictator of the revived Roman empire and the dictator of Israel in the Tribulation, came into power through evil. The power of evil belongs to Satan and he delegated it to these two people under conditions that we will note.

This beast monster is said to have an origin: the preposition e)k plus the ablative of qalassa, “from the source of the sea.” This is the sea of nations during the Tribulation. The accusative neuter singular present active participle from a)nabainw means coming up out of the sea. The present tense of the participle is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has happened in the past. In the beginning of the Tribulation the united states of western union begins to rise and continues into the present time, the middle of the Tribulation. The revived Roman empire of the Tribulation produces the action of the verb and the participle is used as a relative clause because of the retroactive progressive present. It is going to be translated by the English perfect, “Then I saw a beast dictator [Satan’s slave, the Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire in the last half of the Tribulation] who had ascended from the sea.” The revived Roman empire of the first part of the Tribulation comes out of the sea of nations, fighting and jockeying for power in the Tribulation.

Next we have a present active participle from e)xw. The retroactive progressive present is known also as the present of duration, what is begun at the beginning of the Tribulation and is continued into the middle. The active voice: the dictator of the revived Roman empire produces the action. This is a circumstantial participle and a circumstantial participle in the Greek is often translated with a conjunction “and” and a finite verb. So we translate: “and he had.” Then we have kerata deka, deka for ten plus the accusative plural direct object from keraj, “ten horns.”

The horn is a symbol of power in the Word of God and the ten horns are ten nations which were once part of the old Roman empire. Not only is the horn a symbol of power and authority but horns represents nations or groups who possess power and authority by combining. In Daniel 8:20,21 we have a ram with two horns. This is the Persian empire: one horn for the Medes; one horn for the Persians. In Amos 6:13 arrogant Israel boasts about her conquest of Gentile nations whom they call horns or powerful nations. In Jeremiah 48:25 the horn of Moab is the power and sovereignty of Moab as a nation. Moab at its peak. In Daniel 7:7ff ten horns are the ten nations combined to form the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation, while the little horn of Daniel 7 is the dictator we are studying at the present time. So the word “horn” is found quite frequently in relationship to nations and, in the plural, nations combined together. In Zechariah 1:18-19 we have four horns, four empires who administer the fifth cycle of discipline to client nation Israel. They are Assyria, Chaldea, the Hellenistic empire of the Seleucids, and Rome. Therefore it is concluded, of course, that horns are legitimately used for powerful nations performing certain functions related to their power.

Translation: “And he [the dictator of the revived Roman empire] had ten horns.” It would be nothing but speculation to determine the ten horns or nations which compose that revived Roman empire of the future. The problem is that we don’t know when the Rapture is going to occur. If the Rapture were to occur sometime in the near future then we could do a little speculating but if the Rapture is not going to occur for another thousand years nations are going to change and the names are going to change. While the sea in this verse represents the great mass of nations of the Tribulation it can also refer to a literal sea, the Mediterranean which became a Roman lake after the third Punic war. So it could be nations bordering on the Mediterranean or expanded to include other nations as well. If the Rapture should occur sometime soon nations which were once in the Roman empire sound like this at the present: Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria, England, Holland, Belgium, West Germany (not East Germany), Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Western Turkey, Syria, Lebanon. All of those nations are modern nations and all of them were once in the old Roman empire. Nations definitely not involved: East Germany, Russia, Iran, the USA, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China.

The real key to understanding the horns in verse one is to go to Daniel chapter seven where we have some expansion. Daniel 7:2,3, “Daniel said, ‘I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven [the rise and fall of empires under a principle: Jesus Christ controls history] were stirring up the great sea [four empires were stirring up peoples and nations of the world]. And four great beasts [empires] were coming up from the sea [Gentile nations], differing each from the other’.”

Verses 4-6 describe these empires. In verse four we have the lion, the Chaldean empire, followed by the bear in verse 5 which is the Persian empire, followed by the leopard in verse 6, the Hellenistic empire of Alexander the Great which disintegrated into the Hellenistic monarchies after Alexander’s death.

In verse 7 we pick up the concept. “ ‘After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast [the historical Roman empire, the first Gentile client nation], dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth [Rome from BC 146-49, the transitional period from republic to empire]. It devoured and crushed and trampled down with its feet the rest [the expansion of the Roman empire]; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it [it became the first Gentile client nation to God], and it [the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. Moving from Rome of the past to Rome of the future] had ten horns’.”

Rome as a client nation to God started in AD 70 with the fall of Israel. Long before that the transition had been occurring. What held up Israel as a client nation during the transitional period was the ministry of the apostles — Paul, John, Peter, James. Rome as a client nation to God continued until AD 476. From 476 AD and throughout the rest of the Church Age other Gentile nations function as client nations to God. Gentile client nations cease to exist at the Rapture because the pivot of mature believers is removed from planet earth by resurrection — no pivot; no client nation. All the pivots go up at the Rapture. After the Rapture comes the Tribulation and the revived Roman empire under the concept of the ten horns of Revelation 13:1; 17:1-17; Daniel 7:7. These ten horns are taken from the countries mentioned above.

Verse 8, “ ‘While I was contemplating the horns [the ten nations combined to form the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation], behold [in the middle of the Tribulation], another little horn [dictator of the revived Roman empire], came up from among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted [in order to establish his dictatorship he had to fight and defeat three out of the ten nations before the other seven surrendered to his power] before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth that spoke arrogantly’.”

In other words, in the middle of the Tribulation, or just before that time, a dictator [the little horn] emerges and conquers three of the nations in this confederation. The others surrender to his power. He then becomes an absolute dictator over this power bloc of the Tribulation. This fact explains our ten horns in Revelation 12:3; 13:1; 17:3.

Daniel 7:9, “ ‘I continued looking [past the Tribulation and second advent and Millennium] until thrones were set up [the nations of the Millennium. The thrones are set up so that believers of the Church Age who are winners can rule nations in the Millennium], and the Ancient of Days took his throne [the coronation of Jesus Christ at the second advent]; his clothing was like white snow [the uniform of glory over His resurrection body], and the hair of his head was like pure wool [the strategic victory of Christ at the first advent]. His throne was a flame of fire [the baptism of fire, which means that only believers enter the Millennium, unbelievers are cast into fire], its wheels [the chariot of fire which we studied in Ezekiel] were a burning fire [the judgment of the baptism of fire at the second advent]’.” Verses 10-12 describe details of the second advent judgements.

Verse 14, “ ‘And to him [Jesus Christ] was given dominion [rulership of the world], glory and sovereignty, that all the peoples, nations, and languages might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; furthermore, his kingdom is one which will never be destroyed’.”

Verses 18-26, “ ‘But the saints of the Highest One [Jewish believers or true Israel] will receive the kingdom [the restoration of Israel as a client nation to God under the Palestinian covenant] and possess the kingdom forever.”

‘Then I desired to know the exact meaning [interpretation] of the fourth beast [the historical Roman empire], which was different from all of the others, most terrifying, with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, and which devoured, crushed, and trampled under foot whatever was left, and the meaning of the ten horns which were on its head, and the other horn [the dictator of the revived Roman empire] which came up, and before which three of them fell [were defeated], namely, that little horn which had eyes [genius combined with demonism] and a mouth that spoke arrogantly [eloquence from the cosmic system], and whose appearance was more arrogant than his contemporaries’.”

“ ‘I continued looking while the horn was making war against the saints and winning over them until the Ancient of Days came [second advent of Christ], and pronounced judgment in favour of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom. Therefore he said [interpretation]: ‘The fourth beast will be the fourth empire [the Roman empire] on the earth, which will be different from all the others, and it will devour the entire earth and tread it down and crush it. As for the ten horns [revived Roman empire], out of this kingdom ten kings will arise [the first half of the Tribulation]; and another [the dictator who takes over about the middle of the Tribulation] will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones [because he is Satan’s servant, both demon-possessed and under great demon influence] and he will conquer three kings. He will speak out against the Most High and will impress the saints of the Highest One, he will try to change times and laws; and they [believers] will be delivered from his hands for three and one half years [Jews delivered from the holocaust]. Then the court will sit [second advent of Christ], and his dominion [Satan as the ruler of the world] will be taken away, to annihilate and to destroy to the end [to the end of the Millennium, until he is released]’.”

We note in Revelation 13:1, “having seven heads.” The ten horns are the confederation of nations which form the revived Roman empire in the first half of the Tribulation. The seven heads are the nations who did not have to be conquered. Because in this confederation of ten nations we have so many bad decisions from a position of weakness the vacuum is created. Out of that vacuum came a dictator. First these nations would not accept this man until he ruthlessly conquered three of them and the other seven accepted his dictatorship. In that way he became the dictator of the revived Roman empire and the phraseology “seven heads” refers simply to those nations which were not conquered but came under the power of this dictator. The seven heads, then, are the surviving nations in the revived Roman empire by the middle of the Tribulation. Hence, we have the first and last status of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation. In the first half of the Tribulation a ten-nation confederation; in the last half of the Tribulation a seven-nation dictatorship.

We have next a phrase which is called the interpretive use of the conjunction kai. This is the idiomatic use, the interpretative kai, and should be translated “this means.” So after the ten horns and seven heads we have kai meaning “this means.” Then we have the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the genitive of keraj, meaning horns. This means that “on his horns” (we have the possessive genitive of a)utoj, the intensive pronoun uses a personal pronoun), the revived Roman empire during the first half of the Tribulation, “were ten crowns,” deka diadhma [diadhma is the ruler’s crown]. In the first half of the Tribulation, then, the dictator was part of a political confederation, ten nations of the revived Roman empire. In the last half of the Tribulation he rules what is left of it after he conquers it.

The revived Roman empire in the last half of the Tribulation is then described. We have a connective kai this time denoting a contrast with the previous phrase, translated “but.” Again we have the preposition e)pi but this time plus the accusative of the noun kefalh, “but on his head.” We had in the previous phrase e)pi plus the genitive, emphasising contact. This time we have e)pi plus the accusative, emphasising motion or direction. In the first half of the Tribulation the dictator has contact but in the last half of the Tribulation the dictator has motion, he is in control of the revived Roman empire, “but over his head [the revived Roman empire] the name,” the accusative singular direct object from o)noma, meaning name, designation or person. Then the accusative plural in apposition to that: blasfhmia, blasphemy, “but over his head the name blasphemy.” Blasphemy simply refers to the fact that he is the head of the ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. He has a religious empire as well as a political empire. His political empire is mentioned in the “seven heads and on his heads were ten crowns.” So he controls the entire Roman empire. The ten crowns refer to the original ten nations.

There are two things that create a vacuum in any nation at any time. One is stupidity: you stop thinking. When you stop thinking you create a vacuum for a dictator. That is what happened to Nazi Germany, to Russia, to China. That explains the rise of communism; it invades where the vacuum exists. The other part is when you make bad decisions from a position of weakness. You lost control of your own life and you have no personal sense of destiny, and your status quo contributes to the national lack of control and the nation’s failure to have a sense of destiny. One way or another, every nation after four generations of degeneracy is destroyed.

A vacuum was created in this ten-nation confederation and out of that vacuum comes a dictator. He conquered three and ruled seven but the other three are also under his control. That is all this is saying: “then I saw the beast dictator [Satan’s man] who had ascended from the sea [because he was in an area where negative volition created a vacuum that sucked him up], having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten crowns [on his horns — the revived Roman empire; the ten crowns — the political empire during the first half of the Tribulation] but over his head [revived Roman empire during the last half of the Tribulation] the name of blasphemy [Satan’s last great attack against the human race: ecumenical religion].”

In the last half of the Tribulation the dictator has absolute control politically, but something is added and something is taken away from his absolute control. Taken away are the ten crowns of the ten horns, which means they are no longer independent states in a confederation but a part of a single empire, the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. Added to the seven surviving states is the name “blasphemy,” indicating that this is a religious as well as a political dictatorship. The worst thing that could happen is to have both a religious and a political dictatorship. The revived Roman empire in the last half of the Tribulation is religious and political, and we will see how this ecumenical religion not only gains control in the revived Roman empire as a Satanic power but also takes over the state of Israel where people will say in that day, “It can’t happen, Judaism will resist it.” But Judaism has no power apart from Bible doctrine. Judaism will have a system of religion without the doctrine of the Old Testament.

Verse 2, the precedent and power of the empire. This takes us back to Daniel chapter seven for explanation in verses 3-6. This is the passage which will explain the system of precedence.

“And four great beasts were coming up from the sea [of nations], different from one another,” a phrase which means idiomatically that they follow each other historically, they do not coexist. “The first [the Chaldean empire] was like a lion [that will explain “lion” in Revelation 13:2] and had the wings of an eagle [the rapidity with which the Chaldean empire came into prominence]. I kept looking until the wings were plucked [that is Nebuchadnezzar’s madness resulting in the palace revolution of Daniel chapter four] and it was lifted up from the ground [the restoration of Nebuchadnezzar] and made to stand on two feet like a man [Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion ]; a human mind was also given to it [eventually he became very brilliant from his learning of doctrine]. And behold another beast, a second one, resembling a bear [the Median-Persian empire which lasted two centuries]. He was raised up on one side [the Persians dominated the Medes], and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth [the story of Cyrus the Great: the first rib are the Medes, the second was Lydia, the third rib was Babylon and the fall of the Chaldean empire in BC 539]; and thus they said to it [the bear], ‘Arise, devour much meat!’ ” This is the expansion of the Persian empire from India on the east to Greece on the west. These conquests were divine judgements on demonised empires practising idolatry, Isaiah 41:2-7; 44:28; 45:1-13; 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1. God used a born-again believer [Cyrus] to exercise judgment. Degeneracy hit in all of these great nations all at the same time. God used the Persian empire also to protect and restore Israel to its client nation status.

In Daniel 7:6 we read: “After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard [Alexander the Great and his Macedonian empire], which had on its sides four wings of a bird [the first wing was the conquest of Asia Minor, the second was the conquest of the Mediterranean world, the third was the conquest of Persia’s eastern empire, and the fourth was the conquest of Parthia]; the beast also had four heads [Seleucus, Ptolemy, Cassander, Lysimachus, heads of the Hellenistic monarchies], and dominion was given to it.”

Revelation 13:2 has the same beast analogy. It begins with a connective kai, introducing a result from what precedes. It is translated “Furthermore.” The aorist active indicative of o(raw follows, “Furthermore I saw.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the parade of empires which sets the precedent. The active voice: John is the human author and he produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

Then we have the subject, the nominative singular from qhrion, which means the beast monster, and we are looking now at the revived Roman empire. “Furthermore the beast which I saw,” and then the perfect active indicative of e)imi, “was,” and with the comparative particle o(moioj, “was like.”

Next we have the instrumental of association of the noun pardalij, which means leopard, “was like a leopard,” The leopard, as we saw in Daniel, is the Macedonian and Hellenistic empires. This analogy denotes the rapid conquest of the dictator in forming the revived Roman empire. He had the speed of Alexander. We are talking about a future ruler of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation who will break all records for conquest and he is compared to the rapidity with which Alexander the Great conquered the world. While it took Alexander twelve years to form his empire this beast dictator does it in less than a year.

The pro-Jewish analogy of the first half of the Tribulation is brought up next. We have the adjunctive use of kai, “also.” We have the nominative plural from the noun pouj and the possessive genitive a)utoj, “his foot,” “also his foot was like.” And then we have the descriptive genitive of a)rchoj for the bear. The bear refers to the Persian empire. And what is the precedent that the Persian empire set? It was pro-Semitic. Not only did the Persians treat the Jews well but they also sponsored their return to the land and the restoration of the client nation. Hence, the analogy of the bear is a reference to the Roman dictator’s pro-Semitic policy toward Israel in the first half of the Tribulation and after his sensational conquest at the time of the middle of the Tribulation. It is only after the abomination of the desolation is put up in Israel that anti-Semitism rears its ugly head. The revived Roman empire is pro-Semitic in the first half of the Tribulation, right up until the middle of the Tribulation, but with the fall of Satan from heaven there is suddenly an outbreak of anti-Semitism. So we have the bear which is analogous to the dictator’s pro-Semitic policy in the first half of the Tribulation.

Then we have thirdly, the lion, the anti-Semitic policy of the last half of the Tribulation. We have the connective conjunction kai, a nominative singular subject stoma and, again, the possessive genitive from a)utoj, “and his mouth.” Then we have an ellipsis which demands the verb to be, “and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion.” The lion refers to the Chaldean empire which was anti-Semitic. Therefore it establishes analogy with the Roman dictator’s policy at the end of the Tribulation. He became anti-Semitic. Each empire of the past had a characteristic which would be found in the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation.

Translation: “Furthermore the beast which I saw [the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation] was like a leopard [the dictator’s rapid conquests in the first half of the Tribulation is compared to the rapid conquest of Alexander the Great], also his feet were like the feet of a bear [the dictator’s pro-Semitic policy in the first half of the Tribulation is compared to the pro-Semitic policy of Persia], and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion [the dictator’s anti-Semitic policy in the last half of the Tribulation].”

Note the reverse order of the animals in Revelation chapter thirteen. In Daniel chapter seven the lion came first, then the bear, and then the leopard. The reason for that is quite obvious. In Daniel seven the lion came first historically, then came the bear, and finally was the leopard. That is the historical order of Daniel chapter seven, but now when we come to Revelation chapter thirteen these are reversed because these analogies are related to the Tribulation, not to past history. The pro-Semitic policy of the Roman dictator of the Tribulation came first in which he made the treaty. The period of the bear or the pro-Semitic policy is when the king of the west, the revived Roman empire, made the treaty with the state of Israel in the Tribulation. But behind that pro-Semitism was religion. The dictator was the head of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation and he wanted to bring Israel into the religion. The greatest persecutors of Israel have always been religion. (Bible Christianity is not a religion) Ecumenical religion, once the dictator of the revived Roman empire became its head and accepted the rulership of ecumenical religion in the world at that time, began persecuting the Jews.

Next we have the connective kai followed by the nominative singular subject drakwn, “dragon.” Satan is the highest of all angelic creatures and the ruler of all fallen angels, Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26; Luke 11:18,19. Satan or the dragon is the central antagonist of the angelic conflict; he is the anti-God creature of creatures, Hebrews chapters one and two. Yet God did more for him than any other creature. So why would Satan be against God? How could he turn on someone who did so much for him? In one word: arrogance. Sometimes arrogance is called vanity, sometimes it is called pride, but arrogance can change people instantly and always for the worst. When the believer gets involved in the cosmic system he turns on the one who has given his eternal life and every fantastic, marvellous blessing, and even keeps each one of us alive.

Satan is a genius, and he is a genius when it comes to organisation. He has a great system of organisation, Ephesians 6:10. He is also a criminal, and when you are a good organiser and a criminal it is natural that you are going to get into trouble. As a criminal he is the original murderer in history, John 8:44. Satan is the enemy of God, and being the enemy of God what Satan hates the most is truth, Bible doctrine. He can’t stand Bible doctrine. Satan is the ruler of this world and is far superior in very way to the creatures of this world, and yet we have one thing that gives us great power, the ability to resist, the ability to see through him, the ability to discern, and the ability to fulfil the plan of God, and that is Bible doctrine. And so what defeats Satan is not any attractiveness, not any beauty, not any wisdom or talent that we might have, and above all not any form of self-righteousness (the quintessence of arrogance), is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. Naturally, therefore, Satan is the enemy of Bible doctrine, Matthew 13:9, 39.

Satan is also a great strategist. 2 Corinthians 2:11 “… in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan for we are not ignorant of his strategy.” Satan has all of the natural advantages over us but it is one thing to have natural advantages over someone and something else to take advantage of someone. The difference is volition. No one can take advantage of you apart from your own consent, apart from the function of your own volition. By creation Satan is superior to us in every way but Satan cannot take advantage of us unless we agree to it from the function of our own volition. What protects our volition from making those wrong decisions, bad decisions from a position of weakness, is Bible doctrine. Ignorance is what ruins us as believers. Arrogance and ignorance are our two greatest enemies.

2 Corinthians 11:3 says, “But I am afraid, lest as the serpent [Satan] deceived Eve by his craftiness your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and virtue of devotion to Christ.” There is a phenomenal gem. The point being: Satan must deceive our minds. And why our minds? Because the mind is the recipient of Bible doctrine. You are not led astray in any way except through the mind because that is where your volition is and the source of all sin, the source of human good, the source of evil. Devotion to Christ is the system in the divine dynasphere.

Revelation 13:2, “and the dragon.” Let us see what Satan is doing here, the aorist active indicative of didomi, he is giving something. Watch out when the devil gives away something. When Satan starts to give you something it means that you are now his slave if you accept his gift. So you have to be careful who is giving you what; “and the dragon gave,” the constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: Satan produced the action of the verb through the delegation of authority to the Roman dictator. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical fact that during the Tribulation Satan gains by giving. That is what people often have in mind when they give you something. This is why giving in the local church must always be anonymous. The pastor must not know who is giving what because people often give to a pastor so that they can tie him up and use him for whatever ends they may have down the line. So when people give the pastor shouldn’t know anything, and when people give they should give as unto the Lord.

“and the dragon gave to him,” the dative singular indirect object from a)utoj. This is the intensive use and it is translated “to him.” Once the devil starts giving away something you are under his power if you accept his gifts, and if he gives power then he controls you and the power you have is his power, you are a puppet on a string.

We have what he gives in the accusative singular direct object, dunamij. God gives dunamij and Satan gives dunamij. God’s dunamij to the royal family is the divine dynasphere. Dunamij is where we get dynasphere; that is the plan of God. But Satan also gives a system of power related to the cosmic system, “and the dragon gave to him his power.”

Satan, then, as the super creature does possess great power. For example, Satan can blind the minds of unbelievers when they are exposed to the gospel, according to 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, but he just can’t reach in and coerce volition. How he blinds is he starts giving presents. There is nothing that will blind people more than to receive gifts without understanding what is behind it — not love, but control. Basically, there are two reasons why people give: because of love and to control. There are people who will do a favour to you because they want to control you; other people will do a favour for you because they love you. When giving is an expression of love and the favour comes there are no strings. But when giving is going to demand favour down the line and there are strings it is always to control you. One nice thing about grace: no strings.

So we have the power of Satan, and the power of Satan is in giving. He is giving because he has strings. Satan doesn’t do these things unless God permits it, and there is a reason for it. Satan tried to gain power over Job and failed, and when Job would not accept his presents then he became vindictive. If you refuse the gifts of someone who is trying to control you the next step is vindictiveness. Many a person will turn against you with vindictiveness simply because you rejected their presents and therefore wouldn’t come under their control. That is why Satan killed the children of Job. But the children of Job weren’t much good anyway and God gave Job other children later on. It was really a case of God permitting it and it turned out for good because Job rejected Satan’s gifts.

Satan motivated Cain to murder his brother Abel. First of all Satan had to hook Cain. Satan gave Cain the most beautiful farm in the world at that time and all of the food grown at Cain’s farm was magnificent. In fact, it was so good that Cain was arrogant about it and when it was time to bring a gift to God, instead of bringing the lamb and the shedding of blood which represented the cross he brought all this beautiful fruit and vegetables. And who has been giving him all this great success in farming? Satan. So Cain brings all this produce that Satan has given him and says, “Look God, here’s my gift”. God rejected it. So then Satan motivated Cain to murder, John 8:44; 1 John 3:12.

Satan is often the executor of believers who are sentenced to the sin unto death. That is vindictiveness. Cf. 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Timothy 1:19,20.

Satan’s power is obviously then related to use and function of violence. But it doesn’t start there. Satan hooks people by giving them something. A gift from Satan is the beginning of trouble. So the first object here is that the dragon gave to the dictator his power.

Then he gave a second thing, “and his throne.” The dragon is the ruler of this world. So we have a second accusative, qronoj. He gave him not only power but a title to go with his power. This dictator is Satan’s servant. This dictator gave his soul to the devil. In return for his total dedication to the devil the dictator of the little horn of Daniel chapter seven receives great power and great authority. It is one thing to have power, it is something else to have great authority to go with it. The extent of his authority: he had the political rulership of the revived Roman empire; he was the religious leader of Satan’s ecumenical religion of the Tribulation.

Translation of verse two: “Furthermore the beast which I saw [the dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation] was like a leopard [the dictator’s rapid conquest in the first half of the Tribulation], also his feet were like the feet of a bear [the dictator’s pro-Semitic policy in the first half of the Tribulation], and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion [the dictator’s reversal to anti-Semitism policy in the last half of the Tribulation]: and the dragon [Satan, the ruler of this world] gave him to him [the dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation] his power, and his throne, and great authority [political authority as the ruler of the revived Roman empire and religious authority as the ruler of ecumenical religion].”

We are going to study two dictators in chapter thirteen but we need to spend a little time first on a principle or two by way of introduction.

First of all we are going to note in this chapter two kinds of dictators. One is a Jew and one in a Gentile; one is a Roman and one is a Jew. It is interesting that we should have in the Tribulation of the future a Jew and a Roman as the two great dictators of the Tribulation. The two greatest people of the ancient world were the Jews and the Romans. It was inevitable that the two people whose history extended over a thousand years in the ancient world, and whose history is almost longer than any people of any time, should encounter each other in the course of human history. The Romans and the Jews met at probably the most dramatic point, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. They represented the two greatest systems of law in the ancient world and, as far as the Jews are concerned, the greatest system of law in all of human history. And it is interesting that these two fantastic systems of law were used to put our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. It wasn’t just the Jews, it was both Jewish and Roman law. So Jews and Romans met at the cross.

The Jews were the only client nation of the Old Testament times in ancient history and when the Romans finally administered the fifth cycle of discipline in AD 70 they became the first Gentile client nation in history. While all the streams of ancient history flow into the lake called SPQR [The Senate and the People of Rome] all the streams of modern history flow out of the lake called SPQR. At the same time all blessings of the ancient world had their source in Israel. Just as history flows into and out of the Roman empire all the blessings of the ancient world flow in and out of Israel. It is inevitable that the two greatest peoples then should meet in ancient history, for one of them has all the trends of history, one of them has all the blessings of history. And just as they have met in the past to form some of the most dramatic pages of history so they will meet in the future to form the great drama of the last half of the Tribulation.

The history of the Tribulation prophesied in chapter thirteen finds Rome and Israel meeting again during one of the most dramatic moments in all of history. They meet in the form of their two dictators: the dictator of the revived Roman empire and the dictator of Israel in the Tribulation.

1. Dictators are people who always know what is best for everyone else and seek to impose that knowledge, however limited, on others without their consent. The difference between a legitimate ruler and a dictator is the one word “consent”. People who are legitimate rulers rule by the consent of the people; illegitimate rulers or dictators rule without consent.

2. Hence the dictator rejects freedom of choice and the principle of self-determination as the right of every individual member of a society. In effect, a dictator rejects freedom and he assumes the right to live everyone else’s life for them.

3. Dictators can exist in every category of life. We are going to study the eschatological aspect but there are dictators in social life who superimpose their will on the social circle. There are, of course the political dictatorships. We are filled with them in our time in history; they have existed in the past. There are economic dictatorships and religious dictatorships. Some of the latter are great dictatorships such as in the Reformation — Luther, Zwingli, Calvin.

It is one thing for people to present to you their ideas, which is legitimate, but to demand, even with the use of force, that you follow their ideas is something else. The only legitimate dictatorship is parents over children.

4. Dictators refuse to permit you to make your own mistakes. In that sense they are arrogant crusaders seeking to run your life by their standards or lack of standards. This means that in their philosophy of tyranny dictators only want you to make their mistakes from their bad decisions.

5. Therefore dictators are inevitably arrogant, self-righteous. Even the most evil of men, due to their arrogance, have self-righteousness.

6. Because dictators inevitably have to use force and violence to superimpose their will and ideas on the masses they inevitably reject doctrines and principles of establishment related to human freedom and self-determination.

7. Dictators insist on having their own way because their arrogance assumes that their way is infinitely superior. For this reason dictators assume both perfection and infallibility either in themselves or the system that created them.

8. Consequently, dictators can only exist, function and succeed in the atmosphere of the cosmic system of Satan. That means the historical environment where the cosmic system has major impact.

9. In other words, a maximum number of people living in the cosmic system create a vacuum for the rise of a dictatorship, while only the pivot of mature believers creates the environment for the dynamic function of human freedom. Human freedom isn’t always dynamic but when it is it is because of a pivot of mature believers. Freedom, like any other system, can be abused.

The greatest protection against any system of aggrandisement is the mind, the right lobe of the soul. The right lobe of the soul must be exploited by truth to make significant decisions for freedom. All freedom comes from truth: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Sometimes significant decisions are fighting for freedom; sometimes significant decisions are defining freedom in terms of truth, category #1, doctrine: laws of divine establishment.

Revelation thirteen is a chapter where prophecy is interpreted by history. For example, Rome or SPQR while still a republic became an empire. To understand Rome you must understand the roots of Rome, and while Rome in its infancy was often a kingdom it crystallised into a republic, and while it was a republic it became an empire. Nationally Rome was a republic and, as a matter of fact, up until the last couple of hundred years of Roman history it continued to be a republic nationally because of the senate. It was only when the senate was packed out and became a useless tool that we have dictatorship in the Roman empire. The fact that there were rulers calling themselves Caesar does not mean that they were a dictatorship, as long as you have the senate you still have the republic. But that is nationally. The great problem in the last 200 years of Rome as a republic was the struggle between the fact they could handle Rome because they had been learning how to do it for 500 years of their history. They had seven hundred years as a republic, they had to learn how to handle a republic. They had accepted their system and had learned how to handle their problems by setting up systems to do it. The senate was the basis for the republic, but while they could administer their own nation, as a republic they could not administer an empire. The Romans never learned how to do it as a republic and that is why they became an empire. In other words, they either had to give up everything outside of Rome and the small area of Italy that they controlled as their nation or accept the empire and come up with something new, and the only Roman who was flexible enough to think in terms of good administration outside the country and citizenship for people outside the country was Julius Caesar. He was the first man who really could think clearly and therefore it was Julius Caesar who was the end of the republic and the beginning of the Roman empire.

So in this chapter we have prophecy interpreted by history. It is not an accident that we have a revived Roman empire in the Tribulation. Rome, while still a republic, became an empire. They did not go from a dictatorship to an empire, they became an empire while they were still functioning as a republic.

The historical Roman empire became the first Gentile client nation to God. Not only was it a client nation to God and the preserver of civilisation but it became the preserver of western European civilisation as we know it today. Furthermore, Rome did two things as an empire. It established a system for missionary activity all over the world. It also evangelised for civilisation. When various other peoples were conquered by the Romans they wanted to be Roman, they admired Roman civilisation and therefore they would start to ape the manners of the Romans. In effect this was tantamount to the Romans evangelising for civilisation. The barbarians who conquered Rome were civilised. The only ones who were not were the Mongolian types who were barbaric and resisted all forms of civilisation. So the historical Roman empire became the first Gentile client nation because in the ancient world there was more freedom in the Roman empire by the time of the Antonine Caesars than in any other nation in the history of the ancient world. People had more freedom, more self-determination, more laws of divine establishment by which self determination was possible.

Out of the historical Roman empire emerges an eschatology, the eschatological empire of the future. What Rome represented in the ancient world a future empire will represent in the Tribulation. Hence, the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. It will not exist in crystallised form during the Church Age though the seeds are planted through any historical trend to form a united states of western Europe, or better yet, a united states of western Europe, middle east and North Africa. For we think of the Roman empire as western Europe but the Roman empire extended across North Africa and the middle east, and what we now call Turkey. Iran was not ever in the Roman empire, neither were Saudi Arabia nor Russia. The revived Roman empire of the Tribulation will therefore not exist in crystallised form until the Rapture occurs.

With this in mind we can look at another concept of introduction. Chapter 13 is divided into two parts. In the first ten verses we study the Gentile dictator, the dictator of the revived Roman empire. In verses 11-18 we study the Jewish dictator, the dictator of Israel in the Tribulation. These two dictators need to be identified outside of chapter thirteen as well as explained inside of the chapter.

The Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire has nine different identifications (aliases) in the scripture:

2. He is the little horn of Daniel 7:8,9, 19-26. 3. He is the prince that shall come in Daniel 9:26,27.

5. From the standpoint of his statue Daniel calls him the abomination of desolation, as does Matthew — Daniel 11:31; 12:11; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14.

7. He is also the Antichrist. The preposition “anti” has two meanings: against and instead of. So both of these dictators are anti-Christ. This one is anti-Christ [against Christ] and as such he is mentioned in 1 John 2:18, and will be studied in Revelation 13:6.

8. He is the scarlet-coloured beast on whom the great prostitute rides in Revelation 17:3, 8-13.

At some point in these ten verses most of those passages just mentioned will be brought in, either by way of amplification or to give us additional information about this dictator.

The Biblical identification of the Jewish dictator. Five aliases are found in the Word

3. He is the Antichrist in the connotation of the preposition anti [instead of]. He passes himself off as Christ. He comes instead of Christ, hence he is the false Messiah of Matthew 24:23,24; Revelation 13:11, 13,14.

2. The first beast is a political dictator of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation; the second beast is a political dictator of Israel in the Tribulation.

3. The first beast is a religious leader of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation; the second beast is the leader of Judaism in the Tribulation.

4. Each beast is an antichrist. The first beast is anti-Christ in the sense of against our Lord; the second beast is anti-Christ in the sense of “instead of” — the false Messiah.

5. The first beast is totally demonised in the cosmic system; the second beats is also eventually totally demonised in the cosmic system.

6. The capital of the first beast will be Rome; the capital of the second beast will be Jerusalem.

The state of Israel is surrounded by four great spheres of influence in the time of the devil’s desperation. There is the king of the north, comparable today to the Russian communist bloc. We do not know when the Rapture is going to occur and so these are all based upon what we have now. They are comparable. The kings of the east or the kings of the sunrising would be comparable today to the Chinese bloc. In world war two that would have been comparable to the Japanese empire, and if the Rapture doesn’t take place for a thousand years, or even 200 years, it will be some other empire that will be in the east. The king of the south would be the pan-Arabic bloc. The king of the west is the revived Roman empire. So Israel is surrounded, as it were, by four great spheres of influence. In making comparisons it is not implied that these four power spheres of the 20th century are the prophetic fulfilment, but they are simply contemporary approximations. However, for us to have a frame of reference these comparisons with contemporary history are offered and will be developed in great detail in Revelation chapter sixteen.

In verse 3 the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation is presented. The revived Roman empire must be distinguished from other great empires during the Tribulation in that it is a civilised empire. The point is that civilised people are just as evil as barbarians. Civilised people have old sin natures; civilised people can be just as cruel as barbaric people can be cruel. There is no distinction between them because the only restraint and the only production of virtue comes through the truth of the Word of God. The first category of truth, the laws of divine establishment, are for unbelievers as well as believers so that unbelievers at least can be virtuous in this life. But the second two categories belong to the believer only: category #2, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and category #3, Bible doctrine for the believer.

Verse 3 starts with the death of the old Roman empire in the first half of the verse. “I saw” in the King James version is not found in the original manuscript. It actually begins with the conjunction kai which is a sequential conjunction and is translated “Then.” Then the accusative singular numeral e(ij, “one,” followed by the verb o(raw. Actually it isn’t found here but since it was the last verb it is used here. “Then I saw one.” Since “one” is in the accusative it must be the object of a verb, so this is why it is inserted, it is not actually found in the original. We can translate it, if we want, simply, “Then one of his heads.” We have the prepositional phrase e)k plus the ablative of kefalh, plus the possessive genitive of a)utoj.

This is the beginning of an explanation. “One of his heads” is the historical Roman empire in the time that John wrote the book of Revelation. We are going to see the future Roman empire in the Tribulation in terms of the past. Revelation 17:10 says, “And there are seven kings: five are fallen [five had fallen in John’s time], one is [the sixth king was the Roman empire at the time of the apostle John], the other has not yet come [the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation].” The five that are fallen refer to the empires of Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Persia, the Hellenistic empire of Alexander the Great. So this subject will occur again: the fact that there was an old Roman empire, and it must be distinguished from the future empire of the Tribulation.

The Roman empire became the historical centre of gravity, the first Gentile client nation to God. It is the central lake into which all the streams of ancient history flowed, and from which all the rivers of modern history flow out. Rome began as a village of rude shepherds and Rome went on to become a great empire, but it took a little time: namely, seven hundred years. First there were shepherds on the banks of the Tiber. Then the history of the growth from a village to a city state, and from a city state to a nation, a united Italy, and then the growth of that united Italy into a world empire. When Rome began as a republic and officially became an empire after the death of Julius Caesar it didn’t change Rome. Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea and Persia could not make such a transition from republic to empire, or from empire to republic. In other words, from one form of government to another form of government. Rome demonstrated a remarkable flexibility, it not only survived going from a republic to a dictatorship but it became stronger and greater in making the transition. A continuity, of course, is important for stability and Rome was the only great empire in the ancient world that completely changed its governments, going from antithetical forms — republic to dictatorship — and doing so without any destruction and, in fact, with improvement. Continuity was necessary for stability and the first client nation to God had to be stable. There is the necessity of stability for the formation of a pivot.

The transition, then, from the republic SPQR to the empire SPQR did not change the underlying ability of Rome nor its stability which first became the Gentile client nation to God, but never as a republic. It was Rome’s stability in making the transition from republic to dictatorship that was so useable by God, not its form of government. Form of government is not the issue. Any form of government can provide freedom. With some forms of government it is more difficult because dictators gain and hold their power usually by some form of violence, something that becomes an enemy of freedom; but this was not true in the Roman empire. The Roman empire and the man who would rule it had nothing to do with the greatness or the freedom or the rights of self-determination throughout the empire. Actually, Rome never became civilised as a republic. They had great law but the Romans in their republic were very cruel people, they were a barbaric people, they were shepherds. As they gained power, and their lust for power and their lust for plunder became greater and greater their cruelty extended with it. But once the Romans became an empire and once they had a dictatorship form of government they were actually civilised as over against being barbarians in the republic.

Manifest destiny is a great issue at this time. The history of the Roman republic is one of tragedy of establishment stability alternating with socialism and civil war, but none of these things actually could provide the background that was necessary for the first Gentile client nation. So manifest destiny brought out the genius of Rome whole socialism and the demands of the masses brought out the weakness of the Roman republic. When the masses dominated the republic it became a democracy and therefore became extremely unstable. The result was 200 years, not four years, of terrible civil wars. But when the genius of Roman rule and legal procedure dominated the republic, then they would have a little breathing space. And it was the empire, not the republic, which became the great client nation to God.

It is interesting that most modern historians will try to glorify the republic and try to find in the republic all the greatness of Rome. But the republic brought out all the worst in Rome: its cruelty, its inability to administer an empire, its terrible attitude toward people and toward life in general, plus the destruction of freedom through socialism, through feeding the masses, feeding and entertaining of those out of work. In fact they encouraged people to be out of work so that the Roman land owners could buy up more and more farms and become even greater.

In Luke 21:20,24 we have a key passage in relationship to Rome: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies [these were the three legions of Rome surrounding the walls of Jerusalem in AD 70], then know [this was addressed to believers living in the Roman empire] that her desolation [of Israel] is at hand [the fifth cycle of discipline, the destruction of Israel as a client nation to God].

“They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led into slavery into all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” That happened in AD 70 and that will be the story of Israel until the second advent of Christ. Never again will there be a Jewish client nation to God until the end of the Tribulation, the second advent of Christ. There will be Jewish nations; there have been Jewish nations since the fall of Israel in 70 AD; there is a Jewish nation now, but that Jewish nation can never be a client nation to God. The Jews with all their genius will always be controlled and dependant on Gentile nations. This is the times of the Gentiles and in the times of the Gentiles only Gentile nations can function as a client nation to God. Israel depends today on the kindness of strangers in order to be the greatest military power in the middle east. There is no such thing as a great Arab military power. The Arabs are just not military minded and they cannot cut it.

The history of the Roman republic is generally divided into three parts. The first part is the internal conflict between the Patricians and the Plebeians eventuating in uniting the people. That started in 510 BC and went to 367 BC. Rome had a history of almost 300 years before this but it was a history of kings and peoples. Secondly, the republic had an expansion of the united Rome, first over Italy from 367 BC to 266 BC and then over the Mediterranean from 264-146 BC. Then we have that terrible period of civil war, the internal struggle which comes with prosperity — 146-49 BC. In 49 BC Gaius Julius Caesar had absolute power, and from then until his death five years later in 44 he was the great genius which guaranteed the perpetuation of the Roman republic as an empire. His famous five years are the greatest five years of any genius in the ancient world in turning things around. It can only be compared to what Napoleon did to Europe between 1795 and 1815, and it took Napoleon 20 years. The republic in Rome had little to do by precept or example with modern life, whereas imperial Rome is the explanation of modern history. Because of the corruption of the masses some form of monarchy was inevitable. Monarchy was the only system which could unite the power of the senate at home with the administrative function of the councils in the provinces, and the corruption of Roman citizens, the invasion of barbarians, made monarchy inevitable. The secret to the survival of Rome was better government in the provinces, not at home. And while dictators took over at home the fantastic government in the provinces set up by Julius Caesar guaranteed that Rome would not only be perpetuated from 44 BC at his death but would be perpetuated all the way to 476, and no matter what problems came their way.

Caesar saw the necessity for one-man rule, but only under laws that guaranteed the freedom and self-determination of citizens. Hence Caesar became the champion first of the city mob, then of the many nationalities outside the Roman empire. Caesar was an aristocrat and, in effect, he betrayed his own class. He accomplished politically what Christianity would accomplish spiritually in the Roman empire. Caesar would make Roman citizens out of millions of people in the Roman empire while Christianity would convert those millions to establish the first Gentile client nation to God. Both the mob of Rome and the senate became a clique which would have destroyed Rome but Caesar and his genius became the champion of wide nationalities and he fulfilled the political principle of “whosoever.” Caesar, in effect, destroyed the power of both the Roman senate and the Roman mobs and he replaced them with a system of government which blessed and stabilised not only Rome and Italy but the entire empire. While the malt of the old Roman republic was still surrounding some, most of the old forms of the republic did continue. The senate continued to deliberate, councils and praetors were elected as before in the republic, Caesar drew most of the important powers into his own hands. Being a Patrician Caesar could not hold the office of tribune which belonged to the Plebes, so he devised a new tribune power which was granted to him for life. He was also censor for life, he was the head of the state religion, and he was called Pontifix Maximus. This, of course, becomes an illustration of the dictator of the revived Roman empire: head of ecumenical religion and ruler of the empire in the Tribulation. From this he became dictator for life with the title of Imperator for himself and for his descendants.

At this point Caesar’s power resulted from the union of tribune power in the city of Rome with pro-consular power over the provinces. Caesar had been a proconsul and understood the problems at both ends. The genius of Caesar extended from the battlefield to the codification of all Roman law, the creation of a great public library. Eighty-thousand landless citizens of Rome were given lands beyond the sea, thus cutting down the welfare roles from 320,000 when Caesar took power to 150,000. And until Caesar the chief duty of the Roman government had been the distribution of food and entertainment to the masses. Caesar reduced the taxes, he made them very fair. He changed the system of ruling the provinces into one of the greatest administrative concepts of ancient history. Instead of plundering the provinces it became rulership of the provinces.

Caesar was also a military genius but he was a great statesman. He was a lawgiver, he was a jurist, he was an orator, a poet, an historian, a grammarian, a mathematician, and architect. The murder of Caesar removed the greatest genius of ancient history but not the system that he had created. After a brief period of anarchy Caesar’s work was completed by lesser men. The work of Caesar prepared the way for the dispensation of the Church and the rise of Gentile client nations which would characterised the Church Age. Even though he was an unbeliever his contribution was phenomenal.

“Then I saw one of the heads.” This was the Roman empire at the time of the apostle John. The heirs of Julius Caesar are known as the Julio-Claudian Caesars or dictators. They include Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero. Some of them were good and some were not, but whether they were good or bad the system carried them. The system carried the evils of Nero and Caligula just as much as the system carried the good ones like Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius.

The apostle Paul was the greatest genius of the Roman empire. Thanks to the policy of Caesar Paul was a Roman citizen as well as a Jew by race, but regardless of his race he was the greatest Roman of them all. Thanks to the policy of Caesar, Paul being a Roman citizen was able to do even greater things for the Roman empire, the communication of Bible doctrine. Paul died just before Nero. In fact, Nero died in AD 68 three months after Paul as a penalty for condemning Paul to death. Both men died just two years before Israel was removed as a client nation to God. Paul anticipated it; Nero was the one who started moving troops toward the middle east and it was Nero who sent the first Roman legions to attack Palestine and Jerusalem. It was also Nero who put to death the apostle Paul for which God put him to death.

As a result of the fifth cycle of discipline administered by the Romans in AD 70 the times of the Gentiles began. The times of the Gentiles is defined as the period of history when only Gentile nations can function as client nations to God. It began in AD 70 with the fall of Jerusalem and it goes actually to the Rapture of the Church. There will be no client nations to God in the Tribulation. Once the pivot is removed the we go into a different type of history altogether, no client nations in the time of the Tribulation. It runs, therefore, coterminously with the Church Age after AD 70 but requires a pivot of believers for its modus operandi. There will never again be a Jewish client nation to God until the second advent.

With the death of Paul and Nero the Flavian Caesars came to power, first Vespatian in AD 70 and then his son Titus from 79-81, and then his evil son Domitian from 81-96. It was Domitian who put the apostle John on the Island of Patmos, and once he died then a new era would begin, the great client nation era of Rome. While the ministry of the apostle Paul gave Christianity a vigorous start in the Church Age it was the ministry of the apostle John which resulted in the great period of prosperity, the greatest period of prosperity that perhaps the world has ever known. The year was 96 AD, one of the most important in history. It is important, first of all, because of the completion of the canon of scripture. It is important because of the death of Domitian and the beginning of the Antonine Caesars. It is important for the momentum of the pivot of mature believers which demonstrates the power of Bible doctrine in a very uncertain time of history.

The Antonine Caesars began in AD 96. The first one was a Spaniard named Nirva, an older man about to die. He lived for two years and during that time he released John from his prison on the Isle of Patmos. He did nothing to discourage. In fact, during the two years of his reign Christianity began to expand. Then came Trajan from 98-117 AD, then Hadrian from 117-138, then Antoninus Pius from 138-161, then finally, Marcus Aurelius from 161-180 from when his evil son Commodus followed from 180-182. From 96-182 not one of these rulers was a born-again believer but each one of them followed the system of Caesar and it was the system that made it possible for people to accept or reject Jesus Christ as saviour. It was a period of great evangelism, a period of great missionary activity inside the Roman empire. Very shortly that missionary activity would go outside the Roman empire and to all the world.

War is one of the constants of history and it has not diminished with civilisation or democracy. As a matter of fact in the last 3,421 years of recorded history only 268 years have been without war. Out of those 268 years approximately, 100 hundred of these belonged to the period of the Antonine Caesars. Never before in history has so large a part of the world known such an unbroken time of rest and peace, prosperity and freedom from warfare. Thanks to a large pivot of believers there was economic prosperity and the growth of cities. Rome had a population of over 2-million, Alexandria and Antioch half a million. Corinth, Carthage, Ephesus, Lyons had 250,000 each. The prosperity existed in spite of socialism where the government still supported the unemployed at home. The only prosperity which can coexist with socialism is derived when you have a large pivot of mature believers in a given area.

During the period of the Antonine Caesars communication and travel were the greatest in the ancient world. The roads were safe, piracy was wiped out, the ports were crowded with shipping. Trade flourished as it did not flourish again until after 1492, the time of Columbus. Traffic flowed continually along three main arteries of commerce between Europe and Asia: north by the Black Sea, then by caravan which followed the present Russian trans-Caspian railroad; south by the Suez and the Red Sea to India, and then overland to China; caravans crossing Arabia was the third area. Travel was safe from frontier to frontier so that going from, say, the Thames all the way to the Euphrates was not only safe but was much more comfortable than it would ever be until railroads in the 19th century. People travelled for business and pleasure as never before. The significance of this greatest period of travel also had other concepts which come out later in the Reformation and Renaissance. Obviously safe travel meant the spread of Christianity. But growing socialism could be seen in the Egyptian grain tax of 144,000,000 bushels each year which were transported to Rome to feed the masses.

Military conquests of Rome were made during the time of the republic whereas the empire was chiefly in a defensive posture. Their wars were not for conquest but defence. There were several exceptions. The walls of Rome were no longer on the Tiber but on the Danube, the Rhine, on the Euphrates, Hadrian’s wall between England and Scotland. The greatest universities in the world were established at that time in Rome, Alexandria, Athens. Below the universities the Roman empire set up grammar schools which corresponded to our high schools. They did everything to help people to read and write, which also helps in evangelism. The government supported teachers and professors, they were exempted from taxation. The Roman government honoured them in many ways and the result was not only the greatest literacy but education as the means of providing a frame of reference for two languages, Latin, the official language of the empire, and Koine Greek which became the official language east of the Adriatic.

As is always the case with a client nation to God great contrasts inevitably exist. The orgies of the aristocrats, the debauchery of the middle class, the evil of the mobs and rabble coarse and vicious in their violence is contrasted with the fantastic rise of Bible doctrine, the tremendous momentum, the pivot growing and growing and reaching out to people of every class of society. Divorce and slavery threw a shadow across the Roman empire while the evils of the circus increased. And yet, thanks to Bible doctrine and its influence through the pivot of many mature believers there was a strain of virtue, as illustrated by the thoughtful courtesy and sensitive honour of Pliny or the integrity of Marcus Aurelius who wrote on his wife’s tomb: “Only once did she cause me sorrow and that was by her death”. During the peak of the Antonine Caesars Bible doctrine resulted in the improving the position of the woman. The woman had her greatest freedom and opportunity not in the twentieth century but in the time of the Antonine Caesars. They had equal position before the law which was a tremendous breakthrough in the ancient world. She also became the companion to her husband rather than the slave of the family which was the woman’s role in the republic.

Beginning with the emperors from 193 there was a gradual decline in the Roman empire interspersed with revivals such as occurred in the time of Constantine from 312-337, and the peaceful infusion of barbarians which resulted in their conversion and opened the door for the next client nation to God which would be the kingdom of the Franks.

All of this is the Roman empire which is mentioned by, “Then I saw one of his heads.” That is the Roman empire at the time of John. But we are going to see that this Roman empire is going to die, it is going to go out as a client nation to God. Our next phrase which is coming up begins with a comparative particle o(j which suggests the manner in which something precedes, so it is translated here “as if.” With it we have the perfect passive participle of the verb sfazw, the Koine Greek word for the Classical Greek word sfattw. It mean to be wounded, “as if it had been wounded.” This is where we have the beginning of a bleeding nation, the old Roman empire. The perfect tense recognises a completed action with existing results. This is a dramatic perfect representing the existing state of the historical Roman empire.

John was actually writing about the future. The day in which he lived was about to introduce the golden age of the Antonine Caesars but there would come a time later on in the empire, about 410 AD, when things would not be so good. So we have a passive voice with the participle: the historical Roman empire receives the action of the verb when it starts bleeding to death. All great nations, all empires, go down through a process; they do not suddenly collapse. They bleed to death slowly and always it is because of the volition of the individuals in that nation or empire. The passive voice refers to the day in 410 when Rome was captured by Alaric and who practically destroyed it exactly 800 years after it had been captured by the Gauls. The bleeding starts in 410 and it will end up in 476 AD. This is the last days of the Roman empire, the period which sfazw covers.

In 476 Odovacar the German dethroned Romulus Augustus the Little and the history of Rome came to an end with a ruler who was named after the founder of the city [Romulus] and the founder of the empire [Augustus]. The participle is a conditional participle: “as if it had been wounded.” The verb sfattw in the Attic Greek is used for a ritual slaying. The Koine equivalent, sfazw, means to slaughter, to kill, to murder in regard to men, to sacrifice in relationship to animals. But in relationship to a nation it refers to bleeding to death. No nation is ever destroyed by an outside power, it is always destroyed internally, and we have the beginning of the internal bleeding of SPQR as an empire.

Next we have a prepositional phrase and we have a lot of history between the participle and the prepositional phrase: e)ij plus the accusative of qanatoj, “to the point of death.” In other words, the bleeding started in 410 and the death occurred in 476 AD. “Then I saw one of his heads [the Roman empire at the time of writing] as if it had been wounded to the point of death.”

We actually have to go back to the year 376 to see how the bleeding started. Prior to 376 many tribes had been admitted into the boundaries of the Roman empire. Many barbarians had come into the empire. Some of them had been converted to Christianity but all of them had been converted to Roman civilisation. They were proud to be Roman citizens and did everything possible in order to do so. This was an attitude that existed over a number of centuries, for when the apostle Paul was being judged in the middle east his judge was a very prominent Roman centurion, and one of the things that shocked him was the fact that here was Paul who was born a citizen of the Roman empire, whereas the centurion had to spend a great deal of time and hard work and money in order to gain that citizenship. That was the attitude. The objective was always to become civilised and it was considered to be a privilege to be a Roman citizen, and eventually the barbarians were better citizens of Rome than the original Romans themselves.

In 376 the Visigoths, i.e. the west Goths, appeared on the Danube frontier. They were fleeing from the terrible Huns who were the Asiatic Tartars, Mongolians. Valens, the emperor of the eastern empire in Constantinople, gave them permission to cross the border and to settle in his area, but they were told that they would have to give up their arms and Roman agents would supply them with food. The Roman agents pocketed the money and supplied either inferior food or no food at all. This made the Goths angry. They were happy to come into the protection of the Roman empire and they did give up their arms. Once they were on their reservation south of the Danube Roman agents embezzled the imperial funds and the food did not arrive, while at the same time the Visigoths bribed these same agents to let them keep their arms. As a result the Goths marched on Constantinople and at the famous battle of Adrianople in 378 Valens was defeated and slain. He simply picked the wrong people to administer the problem.

The new emperor was Theodosius the Great and he pacified the Goths by giving them land in the Danubian provinces. But in 395 Theodosius died and the Goths revolted under their young chief, Alaric. Alaric decided to take the Goths and start moving. He first went to Greece and he conquered it. He was prevented from moving into Italy by a very famous German who was now a Roman citizen. His name was Stilicho the Vandal, one of the most brilliant generals of his day. He commanded the Roman armies and was able to stop Alaric. But there was an emperor at the time by the name of Honorius and he was very weak, very petty, and very arrogant. He became very jealous of Stilicho and therefore one day he decided to get rid of him. But first, Stilicho not only stopped the Goths but he stopped an army of 200,000 wild Germans who didn’t even have a tribal name. They were under a leader called Radagaisus. They had invaded Italy and were besieging Florence when he came back from the defeating the Goths and he stopped them. He didn’t even know at the time when he saved Florence and drove out these wild Germans that already the conspiracy for his death was at hand. So Honorius, in his jealousy and suspicion, had Stilicho the Vandal assassinated. He came back to report to the emperor in Rome that he had saved the country and was stabbed to death. When Alaric heard it he turned around and went back and with no Stilicho to stop him Alaric invaded Italy with the Visigoths. The emperor Honorius hid himself while Alaric marched in and took Rome. For five days the city was sacked and after it was over there wasn’t much left. This was the beginning of the end of the old Roman empire. So between the participle and the prepositional phrase — “wounded as unto death,” we have a nation bleeding to death.

The Visigoths, under their king Alaric, decided to take all of their plunder and go to Africa by way of Sicily, but he died on his way. He was succeeded by his brother Adolf who married the sister of the emperor Honorius who was still hiding. He then went over to Spain which was held by the Vandals and conquered it. There he set up a famous Gothic kingdom. Many of the Spaniards of today are Germanic, descended from the Goths. The Gothic kingdom lasted for three hundred years until it was finally overrun by Islam, but until that time a very stable government existed when the rest of the world was going mad. Meanwhile two other German tribes, the Bergundians and the Franks broke into the continental empire, while the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, entered England in 408 when the Roman legions were withdrawing. Other races began to break through the barriers of the empire who were not even Germans. So great was the Hun invasion that Rome had to assemble an army of Visigoths, Franks and Bergundians. There were no Romans left to fight, they were too decadent. They faced the famous Hun leader who came in at this time called Attila and the two armies met in 451. It was called the battle of the nations. Aetus, the Roman commander, was German. He had spent his youth among the Huns and he knew how to fight Attila. He was successful in that great battle. While Attila was defeated he began to move east but decided to move south toward Rome. In the meantime the army of Aetus was on the other side of him. He retreated toward Rome.

At this time a lot of myths were established. Pope Leo I went to Attila’s camp and persuaded him to move on. That was the great story but there is no truth in it at all. The empire was bleeding to death and Leo didn’t have any influence on Attila at all. The real true story is that Attila was now approximately eighty years old and he found a beautiful young girl who was about his 55th wife, and on the night of the honeymoon, as it proceeded, he died of a heart attack.

The perfect passive participle of sfazw indicates that Rome began to bleed internally around 410 but did not terminate until 476. It took 66 years for the empire to die. It generally takes about two generations once the bleeding becomes serious.

Now Aetus who had saved the Roman empire from Attila was assassinated by the Roman emperor Valentinian III who was now on the throne in Rome. Valentinian was just a petty, jealous, arrogant, decadent Roman person and he in turn was murdered by a senator named Maximus whose wife he had raped. Valentinian said: “I am the emperor. All women must worship me, send your wife in here.” When Maximus got back in town and found out about it he just went and killed the emperor. Maximus then seized the throne and compelled Eudocia, the widow of Valentinian, to become his Queen. Eudocia got her revenge by hiring one of the German generals just back from the war to come and rescue her. The Vandals then came in and captured Rome and killed Maximus. After the Vandal raid they took all of the great wealth that was accumulated but not moved by the Goths and they decided to take it back to their headquarters in North Africa. On the way over a fleet of some seventy ships got caught in a Mediterranean storm and the wealth of the ancient world is somewhere at the bottom of the Mediterranean between Sicily and Hippo in Carthage.

After the Vandal raid the power of Italy fell to another German general who had just come back with his divisions, Count Ricimer. Then another German general came back after him and said no, I am the ruler, so he killed Ricimer and put his son, Romulus Augustus the Little on the throne. However, he was murdered by Odovacar and Romulus Augustus the Little, who was just a little boy, was pensioned off by Odovacar. Odovacar then came to power and decided that he would rule them but that he would not be emperor, there would be no more emperors. On the day that Romulus Augustus the Little was pensioned off that was officially the end of the empire. No one ever again took the title of emperor though Odovacar tried to reconcile his Roman and German subjects and build up a new nation.

Meanwhile the death of Attila had liberated the Ostragoths or the east Goths who now invaded the empire. They had a genius king by the name of Theodoric who defeated Odovacar and established a Gothic kingdom in Italy. So there was a Gothic kingdom in Spain, a Gothic kingdom in Italy, the Goths who were originally German barbarians became much more civilised than the Romans and without their degeneracy. They were non-degenerate and therefore for awhile there was a very pleasant place to live in Italy and in Spain and even in southern France. Theodoric the Goth caused everyone to live in harmony and eventually the Visigoths moved out of Italy and the Lombards moved in and the darkness began to cover that land which had once been the home of the greatest empire of all time probably, even to this day. From 476 onward in history there was no longer a Roman empire. The Teutonic peoples of western Europe began to struggle and this culminated in the rise of the Frankish empire for which France is named. The Franks were German, not French. The Frankish empire included what is now Germany and France and it reached its peak under Charlemagne who became the ruler of the next Gentile client nation to God.

Other dates of interest deal with the roots of SPQR but not the official end of the empire: the coronation of Charlemagne in 800, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, and finally, Napoleon after the famous Battle of Austerlitze caused Francis II who was the emperor of Austria to declare the holy Roman empire officially dead, though it never was holy, it never was Roman, and it really never was an empire.

We are going to make a distinction between the historical Roman empire of the past and the prophetical Roman empire of the future in the Tribulation. We will give the historical Roman empire a beginning date of BC 31 with the reign of Augustus and terminating in 476 AD with the dethronement of Romulus Augustus the Little. That we will call the historical Roman empire for from where we stand it is past history. At the time that John wrote its greatest glories were ahead. Then we note the prophetical Roman empire which begins with the Tribulation, the rise of the Roman dictator of Revelation 13:1-10, and terminating with his judgment at the second advent — Revelation 19:20. We have seen both from Daniel and from Revelation how the Roman empire started and how it fell, and then how we have the rise of the prophetical empire, the one in the future.

We notice next in Revelation 13:3 the connective conjunction kai emphasising a noteworthy fact and translated “nevertheless.” “Then I saw one of his heads as it had been wounded to the point of death, nevertheless.” Then we have the statement of the fall of the historical Roman empire: “nevertheless,” and then we have a nominative singular subject from plhgh, meaning a blow, a blow which causes death. With it we have a descriptive genitive from qanatoj, meaning death, and then the inevitable possessive genitive of a)utoj, “his” or “its” death. We will translate it, “nevertheless his mortal wound,” even though it means literally, “his death stroke.” It is simply an idiom meaning “his mortal wound,” that is, the destruction of the historical Roman empire in 476.

Then we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb qerapeuw which means to heal. “Nevertheless his mortal wound [his death stroke in 476] was healed.” That is the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation. 476 is when he died; 410 is when the internal bleeding began. By 476 the Roman empire was destroyed and the Teutonic struggle for western Europe began. All of this is in the Church Age. There have been attempts to revive the Roman concept. Mussolini tried it in our century. Even Napoleon tried it in his day and he named his son by the Austrian princes the King of Rome. But there is no Roman empire and we move on to today and the resurrection or the Rapture could occur today, tomorrow, or a thousand years from now. No man knows the day or the hour when the Rapture is going to occur, but when it does there will be no longer any client nations to God. We have one of the great disaster periods of history, Daniel’s seventieth week, which we call the Tribulation. The resurrection of the Church means the end of client nations to God but not the end of nations or spheres of influence or power blocs. One of the great power blocs at the start, the ten-nation confederation, eventuating in the middle of the Tribulation in being a seven-nation confederation ruled by the dictator, is the prophetic Roman empire. It will be very much like the old Roman empire with three ingredients: a system of government ruled by a dictator; a system of ecumenical religion; there will be believers in that empire in the future. And so we have the healing. The healing takes place in the Tribulation, it is the revival of the old Roman empire.

The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety: the revival of the prophetic Roman empire in the Tribulation. The passive voice: the prophetic Roman empire receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of the revival of SPQR in the Tribulation, “nevertheless his mortal wound [the destruction of the Roman empire in 476] was healed.” This is the revival of the prophetic Roman empire.

There is a more expanded concept found in Daniel 9:24-27. Remember the principle that comes out of this: All nations destroy themselves by the volition of the people in that nation.

Verse 24, reference to the restoration of Israel as it relates to this Roman empire. “Four hundred and ninety years have been decreed for your people [Israel].” Israel has in history two separate periods of four hundred and ninety years and in between we have the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity because the Jews in the first 490 years of their history as a land refused to observe their Sabbatical years, so God gave them their Sabbatical years all at one time, 70 of them in slavery. After the termination of the 5th cycle of discipline in BC 516 and the completion of the walls of Jerusalem in 445 the Jews have 490 more years. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written, hence these are 490 lunar years, not calendar years as we know them today. A lunar year has 360 days. 516 BC is the year that the temple was completed under the ministry of Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest and under the prophetic ministry of Haggai and Zechariah.

“and your holy city [Jerusalem],” a reference to BC 445 when Nehemiah returned to rebuild the walls. 586 BC was when the 5th cycle of discipline was administered by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans. Fifty years later in BC 536 we have the remnant returning to build the temple. In 516 the temple was completed. In 458 Ezra returned because they still didn’t understand that you have to have doctrine to go with it, and he taught Bible doctrine. In 445 Nehemiah returned to rebuild the walls because Jerusalem needed protection. In 445 when the walls were rebuilt is the time when the clock starts for the second 490 years.

Seventy years of captivity ended in 516 but that did not begin their time factor because first of all they had to have doctrine and they had to have a military establishment before they could be a nation again — the two necessary ingredients for the establishment of a nation, and you must have both of them. Under the ministry of Zechariah, Haggai, Ezra, Nehemiah, they finally got into gear and once the walls were completed and Nehemiah had organised their military system then time began again. But that second 490 years stopped at the cross and fifty days later the Church Age, the dispensation of the royal family of God, began with our Lord’s resurrection, ascension and session. But the Age of Israel stopped at 483 years and those last 7 years will be picked up in the Tribulation after the Church is removed. God never mixes Israel and the Church. Israel can come into the Church by personal faith in Jesus Christ.

Verse 24 continues with six items which will be accomplished by God at the end of the second 490 years. The last seven years of the Jewish Age is terminated with the second advent of Christ. The first 490 years was terminated with the fall of Jerusalem and the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline; the last 490 terminates with the second advent of Christ, and when He returns He is going to do six things:

a. He is going to finish the transgression, the second advent termination of the fifth cycle of discipline of client nation Israel. He will finish their punishment.

b. He will make an end to sin — the baptism of fire which eliminates Jewish unbelievers of the Tribulation from participating in the blessings of the Millennium.

c. He will make a propitiatory covering over iniquity — the regathering of believing Jews at the second advent to become the client nation to God in the Millennium. This is taught in Isaiah 5:26,30; 10:19-23; 11:11-16; 14:1-3; Joel 2:15ff; Zechariah 10:6-12. This regathering terminates the fifth cycle of discipline for Israel.

d. To bring in everlasting righteousness — the resurrection of the Old Testament believers and the Tribulational martyrs at the second advent.

e. To seal up the vision and the prophecy — this is when we have the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel.

f. To anoint the holy of holies — the dedication of the Millennial temple. The modus operandi of the Millennial temple is described in Ezekiel chapters 40-48. All six of these items are fulfilled at the second advent of Christ and are a part of our Lord’s tactical victory.

The question arises: How does this passage relate to what we are studying in Revelation 13:3? This is found in verses 25 and 26.

Daniel 9:25, the chronology between the administrations of the fifth cycle of discipline. This is the prophecy of the period between BC 445 and AD 30.

In 536 BC Cyrus the Great decreed the return of the remnant to rebuild the temple — Ezra chapter one. In BC 516 the temple is completed. In 458 BC the decree of Artaxerxes caused the return of Ezra and the great doctrinal revival recorded in Ezra chapter seven. In BC 445 the decree of Artaxerxes caused the return of the military genius Nehemiah to build the walls, Nehemiah 2:1-3, and in 445 the time clock again begins. Israel is now once again a client nation to God.

“Then you must know and understand,” first of all you have to know the doctrine and then you have to apply it. This is addressed primarily to Jews who had to understand the eschatology and make application of it, “that from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince [the first advent of Jesus Christ] there will be seven plus sixty-two weeks [483 lunar years, not calendar years],” there is an interval, the Church Age, between the 69th and the 70th week. That brings us to 30 AD, the crucifixion of our Lord.

Continuing in verse 25, “it [Jerusalem] will be built again, with streets [literal streets but referring to commerce, social life, spiritual life, normal business activity] and moat [the military establishment], even in times of distress,” in times of distress people still went to Bible class. There was business as usual.

The first increment of 49 years takes us to BC 396, just four years after the completion of the Old Testament canon. Therefore the first 49 years are separated from the others because in that period of time the canon of scripture was completed and circulated. Malachi was completed around 400 BC.

The two great events at the end of the 483 years are given in verse 26, “Then after the sixty-two weeks,” i.e.. the 49 years and then we have 434 years after that, and that brings us down again to our AD 30, “the Messiah will be cut off and have no one,” the idiom means, but not for Himself. He is to be judged on the cross but not for Himself. This is a reference to the saving work of Christ on the cross, “and the people,” the Romans of the historical Roman empire who will destroy Jerusalem in AD 70 and administer the 5th cycle of discipline, “of the prince who is to come,” they are the people of the prince who is to come, and that is what we have been studying, the dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. Now, “the People” is the subject and the verb is “will destroy the city.” The Roman people will destroy the city, Jerusalem, in AD 70, “and the sanctuary [the temple]. And its end [end of client nation Israel in AD 70] will come with a flood; furthermore to the end [of the Jewish Age, the end of the 490 years] wars and desolations are decreed.”

In AD 30 our Lord was crucified; the Church Age, the dispensation of the royal family, began. During the period of forty years from AD 30 to AD 70 the Jews were to have their last warning, which they ignored. One of the warnings was the gift of tongues. Israel was a client nation to God during the first forty years of the Church Age and their job was to communicate doctrine to the Gentiles. Their warning [Isaiah 28] was that Gentiles would communicate the gospel to the Jews in foreign languages, and the Jews would be evangelised by the gift of tongues which is getting the gospel in a foreign language. From AD 70 to the Rapture of the Church is the period of Gentile client nations to God. There are no client nations in the period we are studying, the Tribulation, the pivot has been removed. With the removal of the pivot and no client nation status all military organisations get out of line. There is no more honour in the military later on in Israel and we start having wars and desolations which will terminate with the Armageddon campaign. The “wars and desolations” of Daniel 9:26 have no more meaning for one simple reason: no client nation to defend, no pivot to defend, until we get down to a principle: Satan at the end of the Tribulation seeks to destroy all Israel and there will arise another Nehemiah, another David, another Joshua, another great general, and that general will be a believer who will get together a military organisation which will be fighting against hopeless odds but will be delivered at the second advent.

Verse 27, “And he” [ the dictator of the revived Roman empire] will make a covenant [or treaty] with the many [a technical word used for Israel in the Tribulation] for one week.” This explains the dictator in the first half of the Tribulation being pro-Semitic. In the middle of the Tribulation he becomes anti-Semitic, “but in the middle of the week [of the Tribulation] he will put a stop to the sacrifice and the food offering,” he has allowed Israel to continue the practice of Judaism as a part of the treaty, “and under the aegis of the abomination [ecumenical religion of the Roman dictator] there comes one who causes desolation [the Roman dictator] until the end [of the Tribulation], then what is decreed shall be poured out on this desolator,” Revelation 19:20.

In the last part of Revelation 13:4 we see the admiration of the masses for the revived Roman empire of the future in the Tribulation. We have the connective conjunction kai, “and,” the nominative feminine singular adjective o(loj, which means here “entire,” and with it the nominative feminine singular subject gh, “the entire earth [world].” Then we have the verb, the aorist passive indicative of qaumazw, which means to be amazed, astonished, to be in total admiration. The culminative aorist tense views the astonishment, the admiration, in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the spread of ecumenical religion. The dictator is the religious leader of a world movement (ecumenical religion) in the Tribulation. The passive voice: the entire world receives the action of the verb, minus those who have some doctrine and discernment, and this is our first point: in the Tribulation, as even now, only those who have a maximum amount of doctrine have the ability to discern both the trends of history and to avoid being carried away by super amazement or total admiration. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the total admiration of the masses, the people of the world, for ecumenical religion.

Next we have an improper preposition, o)pisw plus the genitive of qhrion, the prepositional phrase is an idiom which means following — “and the entire world was amazed and followed the beast.” It means to follow the beast dictator in their admiration. The entire world was impressed, amazed. This is the second principle: People are impressed by power. The beast dictator of the revived Roman empire certainly impresses the masses. The greatest power in the world is Bible doctrine but these people have rejected Bible doctrine. What impresses them? Political power, but the power that impresses the masses will be destroyed at the second advent of Christ. This means that people should be impressed with truth rather than power. There is more power in doctrine than in all of the political power of the world. However negative volition is impressed with various categories of power rather than Bible doctrine because with Bible doctrine you have to think, you have to apply it in your own life, whereas with political power someone else thinks for you. These people are impressed by this beast dictator because he is a religious leader and a political leader; he thinks for them in the religious area, he thinks for them in the political area. When people are impressed with the truth they follow the Lord through His system and Bible doctrine, but when people are impressed by power they follow some arrogant dictator like the beast dictator of the prophetic and revived Roman empire.

Verse 4, the worship of power in the Tribulation. We have a connective conjunction kai, translated “Furthermore,” followed by the aorist active indicative of proskunew which means to worship. Here we have people worshipping a creature. The first creature they worship is Satan himself who is called the dragon, then they worship the power and the person to whom he gives that power. So they worship an invisible creature to them but they are aware of him and they know him through their residence in the cosmic system.

The principle that we are going to see that is so important is that they worship power in human beings. The problem is that is a misdirection of worship for the true basis for worship must be truth, Bible doctrine. When you worship power instead of truth then you are in trouble.

“Furthermore they worshipped,” the constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the masses of people throughout the world who admire the dictator of the revived Roman empire produce the action of the verb, and they do this through ecumenical religion in the last half of the Tribulation. For ecumenical religion gives them the opportunity of, first of all, expressing their worship toward a person they can see, a human being who is the dictator of the revived Roman empire; and the one who gave him power who is a creature they cannot see, Satan as the ruler of this world. First of all they see the power, they learn something about the power, they learn the religious system, and they direct their worship toward the visible and then toward the invisible. That is a sign that they do not have virtue, impersonal love toward all mankind and personal love for God. Why? Because with their very own volition they have rejected truth and have gone positive toward power. Positive volition toward truth is Christianity; negative volition toward truth is religion. Remember that Christianity is not a religion. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of Satan’s ecumenical religion in the Tribulation.

With this we have the dative singular indirect object from the noun drakwn, transliterated “dragon.” This refers to Satan as the ruler of the world, so in effect this is devil or demon worship which becomes an integral part of ecumenical religion in the last half of the Tribulation, during the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. That is the greatest period of religious activity in all of history. We have seen it as the greatest period of evangelism in history but simultaneously there is the great counterattack, the great evangelism on the part of Satan.

Now religion and Christianity are not the same. Religion has been invented by Satan to counterfeit the plan of God and to fulfil Satan’s objective to be like the Most High God, one of the five objectives he stated in Isaiah in the prehistoric angelic conflict. In Christianity man seeks and finds God through personal faith in Jesus Christ which is, of course, tantamount to God seeking man. In other words, in Christianity God seeks man through Christ; in religion man seeks to gain the approbation of God through his own works. Religion emphasises the evil genius, then, of Satan; Christianity represents the perfect integrity and grace of God.

Since religion is the counterfeit of Christianity the Bible mentions at least nine of these counterfeits which are used to deceive.

5. Satan has a counterfeit righteousness, motivated by arrogance — Matthew 19:16-28.

6. Satan has a counterfeit spirituality, the legalism mentioned in Galatians 3:2,3.

Ecumenical religion in the Tribulation must have, therefore, its own false teaching. Therefore we note some of the characteristics of these false teachers or false prophets who will exist in a very real way in the future, just as they do today and just as they have in the past.

First of all, false teachers practice hypocrisy from the base of arrogance, gate 1, cosmic 1. They use often a phoney facade of piety, whatever it takes to impress you. If you are impressed by piety they are pious, if you are impressed by zeal they are zealous, if you are impressed by inflexibility they are dogmatic and inflexible with you, though they do not agree. So false teachers practice hypocrisy using a phoney facade — Matthew 7:15; Romans 16:18.

Secondly, false teachers function under human public relations modus operandi. They use the legalism of some form or sometimes the phallic cult, but they use some system to court their victim. They do not evangelise in reality, they court, they give you attention. They do not give you truth, they do not give you doctrine and let the chips fall where they may, they find out what you want to hear and they let you hear it. Legalism is used as a system of courting in Galatians 4:17,18; 2 Timothy 3:5-7.

There are always some people who are really impressed with self-sacrifice, and when you take self-sacrifice to the ultimate this really impresses people. Therefore you find in the 2 Timothy passage, for example, “forbidding to marry”. They are going into the ultimate of asceticism. Asceticism impresses people, and Satan uses asceticism in order to gain converts just as often as he uses the phallic cult.

Thirdly, false teachers appeal to human arrogance and pride by giving you personal attention. People need truth, not personal attention, but religion reverses it and says people want attention, we will give it to them. People need truth, not a friendly organisation. Churches where truth is taught are not designed to be lonely hearts clubs, though you will find some of the greatest friendships in the church where truth is taught for the greatest foundation for rapport among believers is the mutual acceptance of Bible doctrine.

Fifthly, false teachers are the promoters of arrogant self-righteousness and all forms of legalism, 1 Timothy 1:6,7.

Finally, false teachers not only exist in every generation of the Church Age but they intensify their efforts during the Tribulation.

One of Satan’s major objectives is to siphon off worship from God and direct it toward himself, and all religions do this one way or another. Furthermore idolatry in religion becomes the worship of the invisible creatures, the demons themselves, 1 Corinthians 10:20.

One of the greatest traps in the world is public opinion. Public opinion is, of course, one of those vacillating things oscillating between approbation and disapprobation, and when people become involved in the cosmic system they become extremely sensitive to what other people think of them. In personal love that is a normal thing but when one wants the approbation of the general public he is trapped. No one was ever more trapped than the man who will live in the future, the dictator we are studying. More than anyone else he is going to lust for the approbation of the public. One of the easiest ways to do this is probably to gain power.

There are many businesses that depend upon public opinion and there are many normal functions in economic life and social life where public opinion and the approbation of the public is a desirable factor. But when you desire it personally and associate it with your own glory then you are really trapped. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you will never be trapped in the sense of the dictator we are studying because his lust for power and his desire for maximum approbation from the public is going to cause him to end up in the lake of fire. This is impossible for the believer but what is very possible when one is involved in cosmic one is the fact that misery is self-induced if we are interested in gaining the approbation of the crowd. Obviously, again, there are certain kinds of businesses and certain kinds of function in life where crowd approbation is involved, but when you want it for yourself and when you associate it with your own personal happiness you can count on it that you will never be happy.

If we were to interview our dictator right now, although prophetically he is not on the scene as yet, we could ask him how it feels to be the most powerful man in the history of the world. This man we are studying reaches the very peak of success in every possible field. He is the epitome of greatness politically in his day, a future day in the Tribulation. He will be great from the standpoint of religion and will be the religious leader of the world. He will receive greater religious approbation than any other human being in all of history. He will also have phenomenal success as a military man, so in at least three professions, and perhaps more, he will reach the peak among his contemporaries in the Tribulational period. He will also have power, influence and approbation that far exceeds anything we know at the present time.

So great and so powerful is this man that he is studied from at least three different viewpoints in the scripture. He is seen as a great military leader in Daniel; he is seen as a great political leader in our passage; he is seen as a person who more than anyone else in history learned the secret of surrendering himself to Satan and gaining more power from Satan than anyone ever had in the past. He has the power to work miracles or to delve into extra natural phenomena and impress people with it — not the ability to impress people by the genius of his own mentality or personality but by the use of extra natural power. We see the same thing in religious realms in cults today where people are impressed with so-called divine healers, or those involved in the tongues movement, or those who appear to have some supernatural experience and to demonstrate some supernatural power. It has been a way of life in other parts of the world such as India and Africa.

2 Thessalonians 2:1, “Moreover, brethren [royal family of God], with reference to the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ [the Rapture of the Church], and our gathering together to him.”

Every now and then we have an appeal made in the scripture on the basis of the application of our eternal future, the resurrection. There is a time coming when all of us will have a permanent body that will serve us magnificently throughout all eternity. Every now and then it is a good idea to take a look ahead and see what is coming up for all of us. We will never spend one second in the lake of fire and there is, therefore, this marvellous future prospect. There is a legitimate anticipation which is a part of happiness. Happiness doesn’t mean that you have to be thoroughly satisfied with your circumstances at the moment. They may be very adverse and therefore you can anticipate better circumstances and better times ahead. That is what is means when it says, “we urge you”. Now we have you in a happy frame of mind, says Paul, and the reason he wants the Thessalonians to be in a happy frame if mind is because the Thessalonians have been suckers for human approbation. They have become involved in cosmic one and they have this lust that they associate with happiness.

Verse 2, “that you be not easily shaken in mind,” the mind should be strong because of doctrine; it should be strong because of the plan of God rationale, “nor disturbed, neither by a personality.” One thing that often bothers people and causes them to be unhappy all the time is personalities in their vicinity. How are you going to keep from being shaken by personalities? By having doctrine in your soul, “nor by an evil policy,” that could be an evil policy in business, or a policy of any category in life, “neither by a false doctrine,” false doctrine, of course, always shakes the mind, “nor by a bad motive,” it is easy to read other people’s motives and therefore to become disturbed, “nor through a forged epistle,” the Thessalonians had received a forged epistle. It did not come from Paul. There was a nearby cult which had sent this out as an epistle from Paul, “as from us, alleging that the day of the Lord had come.” In other words, there were some people who said the day of the Lord had already come. Hard times had come and when things get bad people say, “We are in the Tribulation.” There was a Tribulationist cult and they said they were living in the Tribulation and that the Rapture would not come until the end of the Tribulation, or the middle of the Tribulation. Paul is going to refute this by bringing in our subject: the dictator of the revived Roman empire.

Verse 3, “Do not let anyone deceive you in any way, since the day of the Lord [the Tribulation and second advent] cannot come unless the departure [Rapture of the Church, the resurrection of all royal family] has come first, and [after that Rapture] the man who is lawless [antiestablishment], the one doomed to destruction, shall be revealed.”

It is interesting that Paul would say at the end of verse three that the most powerful man in all of history as a political dictator, as a religious leader, as a military genius, and as a miracle-maker, would be doomed to destruction; but before he is he has to be revealed.

Verse 4, the description of the dictator: “who opposes [the Lord Jesus Christ. He is anti-Christ] and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he is installed in the temple of God [the Jewish temple of the Tribulation], proclaiming himself to be God.”

Verse 5, “Do you not remember when I was still face to face with you [Paul taught the Thessalonians face to face and then moved on], I constantly taught you these things?” Paul constantly taught the Thessalonian believers eschatology. He repeated again and again.

Verse 6, “And so you know the one [the Holy Spirit] who restrains [Paul taught them the system, gate one: the filling of the Holy Spirit, etc.] … ”

It is God the Holy Spirit who acts as a restrainer on total disaster in history. And how does God the Holy Spirit perform this? He does it by those in the system, the divine dynasphere. Every decision you make within the system: to recover the system through rebound, to live at gate two through the function of the faith-rest drill, to have basic virtue, humility, teachability, to learn daily Bible doctrine, advancing to maturity at gate eight and, therefore, being recruited for the pivot for God the Holy Spirit works through the pivot. There is a restraint on degeneracy, a restraint on evil, but the restraint comes through the formation of the pivot.

“ … so that he [the dictator of the revived Roman empire] may be revealed [in his own dispensation].”

This dictator would probably have come before. Other dictators have made deals with Satan before. There are ways in which people can make a deal with Satan and other people have done it but they have never succeeded as this man succeeds. The reason is because even though it may be very small the very existence of the pivot in this world guarantees a certain restraint upon degeneracy and barbarity in history. It doesn’t mean that certain areas will not be degenerate and barbarous but it does mean that there is not the unrestrained evil that will exist in the Tribulation. The reason is that in every generation there are always just a few who advance to maturity, a few who grow in grace and reach gate eight. Those few act as the restrainer. God the Holy Spirit works through them.

Verse 7, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already operational,” right now we have the mystery of lawlessness. There are people right now in this world who have made a deal with Satan and in whatever area they have chosen they are Satan’s own hand-picked shock troops. They are periodically demon-possessed but, more than that, periodically they are Satan-possessed. There are people right now who have the same power that this future dictator will have but the existence of the pivot acts as a restrainer. Your existence as a mature believer acts as a restrainer in history. There may not be many believers who have reached gate eight in our generation but the ones who have act as a restrainer. Lawlessness is already here but it is in its mystery form, it has not been revealed in its form and cannot be so revealed until the Tribulation, “only he who now restrains [God the Holy Spirit] will continue that ministry through the system until he is taken out of the way.”

When the Rapture of the Church occurs the system goes with it, and gate one as the power system goes with it, and we return to the Old Testament form of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit which is quite different from that today. The Church Age is the only dispensation in which God the Holy Spirit indwells every believer and you can be filled with the Spirit. That never existed before and it will never exist in the Tribulation.

Verse 8, At that time [the Tribulation] the lawless one [the Roman dictator] shall be revealed,” he will go farther with Satan’s power than any human being in history because there is no pivot of mature believers, “whom the Lord shall destroy with the breath of his mouth,” when he is destroyed he is destroyed by, as it were, the least power of God which is greater than any power of a creature. God’s power is infinitely greater than any power that any creature has or any power that any creature possess and delegates or bestows on another, “in fact he shall neutralise him by the very appearance of his coming [the second advent];

Verse 9, “whose presence [the dictator] in history shall be according to the modus operandi of Satan [Satan gives him his power], with all power,” Satan has never been able to delegate such great power and have it turn out successfully for him. That is because of the pivot. The very moment the Rapture takes place there are no believers left on the earth, and with no believers you have no pivot. That means unrestrained evil for the first time in history and that is when this man who made a deal with Satan is brought by Satan to the forefront. He becomes the great dictator “and by means of miracles.” Why miracles? Because when it comes to seeing a miracle that is where you get the masses and approbation from the crowd. That is exactly what this man did. While he has all of these great abilities in all of these realms it is the miracle that does it; “even wonder of miracles of the lie,” Satan has miracle ability and he gives this power to this one man.

Verse 10, “and by means of all deception of unrighteousness to those who are being led astray,” if you are negative toward the truth you are a sucker for a miracle. If you reject Bible doctrine then you are open for a life of unhappiness self-made, “deprived, destroyed, because they do not receive the love of the truth,” there is the issue: Bible doctrine. If you reject the truth you are never going to have happiness in life, “in order that they might be delivered,” they have rejected truth by which they might be delivered from this delusion.

Verse 11, “And so for this reason God sends them the modus operandi of delusion and error, a deluding influence, so that they believe the lie [the miracle],

Verse 12 — “in order that they all might be condemned because they do not believe the doctrine, because they have taken pleasure in unrighteousness.” What kind of unrighteousness? The lie.

Verse 13, “But we are always obligated to give thanks to God concerning you,” there is a pivot of mature believers in Thessalonica, royal family, “having been loved by the Lord, because God has elected you [royal family] from eternity past to salvation by means of sanctification from the Spirit [the system] and by means of belief in doctrine.”

This gives us a little profile of the person we are studying and we are ready for Revelation 13:4 again. “Furthermore they worshipped the dragon [Satan] because he gave absolute power [and authority] to the beast [the dictator of the revived Roman empire].”

Why did they worship the beast? O(ti, the word “because,” “he [Satan] gave,” aorist active indicative of didomi. Satan can only give power to someone who has gone through a complete system of discipleship to him, someone who has achieved more in the cosmic system than anyone before him, a totally evil human being. That is exactly what we have, “because he [Satan] gave.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The dictator of the revived Roman empire, this genius, receives something from Satan. At a time when there is not restraint he receives the power to perform these miracles.

The dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation receives two things and they are all gathered into one, the accusative singular direct object from ecousia, which means both power and authority, but here it combines them, “because he gave absolute power to the beast.” The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb in giving authority and power to this dictator. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of this beast dictator receiving authority and great power from Satan. Then we have the dative singular indirect object from qhrion, the beast [dictator].

Note that the beast dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation is a political ruler over the prophetic Roman empire and he is a religious leader over ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. Behind all religion Satan lurks as the source of religion and the object of worship in religion. Furthermore religion produces every category of violence in warfare.

There is nothing worse than any member of the human race being worshipped by other members of the human race. It means two things: firstly, those who do the worshipping are arrogant and have no capacity for life or love or happiness or blessing; secondly, the one who receives this abnormal adulation is also very arrogant and has no capacity for life, for love, for happiness or blessing. But more than the fact that a group of people worship some man is the fact that it has an adverse effect historically and it is always the development of a hurricane, a great tragedy, a great disaster in history. As we study the great dictator of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation we note the great unhappiness of this man, the terrible end of this man. We have seen that he was a genius in four different fields and more than any person who ever lives Satan could use this man. He sold out to Satan at a time when there was no restraint on the activity of Satan’s man. He became Satan’s man in the Tribulation when all restraint had been removed and he became the leader of ecumenical religion.

Once you get into religion it is inevitable that you are going to get into the worship of some human being. No human being is worthy of worship. Respect, love, appreciation, friendship, but not worship. So we have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, “also,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb proskunew, “also they worshipped.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it actually suggests there is a pattern: people who worship a person do so from the arrogance of their souls. They find that they cannot compete with the power of the dictator so they succumb to it emotionally and they worship the dictator as a part of the modus operandi of ecumenical religion. The word we are using for worship here is the word for the worship of God, which is legitimate and normal for those who have Bible doctrine, but this does not mean that we should worship man. Idolatry was the means worshipping Satan in the past, and still is. Satan, like God, is invisible. Satan is a creature; God is the creator.

Once a person gets into Satan worship there are no restraints inside that person’s own soul. They become very emotional and they think the most important thing in life is to be happy, to have a good time. This is anything but innocent when they get into such things as the phallic cult. That is exactly what happens in this case and it is all linked up to religion which makes it legitimate. It makes it a part of worship and sooner or later, once idolatry and Satan worship begins in any form, it is inevitable that people look for a person of power to worship — a phenomenon that occurs in the Tribulation. It is a phenomenon that brings great disaster to people — crime, for example.

This ecumenical religious system will spawn the greatest violence of all time in the history of the world. This dictator is called “the beast” because he is under the control of the ruler of this world, Satan, and has absolutely no restraint of any kind because of compassion. In the Tribulation there is no normal compassion in life, people do not feel sorry for people unless they are believers with Bible doctrine. There is no client nation in the Tribulation, there is a very small pivot because it is constantly being martyred by the beast dictator. Therefore restraints that we have today will not exist and that means an outbreak of violence such as the world has never seen. The only protection comes from this beast dictator. People respect his power, get under his organisation, have an ID card, so that they are in some measure at least for part of the Tribulation protected from this violence.

This aorist tense suggests a process whereby Satan finally gets a religion that sets aside every standard of category #1 truth, the laws of divine establishment. Violence is the order of the day and there is no compassion, and there is no kindness to strangers. The aorist tense also explains the idol or the statue of the dictator, called the abomination of desolation. The active voice: those involved in the ecumenical religion of the Tribulation will engage in idolatry of worshipping the statue of this dictator. This dictator can only be in one place in one time so people worship a statue of him. So we combine worshipping man with worshipping fallen angels all in one category of religion. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of this situation. The dative singular indirect object of qhrion follows, and again we have the word “beast” referring to a human being — “they also worshipped the beast dictator.”

Principle: This is a trend which has existed to a limited extent since the beginning of human history, and what it really amounts to is not so much man worshipping man as man worshipping power and the person who has that power. It is tantamount to a worship of power and worship of power always goes with arrogance. Those who worship power will never appreciate freedom. Their whole life is characterised by false motivation. They are ambitious for more power, they want to succeed in some field, they want approbation. Once a person begins to worship power they desire approbation: the two go together.

The rationale of ecumenical religion is given very briefly in one phrase. We have the present active participle of legw. Legw means to speak but legw also means to reveal logoj. Logoj means thought and so they are speaking their thoughts. This could even be translated “to think,” “and they thought.” They are now expressing thought. This is a present active participle. The circumstantial participle is translated by the finite verb and preceded by the conjunction “and.” This is a legitimate into-English translation of the circumstantial participle. The futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring. This is something that will be thought in the future. The active voice: the religious disciples of Satan’s ecumenical religious system produce this action.

Then we have the interrogative pronoun tij which introduces the first of several admiring questions, “who.” The ellipsis demands the verb to be. When people are thinking they do not necessarily think in full and complete sentences, so we have “who is,” and then the comparative adverb o(moioj. They are making comparisons, and this is important because truth comes in absolute form. Truth is not relative. The application of truth is only relative because we apply doctrine to different situations. The different situations are relative but the truth is absolute. Here we note immediately, by o(moioj, “Who is like,” that this is a relative thing, this is a matter of comparison, “who can compare with.” They said, “who is like,” and as soon as they put the word “like” in they are showing that they cannot think in terms of absolutes. If all a person can do is think in terms of relative concepts they have no happiness, no truth, no stability, no life, no capacity for anything. A soul must have absolute norms and standards from absolute truth to have capacity for love, life, and happiness.

“And they said, Who is like,” and then the dative of comparison, qhrion, “who is like the beast?” This is the expression of their thinking while they are worshipping. People are impressed with power and people who are impressed with power will never be impressed with freedom and will never have capacity for happiness or life. And when power becomes religion then you are dealing with evil. When power becomes religion also there are multitudes of converts and Satan’s whole system of false doctrine is always in terms of relatives. He gains his converts through miracles and people who are impressed with miracles are always a sucker for this system. So it boils down to this: when people do not have truth or doctrine they are impressed with the wrong thing.

Then it goes on to ask a second question. The connective kai tells us that this is the second one. We have the interrogative pronoun tij again, “and who.” This shows what they are worshipping, “who is able,” the present active indicative of dunamai. Their whole life is saying, “Who is able?” In other words, who at this moment can do the most for us?

Now what are they worshipping? The negative volition population are obviously kow-towing to someone. The question comes up and it is completed in the aorist active infinitive of verb polemew which means to make war, to fight. So we translate it: “Who is able to fight against him?” And “against him” is meta plus the genitive of the intensive pronoun a)utoj. There is a declaration of power. The dramatic aorist of polemew is for a state which has just been realised. It is an idiom which is used as a device for emphasis. The active voice describes the subject as producing the action of the verb or representing the state expressed in the verbal idea, and we have a conceived result in this second question. “Who is able to fight against him?” These two questions may be the liturgy for the ecumenical religion which is nothing more than a demon cult.

“They worshipped the dragon because he gave absolute power to the beast dictator: they also worshipped the dictator, and they thought, Who is like the beast? who is able to fight against him.”

There is, of course, in this type of liturgy a fear. Religion inspires fear; doctrine inspires honour, integrity, virtue, good motivation, a sense of destiny, control of one’s life and thousands of decisions made from a position of strength. Remember, the great temptation that Satan offered Christ, the kingdoms of this world in Matthew 4:8,9 — “The devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of this world, and their glory [glamour]; and he said to him, ‘All these things will I give to you, if you will fall down and worship me’.”

Satan has always had this power. He has only offered this much power, all the kingdoms of the world, twice. He offered it to Christ when He was on earth and he will offer it in the future to this great dictator. What our Lord rejected this dictator of the revived Roman empire will accept, and through the medium of the beast dictator Satan becomes the object of worship in ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. This dictator is Satan’s puppet to simulate the devil’s arrogance, worship and admiration from the masses.

The passage we are studying forms a kind of composite of all of the dictators of all time. We have seen in this great dictator of the future, the dictator of the revived Roman empire, all of those characteristics which are related to his total dedication to Satan, Satan’s system, and everything that he expected to get from it. As we go along we see the various functions of power which come from his dictatorship, his religious power, for example; he is the ruler of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. One of the things that has limited the power of some of the great dictators in our own day has been their antagonism toward religion as we know it. Hitler, for example, even though he was demon-possessed, was very anti-religious. The same thing could be said for Joe Stalin and all of the rulers in the Russian communist empire. One of the many self-limiting systems of power with many of these dictators is the fact that they have not explored the possibility of controlling people through religion, for religion is designed to do exactly that. Dictators generally, in our day at least, emphasise the political power and as a result they often lose opportunities for greater enslavement and control of people. We have, for example, Mussolini and his whole concept was to revive the glories of Rome. In so doing he inspired the Italian people to things that ordinarily they would not have accomplished. He did. of course, clean up Italy in a most remarkable way but his problem was that he used culture as the system for gaining power. He was out of his league when he hooked up with Adolf Hitler because Hitler knew how to control Mussolini through political power and the use of the military. As a result Mussolini lost out as a dictator.

There never has been in history and there never will be anyone comparable to the dictator we are studying because he combines everything. Some dictators use the economic approach, some the cultural approach, some the military approach, some the political approach and some the religious approach. But like most people in the day in which we live when people have a tendency to major in some specific area, or to emphasise only one aspect of a situation and become an expert in a limited field, these dictators all miss something. The other factor is, as we noted in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, these dictators are all under some restraint. In the Church Age we have a pivot. It may be small, it may be large, but whether it is small or large it does act as something of a restrainer. The pivot will be removed, of course, at the Rapture of the Church so that all restraint is removed.

But the biggest problem with dictators throughout history is that they have a tendency to see only one side of a situation in the acquiring of power. All of the leaders in Islam, for example, emphasise religion almost to the exclusion of everything else. It is very difficult, and this is true of people in general, to see all sides of a situation or to develop a balanced concept of a situation. Many of the dictators and people who have the tyrant power and absolute rulership are often quite on the stupid side and there is some system that is carrying them or they have majored in one area and know it well. We are looking in our passage at the total dictator. There have been men who have had dictatorial powers in the past who were men of genius and the men of genius are the ones who come the closest to really understanding all aspect of what it is to be a dictator. For example, Frederick the Great of Prussia probably more than anyone else was a man of great genius, but he also had the composite concept. A dictatorship is not necessarily a bad thing provided it is related to virtue, honour and integrity; but when it is related to the cosmic system then it becomes a great power for evil. Only humility uses power and authority properly.

In verse 5 we note the arrogance and the power of the dictator of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation. We have a new type of power coming up. We have seen his political power, we have seen his religious power, we have seen his power to grab the masses through miracles. Now we are going to see another aspect of his power in this passage and we are also going to see his failure to use his authority properly because of arrogance. Satan is the greatest genius creature that ever lived and yet with all of his genius he was never able to use authority properly. Arrogance destroys the proper use of authority.

We have the connective kai emphasising a fact as surprising and unexpected, translated here “Furthermore.” Next we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi, which means to give or to delegate. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, hence a fact or action extended over the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the devil’s desperation. The passive voice: the Roman dictator of the prophetical Roman empire receives the action of the verb. This is a declarative indicative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatological reality. With this is a dative singular indirect object from the intensive pronoun, used as a personal pronoun, a)utoj, “to him.” Satan gives to the dictator this great power. This man has power in all of these areas and they are all brought together under something that is absolutely necessary in order to gain and control and keep all of this power together, and this is the ability to communicate. Some people are always promoted beyond their ability to handle the power because their capacity for power is limited by their ability to communicate. One of the most important things in the world are not the communications systems that we have established in this age of scientific miracles but the ability of the human being to communicate. We are talking now about the basis of life itself, the ability to communicate. The individual, if he is going to utilise power properly, must have the ability to communicate and to be understood. And that means that first of all he must have the ability to think. One’s communication can never exceed one’s thinking for communication expresses your thoughts through your mouth. You can take all kinds of courses in public speaking but you will never advance in most of the areas of life unless you have the ability to communicate lucidly what you think.

Communication is used for many things. Our dictator whom we are studying uses communication to sell himself. That is his job: to make himself appealing to the maximum number of people with different views of life.

We have then accusative singular direct object from the noun stoma, “mouth.” People have been great in many fields of public life simply because they had great speaking ability and were able to form thoughts and were able to communicate those thoughts. This man would never have been a success if he had not learned to communicate his ideas. His ideas were evil but, after all, he is dealing with the devil, the origin of evil. Apparently he did not have the ability to communicate at first but the devil gave him this ability because he is representing Satan himself — “Furthermore there was given to him [the dictator of the revived Roman empire] a mouth,” eloquence. He is said in the present active participle of lalew to communicate, he is speaking. Unfortunately, what follows indicates that he was on the evil side of the fence. The pictorial present tense depicts a future event in the process of occurrence. The active voice: the dictator who has greater power for evil than any human being almost who has ever lived produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

With it we have the accusative direct object made up of several words. The first is an adjective used as a noun, megaj, meaning arrogant words here. Arrogant words express an arrogant mind. We are talking about evil and systems of evil, and when these are presented then you have the whole story. Arrogant words are not necessarily bragging about yourself; arrogant words are the statements of principles that are false. And why are they arrogant words? Because this man speaks what is false. He gives false principles but he gives them eloquently and persuasively. They sound good because he is such a great speaker.

Then we have another word. Evil comes in many forms and blasphemy is always any statement made about God. We have the conjunction kai and the accusative plural direct object from blasqemia, “and blasphemies,” speaking against God. Megaj refers to speaking that which is wrong, giving that which is false about human life; blasfemia is giving that which is false about God. Anyone who is going to be a dictator has to sell himself to a maximum number of people. He has to have the ability to speak and to express thoughts and to communicate evil in a persuasive way. That is what we have at this point: the dictator speaking in the power and the arrogance of the cosmic system with its demon influence and demon possession offers the world a man-made Millennium if the world will simply turn to Satan. But neither the genius of Satan nor the combined efforts of man can duplicate the perfect environment of the coming Millennial reign of Christ.

It is fascinating that if any man can stand up and offer perfect environment people will vote for him. It is an offer that the ruler of this world can fulfil on a limited basis and so people always buy it, but when the Word of God and its magnificent eschatology says that in the future there will be one thousand years of perfect environment born again theologians in many denominations reject it. People who have the ability to understand it reject it.

So here is an arrogant eloquence, a dynamic person, communicating the doctrines of Satan as per 1 Timothy 4:1, “But that same [Holy] Spirit explicitly communicates [reports] that in letter periods of time [the time between the first and the second advents] some [believers] will become apostate [depart from the doctrine], paying attention to deceitful spirits and concentrating on doctrine from demons,” doctrines of demons will be communicated in the Tribulation through such demon-possessed and demon-influenced personalities as the dictator of the revived Roman empire and the dictator of Israel.

The general summary of this dictator’s message is found in Daniel 7:25 — “And he will speak false doctrine against the Most High God and he will oppress the saints of the Highest One [believers in the Tribulation]; furthermore, he will try to change the times and the law; and they [believers] will be under his power for three and a half years [the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation].”

The modus operandi of this dictator is patterned after the various gates of the cosmic system. His converts will live and degenerate in the cosmic system.

We now note the power of the dictator in the second half of verse 5. We start out with a connective conjunction kai, meaning “and,” followed by the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi which means to give or bestow, sometimes it even means to delegate, “and there was given.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the last half of the Tribulation and gathers it up into a single whole. The passive voice: the dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation receives the action of the verb from the power of Satan as the ruler of this world. The indicative mood is declarative for a future reality of the authority of the Roman dictator.

Next we have e)cousia again, the accusative singular direct object. It means really in this passage absolute power. With this we have the aorist active infinitive of poiew which means here to function. He was given power or authority to function. The culminative aorist tense views the function of this dictator in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the evangelism for Satan which occurs in the last half of the Tribulation. With this we have an active voice in which the dictator produces the action and the infinitive is intended result, the fulfilment of a deliberate objective, therefore the blending of purpose and result, “and there was given to him authority to function,” and then the time is given as forty-two months, the last three and a half years of the Tribulation.

At this point there is a fantastic principle hidden away in this phrase. This man is a genius and he surrenders himself in such a way to Satan as to have the greatest power of anyone of any dictatorship that ever existed. He combines military genius, political genius, and with this in a most unusual way a religious genius, and in these three categories he manages to accumulate fantastic power, not only over the ten-nation confederation of the revived Roman empire but at the same time a great portion of the population of the earth, through ecumenical religion. The reason for this is given in the fourth part of his profile which has to do with his ability to perform miracles. As we have seen miracles appeal to emotion and a large portion of the world at any time in history is always very emotional, and therefore very up or very down because instead of being rational, instead of looking at history from the viewpoint of Bible doctrine people look at it from the standpoint of emotion. People respond to their circumstances. Whether they are local circumstances or whether it is world history they respond emotionally unless they have doctrine to do otherwise. This man’s genius gives him the power to rule, the power to control, but that doesn’t make him popular. What makes him popular is the emotional approach, and we have his power to perform miracles. We have also noted a fifth category and that is the power of communication, eloquence in public speaking which is a part of his public image.

But with all of this power, with all of this ability, with all of this talent, like so many people before him there is always an absolute truth that captures him. That absolute truth comes in relative increments; that absolute truth is time. Time limitation is the sixth and final part of the profile of this great dictator. There is a time limitation on human power. Human power is terminated by that absolute doctrine called death, and all of the great dictators with all of their ability, with the tremendous use or abuse of their power, have finally been overtaken by time. There is a time limitation on any form of human power or human success or human greatness. The time limitation on human power can be one of two things: death or some form of divine judgment apart from death. This dictator, like all of the great dictators of the past, is going to lose out because of time. That is mentioned at the end of the verse. And so that last phrase, “to function for forty-two months” refers to the time limit.

Translation of verse 5 — “Furthermore there was given to him [the Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation] a mouth [eloquence] speaking arrogant doctrines and blasphemies; also there was given to him authority to function forty-two months [the last three and a half years of the Tribulation].”

Principle: Those who reject or divorce themselves from truth seek arrogance. They may speak arrogance with power, they may speak arrogance from degeneracy, but the content of their speech is inevitably arrogance. Arrogance, of course, is motivating evil as well as functional evil. Life in the cosmic system is always divorced from the truth. That is why we are constantly warned as believers to rebound, to name our sins, to function under the privacy of our priesthood, to recover the divine system and to function in the divine dynasphere.

Without truth there is not a way to have a relationship with God. Truth must be a part of our thinking. It is truth by which we are saved, it is truth by which we must live, it is Bible doctrine which we must use to make daily application to life. Truth is the greatest antidote to the Satanic system, to his genius for lies and, as far as evil is concerned, to avoid it. Without truth we have no place to go, no understanding of the present, no hope for the future and no way to profit from the past. In other words, without truth [Bible doctrine] we are nothing. Only truth in three categories can make life meaningful and wonderful and give us the capacity for happiness.

That brings us now to verses 6-8 where we see the policy of this dictator. We begin by noting the anti-Christ policy in verse 6. This dictator is now seen as the Antichrist.

We begin as usual with the connective conjunction kai, followed by the aorist active indicative of a)noigw which means to open, “And he opened.” With it is the accusative singular direct object of stoma, “And he opened his mouth.” We have just seen under the fifth part of his profile that he has tremendous public speaking ability. Now he is going to use it. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the hundreds of speeches that this man made in a short time by which he was able to superimpose his thinking, his policy, his politics, his religion, his blasphemous concepts on the people of the world. He will have a world-wide public speaking ministry. The active voice: the dictator of the revived Roman empire produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

The purpose of it all is given in a prepositional phrase: e)ij plus the noun blasfemia. Blasphemies has a very definite connotation. Blasfemia means first of all to malign your neighbour, to run down someone you can’t stand. It means that you are arrogant: the subject is always arrogant, always vain, and he functions at gate one of cosmic one. That means he has arrogance or jealously. People run down other people, they malign and judge, because they are jealous, because they are not getting enough attention, not being recognised often enough. They are hypersensitive, they are bitter because of some frustration, they have not received the perpetuation of attention and love that they think they deserve. They are vindictive or implacable or full of self-pity. Whatever the reason may be blasfemia means to malign the object of antagonism. When one is preoccupied with himself, living of course inside of cosmic one, and does not receive the attention he thinks he deserves, the alternative is very simple: malign, judge, run down, seek revenge, destroy the object of hatred in any possible way.

Sometimes it is directed toward a group of individuals, the “I’ll show you” attitude, and one’s life becomes motivated just to prove to that group how stupid they were not to accept you and give you proper recognition and honour. It also is used against anything where people disagree. It can be used against a political party. So blasphemy has to do first with maligning people or groups of people or organisations that involve people or places where you have been rejected.

Our passage goes on to show us that in this case we are not talking about public speaking about people, we are talking about public speaking to meld people into an attitude against God. We have the preposition pros plus the accusative of qeoj, “against God.” This is why one of his titles is Antichrist, because the word “anti” means against. It also means “instead of” but he is obviously against our Lord Jesus Christ, and so he opposes our Lord and used his great eloquence to speak against our Lord. It means “against” as a title for the Roman dictator in 1 John 2:18 and in our passage, Revelation 13:6. It means instead of or in place of for the Jewish dictator whom we will study next. He comes in place of Messiah in Matthew 23:23,24 and in Revelation 13:11,13,14. Through the Roman dictator Satan attacks the essence of God and the essence of God rationale.

This man is a military genius and we have already seen in our dispensation that a client nation to God cannot exist without a pivot. There must be a pivot of mature believers. The larger the pivot the greater the prosperity of the nation. There must also be one other factor and that is the military establishment. This man is not only a military genius but he is out to conquer the world. He is limited in his time and will not quite succeed. In conquering the world, how do you destroy opposition? Not necessarily by using his military genius but by using his religious genius. The greatest world peace movement of all time will come from his anti-God speeches. He is not only anti-God but he will use religion to conquer great portions of the world. He will talk about disarming, nuclear freezes, about all of the things that communist propaganda has thrown successfully into the western world and shaped the thinking of so many people — people who are not communist but just stupid. We are going to have a situation where there will be anti-God blasphemies being spoken, a religious system to actually bring in great world peace, the announcement that Satan will bring in the Millennium before the second advent can occur. This is why the period is called the time of the devil’s desperation. He has only three and a half years to try to put into operation control and conquest of the world. The blasphemies therefore will include every doctrine related to the future of Israel including the regathering of Israel at the second advent, the fulfilment of their unconditional covenants. The ecumenical religion therefore sponsored by the Roman dictator will also be used in the modus operandi of blasphemy for religion is the devil’s ace trump in any generation of history. Actually, there are three targets in this great public speaking attack, one of the greatest propaganda attacks of all time.

We have noted that in this verse the dictator opened his mouth in blasphemies against God. Now we have the three targets for his blasphemy. The first is the person of God. We have seen that blasphemy refers to slandering of individuals and that it is motivated by arrogance. Now we have the verb, the aorist active infinitive of blasfemew, and it first of all means to slander, and when it is directed toward people that is the way it should be translated rather than to transliterate it. The transliteration really deals with God. “And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his person,” the accusative singular direct object of the word o)noma means person as well as name. The culminative aorist tense views slander in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The existing results are obvious from the relationship between the constative and the culminative aorist. The dictator has great public speaking ability. He is a great communicator and his eloquence results in the invigoration of the people of the day to hate. He is on a hate God program. His eloquence results in the invigoration of an ecumenical religious system in the last half of the Tribulation and the whole objective of this religion is to hate God and hate those people who have any relationship with God. The religion is anti-essence of God, anti-Trinitarian, and anti-Christ. The active voice: the dictator of the revived Roman empire produces the action of the verb. This is an infinitive of intended result. The result indicates the fulfilment of a deliberate objective and therefore the blending of purpose and result. By slandering the person of God each member of the Trinity is attacked in relationship to their respective areas of faithfulness to mankind. God the Father is the author of the divine plan. He is under attack. God the Son is the executor of the divine plan, emphasising salvation through faith in Christ. He is under attack. God the Holy Spirit is the revealer of the divine plan. He is under attack. The attack upon Christ, in effect, is an attack upon all three members of the Trinity.

Secondly, there is an attack against the tabernacle of God. We find the connective kai followed by the accusative singular direct object of the noun skhnh, and it means “tabernacle.” With this is the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “and his tabernacle.” This is actually the tabernacle of the testimony, the tabernacle of Exodus 27:21; 29:4; Numbers 1:1, which had to be perfectly constructed to scale in heaven as a heavenly memorial to the person and the work of Christ during the first advent. So when it says, “and his tabernacle,” we are talking about a tabernacle in heaven that follows the exact scale of the tabernacle of Israel. The tabernacle of Israel was designed to teach eschatology to them for the coming of Christ was future to the people of Israel at the time of the tabernacle. In order for people to understand Christology in their day there was constructed to scale this tabernacle. Every part of the tabernacle became the doctrine of Christology and the doctrine of soteriology. This tabernacle is now moved to heaven and in heaven there is a tabernacle which is constructed to the same scale with the same connotation, the only difference being that now that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Now that the first advent has occurred and we have the strategic victory of our Lord in the angelic conflict the tabernacle in heaven does exactly the same thing as the communion table on earth. The tabernacle in heaven is a memorial to the strategic victory of Christ on the cross.

Salvation by grace through faith in Christ is slandered in every generation but Satan makes a concerted effort to destroy this truth in the last half of the Tribulation, and this is the second category of attack, the tabernacle of God. It must be remembered that the tabernacle and its furniture was actually used by the Levitical priests to teach every aspect of the person and the work of Christ and the tabernacle is very meaningful therefore in Jewish evangelism of the Tribulation. Therefore it was maligned by Satan. Thirdly, the sons of Israel are under attack. The Jew is a walking testimony to the faithfulness of God. Whether he is a believer or an unbeliever is not the issue. The fact that the Jew lives on planet earth during the rest of history, all the way through the Tribulation, indicates the faithfulness of God.

Next in the text we have a pun, the articular present active participle of the verb skhnow. Skhnh and skhnow form the paronomasia: one is the noun, the other is the verb. The verb means to live in a tent, “and those who tabernacle.” To illustrate the paronomasia: “And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His person, and His tabernacle, and those who tabernacle in heaven”. The last phrase is the preposition e)n plus the locative of o)uranoj.

It always bothers Satan when he is kicked out of heaven that heaven is filled with Jews who are saved. There are Gentiles too but here, of course, it is talking especially about the Jewish believer. The definite article is used as a personal pronoun and a relative pronoun. The present tense is a perfective present tense, it refers to what has come to be in the past, Jewish believers going to heaven after physical death, and it is emphasised as a present reality to Satan. During the last half of the Tribulation we have the eschatology of the devil’s desperation when he is confined to the earth. He cannot go to heaven any more and heaven is filled with those people he despises and has sought to destroy in every generation. There was never a generation of human history in which Satan has not tried to destroy all Jews on the face of the earth. So obviously Satan does not laugh at this paronomasia. What really bothers him are all of these Jews he has tried to destroy and the fact that many of them, because they have personally believed in Christ and have responded to the message of the tabernacle, are now in heaven.

Translation: “And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to slander his person, and his tabernacle [the memorial in heaven to the person and the work of Christ], and those [Jewish believers] who tabernacle in heaven.”

In the first advent of Christ, Christ tabernacled on earth: John 1:14, “The Word [the living Word] became flesh [hypostatic union, the first advent where Satan was strategically defeated] and tabernacled [skhnow] among us.” He didn’t dwell among us. To dwell would mean to stay down here permanently. He only came for a short time to totally defeat Satan and provide for each one of us eternal salvation, and so the word “tabernacle.” He just came for a bivouac, to pitch a tent. He is the tent, the tabernacle, “and we beheld his glory, glory as of the uniquely-born one [virgin birth] from the source of the Father, full of grace and full of doctrine.”

Because our Lord tabernacled on earth, says John, a lot of members of the human race are going to tabernacle in heaven. Because Christ tabernacled on earth you as a believer will tabernacle in heaven forever. Tabernacling in heaven means residence in the interim body, and what is so wonderful about this and what really angers Satan is that even the worst Christian loser that ever lived will reside in heaven and be very happy as he awaits the resurrection and the resurrection body, while at the same time Satan is confined to the earth and can no longer go to heaven.

We have noted that Satan gave the dictator of the revived Roman empire the greatest power the world has ever known, but no matter how much power he was given he is no stringer than time, and time runs out and the power is gone. Sic transit gloria munde: “the glory of the world passes away.”

What is it that Satan can’t stand more than anything else. He knows his time is short, and that bothers him. Satan, as one of the greatest creatures of all time, cannot stand to be laughed at and this paronomasia is really laughing at Satan. All people who are arrogant take themselves seriously, so seriously that they can never stand to be laughed at. This is exactly what John 1:14 and Revelation 13:6 does: we have Satan laughed at. The death of a believer has great dignity, great blessing, great power, and Satan has never been able to cancel it, even though he has the power of death, as we are told by the Word, and often is permitted to take believers out of the world in a painful way as discipline. Once the believer dies Satan has lost control of that believer now matter how great a loser, no matter how long he lived in the cosmic system. Satan with all of his power and all of his ability has lost control.

Verse 7, the dictator has a domestic policy. Why? Because all violence, all degeneracy, all disorganised evil is eliminated by even the worst dictators. Why do these people always eliminate these things? Because since Satan has been the ruler of this world since the fall of man he has tried to produce the Millennium. it isn’t that Satan doesn’t want to produce good, but it is impossible. He doesn’t have the power or the ability because of arrogance, because of innate evil, cosmic one: his prehistoric attitude and policy by which he swept one third of the angelic hosts into his system. Satan wants to produce good and when Satan uses dictators like Hitler and Stalin one of the things they do is try to eliminate private violence. They go for organised evil. Remember that organised evil always tries to produce good and actually uses a facade of pseudo good: “Look what we are doing for you.” Therefore it tries to become a substitute for regeneration and by becoming a substitute for regeneration it inevitably produces, among other things, religion. But it also produces a domestic policy, and what is the one thing that challenges this facade: the dictator with the facade of good produced under the principle of organised evil? He knocks out the crime, the criminal, you no longer find petty crime on the streets or private or public violence. All violence is now in the hands of the government.

But there is always a challenge to this because the man who does this, the dictator, always takes away freedom. And who is it that stands up for freedom? The born-again believer who knows Bible doctrine (not the born-again believer in the cosmic system). The born again believer with doctrine in his soul becomes the enemy, so we have the persecution of the believer. Why does the dictator persecute the believer? Not because he wants to persecute the believer, the dictator wants to avoid that as much as possible, but because the believer with doctrine is the great challenge to his system of organised evil.

In verse 7 we notice the dictator’s policy of persecution in the first part of the verse and then his tremendous power in the last. We begin with the connective conjunction kai which now advances the argument, and is translated “Furthermore.” The aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi follows and it means to give, “Furthermore there was delegated,” “to him,” the dative singular direct object from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun and referring to the dictator of the revived Roman empire. So this is Satan giving something else to his dictator, his man. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, hence a fact or action extended over the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the devil’s desperation. The passive voice: the dictator receives the action of the verb; he receives power. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality, reminding us once again that while there are many forms of evil power and many forms of illegitimate power on this earth, because Satan is the ruler of this world and Satan uses people, there is one person that Satan can never touch — the believer with doctrine resident in his soul. The power of doctrine is greater than any human power of any kind on this earth, religious or political, or any power that represents evil.

“Furthermore it was given to him,” and, of course, what is given to him is power, “to make war against the saints.” “To make” is the aorist active infinitive of the verb poiew. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the persecution of believers in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the testing of Tribulational believers with great historical disaster.

Strangely enough, Satan’s man takes over government after government. Government is designed by God to be a power for good, Romans 13, but government is only a power for good when category one truth, the laws of divine establishment, are found in its constitution and carried out properly by those in a position of leadership. Government has the responsibility of providing a military establishment to defend the freedom of people. A military establishment would be, of course, a system of law courts and a police system protecting from crime within and the military establishment to protect from the criminals without, i.e. the nations who would attack. The rest is all pivot. But when you have a nation with no pivot, which is all too often in history, and you have no law courts to define freedom and protect the rights of individuals then inevitably you will have crime — private violence, public violence, and from those two, degeneracy. It is degeneracy that is used by the dictator. Germany was in a state of degeneracy when Adolf Hitler came to power; communist Russia was in a state of degeneracy when Lenin came to power. This is always the way.

Two things can happen when a nation is in a state of degeneracy: God can destroy it or He can give it a living discipline rather than a dying discipline. The fifth cycle of discipline would be the dying discipline; the dictatorship would be the living discipline — the strong man comes to the front: things are so bad we must have a strong man to solve everything and along comes the dictator.

The dictator of the revived Roman empire has only one thing to stamp out: the truth. Evil in an organised form cannot exist with truth. Truth and degeneracy can coexist. It coexisted in Sodom. Degeneracy is disorganised evil but organised evil, dictatorship, must stamp out the truth. This has been a procedure followed in communist China, in communist Russia, in Cuba, and wherever the communists have gone this has been the procedure. So that when the strong man comes he always makes war against those who have the truth, and therefore the accusative singular direct object of poiew, polemoj, which can be used for warfare or for battle. We translate it, “to make war,” and then we have the preposition meta plus the genitive plural from a(gioj. A(gioj means to be set apart. What sets apart certain people? Their knowledge of doctrine; doctrine resident in the soul. These are the people that organised evil must destroy. Organised evil gets rid of crime, of degeneracy, but with it they always take away freedom.

In cosmic one self-righteous arrogance is morality, very strict morality, a morality that any unbeliever can follow. But when you have morality in the cosmic system — arrogance can produce great morality — there is one thing missing: the virtue of the Christian way of life. Morality minus virtue is self-righteous arrogance and a part of evil. There is nothing wrong with being moral but morality doesn’t have any power. Morality is for believers and unbelievers to live side by side and respect the rights and the privacy and the freedom of each other, but there is no power in strict morality. The Christian way of life is not a system of morality, it is a divine system of virtue. Virtue is far greater than morality. This dictator rises to power by using morality: “I’m going to stop all the crime.” Hitler stopped all the crime too, the Government was committing all the crime. That is organised evil.

We have a connective kai which tells us that this power means to overcome, physically here. This power meant that many believers with doctrine were tortured and killed. Power was given to take their life but even though the dictator had the power to torture and kill he did not have the power to cause them to renounce Christianity and become a part of the system. Doctrine in the soul is far more powerful than the greatest evil in the world. Even though this power was given, God permitted this, the aorist active infinitive of nikaw, to overcome, to conquer. The constative aorist is for a fact or action extending over that period of time known as the eschatology of the devil’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation. The active voice: the dictator of the revived Roman empire had this power. He didn’t use his system of government, he didn’t use his political system in order to wipe out the saints, he used ecumenical religion. Religion always produces zealots. Religion appeals to arrogance and religious people in their arrogance are zealous to kill believers with truth. That is the system the dictator uses to overcome them, to get rid of them, to conquer them; but they do not renounce the truth. This emphasises the evil nature and the great evil of religion. Remember that true Christianity is not a religion but a relationship with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Religion as a principle represents the evil genius of Satan. Basically religion was originated by Satan to counterfeit the plan of God and to draw worship to himself and away from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 7, “Furthermore power was given to him [the dictator of the revived Roman empire] to make war against the saints, and to overcome them.” Nikaw is the verb to “overcome,” the aorist active infinitive here.

We have noticed in this principle that there are two kinds of evil: organised evil and disorganised evil. Disorganised evil is called basically degeneracy, and there is always coexistence between degeneracy and believers advancing to maturity, believers with a high spiritual content to their lives. So in disorganised evil degeneracy and spiritual advance coexist, even though they are antithetical. The principle is that it is very difficult for truth to continue, for doctrine to be taught, and for believers to grow when there is organised evil. Disorganised evil and doctrinal believers coexist. Here we have a statement, then. To overcome has to do with the fact that disorganised evil no longer exists in the revived Roman empire. They were conquered, “to make war against the saints and to conquer them.” The aorist tense, again, is a constative aorist for a fact or action extended over that period of time known as the devil’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation. The dictator produces the action of the verb through ecumenical religion which is one of the great systems of organised evil. This emphasises that organised evil has a great system for persecuting the truth.

The ecumenical religion of the revived Roman empire is spread through false teachers. Satan doesn’t like to use unbelievers as false teachers because there is no rapport between the unbeliever and the believer. As a result the more unbelievers that are pulled into the cosmic system and get into this concept of morality without virtue, this function in the cosmic system, this zeal without knowledge — the implacability and inflexibility concept — the more they become eloquent evangelists for the Satanic system. So to be successful any Satanic evangelist must practice hypocrisy, and the hypocrisy is the natural result of being moral without virtue: arrogant self-righteousness plus crusader arrogance.

One of the other factors that is inevitable: in order to cover up your own inconsistencies you must develop a pleasing public relations personality. There is nothing wrong with a pleasing personality. In fact the genuine pleasing personality is the flexible personality, where you hear something that is false and you don’t challenge everything that is not true but you are tolerant and you listen and you relax. You wait until the Lord gives you some wisdom or the right opportunity and therefore you are not a zealot.

The Tribulational martyrs simply have to take a stand for the truth. In fact they are forced to the place where they must publicly renounce Christ, or they must state that they refuse to do so and that is when they are martyred. But we are talking about the believers now who become the evangelists for Satan. They must have either a good public relations personality or a flirtatious personality to court others for religion. Religion courts; Christianity evangelises. In representing Satan they appeal to the arrogance of others and they always approach with the idea that you must improve your life. Religion always talks about improving one’s life and performing good works, and working one’s way into a relationship with God. Generally the converts of evangelists for the cosmic system become arrogant like himself.

The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result when the result fulfils the deliberate objective of getting Tribulational saints involved in the cosmic system. This is accomplished through ecumenical religion. The objective is often fulfilled in the relationship to believers by some form of inculcation of arrogance, one of the twelve gates. With this we have the accusative plural direct object from a)utoj, an intensive pronoun used as the personal pronoun.

We have two antithetical categories of believers who were conquered in this war against the saints. When the saints are being conquered they are being conquered in two ways. There are two kinds of believers here: the believers who are negative toward doctrine and the believers who are positive toward doctrine. Category #1, believers who were negative toward doctrine were punished by God through this dictator and his system of organised evil for their cosmic involvement. They will die the sin unto death in the last half of the Tribulation. But then we have the believers who were positive toward doctrine, and they glorify God by remaining faithful to the Word. Their life was not as important as doctrine. For these believers their life was Bible doctrine and they demonstrated the fact that Bible doctrine resident in the soul is much more powerful than the greatest power of the greatest dictator in history, the dictator we are studying. There is a far greater power in your soul as a believer when you have doctrine than any human system of power that has ever existed.

A specific area has to be involved in organised evil so in the remaining part of verse seven we have the evil dynamics of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. The connective conjunction kai, translated here “and,” is followed by the subject in the nominative singular. The subject is the noun e)cousia, meaning power or authority, “and authority.” Then we have the aorist passive indicative of didomi which means to give or to delegate, “was delegated.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: the power or the authority receives the action of the verb: it is delegated. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of prophetical or eschatological reality. We have a dative singular indirect object of a)utoj, “to him,” the dictator of the revived Roman empire. Translation: “and authority was given to him.”

Next we have the preposition e)pi plus the accusative, where it is translated “over,” “authority was given over.” And then we have the adjective paj, and paj is going to cover four different categories, “over every,” and then there are four categories. Each of the four categories is a noun in the accusative singular. The first is fulh and it is correctly translated “tribe” and it is a reference to Jews, both in Israel and throughout the world. That is the first category. The second one is the accusative singular from the noun laoj which means “people.” The third is the accusative singular from the noun glossa, and it means “languages,” but it is mistranslated throughout the New Testament “tongues.” It is in the singular and with paj it comprehends all languages. Finally we have the accusative singular from the noun e)qnoj, used here for nations. Now we have a corrected translation of the entire verse but we note the last half of it: “to make war against the saints, to conquer them: and authority was given to him [the Roman dictator] over every tribe [the Jews], and people [citizens of the revived Roman empire], and languages [foreigners living outside the revived Roman empire], and nations [Gentile nations in contrast to the Jewish nation].”

Note the four categories over which ecumenical religion has power and authority because it penetrates into areas where it has no legitimate authority. It penetrates into nations where it has no legitimate authority under the principle of separation of religion and state. It penetrates into areas of a foreign language where it has no authority because it does not think in the same language. It penetrates into areas of citizens of the revived Roman empire and destroys their freedom of choice. It also penetrates into the Jewish area and therefore runs across the boundaries of the cultural background of the Jews as well as their concept in religion.

The leader of ecumenical religion who is the dictator of the revived Roman empire is politically only a dictator of a great empire but religiously, as a religious leader, he has influence way beyond the boundaries of his great empire. And the principle is always the same: religion extends its evil influence where political power cannot penetrate. Hence, through political and religious power the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation accomplishes what the historical Roman empire and the holy Roman empire were never able to accomplish: to actually conquer the world through religion.

While the Roman dictator has universal control of people of the world through ecumenical religion it does not bring world peace which has always been one of the front motives of ecumenical religion. In fact religion cannot bring peace to the world; religion is the source of many wars. As a matter of fact religion is going to be the source of war in the last half of the Tribulation. Historically, prophetically and biblically religion starts wars. Only the pivot of mature believers and only orthodox Christianity can provide any interlude of peace, as illustrated by the Antonine Caesars from 96-192 AD.

Verse 8, the dictator’s foreign policy. His alliance with Israel is that part of the foreign policy that God the Holy Spirit sees fit to advise us.

The ecumenical religion of the Tribulation is mentioned first. We have the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, translated “in fact,” and the nominative plural of paj, the adjective used as a substantive, “all.” It refers to Jews living in Palestine during the Tribulation, to the nation Israel in existence in the Tribulation. With this we have the articular present active participle from the verb katoikew which means to dwell or to live. The definite article is a nominative plural used as a relative pronoun. Its antecedent is a nominative plural o(I, “who.” Then we have the customary present tense denoting what habitually occurs among Jews who live in Israel during the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The active voice: Jews living in Israel during the last half of the Tribulation are going to produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial and we have a prepositional phrase to amplify the participle: the preposition e)pi plus the genitive of the noun gh, “in fact all who live in the land.” Then we have the main verb, the future active indicative of the verb proskunew which means to worship, “will worship.” These are unbelieving Jews. The believing Jews in the middle of the Tribulation all flee. They leave the land. Then there is evangelism in the last half of the Tribulation, so “all” does not include those Jews who are evangelised in the last half of the Tribulation.

The accusative singular direct object of a)utoj is translated “him,” and it refers to the dictator of the revived Roman empire as the ruler of ecumenical religion. The worship part is ecumenical religion. And notice that one of the categories of the previous verse has been taken. The category was fulh, “tribes,” Israel. Outside of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation is Israel and all of a sudden Jews in Israel are worshipping the dictator. They are in Jerusalem; he is in Rome. This is ecumenical religion. He has no political influence at this point, that will come as a result of religion. It is religion which penetrates the strong culture of the Jews. No matter how strong the culture may be, no matter how strong the Jews may feel, if they reject the truth and they reject the One who is the truth, Jesus Christ, their Messiah, their culture is not strong enough, their truth in category #1 is not strong enough, and religion will penetrate this most powerful of all cultures and will convert the Jews and bring them into line politically in every possible way. As the converts grow in Palestine, in the land of Israel, they put political pressure on their dictator who is then forced to make a deal.

The future tense of proskunew is a gnomic future, it is for a statement of fact or performance which may be rightfully expected to occur when the Roman dictator is able to start converting through ecumenical religion Jews in the land of Israel. The active voice: unbelieving Jews in Israel will produce the action of the verb, they will be converted by their rejection of the gospel. This creates the vacuum, and into that vacuum goes the false teaching of ecumenical religion. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatology of the situation. We have eschatological reality of a treaty between the revived Roman empire with its ecumenical religious system, and the Jews with Judaism minus doctrine. This becomes a great issue for whenever anyone, no matter how strong a people may be, rejects the truth the vacuum is opened and through that vacuum goes into the soul these concepts. These false concepts are accepted, they get into the cosmic system, and once these Jews are in the cosmic system they put the pressure on their own dictator and he, therefore, is forced to make a treaty. And, by the way, it is a minority that does the job.

And that is the way it is in history. Majorities never influence history, it is the minorities that are organised, minorities with a system, minorities with motivation. And minorities often take away from the majority freedoms they enjoy simply because they have a strong system. It is that old principle: “the wheel that squeaks the loudest gets the grease,” and you can amplify that right into the principle of historical trends.

The entire world will not worship the beast since there are two areas developing and will develop by the middle of the Tribulation. There is first of all the king of the north. There are also the kings of the east, the king of the south, the Arabs stay with Islam. These three blocs are the only places where there is no penetration of ecumenical religion. The religion of Islam rejects the ecumenical religion of the revived Roman empire. The oriental system will consolidate under whatever there may be at that time to reject it, and the northern country is isolated. But the revived Roman empire will penetrate everywhere else, including the western hemisphere.

Minorities run the world, and when a nation is prosperous it is because a minority of born-again believers in a national entity have advanced from gate four to gate eight. The majority is never right and the majority never has any influence in history. The majority is just a great big slob mob waiting to be influenced by an organised minority. No majority in history has ever had any influence. The impact of history is always with the organised minority. And, as a matter of fact, the principle is true even where there is good instead of evil, for it is a small pivot of mature believers who provide the prosperity for all when we have it. It was also a pivot of believers, a small percentage of the population in the Roman empire that were the basis for the most fantastic prosperity the world has ever known during the time of the Antonine Caesars. It is always the minority that is organised and has a system that has the influence.

It was no problem for the unbelieving Jews in Israel to hook up with the revived Roman empire. The treaty is described in Matthew 24:15 and Daniel 11:44 briefly. But brevity does not keep us from understanding in detail exactly what happened.

1. There is no real power in public opinion. Public opinion caters to the viewpoint of the majority and majorities have no power or control in history. It is always the minority which controls or influences history. Sometimes it is a good minority, like a pivot of mature believers in a client nation to God. Frequently, however, it is a minority for evil which controls the historical trend. Organised minorities produce dictators. Public opinion reacts to these minorities but public opinion has no organisation and no power. What is public opinion? Public opinion is today’s news, and tomorrow it is gone. Public opinion can bully the weak but public opinion has no power. Public opinion can flatter the successful but, again, it has absolutely no power. Public opinion only has clout with arrogant and stupid people, but it has no power even as stupid people have no power. Stupid people are lemmings, pawns in the game. The only way that you and I keep from being pawns in the game is by maximum perception of Bible doctrine. Public opinion is all too often only a system of self-righteousness, arrogance and mass hysteria which assumes that their condemnation has power or influence in history. It has none. People often operate on the false premise that public opinion has influence over evil, while in reality evil cares nothing for public opinion.

2. We have noted that in the first half of the Tribulation this dictator was pro-Semitic. It suited him to be pro-Semitic. We have also noted that organised evil, whenever organised evil meets a goat, a sacrifice, something to advance its own power, it always picks something and becomes anti-something. This explains why we begin to see a very strong minority in our day who are involved in anti-Semitism. It is one of the signs that out of degeneracy organised minorities are beginning to function. We might ask how this man, the dictator of the revived Roman empire, could be pro-Semitic for three and a half years and then turn around and become anti-Semitic. He is organised evil, he is working for Satan his master, it is no problem at all for organised evil to reverse its policy, e.g. the attitude of the Chinese communists when they took over in China and used Christians in coming to power but once they were in they said, “Out.” Power grab is the name of the game.

Verse 8, “In fact all [Jewish unbelievers in the last half of the Tribulation] who live in the land shall worship him.”

These are unbelievers who are religious. Religion is always on the side of organised evil. In the treaty between Israel and the dictator of the revived Roman empire Israel needs help. She is caught between four great power blocs. Israel has an affinity for organised evil because they have already been contacted by its religion. So there is going to be a great treaty between Israel in the Tribulation and the revived Roman empire, and part of that treaty is the fact that all of Israel must accept systematic evil in its most powerful form: religion. In the temple in Jerusalem an actual statue of the dictator of the revived Roman empire will be put up and worshipped.

Israel faces a problem. The Jews are always going to have problems as a nation. Israel right now is debating whether they are going to have to make a deal with Russia or China. They always have to make a deal with someone because they are surrounded by Arabs — envious people. After the Rapture in the middle of the Tribulation they will be debating that same issue again, and in the Tribulation there will be a power that does not presently exist as such: the revived Roman empire, a united states of western Europe. In the future the dictator of Israel will turn to the dictator of the revived Roman empire and make a deal. He has to make a deal to survive. That is the problem that Israel has today; that is the problem that Israel is going to have in the Tribulation.

Principle: Weak or weakened people can only survive by compromise. That is true of individuals and it is true of nations.

Israel is a strong nation but they are in a weak position. They are going to be in that position in the middle of the Tribulation. They will select the revived Roman empire, and in making a deal with the revived Roman empire ecumenical religion becomes a part of it. They have to accept the religion of the revived Roman empire and are compelled to put an image up in the Jewish temple, the abomination of desolation. They will “worship him,” the dictator of the revived Roman empire, that is the point of the treaty: the revived Roman empire agrees to protect Israel in return for certain economic considerations and religion.

Next we have a very strange Greek development in this verse. We have, for example, o(u ou. O(u is a relative pronoun and it is in the genitive singular from the relative pronoun o(j. It is a descriptive genitive singular whose antecedent is the genitive paj.

“Whose name” is what comes up next because we have o(u ou gegraptai to o)noma, so we go from o(u over to o)noma. O)noma means person, name, and sometimes it means personality. So we will start this phrase, “by whose name.” It is necessary to have something to show in the English what the idiom is going to be, so we will translate it, “this means, of course, everyone whose name.” The “everyone” comes from paj, “in fact all.” Then we have the phrase, “has not been written in the book of life.” This “whose name has not been written in the book of life” becomes a qualifying factor to show that there are those who will not compromise in Israel in those days because they are believers, and why they will not compromise, and how far flexibility can take you, flexibility can never take you to the compromise of doctrine. You must be flexible when you are in a position of weakness but your flexibility must never include the compromise of the Word of God.

The word o)noma means “name,” and while the King James version translates it “names” (plural) it is name in the singular in the Greek, indicating that salvation is a private matter between an individual and God. Privacy, wherever you find it, is a very important thing. Privacy means freedom. Disorganised evil certainly believes in privacy, it wants privacy to go out and raise hell! Organised evil says you can’t have your privacy, it wants you on a computer, it wants to know all of your business. When you are on a computer and you have a social security number you have lost part of your freedom. And why are those social security lists so important? Why is it important to get your name on a computer? So that organised evil can control you when a dictator comes. That is organised evil, the kind of problem we have in the last half of the Tribulation. Privacy is so important to freedom.

Degeneracy likes privacy too. The only thing is that when degeneracy is crime then the criminals have no right to privacy and the criminal’s privacy is surrendered because he is committing crime. He must be apprehended and properly punished and removed from a free society. He has no rights of a free society. In a general state of degeneracy only the criminals must be eliminated but that does not hinder the freedom of degenerates who are not criminals and it doesn’t hinder the freedom of believers and law-abiding citizens of all kinds. So privacy becomes a major issue and organised evil wipes out privacy.

“Everyone whose name has not been written.” There is a book where you do want your name written. Then the verb itself should be noted, it is the perfect passive participle of grafw which means to write, “which has not been written.” The perfect tense is a perfect of existing state, i.e. an intensive perfect where the action of negative volition toward the gospel means that you are not in the book of life. Everyone has two chances to have eternal salvation and get their name recorded in the book of life. The first chance is at God-consciousness, the next is at gospel hearing. The perfect tense is an emphatic method in the Greek of presenting a fact or condition. It is a strong way of saying that a thing is. All believers have their names in the book of life. The passive voice: the Jews of the last half of the Tribulation who reject Christ as saviour receive the action of the verb. This is a circumstantial participle.

What is this book of life? We have the preposition e)n plus the locative of biblion plus the descriptive genitive singular of zwh, “the book of life,” “everyone whose name has not been written in the book of life.” The book of life is a registry of everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ during phase two of their lifetime on earth. That is the way the book of life will appear in heaven: it will have the names of everyone who has personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; it will not have the names of unbelievers as a registry book in heaven. When people are born into this world apparently their names are in the book of life but when they reject Christ as saviour their names are blotted out of the book of life. So, first of all, the book of life is a roster of all born-again believers. It is so described in Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12,15; 21:7.

By imputation of human life at birth all members of the human race have the same chance and are put in that book. That imputation is made by God. Life is imputed after birth and the very fact that God imputes life to the soul means that that person is in the book of life. Their name is not blotted out of the book of life until they depart from this earth without accepting Christ as saviour. As long as they live on this earth they have a chance to be saved but when they die, if they have not believed in Christ then their name is blotted out of the book of life and they are in another book, the book of works. The book of works is used as the indictment to send people to the lake of fire forever and ever.

We are dealing with unbelievers, those who are not registered in the book of life. In this context we are talking specifically about Jewish unbelievers living in the state of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation. The owner of the book of life is mentioned next. He is mentioned in the phrase tou a)rniou, referring to the Lamb. This is the possessive genitive of the noun a)rnoion and it means actually “belonging to the Lamb,” “the book of life belonging to the Lamb.” The Lamb emphasises the saving work of Christ on the cross; it relates the animal sacrifices, the Levitical sacrifices, with their actual fulfilment when our Lord was on the cross between heaven and earth and being judged for our sins.

Next we have the articular perfect passive participle from an Attic verb sfattw, which is sfazw in the Koine Greek. The translation is “belonging to the Lamb who has been slain.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun referring to Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The dramatic perfect tense of sfazw presents a completed action with emphasis on existing results from that completed action. The Lamb was slain so that we can have eternal life. The passive voice: Christ receives the action of the verb on the cross. The participle is circumstantial.

Then we have a prepositional phrase, a)po plus the locative singular from the noun katabolh, “from the foundation.” With this we have the descriptive genitive of kosmoj, referring here to the world system, Satan’s world system, “of the world.” The Lamb didn’t have to become slain until Satan became the ruler of the world, so we don’t have the usual word. In talking about the planet we have the word gh, but we are talking about the world system came into existence after man sinned, after man lost the rulership of the world. The plan of God for our salvation was designed in eternity past before the foundation of the world but it became necessary to put it into operation when man sinned. The work of Christ was entered into the computer of divine decrees billions of years ago. The omniscience of God the Father entered the work of Christ into the computer and, of course, we know the printout, our so great salvation. Remember that salvation came before sin in the plan of God.

Translation of verse 8 — “In fact all Jewish unbelievers of the last half of the Tribulation who live in the land [the nation Israel in the last half of the Tribulation] will worship him [the dictator of the revived Roman empire, the religious leader of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation]; this means, of course, everyone whose name has not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who has been slain from the foundation of the world.”

The King James translation of verse 9 is: “If any man has an ear, let him hear.” What is left out is important. We have had this phrase seven times before in chapters two and three but on those occasions there was added the phrase, “what the Spirit saith to the churches.” That was the Church Age where we studied the historical trends of the Church Age, the only dispensation in which there is no prophetical historical trend. All trends are historical in the Church Age but once the Church is removed, the resurrection or the Rapture of the Church, the completion of the royal family of God, then we go into the Tribulation and historical trends are based entirely on prophecy. In Revelation chapters two and three we read, “what the Spirit saith to the Churches.” The Church is gone in the Tribulation.

The first word in verse 9 is the conditional particle e)i, it introduces the protasis of a first class condition. That means an assumption or supposition from the viewpoint of reality. The reality in this case is assumed to be true. If this had been in a second class condition then the assumption would be that some people do not have ears and therefore can’t hear. If it had been a third class condition then you could choose as to whether you have ears or not. If it had been a fourth class condition it would express a wish that you had said something you shouldn’t and you wish that people didn’t have ears. “If” means “If and it is true,” it is an assumption of truth.

Next we have the nominative singular of the indefinite pronoun tij. An indefinite pronoun takes people in general and takes a chunk out and says that this category is different from the rest. This is a category of people and they are distinguished from other people by such and such and so and so. The Greeks had a word for it, tij. So the indefinite pronoun represents a category and in this case it represents believers in the last half of the Tribulation. That is the time of the devil’s desperation, the last three and a half years before the second advent. And he says, “If anyone,” and “anyone,” being the indefinite pronoun tij, indicates that out of all the people alive on the earth there is a special category, those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are in view here.

Next we have the verb, the present active indicative of e)xw, “if anyone has.” The static present represents a circumstance which is assumed as perpetually existing, people have ears. The point is: everyone has an ear. Everyone, therefore, has the ability to understand, to comprehend, to learn. When it says, “If anyone has an ear,” it means a lot more than just having ears, it means having the ability to learn. There is no excuse for any member of the human race not understanding what is going on historically. The problem is that just because we have the apparatus for learning doesn’t mean that we are going to learn. Volition is the problem. Some people are unteachable, they don’t want to learn. Having ears means having the potential to learn and one of the worst things that can happen to anyone in life is to not be curious about anything.

“If anyone has an ear.” The active voice: believers in the Tribulation produce the action in this case. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the assumed premise.

With it we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun ouj, the word for ear. As an organ of hearing the ear represents the principle of perception and, of course, inasmuch as no one earns or deserves the right to have an ear the ear represents non-meritorious perspicacity. Much of the learning at the time of writing of the book of Revelation depended upon hearing and concentrating on what was being taught. Therefore the possession of ears is analogous to the function of GAP, the perception of Bible doctrine through a grace system. Part of logistical grace is the divine provision for the believer to learn doctrine. The assumption, then, of the protasis is that any believer in the last half of the Tribulation has received as a part of logistical grace the opportunity to learn doctrine by which he can make right decisions from a position of strength in time of historical disaster. Furthermore he can maintain control of his life and he can have a personal sense of destiny by which he advances to maturity and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ in whatever is left of his life in time. None of this is possible apart from the consistent and intensified perception of Bible doctrine.

Principle: Momentum meets the exigencies of life. A learner will be a doer, a learner will be a person making right decisions and right orientation to life.

Something that should be emphasised in our study of historical trends is the fact that historical crisis and historical disaster always provides an opportunity for people who would otherwise never be known in history. They rise to the front. Any believer in the last half of the Tribulation who after salvation has made right decisions on a daily basis are going to be the men of the hour. Right decisions from a position of strength prepares one for historical disaster. Our right decisions have to do with momentum in the system. Our relationship to Bible doctrine in the system, Gate four, determines our relationship to the Lord because the one thing that the Lord uses in promotion is virtue.

All virtue begins at gate four: enforced and genuine humility. Humility is always directed toward authority. It is the basis of all virtue. Humility is never directed toward freedom. Virtues do not begin with freedom, freedom is merely the environment for expressing them. Humility is always directed toward authority: authority that is unfair, unjust, or authority that is fair and just; antithetical systems of authority but authority nevertheless. Some of the greatest testings in life come from the fact that people cannot handle authority, and if you can’t handle authority you can’t handle freedom because whether we use freedom properly or not is determined by our attitude toward authority. Authority isn’t always fair and many of the authority tests come from authority that isn’t fair. We cannot learn unless we have a respect for authority and understand authority as a principle, not as a person or persons with whom we have contact, and often unfavourable contact. Authority is not a person. People often hate police officers. That is because they have rejected authority and therefore they have no virtue. The police officer represents authority and therefore they hate the police officer. When a nation is overtaken by a crisis or historical disaster, if that nation is generally anti-authority the nation is destroyed. If that nation is pro-authority they are pulled together and they survive.

It is true of us as individuals. We are greater for recognition of authority than we are for using freedom. The utilisation of freedom in itself is nothing, it is the basis by which we approach that freedom that is important. You cannot learn Bible doctrine unless you have an ear. The ear is the perceptive system, but it is more than that. The ear indicates that there must first of all be a recognition of authority, the most basic virtue in life.

Remember: momentum meets the exigencies of life. Loss of momentum from doctrinal perception means failure in historical disaster. The believers who are losers in the last half of the Tribulation are going to be overwhelmed by their circumstances. They do not have confidence in God because the only believers who have confidence in God are those who are consistent in the perception of doctrine. Consistency is the important factor.

We note next the aorist active imperative of the verb a)kouw which means to hear, and it is used for perception of doctrine, daily perception of doctrine. It means perception under normal times, perception under difficult times preparing for historical disaster. “If any man has an ear, let him hear.” Why? Because your daily perception of doctrine is your biggest asset because it produces motivational virtue. Motivational virtue is confidence in God. For example, if you are getting a raw deal from a boss, or if someone maltreats you, someone is unfair and unjust; if you have confidence in God, so what! If your confidence is in God from your daily perception of doctrine and you are getting a raw deal you have to go back to a basic principle in your life: God has a plan for your life, there are no accidents in the Christian life, and if you have confidence in God there is no such thing as unfairness because God isn’t unfair and He uses the unfairness of man to promote His people. Right decisions from a position of strength in our daily normal lives is the only preparation for the crisis and you don’t get that way by an occasional visit to church or an occasional flicking of the button of a tape recorder.

The constative aorist tense is for a fact or action extended over a period of time, the last half of the Tribulation. It takes positive volition toward doctrine and gathers it up into a single whole. It takes every day under all circumstances no matter what is happening to prepare for the crisis.

The third person suffix of the verb refers to the believer living in the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation. It applies to believers of all dispensations, that is why it is in the Bible. By interpretation this is eschatology; by application it belongs to you and to me today. The imperative mood expresses and appeal to the volition of the believer living in the last half of the Tribulation but it is there for our study as an appeal to us. This is an imperative of command, it is a divine mandate to the believer that living in time every moment is a challenge. Life is a challenge, the ups and downs of life are a challenge.

The omission of the phrase found in chapters two and three, “what the Spirit saith to the churches”, is another confirmation of that eschatological doctrine that the church does not go through the Tribulation but is resurrected prior to Daniel’s seventieth week. God never confuses or mixes His plan, He always keeps Israel and the Church separate. God’s plan for the royal family or Church Age believers always includes born-again Jews but God’s plan for Israel does not include born-again Gentiles.

So once the royal family is completed and resurrected under the title of the Rapture of the Church “let him hear” is the mandate. Such a mandate we have in the Church Age for without Bible doctrine we are never going to make it and without Bible doctrine we cannot approach historical disaster with a personal sense of destiny.

Verse 10 in the King James version doesn’t even sound as though it belongs here. It is confusing and is not what the Greek says. In verse 9 we saw the mandate: gate four, keep on doctrine, every day, momentum, momentum, momentum. Make good decisions from a position of strength, have control of your life, and as a result have personal sense of destiny. Now what happens if you fail to do this? This is the story we have in this passage. First of all we have the loss of a personal sense of destiny through the function of violence, violence in the sense of evil.

We begin with the conditional particle e)I, “If” (and this is introducing a first class condition), an assumption or a premise from the viewpoint of reality. With this we have the nominative singular subject from the indefinite pronoun tij (without an accent. With an accent on it it means who, what, or why) which defines a specific category. The category is terrorists, war lords, criminals, mercenaries and gangsters. All of those in the last half of the Tribulation who throw off the harness of establishment and civilisation and practice violence apart from the authority of establishment are included. The authority of establishment includes the police officer and the soldier representing his country in combat but it does not include the mercenary who fights for profit and plunder. Tij represents the category: those who resort to unlawful use of violence become the victims of violence.

Violence never solves problems. Instead it results in loss of control of one’s life plus a loss of a personal sense of destiny. Mercenaries use violence not as a representative of their own nation but for profit or plunder, for the sheer love of killing. Hence, this is not dealing with the military service for one’s country or the function of the police officer in line of duty, it is dealing with lawless people who use violence for pleasure, for profit, for plunder. The use of the word “pleasure” here speaks of that form of arrogance which derives pleasure from the use of violence to bully, to intimidate, to control others apart from establishment authority.

Next we have the preposition e)ij plus the accusative of the noun a)ixmalosia which means captivity, “into captivity.” The absence of a verb here means that this is an obvious ellipsis and the question arises: what verb denotes the true meaning of the passage. Suggested translation: “If anyone leads others into captivity.” That seems to be the best verb to use for this particular ellipsis. Ellipsis always demands the insertion of a verb to complete the idea. The unlawful use of violence deprives of freedom, privacy and property, three things to which you have a God-given right.

The next phrase starts out with the preposition e)ij plus the accusative singular of a)ichmalosia, the same thing again. It includes any form of violence, criminal action, which enslaves, imprisons, destroys the freedom, the property, the life of others. This can be construed as enslavement, false imprisonment, being held as hostages by terrorist groups. It can include religious or political groups who seize for the exploitation of their political or religious activities, whatever their objective happens to be. It also is to seize for the exploitation in the field of prostitution. This is the first conditional clause that observes the use of violence to deprive people of their freedom, their property and their life. The people who do this always have a purpose. They do this to advance themselves but they have made bad decisions from a position of weakness, they have lost control of their own lives, they have no personal sense of destiny, no confidence in God, no courage toward man and circumstances.

The second conditional clause: we have e)i again, and while the first conditional clause deprives others of freedom and property the second conditional clause uses violence to deprive people of their lives. Note the word “deprive” in contrast to the word “defend” in this passage. We do have the right to defend our freedom, our property and our lives. The principle: violence deprives, freedom defends. This is why we have both law enforcement and the military establishment to defend our freedom from both domestic and foreign violence. So we have the conditional particle e)i introducing a protasis of a first class condition, an assumption or premise from the viewpoint of reality, if and it is true.

Next we have the nominative singular of tij again, the indefinite pronoun which represents a category, the same category: criminals, gangsters, mercenaries, terrorists, and paramilitary groups, religious and political. These are the ones who throw off the harness of establishment and establishment authority and wallow in the cosmic system where they use violence to deprive others of freedoms, rights, property, lives. Again we translate it, “if anyone”. Beyond this the Greek text must be used to correct the translation of the King James version.

Next we have the prepositional phrase e)n plus the instrumental from the noun maxaira. The maxaira is the famous Roman short sword. We translate: “with the sword,” “if anyone with the sword.” Next is the future active indicative of the verb a)pokteinw which means to kill, “if anyone shall kill with the sword.” The predictive future tense anticipates what is expected to occur in the last half of the Tribulation: violence and more violence. The active voice: criminals, gangsters, terrorists, etc. produce the action of the verb in the last half of the Tribulation. The indicative mood is used for the reality of the assumption or premise of the first class condition, hence declarative for the reality of future violence in the last half of the Tribulation. This is not the use of weapons legitimately.

Then we have the impersonal verb of compulsion or unavoidable fate, dei, and it is translated “must.” Next comes the accusative singular of general reference from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, translated “he,” “he must,” followed by the aorist passive infinitive of a)pokteinw, “he must be killed.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb under the principle of living by violence resulting in dying by violence. The infinitive is the infinitive of result. In other words, those who function under the principle of unlawful terror are going to be killed by unlawful terror. Next comes the preposition e)n plus the instrumental singular of maxaira again, meaning “by the sword,” “must be killed by the sword.”

The divine policy regarding the use of unlawful violence goes all the way back to Genesis 9:5,6, “Most emphatically I will require your lifeblood; I will require an accounting from every animal [who murders] and every man [who murders], from the hand of every man his brother I will demand the life of man.”

That is capital punishment going through judicial procedure, not through a mob taking the law into its own hands.

“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood will be shed,” that is the judicial modus operandi resulting in the establishment of guilt and the administration of capital punishment. When there is no capital punishment crime is motivated to continue using violence. The only way to stop criminals is to put their own lives on the line.

Matthew 26:52, Peter has just done the dumb thing, he has tried to stop our Lord from going to the cross and dying for our sins. The Lord has explained it all to him but he never caught on. He is going to defend the Lord. When the temple guard came out to take our Lord in then garden out came the sword. He is brave and stupid. He cut of an ear, using violence to solve a problem, but what he was really doing was slowing down the plan.

“Then Jesus said to him [Peter], Return your sword to its scabbard; for all who draw the sword [the unlawful use of violence, crime],” Peter is not a soldier, he is not in law enforcement, and he is not defending his personal property, “will die by the sword,” either capital punishment from a system of justice or the inevitable result of God’s law: those who live by violence will inevitably die by violence. Romans 13:3,4 adds to this. Exodus 21:12 adds — “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall definitely be put to death.” Numbers 35:30 — “If anyone murders a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses (plural), however no person shall be put to death on the evidence of one person.” The court of final appeal is found in Romans 12:19 — “Never take your own revenge, instead give place to punishment from the justice of God, for it stands written, ‘Punishment belongs to me, I will repay, says the Lord.’ That, of course, is to cool us down when we get hot-headed.

The last phrase of verse 10 becomes extremely important to us because this is the only way we are ever going to put it together. It should be translated, “In these circumstances” or “under these circumstances.” It is the adverb of place, w(de, and it is an adverb used as an idiom. It means “under these circumstances.” Under the historical circumstances in which we find ourselves. Next we have the verb, the present active indicative of e)imi, the verb to be, “in these circumstances a personal sense of destiny is,” present linear aktionsart, is and always will be. What is a personal sense of destiny in the time of the devil’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation? What is a personal sense of destiny in the time that we are facing in the near future, historical disaster? In these circumstances a personal sense of destiny is. And then we have the predicate nominative u(pomonh. The personal sense of destiny, the active voice of e)imi, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is a declarative for the reality of a fact: in the most adverse circumstances of life, in the worst circumstances of life, whether it is a personal disaster, a national disaster, a global disaster, you can have a personal sense of destiny, you can have confidence in God, you can have courage toward man and circumstances. You don’t have to fall apart, become emotional, become irrational, or have a nervous breakdown. You can face up, and that is what we have in the last part of this verse. What is u(pomonh? It means endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance. This is a technical reference to the function of the three stages of the faith-rest drill.

Then we have the connective conjunction kai and the predicate nominative from the noun pistij. Ordinarily pistij means faith. Actually it has three meanings. In the active sense means trust, confidence, faith. In the attributive sense it means that which causes faith or trust — faithfulness or reliability. In the passive sense it means what is believed, hence it means doctrine, the body of faith. Number three is the one that is used here. The possessive genitive of a(gioj follows, “the doctrine of [belonging to] the saints [believers].”

“under these circumstances, a personal sense of destiny, is [the function of the faith-rest drill] the steadfastness, the constant courage, and the doctrine belonging to the saints.”

There is your personal sense of destiny: the doctrine you have learned. The only way to approach the coming disaster is to take in doctrine consistently every day. That is the only answer; that is the only hope.

Translation: “If anyone [those who use unlawful violence] leads others into captivity he will go into captivity: if anyone [those who use unlawful violence] shall kill with the sword he must be killed with the sword. In these circumstances a personal sense of destiny is the fortitude, the steadfastness, and the doctrine belonging to the saints.”

We are now about to study a Jewish dictator who is contemporary with the dictator of the revived Roman empire. The Jewish dictator is not a military genius but he is, however, a political genius and a religious leader passing himself off as Messiah. Like the first dictator we have studied there is a time limitation on this man’s power, the last three and a half years of the Tribulation.

We begin verse 11 with the conjunction kai in the Greek. Here it is the sequential use of the conjunction and is correctly translated “then” instead of “and.” With this we have the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw which means to see, “Then I saw.” And with this we have the accusative neuter singular direct object from several words, first of all the adjective a)lloj, meaning another of the same kind of dictator. He is not different from the first. There are some minor differences: the first dictator we studied, the dictator of the revived Roman empire is a Gentile; this dictator is a Jew. Outside of that he has the same profile that we have noted in the first dictator. The noun is the same that describes this dictator as the last one, qhrion, which means beast dictator, someone who has no true morality, no honour, no integrity, no sense of responsibility, no virtue, functioning as a dictator.

The verb o(raw in the constative aorist represents an additional vision. The active voice: it is the apostle John who produces the action of the verb. “Then I saw another beast dictator.” This is Satan’s slave, the Jewish dictator of the nation Israel in the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the devil’s desperation.

Next we have a present active participle from the verb a)nabainw which means to come up, to rise to power actually, “Then I saw another beats dictator who rises to power.” The pictorial present tense brings into focus a picture of the events in the process of occurrence. This is an eschatological passage but it is used in the grammatical sense of the pictorial present. The active voice: the Jewish dictator of the last half of the Tribulation produces the action. The participle is circumstantial.

We have with this a prepositional phrase which is mistranslated, e)k plus the ablative of source from the noun gh, “out from the land,” the land of Israel. This Jewish dictator in the last half of the Tribulation reaches the peak of his power during the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. His modus operandi is recorded in greater detail in Daniel 11:36-39.

“Then the king [the Jewish dictator] will do according to his own will [this is an absolute dictatorship], and he will both exalt and glorify himself above every god [this is the character of the dictator as the false prophet Revelation 16:13; 19:20], furthermore he will speak blasphemous things against the God of gods [Jesus Christ as the God of Israel]; consequently he will be successful until the Tribulation has been completed, for what has been decreed [in eternity past] will be accomplished [in time].

“Furthermore he will not understand the God of his fathers [he will not understand the Lord Jesus Christ], nor does he have any desire for women, nor does he recognise any god [he is an atheist]; for he will glorify himself above all.

“Nevertheless he will give honour [a treaty recognition] to the god of fortified cities [the dictator of the revived Roman empire] …

“Furthermore he will construct a system of defensive fortification with the help of this foreign god [the dictator of the revived Roman empire]; to those who acknowledge him [the worship of the Jewish dictator as Messiah] he will enrich them with great wealth, and he will cause them to rule over the many [the Jews], and he will distribute the land for a profit [price].”

The Messiah when He comes is going to distribute the land according to tribes. The false Messiah distributes the land according to price — whoever pays him the most.

In Revelation 13:11 he is called “another beast dictator.” “Then I saw another beast dictator who rises to power from the land [Israel].” The first thing we notice about this man is not his military genius but the fact that he, too, is a religious genius. Remember that religion is the devil’s ace trump and that religion is the source of all evil. Religion is one of the ways in which Satan rules and administers the rulership of his world. So we have again the connective conjunction kai, translated “and,” plus the perfect active indicative of the verb e)xw, “and he had.”

Then we have the accusative plural direct object from the noun keraj with the adjective numeral duw, “two horns.” Then the accusative neuter plural from o(moioj sets up a comparison, “like,” plus the dative of person or thing, a)rnion, “like the Lamb,” a)rnion referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. In Revelation 5:6 we noted that Jesus as the Messiah is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and He is said to have seven horns. We noted there that the Lamb was the Lord Jesus Christ controlling history. The lamb with two horns is a dictator controlling a very simple empire in the Tribulation. Since the horn symbolises human power and authority the two horns of the lamb represent the civil and the religious power of this Jewish dictator. He is the lamb with two horns. He is said to rise to power from the lamb, “and he had to horns like a lamb.” In Revelation 5:6 in contrast Jesus Christ, the true Messiah is said to have been killed as a sacrifice and He is now said to be standing in the middle of the throne with the four angelic heralds, and in the middle of the angelic staff He had seven horns. These seven horns include, first of all Jesus Christ controlling history. He controlled history in seven ways: the age of positive volition in the garden of Eden; the age of negative volition, from the fall of man to the fall of Babylon, the first United Nations; the dispensation of nationalism, the period of Gentile nations; the dispensation of Israel; the Church Age; the Tribulation; the Millennium. That adds up to His seven horns; Jesus Christ controls history.

The two horns of the Jewish dictator, again, represent his function as false Messiah over Judaism and as dictator over Israel. Translation: “Then I saw another beast dictator who rises to power from the land; and he had two horns like a lamb.” In passing himself off as Messiah to Israel this dictator is able to explain to us several passage of scripture.

Genesis 49:16, Why doesn’t Dan have representation among Jewish evangelists in the Tribulation? “Dan shall rule his people,” the dictator of Israel in the Tribulation is from the tribe of Dan. Dan is very apostate during this period, “as one of the tribes of Israel,” this explains why Dan is omitted from the list of Revelation chapter seven. Dan is also omitted from the genealogy of 1 Chronicles chapters 2-10. Dan was the first tribe to become involved in idolatry — Judges 18:30, and the last tribe to recover their inheritance in Joshua 19:47-49. So Dan is famous for apostasy and out of the tribe of Dan comes the dictator we are studying.

Verse 17, “Dan shall be a serpent on the road, a viper along the path, that strikes the horse’s heels,” the horse is Israel in the Tribulation, “so that the rider tumbles backwards,” the rider is Jewish believers living in Israel during the last half of the Tribulation.

Verse 18 is the cry of Jewish believers living in Israel during the last half of the Tribulation, “O Lord, I wait for your deliverance.” That will be their constant prayer.

The Jewish dictator, then, comes from the tribe of Dan which is famous for its apostasy in the past and infamous for its apostasy in the Tribulation. Religion is always the worst persecutor of true believers. Satan, the author of religion, uses this instrument in the hands of this dictator to neutralise and destroy Jewish believers in the Tribulation.

Matthew 24:21, one horn is the political power of Dan as we have noted in Genesis, the other horn of the dictator is here in verses 21-27.

“For at that time [the last half of the Tribulation] there will be great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of human history [the kosmoj], nor ever will occur. And unless those days [the time of the devil’s desperation] had been cut short, no human life would have been delivered; but for the sake of the elect to privilege [Jews who are believers and alive at the second advent] those days shall be cut short. At that time [after the born-again Jews have reached the high desert country in the middle of the Tribulation] if anyone says to you [during the last half of the Tribulation], ‘Behold, here is the Messiah,’ [believers have to come to the point in time of disaster where they can distinguish between what is true and what is false] or ‘There is the Messiah’, do not believe that person.”

In other words, people who teach what is false must not be believed. How can you tell the difference? Maximum perception of Bible doctrine gives the ability to distinguish the true from the false. Those who fail to learn doctrine will be deceived. How can these people tell that Messiah has not come? They know all of the signs of the second advent, including the fact that the entire earth will be covered with a great light, “Behold, every eye shall see Him.” That is one of seven biblical concepts by which they can tell. Failure to understand that particular point of eschatology means that they will be martyred for their stupidity.

“For many false Christs and also false prophets will appear and will show great miracles and extra-natural phenomena.” If there is anything that impresses the believer who is negative toward doctrine it is a miracle. It is something he can’t explain and he is always impressed by something he can’t explain instead of being impressed by what is easy to understand in Bible doctrine. So there will be very emotional people and they will be impressed by the miracles, “to deceive, even the elected to privilege [Jewish believers living in that place of refuge in the mountains of Edom, Moab, and Ammon], if that were possible,” third class condition: whether it is possible or not depends entirely on whether the believers have enough doctrine or not.

“Behold, I have told you in advance.” In other words, they are to understand the eschatology because eschatology prepares for future events.

“Consequently, if they shall say to you, ‘Behold, there he is out in the desert,’ do not go [do not leave your place of refuge], or ‘Behold, here he is in one of the inner rooms,’ do not believe that propaganda.” Why? You will know when Christ returns.

“For just as lightning comes from the east, and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.”

Just as lightning can be seen by all, so also everyone will see the second advent — Revelation 1:7. Furthermore, the second advent, like lightning, will occur quickly, according to Revelation 22:7, 12. In other words, there is no excuse for believers who are saved in the first part of the Tribulation and who have used the faith-rest drill to be lured out by propaganda. This dictator has two horns. One horn is his great civil ability, his other horn is his great religious leadership. In historical crisis God has always provided a way of escape. In the first half of the Tribulation believers have escaped to Edom, Moab, and Ammon; they are up there in the high ground and they are there because they have utilised the three stages of the faith-rest drill. In the third stage they have made the proper conclusion. But being there for another three and a half years people have a tendency to become bored once they have succeeded in the crisis, and they fail to realise that you must keep going with doctrine and that you are going to be tested. So these people become a little lazy about doctrine, a little indifferent, and they get bored. Along comes someone who says that Christ has returned, and that they should come down. If they come down they will be captured and martyred, and so in order to avoid that they are warned: ‘Learn to distinguish what is true [Bible doctrine] from what is false.’ And you can’t do it unless you are prepared by day-by-day-by-day perception of Bible doctrine. You never know what portion of the Word of God is going to be important to you. One slip into the cosmic system and believers will succumb to the propaganda of the Jewish dictator, and these are the ones who are martyred in the last half of the Tribulation.

The principle that must be emphasised: No believer can think or discern beyond the inventory of his ideas. Therefore the daily perception of doctrine will provide for us the necessary inventory of ideas so that we can be winners both in personal and in historical disaster. We are limited in the application of doctrine: we cannot apply what we do not know. People think in terms of their inventory of ideas, therefore the importance of Bible doctrine resident in the soul to provide the right inventory and to fill up all of those shelves with application for every situation and circumstance in life, whether prosperity or disaster.

At the end of verse 11 we have Satan getting into the picture because this servant of the devil, this dictator, has the rhetoric of Satan. We have the conjunction kai which has an adversative connotation here. Therefore we translate it “but” instead of the usual “and.” With this we have the imperfect active indicative of the verb lalew. It means to speak in a flowing manner and is used here for the connotation of eloquence. Ordinarily the imperfect tense denotes linear aktionsart in past time. The imperfect differs from the aorist in representing a process rather than a simple event. The imperfect differs also from the perfect tense in that it represents a process but has no connotation of the completion of that process. The imperfect fails to imply the attainment of the end to which the progress is made. This is therefore called an inceptive imperfect, denoting the beginning of the process or, as in the case of eschatology, an action on the point of occurring. The active voice: the dictator of the Jewish nation is another one of those great public speakers of the Tribulation. Along with the first dictator he has tremendous skill in the field of communication of ideas. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the dictator’s Satanic rhetoric in the future.

With this we have the comparative particle o(j, translated “like,” and with it the appositional nominative from drakwn, “dragon,” and dragon refers to Satan. Translation: “but he kept speaking like the dragon.” Total cosmic involvement gave this Jewish dictator the genius of Satan in communicating his ideas. His ideas are false, he is locked into the cosmic system. As an unbeliever this Jewish dictator is the recipient of both demon influence and demon possession in the cosmic system, therefore he is a brilliant salesman of the Satanic plan.

Again, the principle that we want to remember is that no one can think beyond the inventory of his ideas. Only the daily perception of doctrine will provide the necessary inventory of ideas to cope with both personal and historical disaster. Therefore the importance of Bible doctrine to provide that inventory so that we can be winners in time of historical disaster.

This is true of people in general. When people are working in a certain kind of business, in a certain kind of profession, in any kind of an organisation, no one has the capacity to think beyond the inventory of his ideas. If the idea isn’t there, the thought is not there; if the thought is not there, the ability is not there. This is why we see people get promoted beyond their capacity. But we want to apply the principle specifically to the believer.

1. When the believer is faced with personal or historical disaster he must be able to cope with the problem or problems from his own personal inventory. No believer should be dependant on others when it comes to personal or historical disaster. This does not mean he will not receive encouragement from others but the point is that in disaster you yourself as an individual are isolated. When the believer has faithfully taken in doctrine and added to his inventory and passed all of his tests he has a full inventory when he moves into disaster; and there is nothing that he cannot handle, he is totally and completely spiritually self-sustaining. He has prepared himself by good decisions from a position of strength.

2. No one solves his problems by relying on the inventory of someone else’s ideas. You may take some good advice and have an immediate solution because you took that advice, but it was someone else’s advice, it was not your application of doctrine. Therefore you did not gain any strength from it, only the person who gave you good advice. Of course, if the person gives you bad advice then they are in trouble with you.

3. Therefore the necessity for maintaining a large personal inventory of doctrinal principles, categories and rationales for every situation in life — including happiness.

4. Only the daily perception of doctrine will accumulate the necessary inventory of ideas by which we can cope with personal and historical disaster.

5. The winner in disaster can make the right application of doctrine to his circumstances. That is because in time of prosperity he has been consistent in the accumulation of a large inventory of Bible doctrine. Therefore he makes right decisions from a position of strength, he maintains control of his own life in disaster, and even in the worst of historical disasters he has a personal sense of destiny.

Verse 12, the forum and religious policies of this Jewish dictator. We have the emphatic use of the conjunction kai translated “In fact.” With this we have the present active indicative of the verb poiew, which we will translate here “exercises.” The reason for that translation is the accusative singular direct object of e)cousia, he “exercises authority.” The present tense is a perfective present, it denotes a continuation of existing results from the treaty between the revived Roman empire and the state of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation. Here it denotes a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The active voice: the dictator of Israel in the Tribulation produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the future eschatological reality of the exercise of great power on the part of the Jewish dictator as the result of his treaty with the revived Roman empire.

The dictator now feels strong. Before he was very weak because he realised the four spheres of influence were about to destroy him, he couldn’t hold out against them. But as soon as he has a treaty he feels strong, he has depended upon the help of a foreign power.

Next we have a possessive genitive from three Greek words: the definite article tou, followed by prwtoj, followed by qhrion, “the first beast dictator,” the Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire. one adjective comes next in the Greek that modifies e)cousia, and that is paj, “all.”

“in fact he [the Jewish dictator] exercises all the authority of the first beast dictator,” which means that in the last half of the Tribulation there is a definite treaty between the state of Israel and the revived Roman empire.

Then there is another phrase, an improper preposition, e)nwpion plus the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “in place of him” or “on his behalf.” This indicates an alliance between the Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire and the Jewish dictator of the state of Israel during the time of the devil’s desperation.

In his foreign policy, then, the Jewish dictator makes an alliance with this prophetical Roman empire and he exercise all of the authority [religious] of the Roman dictator in the function of that large and great ecumenical religious system. The basis of the treaty, then, between this revived Roman empire and the state of Israel is religion, the ecumenical religious system, and under the provision of the treaty the state of Israel adopts ecumenical religion as its system. That means that traditional Judaism in Jerusalem has to be set aside and there in the temple in Jerusalem the great statue of the dictator is set up that is called the abomination of desolation — the signal for believers of the first half of the Tribulation to get out and into the mountains of Edom, Moab and Ammon where they will be safe unless they listen to some of the propaganda. The Jews who have a good inventory of doctrinal concepts obey the command. There will also be some emotional believers who will decide to stay and fight. All Jewish believers who disobey this command will be killed. Again you see the principle: you must have a good inventory of ideas; you must have doctrine and you must be able to rightly divide the Word of truth. That stability, therefore, becomes one of the great characteristics of the believer who has a maximum inventory of ideas through the daily intake of doctrine.

The cosmic system is also designed to make the believer fanatical. This is one of the greatest problems with believers, they become totally and completely fanatical and in this way they ape every characteristic of dictatorship that we are studying. The fanatical believer is only different from the evil dictator in degree, otherwise there is no difference between a fanatical arrogant believer and any dictator that has ever lived. Fanaticism is defined as zeal without knowledge, no inventory of ideas. The believer cannot think, again, beyond his inventory. Fanaticism by-passes or ignores the principle of virtue-first. The fanatic has no virtue, only arrogance. Hence, fanaticism is irresponsible arrogance without even the motivational virtue of gate 5 or the functional virtue of gate 6 in the divine system. Fanaticism is arrogant obsession with self minus doctrinal inculcation, so that cosmic fanaticism and total obsession of self seems to characterise not only the two dictators we are studying in this chapter but also believers living in cosmic one.

We have noted the profile of the beast dictator. The first beast dictator and the second beast dictator have a similar profile with several exceptions. The first beast dictator, the dictator of the revived Roman empire, is a military genius and he gains control of the revived Roman empire in the last half of the Tribulation. He is also a political genius and a religious genius. He also has the ability to appeal to the stupid. The stupid are always impressed by miracles. The lower your inventory of truth the more you are impressed by Satanic miracles and, of course, Satan is in the miracle business. He communicates this function to his servants, special servants who are in the public eye. Of course this is the appeal to emotionalism in the masses.

We have noted that the majority of people never control anything; we have noted that public opinion is almost totally meaningless and can only bully the weak. But this also means that public opinion is always impressed by what they cannot understand since they have no inventory of truth. Miracles were performed in the Old Testament in times of apostasy, like the apostate generation of the Exodus. Miracles were performed by our Lord in a time of apostasy, the apostasy of Israel during the first advent of Christ. Miracles are not a sign of power except in the function of our Lord’s fourteen miracles which were given as a sign of His Messiahship. People are always impressed by miracles because they are stupid, because they are emotional, and therefore they have no inventory of Bible doctrine. Today there is no gift of miracles, and yet we find many people in our generation alleging to have the power of miracles. These people are making an allegation which is not true and they are being used by Satan in the cosmic system. They do perform acts of Satanic function and they are all designed with one thing in mind: to keep you as a believer from having an inventory of Bible doctrine in your soul. Those who worship power and idolise evil will never appreciate freedom or have any capacity for happiness, and this not only includes the dictators who rule countries today but it includes the dictator in the pew, the arrogant born-again believer living in the cosmic system. When people do not have truth or doctrine they are always impressed with the wrong things and they always distort the truth.

We noted that the dictator of the revived Roman empire had a dynamic in the field of verbal communication. So does our second dictator. The ability to communicate, of course, is one of the most important functions in life and the ability to communicate may mean the ability to communicate truth or what is false — to be persuasive in either case. As far as these dictators are concerned they communicate what is false to further eliminate any inventory of Bible doctrine in the soul. Of course, one nice thing about all human power is that it has a time limitation.

We have noted in the past that there is no power in public opinion. Public opinion caters to the viewpoint of the majority and the majority have no power or control in history. A careful study of history indicates that it is always a well-organised minority that controls. Illustration: The French revolution; the communist minority in the Russian revolution; the Nazis were a minority in Germany. Public opinion always reacts to these minorities but public opinion has no organisation, no power; public opinion is news today and gone tomorrow. Public opinion has no power against organised minorities and their depredation. Public opinion, therefore, can only bully the weak and flatter the successful; it has no power with the communists, for example, who ignore it.

One thing we have not brought together in the profile of the dictators we are studying is the fact that the power of the dictator prevents him from thinking beyond the inventory of his own ideas. The corrupting influence of power not only erases the norms of divine establishment and supersedes the standards of category #1 truth, the laws of divine establishment, with some terrible use of power but it hinders the cosmic dictator actually utilising any previous inventory of honourable principles that he may have possessed in his lifetime. This is explains the conflict between organised evil as represented in the dictatorship and disorganised evil of free enterprise represented by crime, homosexuality and crusader arrogance. While disorganised evil and degeneracy coexist together with Christianity organised evil cannot tolerate Christianity even as organised evil does not tolerate degeneracy. A careful study of history will see that this is often the case. Remember also that morality can be just as much a part of degeneracy as immorality. The key to degeneracy is the study of arrogance we have made, the twelve gates of cosmic one.

We note in verse 12 that “he [the Jewish dictator exercises all the authority [temporal and religious in Israel] of the first beast dictator on his behalf, and he forces the land ...” He is going to force upon them a new religious system. The basis for the treaty between the revived Roman empire and the state of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation is really ecumenical religion, and under the provision of the treaty the state of Israel adopts this ecumenical system of the revived Roman empire.

At this time we must turn to Daniel chapter 12 to see something of the repercussions of accepting this ecumenical religion.

Daniel 12:11, “And from the time [the middle of the Tribulation] that the regular sacrifice is abolished.” One of the first things that the dictator must do is to order the abolishing of the sacrifices where the five categories of Levitical sacrifices are offered, speaking of the doctrines of propitiation, unlimited atonement, the various categories of soteriology and the basis for the rebound technique. Those sacrifices are offered in the Tribulation once the temple is reconstructed. Then the dictator suddenly decides that no longer will animal sacrifices be offered. Animal sacrifices. of course, were merely a way of teaching the doctrines of Christology and soteriology before the completion of the canon of scripture, “and the abomination of desolation [a statue of the dictator of the revived Roman empire] is set up, there will be then 1,290 days [the last three and a half years of the Tribulation, the same as the 42 months of Revelation 13:5].”

The first 45 days of the Millennium are now brought into focus in Daniel 12:12 — “How blessed [happy] is he [the Jewish believer in the last half of the Tribulation who keeps waiting, the dynamic function of the three stages of the faith-rest drill] and therefore attains [still lives] during the 1,335 days!” The difference between the 1,335 days and the 1,290 days of the last half of the Tribulation is 45 days, so these are the 45 days into the Millennium. At that time the Jewish believers will observe the first feast of the Tabernacles which portrays the Millennium.

This celebration is actually described in Zechariah 14:16 — “Then it will come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations that went up against Jerusalem [certain armies that attacked Jerusalem in the Armageddon campaign] will go from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of the armies, and to celebrate the feast of the Tabernacles.” (The feast of the Tabernacles is described in Leviticus 23:33-43) While this verse emphasises Gentile believers who survive the Tribulation and the baptism of fire of Matthew 25 there are also Jewish believers who survive and they are mentioned in Ezekiel 20:34-38. They are the ones who enjoy those extra 45 days which were mentioned in Daniel 12:12.

Returning to Revelation 13:12 we note the religious policy of the dictator of the revived Roman empire. So far in our passage: “In fact he [the Jewish dictator] exercises all the authority [both temporal and religious in Israel] of the first dictator on his behalf ...”

We resume with a connective conjunction kai, translated “and” or “then.” Next is the present active indicative of the verb poiew. Generally poiew means to do, to make, to manufacture. Here it means to force. The present tense is a perfective present, it denotes the continuation of existing results. It denotes the abuse of this power. Dictators generally are non-enlightened, they abuse their power. Very few men in history have had that much power without abusing it. The active voice is a causative active voice and that it where we get the translation “he forces.” The indicative mood is potential indicating a status or condition.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun gh, referring here to the land of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation, “and he forces the land.” This is part of the double accusative direct object of personal and impersonal object. Next is an articular present active participle from the verb katoikew which means to reside or to be a citizen, referring to the citizens of the land, “then he forces the land and those who reside in it.” The definite article in the accusative plural is used as a direct object and as a demonstrative pronoun. It refers to the citizens living in the future in the state of Israel. The descriptive present tense is for the citizenship now performing an action, they are being acted upon by the abuse of power. The active voice: the Jews living in Israel are going to be the subject of the action. They produce the action of being citizens in a dictatorship and citizens in a dictatorship have restricted freedom or no freedom, depending upon their compliance to the policies of the dictator. In other words, the dictator is using and abusing his power with regard to the citizens of the state of Israel in the future. The participle is circumstantial. With this we have a prepositional phrase, en plus the locative of a)utoj, “in it,” “and those who reside in it [the state of Israel].”

Next we have the purpose clause. We have the conjunction i(na to introduce a semi-final purpose clause. A semi-final purpose clause denotes the direction of the action in the main verb to a given result which is sought for or anticipated. It is sought for in this case. The dictator is trying to use his power to force people to worship in the ecumenical religious system of the revived Roman empire.

There is a principle here: No one can force you to worship apart from your own free will. The key to worship is volition, free will. You have the right to accept or reject what is taught, you have the right to worship or not to worship, you have the right to choose to serve under the Lord’s divine system [the divine dynasphere] or not. You must have, of course, privacy for all of this. The major principle is your personal freedom. If you are ever going to be spiritually self-sustaining you must make your own decisions from a position of strength. You must have a personal control of your life and a personal sense of destiny, and you cannot do that unless you have your privacy.

This beast dictator comes along and he says that all religions in the state of Israel are wiped out. That would include the cultural religion which is Judaism. Today Judaism is a cultural religion. Why? Because they have ritual without reality. There will also be certain Jews who have personally accepted Christ as saviour, they are evangelised as we have seen in Revelation chapter seven and we will get additional information in chapter fourteen. And then there are a certain number of other religions. There is a religious tolerance until this treaty with the dictator of the revived Roman empire when everyone must then conform to the ecumenical religious system of the dictator. Everyone will come in and bow down in the temple to what the Bible calls “the abomination of desolation.”

And so the subject then, “and that they should worship”, the future active indicative of the verb proskunew. Notice that worship follows force. Any time that any church, any group, any organisation, demands that you must believe this or else is out of line. The truth must be communicated but you have the option of accepting or rejecting that truth. No one has the right to force you and when people are forced to accept the truth then you have organised evil, you no longer have the function of freedom. The whole purpose of Christianity is to foster freedom and Christianity actually says a person can accept or reject Christ and that it is a person’s personal business. If a person accepts Christ he must always keep his doctrine straight and never confuse Christianity with the state. The state must always be separate from Christianity. Therefore Christians have no right to enter into civil disobedience, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.” It must be recognised that everyone has a right to be wrong and everyone has a right to be right; everyone has a right to choose for themselves, in fact they must choose for themselves. We are studying dictatorship in terms that say no, you cannot. Occasionally, there are enlightened dictators who are different, like Frederick the Great who even set up an officer’s code for the army which demanded that cognisance be given to the claims of Christ on the life and that all virtue in the military must be directly related to the principles of Bible doctrine in the scriptures. He didn’t demand that his officers accept Christ as saviour but this was the standard. He also despised socialism in any form. Frederick the Great understood freedom and said it was the motivation for everything in life.

Now we have anti-freedom with these two dictators in this purpose clause, “In fact he [the Jewish dictator] exercises all the authority of the first dictator on his behalf, then he forces the land [Israel] and those who reside in it to worship the first beast dictator.” This is the accusative singular direct object of the adjective prwtoj and the noun qhrion.

Then we have Israel becoming a centre of ecumenical religion. We have a descriptive genitive singular from two words: the relative pronoun o(j and a)utoj, “who of him,” but translated correctly into English by combining these words to read “whose.” Then we have the nominative singular subject plhgh, which is not a wound as such although it can be translated “a mortal wound”; it means a death stroke, a fatal wound. The stroke of death, qanatoj, is a part of the noun and the word formation and it is literally the stroke of death but it means the fatal wound. It is an idiom and is a reference to the historical destruction of the old Roman empire in 476 AD, the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to Rome as the first Gentile nation to God. And then we have the aorist passive indicative of the noun qerapeuw which means to heal, “the fatal wound was healed.” The constative aorist tense views the revival of the Roman empire in the Tribulation in its entirety. The passive voice: the historical Roman empire of the past receives the action of the verb as a prophetic empire in the future. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical trend of the Tribulation presented in the form of eschatological doctrine.

Translation of verse 12 — “In fact he [the dictator of the Jewish state in the Tribulation] exercises all of the authority of the first dictator [the Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire] on his behalf, then he [the Jewish dictator] forces the land [Israel] and those who reside in it to worship the first beast dictator whose fatal wound [fall of the historical Roman empire] was healed [the revival of the Roman empire in the Tribulation].”

Once you begin to learn Bible doctrine you begin to develop an inventory of ideas, and the sooner you do the sooner you will mature and have the ability to discern, to be spiritually self-sustaining. When the average person sees a miracle or what appears to be a miracle he immediately is terribly impressed and immediately assumes some great ability to the one who performs it, and he even adheres to and believes anything that the one who performs the miracle has to say. This has been the system for religion throughout the centuries. The reason that people are impressed by the superficial, the stupid, and the idiotic is because they have no inventory of ideas and cannot think in terms of principle. No inventory means that you are going to be very emotional, very stupid, very unhappy, and you will never be able to understand what is going on and will be a loser all of your life. That is exactly what is going to happen to a lot of believers and unbelievers in the Tribulation.

In verse 13 we have the amplification of the religious modus operandi of the Jewish dictator and the function of miracles is the title of the verse. In the King James version is says, “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.”

This evil man, this dictator, this representative of Satan, is performing extra-natural phenomena, miracles, and a lot of people are impressed. With unbelievers you would expect it; with believers you wonder why. Just because someone performs a miracle it doesn’t mean that it has anything to do with the truth. The sooner you are able to think in terms of truth, the sooner you have an inventory of ideas related to truth, i.e. doctrine, the sooner you will be spiritually self-sustaining, discerning, and have the ability to see that a miracle in itself is utterly and totally meaningless. It is an amazing fact that while the Jews have always been smart and some of the greatest geniuses of all time, yet “the Jews seek a sign [miracle], the Greeks seek wisdom.” Here are the smartest people in the world and they are always looking for a miracle. They are seeking miracles; they are impressed with miracles. If there is anything that neutralises inherent smartness and high IQ it is to look for miracles rather than explanations related to truth and to Bible doctrine. In every age of human history there are always a large number of suckers, idiots, imbeciles, stupid people, born with high IQs but are taken in by miracles. A miracle means nothing unless it is related to the truth. Our Lord performed miracles for one reason: to demonstrate His Messiahship. It was a demonstration of who and what He was and the purpose of our Lord’s miracles was to gain a hearing for His message so that people would hear the truth. It is an amazing thing that every nitwit in the world who comes up with a miracle always gets a gathering. The first principle we note in verse 13 is that people are more impressed by what they see than by what they think.

We start with the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, translated “Furthermore.” Then the present active indicative of poiew which means here to perform, “Furthermore he [the Jewish dictator] performs.” With this we have the accusative neuter plural direct object from two words: an adjective megaj and with that, shmeion, “great miracles.” These miracles are performed through the power and the manipulation of Satan as the ruler of this world so that the masses of people living in Israel and Jews throughout the world will actually believe that this is the Messiah. To make a false Messiah appear like a real Messiah requires miracles to deceive the people. People are always deceived by miracles, even someone who promises them miracles — like politicians. Satan produces the miracles to palm off the false prophet, the dictator of Israel, as the false Messiah.

Then we have an illustration of his miracles. We start with the conjunction i(na, generally used for a purpose clause, but this is a most unusual use of a conjunction. It is used here as a substitute for the explanatory infinitive. The infinitive cannot be used without a demonstrative, therefore i(na is substituted and it should be translated, “for example he even.”

Now we have our present active subjunctive in poiew meaning to cause, “he even causes.” The tendencial present tense is used for an action which is purposed or attempted though it is not actually taking place at the moment. It is eschatological, in other words. We have the causative active voice for an action through an intermediary means. Satan is the source; the dictator of Israel as the false Messiah is the means. The subjunctive mood is potential implying a future reference, therefore we are looking at an eschatological picture. Then we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun pur, the word for fire, “for example he may even cause [it doesn’t say that he will] fire.”

Here is where why we have i(na with the exegetical infinitive, the present active infinitive of katabainw, “to come down.” This is a pictorial present. The active voice: the dictator, passing himself of as the Messiah, in other words deceiving people, produces the action of the verb. He does it in the last half of the Tribulation when dupes are needed and being enlisted by Satan. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result, it blends a purpose and a result, and since the result fulfils a deliberate objective to deceive the people into thinking that the dictator is the Messiah it means it is accomplished, there is one born every minute. Then the fire is said to come down from heaven, from the sky, e)k plus the ablative of o)uranoj. This is one time it doesn’t mean heaven, it just means from the direction of the sky. Then there is one more preposition, e)ij plus the accusative of gh, “to the land” or “to the earth.”

One other thing is necessary to complete the concept of the miracle. We have three prepositional phrases in a row: the improper preposition [an improper preposition is really an adverb used as a preposition] e)nwpion plus a)nqrwpoj. A.T. Robertson, a famous Greek exegete in his day, said that Elijah had called down fire from heaven, James and John had once even urged Jesus to do this miracle in Luke 9, the idea being that this is an imitation of that concept. This was obviously an attempt to use a little one-upmanship against the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah. We studied this in Revelation 11:5 where it says that fire shoots out of their mouth and it destroys their enemies. Obviously, here, there is no attempt to portray the truth, only to put down the truth. When the truth is being portrayed it is a legitimate function and the whole objective is not to perform the miracle but to get a hearing for the truth. Here it simply to destroy any hearing of the truth.

The corrected translation: “Furthermore, he [the Jewish dictator] performs great miracles, for example he may even cause fire to come down from heaven to the earth in the presence of the people.”

Miracles minus doctrine are meaningless. Even worse, they are deceptive. Miracles often manifest divine power but very infrequently in the time in which we live. All too often they manifest the power of Satan working through people involved in the cosmic system. And the principle that must always be remembered: God never performs miracles to relieve suffering or pain, otherwise God would provide miracles in every case of suffering or pain and there would be no suffering or pain. Any miracle from God usually alleviates suffering, but that isn’t its purpose. Jesus didn’t come to the earth to alleviate suffering otherwise all the time He was on the earth no one would have had any pain or suffering. Yet people came to Him suffering and in pain. So it is obvious that our Lord did not perform miracles to alleviate suffering, He performed miracles to call attention to His person and His message. So God performed miracles in the past to give accreditation and hearing to both the Old Testament prophets, the heralds of the first advent, our Lord Jesus Christ, the apostles and prophets prior to the completion of the canon of scripture. We do not live in the age of miracles. People looking for miracles do not understand truth. Often they are merely emotional about their own problems but not rational. Miracles today are being used by Satan himself.

2. Miracles often manifest divine power. They were so used in the past to accredit Moses as God’s messenger. (Satan was in the court that day too, and he performed miracles through the Egyptian priests)

3. God never performs miracles to relieve suffering or pain. His miracles do alleviate suffering but if He does it for you, why not for thousands of others.

4. God performed miracles in the past for one reason: accreditation. He performed miracles so that people would recognise “this prophet is from God”. Elijah performed seven miracles; Elisha performed fourteen because he asked for a double portion. Why did God permit Elijah to perform miracles? So that people would listen to his message. It isn’t the miracle, it is the message. Miracles do not form an inventory of ideas in your soul. It is doctrine, it is the message that performs the inventory of ideas. Our Lord, on one occasion, even delegated the seventy disciples, gave them the power of miracles and said to them that if the people would not hear their message (they will see the miracle) that they were to pick up their sandal, fill it full of dust, shake it out and leave town. Why? Because they wouldn’t hear the message. They would sit around all day and see the miracles. It is the message that is important.

5. The purpose of these miracles in the past and miracles in the Tribulation was so that a message could be given, to give Bible doctrine a hearing, and to keep believers functioning in the plan of God. God assumes that once you have it in writing, the Word of God, you are ready for the fact that instead of miracles God intends for you to use your volition today, tomorrow, the next day, the next day, because the whole purpose of life and the secret to life is what you have in your soul: truth. We start out minus truth in the frontal lobes of the soul and the purpose it to get that truth.

6. Satan performs miracles to distract people; our Lord performed miracles to attract people to the doctrine. Satan performs miracles to distract people from doctrine and to hinder the believer from executing the plan of God. In other words, Satan performs miracles to evangelise for the cosmic system. He doesn’t perform them directly, he performs them through cosmic evangelists, believers and unbelievers in the cosmic system.

7. Hence, it is not the miracle performed but the content of the message that accompanies the miracle. If the message is Bible doctrine the miracle is genuine but if the message promotes false doctrine or evangelisation for the cosmic system the miracle is a distraction from Satan.

This leads us to the overall conclusion regarding verse 13: People are more impressed by what they see than by what they know.

In verse 14 we have the resultant function of the deception. We have the connective conjunction kai again, “and.” With that we have i(na again plus the subjunctive, the present active subjunctive of planaw, the key to miracles, the purpose of miracles as far as Satan is concerned. It means to deceive. That is the purpose for miracles. And who would be deceived by miracles? Someone who had a very low inventory of ideas, someone who had no inventory of doctrine, no inventory of truth. The customary present tense denotes what habitually occurs when Satan begins to perform miracles through some human being. The active voice: the human being in this case is the dictator of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation; he produces the action; he produces the miracle. The subjunctive mood is potential implying again an eschatological reference. The articular present active participle of katoikew follows and it means those who reside in the land. Here is a perfect case of where the participle is used as a noun rather than as a verb. We translate it: “and so that he [the Jewish dictator] might deceive the residence of the land. We have the preposition e)pi plus gh again and it refers to the land of Israel. The residence of the land would be Jews living in the land of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation.

Then we have another prepositional phrase, dia plus the accusative of shmeion which means miracles or signs, “because of the miracles,” and then the accusative neuter plural from the relative pronoun o(j, “which.” Another verb follows, the aorist passive indicative of didomi which means to give or to delegate, “which were given.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: the dictator of the state of Israel receives the action of the verb, the power to perform miracles. The indicative mood is declarative, a statement of the origin or source of the miracles as the sign. Then we have the dative singular indirect object from a)utoj, used as a personal pronoun, “to him.” In other words, he was given this power to perform these miracles. Then, again, the aorist active infinitive of poiew, meaning to perform. And. again, the improper prepositional phrase e)nwpion plus qhrion, “in the presence of the beast dictator.” In other words, the beast dictator of Israel performs these miracles in the presence of the dictator of the revived Roman empire, which means that sometime in the last half of the Tribulation after the signing of the treaty the dictator of the revived Roman empire will travel to Jerusalem for the opening of the new religion, the ecumenical system. When he does the dictator of Israel will perform these miracles in his presence. Apparently there will be opening ceremonies for suckers!

Translation: “And that he [the Jewish dictator] might deceive the residence of the land [the purpose of miracles] because of these miracles which were given to him in the presence of the beast dictator [of the revived Roman empire].”

So in order to destroy Israel in the last half of the Tribulation the Jews must be deceived by the two dictators: the dictator of Israel through the performance of miracles is able to deceive many Jews as the false prophet and the false Messiah; the dictator of the revived Roman empire deceives the Jews through bringing ecumenical religion to the land. The principle is: A deceived people are a fallen people; a deceived people are a degenerate people. Remember that degeneracy has two categories — a moral degeneracy and an immoral degeneracy — but whatever the category of degeneracy may be a deceived nation is a fallen nation, a deceived nation is a degenerate nation. Only truth or Bible doctrine can protect people as individuals or nations from nations from self-destructive deception. Please notice that the deception is really self-destructive. They stand there and watch the miracles; they go to see the miracles; they are positive toward the miracles.

The greatest system of deception, therefore, is religion: religion of cosmic two and the arrogance of cosmic one. When people reject the truth or Bible doctrine they are vulnerable to deception. First they get into cosmic one where they are preoccupied.

Problem: How are you going to get the Jews to abandon their traditional Judaism? These are unbelieving Jews who are in ritual without reality, and by the thousands in the middle east at that time their traditional religion is Judaism, except for those who have personally accepted Christ as saviour. The answer to that is found in 1 Corinthians where it says that the Jews seek a miracle, the Greeks seek wisdom. It would take a miracle in order to actually get them to abandon their traditional religious attitude of Judaism, and that is exactly what happens. Satan empowers the dictator in Jerusalem to start performing miracles and they are done in the name of this dictator and in this way the Jews amalgamate their traditional Judaism with ecumenical religion. Remember that the dictator in the revived Roman empire is the head of ecumenical religion, so in order to destroy Israel in the last half of the Tribulation the Jews must be deceived by both the Jewish and the Gentile dictators. The dictator of Israel through the performance of these miracles is able to deceive the Jews and cause them to abandon their traditional Judaism.

The mandate of deception is given in the last part of verse 14, starting with the word “saying,” the present active participle of the verb legw. However, it is not going to be translated as in the King James version, “saying,” because the circumstantial participle is best rendered into the English by the conjunction “and” plus the finite verb, and we are going to translate it, “and he kept saying.” The progressive present tense signifies action in the state of persistence, present linear aktionsart. The active voice: the dictator of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation passing himself off as the Messiah, known also as the false prophet or Antichrist, produces the action of the verb.

Next we have an articular present active participle from the verb katoikew. This is a participle used as a noun or a substantive, and it is a participle in the dative plural, therefore the indirect object, “and he kept saying to the residents.” And then we have e)pi plus gh, “upon the land” literally, but we translate it in better English, “of the land [Israel].” We have next an aorist active infinitive from the verb poiew which means here to manufacture, “he kept urging the residents of the land to manufacture.” The aorist infinitive denotes that which is eventual or particular in contrast to the present infinitive, so it gathers into one entirety the many speeches that the dictator made. This dictator is very successful because he can communicate. Then we have the accusative plural direct object from e)ikon, referring to an idol. Then the dative of reference from qhrion, “to manufacture an idol to the beast dictator.”

“and he [the beast dictator] kept urging [mandating] the residents of the land to manufacture an idol to the beast dictator.”

The mandate to Israel from the beast dictator who is both the false prophet and the false Messiah is therefore related to idolatry which is constantly prohibited by the Word of God. The mandate related to this idolatry exposes the Jewish dictator not as the true Messiah but as a false Messiah. This brings us, then, to the concept of idolatry in the future even as we have noted it in the past.

Throughout the history of Israel as a client nation to God they were constantly warned against idolatry. Idolatry is always related to religion and idolatrous religion is always related to demon possession of the unbeliever and demon influence of the believer. As stated in the next verse, verse 15, idolatry is contact with demons, demon worship, and therefore it is Satan worship. Idolatry is the subject of the first two commandments in the decalogue. The first commandment prohibited mental idolatry, as illustrated in Deuteronomy 5:6-7; the second commandment prohibited overt idolatry as per Deuteronomy 5:8-10. Because idolatry involves life in the cosmic system, reversionism, scar tissue of the soul, all of the evils of the phallic cult, and it is often called spiritual adultery. The analogy to idolatry and spiritual adultery is found in Jeremiah 3:8-10; Ezekiel 16:23-43; 23:24-30; Revelation 17:1-5. Idolatry, then, is the basis for becoming involved with demons. For the unbeliever it is demon possession and demon influence; for the believer it is demon influence only. This is why idolatry is called the devil’s communion table in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21. Furthermore, idolatry is related to the phallic cult in Ezekiel 22:3-18; 23:37-39.

The greatest motivation to evil in all of history is religion. Religion motivates evil. Remember that Christianity is not a religion. Religion also results, therefore, in great functional evil. We have studied before the phallic cult and noted that the phallic cult produces both idolatry and from that idolatry immorality. Immorality destroys freedom.

The ten commandments are not dealing with sin as such, they are dealing with the principle of freedom. For example, the phallic cult produced great immorality in Leviticus 18:3-25. Immorality is an attack upon freedom, an attack upon the privacy of property, the rights of individuals, the sacredness of human life. Immorality attacks every aspect of freedom. Freedom and immorality simply cannot coexist. Furthermore, as we have studied both organised and disorganised evil, when you have freedom you have disorganised evil in two categories: immoral degeneracy and moral degeneracy. Moral degeneracy is perhaps the most subtle of the two, it is self-righteous arrogance, but both categories are involved in degeneracy. Degeneracy as a system of evil always coexists with Christianity and whereas there may be attacks on Christianity from time to time they are limited, it is not an overall system of persecution. Christianity goes over into degeneracy and evangelises; degeneracy under the cosmic system goes over to Christianity and does some evangelising and born-again believers become involved in some form of moral or immoral degeneracy. But all that is because of the existence of freedom.

Now, degeneracy and evil does something else. Degeneracy finally becomes overpowering if you have too small a pivot in any given generation when the pivot shrinks, and the expansion of degeneracy with the immoral phase destroys freedom. The moral phase attacks freedom too. Self-righteous people say you have to do it their way and they persecute you if you do not. But eventually it knocks out freedom and inevitably on this structure of degeneracy, both moral and immoral, comes the real enemy of Christianity: organised evil. As long as you have disorganised evil you are free to say, I accept it” or “I reject it.” Disorganised evil is something in which you do not have to get involved, you still have the right to say yes or no. But once you have organised evil all of that changes, you have no option. They are gone.

Degeneracy in the form of disorganised evil eventually opens the door for the rise of a dictatorship, but in the meantime as long as you have status quo of a client nation Christianity and disorganised evil coexist and continue to coexist under the principle of freedom. It is organised evil that will not tolerate either Christianity or degeneracy in either of its forms. Organised evil always has its own facade of self-righteousness and that facade will not tolerate the truth, in our case Christianity; in the future, born-again believers, and it will not tolerate degeneracy. One form of degeneracy is crime, and organised evil wipes out crime, but it has its own crime. It doesn’t like competition. The Government murders people as in Russia and in China, and other places; the Government commits all the crime. That is organised evil and organised evil systematically destroys anything that has a system of toleration related to it.

The phallic cult always includes immorality. It includes demonism, Leviticus 20:6; it includes human sacrifice, Leviticus 20:1-5; it rejects establishment authority, Leviticus 20:9; it produces degeneracy, Leviticus 20-10-23; it is related to idolatry and demonism and the phallic cult, of course, promotes homosexuality, bestiality, incest, Deuteronomy 12:9-31. So there is a tremendous breakdown. In other words, when the Jews came into the land for the first time and took over the land, the greatest warning was against idolatry. Why idolatry? Because idolatry is a system that amalgamates moral degeneracy with immoral degeneracy and once it amalgamates the two then it establishes a dictatorship called organised evil. It takes over disorganised evil and converts it to organised evil and at the same time maintains a close contact with demonism. This is what destroyed the Canaanites. The land of Canaan was once a great nation but it had been destroyed and the final punishment of Canaan was the fact that the Jews came in and took over the land. There were several exceptions. For example, the Philistines who were Greeks came into that particular area and were left there as a test, as were the Phoenicians. The Jews had a generation that failed the test and they took over the same customs as the Canaanites, as the Phoenicians, as the Philistines, and the result, of course, was devastating to them. Idolatry and the phallic cult helped, then, to destroy Israel as a client nation to God and resulted in the fifth cycle of discipline. This is the subject of many passages in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

This is what we have, then, so far in our passage: “and that he [the Jewish dictator] might deceive the residents of the land [the state of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation] because of the miracles,” the Jews with all of their natural brilliance are impressed by miracles, “which were given to him [Satan gives the power of miracles to this dictator] in the presence of the beast dictator.” In other words, Satan honours the Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire as the leader of ecumenical religion, “and he [the Jewish dictator] kept urging the residents of the land to manufacture and idol to that beast dictator.”

That brings us now to our relative clause which presents the historical and prophetic Roman empire. Once again we see the historical Roman empire which is introduced by the nominative singular of the relative pronoun o)j, and it will be translated “who.” This introduces the historical Roman empire.

With this relative pronoun we have the present active indicative of the verb e)xw. It is the historical present, it views the past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: the historical Roman empire, the first Gentile client nation, produces the action of the verb. This is a declarative indicative for the fall of the historical Roman empire in AD 476. The accusative singular direct object of plhgh gives us the word that is going to be used to indicate the fall of the Roman empire, and that is the death stroke or the mortal wound, and then the descriptive genitive of the noun maxaira, “of the sword.” This is the Roman sword. The Romans destroyed themselves. If the Barbarians had destroyed them then God the Holy Spirit would not have permitted this vocabulary, maxaira. Instead we would have had r(omfaia, the Barbarian sword. The Romans destroyed themselves, and it brings up the principle again: No nation is ever destroyed by an outside nation, they merely come in and finish the job. A nation always destroys itself by its own bad decisions.

While many tribes and Barbarians had been admitted into the Roman empire as allies and had proved faithful defenders of the frontiers it was the Visigoths who really started the ball rolling. By this time the Romans had departed from category #1 truth, the laws of divine establishment, and there was not a very large pivot of mature believers. And so the Visigoths appeared on the Danube. When a client nation breaks up the repercussions are terrible throughout the world and in the case of the Roman empire there were terrible repercussions from the break-up of the client nation to God. Masses of non-Germanic Barbarians began to invade the empire, some of the wildest people in the world — the Slavs, the Huns, the Tartars, and others.

So this is the death stroke of the sword, “who had the stroke of the sword.” This dictator is said to be related to the historical Roman empire, “and has revived,” the aorist active indicative of the verb zaw, which means to live, and “has come to life” would be a good translation. The culminative aorist tense views the revival of the Roman empire in the Tribulation in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the basis for Satan’s decisions of desperation in the last half of the Tribulation. The active voice: the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this eschatological event in the Tribulation. The revived Roman empire in the Tribulation will be composed of ten nations which were formerly a part of the historical Roman empire. We will not be here to see it because the Church will be removed by the Rapture. The Roman dictator conquers three of the ten nations before the remaining seven surrender to his power. The Roman dictator is also the religious leader of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation and therefore the aorist active indicative refers to the revived Roman empire.

Verse 13, “Furthermore he [the Jewish dictator of the state of Israel] performs great miracles. For example, he may even cause fire to come down from heaven to the earth in the presence of the people [the Jewish people in the state of Israel].

Verse 14, “And so that he [the Jewish dictator] might deceive the residents of the land [the Jews living in Israel in the Tribulation] because of the miracles which were given to him in the presence of the beast dictator [the dictator of the revived Roman empire]: and the [the Jewish dictator] keeps urging the residents of the land to manufacture an idol [the abomination of desolation] to the beast dictator, who [the historical Roman empire] had the stroke of death [the fall of the historical Roman empire], and has revived [come to life, the revival of the Roman empire in the Tribulation].”

In verse 15 we note first of all that the image is related to demons and therefore a sign of demon power. We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” followed by the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi, which means to give, to bestow, or to delegate. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: the Jewish dictator of the state of Israel receives the action of the verb, the ability to perform a trick with the statue known as the abomination of desolation, the statue of the dictator of the revived Roman empire. The dative singular indirect object of a)utoj follows, an intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun, third person, because the personal pronoun from the Attic Greek was not brought over. It is translated “to him,” referring to the Jewish dictator of Israel. The ellipsis demands some word like e)cousia or dunamij, some word for power or authority, “Then it was given to him [the Jewish dictator] the power.”

Next we have an aorist active infinitive of didomi again, same word repeated. It means here to provide. The culminative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the deception of the people. People who are negative to truth are easily deceived. The active voice: the dictator of Israel during the Tribulation produces the action of the verb. To sustain his false claim to Messiahship and to provide worship for the Roman dictator he must, of course perform something that will deceive the people. The infinitive of actual result is here and with this we have the accusative singular direct object from pneuma, meaning a spirit, not the Holy Spirit. Pneuma has a number of interesting meanings. It originally meant “breath,” then it came to mean “spirit.” Sometimes it is used for the Holy Spirit; sometime it is used for life, since life and breathing are generally related in some way. Also it is used here for a certain type of demon: it means an evil spirit, a demon. It also refers to a ventriloquist type demon who controls the vocal cords of unbelievers when they are demon possessed and this is the type we have in this passage.

This ventriloquist demon is first found in the Old Testament under the Hebrew noun Ov (long “O”). The ventriloquist demon could work in two ways, according to the Old Testament scriptures. The voice could be thrown from out of the ground as though the dead were speaking from their burial place, or the voice could be thrown from the mouth of some individual who was demon-possessed. The Greeks had a word for it and this same demon is called e)ggastrimuqoj, pronounced engasthrimuthos. So the ventriloquist demon is designated pneuma or spirit. The noun pneuma does not always refer to demons but it does in Matthew 8:16; Mark 1:27; 6:7; 3:11; 5:13; Acts 5:16; 8:7; 1 Timothy 4:1.

The ventriloquist demon is also associated with the gift of tongues. There is a legitimate speaking in tongues on the part of unbelievers who are demon-possessed by the e)ggastrimuqoj demon. When born-again believers are speaking in tongues allegedly, they are faking it all the way. When unbelievers are speaking in tongues there is no fakery there at all, the demon is actually there and using the vocal cords of the unbeliever he possesses. But whether it is a believer or unbeliever speaking in tongues it all adds up to the same thing: no one has legitimately used the gift since August of AD 70.

In Revelation 16:13, 14 we read, “And I saw from the mouth of the dragon [Satan during the time of his desperation] and from the mouth of the beast dictator [from his eloquent speech], and from the mouth [eloquent speech} of the false prophet [the Jewish dictator], three unclean spirits [ventriloquists, or e)ggastrimuqoj demons who control human vocal cords] like frogs. For they [the demons] are the spirits of demons performing miracles, who go out [as Satan’s ambassadors] to the kings of the entire world [earth], to assemble them for that final war of the great day of God the Almighty one.”

The Koine Greek however merely refers to the demon as pneuma. “And it was given to him [the Jewish dictator] the power to provide a spirit [ventriloquist demon]”. In this case the spirit or demon is given to the idol known as the abomination of desolation and mentioned in Daniel 11:31; 12:11; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:15. The idol is the image of the dictator of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation. The original and historical idol known as the abomination was the statue of Antiochus Epiphanes put up in the temple in the time of the famous Maccabaean war in BC 167 on the 25th of December. Up to that time 25 December did not have too much significance.

With this we have the dative of reference of the noun e)ikon, used for an idol or an image (the abomination of desolation) and then a descriptive genitive from qhrion, the beast dictator. So we have the beginning of a translation: “Then it was given to him [the Jewish dictator of the state of Israel] the power to provide a demon spirit [ventriloquist demon] for the idol of the beast dictator ...”

Mark 13:1, “And as he [our Lord Jesus Christ] was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Teacher, what massive stones and what wonderful buildings!’ ”

Verse 2, “Then Jesus replied to him, ‘Do you see all of these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left on top of another which will not be torn down’.” The doctrine He has taught inside of that building is permanent but the building itself is not. They were emphasising that which is not going to last. This was fulfilled in August of AD 70.

Verse 3, “Later as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew questioned him privately,

Verse 4, “Tell us, when will these things happen [the question is actually answered in Luke 21:20-24], and what will be the sign when all of these things are going to be fulfilled?” The sign will be the destruction of the temple, just as in 586 BC when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple, the sign of the fifth cycle of discipline. The disciples are still interested in signs, not in doctrine. All of that will change, however.

Verse 5, “The Jesus began to teach them [He warns them first], ‘Beware that no one misleads you’.”

Verse 6, “ ‘Many will come in my name, alleging, “I am he [Messiah]!” and will deceive many more’.” In other words, there is a sucker born every minute and people who reject truth are always deceived. In the Tribulation they will be deceived because there will be a statue in the temple which will start talking. The nitwits will believe it.

Verse 7, “ ‘And when you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be frightened; for these things [historical trends] must occur; but that is not the end [“end” is a technical word for the Tribulation]’.”

Verse 8, begins the historical trends of the Church Age: “ ‘For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; also famines. These things are the beginning of birth pangs [the holocaust pregnancy, historical disaster]’.”

Verse 9, the Tribulation begins: “ ‘But you must be on your guard [when the Tribulation begins]; for they will deliver you over to the Sanhedrin [the Jewish courts of the Tribulation], and you [Jewish believers] will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them’.”

Verse 10, “ ‘And the gospel must first be preached to all nations [grace before judgment, the evangelism of the Tribulation]’.”

Verse 11, “ ‘And when they arrest you and bring you to trial, do not worry ahead of time about what you will say, but communicate whatever is given to you in that hour; for it is not what you say but the Holy Spirit [who teaches what you say extemporaneously]’.”

Verse 12, “ ‘And brother betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be executed’.”

Verse 13, “ ‘And because of me you will be hated, but he who stands fast to the end [of the Tribulation] will be delivered [by the second advent]’.”

Verse 14, the middle of the Tribulation: “ ‘And when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be [in the holy of holies of the temple in Jerusalem] (let the student understand)’.” Being a student is more than learning, being a student demands application of what you learn, “ ‘then let those who are in Judea [the first segment of believers saved in the first three and a half years of the Tribulation] flee to the mountains [Edom, Moab and Ammon]’.”

Verse 15, “ ‘Furthermore let him who is on the roof of his house not go down, or enter in [to his house], to get anything out of it;”

Verse 17, “But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days!”

Verse 19, “For those days [the last half of the Tribulation] will be tribulation [historical disaster and holocaust] such as has not occurred since the beginning of creation which God created, until now, and never shall be.”

Verse 20, “And unless the Lord [Jesus Christ who controls history] had shortened those days [the last half of the Tribulation] no person would have been delivered; but for the sake of the elected to privilege whom he has chosen, he shortened those days [so that believers will be alive at the second advent].”

Next: Warning to the Jewish believers of the first half of the Tribulation who have fled to the high desert country is now apropos. So beginning in verse 21, what about those who fled?

Verse 21, “And at that time [the last half of the Tribulation] if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Messiah’; or ‘Behold, he there’; do not believe him;

Verse 22, “for false Christs and false prophets will appear on the scene, and will perform signs and miracles, to deceive the elect, if that were possible” — third class condition meaning some will be deceived. That means that once they hit the high desert country they cannot neglect their doctrine. It must be kept current for application.

Verse 23, “But be alert; behold, I have told you everything in advance,” no excuse.

Verse 24, “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,

Verse 25, “and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.”

Verse 26, “And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.”

Verse 27, the regathering of Israel: “And then he will send forth the angels, and will gather together his elect to privilege [born-again Jews] from the four winds of heaven [the four weather areas], from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven,” the farthest end of the earth: living Jews will be regathered; the farthest end of heaven: the resurrection of Old Testament Jews who have believed in Christ.

That brings us now to the demon function of the image in Revelation 13:15. It begins with the conjunction i(na introducing a final purpose clause which expresses a distinct objective or purpose conceived of as the aim or action indicated in the main verb. The objective is stated in two verbs, speaking and manipulating through an apparent miracle to gain control of human volition — tantamount, of course, to Satan worship through ecumenical religion. We translate it “so that”.

Next comes the conjunction kai, translated “even,” “so that even.” Then the subject in the nominative case, e)ikon, “the image,” followed by the possessive genitive of the beast dictator and the aorist active subjunctive of lalew, another communication verb which means here to speak, “so that the image might even speak.” The constative verb contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the function of the ventriloquist demon in making the image appear to speak. The active voice: the ventriloquist demon produces the action. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive for a final clause with a future reference.

Then we have a connective conjunction kai, “and,” followed by the aorist active subjunctive of poiew translated here “cause.” The culminative aorist views the apparent miracle in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the assassination or execution of those who refuse to worship the idol. And, again, i(na plus the subjunctive is for the final clause.

The second use of i(na introduces a sub-final clause which denotes the direction of the action which is sought or anticipated, translated “that.” What is sought or anticipated is the death of those who will get into the ecumenical religious system. They are described by the nominative plural of the correlative relative pronoun o(soj, “as many as.” And then the conjunction e)an plus the negative mh, meaning “if not,” “and cause that as many as do not,” this is an idiom. Then we have the aorist active subjunctive of proskunew, meaning to worship, “as many as do not worship.” The ingressive aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its beginning. In other words, do not get down and worship. The active voice: believers who are positive toward doctrine in the land of Israel in the Tribulation will refuse to worship the image in the temple. The subjunctive mood is potential, having the element of contingency.

With this is the dative singular indirect object of e)ikon, the “image,” and then what happens to them: the aorist passive subjunctive of a)pokteinw, and it means “should be put to death.” The constative aorist means that they will be executed instantly. The passive voice: those who refuse to worship the image receive the action of the verb, martyrdom. And, again, i(na plus the subjunctive expresses a semi-final clause. The principle: Frustrated religion always resorts to violence to get its way. The use of violence to coerce volition reveals the Satanic nature of volition both now and in that future day.

Translation: “Then it was given to him [the Jewish dictator of the state of Israel] to provide a demon spirit [ventriloquist demon] for the idol of the beast dictator, so that the image of the beast dictator might even speak, and cause that as many as do not worship the image of the beast dictator would be put to death [executed].”

In verses 16 and 17 we see the economic policy of the Jewish dictator. The first thing we notice is the computerised system of persecution which begins the doctrine of computerised tyranny. What we have here is the principle that “high-tech” has got an evil application, like most 20th century developments. It really isn’t the scientific development, it is the people who use it and apply it and, of course, we have an evil application of high technology in the last half of the Tribulation.

Verse 16, We notice the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai which is translated, “Furthermore,” followed by the present active indicative of poiew. Poiew is a very common verb and generally it is translated “to do, to make, to manufacture.” It actually has another meaning, “he causes.” The present tense is a pictorial present, it presents to the mind a picture of events in the process of occurrence. Here we have eschatological events. The active voice is the causative active voice in which the subject is related to the action of the verb through an intermediary means. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of a future policy, not too different from policies of the past. With this we have the accusative plural from the adjective paj, translated “all.”

Then we have some appositional accusatives, and with them we have to translate it, “Furthermore he causes everyone.” And then we have five appositional accusatives, each one is in the plural. The first one is the adjective mikrw, a word used of persons to indicate stature, or age, but not here. It is used here in the connotation of influence or power and it means the least, those who really do not have any power at all. Too many people without power always want power whether they are qualified or not. Generally their very desire and lust for power means their disqualification.

With this we have another adjective megaj which is translated “great” and means those who have some power or influence. Megaj is also an interesting adjective because it is one of the few that always has the accent on the first syllable. So we have the small and the great, referring to those who have power and influence and those who do not. Often those who have the power and the influence are under a greater power, the concept of dictatorship.

The third and fourth categories take into contrast: first of all we have the accusative plural plousioj, “rich.” No matter how bad the times someone always uses bad times to their own advantage. There are those who become rich in bad times because they either have courage or ability to utilise bad times to their own advantage. But the next one is typical and one that should be called to the attention of all countries that practice socialism: ptoxoj, “the poor.” Jesus said: “The poor you have with always.” Poverty will never be eradicated. You can alleviate suffering through some form of charity but there will always be poor people just as there will always be rich people, illustrating the principle that there is no such thing as equality in the human race. There is ability used; ability not used. There is lack of ability, lack of courage, lack of aggressiveness, many explanations for the contrast, but inevitably there will always be the rich and there will always be the poor. There will always be the free and there will always be the slave. The word e)leuqeroj presents us with the free. It does not mean freedom in the sense we understand it but having made good decisions, having the ability for more decisions. Good decisions produce more and more options for great decisions. The principle is that a consistent life of good decisions will open up options for greater decisions. The accusative plural of douloj which is translated “slave” means people who by bad decisions limit their decisions, loss of freedom because their options were not opened. So we have six appositional accusatives, they are divided into three couplets and therefore we have three categories. The first category would be the achievement category. It means the successful and the unsuccessful. The second category is economic: the rich and the poor. The third category is social: the free and the slave.

So the word “all” is described in terms of these appositional accusatives. “Furthermore he forces everyone, the small and the great, both the rich and the poor, the slave and the free.” Of course, this is dictatorship. Dictatorship superimposes power and authority over everyone, usually erroneously but not always. The result is that we have an achievement category where even the achievers have lost their influence, the successful have lost their influence, and social success is also included here.

Note that in the greatest period of historical disaster in all of human history, the time of the devil’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation, that Jews living in the middle east both fail and succeed. The real surprise is that during historical disaster people distinguish themselves from their peers in three categories. Category #1, achievement in many areas of professional and government function; category #2, economic success. There will be a certain type of entrepreneur who will take risks in adverse times and become very wealthy; category #3 is social achievement or success which also occurs in times of historical disaster. In past history nearly every great royal family became prominent in a time of historical disaster when the crisis ability paid off in the rise to social prominence. All past greatness usually comes from this system. Note also that in time of historical disaster there are always those who are going to be losers and those who fail. Hence the obvious existence of the small who have failed in disaster, the poor who have failed economically, the slave whose survival in historical disaster depends on the charity and the ability of someone else. Historical disaster, then, is designed to bring to the top those who have some form of ability, some form of courage, some very strong drive in the field of strength in time of adversity. Historical disaster therefore is a producer of opportunity and greatness, it does not mean bad times for those who have a good mental attitude, who have made good decisions from a position of strength, have control of their lives and a personal sense of destiny. The principle then is that historical disaster is an opportunity for greatness. Latent ability goes unnoticed in times of historical prosperity but historical disaster provides the opportunity for greatness, the achievement on the part of those who would lack opportunity in normal times.

Historical disaster is necessary for the survival of a nation and is just as important to the strength of a nation as times of prosperity. Historical disaster is not only necessary for the survival of a nation but at the same time it reveals latent ability and provides future leadership and greatness through the promotion of the crisis personality. Prolonged and extensive prosperity in a nation guarantees the ascendancy of mediocrity and if the nation is to continue there must be historical disaster so that the mediocrity is eliminated. In time of extensive historical prosperity the opportunity for those who have real potential in greatness is not there. So disaster is a good thing for a nation. Periodic disaster is a healthy thing for a nation to provide opportunity for those who have the ability and it washes out the mediocrity which has destroyed the nation. The ascendancy of mediocrity denies opportunity to those who have real potential of greatness. The historical disaster must provide opportunity for talent and potential greatness to express itself if the nation is to survive. Therefore we should look upon historical disaster as believers with three applications: a. Historical disaster indicates the fact that the pivot of mature believers has shrunk and that you and I as believers have failed in our responsibility to God; b. All things work together for good; c. Divine discipline is needed to perpetuate the human race. All three of those applications are positive applications. Disaster renews the nation.

The categories here give us one more principle: National disaster also emphasises the true doctrine of man’s inequality. God has provided and given us life not because we are equal but because we have equal opportunity. The only thing that all people have in common where equality exists is that part of the soul called volition. You are free to choose to make a good decision or a bad decision. Salvation is a decision. When Christ died on the cross He died for all. He was judged for the sins of the entire human race and therefore whosoever believes in Him has everlasting life. It doesn’t matter whether a person is rich or poor, an achiever or a failure, a winner or a loser. Christ was judged for everyone on the cross. But notice that the decision of salvation is “whosoever believeth,” and that is a positive decision. Furthermore, it is a non-meritorious decision as many other decisions in life happen to be. But you make one decision and you have eternal life. Volition is the only equality in the human race.

Once you start using your volition there is inequality. Some people use their volition and make constant good decisions to become winners in life. Others use their volition in a negative way and they become losers in life. Therefore you have great inequality, and the greater the freedom the greater the inequality that exists. Freedom guarantees inequality in life so national disaster always emphasises the true doctrine of man’s inequality.

All of mankind are the products of their own decisions. Man apart from God and Bible doctrine uses prosperity to attempt the impossible — the equality of man. Man in his arrogance, in his crusader arrogance, in his self-righteous arrogance, influenced by Satan himself — that is Satan’s favourite line: all men are equal. No they are not. The only equality that God has provided is to give everyone the same start in life, you have volition. Man is not born equal and does not live in a state of equality with others. Equality is a myth, the deception of Satan as the chief evangelist for the cosmic system. Equality is also the greatest form of human hypocrisy. The fact that man has free will and self-determination guarantees the fact that equality will never exist in the human race. And many races talk about being downtrodden, but there are always people in that race who use their volition to rise to the top. It is true in every race. There is no such thing as a deprived race, that is only the crying of the losers in that group. Always you are going to find people saying that but race is not an issue. It is a false issue. Neither is economic status an issue. The fact that man has free will is the issue.

All forms of socialism are the expressions of arrogance, the opportunity for the demagogues to seize power by false promises. Man cannot make man equal with other men. What is impossible for man is only possible with God, and God has done it for us. And where did he do it for us? At the point of salvation every believer receives 36 things. Every believer has tremendous opportunities. Every believer enters into union with Christ. “In Christ” is a great phrase. It doesn’t make any difference what your race is, what your economic status is, whether you are rich or poor, whatever your status may be all believers are entered into union with Christ. So all believers with their volition and the wonderful system that God has provided with its eight gates gives you the opportunity. In that system God will take you to the top and you will be a winner, but if you make a decision to get into the cosmic system you are going to be a loser all of the way. The very existence of the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system tells us that there is no such thing as equality. The believer in the divine dynasphere is infinitely superior to the believer in the cosmic system.

Volition is the divider of people. Inequality is based on the function of freedom and using one’s volition to make either good or bad decisions, for man is the product of his own decisions. Prosperity provides limited opportunity for success and gives rise to the dominance of mediocrity, but historical disaster and crisis provides the opportunity for greatness.

That brings us now to the system of computerised tyranny. It should be noted that high technology is no better than the people that use it. Evil people using high technology come up with evil applications. High technology in the Tribulation is going to be the master system of enslaving most of the world. Most of the world are going t be slaves because they are under computerised tyranny. The system which will be described in the next two verses is tantamount to computer control of the people of the world. Hence, we are about to study the principle of computer tyranny or the destruction of human privacy and the enslavement of the world in the Tribulation. Remember that freedom cannot exist without privacy. Privacy and freedom must coexist and every attack on privacy is an attack on human freedom. The computer and high technology have many wonderful applications but in this passage we are going to study computer tyranny, the answer to evil bureaucracy’s dreams. The potential dangers of high technology have nothing to do with advance in science but they have everything to do with the application. To have a computer record of criminals is a good thing for law enforcement but to have a computer record of law-abiding citizens eventuates in control of those law-abiding citizens, hence it destroys their freedom. The criminal, of course, has no right to his freedom but the law-abiding citizen has every right to freedom and privacy. Computer technology used to control people and privacy destroyed is what we will have in the Tribulation.

That brings us now to the conjunction i(na and the study of computerised tyranny, the eschatological aspects of high technology, computer control of people throughout the world and the principle of the destruction of human privacy through high technology. Remember that freedom cannot exist without privacy, the two must coexist. I(na is a conjunction introducing a final purpose clause which expresses the purpose of the main objective of the action of the main verb. With this we have the aorist active indicative of didomi, “that they should give.” The culminative aorist tense views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: control of the people of the world through ecumenical religion. Ecumenical religion, however, works through a system of giant computers throughout the world, but especially there is one in Israel to control the people there. The active voice: the subject in the active voice produces the action of the verb and since the subject is taken from the third person plural suffix of the verb the question arises: who is the subject? And a plural subject indicates a system of bureaucracy based on high technology. So we have a plural subject because we are dealing with bureaucrats of the future, a computer system that has programmed away the privacy of the citizen in the hands of bureaucrats. This system is not only used in Israel, it is used throughout the entire revived Roman empire and most parts of the world in the last half of the Tribulation; every place where the state has accepted the ecumenical religious system of the beast dictator of the revived Roman empire. Those who adhere to the ecumenical religion are going to receive a card or its equivalent, an ID card. This permits them to buy and sell. In other words, to live and function in the economy of the world-wide religious system. Without this card or its equivalent, a computer mark on the hand or on the forehead, the people who reject the religion of Satan will be ostracised from society, persecuted and martyred. Hence, the subject is the tremendous number of bureaucrats in every country during the last half of the Tribulation who administer the system of computerised tyranny. The subjunctive mood goes with i(na to form a purpose clause. With this we have the dative plural indirect object from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun, third person. It is translated “to them,” “that they should give to them.” This is used as the personal pronoun to identify the worshippers of the beast dictator of the revived Roman empire. Hence, the ID card or its equivalent, the mark of the beast, is necessary for survival. “That they should provide them” is the way we translate didomi.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun xaragma, “mark.” It means something engraved, something etched, something imprinted. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and in the Attic or Classical Greek xaragma was used for the strike of a snake, it was used to mean an inscription, and for the branding of camels or slaves to denote ownership. It was used for a soldier in the Roman army when he enlisted: his serial number was branded on his hand. In effect then, this ID card of the ecumenical religious system of the revived Roman empire is some kind of a technical brand to relate to the key of the computer system. This mark or identification card is necessary for social activity, business activity, religious activity, and even survival at that time. And since the ID card is so important to avoid loss or counterfeit the card is printed or engraved or somehow marked on the body of the individual. Furthermore it is marked where it can be easily observed: on the right hand or on the forehead. Those who are great, rich and free will probably have the privilege of the ID card on the right hand; those who we noticed previously as small, poor or slaves will have the ID mark on the forehead — verse 16:

“Furthermore he causes [or forces] everyone, the small and the great, both the rich and the poor, both the slave and the free, that they [the bureaucracy of ecumenical religion] should provide them [those who come into the religious system] and ID card [a mark, a code, a number, a brand] on their right hand or on their forehead.”

This, then, is the system of computerised tyranny. 666 can be in the future a code number, an ID card, imprinted on the right hand or the forehead and related to the code system in the computer which has the names of all of those who are members of this ecumenical system of the future. This code number could be tied into the computer’s memory system which has a detailed information about each convert in the cosmic system. The fact that the ID card is not carried on one’s person in some plastic form indicates the advance in technology at that time. Apparently it may not even be visible except under a certain light. A plastic card, of course, can be lost or counterfeited but the code number 666 indelibly marked on the right hand or the forehead cannot be lost.

Verse 17, the policy of economic tyranny related to it. This time we combine the two words that we have started with in our Greek for the last several verses. We have the connective conjunction kai and with it the conjunction i(na plus the negative mh to introduce a negative purpose clause.

Next comes the subject, the nominative singular subject of the indefinite pronoun tij. The most fascinating thing about the indefinite pronoun is that it is definite. It is used to represent a definite category. With the negative mh it is translated “no one,” “And that no one.” Then we have the present middle subjunctive of the verb dunamai which means to be able, “And that no one should be able.” The customary present tense denotes what habitually occurs under computerised tyranny of the ecumenical religious system of the future. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning. The subjunctive mood is used with i(na to form a final purpose clause.

Then the aorist active indicative gives us the tyranny, a)gorazw which means to buy. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist contemplating the action at the beginning. The active voice: people within the range of the power of ecumenical religion produce the action, the infinitive of actual result. This is followed by an aorist active infinitive of polew which means to sell. In other words, we are talking about business activity, “And that no one should be able to buy or to sell.”

Principle: We should remember that religion [Christianity is not a religion] is always cruel, it is always vindictive toward those who reject it. Ecumenical religion of the Tribulation is no exception, it carries the same inherent evil and cruelty found in world religions today, like Islam or Hinduism.

The World Council of Churches plus the National Council of Churches is a good illustration of the cruelty of religion. The National Council of Churches purports to be tolerant of everyone and take in everyone with different views, and they are always out in some form of social action. But the vindictiveness is seen in the fact that today the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches are supporting terrorism. In the case of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation the same trend is seen. It persecutes the nonconformist by starving him out. There is also, of course later on, martyrdom, persecution, torture, murder, but here we simply have the economic isolation of the nonconformist. There is no honour code in ecumenical religion, no virtue, no grace, no system of impersonal love toward all. Instead there is demonism, terrorism, persecution and economic ostracism. In short, everything which characterises religion, the use of force, violence, and the hypocrisy of human love on the other hand, produce arrogant self-righteousness as well as ascetic self-determinism. Next we have the threefold description of this ID card. It begins with an idiom, e)i mh, in the next phrase, literally it is “if not,” but it is an idiom meaning “except.” And with this we have the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw, “except he who has.” The present tense is a perfective present, it refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The active voice: the adherents and converts of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation produce the action. The participle is circumstantial.

Now we have the three ways in which the ID card is set up. First there is a general ID card in the accusative singular direct object of xaragma, translated “mark” and it a reference to the ID card for members of the religious system. Secondly, there is an ID card for the clergy in ecumenical religion. This is brought out with two words, the accusative singular direct object from o)noma which means sometimes “name,” sometimes “person,” sometimes “identities,” sometimes even “personalities.” Here it means “name.” With it is the descriptive genitive of the noun qhrion used for the beast dictator, the dictator of the revived Roman empire, “the name of the beast dictator.” This is a second ID card and this is a special card for leaders and clergymen in the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation. So we have first of all the ID card called “the mark,” “except the one who has the mark [or brand], or the name of the beast dictator [a special leadership card with the name of the religious leader of ecumenical religion], or the number of his name.”

We have third identification: the code number. First there is disjunctive particle h, “or”, and then the accusative singular from the direct object of a)riqmoj, and with it a descriptive genitive of o)noma, the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “for the number of his name.”

Translation: “And that no one should be able to buy or sell, except the one who has the mark [the ID card], or the name of the beast dictator [special leadership card for religious leaders], or the number of his name [the code number related to the computer system].”

Principle: Religion destroys the privacy of the individual. In that way, again, we see a contrast between religion and Christianity. Christianity recognises the privacy of the royal priesthood; religion is anti-privacy. To the extent that churches stick their nose into your business, to that extent they are religious instead of Christian. Religion is self-righteous and, of course, self-righteousness comes from arrogance. Self-righteous people always invade the privacy of others.

Verse 18, we start out with the adverb o(de. It is correctly translated “Here.” With it we have the present active indicative of e)imi, “Here is,” plus sofia, the predicate nominative singular translated “wisdom.” Here it means wisdom in the technical sense of application of Bible doctrine. Wisdom is the application of Bible doctrine, but you have to know Bible doctrine before you can apply it. Doctrinal application in this context refers to the interpretation of the historical trends from the eschatological revelation of this passage.

There are two ways of determining historical trends. The first is prophecy, which is pertinent in every dispensation except the Church Age. The second is the application of doctrine which is pertinent in every dispensation of human history but the only system for determining historical trends in the Church Age. The historical trend in view in this passage is computerised tyranny, the control of the economy through a programming system in high technology. It distinguishes between those who adhere to the ecumenical religious system and those who reject it. It is all on the computer. This verse gives the Tribulational believer the opportunity of making his decision before the pressure and before the persecution exists. This passage will be studied very carefully once the Tribulation begins and every believer throughout the world where ecumenical religion goes will definitely have to know about this and prepare his decision. It gives the opportunity to think about it before it happens. That is what wisdom is: the opportunity to have the information before the decision is made. This is a general principle as far as the Word of God is concerned: don’t go to press without the facts, always research the situation. Gather all the information before you make decision. God recognises this principle and gives a future generation of believers the opportunity of researching it, of knowing what is going to happen so when it happens they will have their answer, they will be able to say, “I refuse to become a part of this system.”

Next we have the articular present active participle of e)xw, “he who has,” and then we have the accusative singular direct object from nouj, which generally means the mind but it also means the faculty for thinking, and we are going to translate it, “he who has the ability to think.” The ability to think here is an idiom meaning “get the facts before you make your decision, do not go off half-cocked.”

Then we have the aorist active imperative of yhfizw which really means “let him compute.” “He who has the ability to think, let him compute.” In other words, it is a mechanical high-tech system, a computer system 666 versus your brain. Your brain is a computer, or should be. If you fill it up with doctrine it will compute. So you have human computer versus mechanical computer. The culminative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the ability to know the facts first and make a decision on the basis of truth, Bible doctrine. The active voice: the believer who understands the pertinent eschatology produces the action of the verb. He has a human computer, a brain, that can outthink the mechanical system. This is the imperative of permission which recognises the fact that you may or you may not believe and you may not know and you may not obey. Then we have the accusative singular direct object from a)riqmoj again, “let him compute the number of qerion, the beast dictator.”

“Here is wisdom [the application of pertinent doctrine to the historical trend]. He who has the ability to think [the believer functioning under the first two stages of GAP, reception and retention] let him compute [the function of the third stage of GAP, recall and the application of pertinent doctrine to the historical trend at that time] the code number of the beast dictator.”

Principle: The believer must be cognisant of doctrine and inculcated with it through the function of Gap in order to use his spiritual computer against the mechanical computer.

The ability to think comes through perception of Bible doctrine, perception of the truth, while the application of that doctrine forms the historical trend in the mind. In other words, understanding historical trends through the application of doctrine facilitates dealing with those trends. You anticipate the trend, you make your decision, and once you are under pressure you stand by your decision. The believer continues to have confidence in God, in God’s plan through the adverse or prosperous circumstances of history. As a matter of fact historical adversity does not affect the plan of God for the believer, nor does it hinder divine blessing in time of great historical disaster.

The explanation: We begin with the explanatory use of the post positive conjunctive particle gar, “for.” We are going to get an explanation. Then the present active indicative of e)imi, “for it is.” The static present tense represents a condition taken for granted as a fact. There is a computerised system in the future, there is a code number for this particular subject to draw out the memory of the computer with regard to who adheres to the ecumenical religious system. The active voice: the number 6 produces the action of the verb, since 6 is the number of man in the Bible. However, the code number is 6 tripled, hence the deifying of man through the cosmic system. Six tripled is simply the deifying of man. There are three members of the Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; each one has identical essence. Six represents man; 666 = man deified. It isn’t six hundred and sixty-six, it is simply 6 tripled.

Then we have the predicate nominative of a)riqmoj again plus the possessive genitive of a)nqrwpoj, “for it is the number of man.” The Bible explains what the number is before the number is given.

Satan’s approach to mankind in the garden of Eden was the appeal to the arrogance or deification of man. The ultimate in man’s arrogance is his own deification. Genesis 3:5 explains this phrase, “you will be like God,” the deification of man, 666, “knowing good and evil.” The tripling of the number of man is 666, hence the deification of man in Satan’s cosmic system. The deification of mankind is the function of the cosmic system of Satan.

It must be remembered that 666 is the code number in the computer and it designates all the members of the ecumenical religious system. The code number leads to a memory bank where all adherents to ecumenical religion are recorded plus all information concerning their personal life. The memory bank in the computer destroys both the privacy and the freedom of those who fall into this ecumenical system. Those people who are not in this memory bank of the computer are believers whose perception of doctrine has caused them to make a decision, and they reject this apostasy. Such believers will not have the ID card, 666. They will be persecuted, excommunicated from society, some will starve to death, others will be tortured. Many are going to survive and be preserved for the Millennial reign of Christ. This is a part, then, of historical disaster in the time of the devil’s desperation. Nevertheless, in the worst of all historical disasters in history God will preserve many thousands of born-again believers right under the nose of the dictator, in all of the danger spots, and they will be preserved until the second advent to form the cadre for the population explosion of the Millennium. If there is any significance in the number 666, apart from computerised tyranny, it is the deification of man inside the cosmic system.

The subject of Revelation chapter fourteen is the divine victory during the time of the devil’s desperation. In the first five verses we see the victory of the plan of God, and in verses six through twenty the victory of the judgements of God. Then in chapters fifteen and sixteen we have perhaps the most dramatic part of the entire book, the divine judgment during the devil’s desperation: the Armageddon campaign.

Verse 1, we have a sequential use of the conjunction kai which begins the passage, “Then,” and with it the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw which means to see or to look, “Then I looked.” We have the constative aorist tense contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. This is the sequence which gathers together everything in John’s vision of this chapter. The active voice: John the apostle as the human author produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of John’s vision recorded as part of the New Testament canon. Then we have a conjunction kai again but this time it is used in its connective sense and is translated “and.” Then a demonstrative particle i)dou which means “behold.” “Then I looked, and, behold. I)dou is always used to introduce something new. The form is actually based on the aorist middle imperative of o(raw. We translate it “behold” but it must be understood that this is a new vision and we begin a new subject.

We begin with the nominative singular subject a)rnion, translated “Lamb” and referring to our Lord Jesus Christ is His first advent. It refers to the fact that there were many ways of portraying Christ before the first advent occurred. The first advent is the transitional period between the Age of Israel and the Church Age and, of course, in the Age of Israel they did not have a completed canon of scripture. They needed many illustrations in the field of soteriology and Christology and so had a modus operandi related to the tabernacle and the temple. All of the articles of furniture spoke of some phase of the work of Christ on the cross, some phase of His unique person as the God-Man in the first advent. Also, of course, they had five different Levitical sacrifices: three were used to portray the cross; two of them to portray the rebound technique. So the word “Lamb” simply brings into focus everything that the Jews learned in the Old Testament through the various ritual concepts. They had ritual teaching, but ritual without reality is meaningless and when the Jews rejected Christ as saviour that meant that they had ritual without reality, and they would simply hang on to the ritual and say no: negative toward the reality, the reality being the person and the work of Christ on the cross. The word “Lamb” refers to the fact of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world in John 1:29. The Lamb always emphasises the humanity of Christ in His hypostatic union. As eternal and infinite God Jesus Christ cannot sin. He cannot be tempted, He cannot solicit to sin, or have any contact with sin. Hence, the Lamb emphasises the true humanity of Christ; the true humanity of Christ received the imputation of our sins on the cross. “Lamb” emphasises, then, the strategic victory of Christ on the cross during His first advent, and now through the verb it is related to the tactical victory of Christ at the second advent.

We find the Lamb under the perfect active participle of i(stemi, “standing.” The perfect tense connotes completed action with emphasis on the result. This is a dramatic perfect describing the existing state of our Lord in a very vivid and realistic way as the resurrected Christ. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb when He returns to the earth at the second advent. The participle is circumstantial. So in the first advent our Lord went to the cross and provided eternal salvation by being judged for our sins. At the second advent we have His tactical victory, the superseding of Satan as the ruler of this world, and the beginning of the Millennial reign of Christ. So i(stemi is used in the sense of the second advent, the tactical victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of o)roj, “on mount.” Then we have the indeclinable noun, Siwn, but we stay with the Hebrew form, Zion, “the Lamb standing on Mount Zion.” When we get to chapter sixteen and study the Armageddon campaign we will see that the Lamb standing on Mount Zion is the ultimate in ending that campaign. Mount Zion, of course, refers to the Millennial Jerusalem. The time noted will be immediately after the regathering of Israel, and the second advent as the tactical victory of the angelic conflict, then, marks the termination of the time of the devil’s desperation. Mount Zion is chosen as the place of the victory celebration since Israel will be a client nation in the Millennium. The title of our Lord Jesus Christ as Lamb emphasises the fact that the cross must precede the crown. Faith in Christ must precede an eternal relationship with God. At the cross Satan was the ruler of this world but at the second advent Christ will be the ruler of this world forever. Satan will make one more attempt to overthrow our Lord at the end of the Millennium. In the meantime our Lord Jesus Christ will be ruling the world during that period of one thousand years, and that is the significance of His standing there.

Then we have a connective conjunction kai to add another accusative. This time we have the word o)noma, “and the name.” We translate so far: “Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with him ...” When it says “with him” we are going to be looking at the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, and “with him” is meta plus a)utoj. With Him are those who are going to be the great evangelists of the future.

Once the Church is removed from the earth by the resurrection, the end of the Church Age, we have no client nation to God because we have no pivot, we have no believers. We studied in chapter seven, however, that 144,000 Jews will accept Christ through reading the Bible. These 144,000 Jews will enter into one of the greatest periods of evangelism the world has ever known. They are said to have a name now: the present active participle of e)xw, meaning to have. They are going to have the name of our Lord. The present tense here is the perfective present, it denotes what has come to be in the past but emphasises a present reality. The 144,000 great evangelists of the future produce the action. The action is circumstantial and the name of Christ is on some kind of a priestly mitre which comes down over the forehead. It is not actually on the forehead itself but is on some kind of a mitre.

Translation: “Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who have his name [the name of Christ] and the name of his Father written in their foreheads [on a priestly mitre which covers the forehead].”

This is a reminder to believers of the Church Age that evangelism is motivated by our royal priesthood and the function of our royal ambassadorship. Every believer is a priest and represents himself before God; every believer is an ambassador, which means he represents God to mankind. So each one of us has a dual function in life. The very fact that the priestly mitre comes into view here and that the 144,000 have it emphasises the fact that all evangelism in any dispensation must be related to our attitude toward God. Therefore the priestly mitre is used.

The name of the Father demands some explanation. God the Father is the author of the divine plan: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” The plan always begins at salvation. Jesus Christ is the one who executes eternal salvation as God the Son; God the Holy Spirit reveals it. The name of the Father is written because He is the author of the divine plan; the name of the Son is written because He is the entrance into the divine plan. The name of God the Holy Spirit is not written because He is the unseen power of evangelism and the unseen power of the spiritual life after one is evangelised.

So written in the priestly mitre on the foreheads of the 144,000 evangelists is a reminder to believers of the Church Age that evangelism must be motivated by our royal priesthood and must be the function of our royal ambassadorship. But the mitre in context is a special type of head gear related to the fact that certain Jewish believers in the Tribulation will function in special evangelism to take up the slack for client nation Israel. That is the major factor at this point. There is no client nation once the Rapture occurs and there will be no client nation to God during the Tribulation. In the first half of the Tribulation we have 144,000 Jewish evangelists taking up the slack; in the last half two Jews are brought back, Moses and Elijah, to take up the slack for that principle.

We are dealing in verses 2 and 3 with a passage where we have a heavenly celebration of the tactical victory of Jesus Christ. We begin verse 2 with a sequential conjunction kai, translated “then.” Next comes the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw, which means that John is tuned in with his musical ear, “Then I heard.” The aorist tense is constative aorist, contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The entirety of this action will take place in verses 2-5. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action and now he has to write, put into words, what he hears in terms of music. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that John not only saw the heavenly choir, the heavenly orchestra, but he also heard their concert as it will be conducted at the second advent.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun fwnh, referring to sound, “Then I heard a sound.” The sound must have a source and John identifies it as being from heaven: e)k plus the ablative of o)uranoj, “from heaven.” The sound from heaven is the singing of the angelic choir. Millions and millions of elect angels blending their voices in harmony to form the awesome sound of the victory celebration of our Lord’s tactical victory of the second advent.

There are two analogies which John made to the sound. The tremendous volume seems to be in mind with the first analogy: he says, “like the sound of many waters.” This means a very majestic sound. So the volume of many thousands of voices blended in perfect harmony is an awesome thing, like a waterfall. The second analogy is “like the sound of loud thunder.” The loud thunder again gives us the tremendous volume where so many voices are involved. It is a perfect choir and this means the balance of the voices is absolutely perfect. The angelic choir of heaven is compared to the majestic and awesome sounds of nature. The singing of millions of elect angels is both worship and celebration. It is done in perfect musical form. The principle is that singing is a bona fide part of worship.

The conjunction kai advances from the analogy to the reality and it is translated “furthermore.” Again we have the nominative singular subject fwnh for the sound, the accusative singular from the relative pronoun o)j, and repetition of the aorist active indicative of a)kouw; which means in the repetition that he was very happy to hear this sound, it was totally and completely inspiring. O(j introduces a true analogy. The real musical instruments will be used to accompany this hymn of tactical victory. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and we have a descriptive genitive plural from a noun kiqarwdoj, referring to one who plays a musical instrument known as a harp. The playing of the harp is in the present active participle of kiqarizw, and it means to play a harp. The pictorial present presents to the mind of those of us who are the readers a future event in the process of occurrence, but an event which John had the opportunity of both seeing and hearing. The elect angels produce the action of the verb, which again shows us that they were instrumentalists as well as great vocalists. They are said to be playing, the preposition e)n plus the instrumental plural of kiqarw. They are playing on their own harps, the possessive genitive of a)utoj. Literally, it is “like the sound of harpists playing the harp with their harps,” but it comes to mean “harpists playing on their harps.”

In the next verse 144,000 evangelists of the Tribulation are going to join the angelic choir in heaven so that a remarkable musical rendition is performed with the sound of music carrying through the entire universe.

Principle: Musical instruments are a legitimate function in worship. Musical accompaniment is not only legitimate but so often necessary in the expression of singing of hymns. In fact, the very word “psalm” means hymns accompanied by musical instruments, Psalm 93:2; Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19. The use of musical instruments for worship is found in many passages such as 1 Chronicles 16:42; Nehemiah 12:36; Psalm 33:2; 92:1-3; 144:9.

Translation: “Then I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of many waters, like the sound of loud thunder; furthermore the sound which I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps.”

Anticipating the next verse, they are going to sing a song and, of course, one must understand the words to sing it. Since the words are doctrine only those who know doctrine can sing the hymn of tactical victory. In heaven the elect angels understand the whole realm of eschatology. They understand the significance of the second advent of Christ and therefore they sing about that subject in the heavenly choir, accompanied by other elect angels who are musician angels. This is a phenomenal vision and the principle is very simple: there is no phase of worship which is meaningful unless one understands doctrine and relates the lyrics to the music. Music always appeals to the emotion. The point is that all amusement and all entertainment is a balance in the soul of the response of the emotion to the mental function. There must be a relationship. Music is one of the greatest sources of entertainment because when it is done right it balances between the emotional and the mental. The principle here is that worship is not meaningful unless we can balance out the lyrics. The lyrics must appeal to the mentality while we are having an emotional experience. Bible doctrine is not only the key to understanding the plan and will of God but Bible doctrine is also the key to expressing our worship.

Verse 3, the new song in heaven about our Lord’s tactical victory. We have the conjunction kai which introduces the verse as the result from what precedes, and we translate it “And then.” Next we have the present active indicative of a)idw which means to sing, “And they were singing.” The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as coming to pass. The futuristic present is simply a way of explaining the vision as the writer saw it and relating it to the future. The active voice: the angelic choir of elect angels in heaven produce the action of the verb initially while the 144,000 evangelists on earth in resurrection bodies join the angels in heaven in singing this hymn of our Lord’s tactical victory. They are the only ones who understand it. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. A comparative particle o(j is omitted in the best manuscripts and is not really necessary. We should read, “they were singing a new hymn”. The word “hymn” is o)ide.

Now we have a series of prepositional phrases. The first one is “before the throne,” a reference to the throne of God in heaven. The second is “before the four angelic heralds [the four living creatures],” seraph heralds, ranking third behind the king of arms and the officer of arms. So we note that there is an audience in heaven: the members of the Godhead [it is before the throne], and it is also said to be before the “elders” which are the staff officers.

It sounds like this: “And then [after the instrumental introduction by the harps] they were singing a new song [the hymn of our Lord’s tactical victory of the second advent which terminates the time of the devil’s desperation].” It is interesting to note that the worst period of human history ends in triumphal singing; “before the throne [in the presence of God the Father], and before the angelic heralds, and before the angelic staff officers [the 24 elders in the angelic order of battle].”

This is the hymn of tactical victory or the new song. It is used to dramatise the fact that Satan is the loser in the angelic conflict: he has lost; he has been set aside.

Since Christ is on earth in the second advent there is the antiphonal part of this hymn sung on earth at the second advent. The conjunction kai introduces limited participation on the earth. It is used to emphasise a fact that is surprising, unexpected, noteworthy, and is translated “furthermore.” But we find out that the singing on earth is limited to one group. The adjective o)udeij is used as a substantive and in the nominative singular is translated “no one.” It is referring to those who do not participate: the imperfect passive indicative of dunamai, “no one was able.” Then we have a strange thing: not to sing. Obviously you can’t sing it unless you have learned it. We have the aorist active infinitive of monqanw, which means to learn, meaning that people on the earth do not sing this because they do not know it. The ingressive aorist contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. The active voice: mankind on earth produces a negative action, they do not learn it, the infinitive of actual result. With this we have again o)ide, the song, the hymn of our Lord’s tactical victory. So it should be translated, “furthermore no one was able to learn the song [the hymn of our Lord’s victory],” except the 144,000 Jewish evangelists.

The hymn of tactical victory is sung in heaven by the choir of elect angels accompanied by musical instruments which we call harps. The hymn was unknown on earth except for 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation who sang it as an expression of their knowledge of Bible doctrine in worship. The hymn of tactical victory was the source of great encouragement to those 144,000 evangelists who faced tremendous opposition in the first half of the Tribulation, and apparently were all martyred because they are standing there in resurrection bodies as they sing. Music, of course, could be a stimulus and an encouragement under great pressure, and these evangelists were under great pressure. But in their greatest adversities the 144,000 evangelists maintained their doctrinal integrity as part of the system, the plan and purpose of God for their lives, because they knew doctrine. And part of their integrity and modus vivendi is stated in the next two verses. Obviously they lived, as we studied before in Revelation chapter seven, abnormal lives by human standards. They were motivated by doctrine and especially doctrine set to music. The new song was composed in heaven where it was sung before the throne of God and the angelic college of heralds in the elect order of battle. The victory hymn was revealed to one category of believers when they went to heaven and the 144,000 evangelists did learn this song, did come back with Christ, were their in resurrection bodies, and when He stood on Mount Zion they sang the same song that was sung in heaven, on earth. The fantastic doctrine as stirring music was a source of blessing and motivation to these honourable and courageous believers, and they have the privilege of being the travelling choir who brought the message from heaven in song.

“… furthermore no one was able to learn the song except the 144,000.” “No one” refers to mankind. We have one more thing about them: they are said to have been redeemed from the earth. We have the articular perfect passive participle of the verb a)gorazw which means to buy, to purchase, to redeem, and it means here, “who have been redeemed”.

In this verse we have the words, “who have been redeemed.” There are two categories of redemption found in the Bible. The first is redemption at salvation, the doctrine of being delivered from the slave-market of sin by personal faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the redemption of the soul. The second redemption, the redemption of the body, occurs at resurrection. Here we have the word “redeemed” used in the second sense, the redemption of the body. They are serenading our Lord in their resurrection bodies. Redemption as a doctrine of soteriology is directed toward sin, while propitiation as a doctrine of soteriology is directed toward God; reconciliation toward man. Redemption of the soul at salvation is actually discussed in the next verse where it is pertinent to the context, but in this verse we note the redemption of the body: they are singing in resurrection bodies. In other words, when they went to heaven after their martyrdom sometime during the first half of the Tribulation they were taught this song by the angelic choir.

Romans 8:23 gives redemption in the same sense we have it here: “And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our body,” a reference to the resurrection.

Ephesians 4:30, “Stop grieving the Holy Spirit, by whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption.” The day of redemption is the day of the resurrection of the body.

Next in our verse we have a prepositional phrase: “they have been redeemed from the earth.” This takes us back to a)gorazw. The definite article of that perfect participle is used as a relative pronoun whose antecedent is the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. They now stand in resurrection bodies at that famous castle Zion with our Lord Jesus Christ. The dramatic perfect tense completes the action with the emphasis on the existing result. The existing result: they serenade our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of David returning to the place where the Davidic covenant will be fulfilled. Apparently the 144,000 Jewish evangelists were all martyred before the second advent. The passive voice: the 144,000 Jewish evangelists receive the action of the verb, their resurrection bodies, redemption. The participle is circumstantial.

In these first three verses we have a number of things that deal with sound. We have the sound of music and the 144,000. In verses four and five we will see something about these people and why they are standing there.

There are three explanations in verse four and the first one has to do with the fact that they have not been distracted by normal living. We have the nominative plural of the demonstrative pronoun O(utoj, “These.” It refers to the 144,000 and no other. These are the ones we have seen in their resurrection bodies on Mount Zion and they are the only ones who know this hymn which is sung in heaven. Then the present active indicative of e)imi, “These are.” The predicate nominative plural is actually a relative pronoun, o(i , “These are the ones who.” The relative pronoun has an antecedent which is the demonstrative pronoun referring to the 144,000. So far then, “These are they [“they” is not found here but is necessary as a part of an ellipsis] who.”

Then we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb molunw plus the negative o)uk. Molunw means to be made impure and we translate it, “have not been defiled.” Originally it meant to soil, to smear with dirt, but came to connote sexual defilement of some sort. It is used for a general function in contrast to various aspects of sexual activity. The verb is used primarily for the function of the phallic cult but in 1 Corinthians 8:7 it was used for the defilement of the conscience. So it isn’t altogether a term related to sex. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist viewing the restraint in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. It is hard to imagine but what we are going to have here is the fact that these 144,000 evangelists managed to be happy without sex. The passive voice: the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of their self-restraint with regard to sex. Normal sex is with women, so we have meta plus the genitive of the noun gunh, “with women.” The explanatory phrase which follows indicates that we are not talking about fornication or any abnormal sexual activity. We are talking about the normal function of the human race.

These 144,000 Jewish evangelists are actually normal men who have the right to expect that at a certain point in their life to enter into sexual relationship on a non-sinful basis. But they are not going to do so. We are talking about the fact that they could but didn’t. The reason they didn’t is because of the nature of their job which will not be finished until the middle of the Tribulation. They have to complete their work in three and a half years, starting at the beginning of the Tribulation when they are saved. They must evangelise throughout the world in that short period of time and that means their responsibility to God calls for great concentration. It means that they are not going to live normal lives, e.g. family life, domestic life. The secret is concentration.

The point is that when God gives certain people a job to do and they only have a short period of time in which to do it, concentration is the secret. Life on this earth is short and therefore one of the secrets to life and happiness is not pleasure, the one word is “concentration.” What everyou are doing concentration is the key. Happiness comes from concentration. When you concentrate on something in which you are interested that is happiness, mental happiness. Successful people are people who can concentrate. Talent can never be manifest without concentration; nothing in life is ever achieved without concentration. Concentration is the key.

The impressive thing about these 144,000 evangelists is that they are good. And why are they good? Because they are concentrators. The average evangelist today is all talent and no message, or very little. They demonstrate no doctrine. The evangelist should go through theological seminary just as much as the pastor; he should know doctrine just as well as the pastor. The evangelist without doctrine is just another entertainer, so the evangelist must be a concentrator and know his message. His job is to get out the message.

There are three categories of believers who cannot live an absolutely normal life:

The missionary, because he leaves the normal circumstances of life and goes to unfamiliar circumstances.

The evangelist, because the study requirements of an evangelist if he is going to do his job right are great. He has to know the doctrines of soteriology and Christology better than anyone else, and he has to know what is going on in circumstances of life currently so that he can relate his message to what is being taught without having opinions that are controversial. He is not teaching the whole realm of doctrine and therefore is not allowed to have opinions, but he has to know what is going on and blend into it with his message. He has to be a concentrator.

The pastor, who has a better chance of living a normal life but too much normal living becomes a distraction to him too. His job is communication to people so his social life has to be relatively limited.

The point is that these three categories of Christianity require concentration above and beyond normal concentration in life: concentration in learning, concentration in communication. It is very wearing from time to time and occasionally a missionary, an evangelist, a pastor, will be completely mentally fatigued, worn out, because there is so much of the day that is required for concentration. Yet, concentration is happiness and it isn’t a bad thing at all.

Here in our passage we are talking about refraining from legitimate sex. In order to achieve their objective these 144,000 evangelists of the Tribulation operate under a law: the law of supreme sacrifice. They have three other laws under which they could operate — the law of liberty, the law of expediency, the law of love, but they are operating under the law of supreme sacrifice as noted by the next three words in the Greek: parqenoi gar e)isin. There is the post positive explanatory gar, the present active indicative of the verb to be, e)imi, and the predicate nominative plural from parqenoj which means virgin, “for they are virgins.” We will translate it, “for they are celibates.” The progressive present tense of e)imi is for action in the state of persistence, present linear aktionsart. The active voice: the 144,000 evangelists produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. So we have: “These are they who have not been defiled with women, for they are celibates.” That is a statement of the law of supreme sacrifice.

1. The law of liberty, always directed toward self and your rights as a Christian. Biblically you have the right to do certain things that will not cause you to sin and lose fellowship with the Lord. That is your freedom, your law of liberty, expressed in 1 Corinthians 8:4,9.

2. The law of love, directed toward God and others. Gate 5, motivational virtue: personal love for God; Gate six, functional virtue: impersonal love directed toward all. In essence, this law avoids offending the weaker brethren and becoming a distraction to their spiritual growth. This law is expressed in 1 Corinthians 8:13.

3. The law of expediency, directed primarily toward the unbeliever. Expediency deals with evangelism and the individual’s testimony toward the unbeliever. The unbeliever often superimposes certain standards on the believer, standards which are nonsensical. He expects the believer to comply and exemplify these standards regardless of their spiritual connotation. Therefore the Christian must often refrain from doing certain things not because they are wrong but because they prevent the unbeliever from seeing the true issue of salvation, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This law is expressed in 1 Corinthians 9:16-23; 10:23.

4. The law of supreme sacrifice, always directed toward God. This is the highest law of Christian behaviour. It requires the believer to often forsake normal living and legitimate function in life in order to serve the Lord in a specialised capacity or in an historical emergency. This law is stated in 1 Corinthians 9:1-15.

The 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation demonstrate the highest possible spiritual life by functioning under the law of supreme sacrifice. Their personal love for God supersedes their normal desires in life. They can concentrate on God. The gift of evangelism carries a tremendous responsibility, the time is short in the Tribulation, and therefore these honourable believers cannot have normal relationships in life and at the same time do their job. They must choose between their job and normal relationships in life. For them marriage would be a distraction to the normal fulfilment of their mission which requires unusual concentration and expenditure of energy. Even in the best of times it is difficult for those who have the gift of evangelism to do their job right and at the same time have a normal life.

We come to the principle behind the use of the law of supreme sacrifice in the evangelistic function of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation. There are two reasons why this happens. The first, as we have seen, is concentration. Marriage would have been a distraction to their mission of evangelism in the Tribulation. The Tribulational generation is under extreme historical disaster and is generally characterised by world-wide degeneration. That is an important point for the second concept. When there is evangelism in any time of historical disaster there are always very moral unbelievers even in the presence of all the degeneracy. Moral unbelievers always exist in a degenerate society. They are generally characterised by great self-righteousness, self-righteous arrogance. Arrogant people, especially arrogant self-righteous people, are always the most difficult to reach in a time of historical disaster. What reaches the immoral unbeliever? The judgements. In other words, immoral unbelievers are sensitive to divine judgment. In fact divine judgment is always the last system for evangelisation. But the people who are not sensitive to judgment are moral unbelievers — self-righteous arrogance. So we have a second principle and that is the fact of this law of supreme sacrifice to evangelise everyone in that generation because everyone includes, always in a degenerate society, a certain number of very moral self-righteous people. Morality and self-righteousness will never save anyone. That is works.

Matthew 24:34, “Truly I say to you, this race [Jewish race, not generation] shall not vanish [pass away, a reference to the Jews in the Tribulation] until all these things take place.

In both halves of the Tribulation we have a very unusual category of people. Just because society is generally degenerate it doesn’t mean that all unbelievers are degenerate, far from it. There is always the moral unbeliever and the moral unbeliever will be very prominent in the Tribulation as in any other period of history. What we are really dealing with here is the moral unbeliever. In any dispensation or period of history the most difficult people to reach with the gospel are the moral, self-righteous unbelievers.

Verse 35, our Lord makes a statement that has nothing to do with the Tribulation but has to do with a principle that will be fulfilled in the Tribulation. Many of the Jews, both believers and unbelievers, are going to live through the Tribulation. When our Lord returns at the second advent there will be Jews alive. “Heaven and earth shall pass away [reference to the end of the Millennium], but my words [doctrine, eschatology] will not pass away.”

Verse 36, “But concerning that day and that hour [the day of the second advent, the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel] no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” God the Father is the author of the plan. Israel’s future is the Father’s plan. Jesus is speaking from His humanity. His deity will know.

Verse 37, “For just as in the days of Noah ...” There is an analogy to just before the flood came and just before the second advent comes. This is not an analogy between Noah’s day and the Rapture. The Rapture isn’t even taught in the book of Matthew. Noah evangelised for 120 years and people asked him why he was building a boat when there was no water. He said the judgment is going to come and when it does it will be final, all unbelievers will drown. The only way that unbelievers could avoid drowning was to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Over in the Tribulation the 144,000 are going to preach for three and a half years and then there will be Moses and Elijah, and so on. That means there will be seven years only and that everything is more concentrated and that more concentration is necessary. It means that the law of supreme sacrifice is necessary for the evangelists in the Tribulation. The judgment of the second advent is just as final on unbelievers as the judgment of the flood in the days of Noah. All unbelievers drowned in the days of Noah; in the day of the second advent all unbelievers are going to be cast off the earth — the baptism of fire. In Noah’s day it was water; in our Lord’s second advent it will be fire, they will be executed by burning, so that only believers will go into the Millennium as the cadre to repopulate the earth under the perfect environment of the Millennium.

“… so shall the coming of the Son of Man [the second advent, not the Rapture] be.”

Verse 38, “For in those days which were before the flood ...” Degeneracy is obvious but moral degeneracy is not. What do moral people always do — even moral degenerates? They marry. So we are dealing now with moral degeneracy. And what is moral degeneracy? Not sin. “… they were eating and drinking [which is not talking about sin here], they were marrying and giving in marriage,” all moral activity. They were moral people carrying out moral functions in life. Obviously in the Tribulation we have a generally degenerate situation throughout the earth but degeneracy never hinders a moral person from living a moral life. Moral people go right on being moral no matter what is happening around them. Where did these people get morality? Training in the home. It never leaves them. There never was a time in the history of the world when there were not moral unbelievers. There is no reference in this verse to the degeneracy. Where do you find degeneracy? In Genesis chapter six.

‘… until the day that Noah entered the ark.” And why did Noah enter the ark? Noah and his family all entered the ark because they were the only believers on the earth, and Noah as an evangelist had been preaching for 120 years. But notice: Noah not only did not reach the degenerate but Noah did not reach any of the moral. Why? Because he was married and had children. Frankly, they said, “He’s no better than we are. He is moral; we are moral.” And at least three families gave their daughters in marriage to the three sons of Noah.

But what does our passage in Revelation say? “These are they who have not been defiled with women, for they are celibates.” Not married, not having legitimate sex, not marrying and not giving in marriage. Note that in the time of Noah the degeneracy in the earth was so great and the immorality was so great that God had to destroy all the human race but Noah and his family. Note also that with all of these immoral people in the world there were moral people on the earth who also drowned, who also rejected Christ as saviour. They drowned because they didn’t accept Christ as saviour. Why didn’t they accept Christ? The evangelist was no better than they were! He was married, he was obviously having legitimate sex in marriage, he had three sons. Three different families gave their daughters to those sons on marriage but it didn’t change their attitude toward the gospel. The most difficult people to reach in evangelism are the moral self-righteous unbelievers. They are just as good as you are, why should they accept Christ? That is their attitude. There were a lot of moral people that drowned. They heard the gospel but they didn’t accept it.

There comes a time in history when the only impact on the moral unbeliever is a super morality, the law of supreme sacrifice. But we don’t happen to be living in that dispensation, although it may be true that is required from time to time even in ours because every truly great missionary, every great pioneer missionary, was a single man who went to the field and burned himself out.

Verse 39, “and they did not understand [ignorance based on preoccupation with their morality, with living to the rejection of eternity] until the flood came and took them all away [they were drowning before they understood], so shall the coming of the Son of Man be [the second advent].”

Verse 40, the analogy is related to the second advent. “Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken [by judgment, the baptism of fire], and one will be left [the believer who goes into the Millennium].” The one who is taken here is a moral person by the context, a moral unbeliever.

Verse 41, “Two women shall be grinding at the mill [normal living]; one will be taken [a moral woman, an unbeliever], one will be left [a believer going into the Millennium].”

Verse 42, “Therefore be on the alert [normal and moral people can handle historical disaster but they cannot handle the terminating judgment of the second advent], for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”

This is an alert for the moral unbeliever. Why? Because he is so good he doesn’t bother with eternity. He doesn’t give it a thought. He hears the gospel message and he says, “I am as good as that person”. The only evangelism which reaches the moral unbeliever is the law of supreme sacrifice. That makes him sit up and take notice and then listen to the message. That is why the 144,000 had a super morality and righteousness. They denied themselves normal things in life, such as marriage and legitimate sex.

With that in view let’s take the second principle. The first principle was the importance of concentration. The second principle is the evangelism of the self-righteous and moral unbeliever during the Tribulation:

1. In time of great degeneracy and historical disaster there are always a certain number of moral and self-righteous unbelievers. Immorality-type degeneracy does not influence them at all.

2. Like the rich young ruler in our Lord’s day they are very moral, very self-righteous, and very unsaved. The man had the gall to go to Jesus and say, “What do I lack for eternal life?”

4. Morality is human works and only the work of Christ on the cross can provide eternal salvation.

5. Therefore, the evangelists of the Tribulation to get the attention of the moral and self-righteous unbeliever must be super moral without self-righteousness. Therefore he lives under the law of supreme sacrifice and adds virtue to his morality. The moral unbeliever has no virtue to add to his morality.

6. The arrogance of self-righteousness is manifest in the principle that the moral unbeliever will never listen to anyone he considers inferior to himself in the function of morality.

The unbeliever has a problem. He has morality but he doesn’t have something that only the believer can have, and only the believer with doctrine: + virtue. The only thing he can add to his morality is + arrogance. What keeps the moral person from adding arrogance to his morality so that it is self-righteous morality? One thing: humility. Humility is a basic virtue and he can have humility by his enforced obedience to authority. He cannot have the genuine humility that belongs, however, to the believer in the sense of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and the function of the Word in his life. But he can have humility and only that humility can protect him from arrogance. But the moral unbeliever says, “Look, before I will listen to you I must be impressed with you.” The degenerate unbeliever doesn’t say that, only the moral unbeliever. And how do the 144,000 evangelists prove they are greater? They look over to the moral unbeliever and say, “Look, you are having legitimate sex in marriage. I am not married and I am not having sex.” And the unbeliever says, “Okay, I’ll listen to you.” That is the principle.

We have next the second reason for their learning the new song when no one else could learn it, and that has to do with their momentum of tactical victory. We begin with the nominative plural subject from the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, “these.” The demonstrative pronoun emphasises a designated object in the eschatological vicinity of the writer and refers, of course, to the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and why they are the only ones who are singing this song on earth. We have an ellipsis which demands the verb to be, “these are,” and then we have the articular present active participle from the verb a)kolouqew, “to follow,” and we translate it “they who keep following.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun and the relative pronoun is introducing a relative clause. The progressive present tense: an action in the state of persistence, hence present linear aktionsart. The active voice: the 144,000 Jews we have been studying produce the action. The participle is circumstantial. Then we have a dative singular indirect object from a)rnion, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. It is a reference to our Lord’s saving work on the cross which is the subject of the teaching of the 144,000 Jews. “These are they who keep following the Lamb”. This is a reference to motivational virtue. The 144,000 Jews who are acting as the evangelists of the Tribulation have to be very strongly motivated to follow their modus operandi. Motivational virtue is their personal love for God, their occupation with the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The principle is a very simple one: The law of supreme sacrifice can only function from motivational virtue of personal love for God, sometimes called occupation with Christ. If you do not have a very strong motivational virtue there is no possible way that you can function under the law of supreme sacrifice. It is the one of the four laws of Christian behaviour that demands very strong motivational virtue. To use the law of supreme sacrifice requires the greatest motivation of the spiritual life and the 144,000 Jewish evangelists are motivated in their application of the law of supreme sacrifice.

Next we have an adverb of place, o(pou, “where,” followed by a present active subjunctive of u(pagw plus a)n, “wherever.” The verb u(pagw originated in Homeric Greek and had the connotation of leading someone somewhere, and it continued that connotation. It also means to lead under, like leading horses under a yoke. In the Koine Greek the verb means to go, e.g. to go on a journey. It means here to lead and we translate it “wherever he may lead,” a)n is where we get the word “may.” The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs and may be reasonably expected to occur, that is, their obedience to divine will and purpose in a very difficult time of history. The 144,000 Jewish evangelists produce the action. The subjunctive mood is potential implying a future reference and qualified by the element of contingency. You have to be in fellowship with the Lord, you have to know doctrine. The contingency means you have to know a lot of things. You just simply cannot say, “I am a Christian, I am doing the will of God.” It just isn’t that simple. Being a believer does mean that you are automatically doing the will of God. So that brings into focus the principle of divine guidance, a doctrine of determining the will of God for your life and doing it.

Divine guidance has two principles: cognisance and execution. First of all, you cannot do the will of God without knowing it. No one does the will of God in ignorance. The principle of execution has to follow it. Divine guidance is first of all the communication of the will of God through Bible doctrine. Obviously the more doctrine you know the more you can understand the will of God in any given moment and situation. The only classification for knowing positively what the will of God is relates to Bible doctrine. When it says they were following the Lamb wherever He may lead remember that during the Tribulation Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is in heaven. They are not following Him into heaven, they are doing His will on earth. So we follow Him through the function of the soul. Executing the will of God is the function of the soul’s volition, and the tool by which you use it is doctrine. You have cognisance of doctrine in your soul and with that doctrine you can then decide to do God’s will or not. And there is no excuse for believers not knowing what God’s will is in a general way from learning basic doctrine. Doctrine in the soul is your weapon. There is your knowing the will of God.

There are three categories of divine will which exist in history. First of all there is divine sovereignty, a volitional factor: the sovereignty of God the Father, the sovereignty of God the Son, and the sovereignty of God the Holy Spirit. There are three members of the Trinity, they are one in essence, they all have the same amount of sovereignty. So the first of the three categories of will to exist in history is the sovereignty of God. The will of God, of course, must be consistent with His other attributes and personality. God cannot compromise His essence. God is a person; there are three persons in the Godhead, and personality connotes self-consciousness as well as self-determination. God recognises Himself as a person and as such He thinks, He decides, He acts rationally. The sovereignty of God is manifest in the divine decrees. God’s sovereignty is related to His omniscience, He knows everything that is knowable: what will actually happen and the alternatives; what could have happened but did not. Only what you really think, only your motivation, only your decisions and actions are entered into the computer of divine decrees. Then, of course, you get your printout which is history. That is a part of the decrees. Omniscience knows the alternatives as well but they are never entered into the divine decrees. The will of God or the sovereignty of God is His all-inclusive purpose concerning all that ever was or ever will be among creatures, angelic and human. This will and purpose originates within Himself and therefore the will of God was objectively designed for His glory, for His pleasure, for His satisfaction. God’s decrees do not originate from His foreknowledge. In the logical order of function the foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain, it is merely one of the printouts from the computer of divine decrees. In essence, then, all things depend on God’s will and nothing is certain apart from God’s will; which is another way of saying that nothing has ever taken God by surprise, He knew it in eternity past.

The principle of the will of God is grace. The divine outline of human history in the dispensation or the programming of the ages is purely a reflection of His will. The divine objectivity is preservation and deliverance of believers. The work of God we call providence by which He moulds all events into the fulfilment of His purpose. Preservation is another technical word which means the existence of things. Providence directs their progress. Existence is preservation; providence is their progress. Hence the will of God can be described by four theological words. The will of God is directive: God has a plan for our lives; the will of God is determinative: God has permitted non-meritorious volition to bring us to the place of blessing or the place of cursing; the will of God is permissive: negative volition toward doctrine is permitted but divine justice provides awesome and painful discipline; the will of God is preventative: it provides doctrine, establishment laws, and discipline to keep human volition inside the will of God.

The second category of will is the will or the volition of angels. Angels have negative and positive volition. Negative angelic volition is the basis of the angelic conflict. Satan was the first in that category.

The third, and the one that relates to human history is human volition, which is the subject we are studying at the moment under the phrase “these are they who keep following the Lamb wherever He may lead”. We are talking about divine guidance and that brings into focus the concept of human volition. 1 John 3:23 is a good place to start with divine guidance because it gives us a simple axiom on which to start as members of the human race: “This is his mandate [will].” First of all it is a mandate to the unbeliever to believe in Christ, and secondly it is a mandate to the believer: virtue first, “that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, then love one another [the principle of virtue first], just as he has given us commandment.”

There is the viewpoint will of God. In essence, what does God want me to think? What is orthodox thinking? What is thinking that is the will of God and thinking that is not the will of God? Obviously, thinking that is not the will of God deals with arrogance in cosmic one and sin in cosmic two. The only way that you can ever execute the viewpoint will of God is through cognisance of Bible doctrine. You must be positive toward doctrine. The less doctrine you know the more it is impossible for you to think the will of God. The will of God always starts with thinking.

There is the operational will of God. What does He want me to do? This can be very subjective or objective. How do you keep it objective? Doctrine again. There are a lot of things that we do where we don’t say, “Is this the will of God?” But there are major functions in our life that are definitely things that we do and we have to ask, “Is this the will of God?” Violence and maligning people who disagree with us is definitely not the will of God. “What does God want me to do?” has many answers and they can never be answered without learning doctrine. It is not only what God wants us to do but what God does not want us to do. You learn both ways through doctrine.

There is the geographical will of God. Where does God want me to be? We have to answer that for ourselves. Does God want me to be at Bible class or does He want me to be at a football game?

That brings us to the classification of the will of God and we have three categories: First of all there is the directive will of God — this is what God wants you to do; secondly there is the permissive will of God — He lets you do it and live even though He said you couldn’t; thirdly, there is the overruling will of God. In Numbers 22:12 God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them,” the king of Moab wanted the Jews cursed so they called Balaam to do it, “you will not curse the people; for they are blessed.” But there was a big fee involved so Balaam went. Verse 20 — “And God came to Balaam at night and said to him [God does not overrule volition], “If the men have come to call you, rise up and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you shall you do.” That was the permissive will of God; He let him live. Finally in verse 23 there was the overruling will of God. Balaam stood up to curse them but God put words in his mouth that blessed them. Three times Balak said to curse them and three times Balaam tried to and he couldn’t. Finally Balaam said to Balak, king of Moab, “I’ll tell you what you can do. You can’t destroy them this way but send all your beautiful women down to the men’s camp, get them to fornicate, that will destroy them.” And that is what happened. Even the overruling will of God didn’t stop Balaam. He loved money.

Then there is the academic concept of divine guidance, the principle of doctrine in the soul. Like Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” The word is “instruct” here, it means to teach doctrine. That is the key.

Or Isaiah 58:11, “Therefore the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your soul in scorched places [in time of depression], and give strength to your bones; therefore you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water who waters do not deceive.” The key is, the Lord will continually guide you and He does this through Bible doctrine.

Proverbs 3:1-6, “My son, do not forget my doctrine, but let your heart keep my commandments [you have to know doctrine to do the will of God]; for length of days and years of life, and prosperity they will add to you. Do not let grace and doctrine leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your right lobe. So you will find grace and good understanding in the sight of God and man [being guided by God not only gives you a wonderful relationship with God but with man as well]. Trust in the Lord with all your right lobe, and do not lean to your own understanding [don’t depend on your understanding, depend upon doctrine]. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.”

The filling of the Spirit is an issue, Ephesians 5:14-18. In this dispensation this is said to be definitely a part of the will of God. The principle of spiritual growth, momentum in the spiritual life, is also the will of God. It is momentum, of course, that makes it possible for us as those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to know the will of God and to execute the will of God.

The will of God has a mechanical aspect: the principle of guidance through prayer, Acts 11:5; guidance through thinking, Acts 11:6; guidance through perception of doctrine, Acts 11:7-10; guidance through providential circumstances, Acts 11:11; guidance through the Holy Spirit, Acts 11:12; guidance through fellowship with believers and comparison of spiritual data, Acts 11:13,14; guidance through the recall of doctrine, Acts 11:16.

This is the second reason why these Jewish evangelists were the only ones who sang the new song on earth. “These are they who keep following the Lamb wherever he may lead.”

We now have the third phrase which explains why they were the only ones singing this song: their strategical victory which preceded their tactical victory. Again we have the nominative plural subject from the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. It is referring to the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and is translated “these.” Then the aorist passive indicative of the verb a)gorazw meaning to purchase, to redeem, to buy. There are two categories of redemption as we have noted: the redemption of the soul and the redemption of the body. In this verse the redemption of the soul applies, it refers to the doctrine of redemption from soteriology. The concept of redemption is very simple. We are all pictured as members of the human race inside the slave-market of sin and the principle is that at the cross our Lord provided the necessary freedom; He paid the purchase price and now we are free to leave the slave-market. We leave by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The aorist is the culminative aorist, it refers to a fact which has come to be in the past and contemplated in its entirety but emphasised from the viewpoint of existing results. The existing results: these people have salvation, they received Christ immediately after the Rapture. The passive voice: the 144,000 evangelists receive the action of the verb — redemption. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of their eternal salvation after the Rapture of the Church. Since there were no witnesses they have not been saved through witnessing. They did not hear any preaching of the gospel through evangelists, they simply read the passages of scripture for themselves and responded to them by faith in Christ.

They are said to be “from among men,” the prepositional phrase a)pw plus the ablative of a)nqrwpoj. There were no saved people. “Men” here does not mean male, it is a generic term for mankind, “these have been redeemed from among mankind.”

Then we have the nominative singular of apposition a)parxh, “firstfruits.” It indicates that these 144,000 Jewish evangelists scattered throughout the world were the first believers of the Tribulation. They are also the evangelists, they begin the great harvest of souls during that period of time. With this we have the datives of possession from two nouns, qeoj referring to God the Father, and the noun a)rnion referring to the Lord Jesus Christ as our saviour. The word “Lamb” connects the presentation of salvation in the Old Testament when they slaughtered the lamb on the altar, the physical death of the lamb representing the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. So it links the lamb sacrifices of the Levitical offerings with the work of Christ on the cross.

Translation of verse 4: “These are they [the 144,000 Jewish evangelists] who have not been defiled with women; for they are celibates. These are they who keep following the Lamb wherever he may lead. These have been redeemed from among mankind, the firstfruits belonging to God [God the Father, the author of the plan] and to the Lamb [God the Son, the executor of the plan on the cross].”

The reference, then, is to the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation and they have fulfilled the divine system of priorities as the firstfruits to God the Father and God the Son. These priorities are the same in very dispensation. The principle remains the same: in God’s plan, mandates first; in God’s system, virtue first; in God’s purpose, Christ first; in God’s policy, grace first; in God’s objective, momentum first; in God’s authority, doctrine first.

This last phrase really belongs with the next verse. The end of verse four which says, “these have been redeemed from among mankind, the firstfruits belonging to God and to the Lamb,” is a part of the doctrine of sanctification as it occurs in the Tribulation. There are three categories of sanctification and they are analogous to the three phases of the plan of God.

The first category of sanctification is phase one sanctification: salvation. The moment we believe in Christ in this dispensation we enter into union with Christ. Union with Christ at salvation is phase one sanctification. In other words, this is one of the 36 things that God does for every believer at salvation. And so it will be in the Tribulation except there will not be 36, there will be something less than that.

Then, phase two salvation is God’s plan for the believer in time. Phase two of the plan of God has its own system of sanctification which has to do with advancing to maturity.

Then there is phase three sanctification which is the possession of eternal life or enjoying eternal life in the possession of a resurrection body.

So we have phase one, salvation; phase two experiential sanctification; phase three, ultimate or eternal sanctification. We have just seen in the last part of verse four a reference to phase one sanctification. God does a certain number of things in every dispensation for a person at the moment he makes the decision to believe in Christ, and they are irreversible and unchangeable. The next two categories of sanctification are found in verse five.

Verse 5, the sanctification of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation. We begin with the experiential sanctification of phase two. Once the Church is removed we go to the Tribulation and we go to the manifestation of spirituality. They are not all indwelt by the Spirit. The indwelling and the filling of the Spirit is unique to the Church Age and will exist in the dispensation of the Millennium.

God the Holy Spirit only indwelt a few people in the Old Testament dispensation: kings, prophets, writers of scripture, very few. So experiential sanctification was manifest in an entirely different way, by overt function. But once you come to the New Testament and the Church Age all believers are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. All believers are commanded to be filled with the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit, the function of gate one of the divine dynasphere. As a result experiential sanctification is always related to the filling of the Holy Spirit and the consistent perception of Bible doctrine. Once the royal family is removed you go back to Old Testament times and when dealing with experiential sanctification or spirituality in the Tribulation you go to an entirely different system. The emphasis is on how you handle your mouth, what you say or do not say. It is not until the second advent that every believer is again filled with the Spirit, Joel chapter two, which is a Millennial passage.

We start with the conjunction kai, introducing a result from what precedes, “Furthermore.” Next we have the nominative singular subject yeudoj and with it the negative o)uk. Yeudoj means “lie” and o)uk means “no” or “not.” So we translate, “Furthermore no lie [or deception].” What this is saying is that virtue is first in every dispensation as a principle of the spiritual life and experiential sanctification. So “no lie” means virtue. This is the status of experiential sanctification in phase two of God’s plan for the believer in the Tribulation and, as a matter of fact, the principle for the believer in any dispensation. “Furthermore no deception was found.” This does not mean they were sinless, it means that they produced virtue in their spiritual lives. We have the aorist passive indicative of e(uriskw, “was found.” The aorist tense is the constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, the general characteristic of these 144,000 believers scattered throughout the world preaching the gospel is virtue first. No deception was found in them. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb, they were nor deceitful. That means they were virtuous. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of their integrity, including their humility, their motivational and functional virtue. And where is this manifest? Not in the overt function of their life, not even in thought as such, but we have a prepositional phrase to tell us exactly where it was found, e)n plus the locative of stoma, “mouth,” and with this we have a)utoj, the possessive genitive plural, “in their mouth.” This is experiential sanctification of the firstfruits, the first people to be saved in the Tribulation, the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. This fulfils the system in the divine plan for the believer: virtue first, humility as the foundation for virtue, motivational virtue which is always directed toward God, and functional virtue which is directed toward mankind and the circumstances of life.

There is more than meets the eye in this because we are dealing with the doctrine of the sins of the tongue in effect. It must be remembered that sin is defined as any transgression of divine law but it is much more emphatic than that because sin is actually defined as failing to meet the standards of God. For example, the Mosaic law represents the standards of God in part, and there are many other standards of God and many other statements of sin besides the hundreds of commandments that are found in the Mosaic law. There are, of course, two categories of sin: known sin, a transgression or violation of a divine standard — you know the standard. Therefore it involves human perception or cognisance of the standard and you deliberately use your volition to violate it. In other words, you not only wanted to do it but you knew that when you were doing it you were sinning; and there is the unknown sin, a transgression or violation of divine standards in which the act is committed without human perception or cognisance. You wanted to do it but you didn’t know it was a sin. You are still responsible because you wanted to do it, volition being the issue.

There are three kinds of sin. The first category is what we might call imputation. This is the sin that we received at birth, Adam’s original sin which is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. The second is the perpetuation of sin, the old sin nature, since each member of the human race receives at birth the old sin nature. It is the source of temptation to sin. Then there is personal sin the source of which is human volition.

Our subject deals with experiential sanctification which is said to relate to personal sins, “Furthermore no deception was found in their mouth.” There are three categories of personal sin. The first category is mental. For example, all motivational evil at cosmic one, gate one, is a personal mental sin such as arrogance, jealousy, hatred, etc. The second category are verbal sins: gossip, maligning, slander, judging, lying, etc. And the third category is the overt category: murder, adultery, stealing, drunkenness, drug addiction.

James 3:6 introduces the category of verbal sins. The greatest manifestation of humility verses arrogance, or virtue versus carnality, is found in verbal sinning because all verbal sin is the result of mental sins. The mental sins come first. Mental sins motivate verbal sins. If you are jealous of someone you malign them, if you are bitter toward someone you attack them with slander. So the actual overt manifestation of experiential sanctification is the control of the tongue or the sinning of the tongue in the Tribulation, because the verbal is the manifestation of the mental attitude. Therefore, verbal is emphasised.

“And the tongue is a fire [in the sense of being destructive]...” The tongue is the instrument of speech and we are talking about speaking sins, verbal sins “the cosmos of wickedness [or deceitfulness].” When you are guilty of sins of the tongue you are in the cosmic system, “the tongue is set among our members as that which contaminates the entire body, therefore setting on fire the cycle of existence, and being set on fire by the agency of Gehenna [a synonym for the cosmic system].”

So the sins of the tongue are described by James as being the most destructive. They are like a fire, they start in one spot and they go everywhere.

Proverbs 6:16-19, a passage where sins are categorised, the seven worst sins. Out of the seven sins which God despises three of them are related to the tongue. Three of the sins are mental, three are verbal, and one of them is an overt sin.

“There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to his soul: arrogant eyes.” The eyes are the window of the soul, they reflect the thought. So number one is a mental sin: arrogance, “a lying tongue,” a sin of the tongue, “and hands that shed innocent blood,” murder, the only overt sin in the list, and completes representation from all three categories.

Verse 18, “a right lobe which devises evil plans,” conspiracy, revolution. Related, therefore, to any system of combining these three sins. All conspiracy and revolution is spawned and motivated from arrogance. All conspiracy, revolution and civil disobedience involves the sins of the tongue, and all conspiracy, revolution and civil disobedience eventuates in violence, and that brings us to murder. So what we have by way of structure in verse 17 is one from each category of sins: arrogance, lying and murder. Then we have it all brought together in verse 18, “feet which run rapidly to evil,” referring to other mental sins which are motivational evil. Running to evil is motivation: gate one of cosmic one, “a false witness who utters lies,” a sin of the tongue, slandering by introducing false evidence, “and the one who spreads strife among the brethren,” done with gossip, maligning, and slander.

The sins of the tongue never exist without mental attitude sins. Six out of the seven sins in Proverbs relate to mental and overt modus operandi. Evil, therefore, is always related to the sins of the tongue. Self-righteous people have rejected grace standards of doctrine and are therefore involved in the cosmic system. The existence of their self-righteousness is always morality plus arrogance.

These 144,000 Jews are great evangelists and one of the things that is manifest is the fact that no deception was found in their mouth. They were virtuous with regard to the sins of the tongue. This means, as per Psalm 5:8,9, that there was no implacability or vindictiveness motivating them, “O Lord, lead me in your grace righteousness because of my enemies; make your way smooth before me. There is nothing in what they say [they were slandering, gossiping, maligning; their inner soul is destruction [mental attitude sins]; their throat [from which they speak] is an open grave [what comes out of their mouth by way of conversation is the stench of death. They slander, they malign]; They flatter with their tongue.” Slander is a sign of cosmic involvement, James 4:11.

The doctrine of sanctification is not only a categorical development of the plan of God but also it helps us to understand the spiritual life in any given dispensation. The Old Testament dispensation had one category of spiritual life, the Church Age has another, the Tribulation goes back to the Old Testament times, and then the Millennium has an entirely different one. Sanctification is the technical term for describing the plan of God in terms of the divine objective as far as each phase of God’s plan is concerned. Therefore sanctification becomes a very technical theological word for the status of the believer in the three phases of the plan of God. Phase one of the plan of God is salvation. That decision: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”; phase two is the believer in time, beginning at the point of salvation and going to the point of death or the Rapture, whichever occurs first; phase three is the believer in eternity. Each one of these phases, therefore, has a category of sanctification. Sanctification, then, means to set apart, to consecrate; it means the plan of God in terms of this concept. The resurrection, ascension and session of our Lord Jesus Christ abrogated the old contract of the Mosaic law and simultaneously interrupted the Age of Israel. So the Age of Israel which had been continuing until that time was suddenly brought to a halt by the death, burial and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Once our Lord was seated at the right hand of the Father He was there without a royal family for His third category of royalty, and therefore the Church Age is inserted in order to call out a royal family of God to compliment our Lord’s third royal warrant. Having no royal family, therefore, the Age of Israel had to be temporarily disrupted and will be continued in the Tribulation. The royal family of God functions under these three phases of God’s plan as did the Old Testament believer who was saved the same way that we are but with a slightly different approach. Everything for the Old Testament believer was in the form of prophecy and the fact that they had Levitical offerings, animal sacrifices, and the modus operandi of the Levitical priesthood merely was used to reach not only salvation, by grace through faith, but also at the same time, to teach the spiritual way of life which always begins with rebound. So there was for the Old Testament believer a way of salvation the same as ours, only he looked forward to the cross, we look retrospectively at the cross historically. Therefore the material is slightly different because in the Old Testament they were taught with ritual. Now, of course, the ritual is all set aside, we have the completed canon of scripture, the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Therefore, of course, we have in every dispensation the problem: not what is the way of salvation, because it is uniform for all of the dispensations, but the question always arises: after salvation what is the plan of God? what is spirituality? what are the divine objectives? They are always the same in the sense of glorifying the Lord but the mechanics are different. Basically the experiential sanctification of the Old Testament was the function of the faith-rest drill; now we have added to that the function of the divine dynasphere. In the Tribulation it goes back of course to Old Testament times and the function of the faith-rest drill. Then at the second advent it changes once again in compliance with the characteristics of the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, the last dispensation lasting one thousand years. Sanctification is a word, therefore, that means that God has a purpose for every believer from salvation to eternity. Every believer, then, has a life which has meaning and purpose and definition as far as the Word of God is concerned.

In John 6:69 we read: “And we have believed, in fact we have come to know that you are the Holy One from God.” Sanctification takes its title from this phrase referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, “you are the Holy One from God.” In other words, the phrase reads in the Greek o( a(gioj tou qeou. The word a(gioj is the word that means Holy One. A(gioj also means sanctified or sanctification. It is a Greek word that also has other meanings as well; it means “saint.” So we have the word a(gioj first used of our Lord Jesus Christ, and because it was used of Him and because he is the prince ruler of the Church, therefore it has entered our vocabulary under a very technical sense. The Lord Jesus Christ, being the Holy One of God in hypostatic union, those in the Church Age who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are also called a(gioj, and it is translated “saints.” A(gioj is, of course, one of the words of sanctification. The noun relates us to the plan of God for the Church Age, the calling out of the royal family, and that special gift of the divine dynasphere.

The first phase of sanctification is salvation, phase one. It is the same for every dispensation: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” The third phase of sanctification is eternity which either begins with death or resurrection, whichever occurs first. It is the same for all dispensations in that if you die physically you have an interim body in heaven until your appropriate resurrection, and then a resurrection body forever and ever. So believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for phase one sanctification and phase three sanctification, the possession of a resurrection body, are always the same for every dispensation. The only differences come in phase two or experientially, what is the Christian way of life?

Experiential or phase two sanctification is therefore a major issue, and when we learn something about one dispensation and its system of experiential sanctification we learn something about others, whether by way of contrast or the similarity. For example, in our dispensation we have the divine dynasphere. Sanctification means to be set apart unto God, and residence in the divine dynasphere is being set apart unto God. Experiential sanctification — phase two sanctification — is gate one, the filling of the Holy Spirit; gate two, which is basic Christian modus operandi. That brings into view the spiritual way of life in other dispensations — the function of the faith-rest drill, the function of the rebound technique. So actually gate two brings into the picture all that is required of Old testament believers, all that is required of Tribulational believers, and adds it to the Christian way of life for the Church Age. Then, of course, gate three, basic virtue which is directed toward authority, enforced and genuine humility; gate four, perception and application of doctrine, perception based upon the function of our royal priesthood, application based upon the function of our royal ambassadorship.

The perception and application of doctrine also belongs to experiential sanctification in any other dispensation. However, doctrine was presented in a different way. There was no completed canon of scripture in Old Testament times and as a result of that it was difficult to have one system of teaching. So there were dreams and visions, various forms of extra-natural and supernatural revelation. There was the function of teaching angels, there was communication through ritual, and then there were portions of the Word of God as they existed at various stages of history. So perception of doctrine has always been a part of God’s plan for the life of the believer on this earth. Gate five is motivational virtue directed toward God; gate six is functional virtue directed toward man and circumstances. Testing exists as a part of the spiritual life in every dispensation. In this particular dispensation, the Church Age, there are eight categorical tests that must be passed before we attain maturity. Gate eight, the attainment of maturity, is actually the point at which we arrive at experiential sanctification. Experiential sanctification in principle is the same in every dispensation, it is the attainment of spiritual maturity.

But when the Rapture of the Church rakes place the Church is removed. At that point there are no longer any client nations on the earth. At that point the divine dynasphere goes to heaven, it is no longer operational. At that point (those who are saved, the firstfruits of the Tribulation, are the 144,000 Jewish evangelists whom we have noted as the first people to accept Christ as saviour in the Tribulation) what was the believers’ way of life, what was phase two for them? We go back first of all to the function of rebound, then the function of the three stages of the faith-rest drill, and we go back to the principle of the perception of Bible doctrine as the means of advancing to maturity. And when you put all these together you have some mature believers. The 144,000 are said to be mature believers and the reason for it is that they attain through the daily perception of doctrine a very rapid spiritual growth which results in this fantastic thing that happens to them — spiritual maturity, which is absolutely necessary for the job the Lord has for them.

There are different words that describe sanctification. A((gioj is the first, a noun which means “Holy One” when applied to our Lord Jesus Christ, as in John 6:69. It is also used sometimes for the Holy Spirit, and is also translated “saint” and becomes a synonym for members of the royal family of God. A second word is a(giothj, generally translated “holiness” in the New Testament. This means the status quo of the royal family of God, to share the holiness of God. A(giothj is used primarily for one of the 37 things that happens to every believer at salvation: he enters into union with Christ, he is said to be a(giothj, he is in union with the a(gioj tou qeou forever. A(gioj means holiness, the status quo of the believer in phase one sanctification, for phase one sanctification is union with Christ. Then there is a third word, a(giwsunh, which means sanctification and is translated that way: it means blessings flow through the grace of God down the grace pipeline, and these blessings include our contract [we have the new covenant forever] and the three categories of sanctification that go with it. There are two other words. There is a(giosmoj which is both an adjective and a noun. It means holiness, consecration, and is also translated “sanctification.” Thenwe have the verb which means to sanctify, a(giazw. They all have one thing in common: a(g, the suffix of the word, and it means to set apart, to consecrate, and this is where we get the concept of sanctification.

There are certain agents of sanctification that are mentioned in the Bible. For example, the agent of phase one sanctification or salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ — Hebrews 10:9,10. “At that time [in the cradle] he [our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union] said, ‘Behold, I have arrived to accomplish your plan.’ He therefore abrogated the first covenant [the law] in order that he might establish the second.” That means that the Christian way of life would be different from the Old Testament. It would include the faith-rest drill, rebound, and other factors, but the entire experiential sanctification would be different as noted by the fact that the first covenant or contract was abrogated and a new contract was established, “by means of which will [or purpose] we [believers of this dispensation] have been sanctified [sanctified in the past at salvation with the result that we remain consecrated to God forever] through the offering of the body of Christ.” In other words, when we believe in Christ we enter into union with Christ and we can never lose our salvation. This is phase one salvation and our Lord is the agent of sanctification, Hebrews 10:14, “For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”

As far as phase two sanctification, life after salvation. There are two agents. These two refer to this dispensation specifically: God the Holy Spirit, Romans 15:16, “sanctified by the Holy Spirit,” or 2 Thessalonians 2:13, “sanctification by the Spirit [Gate one of the divine dynasphere] and faith in doctrine [Gate four whereby gnwsij is converted into e)pignwsij].” That is essentially the principle of sanctification in the New Testament and in the Church Age. Bible doctrine, then, is also an agent of sanctification experientially, John 17:17, “Sanctify them by means of the doctrine, your word [the Bible] is doctrine,” and Ephesians 5:26, the water of the Word is Bible doctrine. These are the agents of sanctification as far as phase two is concerned. The agent of sanctification as far as eternity is concerned has to do with receiving a resurrection body. That becomes the agent from which all blessings of eternity relate.

Phase one sanctification takes cognisance of the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ as the Holy One of God went to the cross where He received the imputation of our sins. The justice of God the Father judged those sins when they were imputed to Christ on the cross so that the work of salvation was accomplished. Salvation was completed on the cross, nothing can be added to it, so that the way of salvation has to be compatible with the finished work of Christ on the cross. The compatibility is found in the word “faith,” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” This is compatible because faith is a non-meritorious system of perception, the object of faith has the merit.

The sanctification which follows is everything that God does in any given dispensation for the person who believes in Christ. In our dispensation God does the most, 37 things, and positional sanctification or phase one sanctification is primarily our union with Christ. This distinguishes Christianity as a relationship with God from all religions. Religions all originate with Satan; Christianity originates with God and Christianity is a relationship with God through faith in Christ, union with Christ forever. The believer never gets out of that union and he shares the life of Christ, His sonship, His heirship, His destiny, His election, everything that belongs to Him. That can never be changed and that distinguishes the royal family of the Church Age, believers of this dispensation, from all other dispensations. That essentially, then, is phase one sanctification and that is why it is called “sanctified in Christ Jesus,” because it is related to positional truth.

Phase two sanctification goes right back to the divine dynasphere. We can never get out of that top circle but we can, of course, get out of the divine dynasphere. We fail by sin, getting us into Satan’s cosmic system, therefore the importance of the rebound technique to recover life in the divine dynasphere. This is, of course, the whole realm of experiential sanctification. Experiential sanctification has a purpose, an objective, which is to advance to maturity. But this is the experiential sanctification of the Church Age.

Phase three sanctification is divided into several parts. It can begin at death, absent from the body, the physical body of this life and face to face with the Lord. They have an interim body in heaven and great blessing. During that time the Tribulational martyrs are going to offer imprecatory prayers. These martyrs who offer the prayers are going to return with our Lord Jesus Christ in a resurrection body, also a part of phase three or eternal sanctification. 144,000 of those Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs are going to stand on Mount Zion and they are going to sing that song that no man knows except the 144,000 among members of the human race. They are going to sing that song in the presence of our Lord at that time.

Notice the development of a principle. At the end of Revelation 14:4 we have salvation: phase one sanctification, “These [the 144,000] have been redeemed from among mankind,” phase 1 sanctification, “the firstfruits belonging to God and to the Lamb.” Then we noted something about how spiritual life is manifest in the Tribulation. We find that spiritual life is mentioned under the concept of the sins of the tongue, that those who avoid slander, maligning, judging, lying, and other evils related to the sins of the tongue, these are the ones who achieve experiential sanctification. The manifestation of the spiritual life of the Tribulational believer is his control and his use of the organ of speech, the tongue, “Furthermore no deception was found in their mouth.” So that is phase two sanctification or experiential sanctification.

We move on to the end of verse five where we have two words only for ultimate sanctification. In the King James version this is incorrectly translated. These two words are a)mwmoi e)isin in the Greek, “they are blameless.” We have first of all the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, “they are.” The present tense is a static present it denotes the eternal state of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. In other words, their eternal sanctification. They are standing on Mount Zion with our Lord Jesus Christ in their resurrection bodies, they have entered phase three of the divine plan which we call the status of ultimate sanctification. The active voice: the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation produce the action of the verb at the beginning of the Millennium. This, of course, means they are in a state of ultimate sanctification. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine regarding the eternal state of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists — status, ultimate sanctification.

With this is the predicate nominative plural from the noun o)mwmoj which means unblemished or blameless. The King James version has “before the throne.” It does not occur, it is not found in the original, it simply says they are blameless. We know they are not before the throne, they are on Mount Zion. Phase three sanctification: “they are blameless.” They are in resurrection bodies and that means they are blameless forever and ever. No matter how the believer has failed in time he is absolutely blameless in the resurrection body. He may be deprived of the great blessings that belong through rewards but he will be in a resurrection body forever. All believers are going to terminate blameless in the resurrection body. That is one of the greatest acts of God. Not only are we saved through faith in Christ but He is going to take the worst believers, the best believers, all having committed some form of sin during their time on this earth, and He is going to make all of them blameless. Only God can do that.

In verses 6-20 we have the victory of the judgment of God. God is victorious in judgment just as God is victorious in the function of His grace. No matter what God does He always comes out the winner. The judgements which are administered through Jesus Christ the Son of God as the angel of the Lord, and through the six angels of this context from the angelic college of heralds, makes God a winner. The first angel is found in verses 6 and 7, and the first angel teaches us the principle that grace precedes judgment. We note in verse 6 that the world is evangelised during the devil’s desperation and from this point on in the next few verses we are going to study operation high noon. We have six angels plus our Lord Jesus Christ in the rest of this chapter.

Verse 6, we begin by noting a few things from the Greek. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” followed by the aorist active indicative of o(raw indicating the fact that the vision of John continues. Much of the Word of God was revealed to the writers of scripture in the form of visions. We have “Then I saw.” We have a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The action of the verb is verses 6-20, the victory of the judgment of God. The active voice: the apostle John as the human writer of the book of Revelation produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for eschatological reality, the doctrinal content of this vision.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object of two words: the adjective a)lloj, meaning another of the same kind, and with that the noun a)ggeloj meaning angel, “another angel.” The angel involved is a pur sui vant officer in the angelic college of heralds and he is assigned to the administration of grace before judgment. Therefore he must disseminate the gospel to the entire world. He is said to be flying, the present active participle of the verb petomai. The present tense is descriptive for what is now going on in the eschatology of the vision. The active voice: it is a deponent verb which mean that it is middle in form but active in meaning. The pur sui vant officer of the angelic college of heralds produces the action.

The next phrase gives us our title for this particular part of our study. We have e)n plus the locative of mesouranhma, “in mid-heaven.” High noon or the zenith of the sun is the meaning of it. So we translate it: “Then I saw another angel flying at high noon,” the zenith point of the sun in any given time zone. So we now have operation high noon. Hence, mid-heaven refers to the first heaven or the atmosphere at midday. Since the zenith of the sun is midday it would be the best time for the communication of the gospel.

The purpose of the pur sui vant officer is given next, “and he had,” the present active participle of the verb e)w. This is a pictorial present, it presents to the mind a picture of the eschatological event in the process of occurrence. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer in charge of the everlasting gospel produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, it expresses an attendant set of circumstances and it is best rendered into the English by the word “and” plus the finite use of the verb.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object from two words: a)iwnioj, which means eternal, and with it the word e)uaggelion, the word for gospel. Translation: “and he has the eternal gospel.” That is, he has the doctrine: category one, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation.

What is the eternal gospel? Does it differ in any way from the gospel, period? The eternal gospel emphasises the fact that the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only preparation for eternity. The gospel is always the same; the good news is the fact that Christ provided eternal salvation for us. Remember that the word “gospel” means good news, always. The fact that we are sinners is bad news and that is not the issue in the gospel. The fact that we are born into the world is where the gospel begins because when God gave us human life and imputed that human life to the soul He simultaneously imputed Adam’s original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature. That is where spiritual death occurs. God didn’t wait until we sinned personally. If God had waited until we sinned personally He would have been unfair because a lot of people die before they sin personally and therefore would automatically be assigned to hell. But if anyone dies before reaching accountability he automatically goes to heaven because you can’t be saved until you are condemned. Salvation demands condemnation first, and the condemnation is “the wages of sin is death,” and the wages of sin is the imputation of Adam’s sin at birth. The fact that we have all these personal sins is not the issue because those personal sins are never imputed to us. God imputed Adam’s sin to us and saved our personal sins for the judgment of the cross. That is our Lord’s spiritual death on the cross; He was judged for our sins.

The point is that the wages of sin is death, and that is bad news. The gospel begins with the fact that Christ then judgment of our sins on the cross. That is where the good news begins because the good news says that Christ did something about it. Christ is the only saviour, He is the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except by Him. And only by believing in Christ can you have eternal life, and the fact that salvation is free because Christ said it is finished. He did all of the work; is good news. So the work of Christ — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, imputation, justification — is good news, and Christ is the issue of salvation. The eternal gospel is the same gospel we have today, it is the fact that Jesus Christ was judged for our sins, He took our place. And there is an historical trend that before any great historical disaster there must always be the proclamation of the gospel. In the Tribulation there is going to be the greatest of disasters in all of history and therefore the gospel must be proclaimed first. So the eternal gospel emphasises the fact that the gospel is the only preparation for eternity. Furthermore, historical disaster is used as warning judgment and before even the greatest of historical judgements come there is first of all the proclamation of the gospel under the principle of grace before judgment.

The eternal gospel is preached or announced by a pur sui vant officer of the angelic college of heralds, hence emphasis on the fact that the second advent which terminates the time of the devil’s desperation is the last chance for that generation to be saved prior to the baptism of fire. For when Jesus Christ returns to the earth He is going to separate the sheep from the goats, the good fish from the bad fish, the wise from the foolish virgins, and the unbelievers are going to be cast alive into the lake of fire. The believers will form a cadre for the population explosion in the Millennium. So the Millennium begins with believers only, which means that it is not only the beginning of a dispensation but it is also the beginning of a civilisation.

The adjective a)iwnioj [eternal] does not change the nature of the gospel, it remains the good news that Christ died for our sins on the cross. The issue of the gospel, again, is not sin but the work of our Lord Jesus Christ in bearing our sins. The pur sui vant officer will present the gospel message and he will therefore present the saving work of Christ in perfect form. He will be the greatest of all evangelists, a teaching angel. He will avoid all false issues of legalism, he won’t have people raising their hands or walking aisles, etc. He will provide accurate information without adding to the gospel. In other words, he will not get in the way of God the Holy Spirit with regard to that very important decision, personal faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are six different adjectives which are used with the word “gospel” in the New Testament. In Romans 1:16,17 we have “the gospel of Christ.” Here we have emphasis on the person of the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ as the only saviour. The apostle Paul uses the phrase “my gospel” or the phrase “our gospel,” 2 Corinthians 4:3,4 and 2 Timothy 2:8. This emphasises the fact that every believer possesses the gospel, though in the context of these two verses the apostle Paul possesses the gospel and is responsible for its dissemination. The pronoun “my” refers to Paul, the pronoun “our” refers to all believers, but the emphasis is on Christian responsibility in communicating the gospel as opportunity presents. Then there is the phrase, “the glorious gospel” from 1 Timothy 1:11. This emphasises the source of the gospel, the eternal and infinite God, and therefore we are dealing with an absolute truth. The “gospel of peace” in Ephesians 6:15 emphasises the doctrine of reconciliation in the presentation of the gospel. Because of the gospel the barrier between God and man is removed — the good news that man is reconciled to God because Christ has broken the barrier between man and God through His saving work on the cross. The word “peace,’ of course, is technical for reconciliation. The “gospel of the kingdom” in Matthew 24:14 is not a different gospel but it has a different emphasis. It emphasises the fact that the unconditional covenants to Israel — the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants — are only fulfilled to those Jews who believe in Christ. So it is a message to Israel: You must be born again to benefit from the unconditional covenants given to Israel. Then our passage in Revelation 14:6 has “the eternal gospel” and has emphasis on the fact that grace precedes judgment and that the second advent is the last chance to be saved because of the baptism of fire. The gospel is the only preparation, then, for the eternal state and the eternal state begins for the unsaved Jew and Gentile at the second advent.

So far, then, we have noted: “Then I saw another angel flying at high noon, and he has the eternal gospel.” Regardless of any qualifying adjective or any other word that qualifies the gospel the gospel always remains the same in every dispensation. The content of the gospel is the same, the means of salvation, faith in Christ, is always the same. This means that no one is saved in the Age of Israel by keeping the law. That is legalism or salvation by works — Ephesians 2:8,9. The gospel preaching, then, of the pur sui vant officer dramatises the principle that the world is evangelised in every generation of human history. The fascinating part of the time of the devil’s desperation or the last half of the Tribulation is that the angelic college of heralds is involved in evangelisation along with the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. The principle is: grace precedes judgment. No generation of human history has been judged without ample opportunity to use their own free will to receive Jesus Christ as personal saviour. The fact remains for every generation from the salvation of Adam and Eve right down to the present that “neither is there salvation in any other, there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”

Next we have an aorist infinitive of the verb e)uaggelizw which means to announce or proclaim the gospel or good news. The culminative aorist tense views the communication of the gospel in its entirety during the time of the devil’s desperation but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the completed evangelisation of the world in the last half of the Tribulation. By evangelisation is meant a clear delineation of the gospel, it does not mean that everyone is saved. Everyone has a chance to be saved, there never has been a human being in all of history who has not had a chance to be saved, either at God-consciousness or gospel hearing, or both. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds produces the action of the verb at operation high noon. At high noon every day in every time zone he announces the gospel. The infinitive is the infinitive of local time derived from the locative of time en plus mesouranema, the word for high noon or the zenith of the sun. So operation high noon is a saturation of the gospel.

Next we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative plural of the present middle participle kaqhmai. E)pi actually occurs three times in three different phrases. E)pi plus the accusative occurs twice, each time emphasising direction and would be translated “to.” E)pi plus the genitive occurs once and connotes contact with planet earth and will be translated “on.” This is e)pi plus the accusative and it should be translated “to those who are residing on the earth.” Kaqhmai has a definite article with it and it is used as a personal pronoun for the living population of the world in the last half of the Tribulation. The last half of the Tribulation will be the greatest period of historical disaster that the world has ever known and yet there is a tremendous population throughout the world despite a great disaster, proving again the principle that there is no system of military destruction, no system of tyranny, no natural disaster of any kind that will completely destroy the population of the world. The population of the world will continue and there will be people on planets earth until the end of the Millennium. This phrase indicates a total saturation of the gospel under the principle of high noon evangelism. The present tense of the participle is a progressive present signifying action in a state of progress and is a reference to unbelievers living in the last half of the Tribulation. They continue to live in spite of everything. This is a middle voice, deponent verb, middle or passive in form, active in meaning. The unbelievers of the Tribulation produce the action of the verb, they continue to survive in spite of all kinds of disaster. One of the great disasters will be warfare. The participle is circumstantial.

Then we have another participial phrase following, e)pi plus the genitive of gh, referring to planet earth in the last half of the Tribulation and it is translated “on the earth,” “to those who are residing on the earth.” And then immediately we have another prepositional phrase, e)pi plus paj plus e)qnoj, “and to every nation.”

Translation: “Then I saw another angel [the pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds] flying at high noon [the zenith point of the sun in any given time zone], having the eternal gospel to announce the good news to those who are residing on the earth, both to every nation, and tribe ...”

Operation high noon starts out “to every nation and tribe.” Every nation comes first as a part of this final prepositional phrase. Operation high noon evangelises people of nations. All evangelisation in the history of the world must consider the four categories that we have in this passage. The first category is e)qnoj as the object of the preposition, and operation high noon evangelises people by nations. God does not recognise internationalism, His plan is by nations. Furthermore, freedom is guaranteed through divine institution #4, nationalism. But freedom is destroyed by internationalism which is a Satanic device for cosmic evangelism in the world’s population. All systems of internationalism are evil. All evangelism is done within the framework of a national entity; God rejected internationalism when he destroyed the tower of Babel and therefore we have nations. The missionary, the evangelist goes into each nation with the gospel. That is God’s plan. In this case we have one messenger announcing to nations at high noon in every time zone of the world. World communism, of course, is a convenient vehicle for Satan’s modus operandi and word communism is another form of internationalism and, again, evil.

Before each one of these categories we have the connective conjunction kai, so it is “both to every nation [“both” comes from the repetition of kai. When you have a series of kais the first one is generally translated “both” and then after that “and”] and tribe.” Tribe is in the accusative, it is also the object of the preposition, and it is the noun fulh. Fulh or tribe is specific, it refers to the evangelisation of the Jews. Jews throughout the world are evangelised in operation high noon. Then we have another connective kai and this time the accusative singular from glossa, a word that is generally mistranslated in the Bible. It should not be translated “tongues,” it is a reference to languages. So it is “to every nation, and tribe [the nation Israel], both language,” the word here refers to every language of the world and refers to the floating population of the earth not associated with either a Gentile nation or with the Jews. The eternal gospel will be communicated to every floating population on planet earth, their language will be included and they will receive the message. The final word is the word laoj, also in the accusative, then object of the preposition e)pi. It is correctly translated “people,” and this refers to wandering people or dislocated persons in every time zone of the earth. So the last four nouns, nations, tribes, languages, people, define categorically the participle kaqhmai, those who are dwelling on the earth. There is nothing left out, every category is included.

Translation of verse 6: “Then I saw another angel flying at high noon, and he has the eternal gospel to announce the good news to those who are residing on the earth, both to every nation, and tribe, and language, and people.”

The principle: The time of the devil’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation, is a time of complete and total evangelism. The world will be completely evangelised at that time, just as in every generation, every period of history. The fact remains that there never was a time when anyone was without the opportunity of believing in Christ.

At the second advent of Christ which terminates the Tribulation there is the baptism of fire which takes all the unbelievers off of planet earth (This is there verse of the Rapture) and places them in the lake of fire. So the time is short; people must make a decision in the last half of the Tribulation.

Verse 7, what is given here is in addition to the gospel of the saving work of Christ on the cross. The angels emphasise redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, imputation, every aspect of the saving work of our Lord on the cross. In this verse we are given two additional gospel approaches. The inference of this extrapolation is that you already understand the saving work of Christ. In other words, this angel is going from time zone to time zone and giving additional information that these people do not as yet have. They have the gospel, they have heard it, they have been saturated with the message, but they are given some new information, something that is added to propitiation or redemption, or reconciliation, or unlimited atonement. The eternal gospel includes everything pertaining to the work of Christ on the cross, and the gospel approach is given this time from a slightly different standpoint. First of all, from the standpoint of coming divine judgment, and secondly from the standpoint of relating the saviour on the cross to the creator of the universe. Hence, the angelic herald adds several new inferences which have not been given so far: the fact that judgment is coming and the fact that the only saviour is the creator of the universe.

One final principle in anticipation of this context: the message of the gospel must have good acoustics. There is no sense in giving a message, no matter how clear, no matter how eloquent, no matter how lucid, unless the acoustics are good. No message can be better than the acoustics which carry that message and no matter how great the message if the acoustics are bad the message is lost. This is why the canon of scripture is in written form because it eliminates the acoustical factor. The message must be disseminated, however, through the voice and therefore acoustics must be good enough for everyone to hear. Hence, the tremendous voice of the angelic officer preaching at high noon is the acoustical system. This acoustical system is introduced with the present active participle of the verb legw, “And he spoke.” This is a futuristic present, it denotes and event which has not yet occurred, the communication of the gospel by the pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds. However the eschatological event is regarded as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. It is translated therefore as a finite verb with the conjunction “and,” “and he spoke.”

Then we have his acoustical system. Angelic creatures apparently have the ability to be heard in the same manner that we can hear thunder. They have tremendous vocal apparati and the vocal apparatus of this particular angelic creature is absolutely phenomenal. All of the acoustical adjustments are made in the vocal cords of the angelic creature, and this is not surprising since in one of the descriptions of Satan as an angelic cherub in eternity past indicates that he has a voice like a pipe organ. They apparently have the ability to project their voice and be heard for miles just as thunder can be heard. They also can be heard with tones that are very clear and magnificent, and so we have the prepositional phrase e)n plus the instrumental singular of two words: megaj, meaning “loud” here, it could be heard in the whole time zone; and then the noun fwnh, “and he spoke with a loud voice.” His voice could be projected so that every word could be understood very clearly, and it is projected at high noon, the zenith point of the sun, in any given time zone. Furthermore, it has to be repeated in all the languages of that time zone, so the ability of this pur sui vant officer in communicating the gospel is phenomenal.

Next we have the gospel approach from the standpoint of divine judgment, and the principle should be noted: It is to be understood that the entire field of soteriology and Christology was presented to mankind every day at high noon during the last half of the Tribulation. Consequently, what is emphasised in this verse is merely additional material pertinent to that time. The gospel is presented in every generation of human history. Quite often historical trends of a certain generation determine a different emphasis in the presentation of the gospel. Presentation in the communication of the gospel will have an emphasis that relates to the time, the historical times, customs, culture, that may exist. The approach here is the fact that there should be fear if you reject the gospel. This is not always the approach in every generation but it is the approach of this angelic messenger. He does this every day at high noon. Everything is silent and only one voice is heard, a voice like thunder but which is broken down into languages in that time zone, and in every language some emphasis of the gospel is given. Here we have that which is unique to the last half of the Tribulation.

The aorist passive imperative is given first for this is the emphasis given by the angel, fobew. Fobew means two things: it means to fear and it means to respect. It also means awe added to respect and fear. This is an aorist passive imperative and so we translate it “fear.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: deponent verb, passive in form and active in meaning: the unbelieving population of the planet earth is given this mandate. They are to produce the action of the verb. They are to have such awe, such respect, such fear of eternal God that they respond to the gospel by believing in Christ. This is not the imperative of command but the imperative of entreaty which dopes not convey the finality of a command but has the force of urgency, therefore an appeal to human volition to believe in Christ before it is too late. In some periods of history and at some times the word “repent” is used to emphasise the fact that you must change your mind about Christ to have eternal salvation. In other periods fear is used, fear related to judgment. In other generations it is simply the emphasis of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only way of salvation, the only way of blessing and prosperity in time, the only way of happiness in time and in eternity.

The object of the verb is the accusative singular from qeoj, “fear God.” The generic use of the definite article accompanies it, therefore the personal pronoun is definitely not translated. The generic use of the definite article always refers to the manifest person of the Godhead. That is our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is said to be the only manifest person in John 1:18; 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12. This fear of God, then, is based on the proximity of the second advent and the finality of the judgment that occurs — the baptism of fire. It should be noted that God the Father has committed all judgment into the hands of God the Son, as per John 5:22,23,27. The unbelievers of the last half of the Tribulation, therefore, have a choice: either believe in Christ for eternal salvation or be judged by the Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent at the baptism of fire. The same choice exists, of course, in every generation under different conditions: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth in him.” The difference is that there is no time limit, it is only an individual time limit. When this angel is communicating at high noon in every time zone the time is short. The entire period that we are discussing is only three and a half years in length and it is shortened down, and every day there is a gospel message to everyone in that time zone, every language, every people. Regardless of any barrier that might exist in communication it is overcome acoustically, linguistically, and in every other way. This is the most lucid presentation that will ever occur. The issue is always the same in the gospel: “What think ye of Christ?” But, of course, the emphasis that goes with this is the fact that the time is very short.

We have a slightly different emphasis for one reason. We are born at a certain point. We come to God-consciousness at a certain point. At that point we are either positive or negative, the function of our volition, and we either want to know more about God or not. Then we move on to the point of gospel hearing and at that point we are either positive or negative. We may say no the first time we hear the gospel, we may say no every time. Or we may say yes, we may believe in Christ the first time we hear the gospel, but the point is that this is an individual matter because we all have a different time limit. None of us ever know when we are going be taken out of this world, therefore there is always the urgency when the gospel is presented to accept it now, not to delay. This angelic creature presents that urgency. Now is the time of acceptance, now is the day of salvation. For the unbelievers of the last half of the Tribulation there is an urgency. That is why at high noon every day over all of the distractions of life comes the angelic creature with the announcement of the gospel. And, of course, in every generation there is an urgency to accept Christ now, not to postpone it.

Verse 7, “And he [the first pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds] spoke with a loud voice, Fear God ...”

What is this angelic college of heralds? It is a special group of elect angels who in eternity past made the right positive grace decisions for our Lord and are now in their eternal state and serving Him in the extension of the angelic conflict into human history.

First of all we note that the ruler of the college of heralds is no other than the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not known if the Lord Jesus Christ had to take the form of an angel to provide salvation for elect angels or not. That is something that we will learn in eternity. But we do know that there are four appearances of Christ in human history and one of those appearances is an angelic form under the title of the angel of the Lord. This is called a theophany. A theophany is an appearance of Christ prior to the first advent. In other words, prior to the hypostatic union. He came also in human form, the wrestler who whipped Jacob. One of those theophanies, then, the one that we are interested in, is the fact that Jesus Christ is the angel of the Lord, and under this title He is in command of the angelic college of heralds. His second appearance is the incarnation, the first time He appears in the hypostatic union, the God-Man, which is His permanent appearance for all eternity. His third appearance is called Christophany. A Christophany is a post-resurrection appearance of Christ on earth. There are nineteen such appearances. Finally, the second advent, the return of Christ to the earth in His hypostatic union to supersede Satan as the ruler of this world will be studied in Revelation chapters 19 & 20.

Jesus Christ, then, as the angel of the Lord commands the angelic college of heralds. In this theophany our Lord Jesus Christ controlled history and carried out the plan of the Father in Old Testament times. The angel of the Lord is often identified as God in such passages as Genesis 15:7-13; 22:11-18; 31:11-13; 48:15,16 and many many passages. But we only want to note that He is in command of the angelic college of heralds.

There are in the angelic college of heralds three ranks of elect angels who are so involved. Not all of the elect angels are in the college of heralds, only the special ones, only those who were outstanding in the prehistoric angelic conflict. And they are divided by rank under the Lord. The highest rank under the theophany of Christ is the seraph rank angels in this angelic college, and they have six wings, the highest badge of rank and elect angel can wear. Next we have the cherub rank angels who have four wings, again an insignia of rank. The seraph rank did not exist until after the fall of Satan. The highest-ranked angel was Lucifer the son of the morning and he was a cherub, he had four wings. All angels do not have wings, in fact very few angels have wings. The cherub was the highest rank when Satan fell. A new rank called seraph was created as a reward for those who had outstanding records among the elect angels, those who advanced to whatever their spiritual maturity happened to be. The third category of angels would be the wingless category, and they are distinguished from other wingless angels in that they are in the angelic college of heralds.

We learn that seraphs have six wings from Isaiah 6:2. When the angelic creatures entered into their eternal state and Satan made his courtroom appeal and human history was started to resolve the angelic conflict everything was crystallised as far as the elect angels were concerned. So when Isaiah wrote about the seraphs he said in Isaiah 6:2 that a seraph stood above him having six wings. Two covered his face. That is the virtue and integrity of the seraph. Secondly, he said that with two he covered his feet. That is respect for divine authority and the system. And with two he flew. That is the modus operandi of good decisions, control of the life, and a personal sense of destiny in prehistoric times. The highest rank of all of these seraphs is the king of arms. He had a special ministry to Isaiah in the Old Testament times. So we are now looking a seraphs which is the highest ranking of angelic creatures. There are no seraphs among the fallen angels, we are talking about elect angels. Number two in the seraph rank are the officers of arms. There are at least three of them which are found, for example, in the book of Revelation, Revelation 14:15; 18:1; 20:1-3. Finally in seraph rank is the full rank of herald where we have four seraph angels, Revelation 4:6-8, the four living creatures who are mistakenly called “beasts”. Each of these, too, had six wings.

The second rank in the angelic college of heralds [those who have done the unusual in their advance to maturity] are cherubs. The cherub rank is lower than the seraph rank. There are only four wings in the rank insignia of the cherub. The highest-ranking cherub in eternity past was Satan. He is called the anointed cherub in Ezekiel 28:14. He was court-martialled, according to Ezekiel 28:15-19 and Isaiah 14:12-15.

This brings us to the word pur sui vant for the cherub rank are in the pur sui vant rank. Pur sui vant is an old French word. In the history of the arms of the college of heralds in England the pur sui vant were used as messengers for kings and princes, both in war and in peace. As a badge of office they wore the coat of arms of their royal lord. In England the college of heralds was also known as the college of arms, and pur sui vant originally connoted an attendant to the king. But it became a technical word for functionary rank below a herald, having rank and similar duties but below the rank of a herald. There were four pur sui vant officers in the college of heralds. In our analogy the pur sui vant officers in the angelic college of heralds we simply call cherubs.

Among the elect angels the following are considered cherubs or pur sui vant officers: the cherubs who guard the gates of Eden in Genesis 3:24; the four cherubs, one at each wheel of the chariot of fire, 2 Samuel 22:11; Psalm 18:10; Ezekiel chapters 1 & 10; the pur sui vant officer who commanded the wind cells, Revelation 7:1,2; the seven thunders who are pur sui vant officers who have the gift of teaching, Revelation 10:3,4; the evangelist pur sui vant officer in charge of crisis evangelism, Revelation 14:6; the pur sui vant officer who announces the fall of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation, Revelation 14:8,9; the pur sui vant officer who carries the sickle and administers judgment in the last half of the Tribulation, Revelation 14:17. Finally, the wingless rank in the college of heralds who would be the pur sui vant messengers in contrast to their officers.

This all has an application to us. We are not going to be equal in heaven. We are not equal on earth; we will never be equal in heaven. In fact, God devises inequality as a grace system. The greater the freedom the greater the inequality and the interesting thing is that not only do we have inequality on this earth because of freedom — also because this is the devil’s world, but that is another story — but once the devil is out of the picture and we move into eternity we are going to see inequality again. Everyone who is a believer will have a resurrection body but we have noted that there are tremendous differences beyond that resurrection body.

In verse 7 all pur sui vant officers have loud voices. Even pur sui vant messengers have voices that can be heard all over the world. We have seen that the word “fear” in this verse means awe and respect, and therefore taking cognisance of what God has to say: His principles, His plan. It should be noted that God the Father has committed all judgment to God the Son, according to John chapter five and the unbelievers of the last half of the Tribulation have a choice to make: either to believe in Christ for eternal salvation or be judged by our Lord Jesus Christ at the baptism of fire. And we are going to see another parallel, a parallel between divine discipline of the believer and divine judgment of the unbeliever.

Divine discipline is technically, then, for the believer; divine judgment is technically for the unbeliever. The unbeliever makes bad decisions and therefore the laws of God catch up with him and he actually makes his own discipline. When a believer makes bad decisions he punishes himself with his bad decisions with the consequences of them. The same thing is true of the unbeliever who makes bad decisions and he gets the same kind of punishment. Then, divine discipline actually begins for the believer with the fist category, warning discipline, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” Then it goes to intensive discipline if the believer remains in the cosmic system and doesn’t rebound. Finally it goes to dying discipline and God removes the believer with the sin unto death. The same thing is true and we will see it in Revelation chapter sixteen. For the unbeliever in crisis evangelism there is warning judgment. It may be a personal judgment. It may be some family disaster. It can be both personal and sometimes national, but there is warning judgment and if the unbeliever ignores that there is another step in crisis evangelism: operation high noon. We have already seen warning judgements in Revelation — the seals and the trumpets, the warning judgements to the unbeliever under crisis evangelism. Then the third category is dying judgment and that will occur at the second advent, the baptism of fire when all unbelievers are going to be removed from the earth and cast into the lake of fire.

Next we have the connective conjunction kai followed by the aorist active imperative of the verb didomi, “and give.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and in this case the entirety is when the individual believes in Christ. So the constative aorist takes up one second any time when through crisis evangelism an unbeliever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is called “giving glory” to God. That is because Christ dying on the cross was a strategic victory and that is the strategic victory of the believer. So in one second that anyone believes, that is the aorist tense here. The active voice: the unbeliever in the last half of the Tribulation produces the action of the verb in crisis evangelism. He produces the action of believing in Christ, called here giving glory to God. The imperative mood is the imperative of entreaty, it is an appeal to human volition to accept Christ as saviour. Here is a case where the imperative does not convey the finality of a command but has the force or urgency of a request. And with this we have the accusative singular of doca, correctly translated “glory” and is an idiom referring to believing in Christ, “Fear God and give glory to him,” the dative singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj used as a personal pronoun, “to him.” Why? “Because the hour of His judgment has come, “because,” the causal use of the conjunction o(ti followed by o(ra, and this is the message that will be preached in crisis evangelism.

The time is short to believe in Christ. We are now down toward the end, we have crisis evangelism, they have already had the first stages of it in the first half of the Tribulation. The warning judgment was the seven seals and the seven trumpet judgements. Now we are getting ready to go into the intensive judgements which will be the seven vials or bowls, and then there will be dying judgements in which all unbelievers will be cast into fire. It is called the baptism of fire and it occurs at the point of the second advent. That is the hour being mentioned here. We have the descriptive genitive from the word krisij, “judgment,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai, “has come.” E)rxomai is a culminative aorist, it views the baptism of fire in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. That is, eternal judgment to those who do not accept Christ by the time of the second advent. At that particular moment it is all over. That is the same as death would be in our dispensation right now in the Church Age. As long as you are alive you can have salvation but the moment you die it is all over. Death is the last chance. But with these people, those who are still alive at the second advent, that is their last chance. The active voice: the hour or the baptism of fire produces the action. This is a declarative indicative for the immanency of the final stage of judgment, dying judgment. “And he [the pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds] spoke with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him [believe in Christ]; because the hour of his judgment [the baptism of fire] has come.”

The eschatology of the devil’s desperation, then, for the last half of the Tribulation terminates with the second advent and this judgment. The baptism of fire begins eternity for all unbelievers who survive the Tribulation. They will be judged by our Lord Jesus Christ, they will be cast into the lake of fire where they will scream in agony until they are brought to their final judgment at the great white throne.

This particular message has some very definite application. This message and warning of the pur sui vant officer from the college of heralds fulfils the principle of crisis evangelism, and that is grace before judgment. As long as you are alive you can be saved. There is no such thing as the impossibility of being saved, it just takes more sometimes to bring a person around to reality when they have said no to the gospel. When we get over to Revelation chapter sixteen we will see that all unbelievers in this period of the Tribulation are thoroughly cognisant of the gospel. They know the message of Christ dying for their sins, they know how to be saved, they have to have some reality and the reality comes from divine judgment. There is warning judgment — the seals and the trumpets; there is intensive judgment, the seven bowl judgements; and if they ignore that then there is nothing left but dying judgment, the baptism of fire. Every believer receives warning of judgment before he is disciplined, and so it is with the unbeliever. Nations, groups, and individuals are warned by the function of God’s grace policy before judgment is administered, either by divine discipline to the believer or historical disaster to groups of people. God never condemns anyone without giving them more than adequate opportunity to reverse that.

Continuing in verse 7 we have one more phrase. The next word is the connective conjunction kai followed by the aorist active imperative of the verb proskunew which means to worship, worship in the sense of veneration and homage. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, i.e. the last half of the Tribulation is involved. The unbelievers of the last half of the Tribulation are enjoined to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore produce the action. This is the imperative of entreaty. In evangelism you don’t order anyone to believe in Christ and when the imperative mood is used in the Greek New Testament it is always the imperative of entreaty where human volition is involved. In other words, a direct command is not given here. This is not the finality of a command but it has the force of urgency, a request, an appeal, and therefore it is in keeping with the high noon evangelism we have been studying. With this is the dative singular indirect object from the articular aorist active participle of the verb poiew, and it is translated, “him who has made or created.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun for our Lord Jesus Christ who is not only the saviour of the world but He is the creator of the universe, John 1:3; Colossians 1:16,17; Hebrews 1:10.

Next we have the constative aorist of this participle, contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety; that is, Jesus Christ did not create the world in seven days. Jesus Christ created the universe in an instant. Then we have the elapse of maybe millions of years, maybe thousands, we do not know and will not until we get to heaven, but a tremendous amount of prehistoric time in the which the angelic conflict went full force. So we have the prehistoric angelic conflict. Then one day when Satan fell and the conflict finally reached its peak Satan had made his headquarters on planet earth. When the Lord condemned him after the trial He shut down planet earth and packed it in ice. Then when Satan appealed his case and said, “How can a loving God treat His creatures this way?” To resolve the Satanic appeal history began with the creation of man. But the earth had to be restored and it took six days to restore it for man’s occupancy.

Next in our verse we have what He created. We actually have four accusative direct objects of the participle and they present categories of our Lord’s creative activity. Remember the second person of the Trinity is the actual creator of the universe. He did not create it five or six thousand years ago, the probable duration of human history, but He created it millions of years ago possibly. We have the accusative singular of o)uranoj, “heaven,” which really means the atmosphere here. Then we have the accusative singular of a second word, gh, referring to land mass. Next is the salt water area of the earth, the accusative singular of qalassa. The fourth accusative is the noun phgh, translated “fountains,” fresh water on the land masses, and with the descriptive genitive of u(dor here, “fountains of water.”

Translation of verse 7: “And he [the pur sui vant officer from the angelic college of heralds] spoke with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him [believe in Christ]; because the hour of his judgment has come: and worship [venerate, render homage] him [the Lord Jesus Christ] who created the atmosphere [heaven], and the land mass [the earth], and the sea, and the fountains of waters [fresh water on the land mass].”

Verse 8, the second angel announces a judgment that we are not going to study until we get to chapters 17 & 18. A great portion of the book of Revelation is designed to condemn religion. Religion is one of the worst things that has ever happened to man and the reason that religion is so bad is because religion contains both concepts of degeneracy. Religion has all of the factors of degeneracy. Religion is the invention of Satan; it is his attempt to counterfeit Christianity. Religion falls into two categories as far as its modus operandi is concerned, and these are the two categories of degeneracy. First of all, religion has a strong morality (some religions, not all) which is linked with arrogance to form self-righteousness. You will often have religious groups killing people, having no regard for life or property because of their arrogant self-righteousness. Then, on the other hand, you will find the phallic cult in which have phallic degeneracy, and this is usually related to idolatry and demonism. And this is where you have all of the sexual distortions, human sacrifice, and all the rest. These are antithetical but both are religious. Religion is actually the principle of degeneracy.

We start out in verse eight with the second angel. The second angel is called “another angel.” The word “another” is a)lloj, meaning another of the same kind. In other words, we have another cherub-ranked angel, a pur sui vant officer. This was also called deuteroj, the “second one,” an adjective numeral used as a substantive. The adjective is used here because we have a)ggeloj, “Then another angel.” The second one is said to have followed: the aorist active indicative of a)kolouqew. This is a sequence so we have the word “followed.” Again we have the constative aorist and again the second pur sui vant officer produces the action, and again this is declarative for eschatological reality. “and he kept saying,” the present active participle of legw is present linear aktionsart and should be translated, “Then another angel, the second one, followed and kept saying.”

Then we have a nominative subject from the proper noun Babulon, “Babylon.” The word “city” in the King James version is not found in the original, so we are not talking about the city. This is not a reference to the city of Babylon, this is a reference to ecumenical religion of the Tribulation which runs under the title of Babylon since Babylon has been a centre and was once the capital of ecumenical religion. We have already seen from Revelation 13:4ff that Satan’s ecumenical religion of the Tribulation is under the leadership of the dictator of the revived Roman empire. The second pur sui vant officer announces the end of the time of the devil’s desperation and it is going to end with destroying his strongest point which is religion: the religion of the revived Roman empire. Babylon is also called by the appositional nominative megalh, “the great,” “Babylon the Great.”

Then we have the strange saying where we have the words “has fallen” repeated for some reason. The aorist active indicative of piptw is the word for “fallen.” It is given twice. We have the culminative aorist viewing the event in its entirety but regarding from the viewpoint of existing results, the destruction of Satan’s greatest influence on the human race which always has been religion. Ecumenical religion produces the action of the verb and the indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this. The same verb, the same aorist active indicative is repeated a second time to indicate that the message is repeated at high noon in every time zone of the earth, so that people can understand that regardless of their brand of religion, religion has no future. So that is the message for that particular day.

The indictment is also given with it. We have the nominative feminine singular of the definite article used as a personal pronoun and should be translated “she,” i.e. ecumenical religion in the last half of the Tribulation. “She” is the principle that Satan in the last half of the Tribulation will combine into one religion the entire world of Romanism, the World Council of Churches, international Protestantism, Neo-Judaism, a number of cults and religions which will flourish in the Tribulation. All of these cults and religions will be combined into one great ecumenical system through residence and function in the cosmic system. While at the present time these religions are often fighting each other and culturally they are antagonistic, eventually they are going to get together. They are all going to be on the same side so that all of the phallic cults and all of the self-righteous crusader organisations with all of their activists are going to be one big religious family. The two categories of demonisation will occur in this ecumenical religious system. There will be demon influence which we have studied as demon telepathy in which demon influence, the thinking of both believer and unbeliever in the cosmic system is involved. Here we are really talking about the unbeliever in the Tribulation. That means that there are going to be certain people who are self-righteous in the cosmic system and in their self-righteousness arrogance they are going to be under demon telepathy. There are also going to be those who are on the phallic side of the fence and they also are going to be in this religious system and will be under demon possession. So you have demon influence and demon possession both manifest.

“she,” ecumenical religion, “has caused.” The word “because” in the King James version is not found here in the Greek. What has she caused? We have the perfect active indicative of the verb potizw which means to cause to drink, “she has caused all the nations to drink.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which combine of the wraths the concept of existing results, completed action, with the fact that this goes on as a modus operandi. The existing status quo is described in a very realistic manner. So the dramatic perfect emphasises the results of the action. This is ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. Therefore operation high noon not only announces the fall of ecumenical religion but at the same time exposes its modus operandi. The active voice: ecumenical religion under the title of Babylon the Great produces the action of the verb. This is a causative active voice. The indicative mood: this is actually going to happen. God is going to permit religion to continue until the end of the Tribulation and then it will be destroyed.

Then we have our prepositional phrase “from the wine,” e)k plus the ablative of o)inoj. Wine is not used here in a literal sense. The cup here is quite different from any other, it is the descriptive genitive from qumoj, “wrath.” This is a cup of divine wrath, it is not any form of liquid or fermentation. This is the wine of divine judgment on ecumenical religion. It finishes up with a descriptive genitive of porneia, which is not literal fornication. Here we have it in its figurative sense meaning cosmic involvement or unfaithfulness to the plan of God. So under the principle of spiritual fornication we have apostasy, reversionism, cosmic involvement through the function of religion which is the devil’s ace trump. Evangelisation for Satanic religion is like being seduced into fornication by a beautiful woman. Religious lust is in view here, however. Cosmic evangelism results in making the world drunk on religion and that is why our Lord tells us that the last half of the Tribulation is the worst time in all of human history. This is because it is religion’s greatest hour. Remember that religion has two ways of converting people. One is through fornication and the other is through self-righteousness. So it appeals to everyone: some want to fornicate; some want to be self-righteous. Religion is the period of total degeneracy.

Cosmic evangelism, then, results in making the world drunk on religion. Religion is Satanic in contrast to Christianity, and the apostasy of ecumenical religion is spiritual adultery, the fulfilment of religious lust. Religious lust, whichever form it takes, always stimulates arrogance. Inevitably, therefore, there is a connecting link. All forms of lust come, of course, from the old sin nature, but they are always linked to man’s arrogance, not his ego. Ego is merely the self-righteousness of the soul but all lust is related to arrogance. All sins that relate to lust are related to arrogance.

Then we come to the third angel where we get a warning to the people of that time against the ecumenical religious system, and this is accomplished in verses 9-11.

In verses 9 and 10 we have the warning of the third angel and we have a conditional sentence. Verse 9 is the protasis of that conditional sentence and verse 10 is the apodosis.

We begin verse 9 with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” Then we have the nominative singular subject from two words, a)lloj and a)ggeloj, “Then another angel,” the third one, and this is the pur sui vant officer of the angelic college of heralds. Then we have the aorist active indicative of a)kolouqew which means to follow. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality, “followed them,” referring to the first two pur sui vant officers. They come in sequence, in other words.

Now we have the protasis of the first class condition. It is introduced by the conjunctive particle e)i, and it is a conditional particle correctly translated “if,” introducing the protasis of a first class condition. The protasis acts as a premise in the use of the Greek debater’s technique. The protasis of a first class condition assumes that the premise is true, it is reality, therefore many people living during the last half of the Tribulation will become converts to ecumenical religion. That is what the first class condition says. The first class condition, therefore, is called supposition from the viewpoint of reality, therefore logically the apodosis will be a reality also. The reality of the apodosis will be judgment. Those who become involved in religion at any time in history have great disaster but the greatest disaster of all is to be religious in the Tribulation.

If there is anything by which a person handicaps himself in life it is to become religious. By becoming religious is meant to follow the cosmic system of Satan who has set up a religious system. The divine judgment on Satan’s religious system occurs periodically to individuals involved as well as to the entire system.

The next word is the indefinite pronoun tij [without the accent] in the nominative case. Without the accent it is called an indefinite pronoun, and an indefinite pronoun refers to a definite category of mankind living on planet earth, those who become religious. If you ever want to blind your own thinking and lose touch with reality, if you want to get mixed up in a hurry, if you are just dying to be confused, then the thing to do is to “get religion.” This is not referring to Christianity because Christianity is not a religion. The greatest blinder of the minds of the human race is religion. The indefinite pronoun here is telling us that we are dealing with religious people. The evangelism of ecumenical religion is based on the fact that there must be a most unusual miraculous approach in the Tribulation to give these people even a chance. Volition, of course, is always the issue in the angelic conflict and every person must take the responsibility for his good or bad decisions. In this case we have bad decisions from a position of weakness. First, the decision to enter the cosmic system and to live there; secondly, the result of residence in the cosmic system: both demonisation and conversion to ecumenical religion; thirdly, the worship of the dictator of the revived Roman empire, which is what comes up next.

“If anyone worships,” the present active indicative of the verb proskunew. The futuristic present: it hasn’t occurred yet but it will. The active voice: converts to Satan’s ecumenical religious system in the Tribulation will produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the future eschatological reality of this situation. And whom do they worship? They worship a person. There is a great deal of difference between admiration of people which is normal, and worship of people which is abnormal. While admiration is perfectly normal the worship which is described here is definitely abnormal, and the point is that religion makes people abnormal. Religious people are not normal people. When a person becomes tainted with religion in cosmic one he is preoccupied with self, and once he is he even distorts truth and doctrine. He takes it out of its context and says, “I know doctrine, you are wrong.” To be discerning is normal; to be critical is abnormal.

Notice what this passage is telling us. “If anyone worships the beast dictator,” he is a man, the Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire in the last half of the Tribulation. He is also the leader of Satan’s ecumenical religious system. But it is the worship of a person and there is a great deal of difference between loving a person and worshipping a person, between admiring a person and worshipping a person. Worshipping a person is preoccupation with yourself; loving a person is concentration on the object of love. Anyone who worships someone else also worships himself, and his arrogance shows under this principle. Under what condition is he worshipping? He says, “I am worshipping the beast; I am worthy to worship the beast; I am an important person.” So any time that man worships man it is a two-way street for arrogance. The worshipper is arrogant, he is living in the cosmic system; the object of worship is arrogant. It is a locked-in arrogant situation and that starts abnormality and is the explanation as to how the phallic cult developed in the ancient world. There is always some aspect of the phallic cult because it is an abnormal situation. The key is arrogance because arrogance always divorces us from reality.

Virtue forms the basis for concentration on the object, and people who have virtue have sensitivity because of their virtue. And they are normal. But people who are abnormal, religious, worship man and, therefore, in that sense they attach great importance to self, they are hypersensitive.

“If any man worships the beast dictator and his image,” the accusative singular direct object of four Greek words: kai is the connective conjunction, and then the accusative singular of a)utoj, “his,” and e)ikon which is translated “image.” This image is a facsimile of the future Roman dictator whom we have studied in the previous chapter. It is called by the Bible the abomination of desolation. The overt sign of allegiance to Satan’s religious system is idolatry, the worship of the idol. The image is not only worshipped in the temple at Jerusalem but throughout the world by converts to the ecumenical religious system. This worship is classified as the devil’s communion table in 1 Corinthians 10:20, 21.

Then we have added to this, “and receives his mark.” The word for receive is the present active indicative of the verb lambanw. The present tense is a futuristic present denoting an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is regarded as already occurring. The active voice: the unbeliever, in this case in the last half of the Tribulation, who rejects the gospel produces the action of the verb by becoming religious. The alternatives are very simple: either you are a born-again believer or you become religious. The indicative mood is a potential indicative of impulse: you don’t have to go this way. Then we have the accusative singular direct object from xaragma, “mark.” There is no definite article with it so we translate it with the definite article in it because that is the way the Greek idiom goes. This xaragma is an ID card to indicate that the holder is a member of the ecumenical religious system, therefore a system of identifying converts. This ID card or mark is given to everyone who becomes a member of the system and it is apparently related to some futuristic system in the computer field and is not something you carry. Those who have this ID card are those who have rejected the gospel and who have accepted the ecumenical religious system, and the fact that they have this card means that they are in the computer.

Next we have two prepositional phrases: in the first, e)pi plus the genitive, and in the second, e)pi plus the accusative. E)pi plus the genitive emphasises contact whereas e)pi plus the accusative emphasises direction. The first one, then, says “on his forehead.” In other words, there is some kind of a system where they put in his forehead the ID card. In the second case we have, “or on his hand.” It depends upon the individual and apparently there is some kind of classification here in which the forehead has a greater connotation than the hand. In the future those who are in the clergy will apparently have the brand upon the forehead. That means special privileges. Those who have it on the hand are just the run-of-the-mill crowd who do not get preferential treatment.

Translation: “Then another angel, the third one, followed him and kept saying, If anyone worships the beast dictator and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead, or on his hand… ”

That is only half the sentence, it is the protasis of a first class condition meaning there are a lot of people who are going to do it.

In verse 10 we have the apodosis. The wine of the ancient world was extremely strong. They didn’t go, for example, by vintage years, good years and bad years. In the ancient world they harvested and it went from the bare feet of those who tramped down the grapes practically into the wine skins over night. So when they poured wine out of a goat skin it wasn’t taken straight so they always mixed their water with wine. The secret was to have the right kind of water and the right amount to be mixed with the wine. In that way it was palatable. If it was drunk concentrated it was horrible.

The wine of the wrath of God means we are getting ready for concentrated judgment, and concentrated judgment means the object is the worst thing in life. And the worst thing in life is religion, it is concentrated arrogance which can be in moral form or immoral form but whatever the form may be the greatest judgements are always against arrogance. Therefore for all of us for our own sake, to the extent that we are arrogant to that extent we are sinning the worst possible sin. The base for all sin and the sin that brings down the greatest punishment from God, and the greatest system of sowing and reaping the divine law of repercussion whereby we make the decision and we are the products of our own decision is arrogance. The worst of all sins is the sin you think — arrogance. It is a sin you think in the cosmic system in cosmic one, and all religion is related to preoccupation with self. Religion caters to you; religion makes you feel important. The truth is always related to reality and you see yourself as you really are.

So verse 10 dramatises the doctrinal principle that all people are the products of their own decisions. In this case unbelievers who adhere to the ecumenical religious system of Satan, worship the beast dictator, receive their ID card, are the products of their own decisions. They made the decision. One thing about arrogance: it always makes bad decisions and refuses to take the responsibility for them. How do you divorce yourself from reality? What is reality? How do you divorce yourself from it? By making bad decisions and not taking the responsibility for them. Once you become irresponsible in arrogance you divorce yourself from reality. it is impossible to see reality. Arrogance takes responsibility for good decisions, when people say, “Well done”, and ignores bad decisions where one has failed. By ignoring bad decisions you get away from the rebound technique entirely. So the phraseology of this verse indicates that these unbelievers of the Tribulation who possess this mark or ID card have first of all participated in the devil’s communion table. Therefore they will drink from the cup of concentrated divine judgment.

The period from the departure of the Church, through the Tribulation to the beginning of the Millennial reign of Christ is probably one of the biggest transitional periods in all of human history. In addition to that it is the most disastrous period of human history, a period of concentrated negative volition, a period of great divine judgment, and also a period which demonstrates more than any other period the fact that man is the product of his own decisions. We manufacture our own misery with our own volition and our bad decisions.

Man is on this earth because he is the extension of the angelic conflict. Man is basically on the earth, therefore, to make a choice between glorifying God or glorifying Satan. Every person sooner or later does one or the other. Often is starts out as a combination, that is due to the reality of sin. And sin is not something that stops at salvation, sin merely takes a great many more forms after salvation and, of course the necessity for the rebound technique and the recovery of fellowship with God, getting back into the divine dynasphere. So much for the believer. But the unbeliever doesn’t have that recovery factor, and because he doesn’t he develops in his soul a tremendous antagonism toward the truth.

All of us are here for a purpose and while the material found in relationship to the Tribulation and much of the material we are studying, therefore, in the book of Revelation is certainly discouraging because it demonstrates that man is not getting better, man is only going to get worse. Man by man’s efforts cannot improve man’s circumstances. That eliminates all crusader activity. You can’t straighten out anyone; you can’t even straighten out yourself. Only doctrine, only truth, can come into the soul and do it. And people will resist the truth but you do not have to resist the truth and you can have a life of great happiness and great blessing on this earth, that is the whole grace structure.

But that life of great blessing and great happiness can never be divorced from why we are here, and we are here because of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Therefore there is a sense in which the believer, through his daily perception of doctrine, maintains a God-consciousness (erroneously called “practising the presence of God”) of the invisible; the eternal, infinite and invisible God. That awareness is very important because it keeps us from the discouragements of life, it keeps us from following the trends of our weaknesses, whatever they may be. It keeps us from getting down which is very easy in times of economic disaster, historical disaster and in time of change. The human race cannot absorb rapid change without almost a complete and total nervous breakdown of the human race. The changes that have occurred in the twentieth century are so rapid, so great, and so unusual, that it almost more than man can handle. Our flexibility is not up to it. Until we understand our role we as believers are not going to change history by getting into any crusade activity. We aren’t even going to change history by winning souls to Christ. We are not going to change history by the things that we do and the things that are commanded by way of Christian service. Witnessing for Christ and other things of this type are very important but the only way that we are going to change history is to learn to sit down and watch history and at the same time grow in grace, for it is the pivot of mature believers that makes the difference. The only bright spots in the Tribulation are the same as the bright spots at this stage of the Church Age, this twentieth century which is changing so rapidly and so rapidly is coming to a close. Therefore we have a great deal we can pick up and learn from the Tribulation. We can learn a great deal about foreign policy, domestic policy, the importance of establishing the truth and how the unbeliever can be blessed through it. We can learn how the believer can be blessed and glorify God all at the same time.

At this particular point we are getting ready for the greatest judgment that God will ever administer to mankind in the historical sense. It is called the seven last plagues in chapter fifteen; it is called the seven bowl judgements in chapter sixteen. In the meantime we are getting ready for it. We are beginning to see the function of certain angelic creatures, pur sui vant officers, members of the angelic college of heralds holding the cherub rank. Each one has a message and each message has an overall principle: grace before judgment. God never judges the human race or allows the human race to almost destroy itself without first of all giving warning. We say “almost destroying itself” because God will never permit the human race to destroy itself. In fact, the human race having the ability for individual and often collective and mass self-destruction cannot destroy or blot out the entire category of mankind. That is impossible and it will never happen. Neither nuclear weapons or any other sophisticated activity of destruction will ever destroy the entire human race. The idea that disaster wipes out the population of the human race is one of the ludicrous ideas that frighten all kinds of people today. Man does not have that capability. Man is the product of his own decisions and when you get enough collective decisions so that you develop some form of degeneracy or some other form of historical disaster then inevitably the tide must keep going, and eventually it will come back and there will be still people on the earth. When disaster comes along it is not the end of anything. As a matter of fact, the end of the Tribulation is going to be the beginning of one thousand years of perfect environment on the earth. But the interesting thing is that if you put man in perfect environment it doesn’t change a thing. It doesn’t change his personality, his old sin nature, his attitude. Man in perfect environment is just as snotty, just as evil as man in bad environment. The only difference is that in bad environment he is a little more fearful and a little more restrained.

We have already begun to note that verse 10 dramatises the doctrinal principle that all people are the products of their own decisions, and in this case the unbelievers who adhere to the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation, Satan’s system, and worship the beast dictator, receive this ID card related to some super computer system, are the products of their own bad decisions. The phraseology of this verse indicates that these unbelievers of the Tribulation who possess this ID card or mark have first of all participated in the devil’s communion table.

We have motivational evil as well as functional evil in this ecumenical religious system of the future. Motivational evil is always arrogant preoccupation with self. Man loses his perspective when he is preoccupied with himself. He also becomes distracted from the truth and eventually indifferent to the truth. That, of course, is residence in cosmic one. Then there is functional evil, the manifestations of evil in cosmic one and the anti-doctrine attitudes in cosmic two. In the Christian Eucharist of the royal family, the Church Age believer, we have both motivational and functional virtue. Satan’s system has motivational and functional evil. The bread in the communion service is motivational virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ functioning at gate five of the prototype divine dynasphere. His personal love for God the Father motivated the humanity of Christ to go to the cross and bear our sins. The cup is functional virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ in His modus operandi at gate six of the prototype divine dynasphere. In being judged for the sins of the world our Lord demonstrated in personal love for all mankind. Therefore we anticipate a doctrinal principle: every member of the human race is the product of his own decisions, good or bad. These unbelievers of the Tribulation drink from the cup of the demons through the function of their own free will. Their own self-determination is the basis for their condemnation.

The application of this principle to the believer should be obvious. He is provided with doctrinal information and whether he accepts it or not, absorbs it or not, benefits from it or not, is strictly a matter of his own volition. From that comes either his spiritual failure or his spiritual success. In other words, whether he is a winner or a loser is determined by the function of his own volition toward doctrinal teaching.

In the next phrase we have the baptism of fire. We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, translated “also.” We have the nominative singular from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used in the Koine Greek as a third person personal pronoun. A)utoj is correctly translated “he,” so kai plus a)utoj is translated “he also.” The nominative singular subject of the intensive pronoun refers to unbelievers who are converted to Satan’s religious system. That means all unbelievers who live in the cosmic system in the last half of the Tribulation. With this we have the future middle indicative from the verb pinw, and it means to drink, “he also shall drink.” The predictive future anticipates an event which is expected to occur at a future time, the time of the devil’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation. This is a direct middle voice in which the agent acts with a view toward participating in the results of the action. That is very important because it takes us back to the principle in this passage: we are the products of our own decisions. People, of course, do not deliberately want to suffer but every time we get away from Bible doctrine and our consistency in learning the Word we are preparing for ourselves a large potion of suffering. Here it is called the wine or the anger of God. This is exactly what happens to the human race in a short seven years during the Tribulation when it makes an accumulation of bad decisions. Never in the human race has greater evangelism occurred than in the Tribulation. You don’t have to go from door to door to evangelise in the Tribulation, you don’t have to grab somebody and ask them if they are saved, because angels are doing the evangelising, people are doing it, great evangelists are doing it, and some of the greatest messages in the history of the world will be given. There will be greater exposure to the truth in a seven year period than the world has ever had before. Everyone will be evangelised time and time and time again. But you can only go so far with evangelism. You can’t reach in and turn off the negative and turn on the positive. You can’t force people to accept Christ. There will be greater resistance to the gospel and greater resistance to truth in general in the Tribulation than in any other period of history, so there is a special drink for those who make these decisions, saying no, “he also shall drink from the wine of the wrath of God.” Drinking from the cup of the devil’s communion table results in drinking from the sup of divine judgment. To worship under the Satanic religious systems of the Tribulation, all combined into one ecumenical organisation, is to guarantee great judgment. Those unbelievers who adhere to ecumenical religion in the Tribulation are the products of their own decisions. By their own free will they have drunk from Satan’s cup, his communion table, therefore they will drink from the cup of divine judgment. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of how it will all end, the baptism of fire.

We have “he also shall drink,” and then the prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative singular from the noun o)inoj. We have qumoj which means anger or wrath and it is a descriptive genitive. And with it we have the appositional genitive from qeoj, “the wine of the anger of God.” We are talking about an anthropopathism. God doesn’t get angry and God doesn’t sin. These are simply words indicating a divine policy in terms of human vocabulary. An anthropopathism assigns to God some human attitude, something we can all understand like anger or hatred or love or a change of mind, in order the explain a divine policy in terms of human frame of reference. These attitudes do not really belong to Him. God does not have wrath but what better way to explain the intensity of divine judgment than “from the wine of the wrath of God”?

Next we have the articular perfect passive participle from kerannumi which means to mix, and with the objective genitive of the adjective a)kratoj which means unmixed, it is translated “which has been mixed unmixed.” This is what we call in the English language an oxymoron. An oxymoron is a combination of contradictory words designed for an epigrammatic effect. This oxymoron is an expression of John’s wit. The fact that he used this oxymoron probably puzzled the people who first read it. How can you have the wine of the wrath of God which has been “mixed unmixed”? That is the problem. Well, it is an analogy to the fact that the judgment of the baptism of fire is concentrated like a drink prepared without a mixture to make it palatable. This is wrath unmixed; it is not palatable. The judgment that comes at the end of the Tribulation at the baptism of fire is very unpalatable. There is no way that anyone is going to like it who is involved.

The morphology of kerannumi may help us. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun. The perfect tense is completed action. The unbeliever involved has made bad decisions from a position of weakness. That is regarded as completed action, he has said no continually for seven years to the gospel. So at this judgment he must take the responsibility for his decision to reject Jesus Christ as saviour. Hence, a dramatic perfect tense emphasising the result of free will function of volition in the last half of the Tribulation. The passive voice: the judgment of the baptism of fire receives the action of the verb, undiluted wrath of God, fire that burns forever, and those in it are conscious of that fire and they have all of the necessary nerve centres to constantly suffer in the most horrible way. The telic participle denotes a future purpose. No matter how long you refuse to take the responsibility for your own decisions there comes a payoff moment. The payoff moment in the passage we are studying is the baptism of fire. The telic participle denotes the future purpose, the policy of God to judge all unbelievers of the Tribulation. All unbelievers who are alive will be cast alive into the lake of fire with special emphasis on those who have become involved in Satan’s ecumenical religious system. The end of all religion is eternal suffering. Religion is one of the worst evils to afflict the human race for it reflects the unbelievers continued residence and function in the cosmic system.

This is said to be “in the cup of his anger,” e)n plus the locative singular from pothrion, “in the cup.” It is literally, “in the cup of his anger.” We have a different word for anger this time: the descriptive genitive of o)rgh. We had qumoj and now we have possess but describes divine policy in terms of the human frame of reference. The basic difference between qumoj and o)rgh is that qumoj is the mental attitude (generally) and o)rgh is the expression of that attitude in action, in violence.

“He also shall drink from the wine of the wrath of God which has been concentrated in the cup of his anger.”

Religion is one of man’s greatest expressions of arrogance for it is the assumption that he can do something to gain the approbation of God or, on the other hand, he doesn’t need the approbation of God. There are many categories of religion. Christianity refutes religion, as per Ephesians 2:8,9, at the point of salvation. Religion is arrogant blasphemy which ignores the saving work of Christ on the cross and substitutes one’s own works for that of our Lord. Religion, of course, is blindness — “If our gospel be veiled, it is veiled to them who are lost, in whose case the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

What is this wrath of God that comes down upon people? “He shall also drink from the wine of the wrath of God which has been concentrated in the cup of his anger.” We are going to see next who is going to be tormented in fire.

In Matthew 3:11 we have a reference to the baptism of fire, “As for me [says John the Baptist], I baptise you with water [because you have changed your mind] for repentance [a reversal of opinion], but he [our Lord Jesus Christ] who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to unlace his sandals; he himself will baptise you with the Holy Spirit [the Church Age] and with fire [the baptism of fire at the second advent].”

For those who believe in Christ there is union with Christ [in the Church Age], the baptism of the Spirit; for those who reject Christ during the Tribulation and they are still alive will have the baptism of fire.

Verse 12, “And his grain shovel [winnowing fork] is in his hand, he will clean his threshing floor [the world]; and he will gather his wheat [believers: only they can enter the Millennium] into the barn, and he will burn up the chaff [unbelievers alive at the second advent] with unquenchable fire.”

The baptism of fire is the judgment of those unbelievers who survive the Tribulation. They are divided into two categories: Jewish unbelievers and Gentile unbelievers. As chaff, sometimes called tares, these unbelievers are removed from the world so that only believers form the cadre for the population explosion of the Millennium.

The time of the baptism of fire is given in 2 Thessalonians 1:7,8 — “And to give relief to you who are afflicted along with us, when our Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven [second advent] with his mighty angels, in blazing fire dealing out judgment to those who do not know God, even to those who do not obey [believe] the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”

There are three basic parables on the baptism of fire. One is found in Matthew 13:24-43, the parable of the wheat and the tares. The wheat: believers going into the Millennium; the tares: the living unbelievers cast out. There is the parable of the good and the bad fish in Matthew 13:47-50. There is the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. The wise virgins are those who are believers: they enter the Millennium; the foolish virgins are the unbelievers who are cast out into fire: the baptism of fire. The punishment area for the baptism of fire is called Sheol or Hades and it is known as “torments”.

Matthew 24:36, an explanation of our passage in Revelation 14:10. “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son [His humanity], but the Father alone.

Verse 37, “For the coming of the Son of Man [second advent] will be like the days of Noah.”

The days of Noah was a time of great degeneracy but that isn’t what is described in the passage which follows where there is no sin described.

Verse 38, “For in those days which preceded the flood,” they were living normal, social lives, “they were eating and drinking,” they were having great social life and that social life was a distraction to crisis evangelism. They were enjoying themselves so much that they didn’t bother to think about the future, all they could think about was their way of life, “they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark.” They were just simply having a good time and therefore they were not interested in the future; they were not interested in the principle: “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole the world and lose his own soul?” There is nothing wrong with having a good time except when the good times are a distraction to evangelism or the momentum of the spiritual life.

Verse 39, “and they did not understand until the flood came,” they had been the recipients of crisis evangelism but they never understood until the flood came and they then discovered that they were not prepared, “and took them all away [the judgment removed the unbelievers from the earth], so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” Why didn’t they understand? Because their social life, their marriage, their preoccupation with their pleasure and their legitimate fun, kept them away from Noah’s great evangelistic messages. They didn’t understand, they were ignorant.

Verse 40, “At that time [of the baptism of fire] there will be two men in the field; one will be taken [the unbeliever taken out of the world, the opposite of the Rapture], and one will be left [the believer going into the Millennium].”

Verse 41, “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.”

Verse 42, Hence the prophetical mandate to the people of the Tribulation: “Therefore be alert, [regarding historical trends] because you do not know on what day our Lord will return.” This is a part of crisis evangelism.

We have noted the baptism of fire which is mentioned in verse 10 of Revelation chapter fourteen and we notice its emphasis in the last part of the verse. The eternal results of bad decisions are found at the point of the conjunction kai, “and.” And with this the future passive indicative of the noun basanizw which means to be tormented, “and he will be tormented.” Bad decisions are defined in this context as negative volition toward the gospel during the crisis evangelism, operation high noon, during the last half of the Tribulation. Those who constantly hear the gospel and repeatedly say no create a series of systems called negative volition. People who constantly reject truth accumulate so much scar tissue of the soul that they find themselves incapable of reversing their decision, and this is what happens here. The vacuum created by negative volition has also brought into the soul a tremendous amount of false doctrine which is called “strong delusion” in 2 Thessalonians chapter two. In other passages it is simply called “hardness of heart.”

Here we have the phrase “and he will be tormented.” This is the eternal result of the bad decision rejecting Christ as saviour. The predictive future anticipates an eschatological event, the baptism of fire after the second advent. The passive voice: the unbeliever who survives to the end of the Tribulation will receive the action of the verb. Then we have a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of two words: pur [fire] and qeion [burning], “burning fire.” It is actually fire and sulphur, “in fire and burning sulphur.” The fire and the burning sulphur is temporary until the end of the Millennium when the same person who has repeatedly rejected Christ as saviour during the Tribulation will be judged at the great white throne and transferred to the eternal lake of fire. The baptism of fire does not deal with that eternal state called the lake of fire but with a temporary type of situation.

The extension of the angelic conflict is mentioned in the next phrase: an improper preposition e)nwpion which means in the face of, or face to face with. Sometimes it means simply “before.” With it we have the word a)ggeloj, and a(gioj the adjective, “and before his holy angels,” a reference to the elect angels who are watching human history for the ultimate solution and resolution of the angelic conflict. Human history is the extension of the angelic conflict and the function of man’s free will in human history will demonstrate the fairness of the justice of God in sentencing all the fallen angels to the lake of fire; a sentence rendered prior to human history but carried out after the termination of history. According to Matthew 13:41,42 elect angels are agents in the execution of the sentence, this judgment, the baptism of fire. But in a broader scope in the doctrine of the angelic conflict angels are observing mankind during human history. In the great spiritual warfare of the present time we are not spectators at all; we are the gladiators, we are on the field, we are the ones participating, and the stands are filled with elect angels. Elect angels do have the opportunity of observing us.

Angels observed our Lord Jesus Christ during the hypostatic union, His incarnation and first advent, according to 1 Timothy 3:16. Elect angels observe and rejoice over anyone who access Christ as saviour, Luke 15:7,10. Angels observe the modus operandi of believers in time and there are a large number of passages that tell us that, 1 Corinthians 4:9; 6:3; 11:10; Ephesians 3:10; 1 Timothy 5:21. All of those are Pauline epistles. Also 1 Peter 1:12. We are under observation by angelic creatures: that is, the winners, not the losers.

The winner in the angelic conflict is mentioned next. We have the same prepositional phrase: “and in the presence of the Lamb,” the improper preposition e)nwpion plus a)rnion, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lamb is always identified as our Lord Jesus Christ, as per John 1:29. When John the Baptist saw the coming of the Church Age in the future, looked back into the past and saw some differences developing and said concerning Jesus Christ, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. There are two phrases used in the New Testament in order to depict the person and the work of Christ on the cross. One is the word “lamb” because it was used as a sacrifice and it taught the doctrine of soteriology and related it to Christology. The other is the word “blood” which refers to the saving work of Christ on the cross. All judgment is committed to the Lord Jesus Christ because He is the winner of the angelic conflict. The title of “the Lamb” indicates our Lord’s strategic victory on the cross where He was judged for our sins, and while the event described eschatologically refers to our Lord’s tactical victory it is always based upon the fact of His strategic victory. Our Lord Jesus Christ is represented as the winner under the title “the Lamb,” and therefore He has the right of judgment at the baptism of fire.

Israel as a client nation to God no longer functions in that capacity during the Church Age. The fifth cycle of discipline was administered to them in AD 70 and that means we live in the times of the Gentiles. This becomes important when we understand that never again would there be a Jewish client nation to God until the second advent. That means that throughout the Church Age there will be many Jewish nations but none of them have any client nation status, and never will. Only when our Lord restores Israel at the second advent will there be such a thing. Since AD 70, and to the end of the Church Age, the times of the Gentiles have been given to us as told by our Lord in Luke 21:24. That means that only we as Gentile nations can function as client nations to God. Because of our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent and the calling out of a royal family this dispensation is the intensification of the angelic conflict. People often think that the Tribulation is the worst period in history. Well it is from the standpoint of the multiplicity of disasters but from the standpoint of the intensification of spiritual conflict we live in that dispensation. Therefore angels, elect as well as fallen, are observing us. Once the body of Christ is completed then comes the resurrection, the Rapture of the Church, and we are removed from the earth. During the Tribulation there will be no client nation to God. There will only be individual evangelists such as the 144,000 Jews, Moses and Elijah, and the pur sui vant officer of operation high noon. Then comes the second advent with the tactical victory of the Lamb of God, operation footstool. It is first given to us prophetically in Psalm 110:1. This verse is so important that it is quoted six times in the New testament. Each context is very important as far as the angelic conflict is concerned for that is exactly what happens. Our Lord resolves the angelic conflict and the last phrase of our verse 10 reminds us of that: “and in the presence of the Lamb.” The quotation of Psalm 110:1 is found in Matthew 24:22; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:43; Acts 2:35. It is quoted twice in the epistle to the Hebrews, 1:13; 10:13.

The Lord Jesus Christ ascends after His resurrection and is seated at the right hand of the Father. Then comes the calling out of His royal family which is associated with His third royal warrant. Then at the completion of the royal family is the Rapture of the Church, followed by the Tribulation and the second advent. At the second advent there are three phases to operation footstool. That is where His enemies are made the footstool of His feet.

The first phase is the triumphal procession. The tactical victory of the second advent is related to victory over two categories of creatures: unbelievers who survive the Tribulation and the fallen angels. The unbelievers who survive the Tribulation are removed from the earth to make way for the Millennial reign of Christ. Several passages of scripture use the analogy to the Roman triumphal procession in which both prisoners and booty were displayed first. Then came the victorious Roman general in his golden chariot and a slave standing at his side repeating the Latin phrase: sic transit gloria munde. Another slave would stand on the other side and hold a crown over his head. Sic transit gloria munde was to remind him that the glory of this world passes away while the other slave held the glory of this world in the form of the crown. Then there would be other people walking in the triumphal procession. They were prisoners. Often they would go by and would say in great sarcasm to the cheering crowd: “We who are about to die salute you.” At the end of the procession they would be executed.

In the triumphal procession the central figure, however, was the winner riding in the golden chariot. After the winner came the officers and the decorated heroes of the campaign, and they were followed by the victorious army. In the analogy the prisoners to be executed are the fallen angels and their leader, Satan. The victorious proconsul is our Lord Jesus Christ in the analogy, and the heroes and the officers who followed are comparable to the Church Age heroes, those who advanced to maturity, the decorated Church Age believers, decorated at the judgment seat of Christ. Next come the believers of the Church Age who are losers. They spent their life on earth in the cosmic system, they have a resurrection body, but no rewards, no decorations, no coat of arms. They are not mentioned on the honours list and there is no order of knighthood after their name in the Lamb’s book of life. They are present by the grace of God and glad to be there but they have nothing to show for their life on this earth. That means that every second, every minute that we are on this earth has meaning as far as God is concerned, as far as His plan is concerned. The greatest happiness and the greatest blessing we can have in time or in eternity is related to this principle: the execution of the plan of God, the advance to maturity.

The second phase is the termination of the triumphal procession. At the end of the triumphal procession the royal family in resurrection body cast the fallen angels, the demons, into prison — Colossians 2:14,15 cf. Zechariah 13:2. The description of the termination of the triumphal procession is described in the resurrection context of 1 Corinthians 15:23-25, “But each [believer in his resurrection body] in his own battalion: Christ the first fruits [Alpha company] … “

When it says “each one in his own battalion” we have a battalion review. There are two battalions to pass in review in history: first, the battalion of believers and last, the battalion of unbelievers. In each one of these battalions are companies. In the first battalion are four companies: Alpha company, the first to pass the reviewing stand: resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; Bravo company: the Rapture of the Church; Charlie company: the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs who receive their resurrection bodies at the second advent; Delta company at the end of the Millennium: all other believers will receive resurrection bodies. At the end of the Millennium the second battalion passes in review and they wind up in the lake of fire.

Verse 24, “… then the end [of the Tribulation, the second advent of Christ], when he delivers up the kingdom of God, even the Father [Christ at the second advent takes the rulership of the world away from Satan and gives it back to God the Father who in turn gives Him the rulership of the world], when he [our Lord] has abolished all rule [the rulership of Satan over this world] and authority and power [the removal of Satan’s cosmic system].”

Verse 25, “For he must reign [the Millennial reign] until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” So we note that operation footstool does not terminate completely until after the Millennium and Gog revolution.

But there is a third phase to that triumphal procession: the incarceration of Satan. Satan is going to serve a prison sentence of 1000 years during the entire time of the Millennial reign of Christ. The last act of the angelic conflict occurs when he is released from prison, comes back to the earth and starts a revolution.

Remember that winners in the system, believers who are victorious during the Church Age, return with Christ and will actually be in that triumphal procession: 1 Thessalonians 3:13 — “… at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all of his saints.” While this phrase includes all believers of the Church Age, only winners share in the glory of it all, as per Colossians 3:4 — “On the occasion when Christ, our life, shall become manifest [second advent], you also [winners who are decorated] shall become manifest with him in glory [the uniform of glory].” The winner is on the honours list so that during the Tribulation he is presented in the court of heaven — Revelation 2:28.

Translation of verse 10: “He also shall drink from the wine of the wrath of God which has been concentrated, yet undiluted, in the cup of his anger; and he will be tormented in fire and burning sulphur before his holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.”

Verse11, the eternal condemnation of negative volition is the closing concept in this paragraph. We have the torment of their sentence. This is the first thousand years of their eternal punishment.

The sequential use of the conjunction kai continues the story of these unbelievers after the second advent and the beginning of the Millennium, “Then.” Then we have a nominative singular subject from kapnoj, “smoke,” “Then the smoke.”

Lang’s Commentary, vol. 12, p287, “Smoke is a phenomenon attendant upon imperfect combustion. If they burned with free devotion in sacrificial fire they would blaze refulgently without smoke. The more the flame is restrained by resistance the thicker and blacker is the smoke which pours forth.”

Why smoke then? Because these people who are unbelievers in the Tribulation have been evangelised by 144,000 thousand of the greatest evangelists who ever lived. Moses and Elijah were brought back from the dead to evangelise them. And then they had this magnificent angel from the college of heralds, the pur sui vant officer of cherub rank under operation high noon, and at the zenith of the sun in every time zone every day for three and a half years he gave them the great message of the gospel. And they resisted it, and they resisted it. So what this commentary is saying is that the more they resisted the flame the smokier the flame becomes. They resisted in time; they resist in the fire. That is how tough scar tissue of the soul is. Scar tissue of the soul doesn’t burn, it just smokes. It is resisting, as it were, the flame. So those who learn to resist the gospel are going to spend eternity in fire making smoke. They are still resisting.

Next in the verse we have a descriptive genitive from basanismoj and it means torment with a)utoj, “then the smoke of their torment.” Finally we get a verb, the present active indicative of a)nabainw, which means to ascend, to go up. The smoke goes up, and it is the only thing that ever goes up from this fire. Translation: “then the smoke of their torment keeps rising”. The fact that the smoke keeps rising emphasises the doctrine of eternal and conscious punishment of unbelievers. Man is the product of his own decisions both in time and in eternity for mankind is dealing with a just and righteous God. The present tense is the perfective present for what has come to be in the past, the baptism of fire and then of course the lake of fire, but is emphasised as an eternal reality, hence an extension of present linear aktionsart into eternity. The active voice: the unbelievers produce the action of the verb, and here is a specific group of unbelievers who lived during the last half of the Tribulation and become converts to ecumenical religion. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality of eternal judgment of all unbelievers in human history.

In eternity the pain for the unbeliever is intense and never stops, and there is no loss of consciousness and there is no escape. It is amazing how many escapes we have from pain in time; but that is time, not eternity, “then the smoke of their torment keeps rising forever and ever.” This description of eternal judgment of all unbelievers in human history emphasises the importance, then, of 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the time of acceptance; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Opportunity to make good decisions or bad are confined to time. Once eternity occurs decision-making is over, so that unbelievers, those who reject the gospel, are the products of their own bad decisions. In eternity it is too late. When a person dies still saying no to the gospel that is the end of the line. There are no decisions made in eternity and there is no reversal of the status. Those who say yes and believe in Christ have eternal life in a resurrection body and no one can ever change that. All decisions are limited to time and in eternity everyone will take the responsibility for his own decisions whether he wants to or not. No decision in life, therefore, is more important than a decision dealing with an absolute. The absolute: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Salvation is an absolute. You can be positive or negative. You can believe in Christ and have eternal life; you can reject Christ and have eternal condemnation. The fact of death is an absolute of life; the fact that after death no more decisions can be made is very important. It is fascinating that you are responsible for every decision you make in this life. It can be a good decision; it can be a bad decision. No greater decisions can be made than those that are in the absolute category. There are many relative decisions in life: Where should I go to school? Where should I be educated? Whom should I marry? With whom should I associate in social life or business life? All of these things deal with relative factors but when you are dealing with eternity then you are dealing with an absolute and you can’t afford to make a mistake. Repeat: You can’t afford to make a mistake.

God is so gracious that when it comes to the absolute of salvation you only make the decision once. When it says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”, you only do it once. You only have to believe one time, it doesn’t say to keep believing, it doesn’t say reaffirmation of faith, it doesn’t say anything about having to make it again. Only once. This is the greatest decision we ever make and it is dealing with an absolute — eternal salvation. You only have to believer once and forever and ever you have eternal life. So here is God’s grace. When it comes to the most important decision one can make in this life you only make it once, and after that no matter what you do it doesn’t change a thing: you can’t lose that salvation. The fact of death also means the fact of eternal judgment for those who reject Christ as saviour. Death is an absolute, Hebrews 9:27ff. Decisions dealing with absolutes are much more important than decisions dealing with relatives of life. The saving work of Christ on the cross is an absolute; salvation through faith in Christ is an absolute; rejection of Christ as saviour resulting in eternal judgment after death is also an absolute.

Notice, too, in the rest of this verse that there is no rest in the lake of fire. We have a conjunction kai introducing a result from what precedes, it is translated “furthermore.” Then the present active indicative of e)xw plus the negative o)uk, “furthermore they do not have.” The present tense of duration denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. Next is the accusative singular of a)napausij, “rest.” That, of course, is very important. No change, “then the smoke of their torment keeps rising forever and ever: furthermore there is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast dictator.” Bad decisions, lots of bad decisions, made in time. These bad decisions mean eternal judgment. This idiom emphasises the fact that in eternity there is no loss of consciousness, no rest or cessation of the pain.

And for whom is this disaster? For a certain category who worship the beast. Bad decisions related to absolutes have temporal and eternal repercussions, pain and disaster. The combination of unbeliever reversionism, cosmic involvement, blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, produces locked-in negative volition and arrogant stubbornness which rejects the daily high noon evangelism from the angelic college of heralds. Crisis evangelism is the most intense and powerful form of gospel preaching and it has the fewest converts in the last half of the Tribulation. The combination of historical and natural disaster does not change the minds of those unbelievers involved in Satan’s ecumenical system. Neither the warning judgements of the seven seals and the seven trumpets, nor the intensive judgements of the seven last plagues, nor the powerful evangelism of the 144,000, the television ministry of Moses and Elijah, nor the fantastic high noon evangelism of the cherub rank pur sui vant officers from the angelic college of heralds changes locked-in negative volition.

Translation of verse 11: “Then the smoke of their torment [the eternal consciousness of the unbeliever in the lake of fire forever] rises forever and ever: furthermore there is no rest day or night, for those who worship the beast dictator and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”

In verses twelve and thirteen we see what happens to believers. How are they going to survive in all of these problems? When the Tribulation ends with the second advent of Christ and Christ returns with His Church in resurrection bodies there are going to be a tremendous number of believers who have survived all of the disasters. There is, of course, a great application to this principle. No matter how great the disasters of the world there is no form of disaster that can destroy the entire population of the world. The very promise which was given to Noah as a part of the Noahic covenant guarantees that there will be many people on planet earth until the very end of history. In the Tribulation there will be people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and personally receive Him as saviour. Out of that group there will be a tremendous number of survivors and the reason for their survival is given in verses 12 and 13. They are winners. Not all believers are winners. All believers are winners at one point only and that is strategic victory at the moment they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It only takes one decision for salvation but to enter into the state of these people who are going to be judged at the end of the Tribulation it takes thousands of decisions of locked-in negative volition. It is a demonstration of the fact of the power of man’s decision.

The real issue in verses 12 & 13 and in many verses throughout the New Testament is what happens after salvation. What does the believer do after salvation? It only took one positive decision for salvation but after that it takes many many daily positive decisions. So historically in the Tribulation there are going to be people who are believers who make daily positive decisions for the gospel, for doctrine, for the laws of divine establishment. And there are going to be millions of unbelievers who are going to say no to the gospel every day at least once, and often more than once. Some of these unbelievers will be alive at the second advent having said no to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ many times. Never underrate the power of human volition. God invented human volition to resolve the angelic conflict and the tactical winner is the believer who continues to make good decisions from a position of strength. He has control of his life; he has a personal sense of destiny.

In our passage we are about to study confidence in God. Confidence in God comes through perception of Bible doctrine. Take for example, the days of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was warned by Isaiah, one of the few who had confidence in God: “Do not go down to Egypt for help.” Egypt had a tremendous army. The great threat was the empire of Assyria which was about to attack the Jews who were trying to get help, and the people wanted to depend on other nations. Isaiah walked into the court because he was a member of the aristocracy and also the cousin of king Hezekiah, and he said to the king: “Woe to those who g down to Egypt for help.” The Jews had just sent a delegation to Egypt because the army of Israel was in terrible shape. Assyria was about to attack and they hit the panic button. Then Isaiah went on to say, “Don’t depend on horses and chariots. Don’t depend upon the infantry of Egypt.” He gave an illustration: “If you depend upon the spears of Egypt it is like falling down upon that spear-point and putting it through your hand.” Then, of course, his marvellous messages in Isaiah 36 and 37: “It is time O Israel, client nation, to have confidence in God.”

That is a principle. But how do you fulfil the principle? Doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, and more doctrine. You can never have enough doctrine. They ignored it and the Assyrians came, and as they came they destroyed the Jewish army. But before they came they met the Egyptian army and wiped them out. What saved Israel? How did they survive it all? Through a pivot of mature believers. And how did God honour that pivot? The Assyrians had used a strategic envelopment, whipped the Egyptian army, and in the siege of Jerusalem had clobbered the Jews. Then, one day there were still a few good men fighting in the Jewish army and they held up 200,000 concentrated Assyrian troops when the Lord Jesus Christ wiped out all of those troops. Why? There were those who had confidence in God and were watching the event. They weren’t running around trying to straighten anything out. When you have confidence in God at gate five as a motivating virtue then at gate six you have a functional virtue: courage, courage toward man and circumstances. The most difficult courage is to sit in the stand and watch history go to Hell, stay loose, and not get involved except the right way: change the world and turn it upside down by your advance to spiritual maturity.

Verse 12 — we start out with an adverb of place called o(de and it is translated “Here,” but the meaning is not “here” at all, it is idiomatic and means “Under these circumstances” or “In this case.” So immediately we are talking about historical disaster. The idiom means, “Look, we are on the verge of great historical disaster but in the meantime we are in simple historical disaster. Under these circumstances someone has to come to the rescue. How does it all happen?”

Next we have the nominative singular subject u(pomonh which can be translated “patience” and is on certain occasions. It does means patience; it also means endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance, courage. So we translate it: “Under these circumstances courage.” And then what kind of courage is going to turn the tide of history: the possessive genitive plural from a(gioj, courage of one category called a(gioj. It is translated “saints” and it does mean set apart, but it has even a stronger meaning than simply saint. It means set apart, and set apart ones are those believers who are positive toward the plan of God and functioning in the divine system as it exists in the Tribulation. “Fortitude of the saints,” when we talk about courage we are not talking about impulsive action, we are talking about thought, we are talking about the ability to think under pressure. “Fortitude of the saints” indicates the fact that people, believers as a category of people, are learning doctrine daily, are growing in grace, have arrived at gate five and gate six and are fulfilling the first mandate of the Christian life: virtue first.

Next we have the present active indicative of e)imi, “there is.” We have already noted the fortitude of the saints and o(de is going to be translated with e)imi, “This calls for the fortitude [courage] of the saints.” Everything we have been studying with regard to the Tribulation and how these judgements will be administered against the unbelievers of the world during the Tribulation, that awful time of historical disaster, calls for tremendous courage or fortitude on the part of the saints. In every dispensation there is the principle of motivational virtue and in this case the motivational virtue is confidence in God. Then there is functional virtue, the counterpart of confidence in God, and that is courage toward man and circumstances. Confidence in God comes from perception of doctrine; perception of doctrine comes from the function of humility.

Now we have a translation, remembering that e)imi is a customary present from what may be reasonably expected to occur when the believer has momentum from his own positive volition. Remember that you must motivate yourself. The active voice: the Tribulational believers who follow the colours of daily perception of doctrine produce the action of the verb. The declarative indicative mood is for the future reality of the courage or fortitude of believers living in that terrible time of historical disaster.

What is the believer’s responsibility in the time of great historical disaster? Sit in the stands and watch the tremendous historical events. Don’t get involved with the things that are happening. Every day we can see things that raise our ire and we want to change everything. Watch, but do not participate. The only participation is positive volition toward doctrine for the only way that we can deliver our country in its time of need and approaching historical disaster is the daily perception of doctrine, our spiritual growth, and the development of a large enough pivot to offset the situation. Fortitude means firmness of mind in meeting danger or adversity. Therefore it is a synonym for courage. Courage is the ability to think under pressure.

Literally this would be translated, “This is a case for the fortitude of the saints,” but the idiom should be translated, “This calls for the fortitude [the functional virtue of courage] of the saints [positive believers living inside the system as it exists in the Tribulation].”

The literal translation does not follow the nature of the case, it simply does not relate to the previous dissertation on Satan’s ecumenical religious system, therefore the importance of translating this phrase in the true meaning of its idiom.

Note the implications of the idiom: Ecumenical religion of the time of the devil’s desperation demands the application of doctrine in two areas. First, with regard to false doctrine of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation: the believe is challenged to use the three stages of the faith-rest drill with emphasis on the essence of God rationale as well as the plan of God rationale. When this occurs there will be a true dynamic. Secondly, with regard to cosmic evangelists, friends and loved ones who seek to proselyte the believer for the cosmic system, virtue must be applied. Virtue-love: if we have personal love for God as a motivating virtue we will have impersonal love for those who are cosmic evangelists. If we have confidence in God as a motivating virtue we will have the functional virtue of fortitude toward man and circumstances. That will give us the ability to resist. The application belongs to us, the interpretation belongs to the Tribulational believer. So this means that we must have motivational virtue before we have functional virtue, and this calls for the fortitude or courage of the saints.

Then the tactical victory is mentioned with the articular present active participle from the verb terew which means to observe, to keep, to fulfil. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun whose antecedent is “the saints.” The present tense is the progressive present for action in a state of persistence, namely the persistence of positive believers, believers who have the right priorities, believers who put doctrine first and continue their positive volition no matter how terrible the trends of history become. While there is no divine dynasphere in the Tribulation there is still the divine system in every dispensation. The system that belongs to the royal family of God is expressed in terms of its power, the dynasphere, but the system as the plan of God in every dispensation follows the same principle: virtue first is the priority. Gnwsij doctrine must be converted into e)pignwsij for virtue to exist in the life. The active voice: the Tribulational believer who is positive toward doctrine produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

With this is the accusative plural from the direct object e)ntolh, meaning mandate. Those mandates mean recognition of divine authority. Divine authority is delegated in two ways: in the Word of God and in the communication from the pastor-teacher. The mandates are said to be in the ablative of source singular, “from God.” The ablative of source implies that the original plan of God for the Tribulational believer contributes the virtue function of courage under pressure from Satan’s ecumenical religion. This also fulfils the concept of the divine system. Even without the divine dynasphere the system always has the same priorities: in God ‘s plan, mandates first; in God’s system, virtue first; in God’s purpose, Christ first; in God’s policy, grace first; in God’s objective, momentum first; in God’s authority, doctrine first.

God’s plan for the believer, therefore, has eight characteristics regardless of the dispensation. Mechanically we have the divine dynasphere but in every dispensation there are eight characteristics.

First of all, God’s plan, and you as a believer are in God’s plan for this dispensation, has a purpose. The purpose is to glorify Christ through spiritual momentum and advance to spiritual maturity. The purpose is always there. God sustains us for a purpose. Whether we are winners or losers God is going to sustain us but it is the winner who fulfils the purpose.

Secondly, there is an objective: to become a winner, to advance to spiritual maturity. The winner rejects Satan’s ecumenical religious system in the Tribulation. The winner is positive toward Bible doctrine. Thirdly, there is a policy in God’s plan. Grace is always the policy in the administration of His plan whether Church Age believers or Tribulational believers.

Fifth, there is a point of reference: the justice of God, one half of divine holiness or integrity.

Sixth, we recognise authority: the Word of God is the authority, hence the priority of doctrine first in one’s scale of values.

Seventh, a result: the believer makes good decisions from a position of strength, maintains control of his life, and has a personal sense of destiny.

Eighth, we have an enemy: the cosmic system of Satan, the source of Satan’s ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation.

So we have the principle: “those who observe [or keep, or fulfil] the mandates from God.” This is the winner, this is the one who succeeds. And how does he become a winner? We have the connective conjunction kai, “and.” This conjunction separates the system from the means of fulfilling the system. Next we have the accusative singular from pistij. Pistij means three things: faith, the concept of faithfulness, what is believed and/or the whole realm of doctrine. It should be translated here: “and doctrine.” Then we have a very strange phrase, the possessive genitive of the name of the humanity of Christ, I)hsouj, “Jesus,” “and the doctrine of Jesus.” The doctrine belongs to Christ and to His humanity because in the prototype divine dynasphere our Lord learned this doctrine. Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ but Bible doctrine is also what the humanity of Christ learned and how it sustained Him for the strategic victory of the cross.

Translation: “This calls for the fortitude [courage] of the saints who observe [or fulfil] the mandates from God, and the doctrine of Jesus.”

General Patton: “There is a time to take counsel of your fears and there is a time never to listen to your fears. It is always important to know what your are doing. The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That is the time to listen to every fear you can imagine. When you have collected all of the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all your fears and go ahead with the battle. Every plan you make in war is going to be a live or die decision: you will either live or die as a result of your decision. Since we are not afraid to do either there is no reason to take counsel of your fear. The chance of being killed in combat is not as great as being killed on our highways. If you want to take counsel of your fears, stop driving a car. And don’t crawl in bed at night, more people die in bed than anywhere else. The person who cannot face death has truly never faced life because every day of life is a day closer to death. To take counsel of your fears about death is to destroy the day that you are living.”

In the Tribulation there are going to be a lot of martyrs. We have already studied these martyrs from the standpoint of their imprecatory prayers; now we are going to study them from the standpoint of the doctrine of death itself.

Verse 13, the victorious death of Tribulational believers. This is an addendum, a mandate from heaven. We have seen the judgements which come to the unbelievers in the Tribulation, we have seen the evangelism and the principles of evangelism related to judgment. Just as there is discipline for the believer when he fails, first of all warning discipline, then intensive discipline and eventually dying discipline, so with the unbeliever there is a system of evangelism that is related to judgment. There is warning judgment, then there is intensive judgment and eventually dying judgment or the baptism of fire at the second advent of Christ.

We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw, “I heard.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: John the apostle, the human author of Revelation, produces the action of the verb. The declarative indicative mood is for the historical reality of an interruption, to make an insertion about the fact that when matures believers die it is a glorious victory. The victorious death of certain believers living in the Tribulation is our subject.

Next we have the objective genitive singular from the noun fwnh, “voice.” The voice is said to come from heaven, the preposition e)k plus the ablative of o)uranoj: “the voice from heaven.” Then the present active indicative of legw, “saying.” The pictorial present pictures in the mind the study which is an interruption of the general study, the judgment of the unbeliever. The active voice: inasmuch as God the Holy Spirit is the divine author of scripture it is concluded that the voice is the voice of God the Holy Spirit. The Bible is said to be the Word of God the Father, Hebrews 4:12; the Bible is said to be the mind or thinking of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16; the Bible is said to be the voice of the Spirit, Hebrews 3:7. This is a reference to that voice of the Holy Spirit.

God the Holy Spirit so supernaturally directed the human writers of scripture that without waiving their human intelligence, their individuality, their literary style, their personal feelings or any other human factor, His complete and coherent message to mankind was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of scripture, the very words of the original bearing the authority of divine authorship.

The mechanics of inspiration are stated in 2 Timothy 3:16, “all scripture is God-breathed [qeopneustoj].” There is therefore the inhale in which God the Holy Spirit communicates to the human author God’s complete and coherent message, both for that generation and all subsequent generations. The writer, like John, has other messages for his generation which are not reduced to writing. Only that which is pertinent for all generations is actually reduced and recorded in the Word of God. Hence, the input, the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. There are many passages on this phase of inspiration: 2 Samuel 23:2,3; Isaiah 59:21; Jeremiah 1:9; Matthew 24:42,43; Mark 12:36; Acts 4:24,25; 28:25. So in the inhale God the Holy Spirit provides the information for the human author — generally an apostle but not always.

Then there is the exhale. The human writer, like John, writes down in his own language this divine message to mankind. This doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration means that no passage of scripture originates from man’s thinking, man’s rationalisation, man’s deductions or conclusions. The apostle is not giving his own conclusions, he is exhaling in writing which is the formation of the canon of scripture God’s complete and connected thought toward man, but he is doing so with his own literary style, his own vocabulary.

In 2 Peter 1:20-21 we have a mistranslation in the King James version. It should read: “Knowing this first, that all prophecy of scripture [all eschatological doctrine] does not originate with one’s own explanation [or deduction], for prophecy was never produced by the design [the purpose, the will] of man, but men [human writers] communicated from God, being carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

This is what we have here: “Then I heard a voice from heaven which said...” The participle is circumstantial, used for a relative clause, “which said.” Next we have the aorist active imperative from grafw, “write”: the mandate. It is a culminative aorist, it views the interruption by God the Holy Spirit in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the insertion of an additional point of doctrine: the beatitude of dying grace. This beatitude of dying grace is an insertion. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb giving a command for this insertion. The imperative mood is an imperative of command, a mandate from God the Holy Spirit. This information must be given. It is not only necessary for the Tribulational believers who will so die, it is necessary for believers in every generation before that time.

Next we have the beatitude of supergrace death. We begin with the nominative plural subject of makarioj. It is in the plural and it denotes transcendent happiness in life. We translate it “blessed.” In the plural we have a stylistic form of the beatitude. It means literally, “happinesses.” Then we have the predicate nominative plural from nekroj, the “dying” ones, those who are going to be casualties during the Tribulation, there are many martyrs in the Tribulation. It is a reference here to the mature believers of the last half of the Tribulation who experience martyrdom and at the same time they die under the principle of dying grace. Then the articular present active participle a)poqnhskw, “who die.” The aoristic present tense, punctiliar action in present time: they are just going to suddenly die after being tortured, abused, and being the subjects of violence. The active voice: specifically here, mature believers produce the action. The participle is circumstantial. Apparently immature believers, believers who are living in the cosmic system, are just simply going to give up.

John is going to show that there are certain people whom are not included here. This is a specific category of believer. In Colossians 2:6,7 we have the phrase, “according as you have received to yourself Christ Jesus the Lord, so keep walking in him, having been rooted and constantly built up in him, being stabilised by means of doctrine in the manner you have been taught, overflowing with thanksgiving.” This is the category of believer who is going to die in this particular passage: the ones who have learned doctrine and take a stand for the Lord; those who have grown spiritually. Doctrine vindicates the essence of God.

Romans 3:3,4, “What then? If some did not believe, shall their unbelief cancel the faithfulness of God? Definitely not. Furthermore, let God continue truthful, though every man a liar, even as it stands written, ‘That you might become vindicated by means of your doctrine, and that you might become victorious when you are maligned.’ ” This is the category of believer involved in this beatitude.

So we have, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,” and “in the Lord” is simply the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of kurioj, and it means “in the Lord’s time” here. These are Tribulational saints, therefore. They are not in union with Christ because they do not live in this dispensation, the Church Age. “In the Lord” in this dispensation means positional truth, the baptism of the Spirit, union with Christ. Positional truth, however, is the monopoly of the Church Age and this context is the Tribulation. The royal family is formed by means of the baptism of the Spirit; all of us are “in Christ,” in union with Him. This prepositional phrase is different, it is referring to the fact that they die in the sense of the Lord’s perfect timing. There is a time to live and there is a time to die.

So far this is what we have by way of corrected translation: “Then I heard a voice from heaven which said, Write, Blessed are the dead [mature believers who are martyred in the last half of the Tribulation] who die in the Lord [in the Lord’s timing].”

For the mature believer that is always true. When he advances to maturity in this dispensation, in the divine dynasphere, the mature believer always dies in the perfect timing of the Lord. The reason is because the mature believer first of all makes good decisions from a position of strength. Secondly, he has control of his own life. Thirdly, he has a personal sense of destiny. Therefore under the Lord’s magnificent blessing His timing is perfect. The issue in death is not when you die but it is whether the timing is right or wrong. There is nothing more important than dying under God’s perfect wisdom and God’s perfect timing, and that is true for mature believers as illustrated by Hebrews 11:13, “According to doctrine [doctrine resident in the soul] all these died under the principle of dying grace, not having received the promises, but having seen the same [the promises of the future] from a distance, and having saluted and embraced them [the second and third stages of the faith-rest drill] also having acknowledged that they were strangers and transients passing through the earth.” In other words, referring to those who are mature believers. This is the concept of dying grace.

The Bible has a great deal to say about physical death. Death is associated with ending revolution in Numbers 16:25ff; death is a matter of the sovereignty of God based on His omniscience, His knowledge of all the facts, Psalm 68:19,20. In Song of Solomon 8:6 we have a very interesting phrase: “True love is stronger than death.” Furthermore, God can and does prolong life so that death is postponed, as per Psalm 102:19,20, 2-34; 118:18; Proverbs 14:27. Jeremiah 9:20-25, women have to be taught to face the death of their loved ones. The sin unto death does not bring glory to God, Isaiah 38:18. Death cannot be faced when the norms-standard function of the right lobe of the conscience is destroyed, according to Lamentation 1:19,20. Dying grace is a promotion for the believer, Philippians 1:21, and God provides in dying grace, Amos 5:8, for the mature believer. God delivers the believer from death, Psalm 33:19.

In our phrase, “Blessed are they who die in the Lord,” we are dealing with the concept of dying grace, the death of the mature believer. Dying grace is for mature believers: Psalm 33:18,19, “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on them who are occupied with him [who respect Him], on those who have confidence in his grace [motivational virtue of the mature believer: confidence toward God], to deliver their soul from death [or, in time of death], and to keep them alive in time of disaster.” Dying grace takes the fear out of death: Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the deep darkness of death, I will not fear harm, for you are with me.” In other words, the believer who is occupied with the Lord recognises the principle that death is just another phase and a mere step into eternity. Therefore, Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones [the mature believers].” So dying grace is the last paragraph in supergrace blessing, and dying grace is one of the greatest blessings in life. For the believer who has had the experience of all categories of divine blessing this is the greatest of all. Dying grace, therefore, is the bridge between supergrace blessing in time and surpassing grace blessing in eternity. In dying grace the believer walks over a bridge: he walks out of time and he walks into eternity. He leaves behind supergrace blessings and in eternity he will go to surpassing grace blessing.

Therefore the importance of momentum, the importance of advancing to maturity, the importance of advancing to the high ground. Attitude toward Bible doctrine is the determining factor. The time for the formation of positive or negative attitudes toward doctrine is called the time of being sustained by logistical grace. As soon as we accept Jesus Christ as our saviour, at that moment we are moving into logistical grace, we have received the imputation of God’s righteousness. The justice of God is the origin of the imputation and down that grace pipeline is the faithfulness of God in providing everything necessary to keep us alive. All of us have, therefore, X amount of time on this earth assigned to us by God. When that time is finished the soul of the believer leaves the body: absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. The believer in heaven occupies an interim body and whether he is a winner or a loser after his physical death he has great happiness, great blessing in the presence of the Lord. He is recognised by his friends and in this interim body, face to face with the Lord, he recognises friends and loved ones. It is a wonderful time of blessing. This interim body continues until the Rapture of the Church, and when the resurrection of the Church occurs then the believer who has been with the Lord all these years receives his resurrection body. So the interim life in heaven for those of our loved ones and friends and all believers who have departed since the Church Age began are in a state of great happiness, whether they failed or succeeded in this life. In the concept of this principle we have the fact that those who are mature can anticipate some fantastic eternal blessings which we have studied.

The apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:13, “Members of the royal family, I evaluate myself as not having seized and held the high ground of maturity; but one thing on which I concentrate: I forget those things which are behind and press toward what lies ahead of me. I therefore keep advancing to the objective [gate eight] for the purpose of reward belonging to the upward station from the God in Christ Jesus.”

Once you settle the matter of dying, once you have no fear of death, once you understand all of these principles and apply them in the dying grace rationale, then you have capacity for life, capacity for blessing. You are able to handle life and you are able to enjoy life: death is already resolved. Death is an absolute; death is a certainty, in fact if the Rapture doesn’t occur within a reasonable time everyone of the present day will be dead and will have had the experience of dying grace (provided you have advanced to maturity), and will know what it means to enjoy an interim body and an interim life in the presence of the Lord. The exception to dying grace is the disciplinary exception: the principle of dying the sin unto death. Once you have settled this doctrine, once you understand the dying grace rationale, you have been able to overcome through the application of doctrine the greatest fear that people have in this life: the fear of death. Once that is behind you then you are prepared to face any set of circumstances in life. You are prepared to fulfil the principle that it is time to get up in the stands, sit in the stands, watch historical disaster go by, and by positive volition toward doctrine turn around the whole situation. If you go out and start doing things — go on crusades, try to straighten out this world and solve the country’s problems, join this and that organisation and hustle around — then you are missing the boat: you are distracted, you are in a state of crusader arrogance and negative volition. Positive volition demands that we sit, learn doctrine and enlarge that pivot, for that pivot is the only thing that is going to save the nation. That means that any time you get involved in trying to straighten something out, trying to crusade, trying to right the wrongs, trying to bring good out of evil, you are missing the boat entirely.

Once we solve the problem if death then we go to the problem of life. And if you sit down and watch history and grow in grace, move from gate four to gate eight and avoid all of the distractions of crusading activity (all you are doing is whitewashing the devil’s world) then there will be a change in the nation. The deliverance of the nation depends entirely upon the believers attitude toward Bible doctrine.

Then there is a principle that applies to you. It is found in Job 5:19-27. When you learn the principle of positive volition on a daily basis, then as you sit in the stands this is what God provides for you logistically:

“In six troubles he will deliver you,” the hiphil imperfect of the verb natsal and it means a rescue or a deliverance. It emphasises the wall of fire principle related to logistical grace. As long as you have momentum in the spiritual life you also have that wall of fire. That has been true of every dispensation but is especially true in this dispensation where the wall of fire is defined as the divine dynasphere, “furthermore in seven evil will not touch you,” the qal imperfect of naga means to touch, but it also means something else: it means to meddle. Evil will not interfere with you; evil will not meddle with you; evil will not be able to distract you from the mission that God has assigned to you as a believer.

Verse 20, Logistical grace, the wall of fire is parlayed into various categories of deliverance. We start out with the qal perfect from the verb padah, it means to preserve, to redeem, “In famine [the first category of disaster: economic depression] he will preserve you from death, and in war from the power of the sword,” the safest place for the mature believer, the believer who has momentum, is on a battlefield. So every believer who is a professional soldier needs a relationship with the integrity of God, “from the power of the sword.”

Then we get down to two more categories of great disaster in history. One of them is found in the niphel imperfect from the Hebrew verb chabah. Chabah means to be hidden.

Verse 21, “You will be hidden [protected] from the scourge of the tongue,” social disaster: to be maligned, to be judged, to be the subject of gossip, to be the object of all categories of vindictiveness and implacability and personal revenge. But then comes the big one: “Neither will you be afraid of destruction,” the word for destruction is shob, and it refers to violent death. It would be very pertinent, therefore, to Tribulational believers, “when it comes.”

Verse 22, “You will laugh,” the laugh of humour, not the laugh of hysteria: the relaxed, humorous approach developed from perception, application, flexibility of maximum doctrine resident in the soul, “at violent death and economic depression; and from the wild animals of the earth you will have nothing to fear.” Wild animals in the time of writing were a source of violent death in peace time as well as in war. So the Bible has to be interpreted in the time in which it was written: wild animals represent violent death. The mature believer is preserved from all the instruments of death until the Lord is ready to take him home. Therefore he has a relaxed mental attitude, the sense of humour with regard to death.

Verse 23, “For your contract will be with the stones of the field,” the stones of the field were used as weapons at the time of writing. In other words, there is no bullet with your name written on it until the Lord is ready to take you home, “and the wild animals [a source of destruction] will be at peace with you.” In other words, no instrument of death can remove the mature believer from this life until God permits it and only the integrity of God can transfer the believer from time to eternity. Therefore neither historical, natural, any environment that is dangerous, or any other category of disaster can kill the believer.

Verse 24, “Therefore you will know that your tent [the human body] is in a state of prosperity,” no matter what circumstances may exist there is prosperity for the mature believer. Notice the word “know,” knowledge of doctrine, “for you will visit your home [heaven] and you will not forfeit your reward,” the future. The mature believer will receive in eternity tremendous eternal blessing.

Verse 25, “And you will know [knowledge of doctrine] that your seed shall be numerous,” this is an idiom for prosperity, usually related to loved ones left behind but the principle of historical impact is there as well. The word “seed” can refer to loved ones by natural generation, by regeneration, friends, anything, and blessing by association is one of the things that you leave behind. When the mature believer dies he leaves behind a heritage, a will that cannot be broken. His loved ones, his friends can be unbelievers or believers and they are going to be blessed by association with him — “and your descendants will be like the grass of the earth,” blessing by association for loved ones is the issue.

Verse 26, “You will come to the grave in full vigour,” in all matters of life and death timing is important, and in the dying of any believer God’s timing is perfect because God is perfect. This is a very important doctrine to us but far more important to the believers of the Tribulation. And the illustration of timing is taken from agriculture, “like a shock of corn in its season,” there is a right time and a wrong time to pick corn, only the expert can determine. God is the expert; He knows best. And notice that this verse does not promise us a long life, it promises us a full life.

Verse 27, The mandate for all believers of all generations: “Hear it and know it [or apply it] for yourself.”

Now we go into an interim idiom. It is a very unusual idiom made up of a preposition and an adverb, and the interim idiom is designed for an insertion by God the Holy Spirit at this point after the phrase, “who die in the Lord.” We have the preposition a)po plus the adverb a)rti. It would be translated “from now on” literally, but this is an idiom and there is a special blessing for those mature believers in the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the devil’s desperation, who handled their martyrdom rather than becoming converts to Satan’s ecumenical religion. Inasmuch as makarioj is in the plural it refers to the principle of dying grace at the point of their martyrdom plus the fantastic eternal rewards and decorations which they will have forever and ever. The plural indicates the status of these believers after death. A))p plus a)rti is an interim idiom, it does not modify the beatitude directly but it refers definitely to life after death for those mature believers of the last half of the Tribulation who are martyred. The point is that they are much happier in eternity than they ever would be had they compromised their stand for the Lord and become members of the ecumenical religious system of Satan.

There is a principle that comes out of this for all of us: There is no happiness, there is no blessing to be found in religion.

How do we translate this idiom? It is translated “from now on.” And with this we have a third word nai. It is called the affirmative particle and it means “yes.” So our translation in the middle of verse 13 begins, “yes, from now on.” Remember that in the original manuscripts there were no punctuation marks found in the Greek, and this means that the punctuation marks in the Greek New Testament have been added by translators and our English version is simply an interpretation. Most interpreters assume that the idiom of time, a)p a)rti, modifies the beatitude, which it does not. Instead it goes with the affirmative particle. So actually we begin a new sentence in the middle of this verse.

With this we have a nominative singular subject from the noun pneuma referring to God the Holy Spirit. With that we have the present active indicative of the verb legw which means to speak or to communicate, “Yes, says the Spirit, from now on,” or “the Spirit says, yes.” The static present of the verb legw presents a dogmatic statement of doctrine. God the Holy Spirit produces the action in the active voice, and the declarative indicative is for a dogmatic statement of doctrine in the assertion. The insertion by God the Holy Spirit is in the form of a purpose clause and it begins with the conjunction i(na. It is translated “that” or “in order that,” and here it introduces a semi-final purpose clause which denotes the direction of the action of the verb toward a given result which is anticipated, “Yes, says the Spirit, from now on in order that.”

Then we have the future passive indicative of a)napauw, and it means to receive rest, to receive refreshment, “in order that they may rest.” The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates dying grace, entrance into the eternal state through having an interim state and an interim body. The passive voice: the martyred believers of the Tribulation receive rest in the interim state. Remember that the interim state is the time between their physical death and the time of the receiving of the resurrection body. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of blessing in the interim state.

With this we have the have the preposition e)k plus the ablative of kopoj, “labour,” very difficult labour. It means to make decisions against the grain. With this is the possessive genitive of a)utoj, translated “from their labours.” Translation: “Yes, says the Spirit, from now on in order that they may rest from their labours.” The labours has to do with coping with the adversities of great historical disaster at the end of the Tribulation when mature believers are a special target.

The eternal reward for the victorious dead is now mentioned. We have the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar, “for,” and then the nominative plural subject of e)rgon, the plural meaning deeds and accomplishments in conjunction with the priorities of God’s plan. E)rgon does not refer to deeds like witnessing, it refers to modus operandi like momentum in the daily perception of doctrine. It means virtue first, doctrine first, Christ first, the system first [as it exists at that time]. We translate it: “for their accomplishments.” Then the present active indicative of a)kolouqew, “will follow.” The futuristic present, the eschatological event: following their death they are going to have fantastic blessing. The active voice: the accomplishments of the mature believer in functioning under God’s plan and God’s system produces the action. The declarative indicative is for a dogmatic statement of doctrine: God never overlooks the following of His priorities, the execution of His plan, and the advance to maturity, establishing doctrine first in the life. Then we have the preposition of accompaniment, meta plus the genitive of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “with them”, and it can be idiomatically translated “will accompany them.” By application this refers to us as well as to them.

Translation of verse 13: “Then I heard a voice from heaven which said, Write, Blessed are the dead [mature believers martyred in the last half of the Tribulation] who die in the Lord. Yes, says the Spirit, from now on, in order that they may rest from their labours [coping with the adversities through doctrine]; for their accomplishments will accompany them [into the eternal state].”

You have heard the phrase: “You can’t take it with you.” It is not true, you can take it with you. If you follow the priorities of God’s plan and God’s system you can not only take it with you but you will have it forever.

Verse 14, Jesus Christ is the key to history. Whether a person makes wrong decisions or right decisions it doesn’t change the fact that no decisions will ever change the fact that Jesus Christ controls history and that Jesus Christ is the key to human history.

We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” It follows in sequence. Next, the aorist active indicative of o(raw which is used to introduce every vision in the book of Revelation. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the vision in its entirety. The active voice: John, the human writer, produces the action: he sees the vision. The declarative indicative represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. The communicator of doctrine therefore must always be in touch with reality is the meaning of this format. These visions are a reality from the divine viewpoint. Anyone who communicates doctrine, anyone who learns doctrine, anyone who applies doctrine, must always be in touch with reality and it is doctrine that puts us in touch with reality, not our experiences. In other words, the reality that counts is reality from the divine viewpoint, and that means doctrine must be in the soul. Experience is not always reality from God’s viewpoint.

There is a constant battle during our life on this earth that when there is a conflict between what the Bible says and some experience that someone has, like allegedly being healed, the object of a “miracle.” The problem with experiences is that you never have all the facts; the problem with doctrine is that you must have all the facts. Doctrine will give you the facts. When there is a conflict between Bible doctrine and our experience, doctrine is right.

Next we have the connective conjunction kai, “and,” and with it a demonstrative particle i)dou which means “behold” but behold seems to have lost its punch. “Achtung” in the German gives a better idea. Next we have the nominative of appellation, nefelh, and it refers to a cloud. And it is a leukoj cloud, a “white cloud.” In other words, it isn’t a stormy cloud. “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud.” So the first thing we see is the setting. Clouds are associated with both the first and second advents of Christ. In the first advent there was the cloud from which God the Father spoke about God the Son. The same cloud was used on the mount of transfiguration, Matthew 17:5. The second advent: “Behold, he is coming with clouds, Revelation 1:7. The clouds are associated with the strategic and tactical victories of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then we have the Lord sitting in His “chair,” the articular present active participle of the verb kaqhmai, “sitting.” The definite article is used for both the personal pronoun and the relative pronoun “he who.” The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of the event in the process of occurrence. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action. This time the principle does not deal with reality as such but with victory. The posture of our Lord Jesus Christ sitting indicates the strategic victory of the first advent. The participle is circumstantial. “And he [our Lord Jesus Christ] was sitting on the cloud.” We insert the verb e)imi because of the ellipsis here, “was.” Then the comparative particle o(moioj, “was like,” and then the title for our Lord in His first advent when He first became true humanity, “the Son of Man.”

Translation so far: “Then I looked, and behold, a while cloud and he who was sitting on the cloud was like the Son of Man.”

Since clouds are often associated with angels it probably represents the entire angelic college of heralds. This is a reminder that our Lord Jesus Christ was the winner in the prehistoric angelic conflict and again He is the winner in the historic angelic conflict. As eternal and infinite God our Lord Jesus Christ won: He was the winner in the prehistoric angelic conflict. As the God-Man Jesus Christ is the strategic winner by His first advent; He will be the tactical winner by His second advent. Jesus Christ, therefore, had to be a man to go to the cross and be judged for our sins, and this phrase indicates that Jesus Christ controls history: He sits on the clouds. So we now meet the winner, the victor, of human history.

No matter what happens in history it is all going to turn out well. Things do not often go well in many generations but it is going to turn out well. The present active indicative of e)xw means to have, to have and to hold. The static present is for a condition which will perpetually exist. The golden crown or the wreath represents our Lord’s strategic victory. He is the winner of the angelic conflict and the golden crown represents the royal title, the royal warrant, He received. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. No matter how bad things get just remember how it is all going to turn out. The circumstantial participle is often translated with the conjunction and the finite verb form and that is the way we translate it here: “and he has.” Then stefanoj for the crown. This is the crown you win, not a crown you inherit.

Because of our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent he is now entitled to judge the world. Once He wears that crown he has a prerogative that goes with that crown. Part of the fact that Jesus Christ controls history is the fact that He has the authority at any time to judge any segment of the population of this world. This was taught in John 5:22,23,27. “For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has delegated all judgment to the Son in order that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father ...” The Jews as unbelievers recognised only God the Father as the God of Israel. They did not understand the true meaning of Deuteronomy 6:4 and they could not do so apart from appreciation of the victory of the first advent. Our Lord Jesus Christ is then judge of human history and as the judge of human history He is going to set up a system. The fact that He is sitting on His “chair” [the cloud] and watching history means that He controls history. Not only does He control history but He is the winner of history, therefore we are identified with Him.

The passage coming up is a most fascinating passage from the standpoint of office procedure, from the standpoint of procedure in any organisation. We are going to see all of the VIPs in heaven, they are going to do different things. The voice of the Father will come out of the temple. He is going to send one of the highest-ranking angles in the college of heralds. Then there are other angels in the college of heralds and another high-ranking angel is going to come from the altar where the Tribulational martyrs have been with their imprecatory prayers. There are another couple of high-ranking angels who are going to be given the administrative responsibility. They are going to have a sickle. One of them is going to come out of the temple and is going to be on standby reserve until a certain point. And we are now going to see how the court of heaven functions, and it functions under the system of protocol.

And this now brings us in anticipation of a great principle: The best things in life come from humility as the base of virtue, self discipline, being organised in your life, reducing your own life to a routine. To the extent that you reduce your life to a routine you destroy the confusion and you make two things very good for yourself. First of all your spiritual life which is the basis of your happiness and, secondly, your social life which is the human expression of your happiness. Your spiritual life expresses your happiness toward the Lord; your social life expresses your happiness in the direction of mankind. But the real secret is to have a routine. You have to make good decisions; you have to have self-discipline. But that whole system will only function under protocol. There has to be protocol; there has to be civilisation.

The average fundamentalist Christian sneers at protocol, he is a law unto himself. In fact the average fundamentalist is absolutely stupid when it comes to protocol. Protocol is the system that God has set up for believers. Historical disaster means no protocol, no authority, no orientation. Protocol is the use of manners, the recognition of authority, the recognition that we must operate within a system, and that everyone can express and utilise their freedom if we all operate within that system. The greatest periods of civilisation we have ever known historically have always been protocol periods. England in the last century was a protocol period. Protocol is absolutely necessary for the survival of civilisation.

We are now living in a time of great degeneracy, a time of immoral degeneracy and, what is even worse, moral degeneracy, both categories. We are surviving because it is all disorganised evil, but then you get organised evil in a dictatorship that you have when the Christians get persecuted. But even when you have organised evil as we studied in chapter thirteen and when protocol goes our Lord still sits in His cloud with His crown on His head. Degeneracy destroys protocol; organised evil guarantees that protocol will not exist at all. Therefore our Lord from His throne sets up a system of protocol whereby the human race continues to exist, and always will until the end of time. The human race as such will never be wiped out, although from time to time certain portions of the human race will be wiped out. When there is no civilisation and people live on planet earth God provides a system of protocol which in effect protects the positive believer unless it is his time to be taken home to be with the Lord.

So we have the Lord sitting on the cloud with His crown and He also has one other thing. We have the connective conjunction kai and the accusative singular direct object from the noun drepanoj, “and a sickle.” Furthermore it is said to be o)couj, a “sharp” sickle, and it is in His hand. The sickle is the symbol of judgment.

Now, what does the Lord provide in the worst period of human history for disaster? In the last half of the Tribulation before the second advent we have the crown which He wears. He provides a protocol whereby people will survive no matter how much they try to destroy themselves. The world will never be destroyed by nuclear weapons, by war, by disease, by earthquakes or tidal waves. etc. Certain parts of the world will have population loss from all of these things but the crown indicates that Jesus Christ controls history and in the worst periods of history He sets up a protocol system related to positive volition toward doctrine: the wall of fire whereby people survive. Believers and unbelievers, both will survive before the second advent. Part of His protocol system is the sickle, the symbol of divine judgment. Judgment, disaster, is used to protect the human race from destroying itself. God destroys those segments who have this self-destructive tendency. Divine judgment is an operation that cuts out the cancerous part of mankind so that the rest can function in a wonderful way.

In recent times there have been many signs of some the difficult situations which will occur in the Tribulation. We are not in the Tribulation and we may not even be near the Tribulation. Between us and the Tribulation is the Rapture or resurrection of the Church which will remove all believers in a moment of time from this world. The Rapture could occur today but it could also occur a thousand years from today, we do not know the day or the hour. But we do know that there are certain historical trends which we have been studying eschatologically and which also have historical implications. And certainly by sitting in the stands and watching history developing before us we learn many interesting things. In our passage these trends have reached their peak. They have come to the point where there is total degeneracy and where people are at the mercy of terrorism on every hand.

In verse fourteen we have just concluded a passage dealing with our Lord Jesus Christ controlling history and we terminated with the issue of protocol. By way of introduction to verse 15 we stop and take a look at the function of protocol. Civilisation cannot exist, not only without the principle, but also without its function. We note that heaven operates under a marvellous system of protocol: the chain of command for the seven last plagues of the Tribulation.

In eight points we have the structurised interpretation for the rest of the chapter

1. Since God the Father has delegated all judgment to God the Son He sends from the temple in heaven a messenger, the officer of arms, to our Lord Jesus Christ with permission for the seven last plagues, verse 15. This is the beginning of a system of protocol. The officer of arms is one of the highest ranking angelic creatures in the angelic college of heralds. He is second only to the king of arms. So we are dealing now with protocol. Remember that protocol is structured by authority and the authority originates from truth. You cannot have civilisation without protocol.

2. As the judge our Lord Jesus gives the orders, then, to administer the seven last plagues — verse 16, where our Lord swings the sickle and the earth is reaped. Inevitably, as the judge, our Lord executes the orders related to the seven last plagues.

3. However, the manner in which the seven last plagues are executed on the earth is a protocol function, a co-ordination in the chain of command in the highest-ranking angelic creature. These are aristocracy of elect angels.

4. The pur sui vant officer in charge of the judgment squad in this passage and in the next two chapters comes out of the temple and he moves to a position of standby reserve waiting for orders, verse 17.

5. In the meantime the king of arms, the highest ranking elect angel in heaven outside of Michael and Gabriel, comes from the altar of imprecatory prayers with a confirmatory order of execution. He brings with him all of the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs, verse 18. This confirmatory order relates the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs to the divine order sent by God the Father from the temple. He has delegated all administration of judgment to the Son.

6. We now have staff co-ordination. One of the living creatures [one of the four angelic heralds] issues the bowl judgements to the judgment squad. The judgment squad is made up of seven pur sui vant messengers whom we will study in chapter 15:7.

7. After this the pur sui vant officer who is on standby takes command of the judgment squad and goes into action, verse 19.

8. This results in the seven pur sui vant messengers of the judgment squad going into action. The action of the first: Revelation 16:2; the action of the second: Revelation 16:3; the action of the third: Revelation 16:4; the action of the fourth: Revelation 16:8, and so on. So that inevitably it is the squad that goes into action and fulfil the whole concept.

Our passage actually begins in verse 15, and from verse 15 to the end of this passage we are going to deal with the pur sui vant function of this squad. They are the judgment squad, their action will be studied in detail and the whole thing is structured on a principle of protocol. All protocol is based upon authority. There is always a system of authority and we have noted the principle: you cannot have freedom without authority. Authority and freedom must coexist. Freedom without authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny.

We are getting ready to study verses 15-19 which looks fairly simple but is a very complex passage because it keeps saying another angel does this and another angel does that. So we are going to study protocol in heaven and learn the doctrine that finite and temporal power can never compete with divine power, and it all starts with the concept of protocol in heaven. It all began with our Lord’s great victory at the cross where He was judged for our sins and as a result of this He is going to terminate Satan’s rulership of the world at the second advent. Then the final part of this passage: the saviour of mankind is also the judge of human history, and because of our Lord’s strategic victory of the first advent He is entitled to judge the world during the course of human history. That includes the Church Age, the Tribulation, the Millennium, and the terminating point of history which is the Gog revolution. All of this was possible because He was judged at the cross. The One who was judged at the cross for our sins now becomes the judge of human history.

Protocol in heaven is the interpretation of the rest of this chapter. Protocol is defined as a rigid long-established code prescribing complete deference to superior rank, and strict adherence to due order of precedence and precisely correct procedure. Protocol, therefore, recognises the principle of authority under the laws of divine establishment. Protocol recognises and obeys authority and consequently protocol requires virtue for its existence. Protocol is related to basic virtue in life; basic virtue demands the recognition of authority. We have studied gate three of the divine dynasphere: basic virtue. Basic virtue is always directed toward authority. Protocol is related to motivational virtue through the principle of the believer’s worship of God. We have noted several of the motivational virtues. For example, we have noted under motivational virtue directed toward God, personal love for God; and it has a counterpart: impersonal love toward all mankind, functional virtue. We have also noted confidence in God. This leads to courage toward circumstances as the functional virtue. Worship toward God is a motivational virtue and that worship of God produces a true morality toward all. True morality is virtue, not self-righteousness. The fact that protocol is a part of God’s plan, His policy, His system for believers on earth, emphasises the conclusion that protocol also exists in heaven. God has established a system of protocol in heaven for creature power cannot compete with divine power. That is true on earth and it is true also in heaven. Arrogance is the worst of all sins because arrogance seeks to compete with divine power. The basis for our study of protocol in heaven, Revelation 14:15-19, is the fact that authority exists in the highest sphere of angelic power, the elect angelic college of heralds.

We should notice that the system of authority in heaven is based on five categories: Category #1, God the Father as the author of the divine plan for the human race; category #2, God the Son is the winner in that plan for the human race; category #3, God the Holy Spirit who is both the revealer and the power of the divine plan; category #4, certain elect angels of the highest aristocracy, the elect college of heralds are involved in the administration of the plan; category #5, certain members of the human race have received the grace of God in the form of a spiritual gift and authority and responsibility. That would be the apostle John in our context.

1. Since God the Father has delegated all judgements to God the Son, as per John 5:22,23,27, we find Him in the heavenly temple sending orders regarding judgment — the last judgements of the Tribulation. He sends these orders to God the Son by angelic messenger. The angelic messenger who carries this order must be of the highest rank in the college of heralds [he is the second highest], he is the officer of arms.

2. In the order of protocol God the Son as the judge executes the mandates of God the Father in verse 16.

3. Between verses 15 & 16 we have a whole system of protocol which is given in verses 17-19, they actually occur between verses 15-16. This system of protocol results in the greatest judgment the world has ever known: the seven last plagues of the Tribulation, also known as the bowl judgements of Revelation chapter sixteen.

4. At this point a judgment squad of seven pur sui vant messengers is formed: the lowest rank in the college of heralds, the college of heralds being the highest aristocracy. They are wingless angels but they were great in the prehistoric angelic conflict and they now hold a very high rank of aristocracy. The judgment squad of pur sui vant messengers is formed for the actual administration of the seven last plagues. The pur sui vant officer in command of that execution squad is simply called in verse 17, “another angel.” These angels are all different, they are involved in a system of protocol.

5. In the meantime verse 18 brings in another angel. This is the king of arms who comes from an entirely different source. He is the highest-ranking elect angel. The angels are all in eternity. Their eternity began before man was created with the great judgment of fallen angels when they were sentenced to the lake of fire. The sentence has not been carried out because Satan appealed: “How can a loving God cast His creatures into the lake of fire?” And God is demonstrating that during human history. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict and that is why we are here: we are resolving the greater conflict of greater creatures. The “another angel” of verse 18 is the Paul or the Moses of angelic creatures, he is the king of arms, the highest-ranking angelic creature. The only other angels who could be as high-ranking would be Gabriel and Michael, but they are in the angelic order of battle, another form of aristocracy. The king of arms in our passage comes from the altar of imprecatory prayers with a confirmatory order of execution. This confirmatory order relates the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs to the divine orders sent through the chain of command. That is the function of the king of arms.

6. Next comes staff co-ordination. One of the living creatures of Revelation 15:7 issues a bowl to each member of the execution squad. The bowl is called a “vial” in the King James version but in the Greek it is the word fialh, a bowl. It is a super grenade but instead of pulling out the pin the angel on command will pour it, and when he does one of seven horrible judgements will hit the earth. When the grenade is pulled on number six bowl we are going to have world war, called “the war of the great God Almighty”, and we are going to study one campaign which is mentioned specifically: the Armageddon campaign.

7. Then the pur sui vant officer who went on standby goes into red alert in verse 17 and assumes command in the execution squad in verse 19.

8. The execution or judgment squad made up of seven pur sui vant messengers goes into action, each one in sequence on command of the pur sui vant officer, and will pull the pin on his grenade. He will pour his bowl containing one of the seven last plagues, chapter 16.

That is a co-ordinated action in heaven resulting in judgment on the earth. Right now these co-ordinated actions are going on in heaven, right this minute. Right now this same protocol system is being used. There are no mistakes in history. Defining the phrase “another angel” in this context is the key to understanding protocol in heaven. Each angel is different in rank and functions in the context from a different rank. Fundamentalist Christians don’t like rank, they all want to be equal or a little better than the next person.

Verse 15, this is the officer of arms, the second-ranking elect angel in heaven. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then.” We have a nominative singular subject made up of two words: a)lloj, an adjective, and with it we have the noun a)ggeloj, “another [of the same kind] angel.” This is one of the highest of the elect angels. This angel in that prehistoric conflict was one of the greatest of all spiritual giants. He is a messenger from God the Father to God the Son and his high rank is involved in this very important message. He is said to come out: the aorist active indicative of the verb e)xerxomai. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the deliverance of the Father’s message to the Son. And the messenger is very important. Just like Wellington at the battle of Waterloo: all the members of his staff were aristocracy. Everyone who is on the staff of God the Father is an aristocrat. The officer of arms comes out of the temple. The active voice: the officer of arms produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatological reality. The source of the order that is going to completely change the earth in the last half of the Tribulation: the preposition e)k plus the ablative of naoj, “from the temple.” This is the heavenly temple.

Only the highest ranking angels in the college of heralds are involved in this operation. That is important. Here is judgment coming to the earth; here are people who are going to blame the judgment on everyone else. We are going to see that this judgment is administered by the execution squad; we are going to see men blaspheming; we are going to se them blaming God, they never think to blame themselves. But all judgment that comes historically and eschatologically to planet earth and to the population of planet earth always is the result of man’s bad decisions. We are all the products of our own decisions.

Then we have the ministry of the officer of arms given in the present active participle of the verb krazw which means to shout as if there is a great battle and he has to be heard. This is a verbal order, “and he shouted.” The aoristic present tense expresses punctiliar action in present time. That is, the time of John’s vision in AD 96, not the time of fulfilment. The active voice: the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds produces the action. The participle is circumstantial which is translated with the conjunction and the finite verb. This is a legitimate translation of the circumstantial participle, “and he shouted with a loud voice,” e)n plus megaj plus fwnh. The loud voice simply indicates the conditions of the earth. Things are so bad, there is so much disaster. Man is bent upon self-destruction and to preserve man from self-destruction God now judges the human race. If man is left alone he would destroy himself but divine judgment protects him from destroying himself. Destruction solves the problem of destruction.

There are two categories of destruction in disaster. There is first of all human self-destruction and then there is the function of God’s justice. The human self-destruction would have wiped out the human race but God always enters into the scene with a protective judgment which always punishes those who have it coming and protects the rest of the human race. This principle of doctrine is the basis for the conclusion that there never will be the destruction of the entire human race.

Next we have “to him who is sitting on the cloud,” and “sitting” is the present active participle of the verb kaqhmai. The pictorial present presents to the mind a picture of events in the process of occurring. Our Lord is constantly sitting there under the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. The definite article is a dative of indirect object plus the fact that the definite article is used for the personal and relative pronouns in this translation. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union is now in control of history. Jesus Christ controls history. He is sitting on a cloud, and note again that the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds functions as a royal messenger from God the Father to God the Son. God the Father is in the third heaven; God the Son is, as it were, hovering over the first heaven in the atmosphere. An angel is not giving the command, he is conveying the command. God the Father as the author of the divine plan for the human race gives the command, while God the Son as the saviour and judge of mankind executes the orders. This is a reminder of John 6:38 which says: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.” Our Lord spoke this from His humanity in the hypostatic union.

Now we have a very fine point of Greek grammar here. In the previous verse, verse 14, we have the phrase that He was sitting on the cloud. That was e)pi plus the accusative which means direction, it means “toward the cloud.” But in verse 15 we have the same phrase but e)pi plus the genitive, and it means contact, so now He is sitting on the cloud. The direction from which He controlled the earth in the previous verse, e)pi plus the accusative; the fact that Jesus Christ controls history continually in every generation of history, e)pi plus the genitive. While both phrases are translated the same, “on the cloud,” they have different meanings. A case in point: the interpretation of the Bible requires a working knowledge of the original languages. Therefore anyone going into the ministry without the original languages is handicapped and limited as to his ability to interpret the Word of God. This cuts down on his ministry and makes him dependant on others — and sometimes dependant on the wrong people.

Next we have the conveyed command: the aorist active imperative from the verb pempw which means to send. The aorist tense is constative, contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. It will regard in its entirety the next three chapters. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. Why? John 5:22, 23, 27. This is the imperative mood of entreaty which does not convey the finality of a command but has the force or urgency of a request. And the accusative direct object from the noun drepanoj refers to the judgment which is about to take place. Dreponoj is the sickle, the symbol of divine judgment on the human race in the last half of the Tribulation. Notice that Christ sends the sickle but the angel from the college of heralds conveys the order from God the Father, “send your sickle,” the possessive genitive of su because in this passage there are several sickles. Su is the pronoun and it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history. He has control of all divine judgment, therefore, in human history. Then the continuation of the command: “and reap,” the aorist active imperative from the verb qerizw human race during the last half of the Tribulation during the time when things are going to be worse than they ever have in history, and it is viewed in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. What is the result? There is a principle: Jesus Christ controls history. There is no judgment on the human race without a thorough system of protocol occurring in heaven. That thorough system of protocol in heaven is related to the decision, in this case negative decision, on earth. We ask for it! God’s judgements are always just, in fact they are more than just, they protect the human race from self-destruction. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action through the administration of divine judgment. They are called the seven last plagues in Revelation 15:8; they are called the seven bowl judgements in Revelation chapter 16. The imperative mood of entreaty, once again, conveys not the finality of a command but the urgency of a request.

We now look at the explanation for all of this. Why was the command given from God the Father to God the Son? Because God the Son has control of all judgment in history. The causal conjunction o(ti comes up next, “because.” Then the nominative singular from the noun o(ra which means “hour,” “because the hour.” Jesus Christ sitting on the cloud represents the protocol principle of history that Jesus Christ controls history. There is something to keep Jesus Christ from controlling history and that is the function of human volition and the cosmic system of Satan. These oppose that principle and therefore we are the products of our own decisions; and when we make too many bad decisions from a position of weakness the next thing that happens is we lose control of our own personal lives, collectively the nation loses control, we have no personal sense of destiny, the nation has no sense of destiny, and we revert then to the degeneracy factors: the moral degeneracy factor which is arrogance and the immoral degeneracy factor. As long as we have disorganised evil Christianity can coexist with it. Christianity converts a few people out of disorganised evil; disorganised evil converts a few people out of Christianity for the cosmic system. Under freedom they coexist and it is not until organised evil comes into the picture that Christianity is systematically persecuted and martyred. Organised evil functions generally as a dictatorship, but there is the intervention from heaven and the protocol system in heaven leads to divine judgment: the divine judgment of Adolf Hitler, the divine judgment of Joe Stalin, the divine judgment of dictators — the intervention of divine judgment to protect the human race. Self-righteousness is not protocol, it is arrogance and pseudo-morality.

When it says “because the hour” it is a reference to time of judgment. A saturation of degeneracy on the one hand and self-righteousness on the other hand has resulted in the need of judgment to preserve the human race from its own self-destruction. One of two things can happen when believers become arrogant and self-righteous, pseudo morality, and when disorganised evil gains power. Out of this chaos there can come a dictator, and that means organised evil, or there can come protocol judgment from God which will deliver. So we have the aorist active indicative from the verb e)rxomai and that means to come, “the hour has come.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The principle: God’s timing is perfect, and the hour has come for the administration of divine judgment to preserve the human race and keep it from destroying itself historically. The creation of man was designed to resolve the prehistoric angelic conflict and therefore God must preserve the human race to the end of history, and there are two ways of doing it. One is through evangelisation which leads to believers on the earth and the principle of the pivot; the other is the protocol judgment. Therefore divine judgment ends up the various categories of evil which develop through residence and function in Satan’s cosmic system. The active voice: the right time produces the action of the verb. The right time is God’s timing. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of divine judgment in human history, and we must remember that no matter how bad things get historically that this is a part of God’s marvellous plan to protect us. When times get bad you must remember the protocol interpretation of history.

We have one more phrase: “to reap,” which is the aorist active infinitive of the verb qerizw. Not only is God’s timing in everything perfect, including divine judgment, but there are certain Tribulational martyrs who have been offering their imprecatory prayers in Revelation 6:9-11, and they are waiting for God’s timing in the matter. They know that God has His perfect timing and at the right time He will judge through the system of protocol in heaven. One of the most difficult things for the believer to do, of course, is to wait on God’s timing. When we fail to wait for God’s perfect timing we as believers postpone His blessing. The aorist tense here is a culminative aorist, it views divine judgment of the human race during the last half of the Tribulation in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the administration of divine judgment to preserve the human race. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through the administration of divine judgment but He administers through a protocol system related to the angelic college of heralds. The infinitive of intended result: when the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate divine objective, hence a blending of both purpose and result. Divine judgment is the counter-fire that keeps from destroying the entire human race. Man left to his own devices would destroy himself but that will never happen because of the protocol interpretation of history.

The historical necessity for judgment is given in the closing phrase, “because the harvest has become overripe.” We have a second causal conjunction, o(ti. The second causal conjunction provides a second explanation for the imperative of entreaty and relates it to the doctrine of historical trends. When the human race through cosmic involvement is in danger of total self-destruction then God intervenes with a judgment to destroy segments of the human race where the infection, the disease, is. That means the organised evil first of all and then other forms of degeneracy.

The “harvest,” qerismoj, which means a harvest of judgment, hence a harvesting of arrogance: religion, degeneracy, self-righteousness, and the sexual, criminal, psychotic arrogance which we have studied. And where does this take place? — the genitive of place from the noun gh which is used for planet earth, “the harvest of the earth has become overripe,” says the aorist passive indicative of xerainw. The constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety indicates the saturation of evil has reached the destructive point for the human race, the entire obliteration of the human race. Therefore a counter-fire must be started. The passive voice: planet earth receives the action of the verb, a saturation of evil, religious, degeneracy of all forms, arrogance in every form. The principle is that we are the products of our own decisions. A maximum number of bad decisions jeopardises the perpetuation of the human race. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical and eschatological reality of the evil saturation of the human race which apart from divine intervention and judgment would be destroyed. The destruction of the human race, however, will never occur in human history because of man’s failure. Not only will man continue to live on the earth but God’s plan and blessing for the believer continues in the worst of historical disaster. The circumstances of life can get very bad but that does not change the principle of divine blessing for the advancing believer. No circumstance of life can deter the plan of God for your life unless you decide that it should. Your volition, not evil circumstances and historical disaster, determine your blessing or your misery while living on this earth. History, therefore, cannot overcome you unless you decide to let history do so. History will only overcome you if you decide to live in the cosmic system. The worst of historical circumstances are still a time of great blessing for the mature believer and if you decide to live in the divine dynasphere, God’s system, then God’s plan for your life spells out blessing. Historical disaster, therefore, does not hinder divine blessing for the believer who has momentum in the plan of God, but historical disaster is a means of punishment of both believer and unbeliever residing in Satan’s cosmic system.

Translation: “Then another angel [the officer of arms] came out of the temple, and shouted with a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, Send in your sickle and reap: because the hour has come to reap; because the harvest has become overripe.”

In blessing or in judgment God’s timing is absolutely perfect. God’s judgements are blessing both to the believer and to the human race in general because divine judgment protects the human race from self-destruction and perpetuates the human race to the end of history. Nothing, therefore, can destroy the human race until the end of history. But our own bad decisions can destroy us. The justice of God has always been man’s point of reference since the fall of mankind in the garden, and this point of reference guarantees the continuing existence of the human race until the termination of human history at the end of the Millennium.

In verse 16 we have the judgment from the Son of God. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai translated “Then.” With this the nominative singular subject from the articular present active participle, the verb kaqhmai. Jesus Christ still controls history, “Then he who was sitting on the cloud.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. The present tense is a pictorial present, it gives to the mind the eschatological picture in the process of occurrence. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ in His hypostatic union produces the action of the verb, Jesus Christ controls history.

The posture of sitting connotes our Lord’s strategic victory in the first advent which was attained at the cross where He was judged for our sins. God the Father did His last personal judging, as it were, at the cross when our sins were imputed to Christ and the integrity of the Father, namely one half of divine integrity, the justice of God the Father, imputed our sins to Christ and they were judged. After the resurrection, ascension and session of our Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father, He was given His third royal warrant, “King of kings and Lord of lords,” and with that royal warrant He now controls history. That includes the administration of judgment from heaven which is necessary to keep man from destroying himself. Left to our own devices there would be no person left on the earth, we would destroy ourselves by our own bad decisions. The judgment from the Son of God is administered through protocol in heaven. The protocol involves one of the two great aristocracies, the elect angelic college of heralds. The judgment of the Son of God is administered through the function of these aristocrats from the prehistoric angelic conflict.

The fact that our Lord was sitting on the cloud means that Jesus Christ controls history. In the first advent, the hypostatic union, and the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ provided the basis for eventually taking the rulership of the world, the last 1000 years of human history, and He will take it from Satan. Jesus Christ controls history now; he will control history in a direct and visible way in the future. Today His control is invisible, it is accomplished through the protocol of heaven which we have been studying. Revelation 1:7, remember He is coming with clouds. Now he is sitting on a cloud; then He will come with clouds.

Continuing in verse 16 we have the aorist active indicative of the verb ballw which is going to be translated as a transitive verb here, meaning the movement of throwing or propelling, and in this case to swing a sickle. The swinging of the sickle eliminates a certain portion of the population of the world. In order to protect the world from self-destruction, to protect mankind from destroying himself by his stupidity, we have the sickle judgements. While the Lord Jesus Christ is said to swing the sickle here we are going to see in the verses to follow that it is accomplished through a protocol system related to the angelic order of battle and the elect heralds.

This is followed by the accusative singular from drepanon, the sickle as a sign or symbol of judgment. The active voice: Jesus Christ who controls history produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine, the fact that Jesus Christ controls history.

It is said to be swung “over the earth,” e)pi plus the accusative from gh. In other words, Jesus Christ administers judgment to perpetuate the human race. This is accomplished through the protocol of the angelic college of heralds and the function of the judgment squad. “Then he [our Lord Jesus Christ] who was sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth...”

Then we have the earth as the subject: the nominative singular of gh, “and the earth was reaped.” This is a reference to planet earth during the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. The aorist passive indicative from the verb qerizw indicates the judgements of the seven last plagues or the bowl judgements of Revelation chapter sixteen, “and the earth was reaped.” The culminative aorist tense views our Lord’s judgment of planet earth in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the perpetuation of the human race for the rest of history.

Were it not for these periodic judgements there would be no human race. The human race would not have survived were it not for the great universal flood of Noah’s day when eight believers survived to start a new civilisation. These judgements in Revelation chapter sixteen are the worst judgements in human history and we will note that while they are very intense there is one very pertinent fact: at the end of these judgements there will be the second advent. The second advent will end the last world war in history and the middle east campaign related to that world war is the Armageddon campaign.

When the second advent occurs the largest portion of the population of the world will have survived the most intense disasters in history, the seven last plagues. There will be believers who will survive; there will be unbelievers who will survive. There will be believers in two categories: believers who have kept their momentum through perception of doctrine and who are winners; believers involved in the cosmic system who are losers. Primarily the believers who survive and go into the Millennium are going to be winners. Most of the losers will die the sin unto death during this period of terrible disaster. The believers who go into the Millennium are going to be the cadre for the repopulation of the earth for the last 1000 years of human history. The unbelievers in the baptism of fire who are removed are, of course, those unbelievers who survive this terrible holocaust of the last half of the Tribulation. They are cast into the fire; they are the tares. The wheat goes into the Millennium, “as in the days of Noah so shall be the days of the coming of the Son of Man,” says Matthew 24, “one is taken [the unbeliever], the other left [the believer going into the Millennium].”

But the point to be noted right now is that they survive these things. No matter how bad things become and no matter how great disasters overtake certain portions of the earth’s population the population of the world will never be destroyed by any of these things, nuclear weapons included. There is no force operating on earth or in heaven which can destroy the human race until God’s plan is completed. God’s plan for human history is not terminated until the end of the Millennium. The great change that is going to come, the worst disaster period in all of human history is this period called the time of the devil’s desperation, will be followed by the greatest period of prosperity the world has ever known. Following the Gog revolution at the end of the Millennium our Lord will destroy the entire world as we know it today and the universe through a nuclear reaction and then there will be the new heavens and the new Jerusalem. So God’s plan for mankind on planet earth continues and there will always be plenty of people to accept or reject our Lord Jesus Christ as saviour. The total annihilation of the human race is absolutely impossible.

The passive voice: planet earth receives the action of the verb as a part of the Father’s and the Son’s execution of the plan through divine judgment. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of future historical fact, a part of the eschatology of the time of the devil’s desperation.

Translation: “Then he who was sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth; and the earth was reaped.”

Principle: Divine judgment, no matter how severe, prevents the human race from total self-destruction. Man left to his own devices would eventually destroy himself on the earth. If God did not interfere in human history there would be no human history, therefore every act of divine judgment is the gracious function of our Lord Jesus Christ to actually preserve the human race and the fact that divine judgment means that the human race will never be totally destroyed throughout the course of human history. Divine judgment is a part of God’s gracious protection and perpetuation of the human race from self-destruction through its own bad decisions. Man’s lust for power alone could destroy man from the face of the earth under the principle that the demand for power exceeds the need for power. People are always demanding power but it isn’t necessary for them to have power; people are demanding authority and it isn’t necessary for them to have authority, and when too many people demand authority you have democracy which is degeneracy and the worst form of government — not even a form of government actually. Since people are the products of their own decisions there are no tragedies in history, merely disasters manufactured by bad decisions from a position of weakness. To keep these bad decisions from totally destroying mankind on the earth God has provided a system of divine judgment. These judgements are the backfire, the counter-fire, to stop the forest fire. Therefore even though history is the record of man’s decisions and actions which are self-destructive it is Jesus Christ who controls history, it is Jesus Christ who preserves mankind from the evil consequences of his own bad decisions.

We have the mechanics of our Lord’s reaping in verses 17-20 and this will record protocol in heaven. For the mechanics on earth, Revelation chapter 16; for the mechanics in heaven, the rest of this chapter and a very short chapter fifteen.

Verse 15 must be read with verse 16 because between them we have the whole protocol system of heaven. The second highest-ranking aristocrat in all of heaven, the officer of arms, leaves the presence of God the Father in the temple and moves to the cloud where our Lord sits as a result of His third royal warrant and from where He controls history. Our Lord administers all judgment. A message goes from God the Father, the author of the plan for the human race, to God the Son. It is an important message because the second highest-ranking angel in all of the elect system brings it. Why not the highest? Because he is over at the altar of imprecatory prayers. He is the angel with the golden shovel. In verse 16 we have the reaping of the earth. The actual reaping of the earth takes place in chapter sixteen, the bowl judgements.

Between verses 16 & 17 the following things take place. In verse 17 the pur sui vant officer who commands the execution squad comes out of the temple. He will move to standby waiting to be given his command of the judgment squad, but not until verse 19. In the meantime in verse 18 the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds, the king of arms, comes to the altar of imprecatory prayers to co-ordinate the judgements with the prayers of the Tribulational martyrs. They have been making very powerful intercession and their powerful intercessions are imprecatory prayers which are going to be answered, so their is a co-ordination factor in the protocol. Protocol in heaven always takes cognisance of human prayers. In verse 19 the pur sui vant officer assumes command of the execution squad. In Revelation 15:6 the execution squad is formed in the temple in heaven. In Revelation 15:7 the angelic herald issues a bowl to each member of the squad. In Revelation 16:2,3,4,8,10,12,17 each member of the execution squad pulls the pin of his grenade, he pours out his judgment bowl on the earth. This fulfils the action between Revelation 14:15 and 14:16.

Historically periods of prosperity are always based upon the practice of protocol for the practice of protocol is the general function of the laws of divine establishment: category #1 — Bible doctrine. Wherever there is protocol the barbarians are pushed back and civilisation becomes a reality. This part of our century is the day of the barbarians, the concept of protocol has been pushed into the background. Periodically, as a result of divine judgment protocol reasserts itself and people become civilised again.

We are studying protocol in heaven but we are reminded that this protocol is only practised by one group in heaven, the elect angels. Many of the fallen angels, as we noted in Revelation chapter twelve, are still in heaven and they will not be thrown out of heaven until the middle of the Tribulation which begins the time of the devil’s desperation. Because this is true we have a protocol organisation in heaven and we have non-protocol. One of the manifestations of non-protocol is what Satan is doing every day. He appears in the court of heaven and selects a few believers, sometimes many believers, and brings accusation against them. These accusations are generally true but that is because they are the result of the function of the demon intelligence organisation. They are usually related to sins and the failures of believers involved in the cosmic system, and since believers are involved in the cosmic system it is very easy to report on them and keep track of them. Then, of course, when the true accusation is made our Lord Jesus Christ who represents us in heaven as our defence attorney points out that these failures on our part are under the blood of Christ, they were judged on the cross; and God the Father pronounces the same statement day in and day out, year in and year out, century in and century out: “Case dismissed”. This is going on all the time so that this function of Satan becomes a matter of gossip, maligning and judging, and it gives us some clue as to what lack of protocol means in a church as well as in any organisation. It is gossip, maligning, judging, the various categories of the sins of the tongue.

So we can see the failure or success of any organisation can be due to lack of protocol. Protocol is necessary in the function of a team, a business, or any organisation of any kind, including the local church. Protocol for those who have passed into their eternal state is also a function forever and ever. Protocol is here to stay because the angelic creatures who were involved in the prehistoric angelic conflict, the elect angels, are practising protocol. To practice protocol is to practice virtue; to practice protocol and virtue is to function under the principles of recognition of authority. In eternity there is even more established authority than there ever was in time. Furthermore it is a permanent authority, an eternal authority, as we studied in the doctrine of the order of the morning star, the uniform of glory, the various crowns, the gazebo in the garden, and other things that we have studied in Revelation which deal with rewards for winners in time during the course of the angelic conflict. We already have a picture of what it will be like when we are in heaven in our resurrection bodies by the fact that there is, even in the angelic realm in the order of elect angels, a definite system of protocol. This system of protocol means differences in rank and there is an eternal respect for this rank.

Again, we define protocol as a rigid long-established code which prescribes complete deference to superior rank or authority, strict adherence to due order of precedence and precisely correct procedure.

Protocol recognises the principle of authority under the laws of divine establishment. Protocol recognises and obeys authority, and consequently protocol demands virtue. You cannot have protocol without virtue therefore virtue always precedes protocol, and it is inevitable that if you have virtue you will function under protocol. Let’s take, for example, the plan of God for the Church Age believer. Gate three is basic virtue. Basic virtue is, of course, humility — enforced and genuine. It is always directed toward authority. There is protocol, therefore, in the plan of God when authority is recognised. For example, a believer who has humility is flexible, and you have to be flexible to recognise varying systems of protocol in different countries and different locales and different places. One thing about true humility: it brings with it flexibility so that you do not make an issue of yourself and become offensive in some sphere of activity outside of your own.

Take prayer, for example. No prayer that you utter is ever going to be heard without recognition of protocol and, before protocol, humility. If you do not have enforced and genuine humility your prayers will never be heard, “If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.” Iniquity in that passage in the Psalms deals primarily with arrogance in its various categories. To offer a prayer in arrogance is not only the principle of sin but it is the principle of lack of protocol. To pray to the Father and to make some request or even some intercession for someone else, to ask God for something, and to do so in a state of arrogance is blasphemy because your prayer does not recognise protocol. Even in the approach to prayer all prayers are offered to God the Father in the name of the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. Even our Lord Jesus Christ as our great High Priest making intercession for us offers His prayers to God the Father. And when God the Holy Spirit offers prayers “with groanings which cannot be uttered” they are offered to God the Father. Protocol in prayer means effectiveness in prayer.

Protocol, therefore, recognises and obeys authority; protocol, therefore, requires virtue. Protocol is related, therefore, to basic virtue in life: enforced and genuine humility. Protocol is also related to motivational virtue. Motivational virtue is gate five of the divine dynasphere. It is always directed toward God and it is always a function of the royal priesthood, just as humility as a basic virtue is the function of the human personality, so motivational virtue is the function of your royal priesthood, always directed toward God. Gate six is functional virtue, always the function of your royal ambassadorship directed toward man and circumstances. So every category of virtue has a direction, every category of virtue has an involvement. Humility is your personality. The function of motivational virtue toward God, your royal priesthood. The operational or functional virtue toward man and circumstances is your royal ambassadorship. Therefore they all demand protocol. Protocol is the structure of civilisation, the modus operandi by which all of us function in the plan of God without interfering in the momentum of someone else who is a believer. Protocol is related to motivational virtue and to functional virtue. The fact that protocol is a part of God’s plan, God’s policy, and God’s system for believers on earth emphasises the conclusion that protocol also exists in heaven. God has established a system of protocol in heaven for creature power cannot compete with divine power either in heaven or on earth. Therefore, beginning in verse 17 we are going to see the modus operandi of this protocol just as we have seen the modus operandi of protocol in history. All protocol recognises not only authority but it recognises any category of nobility.

We are dealing with a system or order and rank, a system of protocol in heaven. When Satan fell he was the highest-ranking angelic creature. He was a cherub. He is called “the anointed cherub” as Lucifer the son of the morning. As a cherub he had four wings, his badge of rank. So there was a system of rank prior to the fall of Satan, and the highest-ranking angel was Satan or Lucifer the son of the morning, as he was called. Once Satan fell he took with him a third of all angelic creatures. The over a period of perhaps a million years, perhaps thousands — we do not know the length of time since it was prehistoric — there was the angelic conflict. Many of the cherubs who were lower in rank than Lucifer apparently chose for the Lord so that eventually over a period of time we have elect angels and we have fallen angels. Fallen angels are divided in to many categories but we are looking now at the elect angels. The prehistoric angelic conflict came to a close and all angelic creatures by that time had either decided for the Lord so that they are simply called the elect angels, or the non-elect angels or fallen angels who followed Satan. The elect angels then went into their eternal state, just as one day with the Rapture of the Church we will receive a resurrection body which begins our eternal state. So the elect angels have an eternal form to their body which would be comparable to a resurrection body; they are in the eternal state. Going into the eternal state they had an evaluation comparable to our judgment seat of Christ at the Rapture. In that evaluation there were winners and losers according to that evaluation. There were the top winners, and a new order was created called the seraph order. This order never existed before and it was a very small group of angels with six wings. They are divided into two systems of aristocracy: the college of heralds and the order of battle. For example, Michael and Gabriel, undoubtedly seraphs, are the highest-ranking angelic creatures forever and ever. In the college of heralds we have the king of arms, at least two officers of arms, four with the rank of full herald.

In the trial of the fallen angels Satan immediately acted as the defence attorney for all of them. His whole defence in the court of heaven was based on the question: How can a loving God cast His creatures into the lake of fire? The sentence was pronounced: lake of fire for all fallen angels. Because of that defence of Satan God then created an inferior creature called man. Man was placed on one planet and is used to resolve Satan’s appeal. Human history demonstrates the fact that God does not lose His integrity and that love is not really the issue. The issue is the volition of creatures. The fallen angelic creatures were negative, they refused whatever salvation God offered. Now the same volition as angels is carried into human history and man makes his own decisions and is the product of his own decisions while angels, as it were, are in the stands watching human history.

Now we leave prophetical history and we go to heaven to see the protocol in heaven. In this protocol in heaven we find first of all the king of arms. He is the highest-ranking angelic creature and he is in the seraph rank. Then there are at least two officers of arms under him, and then those with the full rank of herald, four. There are probably seven seraphs in the angelic college of heralds and there are at least two seraphs in the order of battle, Michael and Gabriel.

The king of arms we have studied in Revelation 5:2 where he is called the “powerful angel.” Again in Revelation 10:1 he is called the “powerful angel.” He is also called the angel with the golden shovel in Revelation 8:3-5. He is the angel who processes all of the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational saints.

Then below him is the officer of arms, which we have noted in verse 15 as “another angel”. Then the full rank of herald, mistakenly translated by the word “beast” in the King James version — Revelation 4:6-8. The Greek word means “living creatures” and they are angelic heralds. One of these is found in Revelation 15:7.

Then we have a category in the angelic college of heralds comparable to Satan’s rank, the cherub rank. One is very prominent in this passage, the pur sui vant officer. He is going to command the execution squad of seven found in Revelation chapter fifteen.

Protocol without virtue is ritual without reality. For the eternal state of these elect angels all protocol has eternal virtue, and these categories of angelic aristocracy emphasise the importance of protocol in God’s plan for the believer on earth and in heaven. Protocol, therefore, must inevitably be associated with great blessing. For us as believers living in the Church Age protocol is related to the priorities of the plan of God. Remember: In God’s plan: mandates first; in God’s system: virtue first; in God’s purpose: Christ first; in God’s objective: momentum first; in God’s authority: doctrine first.

God’s plan for the believer in time has protocol in the three functions of virtue, as we have noted. Worship is a motivating virtue resulting in the functional virtue of what we have classified as virtue-morality. Hence the principle: no virtue; no protocol. God’s plan functions on protocol in three categories of virtue.

In our passage we are now back on the subject of imprecatory prayers which we noted first in Revelation chapter six. They were legitimate imprecatory prayers from the Tribulational martyrs. The imprecatory prayers of the Tribulation martyrs was foreshadowed by imprecatory prayers found in the Psalms. Most of them had to do with the time of David. These are actually the only two recordings of this particular concept and they do set some precedent where integrity is involved.

Note, for example, some of the phrases in Psalm 13. David started out in verse 1, “How long?” In verse 2, “How long will my enemy triumph over me?” In verse 3, “Look on me and answer, O Lord, my God.” Inverse 4, “My enemy will say I have overcome him, my foes will rejoice when I fall.” That is part of the content of an imprecatory prayer. It is a prayer, however, which is related to the success of David’s enemies.

Imprecatory prayers have a double content. First of all a prayer for deliverance and, secondly, a prayer for the justice of God to be exercised in unfair treatment.

Strangers are attacking me [unjust treatment], and men of violence seek my life; men who have no regard for God.

Let the evil return to those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.” That is the heart and soul of an imprecatory prayer.

Imprecatory prayers take cognisance of divine integrity and divine justice and imprecatory prayers must be offered from a position of virtue, being in fellowship with God.

Psalm 143, while the entire Psalm is an imprecatory prayer the last two verses, verses 11 and 12, certainly illustrate the principle.

“For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life [imprecatory prayers often have to do with deliverance, though not always]. In your righteousness [integrity] bring my life out of trouble. In your grace silence my enemies, and destroy all who afflict my soul; for I am your servant.”

The imprecatory prayer has to be prayed from a position of integrity, a position of momentum, and a position of maturity. Most people who pray imprecatory prayers get an immediate answer in operation boomerang. Whatever they prayed for the destruction of their enemies they prayed from the viewpoint of revenge. God has made it very clear: “Revenge belongs to me, saith the Lord, I will repay.” So whenever you pray a prayer of revenge you always get an immediate answer, operation boomerang. Whatever you ask for your enemies generally comes to you, except your life is not taken, at least not at that moment. You may be under the sin unto death but it will take a little time. So always remember that the imprecatory prayer is a weapon which can only be successfully used in the hands of a person with maximum virtue, a person with spiritual maturity.

Verse 4, “Let those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin [those who devise evil against me] be turned back and humiliated.” Notice that he has the concept of virtue. He has been unjustly treated and therefore he prays for the thing to bounce back on them. But he doesn’t pray for their death here.

Verse 8, “May ruin overtake them by surprise; may the net which they hid to trap me entangle them.” David recognises a principle here: people are the products of their own decisions. Therefore his imprecatory prayer follows that line in verse 8. “May they fall into the pit [their ruin].”

Verse 15, “But when I stumbled they gathered in glee; attackers gathered together when I was unaware,” the same idea as vultures attacking some animal that has broken its leg and is now helpless, “they slandered me without ceasing.”

Verse 26, here is the gist of an imprecatory prayer: “May all who gloat [gloaters have it coming] over my distress be put to shame and humiliated; may all who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and disgrace,” a very wise prayer, by the way, because you will note that the worst thing that can happen to a person who suffers from arrogance is humiliation. So the prayer reflects the tremendous spiritual wisdom of David.

Verse 4, “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would destroy me are powerful.”

Verse 22, “May their tables set before them become a snare; and when they are in prosperity, may it become a trap,” a prayer for misery in prosperity.

Verse 23, “May their eyes grow dim so that they cannot see [blindness], and may they suffer from terrible nervousness.”

Verse 24, “Pour out your wrath on them, let your fierce anger overtake them.”

Verse 2, “For they have opened their wicked and deceitful mouths against me [slander]; they have maligned me with lying tongues.”

Verse 4, “In return for my friendship they act as my accusers; but I am in prayer.”

Verse 6, “Appoint an evil man to oppose them; and let an accuser [satan in the Hebrew] stand at his right hand.”

Verse 7, “When he is tried, let him be found guilty; and let even his prayers become sin.”

Verse 10, “May his children be wandering beggars; and seek alms far from their ruined homes.”

Verse 11, “Let creditors seize all that he owns; may strangers plunder the production of his labour.”

Verse 12, “May no one extend kindness to him, or take pity on his orphaned children.”

Verse 13 — “May his posterity be cut off; let their names be blotted out of the next generation.”

Verse 16, “For he never thought to show kindness, but persecuted [hounded to death] the poor, the needy, the broken-hearted; he put to death the despondent of the right lobe.”

Verse 20, “May this be the Lord’s payment to my accusers, and to those who speak evil against my soul.”

There is no commentary in the Bible that says these prayers are wrong. They could be, depending on the one who prays. The believer who prays from the cosmic system and offers such a prayer from arrogance is into operation boomerang and he will be hurt by it.

We do have numerous passages in the book of Revelation on the subject of imprecatory prayers from the Tribulational saints. The angel we are studying is about to process all of them and make them a part of the historical disaster that comes to the world at the end of the Tribulation — the seven last plagues. The fifth angel, or the pur sui vant officer, is about to assume command of the execution squad. He is on standby until he assumes command.

The king of arms now comes into the picture in verse 18. He is the highest-ranking angel among the elect angels, the apostle Paul or the Moses of the elect angels. In the chain of a command there is no higher-ranking angel except our Lord Jesus Christ under the title, “the angel of the Lord.” The imprecatory prayers now come into the picture. The imprecatory prayers of Revelation 6:9-11 is what starts the ball rolling in verse 18.

“And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had broken the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been murdered because of the Word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained: furthermore they shouted and said, O sovereign Lord [Christ in hypostatic union], holy [the integrity of Christ as eternal God] and true [ the integrity of the humanity of Christ in hypostatic union], How long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the population of the earth? Also a white robe [interim body] was given to each one of them [Tribulational martyrs]; and they were told that they should refresh themselves a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants, even their brethren, were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed.”

Verse 18, First of all we have the interim use of the conjunction kai which should be translated “In the meantime.” With this we meet the king of arms under the title of the adjective a)lloj and the noun a)ggeloj, “another angel.” This is the king of arms, and it will be noted again that he comes from the same headquarters system under the verb e)xerxomai. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The king of arms produces that action. This is a declarative for eschatological reality.

Then we have the relative clause introduced the articular present active participle from the verb e)xw, “who has.” The definite article is used as the relative pronoun. The perfective present refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. Here is an angel who is now completely and totally superior to Satan in every way, and he won his state of aristocracy. He is a member of the new knighthood and he has the rank of king of arms of the angelic college of heralds.

What he has is given is in the accusative singular direct object e)cousia, “authority,” which is said to be e)pi plus the genitive of pur, “over fire.” This is a reference to the fire in the altar of incense where there are thousands of imprecatory prayers which have been uttered.

In Revelation 8:3-5 we see what is meant by having authority over the fire: “In the meantime another angel [the king of arms] came and took his place before the altar [the golden altar of incense where intercessory prayer is made], and he had an incense shovel made of gold; consequently much incense was given to him, that he might offer with the prayers of all the saints [Tribulational believers] on the golden altar which was before the throne. Then the smoke of the incense, along with the prayers of the saints [imprecatory prayers first mentioned in 6:9-11], went up before God from the hand of the angel [the king of arms]. Then the angel took the incense shovel, and filled it with fire from the altar [that is where we get the phrase, “he had the authority over the fire”], and he hurled it to the earth: and there followed peals of thunder, loud noises, flashes of lightning, also an earthquake [a warning of coming judgment].”

Notice in verse 18 that the angel, the king of arms, does not come from the temple, he comes from the golden altar of incense, e)k plus the ablative of qusiasthrion, a reference to the altar of incense. He gives an order. He has the right to do so because he is in a co-ordinating position and he ranks highest in the chain of command. He is superior to the pur sui vant officer who commands the execution squad made up of pur sui vant messengers.

We have the connective kai, “and,” followed by the aorist active indicative from the verb fwnew, “and he called [or spoke].” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the king of arms produces the action, declarative for eschatological reality. And he shouts with a “magnificent” voice, megaj, “to him,” the pur sui vant officer who is placed on standby ready to assume command of the execution squad, “who had the sharp sickle,” the symbol of divine judgment. “Send in your sharp sickle” is a repeating of the command he has already received from our Lord. Once this is all co-ordinated he will assume command of the execution squad. Notice that this is an order from God the Father to the Son, relayed over to the king of arms as well as relayed directly to the Son. It is from the Father in the temple to the Son on the cloud, from the Son on the cloud to the king of arms at the altar of incense, while we have on standby the pur sui vant officer who will command the execution squad.

What does all this mean? It means that protocol is necessary for victory. It means that without protocol it is impossible to be a winner. Protocol always implies rank, authority, and is a reminder of the importance of basic virtue which is humility. No matter how high you go in life (this is your personal application right now) there is always going to be someone better, someone higher. If you become frustrated because someone is better, someone is greater, someone is higher, someone is superior, then you are downward trail; from thereon it is arrogance all of the way to your own self-destruction. You can only learn protocol through doctrine and the road to protocol is through the principle of virtue first. First there must be humility, enforced and genuine, then there must be motivational virtue directed toward God, and finally there must be functional virtue directed toward all mankind. This is all a principle that we learn from the protocol of heaven, for God’s plan demands of us that the protocol of heaven be our daily modus vivendi on earth. Protocol means rank, authority, superiority. You and I are not in this world to be “better than” anyone else. We are here to have that one thing that is greater than anything in life, and must be acquired. The greatest things in life are acquired, they are not inherent. Whether you are inferior to anyone else or think you are, or someone tells you you are, is not an issue. You are never going to enjoy life as long as it bothers you that someone is better, and when you get involved in the various systems of trying to straighten out life on the basis of equality, a red herring and a dead end for those who follow it. The protocol of heaven is designed to teach us the most basic system of living.

The angel is now going to give a mandate which is the answer to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs. Imprecatory prayers are a human appeal to divine justice rather than lust for revenge. All of this is based on protocol but we should note that protocol is based on respect for authority, not fear of authority. The function of protocol is based on virtue, not superiority. Protocol orientation demands confidence so that no one is disturbed by someone having greater authority or greater power than another. Protocol without virtue is like ritual without reality.

In heaven protocol is the function of aristocracy: those elect angels who were winners in the prehistoric conflict. This protocol in the angelic college of heralds leads us to the conclusion that in the prehistoric angelic conflict God’s plan for elect angels included the same principles we are studying: virtue first. Virtue overcomes the whole basis for Satan’s cosmic system. Satan’s cosmic system begins with motivational evil. Motivational evil is arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred. Functional evil are the gates of cosmic one plus the gates found in cosmic two, but motivational evil is the beginning of all of it. Here we have the principle that virtue conquers jealousy, a motivational evil. Virtue is actually the key, then, to everything. Protocol demands virtue and without protocol virtue is non-existent.

Translation of verse 18: “And in the meantime another angel [the king of arms] who has authority over fire [the fire of the altar of incense] came out from the altar: and he shouted with a magnificent voice to him [to the pur sui vant officer placed on standby waiting for command] who had a sharp sickle...”

We have a seraph giving a command to a cherub who in verse 19 will assume command of the execution squad. Every time there is a divine judgment on earth it is a system of protocol, a system of checks and balances, a system of co-ordinating prayers that are legitimate.

Note that there is order in heaven, nothing is ever done in a haphazard manner but a chain of command exists to demonstrate the deliberateness of divine judgment on certain segments of the human race in order that other segments of the human race can continue in history. Behind every divine judgment is divine wisdom, which means that historical disasters from God or personal disasters is a matter of all things working together for good. That means there are no accidents in the Christian life. It means that every disaster, both personal and collective, protects both the born-again believer and the entire human race from destroying itself through degeneracy or self-righteousness. For the believer with doctrine, therefore, disaster is really not disaster but a blessing in the form of divine judgment, fulfilling the principle, of course, that there are no accidents in the Christian life.

Then the mandate is given in the aorist active imperative of the verb pempw which means to send in. It has the connotation of attack. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It contemplates the overall attack, the form that the judgment will take at the end of the Tribulation. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer on standby waiting to command the judgment squad produces the action of the verb. The action of the verb will be Revelation chapter sixteen where each member of the squad will pull the pin of his grenade and throw it on the earth where there will be tremendous divine judgment. Remember that being on standby simply means that he is waiting for his command to be formed. His command will be formed in Revelation chapter fifteen verses six and seven. Under his command will be seven angels, pur sui vant messengers who will form the squad. In chapter fifteen these seven pur sui vant messengers who have the seven last plagues are going to be presented to us. In chapter sixteen they will fulfil this command.

This is the imperative of command followed by the accusative direct object from the noun drepanon, “sickle,” and with that o)cuj, “sharp.” The sickle is sharp. Anytime God’s judgements are given they are very sharp, “send in your sharp sickle.” The sharp sickle are the seven judgements which we will study in chapter sixteen. The sixth one is the Armageddon campaign which is one campaign in the great world war of the last half of the Tribulation.

You will note how many times divine victory comes through divine judgment. We first saw this principle at the cross. When we were given human life at the moment of physical birth that human life was imputed to the soul of each one of us. At the same time Adam’s original sin was imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. That means that we were condemned under Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death,” at the point of birth. We were born physically alive and spiritually dead. That is to protect those who never reach accountability. They have to be condemned before they can be saved. The condemnation occurred at birth and therefore if they die before reaching accountability they automatically are saved.

In the meantime no personal sins were ever imputed to us for judgment. Instead, they were imputed to our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. This is the function of divine justice. The justice of God the Father set aside God the Father’s love for God the Son. Love was superseded. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” is only a side of this principle, but His justice had to go into action and He took all of those personal sins in the history of the human race and at the cross they were all imputed to Christ and judged. That is what the scripture means when it says, “God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Our sins were imputed to Christ, not to us. They were judged on the cross, and that is why we have this non-meritorious system of salvation: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

Why Christ? Because He is the only saviour, He was the one who was judged for our sins. Jesus Christ is not simply a religious leader, he is the only saviour. Our Lord Jesus Christ was judged for us on the cross. Faith is a non-meritorious system of perception, there is no merit in the subject, all of the merit is in the object. Judgment is the basis of victory. Our Lord was judged for us on the cross and therefore judgment is always the basis for victory, judgment is the means by which God actually perpetuates the human race in history.

The human race would have destroyed itself and almost did so in the time of Noah, and God came along with judgment because out of all of the millions of people who lived on the earth in the time of Noah only eight were qualified to continue under the principle of protocol and civilisation. At the second advent the same thing will happen again. Unbelievers will be cast off the earth, the baptism of fire, and believers will be the cadre to go in for the population explosion of the Millennium. But there never has been a time since the creation of man when man has not occupied the earth. Sometimes we are down to just a few people but that will only happen once and that has already occurred at the judgment of the universal flood. The Noahic covenant was given, saying that man will never be destroyed from the earth, that God will see to it that he is not, and that anything that threatens the total destruction of the human race will be eliminated by divine judgment. Divine judgment, therefore, is the point of reference from the fall of man to the Millennium. Divine judgment is the basis for divine victory. You and I have eternal life because of divine judgment. Our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, took our place on the cross.

The command is given to the pur sui vant officer: “Send in your sharp sickle,” the seven last plagues of the Tribulation, “and harvest the cluster of grapes.”

The harvesting of the cluster of grapes has to do with the divine victory. Note how many times divine victory comes through divine judgment. This is because divine judgment is the point of reference from the fall of man to the end of the Millennium. Divine judgment is the basis of our so great salvation as we have noted. That is the principle that blessing comes through judgment. Blessing often comes through adversity. Prosperity is merely the result sometimes of blessing through adversity. Divine judgment is the means for perpetuating the human race so that every generation of history has the opportunity of eternal salvation and the blessings of the plan of God.

Next we have the connective conjunction kai and the aorist active imperative of trugaw, which means to harvest. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It refers to the fact or action extending over a period of time, the last half of the Tribulation; specifically the time covered by Revelation chapter sixteen in which degeneracy in every form is judged. In chapter fifteen this judgment harvest is designated as the seven last plagues, while in chapter sixteen it is called the seven bowl judgements. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer commanding the execution squad is going to produce the action of the verb. The accusative singular direct object from the noun botruj means “cluster of grapes.” With it we have the ablative plural from a)mpeloj which means “vines.” Translation: “Send in your sharp sickle and harvest the cluster of grapes from the vine of the earth.”

The cluster of grapes is very important here because it refers to the various categories of degeneracy that have to be eliminated in order for people to survive the last year of the Tribulation. The ablative of source from the vines connotes the idea of separation accompanied by the implication that the original situation of degeneration during the last half of the Tribulation would destroy the human race even before the second advent were it not for these seven judgements. The harvesting of these clusters of grapes is amplified in chapter sixteen where the mandate is executed. There is a continuous chain of command, a system of protocol, which brings all of this into operation.

We have perfect divine timing at the end of this verse. It is mentioned as perfect divine timing. We have a reason for all of this. Harvesting the cluster of grapes means that we have a saturation of three categories of degeneracy that will destroy the population of the earth in that year, or shorter, prior to the second advent. Therefore we have to eliminate through these seven last plagues the degeneracy that would be self-destructive. Three categories are involved: organised evil, the greatest danger to mankind which does not tolerate Christianity or disorganised evil. Disorganised evil and morality will also be judged. So the whole judgment is to protect the human race so that it can be perpetuated to the second advent.

Next it says, “because its grapes are ripe,” the aorist active indicative of a)kmazw, which means they are rotten. A)kmazw has the connotation of reaching its peak, of being overripe, and therefore being rotten. The saturation of degeneracy throughout the world in the last half of the Tribulation threatens the survival of the human race. The human race cannot continue to exist with this degeneracy which has saturated every level of society. So to protect the human race from the self-destruction of degeneracy God judges the degenerate areas so that the human race can be perpetuated for the rest of history, the last part of the Tribulation and the entire part of the Millennium. Hence, the historical trend: divine judgment in the form of historical disaster protects the human race from self-destruction and degeneracy. The wine of the wrath of God is administered to protect the human race. Principle: God’s judgements are a part of God’s blessing to the human race. The active voice: the degenerate part of the human race produces the action of the verb under the analogy that the clusters of grapes have ripened to the point of degeneracy. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the various categories of degeneracy.

Translation of verse 18: “In the meantime another angel [the king of arms] who had authority over fire came out from the altar [of imprecatory prayers]: and he shouted with a magnificent voice to him [the officer who will command the execution squad] who has the sharp sickle, and he said, Send in your sharp sickle, and harvest the cluster of grapes [the saturation of human degeneracy] from the vines of the earth [wherever human degeneracy is located on earth]; because its grapes are ripe.”

Verse 19, the actual target is reached and is destroyed. We notice immediately in this verse that the pur sui vant officer now assumes command. First of all we note the success in the fact that he is going to assume command, and when he does he will be successful. They have selected exactly the right angel for the job. Notice he is not from the angelic order of battle. For this particular job he is from the angelic college of heralds. The angelic order of battle fights generally in heaven and protects certain segments of believers in earth. But when it comes to a strict military operation of judgment it is the angelic college of heralds that provides both the command and the personnel under that command. This command goes to the pur sui vant officer. He is the angel of verse 19.

We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” and the nominative singular subject a)ggeloj, referring to the angel in command. He has a successful command function and we learn this from the aorist active indicative of the verb ballw. We translate it “swinging the sickle.” He executes his orders; the mission is going to be successful. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. We look ahead and see that he will be successful as the commanding officer of the execution squad. In chapter fifteen we will see how the squad is formed; in chapter sixteen we will see the squad going into action. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer who has been on alert, on standby, will now assume command. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that he is successful. This means that a very special angelic creature has been selected for command. He has proved himself in the prehistoric angelic conflict.

Next we have “against the earth,” e)ij plus the accusative of gh. We have already taken up the words “his sickle” which is the accusative direct object from the noun drepanon, plus a)utoj. The swinging of the sickle against the earth is the brief as to how it all turns out. We look ahead and we see that the execution squad under the command of this angelic officer does a great job. Revelation 21:9 even tells us that later on they have other jobs.

Principle: God selects certain believers to fulfil divine missions because they are great. Greatness comes through the priorities of the plan of God. God has a plan for your life. Whether you fulfil that plan or not …

Greatness comes from such decisions as virtue first, doctrine first. God uses prepared people. That is the issue in this particular passage; that is the issue in the next three chapters. Only prepared people are used in this way by God. If you are a crisis personality it means that you have trained for it over a long period of time. It means that you have taken in doctrine constantly, it means that you have developed the three virtues of the divine dynasphere. It means that you are a prepared person. All of the preparation is invisible as far as others are concerned but the results are visible.

1. It includes a purpose: to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in time, therefore to achieve tactical victory through spiritual momentum.

2. It has an objective: to advance to spiritual maturity in the plan of God. There is no momentum outside of His plan.

3. A policy: grace is the policy of God in the administration of His plan for the Church Age believer, known as the royal family of God.

5. A point of reference: the holiness or integrity of God is the point of reference, divine integrity is composed of two attributes: the justice of God and the righteousness of God.

The frames of reference which are not involved in this dispensation: not the sovereignty of God, as per hyper-Calvinism; not the omnipotence of God, as per the healing movement; not the love of God, as per emotional fundamentalism.

6. An authority: the Word of God is the authority. God has delegated responsibility of communication of doctrine to the gift of pastor-teacher. Other responsibilities go with other spiritual gifts. All believers have a spiritual gift.

7. A result: good decisions from a position of strength in the system. That means you have personal control of your life and eventually will have a personal sense of destiny.

9. A protocol: three categories of virtue in the divine dynasphere form the principle of the protocol in the plan of God. God’s plan does have protocol just as many facets of God’s plan have protocol. For example, prayer has protocol. All prayer is addressed to the Father in the name of the Son in the power of the Spirit.

In God’s plan: mandates first; in God’s system: virtue first; in God’s purpose: Christ first; in God’s policy: grace first; in God’s objective: momentum first; in God’s authority: doctrine first.

The system works around the divine dynasphere which has been given to this dispensation only. The prototype divine dynasphere was proved by our Lord Jesus Christ. We have eight gates which are a part of the system.

Gate one: the filling of the Holy Spirit. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit is based on a system of protocol. God the Holy Spirit does not indwell believers in the Old Testament. He empowered a few under the doctrine of enduement, e.g. David, Elijah, Elisha, certain prophets, writers of the Old Testament. The Church Age is the only dispensation, until the future one in the Millennium, when God the Holy Spirit indwells every believer, winner or loser, carnal or spiritual. And this is the only dispensation in which the entire plan of God revolves around the power of God the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is entrance into the divine dynasphere through gate one. Walking in the Spirit is functioning at the various gates. This is the power system.

Secondly, there is the basic modus operandi which is so necessary to develop objectivity in the spiritual life. Many born-again believers are psychologically very subjective. They are subjective through every type of environmental process, every type of psychological system, and subjectivity has to be set aside. Subjectivity is basically set aside, first through the basics involving the rebound technique, and then the three stages of the faith-rest drill. Objectivity is absolutely necessary in the divine system, there is no place for subjectivity. Subjectivity is always related to arrogance and involvement in the cosmic system.

The third gate is enforced and genuine humility. This is basic virtue directed toward authority. Basic virtue is always humility, and humility in several categories is orientation to life. Without humility there is no success in any aspect of life where success can be measured. That is the teachability gate.

Gate four is the momentum gate. Remember that in each one of these gates there is a system of protocol, an organised system, God is not the author of confusion. At gate four we not only see our momentum but the function of our two royal warrants. Each one of us is a priest; each one of us is an ambassador for Christ. Perception of doctrine: the function of our royal priesthood; application of doctrine: the function of our royal ambassadorship.

That leads to gate five, the place where protocol reaches its peak in manifestation. Gate five is directed toward God, it is the motivational virtue of the Christian way of life.

Virtue is found in gate three, five, and six. This is where protocol is always manifest. There is an organised system of protocol in every one of these gates. W are not studying at the moment in this part of the eschatology of Revelation the Christian way of life but we are studying the concept of protocol. This means that since God has a plan for your life as a believer you cannot afford as a believer to sit on the bank waiting for the river to pass you by. You have to learn doctrine today, tomorrow and the next day. Then, the day after you will put the plan of God into operation — first on a simple basis, and then in the greater complexities of the concept of protocol. Your life will be changed.

In the time in which the book of Revelation was written the Roman empire was the first Gentile client nation to God. Virgil said: “Advance in virtue”. That pretty well summarises the concept of protocol. Or, as one of the Latin writers once quipped: “Magna est veritas et brevalavit,” doctrine is powerful and ultimately will win. That is the concept in the plan of God.

This means there is a system. Without s system you have no standard; without a system you have no co-ordination; without a system you have no performance; without a system you have no effectiveness. In the divine system the ability resides in the essence of God while compliability rests with the volition of the believer. Without the divine system the believer has no standards to distinguish the plan of God from Satan’s cosmic system. The difference is between morality which is the virtue-morality of the plan of God and the arrogant morality of the cosmic system. The believer has no co-ordination for application of doctrine to circumstances of life. Becoming spiritually self-sustaining and fulfilling the system all demand understanding a protocol. As you understand the plan of God the divine system of protocol unfolds. The believer has no performance, he has no momentum, he does not fulfil the right priorities in the plan of God. The believer has no effectiveness, neither the attainment of spiritual maturity nor the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ and, furthermore, he has no legitimate Christian service. Therefore, of course, it is important to understand protocol.

That is protocol on earth very briefly as it relates to us in the Church Age but what we are here to study is protocol in heaven because that is the subject of Revelation 14:15-19. Protocol is defined as a rigid, long-established code prescribing complete deference to superior rank and strict adherence to due order of precedence. A precise and correct procedure results.

Protocol recognises therefore the principle of authority under the laws of divine establishment. Protocol recognises and obeys authority, consequently protocol requires virtue for its existence. Protocol is related to basic virtue in life which is enforced and genuine humility because basic virtue is the basis for everything, not only for success in life as an individual, but for functioning in the divine plan, the divine system, which God has provided for us. Protocol is related to motivational virtue through the principles of the believer’s worship of God, and protocol is related to functional virtue through the modus operandi of the morality of virtue. The fact that protocol is a part of God’s plan, God’s policy, God’s priorities, God’s system, emphasises the conclusion that protocol exists in heaven. That is what this passage is all about. No judgment of any major type nor judgements of the most minor and minute type ever occur without the function of the highest-ranking possible protocol in heaven: God the Father, God the Son, specifically mentioned in this passage, and the angelic college of heralds. The fact that authority exists in the highest sphere of angelic power in the angelic college of heralds is a very important part of this concept.

The coexistence of a dual nobility in a land is not unusual. In heaven we have the angelic order of battle and the angelic college of heralds. For aristocracy there is always the protocol. The protocol in heaven is very precise, very exact, and very important because it means that nothing by way of historical disaster ever occurs on earth apart from a whole system and a process of check and countercheck, balance and counterbalance. Everything that happens to you by way of personal disaster and everything that happens to us as a nation by way of disaster results from a protocol system in heaven.

Remember: Protocol is based on respect for authority, not fear of authority. Protocol always involves the volition and the mental attitude of those who do not have authority. Protocol is based, therefore, on virtue, not on superiority. Protocol orientation demands confidence so that one is not disturbed by the greatness, the superiority, the authority, or the power of someone else. In heaven protocol is the function of aristocracy: the elect angels who were winners in the prehistoric angelic conflict. This protocol in the angelic college of heralds leads us to the conclusion that in the prehistoric angelic conflict, before man was created, God’s plan for the elect angels included the principle of virtue first.

Verse 19 is not the function of the execution squad, it is merely some of the results: “Then the angel [ the pur sui vant officer] swung his sickle against the earth [the administration of the seven last plagues]...”

Next we have “and he harvested,” the connective use of the conjunction kA plus the aorist active indicative of the verb turgid. This refers to the function of the seven last plagues. The culminative aorist tense views the judgment in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the terrible historical disasters that precede the second advent of Christ. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer who has been on standby, now assumes command of the execution squad. He fulfils his function. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatological reality.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from a)mpeloj. It refers to vines, the vines of the earth. The vines of the earth represent the areas of degeneracy, the areas of religion, in the last half of the Tribulation. We have seen that there are actually three areas of degeneracy in the last half of the Tribulation: organised evil, disorganised evil, and immoral degeneracy. The vines or clusters of grapes indicate the fact that man by man’s volition produces historical circumstances which are self-destructive and, therefore, to protect man from destroying himself, there is divine judgment which comes from the system of protocol.

Man always brings on historical disaster and inevitable divine discipline through the decisions of his own volition. Self-determination is always the basis for personal and historical disaster. Bad decisions from a position of weakness always result in cosmic involvement. So man would destroy himself left to his own devices. The counter-fire to stop the fire, as it were, is the divine judgment which intervenes into human history to protect man from destroying himself. In historical disaster man loses control of his life, he has no personal sense of destiny. Maximum bad decisions made by mankind on the cosmic system demand, therefore, divine judgment and historical disaster to perpetuate the human race. The human race is actually perpetuated by the wisdom of God in the perpetuation of historical disaster. The harvest of the vines is the result of man’s negative volition while the pouring out of the bowls of divine wrath in Revelation chapter sixteen is the execution, divine judgment, or God’s wrath in order to deliver and protect the human race from self-destruction and to eliminate the cancerous portions that are destroying mankind on the earth.

Again, the conclusion from all of this: man will not be able to destroy man from the earth. There is no system of nuclear weapons, nerve gas, chemical warfare, nothing whereby man will be able to destroy himself from this earth. Man by man’s efforts cannot destroy man. God overrules from the protocol in heaven through the gracious judgements of historical disaster. Man will continue to live on planet earth until history is completed at the end of the Millennium. So the swinging of the sickle, the harvesting, is the function of the pur sui vant officer in command of the execution squad.

Next we have the process of divine judgment, “and he threw them.” We have the connective conjunction kai, and the aorist active indicative from the verb ballw which means to throw. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Man is the product of his own decisions. Bad decisions of cosmic involvement are harvested, put into the winepress for divine judgment. The active voice: the harvested vines with their clusters of bad decisions are put into the winepress by the pur sui vant officer functioning through his execution squad. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the divine collection of bad decisions which are accumulated over a period and are harvested for divine judgment. There is no word for “them.” It is understood as a direct object of the context but there is no word for it in the Greek, “and he threw [them] into the winepress,” e)ij plus the accusative of lenoj. The winepress always refers to divine judgment, it represents the accumulation of bad decisions from man’s free will, man’s decisions from his position of weakness on a part of a segment of the human race. The winepress indicates a process in which divine judgment does not act until there has been an accumulation of bad decisions relating to motivational and functional evil of the cosmic system. This winepress is also called megaj, the adjective which is used with it meaning “great.” It also means powerful. Megaj has as many as thirty related meanings.

Then we have a descriptive genitive of qumoj used with the possessive genitive of qeoj, and we have an anthropopathism. The meaning of the wrath of God: divine justice is man’s frame of reference for both blessing and cursing from God. The blessing originates from the fact that divine justice imputed all man’s sins to Christ on the cross and then judged them. This blessing is where God’s plan and God’s system for mankind actually begins. Eternal salvation through faith in Christ is the beginning of everything. Rejection of Christ as personal saviour is where the cursing begins, John 3:18. The wrath of God expresses the function of divine justice with regard to historical trends. The accumulation of evil in the form of degeneracy, religion, the morality of arrogance, endangers the very existence of the human race and their right of self-determination. Therefore these saturations of evil result in divine judgment for the purpose of perpetuating the human race.

Translation: “Then the angel [the pur sui vant officer] swung his sickle against the earth [the seven last plagues], and he harvested the vines of the earth [all the areas where degeneracy, religion and pseudo-morality existed], and he threw them [the clusters of grapes or vines] into the great winepress of the wrath of God.”

There is no way to reconcile Christianity and philosophy. Philosophy always comes up short. This is demonstrated by the apostle Peter when he says that [2 Peter 1:3] “seeing his divine power [the divine dynasphere] has given to us everything pertaining to life and godliness...” So the brilliant minds, the men of genius in philosophy who strive to attain virtue never arrive there. Yet we, with all of our stupidity, can get into the divine system, after we understand it, and function in it and produce what men throughout the ages have desired to produce and could never achieve, virtue. “… through the true knowledge of him [Christ] who called us to his own glory [the prototype divine dynasphere] and virtue.” We were not called to self-righteousness, we were not called to a system of philosophical speculation, rationalism and empiricism; we were not called to go out and try to use our volition and achieve virtue. Virtue is only manufactured inside of the divine dynasphere.

Continuing in 2 Peter 1:4 -9, “Through which things [both the divine dynasphere and the manufacture of virtue in it] he has given to us his precious and magnificent promises, that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature [through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, through the system: virtue first], having escaped the corruption that is in the cosmic system by lust. Now for this reason also, applying all diligence in your doctrine supply virtue [doctrine supplies virtue], and in your virtue, knowledge; and in your knowledge, protocol [self-discipline], and in your protocol, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness [gate eight of the divine dynasphere]; and in your godliness, capacity for love [the manifestation of virtue-love], and in your capacity for love the virtue of impersonal love. For if these virtues are yours increasing [momentum and residence in the system], they render you neither useless nor unproductive in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these virtues is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten purification from his former sins [having forgotten rebound, therefore outside of the divine dynasphere].”

The apostle Paul in Philippians 4:8 says, “Therefore, royal family, everything that is true [doctrinal], everything that is honourable [integrity], everything that is just [fair], everything that is pure, everything that is capacity for love, everything that is commendable, if there is any virtue [virtue must come first], and anything worthy of praise, you concentrate on these things.” Protocol becomes the structure for putting together the virtue.

We resume in Revelation with the terminating point of the seven last plagues. Chapters fifteen and sixteen will be the fill-in. But what is the end of it all? How is evil going to end up in the human race at the closing moments of the Tribulation? With all of the system of protocol in heaven, with all of the fairness, with all the justice, with the perfect function of virtue in the angelic college of heralds, with the great leadership involved, what is the end result? Notice that out of the whole system of protocol comes a system of justice on earth, and a system of justice on earth demands the death of the guilty. The guilty have resorted to violence; they must die by violence. The blood mentioned at the end of this chapter is the inevitable result of the honourable function of the protocol in heaven. There are certain members of the human race that must die for the human race to be perpetuated.

Verse 20 — we start with the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, “In fact.” Next we have the nominative singular subject lhnoj, the winepress, where all of this judgment is occurring. Then the aorist passive indicative of the verb patew which means to trample, to trample down, “In fact the winepress was trampled.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It is a reference to the angelic officer in charge of the execution squad. One of the execution squad will do this in chapter sixteen, the sixth pur sui vant messenger. It is a reference, then, to the final phase of the Armageddon campaign. The passive voice: the winepress is the accumulation of cosmic evil from man’s bad decisions, and it receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of the Armageddon campaign as the sixth bowl judgment and its inevitable result. Then we have an adverb used as an improper preposition, e)cwqen, and with it we have the object of the preposition which is polij, “outside the city.” Polij is going to refer to Jerusalem several times in the next context. This is a reference to the siege of Jerusalem. We have the slaughter, then, of the final phase of the Armageddon campaign.

The nominative subject in the singular is a(ima and this represents all of the slaughter on the battlefield of the Armageddon campaign and of the general world war which occurs at that time. A(ima is the word for blood. It can be taken as literal blood but actually it is a figurative use for people dying. They don’t all bleed to death but blood is used in that sense. Then we have e)k plus the ablative of lhnoj and it refers to the winepress, “and the blood from the winepress.” Then the aorist active indicative from e)cerxomai, translated here “flowed out.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the slaughter, the annihilation of the enemy in the last world war in history, including the Armageddon campaign, and gathers it into a single whole. The active voice: the blood of the annihilated armies produces the action of the verb. In other words, great casualties. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the great slaughter which shocks the world at the point of the second advent. Next we have an Attic Greek adverb, a)xri, used as an improper preposition with the genitive of xalinoj, a horse’s bridle. Then the final phrase, “a thousand, six hundred stades.” A stade is roughly 200 yards. 1600 stades is roughly 180 miles. Hence, within the 180-mile radius of Jerusalem there will be a tremendous slaughter which terminates the Armageddon campaign.

This last verse, which doesn’t really connect with anything, it just gives believers confidence so that they know how it is going to turn out.

Translation: “In fact, the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood flowed out of the winepress up to the horse’s bridle, as far as a hundred and eighty miles.”

This fulfils the prophecy, for example, of Isaiah 34:5,6, “My sword is satiated in heaven,” the protocol of heaven related to the slaughter of Armageddon, “The sword of the Lord is filled with blood.” Ezekiel 39:2-5 describes the same slaughter: “And I shall turn you around,” speaking of the king of the north in the invasion of Armageddon, “drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north [the invasion point], and bring you against the mountains of Israel. And I shall strike your bow from your left hand, and smash your arrows from your right [the neutralisation of infantry weapons]. You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all of your troops, and the people who are with you [allies]; and I shall give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and the beast of the field. And you shall fall on open fields; for it is I who have spoken, declares the Lord God.”

We are talking here about slaughter in the millions. And we are also talking not about violence in terms of terrorism but are actually discussing professional killing, not murder. In other words, how do you stop a raging fire” Light a backfire. That is exactly what we have. Remember that all legitimate killing of people, all just killing of people, all killing from virtue, must be professional. The person who gets emotional in warfare is a poor soldier. He must be professional, he must concentrate on his weapon, not on who is being killed out there. There should never be one qualm of conscience if you understand virtue, if you understand protocol. Protocol plus virtue equals professionalism. There must be no emotion, no conflict.

The burial of the army of the king of the north is found in Ezekiel 39:11-12, “And it shall come to pass in that day that I shall give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block traffic. So they will bury Gog there will all of his army, and they will call it the valley of Hamon-gog [the armies of Gog]. For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land [of their corpses].”

In verse 13 we have the story of the burial ground. It will be a memorial to the glory of God for the power of God is infinitely greater than the power of Satan and his system of evil in this world. “Even all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be a memorial for them on the day that I glorify myself, declares the Lord God.” Joel 2:20 describes this same slaughter: “And I will remove the northern army far from you, I will drive it into a parched and desolate land, in fact its vanguard into the eastern sea [the Dead Sea], its rear guard into the western sea [the Mediterranean]. Then its stench will ascend into the air and its foul smell will come up,” and next it describes the military glory of this great army of the king of the north, “for it has done great things.” But that is past history, they are now corpses. In Revelation 19:21 we have once again a reference to this principle. In this passage in general, what do we have? Divine victory during the time of the eschatology of the devil’s desperation. It includes several factors. First, the defeat of the remnants of Satan’s three assault armies, demon armies. Secondly, the defeat of demonism by mature believers through virtue, through the development of Bible doctrine. Protocol virtue defeats demonism, the invisible army where there are no corpses involved but where the weapon is the protocol of the divine dynasphere, the production of the three categories of virtue. Thirdly, the victory of the Tribulational martyrs who accept death rather than renounce our Lord Jesus Christ as the living Word and Bible doctrine as the written Word. Fourth, the divine victory over the Antichrist army of then Armageddon campaign which includes the deliverance of Israel. Fifth, the divine victory over ecumenical religion, the subject of two chapters yet to be studied in Revelation chapters 17 & 18. Sixth, the deliverance of Israel, the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants at the second advent of Christ. Seventh, there will be the removal of Satan as the ruler of this world and he is put in prison for a thousand years during the Millennial reign of Christ.

The beginning of the devil’s desperation is the middle of the Tribulation and two things occur at that time, both found in Revelation chapter twelve: the expulsion of Satan from heaven (12:1-12) and the seventh trumpet, the great holocaust attack on Israel (12:13-17). It must be remembered that all of this comes to pass because people ask for it. We are the products of our own decisions, one of the most basic concepts in the doctrine of historical trends. Nothing ever happens to the human race apart from bad decisions from a position of weakness. Then, secondly, we noted in chapter thirteen the devil’s two dictators: the Gentile dictator of 13:1-10, the dictator of the revived Roman empire and the leader of the ecumenical religious system which is the greatest concentration of evil of all time; then, in the last half of chapter 13, verses 11-18, we studied the Jewish dictator of the state of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation. In chapter fourteen we noted the divine victory during the time of the devil’s desperation. In verses 1-5 we studied the victory of the plan of God. In verses 6-20 the victory of the judgment of God and the concept of protocol in heaven, relating it to protocol as a part of the divine system in God’s plan for your life.

Next in chapters fifteen and sixteen, they go together: divine judgment during the devil’s desperation. In chapter fifteen we see protocol functioning in the seven last plagues in heaven and then protocol functioning in the seven bowl judgements on earth in chapter sixteen. In chapters seventeen and eighteen we have two chapters concentrated on the evils of religion and how religion is the most evil system that Satan has ever invented. We will see in chapter 17 the fall, the judgment of the political aspect of ecumenical religion, and then in chapter 18 we will see the fall of the so-called spiritual aspect of ecumenical religion. Actually, these two chapters, 17 & 18, are simply an amplification of the seventh bowl judgment. Then we will move on to chapters nineteen and twenty to the termination of the devil’s desperation. In chapter nineteen is the second advent of Christ, and in chapter twenty, verses 1-3, the imprisonment of Satan.

We should notice as we proceed that the seven last plagues of chapter fifteen are identical to the seven vials or bowls of chapter sixteen. They are synonymous terms. We know that from chapter 21:9. In heaven they are simply called plagues; on earth when they are administered we can call them bowls or grenades or vials.

In chapter 15:1-4 we have the sign in heaven. In verse 1 we see the last of the Tribulational judgements, the greatest historical disaster in all of man’s life on earth. Now we meet the execution squad. These seven angels are the execution squad.

This is said to be a great sign in heaven. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, “Then I saw.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, and this is the vision of the next two chapters, the seven last plagues or the seven bowl judgements. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the vision of the seven last plagues of chapter fifteen which are synonymous with the seen bowl judgements of chapter sixteen. With this we have the accusative neuter singular direct object, and we have the adjective. The direct object is composed of a)lloj, meaning another of the same kind, another system of judgment, a system of judgment similar to the seven seals and then the seven trumpets. And with this we have the noun shmeion which means a sign or a miracle, something that is contrary to the usual course of nature. This means a miracle of divine origin which is performed by God as a vehicle of revelation or communication of Bible doctrine to those who have so far rejected it. God is going to get the attention of the negative part of the human race. “Then I saw another sign,” another sign because there are seven signs in the book of Revelation, starting in 12:1 at which point we noted them briefly. The Jews are constantly seeking signs or attesting miracles so that they were distracted from Bible doctrine and looked always for the miracle. So when we have a reference to signs in the book of Revelation we know that we are going to be dealing with Israel and the state of Israel. In John 4:48 our Lord said, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” He was addressing Himself to the Jewish nation, those who rejected the fact that He was the Messiah.

Principle: Miracles, supernatural activity, is not the basis for faith in the Lord Jesus Christ or perception of doctrine. The reality of doctrine is far greater than any miracle that anyone ever sees, and miracles generally become a distraction for miracles are performed by Satan and by Satan’s organisation. Therefore you do not assume in this time of a completed canon of scripture that a miracle means that a person comes from God. The person may be using a Satanic miracle for false teaching to gain adherents. The age of miracles is over, it ended with the completion of the canon of scripture. The reality of truth is found in Bible doctrine, not in the function of miracles.

Miracles or signs without doctrine are a distraction from doctrine but when the sign is given by God it is to teach Bible doctrine. This sign is in heaven therefore it is not visible to us, only through the eyes of John. It is not the performance of a miracle on the earth but a system of protocol related to the supernatural in heaven. Here we have a sign that teaches the eschatology of the seven last disasters in history.

The location of the sign: e)n plus the locative of o)uranoj, “in [the third] heaven.” Since this is a sign in the third heaven, the abode of God, it will be a teaching sign to introduce the eschatology of the seven last plagues. We know that this sign is doctrinal teaching, a teaching aid actually, in the field of eschatology because it is described by two adjectives. The two adjectives which follow: the accusative singular of megaj. Whatever it is, in the eyes of God it is “great”; and qaumastoj, which has several meanings as an adjective. It is used for things related to God, and it is the verbal adjective meaning marvellous, astonishing, noteworthy. “Then I saw another sign in heaven, both great and remarkable.” It describes the content of the seven last plagues, the greatest disasters of history. Judgment from God is always awesome, therefore it is noteworthy, it is remarkable, it is the means by which God evangelises and gives a last chance to those in history who are being judged to believe in Christ.

The concept is very simple: Divine discipline is for the believer; divine judgment is for the unbeliever.

We are now in the second stage of divine warning to the unbeliever. The grace of God is always there, grace precedes judgment, judgment is used to present grace in a stronger form. The seven pur sui vant angels who act as the execution squad are now introduced. They are said to be “seven angels,” e(pta plus a)ggeloj. These angels are pur sui vant messengers and they are all aristocrats. They must be able to think, to obey, to execute, under the system of protocol. In this operation none of the common angels, the angels who failed or the angels who did nothing during the prehistoric angelic conflict, are involved. This is a job for aristocrats. Aristocrats among creatures are always the right ones for the crisis. They will follow divine orders right down to the last point, and that is exactly what we have here. This is an execution squad of aristocrats, pur sui vant messengers from the angelic college of heralds. This squad will not go into action until chapter sixteen. The first of the seven will pull the pin on his grenade in 16:2, the second one in verse 3, the third in verse 4, the fourth one in verse 8, and so on. The order of battle in the administration of these seven judgements is very carefully handled in every echelon of the angelic college of heralds and we will note their various functions.

Next we have a present active participle from the verb e)xw. The lesson we probably supposed to learn here is that if you want a job done right give it to someone who is high-class enough to do it. The point is: scum never can do the job. The difference between scum and high-class in Christianity is the difference between life in the divine dynasphere and life in the cosmic system. In other words, Christians in the cosmic system, no matter what their social status may be, are scum and cannot do anything for God. The majority of born-again believers live in the cosmic system, therefore they cannot execute God’s plan on earth. And there were a lot of those in the prehistoric angelic conflict who are not doing the job. They didn’t do the job then; they are not given the job now. The ones who are ready for the crisis, the crisis personality, are believers living in God’s plan, function in God’s system. He has the right priorities, the necessary virtue. This execution squad is taken from the aristocracy, the angelic college of heralds. The same thing is true when God wants a member of the human race to do something. He gets the believer who is living in the divine dynasphere, the believer who is consistently positive, the believer who in that sense is the spiritual aristocrat, the crisis personality, the one who can stand in the gap. Always a minority of believers are involved but those are the believers that God can use.

So we have the present active participle of e)xw, and the pictorial present actually presents to the mind the eschatological events in heaven under the same concept we have studied, protocol. The active voice: the pur sui vant messengers from the angelic college of heralds, aristocrats, produce the action. They are a lower category of aristocrat, they are wingless angels, in contrast to their commanding officer who is a seraph. We have seen that their commanding officer was under the command of a staff: the king of arms, the officer of arms, the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father.

The circumstantial participle follows and we have with this an accusative direct object, and the direct object is first of all a numeral, e(pta, “seven.” Next is e)sxatoj, and that is very important. The word is “last,” “the seven last,” because this is the end of all historical disaster. All disaster in history is going to terminate with these events. This will be the last war in history and the whole topography of planet earth is going to undergo some tremendous changes. There are going to be all kinds of disasters and this is the last of it. We use the word “plague” here in the King James version which is more or less of a transliteration from the noun plhgh. Plhgh really means disaster but these are seven historical disasters or seven plagues.

Next we have the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, “because.” Then e)n plus the locative of a)utoj, “in them.” What is in them? The nominative singular subject qumoj, “anger,” “wrath”; and the possessive genitive of qeoj, “of God.” This is an anthropopathism. God does not get angry but to explain divine policy in terms of human frame of reference we have the word wrath or anger used. Then the aorist passive indicative of telew, “has been completed.”

The word which will come up in the next chapter is fialh, mistranslated as “vial” in the King James version. That is actually a bowl, and that bowl is going to be shaped more or less like a grenade and inside is the qumoj, the wrath of God. Each member of the execution squad pulls his pin, pours out the content of his bowl. There are seven of them and they are called the seven last judgements. They are far worse than anything the world has ever experienced or ever will. That is why the last half of this period is called “the great Tribulation”. And because it is so bad people would say there is no way you could live on the earth, but there will be millions of people who will survive these things — believers and unbelievers. One of the things we will learn is how they survive, why they survive.

“because in them the wrath of God has been completed.” The culminative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, namely the administration of the seven last plagues which are synonymous with the seven bowl judgements of the next chapter. The passive voice: the wrath or judgment of God receives the action of the verb, completion. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality of the completion of divine judgment prior to the second advent.

Translation: “Then I saw another sign in [the third] heaven, both great and awesome [or noteworthy], seven angels [the execution squad] who have seven plagues, the last ones; because in them the wrath of God has been completed.”

In verse two we have the victorious martyrs of the future. We are going to see a great principle, that those who have Bible doctrine, those who are believers and have learned truth, have great victory in death just as they do in life. Those who understand doctrine and believe it, those who utilise the rationales of the second stage of the faith-rest drill, always understand the fact that death is not a disaster and that there are no accidents in the spiritual life. When death overtakes anyone of us it is not a tragedy, it is not a disaster, it is time for the Lord to take us home. We understand that no one ever departs from this earth by death, believer or unbeliever, apart from the Lord’s permission. When people die in a so-called tragic way it has something to do with their decisions in life, and when believers die it has everything to do with God’s decision in heaven. For the born-again believer whether he was a winner or a loser in this life makes no difference. When he dies it is a victory, it is a celebration. He is absent from the body and face to face with the Lord, he is in an interim body and he is in a state of perfect happiness. The losers will have embarrassment only at the judgment seat of Christ. When the Lord calls anyone home it is His call. It is not even a guess, it is the Lord’s time, it is the right time.

We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then,” the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, which means a vision given, an eschatological vision to John so that he can tell us about some future generation. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the vision of the Tribulational martyrs is gathered up into a single whole. The apostle John produces the action of the verb, he has given this doctrine. The declarative indicative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. It is gong to happen in the future.

Here are some people who are going to die young. They are going to be martyred because in a short period of time after their conversion they learned a lot of doctrine. That means there will be some good Bible teaching from angels, from Moses, from Elijah, from a lot of different sources. The Tribulational is a period of great doctrinal teaching as well as great evangelism. And because these people refuse to accept religion they are going to be killed by religion.

We have a comparative particle o(j here which tells us “something like.” It means something like a sea of glass here, it is not a direct analogy. It is something very beautiful and described from the eye of John whose frame of reference goes to a magnificently calm sea. It is so calm and so clear that it looks like crystal. So we have the accusative singular direct object from qalassa, and with it we have a descriptive genitive u(alinoj, “sea of crystal.” It is something like a sea of crystal, something like a sea but it is calm, no waves. The sea of glass or crystal represents the interim state of believers who are waiting for the resurrection body in heaven. In chapter 4:6 the sea of glass depicted the interim state of Church Age believers as the royal family of God but in this passage we have something slightly different: believers of another dispensation. They are in a state, of course, of perfect bliss in their interim body while waiting for their Rapture. In this passage we have the interim state of Tribulational martyrs, those who are waiting for their resurrection bodies at the second advent. In the interim state these Tribulational martyrs have offered imprecatory prayers which will be answered in the administration of the seven last plagues or historical disasters which are synonymous with the seven bowl judgements. Two passages describe the Tribulational martyrs who are the sea of glass, 6:9-11; 7:13-17. This explains our sea of glass. It is refreshment, tranquillity, great happiness. The sea is of glass, it cannot be influenced by the winds and the tides, there is no rough sea in heaven. There is no unhappiness or misery for any believer immediately after he dies. The only time he would be unhappy would be to experience shame as a loser when it is time to pass out rewards and decorations and to see if he was on the honours list or not.

This sea of glass is said to be mixed with something, the perfect passive participle from the verb mignumi. The perfect tense denotes completed action with existing results from that action. It refers to the imprecatory prayers which occur at intervals as different martyrs join the host in heaven. The Tribulational martyrs do not spend all their time in prayer but occasionally as their numbers swell in heaven they offer this category of prayer. The existing results of this action are found in four chapters, chapter 15, the seven last plagues as a part of the function of protocol in heaven; chapter 16, the seven bowl judgements; chapter 17, the amplification of the seventh bowl judgment in the destruction of the political aspect of ecumenical religion; chapter 18, the destruction of the religious Babylon takes place. The passive voice: the sea of glass receives the action of the verb, which means that the tranquillity of the interim state is punctuated by certain activities such as the imprecatory prayers. The participle is circumstantial and used here as a relative clause. With this we have the instrumental of association singular from the noun pur, “fire.” The fire refers to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs.

The winner status of these Tribulational martyrs is mentioned next. We have the use of the conjunction kai, translated “even.” Then the accusative plural direct object, and in that direct object we have this form: touj. That is the accusative plural of the definite article used as a personal pronoun and referring to these who have died during the Tribulation — “even those.” Then the present active participle from the verb nikaw, “victory.” We translate it: “even those who have departed victorious.” The present tense of duration translated like a perfect tense in the English indicates that what has happened in time, these people were winners in time, winners over the great religious system which persecuted them, continues in their present interim state. The active voice: the Tribulational martyrs who have advanced to maturity in the system produce the action. The participle is circumstantial.

The victory is said to be from the beast dictator, e)k plus the ablative of qhrion. It refers to the beast dictator of the revived Roman empire who is the religious ruler of the ecumenical system. No human being will ever exploit the cosmic system’s power like this future dictator will.

The victory of these Tribulation martyrs is based upon three factors. First of all, they made good decisions from a position of strength. Their position of strength is their knowledge of doctrine, their understanding of the divine system, the divine plan for their lives, as it exists in that period of history. Secondly, they have personal control of their lives and they make their decisions knowing the consequences will be death. Thirdly, they have a very fine personal sense of destiny. These Tribulational martyrs departed from life victorious over the beast dictator because they used a greater power than the most powerful person who will ever live as far as human beings. While the divine dynasphere is no longer the system for the Tribulation the divine plan has all of the categories in the divine dynasphere. The primary difference in God’s plan for the Church Age believer and these men of the future is that they have a slightly different ministry of God the Holy Spirit, it goes back to the time of the Old Testament. But apart from this the principle is the same: victory over the beast dictator is the result of becoming a winner by daily decisions for the divine system. The believer who is a winner has much greater power than the most devout Satanic servant in the cosmic system. Since Satan is the ruler of this world his servants often have greater political power but this power cannot force renunciation of Christ from a mature believer. The areas of victory over the beast dictator are given in the passage as it unfolds.

Next we have the connective conjunction kai, “both,” and then a preposition e)k plus the ablative of e)ikon. With it we have a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun, here a possessive genitive, “both from his image.” The image, of course, is the symbol of the dictator of the ecumenical religious system. Since idolatry is the best means of demon contact idolatry is necessary for the ecumenical religious system of the beast dictator. We have a second conjunction kai translated “and,” “and from the number of his name,” again we have a repetition of e)k plus a)riqmoj.

We have previously noted in chapter 13:14-18 that the number of the beast dictator is 666. All that 666 is is a part of computerised tyranny of the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation. Computers have many applications. Most of them are good, many of them are not. Crime by computer is obviously one of the misapplications but computers are definitely here to stay and the fact that the dictator in the future is going to establish an ecumenical religious system and computerise the whole system these things should not surprise us at all. Of course there is no honour or virtue in Satan’s ecumenical religious system and we will see that in chapters 17 & 18. We have already noted the ID card issued to the adherents of Satan’s ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation, and it is tied up to a computer number. Apparently 666 is nothing more than a code number or representative of a code number for computerised tyranny. The religious persecution will be against those who reject the religious system through demonism, terrorism, social and economic ostracism, violence, torture, execution. All of these things will be experienced primarily by those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The principle: Religion destroys the privacy of the individual with its freedom plus self-determination, and this historical trend in the Tribulation, computerised tyranny, has already begun in this decade by technology.

We have to be very careful as so-called fundamentalist Christians. Fundamentalists have a very bad habit of getting extreme and really going overboard. Computers have good applications and they have bad applications. That depends on the individual involved. So don’t be a stupid “fundy” and go around saying, “Down with computers”! Obviously the person who is making the application here is a genius whom we studied in chapter thirteen, verses 1-10. He makes maximum use of the computer to find out who is for him and who is against him. This means that computerised tyranny which is already used in some cases in some places apparently is going to be a thing of the future just as many of the blessings of the computer will be available. And, of course, this does not imply the proximity of the Tribulation because computers are here but it means that whenever the Tribulation occurs there will be a maximum use of it in the field of tyranny. Computerised tyranny must be related to something. Who would think of making the computer a system of tyranny? Well, what is the most evil thing in the world? Religion. And remember Christianity is not a religion, Christianity is a relationship with God through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a relationship, not a religion. But religion is salvation by works, by morality, by joining a church, by changing your behaviour pattern, by philosophical application. The world is filled with religion because Satan is the father of all religious systems, and in the future religion will make an evil application of the computer. Computerised tyranny, then, is a religious program system which controls through the computer the life of mankind on the earth during the Tribulation. The number 666 is nothing more than a code number in which the computer designates all members of Satan’s ecumenical religion in good standing during the last half of the Tribulation. 666 is merely the key to the memory bank, and the memory bank of the computer destroys both the privacy and the freedom of those who are outside the religion and becomes the means of persecuting of believers during this awful time in human history. So obviously this is an application with which we cannot agree. Any application which destroys the privacy of the individual is not a good application because without privacy you cannot have freedom.

The phrase “and over his mark” is not found in the manuscript at this point. Notice the difference in the translation. The preposition e)k in this context must take its meaning from the verb nikaw and therefore it is translated “over,” rather than the usual “from” or “by.” There is a comparison of power and the power of Bible doctrine resident in the soul versus the power of this great dictator, and there is a principle that comes out of this: the greatest power in the world is what you think. If you think erroneously it becomes a power for evil; if you think correctly according to truth and doctrine then it becomes a power for good. And so the greatest power in history is not the power of arms but it is thought in the soul. So the power of life is in the power of thought and the more doctrine you have you increase your power in the field of thinking.

Next we have a perfect active indicative from the verb i(stemi, and it means to stand, “and they stood.” It is a dramatic perfect tense, therefore a rhetorical application of the perfect tense used to describe a fact which is unusually vivid and to describe it in a very realistic way. Like the intensive perfect it emphasises the results of the action, the blessings of the interim state for the believer who died before his resurrection. He died as a martyr standing for doctrine, refusing to compromise doctrine. The active voice: believers in the Tribulation who are martyrs produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, it expresses an additional fact of thought which is best translated in the English by the use of the f inite verb and the conjunction “and.” With this we have the preposition e)pi plus the accusative of qalassa, “on the sea of glass.”

Then they are said to be holding something: the present active participle of e)xw, “holding.” The present tense is a pictorial present, it presents to the mind a picture of eschatological events in the process of occurrence. The active voice: the Tribulational martyrs produce the action. Again we have a circumstantial participle but emphasis here is on the fact that the action of the present participle is coterminous with the action of the main verb. The previous circumstantial participle is translated as a finite verb, so when we put it together it says, “they stood on the sea of glass holding” something from God, and that would be the accusative direct object of kiqara, “harp.”

The harp is a musical instrument and we note something of its significance as far as the Bible is concerned. The harp is a musical instrument but it is always associated with something in the Bible. It is associated with happiness. Hanging a harp, for example, on a willow tree is a sign of great misery. When you are not playing a harp is a sign of unhappiness. Hanging a harp on the willow tree is a sign of not only great misery but it means that because it is no longer in use there is no happiness in that vicinity. This was found in Psalm 137, “By the rivers of Babylon.” The Jews were out under the 5th cycle of discipline. They were in a state of slavery, therefore they were in a state of misery. They no longer enjoyed the freedom and the blessing that they had previously known as a client nation.

So Psalm 137:1 begins by expressing the 5th cycle of discipline. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion [the hill which was the headquarters for the client nation]. On the willows in the middle of it [the river Babylon] we hung our harps.” So they hung their harps on the willows, indicating that they were in a state of great sadness.

Isaiah 24:8, “The gaiety of tambourines ceases, the noise of revellers stops, the gaiety of the harp ceases.” The harp is always associated as a musical instrument with some form of happiness.

Describing the 5th cycle of discipline in terms of no happiness, Ezekiel 26:13 says, “So I will cause the sound of your songs to cease, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more.”

It is concluded that the sound of the harp was the sign of genuine happiness based on the laws of divine establishment. The fact that these martyrs possess harps indicates that they are in a permanent state of happiness. The sea of tranquillity or the sea of glass indicates the blessing of he eternal state, as per Revelation 21:4, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; there shall be no more death; neither shall there be any sorrow, or crying, or pain; for the former things have passed away. The harp, therefore, makes a beautiful musical sound to accompany the content of doctrine in the psalm or hymn which will be sung in the next two verses, 15:3,4. The hymn sung by the Tribulational martyrs will express their happiness, their blessing, their point of contact for such blessing from their grace orientation and momentum while they were living in phase two. Note also that Bible doctrine resident in these Tribulational martyrs gives them victory over the power of the personality of one of the most powerful people that ever lived, the ruler of the revived Roman empire. Hence, they passed the people test. They also won over the pressure of organised religion, economic pressure, and public opinion pressure. They passed every test. Therefore they glorify the Lord and they enter into heaven for a well-deserved victory celebration.

Translation of verse 2: “Then I saw something like a sea of glass [the interim state of tranquillity belonging to the Tribulational martyrs] which had been mixed with fire [prior persecution and also the imprecatory prayers of 6:9-11]: even those who had been victorious over the beast dictator [of the revived Roman empire], both over his image [the abomination of desolation], and over the number of his name, and they stood on the sea of glass, holding harps [indicating great happiness] from God.”

In is inevitable that since these Tribulational martyrs are winners — they have taken a stand for Bible doctrine which has cost them their lives — that they would have something to sing. They are going to sing as an expression of their morale, as an expression of their mental attitude, as an expression of their happiness, as an expression of the fact that they are winners and they know that they are winners. In verse 3 we have the victory hymn of the Tribulational martyrs.

First of all we have the title of the hymn that they sing. This follows the Hebrew system of including in the actual verse itself the title that is going to be given. We have a connective conjunction kai translated “And.” Then the present active indicative of the verb a)idw, the Greek word for singing. The futuristic present tense denotes and event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: the Tribulational martyrs express their happiness in song. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of singing expressing happiness. The accusative singular direct object from the noun o)ide follows, the word for hymn or a song, sometimes translated “ode.” Then we have the possessive genitive singular from the proper noun from the word Mwsej which is more or less transliterated, “And they sing the song of Moses.”

Then a brief word about Moses, the appositional genitive of douloj indicates the thing that is emphasised here, plus the possessive genitive of qeoj, “the servant [or slave] of God.”

One of the nicest thing about using our freedom properly is to become God’s slave. It is by far the greatest status quo in life: the status quo with the greatest amount of happiness, the greatest amount of blessing, the greatest amount of virtue, the greatest amount of everything that is worthwhile. You have to work hard to become a slave and it is by far the greatest of all states as far as life is concerned. Once you are a slave of God, God as the slave-master provides everything that we will ever need and more besides. We have the greatest privilege in the world because we do not have to become involved or entangled in the affairs of this world, Satan being the ruler of this world, we can simply fulfil God’s plan for our lives and life becomes very simple and very meaningful and very wonderful.

The hymn of Moses is actually divided into two parts: the book of Exodus, chapter 15, and the other at the end of the ministry of Moses in Deuteronomy. The beginning of the ministry of Moses is characterised by the hymn celebrating the Lord’s deliverance of the Jews in the Red Sea incident. The end of the ministry of Moses is characterised by the hymn he wrote to teach the Jews after his death, Deuteronomy chapter 32. The purpose of the hymn of Moses is given in Deuteronomy 31:18-22.

Anticipating the apostasy of Israel in the land after the death of Moses our Lord said to him, “But I will surely hide my face in that day [the day of negative volition, reversionism, apostasy, scar tissue of the soul] because of all the evil that they will do [the cosmic involvement of the Jews of the next generation], for they will turn to other gods. Now therefore write this hymn for yourselves, and teach it to the citizens of Israel; put it in their mouth, in order that this hymn may be a witness for me against the citizens of Israel.

For I will bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised to their fathers, and when they are eaten and are satisfied and become prosperous, then they will turn to other gods and serve them [they wouldn’t pass the prosperity test],” no nation ever permanently passes the test of its own prosperity. Very few nations can stand over 100 years of prosperity, “they will both spurn me and break my covenant.”

This is why the hymn was written, and the singing of this hymn by the Tribulational martyrs is a reminder that they passed the prosperity test, and then some.

“Then it shall come to pass when many evils [cosmic involvement] and troubles have come upon them, that this hymn will testify before them as a witness (for it shall not be forgotten from the mouth of their descendants); for I know their motivation which they are developing today, before I have brought them into the land which I have promised them. So Moses wrote this hymn the same day, and he taught it to the sons of Israel.”

It is a hymn to remind every generation that the key to everything in life is not the prosperity they happen to be enjoying at the moment but how that prosperity came about. The key to almost everything in life is not what you have that you enjoy but, how did it come to pass that you have what you enjoy? How did it come about that you are prosperous? The real key is not what you are enjoying but the origin of what you are enjoying. And lest we forget, every blessing we have in this life, every bit of happiness, every bit of success, everything that it worthwhile, comes through the grace of God. God is the source of our blessing. And the same grace of God that gives us these things can remove them at any time, and generally the removal occurs because we can’t handle prosperity. So we have the song of Moses. It was taught to the children of Israel so that they would always associate their prosperity in the land with the source of all prosperity, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

A detailed analysis of the two hymns of Moses reveals the fact of the faithfulness and the grace of God through Israel, in spite of their many failures and many acts and functions of reversionism. He maintained them as a nation for almost 500 years even though they failed Him in time. These hymns are sung by the Tribulational martyrs who are now in heaven. Many of them are Jews who are living in the interim state as a part of their worship of our Lord Jesus Christ who is also the God of Israel. and even though Israel has failed as a client nation to God, and even though the Jews are scattered through the fifth cycle of discipline, the point of the hymn is the faithfulness of God. God is faithful to Israel and He will restore them top client nation status at the second advent.

The Tribulation is Israel’s darkest hour but while it is the darkest hour the principle must always be remembered that it is always darkest before the dawn. The dawn of Israel’s greatness will come at the second advent. At that time the unconditional covenants will all be fulfilled to Israel. In the meantime Israel strives mightily but they will never make it because the source of their blessing is the same as the source of our blessing — the Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, referring to the first part of the hymn of Moses in Exodus 15, the Lord will deliver regenerate Jews of the Tribulation at the second advent just as he delivered Israel from the armoured forces of Pharaoh by opening up the Red Sea. Therefore the Jews of the Tribulation who are believers in Christ must fulfil the same principle that the Jews fulfilled at the Red Sea under the command of Moses: “Stand still and watch the deliverance of the Lord.” To stand still means to do nothing, no crusader arrogance, no social action, no getting involved in this or that or the other thing. To stand still means to sit in the stands and watch the fascinating events of history unfold before your eyes. While people do not realise it your truly dynamic contribution to history is your spiritual advance from gate four to gate eight. So “watch the deliverance of the Lord” is one of the factors that was fulfilled by these Tribulational martyrs, and while they died from religious persecution they watched the deliverance of the Lord. This means that the historical disasters generation by the seven last plagues will not destroy either Israel or the entire human race.

Next we have the doubling of kai, which is translated “both and.” They sing both the hymn of Moses and then a second hymn, the descriptive genitive of a)rnion, “the hymn of the Lamb.” A)rnion refers to the saving work of Christ on the cross: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” All blessing from the Lord Jesus Christ begins with the most permanent of all blessing which is eternal salvation. From the moment that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we come under logistical grace, whether we are winners or losers. Whether we succeed spiritually or whether we fail spiritually God is going to sustain us, God is going to provide for us, God is going to bless us, so that inevitably we are forced in to a position of thanksgiving when the reality hits. So we have a reference here to the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, who during His first advent became our substitute, was judged for our sins on the cross. He is described as the Lamb of God. Many times in the book of Revelation our Lord Jesus is described under this title. He is described under this title as a reminder that the source of all blessing in life in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Next we have “and they sang.” We have the present active participle of the verb legw, which means to speak, to communicate. Here we are going to translate it singing, as a finite verb because it is a circumstantial participle, a pictorial present, to emphasise the lyrics, not the magnificent tune, whatever it was. The active voice: the Tribulational martyrs in their interim state. Note that to play harps they must have an interim body.

The summary of that they sang is given in four lines. The first and third lines present a subject while the second and fourth lines give a vocative phrase which describe the uniqueness of the person of Christ related to His hypostatic union. Line one in the summary gives us the plan of God. The second line describes the power of God in the hymn. The third line the point of reference for God’s plan, and the fourth line the Millennial victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The first line is the principle of the plan of God and is described in terms of wonderful adjectives. We have the nominative neuter plural subject megaj. Megaj denotes greatness in relationship to visible phenomena. It was also used in connection with persons and objects who had force, power, or prosperity. Hence, it is often translated “powerful,” “dynamic” or “mighty.” Megaj was also used in connection with epiphanies of great deities and heroes. The general connotation continues in the Koine: great, splendid, magnificent, noble. With this we have a second adjective, the nominative plural adjective qaumastoj. Qaumastoj has a number of meanings: admirable, wonderful, remarkable, awesome. Both adjectives are in the plural indicating more than one facet of greatness plus more than one facet of being marvellous. We translate them, “great and marvellous.” The verb, because of the elliptical nature of the song, is left out. It would be the verb to be and we know this because the next word is a predicate nominative plural from e)rgon, correctly translated “deeds,” “works,” “actions,” “accomplishments,” “functions.” With it we have the possessive genitive from the personal pronoun su, “your deeds,” the deeds of our Lord Jesus Christ. This refers, of course, to the grace of God, and the whole point of the plan of God is found right here. It isn’t what we do, it is what God does, what God has done, what God will continue to do all of the way into eternity forever and ever. So the true concept of thanksgiving is right here as well as the true meaning of grace.

1. Everything in the plan of God is the work of God, the action of God, the deeds of God. Grace is God working for us. Therefore the source of thanksgiving, the source of all blessing: God the Father, author of the plan; God the Son, the executor of the plan on the cross and the basis of all blessing; God the Holy Spirit who gives us the reality of these blessings.

2. This is illustrated by the divine system of the plan of God for the Church Age believer. In the plan of God we have the divine dynasphere. It was given to us.

3. The first line emphasises grace as the policy of God in His plan for the believer.

4. We are saved by grace, therefore we are to live by grace. There is no difference in the pattern between salvation and the Christian way of life.

5. Under the policy of grace God does the work. God does the planning, God provides the means, God prospers or disciplines the believer, whatever is called for by His perfect wisdom.

6. Therefore there is no place in the plan of God for human merit, human ability, human success and attainment, or human personality dynamics. Grace excludes all human ability from the plan of God.

7. God is perfect; His plan is perfect. Man is imperfect, therefore man’s participation must exclude his human imperfection. A perfect God does not include in His plan human imperfection, sin and failure. So whatever you have by way of assets or defects neither is in the plan of God.

8. Grace does not permit human merit to function in the divine plan either at the point of salvation or at any time thereafter. The first line commemorates the grace of God as the policy of His divine plan for mankind: “Great and marvellous are your works.” This is just a summary, not the entire lyrics in the first line.

Note that saving grace, logistical grace, supergrace blessings, and even grace rewards in eternity all exclude human merit, human works, human ability, human self-righteousness that is human morality, human personality, or anything else that man can do by way of self-improvement. From the imputation of divine righteousness at salvation and the establishment of divine justice as the believer’s point of reference there is no room, no place for human works in any category. That means that all Christian service that would involve works must be motivated by the blessing of God. The intrusion of one good deed or function of human self-righteousness compromises the essence of God and therefore becomes legalistic arrogance, blasphemy in cosmic one. The divine system in which we function as believers demands our faithfulness, our consistent good decisions from a position of strength, but neither our faithfulness nor decisions are related to any form of human merit inside of the plan of God and the divine system. Nothing teaches grace like the doctrine of imputation and the doctrine of the divine dynasphere, and nothing attacks grace like residence and function in the cosmic system of Satan. It is therefore the quintessence of arrogance to assume that we as believers must help God. God does not need our help; we need His help, His grace, His plan, His system, His power, His protection, and the development of virtue which He has provided.

The works of God mentioned in the first line of this hymn include everything that God does in His plan, His system, His provision, for the believer in any dispensation. While we as believers in the Church Age make application to the divine dynasphere these Tribulational martyrs do not have the divine dynasphere. They sing of God’s policy and His plan in a different dispensation, but involving the same principle, not the same identical mechanics.

We are noting the victory hymn of the Tribulational martyrs. They are actually going to sing two songs, each is given a title. One is the song of Moses and the other is the song of the Lamb. We are not given the entire hymn, we are merely given the gist of it in certain lines.

It is inevitable that people in heaven will sing during the worst part of human history. The worst historical disasters of history are concentrated into the last eighteen months of the Tribulation when every conceivable thing that could go wrong goes wrong. Nothing goes right for anyone except for a few believers here and there who have Bible doctrine, and their prosperity continues while other believers make the decision not to renounce doctrine and are martyred. And while the worst period of human history occurs there is wonderful singing in heaven. This great singing and great happiness simply recognises that the divine judgment of homo sapien has always been the basis for preserving man on planet earth in history and that there would be no preservation of man, that we would not be here today, were it not for divine judgment.

How can any form of music be a distraction? It can be a distraction because the lyrics are false, or because the type of music simply appeals to the emotion without having it related to some form of doctrinal truth in lyrics.

We have next in our passage the content part of the hymn that God wants us to understand. We have the present active participle from the verb legw which introduces the lyrics. The present tense is a pictorial present presenting to the mind a picture of eschatological events in the process of occurrence. The active voice: this is a song for winners only and therefore the Tribulational martyrs who have all made a choice would rather be faithful to Bible doctrine than to live in the devil’s world when that becomes an issue. They are winners, they had control of their lives right up to the moment of their death, they had a personal sense of destiny, and therefore they sing under the concept of protocol this magnificent hymn in heaven.

The four lines which are given are not the lyrics of the entire hymn. They are given to us because they have meaning and application to our lives today. The first line deals with the plan of God, the second with the power of God, the third with the point of reference with God, and the fourth line with the Millennial victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Great and marvellous are your works.” This line is given so that we can understand that the plan of God is the work of God. Everything in the plan of God is great. That means that everything in the plan of God is the work of God, the action of God, the needs of God. The first line emphasises grace as the policy of God in His plan for the believer. We are saved by grace; we live by grace.

In our second line we have the doctrine of divine essence coming up because if there is anything that we need to understand it is not human power and what human power can do. We have a vocative singular beginning the second line, the vocative singular of the noun kurioj, “Lord.” It refers here to the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is undiminished deity, there never was a time when Jesus Christ did not exist, there never was a time when He did not have all of the attributes of God. Therefore He is so-equal and coeternal with God the Father and with God the Holy Spirit. In Revelation 4:8 kurioj refers to our Lord’s third royal patent which He received as a result of the strategic victory of the cross. So whenever we find this we know that it is generally referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, though there is one passage in the New Testament where God the Holy Spirit is called kurioj or “Lord” and occasionally we will see God the Father called “Lord,” e.g. Psalm 2, “the Lord said to my Lord,” God the Father said to God the Son.

Next, to make sure that we understand that we are talking about Jesus Christ as God we have the generic use of the definite article plus the nominative singular, o( qeoj, “the God” or “God.” The definite article does not necessarily have to be translated. “O Lord, the God,” our Lord’s first royal patent as eternal God, coequal with the Father and with the Spirit. The generic use of the definite article comprehends a category which is distinct from all other categories. In other words, Jesus Christ as God is unique. As God our Lord’s royal title is Son of God, His royal family being the Father and the Spirit. This is a unique situation and it is always comforting to know when in the time in which we live there are so many uncertainties, so much instability, life can never go along on a level plane for any length of time, that we are related to the God of the universe. So this is called a nominative of explanation which emphasises the thought with great distinction. The nominative of explanation places a great deal of emphasis on the person involved in that noun.

Next we have a generic use of the definite article plus another nominative of exclamation, pantokratwr. This is an important word because some of the most powerful demons, the demons that influence the rulers and dictators of the world to gather people together for war and to cause trouble, are called kosmokratwr. We will meet the kosmokratwr in chapter 16 because they are responsible for the final world war in history. Pantokratwr is the title given to our Lord as over against kosmoskratwr, the most powerful demons in Satan’s organisation as the ruler if this world. We are going to translate this, “O Lord, the God, the omnipotent one.”

Now that is the line but it doesn’t explain what the line means. What the line means is the fact that we must inevitably understand what the Word of God reveals about the attributes of God, the essence of God, the characteristics of God. And to make sure that we understand that principle a third line is added in which we are once again going to see the emphasis on who and what God is, who and what Christ is, and how these thing relate to us personally. Anyone’s plan is no stronger than that person. God has a plan for your life and that plan comes from infinite eternal God. Therefore, understanding the character of God is very important. We must understand the essence of God to relate the wonderful plan He has designed for you.

We have a third line and it emphasises who and what God is. It begins with the fact that we have a point of reference now in our relationship with God but it doesn’t start out with the point of reference as such, merely the predicate nominative plural description of it. We have the predicate nominative plural from the adjective used as a noun, dikaioj. Dikiaoj means righteous but it must be understood that it is in the plural. Once we understand that we have a little bit of a problem. The plural includes two concepts of perfect integrity: the justice of God and the righteousness of God. When they are put together they are called holiness or the integrity of God. Therefore we have a reference to the believer’s point of contact which is divine justice, and the basis for the believer’s blessing which is the imputed righteousness of God. Therefore they are brought together under the plural of this adjective used as a substantive. First of all the believer has a point of contact which is always divine justice, not divine love. Secondly, he has a basis for blessing. All of us as believers possess God’s perfect righteousness as of the moment of faith in Christ. That grace pipelines goes from the justice of God to the righteousness of God. God has worked out a way to bless all believers, winners and losers, and to bless them without compromising His essence. There is no compromising His essence because all blessing in two categories, logistical grace and supergrace, come down the grace pipeline. They do not depend on who and what we are. While we will translate dikaioj “righteous” in the singular it must be understood that it is in the plural and that it includes both attributes of the integrity of God.

Next we have a predicate nominative plural from a)lhqinoj. A)lhqinoj means “true” and it is a reference to Bible doctrine by which the believer advances in the plan of God. There is no advance, there is no plan of God, until you can think and think doctrine. To think doctrine you have to learn doctrine. Every bit of thinking that you will ever do in this life is the courtesy of someone who started you out in life, and thereafter. You were taught words, vocabulary. Your ability to think will never exceed your vocabulary. For the losers who never learn Bible doctrine will never understand Bible doctrine, they will never grow in grace, they will never be in the plan of God. So we have the word “true.” It is the provision of Bible doctrine by which the believer learns the plan of God and advances in the plan of God.

We have studied the principle of virtue first, the mandate of God’s plan. Here we have something that goes with that, “righteous and true.” Since both of these are in the predicate nominative we have to have a subject. It comes next in the Greek but it comes first in the English, the nominative plural subject is o(doj. O(doj refers to a way, a path, a street, a road. With it is the possessive genitive of the personal pronoun su, “your ways”: the divine modus operandi of the plan of God, the whole concept of virtue first, the whole concept of the power system in God the Holy Spirit, the concept of the faith-rest drill, the concept of enforced and genuine humility, the concept of the perception and application of doctrine, the whole concept of momentum, the basis for everything that is true in the plan of God, all true motivation is motivational virtue directed toward God; all true function is functional virtue directed toward man and circumstances, the adversity tests which are a blessing in the life, and eventually, of course, arrival at the point of being a winner, gate eight, spiritual maturity. This is what God has planned for us. “Your ways,” the divine modus operandi, the plan of God, “your ways are righteous and true.” That is the fourth line, and the fourth line reminds us, then, that we must understand exactly what is meant by “your ways” and why He is called the “omnipotent one.”

Psalm 85:8, “I will hear what the God the Lord will say,” in other words, wisdom comes from God. Positive volition is expressed in the first line [I will hear]. That means respect for authority, enforced and genuine humility. So here we have the first stage in the function of GAP, reception. You are not going anywhere in the Christian life until you are briefed, until you hear what God has to say, and hear it on a regular basis as it is communicated from the Word of God, “for he will communicate peace [prosperity].”

Where it says “peace” in the King James version the word which is used in the Hebrew, shalom, has two meanings: peace between God and man and the prosperity which follows that. This refers to the removal of the barrier between man and God. Jesus Christ removed the barrier so that man by the work of Christ on the cross can have a permanent relationship with God. That is what peace means. “He is our peace,” says the apostle Paul. Then that word also connotes prosperity. Once we have accepted Christ as saviour all of us immediately come under a prosperity principle: starting with day one at salvation and continuing thereafter as long as we are on this earth we are under logistical grace. The first meaning of logistical support is that God has a purpose for your life. Our support comes from God, “to his people,” client nation Israel is in view by interpretation but by application it is our country, “and to his gracious ones.” Who are the gracious ones? They are the ones who keep us going, the ones in the pivot, the ones who arrive at gate eight, maturity, “but let them not return to stupidity.” When man neglects Bible doctrine he returns to stupidity.

Verse 9, “Nothing but his deliverance is near to those who respect [reverence] him.” Even in the worst of historical disaster of history during the seven last plagues there will be many believers who will survive. This reverence or respect would be our gate five: motivational virtue directed toward God. There is always deliverance for them. Why? “In order that glory may dwell in our land.” Respect comes from the laws of divine establishment. Reverence is virtue-first, motivational virtue. The result: Glory can only dwell in the land when there is a large pivot of mature believers. People who have accepted Christ as saviour, then, have entered into the system. God is perfect; God has a perfect system; God has a grace system. Those believers who follow the system are winners and provide prosperity for everyone else, blessing by association. It is the mature believer, the one who advances to maturity, who provides the blessing by association.

Verse 10, “Grace and doctrine have met together.” That is the secret to everything in life. God sustains through grace. Grace only meets with doctrine. God’s grace is there and we are all sustained by it, but the key to understanding the grace of God is doctrine. You will never know and understand the grace of God unless you are positive toward doctrine. Grace is the function of the justice of God in the imputation of divine blessing to the believer as a possessor of divine righteousness. Grace is the principle of the system and doctrine is the momentum of the system, so we have the principle and the basis for advance. For the system to work among believers in the fulfilment of the plan of God the believer must benefit from grace and he must learn Bible doctrine.

“Righteousness and peace have kissed.” Righteousness refers to the imputation of divine righteousness which not only provides justification at salvation but is the basis for all blessing thereafter. To understand the system the believer must understand the integrity or the holiness of God. Once grace and doctrine meet notice who does the kissing — righteousness and prosperity. Righteousness is virtue that develops from that indwelling righteousness of God. You are in the plan now. God is going to provide everything you need in the plan to make decisions, and that righteousness should be parlayed into love, capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing. But you don’t have that capacity until you have the virtue. Virtue first. If you love God you have motivating virtue and it comes from Bible doctrine. If you love God and have motivating virtue you will have functional virtue and that virtue gives you your capacity for life.

Verse 11, “Doctrine [doctrinal teaching] shall spring up in the land [client nations to God]; and righteousness [God’s righteousness] shall look down from heaven [the potential for great blessing].”

Verse 12, “Also, the Lord himself will give the good [divine blessing from X+Y+Z]; and our land [client nation] will give her increase [prosperity which comes from the pivot of mature believers].”

Verse 13, “Righteousness shall go before his face [before Him], that he [the believer] may march toward the way.”

The believer is not told to walk in the way here, he is told to march toward the way, or march in the way. When you march you have a system of authority. When you march there is logistical support, there is a whole system behind you, and that whole system depends upon who and what God is.

That brings us right back to our phrase in verse 3. Here are people who sing of this very thing. “Great and marvellous are your works,” divine deeds which are the function of the grace policy of the plan of God. The second line gives us those nominatives of exclamation that describes the awareness, the love of God at gate five: “O Lord [Jesus Christ: His third royal title], the God [Jesus Christ as God: His first royal patent], the omnipotent one [the power of God’s plan for the believer].” The third line: “Your ways are righteous and true.”

When things are at their worst in the last half of the Tribulation believers in heaven are very happy because they now have confidence having seen our Lord face to face. Whatever doubts, uncertainties, instabilities that existed prior to coming to heaven once they are there they are very happy, they have a lot to sing about. We now notice they were singing, why they were happy, why they were occupied with the person of Christ.

We are noting the essence of God. The word “essence” comes from a Greek adjective, sometimes used as a substantive, o)usia. The Greek word means substance, hence essence. It means the inward or the true nature, the intrinsic nature, the qualities or the attributes of a person. Essence also implies being or existence and therefore before we can understand why these people are so happy and so blessed in heaven we have to understand the persons who makes it all possible. Each member of the Trinity has identical essence. From the standpoint of essence God is one but from the standpoint of persons God is three separate and distinct persons each having something to do with us and our plan.

The true theistic concept of the universe is that the universe is composed of material and immaterial. Matter is material; God is immaterial, John 4:24. Human creatures are both material and immaterial, 2 Corinthians 4:7, 16.

God lives; God is life. God does not possess life as we do but God actually lives. All life is from God but not of God as the pantheists claim. God is a person. Personality connotes both self-consciousness and self-determination. As a person God is sovereign and this is expressed and manifest in His self-determination through the function of His divine volition. Animals, lower creatures, are conscious but not self-conscious. Animals have determination but not self-determination. Man, on the other hand, is a person possessing to a limited degree both self consciousness and self-determination. God is infinite, He is an infinite personality with absolute will or sovereignty plus His absolute perfection. God’s absolute will and perfection characterises both His design and His execution — Ephesians 1:9,11. God is to an absolute degree all that constitutes personality. He is Himself; He knows Himself to be beyond comparison with any other being. God is the source of our blessing, the source of the plan, the system, the mandates, the entire concept.

In the song of Moses we should notice that there is a balance of what is going on. We have the earth during the Tribulation, the worst period for historical disaster. However, in heaven things are very smooth. We have the sea of glass concept, we find great happiness there and we find a lot of people who have their priorities straight and put Bible doctrine and the Lord Jesus Christ before any system of religion, any system of coercion. Inevitably they give up their lives in so doing so that they leave earth and go to heaven. There they have perfect happiness, they do not have any of the problems that people on earth have who are believers. Here on earth we cannot see Him; here on this earth we love Him whom we have not seen, our only seeing of God comes from our perception of Bible doctrine. But once in heaven in the interim body, and once the capacity has been raised from almost zero to one hundred percent, there is fantastic happiness; a happiness that does not depend on other people but a happiness which is truly oriented to one person, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But we can have that happiness and blessing now without the interim body by simply understanding from the Word of God those things that pertain to divine essence. Actually there are three divine attributes which are pertinent to us and to God’s plan for us at the present time. These attributes are noted in part both in the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb in this and the next verse. The three attributes are God’s knowledge, God’s love, and God’s integrity. That is the order in which we develop the concept because without knowledge there is no love and there is no integrity or virtue among believers in the Lord Jesus Christ or human beings.

We start with the fact that billions and billions of years ago, long before any creature existed, long before the universe was created, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit eternally existed. Each member of the Godhead is eternal, each member of the Godhead has, therefore, eternal knowledge. Now what is eternal knowledge? Obviously it is a knowledge that is not learned, it is a knowledge that has always existed. It is a knowledge that is not acquired academically or through experience. God is infinite; His knowledge is infinite. It is superior, therefore, to any creature knowledge. There are only two categories of creatures who have potential and real genius knowledge: the angels and members of the human race. Time has nothing to do with God’s knowledge. It has everything to do with our knowledge, in fact our knowledge is related to how we use our time and how we relate our time to the priorities of our life. The future is as perspicuous to God as the past and since God is a person and since He possesses both self-consciousness and self-determination He therefore acts rationally. Always He acts rationally because His rational acts are compatible with His absolute will and perfection. Because God is infinite His knowledge is without boundary or without limitation. There was never a time when God did not know everything, He has never learned anything. Therefore, God’s knowledge is never complicated by ignorance or absurdity. God exists eternally, He is unsustained by Himself. He is also unsustained by any other source and therefore His knowledge is as unalterable as He Himself is. We are sustained by God. We, under the wonderful principle of His plan of logistical grace, are sustained by Him. We are totally dependent upon Him and couldn’t last a minute in the devil’s world without Him. Every blessing that we will have in times of historical prosperity or adversity will all be from one source, and we can look in one direction: “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”

God cannot change or be inaccurate, therefore God’s knowledge cannot change. God’s knowledge is never partial, is never inaccurate, and it is never distorted. God’s knowledge, therefore, is as unalterable as Himself and God’s knowledge precedes both time and space. Therefore God’s knowledge is not subject to any limitation of time or space. God’s self-knowledge precedes God’s decrees with regard to history and that is because God is eternal. The decrees, of course, simply deal with history. God’s knowledge therefore cannot be more and it cannot be less than it is at any time.

Each member of the Trinity has two kinds of perfect knowledge. The first kind is subjective knowledge. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have perfect subjective knowledge, each one about Himself, and that knowledge is perfect. When we have subjective knowledge about ourselves it is distorted, it is arrogant, it is imperfect, and usually a tremendous hindrance. If we have too much subjective knowledge about self the kindest thing that can be said for us is that we have an unfortunate personality. But God has perfect subjective knowledge about Himself. Also, all three members of the Trinity have perfect objective knowledge about themselves. So they have two categories of perfect knowledge about self and when we put these two together in the theological classroom we call it the omniscience of God. Omniscience has to do with other categories as well. Self-knowledge deals strictly with the divine attributes: God knows Himself; God knows the other two members of the Trinity.

Omniscience is not all the knowledge of God but is one category only. Omniscience refers to creatures. All God’s knowledge about creatures has always existed. God has always known about every creature that has ever existed or ever will exist. Hence, omniscience is defined as God’s objective knowledge of the universe and His creatures, and since God is infinite it is without regard to time or any other space limitation. Omniscience is God’s knowledge of the universe and creatures and it is wonderful to know that someone really understands us. Our problem in this life is that we do not understand God. Our only way to understand God is through Bible doctrine, through perception of the attributes of God as they are revealed in the scripture. Omniscience, therefore, deals with the universe and with creatures. Omniscience knows everything that has ever happened since creatures existed.

The omniscience of God knows the alternatives of history, the probable and the reality, the potential and the reality. God therefore knows perfectly, eternally, simultaneously, all that is knowable, both actual and possible. The actual is fed into the computer of divine decrees to become human history; the probable is that which could have happened but which did not — the potential of life. Every minute detail of both angelic and human history is in the mind of God at all times. Therefore, omniscience perceives the free as free, the necessary as necessary, together with all the causes, conditions, relations, as one indivisible system of things, every link of which is essential to the whole.

There is no such thing as perfect happiness without eliminating all of the absurdities. Since we can’t have perfect happiness on earth we can have the next thing to it. We can through God’s system, God’s plan, God’s wisdom, the mandates that He has given us, the priorities like virtue-first, actually eliminate all that is absurd in life and have the most magnificent blessing. But in eliminating these things we do not develop a superiority complex. If anything we develop a greater sensitivity, a greater compassion, a greater understanding of all of those in our vicinity.

Then there is the foreknowledge of God. It is different from the omniscience of God. Omniscience feeds the computer; the printout is the foreknowledge of God. For example, John wrote the book of Revelation. He actually wrote it from the standpoint of God’s foreknowledge, not His omniscience. God’s foreknowledge simply looked into the computer, took out the Tribulation, took out the Church Age, for example — Revelation 2 & 3, and printed it for a moment and it is now called the book of Revelation. It is a printout before it occurs. Every bit of prophecy unfulfilled in the scripture is merely a printout from the computer before they happen to teach us, to help us, to orient first to God and then to our circumstances in life. So Revelation is designed for our blessing and the only thing we need to know about foreknowledge is that it is the printout of the computer of divine decrees. Nothing is foreknown until it is first decreed. Only the computer of divine decrees establishes reality, which means that foreknowledge follows as the printout of the decrees. The foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain but acknowledges what is certain: the content of divine decrees.

We have a relationship with God through knowledge, His knowledge of us, His knowledge of Himself, His knowledge of history, His knowledge of everything.

God is love, 1 John 4:16. God is infinite and eternal; God exceeds all boundaries of time and space. God always has existed. Eternal means there never was a time when He originated. Therefore God possesses eternal and infinite love, for like all divine attributes love belongs to the essence of God. God is immutable, therefore the love of God is unchangeable. The love of God has always existed, like God’s knowledge. There never was a time when God did not posses maximum eternal love, love that transcends any concept of time and space. The love of God is unchangeable, consistent, and compatible with His perfect essence.

In contrast to human love God’s love does not have to be sustained by emotion. Emotion out of place is where silliness begins and where we get into pseudo-spirituality. Emotion in its correct place is always subordinate to thought. When emotion takes over the soul then we have all of the disasters, psychoses, all of the systems of disorientation to reality in life. There is nothing wrong with emotion. God has given us emotion but He has given us emotion as the appreciator of truth. When there is no truth or doctrine in the soul the emotion immediately gets out of line. God is love but we must understand that God’s love is totally related to virtue and totally disassociated with emotion. Emotion in itself is a highly volatile and unstable attribute. It must be put within boundaries, it must be subordinate to virtue, to thought, to things that make it meaningful and wonderful. But God has no emotion and one of the most difficult things for man to understand, even in the face of divine revelation, is the fact that God’s love is perfect, the quintessence of virtue, and has no emotion whatever.

God’s infinite and eternal loves exists without an object or with an object. God has always been love whether there has been an object around or not. Before any creature existed God was love. Perfect love is resident in the perfect essence of God. That is where we begin to understand virtue-love. That is where we begin to understand impersonal love toward all members of the human race.

God’s love is perfect because God has perfect integrity. God has perfect virtue, the virtue of His justice and righteousness. Therefore God’s love cannot be separated from His integrity or His holiness. God has the perfect virtue for perfect love and the pattern is set, therefore, between the love which has eternally existed between the members of the Trinity. Each member of the Trinity loves the perfect righteousness of the other as well as His own. Divine love, therefore, is backed up by perfect virtue and is directed toward perfect integrity. God loves us because we have His righteousness and He has always loved His righteousness. Therefore we will always have His righteousness and God will always love us.

God’s love does not require an object but when the object is mankind perfect integrity plus perfect love results in divine impersonal love toward believers who have +R and divine impersonal love toward all mankind. When Christ died on the cross He demonstrated divine impersonal love toward all mankind. Remember that all personal sins were never imputed to us for judgment. The only sin by which we have been judged as spiritually dead was at the point when human life was imputed to the soul after birth. Simultaneously Adam’s original sin was imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. We were born physically alive and spiritually dead. Because we were spiritually dead with the help of the old sin nature we commit X number of personal sins and all of those personal sins were accumulated in the computer of decrees. God knew in eternity past all of the sins that would be committed in the human race. Therefore when Jesus Christ went to the cross and bore our sins He demonstrated His impersonal love toward the entire human race. The attitude of the human race could not destroy the virtue of our Lord.

Revelation 19:10, 11, the book of Revelation is a book to understand God, the events of the future are incidental, the future is in the hands of God. “And I fell at his feet to worship him,” worship comes from understanding God. There is no worship until you understand God. “Him” here is not God, it is a teaching angel, but John was so carried away by what he had learned that he thought that he was talking to God, so he feel down at his feet. But notice that the angel corrects him: “And he said unto me, See not [an idiom: Don’t you understand?]: I am your fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus .… for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” If you want the summary of the book of Revelation in one phrase, this is it: “the testimony [communication] of Jesus.” The story about Jesus, including the doctrine of divine essence.

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True”. The first thing we hear of the second advent are the attributes of our Lord Jesus Christ on that white horse. He is faithful; He is doctrine [truth].

Divine love is the only motive, divine justice is the only source of logistical grace. Divine love is personal toward believers who become winners through advance to gate eight; divine love is impersonal toward all believers in both interim grace and in the resurrection body. Divine love is personal, however, in eternal blessing and reward, but divine love is impersonal in the provision of grace.

There are three things we have to know about God in relationship to mankind to understand God’s plan and to understand why people are singing in heaven and are happy when things are bad on earth. When things are bad on earth it is reflected in sadness. “There is no singing in the streets,” as Isaiah put it, “no happiness in Israel.” But there is always singing in heaven. People in heaven do not see us but they do see the Lord and that is why they are happy.

The real key to understanding God and His plan for us is to understand His integrity. His integrity is our point of reference, not His love, not His sovereignty, not His omniscience. You have to have a point of contact. When you enter a house the door is the point of contact for the house. The point of contact for Christianity is the integrity or holiness of God. Behind that are all of these attributes: God is love, God is omniscient, God is sovereign, God is immutable, etc. But our point of contact is one half of divine holiness or integrity, the justice of God. God is fair to all of us, there never was a Christian who didn’t get a fair shake. God’s righteousness is the principle of divine integrity; God’s justice is the function of divine integrity. Therefore there is nothing man can do or say to change or influence, to coerce or bribe the integrity of God. All divine blessing for the believer originates from the justice of God. It flows down the grace pipeline to the righteousness of God which indwells every believer.

In Revelation 15:3 it says “they sing,” Tribulational believers who have had a rotten deal from ecumenical religion, from the dictator of the revived Roman empire. They sing both the hymn of Moses the servant of God and the hymn of the Lamb. In line three: “your ways [divine modus operandi in the plan of God] are righteous,” both the justice of God as the point of contact in the plan and the imputed righteousness of God as the recipient of all categories of grace in the plan. Why does the word “righteous” include both justice and righteousness? Because as we note in the exegesis it is in the plural, “and true,” the provision of Bible doctrine by which the believer advances in the plan of God.

In the fourth line we have the nominative of exclamation, also a vocative, of the noun basileuj, a reference to our Lord as the future ruler of the world, “O King.” With this is the descriptive genitive plural from e)qnoj, “King of the nations.” This is a reference to the nations of the Millennium and they sing about it in anticipation of the great victory which is about to occur.

In verse 4 we have a six-line summary of the hymn of the Lamb. We have had a four-line summary of the hymn of Moses, the servant of God. There are six lines here, just as in the previous hymn there are four lines. These hymns are being sung by happy people in heaven who understand the reality of God and His plan in detail.

We have in the hymn of the Lamb here a series of interrogatives. They begin usually with the interrogative pronoun or with the conjunction kai which links several of them. We begin therefore with the interrogative pronoun tij, translated “Who” since it is in the masculine gender. With this we have the aorist passive subjunctive of the verb fobew. Fobew is used with the double negative o)u mh. Fobew is a great word to use here for this reason: it not only means fear but it means awe, it means respect. Whether we are looking at it from its negative standpoint of fear or whether we are looking at it from its positive standpoint of respect for someone it always has the same connotation in its several meanings — no absurdities, no silliness. If you fear someone the absurdities are eliminated. When there is awe and respect in the presence of a great leader you eliminate the silliness, there is no nonsense.

The double negative with the subjunctive mood is an Attic Greek form of negation regarding the future. This, of course, is a passage dealing with the future. The future has to do with the second advent of Christ and a specific event related to it, the baptism of fire. This is a Classical Greek form which strengthens the negation. A double negative in the English is a positive; a double negative in the Greek is a stronger negative. The time will come when all people will fear the Lord and in a moment of time at the second advent all nonsense will be eliminated from the earth for the perfect environment of the Millennium will be free from absurdities, nonsense, and silliness. In other words, silliness, nonsense and absurdities all relate to the devil’s original sin of arrogance.

There is a great deal of difference between silliness and humour. Humour is related to virtue; silliness is related to arrogance. The gnomic aorist tense is for a point of eschatological doctrine which is so axiomatic in character, so fixed in its certainty, that it is described by the aorist tense just as though it were actually occurring now instead of at the second advent of Christ, a future time. The idiom is generally translated by the English present tense even though it is in the aorist, and we translate it “who will not fear.” The passive voice: the subject, mankind living on earth at the time of the second advent, receives the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood of emphatic negation means the potential subjunctive implying a future reference. It means at that time reality will come to everyone. Reality and orientation to reality eliminates silliness and at that moment of time, at the second advent of Christ, for both believer and unbeliever there will be reality. The element of contingency requires that the population of the Tribulation remain alive to the point of the second advent in order to experience this fear, this awe, this respect. People are going to live to lose their silliness.

Some of the better MSS add the accusative singular direct object su, not found in the King James version because it was not found in the original language group from which the King James was taken. It is correctly translated “you,” “Who will not fear you, O Lord.” Textus Receptus, an inferior group of manuscripts of the 9th century from which the King James version was translated, does not have su and it is because Codex Aleph and the papyri are much older. In the study of the science of textual criticism it is very important to get back the original.

The first line, then, refers to the attitude of people when Christ returns to the earth and every eye will see Him. The tactical victory of our Lord brings fear and awe from the entire surviving human race. There will be believers: they will have awe; there will be unbelievers: they will face reality with fear. So the second advent is the moment of truth, the moment of reality. The believer faces reality with respect and awe; the unbeliever faces reality with fear.

How you face reality is determined by what you have in your soul with which to face it. A lot of people never face reality so they never know what they have in their souls. Once you come face to face with reality what you really are will be manifest, and you will be able to know whether you passed the reality test or not by whether you are afraid or confident, whether you have fear of the Lord or respect for the Lord. That is the issue at the second advent.

Then comes the vocative kurioj referring to our Lord Jesus Christ who returns, “Who will not fear [or respect] you, O Lord.” This is a quotation from Jeremiah 10:7. The context of Jeremiah 10:7 is the evil and irrationality, the silliness and the nonsense of idolatry.

People set up two things in their life to give them stability: routine and customs. What is the difference between routine and custom? Routine is what you do every day; custom is what you will do, for example, on Thanksgiving — you will eat turkey, you will have a family gathering, you will do something outside of the routine.

“Because it [an idol] is wood cut from the forest.” Israel entered into idolatry at that time: silliness, vanity, nonsense. They worshipped something that is carved out of a tree, “The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. They decorate it [the idol] with silver and gold; they fasten it down with hammer and nails so that it will not fall over. They [the idols] are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, furthermore they cannot speak; they have to be carried because they cannot walk! Do not fear them for they can do no harm, neither can they do you any good.

“There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your person is great in power. Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? Indeed it is our due! For among all of the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you. But they are altogether silly and foolish [full of nonsense], they are taught by worthless wooden idols!”

Just as in the time of Jeremiah, so in the time of the Tribulation, the last half of it, there will be a saturation of idolatry. Idolatry is demon worship, according to Deuteronomy 32:17 which is part of the hymn of Moses.

There is a pattern to these five lines. The first line asks a question and the second line asks a question. The third line begins with a causal conjunction o(ti and the fourth line begins with the causal conjunction o(ti and then the fifth line also.

The second line begins with the conjunction kai, “and,” used to present the second question with regard to our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent. Remember that this is being sung by Tribulational martyrs in heaven in the future, therefore we have the future active indicative of the verb docazw which means to glorify, “and who will glorify.” The future tense is a deliberative future used for a question of uncertainty in future time. The active voice: only the mature believer with maximum doctrine resident in his soul will fulfil the action. The indicative mood is interrogative.

It must be remembered that while generally speaking the book of Revelation describes the Tribulation, chapters 6-19, it is obvious that we are to derive application from the eschatology of the Tribulation. This question was written by John and it was circulated to the churches as well as representing future potential. The question for us at this moment: “who will glorify?” And then we have the accusative singular direct object from o)noma, meaning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. With it we have the possessive genitive from su again, “and who will glorify your person.” That is a question we need to answer before we get to thanksgiving so that thanksgiving will be meaningful.

Who glorifies the Lord, and how do they glorify the Lord? The person who glorifies the Lord is the person who takes in doctrine on a daily basis. You have to have facts before you can fulfil the plan of God; you have to know doctrine and you have to have the ability to learn it, the various gates of the divine dynasphere. The indicative mood is an interrogative indicative, it assumes that there is an actual fact or doctrine which may be stated in answer to the question. And there is. If you are taking in doctrine on a daily basis, if you are using rebound when necessary to guarantee and ensuring the filling of the Spirit, if your life is characterised by the rationales of the second stage of the faith-rest drill, the essence of God rationale, the logistical grace rationale, then you are beginning to be objective about life. If you have enforced and genuine humility then you have the teachability to learn doctrine. If you are functioning at gate four you will start making its applications.

In every dispensation God has a system by which the believer can glorify the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. To qualify you first of all have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you must be the possessor of eternal salvation. Once that is accomplished there is a system and the mandates remain the same for every dispensation. Always there is virtue-first and doctrine first. Since the Church Age is the dispensation of the royal family of God or the body of Christ the divine system for us is absolutely unique: the modus operandi of the divine dynasphere.

The second line: “and who will glorify your person?” Only the believer who advances, only the believer who has momentum in the plan of God.

The third line brings it down to a principle and we have the beginning of three causal clauses. O(ti is used as a causal conjunction and can be translated in a number of ways. It is translated here “because” or “since.” The next word is an adjective, monoj, used as a part of the subject referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, the basis of all thanksgiving. With this we translate also the word “you,” “only you,” our Lord Jesus Christ. However, what is said of Christ is also true of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit because next we have the word a(gioj which refers to holiness, virtue, integrity. Only God has perfect integrity so a(gioj is the fact of the hypostatic union of Christ. He has perfect integrity in His deity, but we have also noted that the humanity of Christ has perfect integrity because He was given at birth the first Christmas present, the prototype divine dynasphere. Our Lord was filled with the Spirit from His birth. Our Lord developed humility, enforced and genuine, in His family life and by the time He was twelve He had reached maturity. That is why the third line says, “only you are virtuous.” Only God has the capacity to be patient with us, only God has the capacity to find a way to give us things and bless us even though we are losers as far as His plan is concerned. All of this is related to His holiness. God gives us blessing because one half of His holiness, divine righteousness, is inside of us, and He imputes all of these blessings, all of this divine support, all of this keeping us alive, to us from His integrity or holiness.

The fourth line also begins with the causal conjunction o(ti, and so does the fifth line, and once again in the fourth line we are going to have a cause, related now to history, “because all nations.” We have as our subject the adjective paj plus the noun e)qnoj, both of them in the nominative case, “all nations.” We are talking about nations at a certain point in history. We are still on the subject of the end of the Tribulation and the second advent of Christ. This is referring to nations in an attitude toward God in the future, the future being the second advent of Christ. That is why we have the future active indicative of the verb h(kw which means to come, “all nations will come.” The predictive future anticipates the Millennial reign of Christ after the second advent. The active voice: all the nations of the world will come to our Lord Jesus Christ when He begins His reign. Jesus Christ will return to the earth, supersede Satan as the ruler of this earth, and literally rule for a thousand years.

The worship of nations in the Millennium is the subject of many passages of scripture and is, of course, a part of the eschatology of the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, Psalm 2:8,9; 24:1-10; 66:1-4; 72:8-11; 86:9; Isaiah 2:2-4; 9:6,7; 66:18-23; Daniel 7:14; Zephaniah 2:11; Zechariah 14:9. Nations will come to our Lord Jesus Christ ruling in Jerusalem to worship Him. The continuation of the fourth line tells us that is exactly what they are going to do.

We have the connective conjunction kai followed by the future active indicative of the verb proskunew, the word for worship. The future tense is a predictive future, it anticipates the eschatology of the Millennium. The active voice: the Gentile nations of the Millennium, however they are divided, will produce the action. The action of the Gentile nations portrays the ultimate triumph of our Lord Jesus Christ in both the prehistoric angelic conflict as well as the extension into human history. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality of international worship of our Lord Jesus Christ during the Millennium. It is very important to understand that there will never be international worship of our Lord until the Millennium. There will always be nations in opposition to God until the second advent, in fact the greatest opposition to God among nations will occur during the Tribulation.

Finally, we have the improper preposition e)nwpion plus the genitive of su, referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, “and they will worship before you.” The fact that nations will actually worship before the Lord Jesus Christ is a phenomenon that could only exist when He is the personal ruler of the world. They have to see Him to worship Him, they have to benefit from the perfect environment that He will provide. This means they will worship Him because they are personally materially benefiting from His rule. People will go along with any system of government that benefits them personally no matter what system it may be. People are selfish inevitably.

The word for “worship,” proskunew, calls for some amplification because people apparently have a great deal of difficulty understanding what worship is. So we notice a few passages of scripture.

Psalm 29:1,2. In this particular psalm we have the principle of application of doctrine under the word “ascribe.” “Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of power [believers who are advancing and who have momentum in the plan of God, absolutely necessary for worship], ascribe to the Lord glory and power. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in the majesty of his integrity.”

To understand the integrity of God is to begin to understand the principle of worship. It must always be applied.

The New Testament passage in which our Lord discussed worship is found in John 4:22ff where a Gentile woman came to the Lord and had a conversation with Him about worship, and how they worshipped on the mountain where He was standing. This led to a short dissertation on the principle of worship as it existed at that time and as it would exist in the Church Age. “You worship what you do not know [ignorance of doctrine guarantees malfunction of worship]; we worship what we know [the true concept of worship has always been knowledge. From knowledge of doctrine worship springs]; for salvation is from the Jews.”

To understand the true meaning of worship in the Age of Israel they had to understand that salvation is from the Jews. In other words, in the Old Testament times and specifically in the dispensation of Israel they had a system of worship which taught salvation and other doctrines. To understand worship in the Old Testament you had to understand the Jewish system of Levitical offerings, the articles of furniture in the tabernacle and later on in the temple. When these things were understood then worship could be understood for all of these articles dealt with the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Ritual was used because the canon was not yet completed and it was much easier to communicate through training aids. The ritual was a system of training aids. Therefore our Lord said at the end of verse 22, “for salvation is from the Jews.” He was also announcing the fact that He had come in the flesh as the son of David. He came as a Jew, He would go to the cross as the perfect Jew and He would bear the sins of the world in His own body on the cross.

Verse 23, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in doctrine,” note the absence of definite articles. The absence of the definite article in front of “spirit” means the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and in front of “truth,” the ministry of Bible doctrine. This is, of course, a prophecy of the Church Age and the divine dynasphere, “for such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers.” The Father seeks those who know doctrine to be His worshippers, and that is why our Lord concluded in verse 24: “God is spirit; and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in doctrine.” He was anticipating the function of the divine dynasphere, and the reason He says “the hour now is” is because inside the prototype divine dynasphere the humanity of our Lord was filled with the Spirit at gate one and He had learned in His humanity maximum doctrine at gate four. He was referring to His own function inside of the prototype divine dynasphere but He would give to the royal family of God the operational divine dynasphere with that same gate one and that same gate four so that all worship in the future would relate to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. You cannot worship unless you are filled with the Spirit; you cannot worship unless you know Bible doctrine.

Philippians 3:3, “For we [believers in the Church Age] are the true circumcision,” in the past Israel was a client nation to God, the custodian of Bible doctrine, “who worship in the Spirit of God,” and then he adds something because Paul wrote when the Lord Jesus Christ had been glorified. He had been resurrected, He had ascended, He was seated at the right hand of the Father, and He had received His third royal warrant, “and glory in Jesus Christ, furthermore put no confidence in the flesh.” To the extent that believers put confidence in the flesh it is impossible for them to worship. This means probably that a very small percentage of born-again believers actually ever fulfil the principle of worship during their lifetime, for there must be no confidence in the flesh, we must glory in Jesus Christ — gate five of the divine dynasphere, we must worship in the Spirit of God. All of this requires knowledge of Bible doctrine. Human worship is the expression of the believer’s category one personal love from gate five. As we are filled with the Spirit, gate one, and as we learn to rebound so that we can recover life inside the divine dynasphere and be freed from the cosmic system of Satan, as we have enforced and genuine humility — which is teachability, we produce, therefore, the power, objectivity and the teachability to function at gate four — the momentum gate: perception and application of doctrine. The first result is always motivational virtue directed toward God, and that motivational virtue directed toward God is the true functional worship. It includes three factors: personal love for God which comes from knowledge of Bible doctrine; confidence in God which comes from Bible doctrine; worship of God. All true worship begins for us as we develop the motivational virtue of gate five. When we develop motivational worship at gate five we also develop capacity for life. That is why gate six comes next, it gives us the capacity for life through impersonal love, through courage toward man and circumstances, and true virtue-morality. So the divine dynasphere then becomes the key to the function of our royal priesthood in worship. And while worship is the priestly function of the believer at gate five of the divine dynasphere it is not a true function apart from the interlock of the gates which precede. So the concept of worship becomes very important. The worship function demands life and residence inside of the divine dynasphere.

Revelation 4:10,11, “The twenty-four elders [angelic staff officers from the angelic order of battle] will fall down before him [the glorified Christ] who sits on the throne, and they will worship him who lives forever and ever. Then they will lay down their crowns before the throne, and say, ‘You, O Lord, are worthy to receive glory and honour and power.”

In order for the angelic creatures to give these things in worship — glory, honour, power — they have to possess them. You cannot give in worship what you do not possess. Inasmuch as the elect angels are in their eternal form they have glory, so they can give to God glory. They can also give Him honour and they can give Him power. While we are not yet in our resurrection bodies and our permanent form for glorifying the Lord in that sense we can give two out of the three categories: honour and power.

The reason for this is given at the end of verse 11, “because you [referring to our Lord Jesus Christ] have created all things, also because of your sovereign will they existed and they were created.” This becomes the basic concept, therefore, for worship.

Giving glory means face-to-face worship in a resurrection body. At present under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit the believer can give a form of worship which he possesses — a mind to concentrate on doctrine, a voice to sing His praises, a volition to perpetuate perception of doctrine and from that to give from the blessings we receive. Capacity for worship must precede the function of worship and until we have a resurrection body we will not be able to give glory. This body of corruption which we now possess cannot give glory to God as the highest category of worship. Corruption must put on incorruption; this means the resurrection.

Our passage in the fourth line says “because all nations will come [to Jerusalem] and they will worship before you.” This is a Millennial passage and we note the principle behind it. The worship of the Millennium is based upon two factors: our Lord provides perfect government throughout the world and perfect environment. This means that there are two categories of people who are going to worship: Millennial believers with doctrine and those who are simply enjoying the benefits of perfect environment on the earth as unbelievers. When Satan is released after his thousand years of imprisonment those who have given superficial worship to our Lord, unbelievers who are simply benefiting from perfect environment, will move over to Satan’s camp for the Gog revolution.

In Psalm 2 we see some of the concepts in this hymn which is sung at a future time. Verses 1-3 is the situation in the time of the devil’s desperation. In other words, it starts in the last half of the Tribulation.

Verse 1, “Why do the nations rage [the eschatology of the devil’s desperation], and the people plot in vain?” It is a time of great conspiracy.

Verse 2, “The kings of the earth take their stand [the revived Roman empire, the power blocs of the Tribulation take a stand against God], and the rulers plot together against the Lord, and against his anointed one [God the Son],

Verse 3, [This is what they think] “Let us break their bands [the authority of divine establishment], let us destroy their restraint [the function of divine establishment], let us throw off the chains [the basis by which God protects the human race].”

Verse 4, “He [God the Father] who is enthroned in heaven laughs: the Lord scoff at them.”

Verse 5, “Then [at the end of the Tribulation] he will speak in his anger [God the Father judges, the source of the seven last plagues], and he will terrify them in his wrath.”

Verse 6, “But as for me [God the Father] I have installed my king [coronation of Christ after the second advent] on Zion, my holy mountain [the ultimate and tactical victory of our Lord in the angelic conflict].”

Verse 7, “I will proclaim the decree of the Lord [the printout of the computer of divine decrees]: he [God the Father] said to me [God the Son], You are my Son [first advent]; today [moment of the virgin birth] I have begotten you.”

Verse 8, After His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, “Ask from me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, plus the very ends of the earth as your possession [the Millennium].”

Verse 9, “And you will rule them with a sceptre of iron; and you will shatter them to pieces like pottery.”

Verse 10, “Therefore you kings [rulers, become wise — perception of the gospel, perception of doctrine]: be warned you rulers of the earth.”

Verse 12, “Kiss the Son [faith in Christ, perception of doctrine], lest he become angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath may soon be kindled [the approaching judgment, grace before judgment]. Blessed are those who take refuge in him.”

In Psalm 66:4 we have the worship that will occur in the Millennium. “All the earth shall worship you [Jesus Christ], and will sing praises to you; they will sing praises to your person.”That will occur on earth while the angelic choir is singing in heaven.

Isaiah 2:3, “Many people will go and say, Come, and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us concerning his ways, and that we may walk in his paths: for instruction will go forth from Zion, and the word of God from Jerusalem.”

Now for the fifth and last line of the hymn, we start with the conjunction o(ti for the third time. It is used for the third, fourth and fifth lines, “because.” Then we have a nominative plural subject from dikaiwma which means “righteous acts,” “because your righteous acts,” a reference to our Lord’s judgements at the second advent. They include the sentencing of Satan to a thousand years in prison plus the elimination of all unbelievers from the earth in the baptism of fire, plus the Millennial rule of Christ deciding what nations will exist in the Millennium and what nations will not. With this is the aorist passive indicative of the verb fanerow which means to manifest or to be revealed, “because your righteous acts have been revealed.” God is perfect virtue, as we have studied, and from that perfect virtue comes perfect justice to everyone as well as every nation in the world. God’s justice extends to nations, to groups of people, and to individuals as well. The culminative aorist tense views the righteous acts of our Lord at the second advent in their entirety and regards it from the viewpoint of what results — perfect environment on the earth for 1000 years. The passive voice: the righteous deeds of our Lord Jesus Christ received the action of the verb, manifestation to the entire world. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of a series of eschatological actions of the Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent.

Now we have the entire hymn to the Lamb in its summary. The first line: “Who will fear you, O Lord,” a reference to the attitude of the world population at the second advent of Christ, including fear, awe and respect. The second line: “and who will glorify your person.” That brings us up to maximum worship. Only the mature believer of the Tribulation will glorify the person of Christ. The third line: “because only you are holy [only you have perfect virtue, perfect justice and righteousness].” The fourth line: “because all the nations will come [to Jerusalem] and they will worship before you.” The fifth line: “because your righteous acts have been revealed,” the action of our Lord Jesus Christ is the news of the Millennium.

In verses 5-8 we have the vision of the heavenly temple or the barracks of the execution squad.

Verse 5 — the continuation of the vision. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” followed by the prepositional phrase meta plus the accusative neuter plural of o(utoj, “After these things,” a correct and precise idiom to indicate the relationship between previous history and the present moment being described. “After these things,” therefore, includes the vision or great sign of the seven last plagues, verse 1; the vision of the victorious martyrs, verse 2; the victory hymn of the Tribulational martyrs, verses 3-4. The principle is a very simple one. Prophetical subjects must be developed in the sequence of divine thinking.

Here God’s policy is grace before judgment, always. There is always a grace period prior to any judgment of history and that grace period gives opportunity to reverse bad decisions from a position of weakness under the principle of repentance or changing one’s mind. There are two categories of repentance which exist to reverse the repercussions of divine judgment. The first is the decision to believe in Christ, the decision of salvation. This is called the repentance of the unbeliever. Repentance simply means a change of mind. The second is the decision of rebound, the repentance of the believer resulting in deliverance from the cosmic system.

“Then after these things,” after the vision of the Tribulational martyrs in heaven and their victory hymn, “I looked,” the aorist active indicative of o(raw. Looking here has to do with concentrating. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. This can be classified as the vision of the source of the seven last plagues or the seven bowl judgements. The active voice: the apostle John as the human author of the book of Revelation under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of eschatological doctrine and the fact that much of historical disaster comes from the court in heaven and it protects mankind, perpetuates the human race.

Next we have the connective conjunction kai, “and,” which introduces the result from what precedes. We now approach the problem of the seven last “grenades” or plagues. They are related to the Tribulational martyrs and their imprecatory prayers. Now we see the barracks of the execution squad. The word “behold” in the King James version is not found in the original language. The next word is the nominative singular subject from naoj, “temple,” and with this we also have a temporary form of worship, the genitive of apposition skhnh, “tabernacle.” So they are both together: the permanent temple and the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the memorial in heaven to the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in His strategic victory of the angelic conflict, the first advent.

The beast dictator has too much power in order to get any laughs out of this, therefore he has no sense of humour because his power has added to his arrogance. Arrogance has no sense of humour. When facing the power of Satan and his beast dictator the humour must be subtle. Therefore the paronomasia of Revelation 13:6 linked to John 1:14, and now brought out again. But something is added to it. Notice the two words again: naoj then skhnh, the two are linked together. What is so funny about this is that Satan can’t stand the fact that our Lord tabernacled among us and now coming out of the temple is going to be a tabernacle that will destroy Satan’s power on earth. So the temple is the barracks from which the execution squad will advance. With all of his great power the beast dictator who is the political ruler of the revived Roman empire and the leader of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation cannot perceive the humour of this paronomasia. Reason: he cannot laugh at himself, he takes himself very seriously. When confronted with humour as a weapon he can only riposte with slander.

When believers are beyond the power of evil, evil counterattacks with a distance-type shooting called slander. Doctrine resident in the soul is more powerful than the power of evil as demonstrated by this parry of humour. The skhnh was when our Lord was on earth — the tabernacle; now we have a barracks in heaven and the barracks in heaven is going to send an execution squad to the earth.

Tribulational martyrs have demonstrated that they were beyond the evil of the dictator in two ways. First of all, doctrine was more important than their life. Hence, they became martyrs because their priorities were straight. Secondly, the interim life for the Tribulational martyrs in heaven is totally beyond the influence of Satan who is confined to earth during the last half of the Tribulation. The humour of this is the fact that they are in heaven. Satan sent them to heaven through torture and execution; now that they are in heaven they are beyond his power. Satan only had power over these believers while they were on earth. He killed them and immediately they are out of his power. Furthermore, they go up and they knock on the door of the barracks and they say, “Send out the execution squad”. And that is exactly what will happen. The imprecatory prayers means sending out the execution squad.

So we have so far: “Then after these things I concentrated, and the temple, the tabernacle.” The arrogant preoccupation with self in cosmic one cannot see the humour between skhnh and skhnow, the two words that are used in the pun.

1. Like all people with more power than they can handle the beast dictator has no sense of humour, for in arrogance he takes himself too seriously.

2. When arrogance is faced with humour it must retort with slander. Why? Slander is the weapon of the weak to attack the strong. The sins of the tongue are always the weapons of the weak to attack those who are strong, those who are beyond their power. The one who slanders is weak and the object of the slander is strong, so it is the weak attacking the strong.

3. With maximum doctrine resident in the soul the Tribulational believer is beyond the power of the all-powerful beast dictator.

4. In life doctrine in the soul puts the believer beyond the power of the dictator, while in death the interim life in heaven puts the believer beyond the power of Satan. So there is a double protection of all believers: a wall of fire on earth; an interim life in heaven.

5. The beast dictator cannot learn the lesson of humour. With all of his vast power over life and death he cannot control the believer with maximum doctrine resident in the soul.

6. Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the believer is more powerful than all categories of human power. In other words, no one can destroy your power of thinking, only you can do it by bad decisions.

7. Therefore the Tribulational martyr is beyond the dictator’s control in life because of the greater power of Bible doctrine resident in his soul. Furthermore, the Tribulational martyr is beyond the dictator’s control in death because of his residence in heaven in a state of perfect happiness. In heaven the Tribulational martyr is also beyond the power and control of Satan who has been cast out of heaven in the middle of the Tribulation. Therefore, the humour of it all: they have gone in death where Satan cannot reach them — a bad joke for Satan but a great source of humour to the believers. Even those believers who are losers are beyond the power of Satan in heaven. In death the loser believer is absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. The loser has no more sorrows, no more tears, no more pain, no more death. The loser cannot lose his salvation and the interim life is a blessing to him.

Satan, who has delegated the great power to the beast dictator, has been driven out of heaven permanently in the middle of the Tribulation and therefore he cannot follow, accuse or follow up on martyrs.

Next we have a subjective genitive from the noun marturion, “testimony.” So we have another word added to the joke now. That temple is a testimony; that tabernacle is a testimony. Humour can be a testimony when humour is related to doctrine, “and the temple, the tabernacle, which serves as a testimony” is the way you translate the subjective genitive. The subjective genitive occurs when the noun in the genitive case, marturion here, produces the action being related as the subject to the verbal idea and the noun modified. So we translate not “of” testimony as in the King James version, but it is the temple, the tabernacle, which serves “as” a testimony, subjective genitive case. And where is this testimony? “In heaven,” e)n plus the locative of o)uranoj.

That temple is the testimony in heaven to the grace of God, for in that temple is the tremendous execution squad. That is where the entire system of angelic hierarchy, the great knighthood, the great aristocracy of elect angels are barracked. The tabernacle in heaven is an eternal testimony to the first advent of Christ. It includes, therefore, the concept of both Christology and soteriology. The tabernacle in heaven is an eternal memorial to the virgin birth, the hypostatic union, the function of the humanity of Christ in the prototype divine dynasphere, the doctrine of impeccability and His qualification therefore to bear the sins of the world. It also includes every concept of propitiation and redemption, the unlimited atonement and, of course, the concept of reconciliation. The tabernacle links Jesus Christ as the God of Israel with His omega glory which is found in Deuteronomy 6. The tabernacle reminds Israel that the cross must come before the crown, therefore two advents are necessary to fulfil the unconditional covenants to Israel. The first advent provides eternal salvation and defines Jewish recipients of unconditional covenants at the second advent as those who believe in Christ only. The second advent provides the historical circumstances for the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants whereas the first advent provided the basis for giving to certain Jews those unconditional covenants, they must have the righteousness of God, and those covenants will be fulfilled from the justice of God to the indwelling righteousness of God at the second advent. The tabernacle has the testimony of linking the Jewish Messiah with the Lord Jesus Christ whose first advent fulfilled all of the prophecies regarding His saving work on the cross. The tabernacle is the eternal testimony, therefore, to our Lord’s strategic victory in the historical phase of the angelic conflict. The tabernacle is the eternal testimony to the fact that no human being could ever be in heaven apart from the saving work of Christ. The tabernacle is a part of that great castle, that great barracks. The shadow soteriology and Christology of the Mosaic law is no longer preserved on earth except in the Word of God. Instead it is now a part of that great castle and that great barracks from which all of the judgements of the Tribulation emanate. Those who reject the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ can only anticipate divine judgment both in time and in eternity. Furthermore, they will have no capacity and no way of coping. Therefore the source of divine judgment or the seven last plagues is the temple of the tabernacle in heaven which teaches many facets of doctrine and certain principles: that the greatest power on earth can never harm or touch even a hair of your head as long as you are a believer and inside of the plan of God. This tabernacle in heaven, therefore, is a tremendous memorial to our Lord Jesus Christ.

The tabernacle is said to be opened, the aorist passive indicative from the verb a)noigw. There are many gates to this great castle. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. There is a barracks gate and this is the one that will be opened. The passive voice: the great castle in heaven called the temple, the tabernacle, is opened at one of its special gates. The indicative mood says this is important. The opening of the gate of the temple will release from the barracks the execution quad. These are seven great historical disasters which we will study in Revelation 16,17,18, 19, the seven last plagues, the seven bowl judgements, the seven grenades of history. They will be the last call to the population of the world to accept Christ as saviour before the second advent occurs. Once Christ returns it is too late to believe in Him for salvation and all unbelievers will be removed from this earth and cast into fire, as per the baptism of fire.

Verse five: “Then after these things I concentrated, and the temple, the tabernacle which serves as a testimony in heaven was opened.”

The ritual testimony to the person and the work of Christ is found through the tabernacle in several dispensations. In the Age of Israel it is called the tabernacle of Moses. Then it was called the temple of Solomon, then the temple of Zerubbabel. In the Church Age there is no tabernacle on earth and the representation of it all is the Eucharist or the Lord’s table. In the Tribulation we see where the tabernacle went, it is a part of the temple, the great castle in heaven, the abode of God and certain forms of knighthood among the elect angels. Ritual testimony to the person and the work of Christ in heaven is not only verified by many passages which we have noted, Revelation 11:19; 14:15; 15:5-8; 16:1, but also in the Millennium. There will also be a Millennial temple on earth in Ezekiel chapters 40-47, and again animal sacrifices will be offered in that temple of the restored Israel. The reasons for it are many but among others it is the fact that Israel is restored as a client nation to God. However, in the eternal state there will be no temple, as per Revelation 21:22, “And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty one, and the Lamb of God, is its temple.”

Very shortly we will be studying Revelation chapter sixteen, the chapter of great historical disaster. Every category of historical disaster is included in it. Therefore, of course, the subject itself demands that we spend some time discussing some of the problems of disaster. As long as believers of our generation identify themselves with stupid thinking we are not prepared for either personal disaster or collective disaster.

Believers today are making the same old mistake, they are being propagandised by the press, by human viewpoint in every possible way. The world is never going to be destroyed by nuclear weapons but as long as believers identify themselves with the mob [public opinion] they can never be prepared for disaster. Mobs are used by demagogues to promote violence and to unnerve legitimate local and national governments. There is, of course, nothing in mob psychology to prepare a person for either personal disaster or historical disaster. Jesus saw the fallacy of public opinion at a certain point in His ministry. It has always occurred even though they did not have newspaper print or the high-tech technology for communication that we enjoy today. But the same situation existed during our Lord’s ministry as exists at this moment in our history: believers are being led astray every day because they cannot think in terms of truth, in terms of doctrine, and they are very easily being propagandised by public opinion. Our Lord realised this with His disciples who were born-again believers, and as born-again believers He brought them to a certain point. No one ever taught like our Lord who was obviously the greatest communicator of the truth who ever walked on planet earth. Yet, our Lord came to the place where He could no longer effectively teach and bring people past a certain point spiritually. Therefore He did something about it. He separated those who would continue to be positive from those who would not. He demonstrated to us those who are believers and will fail in time of disaster.

Our Lord saw the fallacy of public opinion; He recognised that believers can only advance to a certain point when they are under the influence of the mob. The Lord, therefore, must separate believers both mentally and spiritually from the influence of erroneous public opinion and the machinations of the mob. Our Lord must also separate these believers physically from this same mob.

So we note three case histories: the story of three distracted believers, believers who did not grow past a certain point. They are believers who are now in heaven in their interim bodies and in a state of great happiness, but believers who were losers in life and this will be reflected in the fact that they will be losers in eternity — no knighthood, no decorations, no rewards accrue to these believers. All three of them fail and we will analyse why they fail. These three believers did not even come to the point of testing, they did not enter into the disaster situation. They were not qualified to do so, they merely merged back into the mob to be lost to the history of their generation.

The first one we will study is going to be a pseudo-intellectual. He is distracted by his own arrogance, his lack of humility or teachability, his rejection of authority, his extreme self-centredness, his lack of virtue. But he was very strong in sincerity, he was emotionally unstable, he was disoriented to reality, and above all he had a false sense of security. He is a scribe, he is a believer with no dynamics for disaster, therefore he will not get into the boat, the boat being the plan of God for momentum in the spiritual life. To us the boat represents the divine dynasphere and its eight gates.

The second is a conventional believer. He has a false system of human protocol; he rejects divine protocol in the plan of God. This believer is distracted by the protocol of society and therefore rejects the protocol of the plan of God. This believer lacks the priority of virtue-first and he will not get into the boat of the divine dynasphere, therefore he will fail in disaster and will never face testing.

The third distracted disciple is the believer with wrong priorities. He is distracted by people and especially by his own love life. Not only does this believer have the wrong priorities but he is confused about the subject of love. He really doesn’t understand love and not understanding love he has no capacity for love, therefore he emphasises the wrong things in love. So not only is he a loser spiritually but he is a lousy lover. Furthermore, this distracted believer has failed to properly interpret history, hence he will not be prepared for disaster.

Matthew 8:18, we have the transitional use of the conjunctive particle de, properly translated “now.” It indicates a crisis but not the kind of crisis that most people recognise as such. Jesus alone understands that His congregation of believers have now reached a critical point in their spiritual lives because too many of them are being influenced by other than doctrinal concepts. It is an old, old story; it happens in every generation. Too many of His disciples are not prepared for the crisis which is about to occur in their generation.

The nominative subject I)hsouj in the Greek with the definite article defines someone whose identity is clear to the readers. It is our Lord Jesus Christ who is the subject and He anticipates the crisis, anticipates disaster, and therefore makes proper provision for those who are positive. “Now Jesus saw,” the aorist active participle of the verb o(raw. Our Lord Jesus Christ understood the trends of history. As God He knew them billions of years ago; as true humanity with maximum doctrine resident in His soul, from His own function in the prototype divine dynasphere, He was qualified to understand the trends of history; not only the overall picture but what was definitely affecting His own congregation. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action from His application of doctrine. This is a temporal participle and translated “when Jesus saw.”

And what did He see? The accusative singular direct object from the noun o)xloj, “crowd.” He saw what many of us have seen: public opinion at its lowest ebb, because public opinion based on all sorts of false concepts and erroneous premises. For example, the nuclear freeze group. Anyone with an ounce of common sense plus a little doctrine realises that the only deterrent that the communist Russian empire recognises is the potential of force.

The crowd has gathered in approbation because our Lord has performed a couple of miracles. The messages, the obvious integrity and courage of our Lord Jesus Christ, has attracted the mob but it is primarily the performing of several miracles that has impressed them. The historical circumstances, of course, at the moment were filled with uncertainty for the middle east which was a powder keg at the time of our Lord’s ministry. The Jews were looking for a leader. Always in the approach of historical disaster people look for a leader. For this reason the crowd had come to Jesus Christ. They had not come for salvation; they had not come for doctrine; they had come to Him as a leader, a potential deliverer from Rome. They weren’t even thinking about deliverance from sin or thinking in terms of spiritual life.

A few things about this crowd as Jesus saw them, because it is true of mobs today just as it was then and mobs down through history:

All mobs are emotional, they are fickle, they are irrational. Furthermore, approbation from a crowd, the masses, becomes a distraction for anything worthwhile. So we have in any mob the breeding ground for arrogance, and mobs function inside the cosmic system. Those who depend upon the crowd for approbation generally have no capacity for life, they are very shallow and very superficial people. They have loss of honour and integrity, if they ever had any n the first place, and they end up with a distorted scale of values, and many of them become demagogues and politicians. Approbation from the crowd when taken seriously destroys moral courage, distracts from doctrine, and guarantees a life of misery in the administration of divine discipline to the believer. Since all mobs are irrational and emotional, and therefore incapable of reason and thought, they fall apart in historical disaster. A crowd destroys human freedom, therefore. A crowd destroys human freedom by demanding equality, everyone in the mob wants to be equal. There is no such thing, of course. Mobs intrude into privacy, they destroy property, they reject authority. A crowd or a mob, therefore, becomes an instrument of evil. No mob has ever been an instrument for good, though they often represent causes that are good or semi-good. A mob easily succumbs to rumour, they are suckers for propaganda, they are victimised by any demagogue who will promise them a Millennium. Freedom is lost in a crowd or a mob and every person who is a part of a mob or a crowd is a slave to irrational and insane emotions. By insane emotions is meant the crowd turning to violence. Violence is a form of evil and in a mob it is disorganised evil.

A mob is a distraction to the perception of doctrine. There are many people in the crowd who have believed in Christ. There are believers and unbelievers in the crowd but there are believers who are being influenced by the mob more than they are being influenced by Bible doctrine. Therefore Jesus must separate the disciples from that crowd. Separation from the mob is necessary to establish our Lord’s authority, His teaching ministry, and to continue their momentum so that there will be in client nation Judea a wonderful pivot of mature believers. All believers who advance to maturity must separate themselves mentally from the thinking of the mob. Every believer must make decisions regarding his life and regarding the content of information which he hears. He has no basis for filtering out what is false unless he has previously learned what is true with regard to Bible doctrine. This means that the positive believer from his own free will must separate himself from all distractions, from all influences, and all false priorities in his life. And at some time this is a test, and it is a test which is given before disaster comes. Separation, then, becomes a positive decision from a position of strength. It means that the believer continues to have control of his own life and he will have a true personal sense of destiny.

“Now when Jesus saw the mob around him.” Obviously seeing the mob around Him He recognised the danger and, of course, the same thing is true today even as it was true then. Therefore the primary responsibility for the pastor-teacher is to communicate Bible doctrine to those who are willing to listen without coercion. You can’t be forced into learning doctrine, and if you are shamed into learning doctrine you will peel off, even as one of the three categories we are about to study.

Our Lord saw the danger of the mob. And what did He do about it? At this time He had the opportunity of separating them. Today our Lord is not ministering on earth but He has provided a substitute for that boat which will physically separate from the mob, the divine dynasphere, God’s plan for the believer.

“Now when Jesus saw the mob around him,” the aorist active indicative of the verb keleuw. It means to give a very strong command, a very dogmatic command, to give a mandate in no uncertain terms. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The indicative mood of keleuw indicates this is the main verb. Our Lord made an estimate of the situation before He gave His commands. It was a correct estimate of the situation. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Our Lord Jesus Christ produced the action by the assertion of His authority in a command situation. We will translate it: “Now when Jesus saw the mob around him he gave orders”. There is no teaching, there is no explanation, but He first of all must establish His authority with believers who are going on in the spiritual life. Believers who are going to have momentum must have established in their soul the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. That authority is delegated today in the written Word and the communication of the written Word. That is why we have the gift of pastor-teacher for that communication.

So first of all the first issue is the authority of our Lord who is teaching the doctrine as over against the attractiveness of the mob. Therefore He gave orders. The expression of the order is in the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)perxomai, “he gave orders to depart.” The culminative aorist tense which views the departure in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, a separation from the thinking of the mob, the influence of the mob, for their spiritual growth. All of us at some time make decisions of separation in order to establish the higher priority of growth in grace, the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a middle voice in form but it is active in meaning, it is a deponent verb, and therefore the believer must produce the action of the verb in order to advance spiritually. This is the infinitive of intended result. When the result is indicated as fulfilling a definite objective, it is a blending of purpose and result. Then we have prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the adverb of place from peron, “to the other side.”

Corrected translation: “Now when Jesus saw the mob around him he gave orders to depart to the other side.”

That means to cross the lake. The lake refers to the Sea of Galilee. In this manner the Lord is going to separate positive from negative volition. This is just as true today. The pastor must so teach that there will be from time to time a separation of positive from negative volition. The job of the pastor is not to be popular but to be faithful in teaching the Word so that negative volition is irritated and moves on, and positive volition stands fast to grow in grace. The command to cross the Sea of Galilee causes a crisis among the believers in the crowd. It results, therefore, in several classifications, several categories of believers. Some of these believers are positive and some are not. At this particular point all appear on the surface to be positive. Superficially they are positive but in reality there are different priorities and there are different reasons why these people are following our Lord, why they are a part of His congregation. Therefore our Lord is going to eliminate the weak sisters.

We begin with the case of the first distracted disciple. This distracted disciple is a loser, verse 19-20. “And a certain scribe came and said to him, “Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.”

We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” We have a nominative singular from the adjective numeral e(ij, meaning “one”, but used here with the indefinite article to indicate a category. He wasn’t the only one in this category but he is typical of it and therefore he is used. The nominative singular subject tells us what kind of a person he was. He was a grammateuj which means a scribe. Grammataeuj was used in the Roman world for a secretary or a clerk, but it was used in the Jewish world for a scholar, a brilliant student, an expert in the Mosaic law. This scribe or scholar is named because he represents a category, the pseudo-intellectual whose arrogant hang-ups distorts doctrine into a system of rationalism or empiricism, or just a series of confusing epigrams. This man was attracted to our Lord because being smart and having a good intellect he recognised a greater intellect. People who are smart are often initially attracted to people who are smarter. This man was attracted therefore by the obvious genius of our Lord Jesus Christ. He could have been a genius himself but he was a pseudo-intellectual, he was a liberal, and beneath the veneer of his intellectualism was a tremendous emotional distraction. His genius was destroyed by arrogance. Arrogance takes a person who is a genius in IQ and makes him a very vain, superficial type of person. We translate it, “A certain scribe.”

Then we have an aorist active participle from proserxomai, which means he approached respectfully. There was nothing in his demeanour to indicate what he was really like. Always remember that when you are in a position of leadership. What people appear to be on the surface is not what they really are. You have to put them under some kind of pressure to find out what makes them tick, and what makes them think. And so it says that he approached respectfully. The constative aorist gathers it up into a moment of time. The active voice: the scribe, full of self-confidence, a pseudo-confidence, approaches with his pseudo-intellectualism and assumes that he is going to handle this magnificently.

A circumstantial participle gives us attendant circumstances, “and he said to him.” He addresses Him, respectfully. He calls Him didaskoloj, “Teacher.” The respect with which he came forward indicates the fact that he has learned something from an intellect superior to his own. The pseudo-recognition of His intellect does not means that he respects His authority. This man will always be superficial because he will never think that anyone is really quite as smart as he is. He sees the brilliance of our Lord; he envies it; he is arrogant; he is hanging around to pick up a concept or two; he is simply trying to emulate our Lord. He is a very superficial person with tremendous potential of intellect. So many people with a potential of intellect, so many people with a high IQ, lose out. Most geniuses are losers, not winners. They are losers because of one thing: arrogance. They have inordinate ambition and inordinate competition. This man is competing with our Lord. This person in arrogance assumes that his own quickness with words has made him superior to others, and as is often the case with smart people — those who are divorced from reality to the extent that they are filled with arrogance — this assumption of superiority over others divorces him from reality. This man’s potential, which was great, was destroyed by his arrogance.

None of us are free from the danger of this problem. Whatever potential we have in life is destroyed by arrogance. Therefore, to whatever organisation to which we belong it must have a system of authority and a system of discipline in order to curtail arrogance and to recognise potential. Any successful business has found a way to curtail the arrogance of the employees so that a maximum benefit can be gained from their true potential.

Arrogance has blinded this smart believer and it has neutralised his real value. Being smart and having quick perceptive ability the scribe attaches erroneous importance to his pseudo-intellectuality. He is self-centred, divorced from reality, and the result is that he lives in a dream world, and the dream world divorced from reality always produces emotional instability. This man is never prepared for disaster. He also suffers from the occupational hazard of lacking common sense. A genius does not have to lack common sense, but it is inevitable that anyone who is smart will be lacking in common sense because of arrogance. To the extent that arrogance exists in the life of any person who is smart to that extent they are divorced from reality and they have no common sense. A much dumber person with common sense is the person who will stand up in the crisis.

The thing that guarantees this man’s destruction is the fact that he has a self-righteous morality; he has arrogant self-righteousness and he cannot cope with reality in normal situations, obviously he will not be able to cope with abnormal situations. He is emotionally unstable and as a result he is not going to get into the boat. This kind of person will never advance inside the divine dynasphere, the plan of God for the believer in this dispensation of the Church.

What did he say to our Lord after that respectful approach? People who are often obsequious in their approach are merely looking for a way to outdo. They are arrogant and it is not genuine or even enforced humility. Beware of the obsequious. He says, “I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest,” but that isn’t what he said at all. That is simply what the King James version erroneously translates.

There is the future active indicative of the verb a)kolouqew, and it does mean to follow, “I will follow.” The future tense is a predictive future for an event expected to occur in the immediate future. The active voice: this is a false statement produced by the scribe. The scribe produces the action of the verb but the declarative indicative says this is really what he said, even though it is false. The dative singular indirect object from su, the indirect object often indicates, “Look I’m benefiting you by following you.” He says, “I will follow you,” and this is a dogmatic statement and is exactly what he said, but not all of what he said. The dative case implies that he is doing Jesus a favour, dative of advantage to our Lord. He is making a dogmatic statement for show and a bluff, and he is a faker. How do we know? Because he adds something. He says, “I will follow you anywhere,” o(pou, an adverbial particle. But then he adds e)an plus the subjunctive mood in the verb, a third class condition: “I will follow you if — if you go.” The present tense of a)perxomai again, a tendential present, used for an action which is alleged but may not take place. The active voice: Christ produces the action allegedly. The subjunctive mood is potential, and he is saying in effect, “Look, for the sake of these knuckle heads I am with you Lord. I know that you are smart, these other people are all stupid so I am going to make a public statement to let you know that I am with you.” Typical arrogance.

By the use of the third class condition the scribe not only doubts the departure of Jesus but impugns His motivation. Pseudo-intellectualism is constantly impugning motivation of others. That is a part of the superficiality that develops in a person who would otherwise have great intellect. People with great intellect are often very superficial people. The reason is because of this one factor: they impugn motivation. They assume that no one’s motivation would be any different from their own. Being arrogant and self-righteous the scribe who is a scholar in his own right thinks of success in terms of a large crowd, and the reason he says “if you go” is because he knows that the Lord wouldn’t leave such a large crowd because he himself wouldn’t leave such a large crowd. He can’t even imagine Jesus walking out on this tremendous mob of people who are now following Him. He can’t even begin to understand that when you have too large a group of any kind there are always people in there who aren’t going to go along, and somewhere along the line leadership with courage must smoke them out so that of their own volition they will peel off.

The scribe typifies the smart person whose arrogance destroys his potential. He would follow Jesus as far as the boat and when our Lord finally gets in the boat it is goodbye. He only follows the Lord as long as it does not interfere with his personal concepts, his personal comfort, and his arrogance. Without doctrine the scribe has neither integrity nor moral courage to venture out into the unknown circumstances, and he is not going into a dangerous sea, he is not going into uncertain conditions, and he is not going to leave that crowd. We might call his condition spurious enthusiasm. It is an artificial enthusiasm and it indicates the fact that he has emotional problems even though he is brilliant. Brilliant people are not rational unless they are free from arrogance. This disciple, therefore, was really precipitous instead of perceptive. He was intellectual, he was emotional, he was sincere, he was overtly dedicated and enthusiastic, he was impulsive, he was arrogant, he was a total failure.

We are studying the dynamics of disaster in preparation for a continuation of our study of the

book of Revelation. We are doing so from Matthew chapter eight, a very excellent passage for several reasons. First of all because it is a passage dealing with believers who fail to handle disaster on this earth, and the reasons why they do. Generally it is because believers are living inside of the cosmic system and they identify themselves with public opinion which in time of great apostasy and in time of the various categories of degeneracy means a mob.

Identification with the mob means that believers cannot be prepared for disaster. We note our Lord’s answer to the scribe, beginning with the connective use of the conjunction kai which is used here in a sequential sense, “Then Jesus said [replied] to him.” Now we are ready to develop a syndrome which is characteristic of this man and it will come from our Lord’s reply. The subject of the first half of the syndrome is the name of an animal in the Greek, a)lwpec, a fox. It is in the plural so He is referring to the foxes categorically. They possess something. The Lord uses a shallow and very superficial answer but which will describe in detail the scribe’s syndrome. So He says, “The foxes have dens [lairs].” The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. In our Lord’s day the fox differed from most canine types in that he burrowed a hole for his lair or his den. The fox is regarded here as insignificant and yet he has shelter, even if he has to take the burrow of another animal. And even though the fox is small and insignificant as an animal he does have a home or a shelter. And the point immediately was probably caught by this man because he obviously would take someone else’s shelter but beyond that is the concept of his human security which is more important to him than anything else. This scribe, as a teacher of the law, would like to appear pious to those around him and to his contemporaries, But at the same time he is so taken with human security that he will not even pass himself off as a mediocre believer. When there is a conflict between human security and the modus operandi of the plan of God the scribe who operates on his emotion will peel off. His superficial attitude will not give him any strength for any form of testing, any form of disaster. So he has what we will call the fox syndrome. But it is just part of the syndrome; it is really the fox-bird syndrome. The scribe has already selected human security for his happiness.

That is his whole concept of happiness and yet, sooner or later, all of us as believers are separated from any form of human security in order that we might realise the true source of our security. Inside of the divine dynasphere is a fantastic temporal security. It comes from the logistical grace provision. God has provided for us logistically and as long as God has a purpose for our life on this earth we will remain on this earth. Therefore, sooner or later, all of us have to face a certain category of disaster testing and that has to do with the separation of any form of human security in order that we might recognise the true source of our security in time, just as we recognise that by faith in Jesus Christ we have eternal security forever and ever. So the scribe has selected human security for his happiness. He relates this to his emotion which gives him no strength for the crisis. Consequently he is going to fail because of the fox syndrome. If Jesus cannot offer more security than that of a fox then, of course, the human security orientation becomes a distraction to him. He is not told where they are going to stay, what they are going to do, what kind of a crowd they are going to gather. The scribe apparently had a very low opinion of the fox and of the fox’s chance for survival. He assumes that the fox has no real security and no chance for survival, and because security is the priority of the scribe he loses the greatest possible system of security

one can have in life, a security that guarantees against disaster just as it provides for capacity for prosperity. So we will call it the fox distraction. Emotional fervour and good intention is not equivalent to following Christ and advancing in the plan of God. This believer will have no more momentum in his spiritual life. Though a scholar and a student he has failed to distinguish between the security of the plan of God and human security. Emotion destroys his moral courage and he makes a wrong decision from a position of weakness. He will lose control of his life and he will never have a true personal sense of destiny even as he will have a false sense of destiny as a great teacher of the Mosaic law. Furthermore, the believer’s emotions never function properly until doctrine comes first. Even though this is a person of great intellect he will be tripped up by his own emotions.

The analogy between our Lord and the fox will turn away the scribe in great disgust. He has

emotional zeal but it is meaningless in facing a small distraction called the security test. Security consciousness and spurious emotions therefore hinder learning doctrine and continuing at gate four. The fox distraction is the negative volition of this intellectual person based on living by his emotions. He has therefore become very superficial in his thinking. The scribe is typical of shallow and superficial believers who never learn enough doctrine to have the right priorities and to understand God’s plan. Spurious emotion divorces him from reality in normal times so that abnormal times of historical crisis will destroy him. He will never be in the boat.

Then our Lord moves to the birds, “the birds of the atmosphere have roosting places [or nests].” He makes a very important point of this because at the time of the writing of the Bible the shotgun had not been invented and birds were much more secure then than they are now. So it appears that Jesus makes an analogy between the scribe with all of his potential, never to be realised spiritually, and these two animals. For example, the fox is clever; so is the scribe. The fox is a smart animal; the scribe is smart. The fox has a lair, a den, a burrow; the scribe has a very narrow and limited sense of human security. Actually our Lord is comparing the scribe’s concept of security and happiness through security as not much more than the lair, the den, or the burrow of the fox. To the fox the lair is his security, but security is never security as long as some more powerful or craftier animal is around to take it away from him. Human security is challenged daily and always proves to be insecurity as well as no happiness. The greatest insecurity results from being security conscious. Security conscious believers rarely advance past a certain point in the Christian life, for the only real security is found not only in faith in Christ but in His marvellous plan which He has provided. We soon learn from gate two of the divine dynasphere that the greatest security in life comes from the application of the doctrinal rationales to the situation. Security, therefore, is related to the divine dynasphere.

So we have the bird analogy. While the fox is analogous to the cleverness of the scribe the bird illustrates his prominence, his wealth, and his success. He is not only a successful teacher of the law but apparently a person of some means. Again, the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written, and this was written before birds lost a great deal of their security through the shotgun. The bird in the atmosphere was much safer than the fox on the ground and the nest of the bird offered more security than the lair or the den of the fox. The bird, therefore, represents the fact that this man had a form of success and fame, he had great approbation, and he had wealth. This is why he was hanging around our Lord, why he accepted Christ as saviour, to add to his own career. The scribe is clever, like the fox, and he has a form of human security like the bird. A believer who will not depart therefore from the conventional comfort of society, for the unseen benefits of growing in grace, is illustrated by this man. Here is a believer who clings tenaciously to the visible, to the conventional pleasures of life. He refuses to advance beyond a certain point and he will not even have the opportunity of being tested by the crisis.

Jesus concludes, “but the Son of Man has no place where he may recline his head.” In other

words, the Lord Jesus Christ is not promising any form of human security, not that the believer doesn’t have as a part of logistical support all of the blessings that relate to human security from time to time, but as long as human security is an issue the advance in the spiritual life is over. The interesting thing about mentioning the head is that the head is apparently the area which contains the soul, which is immaterial and invisible, and the soul of our Lord contains more doctrine than any other human being. Therefore, resident in His soul are the greatest treasures of life, and He has no place to rest His head. But that is not very meaningful because God the Father is sustaining His humanity inside of the divine dynasphere and He will sustain Him all of the way to the cross where He will be judged for our sins, and then He will sustain Him in resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of the Father. So the fact that the most important head in history has no place to recline is totally meaningless. The scribe with his superficial scholarship, his pseudo-intellectualism, his arrogance, his spurious emotion, his human security orientation, his lack of faith-rest dynamics, is obviously a failure. This believer will never advance, he will live out his life in discipline and misery and failure, and it won’t even take major historical disaster to make him unhappy. Just normal little frustrations will do it all. He obviously has no dynamics for disaster. His only use is to act as a testing point for his friends who are positive to doctrine and who will very shortly leave him behind. The scribe, therefore, illustrates the believer who because of his arrogance and his cleverness is impressed by the superficialities of life. He is very fond of human

approbation; he is impressed by the large crowds our Lord has gathered. He is impressed by the miracles, he is interested in the teaching system of our Lord because he is a teacher, and he envies the popularity of our Lord Jesus Christ at this moment. The importance of doctrine eludes him in the pursuit of his false system of security.

And so the fox was clever and the bird was secure, and Jesus takes the fox and the bird and

applies the analogy to Himself when He says, “I have no place to rest my head.” In reality He wasn’t applying anything to Himself, He was applying it to the first failure who by human standards was not a failure at all but by the standards of the plan of God was a total failure. The fox was clever, like the scribe, but his cleverness was shallow and based on impulse and emotion. His security was shallow, based on interest in happiness from that standpoint without realising that he had the wrong priorities. His cleverness produced arrogance while his lust for human security produced complacency. He is self-righteous; he is arrogant; he is very very moral but it is the morality of arrogance, not the morality of virtue. And so in reality he is just another tumbleweed which blows across the page of scripture and then vanishes forever. He will be in heaven but he will not be rewarded. We will be able to note him as having only his resurrection body and nothing to show. And as far as his life on this earth is concerned, as of this moment, he has dedicated himself to a life of great misery and unhappiness.

That brings us to the case of the second distracted disciple is verse 21. “Then another of his

students [disciples] said to him, ‘Suffer me to go and bury my father’.” Going to his father’s funeral is not wrong, it is not sinful, it is not immoral, it is not evil, it is a normal and wonderful function. So we are not dealing with sin in this case, we are dealing with another form of superficiality — the protocol superficiality of human society. The pseudo-intellectual disciple called Jesus “Master,” but we should notice that in every case history we find a little more advance in the spiritual life. This person recognises Him as Lord, kurioj. Very few believers ever get to the point where they recognise Jesus as Lord. He is Lord, and we are in union with Christ in this dispensation. Therefore the Lordship of Christ is not an issue in salvation, saviourhood is the issue in salvation, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” But to recognise Jesus as Lord requires momentum, gates five, six, seven, and eight, and very few believers get that far. So this man has made some progress in his spiritual life, as noted by the opening vocative singular. He said, “Lord.” From the vocative it is obvious that he has learned some doctrine, he has spent some time in our Lord’s Bible class. The first disciple recognised Jesus as a professor, some one he can emulate and learn from to enhance his own reputation. This believer, however, is very concerned about people and is therefore very different from the first case. This man obviously loved his father and wanted to attend the funeral, but not so much out of love, as we will note, but from the standpoint of protocol, conformity to the regulations of society. That is more important to him than to continue in the plan of God and perception of doctrine. Society is more important. There are a lot of believers who are this way because there are a lot of legitimate functions in life that are not related in any way to sin or evil. The funeral is merely used as the illustration here. Where the protocol of society is concerned, however, this disciple is inflexible. Traditional observance of a funeral takes precedence over the mandates of Jesus Christ, and that is the issue. Conformity to the customs of society is very important to this man. He is therefore oversensitive to his social life and under-sensitive to his Lord and saviour. If anything in life comes before Bible doctrine, before residence and function in the divine dynasphere, obviously the believer is not prepared for crisis. Recognising Jesus as Lord obviously indicates he is more spiritually advanced than the previous case history who has no spiritual advance at all and no momentum. This man is influenced by what people think rather than by what doctrine says. That is the tragedy of the second case history. Public opinion is more important than occupation with the person of our Lord

Jesus Christ. What this man actually said was, “Lord permit me first to go and to bury my father.” He didn’t say “Suffer me.” The aorist active imperative is what is used here and that is what makes so much difference, the aorist active imperative of e)pitrepw. If we were in the indicative mood or in the subjunctive mood it would be certainly a polite request, one that could be dealt with very quickly and the issue could be explained, the man would understand and not attend his father’s funeral. But this is an imperative, a gnomic aorist tense for the fact that this case history regarded permission as already granted. So we begin to see a little arrogance cropping up in the fact that having a little doctrine he decides he has all the answers. He assumes that a little is a lot and this is just the beginning of his arrogance. So when he puts it in the imperative mood he is simply assuming that the Lord would recognise this as a legitimate excuse and He would recognise that certainly he should go to the funeral of his father before he did anything else by way of taking in doctrine or advancing in what we would call the divine dynasphere. The imperative mood expresses, therefore, the fact that this man has already decided. The imperative of entreaty has the force of urgency or request, it doesn’t have the finality of a command but it implies “I know that you are going to permit me to do it, I know that I have a legitimate excuse.”

There are probably millions of believers today with “legitimate” excuses as to why they do not take in doctrine every day. They are not growing spiritually and they are not prepared for the crisis. They easily fall apart simply when public opinion overpowers them, as the media is doing today. He also used an adverb of time, prwton , here: “first.” This is the most important. First things first, I must conform to society, I must attend my father’s funeral. “Permit me to go and bury my father,” which is simply an idiom which says, Permit me to go and attend my father’s funeral. This believer has become entangled with the protocol of society rather than the protocol of the divine dynasphere. If he failed to attend his father’s funeral his friends and those with whom he had social relationship would ostracise him. This believer thinks more of the approbation of his friends than he does of approbation from the Lord. Therefore he will never advance to gate five, he will never really get in the momentum pattern. There is too much of a conflict. It was convenient up to this point to follow the Lord but now that controversy exists following the Lord or having momentum in the spiritual life becomes inconvenient.

Again, there is nothing wrong with going to his father’s funeral but that isn’t his problem. The problem goes beyond the attendance at the funeral, it goes to the fact that he will never get away from the concept of human approbation. He will always be distracted by his friends and loved ones and will never pass that simple test that doctrine is more important than any person in life. He will live out his life, therefore, inside of the cosmic system and will eventually die the sin unto death. He had great potential and he started out well as so many believers do in their early enthusiasm with regard to doctrine. His father is dead and the son cannot do anything for his father. He has had enough doctrine to realise that his father is in heaven, a place of perfect happiness. He is now facing a test. He cannot add to or take away anything from his father’s present happiness in the interim life. He will see his father in eternity. So the real issue is what other people will think when he does not attend the funeral. And so: “What will they think if I do not attend the boss’s party? What will they think if I do not do this, or that, or the other thing?” If there is a conflict between doctrine and something you want to do or something that will advance you personally by way of a party, by way of a social life of some sort, even a business life of some sort, then doctrine always loses out. When doctrine loses out in normal circumstances you can count on it that you will never ever pass any momentum testing, and when the crisis comes you will fall apart and act like any unbeliever would in your category.

So in life we make our decisions, and this, of course, was a wrong decision. Even the desire to do it was wrong and he has already made up his mind. The imperative mood is the imperative of stubbornness. He had already decided he is going, it is just a matter of a little protocol to come to the Lord and get permission. He will never be able to get past this problem of friends and society. Social life is a more important than spiritual life to him. Our Lord knows the facts; that is the omniscience of His deity. The fact is that this person with all of his sweetness, protocol, and saying the right thing, underneath is a very stubborn person. Once the conflict comes stubborn people demonstrate that they do not have gate three, the virtue of enforced and genuine humility. This man’s stubbornness will take him right out of the picture. The only thing the son can do by attending his father’s funeral is to satisfy the protocol of his social life, and public opinion and the opinion of society is much more important than obedience to the divine mandate given immediately before: “Follow me.” While this disciple has enough doctrine, by the way, to also be very famous as an evangelist he is more concerned about what people think of him. He is typical in many ways of evangelism. Like so many evangelists he appears to be ashamed that his friends will discover that he didn’t do something, some legalistic thing, that protocol demands.

The reason we say that he is an evangelist is because Luke also writes on the same subject.

In Luke 9:60 we have what our Lord says by way of an answer: “But you, and only you, go out and you keep proclaiming everywhere the kingdom of God.” He was an evangelist. A part of his problem was that he wanted to be well thought of rather than to communicate the truth. Matthew 8:22 — “But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me’.” That means move on in the spiritual life, continue your momentum, the present active imperative of a)koluqew which has to do with momentum. He answers an imperative with an imperative. It is a second mandate, so this man is given an opportunity to rethink his position and make an other decision. This is the progressive present for action in a state of persistence — linear aktionsart: Keep moving. The active voice: the second distracted disciple is commanded to produce momentum and to keep going. He is on the right track and should not make a wrong decision at this point. The verb and the command is fulfilled literally by entering the ship, the ship representing the plan of God to us. So it is a matter of keeping moving. Then He makes a rather startling statement when He says, “Let the dead bury their own dead.” There are seven kinds of death in the Bible; there are two here: the subject dead, “let the dead,” referring to other people in society who are spiritually dead in some cases and in other cases are operationally dead, believers who no longer advance in the plan of God. Our Lord runs two categories together here: those who are unbelievers and those who are believers living in the cosmic system. This man is about to identify himself with these people so that he will be like them. It is inevitable that we are like those with whom we associate. This is our Lord’s attempt to protect him from allowing society [his friends] to dominate his thinking. A funeral is a legitimate function, just as a party is a legitimate function, or a football game or a concert, but at some time you have to choose between what is the plan of God and what is a distracting yet legitimate function. That is this man’s problem. In the time of great personal problems, natural disasters, or historical crisis, those wonderful parties, the pleasures, the great social life, the entertainment, will not carry a person at all in the crisis. There is no substitute for Bible doctrine. Both legitimate and inspirational pleasures simply do not sustain. They are wonderful for the moment but they have no permanent sustaining value. A funeral is not regarded as a pleasure but it falls into the category of social protocol, and the conflict is obvious. Society says to this man, “You show up at the funeral or we’ll cut you off”; the Lord says: “Follow me.”

We move to the third distracted disciple, beginning in Luke 9:61, “And another also said, ‘Lord, I will follow you; but let me first go and bid them farewell which are at home at my house.”

We have a transitional particle, the post-positive conjunction de, translated “now,” the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, “also,” and then the word e(teroj meaning he was a believer but he is still in a different category. If it had been the same category then it would have been the word a)lloj. But this is a third category to demonstrate that certain believers can never succeed in the crisis, “Now another disciple also said.” He is a believer, he uses the vocative kurioj, and just like the second disciple he establishes beyond doubt that he has already learned some doctrine.

This believer is also sincere, but sincerity is not a virtue in the plan of God. The priority of the plan of God calls for virtue-first, but the virtue of the plan of God comes at gates five and six: motivational virtue directed toward God; functional virtue directed toward man and circumstances. This believer, therefore, fulfils the principle of 1 Corinthians 12:3, “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except through the Holy Spirit.” This man is also emotional but he is emotional without capacity for it. He has a very serious family problem: he loves his wife and children. There is nothing wrong with loving wife and children but he has placed them on a pedestal and therefore he has placed them above Bible doctrine so that he is distracted from it. This means that he has a wonderful situation but no capacity to enjoy it. The most intimate relationships in life and the greatest expressions of love have no prosperity, only unhappiness, unless there is capacity for that love. The capacity for love always comes from virtue, not from rapport, not from attractiveness. With this there is capacity for love and therefore family relationships are meaningful, but without this they are not meaningful. The very fact that the man wants to go back and say goodbye to his family means that he is using his family as an excuse to avoid getting into that boat.

Notice a gradual change as we move from one to the other. The pseudo-intellectual was the first. The second man had his problems in the field of pseudo-security. The third is a man who used his family as an excuse for making wrong decisions, therefore his family fronts for him. Verse 61 says, “And another said to him, ‘Lord, I will follow you.’ This is the future active indicative of the verb a)kolouqew, taken from our Lord’s mandate, for the Lord had said, “Follow me.” And this is a predictive future for an event which is expected to occur at a future time. In other words, this man wants to procrastinate for alleged family obligations. He alleges to have family obligations and he must take care of them first. People lose track of the principle that our first obligation as believers is to the Lord so that all other obligations can be fulfilled with virtue, honour, integrity, and a capacity. This is ignored. The active voice: this is the third distracted disciple who intends to produce the action of the verb. He is sincere about it. At a future time he will follow the Lord but at the present he cannot. And this is the potential indicative of obligation, he feels that his obligation to his family is much greater than his obligation to the plan of God and to the Lord. While this is an expression of good intention and motivation it also indicates the clarity of issue in the mind of the disciple. His priorities are wrong — family first and foremost, family before doctrine. So this third category of believer understands the issue and what decision he could make but he wants to procrastinate. He hasn’t the virtue, the integrity, to follow through.

The principle: Good intentions are no guarantee of fulfilling God’s plan for your life. The expression of good intentions does not mean the execution of the Christian way of life. The expression of good intentions is no substitute for life inside the divine dynasphere. Many people are losers even though they understand the issue. They express good intentions but these good intentions are as far as they go. Good intentions do not mean good decisions.

“I will follow you,” he says, “but ...” The is the adversative use of the conjunction de, “but.” And then he uses the adverb of priority, prwton, and by using that adverb he expresses his erroneous priority. He first of all wants to have permission to express his goodbyes to his family. In other words, he wants out.

While there are many similarities between the second and third distractions there are also great differences. This believer is not distracted by the protocol of society, as was the second, but he is distracted by the fact that he doesn’t really want to go, yet he knows he should. Therefore he must rationalise in his soul some excuse so that he will not have a guilt complex for failure to live up to the plan of God. Believers who have no capacity through Bible doctrine, no capacity for life, inevitably always rationalise their modus operandi and justify their failure. This man will spend his life justifying wrong decisions, justifying his failures. He is a weak sister, he is a loser. He demonstrates, then, that even to state an honourable and a virtuous function does not mean that he is honourable and virtuous, he merely hides behind the facade of his own cowardice. While this appears to be a normal request made to our Lord it is made at an abnormal time, the approach of natural disaster, the momentum testing which will soon follow. This believer will never be tested for momentum, he will spend all of his time suffering because of his bad decisions from a position of weakness, his loss of control of his own life and, inevitably his false personal sense of destiny. The emphasis here, then, is placed on following the Lord into an unknown situation where natural and historical disaster will be a source of testing. This distracted disciple has placed his family as his number one priority. This is his excuse. Many believers fail disaster testing today because they have wrong priorities.

Failure, also, to properly interpret contemporary history results in not being prepared for disaster, and like the other disciples he has no ability to properly interpret contemporary history. He interprets it in terms of his own personal lust and selfishness rather than in the light of doctrinal categories. Obviously the Lord has an answer for him: “Now Jesus replied face to face with him, ‘No one, after having put his hand to the plough ...’ ” Here is a believer who started out the right way with great enthusiasm, with great positive volition, but it was very temporary. He put his hand to the plough. After putting his hand to the plough, fulfilling the priorities of the plan of God, but he got into the same problem that so many do. He finally entered gate one of cosmic one, the function of motivational evil. He looked back. Arrogance guarantees the perpetuation of negative volition in the life. To break the habit of negative volition toward doctrine, to get back to doctrine, not as a convenience of come once in a while to Bible class but as a regular thing for the momentum of the spiritual life, is a very difficult thing because arrogant people are inflexible and they cannot break the pattern of negative volition.

The word “fit” in verse 62 is an incorrect translation. This man is a believer and “fit” is not what it says. It actually says “glances back.” We have the verb blepw which means to glance, not to look. The word for “look” is o(raw. He glances back after putting his hand to the plough, and it is a pictorial present for the events on the process of occurrence. The active voice: it is a believer who has momentum, who has started out well. It is a circumstantial participle expressing the attendant circumstances of the loser.

We should notice that “things behind” include many things which are distractions. Many of them are legitimate things that should occur. Everyone has certain responsibilities to family; everyone has certain responsibilities in life. But these responsibilities must never take priority over God’s plan and Bible doctrine. Ordinarily, the objects of love synchronise and there is no conflict with the plan of God. Occasionally there will be a testing but where capacity exists, where virtue exists, where integrity exists for momentum in the spiritual life this should not be a problem. The Lord Jesus Christ must, of course, receive number one priority through residence, function, and momentum inside the divine dynasphere. This disciple in his arrogance will fail to understand the analogy answer and he will become disenchanted and disillusioned and will peel off in negative volition. He will be a casualty before the crisis. The principle: A believer who is a casualty before the crisis never survives historical disaster.

The words “is fit,” “Is” is simply the present active indicative of e)imi. It is a retroactive progressive present and denotes what is begun in the past, distraction and negative volition, and continues into the present. The third distracted disciple produces the action. It is a declarative indicative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. The word “fit” is a predicate nominative singular from the compound noun e)uqetoj. E)uqetoj is made up of an adverb e)u, meaning well or rightly, and the verb tiqemi which means to place, and actually it means well-arranged, adapted, useful. It comes to mean in modern English, well-adjusted.

Note, then, the corrected translation: “No one, after putting his hand on the plough and glancing backward, is well-adjusted to the kingdom of God.”

“Kingdom of God” is used under the concept of plan of God during the transitional period our Lord was on earth and anticipates the Church Age.

Ploughing is analogous to momentum in the plan of God, the momentum of perception and application of doctrine at gate four. This man went farther than the others but he, too, is a loser. There must be the plugging, the persistence. Persistence is the name of the game.

In Matthew 8:23 we meet those who are qualified. “Nevertheless, when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] boarded the ship, his disciples followed him.” These are the ones who are positive to the plan of God. They were pluggers, they were persistent in the perception of doctrine. They stayed with the ship. They continued their momentum and they finally arrived at occupation with Christ. They entered the ship, gate seven: momentum testing, historical crisis coming up. They are unremitting in their perseverance where doctrine is concerned and they do no allow wrong priorities to distract them as far as God’s plan is concerned. These disciples follow our Lord into the boat, not knowing where He is going, not knowing what is on the other side for them. But they recognise a principle and they use it: they know that the battle is the Lord’s, they know that the logistical grace provision is theirs, and therefore there is no hesitation. It is necessary for them to be tested on the sea before they will ever be ready for the great historical crisis which will come at the end of our Lord’s ministry.

Before any believer can face the storms of life he must get into the ship, he must get into the plan of God and stay with it. No storm or testing ever becomes a blessing in your life until you live and have momentum inside of the divine dynasphere. Because the ship is on the water and isolated from the normal functions of life it is a great time for disaster testing. When the believer enters the classroom of the local church he is also isolated from normal functions in life. The classroom of the local church eliminates certain distractions so that concentration on doctrine will result in perception of doctrine, and once the believer gains momentum from consistent perception of doctrine then, gate seven, comes the testing, then comes the storm. But no storm is a test for blessing for the believer until the believer makes his consistent and daily decisions to put his hand to the plough for living in the ship.

That brings us now in verse 24 to the crisis. “And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with waves; but he [our Lord Jesus Christ] was asleep.”

We have a demonstrative particle i)dou here and it could be translated, “And so, look what happened.” When it says in the King James version the word is not tempest at all. In fact it is not the Greek word for storm, it is the Greek word for shaking, seismoj. It means a shaking on the water, therefore a storm. The word megaj means it was a great storm. The aorist middle indicative of ginomai means that it occurred suddenly, there was no build-up for it. The constative aorist means it was a sudden thing, there was no time to prepare — no time to look up a few verses, no time to offer a prayer.

One thing that is very important in this passage and one thing that must be learned: prayer is a great weapon in Christian service but it is not designed to help you in a crisis. This doesn’t mean that prayer doesn’t have a place but it does mean that when a crisis comes suddenly you do not have time for prayer, the only thing you have time for is whatever doctrine you have learned and can apply. The three categories of believers which we have studied were incapable of even facing the test but the believers who did have the momentum and were aboard ship and who could face the test, prayer was not the answer to this type of crisis. Application of doctrine from their own souls was the only thing they could use. And the suddenness of the storm turned them into cowards even though they would be winners later on they flunked the test. They flunked the test because they could not think under pressure. The storm was the crisis, the disaster. The disaster, of course, is testing but testing is always designed for blessing and the blessing comes from the application of doctrine, not prayer — the ability to take doctrine resident in your own soul and apply it without anyone counselling you. Two things cannot be used: counselling and prayer. These disciples flunked the test because even though they had the doctrine and knew the right doctrines they couldn’t apply them. They couldn’t apply them because they turned coward. A coward is a person who cannot think under pressure.

The storm, of course, is designed to teach the futility of human resources. There is no preparation, no ability, no genius, no system of human philosophy that can handle the historical disaster illustrated by the storm. Only the disciples, by the way, who were positive to the plan of God faced the storm; only believers living inside of the divine dynasphere are so tested by storms which prepare them and give them dynamics for great historical disaster. In the storm positive believers learn who and what Christ is, and therefore the storms of life teach the higher form of security from God. The sea is very much like the circumstances of life — variable. One moment the sea is perfectly calm and very beautiful, representing the pleasant circumstances of our life; the next moment the sea becomes stormy and awesome in the fury of its power, representing disaster and crisis in the circumstances of life. The ship represents the plan of God, the divine dynasphere with its mandates and its priorities; and with maximum doctrine resident in the soul the believer can have his greatest blessings in the storm. The fact that the disciples failed merely emphasises the point. They could have succeeded, they could have had the wonderful privilege of riding out the storm and enjoying every minutes of it.

The adverse circumstances of life are like the stormy sea, they provide uncertainty, they indicate lack of human control, they indicate that the resources of life apart from what God has provided are absolutely useless. The ship is the only place of safety in the storm just as the divine dynasphere is the only place of security, safety and blessing in this life. We can’t afford to be out of the divine dynasphere for five minutes. Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the basis of capacity for happiness and blessing and the ability t handle the adversities of life. Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the key to our strength and our stability. Many believers never get into the ship because they are distracted by the cosmic system, but those who do face the storm not as a discipline but as a blessing. All adversity which comes to you when you are living in the divine dynasphere is testing and the only place of security in the storm is the ship no matter how unstable it appears to be in the storm. The ship is the divine dynasphere with its mandates, its priorities, its momentum from perception of doctrine. The divine dynasphere, therefore, is the believer’s wall of fire. Suffering for blessing is one of the categories that will be noted in this storm. This means that suffering is intimately linked to blessing for believers who put their hand to the plough, who consistently live inside the divine dynasphere. You cannot have blessing from suffering and from adversity and from disaster unless you have Bible doctrine resident in your soul, and that comes from residing in the divine dynasphere.

God does not deliver the believer by cancelling the crisis, He delivers by intensifying the crisis and forcing us to go away from human resources to the Bible doctrine we have stored in our souls from persistent perception of doctrine in Bible class. The blessing, therefore, comes not from avoiding the storm but from riding out the storm; not from the cancellation of the storm but going through it. The mature believer is delivered in the storm, never from the storm. The real blessing is in the storm so that storm reality must be intensified so that the believer comes to the end of any human resources he may choose to insert into the problem. The inserting of human resources into the crisis is like salvation by works or spirituality by works, and one must come to the end of his resources.

“So that the ship was covered [buried] in the waves.” The Greek word is the present passive infinitive of kaluptw which means to be buried. When the disciples embarked with our Lord the sea was calm, and while the sea was calm our Lord went to sleep. With crisis and disaster there is always a calm before the storm and during the calm before the storm the only preparation which can exist is that which is in the soul, life in the divine dynasphere resulting in the perception of Bible doctrine. Therefore, as always, the doctrine must be in the soul. It must be transferred there by the daily function of GAP.

The storms always come suddenly, without warning, and this illustrates the fact that we do not need warning for disaster when we consistently put our hand to the plough or when we are living in the ship of the divine dynasphere. What the disciples needed to ride out the gale was the filling of the Spirit, the second stage of the faith-rest drill, the plan of God rationale, the essence of God rationale, the logistical grace rationale. They needed to function at gate four, the application of doctrine; gate five, occupation with the person of Christ. There are many preparations for disaster so that when it comes suddenly it does not destroy the individual. The only real help in time of the storm, then, is not prayer and not counselling but the resources of doctrine which you possess in your own soul. God uses prepared people; prepared people are inculcated with Bible doctrine. No human preparation can avoid catastrophe in time of disaster, only your faithfulness at the plough which is the daily momentum that you have inside the divine dynasphere.

“but he was asleep,” the imperfect active indicative of the verb kaqeudw, “he kept right on sleeping. He continued sleeping in the storm. The imperfect tense is linear aktionsart in past time which means that the fury of the storm, the roll of the ship, did not awaken our Lord. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb by sleeping very peacefully. It must be remembered, of course, that only His humanity was sleeping. Deity cannot sleep, does not sleep; it is only the humanity of Christ which is sleeping. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that our Lord was not in any way disturbed by the storm. It wasn’t necessary for Him to get up and counsel them. They had in their own souls everything they needed for the crisis and therefore they did not have to awaken our Lord. And while the storm raged on the Sea of Galilee our Lord continued to sleep. Why didn’t the humanity of Christ awaken and give them assurance? This is not the way to meet disaster. Disaster is met by thinking — right thinking, doctrinal thinking, doctrinal rationales, application of doctrine to experience. They had the doctrine, they didn’t need any personal attention or encouragement from others to pass the test.

While the storm raged on the Sea of Galilee our Lord Jesus Christ continued to sleep. Now, again, we go back to the doctrine that these people should have applied but did not at this time. Jesus Christ is eternal God and He is also true humanity in one person forever. When it says our Lord was asleep, the imperfect of keqeudw, it means His humanity was sleeping. The deity of Christ was not sleeping and was thoroughly cognisant of the storm. The Lord did not need to awaken to counsel the disciples, they had enough doctrine to handle this situation, the Lord does not test them beyond what they are able to stand. They knew the doctrine of the hypostatic union and therefore they should have applied it under the essence of God rationale. Believers in disaster do not need personal attention, they need application of doctrine. Our Lord slept so that the disciples could learn this lesson.

So no matter how strong the wind or how high the waves with Christ in the ship, sound asleep, they are perfectly safe. By sleeping in the storm our Lord teaches these disciples the importance of the inner resources of doctrine. He is doing them a favour by remaining asleep. They must faith-rest the disaster, they must rely on doctrine rather than personal encouragement from someone else. A smooth trip means no utilisation of the Bible doctrine that they have learned, no use of the plan of God rationale, the essence of God rationale, the supergrace rationale, the imputation rationale. So our Lord kept right on sleeping. With the Lord on board that ship could not sink. No storm of life is greater than the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John 4:4, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.”

The disciples had their eyes on the storm instead of having their eyes on the Lord. Testing through catastrophe and disaster always brings out what we really are. All we have to do to be prepared for any disaster in the world is to take in doctrine on a regular basis. It all forms into a system and the system develops for us whatever problems that we are going to face. No one ever becomes strong until he has passed this category of pressure testing. They will learn from this pressure test in this storm that doctrine can be applied and must be applied. The disciples who were too distracted to embark on the ship will never learn the lesson and they are losers throughout life no matter what life brings their way. Their suffering is always discipline but never for blessing. Believers living in the cosmic system never suffer for blessing.

Verse 25, panic under pressure. We have a connective kai introducing a result from what precedes. We translate it “Consequently.” We have the aorist active participle of proserxomai, “and they approached.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist gathering up into one entirety all of these disciples doing their best, doing whatever they could, working their way to where our Lord was sleeping. Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb e)geirw which means they woke Him up. Again, it is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety, they kept shouting at Him until they woke Him up. “Consequently, having approached they awoke him.”

Human panic assumes that the Lord is sleeping and therefore not paying any attention to them, whereas in eternity past Christ had already paid attention to them. Human panic is the source of pseudo-prayer, of fear, worry, anxiety, guilt-complex, all of which are sins and, furthermore, sins of motivating evil. The disciples were not thinking. Courage is the ability to think under pressure and at this moment we have one hundred per cent cowardice. It never occurred to the disciples to ride out the storm and see what the Lord had for them. Remember that only the humanity of Christ was sleeping. They were perfectly safe for the Lord knew in eternity past their circumstances at this moment and He has made perfect provision for them. They were on one trip where it would be impossible for that ship to sink and therefore they missed all the fun. It was totally unnecessary for them to wake up our Lord for underneath every one of them were the everlasting arms of Deuteronomy 31:27. Jesus Christ is eternal God. The eternal God is a refuge — He was their refuge. They were perfectly safe. This was, therefore, their great opportunity for the faith-rest drill. They could have claimed a few promises and started thinking in terms of that doctrine they knew. The only doctrine they had to deal with was the doctrine of Christology because the great issue with all of them at this point was that they all failed at the same point: gate five, occupation with the person of Christ. They failed in the field of Christology; they failed to apply the essence of God rationale to the situation.

We have the present active participle of legw. Legw is translated in many ways. It means to communicate and it doesn’t always mean to speak or to say. Here it means to shout or to scream, present linear aktionsart, they were screaming. They were in panic palace, therefore they were screaming, not yelling. Yelling would have meant that they were thinking. The active voice: frightened disciples produce the action of the verb. These men aren’t always going to be cowards, they are just cowards at this moment so they will learn never to be cowards again. It is possible to be a coward once and then become a very courageous person, and that is what is going to happen to these men. They are going to learn something. The complementary participle completes the idea of the action expressed in the main verb, and we translate it, “and they woke him up screaming.” And the vocative they screamed: Kurioj, Kurioj, “Lord, “Lord.” The interesting thing is that the vocative they used in the key to everything. That should have started them thinking. Kurioj is our Lord’s title for deity, they addressed Him as God. As God, Jesus Christ had delivered them in eternity past and they should be enjoying the storm. This vocative is a reminder that the believer must concentrate, must think in time of pressure. But you have to have something with which to think, you have to have the content of doctrine; and it has to be learned in calm times, in times of tranquillity, that is why we have Bible class, a relatively tranquil time to learn doctrine. Then we have an aorist active imperative of sozw which means here “deliver,” “Deliver us.” In other words, they were saying, “Help, help.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. One man would say it, another person would say it. This is an imperative of entreaty, it doesn’t convey the finality of a command but it has the force of urgency. Irrationality is manifest in the entreaty for deliverance when they are already delivered from the storm from eternity past. Jesus Christ asleep or awake aboard ship is the stabiliser of that ship and no storm or disaster can destroy the ship while our Lord is sleeping. With Christ sleeping during the storm the disciples should have been alerted to the meaning of it all and to therefore have a marvellous ride. Security plus capacity for life means that the disciples in the ship should have been enjoying the storm. Actually the Lord designed it for their blessing and it was only their own failure, the use of their own volition, that caused it to be a time of great panic and misery.

Then the disciples used the present passive indicative of a)pollumi. Why are they in the ship? The Lord commanded them, the aorist imperative. It was an order. Is God going to command them to get aboard a ship so that they could go out in the middle of the sea and sink? No, they are in the Lord’s will in the middle of that storm and they should have known they were in the Lord’s will when they boarded ship. They were in the Lord’s will, therefore they were perfectly safe. Yet, here they are saying, “We are about to perish [we are being wrecked].” The culminative aorist views the punishment that the ship was taking from the storm in its entirety but emphasises the potential of shipwreck. The passive voice: it was actually the disciples, not the ship, who were being wrecked. This is the potential indicative, the ship was not breaking up but their emotions were breaking them up. Their emotions were out of hand in cowardice and they were cracking up, the ship was not.

Verse 26, the reprimand for the disciples. The storm is still raging and the Lord shouted at them. “Consequently he shouted at them.” The nominative neuter singular from the interrogative pronoun tij, “Why, are you cowards?” They were cowards because they couldn’t think. We are all potential cowards unless we can think in terms of doctrine under pressure. Then we have a predicate nominative, the word for coward is the Greek word deiloj.

Note that the Lord reprimands the disciples in the ship before He rebukes the sea. By doing this the Lord establishes the priorities of the situation. Obviously the Lord thinks. First the disciples are censored, then the Lord will expunge the storm. The disciples are out of hand matching the fury of the storm. There is no difference between the fury of the storm and the disciples. The storm is shouting and howling and screaming , and so are they; and it will take a long time to bring the disciples under control because their recovery demands the daily positive volition toward doctrine over a given period of time. But the storm will be instantly controlled because the material universe responds instantly to our Lord’s authority and command. The Lord’s dealing with the storm is a simple thing but with the disciples it will take more than a command. The disciples must learn and relearn doctrine so that the application will be instantaneous, reflex action, next time. Cowardice and fear ruined them on this occasion; next time they will know better and consequently the inculcation of doctrine will do its work.

Fear always wipes out capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness, but God has provided doctrine resident in the soul so that while the storm rages your soul can be calm and tranquil. Circumstances do not change one’s attitude where doctrine exists in the soul. The disciples had the doctrine but they hadn’t learned to apply it; they are going to learn a great lesson. This fear of the storm was not lack of doctrine but failure to apply doctrine. Some people have doctrine but they have not learned to apply it.

Our Lord calls the disciples one word in the Greek, o)ligopistoi. O)ligoj simply means little, and pistoj means faith. It can be translated, therefore, “you short-time trusters.” They are short-time trusters. At the point of boarding the ship they obeyed the mandate of our Lord. They boarded under very calm circumstances. They left behind the three categories of believers who are losers from the beginning. But when they stepped aboard that ship they were winners, they were moving in the right direction. They were also aware of the fact that they were winners and therefore their victory made them vulnerable to defeat. The defeat is that they were short-time trusters. Only during the calm were they trusting the Lord. They were great believers as long as everything was going all right but once things were going wrong they became short-time trusters.

As long as things are pleasant, relatively quiet, believers can apply doctrine under calm circumstances, but as soon as the tranquillity is replaced by the storm, as soon as the crisis arises and the disaster occurs, they simply cannot apply the doctrine that they have learned. They are like the soldier who shoots well on the range but under the pressure of combat forgets all of the lessons he has learned. So the vocative answers the question: “Why are you cowards, you short-time trusters?” Theyare cowards because they are short-time trusters. In other words, they are fair weather believers. As long as there is no challenge they are content to enjoy the messages and miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ, but when the crisis approaches and disasters come they go into shock and their doctrinal thinking is frozen in the deep-freeze of their fear. Doctrine is there but they will never use it in disaster until they learn that Christ is not only their Lord but Christ is the Lord of the storm — just as we have to learn that Christ is the Lord of the disaster.

Jesus Christ controls history, He has provided for us in logistical grace everything necessary for the crisis and for the disaster. We will never be taken from this life until He is ready to take us and until His plan is for our departure. So the logistical grace rationale should have occurred to them. But God does not intend for the believer to run to Him or anyone else in time of disaster since He has provided the basis for utilising inner resources. The believer must throw away his crutches. In other words, as the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “we walk by faith and not by sight.” This means that every time we seek help or counsel from another we are weakened. They sought advice from the Lord but the Lord had already given them advice in many, many messages. He had said it all before.

Doctrine is taught so that doctrine can be applied. The disciples have already learned the necessary doctrine, therefore our Lord is sleeping. So He reprimands them, but He doesn’t stop there. He then turns and reprimands the storm. “At that time,” the correlative adverb tote, an adverb of time. Just as soon as He had reprimanded them He immediately turns to deal with the storm. The storm has no soul, it is just wind, water, temperature. It then says he got up and reprimanded, the aorist active indicative of e)pitimaw, “rebuked,” and it says that it became perfectly calm. Note that He reprimanded the disciples from a sitting position. They awakened Him and He called them cowards. He was either sitting or reclining but when he goes to reprimand the sea He is in standing posture. Why? The disciples were in the classroom where the posture of the teacher is not the issue, but the storm was on parade where the posture of the commanding officer must be compatible with the situation. He is the commanding officer of the storm. So there is protocol for every situation and our Lord observed not only the priorities of reprimand but the posture for such a category. There is a posture for communicating to the mentality of mankind and there is a posture for communicating to the fury of the material universe.

The verb implies voice usage. The voice of our Lord could be heard above the sound of the wind and the waves. Where the Word of God penetrated there was instant obedience and instant calm no matter how great the turmoil. Protocol must always be the servant of sound doctrine but never the master of doctrine. The storm with all of its fury came to instant calm. It heard the voice of our Lord once and obeyed; the disciples had heard the voice of our Lord many times and had failed. When protocol becomes the master it is a distraction to doctrine, a deterrent to spiritual growth. What appeared to be a miracle was merely the Lord controlling His own creation. Remember that His creation responded to Him immediately whereas believers must on a daily basis use their volition to respond.

There is, of course, a certain amount of superficiality that always accompanies any failure. That is given to us in verse 27. Believe it or not, here is an explanation as to why these positive disciples failed. They were impressed with the wrong things. They were impressed with the power of our Lord and the miracles He performed instead of the doctrine which He had been teaching them daily. No believer can be impressed with the Lord until he is impressed with what the Lord thinks — doctrine, the mind of Christ. You never really get to know another person until you get to know exactly what he thinks, and that often takes a little time and some pressure. It is easy for the Lord to perform a miracle, it only means that the Lord is using His volition, His sovereignty. However, it is difficult to reach believers with Bible doctrine because they not only have free will but they are preoccupied with the things of this life, the things that they are doing are more important. The excuses are always legitimate but the priorities are always wrong. Doctrine must become a reality in the soul before the unique person of Christ can become real to the individual in the storm. The disciples were impressed with the reality of the storm, they were frightened, but not with the reality of Jesus sleeping in the storm, the key to utilising the second stage of the faith-rest drill.

The men were “amazed.” They are called men now instead of disciples. Up until now they had been called maqhthj, students, which is all the word disciple means; now they are simply called a)nqrwpoj, men, ordinary human beings. Every word in the Bible is important and when the Word of God changes and calls them just “men” they have lost track. The tragedy of so many in our generation is that believers are just people, just ordinary people acting like anyone else. The reason is because of no positive volition. Maqhthj: disciple, student, positive volition; men: negative volition, they had just gone back and joined the mob, they are no better or no worse, no different, but essentially, as far as God is concerned, they are written off as losers. They haven’t lost their salvation, they have just lost the whole significance as to why they are left behind in this life.

Instead of using of using doctrine in the crisis they acted like ordinary, cowardly, stupid men. Therefore, the Bible calls them men in contrast to students or disciples which they were called in verse 23 when they embarked on the ship. They were still learning then; now they are not learning at all. No one is ever the same after passing through a test or disaster such as this. The disciples are now men, the worse for having gone through the storm. Doctrine either makes the believer greater in the storm or worse, he is either a winner or a loser. Only the inculcation of doctrine and its proper application really counts.

To prove that these are really men we have the aorist active indicative of qaumazw. It wasn’t the disciples who were qaumazw, “amazed,” it was “men,” the same people called men. As men they were astounded by the miracle; as disciples they would have been astounded by the doctrine. So they are called men. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. At this point they are losers and therefore they are impressed by the miracle, not by the Word of God. The active voice: the believers in the ship, formally called disciples or students, are now simply called men. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of their superficiality. Once you fail to pass the test in a disaster you immediately become a superficial person. As disciples and being positive toward Bible doctrine they were winners, or potential winners, but as men and being negative toward doctrine they are now just shallow, superficial people.

Our life on earth is what we think, and if we become impressed with the miracles of life, as it were, if we become impressed with the emotional aspect of life rather than the rational aspect of doctrine then we are just superficial losers. With emotion now dominating their souls these men now demonstrate the superficialities that can overtake any one of us at any time, and that is to be impressed by what we see in life rather than what we think.

In verses 5-8 we have the vision of the heavenly temple or the barracks of the execution squad.

Verse 5, the continuation of the vision. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” followed by the prepositional phrase meta plus the accusative neuter plural of o(utoj, “After these things,” a correct and precise idiom to indicate the relationship between previous history and the present moment being described. “After these things,” therefore, includes the vision or great sign of the seven last plagues, verse 1; the vision of the victorious martyrs — verse 2; the victory hymn of the Tribulational martyrs, verses 3-4. The principle is a very simple one. Prophetical subjects must be developed in the sequence of divine thinking.

Here God’s policy is grace before judgment, always. There is always a grace period prior to any judgment of history and that grace period gives opportunity to reverse bad decisions from a position of weakness under the principle of repentance or changing one’s mind. There are two categories of repentance which exist to reverse the repercussions of divine judgment. The first is the decision to believe in Christ, the decision of salvation. This is called the repentance of the unbeliever, repentance simply means a change of mind. The second is the decision of rebound, the repentance of the believer resulting in deliverance from the cosmic system.

When believers are beyond the power of evil, evil counterattacks with a distance-type shooting called slander. Doctrine resident in the soul is more powerful than the power of evil as demonstrated by this parry of humour. The skhnh was when our Lord was on earth, the tabernacle; now we have a barracks in heaven and the barracks in heaven is going to send an execution squad to the earth.

1. Like all people with more power than they can handle the beast dictator has no sense of humour, for in arrogance he takes himself too seriously.

3. With maximum doctrine resident in the soul the Tribulational believer is beyond the power of the all-powerful beast dictator.

5. The beast dictator cannot learn the lesson of humour. With all of his vast power over life and death he cannot control the believer with maximum doctrine resident in the soul.

That temple is the testimony in heaven to the grace of God, for in that temple is the tremendous execution squad. That is where the entire system of angelic hierarchy, the great knighthood, the great aristocracy of elect angels are barracked. The tabernacle in heaven is an eternal testimony to the first advent of Christ. It includes, therefore, the concept of both Christology and soteriology. The tabernacle in heaven is an eternal memorial to the virgin birth, the hypostatic union, the function of the humanity of Christ in the prototype divine dynasphere, the doctrine of impeccability and His qualification therefore to bear the sins of the world. It also includes every concept of propitiation and redemption, the unlimited atonement and, of course, the concept of reconciliation. The tabernacle links Jesus Christ as the God of Israel with His omega glory which is found in Deuteronomy 6. The tabernacle reminds Israel that the cross must come before the crown, therefore two advents are necessary to fulfil the unconditional covenants to Israel. The first advent provides eternal salvation and defines Jewish recipients of unconditional covenants at the second advent as those who believe in Christ only. The second advent provides the historical circumstances for the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants whereas the first advent provided the basis for giving to certain Jews those unconditional covenants — they must have the righteousness of God, and those covenants will be fulfilled from the justice of God to the indwelling righteousness of God at the second advent. The tabernacle has the testimony of linking the Jewish Messiah with the Lord Jesus Christ whose first advent fulfilled all of the prophecies regarding His saving work on the cross. The tabernacle is the eternal testimony, therefore, to our Lord’s strategic victory in the historical phase of the angelic conflict. The tabernacle is the eternal testimony to the fact that no human being could ever be in heaven apart from the saving work of Christ. The tabernacle is a part of that great castle, that great barracks. The shadow soteriology and Christology of the Mosaic law is no longer preserved on earth except in the Word of God. Instead it is now a part of that great castle and that great barracks from which all of the judgements of the Tribulation emanate. Those who reject the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ can only anticipate divine judgment both in time and in eternity. Furthermore, they will have no capacity and no way of coping. Therefore the source of divine judgment or the seven last plagues is the temple of the tabernacle in heaven which teaches many facets of doctrine and certain principles: that the greatest power on earth can never harm or touch even a hair of your head as long as you are a believer and inside of the plan of God. This tabernacle in heaven, therefore, is a tremendous memorial to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse five: “Then after these things I concentrated, and the temple, the tabernacle which serves as a testimony in heaven was opened.”

The ritual testimony to the person and the work of Christ is found through the tabernacle in several dispensations. In the Age of Israel it is called the tabernacle of Moses. Then it was called the temple of Solomon, then the temple of Zerubbabel. In the Church Age there is no tabernacle on earth and the representation of it all is the Eucharist or the Lord’s table. In the Tribulation we see where the tabernacle went, it is a part of the temple, the great castle in heaven, the abode of God and certain forms of knighthood among the elect angels. Ritual testimony to the person and the work of Christ in heaven is not only verified by many passages which we have noted — Revelation 11:19; 14:15; 15:5-8; 16:1, but also in the Millennium. There will also be a Millennial temple on earth in Ezekiel chapters 40-47, and again animal sacrifices will be offered in that temple of the restored Israel. The reasons for it are many but among others it is the fact that Israel is restored as a client nation to God. However, in the eternal state there will be no temple, as per Revelation 21:22, “And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty one, and the Lamb of God, is its temple.”

Verse 6 — the seven angels are the pur sui vant angels, the execution squad, those who will administer the final seven judgements of the Tribulation. They are said to possess something, the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw which means to have and to hold. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun. This is a descriptive present tense. The active voice: the execution squad produces the action. This is a circumstantial participle plus the fact that the action of the present participle is coterminous with the action of the main verb. They are said to have the seven plagues. These seven plagues will be described in other ways very shortly. The seven angels therefore hold seven grenades which are called here the seven last plagues or death blows. They will also be called vials, which is an incorrect translation, they are the bowl judgements of the last half of the Tribulation. Revelation 21:9 is the key passage which tells us that these seven last plagues are identical with the seven so-called vials or bowls in chapter sixteen.

The important thing to note is the uniform worn by this execution squad. Remember that the execution squad is not made up of privates, it is made up of one of the highest echelons of aristocrats among the elect angels and while they are the lowest in the aristocratic order they are still part of the aristocracy. For example, we have at the very top the king of arms. He is the top of all of the people in the angelic college of heralds and is the highest elect angel. He would be comparable to Moses or Paul. Then we have a couple of officers of arms immediately under him, and after that the four angelic heralds, all seraph rank angels. We also have a cherub rank and this includes the pur sui vant officers, one of whom commands the execution squad in our passage. Then there will be seven pur sui vant messengers and these, of course, are the execution squad sent by God. So only the highest-ranking elect angel aristocrats are permitted to handle this kind of an action.

The uniform is described as follows: “dressed in pure linen, also they were wearing a golden baldric across their breasts.” The translation which is given in the King James version is not correct, it doesn’t even begin to describe what they were wearing. The perfect passive participle from the verb e)nduw tells us the uniform that was to be used. The perfect tense is the perfect of existing state in which the past completed action is dropped from the thought and attention is placed on the existing state.

Everything in the Word of God has meaning and purpose, there are no wasted words. Often they do not have direct application to us but in this case they certainly have a pertinent challenge. Some day some of us are going to be in our resurrection bodies and will have the most fantastic uniform, and everything on the uniform will represent the fact that the wearer was a winner. This adds up to something: the uniform they were dressed in here — pure transparent linen. What does that mean to us? It means that some are going to be losers — in heaven with a resurrection body, and that is it. There will be nothing to show for the time on earth. There were no decisions that were compatible with the Word of God, there was no concept of the plan of God, and therefore life was lived out on this earth as a loser. Suffering and misery will be confined to this life and to the judgment seat of Christ where there will be chagrin because of failure. Others will surpass those believers for one reason only: they made right decisions from a position of strength and they kept on making them. There is no such thing as equality in heaven.

So they came out of the barracks dressed in linon, “linen,” and it has very definite meaning. It is the angelic equivalent to the uniform of glory which covers whatever type of resurrection or permanent body the elect angels possess. There are two adjectives which go with it. The first is kaqaroj, which means pure. When it is used for believers later on in chapter nineteen it has to do with the resurrection body and ultimate sanctification. We have not only the imputed righteousness of God now but in the future we will have a perfect righteousness. And with this a second adjective, lamproj which means transparent, shining, or bright, “pure and transparent linen.” This is their basic uniform and being a member of the angelic college of heralds is one of the highest honours and decorations given to elect angels as a result of their performance during the prehistoric stage of the angelic conflict. This is their eternal state, their eternal body, and it also indicates something of their decorations.

As angelic heralds administering the seven last judgements of the Tribulation this uniform represents their Lord and master, Jesus Christ. Hence, the adjective kaqaroj represents the impeccability of Christ during the first advent, whereas the lamproj represents the deity of Christ, and together they remind us of the hypostatic union. This means that the uniform worn by the pur sui vant messengers reflects the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict. Therefore all judgment has been delegated to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Next we have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai which provides additional information. It is translated “also.” With it we have a perfect passive participle plus a reference to what is actually being worn. The perfect passive participle plus the prepositional phrase that follows is correctly translated: “Also they were wearing a golden baldric slung across their chests.” They are wearing one of the highest and most distinguishing types of decoration related to the time of the Roman empire when the golden baldric was set up in order to carry decorations. This is the uniform of the execution squad that will go into action in the next chapter.

Translation: “Then the seven angels who have the seven plagues came out of the temple, and they were dressed in a uniform made of pure and transparent linen, also they were wearing a golden baldric slung across their chests.”

The golden baldric not only indicates the honours and the decorations these elect angels won as winners before man was created but they also indicate war. In this case, it will be God’s war against evil and that is exactly what the seven last plagues will do. Remember, the angels are from the college of heralds and they wear victory symbols of our Lord’s first advent. “Pure”: the impeccability of Christ; “transparent”: the deity of Christ; “linen”: our Lord in hypostatic union.

Verse 7, the chain of command in the administration of these last plagues. Now, one of the angelic heralds actually gives out to each one of these angels his own special grenade to be used as one of the seven last judgements.

It is said here that one of the four living creatures, one of the heralds from the angelic college of heralds, gave to the seven angels or pur sui vant messengers seven golden bowls. These seven golden bowls are mistranslated in the King James version. The Greek word is fialh and it is actually a bowl with a very narrow neck, so we might call it a grenade.

“Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls which have been filled with the wrath of God who lives forever.”

When it says that they have been filled it means that this has been prepared a long time ago. Until the time for divine judgment comes the herald is the custodian of these seven grenades which contain the seven last judgements. These seven last plagues also answer the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs. And there is a principle which comes out of this: God leaves no loose ends in history. Every evil perpetuated against believers, regardless of the dispensation, is put into the computer of divine decrees and at the appropriate time is judged. There are no loose ends in history and this, of course, was great consolation to the Tribulational martyrs. God remembers the victims; evil never remembers the victims. Evil always concentrates on the culprit — on his nice personality, on “he’s been punished enough”, the problems we have today in the administration of justice in our country. But God always remembers the victims, whether they are the victims of disorganised evil like crime or victims of organised evil like governmental persecution. Even though Satan is the ruler of this world no form of evil gets away without punishment from God. There is no evil ever committed in human history that is not handled by the higher court of heaven. The higher court of heaven always functions and the timing of the higher court is perfect, and therefore the importance of what we should call “the patience of the saints.” As believers we have to be patient. As believers we may not even see God’s administration of justice but it will occur and therefore we can avoid the usual problems that people seem to have. The want revenge themselves, forgetting that “vengeance belongs to me, I will repay saith the Lord”. They want to do something about it themselves, they want to get involved themselves, they have a bad mental attitude because of what has happened. But God leaves crimes against believers always punished; they never go unpunished. And since God’s timing is always perfect, either in blessing or in judgment, the believer must avoid becoming personally involved. To this extent all believers, sooner or later, from the function of gate six must become professional — the function of impersonal love, the principle that you do not get upset about your enemies or about injustice which is perpetrated in your direction.

Principle: If the courts of the land will not prosecute leave it to the higher court of heaven where justice is always done.

We have noted the impatience of the Tribulational martyrs in the offering of their imprecatory prayers, 6:9-11, especially verse 10: “How long, O lord.” The rationale which comes out of this: God is perfect, therefore God’s timing is perfect. God’s timing is perfect in blessing; God’s timing is perfect in the administration of judgment.

The content of the bowls or the grenades is then given, the aorist active participle from the verb gemw. It means to be full. It is translated like a perfect tense and the reason is because the culminative aorist views the contents of the grenades in their entirety but regards them from the viewpoint of existing results, the administration of the seven last plagues to planet earth in the last half of the Tribulation. The active voice: the seven bowls, the seven golden grenades, fulfil the action of the verb. We notice that these golden grenades are filled with the wrath of God. Wrath is an anthropopathism referring to divine judgment. Seven bowls contain seven last judgements on the human race in the last half of the Tribulation. It should be noted that verse seven is retrospective exposition and fills in the missing link in the chain of command which we studied in the previous chapter, verse 14.

We have noticed now two things in this transitional chapter. First of all, the protocol in heaven which began in 14:17 and goes through 15:7. We will note next the action on earth when each grenade is thrown as a judgment on mankind.

The doctrinal application of protocol in heaven is very important. Note the seven applications of what we have been studying:

1. There is order in heaven. This means that there is order and protocol in God’s plan for us in time. The plan of God always follows protocol; the plan of God follows a no-nonsense policy, no silliness, no absurdities. Protocol is a reminder of this principle. The application should be noted: 1 Corinthians 14:40, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” Protocol becomes thoughtfulness as a part of the plan of God; it becomes sensitivity; it becomes the function of impersonal love toward all, recognising the privacy of others, the right of others to make their own mistakes or their own success. In other words, avoiding the doctrine of the long proboscis is a part of the protocol principle as expressed in gate six of the divine dynasphere.

2. The highest-ranking aristocracy of elect angels is involved in the chain of command and the execution of divine policy. Note that divine protocol is being executed by the greatest aristocracy in heaven, just as the highest-ranking order of knighthood in the royal family of God will rule and execute judgment for one thousand years of history, in the Millennium. Always, however, God does not permit the peasant to rule; He never permits the scum to function in His organisation. When God wants something done He uses royalty. But you must remember that royalty is acquired. Whatever a person is born is inconsequential. The issue is that aristocracy is always acquired. In human life aristocracy is inherited and that is why aristocracy eventually becomes degenerate, because what is not acquired but in inherited often becomes the means of corrupting through arrogance.

3. The success of the mission is based on respect for authority and the virtue of protocol. Respect for authority develops the virtue of protocol in every echelon of command and function.

4. Effective protocol demands virtue, virtue-first. Protocol is meaningless without virtue. Those who carry out this mission of judgment, the seven last plagues, have demonstrated maximum virtue during the prehistoric angelic conflict.

5. The divine plan for the believer in time cannot be fulfilled apart from respect for God’s authority, the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word; the authority of Bible doctrine as the written Word. So in addition to all of the various categories of authority in life there is the higher consideration, respect for authority in the spiritual realm.

6. Good planning precedes good execution. Chapters 14 and 15 are planning chapters.

7. Any judgements resulting from bad decisions produce hopeless, self-destructive misery. Any judgements originating from God and the protocol of heaven result in the preservation and blessing for some portion of the human race. Add to that the fact that the human race will never be destroyed because of backfire divine judgment.

Verse 8, It should be noted that once the administration of the seven plagues occurs on earth normal times are gone. True historical disaster is always characterised by abnormal times. This is reflected in the fact that in verse 8 the temple is closed. The closing of the temple is a very important lesson. We have, for example, “the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God,” the ablative of source as the object of the preposition e)k, “from the glory of God.” The source of the smoke is the glory or the essence of God. This emphasises the fact that no human being can afford to ignore the attributes of God. The smoke which John saw represents the fact that God is invisible and cannot be seen by human beings, and therefore the smoke indicates the invisible presence of God. Smoke is the perfect manifestation of God to the unbeliever who has rejected both God’s eternal existence and the divine attributes. So, as it were, man’s negative volition produces his own fog (smoke) in his life. God is only manifest to the believer who is positive toward pertinent doctrine and therefore smoke is cleared away by the believer’s positive volition toward doctrine. Some people live in an atmosphere of smoke or fog. But here God is dealing with the unbeliever and therefore the smoke. The only reality of God to the unbeliever is divine judgment. The cloud of smoke in the temple represents the holiness of God. We have studied this concept before in Isaiah 6:3,4. When the Jews assembled under Mount Sinai to meet God the manifestation of His presence was smoke, Exodus 19:18. Smoke from God is related to the function of divine justice and judgment, Psalm 18:8. Cf. Ezekiel 10:2-4, the cloud was the smoke of the glory of God; Exodus 40:34.

The glory of the Lord is the perfection of His character and therefore the judgements of the Lord are just as perfect as the blessings of the Lord. There is nothing unfair, nothing cruel, nothing wrong, nothing that is non-virtuous about these judgements. They are said, therefore, to come “from the glory of God, and from his power.” The omnipotence of God linked with the justice of God indicates the fact that God has the power to execute judgements as well as the perfection to be fair. Furthermore, all divine power is always related to divine justice and this means that whether God is using His power to bless or to curse divine justice is the frame of reference. This is illustrated, of course, by the cross where our sins were imputed to Christ and the Father judged them. The justice, then, of God the Father supersedes the love of God the Father in the function and the modus operandi of His justice.

“Furthermore,” says the last half of the verse, “ no one was able to enter the temple,” the aorist active infinitive of e)iserxomai means the temple was closed. That means entering for worship, entering for any function, and the infinitive is preceded by dunamai. The imperfect of dunamai is the imperfect of description. The active voice: no one in heaven can produce the action of the verb, meaning regenerate creatures who frequently inhabit the temple. The indicative mood is declarative for eschatological reality. The aorist infinitive is ingressive, it means as of this moment no one entered the temple until these judgements were completed. Not even in heaven can creatures, both angelic and human, stand in the presence of God when He is judging a segment of the human race. The function of the justice of God in judgment is overpowering and even creatures in heaven cannot endure the pressure, “until these seven plagues had been completed [administered by the angels].”

Translation of verse eight: “Then the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; furthermore no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues administered by the seven angels had been completed.”

During the time of historical disaster from divine judgment routine-type worship in the heavenly temple is interrupted until this judgment is completed. And why mention it at all? Since we are not going to enter the temple at that time, why mention it? We will be in heaven at that time but why does it tell us that we are going to be shut out of the temple?

Historical disaster and personal disaster disrupts normal function in life. That means that it disrupts normal expression of worship in the local church, and it means to us that the opportunities that you have had to take in doctrine on a consistent and daily basis are going to be shut down. It means that the teaching of the Word of God under normal circumstances of tranquillity will no longer exist.

It is probable that in our lifetime we are going to see this happen. You won’t be able to come to Bible class, you will be on your own just like the disciples were in the storm when our Lord was sleeping. They were on their own for a purpose — so that they could use the doctrine they had learned. But they failed. Therefore, they were losers. And just as they were losers in the past there is going to come a time when the doors are going to be shut and you are not going to have the opportunity you have had in the past. And note: Your social life, your pleasures, and the reasons that you could not come to Bible class will not sustain you. All of the fun times that you had will not sustain you, and they won’t carry you in disaster. All they will do is bring out the fact that you are a weak sister, that you are a loser, that you are not a winner at all. And just as lack of Bible doctrine means lack of capacity for life and love and happiness it also means that lack of Bible doctrine means no ability for disaster. Disaster is coming, and when it comes normal routine functions of life, its teaching of the Word of God under tranquil circumstances will not longer be available. Then you will discover that all of the things that were more important to you than Bible doctrine, everything that was more important on your priority list — your business responsibilities, your social responsibilities, your children — not sustain you when disaster hits.

Verse one is the confirming order to the execution squad. The passage begins with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated, “Then,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw which means to hear. John either sees or hears everything in these visions and in this case he hears what is said. “Then I heard.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. John as the human writer hears the information he puts down. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the continuation of the vision of the seven last plagues.

With this we have an objective genitive composed of two words, megaj and fwnh, and it is translated “a loud voice.” The source is from the temple. This is the voice of God the Father from the heavenly temple, not the voice of the angel of chapter 5:2 or 7:2 or 10:3, which takes us back to chapter 15:8. It all started with God the Father when the mandate was issued. God the Father in the heavenly temple sends a message to God the Son who is seated on the cloud through the officer of arms, 14:14,15. The Lord Jesus Christ is in charge of all historical judgements, especially this one, the seven last plagues. Therefore in 14:16 He is the recipient of the mandate. The pur sui vant officer who commands the judgment squad comes out of the temple and is placed on standby in 14:17. In the meantime the king of arms comes from the altar of imprecatory prayers with the co-ordinating orders, 14:18, and at this point one of the four living creatures distributes the bowls to each member of the execution squad who are seven pur sui vant messengers, according to 15:1, 7. Next, the pur sui vant officer who commands the execution squad goes from standby to assume command and the result is the function of the execution squad in chapter 16.

Behind all of this is a protocol system. This means, of course, that there are no accidents in the Christian life and this means that there are no accidents in history. It means that everything that happens in history, while we may be very sympathetic with the various categories of disaster which come to various people, it is always the result of their own individual or collective bad decisions.

“Then I heard a loud voice from the temple ...” The present active participle of legw is translated “which said.” It is a futuristic present; it is the voice of God the Father producing the action; it is a circumstantial participle. With it we have a dative plural indirect object, “to the seven angels.” These are the pur sui vant messengers who form the personnel of the execution squad. This voice from heaven, the voice of God the Father speaking from the temple merely confirms the orders which have been passed down through the chain of command under the doctrine of protocol. And with this confirming order the action actually begins.

The content of the confirming order starts out with the present active imperative of the verb u(pagw, a very strong verb for Go. It is an order to move out as we would say in military language. It is a pictorial present tense, it pictures the events in the process of occurrence and dramatises the great historical disasters that come at the end of the Tribulation. The active voice: the execution squad produces the action in obedience to the imperative mood of command which has gone through channels for the protocol system and is now reconfirmed from the castle itself.

The next word is “pour out,” e)kxew. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of this chapter in its entirety. The active voice: the execution squad will produce the action in obedience to the imperative mood of command. The accusative plural direct object follows, “the seven bowls.” We have a definite article taj denoting a previous reference, the indeclinable numeral e(pta, “Seven,” with fialh, “bowl.” The pulling of the pin of the grenade and the pouring out of the judgment is the execution of the judgements on earth. The seven bowl judgements are synonymous with the seven last plagues, 15:8; 21:9.

All of this verse is interpretation and the idea is not to get application here but to get interpretation for the entire chapter. We are to understand, therefore, that the administration of these seven bowl judgements, called “seven last plagues,” actually come from heaven, from God, and they are very carefully screened through a careful chain of command. The seven last plagues are seven historical disasters and these judgements prepare the way for Israel to become a client nation to God once more in the Millennium. They prepare the way for the unconditional covenants to Israel and these seven divine judgements complete the function of the justice of God in punishing the world and its inhabitants during the time of the devil’s desperation, the last half of the Tribulation.

Translation of verse one: “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, Go out and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”

What follows in the obedience of the execution squad is both punishment of evil and evangelisation by disaster. Divine judgment means judgment which comes from heaven and comes from God. It is administered to the earth in the form of historical disaster. It always accomplishes two things: evangelism and the preservation of the human race from self-destruction so that history is perpetuated as far as the angelic conflict is concerned. Here it is going to preserve believers in the Tribulation so that at the end of the Tribulation, even though it is the worst disaster period in history for seven years, many believers will survive.

There are three reasons why we have judgment. First of all, evangelisation. It takes unbelievers who are inside the cosmic system and brings them back to reality and gives them another opportunity to face the issue of the gospel. So always historical disaster is a form of evangelisation and, at the same time a form of preserving believers. Believers are protected in disaster. Then, of course, it always fulfils the principle of punishment.

Verse 2 — we have the first member of the squad executing his command. The first bowl judgment is given entirely in verse two. This is a sort of warm-up to historical disaster in the form of cancer given to certain people. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then,” followed by the nominative singular of the adjective prwtoj, “Then the first.” The word “angel” is assumed, and rightly so. Then we have the aorist active indicative of a)perxomai, “moved out,” instant obedience. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the first member of the execution squad produces the action of the verb. The declarative mood is for the reality of this judgment beginning.

With this have the connective kai and e)kxew, “and poured out his bowl on the earth.” The aorist tense of e)kxew is a culminative aorist, it views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, divine judgment in the form of historical disaster. This is a dermatological disaster, a disease of a malignant nature. The active voice: the first pur sui vant messenger produces the action. “Then the first angel departed and poured out his bowl upon the earth.” This reveals the primary heavenly virtue, the basic virtue of obedience to divine authority. Behind all protocol is the principle of virtue-first, and the virtue is humility. This angel is in his eternal state, in his status quo of ultimate sanctification. As such he is ready for instant obedience and there will never be any deviation from that. Note that you can be happy in a state of obedience; you can be happy in a state of authority. Authority is orientation to life.

Divine authority was expressed both through channels and directly from the temple. Verse one is actually a repetition of what we have been noting. Authority is a greater issue than freedom in the spiritual life and without authority orientation believers never grow in grace. They pick and choose what they hear, when they hear; they pick and choose the preachers, the ones that will entertain them, and they never settle down to the authority of one minister ever. This means they are unhappy people and they will never grow in the spiritual life. It just isn’t done that way. Freedom without authority is not only anarchy but it destroys all virtue in life. Authority is the key to humility, not freedom. The greater the freedom one has the greater the responsibility one has. Hence, freedom demands virtue for its proper usage and function. No freedom is ever used properly when the subject is arrogant. Arrogance destroys freedom long before historical tyranny destroys freedom. Obedience to authority is a virtue in heaven as well as on earth. Obedience to authority is something God requires from all believers as well as elect angels, and it is not degrading to be obedient to legitimate authority.

Now we have the nature of the first judgment and it starts out with the connective conjunction kai, translated “then” or “and,” with the aorist active indicative of the verb ginomai, “became.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The content of the first golden bowl produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatology of reality in this future judgment, a reminder that when historical judgment comes our way, even as it will come in the future Tribulation, it is always brought on by bad decisions from arrogance. Arrogant people, even if they get the facts, never make good decisions. We have the predicate nominative singular from e(lkoj, the ancient Greek word for cancer. It is used for cancer, ulcer, or abscess. Two adjectives describe the ulcer, one is pernicious and the other is painful, “and it became a sore [or ulcer, cancer of the skin], pernicious and painful.”

The interesting thing about the first judgment is the fact that people rarely die from cancer of the skin. It is not one of the big killers but it is painful and that is the whole point. To be in a state of pain is as close as arrogant people can come to reality. When arrogant people are miserable, in a state of pain, they are as close to reality as they can possibly come apart from recovery from the cosmic system.

What follows gives us the devastation of religion in the human race. One of the greatest expressions of evil and arrogance is in the area of religion. Religious people are so arrogant that they get into politics, chapter 17; and then they get into all kinds of weird concepts which forms their religion, chapter 18. Both are judged at the seventh grenade. Ecumenical religion is characterised by the mark of the beast dictator. God gives the religious crowd of the Tribulation His mark of disapproval. The reason this is cancer of the skin is because the religious crowd are all wearing the mark of the beast dictator. Now God has His mark of disapproval in giving them cancer. So it might be said that the first judgment is mild and reveals our Lord’s sense of humour.

Next we have e)pi plus the accusative of a)nqrwpoj, “upon those men.” A)nqrwpoj refers to a category of mankind. The reason for the word “those” is because we have a definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun to distinguish religious people from the rest of the human race. The worst people are always religious people. These men are categorised by the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw, they are said to “have” something. The definite article used as a relative pronoun, “who.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has happened in the past: they first of all accepted the ecumenical religion of the beast sometime during the Tribulation and now they have this mark. So it shows what happened in the past and continues into the present. The recipients of this judgment accepted from their own free will the ecumenical religion of the beast dictator and they continued to adhere to that system as indicated by their mark. The active voice: all converts to ecumenical religion produce this action. With it we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun xaragma, a mark. We have previously noted that this mark is a brand or an ID card, 13:16,17. This is the ID card related to the computer to indicate slavery to a system, the ecumenical religious system which is tantamount to slavery to Satan. This brand or mark is computer tyranny, the total destruction of human privacy, therefore cancellation of human freedom. Once these people are on the computer they no longer have any privacy of any kind.

1. High technology is no better than the people who use it or apply it. In other words, it has both good and evil connotations because it is no better than the people who use it. Evil people will find evil applications for it; good people will find good applications.

5. Freedom cannot exist without privacy. This means that freedom and privacy must coexist. Every attack on human privacy is an attack on human freedom. The answer to every bureaucrat’s dream is the system of computerised tyranny, because bureaucrats always want to know all about you and are always trying to stick their nose into your business. They claim that they are doing it for good reasons but it always destroys privacy. When you get on the computer your privacy is gone because Big Brother knows all about you. A good application is to have a record of criminals because criminals have no civil rights and therefore they have no rights to privacy or freedom. They have forfeited their right to privacy and freedom by the very nature of their crime. However, to have a computer record of law-abiding citizens in order to control them destroys their freedom because it destroys their privacy.

The converts to ecumenical religion in the cosmic system are in the computer and have a mark or identification. This is organised evil which makes it possible to torture and kill those who believe in Christ. Ecumenical religion of the Tribulation as a part of organised evil is both cruel and vindictive toward those who reject it. The identification mark and the computer list persecutes the nonconformist. That would be the doctrinal believer. Hence, computer tyranny plus demon terrorism becomes the greatest system of persecution the world has ever known.

The final phrase talks about their worship, the articular present active participle from the verb proskunew, “worship.” The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes something that has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: the Tribulational converts to the ecumenical religious system of Satan produced the action of the verb. And with this we have the dative singular indirect object, “his image.” The image is the statue of the dictator of the revived Roman empire.

Note again that the converts of the ecumenical religious system have the mark of the beast dictator on their skin. Therefore God adds His mark to their skin, a malignant ulcer and abscess. The malignancy on the skin match the malignancy of their soul for the most malignant of all souls is the soul of the religious person. They are negative toward the gospel, the have scar tissue of the soul, they reside permanently in the cosmic system.

Translation of verse 2: “Then the first angel departed and poured out his bowl on planet earth; and it became an ulcer on the skin, both pernicious and painful to those men who had the mark of the beast dictator, and who worshipped his image.”

In Leviticus 17:7 we learn that people who sacrifice to idols offer their sacrifices to demons. Deuteronomy 32:17, “They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to those they have not known [from doctrine], new demons who come lately, whom your ancestors did not fear.”

Heathen nations worship demons, according to Psalm 96:5, “All the gods of the people are demons, but the Lord made the heavens.” The word for idols there is really the word daimonia in the Septuagint translation.

Demon possession was the basis for capital punishment in Israel, Leviticus 20:27.

Jesus Christ, of course, controls history by the restraint of these demons, Exodus 12:12, “the demons of Egypt”; Numbers 33:4.

Demons are powerless to change the course of history, Isaiah 19:3. “Then the spirit of the Egyptians will become demoralised within them; also I will frustrate their strategy so that they will resort to idols of demonism ...”

Demonism is therefore related to any kind of judgment of a nation, Deuteronomy 18:9-12.

Satan and demons are often used by God in the administration of the sin unto death of a reversionistic believer, 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Timothy 1:19,20.

When believers become religious and get into the cosmic one system, and in their arrogance begin to function at the various gates, they are therefore in a place of demon influence and God permits Satan to administer the sin unto death.

Psalm 109:7 tells us that Satan blinds through religion; he shortens life, verse 8; he removes people who have authority [removes their authority], verse 8; he can kill, verse 9; he can persecute children, verse 10; he can remove wealth, verse 11; he can turn everyone against you — verse 12; he can cut off posterity to the second generation, verse 13.

All of this means that many times when the born-again believer has made so many decision against God, God says, All right, he’s been living in your cosmic system, I’ll let you administer the sin unto death. Satan can never do this, of course, apart from divine permission but Satan has the power of death, 1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14,15. Satan was the one who killed the children of Job, Job 1:12, 18, 19. Satan motivated Cain to murder Abel, John 8:44; 1 John 3:12. When given opportunity he can execute believers under the sin unto death, 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Timothy 1:19, 20. Needless to say it is a painful way to go.

Verse 3, we continue with the second member of the execution squad. Remember that all judgment from God has a grace connotation and the principle of judgment always has that in mind. The second concept is evangelism. All judgment is designed to evangelise the unbeliever. The unbeliever being brought back to reality then has the opportunity of taking what information he has received about the gospel and relating to his own life. This is often coming to the end of one’s own resources and therefore looking to divine resources for answers. So it becomes the basis of evangelism; it is actually the last call of evangelism. Then, of course, the third purpose for divine judgment is the perpetuation of the human race. Were it not for divine judgment as a sort of backfire the human race would destroy itself.

The word “second” in verse 3 is simply the word deuteroj, and it applies to the second member of the squad. There is no word for angel here. We know it is an angel, a pur sui vant messenger, from the context. The aorist active indicative of e)kxew means that he pulled the pin of the grenade in obedience to the command, “Then the second angel poured out.” The culminative aorist tense views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the divine judgment of the sea.

The first bowl judgment was against the epidermis of the worshippers of the beast. The first judgment hit priority target number one: the religious crowd. The religious crowd are the strongest in negative volition toward the gospel or negative volition toward Bible doctrine. They always suffer from blackout of the soul and scar-tissue of the soul, reverse process reversionism.

The active voice: the second pur sui vant messenger produces the action of the verb as a member of the execution squad. This is a declarative indicative mood representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatological reality.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from fialh, referring to a bowl, and with it the possessive genitive singular of a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun because the Attic Greek third person personal pronoun was not brought into the Koine Greek. “Then the second angel poured out his bowl.

The target of the second bowl is given next in a prepositional phrase: e)ij plus the accusative of qalassa, “into the sea.” What kind of sea? The noun qalassa can refer to any body of water, salt or fresh. Previously in the first half of the Tribulation as a part of the second trumpet judgment, 8:8,9, one third of the water of the earth was affected but here all of some category of water. Remember that seventy per cent of the earth’s surface is water. In the northern hemisphere the ration of water to land is 60.7 to 39.3, while in the southern hemisphere the ratio is 80.9 to 19.1 per cent. It averages out to 70 per cent. The second trumpet judgment was directed toward one third of the water of the earth but this judgment is directed totally. So both freshwater and sea food is affected by this second bowl judgment. However, because of what is coming up in the next verse we have to assume that this is primarily a judgment against salt water and not fresh water as such. There is a little problem here because later on in the next verse we are going to see lakes and the Biblical definition of a lake is a body of water completely surrounded by land whereas in the Biblical definition of seas and oceans there is always some outlet at some point — some flow-in, some flow-out, whatever it is.

The result of this second bowl judgment is now given, “and it became,” the aorist active indicative of ginomai. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The declarative indicative mood indicates that the total judgment is on all salt water oceans and seas plus a couple of salt water lakes, “became blood,” the predicate nominative of a(ima. The significance of the blood is twofold. It is a reminder to all unbelievers of the end of the Tribulation that they have rejected the gospel, the only way of salvation. The comparative particle o(j plus the ablative of source, nekroj, indicates the nature of the blood, “as from a dead person.” Secondly, as the blood is a reminder of the saving work of Christ on the cross it is also a reminder that it is an ocean pollutant and the importance of oceans and seas in sustaining the natural balance of nature cannot be overestimated. So we have pollutant of all the salt water areas, and this illustrates the concept that we see today where people are very sensitive about oil spills is simply a reminder that we as members of the human race are dependant upon these oceans, even though they are salt water. The results are now presented in the context, “then every yuxh [soul] of life,” with it we have zwh.

Translation: “ and it came to be blood of a dead person: then every living creature [every soul of life] began to die.”

Death here means that there was tremendous loss of any type of food from the sea and anything that is beneficial from the sea. And this is only the beginning of these judgements. The ingressive aorist gives mankind a chance to repent, by the way, because the aorist active indicative “began to die” comes from the verb a)poqnhskw. The ingressive aorist denotes the entrance into the state or condition, it doesn’t mean that they all died at once.

The implication of all of this is that all of these people have heard the gospel many times. They have been evangelised, as we have seen, and all have had a chance to hear the gospel. The significance of oceans and seas becoming blood as from a dead man will be discussed when we get to verse six. Needless to say it is a reminder that an unbelieving world has persecuted and shed the blood of believers in Christ and those who communicate the gospel and teach Bible doctrine. While the first bowl judgment was against the epidermis of the religious unbeliever the second bowl judgment is against the conscience of the unbeliever as the seas an oceans become blood as from a dead man. So the second is an appeal to the conscience. Dead believers speak through this judgment.

The third bowl judgment is found in verse 4-7. It is going to take a little longer to develop these because there is an intensity as these develop. This is the administration of the third grenade.

“And the third angel poured out his bowl,” the culminative aorist views the third judgment in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: divine judgment on the world’s supply of fresh water, “into the rivers,” e)ij plus the accusative of potamoj. All the rivers of the world are going to be affected. Also this judgment is against lakes, “springs of waters.” This is similar to the third trumpet judgment but far more extensive.

Note that all of these judgements are against the unbelievers only. Therefore God has provided at that time some special deliverance for believers on the earth. It should also be noted that these judgements are literal and not symbolic.

Anticipating the next verse, this pur sui vant messenger from the angelic college of heralds is not only a member of the execution squad here to administer divine judgment but he is also a communicator of Bible doctrine. He is a teaching angel, as found in the book of Zechariah. This implies that the teaching angels in the time of Moses who explained the Mosaic law to the people were from the same angelic college of heralds. The third pur sui vant messenger from the execution squad not only throws his grenade but in verses 5 and 6 he teaches the doctrine of the integrity of the divine judge and the guilt of the recipients of the punishment.

So we have in verse 5 the integrity of the judge brought in at this point. This is the proclamation of the third pur sui vant messenger. The greatest teachers from the angelic college of heralds are actually the officers of arms. Remember, they are seraph-type angels. Out of all of the millions of elect angels the angelic college of heralds is the highest form of aristocracy. These are the rewards and decorations that were given.

“Then I heard the angel related to the water judgment saying.” And what was he saying? First of all we have the present active indicative of e)imi. He is addressing himself to our Lord who is the judge, “You are.” The static present is for a condition that has always existed. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ as the judge produces the action of the verb, though the proclamation also applies to God the Father. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

Then we have the word dikaioj, used here for Christ as the judge. Later on our Lord is going to be called as the judge, dikaiosunh. The difference: dikaioj has to do with His perfect righteousness; dikaiosunh has to do with His justice and righteousness, with emphasis on His justice. In other words, the holiness of God is involved.

What is the holiness of God? We will use the modern word “integrity.” It is composed of His righteousness and His justice. Justice executes the judgment but it is done from perfect righteousness. The judge is perfect; the judge is eternal. There never was a time therefore when the infinite, eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, did not have perfect righteousness. And this means perfect righteousness with virtue. Righteousness plus virtue equals the perfection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many people have morality but it has no virtue. Morality minus virtue equals self-righteous arrogance; morality plus virtue is developed inside of the divine dynasphere; it is a grace system of morality.

“You are righteous [or just]” refers to God, and this means that the righteousness of God and the justice of God which is the source of divine blessing to the believer is also the source of divine judgment of the unbeliever. The justice of God is one half of divine holiness. God’s attribute of holiness is actually two attributes: justice and righteousness. Righteous was imputed to us the moment we believed in Christ and that established the grace pipeline. The justice of God initiates logistical grace support to the righteousness of God. The justice of God, for mature believers, initiates supergrace blessings. All blessing comes from the justice of God and it is imputed to the righteousness of God so that God is not compromised by blessing us. We are still sinners, we are still imperfect, we still fail as long as we live in this life. God, therefore, does not bless us because of what we do. God blesses us because He is perfect. That is the basis of all blessing. Grace is the function of the justice of God in imputing blessing to the indwelling righteousness of God which was imputed to us at the moment of salvation.

When the teaching angel says, “You are righteous [just],” he is indicating once again that just as blessing comes from the justice of God so judgment comes from the justice of God. And if both blessing and judgment have the same source then all things work together for good. God has designed a way of life, a plan for our lives, whereby we can have the same blessing in time of disaster as in time of prosperity. Even though the circumstances oscillate from prosperity to adversity, from adversity back to prosperity, our life and happiness and blessing goes right on regardless. The justice of God which is the source of divine blessing is also the source of divine judgment. The believer, of course, possesses the righteousness of God; the unbeliever does not. Hence, the same divine justice of God the Father which judged our sins while Christ was bearing them in His own body on the cross initiates the seven last plagues to the unbelievers of the Tribulation. That is why historical disaster. Man is the source of historical disaster, he is the product of his own decisions. There never has been a historical disaster whereby man did not make the decisions that produced it.

Man’s negative volition is the source of disaster but God adds something to it for this reason: the justice of God the Father set aside His eternal love for God the Son when God the Son went to the cross. The judging of our sins did not come from the Father’s love. Justice always supersedes love in God’s dealing with mankind.

The unbeliever does not have the righteousness of God that has been imputed to the believer, and not having that righteousness the only blessing he can get out of any kind of disaster or judgment is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So inevitably, all of these judgements are just another way of evangelising and bringing people to the end of themselves. Before these judgements are over it will be seen that no matter how great people are, how smart they are, no matter what provisions they made for disaster, they have absolutely no security. Bit by bit, as each grenade is thrown God takes a little more of their security until there is no human security left. And once no human security is left there is only one thing left, and that is to throw themselves on divine security. So the justice of God the Father which judged our sins when Christ was bearing them is the same divine justice which initiates these plagues, and for the same purpose: to bring people to reality. These same seven last plagues, then, are the expression of God’s perfect and eternal holiness or integrity.

Mankind is prone to be critical with regard to His judgements because mankind, of course, does not have all the facts. Furthermore, mankind does not understand either the essence of God or the total depravity of mankind. While man rationalises his sins and disobedience to the plan of God the integrity or holiness of God cannot ignore these things. Man is the product of his own decisions. Bad decisions from a position of weakness inevitably come into contact with the perfect integrity of God. The integrity of God, then, is the source of both blessing and judgment to mankind in human history. All blessings, temporal or eternal, are related to the fact that the justice of God judged all sins when Christ was carrying them on the cross. The very essence of God demands that all divine judgment be the expression of His integrity, whether it is the judgment of the cross or historical disaster in human history. Divine integrity never makes a mistake in either blessing us or in judging us.

Continuing in verse 5, the identity of the judge is now mentioned under the phrase, “You are just, O Holy One, who is, and who has always existed.” It is the articular present active participle “who is” that refers to the omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The phrase, “and shalt be,” in the King James version is not given here. But the second coming of Christ is always brought out by “and shalt be,” and because that is going to be a part of our subject it isn’t necessary to bring it in at this time.

Then we have the reason for all of this given in the perfect decision of the judge. We have the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, “because,” and with it the aorist active indicative of the verb krinw, “because you have judged.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the seven last grenades of the Tribulation and regardless of how long it takes to administer these judgements gathers them up into a single whole. The active voice: Jesus Christ as the judge produces the action. The declarative indicative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality.

We also have the word “thus” in the King James, and that is incorrect and misleading. Actually what is found there is the accusative neuter plural direct object from the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, and it should be translated, “because you have judged these,” referring, of course, to people in the Tribulation. These are primarily unbelievers judged in the Tribulation but these judgements always do something else: they always pick up a few cosmic believers, believers who are in reversionism to stay are generally picked up as well. However, we are dealing primarily with judgment of the unbeliever.

Translation: “Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters saying, You are just, O Holy One, who is [the omega glory of Jesus Christ in His hypostatic union], who has always existed [ the alpha glory of Christ as eternal God], because you have judged these [unbelievers of the Tribulation].”

Principle: Perfect God with perfect integrity can only make perfect judgements; perfect God-Man with perfect integrity can also only make perfect judgements. These judgements emanate from our Lord in hypostatic union. To question the judgements of God is, of course, the quintessence of blasphemy and the ultimate in negative volition. How do believers question the judgements of God? How do believers question the actions of God? When we question the actions of God we are failing to recognise who is in control. The integrity of the judge, then, is the subject of this verse and Jesus Christ as eternal God and perfect humanity in one person forever is the perfect judge with the perfect integrity. It is interesting to note that the perfection of our Lord was attained in time through His residence, function, and momentum inside the prototype divine dynasphere.

Continuing the dissertation in verse six the punishment is equivalent to the guilt of the culprit. When people are punished by God they are guilty. The very fact that He is punishing them means they are guilty? Why? Because God is omniscient. In eternity past God knew of this accumulation of our decisions that lead to sin or to whatever may punishable. So God is the judge, He knows all the facts, and having a perfect knowledge He says, Guilty. Therefore, the punishment follows.

The causal conjunction which begins verse 6 is translated “For” in the King James version, but o(ti here should be translated “Because.” This is actually the second causal sentence, it introduces the principle that divine punishment matches the crime or the evil of the culprit. “Because they,” the Tribulational unbelievers, have done something. And the verb that is used is e)kxew, used here for religious people killing believers in the Tribulation, and here it means to pour out. They have poured out, “they have shed the blood of the saints.” God’s timing in blessing is perfect but God’s timing in judgment is just as perfect, and it comes from the same source, the integrity of God. God always waits until exactly the right time to lower the boom. In bowl judgements number two and number three, blood on the seas and all of the lakes and rivers, the timing is perfect. This is the absolute perfect time to have that happen so that those who shed the blood of believers are now going to be judged for shedding innocent blood.

“Because they have poured out the blood of the saints and the prophets,” remember, this is an Old Testament dispensation, the Tribulation is the end of the Age of Israel and prophets are simply Bible teachers. Note that the prophets and the gift of prophecy which is now a dormant gift will be revived in the Tribulation. This is because of the nature of the Tribulation which is a time of historical trends being determined by prophecy. And because there is no prophecy used for historical trends in the Church Age since the completion of the canon of scripture the gift of prophecy is dormant. The gift of prophecy is used in the Tribulation for the communication of Bible doctrine, and believers who respond to doctrine will often be martyred along with those who communicate the doctrine. So we have “saints,” the congregation, and “prophets,” those who teach the doctrine. The persecutors are primarily dictators, rulers, and religious types.

One thing about the book of Revelation is that it settles the problem of the noun a(ima, “blood,” in many ways. In chapter one we have the blood of Christ referring to eternal salvation. The blood referred back to the Old Testament offerings which portrayed reconciliation, propitiation, redemption, unlimited atonement, and we have therefore the use of blood in its symbolic sense for eternal salvation.

As we move along in the book of Revelation we come to literal blood. Here we have the blood of the Tribulational martyrs, later on we are going to have the blood of many armies slaughtered on the battlefield in a world war. The last great world war of history comes at the end of the Tribulation and, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ terminates it. The Armageddon campaign, by the way, is the Middle East campaign but the war is global. Until the second advent of Jesus Christ we will never be free from warfare. Warfare is a way of life in the human race, and will continue to be so, our Lord Himself prophesied it.

In this verse we see once again one of the signs of degeneracy and it comes from organised evil. Remember, we have three false systems in a nation: pseudo-morality — maximum arrogance, a system of morality in the cosmic system; disorganised evil; organised evil. Disorganised evil is always tolerant of Christianity in a country because Christianity is always trying to evangelise in that field and disorganised evil is trying to evangelise the Christians. When organised evil comes along it always persecutes the Christians, it persecutes self-righteous arrogance, and it even persecutes disorganised evil because disorganised evil competes with organised evil. This type of thing goes on constantly but the intensification of it will come in the future in the Tribulation when there will occur a tremendous persecution of believers, greater than any persecution of the first century and greater than any persecution in history. Here it is mention as “the blood of the saints and the prophets.”

The source of the persecution is twofold. It is primarily religion because religion becomes the state. When religion becomes the state, when religion and the state are one and the same, you have organised evil — the worst kind of organised evil. Religion is always inconsistent because religion does not have Bible doctrine to keep it straight, and not adhering to Bible doctrine religion always gets into irrationality and inconsistency. For example, the Word Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches illustrate the point. They have been giving money to various terrorist groups. As soon as they think someone is downtrodden they arm them and they actually sponsor terrorism in many parts of the world through their money. They are inconsistent. They are against violence but they support terrorism and this is what happens when Christianity becomes political. We are not here to be political, we are here to be totally and completely separated from politics. It is not a part of our Christian responsibility to get involved in politics, to get involved in social action, to become involved in the various political activities which eventually lead to civil disobedience. When Christianity becomes involved in politics and tries to tell the state how to run its business, inevitably it leads to civil disobedience. This is why so many born-again believers become revolutionary.

Why are we here? We are in this world but we are not of this world. That means simply that our role in our client nation is first of all to be good citizens, and that means everything that is involved in citizenship that does not enter into politics as such. We should serve in the military, we should pay our taxes and not cheat on our income tax. We should be involved in jury duty because Christians generally can think a lot straighter than most other people about the law. We are to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, but the only way that we can help our country is to be involved in the plan of God for our lives. We are here to form a pivot to preserve our nation. The more mature believers the greater blessing to our country — blessing by association, blessing by having a pivot and the fulfilment of client nation functions. We have freedom of speech with goes with freedom of the press, preaching from pulpits, all tied in together. We are free therefore to evangelise, to witness, to support missionaries and evangelists. In sending out missionaries we are fulfilling the primary function of the client nation to God.

We as believers have a peculiar responsibility to our country because whether our country survives or not depends upon the believer’s attitude toward Bible doctrine. That is when Christians are tipping the balance in the direction of glorifying the Lord. But when believers become apostate and become involved in cosmic one, the interlocking systems of arrogance, and cosmic two, the interlocking systems of hatred (Satan’s anti-Christian propaganda machine), then through the various categories of arrogance they lose out completely and become detrimental. This is the place of negative volition; the divine dynasphere is the place of positive volition toward God’s plan.

As a result, when organised evil takes control of a government then there is persecution. Always when there is persecution a lot of believers get killed. This started in John’s day when he was writing this. The believers were being persecuted, they were being tortured, imprisoned and executed. Whenever that happens believers die without seeing what happened. In their death they are sometimes discouraged, especially if they do not have the proper doctrine, because it looks as though their persecutors are going to get away with it. But that never, never happens. That is the principle found in the last half of verse six. No one ever gets away with criminal activity, with persecution of the believer. The martyrs always die before they see the results because God is perfect, God’s timing is perfect, God’s timing with regard to His administration of justice is perfect, and there is always punishment for those who are criminals. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” applies as a divine law. So we have the punishment of the persecutors of believers in the Tribulation.

It begins with the conjunction kai which introduces a result from what precedes. It is translated “and so” or “therefore.” With this we have the perfect active indicative of the verb didomi which means to give here, “Therefore you have given.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect, it represents an existing state and describes vividly the expedition and ease with which God judges the religious crowd, the dictators, who are persecuting believers. The dramatic perfect emphasises the results of the action and emphasises the results of judgment from the third bowl which destroys the drinking water of the land mass on planet earth.

God took all of those religious people and they all have a computerised number, their card which they have to have to buy food or to have any privileges in the countries involved. Their number is 666 and is a part of computerised tyranny in the Tribulation, and it is also called the mark of the beast dictator. And God gives them another mark, a cancer under the second bowl judgment. So they have a mark of privilege, an ID card; now God gives them a warning. The second thing is that a lot of these people begin to shed the blood of the believers, so God gives them back blood. This time there is blood in the sea, blood in the fresh water, as we saw from the third bowl judgment. The first judgment was the cancer, the second and the third took care of water, both salt water and fresh water.

Note the principle. Before God administers any final justice He always gives the unbeliever an extra chance. They are still alive, they still have volition, they still have the opportunity of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation, and we see God’s grace even in judgements. So divine judgements through human history have a twofold concept. They are designed to preserve the human race and to perpetuate it to the end of history. Left to his own devices man by man’s decisions would destroy himself, the human race would not survive. But the human race has survived and the human race will continue to survive because of divine judgment. That is a grace principle.

Then these judgements are administered in a very interesting way. There are warning judgements first. These first three judgements are warnings to unbelievers to bring them around to reality.

The active voice: God the Son produces the action of the verb, as so stated by the pur sui vant messenger. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. The accusative singular direct object is a(ima, “blood.” They shed blood; now they are drinking blood, “and so you have given them blood to drink.” The word “them” is the dative plural indirect object from a)utoj. The aorist active infinitive from pinw is the verb for “drink.” It is a dramatic aorist for a result which has just been accomplished or is on the point of being accomplished. Many of these people are going to die because they continue in negative volition. These are tremendous great warnings. Yes, they hurt; yes, they are uncomfortable, but they have tortured, they have killed, and they think nothing of it. Now they have a chance to think about it and to orient to the concept of the total depravity of man. They have chance to look at their lives and see their failures and do something about it, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They have heard the gospel time and time and time again, so it isn’t that they lack knowledge of the issue; they understand that Christ is the issue. That is not their problem. Their problem is that arrogance divorces from reality. When they have an ulcer on their epidermis and the only thing they can drink is blood they begin to think a little bit! They hurt, they are uncomfortable, they don’t like it. Inevitably they will then consider the gospel one more time, and that is the grace of God. God in His matchless grace has found a way to reach all kinds of people through punishment. The punishment is gradual but there never was a human being and there never will be a human being that didn’t have every opportunity to be saved, “and so you have given them blood to drink,” that is the dramatic aorist.

The second bowl judgment was against salt water of the seas and deprived the guilty of sea food by killing all life in the sea, plus destroying the cycle of evaporation of water and its precipitation to land mass. If the water is full of blood and the blood evaporates it is going to rain blood, and this would destroy crops and the food of the earth. The first water supply was hit with the third grenade, the third bowl judgment, and the fresh water supply in lakes and rivers and streams also turned to blood so that all the guilty have to drink is blood. They shed the blood of the innocent; now they drink blood instead of water. Divine justice always makes the punishment fit the crime and also gives those being punished a frame of reference so they can profit from their punishment. These are unbelievers we are discussing. We already know the blessings of being disciplined by God as believers. It is hard to realise that unbelievers in historical disaster or personal catastrophe are in a state of grace. God never punished anyone apart from His grace, and the only time that the state of grace is over is when the unbeliever dies.

The blood is a reminder that they have rejected the blood of Christ, the saving work of Christ on the cross. The blood is a reminder that they have reacted and have murdered Tribulational believers. The unprecedented violence in the Tribulation is punished and the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational martyrs are simultaneously answered.

So we have the justice of the third bowl judgment, and we find it in two words. The first is the present active indicative of e)imi, the verb to be, and with this we have the predicate nominative plural of a)cioj, “they are deserving.” The progressive present tense is for linear aktionsart. God is punishing them, giving them what they deserve. Even though He is tempering it with grace they do deserve it. God never punishes anyone beyond what they deserve. The active voice: the unbelievers of the Tribulation, especially religious types, produce the action of the verb. This is the declarative indicative mood for reality. The predicate nominative means deserving. Literally, it is translated “they are deserving” but it is an idiom which should be translated, “as they deserve.” So the last phrase of verse six: “therefore you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”

The entire verse: “Because they have shed the blood of the saints and the prophets, therefore you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”

Under the principle that grace always precedes judgment these Tribulational unbelievers have every opportunity to respond to the gospel and be saved. This means that they have been evangelised by gospel teaching. They have also been evangelised by disaster, crisis evangelism occurs during a time of historical disaster. Time, of course, is just a drop in the bucket compared to eternity and this principle of crisis evangelism as it pertains to the Tribulational unbelievers is found in Mark 8:35-38:

Verse 35, “For whoever wishes to save his soul shall lose it,” referring to people like the scribes and the Pharisees who were working to save their souls — salvation by works — “and whoever loses his soul [life] for my sake and the gospel shall save it.” So there we have a perfect picture of the religious crowd and the Tribulational martyrs.

Verse 36, here is the issue of crisis evangelism: “What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Unbelievers prosper, evil people prosper, but always if you can look far enough you will discover someone cracked the maturity barrier and they are being blessed by association.

Verse 37, “For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Nothing can buy salvation, it was paid for by the blood of Christ on the cross.

Verse 38, “For whoever is ashamed of me and my doctrines in this adulterous,” adultery, by the way, is used for religion — “and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father and with his holy angels.”

Crisis evangelism always occurs in times of historical disaster on the earth. Crisis evangelism takes the reality of catastrophe and relates it to the message of the gospel so that the unbeliever can focus his attention on that message which he has previously rejected. Under crisis evangelism many respond to the gospel, they become believers in Christ and, therefore, are snatched as brands from the burning. Others persist in their negative volition.

The Tribulational unbelievers thirsted for the blood of the saints and the prophets, and they martyred them. But God takes their thirst for blood one step farther and He gives them only blood to drink. Therefore, once again, God makes the punishment fit the crime in the administration of the third bowl judgment. Furthermore, these thirsty unbelievers also have a reminder from the splotch on their skin, the cancer of the epidermis. They chose the mark of the beast as a bad decision, therefore God gives them a mark from His good decision, His grace decision, something to make them hurt and bring them back to reality. This is the last call of evangelism for divine judgment is designed to bring the unbeliever to the end of his own resources and bring evangelistic reality into his thinking.

Verse 7 is more or less parenthetical and is designed to remind us of a principle. Not every one of us is in the firing line but everyone can enjoy when justice is accomplished in history. These angelic creatures, members of the nobility in the college of heralds, are the ones who are executing these judgements. The judgements come from God, the whole system of protocol filters out any injustice that might occur, they are perfect justice. Now we have a response from those who were the victims. The victims of these seven judgements are in the process of being judged and at the same time are also the recipients of crisis evangelism. There is an attitude in heaven on the part of the Tribulational martyrs which is expressed in this verse.

We note first of all that this passage begins with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw which means to hear or to listen. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the apostle John who is the human author of the book of Revelation produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the continuation of this vision.

The vision deals with the altar, the objective genitive of the Greek word qusiasthrion, meaning altar. This is the altar of Revelation chapters eight, fourteen, as well as 6:9-11. The first of them is in chapter six, in which passage we find our Lord Jesus Christ has broken the fifth seal and the apostle John sees under the altar the souls of those who have been murdered because of the Word of God and because of the testimony which they have maintained.

Qusiasthrion has to do with a special altar in heaven where those who have been martyred are permitted to come to offer imprecatory prayers. This altar therefore personifies these Tribulational martyrs. They have advanced through Bible doctrine, they have suffered martyrdom because of this and they are the victims of great injustice. These Tribulational martyrs are winners all the way. They have utilised the principles of the Word of God, they have utilised the second stage of the faith-rest drill, the essence of God rationale, the plan of God rationale, the logistical grace rationale, the imputation of God rationale — they have used all of these rationales in a very marvellous way. So they died as great heroes in the battlefield of the angelic conflict, and therefore they are claiming a promise in heaven to which they have a right. They cannot see the circumstances on earth. They are waiting for justice to be accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore the altar, therefore the imprecatory prayers, therefore this function of the faith-rest drill even in heaven.

The second passage is found in chapter 8:3-5. This angel, the king of arms, the highest-ranking seraph in the angelic college of heralds, took his place before the altar. He had an incense shovel made of gold and much incense was given to him that he might offer the prayers of the saints. These are the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs and they were to be offered on the golden altar which is before the throne. And when the smoke of the incense, which are the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the hand of the king of arms, the king of arms took the incense shovel and filled it with fire from the altar. The significance is that there is no injustice in history that is not, sooner or later, punished by our Lord Jesus Christ. God’s timing in punishment is perfect and no group or individual ever commits an injustice against someone else without punishment being involved.

The third passage is in chapter 14:18, the king of arms who has authority over fire came from the altar, and he shouted with a magnificent voice, and he said, Send in your sharp sickle. This is referring to the seven last plagues, the seven bowl judgements. The saturation of degeneracy and all that pertains to it has now reached a point where the judgment is exactly on time.

In our verse 7 of chapter 16 we have, “Then I heard from the altar.” What was heard from the altar is stated next. We have the present active participle of the verb legw, and it should be translated “respond.” The pictorial present in which the mind pictures the events in the process of occurrence. The active voice: the martyred Tribulational believers under the altar of incense produce the action.

The vocative from the altar follows. It is found in the form of an affirmative particle nai, and it actually means yes. Then the vocative singular from kurioj followed by qeoj, “Lord God.” The word “Lord” is a reference to the unique person of Christ in hypostatic union, undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever; the second vocative, qeoj, refers to the fact that He is God. The other one has to do with His great power. It is pantokratwr which is correctly translated “the Omnipotent One” or “the Almighty One,” “yes, Lord God Almighty.” The significance of pantokratwr is that the most powerful of all demons under the command of Satan are called kosmokratwr. The last world war in history at the end of the Tribulation is started by kosmokratwr. Pantokratwr has greater power than kosmokratwr. Jesus Christ is the Almighty One, the pantokratwr. So His name is used to identify Him as the one who controls history. And since the altar is the personification of the Tribulational martyrs it is they who are speaking and using this vocative.

The response from the altar then follows. We have the fact that judgment is in the process of occurring. We have a nominative plural subject krisij and with it the possessive genitive from the pronoun su, “your judgements.” This is elliptical, the verb to be is applied, “your judgements are.” Then we have two characteristics, a)lhqinoj and dikaioj, “true and just.”

Translation: “Then I heard the altar respond, Yes, Lord God Almighty, your judgements are in accordance with doctrine and justice.”

A)lhqinoj, our first word, as used of the Tribulational martyrs recognises that the seven last plagues or bowl judgements are consistent with the doctrinal teaching of the Word of God. The second word, dikaioj, is used of the Tribulational martyrs recognising that the seven last plagues are consistent with the perfect holiness or integrity of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the Tribulational martyrs recognise that they are receiving an answer to their prayers and they also recognise the fact that even though they did not live to see God’s judgment on those who were their persecutors, those who perpetrated injustice against them, they now know that is has been accomplished and that everyone who had anything to do with killing these innocent people is now in the process of being judged for it. The principle is that God does not overlook any injustice to any believer by any member of the human race. In the application of the essence of God rationale as well as the plan of God rationale the believer must recognise the fact that every injustice in life will be rectified, but it is God’s timing that counts.

There is a reason why God does not often give instant judgment for some injustice in life. This means that the function of the three stages of the faith-rest drill produce patience and peace of mind among believers even under the most unjust circumstances and the greatest of persecution and tyranny. Doctrine is the communication of he gospel under the circumstances of grace before judgment, and that is one of the ways in which it is used here and one of the reasons why the judgment is delayed. The judgment is delayed for several reasons. One has to do with the fact that many of these people who were their persecutors, had heard their testimony, had heard the gospel, and under the pressure of disaster they will make a decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are two principles that are found here as far as the Tribulation is concerned. The greatest saturation of evangelism in all of human history occurs prior to the last bowl judgements, the greatest historical disasters of history. All of that is called normal evangelism and we have studied it under the principle of grace before judgment. Once these seven bowls are administered as judgements then we have a new category of evangelism: grace in judgment. Grace in judgment is one of the most powerful systems of evangelism, and now instead of normal evangelism we will be studying crisis evangelism. Often in the midst of great historical disaster when people begin to hurt the fact that they are hurting and miserable and being deprived of their normal pleasures in life will bring them back to reality. Locked-in arrogance of cosmic one has blinded them, they are suffering from scar-tissue of the soul, they are in the tragic situation of spiritual blindness; and when you combine all of these things together it takes great tragedy, catastrophe and disaster to bring them back to reality, to bring them back to the point of where they realise their need for the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, to bring them to the end of their own circumstances in life where they can help themselves. God does not help those who help themselves. God helps the helpless, and this is dramatised by crisis evangelism.

So doctrine is the communication of the gospel under normal circumstances — normal evangelism. These unbelievers being judged in the Tribulation heard the gospel many times before divine judgment occurred. Justice is the function of divine judgment in crisis evangelism. This is grace in judgment. Many of the unbelievers who have been guilty of persecution and murdering believers in the Tribulation have heard the gospel many times and it is only when they are hurting under judgment that they will recall the gospel message which brought back to reality their situation and reminded them that they had come to the end of their own resources and they needed something beyond themselves.

1. Divine judgment is strictly a grace function from the holiness or the integrity of God. To appreciate this we go back to the imputation rationale. Human life is imputed by God in every case to the human soul. Man cannot create life; God has created life. That human life resides in the soul forever, not just during life but at dying, after death, and in eternity; and where that human soul resides in eternity depends upon attitude toward Jesus Christ. Human life is imputed at the point of birth and simultaneously Adam’s original sin was imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature so that we are born physically alive but spiritually dead. The wages of sin is (spiritual) death. That spiritual death occurs when we are born. This is the grace of God. Anyone who dies before reaching accountability automatically goes to heaven without believing in Christ. Accountability is the point at which a decision can be made. That is because the condemnation must precede justification.

What does that mean as far as our personal sins are concerned? All of the sins of human history, all of the sins that have ever been committed from the fall of Adam and the woman to the last sin of the Millennium have all been put into the computer of divine degrees, and they have stayed in the computer until our Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross. When He went to the cross every sin was imputed to Christ by God the Father and every one of those sins was judged.

What was the cause of all of this? God the Father loved God the Son with an eternal love, but God the Father had to set aside that love, it was superseded by the justice of God the Father. The justice of the Father took all of those sins, all of the sins of the human race that would ever be committed, and took them right out of the computer and imputed them to Christ and judged them. This caused our Lord to scream out, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” God the Father had to forsake the Son because He was made sin for us. God the Holy Spirit had to forsake the Son because He was bearing the sins of the world and God can have nothing to do with sin, God separated Himself from sin. Jesus Christ is the God-Man; it was His humanity that bore those sins. Even His deity could have nothing to do with them. So all of the sins were imputed to Christ on the cross and they were judged.

The source of salvation is the harshest divine judgment in history, the greatest judgment in history. The greatest disaster in history is the source of greatest blessing: our so great salvation, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” And this was in judgment, Christ was in judgment on the cross. In judgment the justice of God is the source of judgment; the justice of God is the source of blessing. In judgment the justice of God is functioning, the greatest disaster in history, and the source is the justice of God.

Now, we come to the cross and we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the moment we believe God the Father takes the other half of His holiness and He imputes it to us. We now have the righteousness of God and the source in the justice of God, and all blessing comes to us down the grace pipeline from the justice of God — one half of divine holiness, to the righteousness of God which is the other half of divine holiness. God doesn’t bless us because of anything we do, God blesses us because we have His righteousness; and the justice of God sends all blessing down the grace pipeline. Out of judgment comes the greatest of blessings.

We are faced with the fact that there are a lot of evil, cruel, vile, vicious people, religious people on the earth, and these religious people have persecuted and murdered the believers of the Tribulation. Therefore, this principle: the honourable purpose of divine judgment. Divine judgment is strictly a grace function from the holiness or the integrity of God, the same holiness or integrity of God that took our sins and imputed them to Christ on the cross.

2. This judgment is designed to protect the human race from self-destruction in the historical phase of the angelic conflict.

4. Divine judgment protects mankind from destroying itself and thereby provides the basis for the perpetuation of the human race throughout human history. The human race would have destroyed itself thousands of years ago were it not for the fact that divine judgment is a backfire judgment to protect the human race from self-destruction.

5. Divine judgment, then, is the grace function of crisis evangelism. In addition to protecting the human race from self-destruction divine judgment is the grace function of crisis evangelism. In the most severe judgements from God there is grace.

6. Apart from the physical death of those being judged the purpose of catastrophe and disaster is to orient man to the reality of his need for salvation. People are divorced from reality through arrogance. Life in cosmic one is saturation of arrogance. Arrogance divorces from reality. Even the source of psychosis and neurosis is related to arrogance. So to bring people back to reality their arrogance has to be eliminated somehow, and the only way to eliminate the arrogance in those who live in the cosmic system is to make them hurt so badly that they are brought to a temporary state of humility. They are brought to the end of their own resources and there is nothing they can do. Consequently, apart from physical death, for those being judged the purpose of the catastrophe or the disaster is to orient them to reality, to give them a realisation that they need this salvation that they have been hearing about in normal evangelism.

7. Normal evangelism is that period of grace before judgment, but those involved in the cosmic system are so divorced from reality through arrogance and scar-tissue of the soul that they do not respond to the gospel in normal times. There has to be crisis evangelism.

8. As long as people are alive there is hope, therefore any divine judgment that does not kill the recipient means crisis evangelism. Notice that in the administration of the first three bowl judgements no one has really been killed yet. As long as the unbeliever is alive there is hope that he will accept Christ as saviour.

God speaks to the human race through the communication of doctrine. This is historical grace. God speaks through the communication of three categories of doctrine; category #1, the laws of divine establishment; category #2, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; category #3, Bible doctrine. Each one of these three categories has a recipient. Category #1 doctrine, the laws of divine establishment, is for believer and unbeliever; category #2 is for unbelievers only; category #3, is for the believer only — doctrine is to orient the believer to the plan of God. So God speaks to the human race through the communication of Bible doctrine, this is historical grace. But God speaks through personal and historical disaster as well. If people will not listen to doctrine, if the unbeliever rejects the gospel, he can count on having some personal and historical disaster in his life which is crisis evangelism, crisis grace. Divine judgment is designed for evangelism just as certainly as gospel preaching or the believer witnessing to the unbeliever is designed to present information for his salvation.

So by way of summary, grace before judgment is the function of normal evangelism. Grace in judgment is the function of crisis evangelism. Judgment in historical disaster is designed to bring the unbeliever back to reality, to give him the opportunity to believe in Christ for until the unbeliever dies he can be saved at any time by personal faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, as long as the unbeliever is alive he can be saved, only physical death terminates the opportunity for the unbeliever to have eternal salvation. Up until the moment of physical death one can always express positive volition to the gospel by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For negative persons living in the cosmic system the mind is only stimulated and only motivated to consider gospel information when one is under pressure of disaster. Not only is crisis evangelism a part of divine judgment but, again, it is the perpetuation of mankind in history which, of course, is the second reason for the grace function of divine judgment. Man left to his own devices would eventually destroy himself and the rest of the human race with him. But God interferes with backfire judgment which destroys one portion of the human race to preserve the rest of the human race and, therefore, divine judgment is preventative surgery, the one way to guarantee that man will continue to live on earth during the course of human history. Remember that the justice of God — one half of divine holiness — is the source of both blessing and judgment during the course of human history. Furthermore, the greatest judgment of all was the cross itself which gives us the pattern — the justice of God is the source of judgment; the justice of God is also the source of blessing.

In verses eight and nine we have the fourth bowl judgment. In verse 8 we begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then.” Next we have the adjective numeral tetaroj which means “the fourth.” This is the fourth member of the execution squad, a pur sui vant messenger, and he pulls the pin on the grenade of the judgment which has been issued to him. The pulling of the pin is described in the aorist active indicative of the verb e)kxew, “the fourth angel poured out his bowl.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the fourth member of the squad produces the action of the verb through obedience, therefore he has virtue. The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that we are now going to have another judgment, but a judgment that does not kill. Therefore we are dealing once again with the subject of crisis evangelism. We have the accusative singular direct object of the noun fialh, “bowl,” and it is said to be “his” bowl, a)utoj plus the genitive means that he possesses the responsibility for the administration of this judgment on the earth.

This is a fascinating judgment because we are going to note not only the obedience of this angel but its effect upon weather. The obedience of the fourth member of the execution squad emphasises the basic principle of virtue-first. The point is that no one is ever happy with freedom, no one even has the capacity for freedom, until he has the virtue of humility. Therefore, freedom cannot exist without authority and it is response to authority that changes everything.

The target is very important here. The target for this judgment is the sun, meaning that this plague or judgment will be used again in crisis evangelism. Solar energy penetrates the atmosphere in the approximate percentages: 35 per cent of solar radiation is reflected back into space by clouds, ice, and water; fifteen per cent is absorbed in the air by water vapour, ozone, clouds, dust, and air molecules; the remaining 50 per cent is absorbed at the surface and it becomes surface heating the earth and the atmosphere unequally. There is never any equal distribution. There is no equality in life and there is no equality in nature. Thereby it triggers global circulation of air and ocean currents and this, of course, has a great deal to do with weather.

So we notice the nature of the fourth grenade, or bowl judgment. It begins with the connective conjunction kai introducing a result from what precedes, “And so.” Next comes the aorist passive indicative of didomi. Ordinarily this word didomi means to give, here it means to delegate. Delegation of responsibility must go in the direction of virtue. Those who can properly qualify to properly fulfil delegated responsibility are virtuous. The members of this execution squad have perfect virtue, they are already in whatever is ultimate sanctification for the elect order of angels. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality from an eschatological event in the Tribulation. It is an idiom which is used for emphasis. The passive voice: the sun receives the action of the verb, and we have a declarative indicative mood for a dogmatic statement of eschatological doctrine. A very fascinating phenomena is going to occur at the end of the Tribulation prior to the greatest world war in history. So this is not a destroying judgment, the destruction comes in the last world war in history.

Next we have a dative neuter singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj which is mistranslated in the King James version. The neuter is not translated “him,” it is translated “it,” and it refers to the sun. The corrected translation should read: “Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun; and to it [the sun]

Then we have the aorist active infinitive of kaumatizw which means to burn. The power is given here to burn,” but we are not talking here about sun-bathing, “the power to burn mankind.” And then we have the instrumental of two words, e)n plus the instrumental of pur which generally means fire but here means heat. This could means, therefore, to scorch with heat, unbearable heat. The recipients of this divine judgment do not die immediately but have plenty of time to think about the gospel.

What do we have here? First of all, the atmosphere which protects the earth from the rays of the sun is divided into five categories, the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. Held in place by gravity, the atmosphere filters a certain amount of heat. The electrically-charged upper atmosphere is called ionosphere, and in the ionosphere we have the Van-Allen radiation belts. They have magnetic fields which deflect charged particles of solar wind and reduce their speed from supersonic to subsonic velocity. In the thermosphere gas has absorbed some of the ultraviolet radiation from the sun. In the stratosphere the ozone layer absorbs more of the ultraviolet rays, as well as high-energy cosmic rays which bombard molecules, and they create showers of less energetic cosmic rays. In the troposphere we have most of the oxygen, nitrogen and carbon-dioxide that supports life and this is the buoy which supports the flight of birds. In other words, the earth’s rotation on its axis causes the fluid outer core to act as a dynamo, and this produces a magnetic field which deflects solar wind and forms the magnetosphere, shielding the biosphere from hostile charged particles. This tremendous filtering of solar radiation is very important. Without it we would all burn up.

The fourth bowl judgment, then, obviously permits some of the gamma rays, the x-rays, the ultraviolet rays, and infrared to penetrate the ozone layer. Incoming solar radiation is balanced by heat radiating back into space from the earth. Water vapour and carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere intercepts some of this outflow, raising the temperature of the earth in what we call operation greenhouse. So we have, then, this sort of phenomenon occurring. God is going to allow a little more heat, the solar winds, to have a greater penetration at that time. It is not going to have any permanent damage because all the weapons for the Armageddon campaign will be operational shortly after this phenomenon occurs.

“Then the fourth angel [the pur sui vant messenger] poured out his bowl on the sun; and so there was delegated to it [the sun] the power to burn [or scorch] mankind with heat.”

Verse 9, the threefold results of this. We might call this weather disaster: the judgment of intense heat. We have another conjunction this time. It introduces some previous results and we translate it “Consequently.” With it we have the aorist passive indicative of verb kaumatizw which means to scorch, “Consequently they were scorched.” The culminative aorist tense views this judgment in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. We have studied those existing results under the principle of crisis evangelism. We see now that these people are hurting. They are suffering but they are not dying and they have the opportunity, therefore, to consider what Hell is going to be like without going there. Some people can only learn the hard way and until they hurt they don’t care. In the passive voice the unbelievers in the Tribulation who have been evangelised under normal conditions are now evangelised again under crisis conditions. The only difference between normal and crisis evangelism is this: in normal evangelism there is always a clear presentation of the gospel — usually many times, but under crisis evangelism only little phrases come in, and one hurts so much that he is brought out of the cosmic system in the sense of coming back to the reality of those things that were declared about eternity. This demonstrates the fact that even divine judgment always has a grace side, and that is not only true for the unbeliever but it applies to us to. Some people even get back to Bible class when they hurt enough!

“Consequently mankind were scorched,” and they were scorched with scorching heat. The scorching heat results from the opening either of the Van Allen belts or the ozone layer, or probably both. The recipients of this judgment are unbelievers in the last half of the Tribulation, the time of the devil’s desperation. We will have to classify this grenade as the weather grenade. So we have what could be called a weather catastrophe.

The weather of the earth is determined by the interaction of many planetary activities. For example, ocean movement, temperatures, rainfall, humidity, atmospheric pressure, sunshine, winds, all have something to do with weather. Weather starts with the sun’s radiation streaming toward the earth. As this radiation is moving toward the earth about 65 per cent of it reaches he earth. Thirty-five percent of solar radiation is reflected or deflected by clouds, dust, air, polar rock, ice, and so on. This means that 65 per cent is absorbed, and it is absorbed in three ways. Three per cent is absorbed by the ozone layer, 15 per cent by cloud and moist air, and 47 per cent is absorbed by the earth’s surface. The 65 per cent absorbed by the earth heats the atmosphere — unequally. Weather comes from the fact that it heats it unequally. At the equator warm, light water and air begin to move toward the poles, and they are replaced by heavier water and air which being much colder moves beneath them. Because the earth rotates these north-south movements are shifted toward the east in the northern hemisphere and toward the west in the southern hemisphere, and by warming different regions unequally, for example, the tropics are more strongly heated than the polar zones. Solar energy stirs the atmosphere into motion in a vast planetary scale. The result is what we call the wind system. Air warmed in the tropics rises and moves toward the poles where it cools and descends, and the rotation of the earth deflects these air currents into what we call globe-girdling cells of moving air. These cells define air circulation patterns and the prevailing winds at the surface of the earth.

The wind has a great deal to do with the weather. Surface wind plus the erratic westerlies at 60,000 feet and the Krakatoa easterlies at 80,000 feet have a tremendous amount to do with our weather. The jet stream, formed where warm tropical air meets cold polar air, travels around the mid latitudes at as much as 300 miles per hour, and the undulations of the jet stream travelling at roughly 35,000 feet affect surface winds which in turn affect the currents of the sea. Then there is the polar vortex moving sometimes at 40,000 feet and sometimes at 200,000 feet. The very climates of the earth, both in rainfall and vegetation, are vitally affected by the surging patterns of air, wind, and water which spread the sun’s warmth over the earth unequally. Like a giant engine the global wind systems and the wind cells function at the endless task of trying to erase the contrasts of temperature between the tropics and the poles. In addition, climate is affected by solar radiation, the hydrological cycle — evaporation and precipitation, wind currents, cold air transported from the poles to the equator, and warm air from the equator to the poles. They are constantly moving over each other and under each other.

Divine judgment of the fourth plague was a weather catastrophe in the form of scorching heat. Heat is necessary for planet earth but this is too much of a good thing. It is amazing how many times God judges us with too much of a good thing. Too much of a good thing, of course, not only indicates lack of capacity for life but it also destroys that wonderful variation in life from which we extract the virtue uses that are related to a personal sense of responsibility. Weather disaster is a part of crisis evangelism and there are two negative results in the rest of this verse: blasphemy toward God and rejection of Christ or negative volition. This doesn’t mean all people are this way but we simply have the fact that it is amazing that everyone doesn’t accept Christ under these conditions. Even when the message is as lucid as it could be, and even though the circumstances are made as easy as possible to believe in Christ, there are always those who are going to reject it. That is the fascinating thing about the human soul.

Here is the grace of God offering this last call, this last chance to be saved, bringing them back to reality because they are in pain, knocking out for the moment the arrogance by which they have rejected the gospel under normal circumstances. And what do they do? Here is God doing them a favour and they malign Him, and that is human nature. It says in verse 9 “they blasphemed the person of God, who has authority over these plagues: and, furthermore, they did not change their minds to give him the glory.” They turned against God completely.

The aorist active indicative of blasfhmew comes first. People without capacity for life can never possess genuine gratitude. Genuine gratitude is a sign of great capacity for life. Blasfhmew means abusive speech; abusive speech means abusive thought. Toward man blasfhmew means to slander or to malign; toward God the word is transliterated and we simply use the word blasphemy. This is verbal antagonism toward God. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. They not only rejected the gospel but they maligned God, they judged God. This means that they had moved once more back into the place of scar-tissue of the soul. The terrible judgment brings them out for a moment, gives them reality, gives them the opportunity of being lucid and thinking about it, and they maligned God and that puts them right back into cosmic one. That maligning of God, that judging, comes from the cosmic system. Only an arrogant person has the nerve to be judging other people. They maligned the “person” of God, the accusative singular, the direct object, means the person of God, not the name of God. They maligned His person even though He was doing them a favour. He was bringing them back to the point where they had to consider the great issue.

With this we have the articular present active participle of e)xw and it is translated “who has.” This is maligning God who possesses the authority, the accusative singular direct object of e)cousia, God has the authority, God has the power over these plagues, “and they blasphemed [maligned, judged] the person of God who has the authority over these plagues.” Blasphemy is only possible where truth or doctrine is known and rejected. Hence, the negative volition and the status quo of these Tribulational unbelievers. They refuse to take the responsibility for their own negative decisions and actions and therefore their divorcement from reality is simply arrogance, and arrogance is always human immaturity. These unbelievers blame God instead of their own volition for what is happening. They make wrong decisions and therefore have no control over their lives, no personal sense of destiny, and no capacity for happiness of any kind.

So far the first bowl judgements are not fatal. These unbelievers are getting four categories of judgment; none of them are taking any lives. So far these judgements are painful but they are not fatal, as illustrated by the fact that the recipients can not only speak but speak very forcefully in their blasphemy. They have the power of speech, they have the power of thought, “they did not change their mind about the gospel.” These judgements, therefore, are a part of crisis evangelism and comparable to the believer’s intensive discipline. Three categories of divine judgment follow the same picture: warning judgment, the seal judgements of chapter 6 and the trumpet judgements of chapters 8 & 9; intensive judgment, the seven last plagues; finally there will be dying judgment at the second advent, the baptism of fire.

In the crisis evangelistic situations they are deliberately being punished to the point of hurting so that they will give some consideration to the gospel. They have come to the end of their own resources, there is nothing they can do about the Van Allen belt, there is nothing they can do about the ozone layer, about bloody water, about cancer of the skin. So this is a good time to distinguish between the principles of discipline and judgment, and how they are related to grace.

Always, inevitably, all divine judgment is related to the grace of God. It comes from God’s virtue. God is not vindictive, God is not implacable, God is not petty, God is not jealous, God is not arrogant. Such a thought is blasphemous and unthinkable. God is virtuous; He has perfect virtue. These judgements all emanate from His perfect virtue, His holiness, His integrity.

Crisis evangelism emphasises the power of both the blackout of the soul and scar-tissue of the soul. For crisis evangelism in time of historical disaster there are always those who are so hard-headed that they will consider and then blaspheme. One thing about those who become too involved in the cosmic system: they have no capacity for happiness or life and this is manifest by the fact that they have no gratitude. The scar-tissued unbeliever who is positive at God-consciousness will always respond sooner or later under the system of judgment which we have noted here. In the closing phrase of this verse, however, we see those who are still negative, “furthermore, they did not repent,” the aorist active indicative of the verb metanoew. The word “repent” is no longer a valid word because it doesn’t have any connotation that relates to the Greek. Metanoew means a complete change of mind, not to feel sorry for sin or to feel guilty. it has no emotional connotation, it means to change the mind. In this case it means to change the mind about the gospel, to change the mind about the Lord Jesus Christ.

“furthermore, they did not change their minds,” the culminative aorist tense views their rejection of Christ in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. They refused. Many of them will die in the world war coming up, others will die at the baptism of fire, they will be judged, and they must take the responsibility for their own decisions, therefore the active voice: Tribulational unbelievers with blackout of the soul produce the action of the verb. While at the moment they are not taking the responsibility for this decision the time will come when they have to. Sooner or later we all take the responsibility, whether we want to or not, for bad decisions. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of their persistent rejection of the gospel under crisis evangelism.

Then we have the aorist active infinitive of didomi, “to give,” “to give him [God] the glory.” The Greek word doca has to do with the grace of God of providing, even in judgment, this wonderful opportunity for salvation. How could they give God glory? By personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the noun. Mankind shares in the strategic victory of the angelic conflict and when anyone believes in Christ he immediately becomes a strategic victor.

There are two categories of judgment from God. The first is judgment by death and the second is judgment by pain. Judgment by death is the function of God’s grace in the perpetuation of the human race during history. It is designed to protect the human race from the human race and thereby to protect the human race from self-destruction. Judgment by death, therefore, protects the human race from being destroyed by its own volition. Man’s free will apart from establishment restraints is self-destructive. When mankind is negative toward establishment authority, which occurs quite frequently in various parts of planet earth, man becomes degenerate under the principle of organised and disorganised evil. The killing of the citizens of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plain was a divine judgment to protect the human race on planet earth. If the cancer is permitted to continue the human race would be destroyed, so periodically and when necessary in any given generation God wipes out a segment of the human race.

The perpetuation of the human race throughout history until the end of the Millennium is one of God’s grace functions in judgment, and God in His wisdom destroys a segment of the human in order to preserve the rest of the human race. Until the end of the Millennium God has promised that mankind will continue to live on planet earth and therefore God uses judgment by death to protect the human race from too many bad decisions which might destroy mankind. Backfire judgment therefore destroys the cancer of the human race to preserve any healthy portion of the human race; self-destruction is imminent from time to time. Judgment by death, therefore, is classified as preventative surgery by which God uses death to remove the cancer in order that the normal tissue might have a chance — the cancer of arrogance, degeneracy, organised evil, disorganised evil, etc. Mankind, therefore, will continue to live on planet earth until the end of the Millennium because of this category of judgment by death.

The second judgment is the one we will study in verse 10, judgment by pain. Judgment by pain is the function of God’s grace in crisis evangelism. Grace before judgment is the function of normal evangelism while grace in judgment is the function of crisis evangelism. Normal evangelism is the communication of the gospel message under normal circumstances and even under prosperous circumstances of life. Under these conditions the unbeliever’s rejection of the gospel message means both cosmic involvement and blackout of the soul. Under cosmic involvement the unbeliever becomes disoriented to reality so that he is totally indifferent to normal evangelism no matter how great or how powerful the communication may be through an evangelist, through the witness of some individual, through the written page, or whatever is used. Therefore, to bring the unbeliever back to reality, to give him another chance to hear the gospel, pain is introduced in one form or another through either personal or historical disaster. Under personal suffering or historical disaster the unbeliever feels one or more of the categories of pain provided by God in His grace. This pain does not kill the unbeliever, instead it becomes another call, and sometimes the last call, to believe in Christ under the concept of crisis evangelism. Crisis evangelism, then, is the judgment of God bringing the unbeliever through pain to the end of his human resources, to bring him back to reality by means of temporary deliverance from the cosmic system. Pain often brings people out of the cosmic system. The preoccupation with pain often supersedes preoccupation with self and the opportunity to recall the gospel message which has previously been presented under normal evangelism is therefore provided. Pain becomes so intense in divine judgment that it actually distracts the unbeliever from the abnormal functions of the cosmic system, and it gives him an opportunity to orient to reality and to use his volition to make a decision for or against the Lord Jesus Christ. So any judgment or historical disaster which does not kill believer and unbeliever is, in the case of the unbeliever, crisis evangelism.

We have studied four bowl judgements in which relatively few people have been killed. In the first five bowl judgements the unbeliever population of the earth is alive and in the increasing categories of pain, so that when we come to the fifth bowl judgment in verse 10 the unbeliever is under a state of grace whereby he can believe in Christ for eternal salvation.

Judgment by death in previous generations has made it possible for all of us who are believers to be evangelised in this generation. Therefore, judgment by death to others means blessing in life for us — eternal salvation through faith in Christ. Judgment by death is grace blessing to the living, it provides opportunity for making another decision and making the decision for salvation. Judgment by death to some, then, is always blessing by grace to others who are living. Judgment by death removes the unbeliever where he is in a temporary fire waiting for the lake of fire, but those who are left behind are blessed by the death of those who were taken. The cancer is removed and the patient lives. The reason why we have all had that opportunity to believe in Christ is because in past generations God has judged large segments of the human race by physical death.

Judgment by pain is a grace blessing to the unbeliever, another chance to believe in Christ. The unbeliever is still among the living and as long as he is alive he can be saved, the door is not closed until he dies. Judgment by pain to the believer is another story which we call discipline. Judgment by pain for the believer is another chance to get back into the plan of God. If the believer is disillusioned, upset, unhappy in the social world, that is pain. The pain may be a reminder that he has lost his first priority which is the perception of Bible doctrine. Whenever doctrine is no longer the number one priority the believer is going to suffer pain. First of all, our pain is produced by our bad decisions. Then pain is produced under the principle of warning discipline and as the believer becomes aware of pain he is also brought back to reality.

Most believers become sloppy in their attendance at Bible class because their priorities are sloppy and they get involved in cosmic one. They become involved in arrogance and arrogance always divorces from reality. Arrogance always produces the wrong priorities in life.

Pain is crisis grace to bring us back into the plan of God; prosperity is normal grace from momentum in the plan of God. So when you’re in suffering is always blessing; when you’re out suffering is a pain. The pain is simply one of those grace goads from God to bring the believer back into His plan.

Verse 10 — the target of the fifth plague is given in the first phrase in the Greek, Kai o( pemptoj e)cexeen thn fialhn a)utou e)pi ton qronon tou qhriou. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai translated “Then.” We have the adjective numeral subject in the nominative case, pemptoj, translated “fifth.” It is an adjective referring to the fifth member of the execution squad. It is an adjective numeral, it is the subject in the nominative case, and it refers to the pur sui vant messenger who will pull the pin on the fifth golden grenade, the fifth plague or judgment. The verb which goes with the subject is the aorist active indicative of e)kxew, our verb for pulling the pin. It means to pour out. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the fifth pur sui vant messenger demonstrates his virtue and his integrity, his orientation to the plan of God, his happiness, his capacity for life through implicit obedience to authority. This member of the squad is happy, he has an eternal happiness. He has perfect capacity for life and he has absolutely no freedom.

Freedom is not happiness, slavery isn’t happiness. Happiness comes from capacity; capacity comes from authority. Authority is the basis for enforced humility, enforced humility is the beginning of virtue as well as the beginning of capacity for happiness and prosperity. Genuine humility is another step toward capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, capacity for love, capacity for prosperity.

“And the fifth angel poured out his bowl,” and inside of that bowl is darkness. We have had a progressive system of pain in each one of these grenades and there are apparently certain ones who were evangelised with the first grenade, other with the second, the third, and the fourth. Now there are a lot of holdouts and this is, as it were, a last call before God is going to start taking some of them in death in the sixth and seventh plagues.

And where did this angel pour the bowl? We have e)pi plus the accusative of qronoj plus the possessive genitive of qhrion, “on the throne of the beast dictator.” The beast dictator is not only the political leader of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation but he is also the religious ruler of ecumenical religion, the focal point of evil in the last half of the Tribulation. The target, then, is the great empire of the beast dictator of Revelation chapter thirteen, verses one through ten. The empire of darkness will receive darkness.

Each one of these judgements which keep people alive and in pain to bring them back to reality always fits the situation. The blood, for example: they had been shedding the blood of the martyrs, and so on; the difficulties with the heat: they had been putting the heat on others and now they were getting heat back.

The empire of darkness will receive a judgment called darkness. The intensification of evil causes evil initiators to suffer. Evil rewards evil with more pain and evil. The intensification of evil brings great pain and therefore to the perpetrators of evil. Those who sow in evil reap in evil, and even while they are reaping God is offering them another chance. The pain involved is to bring them back to reality. The greatest and most concentrated function of evil in all of human history occurs in the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation and it is brought about by evil, by the cosmic system, and by one function of cosmic two, religion.

The characteristics of the fifth plague follow in the next phrase. We have a sequential conjunction kai, “then,” and the nominative singular of basileia — “then his kingdom”, the kingdom of the beast. Basileia here could refer to an empire.

Next we have a periphrastic pluperfect passive composed of two verb forms, the aorist active indicative of ginomai and with it the perfect passive participle of the verb skwtow which means to be dark or to become dark. Translation so far: “Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast dictator and his empire was plunged into darkness.” This is literal darkness based on spiritual darkness. Spiritual darkness is cosmic involvement resulting in blackout of the soul and scar-tissue of the soul. Generally speaking, blackout of the soul occurs in cosmic one, whereas scar-tissue of the soul occurs in cosmic two. The two pretty well relate together and the spiritual darkness of degeneracy leads to the literal darkness of divine judgment. There is another form of darkness and that is religion. There is another form of darkness that goes with religion: not the religion of disorganised evil but the religion of organised evil. This is very similar to the ninth plague of Egypt in Exodus chapter ten, but it isn’t the same and it shouldn’t be related — except in one way. When that happened in Exodus 10:20 it says the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not release the sons of Israel. Actually, the man hardened his own heart. But why does it say that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart? Pharaoh was living inside of the cosmic system. He chose of his own volition to get into the cosmic system, and that is brought out in the first part of those plagues in Egypt where it says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. So it started out with his own negative volition. His own negative volition brought him pain and therefore he would repent — change his mind — and say that he would release the Jews from slavery. Then, of course, he would renege, and once he did there would again be more pain. The next plague would be more pain and the more pain is the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. Every time the Lord fired pain at Pharaoh he simply became stronger in his negative volition until the final plague which he couldn’t stand and finally released the Jews from slavery. But he had to have more and more and more pain. He was in the cosmic system, he hardened his own heart. The Lord hardened his heart only by adding more pain giving him a greater opportunity to say no.

Exodus 10:21, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt’.” More pain.

Verse 22, “So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.”

Verse 23, “They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings.”

The interesting thing about the darkness is that it also intensifies the pain. So, like the ninth plague of Egypt, we have a literal darkness covering the revived Roman empire, the kingdom of the beast dictator. It is the darkness of the blackout in the right lobe of Pharaoh that represents the degeneracy, the evil of the soul, that brings on this judgment. The darkness is literal and thick, light resistant, so that no form of humanly-devised system of light is workable. This darkness brings light to a standstill just as degeneracy and cosmic involvement also brings light to a standstill. The blackout judgment of the fifth plague here also delays troop movement so that the revived Roman empire cannot come to the rescue of the dictator of Israel — past of the Middle East campaign of that day, known as the Armageddon campaign, a campaign in the last world war of history. The Roman dictator cannot even honour a treaty which he made in Daniel 11:38 or Matthew 24:15. When the Jews are invaded by the king of the north and the kings of the east, part of the Armageddon campaign, there is darkness in his country and therefore he cannot mobilise or anything with regard to logistical troop movement.

This judgment in Revelation 16:10 refers to a literal darkness and certainly represents the spiritual concept of the spiritual darkness preceding it, the spiritual darkness brought on by the fact that organised evil had superseded disorganised evil and therefore persecuted and destroyed the believers wherever they could be found. In other words, God only sends darkness where darkness previously existed, or God judges spiritual darkness with literal darkness. Generally spiritual darkness refers to life and residence inside of Satan’s cosmic system, the cosmic dynasphere with its interlocking systems of arrogance, cosmic one, and cosmic two with its interlocking systems of anti-Christ hatred.

In Proverbs 2:10-14 we have one of those darkness passages, “For wisdom will enter your right lobe, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will guard you, understanding will watch over you,” comparable to the believer being in the divine dynasphere functioning at gate four, “to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks distorted things.”

The way of evil is organised evil; the man who speaks distorted things is disorganised evil. Often you have them coexisting, one not controlling the other. Once it gains the power organised evil persecutes disorganised evil, and that is why ecumenical religion in the Tribulation is so important. Ecumenical religion persecutes all of the religious systems of disorganised evil. Any cult, church or any organisation that calls itself religious and is disorganised will be persecuted. Crime will be persecuted. Organised evil wants all the power and once it gets the power and also persecutes the believers, that is where we get our Tribulational martyrs. It comes from this dictator and his system of organised evil.

Wisdom is not only the perception of doctrine but the ability to apply it. When you can use Bible doctrine and apply it it is a very pleasant thing, and furthermore, that knowledge gives you capacity for happiness, for life, for love, for blessing, and therefore your soul is in a state of happiness — because you have the capacity.

“Discretion will guard you.” In other words, you won’t make a jackass out of yourself running around trying to straighten out the world, you will be discreet. As you grow in grace you spend less time joining organisations to straighten out the country and more time with Bible doctrine. Therefore you straighten out the country through your advance to maturity, not by becoming involved in social action.

“Understanding will watch over you.” You finally understand what the plan of God is — it is to advance to maturity and thereby save the country.

Verse 13, “From those who leave the paths of virtue,” like leaving the divine dynasphere and getting into the cosmic system, “to walk in ways of darkness.” When you live in the cosmic system you are walking in the ways of darkness.

Verse 14, “Who delight in doing evil, and rejoice in the perversity of evil” — the organisational part of evil.

The importance of the accumulating treasure in heaven always refers to Bible doctrine in the soul. As doctrine comes in darkness goes out of the soul. In the context of Matthew 6:19-23 we have that statement where the body is full of darkness, and that refers to a person living in the cosmic system of Satan. “Where your treasure [your priorities] is there your right lobe will be also.” Illustration: “The lamp of the body is the eye”. The eye is used in the Bible for positive volition and constant perception of Bible doctrine, the function of gate four of the divine dynasphere. “Therefore if your eye is healthy,” momentum from perception and application of Bible doctrine in the divine dynasphere, “then your whole body is full of light,” the priorities of the plan of God are straight.

“But if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness.” If you are not learning doctrine then your body is full of darkness. “If the light that is in you [the content of thought] is darkness, how great is that darkness,” the dynamics of cosmic thinking.

John 8:12, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of light [Bible doctrine].”

The unbeliever in the cosmic system is related to spiritual darkness forever, Romans 1:21, “… their foolish right lobe was darkened.” There is the darkness in the soul.

Being darkened in their understanding is what Ephesians 4:18 calls it, “Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God [the divine dynasphere], because of the ignorance that is in them,” the great enemy is ignorance, “because of the hardness of their right lobe.”

Colossians 1:13, “For he [Christ] delivered us [believers] from the kingdom of darkness [Satan’s cosmic system],” when we believed in Christ we were immediately delivered from the cosmic system and entered for the first time the divine dynasphere, “and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of his love.” The kingdom of the Son of His love is the divine dynasphere.

Believers living in the cosmic system are described as living in darkness, 1 John 2:9, “The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his fellow believer is in the darkness [the cosmic system] until now.”

So darkness does have a spiritual as well as a literal connotation in the Bible. In Revelation 16:10 the spiritual darkness was judged with literal darkness and great pain. These unbelievers are in darkness spiritually through blackout of the soul and now God provides a physical blackout to intensify the pain. Tribulational unbelievers possess blackout of the soul because they have rejected normal evangelism; they are now in the process of crisis evangelism.

Disaster is a very strange thing. Disaster indicates who has it and who doesn’t. You never know what you are under normal conditions, you have to be in abnormal conditions. All of us under the grace of God are going to have opportunities to face the pressures of historical disaster and that is exactly what we have been studying in this fifth bowl judgment.

The corrected translation of verse 10 — “Then the fifth angel [the pur sui vant messenger from the execution squad] poured out his bowl [the fifth plague] on the empire of the beast dictator; then his empire was plunged into darkness; and they kept biting their tongues because of the pain.”

There are two categories of divine judgment of unbelievers in contrast to the word discipline which we generally apply to believers. The first is called the judgment of pain and the second is called the judgment of death. There are two categories of evangelism: normal evangelism and crisis evangelism.

2. Grace before judgment is the function of normal evangelism; grace in judgment is the function of crisis evangelism. Both are grace functions.

3. Normal evangelism is the presentation of the gospel in time of tranquillity and prosperity — normal times.

4. The administration of the first five bowl judgements in this context is historical disaster under the category of judgment by pain.

5. Normal evangelism occurs in the presentation of the gospel message through the evangelist.

6. In normal evangelism the unbeliever has the opportunity of considering the claims of Christ on his life objectively.

7. When the unbeliever rejects Christ as saviour in normal evangelism he enters gate two of cosmic one and/or gate two of cosmic two, both being negative volition gates. Cosmic one: the twelve gates of interlocking systems of arrogance. Negative volition at gate two of cosmic one originates from preoccupation with self. In cosmic two, gate two is also a negative volition gate but it is negative volition based on antagonism toward doctrine, toward truth, toward the gospel. In cosmic one the individual is occupied with self; in cosmic two the individual is anti-Christ, anti-God. They are two different categories therefore of negative volition.

8. Through cosmic involvement the unbeliever becomes disoriented to reality through the blackout of the soul, life in cosmic one, and through scar-tissue of the soul, life in cosmic two.

9. This condition insulates the unbeliever against the most powerful presentation of the gospel. Therefore he suffers from blackout of the soul and simultaneously he often suffers from scar-tissue of the soul.

1. God in His matchless grace gives the unbeliever another chance and another chance for salvation. As long as an unbeliever is alive there is hope. God gives the unbeliever another chance by the introduction of pain in one of its many categories.

2. Under personal suffering or historical disaster the pressure of one or more of many categories of pain forces the unbeliever in the cosmic system back to reality. Pain forces him to go from subjectivity to a very temporary objectivity. In that temporary objectivity he will have a few moments for retrospection to recall the phrases he has heard in the gospel appeal. Something will stand out in his mind in that very moment of lucidity which is enough to give him another chance to believe in Christ and have eternal salvation.

3. Being forced back to reality by pain the unbeliever is temporarily distracted from the influences of the cosmic system. For a few moments the cosmic system loses its influence so that he can once more objectively reconsider the message he has previously rejected.

4. Judgment by pain does not kill the unbeliever, as illustrated by the first five judgements in our context, Revelation 16:1-10.

5. Therefore, judgment by pain becomes the last call to personally accept Jesus Christ as saviour under the principle of crisis evangelism. Judgment by pain is crisis evangelism.

6. Crisis evangelism is the judgment of God bringing the unbeliever back to objective reality, and simultaneously to the end of his human resources. This temporary moment of reality is also a lucid moment with regard to being at the end of one’s resources.

7. Pain becomes so intense in this category of divine judgment that it distracts the unbeliever from his cosmic involvement. It removes temporarily the blindness and until he decides once again what he will do about the gospel. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose situation the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds [the gospel must go to the mind, people must have facts] of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Some unbelievers at this point believe in Christ and the scales fall from their eyes, as with Paul in Acts 9:18. Others, like the unbelievers in our context, again reject Christ as saviour, they do not repent or change their mind. Therefore, they return like the dog to his own vomit.

2 Peter 2:20, “For if after they have escaped the defilements of the cosmic system by knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ,” that’s crisis evangelism. This means that under normal evangelism they heard the gospel and said no. So their minds were blinded. But they escaped through judgment by pain. The pain was greater than the concepts of the cosmic system and they were distracted from their arrogance, they were distracted from their anti-Christian concepts and modus operandi, “they are again entangled in them,” they go back to cosmic one and two, “and are overcome [entrance into cosmic one, blindness of the soul; entrance into cosmic two, scar-tissue of the soul], the last state has become worse for them than the first” — they have become stronger in their negative volition after rejecting God’s grace in crisis evangelism. They have locked themselves for a second time into negative volition.

Verse 21, “For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it [during crisis evangelism], to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them.” They already knew it before, they had already said no before. When they say no under these circumstances God has exhausted His last grace function by which they could be saved. It would have been better if they had been in this crisis, this judgment by pain, without having known the gospel in the first place so that they would have a shot at the gospel in the second place. They have used up their options at this point.

Verse 22, Illustration: “It has happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and ‘A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mud’.”

Those in crisis evangelism who say no return to the cosmic system. Once the unbeliever has rejected Christ in crisis evangelism he has lost his greatest opportunity. Therefore he has rejected the strongest offer of grace and nothing is left for him but once to die and after that the judgment.

That brings us to the second category of judgment, judgment by death, which has an entirely different function. God’s judgements all have grace functions. Judgment by pain is an evangelistic function of God’s grace but judgment by death is God’s grace function in the preservation of the human race throughout history. God has promised that the human race and planet earth will not be destroyed until the end of human history, i.e.. the end of the Millennium after the Gog revolution. The problem is that man keeps trying to destroy himself on planet earth through the folly of his bad decisions from a position of weakness. Mankind in arrogance is determined to destroy mankind through lust for power.

The principle is very simple. Man’s freedom and function of his volition apart from virtue and establishment restraint is self-destructive. When mankind is negative toward establishment doctrine and the authority defined in it, and the responsibility developed from it, he becomes degenerate under one of two principles: organised or disorganised evil.

So judgment by death is designed by the grace of God to protect the human race from self-destruction. In other words, judgment by death is radical surgery to separate the infected part of the human race from the non-contaminated part of the human race, to remove, therefore, the contamination by death. The separation is permanent since God removes through physical death those who are contaminated giving the rest of the human race a grace opportunity to believe in Christ. The illustration is the killing of the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah. The contaminated part of the human race in the valley was removed, thereby giving the progeny of Abraham breathing space to use their own volition to be a part of the angelic conflict. The perpetuation of the human race throughout history down to the last day of the Millennium is God’s grace function in judgment by death. Hence, each category of divine judgment has a purpose.

We are dealing with unbelievers in the study of this doctrine but there is an application to us as believers.

Judgment by death: if it were not for judgment by death in previous generations of history we would not be here. We would not be believers on our way to heaven and eternal life after filling in our time on earth. The perpetuation of the human race is only possible through judgment by death. Judgment by death means the opportunity for evangelisation of the human race in future generations and the opportunity for born-again believers to advance to maturity and glorify our Lord Jesus Christ in future generations. Judgment by death means blessing to us therefore as Christians for we have used history’s greatest opportunity given to us by the grace of God. In past generations God has judged and removed large segments of the human race under the principle of judgment by death, and that has freed other parts of the human race who survive to continue on planet earth, to procreate, to provide for future generations. We are the product of those future generations and we have availed ourselves of the opportunity to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore judgment by death is a grace blessing from God to the living in every generation.

Secondly, judgment by pain. We have previously noted that judgment by pain is a grace blessing to the unbeliever, giving him another chance for salvation through faith in Christ under the category of crisis evangelism. We now note the application to believers. Judgment by pain steers the wayward believer back into the plan of God and the purpose of God. Judgment by pain distracts him from the cosmic system; it gives him the opportunity of rebound and to move into the divine dynasphere. Judgment by pain, therefore, is the grace blessing extended to the cosmic believer to reorient him to the reality and the importance of fellowship with God in time — recovery of life in the divine dynasphere. Therefore when the believer loses his priorities and starts to neglect the daily or consistent perception of doctrine God in His grace sends judgment by pain, warning by intensive discipline, to bring him back into the plan of God.

When you become sloppy in your attendance at Bible class and have those airtight excuses that hold no water with God, when you begin to put other things ahead of doctrine in your life, when there is some pleasure, some social activity, something that is far more important to you than assembling with other believers in Bible class, and thereafter you begin to hurt in some way and you start to experience pain, there’s always an overriding reason. We will call it discipline by pain, warning and intensive discipline, to bring you back to the point of rebound, to life and momentum inside the divine dynasphere, to bring back to your life capacity for life, love and happiness, to bring you back to the priorities of the plan of God, to steer you back on course in the plan of God and that momentum that leads to maturity and the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 11 — the rejection of crisis evangelism in the administration of judgment by pain, or the negative reaction to the first five bowl judgements.

We note first of all the reaction toward God in time of crisis evangelism. We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” meaning after the first five judgements their reaction is recorded. The reaction is negative as noted by the aorist active indicative of the verb blasfhmew. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the reaction in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. This slander or blasphemy of the character of God results from the fact that they have rejected the message of crisis evangelism.

Remember that under the concept of crisis evangelism we find the unbelievers in cosmic one, they have definitely functioned at gate two, negative volition through preoccupation with self; also at cosmic two, gate two, negative volition because of some antagonism toward the truth formed in their souls. In this situation they are in great subjectivity. Arrogance, of course, produces subjectivity; antagonism toward the truth in cosmic two produces subjectivity. This means that they are at the end of the line. There is no possible way to break out of that subjectivity which is called blackout of the soul in cosmic one; scar-tissue of the soul in cosmic two. The only possible way to distract from subjectivity and the false concepts in the cosmic system is to produce a distracter. God produces the distracter — pain: judgment by pain in the first five bowl judgements. This pain is gradually intensified until there is total distraction from subjectivity which mechanically you could say one of two things: it pulls them out of the cosmic system or it neutralises the temporary effectiveness of the cosmic system. Either way the judgment by pain destroys the subjectivity and produces a temporary objectivity. And this is the lucid moment where they now have the opportunity for objectivity. The function of this objectivity is recall. They recall things that they have heard in the presentation of the gospel under normal evangelism. Others once again say no. Basically, that is what is being accomplished at this particular point. Once they say no in crisis evangelism then they actually slander God. This is the strongest subjectivity. The blasphemy is comparable to re-entry into cosmic one.

The active voice: the negative citizens of the revived Roman empire, adherents to the ecumenical religious system, produce the action. The action which is described in negative volition because the passage will deal with those who are negative. There is positive volition but this passage is not going to follow through on that. There is a constant process of people accepting Christ as saviour, either from normal or crisis evangelism. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the eschatological reaction to the warning of the judgment by pain.

The accusative singular direct object is qeoj, referring to God — God whose grace has provided this opportunity and they turn right around and express now the strongest arrogance, the strongest subjectivity, the strongest possible negative volition. To make sure that we understand we have the descriptive genitive of o)uranoj, “the God of heaven.”

Remember that there are four things that we are to distinguish. First of all, the two categories of divine judgment of the unbeliever and their grace connotation. There is judgment by pain and there is judgment by death. There is also a grace aspect of judgment by death and that has to do with the fact of removing the cancer so that the patient lives — removing the evil and degenerate part of the population so that there can be the continuation of the population on earth. We have two categories of evangelism that go with then judgment: normal evangelism and crisis evangelism.

Eventually the negative part is removed but the first thing we note here is the fact that there is slander of God, indicating that eventually those who persist in the slander of God, the strongest possible negative volition, will be taken out by judgment by death. That explains why at the end of the Tribulation there will be a tremendous number of survivors, both believer and unbeliever. The unbelievers at that point all have to be removed, the baptism of fire; the believers go into the Millennium. Many of the believers have been saved out of crisis evangelism.

This brings us to the point of were we note in the next phrase their failure to take the responsibility for their own decisions, therefore their inability to relate their bad decisions to these five judgements; and they emphasise their problem rather than the fact that their own volition brought them to that point. In other words, they fail to take the responsibility for their own decisions. This is brought out in two prepositional phrases. In each case the preposition is the same, the preposition e)k. E)k takes the ablative case and we have e)k plus the ablative of means, an unusual use of the ablative. The ablative is not the regular case for the expression of means, the instrumental case is. However, the ablative expresses means when the means is accompanied by an implication of the origin or the source, and that is exactly what we have here. E)k plus the ablative of means is translated “because of.” In each case we have an object of the preposition, the ablative plural from the noun ponoj plus a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as the third person personal pronoun because the third person personal pronoun was not translated from the Attic Greek to the Koine, “because of their pain.” And the second reason: the ablative plural of e)lkoj which refers to their ulcers, “and because of their ulcers.”

We go right back to a principle: Religious people never take the responsibility for their own decisions. It is impossible to become a responsible person in life and at the same time be religious. Religious people become so self-righteous that in their function of self-righteousness they will never take the responsibility for anything that goes wrong, and they will never take the responsibility, therefore, for their bad decisions. Therefore they have no true sense of responsibility. They say, “I’m not wrong, God is wrong.” Therefore, the ulcer was a reminder that they had made a decision to enter into the ecumenical religious system. The ulcers were administered in connection with the first bowl judgment and the pain was therefore increased, and the increasing pain brought them to the point of reality, the point of objectivity, but they again said no. In all of these the unbeliever fails therefore to relate his suffering, his pain, to his own negative volition, in this case, negative volition toward the gospel, one of the many bad decisions. The unbeliever involved in religion refuses to take the responsibility for his decisions. He is therefore irresponsible, and the haven for irresponsible people is a system of self-righteous morality.

“Then they blasphemed [maligned, slandered] the God of heaven because of their pain and because of their ulcers.”

Their own negative decisions, then, have brought them to the place of great pain. The pain started with their decisions; God then uses the intensification of it — judgment by pain — in order to bring them to the point of crisis evangelism: operation high noon, where the pur sui vant officers continue to announce the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to these converts of Satan’s ecumenical religion. The constant recall of the gospel, the opportunity to accept Christ in time of this pain, represents the principle that as long as we are alive there is hope.

Reality, of course, for the believer is the necessity of rebound. When pain causes us to be distracted from whatever influences of the cosmic system may exist in our lives, that is our chance, our moment to begin recovery by making good decisions.

We note here their negative volition toward the gospel. The conjunction kai introduces a result from what precedes, “furthermore.” Next we have the aorist active indicative plus the verb metanoew, and this means to change the mind. Noew means “thinking”; meta means “change,” a change of thinking, a complete reversal of their thinking. Interestingly enough, this thinking has to be done under objectivity. Therefore we have the negative of objectivity, o)u. The negative of subjectivity is mh, which is not used here. This with the indicative indicates that they have a genuine opportunity. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views negative volition in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results.

Those so involved are going to die, judgment by death. There are three ways in which it can occur. It can occur in the sixth bowl judgment which will be the last great world war of history. Many will die in the seventh bowl judgment, civilians who will die because of ecumenical religion. Many will survive to the second advent and the baptism of fire will get them.

The active voice: unbelievers of the revived Roman empire produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the fact that judgment by pain brought them to a point of objectivity, and while they were still in objectivity they said no. Once again, they are taking the responsibility for their own decisions.

It says here that they couldn’t get away from something, and that something has to do with religion. Religion is described next in the prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative of e)rgon, and with it the inevitable possessive genitive of a)utoj, “from their works.”

The preposition e)k plus the ablative often denotes the direction from which something comes. Sometimes it gives a reason for why it comes, which is here presupposition for something. Hence, we are going to translate it “by reason of, or because of, or as a result of.”

“Then they blasphemed [slandered, maligned] the God of heaven because of their pain and their ulcers; furthermore they did not change their minds because of their works.”

They could never get away from the idea that they had to do something for eternal life, they could never get away from works. All religion is salvation by works and the manifestation of negative volition toward truth or doctrine. Being locked-in from their system of works derived from Satan’s cosmic system they continued negative toward the gospel.

The principle of negative volition is found in John 8:43-45. “Why do you not understand my method of doctrinal teaching? It is because you cannot hear my doctrine.”

Why couldn’t they hear? First of all, you can’t hear the Word when you get into gate one of cosmic one. That is the gate of motivational evil and it means you simply cannot hear the Word under these conditions. Then there is cosmic two were there is antagonism which throws up a negative barrage against the communication of truth or doctrine.

“You are from your father the devil.” He was speaking to religious types, the scribes and the Pharisees. They were in the cosmic system; “and you desire to do [works] the lusts of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning,” all murder is related to the lust of arrogance, “and does not stand in the doctrine, because there is no truth [doctrine] in him.” Arrogance squeezes out truth. “Whenever he teaches the lie he teaches from his own cosmic system; for he is a liar, and is the father of it.” He is the originator of the cosmic system.

“But because I speak the truth, you do not believer me.” If Satan came along and gave them a lie they would believe it, but He speaks the truth, they are in the cosmic system and do not believe Him. Those involved in the cosmic system as unbelievers will not believe the truth of the gospel, but given enough pain, without killing them, and they will be distracted from the influence of the cosmic system long enough to possess objectivity and lucidity and face the issue of the gospel.

1 Timothy 4:1, this Satanic teaching of the lie is delegated to fallen angels, demons. “But that same Holy Spirit explicitly communicates that in latter periods of time [Church Age and Tribulation] some [believers] will become apostate from doctrine, concentrating on [paying attention] to deceitful spirits [teaching demons] and doctrines from demons.” The problem is solved for the unbeliever by crisis evangelism and for the believer by the principle of warning discipline followed by intensive discipline, divine discipline by pain.

1 John 2:15,16 gives us the principle: “Stop loving the cosmic system.” The cosmic system is composed of cosmic one, emphasising arrogance or preoccupation with self; cosmic two, emphasising hatred or antagonism toward the priorities of God. Cosmic one emphasises self in contrast to God and God’s plan; cosmic two emphasises human viewpoint in contrast to divine viewpoint. Cosmic one delineates the philosophy of Satan at the time of his prehistoric fall; cosmic two emphasises Satan’s philosophy at the time of man’s fall. Cosmic one is the prehistoric policy of Satan extended into human history; cosmic two is Satan’s policy in history as the ruler of this world. Before man was created Satan was preoccupied with himself — arrogance; now that he is the ruler of this world he is preoccupied with being anti-God and anti-Christ.

Through entrance into cosmic one the believer becomes inculcated with Satan’s thinking before the creation of man. Through entrance into cosmic two the believer becomes indoctrinated with the thinking of Satan during the course of human history. Cosmic one reflects the thinking of Satan as the ruler of fallen angels; cosmic two reflects the thinking of Satan as the ruler of planet earth.

So we have: “Stop loving the cosmic system, or anything in the cosmic system. If anyone keeps loving the cosmic system, the love for the Father is not in him.” The love for the Father is motivational virtue at gate five, personal love for God.

“Because all that is in the cosmic system, the lust of the flesh,” the attack of the old sin nature seeking to control the soul, “the lust of the eyes,” motivational evil, gate one, cosmic one, “and the arrogant pattern of life,” the functional evil of gates two through twelve of cosmic one, “is not from the Father, but is from the cosmic system.”

This is how negative volition gets going. The cosmic system, therefore, becomes a tactical trap for the enslavement of the human race to Satan, enslavement of the unbeliever and enslavement also of the believer. Consequently the cosmic system is the factory for the manufacturing of losers. Losers are defined as unbelievers who keep rejecting normal evangelism, and as believers living in the cosmic system. That is why we have the mandate of Romans 12:3.

Cosmic involvement is the principle of negative volition. Under the principle of judgment by pain the first five bowl judgements are designed for crisis evangelism, another chance, another grace opportunity to have a temporary state of objectivity, and in that temporary state of objectivity to escape the shackles of Satan by personal faith in Christ. Again, the judgements include cancer of the skin to accompany the mark of the beast, contamination of both salt and fresh water with blood to accompany the shedding of the blood of martyrs, the unbearable heat to provide a prophetical view of the heat of Hell, and physical darkness to accompany the spiritual darkness, their blackout of the soul.

Satan is the ruler of this world. The kingdom of Satan is therefore called the kingdom of darkness, Ephesians 5:11; Colossians 1:13. Since the domain of Satan is the kingdom of darkness those who believers who reside and function in the cosmic system are said to be walking in darkness. Crisis evangelism is therefore designed for those who are walking in darkness. 1 John 1:6 and John 12:35 both say the same thing: “He who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.” 1 John 2:11 emphasises the fact that hatred or mental attitude sins of gate one, cosmic one, is walking in darkness and having the eyes blinded: “when anyone hates his fellow believer he walks in darkness [the cosmic system], furthermore he does not know where he is going because the darkness [the cosmic system] has blinded his eyes.” The same thing is true for the unbeliever. The unbeliever has his eyes blinded by living inside the cosmic system.

The world war at the end of the Tribulation will be fought everywhere, and will involve most of the nations of the world. It is not the same as the Armageddon campaign. So in making our distinctions we notice the second one, the Middle East campaign which is a part of that world war and called the Armageddon campaign. The world war is not Armageddon.

A campaign is different from a war. A campaign is the manoeuvring of armies in a certain area in connection with that war. So there are three words to become acquainted with: war, campaign, and battle. They are all different and all three are used technically in Revelation chapters 16 and 19. At the end of the Tribulation there will be war all over the earth but the portion that the Bible studies is the one that deals with the Jews, because God has promised that the Jews will never be destroyed and when Christ returns there will be living Jews who will be delivered. God has to keep His promise and Satan has to try to keep Him from doing it, so there is a specific Middle East campaign to wipe out the Jews. Occasionally we will call it the Armageddon campaign because one of the major battles, but not the greatest, was in Armageddon. Then we will study the battle of Armageddon, but that is only one of several battles. There is the battle of Armageddon, the battle of Idumea, and the siege of Jerusalem which determines where Christ is going to return and shut down the whole world war, His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives.

All three categories of warfare have a specific cause which will be mentioned in the context of Revelation 16:12-16. The order in which they occur is as follows: First there is the cause of the Middle East campaign, 16:12, the administration of the sixth bowl judgment; secondly, we will get the cause of the last world war in history, 16:13,14, the modus operandi of the war demons; the third is the cause of the actual battle of Armageddon in the Middle East campaign, 16:16, brought about by the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ controls history.

Armageddon needs a little summary. The cause of Armageddon is going to be given in chapter sixteen, verses 12-16. It will be related to war, to campaigns, to judgment by pain, judgment by death, and judgment for eternity. Then we will note the invasion of the Middle East, and that will take us to Daniel chapter eleven. Then we will go to the emergence of Jewish leadership for the crisis, Proverbs 24 and Zechariah 12. Then we will go to the siege of Jerusalem which is the major battle in the campaign in the last world war, and we will see the Jewish believers who do not participate legitimately, and why, in Matthew 24; and the Jewish believers who did legitimately participate, and why, in Zechariah 14. Then we will see the termination of the Armageddon campaign, the termination of the battles, and the termination of the entire world war.

In verses 12-16 we have phase one of the Armageddon or Middle East campaign. In verse 12 we have the cause of the invasion of the Middle East. Why do great armies suddenly invade the Middle East at the end of the Tribulation? The reason for it is the sixth bowl judgment. God is going to shift gears here and the last two bowl judgements are judgment by death. A lot of people are going to die.

In verse 12 we note first the target for the sixth bowl judgment. It begins with the sequential use of the conjunction kai translated “Then,” followed by the nominative singular from the adjective numeral e(ktoj, “sixth.” The sixth angel’s judgment is not judgment by pain, his is judgment by death. He is going to start the killing. All orders for killing in this judgment and the next one come from heaven. Heaven orders death. And this is grace because a lot of people are going to survive to the second advent because if this grenade.

So the sixth angel pulls the pin on this grenade, aorist active indicative of e)kxew, “poured out.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the sixth pur sui vant messenger from the execution squad produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatology. He has been issued as a part of the protocol of heaven his very own fialh, grenade. It was issued to him by one of the so-called four beasts in the King James version, or one of the four heralds and this sixth grenade begins judgment by death. So it is his very own weapon. We know that from the possessive genitive of a)utoj.

The target? We have the prepositional phrase e)pi plus the accusative of potamoj, “river.” It is a large river. We know that from the accusative from the adjective megaj. And then the river is named, “Euphrates.”

“Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the large river, the Euphrates,” the 33rd largest river in the world. It is 1675 miles long. In the Millennium when the Palestinian covenant is fulfilled it will be one of the borders of the revived client nation to Israel. God has promised the Jews a piece of real estate they have never occupied and cannot occupy until the Millennium. The western border is the Nile river. It will be one of the largest nations in the world at that time. The Euphrates is mentioned not simply as a river but as a boundary, a marking line. It is mentioned therefore in a strict strategical sense as the barrier between east and west as far as the Middle East is concerned.

We have moved on to note the principle of judgment for eternity as the third category of judgment. Judgment for eternity deals with the great white throne judgment at the end of the Millennium, and we will study it at that time. For those who reject Christ as saviour under three categories of evangelism nothing is left for rejection by grace but the lake of fire forever and ever. There are three categories where a person has the opportunity either to believe or to reject.

The first category is really not gospel hearing but it is God-consciousness. That often determines the course of the individual. There is a point of God-consciousness, there is a point of normal evangelism, and there is a point of crisis evangelism. If under all of these three categories there is rejection of Jesus Christ as saviour then nothing is left but Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment,” that is the second death, the lake of fire. Only the person who has rejected Christ as saviour will occupy the lake of fire. The lake of fire, of course, is literal; it is eternal; it was prepared for the devil and his angels, Matthew 25:41. We are anticipating Revelation 19:20 where the first occupants of the lake of fire, the beast and the false prophet, will be a part of the unholy trinity and that will be studied at a later time.

How does all of this apply? There are actually two things that we must apply. The first has to do with an historical trend, the fifth cycle of discipline as it was administered to Israel in the time of the Jewish wars which began in 66 and really closed out in AD 73. In the function of normal evangelism the Jews had the opportunity of believing in Christ between 30 and 70 AD. They had a period of forty years of normal evangelism. During this time they first of all heard the message of our Lord Jesus Christ; after that they heard the message of the apostles. In order that they might focus their attention on the message they saw the miracles of our Lord; they saw miracles performed by the apostles. There was one other miracle that was used: the gift of tongues was given so that Jews would be warned historically, for the gift of tongues is evangelising Jews in Gentile languages. That was the warning that the time of the Gentiles was coming, it was a historical warning to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the gift of tongues was used in that period only, from 30-70 AD, and it was a part of normal evangelism. Normal evangelism gradually subsided. When the apostle Paul went to Jerusalem and his message was rejected there was a gradual subsidence of normal evangelism and eventually in AD 66 the Jewish wars began, so from 66-73 AD we have crisis evangelism in contrast to normal evangelism.

In 66 AD Nero sent Vespasian and his legions to put down a Jewish revolt, but the Jews were great fighters and the attempt didn’t succeed. But this was actually the beginning of the Jewish war, and with the Jewish war and the pain to the unbelievers of Israel we now begin the second stage of evangelism, judgment by pain. During this time many Jews came back to the Lord. Between 66 and 70 the war was not going too well and finally in late 69 the Roman legions came to the wall of Jerusalem. When they arrived there Vespasian heard that Nero had now been assassinated and therefore he went home to become the next emperor of the Roman empire. He left everything to do with the war to his son, Titus. At this particular point, August of AD 70, the Romans broke through the walls of Jerusalem. They destroy the city and from there we go from crisis evangelism to judgment by death. Judgment by death eradicated all of those Jews who were now under the principle of disorganised or organised evil. Only 90,000 people survived and they would go through the same process again. They were taken and sold as slaves so that they still had a chance under crisis evangelism, judgment by pain, and then they would individually either die as believers and go to heaven or they would die as unbelievers and go to eternal Hell.

This principle is taught under the concept that God never condones internationalism until the second advent, and that the world is divided up into nations. First, nationalism began as a part of the fourth divine institution, human government, with the Jews. When the Jews became a client nation to God nationalism began, Deuteronomy 32:8. Then, add to that the fact that He said in verse 33, “The Lord’s portion is his people.” They were the first client nation to God.

In Acts 17:26 the times of the Gentiles is about to begin, 70 AD, and therefore we have a new rule about nationalism, “And he made from one people [the people of the world] to live on all the surface of the earth, having appointed their time [when their country began], and the boundaries of their habitation,” all determined in eternity past. That is why Job 12:23 says, “He makes nations great, he destroys nations; he enlarges the nations, then leads them away [into slavery].” The rise and fall of nations depends upon their response to the laws of divine establishment with emphasis on the divine institutions.

During the first advent our Lord Jesus Christ predicted the fall of Israel under the category of judgment in time, judgment by pain and judgment by death. He also predicted the categories of evangelism that would go with it, normal evangelism and crisis evangelism. Some of these things are found in Luke 21:20-24. The times of the Gentiles began on that day in August when the temple was destroyed and since that time and to this moment no Jewish nation can be a client nation to God. In fact, there will be no Jewish client nation until the second advent of Christ. In the meantime SPQR became the first client nation and, bringing us up to date in this last half of the 20th century, the USA is a client nation today.

Note, then, the function of God’s grace in history. Normal evangelism from 30-70 AD as far as Jerusalem was concerned; crisis evangelism began in AD 66 with the Jewish war, and for those who rejected crisis evangelism there was judgment by death in August of AD 70. For those who were either positive at God-consciousness or would eventually believe in the Lord Jesus Christ there was another phase of judgment by pain, the 90,000 Jews who survived to go into slavery. It is not God’s will, therefore, for anyone to perish. This is illustrated by our Lord’s attitude toward Jerusalem which is mentioned in Luke 13:34.

We also note an application from this. While there is in the Tribulation great confusion on the earth from these bowl judgements there is perfect happiness and tranquillity in heaven. In heaven there are three categories of mankind: the Church in resurrection bodies; the Old Testament saints who will have a resurrection body at the second advent; the Tribulational martyrs. And there is perfect happiness in heaven because of capacity, and that capacity comes from being organised under the principle of protocol. Right now in heaven during the Church Age we have Old Testament believers and Church Age believers all in their interim state. They have perfect happiness under the principle of protocol. On the earth there is a great deal of confusion and disaster today, a great deal of tragedy, but protocol comes right into the middle of it only through the divine dynasphere, and the secret to your happiness, blessing, and capacity for life, is life inside the divine dynasphere.

Next in verse 12 we are going to study the cause of the Middle East campaign, sometimes called the Armageddon campaign because that is one of the major battles. Then, in verse 13 and 14 we are going to see the causes for the world war, and in verse 16 we are going to see the cause of the battle of Armageddon which is not the most dramatic one, the most dramatic one is the siege of Jerusalem. Specifically the cause of the Middle east campaign is going to be the pulling of the pin of the sixth golden grenade, the administration of the sixth bowl judgment.

We have made the distinction between war, campaign, and battle. In the section we are now studying we now have the cause of a war, the cause of a campaign, and the cause of a battle. Each one of these has its own categorical problem. In connection with the war it becomes a matter of political problems, economy, preparedness, industry, many, many factors. In a campaign it becomes a matter of weather and many factors. In a battle, the same factors plus supporting troops, disposition of the enemy, and other factors. In other words, in order to solve problems you must first of all categorise them. Once this is done, then you can deal with solutions in that isolated category and then relate it to others.

So far in verse 12, “Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates...” The result:“and its water was dried up,” the aorist passive indicative of the verb zhrainaw, which means not only to dry up but it means the removal of a barrier. This is a dramatic aorist tense presenting reality with the certitude of a future event. It is also a constative aorist which contemplates the action in its entirety, a strategic barrier has been removed. The warfare, therefore, is apparently already in existence and it is simply a matter of how it comes to the Middle East. The passive voice: the Euphrates river, a strategic barrier protecting the Middle East from the east receives the action of the verb. We have noted that the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written, and in the time in which this was written the Euphrates river was the boundary line between the Roman empire and the Parthian empire of the east. No barriers exist for an invasion from the east into the Middle East and the land of Israel once this occurs. Therefore this phrase anticipates the great invasion of the Middle East by Asiatic powers.

The purpose of the sixth bowl judgment is given with the conjunction i(na which introduces a purpose clause. It is translated “that,” or “in order that.” This is a final purpose clause which expresses the purpose conceived as the aim or the objective of the action expressed in the main verb. With this we have the nominative singular subject o(doj, ordinarily translated “way,” but having some latitude in translation. Here it means “invasion route.” Then the objective genitive plural from the noun basileuj which in the plural refers to a group of Asiatic rulers.

They are said to come from the east, which is the prepositional phrase a)po plus the ablative of the noun a)natolh plus e(lioj, “from the rising of the sun.” It is an idiom meaning “from the east.” With this we have an appositional genitive plural from the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun and translated, “Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates; and its water was dried up, in order that the invasion route for the kings, those from the east ...” Then one more verb, the aorist passive subjunctive from the verb e)toimazw, “might be prepared.” The culminative aorist tense views the invasion from the east in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the clash between east and west in the Middle East during the last half of the Tribulation. This, of course, will be a part of the Armageddon campaign in the last world war of history. The passive voice: the kings who invade from the east receive the action of the verb, that is, they receive a perfect invasion route. The subjunctive mood merely indicates that this is a purpose clause.

The problem with things like this is that the historical interpretation of Revelation is often a temptation to those who have the academic background for it. However, it is an erroneous interpretation: Revelation is prophecy after the third chapter. The temptation here is to interpret both Daniel and Revelation in terms of some past historical event which fits the case. There is always someone who thinks he is qualified to handle it from that standpoint. The true development is eschatological but there are very few pastors and theologians who know enough eschatology to really deal with it. This is often taught by good historians as the invasion of the kings from the east, and it is taught as a Kurdish invasion of Palestine which took place in AD 1191, in the middle ages. The kings of the east were considered to be Saladin and his Kurds who overran the Middle East. It makes a very nice story but it simply does not work out by historical interpretation, and it has nothing to do with eschatology. The kings of the east in our context could have been interpreted as Saladin while the king of the west, therefore, would have had to be Richard the Lion Hearted, Philip Augustus the king of France, and Frederick Barbarosa of Germany. Palestine would have been represented by the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem founded during the first crusade in 1099 when the holy city was conquered by Ramon, Count of Toulouse, and with him, Richard, Duke of Normandy and Godfrey who was also the Duke of lower Lorraine. Godfrey became the ruler of the first kingdom of Jerusalem under the title of Baron of the Holy Sepulcher. All this fits in certain ways, but there is no way you can take anything in the past when eschatology is intended and squeeze it in, there is always something sticking out. What is sticking out here is nothing other than Richard the Lion Hearted and, of course, the Jews were not in the land, it was a Gentile nation in the land. No matter how tempting we must stand fast with the eschatological interpretation of Revelation and not a historical one. In the future, after the Rapture of the Church and during the last half of the Tribulation, there will be this great world war.

The invasion which occurs in the future will be unprecedented. This invasion will actually pull all of the people who live on the earth at that time in the Asiatic and Pacific basin. They will form one great block and they will have a massive army of perhaps two or three million people invading the Middle East. Certain portions of this army will come into the state of Israel. The invasion is a part of, and the beginning of the great Armageddon campaign of which the battle of Armageddon is one of several battles. And what starts this invasion is the sixth bowl judgment, the function of the sixth angel on the execution squad.

Translation: “Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates; and its water was dried up in order that the invasion route for the kings, those from the east, might be prepared.”

Verse 12 simply gives us the cause for the Middle East campaign. It was the sixth bowl judgment. This is the first bowl judgment that is judgment by death in contrast to the first five which were judgements by pain. Judgment by pain is designed for crisis evangelism to orient to reality those who are in the cosmic system. Next, in verse 13, we will have the cause of the world war of which this campaign is a part, and we will see there demon activity. Finally, when we get to verse 16 we will see the cause of the actual battle of Armageddon in the Middle East campaign, and it will have to do with our Lord Jesus Christ controlling history.

This, then, is a great invasion. It is the invasion of a confederation of Asiatic powers at the end of the Tribulation; it is part of the last world war of history. It comes at the end of the Tribulation and is a reminder that warfare will still occur at that time. There will always be wars in history until the second advent, and there is no way to stop war for any period of time. The only way to have peace is to be well prepared, to have a strong military organisation. This will guarantee peace for often a generation.

When the sixth golden grenade [bowl judgment] was thrown immediately the barrier between the Middle East and Asia was removed, and with the removal of that barrier we have a phenomenal invasion.

Next we have the cause of the war. When this invasion took place and began a campaign a war was already in progress: the last world war of history. The cause of this war is given in verses 13 and 14, and in these passages we are going to see the kosmokratwr demons, the war demons.

In verse 13 we have the unholy trinity of the Tribulation. The passage begins with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, meaning “Then,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, “Then I saw.” This is the beginning of another vision by the apostle John. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: John the apostle, the human author of the book of Revelation, produces the action of the verb in his vision of demon activity which leads to the Armageddon campaign of the Tribulation. But first there has to be a war. Wars come first, then campaigns, then battles, in that order.

Next we have to see how the war got started. Kosmokratwr demons have a great deal to do with warfare, small and great. Here we are looking at the start of a world war. So the active voice: John produces the action, and the declarative indicative mood is for the eschatological reality of the fact that historically in the past and in the future there is a war demon that starts the ball rolling. The principle is that there is a certain unreasonable and irrational factor in the cause of many wars; not all, but many of them. This, therefore, is related to the war demon. Under demon influence and demon possession man is determined to pursue a course of destruction which involves terror, warfare, violence, the expression of demon arrogance, vindictiveness, implacability and revenge motivation. It happens individually with people; it happens with groups. For the twentieth century illustration we have Adolf Hitler and Joe Stalin. Adolf Hitler’s determination to go to war illustrates the existence of the influence of these demons. War demons delight in involving nations and empires in terrible wars.

That introduces, then, the trinity of evil. The first member of the evil trinity is mentioned next beginning with a prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative of stoma — “from the mouth” of the drakwn, “dragon.”

“Then I saw three frog-like demons.” So we have the frog-like demons mentioned first and these three demons are going to be the source of all the problems. The only problem is that that is the way it is in the King James version, it is not the word order in the Greek. First we have the trinity, then we have the frogs. This is the evil trinity which begins with Satan himself, “from the mouth of the dragon.”

Thanks to the Septuagint we know that stoma has an equivalent in the Hebrew, peh, and that helps us to understand the meaning of stoma in this passage. It means “from the mouth of” literally, but it is an idiom. The idiom is derived from peh compared to stoma in the translation of the Septuagint and it should be translated “from the command of,” or even better, “from the conspiracy of.” So we have, “Then I saw three evil spirits from the conspiracy of the dragon.” They don’t pop out of his mouth, they come from the conspiracy. Therefore these demons are a part of Satan’s conspiracy. In Revelation 12:9 we saw that the dragon is Satan.

Next we have the dictator once again. There are two other conspirators. Satan is an angel, the leader of all the fallen angels and the highest ranking of the fallen angels. He is conspirator number one. Two other conspirators are the dictator of the revived Roman empire and the dictator of Israel. The conspiracy starts with Satan but the conspiracy demands the use of people. All effective conspiracies involve evil people and this one is no exception. So we will study again the beast dictator and his second agitator. We have already seen certain things about this dictator who is called the beast. He is a military genius, he gains control of the revived Roman empire through warfare. He conquers ten nations. He is a political genius and a religious genius. He has the power of miracles which is given to him by Satan, 2 Thessalonians chapter two. He also has the dynamics of verbal communication: the word “mouth.” He has the ability to communicate as one of the most important functions of life. Satan gives this dictator a supernatural power of speaking, of eloquence, and he uses it in the conspiracy. There is a time limit to this conspiracy, that is always one of God’s great weapons — time. There is a time limit to its function but it does result in the last great world war of history. There is also evil power being frustrated by a sense of humour, and this beast dictator with all of his genius has no sense of humour.

People, of course, who have too much power generally do not have a sense of humour, they take themselves very seriously. Too much power is defined as power accompanied by arrogance. To the extent that arrogance infiltrates the power systems that you possess, to that extent it becomes too much power. Arrogance plus power cannot laugh at self or at anything that is humorous. Arrogant preoccupation with self always takes self too seriously. The beast dictator cannot laugh at himself and all he can do is slander those who do laugh at him or those who are beyond his power. In this case he will use this for conspiracy.

We have also noted that the beast dictator with all of the great power that he possesses is miserable, frustrated and, above all, he is insecure. Out of his frustration and out of his unhappiness comes conspiracy. And the second phrase of this verse, “out of the conspiracy of the beast dictator,” becomes very significant. Here is a dictator who is totally miserable and unhappy because he has no capacity for life. He has great genius, great ability, is a very smart person in every sense of the word, he has succeeded militarily and socially in every possible way. He has everything going for him and yet he is a totally miserable person. This means that these things require the one thing that he lacks: capacity. Capacity is one thing that he will never have. Capacity comes from doctrine — from receiving Christ as saviour and, after that, through spiritual growth through Bible doctrine; or, as an unbeliever, capacity could come to him through the function of the laws of divine establishment. He could have capacity from establishment truth but he has rejected all establishment truth, he is a part of that system called organised evil. The beast dictator has a systematic or organised system of evil in his control of the revived Roman empire and therefore he is a persecutor of believers.

The problem with verse 13 in the Greek is that the frog-like demons are not found until the end of the verse. Correcting it in the English we would say, “Then I saw three frog-like demons from the mouth [representing conspiracy] of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast dictator, from the mouth of the false prophet.” That is the way we have it in the English but the unholy trinity is presented first as far as the Greek is concerned.

The devil is the central antagonist in the angelic conflict, in the human history phase, Hebrews chapters 1 & 2, he has an organisation to defeat mankind, Ephesians 6:10-12. Since Satan means “enemy” he is the enemy of the Church, Revelation chapter 2; he is the enemy of Bible doctrine, Matthew 13:9, 39; he is the original murderer of the human race, John 8:44; he is the enemy of Israel, Revelation 12:4, 13, 15; he is the enemy of Christ, Revelation 12:4. The devil has the strategy to control nations, Revelation 12:9; 20:3; he also has strategy to control the human race in the development of the cosmic system, 2 Corinthians 2:11. Resisting the devil means life in the divine dynasphere, God’s system for the believer. Since the devil doesn’t personally attack us, and so on, we understand that resisting the devil has to do with his cosmic system, cosmic one with its twelve gates of interlocking systems of arrogance; cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of anti-God hatred. When it says in James 4:8, “Draw near to God,” it means momentum in the divine dynasphere.

The second member of the evil trinity is a member of the human race, “from the mouth of the beast dictator [the ruler of the revived Roman empire and the leader of ecumenical religion]...”

The third member of the evil trinity — “from the mouth of the false prophet.” The false prophet is a Jew; the beast dictator is a Gentile. The Gentile dictator rules the revived Roman empire; the false prophet rules the Jewish state in the Tribulation. He is in on the conspiracy too. His first alias is “Dan the serpent”. That is the way the false prophet was described prophetically in Genesis 49. He is a Jew from the tribe of Dan; he is the dictator of the state of Israel in the Tribulation. He is also called “the wilful king” in Daniel chapter eleven. He is called the Anti-Christ in the sense of the false Messiah in Revelation 13:11; he is called the false prophet in Revelation 16:13, our passage. He is called the beast from the land in Revelation 13:11-18. So he has many designations and we can learn a great deal about him by studying all of these passages.

The last phrase in the Greek is one that deals with the demons themselves, “I saw three frog-like demons.” The frog-like demons are said to be unclean. This is a reference to cultic impurity. We have the Greek word a)kaqartoj and it is a very key word in this thing because “unclean” is a word which is used for fornication, idolatry, any form of religion that involves the phallic cult; and these war demons are worshipped in the Tribulation through the medium of idolatry just as in Old Testament times. There is a special warning about getting in contact with war demons through religion and through idolatry in Leviticus 17:7, “They shall no longer sacrifice their offerings to the satyr demon with whom they play the harlot.” The satyr demon is the one who brings on the war demon. “This shall be a permanent law in every generation.” In Deuteronomy 32:17, “They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to those who they have not known, news things who came lately,” the demons who came because of religion. First religion comes then idolatry, then the demons come into that area.

These demons are said to be “like frogs,” batroxoj. Why frogs? Batroxoj is used many times for people under a grotesque connotation. The whole concept of frogs is that frogs are like people when people are evil, when people are arrogant, when people are out of line as far as life is concerned. God even taught this to Pharaoh in Exodus 8:14 when He sent the plague of frogs, and it says the frogs were piled up in heaps when they died and “the land had a bad odour.” When people are compared to frogs that means that people are degenerate and the land stinks. Frogs in this context represent people but there is another reason why the frogs are mentioned: because frogs are great public speakers. Talk is used for conspiracy, for destruction.

In the English it sounds like this: “Then I saw three frog-like demons from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast dictator, and from the mouth of the false prophet.”

The word “mouth” in each case refers to conspiracy, and these demons are called kosmokratwr. Their organisation is copied after the elect angelic college of heralds. The kosmokratwr are the war demons, Satanic ambassadors who are involved in propaganda ministries to the rulers of this world. Actually, these three demons command a special battalion each of ambassadors or propaganda demons who are sent to the various capitals of the world to carry out Satanic policies of evil, e.g. Daniel 10:13ff.

One of the things that is always brought about by dictatorships is not only conspiracy but organised evil where before disorganised evil existed. The beast dictator has a systematic principle of organised evil. As the ruler of the revived Roman empire and as the leader of ecumenical religion he has developed a system whereby disorganised evil becomes non-existent and organised evil takes its place. When organised evil occurs then God must exercise His prerogative of justice: judgment by death rather than judgment by pain. In judgment by pain we have crisis evangelism but in judgment by death a part of the human race is eradicated in order that the rest of the human race might continue in history. In the martyrdom of mature believers we learn the principle that while doctrinal believers can coexist with degeneracy or disorganised evil they cannot exist in a society of organised and systematic evil. Organised or systematic evil always persecutes the truth, and what really brings about the whole thing is religion, just as Islamic people today have declared war on most of the non-Islamic world. So when you add religion to a dictator’s system you have the worst form of organised or systematic evil.

When a client nation has too much degeneracy, too much disorganised evil, and is therefore not controlled by the laws of divine establishment, some dictator rises up to suppress the disorganised evil of degeneracy. In so doing he often substitutes a systematic form of evil in which the government has one special characteristic: the union of religion and government. From this, of course, the government commits all of the crime and eliminates the general function of crime where crime is independent of the governmental system. The power of degeneracy or disorganised evil is crime and violence while the power of systematic evil is government using its authority and using religion as justification for destroying freedom, confiscating property, and murdering behind the facade of the greater good for the greater number. Systematic evil is characterised, therefore, by self-righteous arrogance; disorganised evil is characterised by criminal arrogance. The dictator eliminates private crime and substitutes public crime on a big scale.

The enlarged pivot of mature believers and the effective function of law and order, free enterprise, and military establishment hinders this type of function. It hinders the effectiveness of organised and systematic evil and prevents the rise of dictators such as the one we are studying in this passage.

Degeneracy or disorganised evil generally opens the way for the function of organised or systematic evil in a national entity. Degeneracy can coexist with doctrinal teaching and with the truth. The church evangelises degeneracy and degeneracy in its turn seeks to evangelise the church. The pattern of systematic evil replacing disorganised evil is seen quite frequently in history: in modern times the French revolution, the Russian revolution of 1917, the communist take-over of China, and rise of Adolf Hitler, just to mention a few. It proves the point that self-righteous arrogance always has greater power than criminal arrogance. Self-righteous arrogance is morality without virtue, and therefore the importance of the priorities in the plan of God — virtue first, for Christianity produces a morality totally divorced from any form of legalism or self-righteousness. Morality minus virtue becomes self-righteous arrogance and leads to organised evil, the systematic evil by which dictators rise to power. In permitting evil to run its course in human history God demonstrates the power of doctrine resident in the mature believer. The mature believer always keeps his priorities straight, doctrine is more important than life itself, and therefore the explanation for the martyrdom during the Tribulation.

The dictator demands and gains respect from the people, the leader functions under the principle of mutual respect. This, therefore, means that dictatorships eliminate any true system of leadership whereby the leader functions under the principle of mutual respect. The dictator demands respect through the infusion of fear, therefore the dictator uses his power to gain respect rather than any leadership ability he may possess. The worship of power is the dictator’s way of control of people in contrast to the leadership system. Leaders have ability and professionalism which inspires confidence and leads to the principle of mutual respect.

One of the great problems, and one we are facing today but is not nearly as great today as it will be in the Tribulation, is the fact that a dictator realises very early in his career that there is no power in public opinion. Public opinion caters to the viewpoint of the majority and the majority has no power or control in history. It is always the minority well organised that has the control. One hundred thousand Bolsheviks eventually took over the entire Russia. Sometimes it is a good minority like the pivot of mature believers in a client nation, but generally it is the very well organised system of evil, often working both through concepts of politics but more often through concepts of religion. Religion keeps people from thinking; religion is, of course, a form of emotionalism; religion is evil and Satanic in contrast to Christianity. The minority for evil often controls under historical trends. The communists were a minority, the Nazis were a minority. Organised minorities always produce dictators. Public opinion reacts to these minorities but public opinion has no organisation and no power. Public opinion is news today and gone tomorrow. It has no power against organised minorities and their depredations. Therefore public opinion can bully the weak and flatter the successful. Public opinion is all too often a system of arrogance (therefore weakness), a system of self-righteousness, a system of mass hysteria which assumes that their condemnation has influence for power — which it does not. We often operate on the false premise that public opinion has influence over evil. In reality evil cares absolutely nothing for public opinion except to mould it for its own devices.

The power of the dictator prevents him therefore from also thinking beyond the inventory of his ideas. But once a dictator becomes powerful then he seeks to make sure that the people that he controls never think beyond his inventory of ideas. All of this is what happens in this passage. Notice again that three times the word “mouth” is mentioned and each time it refers to conspiracy — well organised conspiracy. The dragon is Satan, the greatest creature genius of all history; the beast dictator is the most brilliant man of his day.

What we have in verses 13 and 14 at the start of the last world war in history is the beginning conspiracy. When we get to Revelation 19:19 we will see the last conspiracy in connection with that world war.

What is the answer to conspiracy? It can be very easily summarised by Hosea 4:1ff. This is an ancient problem, the kosmokratwr demons have been functioning throughout history.

Verse 1, “Hear the word of the Lord, you citizens of Israel.” Hosea addressed this to the northern kingdom which at this time was a client nation to God but was becoming very degenerate, very disorganised, very easily brainwashed, and therefore was in serious jeopardy; “because the Lord has a lawsuit against the inhabitants of the nation, because there is no doctrine being taught and nothing of grace being applied, and nothing of knowing God in the nation.” That is the three fold indictment. When nations fail these are the reasons: no doctrine, no grace, no knowledge of God.

Verse 2, “Instead there is lying, falsehood and deceiving, murdering and stealing, and they break in to commit rape. Therefore blood reaches out and touches blood,” an idiom in the Hebrew for violence. Violence starts with lying. When people start conspiracies inevitably conspiracy destroys individuals, first in the soul and then next in violence.

Verse 3, “For this cause the land shall mourn, therefore everyone who lives in it shall lose strength,” people become weak sisters — “along with the animals of the field, the birds in the sky, the fish in the lake; they shall be destroyed.” In other words the destruction of all categories of life through warfare.

Verse 4, “Only let no one [the believer in the cosmic system] try to destroy [or put down] the authority of someone who communicates doctrine; since your people [the northern kingdom] resemble those who try to destroy the authority of the priest,” the priest communicated Bible doctrine in that day.

Verse 5, “Therefore you have stumbled in the daylight, and even the prophet will stumble with you in night darkness; and I will destroy your mother [the nation].”

“Therefore you have stumbled” means they have entered into the cosmic system and they have done it in daylight in the presence of good doctrinal teaching. And even the prophet will stumble with you in night darkness” means apostasy in the clergy. “And I will destroy your mother” means the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline.

Verse 6, “My nation [the northern kingdom, at that time a client nation] is destroyed from lack of knowledge of doctrine. Because you have rejected the principle of knowing doctrine, therefore I will reject you from being a client nation [or priest nation] for me. Since you have neglected the doctrine of your God, I will neglect your citizens.” That is the end of the client nation.

In our passage we are going to see the Pantokratwr defeat and destroy the kosmokratwr. Also we note that the kosmokratwr are a demon system whereby the politics of the world result in a lot of wars. Kosmokratwr are therefore involved in the brainwashing techniques. The ultimate source in this life of distorted ideas and falsifications of history is the battalion of kosmokratwr demons, the war demons. Most antiwar movements come from war demons. The stronger the peace movement the sooner there will be a war. Peace movements, when they become popular and are taken seriously, inevitably lead to war because peace movements weaken the country in which they find themselves. The source of their erroneous concepts is always the same: the kosmokratwr demons. They have a knack of distorting things so that even born-again believers without doctrine believe the lie, as per 2 Thessalonians chapter two.

No one can have an inventory, then, of doctrinal principles and categories if he is constantly in his arrogance accepting false ideas. We can only accumulate an inventory of truth of doctrinal ideas by our daily positive volition toward doctrine properly taught. Believers who are short on doctrine are dupes to be used by evil political groups. They are even used by the kosmokratwr demons, for the kosmokratwr demons spread ideas. If doctrine, therefore, does not guide and control the life of the believer he has no control of his own life. He has no personal sense of destiny, no cognisance of the divine system, and he cannot make decisions from a position of strength, i.e.. the good decisions that relate to the plan of God. No one can have a maximum inventory of truth and at the same time reside in the cosmic system. Only the daily perception of doctrine provides the inventory of ideas with which to cope with personal and historical disaster. The daily decisions which accumulate the inventory of ideas, the personal control of one’s life all become important in understanding historical trends as well as God’s system, the Christian way of life.

1 John 2:15, “Stop loving the cosmic system, or anything in the cosmic system,” is a mandate to all of us. Cosmic one emphasises arrogance, preoccupation with self; cosmic two emphasises hatred, antagonism toward the priorities of God.

No believer can think beyond the inventory of his own ideas, and if his own ideas are the accumulation of Bible doctrine then he can discern for himself and understand and appreciate some of the tremendous things that are being written today by certain members of the fourth estate. While cosmic one emphasises self in contrast to God, cosmic two emphasises human viewpoint in contrast to divine viewpoint. Most believers today are completely hamstrung by human viewpoint. That is because their inventory is limited.

The cosmic system, especially cosmic two, is the manner in which the kosmokratwr demons work. They are described as frog-like demons. What is meant by that has nothing to do with how frogs look, it has to do with using frogs as the personification of evil. 1 John 2:16, “Because all that is in the cosmic system, the lust of the flesh [the old sin nature’s attempt to control the soul] and the lust of the eyes [motivational evil of cosmic one, gate one] and the arrogant pattern of life [the function of evil in the fragments of the grenade, like gate two: negative volition arrogance; gate three, authority arrogance; gate four, self-righteous arrogance], is not from the Father, but is from the cosmic system.” The cosmic system, therefore, is used — especially the ideas generated in cosmic two — not only to capture unbelievers but to capture believers so that they will not understand the clear delineations of historical trends given in the Word of God.

At the end of the Tribulation there will be a unification of all of the various Asiatic powers in the Pacific basin. They will be united and will form a tremendous sphere of influence and a power bloc in the last half of the Tribulation. That is the explanation for the beginning of the Middle East campaign. And while that is the cause of the Middle East campaign it does not explain the cause of the war in which that campaign occurs, the last world war of history at the end of the Tribulation. “The mouth of the dragon [Satan],” the mouth is used to explain conspiracy. When the mind thinks evil the tongue forms conspiracy. The tongue forms various categories of evil such as maligning, gossiping and judging, destroying the privacy of individuals. etc. This is Satan’s last conspiracy before the Millennium.

In verse 14 we have an explanation of the modus operandi of these three frog-like demons. We have had two world wars, World War 1 and World War 2. There have been world wars before but they were never called that. We do not know how long the Church Age will continue and if it lasts for any length of time there could be more world wars. We know that the Church Age is the calling out of a royal family for our Lord’s third royal title; He needs a royal family to go with it. So this is the dispensation of the royal family of God. When the royal family is completed there will be a resurrection, the royal family is removed from the earth. At that time we go back to the completion of the Age of Israel called Daniel’s seventieth week and the Tribulation, and in the Tribulation there will be a world war at its end. Here we have that last great world war in history and we are now going to study the cause of that last world war; it is strictly a demon activity. In that war there is a campaign and eventually there is a battle in that campaign called Armageddon, and we will see the cause of that battle. So this is really a passage of causes. At the second advent there will be the termination of that war, the campaign, and the battle.

Whenever a war is started there must be an appeal to the masses, not rationally but emotionally. People in a state of degeneracy or in a state or organised or disorganised evil are very vulnerable to having emotion dominate their thinking so that they cannot think rationally or with any ability at all. They cannot even use what inventory of ideas they possess. So we are going to note in the first part of this passage the emotional appeal to the general public. That is a major factor in every war and the kasmokratwr demons find some way to appeal to emotions. It is 100 per cent easier to appeal to someone’s emotions than it is to appeal to someone’s rationalism. Emotion has a place but it must always be subordinate to thinking and being rational.

So we find in right here in verse 14 the explanatory use of the post positive conjunction gar, “For,” and we now find out what the war demons do. They are so smart that they get the advantage and start wars and trouble by appealing to emotion. By appealing to emotions they are able to keep people from thinking straight. We have the present active indicative e)imi, “For they are,” a descriptive present tense. The active voice: the war demons produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for an eschatological principle. With it we have a predicate nominative from the noun pneuma which is here used for demons, “spirits.” Then we have a descriptive genitive from daimonion, one of the Greek words for demons. “For these are the spirits of demons.”

What are these demons doing? The present active participle of poiew, they are “working”, and they are working with their minds. They are transferring thought that will start trouble, that is their whole concept of working. The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past and is emphasised as a present reality. These war demons have been operating since the fall of Adam and the rulership of Satan over the world, and they work with their brains. They are category genius in the demon realm and they transfer thought that starts trouble — conspiracy. The active voice: the war demons produce the action of the verb and they do it through deceiving. The primary system of deception is to be thinking while someone else is emoting even if they are smarter than you. Because they are emoting instead of thinking you can outthink them, and that is what the war demons do. The participle is circumstantial and with it the accusative plural direct object.

How are you going to appeal to emotions of all people? You have to do something special, and they do. They work miracles, shmeion, extra-natural acts. If you are going to get through with your propaganda work a miracle here and there, and that is exactly what they do. These are the spirits of demons performing miracles. They appeal to the emotions of the general public to bring them into the ecumenical religious system of Satan so that they can be propagandised for Satanic conspiracy. Don’t forget: it is religion that starts wars; furthermore, religious wars are the worst kind, they are the most brutal. The very intensity of religious wars indicates their relationship to demonism.

The war demons have been functioning in the field of violence, terrorism, and warfare since the antediluvian age and the days of Hercules. The function of the general public in the beginning of a war is emotionalism. This was illustrated by the French people in 1870, the beginning of the Franco-Prussian war. They responded emotionally to the Ems telegram which Bismarck used to arouse the emotions of the German people. There was a reaction from the French and so there was the Franco-Prusssian war.

Miracles always appeal to the general public. Such miracles are used by the war demons to motivate violence and terrorism among civilised people, “For these are the spirits of demons performing miracles.”

Principle: Emotion without truth or doctrine is irrational. Even if you have a good inventory of truth, even if you have a lot of good ideas, if emotion controls your soul and the next person’s and the next person’s, and it is very contagious, then you establish mass irrationality. Irrational people are impressed by what they cannot understand, including miracles. That is the key. It is not simply miracles themselves, it is what people cannot understand. Being impressed by what they cannot understand means that they immediately become emotional and irrational. Only doctrine can provide the relaxed mental attitude necessary to keep cool in historical emergency.

We call the next phrase in this verse the kosmokratwr conspiracy. It begins with the accusative neuter plural from the relative pronoun o(j. It is in the neuter because pneuma is, and pneuma is the antecedent, “spirits of demons who.” And what do they do? The present middle indicative from e)kporeuomai. Xenophon first used e)kporeuomai to mean to march out. It means to march out or to move out, and it connotes advance. So we are going to translate: “For these are the spirits of demons performing miracles who advance.” The pictorial present tense conveys to the mind a picture of this function as a procedure. The middle voice is a deponent verb: middle in form, active in meaning. The war demons produce the action and the indicative mood is declarative for an eschatological principle: the war demons advance to start the last world war in history.

Then we have a descriptive genitive singular with an accusative. The accusative is the word “kings,” e)pi plus the accusative of basileia, “on the kings.” They march on the kings of the entire world. The word for earth or world is o)ikoumenh which means populated earth.

Translation: “For these are the spirits of demons, performing miracles, who advance on the kings of the entire populated earth.”

In other words, the war demons are in the process of starting a general world war in the last half of the Tribulation. The world is filled with disaster areas from the administration of the first five bowl judgements and devastation in disaster areas does not hinder world wars when the war demons go into action. So it is an emotional war right from the start and very few parts of the world can afford a war as we have noted from the first five judgements.

In Daniel 10:13 Gabriel is speaking to Daniel, “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia,” the prince of the kingdom of Persia is a kosmokratwr demon. He is Satan’s ambassador, agitator, conspirator, in the court of Persia where he has a battalion of war demons under his command. Gabriel explains that he couldn’t come immediately with Daniel’s answer but was delayed 21 days, “opposed me for twenty-one days,” the reason the kosmokratwr opposed him was because he was there to influence the Persian kings to hinder the remnant of Jews under Joshua the high priest and Zerrubabel the governor from returning to the land. Gabriel and Michael opposed the prince of Persia, which means that the kosmokratwr or war demon was a very high-ranking and very powerful fallen angel. The historical results are found in Ezra chapter four while the prophetical results of this spiritual battle are found in both the books of Haggai and Zechariah, “then behold, Michael [the archangel], one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia,” this is from BC 516-323, and Gabriel would frustrate Satan’s objective in the court of Persia. Gabriel as an archangel is more powerful than the kosmokratwr.

Verse 20, “Then he [Gabriel] said, ‘Do you know why I came to you? And now I shall return to fight against the prince of Persia [kosmokratwr]; then I will be leaving [the court of Persia], for behold, the prince of Greece is about to come’. ” The prince of Greece is another kosmokratwr demon who is now working in the court of Macedonia, the court of Philip and his son who became Alexander the Great.

Verse 21, “ ‘However, before I go I will cause you to understand what is inscribed in the scripture of doctrine. Incidentally, there is no one who reinforces me against these [the kosmokratwr] except Michael your prince’.”

From this we conclude that Gabriel and Michael as archangels are in the angelic order of battle and that is because they have the highest power in that order. They oppose equally powerful demons known as war demons or kosmokratwr, and when Gabriel is away teaching Michael replaces him in the court of Persia. This means there is a tremendous invisible unseen battle in every capital of the world during every generation of human history, including the time in which we live as well as in the future in the Tribulation. Until we arrive in heaven we will never begin to appreciate the tremendous invisible battle which is constantly occurring in every capital and in every important city and strategical geographical area of the day. So Daniel 10 verses 13, 12, and 21 plus Ephesians 6:12 are very significant in the understanding of the nature of this invisible conflict, a conflict being fought on earth during the entire course of human history.

So Revelation 14:16 says, “For these are the spirits of demons, performing miracles [an emotional appeal to the general public], who advance on the rulers [or the kings] of the entire populated earth.”

The next phrase presents to us the cause of the great world war in the last half of the Tribulation. Part of that great world war in the time of the devil’s desperation includes the Armageddon campaign. There is only one history book in which you can find what is behind every war, and that is the Word of God. The Word of God is really not a text book of history but any time that it deals with history it is totally accurate, and it does explain why there are wars.

Remember the principle: Evil flourishes in war obviously, but evil flourishes in peace just as much as in war. But, again, virtue also flourishes in war or in peace, in prosperity or adversity. So the circumstances of history do not hinder the function of evil or the function of virtue.

In spite of man’s efforts for peace (man always wants peace. Obviously, peace is related to normality and in that sense it is a good idea) if you compromise any form of truth for peace you are inevitably going to start a war, and a war that you will lose. If you compromise any of the categories of truth — category #1 truth, the laws of divine establishment, or category #2 truth, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, or category #3 truth, Bible doctrine for the believer; the result is war. In fact, one of the quickest ways to start a war is to have a lot of peace movements. In Matthew 24:6,7 our Lord makes it very clear that there will be wars throughout human history until He comes. Man will not accomplish in the dispensation of the Church or in the Tribulation what only Jesus Christ can accomplish in the Millennium. Therefore, warfare is a bona fide part of history. Ecclesiastes 3:8 — “There is a time for war and there is a time for peace.” There has to be a war. Injustices can only be corrected by warfare and when things get out of hand among nations warfare becomes the answer. Being oriented to peace means that you live a normal life, you have wonderful opportunities, but it doesn’t mean that you would ever compromise the wonderful principles of freedom in order to avoid war. People who avoid fights are always bullied by bullies.

Numbers 21:14 has this to say about war: “It is written in the Book of the Wars of the Lord, ‘Waheb in Suphah [Jehovah takes in storm]’.” The Lord therefore does have a book of wars and the Lord uses wars to take people by storm. The misnomer of warfare is found in Matthew 26:52. This is one of the most distorted verses in the Bible. People assume that this has to do with warfare but it has to do with crime, violence. “Perish by the sword” in this verse refers to capital punishment and has nothing whatever to do with military service. The sword always refers in these cases to capital punishment, as in Romans 13:4.

All national freedom comes from military victory and two factors are involved in the protection of national sovereignty and freedom. These factors are both found in Nehemiah chapter four and are virtue factors in warfare.

Verse 8, “And all of them together [Samaria under Sanballat, the Amonites under Tobiah, the Arabs under Geshem, the Philistines of Ashdod: four powerful nations which had united to destroy the Jews who had just come back into the land] organised a conspiracy to invade, to fight against Jerusalem and to manufacture harm to it.”

Verse 9, “But we made intercession to our God, and we established a military security system against them day and night.” They called up the military and went on red alert day and night. They set up their instant reaction force.

There are two factors there. There is a spiritual factor: they prayed because most of these people were believers. That is why they came back to the land, they believed the promises of God, they believed that God would bless them in the land. So the first thing they did was a spiritual factor when the crisis came. The next thing they did was to put their mobilisation plan into operation. That is the beginning of the spiritual factor. But there is also an establishment factor.

Verse 13, “Therefore I garrisoned troops on the lower slopes behind the walls as a mobile reserve. On the higher places I stationed the troops according to their tribes with their swords, their spears, and bows.”

Verse 14, “And I inspected the defences and I stabilised the perimeter. Then I spoke to the generals, the commissioned officers, and the men in ranks: ‘Do not be afraid of them; remember the Lord, the hero warrior and respected one, therefore fight in battle for your brethren [fellow citizens: Divine institution #1], your sons and daughters [Divine institution #3, the family], your wives [Divine institution #2, marriage], and your houses.” So you see the legitimacy of warfare here: fighting for your fellow citizens, for those whom you love, and for your family, “and your houses”: always there is the principle that legitimate warfare is fighting for your privacy and your property. The house represents property; it is your privacy. You have a right to property and to privacy.

Verse 15, “And it came to pass that when our enemies heard that it [their plan] was known to us, and that God had frustrated their plan [surprise attack], then all of us returned to the walls, each man to his service.”

Failure of the military in the battlefield indicates lack of training, lack of self-discipline, lack of respect for authority, lack of motivation, lack of courage, lack of teamwork, lack of spiritual incentive to resist and fight which is so basic to the perpetuation of freedom in the national entity. Failure of the military indicates a general lack of character, virtue, stability, among the citizens of a national entity. God uses the military in action to demonstrate one of two things: the virtue of a nation or the degeneracy and decline of a nation. Therefore the military is an index of national character. Armies defend freedom; armies destroy freedom. Armies that defend freedom are virtuous in general terms; armies that destroy freedom are evil in general terms. The issue of national sovereignty, integrity, and freedom always depends, then, on which army wins.

All of these passages indicate that there is validity in warfare under certain conditions. There is never any validity to terrorism, to using the power of the military for crime or to abuse people, but under the laws of divine establishment the military is the first line of defence of freedom.

1 Chronicles 5:19, “And they [Israel] made war against the Hagrites [an Arab tribe], Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab.”

Verse 20, “And they [the Jews] were helped against them, and the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hands [the Jews defeated them]; for they [the Jews] cried out to God in battle, and he was entreated,” the hiphil infinitive of the verb zaaq and it means really to be propitious, “because they trusted in him.” They went into battle as born-again believers offering their prayers to the Lord, and as they went in to battle they went in trusting the Lord, the function of the faith-rest drill, and that is why the Lord was propitiated, and that is why they won.

Verse 21, the result: “And they took away [as booty] their cattle: 50,000 camels, 250,000 sheep, 2000 mule, and 100,000 men.”

Obviously we can’t say that war is evil. Evil things happen in war but evil things happen in peace time. We can’t say that war is wrong. Many wars are wrong but that doesn’t mean that war is always wrong. Here is a war that is right and is sponsored by God. And you have to remember no matter what the circumstances of life may be God’s plan for your life goes on. People are afraid of warfare but if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and functioning under the faith-rest drill it doesn’t make any difference.

Under the concept of leadership we should remember a principle that relates to our intake of Bible doctrine. Historical events produce a need, and leadership meets that need. If you are a prepared person through Bible doctrine historical events will produce a need and leadership always meets that need. Circumstances of life produce a market and leadership supplies that market. In other words, life is a market for leadership and crisis is often the stage for that leadership.

In Revelation 16:14 the next phrase we are studying presents to us the cause of the great world war in the last part of the Tribulation. Remember the principle: Evil flourishes in peace as well as in war. Evil things happen in war but evil things happen in peace. Also remember: Virtue flourishes in war as well as in peace. Therefore, war and peace is not the issue, the real issue is virtue versus evil. It doesn’t matter if we are having a war or living in peace time the issue remains the same.

Next we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb sunagw. While it generally means to assemble, here it means to mobilise. There is a mobilisation plan in operation, “to mobilise them.” The culminative aorist tense views the mobilisation of the world’s armies in their entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results, the escalation into total world war at the end of the Tribulation. Notice that this war is caused by war demons. The active voice: the war demons produce the action of the verb influencing the rulers of the earth to go to war. The infinitive of intended result means simply it combines purpose and result. The result indicates a deliberate objective on the part of Satan to entangle the world in a war so that he can control. The evil part of war is that Satan often gains great control of large portions of the population of the earth. Satan tries to control the earth, he is the ruler of this earth, and he often has to use war to do it. He prefers to use peace and he has often gained great control in time of peace.

Next we have a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative from the noun polemoj, “war” [not battle], “to mobilise them for that war.”

Then we have a very brief description of that war, a descriptive genitive from an adjective and a noun. The adjective is megaj; the noun is h(mera, “the great day.” What is the great day? The second advent of Christ, the dramatic termination of that world war. It is a reference, therefore, to the time when Jesus Christ will execute that perfect tactical victory of the second advent.

Then we have a very astounding phrase in view of the fact that a synonym for these war demons is kosmokratwr. After the words “great day” we have an appositional genitive pantokratwr. Pantokratwr goes with kosmokratwr to show who is going to win. The pantokratwr is the Lord Jesus Christ. Pantokratwr means “Almighty,” it refers to the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Kosmokratwr indicates the phenomenal power of these demons who command war demons to start wars in this world, but the pantokratwr is going to overcome the kosmokratwr. What is much stronger than the most powerful of all demons? The Lord Jesus Christ Himself. “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.” So we have the termination of that great war and the defeat of these war demons. Jesus Christ at the second advent is the Almighty God, so it is called “the war of the great day of God the Almighty one [or the omnipotent one].”

All of this brings us to a point. When war comes along it brings abnormal circumstances. There are abnormal circumstances in peace time, crime being a good illustration, but the abnormal circumstances of war time seem to multiply. Families are torn apart, loved ones are separated, and there is a tremendous need for leadership, a tremendous market for leadership. Life, again, is a market for leadership. We have, therefore, in verse 15 a parenthesis, a very special application to born-again believers living at that time. Of course, it applies to us today as it does to them.

First of all the verse begins with an eschatological principle. The first word is very important, it is a demonstrative particle, I)dou. I)dou is taken from the aorist active imperative of the verb o(raw which means to look or to see. The demonstrative particle means not to behold but to be alert. This, therefore, reminds us of the fact that one of our responsibilities is to be alert with regard to historical circumstances.

We have studied the doctrine of historical trends which, as found in the Word of God, are designed to keep you alert with regard to history. You have to be alert for certain types of adversity when they come. You have to be ready to crank up that second stage of the faith-rest drill. You have to take in doctrine on a daily basis knowing that God is never going to test you beyond what you are able to handle with the doctrine you have learned. For those who are not able to handle it it simply means that they have failed to fulfil the plan of God for their lives.

And this principle also deals with what we have been studying lately: the protocol of heaven. We have seen that great temple which is also a barracks and a castle. We saw God the Father use one of the highest-ranking angels in the angelic college of heralds, an officer of arms, to send a mandate, a message, to the cloud where the Lord Jesus Christ sits as the controller of history. He sent the mandate to judge the earth. In the meantime in the barracks was the special execution squad. Also in that same barracks area we saw the pur sui vant officer who was to command the execution squad. Then we saw in chapter fourteen that golden altar of incense where the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs had been offered, and from that the king of arms, the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds who brought a confirming order. We saw how the pur sui vant officer received his command and how the herald issued each one a bowl of judgment to be poured upon the earth.

We have noted that the first five judgements were judgment by pain, and that was the last call, crisis evangelism, to give people under conditions of pain a temporary opportunity inside of the cosmic system so that they could personally respond to the gospel which they had heard time and time again and to believe in Christ and to trust Him.

Now we go from those unbelievers and judgment by pain followed by judgment by death, grace judgements, to the believers. What about the believers? Everything we have been studying in chapters 14-16 deals primarily with unbelievers. There are two categories of believers. The protocol of heaven told us that there is great happiness in heaven. There is capacity for happiness and that capacity is based on protocol. Now that protocol comes to the earth. Our alert system today is the divine dynasphere. Protocol in heaven was brought to earth on the first Christmas day when the humanity of Christ was born into the prototype divine dynasphere. Then, when the Lord Jesus Christ ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father He gave to the royal family the operational divine dynasphere. We have the operational type; our Lord used the prototype during His life on earth. Only inside of that operational divine dynasphere is there any happiness or blessing or alertness.

Once the Church, the royal family, is resurrected and we get into the Tribulation we are going back to the Age of Israel, and therefore they do not have the same ministry of God the Holy Spirit that we have; it goes back to Old Testament times. But they do have a basis for alertness, so when we have in this phrase, “Be alert,” it has to do with the fact that they have the same spiritual life that Abraham had based on the faith-rest drill. However, when we apply this we can apply it to the Church Age for our alertness is based on the very protocol of heaven, the use of the divine dynasphere. God has a plan for your life and therefore the first two words, translated from two Greek words, “Be alert,” tells us that we have an application coming up even though we are dealing with eschatological doctrine. So the very fact that it says, “Be alert,” reminds us once again of several things: God has a plan for your life and as long as you are alive that plan never changes. God’s plan for your life takes the protocol right out of heaven and brings it to the earth so that you can have heaven on earth, so that you can have happiness, so that you can have blessing, so that your life can be very meaningful and very wonderful.

Believers by the thousands, and perhaps even the millions, are going to survive some of the worst disasters of history and they will survive by being alert. Alertness is always the issue. Alertness, of course, is just as much an issue to us even though we do not live in an eschatological dispensation. We have the doctrine of historical trends and we have something that no other dispensation possesses, the operational type of the prototype of the first Christmas present in all of history. Needless to say many millions of believers and unbelievers will survive the worst disasters of history. The worst of all is the second advent and they will be alive for that event as well. The first application that we need to make right now is that no weapon or disaster will destroy the entire population of the world at any time. God will never permit the destruction of the human race by man’s bad decisions from a position of weakness, demon influence, or even divine judgment. In other words, the human race will continue until the Millennium, at which time the baptism of fire will take out all the unbelievers. By application, that means to us that there will never be any form of disaster that is not survivable.

Next we have the present active indicative of the verb e)rxomai, “I will come.” This is a futuristic present tense, it denotes an eschatological event, the second advent, which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is thought of as occurring now. That is the futuristic present tense. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ will produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of eschatological doctrine.

There has to be a comparative concept here. Whenever the second advent is mentioned there is usually something to accompany it. In this case it is going to be how we survive. This verse is a survival verse for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And how is that going to be declared? By an analogy, the comparative particle o(j which is translated “like.” The particle sets up an analogy between the modus operandi of a thief in the ancient world and how we are going to survive, not by the analogy to the thief but by the analogy to the victim of the thief. The independent nominative of klepthj introduces the analogy, “like a thief.”

The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. In the ancient world the thief did not operate on the basis of stealth. Today, burglaries are usually accomplished under the key word “stealth.” They come unobtrusively, quietly. In the ancient world they didn’t do that. The key word was “sudden invasion.” The thief in the ancient world invaded the home of the domicile suddenly, unexpectedly, surprising the occupants who were his victims. Since the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written we must recognise that there has been some change in the method of the burglary. Hence, to come as a thief means to come suddenly, to come unexpectedly, rather than to come quietly and stealthily. The burglar came suddenly to surprise the household and to overpower them, and the second advent will come suddenly, surprisingly, and the world’s population will be very surprised even though it has been declared as occurring.

All of this means something very simple to us. It means that in order to be protected in the ancient world against burglary you had to be alert, you had to have a system of protection, some security system. The burglary may happen infrequently but the point is: they had to be ready for it and they had to have some system, some weapon. It was all pre-prepared so that when the attack occurred they were ready.

Basically, this is what this analogy is all about. You and I live in the devil’s world where there is all kinds of injustice. The devil is never fair, the whole system he has set up, the cosmic system, is not fair either. Consequently, we have to be prepared, we have to be alert, we have to have a system. That is our survival. If you have a system you will come off a winner, you will be what is called by the next word makarioj, translated “blessed” or “happy.” Actually, it is in the singular here and so it refers to the fact that if you are prepared for anything in life it is because you are in God’s system, you are in God’s plan. God has a plan for your life, you are a believer, God has a plan for the life of every believer. The fact that you may be a loser living in the cosmic system, God still has a plan for your life, rebound is how you get back into the system. If you are not going to be taken by surprise, if you are not going to be overpowered by the enemy you must be in the system. That is the key: being in the system. The system is God’s plan and if you are in the system you have a wall of fire for everything in life and you also have the means of coping with every problem in life. The system is the key.

The next word is the word “happy,” and it means that the only true happiness in life comes from the system. Now basically, how did this system come about? Jesus Christ as eternal God became true humanity on what we celebrate as Christmas. On that first Christmas God the Father gave a Christmas present to God the Son. The humanity of God the Son had to be protected so that it could go to the cross. The cross had to come before the crown. There had to be a system, some means of protecting the humanity of Christ so that He could go to the cross and bear our sins in His own body on the tree. The only way this could be done was to give Him something that had never existed before in history, a prototype divine dynasphere. That was the system by which our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity would achieve His third royal title, King of kings and Lord of Lords. In that prototype Jesus Christ was filled with the Spirit. He was born filled with the Spirit, He remained in the prototype divine dynasphere, never got out, never sinned, never got into the cosmic system even once, and therefore of course He was filled with the Spirit throughout His entire life. Secondly, He had the basic modus operandi down perfectly before He lived very long, and as a result Jesus grew in wisdom — the second gate and the fourth gate. Wisdom: perception of doctrine, “and in favour with God and man.” God: that would be gate five, the humanity of Christ developing a personal love for God. As eternal God, of course, there always existed love between the Father and the Son, but as true humanity He developed the motivational virtue of personal love for God. “And with man”, was gate six, impersonal love toward all: functional virtue. He also developed humility, “He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.” He passed every test. Our Lord Jesus Christ at a very early stage reached the winner’s gate. So His humanity functioned inside the prototype divine dynasphere, and as a result our Lord Jesus Christ was qualified to go to the cross. Why? Because as a son of Adam He is the only member of the human race who from birth all of the way to the cross was absolutely sinless in His humanity. As deity He could not sin; as true humanity He was tempted and could sin but did not.

As God Jesus Christ could not be judged for our sins. We are all condemned at birth not on the basis of our personal sins. The wages of sin, one sin: Adam’s, is death, and Adam’s sin was imputed to each one of us so that our personal sins were never imputed to us for judgment. Instead they were imputed to Christ on the cross and Christ was qualified because of impeccability. As eternal God He was not able to sin; as true humanity living in the prototype divine dynasphere He was able not to sin. He was able not to sin as true humanity because the prototype divine dynasphere was the system that God the Father gave Him on the first Christmas. That was His birthday present and that birthday present carried Him to the cross. On the cross the justice of God the Father imputed all of our sins to Christ and they were judged. But remember that it was His humanity that bore our sins: He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. “He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Now we have in our passage, “Be alert, I will come as a thief. Happy is the one who watches.” The word “happy” of course, in the time of the worst historical disaster at the end of the Tribulation, tells us that the believer in the system possesses perfect happiness. The system produces something that nothing else in the world can produce, and that is capacity for happiness, not only capacity for happiness but capacity for prosperity, capacity for blessing, capacity for promotion, capacity for life. The unbeliever can have capacity based upon the function of gate three, enforced and genuine humility related to the laws of divine establishment, but we are talking here now about happiness in the system. Being born-again gives us great potential. We have all the talent that is necessary. Once we accept Jesus Christ as saviour we have the talent but the talent will never be useable by God unless we learn the play book, and learning the play book is learning the system. God has a plan for your life and that plan is a system and that system is the first Christmas present ever given. It was given to our Lord Jesus Christ and it sustained His humanity throughout the thirty-three years of His mission in the first advent on earth. Once our Lord Jesus Christ was ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father we have the dispensation of the royal family introduced. And what did He do? He turned right around and gave us the operational type divine dynasphere. We have to live in that divine dynasphere and when we do there is a word used right here, “happy.” But it is not happiness as such, it is the capacity for it as well, it is the capacity for anything. So in time of the worst historical disaster at the end of the Tribulation there is a plan for the believer at that time; there is a system, a momentum, and a priority concept in whatever God’s plan is for the Tribulational believer. And, of course, the only way that people can be useable and survive, and have great happiness, in disaster periods of history is to be in the plan of God, to know the system and to function under it.

The suddenness and power of the second advent will completely surprise everyone except the believer who has been living in the system. The mature believer has a maximum knowledge of eschatological doctrine, he will understand the prophetical trends of the book of Revelation, they have been crystallised in his soul. He will be functioning in whatever is comparable to our divine dynasphere and the principle is: the believer who keeps his priorities straight will never be surprised or overcome by any form of historical disaster.

So we have the articular present active participle of the verb gregorew. The word means to watch but it really means to remain alert, “Happy is he who remains alert.” The definite article is used as both the personal pronoun and the relative pronoun. It is a reference to the believer who is consistently positive toward Bible doctrine, the person who observes the priorities of the plan of God, the believer learns the play book, the believer who can interpret historical trends, the believer who understands the priority issue in the plan of God: In God’s plan, mandates first; in God’s system, virtue first; in God’s purpose, Christ first; in God’s policy, grace first; in God’s objective, momentum first; in God’s authority, doctrine first. These priorities always exist. This is the dispensation of the divine dynasphere and will not exist as such after the Rapture but the believers of the Tribulation have a system, a plan. God has a plan for your life just as he will have a plan for theirs. That plan includes certain characteristics: a purpose, for example. The purpose for the plan of God and the reason that we are sustained logistically on planet earth is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in time, therefore to achieve tactical victory through spiritual momentum in the divine dynasphere. God’s plan also has an objective: to advance to spiritual maturity in the plan, therefore to be a winner while living on this earth. God’s plan has a policy, and in the administration of the plan of God grace is the policy of God. Therefore, the importance of both logistical grace and supergrace. It must be remembered always that the point of reference for God’s plan is the justice of God which is one half of divine integrity. The other half of divine integrity or holiness is God’s perfect righteousness, and that is imputed to each one of us at the point of salvation. So a pipeline is established between the justice of God and the righteousness of God. The fact that we are alive right now, everything that we have, is courtesy of the justice of God. We might be a winner living in the plan of God or we might be a loser as a believer living in the cosmic system, but the justice of God sends us daily logistical support and it goes from divine justice to divine righteousness. This is grace. God doesn’t bless us because we are good or nice or moral, etc., God blesses us because we possess His righteousness. In the pipeline the initiating point is justice, the receiving point is righteousness of God. Therefore, God isn’t going to bless you because you do something, He blesses you because you have His righteousness. That becomes very important because grace is the function of the justice of God in imputing blessing to the indwelling righteousness of God. That is true of logistical grace and that is true of the six paragraphs of supergrace life.

God also has a system and the system of God calls for virtue-first. That is the way it was with our Lord in the prototype in the original Christmas present and the moment we accept Christ as saviour we receive that Christmas present. Virtue actually begins at gate three directed toward authority and that, of course, is basic virtue in life. Your attitude toward authority determines your integrity, your virtue in life. Then, of course, in gate we five we have motivational virtue directed toward God. At gate six, functional virtue directed toward man and circumstances. This is the issue in the plan of God: virtue-first, not service first, not straightening out your life first.

There are also results in the plan of God. Residence, function and momentum in the divine dynasphere, in the protocol. God has brought heaven down to earth and that protocol means happiness, and that protocol is brought down to the earth only inside the divine dynasphere. The first time we enter the divine dynasphere is the moment we believe in Christ, we are filled with the Spirit at that particular point. So protocol is the system and the system is protocol. The result is that good decisions, then, in the divine dynasphere give us strength for future options. Good decisions from a position of strength always keep the options open and it results in the believer having control of his life and it results in the believer having a personal sense of destiny whether living in historical prosperity or adversity.

We have also noted that the system has an enemy and that is the cosmic system of Satan. And the system has protocol in heaven through which Jesus Christ controls history, and people become the products of their own decisions; a protocol on earth which keeps the believer functioning on earth under the principle of virtue-first. It all adds up to the fact of watching, as per this passage.

So gregorew, therefore, has a meaning to us and in translation it reads: “Be alert, I will come like a thief [the surprise element of the second advent]. Happy is he who stays alert.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past with the perception of Bible doctrine and continues to the very moment of the second advent. For us it is the principle of alertness as of the moment we accept Christ as saviour and as long as we live on this earth. It is a phase two alertness. Once we die or the Rapture occurs, whichever happens first, we are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord, we move into another state. We leave behind the operational, the functional divine dynasphere; we no longer need it. Therefore, the alertness is always related to the operational divine dynasphere, God’s system for our life. The active voice: believers produce the action of the verb by living in the system. The participle is circumstantial. In addition to this the action of the present participle is coterminous with the action of the main verb. The main verb here is the inserted e)imi, “happy is.”

The principle: There is no happiness in life apart from reception and application of doctrine, the momentum of the plan of God in every dispensation of history. The only happiness comes from your own capacity, and capacity comes from Bible doctrine. Staying alert has to do with the plan of God.

The next phrase is a little more difficult because, again, we have to go back to the time in which the Bible was written. We have a connective kai and then a present active participle from terew, and terew is used in a lot of ways. Here we have the military use of it and it means to guard, to be on guard duty. The customary present is for what habitually occurs when the believer is positive toward doctrine. Alertness means to walk our post; Gate five, toward God; gate six, toward people; gate seven, toward circumstances, so that we can arrive at gate eight as a winner. The doctrinal believer actually produces the action of the verb. It is a circumstantial participle.

Next we have the accusative plural direct object from i(mation which means a tunic, and it refers to the uniform of the day, of walking a post, being on guard duty, “and guards his uniform equipment.” Guarding his uniform equipment has to do with a custom in the ancient world. When a person walked his post and each guard peeled off at his post the sergeant of the guard would say, “Watch your tunic.” It meant that at some time during the night he was going to come by with the officer of the day and they were going to inspect every sentry post and if the man at, say, number three was asleep they had a very quick court martial. The officer of the day nodded and the sergeant of the guard stepped up with his torch and put it to the guards tunic and he was burned alive right then and there. Sometimes the guard would wake up and look for snow or something to roll in to put the flame out. If he survived he would go back to the barracks naked and suffer the sarcasm of everyone else in the platoon. And that is about what we have here: “so that he may not march naked, and they [the garrison] see his shame [his disgrace].” This is a military idiom, then, for a sentry walking his post and it becomes an excellent analogy to the doctrinal believer who understands historical trends at the last half of the Tribulation. And the analogy to us as believers: If we do not live in the God’s system we are going to get burned. Doctrinal alertness is absolutely necessary, not only for our survival historically but our blessing in all the categories of history. This alertness, then, is the function of the faith-rest drill which was spirituality in the dispensation of Israel and, of course, passed down to the dispensational part of the Tribulation.

In our study of this context beginning in Revelation 14:16 we began the study of the protocol of heaven. We saw how it related to the angelic college of heralds. On the first Christmas day the whole angelic host passed in review. That would include the angelic order of battle as well as the angelic college of heralds. These represent the aristocracy of the elect angels and, of course, they were very very interested then, as they are now, in everything that pertains to the first Christmas day; and to the first advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, the events which followed, and how we are going to utilise the greatest opportunity ever given to those who are believers in any dispensation of history. This means that Christmas has a great significance to us as members of the royal family of God, believers of the Church Age. Even Moses longed to see our day, and while he utilised the assets given to him more than any man in the Old Testament, nevertheless we have something far greater than Moses ever imagined and it is related to Christmas.

The angelic college of heralds is made up of seraph-type aristocrats plus cherub-type aristocrats plus a few pur sui vant messengers. We have seen how they are used in the protocol of heaven in chapters 14 and 15. We saw, for example, how the officer of arms, the second highest seraph in the angelic college of heralds takes the messages from the temple of heaven, from God the Father to the cloud where our Lord Jesus Christ sits as He controls history. Here is the second highest aristocrat in the angelic order and this aristocrat is one of the more famous of those who existed prior to the creation of man in the angelic phase of the angelic conflict. The privilege, therefore, of simply carrying that message was a fantastic thing to him. The mandate had to do with judgment on earth.

Simultaneously at the golden altar, the highest ranking angel, the king of arms, the angel who was the greatest of the prehistoric angelic conflict, brings a confirmatory mandate related to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational saints. Then, out of the temple comes our first cherub, a pur sui vant officer, and he goes on standby waiting to take his command. All of this is a part of the protocol of heaven. Since God the Father has committed all judgment to God the Son, according to John 5:22, 23, this protocol becomes very important.

Finally, the pur sui vant officer goes back and takes command of the execution squad made up of seven pur sui vant messengers. An angelic herald issues each one of them his golden bowl. So we have the protocol in heaven and that protocol means many things as we have noticed. It means capacity for happiness in heaven, capacity for blessing. The protocol of heaven means that there is perfect virtue among all creatures living in heaven at this time and that perfect virtue goes right back to the basic virtue of humility, humility directed toward authority. Humility is recognised in heaven and therefore freedom is related to capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, all of the great capacities that make heaven a wonderful place. So the protocol of heaven is the basis of happiness.

Down here on earth, of course, we have great unhappiness because man is the product of his own decisions and man by man’s efforts is self-destructive. Therefore, God has protected man from destroying himself and has promised to preserve the human race until the end of history. All of this is possible because, first of all, even though man is the product of his own decisions and loses control of his own life and produces his own misery by bad decisions, God has provided some grace judgements. These grace judgements we have noted in chapter sixteen in the first eleven verses: the first five bowl judgements. These judgements all perform one thing: pain. Normal evangelism occurs generally in normal times — in times of prosperity or in times of certain kinds of adversity such as economic adversity — but it is the presentation of the gospel under normal conditions. Thousands and millions of people, of course, say no; they reject the gospel under normal conditions. This is not the end of evangelisation for those persons for eventually there is a second category of evangelism which we call crisis evangelism. It is related to a system, a category, of divine judgment: judgment by pain. Judgment by pain means that God brings about certain categories of adversity to you and you are in a state of pain, of misery. Your soul is in a state of great unhappiness and the purpose for this judgment by pain is to evangelise. All divine judgment is related to the grace of God. God is not arbitrary in His judgements, and while they come from His justice they are always related to His love, for God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to a change of attitude toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So crisis evangelism is designed with one thing in mind. Judgment by pain, one of the two categories of judgment of the unbeliever, is brought about in order to distract the unbeliever. The unbeliever lives in the cosmic system, he has rejected Christ as saviour, and so as he lives in there he is distracted from these things by the pain brought about through divine judgment. And the purpose is to give him objectivity in the cosmic system, to distract him from the trends of the cosmic system, and to give him a temporary objectivity so that he has another opportunity to accept Christ as saviour. So we have the principle of judgment by pain, the last call for those who would have the opportunity of believing in Christ.

Then in Revelation 16:12 we begin to see judgment by death. For those who reject the gospel under judgment by pain there is a second category of divine judgment, judgment by death. That would be the sixth and seventh bowl judgements. In the sixth bowl judgment, verse 12, we have the cause of the Middle East campaign at the end of the Tribulation. In the last part of the Tribulation we have the last world war of history, and in that world war we have three things: a war, and in that war a number of campaigns and in each campaign we have X number of battles. In verses 13-14 we have the cause of the final world war. In verse 16 we have the cause of the battle of Armageddon.

In the midst of this study of causes we have application. We have seen, for example, that life is a market for leadership and for those who are prepared God will always use them in the crisis. There will always be opportunity for many categories of leadership.

Before we go on to the cause of the battle of Armageddon we have application: “Be alert, I will come like a thief,” the surprise element of the second advent. Of course, those who are taken by surprise are those who are not prepared by doctrinal teaching. Then we have the word “happy.” For once it is in the singular. Generally in the plural it is translated “blessed.” “Happy is he [the Tribulational believer, the one who has momentum in the plan of God] who stays alert [a reference to guard duty] and guards his uniform.”

To us that means that there are believers who are alert because they are living under the protocol of heaven. God has a plan for the life of every believer but they are the ones who are utilising the protocol. They are the ones who find that every day is Christmas. And there are believers who have gone to sleep and they are living in the cosmic system. They are therefore distracted from God’s plan and they are the ones who are the losers. So we have winners and losers.

There is no other way to explain it all except to recognise that God has found a way to bring the protocol of heaven to the earth. Prior to the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ on the first Christmas this protocol was brought to the earth in a very limited way in the plan of God, but once the virgin birth occurred on that first Christmas day God the Father gave our Lord Jesus Christ a Christmas present. He gave Him the full protocol of heaven, He gave Him the prototype divine dynasphere, the basis for all happiness and blessing for those who are believers, the key to the plan of God. God the Father invented the divine dynasphere to sustain the humanity of Christ during the incarnation. This is the true meaning of Christmas. The original divine dynasphere, therefore, was a Christmas gift from God the Father to God the Son. It was to give God the Son, during His earthly ministry, the protocol of heaven, the great happiness and blessing that comes from virtue. Virtue is related basically to humility and therefore that is where it all begins. Because of the virgin pregnancy and the virgin birth when human life was imputed to the embryo-foetus of the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ He was born without the imputation of Adam’s sin.

When man is born into this world at the moment of birth human life is imputed to the human soul, and the soul is the residence for that human life. That human life will always reside in the soul. But simultaneously with us Adam’s original sin is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature, and therefore we are born physically alive and spiritually dead. That is so if anyone dies before reaching accountability he automatically goes to heaven under the principle of condemnation must precede justification. Our personal sins are not imputed to us for judgment, they are reserved for the cross, but it was different with our Lord Jesus Christ.

The old sin nature is formed because the man wilfully sinned in the garden, but our Lord Jesus Christ did not have an old sin nature because of the virgin pregnancy and the virgin birth. Therefore, when He came into the world human life was imputed to the human soul and our Lord has human life in the human soul of His humanity forever. That is a part of the doctrine of the hypostatic union. But Adam’s original sin was not imputed to Him and therefore into His human spirit there had to be something. Our Lord was born trichotomous as Adam was created trichotomous. Adam became dichotomous through sin. There had to be something, some present, for the first Christmas day, and that present was the prototype divine dynasphere. Our Lord was given that prototype divine dynasphere on that Christmas day. That has more to do with your happiness, your blessing, the meaning of your life, the significance of your life than anything else.

There is a Christmas message found in Hebrews 10:5-9, “Therefore, when he [the incarnate Christ] entered into the world, he spoke [Psalm 40-6-8],” here is the subordination to the Father’s plan, here is the beginning of that great dynamic, humility, that great happiness, that great blessing that came to our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity. “ ‘You [God the Father] do not desire sacrifice and offering.’ Throughout the entire Old Testament salvation was taught through sacrifices and offerings. In the Age of Israel ritual was the means of teaching because they did not have a completed canon of scripture. There were two categories of people who taught: the prophet and the priest. The priest taught by ritual; the prophet taught by message. None of the sacrifices which were part of the ritual could propitiate God the Father, it took our Lord Jesus Christ and His ministry to accomplish that fact. Therefore we have the phrase that our Lord recognises. There is no efficacy in animal sacrifices, they are merely a teaching aid, the real efficacy is through the first Christmas when our Lord came to the earth …

‘but you have prepared for me a human body,’ no human body is more important in history than the human body of our Lord Jesus Christ coming into the world on that first Christmas day, ‘Behold, I have arrived,’ Jesus Christ has come as the God-Man, the unique person of the universe, ‘(In the scroll of the scripture it is written concerning me) I have come to accomplish your plan, O God,’ the plan of God the Father called for God the Son to become true humanity on that first Christmas day, and from that cradle to go to the cross, and from the cross to receive the crown at the second advent.

When He calls God the Father “O God” He is speaking from His humanity. Of course our Lord is eternal God Himself but He is talking to the Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ was born inside of the prototype divine dynasphere. He was in the plan of God right from the start, His humanity was protected and He expressed true humility, He subordinated Himself to the Father’s plan. A plan always has authority, therefore He subordinated Himself to the Father’s authority.

Just before our Lord went to the cross he expressed again this same concept in Matthew 26:36, “Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit down here while I go over there and pray.’ And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee [James and John], and he began to experience great distress.”

Why? Because Jesus Christ is eternal God. As eternal God He can have nothing to do with sin. Jesus Christ is also true humanity. As true humanity, within 24-hours He must receive the imputation of the sins of the world and be judged for every sin that has ever been committed in the history of the human race. Therefore He began to think about this and He was in a point of great distress; this was a crisis in His life.

“Then he spoke with them [Peter, James and John].” Notice that these are three of the greatest men in the early church but they are no use to Him. They can’t counsel Him, they can’t help Him, they can pray but they can’t be any good. He has to work it out for Himself. Ultimately you can be surrounded by the greatest advice in the world and the greatest believers and they cannot do anything for you, you have to do it yourself. God’s plan is to make you spiritually self-sustaining, for you to take the responsibility for your own decisions, good or bad, and for you to make your decisions in relationship to the plan of God for your life

‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, to the point of death [He was about to die]; Stay here and concentrate [in prayer] with me.’ ”

“And when he had advanced a short distance, he fell on his face and prayed , saying, ‘My Father [He is speaking from His humanity], if it is possible, let this cup be removed from me; however, not as I will, but as you will’.”

What was that cup about to be administered? That cup had all the sins of the world in it. All of the sins of the world had been collected in the computer of divine decrees and filled the cup. So there is the cup and God the Father is about to pour the cup of His wrath from heaven upon God the Son. These sins are to be imputed to Christ on the cross.

Notice what our Lord said: “Not as I will, but as you will.” He was still inside the prototype divine dynasphere. He was still functioning at gate three, and here He brings genuine and enforced humility together demonstrating the power of virtue, for this is the most basic virtue of life. Not only is humility capacity for life, capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, but it is the basis for all power in life. There is no power in arrogance; all of the power is in humility.

And when He came back and found His disciples sleeping he said to Peter, “So, you didn’t have the power to concentrate with me for one hour?” That is true. Peter did not have the power. Later on Peter would get the operational divine dynasphere but it would not be available until the day of Pentecost which would be ten days after our Lord’s ascension. Our Lord’s humanity was in the prototype divine dynasphere and He said, “Peter you do not have the power to concentrate.” The protocol of heaven has come to the earth and He tells Peter what his problem is now, “You have no power.” And what does He mean? The divine dynasphere: You have no dunamij.

Verse 42 — “Again, a second time he went away and he prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done’.” There is the classical illustration of how in a magnificent way the divine dynasphere, the protocol of heaven works. It took the apostle Paul, the great genius of history, to describe our Lord’s function inside of the divine dynasphere — Philippians 2:5-8.

“Keep on thinking this within you which was also resident in Christ Jesus,” Our Lord Jesus Christ lived His life on earth in His humanity in the prototype. Now we have the operational type divine dynasphere. He kept thinking from gate four; we must keep thinking from gate four. He had the full realm of doctrine in His human soul. He learned the whole realm of doctrine, “who though he eternally existed in the essence of God, he did not think equality.” One of the most arrogant thoughts that ever comes into this world is that we are all equal. There is no such thing as equality and there never will be. We are not born equal; we do not live equal. Equality is the propaganda of Satan; “with God a profit to be seized and utilised,” He did not use His equality with God to gain anything. He had perfect happiness, perfect control, perfect capacity for life, “but he deprived himself of the proper function of deity.”

How did He do that? When Satan came to tempt Him Satan had already seen that He wasn’t going to sin in any ordinary way. So Satan in his great genius hit on a plan to get our Lord to act independently of the Father’s plan, to get our Lord outside of that divine dynasphere — Matthew chapter four. But our Lord did not use His deity to act independently of the Father’s plan. When you and I get into the cosmic system we are acting independently of the Father’s plan and we are less than no good; “when he had received the form of a servant [He became the Father’s servant], when he had been born in the likeness of mankind. In fact, although he was discovered in outward appearance as a man [true humanity], he humbled himself [the function of gate three] by becoming obedient to the point of death, that is the death of the cross.”

If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ God has a very specific plan for your life. His plan for your life includes a purpose: glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ in time; an objective: advance to spiritual maturity utilising the operational divine dynasphere; a policy: grace as the policy in administering His plan for the Church Age believer; a system which calls for priorities — virtue-first; a point of reference: the integrity or holiness of God; an authority: the Word of God, Bible doctrine; a result: good decisions from a position of strength which result in having control of your life and a personal sense of destiny. There is an enemy, the cosmic system, and there is a protocol, the protocol of heaven.

When our Lord Jesus Christ ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father He was given His third royal title. In that royalty He did not have a royal family. In His first title which is His title of deity He has a royal family, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. His royal title: the Son of God. When He was born into the world He was born into a royal family. Joseph was descended from David through Solomon; Mary was descended from David through Solomon’s younger brother Nathan. He was born into royalty. His royal family: the Davidic dynasty. And in addition to that He had a title: son of David and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Our Lord Jesus Christ was minus a royal family when He received His third royal title, therefore He was given a royal family. The royal family was given as an additional Christmas gift by bringing to a halt the Age of Israel, and by introducing the Church Age, the dispensation of the royal family. The purpose of the Church Age was to interrupt the Age of Israel to call out a royal family. When the royal family is completed we have the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church and then the Age of Israel continues with the Tribulation. We are studying the Tribulation and the cause of the last world war in history in the last year or so of the Tribulation.

In the system of priorities for the plan of God in any dispensation, but especially ours, in God’s plan the mandates are first. We have to learn the general order for the plan of God. In God’s system it is virtue-first. Before we are qualified to do anything we must acquire at least the first category of virtue: gate three, the first and most basic of the virtues in the operational divine dynasphere, humility directed toward authority. There is no happiness until we have settled the matter that there will never be equality in this world and there will always be authority. Our relationship to authority produces the basic virtue of enforced and genuine humility.

Gate one, as we have noted is the filling of the Spirit; gate two: basic Christian modus operandi; gate four is the momentum gate for perception and application of doctrine. Gate five is virtue-first. Before you can ever produce anything that will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in this life there must be motivational virtue. The only motivation for the spiritual life is found at gate five, confidence in God. If you do not have confidence in God, the function of motivational virtue at gate five, you will never function in production. You must have motivation for that is the key to life. It isn’t what you do in life that counts, it is your motivation in doing it, and motivational virtue always begins at gate five. It has love for God and confidence in God. We have seen that motivational virtue that produces personal love for God also produces at gate six functional virtue, impersonal love toward the entire human race. But what is necessary for the future? Motivational virtue produces confidence in God and when you have motivational virtue, confidence in God, you have functional virtue, courage toward man and circumstances.

The real issue is whether you are prepared for whatever circumstances that may exist. Do you have capacity for happiness and blessing in every form of circumstances? God’s plan goes on whether the weather is hot or cold, whether we are in a period of adversity of prosperity, whether there is war or peace. So the circumstances of history have nothing whatever to do with the plan of God.

God’s plan demands virtue-first. That is the second priority. In God’s purpose, Christ first; in God’s policy, grace first; in God’s objective, momentum first; in God’s authority, doctrine is first. Therefore we have the system, and the system is protocol. God has brought heaven to earth through the protocol system, the divine dynasphere. God has a plan for the life of every believer and if the believer lives inside of the divine dynasphere then, of course, he will come up a winner. Living in the cosmic system means living one’s Christian life on this earth as a loser. Being a loser doesn’t mean you lose your salvation, it means that you lose all of the rewards and decorations. So don’t sit on the bank waiting for the river to pass you by. Learn Bible doctrine today, tomorrow, and the next day and then you will get the priorities straight.

Without a system we have no standards, no co-ordination, no performance, and no effectiveness. In the divine system the ability resides in the essence of God; the compliability resides in the volition of the believer. Without the divine system the believer has no standards. He goes on his own standards, he develops his own self-righteousness and he develops self-righteous arrogance, lives in the cosmic system, and is a loser. So the standards must come from virtue-first. The believer has no co-ordination. The application of doctrine to the circumstances of life and becoming spiritually self-sustaining, fulfilling the system of virtue-first, demands co-ordination. That co-ordination comes from protocol. The only protocol in the world today that counts is the divine protocol of heaven, it all resides inside of the divine dynasphere, the first Christmas gift which God the Father gave to the humanity of God the Son at the virgin birth — the prototype. We now have, in this dispensation only, the operational type.

The believer also has no standards, no co-ordination, and no performance. The only performance that counts is momentum in the system, momentum in the principle of protocol. The believer has no effectiveness, neither the attainment of spiritual maturity nor the glorification of Jesus Christ nor any legitimate Christian service, unless it is the production of God’s system. Therefore, it is important to understand the dynamics of the spiritual life, to understand the issue, and to understand that God has a system and that apart from that system we are in a very bad situation.

Going back now to our passage in Revelation 16:15, “Be alert.” Our alertness, by way of application, depends upon our living inside the operational divine dynasphere, functioning at the various gates. Then we studied the analogy: “I come like a thief,” which has to do with the surprise element of the second advent. “Happy is he,” by interpretation this is the Tribulational believer who is positive toward doctrine, has momentum in the plan of God, and is a winner in his own particular dispensation.

Right now the application belongs to us. “I come like a thief” means that events are going to move rapidly, things are going to come suddenly. Anything that is bad news, anything that is tragedy always takes us by surprise. You have to, therefore, have preparation and the only preparation is in the system. You have to be able to handle the situation and resolve the situation. You have to be able to meet your own problems and solve them and not lean on someone else. You must become spiritually self-sustaining. All of that, of course, is the production of the system. And there is happiness in the system. Just as there is happiness in heaven for the protocol of heaven so there is happiness on earth because the protocol system has been brought to us as members of the royal family. “Happy is he who stays alert,” and this is the word, as we saw, for staying alert on guard duty, “and guards his uniform equipment,” which has to do with the general orders to the guards as they were posted. So the concept is alertness. We must be very alert with regard to life and its circumstances. Alertness is a part of the function inside of the divine dynasphere, and just as life is a market for leadership, so life is a challenge for alertness.

Now for the final purpose clause in verse 15. We begin with the conjunction i(na which introduces a purpose clause. And this is a negative purpose clause, i(na mh, and mh is simply the negative in the Greek used with the subjunctive in contrast to o)uk which is the negative used with the indicative mood. So the negative purpose clause could be translated “lest,” or “in order that not.”

With this we have a present active subjunctive from the verb peripatew which means to walk, but it also means to march and in the connotation where military terms are used in context here it means to march, “so that he might not march.” The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event which has not yet occurred: the disgrace of any individual believer because he is a loser. This occurs after death to find out if you have marched naked or not. This is also a pictorial present, it presents to the mind a process of failure, a process of becoming a loser, a process of the believer living inside of the cosmic system, living with negative believers in the last half of the Tribulation. The active voice: Tribulational believers who are losers produce the action of the verb, negative volition, and by application it applies to anyone in the Church Age who is a loser. The subjunctive mood simply forms the negative purpose clause. With it, instead of the usual accusative direct object which would ordinarily follow, we have an independent nominative from the noun gumnoj, which means naked, totally unclothed, totally out of uniform. The independent nominative is used when an idea is conceived of as independent of any particular verbal relationship. Therefore the expression of the idea is left alone in the nominative case. That is why we do not have an accusative direct object. This nominative case names an idea rather than the object. Translation: “in order that he may not march naked.” The whole purpose here is to express an idea, not an object of the verb. That is why it is in the nominative case.

What is the idea? Just as sure as you are sitting here you are going to be a loser in life if as a born-again believer you miss the boat with regard to the plan of God, if you lose your alertness. Your alertness is positive volition toward Bible doctrine on a daily basis, your alertness is living in the divine system of protocol, living in the plan of God, the divine dynasphere. So we have the principle: “so that you may not march through life naked.”

From the analogy it is concluded that a certain number of Tribulational believers are going to be losers just as there are losers in the Church Age. Being a loser does not mean that you are going to lose your salvation. The analogy also implies maximum divine discipline for believers who fail. In the Tribulation many of them will die the sin unto death. Many sleeping sentries died at their post, they were burned to death before they could wake up. They went to sleep and they took the consequences of their own decision to fall asleep. Others, of course, were not burned to death but they were singed badly enough to learn, and therefore they were useable again for guard duty at a future time.

Then there is one more phrase we have here, a connective conjunction kai and a present active subjunctive from the verb blepw which means to see with the eye or to see quickly. It is translated, “and they see.” It is a pictorial present. The active voice: other members of the military organisation see in the garrison the shame you have brought on yourself, but by analogy it means other believers in heaven are going to see that you were a loser at the judgment seat of Christ and you are going to be ashamed. There will be no shame after physical death, “absent from the body, face to face with the Lord,” but once the judgment seat of Christ occurs that is where the losers are going to be ashamed.

The potential subjunctive mood here implies a future reference and is qualified by the element of contingency. The future reference has to do with the judgment seat of Christ; the element of contingency: you don’t have to be a loser. Right now you might say to yourself, “I am a loser.” That can all change.

Now we have that accusative singular direct object from the noun a)sxhmosunh, the strongest word for shame. And with that the possessive genitive from a)utoj, “his shame [or disgrace].” The loser is going to have one bad moment in eternity and that is at the judgment seat of Christ. At that particular time, if he is pronounced a loser then there will be that moment of shame because he had the same opportunity to be a winner as any other believer. The pattern of the judgment seat of Christ for the Church Age is the same pattern of evaluation for the Tribulational believer at the second advent. The two categories of Tribulational believers found in this passage are the same as in the Church Age, winners or losers.

“Be alert, I will come like a thief [the surprise element of the second advent]. Happy is he [the believer] who stays alert [living in the plan of God], and guards his uniform, so that he may not march naked, and they [the garrison of believers] see his disgrace [of being a loser].”

That brings us to the challenge which has to do with one thing only: Are you a winner or a loser at this point?

The Armageddon campaign is a part of the world war at the end of the Tribulation. It is the sixth plague or bowl judgment and, of course, it is a part of a world war called in verse 14 “the war of the great day of God the omnipotent one.” The Middle East campaign of that final world war of history is called sometimes Armageddon. From this we derive the title of the whole study which is the Armageddon campaign. In addition to that we now have in this particular passage a battle, the origin of the battle of Armageddon. We have previously seen in verse 12 the cause of the campaign in the Middle East at the end of the Tribulation. We then went to verses 13 and 14 where we saw the cause of the last world war in history. Now we have the cause of the battle of Armageddon.

We begin verse 16 with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then.” We are in sequence again. With this we have the aorist active indicative of the verb sunagw which means to assemble. Here it means concentration of forces. All of the Greek terms in this passage are military terms down through this verse and we have had to change the translation radically because of that. We have a culminative aorist tense contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety, the concentration of foreign armies in the Middle East, but we regard it from the viewpoint of existing results. There are at least four major battles, the battle of the valley of Jehoshaphat, the battle of Idumea, the battle of Armageddon, and the siege of Jerusalem, all of which are a part of that world war. The active voice: Jesus Christ who controls history produces the action of the verb.

While the last world war of history was started through demon activity it is our Lord Jesus Christ who assembles the armies of the world in the Middle East for their destruction at the second advent. No matter how war or any historical disaster is started it is our Lord Jesus Christ who either directly controls or permits the course of the catastrophe under the principle that man is the product of his own decisions. Evil is the principle by which man creates his own misery and his own historical disaster. Man being the product of his own decisions means simply this: When there is any catastrophe or disaster in a country it is always because there are too many negative decisions, because there are too many believers who are negative toward Bible doctrine. As goes the believer so goes the national entity. When believers are negative toward doctrine inevitably we have trouble. We have now come to the sixth bowl judgment where we have judgment by death rather than judgment by pain.

Our Lord Jesus Christ often starts a backfire judgment which controls the situation and perpetuates the human race in the historical extension of the angelic conflict. Again, the application: There is no sophisticated weaponry or anything else that will destroy the human race from the face of the earth. There will be wars and many more wars until the second advent of Christ but man will not be destroyed by war, the human race will continue to exist on planet earth as per the grace of God. Jesus Christ controls history through His own policy of blessing by association with the pivot of mature believers or by divine judgment. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the doctrine that Jesus Christ controls history.

“Then he [our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history] concentrated them.” The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that we have troop concentrations of all the power spheres of the Tribulation as an extension of the last world war in history.

The Middle East is always going to be a place of world war because strategically the Middle East is between two key geographical spots in history.

With this we have the accusative plural direct object from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun. It covers the armies of the king of the north, the armies of the kings of the east, a group of Asiatic powers on the Pacific basin, the Arab armies of the king of the south, the king of the west. We are not going to be dealing with the world war in general, we are going to limit it to the Middle East and the campaign of the Middle East because the Word of God always has a spiritual lesson to teach us. Therefore, in order to understand the spiritual lesson it becomes necessary for us to concentrate and focus on that part of the last world war in history that pertains.

A prepositional phrase follows: e)ij plus the accusative of topoj, “in a place,” battles have to take place on terrain, on the sea, in the air. Battles are always fought in a place, but before you have battles you have campaigns and before you have campaigns you have wars; “which was called,” the present passive participle from the verb kalew. This means that everything for a war had to be organised and these people were organised. There are always countries that are organised for a war, there are always countries that are looking for someone to pick on. To fight a war it takes a whole people with the right mental attitude. The present tense is a descriptive present of the participle kalew. The passive voice: the locale receives the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. It is “called in the Hebrew language,” the adverb E(braisti means in the Hebrew language. In the Greek we simply transliterate it Armagidw, the valley of Megiddo. Armageddon is the valley of Megiddo. We can translate it literally, “the mountains of Megiddo” because a(r refers to the mountains that go around it. The Megiddo range of mountains overlooks the valley of Esdraelon where Napoleon, after seeing it and its plains from one of the hills, exclaimed, “All the armies of the world can manoeuvre here.” To the west of the Megiddo range is the valley of Megiddo, to the north lies the valley of Esdraelon. It is a beautiful plain for a battlefield and it will form one of the great future battlefields of history. We simply call it from the Greek “Armageddon”; it is a transliteration from the Hebrew. Remember, however, that Armageddon is only one of several battles which is going to be fought in the Middle East during this world war.

Translation: “Then he [our Lord Jesus Christ] deployed them in a place which is called in the Hebrew language Armageddon.”

The cause of the world war in the last half of the Tribulation is the modus operandi of the kosmokratwr, the war demons, who take their orders from the unholy trinity. The cause of the Middle East campaign of that world war is the administration of the sixth bowl judgment. In beginning our study of Armageddon we note the deployment of troops from the army of the kings of the east in the valley of Esdraelon. They have invaded and have crossed the Euphrates. The king of the north has concentrated his armies at this time in North Africa, they have already been through the Middle East. We have prophecies regarding this in Joel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah.

One of the first things we note about warfare is that many nations are never prepared for it because they have been under the influence of peace movements. When people start thinking in terms of peace they are never prepared for war. Therefore, they cannot defend themselves and they are often enslaved. In Jeremiah 6:13,14 peace propaganda is used as a weapon for war. Whenever a nation starts screaming for peace it generally means that in a very short time they will be attacked. The doves are a part of organised evil in a nation. You have to have common sense, you have to be able to orient to reality. If you are in a state of arrogance you can’t orient to reality in either your personal life or the life of the nation in which you live. But if you as a believer are oriented to reality through the protocol of the divine dynasphere then you can recognise that when too many people start screaming for peace at any price you are in for war, you are going to be attacked. The enemy is going to take advantage of you at every possible turn. The peace movements are an announcement to the enemy that we are weak and they are looking for places to start attacking us, taking advantage of us.

Jeremiah 6:13,14, “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, every one is greedy for gain, and from the prophet even to the priest every one manufactures lies. And they have healed the wound of my people superficially” — they have passed out propaganda saying, ‘This is the answer,’ “saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.”

Jeremiah 8:11, “And they heal the brokenness of the daughter of my people superficially by saying, ‘Peace, peace’; but there is no peace.”

When people start peace movements and they gain momentum you can guarantee that there is war just around the corner.

For the mature believer, no matter how bad things get and no matter how bad a shape the military may be he can look from his spiritual life to the principle of Hebrews 11:34, “… become courageous in battle, put to flight invading armies.” That is the winner believer, the mature believer, the believer who has advanced in the protocol of the plan of God, the divine dynasphere. Maximum doctrine resident in the soul gives the mature believer battle courage, moral courage to make the tactical decisions under combat pressure. This is how heroes are born.

The testimony of mature David is given in Psalm 27:3, “Though an army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid; though wars rise against me, in spite of this I keep having my confidence [in God].” The mature believer, the winner, is protected in combat, according to Job 5:20, “In war he will redeem me from the power of the sword.” Even in military disaster, Hebrews 11:34, “escaping from the mouth of the sword.”

Warfare demands concentration, courage in combat. Deuteronomy 20 is one of those passages that gives us an extrapolation of the army regulations of the Jews. The Jewish nation as a client nation to God had a strong military establishment and they had a lot of army regulations. Some of them have been incorporated by God the Holy Spirit into the Word, and it shows you all at once certain principles: the importance of your spiritual life, the importance of being prepared for life in general which prepares you for war specifically, and any other crisis.

Deuteronomy 20:1, “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see [in reconnaissance] horses, chariots, and infantry more numerous than you, do not be afraid...”

Don’t be afraid! But that doesn’t come suddenly. You can’t tell people on the battlefield not to be afraid. The people who can obey that mandate are the people who live in the protocol system of God, the people who are prepared spiritually, the people who are positive toward Bible doctrine every day.

Remember the principle that is involved here: Historical events produce a need, and leadership meets that need; circumstances of life produce a market, and leadership supplies that market. Life is a market for leadership; crisis is the stage for that leadership. So when the mandate is given, “Do not be afraid of them,” that is for those who can obey it. Remember that courage is the ability to think under pressure and those who can think under pressure are those who have been thinking under pressures in life long before the battle — those who can use the essence of God rationale, those who can think in terms of the plan of God rationale, those who can think in terms of the logistical grace rationale, those who can think in terms of the imputation rationale. If you can think in terms of rationales then you can think under pressure. Remember that the circumstances of life produce a market, and with your ability to think under pressure you are going to provide the leadership for that market.

“… do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God,” that is it right there. Those who are best prepared for any crisis in life are those who can know the Lord as their God, those who have personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who have not only believed in Christ but have recognised the principle of protocol. Protocol is order, and the reason that some will never get with doctrine is because there is no order in their life. It is the same reason that they can’t even hang up their clothes, the same reason that they are not neat in any sense of the word. They are not categorical, they are not neat, they can’t think, they are not ready to learn doctrine because they won’t learn the vocabulary because they are lazy in their mind. Yet, God’s whole plan is a plan of categories, a plan of protocol. It is heaven on earth, and He supplies through grace, the filling of the Spirit at gate one, the faith-rest drill at gate two, enforced and genuine humility at gate three. Freedom does not prepare people for a crisis; authority prepares people for a crisis. That is why the profession of arms always leads an abnormal life in normal peace time, because in the profession of arms you can’t live a normal life; you are preparing for the abnormal, you are preparing for the battlefield, you are preparing for pressure. And in the same sense, when you walk into Bible class, you are preparing yourself for life, for the future. You are preparing yourself to market yourself as a leader in the future. Protocol has authority and authority is something some believers can’t take.

“… who brought you up from the land of Egypt is with you.” He has already demonstrated His faithfulness. He was faithful under more difficult circumstances, He will be faithful again.

Verse 2, “Now it shall come to pass that when you are advancing into battle, the priest shall come near and speak to the army,” spiritual preparation for what is to come. It takes spiritual preparation to fight professionally.

Verse 3, “Then he shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are advancing into battle against your enemies today. Do not faint in your right lobe.” Right lobes minus doctrine faint every time. “Do not be afraid.” Who is going to be afraid? Those who have not lived under the protocol system of God’s plan. God’s plan doesn’t spell out freedom for you, God’s plan says stand fast in the freedom, and stand fast is a military word for being under authority. It is the authority of the plan of God that makes your freedom meaningful.

( “Stand fast, therefore, in the freedom wherewith Christ has made you free.” Christ has made you free in the sense that it gives you the option day by day to take in doctrine and to grow in grace. When you turn down that option you are a loser)

“… or panic before them.” You cannot handle your weapons if you are trembling, and they had been trained to use their weapons and to use them professionally.

Verse 4, “for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to deliver you,” to be winners.

Verse 5, “The officers will speak to the troops, saying, ‘Who is the soldier who has constructed a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go on leave and return to his home, lest he die in battle and a civilian dedicate it.” There are some experiences he should have first to give meaning to his professional function.

Verse 6, “Furthermore, who is the soldier who has planted a vineyard and has not yet begun to enjoy it? [He hasn’t had a chance to sample the wine] Let him take a furlough and return to his home, lest he die in battle and a civilian enjoy his wines.”

Verse 7, “Furthermore, who is the soldier that is engaged to a woman and has not married her? Let him take a furlough and return to his home lest he die in battle and a civilian marries her.”

Verse 8, Why all of this? These are the people who do not go into battle single minded. They cannot concentrate on their job. When they get some orders they will not be able to obey them because they are distracted. The distractions of life are always a test. Is Bible doctrine more important to you than some lovely, beautiful woman, some magnificent home, a good bottle of wine? What is more important?

“Then the officers will speak additional words to the troops, and they shall say, ‘Who is the soldier that is afraid and fainting in his right lobe?’ ”

You may say that the beginning of courage is to admit it. No, it is to admit it for the sake of the whole outfit.

“ ‘Let him take a furlough and return to his home, so that he might not cause other soldiers’ right lobes to melt like his right lobe’.”

Fear is contagious, therefore eliminate it. That is exactly what God is going to do when the crisis comes. There is going to be a place for leadership but you don’t develop leaders by snapping your fingers, you develop leadership today, tomorrow, and the next day, the next day. So this excerpt from the Jewish army regulations emphasises not only moral and battle courage but indicates the importance of protocol, concentration on the profession of arms during the battle. To be effective in combat the soldier must concentrate on his job of killing, he must destroy the enemy in a totally objective and professional manner. This cannot be accomplished apart from courage in battle. Courage is the ability to think under pressure and therefore the combat soldier must avoid all emotion. So the combat soldier must avoid emotion and concentrate, he can’t be emotional and concentrate at the same time. He must concentrate on his function in battle, the operation of his weapons, the manoeuvres involved, and so on. The soldier cannot be distracted by his new home he has not completed, the business deal that is not completed, or the woman he hasn’t married. His memories must be pleasant but not distracting. The soldier who is distracted in combat is a casualty, he will lose his life, he will jeopardise the success of that combat arm, and therefore the army regulations were printed in the Word of God which lives and abides forever because it has spiritual significance to all of us.

In Daniel 11:36 we have the Jewish dictator of the state of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation. He has the problem of arrogance as all dictators do. There are three concepts that relate to the function of arrogance at gate one of cosmic one.

The first has to do with flaws. People have flaws, and flaws in people are divided into two categories: real flaws which result from lack of virtue or life in the cosmic system, and pseudo-flaws in which a person’s flair of scintillating personality is mistaken for either arrogance or a flaw. Pseudo-flaws are simply personality expressions and have nothing whatever to do with cosmic involvement. You do not determine the spiritual life on the basis of a person’s personality.

The second concept has to do with hang-ups. A hang-up is an obstacle in the normal function of life related to involvement in gate one of cosmic one which is motivational evil. People who are arrogant and living at gate one of cosmic one become snags in some form of subjectivity or abnormality. Only arrogant people have hang-ups which is, of course, the cosmic manifestation of their cosmic involvement. A principle we will note is the fact that when people are arrogant they cannot handle the pressures of life.

There are two kinds of hang-ups: blind hang-ups from blind arrogance, the expression of arrogance without identity; known hang-ups from known pride or arrogance. If a believer has power or authority the challenge of that power or authority results in abnormal behaviour. Hence, the explanation of the second beast of Revelation 13:11-18 and/or the false prophet, and/or the king of Daniel 11:36.

The third is concept syndrome. The symptoms of arrogant hang-ups are called syndrome. Syndromes are symptoms typical of a condition, and the condition is arrogance, involvement in cosmic one, involvement in the interlocking systems of arrogance.

The great enemy of momentum in the divine dynasphere and the fulfilment of the plan of God for your life is arrogance at gate one. That is the gate of motivating evil. Note that gate two of cosmic one where arrogance rejects the authority of the Bible teacher, the authority of the boss, the various categories of authority under establishment, means loss of consistency in the protocol system of God, and that is the plan of God for your life. Therefore, we have developing, of course, a lot of syndromes. The most common ones that we have studied in the past: the legalistic syndrome where people are always trying to run your business and not giving you your privacy of your priesthood and the opportunity to make your own mistakes from your own volition, and to relate it to your volition; the guilt syndrome, which explains why a lot of people do a lot of things, the right things in wrong ways; the emotional syndrome; the cowardice syndrome; the inadequacy syndrome; the socialist syndrome; the liberal syndrome; the antiestablishment syndrome; the anti-Semitism syndrome. These are the ones that have rejected the protocol of the plan of God.

The Tribulation is a time when many believers are trapped in the cosmic system, especially troubled by the antiestablishment syndrome, or what we might call the hippie syndrome. Matthew 24:12 mentions it specifically related to the Tribulation, “also because lawlessness [antiestablishment syndrome] shall increase the love of many [Tribulational believers] will be extinguished [in cosmic involvement, arrogance as a motivational evil, gate one].”

There are two kinds of arrogance related to authority. There is the arrogance which rejects authority over it and the arrogance which uses authority in terms of tyranny. On the one hand tyranny is arrogance, but on the other hand someone’s rejection of authority is also arrogance. That is why some of the most arrogant people in the world are scum. Scum are always arrogant; aristocrats are sometimes arrogant. The worst arrogance of all is with scum. Inevitably they are whiners and complainers and rejecters of authority and arrogant. Arrogance cannot stand social, economic, political or spiritual pressure. So we have the principle as to why we have these dictators in the Tribulation. It relates to a concept: arrogance cannot stand pressure.

When arrogance is challenged abnormal behaviour and emotional reaction begins. This is why gate one of cosmic one is the arrogance gate. Under pressure it triggers jealousy, hatred, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity, revenge motivation. Since arrogance is an unrealistic and expanded opinion of self it resides in the soul under normal circumstances in a state of contentment with the expanded image it has created. But normal circumstances always give way to pressure and arrogance cannot stand pressure. To the extent that you entertain arrogance in your life, or live in the cosmic system, to that extent you will never be able to apply one bit of doctrine you have learned and you will never be able to stand pressure, you will always crack one way or another under pressure. If you put arrogance under pressure it contracts, forcing the pressure to increase, and eventually it detonates. Anything which compresses arrogance creates a pressure which must explode. The pressure on arrogance at gate one produces compression which detonates the grenade and produces the fragments of the grenade, the other gates in cosmic one. For example, gate two, negative volition arrogance. When you are preoccupied with yourself in arrogance obviously you are not going to listen to the Word of God objectively, you are not even going to expose yourself to it. Negative volition is preoccupation with self and is that state whereby you say, ‘Yes, I like doctrine, I’m just not going to go every night, I’m not going to become a fanatic.’ That is negative volition arrogance. Or there is authority arrogance. Authority arrogance means there is no virtue in the life. If you don’t have basic virtue you don’t have any of the other virtues. You don’t have love for God as a motivational virtue and you don’t have impersonal love for all mankind as a functional virtue.

Another fragment of the grenade is self-righteous arrogance which includes pseudo-morality as well as crusader arrogance. There is at gate seven, psychotic arrogance, which is always the drive toward unreality. At gate eight there is another fragment: the arrogance of unhappiness which comes from subjective preoccupation with self. Gate nine: iconoclastic arrogance, subjective preoccupation with others. There is rational or irrational arrogance, the arrogance of emotion, the arrogance of ignorance, the arrogance of a brilliant intellect. People with a high IQ have a string tendency to be arrogant and their arrogance destroys them. They are always surpassed in life by people who are not as smart but who are well regulated under the principle of basic virtue in life, enforced and genuine humility. The plugger gets there first. There is the arrogance of Christian service which explains why so many believers today are “hustling for God,” they are “doing the right thing,” etc. But what is wrong with the “right thing” is the fact that they are doing it in the cosmic system and it is wood, hay, and stubble. There is client nation arrogance which is what we have today in Christian activism, civil disobedience among believers.

Arrogance creates a maximum hypersensitive situation, hypersensitive spots on the soul. These are actually hang-ups which produce syndrome. A hang-up, again, is an obstacle to normal living and objectivity. It relates to the function at gate one, cosmic one. A hang-up is becoming snagged in some form of subjectivity or abnormality of the soul, therefore hang-ups are highly sensitive barriers which are vulnerable to injured pride. It is very easy to have pride injured because arrogance or pride simply cannot stand pressure. People just can’t take it. You say something in jest and in humour and they fall in a dozen directions, get upset, take it seriously, take it personally. Syndromes are symptoms of these hang-ups in cosmic one.

Many believers possess an arrogance to which they are blinded and unaware of its existence until pressure comes to that area and they are crossed or frustrated. Sooner or later doctrine will offend the arrogance of such a believer and the pressure on arrogance pulls the pin out of the grenade and the fragments scatter. They bring misery to self and anyone else in the periphery of the pulled pin. Arrogance creates vulnerability in areas of hypersensitivity which when attacked produce functional evil in the cosmic system: pressure like jealousy or bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity, guilt complex, revenge motivation, like the trigger releasing the firing pin to strike the primer to fire the cartridge of functional evil. Even legitimate Christian service inside the cosmic system becomes wood, hay, and stubble, Philippians 1:15. This explains abnormal behaviour. Note: All dictators have abnormal behaviour.

1. Objective: The purpose of a military operation is the attainment of the objective assigned to a designated force. From the largest military group of armies down to the smallest platoon or squad there is always the principle of objective, and this objective constitutes the guide for the interpretation of orders, the formulation of decisions, and the deployment of the force. The nation, its military forces, and each part of the military organisation have their specific objectives. The selection of national objectives we call strategy; it depends upon political, military, and economic conditions which are variable.

The first objective must always be the neutralisation or the destruction of the power of the opposing military forces to fight. This means, of, course, decisive defeat and destruction of the opposing army — always a first consideration. The second objective is to possess localities which contribute to he national objective.

2. Offensive: Offensive is the only action by which a decision is gained. Offensive brings victory while defensive can only avoid defeat. The only effective way to wage war is to act on the offensive — destroy the enemy armies. The offensive increases the effectiveness of the force adopting it, it raises morale, it permits concentration of effort, it allows freedom of action. The defensive should be used to assist the offensive action elsewhere to gain time, to utilise good terrain of to compensate for weaknesses. Some time the defence is used in the offence as a pivot of the envelopment. The offensive should be used when there is any reasonable chance for success.

3. Mass: This is a military term meaning combat power, a concentration of combat power at a point of maximum effectiveness. Mass or combat power includes numbers of troops, weapons, tactical skill, discipline, fighting ability, resolution, morale, leadership. Success in warfare is attained by the proper employment of mass in a main effort attack at the proper time and place for the accomplishment of a definite objective.

4. Economy of force: This is the means by which mass is employed in the main effort. The time and place of the main effort having been determined, men and means are conserved by reducing their employment in other directions, i.e. is other directions to the minimum consistency with safety.

5. Movement: Movement means the manoeuvre of combat elements. In the offensive this principle is used to bring mass into close grips with the enemy in order to secure decisive results. Movement is designed to place mass in the best place for attack. Movement is most effective when concealed. In many cases movement is only possible by the effective employment of fire power.

6. Surprise: To obtain maximum effect with minimum loss surprise must be employed. It may take the form of time, place, direction, force, tactics, or weapons but there must be an element of surprise in two or more of those principles: e.g. surprise as to the place where you show and the direction of your force. The main factors of surprise are preparation, secrecy, and rapidity.

7. Security: (Don’t take the press!) Security embraces all measures taken to guard against observation and surprise, to ensure against hostile interference with operations, to gain and maintain the power and momentum of free action.

8. Simplicity: Military plans should be simple so as not to sponsor complicated movements. Orders should not be ambiguous but direct and free from contingencies. Frequent changes in plans should be avoided. Unity of command must always be observed.

9. Co-operation: Teamwork demands that all military units and persons involved in a mission work together to accomplish the mission. To do this co-ordination must be secured and there must be virtue and honour in all military organisations involved, the setting aside of all prejudices toward other services.

Daniel 11:36: We start out with a Hebrew word, ha melek. It is correctly translated “the king,” but in view of all of the eschatological doctrine we would call it “the dictator.” It refers to the second beast of Revelation 13:11-18, the dictator of the Jewish state in the Tribulation. We have seen his many names, false prophet, Antichrist, and so on. “And the dictator shall do keep doing,” the qal perfect of asah. Dictators have to hustle, if they ever stop doing things they are dead. This one is going to lose out because he relates everything that he does to his own arrogance. No one can take a position of leadership and do very well in a state of arrogance because inevitably he relates everything to his own arrogance, “according to his own will.” The word for “will” is ratson. That means that arrogance has crept in and it is in the form of a syndrome. He has a hang-up and the hang-up has resulted in a syndrome. What does this mean? This means that this dictator was a brilliant man but he started to think that he was God in his arrogance. Therefore he emphasised his decisions rather than on information on which good decisions are made. He didn’t have the facts, all of the information. “According to his own will” emphasises his volition, not thought. Good decisions come from facts; facts require thinking to synthesise them and make the right decision.

Obviously he has failed because the next phrase says, “and he shall exalt himself,” the hithpael imperfect from the verb rum. The hithpael stem is reflexive, it means to lift one’s self up in total arrogance. The dictator is living in cosmic one, he is filled with his own self-importance, and because of this he assumes that he can’t make a bad decision and that any decision he makes is the sovereignty as God as far as he is concerned. Therefore, another hithpael imperfect from the verb gadal which means to glorify self, “above every god.” The dictator is trying to pass himself off as the Jewish Messiah, he is a Jew, “therefore he shall speak,” the piel stem of dabar, he makes a lot of speeches. And he doesn’t say “marvellous things,” the Hebrew says “blasphemous things,” and he will speak blasphemous things “against the God of gods,” our Lord Jesus Christ, “and he will be successful.” Here is an interesting thing. Why is he successful? At this moment his arrogance is not destroying his success. Therefore, we have to look at this as pseudo-success. Here is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is going to permit this man to lie about Him. Why? God has perfect confidence; God is God. Application: Do you keep your mouth shut when people lie about you?

So he shall have success, but his success is not going to last, he is no winner. He is temporarily on top, “and he will be successful until the Tribulation [not the indignation] has been completed,” qal perfect of kalah, completed.

Then the last phrase is not “what is determined shall be done.” It should be translated, “for what has been decreed shall be accomplished.” It was entered into the computer of divine decrees by the omniscience of God. He knew all about this man, every deed, every action, every motive, and at the right time in the last half of the Tribulation we get the printout in human history.

Translation: “Then the king [Jewish dictator in the Tribulation] will do according to his own will, he will both exalt and glorify himself above every god; furthermore he will speak blasphemous things against the God of gods [Jesus Christ, the God of Israel]; he will be successful until the Tribulation has been completed, for what has been decreed [in eternity past] will be accomplished in time.”

That is the beginning of the Armageddon campaign and there is a very simple principle here: Jesus Christ controls history and all the Satanic opposition has not changed one iota of historical fulfilment of the divine decrees.

Verse 37 starts out in the King James version, “Neither shall he regard.” That is not correct. We have a negative lo followed by the verb bin (pronounced been), and it means to understand, “He will not understand.” There are a lot of reasons for that which we have studied in relationship to arrogance and all the principles involved with arrogance, the hang-ups, the syndromes, the flaws. If there is anything that makes life miserable for human beings it is the inability to understand the absolute eternal truth, and the one who presents it to us, God Himself. Ignorance is one of the greatest sources of unhappiness when it is related to arrogance. Arrogance plus ignorance means no capacity for life, no capacity for happiness, no capacity for blessing.

Ignorance has nothing to do with IQ; ignorance has to do with volition. Any believer can understand the Word of God, he has the equipment to do so, all provided by logistical grace. So you can be dumb or smart, have a low IQ or a high IQ and you can still be ignorant because the major issue is your attitude toward doctrine and your volition. Like everyone else, this Jew in the Tribulation has heard the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This man is still an unbeliever and he has made his decisions although he will have other opportunities because he isn’t dead yet. He will be one of the two people who will be cast into the lake of fire alive before anyone else occupies the lake of fire. They will precede the devil and his fallen angels and all unbelievers into the lake of fire by 1000 years. This indicates something of the tremendous build-up of the evil in these two dictators. This is the Jewish dictator; we have studied the Gentile dictator, the ruler of the revived Roman empire.

So it says, “He will not understand.” Here is the greatest tragedy in life. People are always trying to understand people, they are always trying to understand what makes others tick. Some people are so subjective they are trying to find out what makes themselves tick and why they are the way they are. This man, it says, “will not understand the God of his fathers.” The fathers go back to Abraham. This man is a Jew and the God of his fathers is the Lord Jesus Christ. So he has rejected truth, and in rejecting truth he has moved into cosmic one where he suffers from blackout of the soul, and cosmic two where he suffers from scar-tissue of the soul. He is also the subject of a prophecy in Genesis chapter 49. Genesis 49 gives us the prophecy of each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Three verses of that prophecy, verses 16-18, give us the prophecy regarding this dictator. We know the tribe from which he came. It was one of the first tribes to go into apostasy in the past history of Israel. It is also the one tribe that did not have any evangelists in the Tribulation out of the 144,000.

Genesis 49:16-17, “Dan shall rule his people [prophecy of the Jewish people at the end of the Tribulation], as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a snake in the road [he is no good to anyone who comes into contact with him], a cobra in the path, which bites the horses heel, so that the rider [Israel] falls backward.” Israel’s greatest period of apostasy will come at the end of the Tribulation under this dictator.

Verse 18, the prayer for mature believers living in Israel in the last half of the Tribulation is noted. This is a prayer that will be uttered many times by Jews who have momentum through doctrine: “O Lord, I wait for your deliverance.”

This dictator is organised, except in one area. It says in Daniel 11:37, “nor the desire of women” in the King James version. We have the noun chemadah which is used for sexual desire and conjugal love. In this case the man is a man and he doesn’t have any sexual desire for women, which means he is a homosexual. In other words, the dictator of the Jewish state is a homosexual, and the principle is very simple: when rulers are degenerate for any reason their rule becomes a total disaster. No matter what ability a person may have, if for any reason he is a degenerate ruler the rule becomes a disaster. This means that his administration is, of course, free from harem rule, like Anthony and Cleopatra, but it has a much more evil influence.

The Bible has a few things to say about homosexuality. Like any other form of fornication it is a sin, but there are certain sins that are degenerate and there are certain sins that are sins but not degenerate. The tendency may be there but it must be remembered that temptation is not a sin, it is when one succumbs to the temptation that it is sin. The succumbing to the temptation, as implied by this noun, indicates no integrity, degeneracy, total inability to rule, and inevitably great judgment must come from God to straighten out the situation. The fact that homosexuals have held high office and high positions shouldn’t be surprising, it happens periodically in history, and it always reflects the degeneracy of that particular state. Here we are looking at the state of Israel in the last half of the Tribulation.

Then to add degeneracy to degeneracy we have the phrase, “nor regard any god.” which is the qal imperfect of bin again, and it means “nor does he recognise any god.” This indicates the fact that the Jewish dictator of the Tribulation is an atheist even though he is the head of the Jewish religion, Judaism in the Tribulation. There are two great religious systems in the Tribulation that are mentioned eschatologically. The first is the international religion of the revived Roman empire and it has converts all over the world. Then in Israel there is Judaism, a very apostate type of religion. Both of these are religions that worship some kind of a person or a supreme being, but this ruler in Jerusalem is an atheist which means, once again, that he merely uses religion as a means of maintaining his power. Personally he doesn’t believe any God exists, he is a totally arrogant person, and because of this he is simply, therefore, a politician. The difference between a politician and a statesman is the fact that a politician uses anything and everything in order to gain power, whereas a statesman has some principles and adheres to some system of principle related to the function of authority. A politician is all things to all men to the enth degree.

This Jewish dictator has the total combination of megalomania, “for he shall magnify himself,” the hithpael imperfect of the verb gadal. The hithpael stem is reflexive and it means “he shall glorify himself above everyone else.”

Translation: “he will not understand the God of his fathers [Jesus Christ] nor have desire for women [he is a homosexual], nor does he recognise any god [he is atheistic]; for he will glorify himself above all.”

This man combines his genius with the phenomenal system of genius that Satan has developed in the human race and exploits it to the maximum, and he becomes the number one man in the state of Israel during the last half of the Tribulation.

In verse 38, as a prelude to the Middle East war, he also has a foreign policy for his land will be very shortly be invaded by many armies. The verse begins, “But instead he will honour a god of fortresses.” That Hebrew phrase should be translated, “Nevertheless in his status quo [as a dictator] he will give honour to the god of fortified cities.” Giving honour is simply an idiom for making a treaty with someone, and that someone is called “the god of fortified cities.”

The old Roman empire was a vast domain of fortified cities all of the way from the Atlantic to the Rhine, along the southern part of the Danube, the Euphrates, from the North Sea to North Africa. It was sometimes called the area of fortified cities. Furthermore, the rulers of the Roman empire always took the title of Kurioj, “Lord,” to indicate their deity. So the god of the fortified cities merely links the old Roman empire of the Church Age with the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation and provides another title for the dictator whom we have studied as the beast of Revelation 13:1-10, the feet of the image, the little horn of Daniel 7, the prince who shall come in Daniel 9, the man if sin, the Antichrist.

It also says, “a god whom his fathers did not know.” This is the same dictator whom we have studied as the beast dictator of the revived Roman empire. And, “he will give honour [he will make a treaty]”, the piel imperfect of the verb kadad. The piel is the intensified stem and in the piel this can be used to designate a treaty.

So we translate: “Nevertheless [in his status quo as dictator] he will give honour [treaty recognition] to the god of fortified cities [the beast dictator of the revived Roman empire], even to a god whom his fathers did not know [a reference to a system of worship: the international ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation]...”

The rest of the verse says, “he will honour [make a treaty],” and then we have some of the factors involved, “with gold, silver, precious stones, and other valuable commodities.” We do not need to know the details except that he is buying protection. He recognises that he is in a jamb as far as foreign policy is concerned. The Middle East is a bridge between three continents and it has all kinds of strategic importance. This dictator has to make a decision. There are four great power blocs within his vicinity: the pan-Arabic bloc [the king of the south]; the king of the north [which today would be the Russian communist empire]; the kings of the east [in the future that will be all of the Asiatic powers, “kings”, plural]; the king of the west [western European culture, the united state of western Europe, the revived Roman empire]. The dictator of Israel will make a deal with the king of the west, he needs his protection, there is no way that he can cope with power blocs. Spheres of influence are impossible and they will destroy him.

So he makes an alliance, but when you make a deal with the king of the west you must remember that religion in the world reaches its peak in the Tribulation. Once the Church is resurrected and the Tribulation begins you have the greatest period of religion the world will ever know. Today religion is under restraint because we are in the Church Age and all it requires is that there be five people in a pivot in some area and there is a restraint on religion. There is no blessing but there is restraint. The restrainer is removed at the Rapture. God the Holy Spirit of the divine dynasphere, the operational type, goes to heaven. Religion, therefore, has its greatest day — no restraint on religion of any kind. Therefore religion is going to reach its peak and you cannot make a treaty without religion being a part of it. So Israel makes a treaty with the revived Roman empire but has to accept the international religion of the revived Roman empire.

So the alliance will be made and in forming this alliance Jews must pay heavily. First of all they must set aside Judaism, or combine it, and they must accept the religion of the west. There will be financial and commercial considerations as well as religious. The Jews are forced to accept this ecumenical system which we will study in chapters 17 & 18. Like the statues of Jupiter, representing Antiochus Epiphanes in the past which was erected in the holy of holies, so another statue of another dictator is going to be put in the holy of holies of the Tribulational temple. This is called the abomination of desolation.

The domestic policy is given in verse 39, “This shall he do in the most strongholds [King James version]” is not correct. “Consequently he will construct a system of defence fortification” is the correct translation, “with the help of this foreign god [the dictator of the revived Roman empire].” Then we add one more thing: “to those who acknowledge him he will enrich with great wealth.” And when it says, “he shall cause them to rule,” that is the hiphil stem of the verb mashal, and that is a correct translation. The hiphil stem is causative active voice: “he shall cause them to rule over many [over many Jews].” As the false Messiah he divides up the land. “he will distribute the land for a price” is the corrected translation.

Translation: “Furthermore, he will construct a system of defence fortifications with the help of a foreign god; he will enrich with great wealth those who acknowledge him, and he will cause them to rule over many Jews, and he will distribute the land on the basis of monetary consideration.”

We know that when the Lord ,returns the land will be distributed by tribes, so immediately we know that we are dealing with a false doctrine and an evil dictator. All dictators, by the way, are not evil. It is very difficult for a dictator not to be evil because of the arrogance problem.

Now, all of this domestic policy is a very definite way to start wars. Wars aren’t started with foreign policies alone, they are started with domestic policies. The Russians recognised that in order to keep communism alive they had to get into wars. Stalin realised he was losing his power in the late 1930s and he had some conspiracies with which to deal. He had already killed a couple of million people in one year but he wasn’t keeping control, so his domestic policy was to regain control of the army. The best way to do this was to put them in a shooting war and he attacked Finland. The Finns clobbered his army so he pulled back all of his high-ranking generals, executed them, and replaced them with young colonels who became the general officers in world war two. But, you see, domestic policy influences foreign policy in many ways.

All of this means that there is a relationship and this dictator is going to be in the middle of that great world war of the future. It will be fought in the Pacific, it will be fought in Europe, it will be fought everywhere until the very end when all of the armies are going to unite to stop the Lord.

Verse 40 — the cause of the world war in the Tribulation. We have already seen the cause related to kosmokratwr demons. Now we have a double invasion of the Middle East. The kosmokratwr demons have done their job well and now there is motivation to invade the Middle East. The first invasion of the Middle East, however, was not designed to get the Middle East as such but to get a bridge to Africa. When we see the first invasion from the king of the north he is going to come across this bridge because his objective in to conquer all of Africa. He is going to get as far as Egypt and set up a base going toward Libya and going south toward Ethiopia. His objective was to conquer all of Africa because this dictator realised that the natural resources of Africa had never been tapped and anyone who wants to rule the world must have those resources. Africa will always be easy to conquer because Africa has had only two stabilised nations outside of Egypt and they were in the south, South Africa and Rhodesia. Egypt is also a stabilised nation so the king of the north decides to cross the bridge and conquer Africa.

The reason why it is precipitated: “Now at the time of the end [end of the Tribulation] the king of the south [the Arab league of the Tribulation] shall make war with him [the dictator of the Jewish state], therefore the king of the north shall launch a blitzkrieg attack.” Here is the first cause, then of the invasion of the Middle East. Here is the beginning of what will eventually be the Armageddon campaign and it will be provoked by Arab aggression to wipe out the Jews. The king of the north has plans to conquer Africa and the Arabs have spoiled his plans, therefore he must launch his attack. Notice, it says “and shall come against him,” the hithpael imperfect shaar should be translated to launch a lightning attack, a speedy attack. A blitzkrieg follows the principle of protecting your forces from heavy casualties. The faster you move the fewer casualties you have. If you stop and slow down or sit down then you are going to take a real pasting. That is why all decisions in warfare are made by being aggressive. The offensive brings victory; the defensive never will do it.

The king of the north immediately sees the problem. As soon as the Arabs start attacking the Jews on the bridge the only way to clear the bridge is to attack. So he launches the attack and he is going to come right through the land, hit a few places but not stop, and he is going to go down to Egypt. From there he is going to launch his plan to conquer Africa. But something is going to happen, Jesus Christ controls history.

In Revelation chapter sixteen we saw that the cause of the last world war of history is the komsokratwr demons, the war demons. The war demons obviously had a great deal of influence on the Arab countries and therefore in Daniel 11:40 we see a double engagement of the Jewish state in the Tribulation.

We have noted at the beginning of the verse, “Now at the time of the end [the end of the Tribulation] the king of the south [the Arab bloc in the Tribulation] shall make war with him [the dictator of the Jewish state in the Tribulation], therefore the king of the north [comparable today to the Russian communist empire] shall launch a blitzkrieg attack against him [the Jewish dictator] with both armoured forces and mechanised infantry, also with many ships; and he [the king of the north] shall go through many countries.”

There are two invasion routes to cross the bridge between Asia and Africa. The bridge is the Middle East. To the north of the bridge is the Bosporus, the south west of the bridge is the Suez Canal. How to cross this bridge from the communist Russian empire: there are two possible ways to go. Plan A: There is a very definite system of roads that go right to the border of the USSR today. Those roads stop just at the border of eastern Turkey where they could very easily connect up with some fair roads that go through eastern Turkey down through Kurdistan and Syria. Once in Syria you are on the bridge. This plan A would be the ideal way, and seems to be the way. By coming through the Bosporus and around Turkey, coming into the eastern Mediterranean, they can support their army by water as well as by land, a double logistical opportunity. That is why we have, “and with many ships,” at the end of this verse.

Plan B: This is a possibility. They move south into Iran, cross the upper Tigris and Euphrates into Syria, and then follow the same general route. The problem with moving into Iran is that you also have the Iran- Iraq problem. Both plans, however, converge on the state of Israel. Plan B might be rejected for the simple reason that we studied in Revelation 16:12 that the Euphrates river is dried up as any kind of a barrier against an invasion, and since this is the route that the kings of the east will take it is obvious that plan A is the way that they are going to come. However this passage follows the blitzkrieg attack of the king of the north and not the attack of the kings of the east who will later on cut off his supply route.

At the end of verse 40 we have the qal perfect of the verb shataph and is translated “overflow” in the King James version but should be translated “overwhelmed,” complete, successful, rapid movement, overwhelming movement, establishing along the way a perfect supply route. So we translate it: “and he will overwhelm and pass through.” This is the beginning of the Middle East campaign. The first move: the Arabs attack the state of Israel. That will upset the logistical bridge. Therefore, to stabilise the situation the king of the north launches his tremendous armies.

The deliverance of mature believers is the next item. Obviously many armies in this world war are going to converge on the Middle East, and the first obvious question is: What happens to all of those Jews who accepted Christ at this time?

Verse 41, “Also he [the king of the north] will invade the land of beauty [Israel], and many [Jewish believers who have failed to execute the plan of God. These are the ones who reject doctrine and ignore the warnings of Matthew 25:15ff] will fall [the sin unto death for believers]; but these [there are always believers who are in the plan of God and who have their priorities straight] ...”

There is one verb that is used to describe their deliverance, the piel imperfect of the verb malat, and it means “they shall escape.” The qal stem is never used in this verb in the Bible; it means to be smooth or slippery. The piel stem means to escape from danger by thought, by using your ingenuity, by applying doctrine. So the time comes when all the doctrine that people have learned who are believers they get to apply in escape. That is what malat means. Strangely enough, in the hiphil stem the same verb means to give birth to a child. However, in the piel stem we are giving birth to an idea — thought. You manufacture thought under pressure to escape. That is another definition for courage, the ability to think under pressure.

The king of the north and his great invading army is on its way to Egypt. Therefore, they are not stopping to conquer these countries but merely to secure a logistical route for supply to the base in Egypt. Egypt is going to be the base for the conquest of Africa. The mature believers are going to be able to escape, there is a lot of escape area where these invading armies will not go. Those who obey implicitly the instructions of Matthew 24:16ff are definitely going to escape, and that is what comes up next.

The rest of verse 41, “but these shall escape danger from his [the king of the north] hand: Edom, Moab and the foremost cities of the sons of Ammon.” Edom, Moab and Ammon are geographical locations, areas where there is a lot of high mountains and high desert country. They are all Arab areas today but this does not imply that the Arabs escape the king of the north on his way to Egypt. It does means that their lands provide haven. Of course, the mountains of these areas are going to be the refuge for those who are winners. They are going to stay there and wait for the second advent, at which time they will begin another phase of the plan of God — the repopulation of the earth. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. Today Edom is the land of Trans-Jordania and Saudi Arabia, Moab is the land of Trans-Jordania, Ammon is the country of the United Arab Republic or Syria. The mountains of these areas are excellent refuge country and that is exactly where they are going to hole up, as per the instructions of Matthew 24.

Verses 42, the king of the north reaches his first objective. “Then he [the king of the north] will stretch out his hand [has to do with conquest] against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not have deliverance.”

Why will he go into Egypt? The reason is given in verse 43, “But he shall have power,” King James version. That it incorrect. It is literally, “He shall rule.” We have the qal perfect of the verb mashal and it means to rule, “Consequently he will rule over the treasures of silver and gold, and over the valuable commodities of Egypt,” valuable commodities of Egypt can refer energy-type things like oil, similar types of wealth from the 20th century. The next phrase becomes very important because this tells us exactly what the king of the north had in mind in this great world war. His ambition is to conquer all of Africa. Apparently Africa is going to remain in a state of great confusion where there are a lot of small countries and none of them are very strong and able to resist a really well-developed modern army. That is exactly what we have coming up next, “the Libyans and the Cushites are in his line of march” is the correct translation.

The Libyans means that once he hits Egypt he has one idea in mind. There are two things that are absolutely necessary to conquer Africa: you must control north Africa to control the Mediterranean; you must go down east Africa, and Ethiopia would be the first stop. That is the objective of the king of the north. Egypt is the base. He now has a supply line, the bridge which is the Middle East, and also has his navy and a large merchant marine in the eastern Mediterranean. This means that the king of the north at this point controls the Mediterranean, a very important factor.

Verse 44, “But tidings out of the east” should be, “But intelligence information from the east and from the north will disturb him.” The king of the north has now set up his invasion base in Egypt. “From the east” refers to the kings of the east invading the Middle East. That threatens the supply line in the Middle East. The intelligence information from the north means that there is some navy of the king of the north, perhaps the revived Roman empire navy. The king of the north is disturbed because he is now defeated by logistics. He is going to lose both of his logistical lines, the one to the north in the Mediterranean and the one though the Middle East. So what can he do? All he can do is bring back his armies, set up holding forces, turn around and go back and open up his land route; “therefore he shall advance with great anger [into the state of Israel] to cause destruction and to annihilate many [Jews].”

What happens to people in an invasion? This is what happens to unbelievers and Jewish believers who are losers. This is what it is like to have this army turn back in great fury. He is not only trying to reopen his logistical supply line but he is also going to take it out on the people of Israel. There, again, you see the influence of one of those battalions of war demons.

Isaiah 3:16, “Moreover, the Lord said, ‘Because the daughters of Zion are proud [arrogance],” this is not punishment by pain, that was punishment coming down. This is punishment by death. They have failed to respond to the wonderful crisis evangelism and judgment by pain, “and walk with their heads held high and seductive eyes, and walk with short sexy steps.” The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written: the short steps are to make the ankle bells ring, “and tinkle the bangles on their feet,

Verse 17, “therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs, and the Lord will make their foreheads bald.” That is judgment by pain, crisis evangelism.

Verse 18, “In that day [of disaster] the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, their hats, crescent ornaments [jewellery],

Verse 24, “Then it will come to pass that instead of sweet perfume there will be a terrible stench; instead of a belt, a rope.” In the ancient world when men were carrying off women as part of the booty of war they put a rope around their waste and hauled them off. From then on the women were the slaves of whomever held the other end of the rope; “instead of well-set hair, pulled out hair; instead of fine clothes, the wearing of sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding [they are slaves].”

Verse 25, “Because your men [the Jewish army of that dictator is a professional army and no good] will fall by the sword, and your heroes will die in battle.

Verse 26, “Therefore her door [the door that they break down to come and take her] will scream and mourn; and deserted she will sit on the ground [in great humility].”

Jeremiah 6:22, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, an army is invading from the north [the king of the north], even a great nation will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.”

Verse 23, “They seize bow and spear [they are armed]; they are cruel and have no mercy; their voices roar like the sea, they ride on horses [mechanised infantry], armoured as a man for battle against you, O daughter of Zion!’ ”

That explains why women are abused in mass: because there is no military establishment to keep out the enemy. Once the king of the north goes through that is a very light thing, but when he comes back it is going to be judgment by death.

Daniel 11:45, the verse that brings us back into focus with regard to this Middle East campaign, “Consequently he [the king of the north] shall establish his command post between the seas [between the Mediterranean and the Dead Seas] toward the glorious Holy Mountain [Mount Zion],” that means the command post will be just east of Jerusalem, “where he shall come to the end of his career, and there is not anyone who will help him.” That introduces the principle that Jesus Christ controls history.

The conclusion of the matter as far as we are concerned: there is a great protection against this factor. The first protection is in the laws of divine establishment: freedom through military victory.

Verse 1, “Sing with happiness to the Lord, you winners [mature believers who have integrity]; a psalm fitting for those who have integrity.”

Verse 2, “Be motivated to praise the Lord with the lyre; sing to him with the harp of ten strings.”

Verse 4, “For the word of the Lord [Bible doctrine] is integrity; and all his provision is in faithfulness.”

Verse 5, “He loves integrity [righteousness] and justice [the two aspects of the holiness of God]; therefore the earth is full of grace of the Lord.”

Verse 6, “By the word of the Lord [Bible doctrine] the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all of their stars.”

verse 7, “He accumulates in a mass the waters of the sea; he stores in warehouses the roaring deeps.”

Verse 8, “Let all the earth respect the Lord; let all the people of the world be his guests.”

Verse 10, “The Lord frustrates the plans of nations [Jesus Christ controls history]; he neutralises the conspiracies of peoples.”

We do not have the ability to ferret out conspiracies against our person individually, and against groups or against nations. The Lord does. If you are a winner you don’t have to worry about it.

Verse 11, “The plan of God stands forever, the thoughts of his right lobe [Bible doctrine is the mind or the thinking of Christ] are for all generations.” We are studying the Tribulation, yet these things are for us.

Verse 12, “Happiness to that nation whose God is the Lord [client nation to God], and the people he elected for his inheritance.” This verse describes a client nation. It doesn’t say they are all believers but it does say that God uses that nation to fulfil the principles of client nation activity, i.e. evangelism, the teaching of Bible doctrine, missionary activity, and to set up a system of establishment compatible with category #1 truth.

Verse 13, “From the heavens the Lord has looked; he has seen all mankind [Jesus Christ controls history];

Verse 14, “From the place of his throne he looked on all the inhabitants of the earth,

Verse 15, “he who forms the right lobes of all the human race, he who perceives all their works [the omniscience of God].”

Verse 16, “No king is delivered by a great army;” that is the story of the king of the north, “a strong man is not delivered by his great strength.” If you are depending on muscle you will never make it. What you need is not definition of your muscles on your body, you need definition of your thoughts in your mind. There is where it counts. The real power is not in muscular development of the body but in discerning thinking of the soul.

Verse 17, “The war horse [the armoured forces] is a strong delusion for victory; therefore by his strength he cannot deliver,” that is the king of the north.

Verse 18, “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who respect him [protocol], to those who trust in his grace.”

Verse 19, “To rescue their souls from death, and to keep them alive in economic depression.”

Verse 20, “Our soul waits in confidence for the Lord;” confidence is gate five, a motivational virtue directed toward God, “he is our help and our defence.”

Verse 21, “For our right lobes will rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name,” the three stages of the faith-rest drill.

Verse 22, “O Lord, let your grace be upon us, according as we have trusted you under this pressure.”

There is the key to the deliverance of thousands and thousands of civilians, and a scratch army of believers who have followed the plan of God to the high ground and will defend in a magnificent way, because of spiritual factors as well as motivation, Jerusalem in its most awful day of siege.

We have noticed that the Jewish national army under the dictator, the false prophet, has failed. It was, of course, an apostate army and inevitably it had to be judged. But there is still a lot of military talent in Israel and all of this military talent is about to be brought together under two great leaders. Two general officers of the Jewish army are going to rise and stand in the crisis. By the time we meet them in Proverbs 24 and Zechariah 12 they will be general officers.

We begin, therefore, by learning a few things about the subject of leadership. First of all the premise of leadership. While the emphasis in our passage is on military leadership these concepts do not exclude leadership in every realm, even leadership in ladies as well as in men. The premise of leadership is based upon three very simple principles:

Under this premise there are two concepts with which we should be familiar: God uses prepared people and, if God doesn’t promote you you are not promoted. The time has come in the crisis of the Middle East campaign for God to promote some prepared people.

The second principle of leadership, and a very important one and one that should be kept in mind as a part of rightly dividing the Word of truth, is that leadership must be distinguished from management. While leaders are always managers, managers are not leaders. Leadership motivates people; management regulates people. Leadership necessitates the establishment of authority; management is the bureaucratic enforcement of regulations without ability, without integrity. Management bullies, requires no honour or integrity; while leadership motivates even the dullest routine of garrison and training. Leadership delegates authority; management abuses authority by doing to do all the work one’s self and take all of the credit for it. Therefore, leadership delegates authority; management abuses authority. Leadership cannot function without honour and integrity; management produces hypocrisy, inordinate ambition and, quite often, dishonesty. Management loses a status quo; leadership produces maximum results. If you as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ are faithful in the protocol plan of God inside of the operational divine dynasphere you will be a leader and you will avoid the pitfalls of management.

The third concept we should know by way of introduction to our passage has to do with the attributes of leadership. While they apply always to the military they apply to every realm of life. Leadership is not confined to the military profession but should extend into every facet of life.

First of all, then, a leader must be organised in his own personal life; he must be organised in his thinking; he must be organised in relationship to his time; he must establish routines so that the priorities of life can receive his full attention and never be neglected. Disorganised people do not make good leaders. It is almost impossible for a disorganised person to be a leader. Leaders must understand both self and group discipline and the significance of organisation. Therefore, to be a leader one must have great self-discipline and relating that to the routine of life. To the extent to which you are a disorganised person in life to that extent you have eliminated yourself from any form of leadership. A leader must have respect for authority, the basic virtue of humility, and know how to use both authority and humility so that he does not abuse anyone under his command. He does not abuse the authority given to him in any given situation or organisation.

Subjective and arrogant people do not qualify for being leaders. As a born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you have the leadership training course provided for you by God. The protocol of heaven is brought to the earth. Unless doctrine is first in your life you will never be a leader, you will be a loser in every possible way. It is the day by day perception of Bible doctrine that organises everything in your life and makes you a prepared person so that at the right time God can promote you. There will always be a market for leadership, for those who have set up a routine in their lives whereby doctrine is first. It makes no difference where you are or what excuse you may have given to yourself, and possibly others who stuck their nose in your business. There is no system in life whereby you cannot put doctrine first. Gate five will result — motivational leadership — but you must have the spiritual factor: motivational virtue. That includes personal love for God, confidence in God, occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. Gate six: functional virtue directed toward man and circumstances. All manifestations of leadership are directed toward people and toward the circumstances of life. Gate seven: the testing. No leader is worth his salt unless he can pass tests, and every leadership test is found at gate seven. Gate eight is where you become a winner, where you become a prepared person, and God uses a prepared person.

So our first attribute of leadership is the fact that a leader must be organised in his own personal life. Being organised in his own personal life means that he must have right priorities, and whatever the priorities are after doctrine, doctrine must be first in order to fulfil God’s priority which is virtue-first.

The second attribute of leadership. A leader must possess personal integrity. This means to us as believers, virtue-first. Leadership demands a relaxed mental attitude in life. A relaxed mental attitude can only come from humility — enforced humility and genuine humility. Humility is the key to objectivity in life and no one succeeds as a leader without objectivity. Leadership must have that relaxed mental attitude, and that means total freedom from the arrogance complex, freedom from motivational evil at gate one, cosmic one.

The third attribute of leadership. A leader must avoid personality moulds, personality types. Most people think they are a leader if they can act like general Patton. “Macho” does not mean leadership; “macho” means arrogance and stupidity. You must always function within the framework of your own personality. You may admire people who have a different personality but if you are ever going to be a leader it must be done through your personality. Your personality doesn’t make you a leader; neither does the personality of George Patton make him a leader. What is going to make you as a believer a leader is the Bible doctrine resident in your soul, being spiritually prepared, for God uses prepared people and God promotes prepared people. Avoid imitation of someone else’s personality. If you ever want to emerge as a leader you must have your own foundation, your own personality, backed by your own humility.

The fourth attribute of leadership. Leadership demands knowledge: knowledge of doctrine, knowledge of your profession, knowledge of your business, knowledge of whatever you do in life. You cannot emerge as a leader and take people out. You have to know more than they know; you have to understand the issues in business, in profession, in organisations, in the modus operandi of life.

The fifth attribute of leadership. As a result of understanding the principle of authority, which includes the principle of self-discipline and the table of organisation in which he functions, the leader must possess both objectivity and loyalty to higher echelons of command and to those who are under his command. He has directional loyalty. If you do not have directional loyalty you will never make a leader. Some people fail as a leader because they are only loyal to those under their command. That is the only direction in which they go. Some fail because their loyalty is only directed toward their superiors. You cannot freeze up and be directional, you must go in every direction. You must understand that loyalty demands flexibility and you have to be able to think and to balance out the directions of your loyalty.

Objectivity resolves personality conflicts. Loyalty produces good command function which takes cognisance of the objective while not losing track of the good of those in one’s command. A leader never uses his command to advance himself. Therefore the leader exercises fairness and objectivity toward those in his command, looking out for their best interests in the accomplishment of the assigned objective or the departmental profile.

The sixth attribute of leadership. A leader must have common sense. Sooner or later it must be developed. It is impossible to have common sense if you are a subjective [living in the cosmic system] person. Objectivity is absolutely necessary in the thinking of leadership and if you are a subjective person you will never make a leader. From objectivity you learn common sense in your profession. You learn from common sense flexibility as well as the understanding of people, and you recognise that no one is perfect, yet you manage to train and bring into a system of discipline or organisation the talents of these people, not their perfection. The leader who is looking for perfection is through. There is no such thing as perfection. The leader must be fair to all of those under his command and be free from prejudice because of personality conflicts with superior officers.

The seventh attribute. The leader must develop and acquire executive ability. He must learn to analyse, to organise, to categorise, to systematise, to synthesise, and he must learn to communicate. Leaders cannot be leaders unless they can teach. All leadership must have the ability to teach, to train those under one’s command. That is why parents fail: they do not communicate; they are not leaders. Leadership requires good public speaking, the ability to train, and good public speaking requires poise. You cannot be a leader without poise. If you fall apart every time something goes wrong you will never make it.

The eighth attribute. A leader must have good health, presence, motivation, endurance, and nervous stability. By being well organised this energy is directed in the best interests of his command and organisation. Add to this his confidence, his dress, his carriage, his poise, his good manners, his thoughtfulness and, in some cases, even flair, but flair is not necessary for leadership. If flair does not match your personality, avoid it. Flair is not leadership.

Leadership must be related to the profession. For example, a pastor’s leadership must be related to his communication of doctrine. A pastor is not a leader unless he communicates doctrine. A pastor should never be seen running around calling on people and wasting his time. A soldier’s leadership must be related to his ability to train troops, you cannot lead untrained troops and be successful in battle. All great leaders have understanding of logistics, how they are supported, and terrain, and appreciate the importance of intelligence regarding the enemy, be vitally interested in tactical timing, and have the ability to think and make decisions under pressure. Business leadership must be related to marketing ability, for no matter how good the service or product may be you cannot be successful in business and make money unless you can sell the service or market the product. Political leadership must be related to establishment principles and the communication of these principles to the general public. A politician may have good ideas and solutions to national or local problems but these ideas are no good unless he can sell them to the general public. Good leadership in politicians results in being a statesman. Good leadership in a labour union must include the highest from of integrity, the ability to have the interests of the union in balance with the state of the economy. Union leadership cannot provide for the union what the economy will not bear. All categories of leadership must relate to their objective, to the status quo of the national entity, so that they are not in conflict with the laws of divine establishment and then abuse their leadership status to avoid ever solving problems by violence or revolution. No leader ever gets involved in violence or revolution as the solution to a problem. Good leadership in any field always balances the objectives of its organisation with the public welfare.

The crisis in any nation is always the market for leadership and God uses prepared people. The Middle East invasion of the Armageddon provides one of the great crises in history by which leadership rises to the top. In Proverbs 24 we have the basis for crisis leadership.

Verse 1 — the piel imperfect of chanah is the command for “Be not envious,” and it refers to jealousy, one of the functions of gate one, cosmic one or motivational evil. Jealousy is one of the basic reasons why people of great potential never realise it. Everything that is great in a person is destroyed by jealousy. Jealousy squeezes the greatness out of anyone, it is the destroyer of capacity for life, and a person who has any kind of a jealousy problem will never have any happiness or capacity for happiness. Whatever jealousy achieves jealousy loses immediately. Jealous people are miserable people; jealous people become the villains of life because jealousy is one of the strongest areas of motivational evil. So when it says literally, “Do not be jealous of evil men” it merely indicates that jealousy puts the individual involved on a par with evil. When you become jealous of jealous people you have reached the bottom. Jealousy is the destroyer of leadership. Whatever potential you have and whatever you have attained is neutralised by jealousy. So jealousy is more than a sin. Jealousy is a sin, a mental attitude sin, but jealousy is far greater than that, it is the basis of most of the motivational evil in life.

Next we have with jealousy, desire. Jealous people always have unfulfilled desires. “And do not desire to associate with them.” Jealousy gravitates to jealousy; jealousy produces the desire of association with jealousy. Evil associating with evil can only produce evil, therefore jealousy is a self-destroyer. The desire to associate with evil comes from being evil. Being evil here is being jealous. Jealousy may appear to you to be innocuous but jealousy is always the beginning of an evil life. An evil life cannot fulfil the plan of God, cannot function under the principle of leadership, and an evil life is a wasted life. Evil does not destroy your salvation but you will arrive in heaven with minuses for life and resurrection body minus the order of the morning star, minus the uniform of glory, minus the various crowns of decorations, minus the honours list and the new knighthood for eternity, minus about everything that would make your life significant. Your options and your opportunity is in time; jealousy destroys all options. A jealous person is a dried up prune.

Verse 2 — describes how evil inevitably associates with evil and how the wrong company diverts the believer from his primary objective — Bible doctrine, fulfilling the plan of God. There is nothing in this life to associate with evil [living in the cosmic system] without being tainted by evil. “For their right lobes study violence.” The word “study” is an incorrect translation, it is the word hagah in the Hebrew, and in the qal imperfect it means to murmur, to plot, and to meditate. Here the translation should be, “Their right lobe meditates violence and tyranny.”

Jealous people have nothing to restrain violence in their soul. They meditate on oppression, on violence, on tyranny. Tyranny knocks out leadership; tyranny is the abuse of power and authority completely neutralising any leadership. No one can truly be a leader until he has learned to discipline himself and has learned the value of authority in life. Leadership is not interested primarily in freedom: leadership fights for freedom, leadership centres and focuses on orientation to authority. Tyranny is the distortion of power and authority, lack of self-discipline. All of it is related to gate one, cosmic one, the arrogance gate, motivating evil.

Next we have communication. “Also their lips talk slander.” Jealous people try to satisfy their frustrations by slandering others, by making others appear smaller or less than they are. The first two verses, then, emphasise cosmic involvement, and specific cosmic involvement that hinders leadership. Verse 1 emphasises the importance of the association with evil, but verse 2 emphasises how this evil goes into action. You are not better than someone else because you can malign them or slander them or run them down. It does not make you superior, it make you simply evil.

Verse 3 — “By means of wisdom.” the Hebrew word for wisdom is chakmah. This is the function to us of gate four of the divine dynasphere, the function of the royal priesthood in the perception of doctrine, the perception of the royal ambassadorship in the application of doctrine. You can get perception even in the cosmic system but you will never have it for application or growth because it never transfers to the right lobe. Wisdom is both the perception and the application of doctrine, the fuller function of GAP

“a house is constructed.” The construction of a house is the edification complex of the soul which is only completed when the believer attains gate eight of the divine dynasphere. The construction of your life, the organisation of your life, all of this is meant by the building of a house. This house is constructed in the soul, this house in the soul is the building up of your leadership attributes, the building up of the plan of God in your life, the thing that makes you aware in the protocol system. Protocol in the divine system is heaven on earth.

“By means of understanding doctrine” is the next phrase. Next we have the hithpael imperfect of the verb kum, and the hithpael stem is the reflexive stem in the Hebrew. In the qal stem the verb kum means to stand upright, in the hiphil stem it means to appoint or to confirm, in the hophal stem it means to be confirmed, in the niphal stem it means to rise up, but in the hithpael stem it means something entirely different not even suggested by the King James translation which simply says, “it is established.” It means to prepare one’s self. “By means of understanding [doctrine] one prepares himself,” for life, for blessing, for leadership, for all of the things that God has ordained in His plan for winners. The winner is the believer who advances to gate eight, the one who therefore glorifies the Lord by maximum doctrine resident in his soul. The winner has achieved the tactical victory of the angelic conflict, he has maximum doctrine not only in his soul but in his system of priorities. The winner is an organised person, it is inevitable that he will organise himself as he advances in the plan of God. He is spiritually self-sustaining, he has the ability to handle his own problems, he does not use crutches, he doesn’t have to run to someone else and lean on them. He is therefore already a leader and only a crisis will bring out the greatness of this individual. God often provides crises to introduce His prepared person, His leader for a given situation. Positive volition toward doctrine, the daily function of GAP in the divine dynasphere, supersedes all other mandates for the life, and all that it takes to be a winner is constructed on the perception of doctrine.

Verse 4 — we begin to see that principle that we noted, the principle that has to do with organising the life. You must be an organised person. “And by [means of] knowledge,” the act of knowing doctrine, the function of GAP. Next we have the word “chambers” which would really be compartments. “And by means of knowledge the compartments [of the life] will be filled,” the compartments have to do with your capacity for life. As you construct in your soul a vast structure the greater that structure is the greater your capacity for life will be, the greater your capacity for life the greater your blessing. Your blessings are going to be given to you on the basis of capacity. God blesses for two reasons: to spank you and to give you the opportunity of expressing your capacity for happiness. God will often give you something that you want just to show you that your priorities are wrong. You will have something in your life that you associate with happiness and you will be miserable with it. Without capacity the misery is unbelievable. Some of the most miserable and disillusioned people in the world are people who are promoted beyond their capacity, something that never happens to believers who advance in the plan of God.

So God can give you the accoutrements of happiness but He cannot give you happiness. God cannot make you happy, and if God cannot make you happy people cannot make you happy, pleasant circumstances cannot make you happy. Only you have the ability to make yourself happy and that ability comes from doctrine first. Capacity must precede happiness. The chambers here are the compartments of capacity for life, happiness and blessing. “By means of the act of learning doctrine the compartments [of the life] will be filled with all wealth” — wealth is capacity in the soul, not money. Money can come and go but those who have capacity from Bible doctrine have something they cannot lose.

Then we have an explanation of all of this wealth, “precious and pleasant.” The word “precious” means something of value, and the word “pleasant” means something stimulating. “All wealth” is something of value and something stimulating. There is as close as we come in this passage to defining capacity for life.

Verse 5 — “A wise man” is incorrect. The first word in this verse refers to a soldier, to someone who is skilled or knowledgeable. As the context goes on it is dealing with the military profession. It can be someone who is skilled in any profession but the rest of the passage indicates which profession. So we translate: “A wise soldier,” an intelligent soldier, a wise soldier. By way of application it refers to the believer who is a winner, “is strong.” What does it mean that he is strong? Well, it doesn’t even say that he is strong. It is a prepositional phrase which means something else entirely. The word is ba oz and it means “in power.” “A wise soldier lives in power.” That has an application to us. Remembering that as believers we are all in the angelic conflict, and therefore soldiers. Oz refers to the divine dynasphere. We live in the system, the protocol system provided by God, and only when we function in that system are we winners. You cannot live in power unless you choose for power, and you do not choose for power unless Bible doctrine is first in your life.

“And a man of knowledge strengthens his professional ability.” That becomes very important. All of this, therefore, becomes the basis for understanding the rise of great leadership in the crisis. God uses the crisis to introduce His leaders. God’s leaders and man’s leaders are not always the same. “A wise man lives in the power of Bible doctrine, and a man of knowledge strengthens his professional ability.”

Proverbs 20:18 should be included at this point: “War plans are formed by wisdom and planning [professional military leadership], and by means of wisdom they make war.” Military leadership is defined in terms of rank, a table of organisation. The Roman centurion was a high ranking officer in Israel. He came to the Lord one day and made a statement that demonstrated that it was no accident that he was a high ranking officer. He was a believer with maximum doctrine in his soul and demonstrated it in a very dramatic way.

Matthew 8:5 — the centurion has a very sick son. He has come to Capernaum. “And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, entreating him,

Verse 6 — “and saying, ‘Lord [Romans only used the word “Lord” for the Caesar. This centurion is a believer and uses the word in relationship to Jesus Christ] , my son is lying paralysed in his quarters, suffering great pain.’

Verse 7 — “And he [Jesus] said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ ” In eternity past our Lord knew the situation and He was going to test this man in an unusual way. This centurion is a great leader, he can think clearly, he is not silly.

Verse 8 — “But the centurion answered and said, ‘Lord, I am not qualified for you to come into my quarters, but speak with a word, and my son will be healed.’ ”

Verse 9 — “ ‘For I, too, am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it’.”

Verse 10 — “Now when Jesus heard this, he marvelled, and he remarked to those who were following, ‘In truth I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even among the Jews’.”

Here was a Gentile, a believer, a person with doctrine. No one knew that he had all of this doctrine but a personal crisis came along and he went to the Lord, approached Him on the basis that He could do something about it, and He understood that. He didn’t have to come ten or fifteen miles to his quarters. He could speak the word where He was and the distance meant nothing. Mature people, winners, are free from silliness.

Verse 13 — “And Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Let it be done as you have believed.’ And the boy was healed in that very hour.”

When the centurion goes back he knows that he is going to find the boy well. What did this man have in the light of what we have? At gate five he was occupied with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is motivational virtue. He was motivated to go to the Lord with this problem of his son’s serious illness. Because he was occupied with the person of Christ, in his motivational virtue he had confidence in the Lord. He never wavers. What you don’t get in this passage is what he did in his profession. He has the comparable functional virtue — courage toward man and circumstances, courage in life. Confidence in the Lord means courage in life. The fact that the boy was healed is incidental. What really counts is not the healing at all, the issue is: he had total confidence in God. Confidence comes from day by day by day decisions to take in doctrine.

Proverbs 24:6 — this verse is the one that will explain the leadership that came to the front when the king of the north invaded Palestine.

“For by wise counsel thou shalt make war,” is not what the Hebrew says at all. We have a prepositional phrase and it should be translated, “Because by the art of leadership thou shalt make war.”

“Therefore,” says the last phrase, “victory resides in the one who commands” — the one who has learned the art of leadership, the one who has developed the art of leadership, the one who understands the art of leadership. There is your victory.

God designed a plan for your life. In designing that plan you are supposed to be a winner but you have to make decisions and you have to initiate the action and you have to organise your life to be a winner, to take in doctrine today and tomorrow and the next day, to pass the many tests that will come your way. You are not going to make it by making resolutions, there must be order in your life and in your thinking. God uses prepared people. If the crisis came to morrow the question arises: Would you be prepared?

Three times in history Jerusalem has been under very special siege. Each time it has something to do with the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline, except for the last one. The first two are historical; the last one is prophetical. In 586 BC the Chaldean army besieged Jerusalem and eventually destroyed it. This was the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to client nation Israel. The second time, in AD 70, the siege lasted for many months but the Romans under Vespatian, and later Titus, took the city and the Jews went out under the fifth cycle of discipline. The third is a prophetical siege which occurs in the last world war of history at the end of the Tribulation. At that time the city will be almost destroyed and then the Lord Jesus Christ will come to deliver it, and it will be the beginning of client nation Israel for the last one thousand years of history. The prophetical study of the siege of Jerusalem occurs in two passages: Zechariah 12:1-6; 14:1-4. We begin now to note the siege of Jerusalem from the standpoint of leadership. Later we will note it from the standpoint of the deliverance of the second advent.

In Zechariah 12:1 our first word is “The burden” for Israel. The Hebrew word for burden, masha, has a special prophetical meaning. What the King James version calls “burden” means a prophecy or an oracle, “The prophecy of the word of the Lord concerning Israel” is the corrected translation. The prophecy is a part of the Armageddon campaign in the Middle East.

Then we have a description of our Lord, for it says that He is the one “who stretches forth.” Actually, it should be translated “the one who extends [or measures out] the heavens.” The same Lord who created the universe is the Lord who is now giving us this prophecy, and that is the second person of the Trinity because the scripture says, “By him are all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible or invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created by him and for him.”

Corrected translation of verse 1: “The prophecy of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. A declaration of the Lord, the one who measures out the heavens, and the one who decrees the earth, and forms the life of man within him.”

That last phrase is extremely important as far as doctrine is concerned because it emphasises a fact which has been the subject of controversy in the time in which we live. Where does life originate? The lie is to state that life begins in the womb. There is no life in the womb; no woman has ever carried life. All life is formed by the Lord Himself. Life is imputed after birth “and forms the life of man within him,” after we are born.

This is an obvious reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. John 1:3 says, “all things came into being through Him and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” So, it is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who imputes life after birth. The eternal God, Jesus Christ, is the creator of the universe, and He now speaks of His return to the earth to be the ruler of the world under operation footstool.

In verse 2 we begin the prophecy. The prophecy begins in the last world war in history, in the last campaign of that war, and there will be several battles. One of them is the siege of Jerusalem, and it is so stated in verse 2, “Behold I have appointed Jerusalem a drinking cup of staggering [of intoxication],” not a cup of trembling as in the King James version. This means the divine judgment involved. In this case the ones drinking from the goblet of divine judgment are those invading armies we studied in Daniel chapter eleven. The same language is found in Isaiah 51:17 regarding the fifth cycle of discipline administered to the Jews in 586 BC, “Rouse yourself! Get up, O Jerusalem, those of you who have drunk from the Lord’s hand the goblet of his anger; the drinking goblet of staggering intoxication you have drained to the dregs.” So drinking from the cup always denotes judgment.

There is another cup that denotes judgment. When our Lord Jesus Christ approached the cross He said, “Father if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me.” The cup had to do with the sins of the world. On the cross our Lord Jesus Christ received the imputation of our sins for He drank from the goblet the entire sins of the world. That means, again, judgment.

So whenever drinking from the goblet is mentioned as having to do with staggering or intoxication it is always a form of divine judgment. As we have seen there are two categories of divine judgment. First of all, there is judgment by pain; secondly there is judgment by death. Each one has a grace purpose. Judgment by pain is crisis evangelism. Judgment by death always has a purpose. a grace purpose, and that is to eliminate from the human race those areas which would eventually destroy the human race. Judgment by death is God’s way of guaranteeing that there will always be people on planet earth. At the second advent there will be millions of people who will have lived through the Tribulation and at the end of the Millennium there will, again, be millions of people.

Jerusalem is going to come under heavy judgment at the end of the Tribulation, “and also to Judah shall it be in the siege of Jerusalem.” In other words, Judah will also suffer. The Arab army known as the king of the south will be occupying parts of the state of Israel. They will be destroyed at the second advent, Isaiah 63:1-6. The army of the king of the north will invade, and after reaching north Africa will have to come back and besiege Jerusalem. The army of the king of the west will be present as representing the revived Roman empire. Also the armies of the kings of the east will be invading at the same time and will in a great battle in the valley of Esdraelon. All of these things mean the conversions of several millions of men representing various armies in the world at that time, and so we have the siege of Jerusalem introduced.

We have already noted very briefly that the Jewish regular army is going to be destroyed. It will be destroyed before this siege takes place. And so we read in verse 3, “And it shall come to pass in that day that I will appoint Jerusalem a stone, a burden too heavy to lift.” In other words, the attack upon Jerusalem is a guarantee of the destruction of that army, just the antithesis of the two previous sieges, one by the Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar, and one by the Romans under Titus. So here is the principle that Jesus Christ controls history and anyone who attacks the state of Israel in the end of the Tribulation will be destroyed. That means the army of the king of the north, the armies of the kings of the east, the Arab army, the army of the revived Roman empire, as well as the apostate army of the state of Israel. That means that with all of these armies invading with the potential to completely destroy the Jew and wipe him out that Israel is in a very serious jamb, and there are many thousands of born-again Jews living in Israel at that time. So the Lord Jesus Christ is going to protect them and he does it directly through His divine power. He does it indirectly though the laws of divine establishment, He does it permissively through allowing the trends of evil to come to their terrible conclusion, having run their course.

No one has ever been able to solve the Jewish problem in the Middle East because it is the focal point of the angelic conflict. Many attempts have been made to solve the Jewish problem throughout the thousands of years of history. Since BC 1440 when the Jews finally occupied the land no one has been able to solve the problem of Israel in the Middle East. Israel is a stone too heavy to lift, and anyone who attacks Israel is judged under the principle of paragraph three of the Abrahamic covenant. Only Jesus Christ can resolve the problem of the Jews in the Middle East and only Jesus Christ will lift the heavy stone at the second advent. In the meantime the Jews will be under very heavy pressure in the Middle East. Their friends will turn against them, their enemies will constantly be putting pressure on them, and should the Church Age last for another 100, 200, or even 300 years this will be true all of that time. Jews in the Middle East are a thorn in the flesh of the Arabs and a problem for all the nations of the world. In that day, in the context when the king of the north will seek to lift that stone, he will find that the stone will be too heavy to lift. Many nations have been crushed by anti-Semitism which is a one-way street to destruction. For anyone who tries to lift the stone the stone will fall down on them and destroy them.

“for all the peoples; in fact all the ones trying to lift her [destroy Israel] shall be completely crushed. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against her.”

The Arab armies are going to be slaughtered in the Armageddon campaign, they are the first to attack the Jews in that world war. In Isaiah 34:5,6, “For my sword is satiated in heaven, Behold it shall descend for judgment on Edom, and upon the people I have devoted to destruction [not only will the Arabs be destroyed in those days but also the other nations as well]. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat, with the blood of lambs and goats [analogy to slaughter], with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has slaughtered in Bozrah [the Arab country called Edom], a great slaughter in the land of Edom.”

Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 describe the invasion of the king of the north. And what happens to him when he tries to lift the stone? Ezekiel 39:11, “And it shall come to pass in that day that I will give Gog [the king of the north] a burial ground in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block-off those who pass by, so that they will have to bury Gog there [before the roads will be opened], therefore I will call it the valley of Hamon-gog [the multitudes of the army of the king of the north].” Verse 12 tells us that it will take seven months for the house of Israel to bury that army.

Joel 2:20, “I will remove the northern army [the king of the north] far from you, consequently I will drive it into the parched and desolate land, its vanguard into the eastern sea [the Dead Sea], its rear guard will be on the western sea [the Mediterranean]. Its stench will rise up and a foul smell will cover the land...”

So it will be a great slaughter for those who attempt to destroy Israel. God can deal with His people in judgment, He has not given the prerogative to anyone else.

So Zechariah 12:3 concludes, “and all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against her.” These verses provide the background for that great act of leadership, crisis leadership. Historical crisis is God’s way of promoting prepared people. If God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted, and in time of crisis God does promote prepared people. Preparation for disaster means maximum doctrine resident in the soul, living under the plan of God.

In verse 4 we actually begin to see what is going to happen. God is going to strike down the enemy. “Thus says the Lord, ‘In that day [that these armies will invade the land] I will strike every horse with consternation, and his rider [the dictators, the politicians] with madness. Therefore, in the house of Judah [the Jewish state in the Tribulation] I will open my eyes [exercise divine power], I will strike every horse [the invading armies] with blindness’.”

So we have the fact that the Lord will again eventually intervene, but there is going to be an interim before the Lord intervenes, before the Lord can come and strike. Before that time we are going to see crisis leadership.

The horses represent mechanised infantry in modern terminology but mechanised infantry usually moves rapidly behind armour. Here there is no such thing. There are ten passages that explain this verse. They have to do with supernatural darkness. Just before the small scratch army in Israel, the new army, is destroyed supernatural darkness occurs on that day, Isaiah 5:30, “He shall roar over it [Jerusalem] in that day, as one looks toward the land, behold, there is great darkness.” The land is covered with a darkness that is so thick that light will not penetrate it, the same darkness that covered Jerusalem at the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 13:9,10, “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel with fury and burning anger, to make the land desolate; and he will exterminate its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not reflect its light.

Isaiah 60:2, “For behold, darkness will cover the earth, the deep darkness over the armies; however the Lord will rise upon you, and his glory will appear to you.”

But before that point is reached something has to happen, and something does happen. In Zechariah 12:5, “Then the governors” is incorrect. We have the Hebrew word aluph, and it means general officer, “of Judah.” So the translation is: “Then the generals of Judah.” These are not the generals who served in the apostate army of the dictator of the state of Israel, these are men who are prepared men and have suddenly come into focus. They are prepared spiritually and professionally. It is a reference to believers who are winners in the plan of God. At this crisis point these two officers come to the front. The crisis is designed to introduce God’s men for the crisis, and God promotes them at this point.

“Then the generals of Judah will think in their right lobes, ‘My encouragement [or strength, is the mature believers who] are the citizens of Jerusalem,” in Jerusalem there are a large number of believers who have matured in the last half of the Tribulation. They have followed the plan of God and so they are going to make an army out of these citizens, “through Jehovah of the armies, their God and ours.” “My strength [i.e. my troops, the only ones who will resist] is the citizens of Jerusalem through the Lord of the armies, their God and ours.” “Their God and ours” means that this is an army of believers. It is made up of citizens, they are qualified to resist and fight, not because they are professional soldiers but because they will not surrender, they will not give in to the enemy.

Verse 6, “In that day I will make the generals of Judah like a pan of fire in kindling and a flaming torch among dry leaves, therefore they will consume on the right and on the left all the besieging troops. Consequently, the citizens of Jerusalem will live again in their own place in Jerusalem.” In other words, they will bring about peace.

Verse 6 is a very important verse. It describes generals pulling together a scratch army of the citizens of Jerusalem. Who are the citizens who have survived so far? These are the winners, the citizens who are believers, the great ones who are going to do the job. When it says in the King James version, “they shall devour”, it means to consume, and in this case it means to annihilate. They will consume or annihilate on the right hand or the left. They will put up a phenomenal fight to the end, resisting the invading armies. They will not be destroyed, they will actually deliver Jerusalem. Eventually, of course, they would have been overpowered by the sheer numbers against them. These generals did not give up, they knew that “if God be for us, who can be against us?” This was the attitude they took and in that day they stand in the crisis. Why will they stand in the crisis?

Historical events produce a need and leadership meets that need. In the case of Zechariah chapter 12 the need was for some type of military leadership to stand in the gap, to come forward and say, We will not give up, we will fight. That is what the need always is. Secondly, circumstances produce a market. In this case the circumstances produced a market for military leadership. The Jews were besieged by great armies and were in the process of being destroyed. In this desperate situation circumstances produced a market and leadership always supplies the market. This is not talking about natural leadership, this is about God using prepared men. Crisis sets the stage for that leadership. This leadership inspires people and the reason the citizens did so well is because the leadership is so great.

We are going to pause long enough to see the two categories of survivors in the siege of Jerusalem: Category #1, civilians; category #2, military types. The interesting thing is that the Tribulation is divided into two parts. In the first three and a half years survival mandates all relate to obeying God’s Word, and survival is important because God has told us exactly how these people will survive. In the first half of the Tribulation believers in Israel are to flee. They are to run away; they are to move; they are not to stay in Jerusalem because they will be destroyed if they do. That is the mandate. But in the last half of the Tribulation the mandate from God is the antithesis: don’t move, stay and fight. The great overall lesson is the principle of flexibility. Timing is everything. You have to know that there is a time to fight and a time for peace, there is a time to run and there is a time to stand fast. Timing is very important in life and many believers cannot figure out timing and will never have time on their side, simply because they do not know enough about the Word of God to follow the timing of Bible doctrine.

There is, therefore, a principle which is absolutely necessary if we are going to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the principle of flexibility. Bible doctrine is totally inflexible as far as its content is concerned. Anything that comes from God is an absolute and all the principles and categories of Bible doctrine form into and crystallise into absolutes. But the application of these doctrines is something else. It requires an antithetical movement. You must be absolutely dogmatic about doctrine but you must be absolutely flexible in the application of doctrine.

We must learn to distinguish between the two categories of Jewish believers in the Tribulation. In the first half we have the command to flee to the high desert country — Edom. Moab and Ammon. In the last half of the Tribulation we have the command to fight. The interesting thing about the dispensation of the Church Age is that we do not have the same guide lines as they have in the Tribulation. The reason for that is because we are in the dispensation of the royal family of God, the Church Age, and God’s plan for our life is the operational divine dynasphere. Therefore, we must function inside of the divine dynasphere. Our flexibility is not in the divine dynasphere, it is the application of doctrine from the divine dynasphere. When we apply doctrine to experience and to the circumstances of life we use different doctrines for different situations. By learning doctrine we make flexible applications, we do not have the same doctrine for every situation. We must have application from many circumstances of life and therefore we are not given specific mandates telling us when it is time to take a trip and when it is time to stay and fight. We are not given that type of information because we have the greatest system that God has ever decreed and ordained for believers of any dispensation, i.e.. the operational divine dynasphere. Therefore we are expected to learn doctrine at gate four, to develop momentum. From that momentum we are expected to use the many many applications and options that are open to us as circumstances in life vary.

We have been emphasising that God uses prepared people, and there is no preparation apart from perception and application of Bible doctrine. So we have noted the principle that you must have first in your scale of values Bible doctrine. The number one priority of your life must be doctrine and if it isn’t you will always make the wrong decision. That is inevitable. If anything is more important to you than Bible doctrine then you’ve had it and you will never come up with the right application, you will always make the wrong application, and you will go into discipline by pain, and you will always wonder why, and you will always find an excuse, and you will learn to rationalise. Those who make wrong decisions rationalise the problems that come to them because of their bad decisions.

Matthew 24:15 — “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation.” Literally, “the detestable idol of destruction.” It is an image that will be put up in the Jewish temple in the Tribulation. It is a facsimile of the beast dictator of the revived Roman empire, “which has been communicated through Daniel the prophet, set up in the holy place (let those who have doctrine make the application)” — what application?

There will be toward the middle of the Tribulation a very strange thing. Jews who are unbelievers will be worshipping under the religion of Judaism when all of a sudden the dictator of the Jewish state will forbid any further Judaism and compel the worship of an image and to become a part of international religion, the religion of the revived Roman empire. This is all part of the treaty between Israel and the united states of western Europe at that time. This treaty includes the acceptance of the religious system of the revived Roman empire. An idol will be put up in the temple and there will be all sorts of activity with regard to the new international religion. Once this happens and once an idol is placed inside the temple that is a very clearly-defined action which calls for believers to make an application: get out of Jerusalem. To stay in Jerusalem means to die and God has a plan for these believers who were saved in the first half of the Tribulation. It calls for them to be preserved during the last half of the Tribulation because they are going to be a cadre for the repopulation of the earth during the Millennium.

Verse 16, “then those same ones in Judea flee to the mountains [high desert country],” the high desert country is clearly defined in Daniel 11:41.

Verse 17, “let him who is on the roof not come down to pack needed things that are in his house,” in other words, just get out.

Verse 18, “also let him who is working in the field not return to get his coat.” Don’t go home to get a coat, get out now. A quick decision must be made. This is the signal to get out now. Make your decisions ahead of time so all that you have to do is grab your rucksack and go.

Verse 19, “But woe to those who are pregnant,” a historical crisis is very hard on pregnant women, “and to those who are nursing babies in those days!”

Verse 20, “Furthermore, pray that your flight does not occur during inclement weather, or on the Sabbath day.”

This simply means that we have a mandate, and it is a very clearly-defined mandate, a mandate that explains in very simple detail for very simple people what they are to do. This ought to tell you something. Does it suddenly dawn on you that you are not s simple person, and that you live in a dispensation where nothing is very simple, and that you are not ever given such simple commands as this? Most of the decisions you have to make are very complicated and the principle on which they are based is very important: you and I as believers in this dispensation are required to put doctrine first. We are required to understand the Word of God. Our failure to understand the Word of God means that we make bad decisions, and our own bad decisions mean that we produce in ourselves terrible misery and unhappiness. It is our own fault, we are the products of our own bad decisions. The way of life for us is much more subtle and requires that we keep our priorities straight. The Word of God gives people in the future, Tribulational believers who are going to live under most unusual conditions, a much shorter version and a very clear version. They do not have the divine dynasphere, it goes to heaven at the Rapture, therefore they must have some very specific commands.

Verse 21, “For at that time [the last half of the Tribulation] there will be such great oppression [tribulation] such as has not occurred since the beginning of the kosmoj [human history: not the creation of the world, but the fall of man] until the present time, nor ever will occur again.”

Verse 22, “And unless those days [the last half of the Tribulation] had been cut short no human life would have been delivered,” Jesus Christ controls history and the fact that there will be millions of people alive at the second advent indicates the fact that not only does He control history but He gives very specific controls and mandates whereby people will survive, “but for the sake of those who are elected to privilege [born-again Jews living in Palestine who must be alive at the second advent and will be there for the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel] those days will be cut short.”

Verse 23, “At that time [after believing Jews have reached the high desert country].” The Jews who get up in that high desert country are now safe. God has a wall of fire around those Jewish believers. They have followed instructions implicitly. They move, as it were, into their own divine dynasphere; they are in a place of safety. These are civilians, they will not be doing any fighting during the Tribulation. However, after a great spiritual victory there is often great failure because a great spiritual victory tends to arrogance. Arrogance puts us into the cosmic system where we are vulnerable to defeat. Therefore some additional advice has to be given. Satan is going to set up a propaganda system designed to get people out of the high desert country, to leave the place that God has provided for them. They are only safe in that place. God does not provide safety for them anywhere else.

“At that time if anyone will say to you, ‘Here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There is the Messiah,’ do not believe that person.” One of the important things in life is not to be a sucker for false doctrine. Never allow culture to become your doctrine, get your doctrine from the Word. All the doctrine that we have comes from an entirely different culture. Many times people allow their culture to become their doctrine and therefore they get into false doctrine. These people are looking for the Messiah, they know they are supposed to stay there in the high desert country until He returns, they are safe where they are. But the propagandists can crank out sound, and they say, “Messiah has come, come on out of the mountains now, all is clear.” The command is: “Don’t you believe that person.”

The faith-rest drill is negative as well as positive. There are certain things you must believe vigorously, there are other things that you must reject vigorously. When the propaganda starts you have to reject it.

Verse 24, “For many false Messiahs, also false prophets, will appear on the scene,” there is always a real slick operator with a nice personality and a beautiful turn of words who will come along with his messages and try to persuade that the Lord has returned. In order that you “know” that they are from God they are going to perform miracles, “and will show great miracles and wonders, to deceive even believers, even those elected to privilege.” The issue of miracles is gone. The last legitimate miracle occurred when the canon of scripture was completed. Nothing is ever attested by miracles. Satan is in the miracle business and he uses miracles to deceive believers. God does not permit His messengers to perform miracles.

Verse 25, “Behold, I have told you in advance.” They have already been told these things; they already know these things. These are things they will have understood.

Verse 26, “Consequently, if they shall say to you, ‘Behold, he [Christ] is out in the desert,’ do not go out [do not leave the place of refuge], or, ‘Behold, he is in one of the inner rooms,’ do not believe that propaganda.” In other words there are going to be all kinds of persuasive devices just as everything is being done to persuade us as believers to get out of the divine dynasphere. God does not intend for any of us to live outside of the divine dynasphere. That is our mandate, our place of refuge.

Verse 27, “For just as lightning comes from the east, and flashes toward the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.” Just as lightning can be observed by all so the second advent will be observed by all. We have noted the fact that the entire earth is going to be covered with darkness. That darkness is to preserve those who are fighting, obeying their mandate, in the second half of the Tribulation. When Christ returns it is the only light that can penetrate that darkness, and so every one on the earth will see Christ returning, Revelation 1:7.

Verse 28, “Wherever there is a corpse the vultures will be gathered.” The “banquet of the vultures” will be the closing part of the Armageddon campaign. One way the believers can tell when the Lord has returned is that there will suddenly be vultures. We will be noting this later. Just as anyone can see lightning in the sky during a storm so anyone can see the second advent, and those who have fled into the high desert country are going to see millions of vultures feasting on carrion and human bodies. There is no problem to read the signs.

But it is not so simple for us. The question is: Can you read the signs? Do you have any flexibility of application? There is no flexibility in perception of doctrine, doctrine is dogmatic; but from a dogmatic base you have many options and many flexible attitudes which must be developed. You must learn flexibility. This is impossible unless you put virtue first. Virtue-first means humility. Without enforced and genuine humility you are never going to make it in the spiritual life. While some of these people will fail you also are going to have egg on your face unless you learn daily the doctrine of the Word of God.

The battles of the Armageddon campaign are going to be terminated dramatically by the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are now looking at the siege of Jerusalem and how it terminates with the second advent. Everything comes together at the second advent of Christ. The prophetical time designation is given in Zechariah 14:1 — “Behold, a day [the second advent of Christ] has come for the Lord.” The day of the Lord includes three spheres of eschatological doctrine. The Tribulation in the broader view is a part of the day of the Lord. The 24-hour day of the Lord is the second advent. Then, in the broader view, again, the Millennium is a part of the day of the Lord. So that sometimes, as in Joel, the day of the Lord includes all three of these. Sometimes it is just one day, the second advent, sometimes it is a part of the Tribulation, and sometimes it is a reference to the Millennium, and sometimes all three. The day of the Lord is to be distinguished from the day of Christ which is the Rapture of the Church and is not a 24-hour day, it takes a few seconds.

The next phrase in the King James version, “and thy spoil,” etc. should be translated “and your profit shall be distributed among you.” This is not talking about spoil, which has a battlefield connotation, but it is talking about blessing, the temporal blessings of mature believers. “Shall be distributed” means the judgment seat of Christ for Tribulational believers and Old Testament saints. It is the pual perfect of the verb chalaq. Chalaq in the qal stem means to be smooth or to divide, in the niphal it means to be distributed, in the hithpael it means to divide among yourselves, in the piel it means to distribute. The pual is the passive of the piel and it should be translated “be distributed [or divided] among you.”

“Behold, a day has come and your profit shall be distributed among you,” a reference to winners in the Tribulation. At the end of the Tribulation they are winners.

Verse 2, “For I will assemble all nations against Jerusalem.” Note that, first of all, in verse one the subject is the second advent. The second advent divides believers into two categories, winners and losers. Before the second advent and during the adversities of the Tribulation winners in the Middle East receive certain blessings because God’s plan for the believer goes on in time of adversity.

We may be living in a time of no prosperity. It makes no difference, there is still prosperity for you as an individual. Occupation with Christ becomes the motivational factor, and having the capacity for love, the capacity for happiness, the capacity for blessing, there is fantastic blessing for believers. The wealth, riches, promotion, success, prosperity, are just as real in time of adversity as they are in time of prosperity.

The prophetical time designation for all of this is the second advent of Christ. In verse 2, therefore, what happens just before the second advent? What are winners and losers doing? “I [Jesus Christ who controls history] will assemble all nations against Jerusalem for warfare.” Jesus Christ controls history in three ways: direct control through the function of His divine essence; indirect control through the laws of divine establishment; permissive control which means permitting the angelic conflict to run its course in human history and permitting people to see the consequences of their own bad decisions. The presence of all nations in the Middle East at the end of the Tribulation is a combination of the first and the last principles of how Jesus Christ controls history. The Jews have an unusual opportunity. They have made very bad decisions at the end of the Tribulation and the consequences of those tribulations are obvious to them. They have the opportunity of seeing them. It is always, therefore, a wonderful thing to learn of your own bad decisions. The Middle East is always going to be a hot spot and, once again, the Jews in the middle of the Tribulation under their very bad leadership, the dictator of the Jewish stage of Israel, made very bad decisions which resulted in armies massing in their country.

When it says, “I will assemble all nations against Jerusalem for warfare” it is referring to four power spheres: the king of the south, the king of the north, the kings of the east, the king of the west. They all have troops in the Middle East.

Verse 9, “Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war; mobilise the mighty men! Let the soldiers assemble, let them invade!

Verse 10, Israel is told to prepare for war but they didn’t do so. They were listening to the prophets saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but the Word of God says, ‘There is no peace.’ They couldn’t see the war coming. So: “Beat your ploughshares into swords,” they should have been building up their military. This is a mandate from the Word of God, “And your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, ‘I will enlist’.”

Verse 11, “Lend aid and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather there. Bring down, O Lord, the mighty ones.” Only the Lord could help them. They had made so many mistakes they attracted every army into the world into their area.

Verse 12, “Let all the nations be aroused and come unto the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all surrounding nations.” A lot of nations made a decision to invade the state of Israel and the Lord will judge them for it.

Continuing in Zechariah 14:2, “therefore the city will be captured,” the city would be captured when the king of the north comes down for the first time on his way to Africa, but later when he comes back part of it will be captured again. What happens when a nation is exposed to invading armies? “their homes will be plundered,” their is no respect for privacy or property, and there is no freedom, “and their women raped, and half of the city will depart into slavery, but,” and after that conjunction we have the believers that we studied in Zechariah chapter twelve, “the remnant of the people [believers who are in Jerusalem] will not be cut off from the city.”

When it says “half of the city will depart into slavery” it is referring to the losers. Even though losers stay alive they stay alive for one reason only: to be miserable. There will be born again believers among those slaves. Losers always live miserable lives, yet there is no excuse for it, for every believer as of the moment of personal faith in Jesus Christ was designed to be a winner. So we have in verse 2 plunder, rape, violence, and slavery. This is what happens to the losers. This is why the laws of divine establishment emphasise the military as the guardians of human freedom. All freedom in a nation is purchased on the battlefield, never at the conference table. Politicians cause wars; soldiers bring peace; that is the principle of Bible doctrine.

“but the remnant of the people,” these are the believers who grew in grace in a very short time and are living in the Middle East at the end of the Tribulation. They have less than three years to advance to maturity, and they make it. They have their priorities straight. They are almost fanatical about Bible doctrine and you have to be that way at times. There are two kinds of fanatics: people who are arrogantly fanatic; those who are fanatical about having a right scale of values and refusing to depart from it; a grace fanaticism that is necessary when the pressure becomes great.

At some time or another people are going to do everything they can to diminish your attitude toward Bible doctrine. At that point you just have to stand up in your own “nasty” personality, be a fanatic and say no, I’m going to stick with doctrine.

This is the reason why they have the command to fight in the last half of the Tribulation. In each segment of the Tribulation we have seen that survival depends on obeying the mandates of that section. In the first half of the Tribulation is was “flee”; in the last half of the Tribulation is was “fight.” All the Tribulational martyrs in the Middle East are not necessarily reversionistic. Some took a stand for doctrine, were fanatical, and that is why they died. And they died honourably. A lot of believers are losers, so you always have to distinguish this fact because winners and losers are dying a the same time.

So, “the remnant of the people will not be cut off from the city.” They will stand fast; they will obey the command.

Zechariah chapter 13 tells us in two verses just what this is all about, verses 8,9: “And it shall come to pass in all the land … that two thirds of it will but cut off and perish; one third will be left behind. And I will bring the one third [believers who are winners] through the fire [the siege of Jerusalem, the Armageddon campaign], refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested.” And how will they pass the test? “They will call on my name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ” They are delivered, and that is exactly what it is saying at the end of chapter fourteen, verse two.

Verse 3, “Then the Lord will go forth [advance] and fight against those nations,” were it not for the intervention of the Lord none of them would have survived. But they all survive, same principle as Isaiah 63:1-6, “Like his fighting on the day of battle.” This verse refers to direct intervention in history. Jesus Christ will personally slaughter all of the enemy and that explains the vulture banquet at the end of Revelation chapter nineteen.

Verse 4, “Consequently on that day [the second advent] his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives,” the Mount of Olives is the place for the second advent, “which lies in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will split in its middle from east to west forming a great valley, therefore half of the mountain will recede toward the north and the other half toward the south.” So there is an east-west valley which becomes important because it is the means of establishing Jerusalem as a sea port.

The path of this valley is reminiscent of the Red Sea. In the Red Sea the Lord Jesus Christ provided a path through the water; in this case He provides a path through the mountain and apparently the Jews are backed up against the east and are holding out there, and this valley gives them their avenue of escape so the Lord can deal with those nations. Just as Jesus Christ, then, parted the Red Sea making an escape from Pharaoh’s chariot army, so He will split the Mount of Olives with the result that another escape hatch is provided. The result is the formation of the great east-west valley similar to the path of the Red Sea running in the same direction from west to east.

Up until this time the Jewish believers in the siege of Jerusalem have been fighting. Now they are commanded to retire in verse 5, “And you will flee,” the qal perfect from the verb nus. Nus has a number of related meanings: to flee, to run, to retreat or to retire. Here is should be translated, “And you shall retreat [or retire].” It is going to be done in an orderly manner, “with the result that you will escape through the valley of the mountain.”

The escape of the believers clears the deck for the annihilation of the armies besieging Jerusalem. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes back something is going to happen. The armies of the kings of the east are in the valley of Esdraelon. The king of the north with his great army is invading Jerusalem, moving in from the west and south west. The Arabs are in the Negev and in Edom. All of these troops which have come to take this prize in the Middle east are going to be rapidly organised by Satan and they will all turn to try to fight the Lord and the army that comes with Him. That is Satan’s last gasp in the last world war in history.

The next phrase: “for the valley of the mountain will reach unto Azel,” in the time of Zechariah Azel was a well known town near Jerusalem. The only trouble is that Azel didn’t survive; Jerusalem did. It was on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives and that is all we know about it. This passage again explains the Millennial passages that talk about Jerusalem being a sea port in the Millennium. Such a valley would create a low place east of Jerusalem and that would cause the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean to meet forming a body of water flowing into the old Jordan river bed and then into the Red Sea.

“you will escape just as you have escaped before [in the face of] the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah,” the greatest earthquake apparently the Jews ever had was in the days of Uzziah and they escaped then because a valley was formed. Cf. Amos 1:1.

Revelation 11:13, “And in that hour there was a great earthquake.” That earthquake had to do with the killing of the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake. That is judgment by death. They had already had their crisis evangelism.

No sooner has the shock of the earthquake concluded but the armies of the king of the north appear. We have two earthquakes then. When the king of the north is approaching Jerusalem he is slowed down by an earthquake. That earthquake is to destroy the east side so that it makes good field fortifications. The believers use the rubble for fortifying that part of Jerusalem and they resist. The army of the king of the north comes in and takes two thirds of the city. Then, when the Lord comes and part of the Mount of Olives goes north and part goes south, there is this valley and this is the way that they will retire from the scene leaving the battle to the Lord to annihilate the enemy.

“Then the Lord God [Jesus Christ] will come [second advent], and all the saints with him.” Who are all the saints? They form two categories. Group A: believers in resurrection bodies. During the Tribulation these who are winners have been receiving their decorations, they have been presented in the court of heaven. The losers are with them. Group B: Old Testament saints. They have just received their resurrection bodies; the Church Age believers have had theirs for seven years. These come back with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 6, this is the day of darkness which preserved the lives of the believers. “And it will come to pass in that day that there will be no light; the beautiful light from the stars will be shut down.” The darkness is so thick that light cannot penetrate it.

Verse 7, “But it will be a unique day, the same day will be known to the Lord, not day, not night;” because the earth is locked in with this darkness, “now it shall come to pass at the time of evening that suddenly it will be light,” the second advent.

Verse 8, “Then it shall come to pass in that day [the Millennium] that the living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea [Dead Sea] and the other half toward the western sea [Mediterranean]; in summer and in winter it shall be.” There will always be a port there in summer and in winter. Ezekiel 47:1 talks about this when it says in the middle of the verse, “and water was flowing down from under the right side of the temple, from south of the altar.” Joel 3:18 also describes it.

The great supply of water in the desert in the Middle East is also something that will occur at this time. Psalm 46:

Verse 1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” When is God a help? Now!

Verse 2, “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though mountains slip into the middle of the sea;”

Verse 3, “though its waters roar and foam, though mountains quake at its swelling pride.”

Verse 4, “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God [Jerusalem], the holy dwelling places of the most high.” Jerusalem, capital of the world in the Millennium.

Verse 5, “God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when the morning dawns [second advent].”

Verse 6, “The nations made an uproar [the last world war of history], the kingdoms tottered; he raised his voice, the earth melted.”

Verse 7, “The Lord of the armies is with us [second advent]; The God of Jacob is our fortification.”

Verse 8, “Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has wrought desolation upon the earth.”

Verse 9, What is He going to do? He is going to terminate all wars at the second advent. This is the second advent passage. “He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; he burns the chariots with fire.”

Verse 10, What is the application? “Relax, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” That isn’t the Church Age, that is the second advent.

Zechariah 14:9, “Then the Lord [Jesus Christ] will become king over the entire earth; in that day [the Millennium] the Lord will be unique, because his title is unique.” Our Lord has a unique title, that is why the Church Age is a unique age and why in this dispensation believers are royal family of God.

In this last world war of history there are three outstanding things according to the eschatological doctrines that we have studied. There is a great deal of demon activity, there is a tremendous amount of human activity, and there is divine activity which terminates the entire war.

Isaiah 63:1-9 is another view of terminating this world war. It begins literally, “Who is this one coming from Edom, with clothes stained bright red with blood from Bozrah …” The question indicates the fact that the Arabs were also involved in this Middle East campaign. In fact, they started the ball rolling, according to Daniel 11:40. They actually attacked Israel.

We do not know when the Tribulation is going to occur. Before the Tribulation can occur there must be the resurrection of the Church which terminates the Church Age. However, the Arabs will never change their attitude toward the Jews and right down to the second advent they will be antagonistic against Israel. In the area of the southern part of the state of Israel there will be a great battle, the battle of Idoumea in which the Arabs and the Jewish army are fighting it out. The Lord Jesus Christ comes to deliver that Jewish army. In doing so He takes a stand once again. Jesus Christ is the God of Israel.

Edom is the homeland of two Arab groups, the Edomites and the Nabataeans. Today modern Edom belongs to Saudi Arabia and Jordan primarily, but it is Arab country. The Arabs, of course, always take advantage of historical unrest and they have since there have been Arabs in the Middle East. The Edomite Arabs began their antagonism toward Israel when they refused to permit the Jews of the Exodus generation to pass through their land on their way to their own land, Numbers 20:18ff. The Edomite Arabs were in a great war with King Saul, 1 Samuel 14:47. David defeated the Edomite Arabs and annihilated most the male population at that time, 1 Kings 11:15,16. In BC 875 the Arabs of Edom formed a league with Ammon and Moab who are also Arab peoples and they invaded Judah in the time of Jehoshaphat. The invaders were miraculously destroyed in the valley of Berachah, 2 Chronicles 20:22. The Edomite Arabs were successful in revolting against Judah under King Jehoram and maintained their independence for half a century, 2 Chronicles 21:8. While Amaziah carried out successful campaigns against the Edomite Arabs, 2 Chronicles 25, the Jews were never able to subjugate them after that, and when Nebuchadnezzar administered the fifth cycle of discipline in BC 586 the Edomite army followed the Chaldeans and slaughtered every Jew they could find. This slaughter of the Jews is mentioned specifically in Psalm 137:7, “Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, who said, ‘Destroy it, destroy it, to its very foundation.’ “Because of this Arab treachery Edomite Arabs were denounced by several of the prophets: Jeremiah in chapter 49:17 and Lamentations 4:21; by Ezekiel in chapter 25:13,14; by Amos and by Obadiah. As a reward for helping the Chaldeans against Judah Nebuchadnezzar gave the Edomite Arabs all the land between Judah and Egypt. Their reward didn’t last long because another tribe of Arabs descended from Ishmael, the Nabataeans, came in and destroyed or intermarried with them. For 400 years the Edomite Arabs continued until the Maccabaeans finally subdued them. John Hercanus conquered the Edomite Arabs. He was the grandson of one of the Maccabaeans, Matthias. However, the conquest would give rise to an Edomite Arab whose progeny would play a leading role in the political scene of the Levant for two centuries. His name was Antipater and he was the father of Herod the Great. Herod the Great was an Edomite Arab and he exterminated the Hasmonaean dynasty of the Jews and under Roman sponsorship took over the kingdom of the Jews.

There will never be a cessation between Israel and the Arabs. Bozrah was the capital of Edom in the time of the writing of Isaiah and, therefore, the capital of the Edomite Arabs. The question in Isaiah 63:1 is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ who has just slaughtered the Edomite Arabs. In Revelation 19:13, “And he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God,” a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. In verses 15 and 21 of chapter nineteen we have a detailed description of that great slaughter. Isaiah also anticipates it in Isaiah 34:5,6.

The next phrase in Isaiah 63:1 is “the one who is royal in his dress,” the Lord Jesus Christ is being described, “marching in the greatness of his power? ‘It is I who speak in righteousness, I am the one mighty to cause deliverance’.” This is the Lord Jesus Christ identifying Himself prophetically. The principle is that He slaughters these Arabs from the standpoint of His perfect virtue. As eternal God He has perfect virtue; as true humanity he has perfect virtue. Note that virtue is related with the slaughter of the enemy.

Verse 2, “Why is your clothing red, and your royal garments as one treading the winepress?” It is a rhetorical question as far as Isaiah is concerned but it becomes necessary to understand that the first function of our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent is the destruction of many evil armies, and He breaks all records in the slaughter of these armies.

Verse 3, in the answer given, our Lord speaks: “ ‘I have treaded down the winepress alone’,” our Lord is followed by three great armies, an army of angelic creatures who have thrown out of heaven in the middle of the Tribulation Satan’s great army, the believers of this dispensation who are royal family of God in resurrection bodies, and then the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs in their resurrection bodies. And all of these armies follow our Lord (Revelation 19) but none of them fight. And so the word “alone” is the key to understanding grace. God’s policy in His plan for our lives is grace, and note who does the work. He does it alone, He does it without help. Three passages summarise the slaughter of the Arabs and the other invaders of the future: Revelation 14:19,20; 19:13,15; Isaiah 34:2-6. — “consequently, from the people who accompany me there is no one doing the fighting with me. I have treaded them down in my anger, I have trampled them in my wrath; so that their blood has been splashed on my clothes, therefore I have stained all of my clothes with their blood.”

These first three verses indicate the principle that the Arabs here, like all of the invading armies, are criminals. Evil always expresses itself through violence. The principle is: God meets violence with violence. You cannot stop crime and warfare by disarmament. To disarm a nation invites disaster and in the devil’s world peace is maintained by a strong military establishment. These verses describe the great slaughter of the Arab Armageddon and in this way the Arab problem is finally resolved by our Lord Jesus Christ who controls history now and who controls history then. This is not a brief for us to hate the Arabs; we are not to hate anyone.

Verse 4, “ ‘For the day of retribution was in my right lobe’,” the third paragraph of the Abrahamic covenant says that anyone who enters into any form of anti-Semitism is going to die for it, and this is the justice being administered here. The Arabs invade under the principle of anti-Semitism, “ ‘and the year of my redemption [of Israel] has come’.” Israel will be redeemed in the sense of once again being restored as a client nation. This is historical restoration. Not only does Jesus Christ control history but at the second advent He is going to rectify the evils and injustices of history resulting from Satan’s rulership of this world. One of these injustices filled with evil is the Arab persecution and antagonism toward Israel. Remember that while both Arab and Jew are Semitic; the word “anti-Semitism” means hostility toward the Jew. History must run its course under cosmos diabolicus while the royal family is being formed during the Church Age and the Age of Israel is being completed in the Tribulation. Therefore the day of restitution cannot occur until the Church Age is completed by the Rapture and the Age of Israel is completed by the Tribulation. That is the day of restitution in the heart of our Lord. The second advent of Christ is the time of reckoning, the time of judgment on the Arab nations; it is the time of the Arabs Armageddon. Israel will be delivered from all her enemies at the second advent. This is the purpose of Armageddon and of the baptism of fire which follows. The Millennial reign of Jesus Christ will terminate all anti-Semitism in history and the Jew will then become again a blessing to all.

Verse 5, “ ‘So I looked around for assistance but there was no one helping me, consequently I was shocked, however my arm [Jesus Christ] has delivered me’,” those Jewish believers fighting in that south eastern corner of the state of Israel were helped by the Lord, “ ‘and my righteous indignation [virtue] sustained me’.”

Verse 6, “ ‘Therefore in my anger I will trample their armies [the Arab army of Edom] and in my fury I will make them drunk and I will cause their life blood to pour out on the land’.” That is deliverance.

Verse 7, the response of the believers to this statement of our Lord. “I will be caused to remember.” This is the Hebrew word zakar. In the qal stem it simply means to remember, in the niphal stem it means to be remembered, but in the hiphil stem it is causative: I will be motivated to remember. Question: Do you remember the Lord? Who is first in your thoughts? You will never be motivated to remember until you understand doctrine. If you do not know doctrine you cannot remember the Lord. These people were motivated to remember the Lord in their deliverance. They were delivered from a disastrous military situation. Had the Lord not intervened they would have been wiped out. They were motivated to remember by the grace activity of the Lord — “the grace of the Lord, according to all which he has benefited us, even the abundance of good to the house of Israel, with which he has benefited them according to the riches of his grace.”

Verse 8, “Consequently, he [Jesus Christ] said, ‘Truly, they are my people [Jews who are born-again], sons who will not prove false’. Therefore he became their deliverer.”

Verse 9, “In all their affliction [anti-Semitism] he was afflicted, therefore the angel of his presence delivered them; in his love and in his grace he sustained them; and helped them throughout history.”

The subjective person in life is full of questions about why he is there, why his circumstances, what is the origin of everything? Why have the human race on the earth? If God knew ahead of time everything that was going to happen, why did he let it happen? This is subjectivity, and subjectivity to the point of disorientation to one’s circumstances. The objective person in life recognises he is in a set of circumstances and takes it from there. He doesn’t question why, he learns how the plan of God operates in his circumstances. This is why subjective people are inevitably arrogant. They emphasise themselves above the circumstances of life and anything else that might be a source of inquiry to them. Consequently the arrogance of subjectivity has a great deal of difficulty in learning God’s plan and God’s system. But even for those who are subjective, as well as those who are objective in the Christian life, occasionally we do get an explanation as to the whys and wherefores of life.

We have found such an explanation in the past few chapters we have been studying in the book of Revelation. In one word the explanation is protocol. The protocol of heaven is a system of divine order which guarantees happiness and blessing forever for the believer who is a winner. The protocol of heaven belongs to every elect angel; it also belongs to every saved person of the human race who resides in heaven. The protocol of heaven is a source of both divine blessing and, at the same time, divine judgment on earth during the course of human history. The protocol of heaven as the source of divine blessing and happiness comes from the order and system of God’s plan for the believer in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the protocol of heaven as the source of divine judgment originates from the interaction of elect angels functioning under divine mandates. All divine mandates originate from the justice of God, one half of divine holiness — the other half, of course, being God’s perfect righteousness.

Protocol is defined as a rigid long-established code prescribing complete deference to superior rank and strict adherence to due order of precedence and precisely correct procedure. Protocol, therefore, recognises the principle of authority under the laws of divine establishment. Protocol recognises and obeys authority, consequently protocol requires virtue for its existence. Therefore we go back once more to the premise: the fact that the objective person is a virtuous person because of his humility, his teachability; whereas the subjective person always wants to know what causes this and what causes that, and is always disoriented to his own circumstances or very dissatisfied with them. Protocol is related to basic virtue in life: enforced and genuine humility. Basic virtue demands recognition of authority and orientation to whatever circumstances may exist. Protocol is related to motivational virtue through the principle of the believer’s worship of God; and protocol is related to functional virtue through the modus operandi of virtue morality rather than morality by arrogance or self-righteousness. Self-righteous people are subjective, they emphasise their own personal modus operandi about everything else in life, and they consider themselves totally superior because they are not like others. They are the Pharisees of the 20th century.

The fact that protocol is a part of God’s plan, God’s policy, and God’s system for believers on earth, emphasises the conclusion that protocol exists in heaven. God has also established a system of protocol in heaven for all creatures. Power cannot compete with divine power. Man’s power, angelic power, will never compete with heaven. There is no competition of power in heaven, heaven is a place of perfect happiness. The perfect happiness of the elect angels and the perfect happiness of believers who have died and gone to heaven is a happiness based upon order, protocol, authority, humility. The basis for our study of protocol in heaven was the fourteenth chapter of Revelation, beginning in verse fifteen, so that we have now become familiar with the general concept of protocol.

We have learned from all of this that protocol without virtue is ritual without reality, for there are a number of forms of protocol on earth which are related to arrogance, related to ritual, and have no meaning as far as divine truth is concerned. The categories of angelic aristocracy emphasise to us the fact that one of the reasons for perfect future happiness in heaven is the fact that everyone is related to the reality of heaven through protocol. Protocol and God’s plan for the believer, therefore, must become a reality on earth for God has found a way to bring heaven to earth for believers who are positive to doctrine. Protocol, therefore, is the key to the plan of God, God’s system. Protocol is related to the priorities of the plan of God. Protocol is found in God’s plan under the principle of mandates first; they are found in God’s system under the principle of virtue first; it is found in God’s purpose under the principle of Christ first; and it is found in God’s policy under the principle of grace first; it is found in God’s objective: momentum first — becoming a winner; it is found in God’s authority under the principle of doctrine first. God’s plan for the believer in time has protocol. Protocol functions in three categories of virtue, and therefore the system of virtue-first. Unless you and I as believers possess virtue from the divine system we will be troubled and unhappy all of our lives as Christians on this earth because we are minus protocol. There is no protocol apart from virtue and there is no virtue in the Christian life apart from gate three of the divine dynasphere. Without humility you will never orient to the circumstances of life; without enforced and genuine humility you will always be saying, Why? why? why? Yet eventually positive volition persistence always gets the answers as to why. But the little smart person always wants to know all of the whys at one time.

No one can be objective and oriented to his circumstances, be they humble circumstances or exalted, without virtue. Virtue has as its object authority. Without recognition and submission to authority it is impossible to be oriented to any set of circumstances in life, and therefore it is impossible to be happy. Happiness comes with virtue; virtue comes with humility; humility orients to the authority of your circumstances. Children in the home have the authority of parents, the wife has the authority of the husband, all of us have the authority of establishment in government. So it is with God’s plan for your life. God has a plan for your life and that plan only guarantees you happiness and blessing if you follow the protocol of the plan. The protocol of the plan is the system in the plan, and the system in the plan demands daily adherence to Bible doctrine, demands the humility enforced and genuine. Without enforced and genuine humility there is no recognition of the protocol of life.

In the fall of Satan, the first sin among creatures, Lucifer the son of the morning was the highest ranking cherub. He was the greatest of all creatures, he had the greatest beauty, the greatest personality. Satan’s sin was based on his failure to recognise protocol: he did not recognise the protocol of heaven. In his arrogance he rejected the protocol of heaven and Satan became the first sinner when he said, “I will be like the most high God”. So following the pattern of arrogance — Satan’s pattern, Satan’s subjectivity — it is fascinating to note that the most beautiful creature that ever lived was Lucifer the son of the morning. He was very subjective and he was very arrogant about it all. He didn’t ask the origin of things; he knew that, and knowing the origin of his own existence he defied that origin, he rejected that authority. In heaven he by-passed protocol and in so doing he destroyed himself and at least one third of all the angelic creatures. In the angelic conflict that followed he learned that he could not overcome the protocol of heaven. Satan never has a happy day even though he has the greatest power of any creature on this earth. He is a totally miserable person.

God’s plan functions on protocol, protocol in three categories of virtue in the divine dynasphere. For the reason that believers are ignorant of protocol they have failed in the spiritual life. The system of authority for protocol in heaven is a very simple one. God the Father is the authority for protocol in heaven; God the Father is the author of the divine plan for the angelic creatures and for the human race. God the Son is the winner in that plan for the human race, He is the saviour of the world. God the Holy Spirit is both the revealer and the power of that plan.

Certain elect angels are involved in the administration of God’s plan. Certain members of the human race have received from the grace of God gifts, authority and responsibility in that plan. The chain of command, therefore, is very important. And when any believer in his circumstances in life loses his objectivity, ignores and violates the chain of command of protocol, he is a disoriented person and very unhappy. There is no happiness in life apart from protocol; there is no happiness in heaven apart from protocol. The protocol of heaven has been attacked but that attack lost out in the prehistoric angelic conflict. Protocol on earth is now under attack and we are a part of the warfare, the extension of the angelic conflict to human history.

Remember, therefore, that in the prehistoric angelic conflict protocol in heaven was the object of attack. Now that that has been settled protocol on earth is the object of attack. Therefore we read every days of certain things that have happened, certain criticisms of the government made by the press, which it is free to do, but certain criticisms violate the protocol of government. When the protocol of government is violated then there is misery for everyone in the national entity. So protocol becomes a major issue in life.

We are studying the seven last judgements in history at the end of the Tribulation. These judgements come form the protocol of heaven and they are designed to bring happiness to the human race through the policy of grace. Even judgment has that purpose. The protocol of heaven in the administration of these seven last judgements of the Tribulation has been noted. We have noted in Revelation 14:15 that God the Father delegated these judgements to God the Son, under the principle of John 5:22ff, all judgment has been delegated to the Son since His resurrection and ascension. So we find God the Father in the heavenly temple sending the mandate for the delegation for the seven last plagues, and we find Him using one of the highest ranking angels out of the angelic conflict. He uses as a messenger an officer of arms. God the Son as the judge exercises the mandate of God the Father. Then we saw a chain of command in protocol by which it is handled. We saw, for example, that the protocol results in seven last plagues of the Tribulation. We see a judgment squad emerging, it is made up of wingless aristocracy in the angelic college of heralds, the pur sui vant messengers. In Revelation 14:17 we saw a pur sui vant officer, a cherub-ranked angel who took command of the execution squad. We saw the pur sui vant officer commanding this squad in chapter fifteen. In the meantime the phrase “another angel” in 14:18 is used for the highest-ranking angelic creature in the college of heralds. The king of arms comes from the altar of imprecatory prayers with a confirmatory order of execution. The confirmatory order of execution in 14:18 relates imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs to the divine order sent through the chain of command. Next comes one of the angelic heralds called “living creatures” in 15:7. He is the one who issues the bowl judgements to each one of the execution squad. Then the pur sui vant officer who went on standby in verse 17 takes command of that squad in 14:19. The execution or judgment squad of seven pur sui vant messengers goes into action in chapter sixteen.

Chapter 16:17 — we find the execution once more of judgment coming from the protocol of heaven. That means that these judgements have a purpose, and that purpose is happiness. The protocol in the angelic college of heralds leads us to the conclusion that while each one of these judgements increases in severity each one of the judgements has a grace purpose from God. So blessing from God has a purpose; judgment from God has a purpose. Blessing from God comes from the protocol of heaven; judgment from God comes from the protocol of heaven. In connection with that we have two categories of judgment which are pertinent in this passage. First we have judgment by pain, and secondly we have judgment by death. There is also eternal judgment but that is really not pertinent here at the moment though it certainly plays a part later on.

The judgment of verse 17 will be the last of the Tribulational judgements. The seventh pur sui vant messenger involved is also going to become a great Bible teacher in chapter seventeen. We begin verse 17 with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” With this we have the nominative singular subject from the numeral e(bdomoj, “the seventh.” It refers to the seventh member of the execution squad, the pur sui vant messenger from the angelic college of heralds, “Then the seventh [angel].”

Then we have the aorist active indicative from the verb e)kqew, “pour out.” This is a judgment by death and it will be the death of all religion on the earth. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. It gathers up into one entirety a succession of divine judgements which occur just before the second advent. It includes natural disasters, personal judgements against the ecumenical religion, and an unparalleled upheaval of land mass on planet earth. This is a combination of judgment by pain and judgment by death. All of it is designed to judge, to destroy, to discredit all of the world religions. The active voice: the seventh pur sui vant messenger is the one who produces the action of the verb as a member of the execution squad. He is the angel in chapter 17:1ff who will be teaching John about world religion, international religion of the Tribulation. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatological reality at the end of the Tribulation.

Once again, we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun fialh and it refers here to the seventh bowl judgment which is a combination of grenade fragments, all of which are designed to judge international religion. This grenade is said to be poured out in the air, the preposition e)pi plus the accusative of the noun a)er, referring to the atmospheric band around the earth. In Ephesians 2:2 Satan is called the ruler of the kingdom of air, and it is the same noun. In other words, the seventh bowl judgment is directed at Satan’s kingdom throughout planet earth, especially religion.

Translation: “Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl on the air [on the kingdom of Satan].”

This is the final category of intensive judgment administered prior to the second advent of Jesus Christ. It includes numerous judgements throughout the world which are contemporaneous with the last great world war of history. They are generally directed toward ecumenical religion throughout the world and include great natural disturbances. The natural disturbances include judgment by pain as a part of crisis evangelism as well as judgment by death to remove the influence of religion from the earth. The divine declaration regarding this is given, starting with the word kai, “and,” followed by megaj which means here “magnificent” and the noun phone meaning voice, “and a magnificent voice.” It is the voice of God the Father, author of the divine plan.

Next we have a verb, the aorist active indicative of e)xerxomai, and it means to come out of the temple. It was the voice of God the Father from the temple who sent the mandate to God the Son in chapter 14:15. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the voice of God the Father from the temple produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for eschatological reality. Then we have e)k plus naoj, “from the temple,” followed by a second preposition, a)po plus qronoj, “from the throne,” and then the present active participle of legw, all of which is translated, “Then the seventh pur sui vant messenger poured out his bowl [the seventh plague] on the air; and a magnificent voice came out of the temple from the throne and said...” The descriptive present tense of legw means that this is a very dramatic thing which is going to be said. What is said is one word, the perfect active indicative of the verb ginomai. It means to become, to be, and we translate it here, “it is done.” It has been accomplished. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect emphasising a finished product. When special attention is directed toward the result of the completed action stress on the existent fact is intensified. This is the Greek way of emphasising the fact that a thing is, therefore the idiom is translated best by the English present, “it is done, completed.” The active voice: the seventh last plague or bowl judgment of the last half of the Tribulation produces the action, the completion of God’s judgment of the earth at the end of the Tribulation. The declarative indicative mood is for a statement of future fact at the end of the Tribulation.

Note that the first heaven or atmosphere is related to the earth, and Satan rules the earth, including the atmospheric band around the earth, according to Ephesians 2:2. He is the prince of the atmospheric band around the earth.

Both warning and administrative judgements have been administered to the people of the earth, warning judgements: the seven seals, the seven trumpets; intensive judgements: the seven last plagues. There is nothing left but the principle of one more time with evangelism, one more opportunity for everyone to accept Christ as saviour and avoid the terrible eternal judgment of the lake of fire.

This phrase in a very different form is given at the cross. At the cross our Lord Jesus Christ used the verb telew. He used the same perfect tense: it has been completed in the past with the result that it stands completed forever. The Lord Jesus Christ completed everything at the cross that will ever be needed for salvation. What this means is that the omniscience of God the Father put into the computer of divine decrees every personal sin ever committed in the human race, so that in the fullness of time our Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and was judged for those sins. When that judgment was all finished our Lord said, Tetelestai, it has been finished in the past with the result that it stands finished forever. Now, in our verse, for judgment we have a different verb. We have the same morphology, the same perfect tense, “it has been accomplished, it is done.” All the judgements of the Tribulation are completed with the seventh bowl judgment.

Verse 18 — the third and final grace warning. The aorist middle indicative of the verb ginomai begins the verse, “Then there were.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and indicates that this fulfils the concept of grace before judgment. No one has ever been judged as an individual, no one has ever been judged collectively until first of all there was some kind of a warning from God. The declarative indicative represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of its eschatological reality. This continues into the Tribulation and right down to the second advent.

We have studied before the previous warnings, the phrases, “flashings of lightning.” The word “noises” which should be “sounds,” and “thunders.” So the corrected translation is: “Then there were flashes of lightnings and sounds and thunders; also there was a great earthquake, such as had not been since mankind came to be on planet earth, so great and so powerful.”

Apart from the concept of warning of the final judgment of the seventh bowl before the second advent this is a statement with great doctrinal implications. The greatness of this earthquake is compared with all other earthquakes in history as being much greater. It will undoubtedly take a lot of lives, indicating the fact that this is also judgment by death as well as judgment by pain. Not only is it judgment by pain whereby those who survive — and there will be many unbelievers who survive to blaspheme and to reject Christ as saviour in some cases; in other cases to believe in Christ — but there will also be those who are taken, and those who are taken by death are simply being removed as a part of the cancer so that man can continue to live in the last days of the Tribulation before the second advent. When our Lord returns to the earth there will be many millions of people, both believers and unbelievers, who have survived it all. The instability of the earth’s surface is a reminder of the instability of mankind at the end of the Tribulation.

In verse 19 we have the judgment of cities and of religion. The passage actually begins by pointing out to us that certain cities are going to be removed from the earth as far as their construction is concerned, not their general location. The first city that is mentioned is Jerusalem. “Then the great city [Jerusalem] was split,” but that isn’t what the Greek says. The Greek uses the aorist active indicative of ginomai again. Ginomai is one of the verbs to be and generally translated “to become.” It means to be split or literally, to come to be split in three parts. It was because of this that many of the believers were able to hold out in Jerusalem, it formed a natural fortification. “Then the great city [Jerusalem] came to be split in three parts.” Zechariah 14:4,5 mentions a similar earthquake which occurs at the second advent. Earthquakes are always related to divine judgment on mankind, as per Isaiah 29:6. They are therefore very prominent during the time of the Tribulation, according to Luke 21:11. We also note that many other cities throughout the world collapse, “also the cities of the Gentiles collapse.”

In the last half of verse 19 we have a reference to a system which is Satan’s ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation. It is called Babylon, “furthermore Babylon the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of wine full of the wrath of his anger.” This is the seventh bowl judgment, it is an attack on and a destruction of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. Babylon is identified as Rome, the capital of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. The reasons why it is called Babylon we will study in the next chapter which is a detailed account of Babylon as a religious system. The fact that it is remembered is a little different from what we have been having. There is a switch from the verb ginomai to the aorist passive indicative of the verb mimnhskw which does mean to remember. This time it is the memory of God, it is the computer of God, it is the function of His justice, it is the function of protocol in heaven. The aorist tense here is a culminative aorist, contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the judgment of ecumenical religion, the greatest enemy to the human race.

This seventh bowl judgment is amplified in the next two chapters. In chapter 17: the judgment of ecumenical religion controlling the state, the union of church and state; in chapter 18 we will see how many businesses in the Tribulation depended on ecumenical religion and how they all went down with that religion. The aorist tense merely states the case but the next two chapters give the details. Actually, Babylon is a city but not the ancient city of Babylon where the religious system of Satan was crystallised. It is a reference to Rome as the capital of ecumenical religion as well as the revived Roman empire. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatological reality to be amplified in chapters 17 & 18.

Next we have an improper preposition e)nwpion, “in the presence of,” plus the genitive of qeoj, “in the presence of God,” and then we have “to give to her.” We will study in chapter 17 why religion is called a woman, “the woman [whore] riding on the scarlet beast.” This is not a reference to Christianity or orthodoxy from the Word of God, it is a reference to the Satanic system. The feminine gender matches the mother of prostitutes in chapter 17 verse 5 which is the interpreting verse for this phrase.

The aorist tense of the verb didomi, to give, is a constative aorist, it contemplates the judgements of the next two chapters in their entirety, the judgements of international or ecumenical religion in the Tribulation and the judgment of all of the things related to it. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb. Fascinatingly enough, when this passage opens up, and other passages like it, there is a union of church and state in the revived Roman empire. The revived Roman empire is made up of ten nations of the old Roman empire. Rome will be the capital of the prophetical empire. It is a great political empire and in union with it is a religious system, one of the greatest and worst religious systems of all time, a Satanic system such as the world has never seen. Interestingly enough, while the king of the west or the revived Roman empire begins with the union of religion and state, which always is tyranny and always destroys freedom, eventually the political comes to despise the religious and God uses the political to destroy the religious at the end of the Tribulation. A part of the judgment on the ecumenical religious system is the fact that the political organisation turns against it and destroys it. There can only be temporarily, then, this type of tyranny. Eventually this type of tyranny breaks apart as it has so many times in the past.

Since verse 19 is primarily devoted to the judgment of cities complete details are not given. There are three categories of cities, however, which are mentioned. Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel. The reason for it was to provide fortifications for mature believers to fight and to resist the enemy at the siege of Jerusalem. Secondly, we notice Gentile cities throughout the world where degeneracy has reached a saturation point, like Sodom and Gomorra of old, and like Babylon of ancient history. Then we notice that the word “Babylon” itself is a reference to a system whose headquarters is in Rome. While only Rome is implied in this verse the judgment of Babylon the great is the judgment of that ecumenical religious system throughout the entire world at that time. The cities of the Gentiles would include prominent cities in the various empires involved in the world war at the end of the Tribulation where degeneration has reached a saturation point. Degeneration inevitably invites very violent and vicious warfare.

Then there are topographical judgements, as noted in verse 20. “Then every island [probably volcanic] vanished and mountain ranges could no longer be found.” The precedent for islands blowing up is found in past history. There will be great loss of life in the disappearance of these islands. These volcanic islands disappearing prepare the way for the great topographical changes in the earth which will occur in the Millennial reign of Christ. We also note that mountain ranges are going to disappear. Here the mountains probably refer to volcanic mountains located on islands, and on continents as well. The topographical changes in mountains is related to the second advent and this fact is found in Isaiah 40:4,5 “Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; in order that the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Then in Isaiah 42:13, “The Lord will go forth like a warrior, he will arouse motivation like a man of war. He will utter a command, yes, he will life up a war cry. He will prevail against his enemies.” And in verse 15 of the same chapter: “I will lay waste the mountains and hills.” In Isaiah 49:11, “I will make all my mountains a road.” In Isaiah 54:10, “ ‘For the mountains will be removed and the hills will quake, but my grace will not be removed from you, and my covenant of peace will not be shaken’, says the Lord who protects you.” In Isaiah 64:1, “That thou would split the heavens and come down [second advent], mountains therefore will shake at your presence.”

In verse 21 we have the great hail storm. We have in this passage the record hail storm in history. The corrected translation of this verse is: “And large hail stones weighing about 100 pounds each came down from the atmosphere on mankind,” this would be hitting the unbelievers of the human race. In this case the bombardment of the 100 pound hailstones is divine judgment from heaven . The destructive force of such a bombardment staggers the imagination. It would kill mankind and property, of course. Such hail in an atmospheric discharge of tension of the physical extremes of heat and cold and their conflict certainly reflects the conflict between the sovereignty of God and the negative volition of mankind who have rejected Christ under the crisis evangelism of the previous judgements. When man’s volition comes into conflict with the will and plan of God judgment disaster is inevitable, just as when extreme heat and cold meet in the atmosphere’s thunder storms to form hail. The plague of hail in Egypt in Exodus 9:22ff indicates the connotation of the divine judgment on both mankind and nations who refuse to execute the will of God and the plan of God. In Joshua’s defeat of the five kings of the Amorites in the battle of Gibeon part of the pursuit and exploitation of the victory came from God Himself who killed more of the enemy with hail stones than were slaughtered by the pursuing troops of Joshua — Joshua 10:11. The same type of hail storm is mentioned in Ezekiel 38:22 — “I shall enter into judgment with the king of the north; I shall rain in him, and on his troops, and on the many people who accompany him, and overflowing rain with hail stones, fire, and brimstone.” And what is the human reaction to all of this? “Then the survivors blasphemed God [negative volition at the point of crisis evangelism or judgment by pain] because of the plague of hail; because its plague was extremely severe.”

So they missed the grace principle found in this judgment. The plague was general throughout the earth and killed X number of unbelievers, probably the armies that we have been studying in the last great world war. The unbelievers who survive still have a chance for eternal salvation under the principle of crisis evangelism, and many of these survivors, of course, reject the opportunity. These judgements of the seven bowls are the last call of evangelism, the final manifestation of the grace of God. Divine judgment always has an evangelistic appeal and rejection of Christ under these circumstances emphasises the power of human volition in this historical stage of the angelic conflict.

In Revelation chapters 14 and 15 we have studied the concept of protocol. We understood the protocol of heaven and how it guarantees perfect happiness for all who go to heaven. We understood protocol as it related to virtue in heaven and some of that is very fundamental in the doctrines of Christianity. For example, Jesus Christ is God. As God He has all of the attributes of the Godhead. He has identical essence with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The characteristics of our Lord’s deity made it absolutely impossible for Him to go to the cross. As eternal God and having perfect integrity there is no way that he could receive the imputation of the sins of the world and be judged for them. Therefore He had to become the God-Man. In becoming the God-Man our Lord Jesus Christ resolved the problem of eternal salvation. Our Lord received the imputation of our sins from the justice of God the Father and every sin in the history of the human race was judged by God the Father. In order to arrive at that point our Lord had to have perfect virtue in His humanity. As deity His perfect virtue was in His holiness, justice, and righteousness. He arrived in that state for the prototype divine dynasphere produces perfect virtue, it is a protocol system, it is the protocol of heaven brought to the earth. Therefore He was qualified to go to the cross, and even at the last moment He said, “Father, if it be thy will let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.” In other words, he was willing to go to the cross and be judged for our sins.

The point of reference is the justice of God which is one half of divine integrity imputed our sins to Christ on the cross and He was judged for them. Therefore we have the principle, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” When we do the justice of God makes a second imputation: our sins were imputed to Christ on the cross and one half of divine integrity/divine holiness, God’s righteousness, is imputed to every one of us at the moment we believe in Christ. The justice of God is still the frame of reference and still our point of contact, and He imputes to each one of us the righteousness of God.

We as believers therefore possess perfect divine virtue. The justice of God imputes all blessing to the believer, winners or losers, down through the grace pipeline to the indwelling righteousness of God. We therefore possess a unique virtue, a virtue which came from the protocol of heaven, and therefore we are required as a part of the Christian way of life to develop this virtue. It is impossible for any of us to develop and manifest the virtue that we possess at salvation, therefore an operational type divine dynasphere was given to us and this operational type divine dynasphere is the protocol of heaven. Gate one is the filling of the Spirit; gate two is basic Christian modus operandi, rebound and the faith-rest drill; gate three is enforced and genuine humility; gate four is the momentum gate, perception and application of Bible doctrine; Gate five is motivational virtue directed toward God, the function of our royal priesthood; gate six is functional virtue directed toward man and circumstances, the function of our royal ambassadorship; gate seven is momentum testing; gate eight is the winners gate. All virtue is developed inside of this system.

In Revelation chapters 17 & 18 we are going to study the cosmic system, Satan’s system, and we are going to see what he develops by way of a counterfeit. His counterfeits are called religion. Christianity is not a religion. In Christianity God seeks man through the work of Christ on the cross; in religion man seeks God through his own works and through his own function. Therefore we are reminded of the protocol of heaven. This protocol is great happiness, great blessing, beyond our imagination, and the point is that in this dispensation we have heaven on earth in the form of the divine dynasphere, a protocol system.

We begin a consideration of protocol with the concept that the person who controls your life controls your happiness, or lack of it. Generally, if someone else controls your life you are a miserable person. In personal love the object of your love controls your life and happiness; in impersonal love you control your life and happiness because of virtue developed in the protocol system. In impersonal love which is the only virtue-love directed toward humanity you control your own life and your own happiness. You do so because of virtue developed in this protocol system. In both personal love and personal hatred you surrender control of your life to someone else. When you love someone else very dearly they have an influence on your life; when you hate someone very much they are influencing your life in a very negative way. In other words, you turn over your happiness and its control to someone else unless you have this virtue provided by God in the protocol system. Therefore the importance of both protocol and virtue in God’s plan. This is the divine system which He has ordained for every believer in this dispensation, the Church Age, the dispensation of the royal family of God.

Personal love only has virtue when it is directed toward God. Personal love directed toward mankind has no virtue, therefore neither happiness nor a spiritual connotation. Impersonal love not only has virtue when directed toward mankind but impersonal love is the only way in which you maintain control of your own life through good decisions from a position of strength, and continue to have a personal sense of destiny. Through impersonal love for all mankind, therefore, you control your own happiness. It doesn’t depend on the attitude of anyone else whether their attitude is favourable or unfavourable. Through protocol and virtue God has found a way to control your life and to bring into your life perfect happiness, regardless of the circumstances of life. Every time you get mad or jealous or bitter or vindictive or implacable you surrender your happiness to someone else. In other words, this goes back to Satan’s cosmic one, Satan’s philosophy in the prehistoric angelic conflict. At gate one we have motivational evil: arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, self-pity, revenge motivation, and so on. At the other gates we have the fragments of the grenade and functional evil — self-righteous morality which is not morality at all, and crusader arrogance. This is what happens when you do not have control of your life.

The function of your royal priesthood and the function of your royal ambassadorship under the divine plan, the system of protocol and virtue, is the only way of happiness and blessing in your life. God has found a way to bring heaven on earth through this system. Every believer, of course, has two royal commissions. Every believer is a priest. This means that in the system as a believer priest he has a life directed toward God. Every believer is also commissioned as an ambassador. As such he has a life of virtue toward mankind. Therefore the life of the believer is divided into these two categories related to these two commissions — the priesthood directed toward God; ambassadorship directed toward man. They only function inside the protocol system. Not only do they function in the protocol system but they operate on virtue only. The protocol system provides the virtue, therefore we must understand protocol and we must be inculcated with virtue before we can fulfil the perception and application of God’s plan to our lives. As a royal priest the believer’s virtue gravitates toward perfect virtue.

The very fact that you and I possess the righteousness of God, one of the 40 things that we receive at salvation, demands that there be a system whereby virtue can be manifest to the entire human race. Personal love for God is the only category of personal love that has any virtue and, as we have noted in the past, personal love toward mankind has no virtue. When we say to a member of the human race, “I love you,” that means they are attractive, that we have rapport with them, that they the object possesses something that is attractive to us. That is personal love. Personal love, of course, is directed toward a few with whom one has rapport, but personal love has no virtue. Once you introduce virtue into the situation, once the subject has virtue, it not only extends in great capacity for love for a few but it extends to all the human race, those who hate you, those who despise you, those who are antagonistic toward you, those who are attractive. So impersonal love is the virtue which we need in our relationships with the human race. This interaction is impossible unless we possess virtue, and that virtue must be in the system. Therefore Christianity is separated from all that might be classified as religion because in religion there is some system, some organisation, some way in which an expression of self-sacrifice may be made, an expression of ecstatics, some function whereby man is making some sacrifice in order to gain divine approbation or the approbation of someone in life. Personal love for God, then, is the only category of virtue. When a believer in the protocol system at gate five has personal love for God that personal love has its own virtue. That virtue, of course, comes from perception and application of doctrine at gate four. Therefore virtue becomes the major issue in the Christian life. Christianity isn’t running around doing things for God; Christianity is the development of virtue. Virtue-first is always the principle. Personal love for God means that we make God the source of our happiness and our blessing. We have personal love for Him and therefore God influences us through Bible doctrine. Personal love for God is impossible apart from life in the divine dynasphere, God’s protocol system, therefore personal love for God is motivational virtue, gate five of the protocol system. Impersonal love for all mankind protects this personal love for God, it keeps the believer from having his happiness depend on someone else. Therefore it is compatible with protocol for impersonal love is the only virtue-love directed toward mankind, and so impersonal love toward all mankind is the function of the believer’s royal ambassadorship. In the protocol system of God gate five is the motivational virtue and gate six is the functional virtue.

We have studied in the past the protocol of heaven and noted that it is a system of divine order which guarantees maximum happiness and blessing forever. We have noted that the protocol of heaven belongs to every elect angel and every person who is saved in the human race and residing now in heaven. When we die we are said to be absent from the body and face to face with the Lord; we enter into a perfect protocol system. The protocol of heaven is the source of both divine blessing and divine judgment on earth during the course of human history, for the protocol of heaven as the source of divine blessing and happiness comes from the order and system in God’s plan for the believer in Christ so that the protocol of heaven as the source of divine judgment originates from the interaction of the angels functioning under the divine mandate. In revelation chapter 14 we studied the three orders of elect angels involved and we saw coming from the throne room a mandate for judgment to our Lord Jesus Christ carried by the officer of arms. We saw the king of arms coming from the altar of imprecatory prayers conforming the mandate. We saw the pur sui vant officer step out and go on standby to take command. We saw the formation of an execution squad in chapter 15. This squad is commanded by the pur sui vant officer and each member of the squad is also a member of the lower status of aristocracy called pur sui vant messengers. We saw them go into action in chapter 16, so that in Revelation 14,15, and 16 we have seen the whole concept of the protocol of heaven and how it relates to judgment. We have also seen that there is grace in judgment. For example, in the first five bowl judgements of chapter 16 we noted the principle of protocol once again under the concept of judgment by pain. Under the concept of judgment by pain the world was filled with millions of unbelievers who had been exposed to the gospel and this was their opportunity for recall under the principle of crisis evangelism. Under judgment by death we noted that certain segments of the human race were removed in order that the rest of the human race might be perpetuated. Also noted is the eschatological principle that the human race will continue to exist on the earth and that any system of sophisticated weaponry of any kind, any enemy of mankind (like the flea or the virus), or all of man’s attempts to destroy himself and destroy others, all of these will come to nil because the protocol of heaven guarantees that certain divine judgements will eliminate from the human race those who are bent on destruction of the human race. The protocol of heaven is therefore the interpretation of chapters 14, 15, and 16 of the book of Revelation.

We have previously defined protocol and we will now study the definition of protocol as it relates to the plan of God. One of the things today on which Christianity may be criticised is that they have lost the concept of precisely correct procedure and have instead given way to the cosmic system with its very sloppy procedures. Christianity and it modus operandi is very clearly defined. Protocol, therefore, recognises the principle of authority under the laws of divine establishment; it recognises and obeys authority and consequently requires virtue for its very existence. Protocol is related to virtue in God’s plan for believers, the operational divine dynasphere. At gate three is enforced and genuine humility, the beginning of teachability. Humility is always directed toward authority and without humility there is no capacity for life, capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, capacity for success or promotion. Therefore this is basic virtue in life. Then at gate five there is motivational virtue directed toward God; gate six functional virtue directed toward man and circumstances. The entire concept of Christianity, therefore, is always virtue-first, and virtue is directly related to protocol. Without the two there is no Christian way of life. The fact that protocol, then, is a part of God’s plan and God’s policy, and God’s system for believers on earth emphasises the conclusion that protocol also exists in heaven and that God has established a system of protocol in heaven, for creature power cannot compete with divine power in heaven or on earth.

We have also noted that protocol is the basis for great happiness because protocol means that everyone is organised. Again, we note that protocol is based on respect for authority, not fear of authority. The function of protocol is based on virtue, not on superiority; protocol orientation to man’s confidence so that no one is disturbed by greater authority or power in another. Protocol without virtue, then, is like ritual without reality. In heaven protocol is the function of aristocracy, those elect angels who were winners in the prehistoric angelic conflict. This protocol in the angelic college of heralds leads us to the conclusion that in the previous historic angelic conflict God’s plan for elect angels included the principle of virtue-first.

Protocol is one of the great objectives of the Christian life. When you fall in love with someone you generally find something in them which is attractive to you. You are stimulated by them, there is a rapport established, and at the same time you do not see the flaws of that individual. But when you love someone from the standpoint of virtue or impersonal love you love them from the standpoint of the entire person and you accept them with their flaws as well as the points to which you have been directed by way of interest and rapport. Therefore virtue-love is never disillusioned, never disappointed, and there is no adjustment to be made in the virtue of impersonal love because it complies with the entire system of protocol. Impersonal love has no prejudice, therefore it makes no adjustments. By way of contrast, personal love is filled with blindness and prejudice, emphasising rapport with the object rather than the virtue of the subject. Our study of protocol in heaven is compatible with virtue-love’s dynamics on earth. Protocol in heaven comes to earth in the divine dynasphere, the love complex, and it is this which turns Christianity into something entirely different from any system of religion that has ever existed. Virtue is the major issue. God has a plan for your life and that plan demands capacity before anything else. That capacity demands that you be in the protocol system. It also demands that you have virtue-first in your life.

And this is not unusual. At the time of the writing of the New Testament the Roman empire was very much in function and the Romans were very interested in virtue, at least one segment of them, those who were in a very special philosophical system. Virtue became not only a philosophical subject but the man on the street had many ideas about it. Stoicism was the philosophical system in which the Romans tried to explain virtue, but all they could really do was to end up explaining ethics. Empiricism has sought to penetrate the various barriers and go back to the absolute and has failed. So always philosophical concepts have to come back to something that is relative, and so it was with the idea of trying to explain virtue in terms of philosophical thought. It was impossible. Virtue can only be explained by the protocol of heaven.

There is a Greek word which was used by everyone, Roman and Christian alike, a)reth. Everyone was trying to explain it and define it. The apostle Peter himself had a great deal to say about it and he used this word which is also found in stoic philosophy. In 1 Peter 2:9 Peter used the word but unfortunately the King James version translated it “praises,” a word it does not mean, “You are a chosen race,” referring to the impact of Christianity on the client nation. Once Israel went out in AD 70 under the fifth cycle of discipline the times of the Gentiles began and it continues until the Rapture. There are no client nations to God in the Tribulation. As goes the believer in that client nation, the pivot, so goes the nation. In the dispensation of the Church we only have Gentile client nations to God and therefore believers play a very important part. There is no such thing as a Christian nation but there is such a thing as a client nation to God and it is influenced by the pivot of mature believers. If the pivot is large through the function of the protocol system there is blessing to the nation; if the pivot shrinks from life in the cosmic system then the nation undergoes the five cycles of discipline. “You are a royal priesthood,” this is the only dispensation in which every believer is his own priest representing himself to God. The reason for this is that we are royal family of God and we live in a protocol system. We are “a holy nation,” referring to a client nation to God, “a people for God’s own possession,” the royal family of God. And why are we these things? In the middle of verse 9, using the conjunction i(na to introduce a purpose clause, “that you may proclaim the virtues [not the praises] of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light,” the point being that before we accepted Christ our life was darkness. We didn’t have the key, the protocol of heaven, but once we believed in Christ we were called into light. We are even commanded in 1 John 2 to walk in the light. The light is simply the divine dynasphere, the protocol system. God has brought heaven to earth in this protocol system designed for us. So we have left darkness, we have moved into light and that means virtue-first.

In 1 Peter 1:2 we notice some of this principle stated by the apostle Peter: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Grace is the modus operandi of the plan of God and also the policy of God in the protocol system. Peace really means prosperity and it is multiplied in knowledge. That brings us back to the protocol system. If it is multiplied in knowledge then the importance of gate four, the momentum gate, the perception and the application of doctrine. It is supported by gate one, the filling of the Spirit; gate two, the faith-rest drill which produces objectivity; gate three, enforced and genuine humility which produces teachability; and these gate support gate four, the basis for the multiplication of grace and prosperity in the life.

Verse 3, “seeing that his divine power [the divine dynasphere],” God provides everything necessary inside the protocol system which calls for God to work on our behalf; we do not work on His behalf. If there is legitimate Christian production that production must come from the momentum of gate four, “has given to us everything pertaining to life and godliness,” life here means capacity for life; godliness means fulfilling God’s plan for your life, “through the true knowledge of him [the function of gate four] who called us to his own glory,” we were called to His glory, He produced glory in the prototype divine dynasphere, the result was doca [glory]. We are in the operational type and are to produce that same doca or glory and it is related to the fact that only virtue can function in the protocol system of God, “and virtue.” We are called to virtue and virtue can only be manufactured in one place, the divine dynasphere.

Verse 4, “Through which things [the divine dynasphere and it is the manufacture of virtue] he has given to us his precious and magnificent promises,” these promises are eventually brought together in the second stage of the faith-rest drill under the concept of the doctrinal rationales, “that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature,” through residence, function and momentum in the divine dynasphere you are able to produce the same virtue that the humanity of Christ produced in facing life. You cannot have perfection, no one is perfect in this life, none of us ever will be, but we can produce virtue, “having escaped the corruption that is in the cosmic system by lust.”

Verse 5, “Now for this reason also, applying all diligence, in your doctrine supply virtue,” doctrine produces virtue, “and in your virtue, knowledge [application of doctrine];”

Verse 6, “and in your knowledge, self-discipline,” to the extent that you and I as believers are disorganised in our personal lives we are unhappy people. Self-discipline is the beginning of virtue; self-discipline is related to humility: enforced humility, and from enforced humility comes genuine humility, and from genuine humility come capacity for life. So there are all sorts of things to make us unhappy. A disorganised person has disorganised thinking; disorganised thinking cannot straighten out priorities, therefore he has made himself unhappy by the use of his own volition in his disorganised state, no protocol in his life, no organisation.

Other people can make you unhappy by the things that they do because you are disorganised, you have no protocol, you have no virtue, you have no capacity for happiness, and the lack of virtue or impersonal love toward all means that they can make you happy or unhappy. You no longer control your own happiness or unhappiness, the other person controls it. You say that you love them and that is fine, but you have now surrendered your control to them because that is personal love. You could love that person and have a great life of happiness with them in either friendship or marriage. You could have a great relationship with them if you had virtue because virtue means that inside of you is impersonal love directed toward all. Because you have this virtue toward all you take the tolerance, you take everything that expresses impersonal love and apply it to this person with the flaws, and now you control your own life and still love them. But what does it for you? Impersonal love, not personal love.

The same thing is true in hatred. If someone hates you and that bothers you, they are rude, they do something that bothers you. To the extent that that bothers you you have no virtue, but to the extent that you have impersonal love for all then you have control of your life. Otherwise tomorrow in traffic the first person who is rude to you and makes you mad controls your life, they control your happiness — they cut in front of you and you are mad at them, etc. You must have control of your own life and the only way you can do it is by protocol plus virtue.

“and in your self discipline, perseverance,” one thing God’s plan does for you is organise you, it gives you a system of priorities. Your number one priority is at gate four: Bible doctrine. Everything else in you life is built around that and that gives you your momentum, that gives you your motivation in life toward God, that gives you your virtue directed toward man and circumstances, “and in your perseverance, godliness [spiritual maturity at gate eight, you become a winner]”

Verse 7, “and in your godliness, capacity for love [brotherly rapport], and in your capacity for love, the virtue of impersonal love.”

Verse 8, “For if these virtues are yours and increasing,” the momentum from residence and function in the divine dynasphere, “they render you neither useless nor unproductive in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Verse 9, “For he who lacks these virtues is blind, short-sighted, having forgotten purification from his former sins [having forgotten even the very principles of eternal salvation].”

The great issue that we must face in order to understand the great difference between Christianity and religion is the issue of protocol and virtue.

It is very important to understand that religion is the greatest source of unhappiness that you will ever have to face. It is a Satanic system and the only person who ever has any fun with religion is Satan himself. The reason is because all religious organizations, and this is not referring to Christianity, have devised a system whereby you surrender the custodianship of your happiness and the control of your life to human beings in some form of a hierarchy. Those human beings will exact from you challenges of one type or another, whether they relate to asceticism on the one hand or many of the world’s religions “self-sacrifice” on the other; but the hue and cry in the sacrifice game, the asceticism game, is total unhappiness, total lack of capacity for life, and total disorientation to life. On the other hand Satan doesn’t intend to trap everyone through self-righteousness, through asceticism, self-sacrifice or pseudo-morality, he intends to trap a lot of people through lasciviousness. Therefore we are introducing religion in Revelation chapter 17, religion in the Tribulation, by reviewing some of the very pertinent principles related to Christianity since Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is a relationship with God, a protocol system whereby you are motivated by person love for God and whereby you have control of your own life and you become the custodian of your own happiness.

Protocol and virtue demand that you focus your individual responsibility to God and to mankind, that you organise your life and your priorities. In fact you cannot organise your life unless your priorities line up with the doctrine of the Word of God, and that you study and apply doctrine, and that you do not become involved in everything that is going on in the world around you. What is going on in the world is not nearly as important as what you as a believer are doing in the protocol system to manufacture virtue. The people that you contact every day are really depending on you for blessing by association or any form of happiness that may come their way. So you have to be motivated by God, you have to have control of your own life, and you definitely should be the custodian of your own happiness. Yet every day you are going to have challenges. Strangers can suddenly be the custodians of your happiness; they take it away from you.

Not every one is Satan’s system is religious but every one is Satan’s system has surrendered control of his life to someone outside of himself and, therefore, no person, believer or unbeliever, can live in the cosmic system and have control of his own life and solve his own problems. It is impossible for a believer to resolve the problems of his life — and we all have problems — if he is living in the cosmic system. We were designed under the principle of protocol and virtue to be spiritually self-sustaining, and you will have great impact on the world around you if you concentrate on your own life inside the divine dynasphere rather than concentrating on what is going on around you. So we have noticed a principle in this introduction to Revelation chapter 17: the person who controls your life controls your happiness. The very first thing in the Christian life is virtue and until we have achieved virtue we aren’t even stabilised in our momentum. If you are not stabilised in your momentum you are in trouble. So God has organised His system of protocol and He demands, therefore, that you organise your life. You cannot have virtue without living in His protocol system and you must establish your priorities, then your daily routine around those priorities, so that you are first of all organised. Until you organise your life it is impossible to be a winner.

This is only true of Christianity. Religion is just the opposite: religion or Satan says he will organise your life, whichever way you want to go. You may not even be religious but he still organises everything for you.

The protocol of heaven is a system of divine order and precedence which guarantees happiness and blessing in time and, obviously, maximum and eternal blessing in heaven. The whole structure of heaven is protocol and it is a place of wonderful happiness and blessing.

We don’t start out by having virtue, there is no such thing as instant virtue, so we start out with mandates first. Mandates first brings us around to strict adherence to due order of precedence and therefore we have to have mandates to obey or disobey. But how can you obey mandates until you understand them. That is the key. You can throw a lot of mandates at a believer but at first he doesn’t understand them, so one of the biggest problems is to understand what is precisely meant by a mandate. For example, how can you precisely execute loving everyone when there is no way that any human being can do it if he is normal. The point is that we have to understand how. Impersonal love means directed toward people if you have virtue, it means you have virtue toward all. This means that you are in control of your own life and are the custodian of your own happiness. Protocol is not personal. Impersonal means that you have virtue directed toward people, personal means that you have standards — that’s all. Personal love is directed toward a few and means that you have standards by which rapport is established.

Impersonal love is gate six, and when you have arrived there you have already learned two other things in virtue. You have achieved them, you have developed them. You have developed enforced and genuine humility, you have become motivated by God so that when you see people who violate your standards, who are different from your standards, you don’t react. Virtue never makes any racial distinctions, social distinctions, or personal distinctions, only personal love does that. Whether we have good standards or bad standards we all have flaws and we can’t solve our personal relationships and our personal rapport with others — the interrelationship, the interaction — unless we have virtue. So the protocol system in the plan of God calls for virtue-first.

In order to get virtue we have to start with humility, we don’t start by loving God. No believer, when he is born-again, loves God. We are incapable of personal love for God because it is the one category of personal love where you have to have the norms. You have to know something about God. How can you love someone you don’t know? God the Father is a stranger to us when we are born-again. We have just heard that God the Son is our saviour, we believed, and that is all that we had to do. We don’t know anything about the Lord, or very little. We know nothing about the Holy Spirit, and “holy rollers” never find out anything, they’re blasphemous about the Holy Spirit. Personal love means that you have you have norms and standards to set up a rapport system. In order to set up norms and standards you have to know God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; and before you can know them you have to be teachable — and that takes you right back to humility. So gate three is where we become teachable; gate four is where we get to know Him; gate five is where we have as the motivation for our life personal love for God. Personal love is in the object and God only becomes attractive to us when we learn to know Him.

So to get back to the believer and all people out there. The only possible way to love all people out there as per mandated in the Word of God is to have virtue, and virtue means impersonal love toward people. The virtue in loving God means you have norms and standards that reach out and have a rapport. God loves us because He has virtue, but we can’t love Him unless we have virtue. The only personal love that has virtue in it is love for God. So we must have virtue and virtue starts with being teachable. If you are not teachable you will never love God and never love all people. So the Christian way of life really has to start with orders — mandates. Mandates demand obedience; mandates are the guidelines for obedience. Obedience is necessary for the development of humility. Humility is the foundation for all virtue because humility is teachability. The divine system of protocol demands virtue-first. Virtue-first is impossible apart from residence, function, and momentum, inside the divine dynasphere, God’s protocol system for the believer. We are born-again to obey divine mandates. A little baby is born absolutely stupid, not because there is no potential there, but because the baby is minus vocabulary. You have to have vocabulary to think, so a baby has to start out and learn words. Once vocabulary is learned, what comes next? Mandates! “No,” or “Do it,” or “Wash behind your ears.” The Bible is filled with mandates.

There is another principle: Routine demands motivation and the right scale of values. God’s priorities must become our priorities. Acceptance of God’s priorities necessitates organising our lives. Disorganised people are losers in life in general; disorganised Christians are losers in life in general and spiritually. God has given us a protocol system in which to organise our lives, the divine dynasphere. Virtue in an organised life becomes the dynamic of the Christian way of life. Consistent residence in the divine dynasphere means that we will fulfill the priorities. All the priorities start with mandates: in God’s plan, mandates first. You have to learn the orders and then you have to know how to execute them mechanically. In God’s system: virtue-first. In God’s purpose: Christ first. So notice: Christ first is the third priority. Christ can’t be first until mandates are first, and until mandates are first virtue cannot be first, and until virtue is first Christ cannot be first — gate five. In God’s policy: grace first. Notice that grace is the number four priority. We are not ready for grace when we start. Grace is not first in our lives until we have reached gate five. The fifth priority in God’s objective: momentum first. Momentum begins when you start taking in the Word. Momentum reaches a certain point so that the third priority comes into focus: Christ first, so that the fourth priority comes into focus: grace first. Grace has to be understood from the start but grace is not first in our lives until it becomes number four priority, then we understand it in full. Once we understand grace we must continue momentum. A lot of people, when they finally understand grace, lose their momentum because they use grace as an excuse, a problem-solving vehicle when grace is the policy of God toward us and eventually our policy toward people. But grace as a policy toward people is no good unless we have virtue, and too many Christians are using grace in name only without having virtue.

We have been studying the subject of protocol and virtue. Protocol and virtue demand that we as believers focus our individual responsibility to God and to mankind on the protocol system which God has provided. The purpose: that you organise your life and your priorities, that you study and apply doctrine and not become involved in everything going on in the world around you. What is going on in the world around you in this world is not nearly as important as what you as a believer are doing with regard to the protocol system, its priorities and it mandates. You will have great impact on the world around you if you concentrate on your life inside the protocol system.

We have learned from all this that the person who controls your life controls your happiness. In personal love or hatred the object of your love or hatred actually controls your life. For example, in personal love the object of your love not only controls your life but becomes the custodian of your happiness. In personal hatred the same thing is true. So when you become upset with a stranger in traffic that person has immediate custody of your happiness and control of your life. Therefore the importance of the priorities and the mandate virtue-first. When you are jealous or vindictive toward someone you surrender the control of your life to that person. In other words, you turn your happiness and its control over to the object of motivation evil in cosmic one, gate one. This is precisely what happens in religion. So if you surrender the control of your happiness to someone else you are going t blame them for your bad decisions, and if you surrender the happiness which you now possess to someone else then you will blame them every time you are in a state of unhappiness.

We have spent time on this in order to set up a contrast with religion and to make it very clear that Christianity and religion are antithetical. Christianity is not a religion. Religion is Satan’s policy and Satan’s system for siphoning off worship to himself instead of worship of God. Religion is the Satanic counterfeit for worship of God and a major part of the angelic conflict in history. One of the greatest areas where people surrender the control of their lives and the custodianship of their happiness is through some form of religion. Religion, therefore, is the devil’s major strategy; it is the devil’s ace trump in distracting mankind form truth in its three categories: category #1, the laws of divine establishment. Religion seeks to become the state. The union of religion and state is one of the principles we will note. The union of religious and political activities is a major attack against human freedom; category #2 truth, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Religion distorts salvation by grace into many diverse systems of salvation by works; category #3 truth, Bible doctrine for the believer. Religion sets up a system of distraction so that the believer never learns the protocol system, never understands everything related to the concept of virtue-first that we have been studying.

We are ready to study religion because we have studied the concepts of divine judgment. We have seen how divine judgment is a grace function from God and divine judgment toward the unbeliever always has a dual connotation. If it is the first category, judgment by pain, the objective of that judgment is crisis evangelism. It is to give the unbeliever another opportunity to consider the gospel under more stringent circumstances. Then there is judgment by physical death which is a grace function in that it removes the cancer from human society — those who are leading the way to self-destruction. God has perpetuated the human race and will continue to do so under the concept of judgment by death. There is a third category: judgment for eternity for those who continue negative as far as the gospel is concerned. For those who reject Jesus Christ as saviour there is eternal condemnation. Therefore we have noted the divine judgment factor, we have noted the protocol factor, we have noted that divine judgment for those who reject crisis evangelism are always those who are involved in some form of religion. We have also studied the two categories of evangelism: normal evangelism which is conducted under normal situations where objectivity exists; crisis evangelism which is the concept of hearing the gospel under terrible judgment. The reason for it is because their minds are blinded. Their minds are blinded because they are living in the cosmic system. Because they are living in the cosmic system they are totally distracted by religion from the truth of the gospel and crisis evangelism uses judgment by pain. The pain becomes a distraction from the subjectivity of the cosmic system and gives a temporary objectivity to recall the gospel one more time.

Religion emphasises Satan’s policy of evil. Christianity, therefore, is not a religion. In fact, Christianity and religion are antithetical, they are mutually exclusive. Christianity is truth from God; religion is the lie from Satan. Each has its own system. The protocol system is for the development of the truth in our lives, and Satan’s cosmic system is for the religious distractions to our lives. In religion man by man’s efforts seeks an establishment with God or seeks to impress God, while in Christianity God seeks and finds mankind through the work of Christ on the cross. Christianity is a relationship with God which begins at regeneration, while religion is a relationship with Satan that begins with cosmic involvement.

It is necessary, therefore, to understand that billions of years ago God knew all of these things and the omniscience of God put into the computer of divine decrees every thought, every decision, every action of every person. This is not all that is programmed into the computer. Also put into the computer of divine decrees we have every person in the history of the human race in connection with every sin they would ever commit, so that all personal sins were put into the computer of divine decrees. Long before any man committed any sin in the human race every one of them was in the computer. These sins in the computer make it impossible for mankind, outside of Adam, to be condemned by personal sin. When human life was first imputed to Adam’s human soul, at the same time for us Adam’s original sin was imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature and this is the basis of our condemnation at birth. But all of our personal sins, along with the millions of personal sins that have not yet been committed, were all entered in eternity past by the omniscience of God into the computer of divine decrees. It was not until Jesus Christ went to the cross that all of the personal sins of the human race, including ones that had not been committed yet, were all brought out of the computer and imputed to Christ on the cross, and God the Father then judged those sins. It is the judgment of sin that is the basis of eternal salvation. It is the judgment of sin in this Church Age that leads to Christianity. The work was accomplished by God. In the first advent when God the Son, Jesus Christ, was hanging on the cross as the God-Man, He alone accomplished salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ did not say, “We have finished it,” He said, “It is finished”; He finished it alone. And we will see in Revelation chapter nineteen that when Jesus Christ returns He returns with three great armies — Group A, the elect angels; Group B, all believers of the Church Age, royal family in resurrection bodies; Group C, Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs, all in resurrection bodies, He alone does all the fighting. The principle, of course, is grace. The Lord accomplishes it all.

Religion on the other hand represents the evil genius of Satan from the standpoint of its many counterfeits. For example, there is a counterfeit gospel which is developed by Satan and it is related to the cosmic system, as per 2 Corinthians 4:3,4, “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of those who believe not.” Rejection of Jesus Christ as saviour causes the unbeliever to enter into gate two of cosmic one, and there he has blackout of the soul. If he continues to reject the gospel he will enter gate two of cosmic two and there he will have scar tissue of the soul. Only crisis evangelism will reach in at this stage and save the brands from the burning. There is also a system of counterfeit ministry. Satan has his counterfeit ministers who are described in very lucid detail in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. There is also a counterfeit doctrine which relates to the various gates of the cosmic system. There is a counterfeit communion table. It is the counterfeit communion table which is the direct system of Satanic religion. It is found in 2 Corinthians 10:19-21. There is a system of counterfeit spirituality, which most fundamentalists are using today. True spirituality cannot be understood apart from the protocol system. This counterfeit spirituality is dramatised in Galatians 3:2,3. There is a counterfeit system of righteousness, self-righteousness related to arrogance, Matthew 19:16-28. There are counterfeit gods, a system of demonisation, 2 Corinthians 2:3,4. There are counterfeit dynamics, 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10. So to understand religion one must understand Satan’s policy as administered through his cosmic system. Later on the cosmic system will become very pertinent in our context. The study of this chapter, then, is the study of religion from the standpoint of Tribulational judgments administered in relationship to the seventh bowl judgment.

There is another concept that we should understand. The word Babylon occurs quite frequently in chapter seventeen. The Biblical concept of Babylon is twofold: literal and figurative. In the Bible Babylon is a literal city, and then it becomes a literal city state. From this literal city state come many nations such as Babylonia-Chaldea. It all began in Genesis chapter ten, verses eight through ten. Nimrod, who is the founder of the original Babylon, means “we will revolt.” This anticipates the mystery doctrine of Babylon in the New Testament. The first united nations organisation was founded at Babylon and anticipates the use of this noun in context as Genesis 11:1-8 directly relates to it. The literal city and city state of Babylon is the subject, then, of many Old Testament passages. However, reference to Babylon in our context is not literal but is figurative. It refers to a religious system, an international religious system of Satan in the Tribulation. The figurative meaning of Babylon refers to international organisations, both political and religious, sponsored by Satan throughout human history. Previous reference to Babylon as Satan’s system of internationalism has already been noted in Revelation 13:4-8, 11-17; 14:8-11: 16:19. Babylon in our passage does not refer to the city or to a state or to an empire of the past, it refers to ecumenical religion related to international politics, a system to distract mankind from the truth of Bible doctrine.

The outline of our passage is twofold. In the first six verses we study the vision of the “great whore,” as the King James version calls it. The last half of the chapter, verses 7-18, is simply the interpretation for the vision. Babylon, therefore, becomes a code word for Satan’s system of internationalism, both political and religious. Every time we see Babylon in our passage it will be referring to that international system, the system of ecumenicalism.

We begin, then, with the study of the vision of the great whore in verse 1-6. The seventh pur sui vant angel becomes a teaching angel in this verse. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” With this we have the nominative singular from the adjective numeral e(ij, and it refers to one of the execution squad. The execution squad of the previous chapter is the way that we finally discovered protocol as the major system on God’s plan. In the execution squad we saw the protocol in heaven. “Then one,” we are referring to an angelic creature. We know this from the prepositional phrase that follows, e)k plus the ablative of the indeclinable adjective numeral e(pta, “seven.” Then we have a)ggeloj, “angels,” one of the seven in the execution squad.

Next is the articular present active participle from the verb e)xw, which means to have. We are going to understand that this one that is mentioned here is number seven in the squad, the one who administered the seventh bowl judgment, “who had.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun referring to the seventh member of the execution squad, the one who administered the seventh bowl judgment in chapter sixteen, verse seventeen. The present tense is a perfective present denoting what has come to be in the past and emphasised as a present reality. The active voice: the seventh pur sui vant messenger from the execution squad produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

Why do we have a member of the execution squad suddenly becoming a teacher of Bible doctrine? That is exactly what he is going to do. These seven members of the execution squad are under the command of a pur sui vant officer, as we noted from chapters fourteen and fifteen. The squad, made up of seven pur sui vant messengers, went into action in chapters sixteen. Number seven in the squad is the pur sui vant messenger who is now going to become a teacher of Bible doctrine. The question arises: How does this one out of a group of special aristocrats of the elect angels suddenly become a teacher of doctrine? He is obviously very good in his job of judgment. How can a judging angel suddenly become a teaching angel? The answer to that question is found in our study of crisis evangelism. In reality every member of that squad, when he administered his particular judgment, could take up the slack and communicate doctrine. If doctrine had not been communicated to some pocket where the judgment was administered then the angelic creatures did it. There is a precedent for that which we studied in operation high noon.

Next we have the aorist active indicative of e)rxomai, the verb to come, “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowl judgments came.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. An angel used for executing the human race also communicates to the human race. By profession this angelic creature is an aristocrat in the elect angel army. There is a very important point here. This angel has been responsible for the death of millions of people. You can be responsible for death on the one hand as a professional soldier, or as a law enforcement officer or judge on the bench on the one hand and on the other hand being responsible for providing information leading to eternal life for others. The two go together. There is no conflict between the communication of the gospel and doctrine and killing people as a member of a military organisation representing your country. This angel is going to teach truth just as effectively as he was responsible for the administration of a great judgment on the human race.

The one who is going to be learning in this case is the apostle John, for his continuation in understanding of all of these things and how they relate to each other regarding the subject of religion it is necessary to understand what this angel teaches in chapters seventeen and eighteen. The active voice: the seventh pur sui vant messenger from the execution squad produces the action of the verb now as a teacher of truth. Before we saw him as an executioner; now the executioner becomes a communicator of truth. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that having delivered his judgment bowl he is now ready to explain the significance of judgment by death as it relates to the human race.

Every day when we pick up the papers someone is dying somewhere. Someone is the victim of violence, someone is dying of starvation, people are dying for many reasons. Often when we look into the areas where these people are dying we note that there is a tremendous area of historical negative volition, and that if this negative volition which is self-destructive spreads throughout the entire world there will then, of course, be world destruction instead of local geographical destruction.

We are getting ready for this. We are more influenced by compassion for the third world than we are for doctrine found in the Word of God, and the influence of our lives comes from our compassion for the tragedies that we see in other parts of the world. Why do these tragedies exist? Because in those parts of the world there has been strong negative volition at God-consciousness, there has been strong negative volition at the point of gospel hearing. Many of these areas have had over a century of very clear presentation of the gospel and they have rejected it time and time again. Therefore they have gone into the vacuum of Satan’s cosmic system and they have developed their whole system of culture from Satan’s cosmic system. They have developed a religion. Where they heard the truth and rejected it religion always sprouts and grows. When people reject the truth, whether it is the laws of divine establishment, whether it is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, whether it is the believer rejecting Bible doctrine, they go into a system of slow death. They go into Satan’s cosmic system. Some of them turn up as religious types and we have religion all over the world. Religion has taken over all over the world in one form or another. Since there are many categories of religion there are many different forms of distraction. There is something that can be appealing to anyone and Satan’s counter-evangelism is very appealing. He can come at you through the phallic cult, through the mystique type of activity where you don’t think but everything seems to be very mysterious and therefore impressive, or he can come at you with false doctrine. He has many approaches to the human race. He has been very successful today, especially among born-again believers, because they have failed to understand that in the protocol system the concept of protocol becomes very important.

The angel has been an executioner; now he becomes a communicator. No one ever has to be ashamed of killing people in battle as a member of the armed forces. No one has to be ashamed of having served. The indicative mood of e)rxomai is declarative for the reality of the fact that having executed people through the seventh bowl judgment this same pur sui vant messenger will now teach John the information that he uses in chapters seventeen and eighteen.

Then we have the connective use of the conjunction kai followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb lalew which means to communicate. Here it means to teach eschatological doctrine. The aorist tense of lalew is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The killer angel now becomes a teaching angel. There is no inconsistency because this is all accomplished through the principles of protocol and virtue which destroy the apparent inconsistencies in one’s life. There is no inconsistency in being a member of the execution squad on the one hand and now being a communicator of eschatology on the other hand. In one angelic creature both of these functions exist without any complications of any kind. The content of the angel’s message is chapters seventeen and eighteen. Notice that he got in touch with the apostle John. He has been in touch with the human race as a killer, now he is in touch with John as a teacher of doctrine. This is taught in the preposition meta plus the genitive from e)gw, “with me”; “he came and spoke with me.” The apostle John is the object of the preposition. He is a brilliant doctrinal teacher but this killer is going to teach him something about eschatology.

This, therefore, is a transitional verse which explains that the seventh pur sui vant messenger of the execution squad is also a Bible teacher. In fact, each one of the seven members of the execution squad is also a doctrinal teacher and can give a detailed explanation as to why his specific judgment was administered. The principle then: The members of the execution squad know what they are doing. Executioners must have a complete sense of justice and total freedom from arrogance. Only the highest aristocracy in heaven, therefore, are involved in the administration of the seven judgments. This explains the influence of the protocol of heaven on the grace policy of divine judgment on planet earth and its human inhabitants. The highest form of angelic aristocracy from the college of heralds is used for the execution of this judgment.

This brings up another principle. Always historically you have an achieving aristocracy which is separate from all those around it. An achieving aristocracy always knows what they are doing, this is how aristocracy is formed. People emerge in history who know what they are doing. Truth in the soul makes it possible for you to know what you are doing. All divine judgment stems from the justice of God and has a very definite grace function. Judgment on earth has two sources: the volition of mankind and the justice of God. What we often assume is judgment from God is really the failure to make good decisions. The major source of our unhappiness in life is our own volition. We make the wrong decisions, we think the wrong things, we therefore provide our own misery. Divine judgment comes when we spend too much time in the cosmic system. It comes in the form of warning judgment, followed by intensive judgment, and eventually by dying judgment. So the volition of mankind is responsible for his own misery and is spread to others. The check on man’s self-induced misery and destruction originates from the justice of God. God has to keep us from destroying ourselves, and God has promised that there will always be people on this earth and that there never will be a time when the human race does not exist during human history. Nuclear weapons cannot destroy humanity; neither can any other danger to mankind.

“Then one of the seven angels who had the seventh bowl judgments came and spoke with me.” All of this review of doctrine explains the genius of Satan in the invention of religion to distract mankind from the grace of God and the plan of God for the human race. All of this explains the invention of the two cosmic dynaspheres by Satan to control mankind and to keep him from utilising the grace of God. All of this explains the divine judgment on the religious system of the Tribulation as God’s answer to Satanic devices and strategies to woo mankind away from the grace of God and from the plan of God.

The next word in the Greek is the present active participle of the verb legw which is one of the communication verbs, “saying.” The aoristic present tense sets forth the event as now occurring, therefore punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: the seventh pur sui vant messenger from the execution squad produces the action of the verb as the doctrinal teacher of the apostle John. The content of his teaching is amplified in the seventh bowl judgment mention in chapter 16, verses seventeen through twenty-one, and what he teaches is now is chapters seventeen and eighteen. We have a complimentary participle expressing the completion of an idea expressed by two main verbs.

Next we have an adverb of place which is translated “Come here,” deurw. The present tense, again, indicates that the adverb which follows will have the connotation of an imperative. Note, therefore, from this adverb used in the imperative sense, “Come here,” that John’s volition must be involved in wanting to understand the explanation and the amplification of the seventh bowl judgment. This, of course, deals with the divine punishment of ecumenical religion as a system, and therefore everything related to international religion of the Tribulation. While the teaching angel comes to the geographical location of John, John must come to the presence of the angel from his own positive volition. He must be motivated to want to learn, to desire the information. His motivation is very strong because the information he receives is the next two chapters of Revelation.

Out of this comes a principle. Doctrinal teaching is mandated by God but the believer must be motivated to receive it. Doctrinal teaching runs the gamut from the most sublime information about the essence of God to the most shocking information about the modus operandi of man. Some people are interested in parts of it but not necessarily all of it. It takes a very strong motivation to want to know the whole realm of doctrine. God provides the opportunity for all of us to learn Bible doctrine. First of all, we learn doctrine and it becomes a motivation for momentum in the plan of God. While God provides the doctrine and the protocol system in which to learn it the believer must use his own volition with regard to learning doctrine. You can bring a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. You can bring people to church but that doesn’t imply that they are going to learn anything or that they want to learn anything. The reasons why people come to church are varied, but to come to church to want to learn doctrine is a rarity in the time in which we live. And, of course, under the principle of freedom God does not force us to learn doctrine as the key to His plan, but instead He challenges our volition to go for it. The plan of God is optional to the believer. The option is expressed in the mandate regarding the divine dynasphere, the protocol system which we have been studying.

Now we have the subject of the teaching ministry of this angel who up to this point has been a professional soldier in the elect angel order of battle as well as the college of heralds and is now going to become a teacher of doctrine. We have the verb first, the future active indicative of deiknumi which means to make very lucid or clear, to make perspicuous, to point out, to show, to teach, to make known. We will translate it simply, “I will make known.” The future tense is for a fact or performance which may be rightfully expected under normal conditions in this context. The active voice: the seventh pur sui vant messenger of the execution squad who administered the seventh bowl judgment in chapter 16:12 produces the action of the verb as a teaching angel. The indicative mood is declarative for a statement of fact. The dative singular of advantage follows and it is in the personal pronoun su. It is to your advantage to have the information. While God makes it advantageous He does not force it upon you. You are not forced ever to learn doctrine by divine mandate, the motivation must come from your own soul. So it is translated, “I will make known to you.” It is a dative singular indirect object as well as a dative of advantage. The indirect object merely indicates that the object has the advantage of hearing it.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun krima, and it means in this case a judgment or punishment, “I will make known to you the judgment.” Then we have the judgment described in terms of an analogy. The ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation is described in terms of the objective genitive singular from the noun pornh, and with it an adjective megaj which means “great” but has many similar meanings. Probably, in this case, “infamous” would be better than the “great whore” as translated by the King James version.

There are two things that we should note in the analogy. Firstly, in the analogy with prostitute is that it is a female word so we are talking about a woman. Secondly, she was not only a woman but she is described by the Greek adjective megaj which means a great woman. Why use prostitution as the analogy for religion? First of all we notice that a prostitute makes her living from the lust of others, and in this sense it becomes an excellent analogy to religion because religion gains power and wealth from many categories of lust: lust for human security, lust for blessing in life, lust for recognition in life, lust for some assurance about the future after death. There are many categories of lust in addition to lasciviousness. Under the principle of the phallic cult religion does embrace the lust content of lasciviousness as well. Just as a prostitute receives money for her services so religion, cults, make money off of the superstition and false doctrines that people believe. So there is a great area for analogy. Furthermore, the fact that a prostitute has customers indicates that the fact that the customers do not have control of their lives, they are not the custodians of their happiness, and they are disorganised. So three things should be said about the customers: negative control, negative happiness, and obviously disorganised.

We have discussed how believers who reject Bible doctrine, who reject the protocol system, surrender the control of their lives to others and their happiness to others, are disorganised people. Disorganised people are losers in life. You have to be organised and you have to start with your own mentality. You have to have the right system of priorities. All organisation must come around truth and therefore the truth of Bible doctrine has to be your number one priority. So the analogy between religion and the prostitute is a very good one because the adherence to religion, as we will see in this chapter and the next, are all disorganised people. They do not have control of their lives and they are not the custodians of their own happiness. There are many analogies that we could make but unhappy people always have to pay for their pleasures, and religion attracts unhappy people. Religion caters to unhappy people and charges them for their pleasures. Religion is international and religious internationalism in the Tribulation is called a prostitute because it seduces mankind into Satan’s cosmic system.But there is another reason why the woman is used and why we have the feminine gender. It goes back to the third chapter of Genesis where we have distinguished between the original sin of the man and the original sin of the woman. It was the woman who sinned first, and the reason that she sinned first was that she was the point of contact. Satan attacked the woman first because if he had attacked the man — the man was the authority at that time — the man could have simply ordered the woman to partake of the forbidden fruit and she would have done so but she would have had a legitimate excuse. She was under the authority of the man and therefore her volition was not her own. Satan always works this way, he always works toward the one who has no authority. All revolutions in human history were started by people who had neither authority nor power, and they lusted for it. Religions do the same thing. The woman was not the authority, all of the authority resided in the man. Therefore Satan attacked the woman. He always goes for the one who does not have the authority or the power in order to overthrow the system of establishment which God has ordained.

There is another reason. People who do not have power or authority are susceptible to a different type of arrogance than people who do. The most arrogant people in life are the scum; the most arrogant people in life can be found in the areas of poverty. Poverty has the most vicious arrogance of all. Poverty is not caused by the failure of government or the irresponsibility of others, poverty is caused by the people who have it. The source of poverty is the volition of the poor. Jesus discussed the poor and poverty and He made it very clear that no matter what you do to alleviate poverty, no matter how great that you are in trying to help the poor, you cannot stop poverty. Poverty is a disease of human volition, not a status quo of “have not.” Neither a government nor independent organisations can stem the tide of poverty ever: “The poor you will have with you always.” And the reason we will always have the poor is because people make decisions to be poor. There is nothing wrong with being poor in any given time. Decisions can be made to change that status. Poverty is the status of negative volition in life. That means that just as Satan appealed to the have not — the woman who had not but was very happy with her have not — and the temptation was channeled through her, so Satan is constantly in the business of destroying establishment authority, and he does it through the have-nots. Socialism is such an attack, as is communism. Guilty conscience is another attack. Sometimes wealthy people are made to feel ashamed because they have wealth, as if they should be ashamed of it, the very fact that people are made to feel ashamed and therefore trying to do something about helping people. Helping the helpless is one thing but once the government starts giving out money to the alleged poor and the real poor, the lazy and the scum, they destroy all motivation in life and they create a great evil. These very people are the very people out of whom revolution is manufactured. They are the malcontent, they have lost all motivation for life. They are not motivated to scrub floors because they are not hungry enough to accept any job, and they lose out completely.

Who captures these if revolution does not? Religion. The Satanic system does. And how does Satan convert these people to whatever religion is going in a geographical area? He does it very simply: an appeal to arrogance. Always the same thing. What did Satan say to the woman? he said, “Do you know why God forbids you to eat from this tree? It is the tree of knowledge. God is afraid that if you eat from that tree you will be as smart as He is, and he wouldn’t like that.” And that is all it took to set the woman off. The woman had a great curiosity and she wanted to see if she would be as smart as God. When she took from the forbidden tree she discovered not how smart she was but how smart God was and how she could never attain divine wisdom. She was on the wrong track. Then she came to the man on the basis of their marvelous relationship in order to undermine his authority and the man did not even have to walk to the tree to partake of the forbidden fruit, it was there offered to him. Consequently, the analogy: Religion always offers you what appears to be a perfect package, the solution to all of your problems. Therefore religion becomes very popular.

So it is not without reason that the female prostitute is used for the analogy to religion and, of course, the prostitute is doing something else: attacking establishment, for fornication is an attack on establishment order, upon marriage and the home. Religion is an attack upon establishment and religion always attacks establishment by seeking to become the state, the combination of religion with the political. Religion likes to be the state and wherever in the last several centuries religion has been the state there has been nothing but disaster. The people in those states cannot distinguish between establishment separated from the state and therefore they inevitably go for communism because to them the church is the state. They are antiestablishment and anti-state and the only anti is communism, therefore they are revolutionaries in their approach.

Next we find a verb, the articular present active participle of kaqhmai which means to sit, but it means more than sitting, it means domination, just as a horse rider dominates the horse. The woman is said to be sitting and because she is sitting she dominates. “I will make known to you the judgment of the infamous call girl.” This is a real slick religion, “who sits.” It is used as a relative pronoun referring to the infamous prostitute and/or ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. The present tense is a pictorial present tense. The active voice: the prostitute or ecumenical religion of the Tribulation produces the action. It is a circumstantial participle implying religion dominating people. Later on we will see religion dominating the state. But how do you get to the state? Through people. So religion works through people. It gets a mass of people and then religion will sit on the state. So sitting here means domination. Ecumenical religion has three sittings or domination in this context in the first nine verses. Each one is presented by the same preposition, e)pi, and each time it is different. We have e)pi plus the genitive, e)pi plus the locative, e)pi plus the accusative. For example, at the end of verse 1 we have the preposition e)pi plus the locative plural from the adjective poluj plus u(dor, “many waters.” E)pi plus the locative emphasises position. If religion is going to dominate it must have good position, it must have good position over the waters. Waters represent the multitude of the peoples throughout the world who are converts to ecumenical religion. In verse 3 we are going to see e)pi once more, this time plus the accusative. This time we will see it with an adjective and a noun called “the scarlet beast dictator.” E)pi plus the accusative emphasises motion or direction, and that scarlet beast of verse 3 is the revived Roman empire. The revived Roman empire of the Tribulation is going places, so the woman starts with people but from the people gains control of a great political system, the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. That is brought out by the accusative case. Then, finally, in verse 9 we have the preposition e)pi plus the genitive from a)utoj. The genitive case emphasises contact. The religion has contact with the seven mountains of verse 9 and the seven mountains refer to the great empires of the past. So the fact that in the Tribulation the woman gains control of the great empire, the revived Roman empire, emphasises the fact that in the past it has been traditional, and it always happens, that great empires of the past have been subverted by religion. They have lost their power and their ability, they have been destroyed. When religion controls the state freedom is lost. Freedom must have system of authority and the state is the authority — Romans chapter 13. Freedom and authority go together. Freedom without authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny. They must go together and that is the principle involved here.

Corrected translation of verse 1: “Then one of the seven angels [the seventh pur sui vant messenger of the execution squad] who had the seven bowl judgments, came and spoke with me [the apostle John], saying, Come here; I will make known to you the judgment of the infamous prostitute [the famous system of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation] who sits on many waters [the people of the world who are converts to the ecumenical religious system].”

The base for success of international religion, of course, is Satan’s cosmic system. The subject of this chapter, then, is the amplification of the seventh bowl judgment which was stated in chapter 16:19, “Furthermore, Babylon the great [international religion at the end of the Tribulation] was remembered before God, to give her the cup of wine full of the wrath of his anger.”

In verse 2 we have “With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Fornication is mentioned twice. Neither time is it a literal reference but in the analogy you have to understand something about literal fornication to understand the figurative use of it in this passage which is the spiritual fornication of kings.

We begin with the preposition meta plus the genitive singular of the relative pronoun o(j, “With whom.” The relative pronoun refers to the prostitute or the international religion of the Tribulation. Then comes our subject, the nominative plural subject from basileuj. It does refer to world rulers at that time but that doesn’t means they are kings. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and in the time of writing the book of Revelation most of the rulers of the world were classified as kings. But they can be dictators, they can be presidents, they can have all kinds of names. The point is that there will be a very strong political influence on the part of this international religious system. There will be a union of religion and state which, of course, is very destructive to human freedom and a great evil. The descriptive genitive from the noun gh refers to planet earth, so this is a general trend.

Then comes the verb, the aorist active indicative of the verb porneuw. It is used two ways in the Bible: for literal fornication, which is a sexual sin, and for spiritual fornication, which is a system of apostasy. So we have, “with whom the kings of the earth have fornicated.” The culminative aorist tense means the conversion to ecumenical religion or, at least a superficial adherence to ecumenical religion, in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results such as the last world war in history, such as the destruction of freedom by the union of religion and state. The active voice: various rulers of the earth produce the action of the verb by joining the international religious organisation sponsored by Satan and led by the beast dictator of the revived Roman empire. The indicative mood is a potential indicative of impulse, it emphasises the fact that these world rulers use their own free will to enter into the system of international religion.

Hence, we have with the verb porneuw the concept, therefore, of conversion. How are these people converted? In the same way that people become interested in fornicating. First of all there is the thought, secondly there is a lust, then there is the action. This pretty well describes the pattern of spiritual fornication. The Bible describes spiritual fornication or apostasy not only in the book of Hosea but extensively in Ezekiel chapters 16 and 23. In all these cases we have spiritual fornication between client nation Israel and the religions of Satan at that time.

The spiritual fornication of the people follows. We have the connective kai translated “furthermore.” It adds to the concept. Then we have the nominative plural subject which is a present active participle of the verb katoikew, “the inhabitants.” The participle is often used as a substantive and this is the case here. The inhabitants of the earth here are said to be intoxicated, the aorist passive indicative of the verb mequw, which means to become intoxicated. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: those who are brought under the sphere of Satan’s ecumenical religion receive the action of the verb, therefore this indicates a tremendous amount of emotionalism. Intoxication is often used for sheer emotionalism without thought. When emotionalism takes over the control of the soul you have the degeneracy of the human soul leading to the degenerate modus operandi of the individual. The converts to Satan’s system receive the action of the verb. This is spiritual intoxication going with spiritual fornication. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of the success of Satan’s international religious system. They are said to be intoxicated with the wine of her fornication. This means the conversion of these people and involvement in the system of activity which is primarily emotionalism like the tongues movement today.

The question arises: How does this work out from the standpoint of the actual function. How can we explain all of this mechanically? Here we have the effectiveness of Satanic religion in the last half of the Tribulation. Mechanically it has to do with two things. First of all, the entrance into Satan’s cosmic system. The conversion takes place in cosmic one where these people are said to be grieving the Holy Spirit of God. Function inside of cosmic two is the development of the religion which is comparable to quenching the Holy Spirit with regard to believers. In other words, the whole conversion system is a matter of being preoccupied with self. When a maximum number of people in the human race have inordinate preoccupation with self that is where religion gets its start, that is where emotionalism gets cranked up, that is where every false system has its beginning. Just as Satan, who is the greatest creature genius who ever lived, actually sinned for the first time through preoccupation with self in inordinate fashion known as arrogance, so the same pattern is found in the human race. It all begins with motivational evil, gate one, cosmic one. This is how these first two verses of chapter seventeen are fulfilled at the end of the Tribulation.

It all starts with motivational evil. Motivational evil is arrogance. Arrogance has many sides and many facets. For example, jealousy is arrogance or preoccupation with self. To the extent that people are jealous to that extent they become vulnerable to this type of activity. it doesn’t mean that every jealous person is going to be a convert to Satanic religion but it means that that is a start, and there is, by the way, psychologically a very close relationship between jealousy and emotionalism. Jealousy and emotionalism stifle thinking. Jealous people are never able to think rationally and once you lose the ability to think rationally then you fall back on emotion, and emotion has a very bad twist. So we have jealousy, and from the jealousy there is always the frustration and the frustration factor further destroys the ability to think and therefore there is bitterness. Once you are trapped in cosmic one you lose the ability to think in terms of doctrine, in terms of virtue, in terms of things that are rational as far as the Word of God is concerned. Various types of flaws or motivational evil bring this about, such as jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, self-pity, the guilt syndrome, operation over-think, revenge motivation, whatever it happens to be. And these same thoughts, many of them antithetical but all under the category of motivational evil, also makes the individual an instant convert into Satan’s system. These are the ways in which religion expresses itself. Religion expresses itself in violence, in hatred, in all of the various facets of arrogance and jealousy. All of these things are a part of religion. Therefore, once you lose the ability to think rationally you now have the ability to over extend your emotions beyond your thoughts. At this particular point you destroy something, one of the greatest principles in your life and something you have been storing up: your inventory of doctrinal ideas. Once your inventory of ideas is destroyed you are now open for new thoughts, and these thoughts come in many forms in the second cosmic system. There are many different gates there, many ways in which Satan keeps people because they have different personalities, different IQs, different standards.

Arrogant persons inevitably have to be satisfied with themselves. They must find, as it were, a new identity. They get into cosmic one in the first place because they have lost their identity, as it were, through arrogance, through motivational evil. Jealousy becomes the preoccupation of the life, or bitterness, or vindictiveness or hatred or antagonism, etc. One of the big systems for evangelisation into religion is self-pity. Our culture is now lending itself to self-pity. You are encouraged to feel sorry for yourself, you are encouraged to be preoccupied with yourself. This is one of the major steps, by the way, of degeneracy. This is what happens in the Tribulation and it is an old old story which goes a way back into history, but in the meantime it is a story that exists for believers as well as unbelievers and no matter how many times in the past that people have failed this way and how cognisant one is of the situation it doesn’t keep you from getting into self-pity, getting into jealousy or bitterness or frustration or hatred, or one of these things which become so destructive. This is how rulers become converted to this Satanic system, and this is how the “many waters,” different people from different areas of life, also become involved. And from this immediately the establishing of the new identity in cosmic one and in cosmic two means that you are now a convert of Satan. You may go the religion round, you may go the rationalism round, you may go the philosophical way, but if your arrogance is academic and if you are preoccupied with your high IQ then you will take one road, whereas if you are kind of stupid and emotional you will wind up in the tongues movement. But there is always something for everyone, even the phallic cult for those who want to turn spiritual fornication into literal fornication. That is why Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride precedes destruction,” because in discovering your new identity it is a relationship. All identities that you discover in your own life always have a relationship, and to establish your identity, as it were, you are going to discover that the new identity relates to Satan’s system in which you are trapped. Once you discover that new identity you eventually get down to two identities, and we call that a psychosis. From then on you are identityless and this is the normal function of those who get involved in cosmic one.

“Pride precedes destruction, and before a fall there is arrogance of life.” No one ever becomes involved in the Satanic trap until he becomes preoccupied with himself. Psalm 25:8-9, “Good and honourable is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.” God has a plan for each one of us, He has a system of doctrine which protects us from this. He doesn’t always instruct about sin but in the way they should go and in the protection against the Satanic system: “In justice [divine integrity] he guides the humble, consequently he teaches the humble his way.”

Once you establish your identity in the Satanic system through some form of arrogance and motivational evil you then become the enemy of God, even as a born-again believer. Being an enemy of God as a believer doesn’t mean that you have lost your salvation, it just means that you are now going to make your decisions from a position of weakness, you are going to lose control of your life, and you are going to be miserable until either you recover or the Lord takes you home through the sin unto death.

In 1 Peter 5:5, “In the same way comparative novices under the command and authority of the pastor; all of you in the congregation, fasten yourselves to each other with grace thinking.” One of the great distractions in any congregation is the reaction to others for real or alleged offences against yourself, the interaction of hatred, antagonism, bitterness, frustration, inordinate ambition, all of the things that bring about arrogance. That is why it says, “fasten yourselves to each other with grace thinking, because God makes war against the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble. Therefore become grace oriented under the authority of the ruling hand of God, that he may promote you at the proper time.” From that we understand that if God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted. This does not imply that you cannot succeed in the cosmic system but your success is a dead end.

Hence, the problem of arrogance in achievement. Arrogance belongs, of course, to the Satanic system; achievement belongs to God. Happiness belongs to the believer under that principle, but the principle is only true when we are living in the protocol system. Therefore, the concept here in this particular passage in Revelation chapter seventeen, mechanically, is that motivational evil is the basis for becoming religious or something else related to Satan’s system. When the believer makes decisions in the cosmic system he takes on arrogance from gate one of cosmic one. He becomes preoccupied with some achievement or success and consequently he is often bitten by a bug called inordinate ambition. Instead of occupation with Christ from the divine dynasphere, the protocol system, he is much more concerned about the opinions of his contemporaries and often becomes very susceptible to the flattery of others. Arrogance, therefore, becomes motivation. This is the tragic flaw; this is the destructive drama of life. Arrogance motivates the individual to strive, to compete, to excel, to surpass under the wrong motivation. The new creature who has emerged is therefore ripe for, among other things, religion. That is why in the Tribulation the kings, the rulers of nations, successful people, are going to adopt this ecumenical religious system. The Biblical concept of daily happiness based on a personal sense of destiny from life in the protocol system is gone. The provision of logistical grace becomes meaningless to believers. Believers are supported and sustained by logistical grace, the faithfulness of God. The believer’s arrogant lust for ascendancy and his desire for success destroys the right priorities. This is why believers become religious and how some believers become psychotic, and why some believers become involved in the tongues movement or some other emotional activities, and why believers get into very strange things. The believer is extremely vulnerable to these things. While we are studying them from the standpoint of eschatology they also have a direct relationship to our own lives today. In effect we are going to make application and learn something from the future.

So the desire to outdo one’s contemporaries always destroys a personal sense of destiny. When you are in the business of trying to show people, or show up people, or upstage people, gain attention to yourself by some form of success, you actually wipe out any possibility of that personal sense of destiny that belongs to the protocol system. The arrogant desire to achieve and attain greater success than one’s contemporaries becomes a disastrous road. There is such a thing as normal ambition, of course, but when arrogance is introduced and arrogance is in the saddle and in control of your life, then of course all of your priorities and the tremendous accumulation of doctrine that you have is lost, it has no advantage to you, either by application or by momentum in your life. Arrogant ambition means not only neglect of the protocol system but the very destruction of virtue. With virtue ambition is normal; without virtue ambition becomes evil. With virtue achievement is normal; without virtue achievement becomes a system of evil. So there is the struggle always between humility of the protocol system and arrogance in the cosmic system.

Proverbs 11:2, “When arrogance comes, then comes dishonour, but with the humble is wisdom.” Wisdom means the application of doctrine. One of the great problems that believers often face is the inability to apply what they have learned. Of course, when you are starting out in your spiritual life it is impossible to apply, but gradually you learn to apply doctrine. You learn to think in terms of doctrinal concepts and doctrinal categories but you have to put it together in your soul and that requires a lot of listening, a lot of hearing. It often requires making a lot of mistakes and a lot of failures, but we can also learn from our failures, especially when doctrine is prevalent in the soul. Why is it that people cannot apply doctrine? Because of arrogance, because of prejudice, because of jealousy. First of all, too many people get the doctrine, they understand it academically as gnwsij in the left lobe, but they never understand it and cannot apply it until it becomes e)pignwsij in the right lobe. To understand it academically and never have it in the right lobe, you can’t apply it. You cannot convert it if you have arrogance. So the same thing that converts all of these people in the future to ecumenical religion is the very thing that keeps us from on the one hand learning doctrine and on the other hand applying doctrine.

Proverbs 29:23, “A person’s arrogance will bring him low, but a spirit of humility will attain honour.” All believers, Old Testament and New, are all called to honour and integrity. Honour and integrity is not where you start, however, it starts with basic virtue, humility. Humility is not only teachability but humility gives the ability to apply, so you learn and apply by the same system, humility. Humility means you do not make an issue of yourself. Humility gives you sensitivity. The believer in the cosmic system is both hypersensitive and insensitive; the believer in the protocol system is sensitive, which is another way of saying thoughtfulness for others, understanding others, not doing anything to offend or hurt other people deliberately. Hypersensitivity is where you make an issue out of self. In being insensitive you are still making an issue out of self. Insensitive people are so preoccupied with themselves that they aren’t even aware of others around them, except to be offensive. Sensitivity is a part of virtue;

Job 33:16-17, a message to Job from Elihu: “Then he opens the ears of men, and he seals their instruction.” People listen to doctrine and they learn the doctrine, so that is called the “sealing of instruction,” gnwsij converted to e)pignwsij through positive faith perception, “that he may turn aside from his discipline, and protect us from arrogance.” We must be protected from arrogance. Arrogance is the greatest enemy we have, it is the original sin of man.

Isaiah 13:11, “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud,” everything stems from the arrogance of the proud. Who are the proud? Anyone involved in the cosmic system, believer or unbeliever, “I will humble the pride of the tyrant.” The tyrants in our passage, Revelation 17:2, the rulers of planet earth, are involved.

1 Timothy 6:3,4, “If anyone teaches a different doctrine [religion does that], and does not concur with sound doctrine [religion does that], those doctrines from our Lord Jesus Christ, even doctrine pertaining to godliness [residence, function, momentum in the protocol system], he has received arrogance.” Who has received arrogance? Believers with a high IQ, believers who have learned some doctrine, believers who have learned a lot of doctrine, believers who possess doctrine as gnwsij in the left lobe, some who possess e)pignwsij in the right lobe. And what are the next two words? They are so important because once arrogance becomes a part of our lives, even for a short time, we are, “understanding nothing.” Why is it that believers can be under Bible teaching for a long time and appear to make no progress? Because arrogance means they understand nothing, and if you understand nothing you cannot apply nothing to something and have something. The application of nothing is nothing.

It has to be understood that none of us are free from these aberrations into cosmic one but the more doctrine you learn the sooner you recognise the problem and the sooner you get out. While we may have learned a great deal of doctrine, that doctrine in any situation doesn’t come up and can’t be applied because arrogance neutralises all the doctrine we have learned for its application to a given situation.

— “furthermore he has a morbid obsession about controversies [operation over-think].” We are constantly finding little hobby horses to ride and if people don’t agree with your hobby horse then you become very insulted. Your hobby horse doesn’t have one thing in the world to do with the teaching of the Word of God, “and verbal conflicts from which originate conflicts.” What really counts is what you think about doctrine.

We begin verse 3 with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then,” plus the aorist active indicative of the verb a)poferw which means to bring someone from one place to another place. That is exactly what the teaching angel did to the apostle John, “Then he brought me.” The constative aorist is for a momentary action, what we might call a prophetic aorist. The active voice: the seventh pur sui vant messenger of the execution squad who is now the teaching angel produces the action. The declarative indicative represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. This was accomplished by means of God the Holy Spirit, the preposition e)n plus the locative of pneuma, a reference to the third person of the Trinity. The absence of the definite article emphasises the qualitative aspect of the noun and that means. of course, in English we have to put in the definite article, “in the Spirit.” Then there is one more prepositional phrase which means “to a desolate place,” e)ij plus the accusative of e)remoj. E)remoj means a place of desolation. A desolate place could be a desert or a forest or a mountain or any place. The stage for religion is, of course, a desolate place. Religion is desolate and that is exactly what is meant by this passage, “Then he [the seventh pur sui vant messenger] brought me in the Spirit to a desolate place.” Religion is desolate and this is brought out by Isaiah 21: 1,2,9, “The prophecy concerning a desolate place of the sea [of people]. As wind storms in the south country [Arabian] sweep on, it comes from a desolate place, from a terrifying land. A harsh victim has been shown to me; the treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys … behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in column of two. Then one answered and said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; in fact all the images of her gods are shattered to the ground.”

In other words, Isaiah actually describes the same passage we are studying under the title of Babylon. Babylon is used for the international religious system of Satan in the Tribulation. The city of Babylon was once the centre of idolatry and religion, now in the Tribulation Babylon is used for the last system of Satanic ecumenical religion. Therefore, the subject of the vision is the fall of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation and all the evil produced by it. Religion produces evil.

The prostitute is now brought into the picture once again. In this passage we have the union of religion and state. We find the political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire being controlled by religion which is the worst thing that can happen to any government at any time. To be influenced by Christianity and still retain your freedom is one thing, but to be controlled by religion is a great disaster.

“Then I saw a woman,” the accusative singular direct object of the verb o(raw, which means to see, and what John saw, gunh, a woman. The woman represents religion because of the role of the woman in the fall of mankind. When the woman faced the issue of the garden the first thing she did in talking to Satan was to reject the authority of God, and that is the first thing that religion does. Secondly, religion twists God and uses God to its own convenience. Satan asked the woman in the garden, “Are you allowed to eat of the tree of good and evil?” And she said, “No.” She said, “Well God says that if you eat it or touch it you will die.” Now, God said nothing about touching it and that is because religion cannot really be spiritual. Religion thinks of death lying in the property of the tree rather than in the act of disobedience. So religion, like the woman in the original sin was negative toward the authority of God (and also her husband). She misinterpreted the fact that God said that the wages of sin is death. That would, again, be negative volition toward God’s mandate but she thought that you could reach out, go up to the tree and touch it and you would die which, of course, is a distortion. Religion distorts truth. The major reason that religion is compared to the woman is because in the course of a conversation with Satan, Satan implied that God was unfair to the woman, that she didn’t have equal rights, and that because God was unfair to her and didn’t give her equal rights with Adam that he was trying to deliberately suppress her. Religion follows this exact same pattern.

It is always the same situation. When the woman ate of the forbidden fruit the first thing that she discovered was not that she was like God but she discovered what God was like. The equality thing was ridiculous. People always think of happiness in terms of equality until they have it and the most miserable people are those who suddenly realise they are equal with everything else — the most boring situation in the world. Happiness doesn’t depend upon your relationship to other people as far as equality, inferiority, or superiority. None of those are factors in any type of a relationship or interaction between people, or relationship with God, but religion always picks out someone and says, “You are being pushed around, you are the downtrodden, you are not getting your rights, you are unequal.” This is religion and this is what religion has always done, this is Satan’s way of distracting believers from the truth of the Word of God.

A prostitute always wants money for her services and, of course, religion demands money for its services. The begging for money is one of the big things in religion. Religion is always out to get your money, your property, or whatever it is. That is the concept of religion in the analogy to the prostitute, in the analogy to fornication as apostasy, and all of the other reasons for this.

But it always goes back to the beginning. Religion is always the upsetter of people. People are going along fine and then along comes some religion and upsets them. Religion comes along and says you are not getting what you should. Religion, therefore, spawns revolution and just as the woman who was, by the way, the first revolutionist, revolted against God and her husband’s authority in the original sin; so religion has always spawned revolution. Religion has always come to people and made them dissatisfied. Therefore, religion is antiestablishment and anti-authority. Religion is always running around talking about how they are going to stop wars; it is anti-military, antipolice; it is everything that is disastrous to society. All of these things are brought in by the analogy because in the original sin the woman was truly deceived. She was deceived by the very concepts of religion that Satan later developed in his system. The man in his sin knew exactly what he was doing. First of all he didn’t go to the tree and take the fruit. He didn’t have to, the woman was standing there offering it to him. Religion always offers to people the concept of disobedience to government, disobedience to anything that God provides in God’s plan. Therefore, when you find born-again believers who become involved in civil disobedience and social action and all of the things that are an attack upon government and establishment they have become involved in religion.

But our passage is not talking about the attacks of religion today, it is talking about religion as it will exist in the future. So the woman represents religion because of the role of the woman in the fall of mankind. We find religion dominating, the present middle participle of the verb kaqhmai which means to sit. The word here means to dominate. Therefore, it is a descriptive present, a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning. The ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation represented by the woman in the vision produces the action, and it is circumstantial. So we have the word “sitting” and whatever the woman is sitting on she is dominating, the preposition e)pi plus the accusative of an adjective and a noun. Kokkinoj is the adjective and it means “scarlet,” and it is that colour of the Romans when they became conquerors. They wore scarlet tunics called Kokkinoj. Scarlet was the colour of the Roman army in the past just as red is often adopted by conquering or successful armies. Here she is mounted on a scarlet beast and, therefore, the woman representing ecumenical religion is actually controlling the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. Note that the woman is not the beast dictator but at the moment is in control of the beast dictator. The woman as religion and the beast as political government of the revived Roman empire are two separate entities, but for the moment they are united to use their power together and the religion is in control. That gives us a very clear picture, then, as to how the revived Roman empire will run. It will be a slave state; everyone will be a slave to the government, and that is because of the union of religion and state. You must have a separation of church and state today, a separation of religion and state, if there is to be freedom.

The last world war of history is not going to be an industrial revolution type of war, an economic war, a racial war, it is going to be the worst kind: a religious war. One of the most devastating wars of all history was the thirty years war in central Europe. It started in 1618 and ended in 1648. It destroyed Germany for 100 years. So religion is fanatical and it is cruel and whenever it is expressed in any form of violence it is the worst kind.

Here we have a case of the union of religion and state which destroys the freedom of the people while giving great power to those who rule. At this moment the beast carries the religious internationalism of the Tribulation. Later on, of course, the political will turn against the religious; God will punish in that way. So to gain absolute and dictatorial power the beast dictator must supplement his political power with the religious power of the woman, the prostitute of the ecumenical religious system. Generally the rider controls the horse but eventually in this case the horse will control the rider. Freedom and authority must coexist under the laws of divine establishment. That is why when you have freedom without authority you have anarchy, and anarchy means great violence. Authority without freedom is tyranny, and tyranny means great violence. So there must be a balance between freedom and authority and the only way to have this is to have it in the political form. Therefore, one thing that must always exist is a total separation of church and state, and the church must not influence the state. The only influence that the church has is when the citizens of the state are converted and grow in grace in the protocol system. The influence must come from the protocol system so that churches do not cause violence and oppression and loss of freedom in the state.

The job of the state is to get criminals behind bars because criminals have no civil rights. The purpose of the state is to protect your personal privacy or property. The criminal comes along and says, “I want you property and I will therefore violate your privacy to get it.” That is stealing. So we have to have a government, we have to have local government, we have to have national government, to protect our privacy. Without our privacy we have no freedom. Therefore, government protects freedom; government protects us from criminals; government prosecutes criminals. Then there are criminals in other countries who want everyone’s property, so we have military establishment.

Religion, then, is both anti-God and anti-Bible doctrine. Therefore, religion has many false doctrines, it is well organised philosophically to attract the unbeliever and to distract the believer from making Bible doctrine his number one priority. Religion also leads to self-righteousness. Religious people are not only self-righteous but self-righteousness becomes the basis for their terrible legalism, their evil, their fanaticism. Self-righteous arrogance, of course, becomes motivation for crusader arrogance. Crusader arrogance leads to activism, civil disobedience, and religion controlling political leadership.

Next we have the historical influence of religion. This is given in a phrase we have seen before, “having seven heads and ten horns”. The seven heads are seven empires of the past where religion has become fanatical and not only controlled its own state but has been disastrous in its relationship to Israel. They have administered either the fifth or the fourth cycle of discipline to the Jews. The seven empires whose religion distracted or dominated Israel include Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia-Chaldea, Media-Persia, Graeco-Macedonia, the historical Roman empire, and the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. So those are the seven heads. Later on we will see that five are gone, one is [the historical Roman empire at the time of John], and one is yet to come [the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation]. The ten horns are the ten nations that will be a part of the revived Roman empire. Each one of those nations are under the beast dictator.

Corrected translation: “Then he [the seventh pur sui vant messenger of the execution squad now acting as a teaching angel] brought me in the Spirit [God the Holy Spirit] to a desolate place [religion is a desolate place]; and I saw a woman [ecumenical religion of the Tribulation] sitting on a scarlet beast [the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation], full of blasphemous categories [false doctrines of cosmic two], having seven heads [seven empires whose religion influenced Israel] and ten horns [the ten nation confederation of the revived Roman empire].”

Satan’s last religious system is the most glamorous of all. The superficial glamour of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation is the subject of verse 4.

We begin with the connective kai and translate it “Now” because we are going from part to the whole. Then the nominative singular subject of gunh, “woman,” “Now the woman. The woman represents religious internationalism as a part of Satan’s system in the Tribulation. The headquarters for this ecumenical religious system is Rome, the capital of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation, and it will be the capital for the greatest religious system ever devised by Satan. This religious system will at first be controlling the ten-nation confederation. However, we are going to discover that you have to be careful what you control. Today you control it; tomorrow it might destroy you, and that is exactly what is going to happen to this beautiful woman. This religious system is a very glamorous class-type analogy and the woman is so described here.

We have a periphrastic to describe here clothing, the pluperfect periphrastic indicative made up of the imperfect active indicative of the verb e)imi, the verb to be. The rest of any periphrastic is the participle, the perfect passive participle of periballw which means to clothe. When you put the two together we simply translate it “was clothed. It must be understood that the periphrastic is a very strong statement indicating the pluperfect periphrastic has the force of an intensive perfect and it indicates that there never was a time when this prostitute was low class. This is no street prostitute, this is a very high class prostitute and it must be remembered that a prostitute with class is the analogy to religion. This is a high class operation and at that time in history it will attract low class people as well as high class people. It is the most successful religion ever developed by Satan. He is the greatest creature genius of all time but it has taken him several thousands of years to come up with something that will catch everyone. Low class religions are for low class people and that is generally why the tongues movement attracts the proletariat. And, by the way, tongues is a religion; it is an apostasy; it is an evil, not Christianity any more. Of course, any time that you have a low class deal where everyone starts to emote together “holy roller disco style” then you are only going to attract holy roller disco types; but when you get something that is really high class then it is going to attract everyone, the high class and the low class. Whenever you attract everyone throughout the world then you have a great ecumenical religious system, and the strongest religious system of all time will exist in the Tribulation. This is absolutely unique.

Note that the periphrastic is very strong. This prostitute didn’t start out as a prostitute. “Now the woman was clothed, and this is the way she was always clothed, says the periphrastic. She didn’t start out low down and work up. We are talking about religion here, spiritual fornication.

Two colours are mentioned and they are very significant. First we have the accusative singular direct object from porfura, “purple, the royal colour. It refers to political hierarchy. Next we have the accusative singular direct object from kokkinoj, “scarlet, the colour of rulership in the political realm. Purple is the colour in the ecclesiastical realm. So we have purple for the religious leadership and scarlet for the political hierarchy; and the fact that both are mentioned after a periphrastic indicates the union of religion and state. This religion is so high class, so impressive, that the state comes under its control. Purple and scarlet in the dress code of this woman indicates once again that just as she is riding the scarlet beast, so she [religion] is controlling the political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire. Eventually in the Tribulation the state will turn against religion but before that happens there is the union of religion and the state and the destruction of freedom in the revived Roman empire.

Next we have the perfect passive participle of the verb xrusow, and it means to be gilded with gold, to be plated with gold, to be adorned with gold. Obviously, if you are wearing a lot of gold and the light strikes you it glitters. So the translation: “The woman was clothed with purple and scarlet, and was glittering [which means glamorous].” The intensive perfect tense with completed action and intensified results emphasises in the Greek the status quo of this religion from start to finish. She always glittered with gold, she always wore a lot of gold. There is no exact equivalent in the English for the intensive perfect. The closest approximation is the English present tense. This is why we translate it “was glittering.” The passive voice: the woman as the personification of international religion in the Tribulation receives the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. So we have a translation of the beginning of this verse: “Now the woman was clothed with purple and scarlet [the union of religion and state] and was glittering with gold.” “With gold” is the instrumental singular of xrusion. Glittering with gold is simply a way of describing wealth. This is a very wealthy organisation. Great wealth from religion means that they have a tremendous system for marketing their product which is religion.

Next we have a connective kai plus the instrumental singular, used in a collective sense, of two words: an adjective timioj, and a noun liqoj. Both are in the singular but the collective concept here would be a strong plural in the English. Timioj means precious, costly, valuable; liqoj means stone. We translate it, “and precious stones.” This refers to the fact that this religion has a culture and a system of artifacts with the religion. While gold represents the wealth of this international religious system the precious stones represent both the culture and the artifacts related to the religion. A religion has to have a culture as a substitute for doctrine and, of course, culture is a way of thinking. So it has a culture and it has a system of artifacts, and that follows the ancient religions at the time that John wrote, and ancient religions also which existed before Moses. Satan’s premise from artifacts is this: Satan contends that idolatry is older than either Judaism or Christianity, so in his international religious system he is going to go back to the principle of chronology. He is going to say that idolatry existed before Judaism, idolatry existed before Christianity, therefore it is the only true religion. There will be a system of artifacts that will be worshipped under the principle of idolatry. Of course, we know that the true connotation of idolatry is contact with demons, it is the devil’s communion table. So this rejects the eternity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and substitutes creature worship which is always the objective of Satan.

Then there is the instrumental plural of margarithj which means pearls. The pearls represent the glamour of Satan’s eclectic religious system of the Tribulation. Pearls are very apt because pearls represent style in dress, and the point is: this religion has class. The pearls represent not only class but glamour in the eclectic religious system. Glamour always attracts the superficial person but class attracts all kinds of people. The glamour of this religion will attract many adherents, many converts, to it.

Then we have the present active participle of the verb e)xw which indicates another of her possessions. E)xw means to have, to possess, to have and to hold. With this we have an accusative singular direct object from an adjective and a noun: the adjective xruseoj, meaning golden; the noun pothrion means a drinking goblet,“ a golden drinking cup.” Our Lord’s cup was a cup of judgment for it contained all the sins of the world. The cup is often used to portray the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The drinking of that cup is actually the analogy to the imputation of every sin committed by every person in the entire history of the human race, including millions of sins not yet committed. But there is a false cup and the false cup is called “the cup of demons.” It is a part of the devil’s communion table, 1 Corinthians 10:20,21. This passage actually refers to the cup of demons which is the function of religion as the devil’s system of distraction from Bible doctrine. Demonism is a part of the devil’s communion table. Two cups, then, are in total contrast: the cup of our Lord in which He was judged for the sins of the world; the cup of the devil’s communion table which is a system of religion and a system of antichrist in the function of cosmic two. The golden cup, therefore, is the pseudo holy grail and with it we have the fact that it was in the hand of the woman. Religion uses the system. We have e)n plus the locative of xeir, “hand, “in the hand. It is the hand of the woman as the ecumenical religious system of the future, so we have the possessive genitive of a)utoj,” in her hand.” It is said to be a filled cup. The cup of our Lord was filled with our sins, only this time we have the present active participle of the accusative singular of the verb gemw, “full,” and it is used this time as a substantive. With it we have the content of the cup, bdelugma, which means abomination, something detestable. It refers to the entire function of the phallic cult.

Next we have the explanation of this in the connective kai plus the accusative plural direct object of akaqartoj which means unclean activities, impurity, the general connotation is lasciviousness. With this is a descriptive genitive plural, the impurities of fornication, porneia, “her fornication,” the possessive genitive singular from a)utoj. Translation: “having a golden cup in her hand filled with the abominations and impurities of her fornication.” Once again we have a reference to fornication, once again it is a reference to religion by analogy, and here we get into the literal fornication on the part of the phallic cult.

The cup of evil in the phallic cult as the devil’s communion table is mentioned first in Habakkuk 2:15,16. Habakkuk actually develops the entire concept of the devil’s communion table and how it operated in Israel long before it was mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter ten.

“Woe to him,” the individual who is looking for happiness by combining religion with pleasure. This, of course, is what the phallic cult does: a frantic search for happiness in sex and religion combined, “who causes his lover to drink the cup [of fornication in religion], Woe to the one pouring from sexual desire and passion to make her drunk, so that he can look with sexual pleasure on her nakedness!” This is a reference to the priestess in the temple, and the Jews had become operational in the phallic cult. “You have become saturated with shame instead of virtue. Drink also from the cup and expose your foreskin [the religious procedure]. The cup in the Lord’s right hand [judgment] will get around to you, and the vomiting of shame will destroy your integrity.”

Psalm 11:6 also has something to say about the devil’s communion table: “He shall cause live coals to rain on the wicked ones; fire and brimstone and burning wind is the portion of their cup.”

So from God’s viewpoint this cup of lasciviousness, this cup of fornication in the name of religion, is a cup of burning coals, burning wind, a cup of fire and brimstone. In other words, it is a cup of judgment. While religion emphasises the drinking of it God emphasises the hangover from it. Religion combines the cup of demons of 1 Corinthians 10:21 with the doctrine of demons in 1 Timothy 4:1, and that is exactly why we have it all put together in these analogies in verse four. The content of this cup, then, is religion combined with idolatry in the phallic cult, and it results in drinking the cup of divine judgment.

This religion of the Tribulation is an international religion and it has four factors. Power is the first factor. It has great international power with the combination of purple and scarlet clothing. It controls nations. It is a religion not only being the nation but controlling nations. Secondly, it has great wealth and glamour. Thirdly, it is a system of lascivious pleasure, literal fornication combined with idolatry forming demonism, human sacrifice, everything involved in the devil’s communion table of 1 Corinthians 10:20,21. Fourthly, it is a very high class type of religion. All of these things seem to be contradictory but they are combined in a very clever package which represents the great genius of Satan.

The identification of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation is now given in verse 5. Why is the title on her forehead? This is in keeping with the analogies we have previously noted. Prostitutes in the time of the Roman empire had to have a label pasted on their forehead, and it had a name on it which identified the individual as a Roman whore. First of all it had the fact that she was a prostitute and then it had her name, and it was always pasted on the forehead. This was the way in which they were identified. This is why in the analogy we have the name on the forehead. It was quite in keeping with the custom of the time. You really can’t interpret the Bible unless you know about the time in which it was written.

“And upon her forehead was a name written.” The connective conjunction kai is used to provide more information, therefore we translate it “Furthermore.” Then we have the prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of metwpon, and with it the genitive of a)utoj, “her” forehead. This is in keeping, then, with the label pasted on the forehead of the Roman prostitutes. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. One other thing they often had on the label was the part of the world from which they had come.

The word “has been written” is the perfect passive participle from grafw which means to write. It means written in the past with the result that it stands written forever. The next word is a part of the label. The label begins with the Greek word in the nominative of apposition, musthrion. Musthrion is used in a technical sense in the New Testament. “Furthermore, a name [label] has been written on her forehead.” The word musthrion was originally used in Attic Greek and Ionic Greek to denote the secrets and the doctrines of the Greek fraternities in the ancient world. The noun is derived from the Ionic noun musthj, not found in the New Testament. When a person had been initiated into one of these fraternities he also was also said to be instructed in the secrets of that fraternity. The verb that was used was u)eom. He was learning the doctrines and the secrets of that fraternity and in doing so it was never to be known to outsiders. They actually worshipped the god Dionysus and went through a system of worship, demon worship actually. That was called musthrion and was the original meaning: the secrets by which the various fraternities were religions worshipping the gods of Mount Olympus, and how they actually managed to become demon-possessed. They were secret systems for demon contact.

In the New Testament it is not used in this sense, only in this passage. It is used in other passages to indicate a whole system of Bible doctrine that was never known to the Old Testament people and never known to Israel as a client nation. They were never known in the Old Testament scriptures but now, in the New Testament scriptures, they are revealed. They are revealed to the royal family of God, the Church Age believers. That is the technical meaning of the word “mystery” as used in the New Testament, except for our passage in Revelation chapter seventeen. Generally speaking the word “mystery” refers to Church Age doctrine.

Satan’s ecumenical religion of the Tribulation is part of mystery doctrine but not Church Age mystery doctrine. In this case it is the mystery of an international religious system, an ecumenical system of religion that has never yet existed. There have been religious systems that have been semi-ecumenical historically but they have never penetrated into every part of the world and there never has been a totally ecumenical religious system, one that completely controlled the people of the world. Therefore, a true ecumenical system of international religion as Satan’s system is still a future doctrine at this time to be fulfilled in the Tribulation itself.

The next words in our study are the words “Babylon the Great.” This is not the city of Babylon, not the empire, but the religious system of Satan in the Tribulation. This system of international religion was sponsored by the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation, and the description of this religion as the devil’s communion table follows in the next phrase which is the explanation of the prostitute label. It begins with the nominative of apposition from the noun mhthr, the word for mother in the Greek. With this is the genitive plural of relationship from the noun pornh, the Greek word for prostitute, plus the connective kai and the genitive plural of relationship from bdelugma which means generally “abomination”, and the possessive genitive referring to planet earth.

So we have the title which has been written on her forehead: “Mystery, Babylon the Great [ecumenical religion of the Tribulation], the mother of prostitutes [the origin of all world religions since Satan became the ruler of this world] and the abominations of planet earth [the various evils of the phallic cult: demonism, idolatry, fornication, human sacrifice].”

The evil of religion comes from the motivation of arrogance. Satan is the father of religion; he is also the father of arrogance. The roots of the Babylonian religion lie far back in prehistoric time. All Babylonian religion was related to idolatry which is the basis of demon contact. In fact, idolatry is the devil’s communion table. The reason why the title is called “Babylon the Great” is because every form of idolatry, every form of religion, has its origin in the pantheon at Babylon. We are not referring here to the city of Babylon or to any of the Babylonian empires, we are actually referring here to the origin of idolatry as a system of demon contact. For example, the chief god of the Babylonians was Marduk, sometimes called Bel. Marduk or Bel is the chief god comparable to the Greek Zeus, or the Phoenician Baal, or the Roman Jupiter, or the Jewish Merodach. But the origin of all of these pantheons with their chief god all started with Marduk or Bel. Even though the names are changed the concept is the same. The worship of Zeus was the same as the worship of Marduk; the worship of Baal in Israel and in Phoenicia, the same. The Greeks and the Romans had a comparable deity with a comparable system of religious worship. The god of the sky was called Anu and all of the ancients had some system for worshipping the sky. One of the worst was when Anu, the god of the sky, was converted into Molech for the sacrifice of children in burning. There is also the sun god of Babylon, called Nergal. Probably the most famous of all was the Babylonian Ishtar, the goddess of love, the goddess of fertility, and so on. This became the Phoenician goddess Ashtarte, the Greek goddess Aphrodite, the Roman goddess Venus, and all were comparable in the function of the phallic cult and the idolatrous worship. So the roots of Babylonian religion lie a way back in the prehistorical past but nevertheless were reflected in the pantheons of most of the ancient people.

The analogy to the prostitute we have noted should also be covered in some detail since obviously when the Bible makes an analogy we are to learn something from it. The prostitute is never emotionally involved with her customer and religion has neither virtue nor interest in its adherents. The mass poisoning of the Jones cult is a good illustration of why religion has as its analogy prostitution. The prostitute arouses lust in her customer; religion appeals to natural lusts related to both arrogance and sensualism. The prostitute makes money from the use of her body; religion makes money though its system of worship, demanding money for blessing. The prostitute represents an evil system — a pimp, a gangster syndicate; religion represents the greatest evil system of all, Satan and his demon organisation. The prostitute lures mankind into sin for fornication. In the same manner religion lures the believer away from Bible doctrine into the evilness and the sinfulness of the cosmic system. Fornication is both literal in the Bible and is used as an analogy to the modus operandi of religion. Fornication or spiritual adultery is also used to describe cosmic involvement, reversionism, and apostasy. Fornication is used as an analogy to religion extensively in this context.

Fornication is a sexual sin. It is sexual activity outside of the divine institution of marriage. Sex was designed to be an expression of love between a man and a woman in marriage. As an expression of category #2 love sex is not only legitimate and beautiful but it expresses the coalescence of body and soul of the two involved. Fornication, on the other hand, is categorised as seduction of a member of the opposite sex, or incest, homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, the molestation of children, indecent exposure, etc. A married woman is the property of one man. Fornication or adultery is simply stealing someone else’s property, which is criminal activity. So under the laws given by Moses, the laws of divine establishment, fornication or adultery is forbidden. The prohibition is not confined to the Old Testament: 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee fornication.”

Adultery and fornication are often used in the spiritual sense to describe religion, reversion, apostasy, cosmic involvement. In Revelation chapters 17,18 and 19 we have references to fornication, none of which are literal, all have to do with religion. So we are dealing here with the analogy, not literal fornication.

We are now ready to note the policy of ecumenical religion toward the believers of the Tribulation, verse 6: “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of saints.” Just as fornication leads to criminality and degeneration so religion also leads to criminality and degeneration, “and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”

The passage is not entirely correctly translated in the King James version. We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai which is translated “Then,” followed by the accusative singular direct object of the word gunh, “woman.” Sometimes she is also called pornh which simply means prostitute. Remember that we are talking about religion, not Bible Christianity. Bible Christianity is not a religion. We have the aorist active indicative of o(raw, “Then I saw,” and then the accusative singular, “the woman.” This time she is said to be inebriated, the accusative singular, present active participle from the verb mequw. Why is drunkenness or inebriation used as an analogy? Because drunkenness also represents certain concepts. To drink is not sinful in itself; drunkenness is definitely a sin. But here we are dealing with the analogy which is to religion. What is there in drunkenness that is analogous to religion? Well, we can approach it from any standpoint. First of all, in drinking too much the blood stream is saturated and the ability to think is gone. Religion destroys the believer’s ability to think in terms of Bible doctrine and unless you can think in terms of Bible doctrine you cannot apply doctrine to your experience. Anyone with a legalistic background cannot apply doctrine. The legalism has to go. Secondly, inebriation means you’re close to death because when you breathe and cannot get oxygen into the blood stream the potential for death is there. But inebriation has other ideas here and the concept is that inebriation removes your restraints. Furthermore, it emphasises what you feel rather than what you think, therefore emotion comes into play. And so because religious people are worked up emotionally they are often, therefore, inspired by a religious leader to kill those who have the truth. Inebriation is an illustration of being emotionally worked up and losing the ability to think or apply, and that means moving toward criminality. When religion begins to have an effect upon people then immediately you move toward criminality.

So the woman becomes inebriated, and then there is a new kind of lust, blood lust. The phallic cult always starts out with all kinds of sexual activity. Any kind of sexual activity is approved and this is a form of lust that eventually leads to another lust, and that is the killer lust. That is why at the end of all phallic cult activity in religion they always have human sacrifice. Human sacrifice is a part of this ecumenical religious system and the victims are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who will not renounce Christ as saviour, “inebriated with the blood of the saints” is an idiom for the destruction of believers in the Tribulation.

Next it says, “and the blood of the witnesses for Jesus.” Of all of the systems in the world which lack virtue and are motivated by evil to demonstrate cruelty the worst form is religion. Religion has great great cruelty, evil and criminality related to it and the worst religion of all is one in the future, the truly international religious system which Satan will devise and will utilise the revived Roman empire to develop. Religion is always evil; religion is always cruel. Any sign of humanitarianism in religion is merely a superficial facade to create the impression rather than to express doctrine or truth from the Word of God. Religion persecutes the truth for religion is Satan’s lie seeking to supersede the truth, seeking to destroy doctrine. This explains the Tribulational martyrs which we have studied in chapter 6:9-11; 7:13,14; 8:1-4; 14:13. By very nature, by very definition religion demands the destruction of believers who adhere to Bible doctrine and fulfill God’s plan for their lives.

Religion has been invented by Satan to counterfeit the plan of God and to fulfill the objective of Satan to be like the Most High God. Christianity and religion are not the same. In Christianity man seeks and finds God through personal faith in Jesus Christ, which is tantamount, of course, to God seeking man. In religion man seeks to gain the approbation of God or some higher power through his own works and activity. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God through faith in Christ. In religion man seeks the approbation of God through his works, his human merit, and his systems. Religion emphasises the evil genius of Satan while Christianity represents the perfect integrity of God. In Christianity counterfeits are not there. Counterfeits are only in Satan’s system of religion.

The ecumenical religious system in the Tribulation will have its own false teachers and its own system of cosmic evangelism. These teachers always practice hypocrisy and they often have a phony facade of piety, Romans 16:18. False teachers function under human public relations modus operandi and often use their legalism to court victims, such as in Galatians 4:17,18. False teachers appeal to human arrogance and pride and they suck their victims into gate one of cosmic one, 2 Corinthians 10:12. They promote idolatry, as per Habakkuk 2:18,19, and they also promote arrogant self-righteousness and all forms of legalism, according to 1 Timothy 1:6,7. False teachers not only exist in every generation of the Church Age but they will dominate in the Tribulation.

Idolatry is one of the areas in which religion functions, especially the ecumenical religion we are studying related to the Tribulation. Idolatry is the subject of the first two commandments of the decalogue. The first commandment prohibits mental or soulish idolatry, according to Deuteronomy 5:6,7, whereas the second commandment prohibits overt idolatry, Deuteronomy 5:8-10. Obviously, then, idolatry begins in the soul and proceeds to an overt system of practice. Mental idolatry always precedes overt idolatry and this is found as a principle in Ezekiel 14:7. Scar-tissue of the soul in cosmic involvement always precedes the modus operandi of idolatry. Idolatry is simply a manifestation of being in the cosmic system, according to Romans 1:18-25. For this reason idolatry is often called spiritual fornication because it involves unfaithfulness to the Lord. Idolatry is also the basis for contacting demons, demon possession, and demon influence, Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 106:36.37. The believer can only be under demon influence through false doctrine while the unbeliever can experience actual demon possession. So when the believer is involved in the cosmic system he is under demon influence. The unbeliever is under demon possession as well as demon influence.

Another reason for the references to fornication in our passage is that the phallic cult includes literal fornication, although that is not the kind of fornication we find in our passage. The phallic cult includes all kinds of immorality, Leviticus 18, demonism and demon influence, Leviticus 20:6, and human sacrifice, Leviticus 20:1-5.

We now move into the apostolic astonishment in Revelation 17:6. By this time very few things seem to astonish John and he has been in areas of life of degeneracy of the Claudio Julian Caesars. He has seen plenty of that which would be shocking. He is now inured to that type of thing. Nevertheless, seeing religion in the future causes him great shock. We begin with the connective use of the conjunction kai, “and,” followed by the aorist active participle of the verb o(raw which is simply referring to the vision of the great prostitute. This is a temporal participle, Furthermore, the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. It is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The apostle John as the human author produces the action. So we translate it, “and when I saw.”

Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb qaumazw which means amazement or shock, “and when I saw her I was shocked.” The culminative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it regards what John has just seen with regard to religion and he is astonished at the cruelty of religion and the depravity of man in this function of the religion. The active voice: John produces the action. The indicative mood indicates the main verb plus the fact that it indicates John’s true feelings in seeing the vision of religion as we have seen it in the first five verses. John was shocked by the fact that religion can have such a beautiful front and have such a tremendous system of concentrated evil. With this we have the accusative feminine singular of the intensive pronoun a)utoj used as a personal pronoun, and it is translated, “I was shocked at her.” Then, to make sure that we understand it, we have what is called the cognate accusative made up of an adjective and a noun. The adjective is megaj and the noun is qauma, “great amazement [greatly shocked].” The shock came from all of the vileness and all of the degeneracy and the front which is so beautiful and attractive. The contrast between the two causes John to be shocked.

Translation of verse 6: “Then I saw the woman intoxicated with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the witnesses for Jesus: now when I saw her I was greatly shocked.”

The reason for all of this is twofold. He is shocked that religion could exist under the greatest system of evangelism the world has ever known. The stronger the field of evangelism in any given generation the stronger the religious counterattack. Strong religious activity always accompanies great evangelism. What is always shocking is that the stronger the presentation of truth the stronger the reaction to truth. Reaction always causes a strong system not simply of antagonism but of false doctrine as well. So whenever truth is presented with strength there is always a great reaction to it. The principle: The evil of religion comes from the motivational arrogance and from the rejection of the truth.

In the Tribulation there is a tremendous concentration of normal followed by crisis evangelism. This is true of the first half of the Tribulation, it is true of the last half of the Tribulation. In the first half of the Tribulation the crisis evangelism is found in the seals; in the last half of the Tribulation it will be found in the bowl judgments. In between we have some tremendous crisis evangelism in that transition from the first to the last half. In this crisis evangelism we have divine judgment which distracts those who are in the cosmic system from the cosmic system so that they can have objectivity long enough to make a decision. All of this brings about a tremendous counterattack from Satan. Satan concentrates and focuses all of his genius in order to counterattack this system.

In the first six verses of this chapter we have now completed the vision and now we have an interpretation of the vision in verses 7-18 by the seventh pur sui vant messenger.

In verse 7 we start out with an interrogative introduction. The angelic Bible teacher here starts with a question: Why are you so shocked? What is the source of amazement here? These things are always going on, the total depravity of man is just as true as the magnificent virtue that is produced in the protocol system. You have man at his best in God’s plan, man at his worst in Satan’s plan. What is so shocking about that? The contrasts of life are always there. The only time you do not see the contrasts in life is when no one is thinking the truth, speaking the truth, or presenting the truth to the public. Then, of course, there is no contrast and therefore no basis for shock.

We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then.” The subject is the nominative singular from a)ggeloj, “Then the angel,” and the aorist active indicative from legw, “Then the angel said,” followed by the dative singular indirect object , “to me,” e)gw.

The question comes in a prepositional phrase, dia plus the accusative singular of the interrogative pronoun tij, “because why” is the literal translation. When a prepositional phrase is used to introduce a question it means either pretended shock at the reaction or genuine shock. Here it is merely used as a means of introducing a new subject. Used in a direct question you do not translate the preposition, merely the object of the preposition. You do not say, “because why”, the literal translation, but the idiom is simply “Why?”

Then the aorist active indicative of the verb qaumazw follows. It means to be shocked, “Why are you shocked?” The dramatic aorist tense states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. The idiom is a device for emphasis, hence a dramatic aorist used to state what has just been realised. All of this from the vision finally comes into focus for John.

A principle must be developed at this point. You cannot ever learn beyond the point at which you are shocked, and when people become shocked at hearing the truth, no matter what form the truth may take, at that point they cease to learn because by being shocked they go into arrogant subjectivity. John went into a state of shock and before he can learn all of the details he must first get back into a state of objectivity. The active voice represents the state expressed by the verbal idea, the fact that the apostle went into shock. This is an interrogative indicative tense assuming that there is an actual fact that may be stated in answer to the question. There is a viewpoint which will be rapidly changed from subjectivity to objectivity.

Principle: If you are going to learn the whole realm of Bible doctrine you must never allow your subjectivity to hang out. Subjectivity must be changed instantly into objectivity. The only way that you can function under GAP at gate four of the divine dynasphere is to remain in a state of objectivity, and one of the great attacks on objectivity is to be shocked at the true language of the Word of God. When you find yourself being shocked at anything that happens in life you have immediately gone to subjectivity. You have to be very careful because subjectivity provides predilection for arrogance and before you know it you have entered gate one of cosmic one and therefore have intensified any possible negative volition that comes from preoccupation with self.

“Why are you shocked?” Religion tends to be “holy,” it always has a facade of pseudo-spirituality. It is a very superficial thing, it often includes some forms of self-righteousness and it always includes a demand for self-sacrifice. When people are entering into self-sacrifice it becomes one of the most subtle forms of potential arrogance. Most people involved in any type of sacrificial living usually have a very subtle and very evil form of arrogance. And it is always a shock to see religion, behind its facade of self-righteousness and its facade of holiness, producing so much evil and degeneracy. The facade of religion is not the true nature of religion and the believer must be able to discern and to penetrate the hypocrisy of religion to avoid any shock as the reaction to its evil deeds. Evil is the system that Satan has instilled and inculcated into his religious system. The evil of religion originates from motivational arrogance. Satan is the father of religion; he is also the originator, the author, the father, of arrogance as the motivation of evil.

“Then the angel said to me, Why are you so shocked? I will communicate to you the mystery of the woman.” When he says, “I will communicate to you” he combines the present tense of legw with the future of another verb which comes out the aorist e)ipon, which means he is going to bring it all into one neat package, the rest of the chapter. Sometimes there is a slightly different part used here and since this is all in the future he uses something that comes very close, e)irw, and that makes it future active indicative. It is a progressive future, he is going to explain the interpretation in the context. The active voice: the pur sui vant messenger will explain it and then will give way to even a greater teacher, the king of arms. The declarative indicative represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. He will now make a detailed explanation giving John a chance to recover his poise and to get it all down.

“I will communicate to you,” the dative singular indirect object as well as the dative of advantage from the pronoun su. And he doesn’t call it simply “the woman,” it is “the mystery of the woman.” We have already seen that this is not a literal woman but this is an analogy between the woman in the garden and the development of the system of religion. So we have a descriptive genitive singular of gunh, the accusative singular direct object of musthrion, and it is translated “the mystery of the woman.” Therefore, he is going to explain in a little more detail international religion of the Tribulation.

With this also we have a connective kai. He is going to explain the religious system and then he is going to explain the seven heads. So he says, “I will communicate to you the mystery of the woman, the one who has the seven heads.” That means he is going to teach the whole thing and he is also going to teach about the beast dictator, “and the beast dictator who carries her.” The beast dictator, of course, refers to the revived Roman empire.

Translation: “Then the angel said to me, Why are you so shocked? I will communicate to you the mystery of the woman, and the beast dictator who carries her, and the one who has the seven heads and the ten horns.”

This means he is going to explain the woman as the religious system, the revived Roman empire, the seven heads, the ten horns, and he is going to throw in the waters of verse one. The outline for the rest of the chapter is: The interpretation of the beast, verse 8; the interpretation of the seven heads, verses 9-10; the interpretation of the beast concluded, verse 11; the interpretation of the ten horns, verses 12,13; the interpretation of the waters, verse 15; the interpretation of the ten horns is continued and concluded, verses 16,17; the interpretation of the woman herself, verse 18. Notice that he begins the explanation of an interpretation and then must insert some information and then go back to it.

In verse 7 we noticed that the seventh pur sui vant messenger continued his dissertation on the vision: “Then the angel said to me, Why are you so shocked? I will communicate to you the mystery of the woman, and the beast who carries her, the one who has the seven heads and the ten horns.” Then the rest of the chapter becomes interpretation.

In verse 8 we have the beginning of the interpretation of the beast; in verses 9-10 we have the interpretation of the seven heads; in verse 11 the interpretation of the beast is continued and concluded; in verses 12-13 is the interpretation of the ten horns; in verse 15 is the interpretation of the waters; in verses 16-17 the interpretation of the ten horns is continued and concluded; in verse 18 is the interpretation of the woman.

We begin by noting in verse 8 that the subject is in the nominative singular. It is the noun qhrion, translated “beast dictator” inasmuch as it refers to the dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. Immediately following we have a qualifying phrase introduced with the nominative neuter singular of the relative pronoun o(j, translated “that.” Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw inasmuch as John is looking at this picture through a vision. John has seen the vision; now this angel is interpreting the vision, he records the interpretation in order that we might understand the eschatological implication of this passage and the next chapter dealing with religion in future. This is followed by the imperfect active indicative of the verb e)imi, the verb to be, “The beast that you saw was.”

“That you saw” is a reference to John’s vision in chapter 13:1-10. The verb “was” is in the imperfect tense and is linear aktionsart in past time. This is a reference to the Roman empire at the time that John wrote in AD 96 when the empire was about to take a turn for the better. The active voice: the historical Roman empire in the year AD 96 produces the action. The declarative indicative is for the historical reality of the existence of the Roman empire at the time that John wrote.

Next we have a connective conjunction kai and the negative o)uk plus the present active indicative of e)imi. E)imi this time in the present tense with o)uk, the negative which goes with the indicative mood, added. It is translated correctly, “and is not.” This is a pictorial present tense, it brings to mind a picture of the Roman empire in AD 476 when the Roman empire was terminated officially. The active voice: the Roman empire produces the action of the verb by ceasing to exist. The indicative mood is declarative for a statement of historical fulfillment and the future as far as John is concerned, therefore eschatological to John, historical to us. “The beast that you saw,” the vision of Revelation 13:1-10, “was,” the empire at the time of John AD 96, “and is not,” the Roman empire in 476 AD, the year it ceased to exist.

Then we have another connective conjunction kai, and we have two verbs to describe the next phrase. We have the present active indicative of the verb mellw which means about to be, and is generally translated “about to.” With this is the present active infinitive of the verb a)nabainw which means to ascend, to go up, to come up. We are going to translate it, “and is about to come up”. It is a reference to the dictatorship of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation. Then we have a prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative of a)bussoj, transliterated “the abyss,” referring to the fourth compartment of Hades where Abaddon and the first demon assault army were quartered. The abyss indicates that Satan gives the power to the revived Roman empire. There would be no revived Roman empire apart from Satanic power. It is about to come up from the abyss and that is the rise of the dictator of the revived Roman empire, and it refers to the last half of the Tribulation.

We have connective conjunction kai once more plus the present active indicative of u(pagw, one of the words which means to go, “and he will go.” The present tense is a futuristic present denoting an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: the dictator of the revived Roman empire will produce the action in his judgment, a judgment we are now in the process of studying. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the judgment of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation plus the judgment of the ecumenical system which came into power through it.

We have one more prepositional phrase, the prepositional e)ij plus the accusative singular of a)poleia, “to destruction.” In this case “destruction” or a)poleia refers to the lake of fire, Revelation 19:20.

The next sentence indicates that as far as unbelievers are concerned, and probably a lot of believers too, this Roman empire is going to have good press. The admiration of unbelievers is mentioned next. We have the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, translated “in fact.” It is followed by the articular present active participle of the verb katoikew, but this is the participle not used as a verb but used as a substantive. It means simply “inhabitants,” “in fact the inhabitants of the earth,” the prepositional e)pi plus the genitive of gh. It refers to those who live on planet earth during the Tribulation but they must be qualified and the category of mankind is given after the verb. The future passive indicative of qaumazw means, this time, not to be shocked but to be amazed. It refers her to admiration. It has the connotation of shock and admiration, and it can be translated” in fact the inhabitants of the earth will marvel,” but perhaps a better translation would be “stand in admiration.” The gnomic future tense is for a statement of fact that may be expected with the rise of the beast dictator and the manifestation of Satan’s power through him. Man apart from the knowledge of truth and the knowledge of doctrine is always amazed and in admiration of Satanic power. The passive voice: this is a deponent verb, passive in form, active in meaning. The unbelievers of the Tribulation, especially the press, will give great admiration to this empire. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the admiration of the fourth estate and the people of the world at that time.

The category of admirers is given in a relative clause. The relative clause begins with a relative pronoun in the genitive case, o(j, this time translated “who.” We have a nominative singular subject in the noun o)noma which has numerous meanings. It can mean anything from names to personality but in this case “name” is a very good translation, and we translate it “whose name.” The relative pronoun now comes into focus and then the negative o)u plus the verb grafw, and the verb is in the perfect passive indicative, “whose names have not been written in the book of life.” The book of life has been noted before, it is the book in which the names of all the people of the world are written. However, when people die not having accepted Christ as saviour their name is blotted out of the book of life so that by the time we reach eternity the book of life has the names of believers only plus the titles of royal family that have been earned during life in phase two of the Church Age. But here in our passage we have people who are not in the book of life as it will be finalised.

It says that this book of life is “from the foundation of the world,” a)po plus the ablative of katabolh, “from the foundation,” plus the descriptive genitive of kosmoj, “in fact the inhabitants of the earth whose name had not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.” These are the ones who will marvel or stand in admiration.

Translation: “The beast [the dictator of the revived Roman empire] that you saw [John’s vision] was [the Roman empire at the time of John], and is not [the fall of the Roman empire in 476 AD], and is about to come up out from the abyss [the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation], and then he will go to destruction [the lake of fire, the judgment of the beast]: in fact, the inhabitants of the earth whose name [the singular for the fact that each one has a chance] has not been written in the book of life [unbelievers of the Tribulation] from the foundation of the world, will stand in admiration when they see the beast dictator that was, and is not, and yet he will exist [the rise of the Roman empire in the future].”

Then we note that because of Satan’s sponsorship the existence of this revived Roman empire of the Tribulation as the vehicle for the expression of the dictator’s power becomes a source of admiration to the unbelievers of the Tribulation.

We have noted three things about what religion really lacks. First of all we have noted from John chapter three that religion needs regeneration. Jesus explained what religion needed when He dealt with the religion of Judaism which must be distinguished from those who are believers in Israel in the Old Testament. He said, “You must be born again.” Religion could not cope with this doctrine of regeneration. In Matthew chapter 23 we learned what religion lacks. It lacks the function of virtue and the wonderful principles of grace and it has, therefore, the self-righteous arrogance which always goes with religion. In Revelation chapters 17 & 18 we learn how religion peaks out in the Tribulation and is destroyed. We also should note the system of punishment involved here. In Revelation chapter 17 religion made its own bad decisions, bad decisions from a position of weakness when it lusted for political power. The ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation will have phenomenal political power, more than any religious system that has ever existed. This bad decision results in the eventual downfall of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation from its own policy, but we are going to see in the first eight verses of chapter eighteen more of the administration of divine judgment by death. We are going to learn from this passage that before the administration of this judgment from God religion had destroyed itself by becoming a political power. When we get to the next chapter we are going to see a great principle: Neither religion nor Christianity should ever lust for political power. The impact and dynamics of Christianity are always within the function of the client nation and believers must advance to maturity in the protocol system rather than become involved in social action or in any form of civil disobedience. Reform of any kind is not the answer. What is the position of the believer with regard to the state? It is to support its establishment principles, law enforcement: the judge on the bench; the military establishment; a free enterprise economy. Beyond that our responsibility is to have everything to do with the protocol system. It is our advance to maturity that turns things around in the client nation. We cannot change anything by social action, we only make it worse. We can have dynamic influence spiritually through momentum inside the divine dynasphere. This will be a major thrust in the first part of the next chapter.

The one phrase we must look at is the prepositional phrase in verse 8, “from the foundation of the world.” We have been talking about prophecy but we are not talking about prophecy that is predicted in time, we are talking about prophecy that was predicted in eternity past before man existed. But it is a little more than that. It is the concept that perfect God is the source of divine good. Perfect God is never responsible for bad decisions; we are responsible for our own bad decisions and we make our own misery by bad decisions. Perfect God is not responsible for sin, for human good, for the evil of the cosmic system; all of that is the responsibility of the individual. Of course, sin, human good, and evil originates from the free will of man, the self-determination motivated by the cosmic system on the one hand or the old sin nature on the other hand, or both. Because the omniscience of God knew how free will would operate in every situation He fed all of these facts into the computer of divine decrees. God is therefore responsible for election, for ordination, but man is responsible for reprobation, for the total depravity which exists. To God belongs the glory of salvation of believers but to mankind belongs the responsibility for the ruin that we find in this world. This is the devil’s world but we make decisions that contribute to its ruin. Man’s responsibility meets God’s glory in the doctrine of divine decrees. It is the doctrine of divine decrees that explains the phrase “from the foundation of the world.” Essentially, the omniscience of God feeds the facts into the computer of divine decrees and the computer prints out the facts about believers, unbelievers, about every person who ever lived or ever will live. Therefore, “from the foundation of the world” demands that we examine the significance of this phrase in the light of the doctrine of divine decrees.

The best theological definition of the divine decrees is that the decree of God is His eternal, holy, wise, and sovereign purpose comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be in their causes, conditions, successions and relations, and determining their certain futurition. That is theological, and every part of that definition is technical and important. The several contents of this one eternal purpose of God are, because of the limitations of our faculties, necessarily conceived by us in partial aspects and logical relations. Therefore, we call it decrees; we can’t take it all in at once. The decrees of God are His eternal and immutable will regarding the future existence of events which will happen in time and the precise manner by which they will occur. Furthermore, the order of their occurrence is in the decrees, so that we might say that the decrees of God are His eternal and sovereign will related to time, and the events of time will happen in a precise manner and order of their occurrence. By the decree, then, is meant the eternal plan by which God has rendered certain all events. That is what the decrees actually means. God has rendered certain all the events of the universe: the events of the past, the present, and the future. How He has done this we will have to note because there is no conflict between the sovereignty of God and the free will of man, except in the function of man’s negative volition. The decrees of God are the chosen and the adopted plan of all His works; they are His eternal purpose, according to the counsels of His own will whereby for His own glory he has foreordained whatever comes to pass. The decrees of God, then, are pictured as a giant computer. The omniscience of God feeds facts into the computer. In fact, fed facts in eternity past “before the foundation of the world.” The omniscience of God feeds the computer of divine decrees.

The omniscience of God is one of three categories of divine knowledge. The computer of divine decrees, of course, prints out facts about everything that has ever been thought, every motive that has ever existed, every free will decision ever made. So God knew billions and billions of years ago everything that everyone would ever think long before it happened. The decrees of God, then, are the sum total of God’s plan designed in eternity past before the foundation of the world, in our passage: “from the foundation of the world,” and relating to all events of every classification collected into one single all-comprehensive whole through the omniscience of God. The omniscience of God is the key.

The first of the three categories of divine knowledge is the divine knowledge of self. God the Father knows Himself perfectly in all of His attributes and how they function. He knows the coequal attributes, the eternal and infinite attributes of the Son and the Spirit and, of course, vice versa. God’s knowledge of self deals with God and therefore is not the subject of divine decrees. We are going to see that there is a third category of divine knowledge called foreknowledge but it is not in the picture as yet because, foreknowledge cannot occur until the decrees are set. So foreknowledge is a technical way of explaining the mechanics of all prophecy. Foreknowledge is not synonymous with omniscience; omniscience is not synonymous with God’s knowledge of self. Billions of years ago God knew Himself perfectly, there never was a time when the members of the Godhead did not know themselves and the other members perfectly. Omniscience has to do with creatures and history and time. Entered into the divine decrees is every thought, every motive, every decision, every action of every person in history, and how they all relate at any given point at any given time. God didn’t coerce in any way man’s volition but God knew from His omniscience every decision that man would ever make. Omniscience also knows the probables, the things that didn’t happen but could have happened, but they are not entered into the computer. Only in the computer of divine decrees is what did happen, what was thought, what decisions were made, and what actions took place. The probables were never entered, the person you could have married and didn’t, the school you could have attended and didn’t, the decision to live somewhere else but you did not; and the results of that down to the last generation of the Millennium are known to the omniscience of God but they are never decreed. They are probables, therefore they are not decreed.

So we have to start with the omniscience of God since that is the key, then we will get to the computer. God knows perfectly and simultaneously all that is knowable. Note the word “simultaneously”. This is in eternity past but He knows the actual; He knows the possible; He knows the real; He knows the probable. Such perception and sagacity is totally compatible with His divine essence. God is eternal; His knowledge is eternal. God is sovereign; His knowledge is superior, not related to any angelic or human limitations. His knowledge is infinitely superior to creature knowledge or to creature intellect. Every minute detail of both the angelic and human creation is completely and perfectly in His mind at all times, there never was a time when it wasn’t in His mind. Therefore, omniscience perceives the free as free, the necessary as necessary, together with all their causes, conditions and relations, as one indivisible system of things, every link of which is essential to the integrity of the whole, the integrity of the whole we will call the divine decrees.

Illustration: the doctrine of unlimited atonement. When Jesus Christ went to the cross all the personal sins in the history of the human race were collected in the computer, they were not imputed to individuals. When it says “the wages of sin is death” it means we are born spiritually dead. Adam’s original sin is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. Our personal sins are never imputed to us for judgment, they are in the divine decrees. The omniscience of God before the foundation of the world knew every person who would ever exist, every sin they would ever commit. So programmed into the computer is one area called sin — the sins of the entire world, even sins that haven’t been committed yet. People have often asked: How could Jesus Christ hanging on the cross die for sins that hadn’t been committed yet. The answer is in the doctrine of divine decrees, they were in the computer of divine decrees and there was simply a printout at the cross. All the sins that had ever been committed were programmed into the computer before man existed.

Time has nothing to do with God’s knowledge, the future is as perspicuous as the past. The omniscience of God also knows the alternatives to history, the probables as well as the actual. God knows all that would have been involved in every case where man’s decisions might have been different from what it was. Notice that God in knowing these things did not coerce man’s volition in eternity past before the foundation of the world, and He doesn’t do it now. God is a gentleman, He does not interfere with the function of our volition.

With three categories of divine knowledge only one is pertinent to programming the computer. Self-knowledge includes divine essence, the Trinity, and all things. Omniscience: all things in creation, actual or possible. Foreknowledge: knowledge of what is in the computer related to believers only, hence it is a printout for believers only. The omniscience of God knows every thought, every action, every decision of history and how they relate at any given time at any given point in history, who was there, how they react, what the relationships are, the whole thing plus what the alternatives would have been. The foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain, it merely acknowledges what it certain, what is in the decrees regarding the believer. So when we go back to the computer again the foreknowledge of God is simply a printout, therefore definitely not the same as omniscience of God. The omniscience of God programs the computer; foreknowledge is a printout of the computer. In other words, foreknowledge means that as far as believers are concerned there are numerous printouts from the computer of divine decrees — three that have very special interest to us: foreknowledge, election, and predestination. Foreknowledge: nothing can be known unless it is first decreed, therefore God foreknows all events as certainly future because He has decreed them. This includes every free will decision. God’s foreknowledge and God’s omniscience has nothing whatever to do with the function of your free will. God knows how you are going to function and He does not coerce your free will in eternity past any more than He does in time. God allows you to be the result of your own decisions. Man is the result of his own thoughts. God’s decrees relate equally to all future events of every kind, to the free actions of moral agents as well as the actions of necessary agents, to sin to evil, to human good, as well as to moral, divine good, honour and even virtue developed and achieved inside the protocol system. Foreordination or predestination alone establishes certainty because foreordination or predestination is the printout of the decrees. Hence, foreordination is an act of the infinitely intelligent and wise God in determining the certain futurition of all events. The omniscience of God decreed everything simultaneously, not by stages.

The omniscience of God fed only facts to the computer of divine decrees. This was accomplished in eternity past before the universe existed. The omniscience of God decreed everything simultaneously. The decrees have become the complete and consummated right of the sovereignty of God determining the certain futurition of all events, including human history. No event, however, is directly effected or caused by the decrees. The fact that information is fed into the computer doesn’t mean that the computer causes these things but the decree itself provides in every case that the event shall be effected by causes acting in a manner consistent with the nature of the events in question. Therefore, in the case of every free will act of a moral agent the decree itself provides at the same time the following things: a. that the agent shall be a free agent, the computer isn’t the cause of anything; b. that his antecedents and all the antecedents of every act in question shall be what they shall be. In other words, the chain of events started by a bad decision is started by a bad decision and not by the computer; c. that all present conditions of the act shall be what they are. Again, they are what they are not because of the computer and not because of the sovereignty of God, but because the omniscience of God knew these things; d. that the act shall be perfectly spontaneous and free on the part of the agent; e. that it shall be certainly future. That is why we have in our phrase, “whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world”. Hence, the decrees vested solely with the will of God what His creation should be because God cannot contradict His own nature, His own being, His own essence and His own attributes. Therefore the attributes of God necessitated His willing the highest and best for mankind.

It is the omniscience of God that feeds the computer of divine decrees. The sovereignty of God wants the best for you but the sovereignty of God cannot go against your volition. God put into the computer how your volition would function. It is not the way that your volition functions when you make a bad decision and that becomes a printout of history. That is not the fault of the decrees, it is not the fault of the omniscience of God, nor is it the sovereignty of God. God only wills the best for you. When you make a bad decision you will for yourself the worst for yourself.

God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to a change of attitude toward Christ. If God’s sovereign will was universally accepted on this earth every person would be a believer. The sovereignty of God would make everyone a believer. But He doesn’t do that. A creature with a free will, called a free moral agent technically, is simply the way in which the angelic conflict is being resolved. So this becomes a very important principle in the concept of divine decrees.

The decrees express the eternal plan and will of God by which God has rendered certain all events in history. Therefore, the decrees are the eternal and simultaneous knowledge of the omniscience of God expressing the will of God, sometimes His permissive will, sometimes (when good decisions are made) His sovereign will, His absolute will, but they are all in the computer and they all result in His glory. No matter how many times wrong decisions are made and become the printout of human history God in His glory will triumph no matter how far man goes in the wrong direction, no matter how far angelic creatures have gone in the wrong direction. This is a part of the principle that Jesus Christ controls history.

What are the characteristics, then, of the decrees? The decrees include all the facts fed into the computer. There is one all-inclusive will and purpose of God concerning all that ever was or will be, and in that all-inclusive purpose he allows for man to reject Christ as saviour, even though it is His will that no man should perish; He allows for man to go negative; He allows for man to reject the truth; he allows man to take the consequences for his own decisions, all as a part in the decrees, everything that actually happens, not the probable, not the possible. The will and purpose originates wholly within Himself, therefore God alone has designed it all for His own satisfaction and is compatible with His own essence, and it is related to His eternal glory. God will inevitably be glorified through it all, the worst decisions and the best decisions. Time and space are a battlefield and the details reach all the way down to the minutia, the minor details of the falling of a sparrow.

How the members of the Trinity function in the decrees, like the Father sending the Son, the Father and the Son sending the Spirit, is imminent, intrinsic and known to them from eternity past. How the Godhead supports and sustains the believer is extrinsic, transient, and very objective as stated in the principles of Bible doctrine. The decrees, therefore, are efficacious in that they certainly determine all that ever was or ever will be. The decrees guarantee certainty; the decrees guarantee reality. The foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain, it merely perceives what is already certain in the decrees. Remember that the omniscience of God feeds the facts into the computer of divine decrees while the foreknowledge of God is simply the printout, the reading. The decrees of God are all comprehensive, not the slightest uncertainty could exist in one of the smallest events without confusion to all events. Therefore, all events are interwoven and interdependent. The decrees of God are also eternal. God is not gaining in knowledge, God always knew that there never was a time when He didn’t know. What God has known at any time He has always known. This means that the decrees are decreed simultaneously in eternity past, resulting sometimes in phrases like in Ephesians, “from before the foundation of the world”, resulting here in our passage, “from the foundation of the world.” The decrees of God are perfect where God’s plan is in operation. God is perfect, therefore God’s plan is perfect. God’s plan includes all imperfect persons but maintains its perfection and its integrity through the protocol system, through the policy of grace, through the priorities of the plan of God. The decrees of God are unchangeable and certain, nothing can arise to necessitate change. Everything was known, decreed, made certain, entered into the computer in eternity past. God is not bound to follow a necessary pattern or a course by having decreed, God is bound by His infinite faithfulness and His incorruptible integrity plus His immutable truth to complete what He has begun. God has decreed ends as well as means, causes as well as effects, conditions and instrumentalities as well as events that depend upon them. All of them went into the divine decrees, the computer is loaded with this information.

Some things God has decreed to do Himself, creation, salvation, control history. Other things God accomplishes through the action of secondary causes. Other things God has decreed to promote or to permit free agents to do in the exercise of their own volition, free from their own personal self-determination. However, one category of events decreed is rendered by the decree of God just as certainly future as any of the other categories. In other words, all of it is in the computer. So there is one all-inclusive will and purpose of God concerning all that ever was or ever will be from the beginning of human history until its termination in the last days of the Millennium. This will and purpose of God which we call the computer of divine decrees originates from within Himself, His own omniscience, long before any creature or creation existed. This means that the will of God and the purpose of God related to the decrees is designed for His glory, His pleasure, and His satisfaction. Ultimately, everything is going to be for His glory. All creatures have been placed in space and in time. Furthermore, all events related to space and time were simultaneously decreed resulting in divine action within two categories, within the Godhead, the action of the members of the Trinity being imminent, intrinsic, and subjective (in a good sense); related to creation the actions of God are extrinsic demanding cognisance, transient demanding chronological function in human history, and objective. The objectivity comes from the perception of doctrine in the protocol system. God did not decree Himself to exist. God eternally existed before and outside the computer of divine decrees so that the divine decrees do not act upon God, God acts upon the decrees. God’s decrees are efficacious, they determine everything that ever was or ever will be, including directive, permissive, and the overruling will of God. All things depend on what God has put into the decrees because all things that ever occurred were pre known by His omniscience. Nothing is certain apart from the omniscience of God. Remember that God’s decrees originate from His omniscience in eternity past, separating fact from fiction. Therefore distinction must be made between the omniscience of God and the foreknowledge of God.

God desires His perfect will and sovereignty but both angelic and human creatures use their God-given free will and self-determination to violate the will and sovereignty of God. God does not desire to cast creatures into the lake of fire forever but it is so decreed under the printout of retribution for all who express negative volition toward the salvation God has provided. God does not desire discipline of the believer but it is decreed for involvement in the cosmic system. Distinction should be made between the decrees of God in eternity past and God’s actions in time. The actions of God in time is the execution of the decrees of eternity past. The execution is not the decree but logically follows the decree. Distinction should be made between God’s decrees and God’s laws. Decrees are the plan and action entering into the computer all that is historical, while the laws regulate human function and human action. The laws of God are completely revealed in the scriptures; the decrees of God are partially revealed.

In verses 9 and 10 we have the interpretation of the seven heads. In verse 9 we have the historical and prophetical continuity of empires and religion. We do not have the word “and” in the context of the Greek. We actually begin with an adverb of place, w(de, which means in the Greek that we are having a change completely. With this we have an ellipsis, “Here is,” and then the predicate nominative of the noun nouj, which has many related meanings from mind to the faculty of thinking. We will translate it simply, “Here is the mind,” or “Here is the faculty of thinking.” Then the faculty of thinking is described. We have the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw, which means to have, and with it is the accusative direct object from sofia which is wisdom. So it begins: “Here is the mind which has wisdom.” Wisdom is the application of doctrine. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun. The progressive present tense is for an action in a state of persistence. And the believer who can apply doctrine produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. The faculty of thinking is designed for wisdom.

Prophecy has interpretation and the interpretation begins immediately after the word “wisdom,” for there must be interpretation before there can be application. We have the phrase, “The seven heads are seven mountains.” The present active indicative of e)imi is the verb to be here, it is a static present taken for granted as a historical and eschatological principle of doctrine. The active voice: the seven empires of the past controlled by religion produce the action, and the indicative mood is declarative for an accurate statement of eschatological interpretation. The seven heads are said to be seven mountains. The only trouble is, what does the word o)roj mean? Obviously mountains are set up as an analogy. Mountains are sometimes used for nations or empires in the scripture. In anticipation of the rest of the passage the seven mountains are used to designate seven empires in the past where religion had dominated the state and at the same time had a deleterious effect upon the nation of Israel. These nations are Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia-Chaldea, Media-Persia, Graeco-Mecedonia, the historical Roman empire at the time that John writes. Number seven is the prophetical Roman empire of the Tribulation. Mountains used for nations is not unusual since Mount Zion is often used to represent the nation Israel.

Then we have the rest of it. “The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits.” The woman, again, is the nominative singular from gunh, and where the woman sits is the present active indicative of the verb kaqhmai which means to sit in the sense of dominate. The static present means that she continues to control. The active voice: religion dominates these empires. The indicative mood is declarative for a clarification of the interpretation. The interpretation is this: whenever religion dominates an empire or a nation that empire or nation degenerates because of the religious control.

“Here is the faculty of thinking which has wisdom [the application of doctrine]. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits.” The woman is Satanic, a form of a Satanic religious system which becomes the ruler of the political.

Verse 10, the next phrase belongs with verse 9 rather than verse 10. We have, “Furthermore they are seven kings.” Now we know exactly what they are. Again we have the Greek verb e)imi, and with it a predicate nominative of basileuj, and with it the indeclinable e(pta, the adjective numeral, “seven kings.” The mountains represent kings or dictators, or dictator-type empires actually. The perfective present tense of e)imi denotes the continuation of existing results. The active voice: the seven heads produce the action. The indicative mood is for a dogmatic statement of eschatological interpretation. “Furthermore they are seven kings [or dictatorships].” They are seven empires run by dictators.

Several erroneous interpretations are rather intriguing with regard to this particular passage. The reason is because they emphasise the numeral adjective e(pta [seven] rather than basileuj [kings]. For example, one of the interpretations assumes that the seven mountains called o)roj, which could also be seven hills, are the seven hills on which Rome was founded. It is a fascinating interpretation. The trouble is it emphasises seven, the adjective, rather than the noun. Others take the view that the seven Roman rulers are in view here. In Roman history they had seven forms of rulers. That is intriguing except all of these deal strictly with Rome and they always emphasise the adjective rather than the noun. The problem is that the last phrase of these interpretations says that they are seven kings. You can’t stop at the seven mountains.

It is quite obvious that each mountain is a separate empire, dictatorship type. It is a separate empire with separate rulers. These are seven individual type kings or dictators, they are not one empire with one emporator. The woman, who is religion, rides on these empires. It means that the woman is on the roll, she’s been on the roll ever since Egypt was dominated by a religion. These empires come into view sequentially and the woman as religion dominates each one of them. This means that she influences them in the same way that the fornicating female has influence in the ancient world. Often the ancient prostitute was related to the religion and the phallic cult in the practice of her profession. The Bible must again be interpreted in the time in which it was written and temple prostitution and the priestess of the phallic cult had tremendous influence in the ancient world. Therefore the reason for the analogy.

The seven mountains, then, are seven empires. The intriguing explanation emphasises the seven kings as Roman emperors in the time of John. John was fulfilling his ministry from Ephesus from which he wrote the gospel of John, 1,2, and 3 John, and also Revelation on Patmos, all between 90 and 96 AD. While John was carrying on his ministry in Ephesus there were actually seven Roman emperors. The first one was Galba, 69 AD. When Nero was assassinated Galba immediately marched from Spain to Rome, backed by the “Spanish” legions, the Roman legions stationed in Spain. He was proclaimed emperor but Otho in the same year bribed the Praetorian Guard. So they set aside Galba and Otho became number two in that same year, backed by the Praetorian Guard. In the meantime Vitellius had marched with the army of the Rhine to Rome and by the time he had arrived there he outnumbered everyone so he became the third emperor. Then, in the meantime Vespasian, backed by the Syrian legions, including the three legions that were besieging Jerusalem, became the fourth emperor in AD 70. When Vespasian died in 79 he was replaced by Titus, his son, who ruled from 79-81 when he died. Then the younger brother, Domitian, was the emperor from 81-96. It was Domitian, the son of Vespasian who actually sent John to the Isle of Patmos. When he was assassinated in 96 Nerva, the brilliant old man, became the first of the Antonine Caesars from 96-98. What makes this fascinating is the fact that in verse 10 John says, “five are fallen, one is, and one is to come.” Well, five had fallen in John’s time, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus. Then, “one is,” and that was Domitian. He was soon to go and then there will come another, Nerva. So it just works out perfectly. The only trouble is that the actual exegesis will not really stand it. It is just one of those nice interpretations that fits but doesn’t work. It violates the contents of the exegesis because in the exegesis you will notice even from the translation that “the seven heads are seven mountains who are seven kings.” In other words, they are separate empires, not just one empire.

So we have the status quo of the seven heads in verse 10. We start out with the indeclinable numeral pente, “five,” are fallen. These are five empires and instead of referring to those emperors they refer to five mountain empires. The first is Egypt, then Assyria, Babylonia, the Medes and the Persians, Graeco-Macedonia. Rome becomes the one that is, the historical empire at the time of John in AD 96. AD 96 is one of the most important dates in Roman history for this reason: it brought an end to the Flavian emperors represented by the evil Domitian. And just as the Julio-Claudians by the evil Nero, so the evil Domitian ended what was otherwise a very good line of emperors. He was the one that sent John to the Island of Patmos and when he died one of the things that Nerva did was to bring John back to Ephesus. By going back to Ephesus John again set up face-to-face in Ephesus and in the other six churches in what we now call Turkey John’s ministry was where the major pivot of the Roman empire was. Once the pivot switched from Syria where it had been , then into Europe and then to Turkey, the pivot which developed in Turkey became the basis for the greatest one hundred years of history, the period of the Antonine Caesars. This period also ended with Commodus. There were three emperors who ended a line: Nero, who died by violence; Domitian, died by violence; Commodus, died by violence.

It is always darkest before the dawn and when John was sent to the Island of Patmos that was the darkest moment for Christianity. But the dawn came with the death of Domitian and bringing to the throne Nerva, a very old and wise man, and John was about to have his greatest ministry though at this time he must have been in his late sixties or early seventies.

Then we have the prophetical status of the seventh head, “and the other,” and this is a)lloj meaning the same category. In other words, if you are still talking about the same category and you use the word “other,” you use a)lloj. If you are talking about a different one and you change the category you use e(teroj, meaning another of a different kind. We have a)lloj so we are still talking about the same subject, and this is a reference to the prophetical Roman empire of the Tribulation which we refer to as the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. Notice that it says, “it is not yet come,” and John uses from now on a negative adverb of time, o)upw. It is not just a straight negative, it is stronger and it always relates to time, so it is translated “not yet.” With this is the aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai, “has not yet come.” The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist for a fact of Bible doctrine regarded as so certain as to be axiomatic in character. Therefore it is described by the aorist tense as though it were an actual occurrence. The active voice: the Tribulational revived Roman empire of the future produces this negative action. It hasn’t come as yet. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality of this future empire although it has not yet come.

Then we have the brevity of that future revived Roman empire: the connective conjunction kai introduces a noteworthy and is translated “nevertheless.” With it we have another conjunction. This one introduces an indefinite temporal clause. This is o(tan. And we have the aorist active subjunctive, this time of erxomai. The subjunctive mood is potential, it implies a future reference. It is the mood used for the indefinite temporal clause which has, of course, an eschatological connotation. Then with this we have the accusative of general reference which becomes the subject of the infinitive because we have the aorist active infinitive coming up, the aorist active infinitive of menw. It means he must remain, “nevertheless when it comes [the revived Roman empire] it must remain for a short time.” The constative aorist takes the existence of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation, regards it in its historical duration, and gathers it into a single whole to look at it for a moment. We have to have a support for the infinitive and we have the impersonal verb of necessity, dei, it is translated “must remain.” The active voice: the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation produces the action and this is the infinitive of time, an infinitive of intended result also, blending God’s purpose with this historical result. Then we have the accusative of extent of time from the noun o)ligoj, “for a short time.”

So having interpreted the seven heads number seven pur sui vant messenger of the execution squad is about to give way to a higher authority. That means that we are going back to the rise of the beast dictator and we are going to finish up with the interpretation of that dictator.

The interpretation of he beast is continued and concluded in verse 11. This is the final profile of the beast which began in chapter 13:1. The conjunction kai introduces a result from what precedes and therefore it is translated “And so.” The nominative singular subject once more is the beast dictator, and in the Greek it is qhrion, for our subject is once again the beast dictator, “And so the beast dictator.”

Then, once again, we have that phrase introduced as part of a relative clause. The relative pronoun o(j means “who” and it refers to the revived Roman empire. Then we begin a series of the use of the verb e)imi: the imperfect active indicative of e)imi plus the present active indicative of e)imi with some conjunctions in between. “Who was” is the imperfect use of e)imi, linear aktionsart in past time. The active voice: the historical Roman empire producing the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the historical Roman empire at the time of John, “the beast dictator who was,” referring to the Roman empire, “and is not.” The negative o)uk is used with the present of e)imi, it brings to mind the fall of the Roman empire. Again the active voice refers to the historical Roman empire, and the indicative mood is for the reality of the fall of the historical Roman empire. The rise of the beast dictator, “and he is the eighth.” He comes, of course, from the seventh but he is a unique dictator from a confederation of nations. The conjunction kai is translated “even” with the nominative singular subject a)utoj, referring to the beast dictator. A)utoj is used in the Koine Greek for the third person personal pronoun, “and he is,” the present active indicative of e)imi again, this time a static present representing a fact of eschatological doctrine. The active voice: the beast dictator produces the action in the future. The indicative mood is declarative for the point of eschatological doctrine.

With this we the predicate nominative singular from the adjective numeral o)gdooj, used as a substantive here rather than an adjective, “even he is the eighth.” This means the empire of the beast is an empire built from the seventh. He is the one who in the last half of the Tribulation is the final dictator of the revived Roman empire. The eighth empire is distinct from the seventh in that the beast dictator will conquer and subdue or control the ten nations in the confederation of the revived Roman empire, and the difference is between the first and the second halves of the Tribulation. In the first half of the Tribulation the beast is only one of many rulers; in the last half of the Tribulation he is the dictator of the entire Roman empire revived.

The source of the beast is then given, “and he is from the seventh.” That means he emerges from the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. In other words, he emerges from the seventh head that we studied in verse nine. Apparently, the inefficiency and the bureaucracy of the revived Roman empire acts as a catalytic agency for the emergence of leadership. The leadership takes the form of organised evil and out of this organised evil comes this great dictator.

Then we have the conjunction kai again and this time it means “and finally,” “finally he will go into destruction,” which anticipates chapter 19:20, “Then the beast dictator [the ruler of the revived Roman empire] was seized, and with him the false prophet [the ruler of the state of Israel in the Tribulation] who performed miracles in his presence, by which he had deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, even those who worshipped his idol. These two [the Gentile and Jewish dictators], though still alive, were thrown into the lake of fire burning with sulphur.”

Translation of verse 11: “And so the beast that was [the historical Roman empire at the time of John], and is not [fall of the historical Roman empire in 476 AD], even he is the eighth [the dictator of the revived Roman empire], and is from the seventh [the revived Roman empire of the first half of the Tribulation], and finally he will go to destruction [the lake of fire, Revelation 19:20].”

This beast dictator has the ability to communicate. He has a tremendous imagination and 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, when studied with Daniel chapter 7 and Revelation chapter 13, makes a great package on how to take evil ideas, wrong ideas, and make them interesting. He is, of course, a religious genius as well. A person who is a genius works from the base of a genius IQ. Most people who work from the base of a genius IQ are the dullest people in the world and no one would know that they were a genius if it weren’t for an achievement test. But there are people who emerge historically who emerge as truly great who are genius. Most great people in history are not great geniuses, are not even close to it; in fact a lot of them have a very low IQ but they were just stubborn and stupid and arrogant enough to stick with some point that made them famous. When you work from a base of genius the expression of that genius really is the area in which you are interested. If a genius is only interested, for example, in some science then he is said to be a genius in that science. Moses was the most unusual genius that ever lived because Moses was interested in music, he was a genius in the field of writing, he was a military genius, a genius in the field of construction and architecture, and he became the great genius that God used in the spiritual realm. He was also a genius in the field of leadership. Moses was a man of many interests but all the interests had the same base: genius. This dictator is also a genius. As Moses was an honourable, great, believer genius this man is an evil genius and his major interest is evil, where evil is exploited into political expression, into religious expression, into military expression, and the ability to take his ideas, not matter how evil they are, and find a big market for them during the Tribulation. With all of this Satan gives him some extra-natural power and this is the power of miracles which is part of the subject of 2 Thessalonians chapter two. And, of course, miracles always appeal to the emotionalism of the masses. This also demands worship of power, the idolising of evil because of involvement in the Satanic cosmic system. Those who worship power idolise evil and they will never appreciate freedom or have any real capacity for happiness. When people do not have truth and doctrine they’re always impressed with the wrong things. So here is one of the great men of genius of history and he is always impressed with the wrong things. He has a dynamic in the field of verbal communication and to do so with imagination. This is brought out in Revelation 13:5. Satan gives this dictator a supernatural power of communication, a tremendous eloquence for the purpose of the presentation of his ideas. In other words, he markets his ideas.

The time limitation on him is very important. He has greater human power than perhaps anyone in the history of planet earth. This appears to be an influence outside of the revived Roman empire which is carried on mainly through religion; religion being, of course, Satanic. But there is a time limitation on his power. We noted it first in Revelation 13:5, “there was given to him authority to function forty-two months,” the last half of the Tribulation. At that point he will be terminated by being cast alive into the lake of fire, Revelation 17:11. Finally, he will go to destruction, Revelation 19:20. So the greatest genius for evil and the greatest dynamic for evil, including extra-natural and supernatural modus operandi, is still under time limitation. No matter how great power is power is limited by time, and once any system of power is limited by time it is merely another finite activity which makes a splurge for the moment and disappears into the mists of history.

Evil power always has other frustrations beside time. One of them is a sense of humour. A sense of humour is a great protector of the individual. It not only protects the individual from many of the insults and problems of interaction with human beings but at the same time it has other protections as well. It becomes a safeguard against taking one’s self too seriously and building up to this kind of power lust and power madness. A sense of humour also becomes a frustration to those who aspire to dictatorship, especially when you have a country where you have a large number of people who at least have the freedom to develop a sense of humour. Whether they do or not is another thing. But with all of the great power of the beast dictator he cannot laugh at himself.

The reason that people cannot laugh at themselves is because generally they are bright and they are concentrators. People who are bright in life generally develop one subject magnificently or have success in one area magnificently. They are such concentrators that they do not have the ability to laugh at themselves, they lack a sense of humour. Therefore the sense of humour acts as a safeguard for keeping one’s feet on the ground with regard to reality. Whenever a person does not have a sense of humour it is inevitable that he will get lost in the field of arrogance and the only protection he has is to be a believer and have the recourse to rebound and to live inside the protocol system. People who have much power generally have no sense of humour although there are some great exceptions to this. The beast dictator cannot laugh at himself, all he can do is slander those who are beyond his power, and this is one of his weaknesses and probably why he did not go beyond the political control of the revived Roman empire, though through ecumenical religion he controlled great portions of the world.

The believer with maximum doctrine in his soul is beyond the power of any dictator because he cherishes doctrine in his soul and he will not compromise that doctrine even on the threat of losing his life. Even by killing the believer the beast dictator of the Tribulation puts the martyred believer beyond his own power. Whenever a person has to use violence, as all of the terrorist groups do, in order to try to control someone he has immediately put that person beyond his control and it is an admission that he has no leadership ability.

The beast dictator is a miserable person in his frustration while the martyred believers are very happy in heaven. The beast dictator cannot see humour in any situation, especially any situation whereby he has killed people because they disagree with him and therefore put them beyond his influence or beyond his power. His best chance was to be persuasive. But it is amazing that people never use their best weapons when they need them the most, and this man has a persuasive ability in the field of communication. If you have great ability and you use it properly you are going to bring people under your control without any type of threat. Once you threaten a person or put some kind of pressure on a person then your persuasiveness has gone, you are not marketing your ideas at all. The mature believer, of course, was beyond the control of this great dictator and that was one of his great weaknesses, one of his great limitations. What is even more humorous is the fact that Satan who gave him this great power had already been driven out of heaven permanently, yet he still had great power to communicate and to disseminate on earth, and Satan offers this man the kingdoms of the world after he has been kicked out of heaven.

We need to be aware of the doctrine of organised versus disorganised evil which is a very important doctrine to apply. This beast dictator became the ultimate dictator of the ten-nation confederation of the revived Roman empire. What is really interesting is that many times in history degeneracy combines with self-righteousness to form a revolution. Then self-righteousness and degeneracy fight it out and eventually self-righteousness, being organised evil, always wins and they have to eliminate the degeneracy. There is a very definite brief for the fact that there is a constant fight between organised and disorganised evil, between self-righteous and immoral people, the ones involved in degeneracy. This goes on in life all the time, it is a constant struggle in life, and what is even more tragic is that in most churches today the immoral crowd are always thrown out. It doesn’t matter whether they are positive toward any doctrine or not, they are removed, and the self-righteous crowd always take over and therefore the church becomes a system of organised evil. This is no brief for immorality, far from it, but the point is the true principle of the local church is privacy so that the self-righteous will have a chance to grow and the immoral, amoral, group who are positive may grow, often rapidly up to a point and then they become critical of the self-righteous so that the self-righteous always become a trap. There is rapid growth on the part of the immoral, amoral, group until the discover one day the self-righteous people and they become critical of them. At that point they cease to grow. There is a constant fight wherever you find people over this matter: the self-righteous versus the amoral. The point is that the only way to protect a church organisation, for example, is through the doctrine of privacy and strong authority from the pulpit. Strong authority from the pulpit doesn’t throw the prostitute out of church; strong authority from the pulpit throws the gossip out of church because the prostitute is not the catalytic agent that causes the conflict, it is the gossip, the maligner, the troublemaker. This is not only true in churches but this is true in business, military organisations, police organisations. There is no such thing in an organisation made up of more than 50 people that doesn’t have all of these things, and the real key is to give everyone their privacy and therefore opportunity for everyone to grow in grace, to respect privacy and positive volition.

The thing that destroys privacy is gossip, maligning, running down other people, inordinate ambition and inordinate competition. The most important thing in life is to have privacy so that you can actually through your own self-determination either succeed or fail in your own life. Legalism is the great hindrance to this. All the people who are maligning and critical and looking down their nose at other Christians in any given church are simply people who trying to make everyone like themselves rather than growing in grace. No one ever grows in grace by being maligned, although they may pass the test and grow that way, they grow by learning doctrine. Gossiping about people is not teaching them doctrine. This is the struggle between organised and disorganised evil and the answers are found in the communication of doctrine, positive volition toward Bible doctrine, plus respect for the privacy of others as a major concept in freedom.

Privacy and property and life are sacred and must cycle together for people to grow in grace, for people to live with people under any form of government that is virtuous and honourable, and to fulfill all of the things that keep Satan at bay. In other words, the function of the client nation to God. When you have a choice of the two worlds, self-righteous or degenerate, you take neither. That is why we have client nations to God; that is why we have truth — “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” not organised evil or disorganised evil. When you have the struggle between organised and disorganised it bodes evil for everyone, and the only way to avoid it is for the truth to prevail and the truth must prevail through the establishment of a pivot. There was no pivot, there was no client nation when this dictator came to power so he came to power at exactly the right time as far as making it easy. It was a matter of disorganised evil being overcome by organised evil and wherever the truth reared its head then immediately it was removed.

One other factor that must be remembered with this principle is the fact that there is no power in public opinion. Public opinion caters to the viewpoint of the majority and the majority have no power or control in history. It is actually the minority who takes control or influences history. Sometimes it is a good minority, like the pivot of mature believers in a client nation, but all to frequently it is a bad minority made up of either disorganised or organised evil, and sometimes both. Public opinion always reacts to any type of truth because public opinion has no concept of truth, unless it is taught in the schools through establishment truth. Establishment truth is no longer taught in public schools, only in a few private schools. So public opinion is generally news today and gone tomorrow. Public opinion, then, is only a bully of the weak; it is a flatterer of the successful. Public opinion has no power with communists, for example, who ignore it all the time. Public opinion is all too often a system of arrogance, self-righteousness, mass hysteria which assumes that their condemnation is going to change the world. It is a false premise that public opinion has influence over evil when in reality evil uses public opinion for its own purposes, and generally organised evil gets into power in this way.

In verses 12-13 we have the interpretation of he ten horns. In verse 12 we have the structure of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. The connective conjunction kai is correctly translated “And.” The nominative plural subject is made up of three different words, the definite article ta, translated “the,” the indeclinable adjective numeral deka, meaning ten, and the noun keraj, “horns,” “And the ten horns.”

The horn in scripture is often a symbol of power and the ten horns are ten nations which were once a part of the historical Roman empire. Horns often represent nations, as in the case of the ram with two horns in Daniel 8:20-21. The ram is the Persian empire, the two horns represent each segment of the old Persian empire: one horn for the Medes and one for the Persians. In Amos 6:13 arrogant Israel boasts about her conquests of Gentile nations whom they call horns.

“And the ten horns [ten-nation confederation of the revived Roman empire] which you saw.” This has to do with John’s vision of the ten horns. From Jeremiah 4:25 the nation of Moab is called the horn of Moab, and that is because of the power of the nation at that time. In Daniel 7:7ff we have the same ten horns. They are the ten nations of the confederation of the revived Roman empire. The seven horns of Zechariah 1:18,19 are actually a part of four empires who have administered the fourth cycle of discipline to Israel at one time or another.

Well, the question is, who are the ten horns? It would be a matter of speculation to determine which nations of the old historical empire will be included in this ten-nation confederation in the future Tribulation.

“which you saw” is a relative clause. The aorist active indicative of the verb to see is o(raw which in the constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the apostle John as the human author produces the action. The declarative mood represents verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatological reality.

They are said to be ten kings. This is the predicate nominative plural, deka is indeclinable. Then we have the word “kings,” basileuj, referring to the ten kings who are going to rule these ten nations in the Tribulation. The ten kings are said to have no power in the first half of the Tribulation. We have the beginning of a relative clause, but we have the nominative masculine plural from what is known as the qualitative relative pronoun o(stij. The qualitative relative pronoun used to be translated in classical Greek, “such a category as.” We will simply translate it “who.” The negative adverb follows, o(upw, “not yet.” They “have not yet received,” the aorist active indicative of the verb lambanw, “received.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist referring to a future time. The active voice: the ten potential rulers do not rule the ten nations of the revived Roman empire until they are brought into power by the beast. This is a potential indicative depending on a future event. With this we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun basileia, “kingdoms.”

We now have the adversative conjunction a)lla which means that that condition will not be an indefinite condition but will be improved as far as they are concerned. A)lla sets up a contrast. The contrast is based on the fact that the ten nations which were a part of the Roman empire will become a part of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation. They will come into power with the beast dictator. Whatever the form of government in these ten nations prior to one empire they will be ruled by ten proconsuls in the last half of the Tribulation. “But they will received,” we have the present active indicative of lambanw again and the present tense is a futuristic present for an event which has not yet occurred. The ten nations under proconsuls have not yet come into existence but they are regarded as so certain in thought that they are contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: the ten proconsuls or kings produce the action and we have a declarative mood for eschatological reality. They are said to have authority, the accusative singular direct object of the verb e)cousia. Their authority and their power will be a very short one, it will be in the last half of the Tribulation. In effect, these are future Roman provinces in the revived Roman empire.

Next we have the accusative of the extent of time, the accusative feminine singular of e(ij which is a numeral meaning “one,” plus the word for hour, o(ra. One hour here does not mean one 60-minute hour, it means the last half of the Tribulation, “with the beast dictator,” the beast dictator being the ruler of the revived Roman empire.

The formation of the revived Roman empire at the end of the Tribulation is then mentioned in verse 13. “These have one mind, and they shall give their power and their strength to the beast.” We have the nominative plural subject of the immediate demonstrative pronoun, referring once more to the ten kings or the ten proconsuls, o(toj, correctly translated “These.” The immediate demonstrative pronoun includes both the beast dictator and these ten kings, and the demonstrative pronoun places special emphasis on a designated object in the context. With this we have a subject, therefore, the present active indicative of e)xw, the verb to have. It is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs and may be reasonably expected to occur during the course of the Tribulation. The reason some of these things are being noted is because the interpretation is now given with very concise exegetical, grammatical Greek. Everything is extremely precise and it brings up a very important principle: everything related to Bible doctrine, categorically and by way of application, is precise.

The active voice: the beast dictator and his ten proconsuls produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative giving us a precise eschatological interpretation. With this we have the accusative singular direct object in which we have e(ij again but we have a different word with it, gnwmh, and with it, e(ij, “one mind” is the way it is translated. However, gnwmh means will, resolve, decision, or purpose. It actually does not means “mind.” We will translate it: “These [ten dictators] have one ideology.” They have a common theory and a common cause, they are united under a system of false doctrine, the ecumenical religious system of Satan. They even reside in the same cosmic system and they make maximum use of that cosmic system. Therefore they are thoroughly inculcated with the Satanic system and the religious development of it in the Tribulation.

The empire is then mentioned, “and so.” The connective conjunction kai introduces a result from what precedes, “and so they give,” the present active indicative of the verb didomi. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: the ten proconsuls produce the action. The indicative declarative is for the eschatological reality. The point is this: When you have a man such as the beast dictator who has that kind of ability and he has ten very arrogant, very successful, people in charge of nations, and they give their power to him, this adds to what we have already seen. This man has an unusual personality and from the negative standpoint he is one of the great leaders of all time. He is not our kind of leader, of course.

“These have one ideology, and so they give their power and authority, dunamij for power, and dunamij indicates they are all under the same system. It refers to the cosmic system. E)cuosia for authority, “and their authority to the beast dictator.” In other words, this is how the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation is formed from the standpoint of ideology. From the standpoint of military conquest the beast dictator conquers three of the ten nations in war. The rest of them fall in line because they have the same ideology. From this ideology there are four proconsuls appointed.

This leads to a little dissertation in verse 14 which is really parenthetical. It deals with the final conspiracy of the Tribulation. This is only the first reference to it and it will be studied in more detail in chapter 19. Here are ten great men who have great power and they are willing to surrender their power and their authority to this most unusual dictator. Why all of this surrendering of power to power? Why a unified ideology? Why is there an attempt to set up a one-world system? The reason for it: One worldism means anti-Christ, “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is the Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”

This verse is parenthetical. Why it comes up at this time is simply to show that once a world wide organisation is established, once the political power is firmed up under the beast dictator, once all of these things are put together properly, then through the use of international religion and through the use of the power of the revived Roman empire there will be a welding together of one worldism under Satan. This is Satan’s last bid to control the world which he rules. Satan rules in name only but because man has free will and because he has never been able to quite bring together a system of power under internationalism to weld together the organisation to take over the world he has never succeeded.

What can we deduce from this historically? Even though at this time and very shortly thereafter the Armageddon world war will already be under way, this will be a part of it. With warfare, with disease, with physical disaster, with international religion reaching the peak of its power, with the great political strength of the revived Roman empire, with the two other great empires competing with it, the king of the north and the kings of the east, and being fused and welded under Satan, one wonders about several historical principles. The first deduction is the fact that people will survive all of these things, they will live through them. In some parts of the world people will still be living very normal lives, and at the end of all of this activity which is the wildest and most destructive in history people will still be alive at the second advent.

The first conspiracy of Revelation 16:12-16 which began the last world war of history was directed toward the destruction of the Jew as the super holocaust. The last conspiracy mentioned in 17:14 and 19:19 occurs at the end of that war and is directed toward the frustrating of the second advent of Christ, the destruction of Christ, elect angels, resurrected believers. Of course, it will not succeed. We call it, then, the anti-Christ conspiracy.

It begins with the nominative plural subject of the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. It refers to the beast dictator and the ten proconsuls. It refers, therefore, to the revived Roman empire, and like Revelation 19:19 it includes other kings, but in this context it emphasises the part of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation as the chief Satanic agent in the conspiracy. The immediate demonstrative pronoun places special emphasis on the object called “these.” Then we have the future active indicative of polemew, “These shall make war.” The future tense is predictive anticipating an event which is expected to occur in future time, second advent. Their conspiracy comes just before the second advent and at the second advent. The active voice: the beast dictator and the ten proconsuls of the revived Roman empire produce the action. The indicative mood is for the reality of this eschatological doctrine, the greatest conspiracy of all time. History is filled with conspiracies in the past and there are many conspiracies in the present. If you get two arrogant people together, jealous of someone else, you have conspiracy. Arrogance is the source of all conspiracies and this is the biggest of all. So the greatest outbreak of arrogance of all time, the greatest period of cosmic involvement, is at the end of the Tribulation. The greatest manifestation of this arrogance will be in the international religious system sponsored by the dictator of the revived Roman empire.

The conspiracy has an object: the preposition meta plus the genitive of a)rnion, “against the Lamb.” Our Lord Jesus Christ is identified as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It first began by the identification made by John, John 1:29; Revelation 7:17. The Lamb refers to the cross which was the battlefield for the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. When our Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross He received a printout from the computer of divine decrees. The omniscience of God had entered into the computer every sin in history. All the sins of all the people in the world were programmed into the computer before the world began. The omniscience of God knew all of the sins that would be committed in human history and they were programmed in. He also knew the times at which people would resist sin and they became probables, and therefore were not programmed in. Omniscience knows the reality and the probable. The probables were the times that you resisted temptation. But all of the sins that any of us have ever committed in all of our life time, everyone down to the last sin at the end of the Millennium, were all entered into the computer of divine decrees. And the justice of God the Father then took the printout and all of the sins of the world were imputed to Christ by God the Father and there they were judged, so that no sin was left out. The cross is the greatest battlefield in history.

It is interesting to note that the greatest battlefield in history was a spiritual battle and it was won by one person, our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone was judged for our sins; He alone is the Lamb of God. That is why when Christ comes back, even though He is followed by the elect angels, all believers of the Church Age, the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs, the Lord is going to do all of the fighting. He is going to fight alone and He is going to destroy all of the armies of Armageddon. He was the victor alone at the cross. That was a strategic victory. He is the only saviour. He is the tactical victor at the second advent. He does it alone. This, of course, emphasises the principle of grace. God has provided for us in eternity past. He has provided everything that we will ever need. He has provided not only blessing and that which sustains us in life but He has provided, when necessary, discipline. He has provided all of it alone. He alone delivers; He alone provides. In the whole concept of grace, God does it.

Here is a conspiracy against the really important thing in life. What is important in life? The fact that Jesus Christ was judged for the sins of the world on the cross, the fact that we have personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and have eternal salvation, the fact that God has a plan for each one of us after salvation and that plan starts by entrance of gate one at the moment of salvation into the protocol system. That plan for phase two eventually terminates, either by physical death or the Rapture, whichever occurs first, and that the plan then goes on forever, and the plan calls even for us to come back with the Lord and watch what the Lord will do. So the concept that the Lord did it alone is a very basic and important concept in grace. Grace is the work of God on our behalf.

Here we find the great conspiracy against grace. “These will make war against the Lamb.” In so doing there is going to be immediately a tactical victory, and from that tactical victory we will then derive the reason for this passage beginning in verse 12. What is the doctrinal application? Why do we have this recorded in such detail in this one verse?

As at the cross, so at the second advent, deliverance is accomplished entirely by the Lord Jesus Christ without help from anyone. This is the principle of grace. Under the concept of grace God does it all. Therefore deliverance is a matter of grace. The deliverance at the cross at the first advent was a matter of grace: “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” Since Christ did all of the work we can only respond by faith for eternal salvation, and since Christ will do all of the work at the second advent we can only respond by observing His great victory. So both the strategic victory of the first advent and the tactical victory of the second advent are the work of Christ alone.

This dramatises the grace of God and is a reminder to us that in the protocol system there is no place for works as far as advancing in the plan of God. In God’s protocol system, the divine dynasphere at gate one, we are filled with the Spirit totally apart from any human works. Even rebound is a grace modus operandi. When we get to the second gate and we are dealing with basic Christian modus operandi no works are involved, no production is involved. We do not advance in the spiritual life by even legitimate production, such as witnessing or fulfilling the function of your particular spiritual gift. There is no spiritual connotation to momentum apart from the function inside the protocol system. When we get to gate three which is basic virtue directed toward authority and forced and genuine humility, again, no works. The very definition of humility separates the believer from any function of legalism, from any system of works.

And what is momentum in the spiritual life? It is the function of the perception of doctrine at gate four: the perception of doctrine, the function of the royal priesthood, the application of doctrine, the function of the royal ambassadorship. And, again, no works are involved. Then, after the first four gates we begin to see the results of momentum. At gate five we have motivational virtue directed toward God, no works involved. At gate six we have functional virtue toward man and circumstances — no works at all. At gate seven we have testing: the eight momentum tests that every believer must pass to reach maturity. Again, no works are involved. And so the achievement of spiritual maturity, the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, the very purpose for which we are supported by logistical grace, is totally apart from works. It is only when we get to gates five, six, and seven, that we have any production that is meaningful. New believers can witness for Jesus Christ. One believer can be inside of the divine dynasphere and in his whole lifetime lead five people to the Lord as a result of his faithful witness, but that believer, when he stands at the judgment seat of Christ, will receive rewards and decorations for those five people he led to the Lord. His production will be gold, silver, and precious stones. But a believer can win thousands of people to the Lord by his testimony, live in the cosmic system, and his production is wood, hay, and stubble, and therefore it has no connotation except to be burned at the judgment seat of Christ. It all depends on where you are, not what you do. Where you are is the thing that counts.

Continuing in verse 14 we have the victory of the two advents mentioned by our Lord’s royal title. Here it is given a little different than we are accustomed to seeing it. First of all we have “Lord of lords” and then “King of kings,” just the opposite of the way the title is given in chapter nineteen. We begin with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, “because.” The strategic victory of the first advent is the basis for the tactical victory of the second advent. Our Lord accomplished the victory alone at the first advent when He was on the cross; our Lord accomplishes the victory alone at the second advent when He is mounted on that magnificent white horse. With this we have the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, “because he is.” The present tense is a static present for a condition which always exists. The active voice: Jesus Christ as the winner in the first advent produces the action of the verb. Christ is the winner because of impeccability as He functioned in the prototype divine dynasphere. Our Lord Jesus Christ from the time of the virgin birth to the time that He went to the cross and was judged for our sins functioned inside of the prototype of the protocol system. It is a reminder, once again, that God has a plan for your life as a believer and that plan can never be divorced from the operational system. Now that we live in the Church Age we have the operational divine dynasphere. There is no fulfillment of the plan of God until you understand and you function inside of the divine dynasphere. Until then, of course, no plan of God exists for your life and whatever you do it is wood, hay, and stubble; it is energy of the flesh, it is legalism, and it does not glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. So our Lord Jesus Christ made it to the cross because He lived inside the prototype divine dynasphere. His deity, of course, was absolutely incorruptible, it was impossible for Jesus Christ as God to sin. But as true humanity He was tempted in many points like as we are, yet without sin. His humanity went to the cross without sin and He was therefore qualified to bear the sins of the world.

“because he is,” the active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action as the winner. The indicative mood is declarative for our Lord’s third royal warrant as a result of His strategic victory on the cross. Note the reverse order of our Lord’s third royal title here. It is reversed because of its relationship to His two advents. “Lord of lords” emphasises the victory of the first advent, “King of kings” emphasises the victory of the second advent. So at the second advent He will be called “King of kings and Lord of Lords” but at the first advent He is “Lord of lords and King of kings.” This is a matter, therefore, of emphasis. “Lord of lords” goes right back to that strategic victory. We have the predicate nominative from kurioj which means “Lord” in the sense of God. The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the noun, therefore rendered properly in the English by the translation, “the Lord.” Then the ablative plural of comparison from kurioj again, separating our Lord from all other lords in history. At the time of writing the Roman empire was ruled by the Caesars, called emporator (emperor) and one of his titles was “lord,” he was to be addressed as kurioj, the deification of the rulers of the Roman empire. And so He is the Lord of all lords. Written at the time of the Roman empire it gives us once again the time when our Lord won the strategic victory on the cross. He is the Lord of lords. Jesus Christ, of course, is God. He is also the God-Man, we have noted the hypostatic union. This becomes the basis of winners during the Church Age and the manufacture of winners depends upon the function of the protocol system of the divine dynasphere. All this is brought together under the title “Lord of lords.”

Then, in His tactical victory we have “King of kings,” and again we have the predicate nominative from basileuj. It is in the singular, He is the King. And then the ablative of separation of all kings. Our Lord is separated from all rulers of all time but in this context rulers of the Millennium specifically. Here, then, is the tactical victory of our Lord Jesus Christ mentioned in His title and Jesus Christ rules the entire world, superseding Satan, at the second advent. That is a part of His great victory. As the ruler of the world our Lord is the King over all kings of the world; He is the ruler over all rulers; He is supreme during the Millennium because He is the Lord of lords and he is the King of kings.

The title of our Lord Jesus Christ as the God of Israel is given in Deuteronomy 10:17, “For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality, nor does he take a bribe.” Nebuchadnezzar’s expression of respect is similar. Daniel 2:47, “The king answered Daniel and said, ‘Emphatically your God is the God of gods, he is the Lord of kings, also a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery to me.” Paul’s recognition of the title comes in first Timothy 6:15, “He will demonstrate in his own time — He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of Lords.” John’s recognition of the title is found here and again in Revelation 19:16 with the reversal emphasising the second advent.

“These will make war against the Lamb [the final conspiracy of history] but the Lamb will conquer them because he is the Lord of lords, and King of kings.”

We have a threefold classification of the royal family which follows. It begins with the connective kai which introduces an additional piece of doctrine and is translated “furthermore.” Next we have the nominative plural from the definite article o(i used as an immediate demonstrative pronoun, “furthermore they.” This is a reference to the Church Age believers, the members of the royal family of God who return with our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we have the preposition meta plus the genitive singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “with him,” “furthermore, those with him.”

Now we have the first classification of the royal family and it refers to salvation. It is the adjective in the predicate nominative masculine plural, klhtoi , which means called or invited. This means that all members of the human race are included in this adjective for it means to be invited to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross He was judged for every sin which existed in the human race. There never was a sin that will be committed in the history of the human race that was not judged at the cross and because of the judgment of the cross and because all sins were judged by God the Father when Jesus Christ was bearing them you are invited. Once you are invited because of unlimited atonement you have a choice to make. You can either be positive and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or you can be negative and say no to the gospel. All in the human race are invited. Not all accept the invitation, only those who believe in Christ accept the invitation. For those who reject the invitation they are still in a state of condemnation. This brings up the first of the issues here, for klhtoj, the adjective in the predicate nominative plural, refers to the fact that there is no one in the history of the human race for whom Christ did not die. We call it simply the doctrine of unlimited atonement. When we get to the next word we will see that those who believe are said to be elected, but those who reject Christ are not in the computer and since they are outside of the computer they cannot be construed as elected. All are invited; only believers are elected.

The atonement in the Old Testament refers to the animal sacrifices which portray the saving work of Christ on the cross. Atonement in the New Testament refers to the actual saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross, including redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation. In the Old Testament the word for atonement was kafar which means to pass over or to cover. The animal sacrifices and their blood was used to cover sin in that concept. And the communication of the saving work of Christ on the cross was used by these animal sacrifices. Atonement, therefore, is the means of reconciliation between God and man. It is the basis for divine propitiation and the portrayal of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross being judged for our sins. While animal blood was said to be the shadow in the book of Hebrews, the shadow which illustrates the judgment of our Lord for our sins in His saving work, it is the historical reality which fulfilled it. So wherever we look at the word “atonement” we are looking at the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

The question arises, for whom did Christ die on the cross? If Christ didn’t die for everyone then everyone isn’t invited to have eternal salvation.

Romans 3:23-26, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, receiving justification without payment by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God [the Father] has publicly displayed by his blood at the mercy seat through faith in Christ. For a demonstration of his integrity because of the passing over of previously committed sins, because of the clemency [delay in judgment] from God”

In other words, verse 25 tells us that the kafar [atonement] means that all of the sins of the human race were entered into the computer of divine decrees. Before the cross all of these sins were passed over when a person believed in Christ and the blood covering a sacrifice was the principle of atonement. So when Christ came to the cross historically all the sins of the past were taken out of the computer and they were imputed to Christ on the cross. The justice of God the Father judged those sins. All the sins of the future, including all the sins that we will ever commit, up to the end of time were also a part of that printout and were imputed to Christ on the cross, and the justice of God actually judged them. So all of the sins of the world were gathered up together under the principle of atonement. That means that there is an invitation to the entire human race. It is given to all, and that is what the meaning of klhtoi in this passage. All of the human race are invited to have eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

So Romans 3:26 adds: “For the demonstration of his integrity at the present time of crisis in order that he might be just and justify anyone who has faith in Christ.”

Atonement, then, is just another way of describing the saving work of Christ on the cross. The fact that Christ was judged for everyone’s sins is found in 2 Corinthians 5:14,15,19, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one [Jesus Christ alone] died for all, therefore all died; so he died for all that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf … God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself [not just believers but the world], not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us this message of reconciliation.”

1 Timothy 2:6, “who having given himself a redemptive ransom on behalf of all.”

1 Timothy 4:10, “For because of this we [pastors] work hard to the point of exhaustion, because we have confidence in the living God, who is the saviour of all men, especially of believers.” The invitation is given to all.

Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God bringing salvation to all has appeared.” Not to some, but to all.

The entire human race was invited to salvation because Christ was judged for the entire human race on the cross. In Revelation 20:12-15 we look at unlimited atonement as far as the last judgment is concerned: “I saw the dead, small and great, standing before the throne; and the books were opened: and another of a different kind of a book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their works,” a reference to sin at the last judgment, sin was all judged at the cross. Sin is not an issue in salvation, it is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Sin is not an issue at the last judgment. God doesn’t make an issue of your sins; God makes an issue of the work of Christ on the cross. The invitation is open to all. When it says in verse 15, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire,” that simply means they rejected the invitation. They had many chances and they simply refused to believe.

Unlimited atonement means that Christ was judged on the cross for the entire human race. There are no exceptions and therefore the sins of the entire world — sins of believers, sins of unbelievers — were imputed to Christ and judged by God the Father. Sin therefore is never an issue in salvation, the issue is “What think ye of Christ?” Only unbelievers will stand at the judgment bar of God and they are tried, convicted, and sentenced to the lake of fire because they have rejected the invitation. John 3:18, “He who believes in him [Christ] is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the unique Son of God.”

So we have the first of three words and the first is addressed to the entire human race, “furthermore those with him are [classified as] invited.” Obviously all believers were invited to accept Christ and they accepted the invitation, they believed in Christ, and that is the predicate nominative masculine plural from the adjective klhtoj. This means that all members of the human race were invited and the response to the invitation is non-meritorious, it is faith in Christ. It means that one of the printouts of the computer of divine decrees for believers is the next word, “election.” Salvation election means that the believer is in the purpose of God. Election at salvation means that you are a member of the human race. You are invited through God-consciousness, normal evangelism, or crisis evangelism, and then you have the opportunity of deciding. If you say yes to the invitation you believe in Christ; if you say no to the invitation you do nothing more or less than reject Christ as saviour. Those who respond to the invitation and believe are then said to be elected to privilege, and those who do not believe are said, of course, to be unbelievers and they are under the concept of spiritual death which leads to the second death. The second classification, then, recognises the believer in time. Many words could have been used but we have the predicate nominative plural from e)klektoj which is one of the words for election. We will translate it “selected.”

We move now to our second word which is the predicate nominate plural from e)klektoj and means chosen or selected. It is a reference to believers in phase two. The believer is chosen or selected for the protocol system, for residence, function and momentum inside the divine dynasphere. That brings us, then, to the five printouts which describe those who are qualified for the protocol system.

Again, we look at it from the standpoint of the omniscience of God. God knew in eternity past every thought, every decision, every action, of every person and how they would all interrelate at a given time and given place in history. The omniscience of God is one of three categories of God’s knowledge and in the omniscience of God we have Him entering into the computer of divine decrees every person who ever would accept Jesus Christ as saviour. From this computer, for those who believe, there are five printouts. These five are all mentioned in one passage, in Romans 8:28-32, and in that particular passage they come in a certain order. The first one is called foreknowledge, the second one is called predestination, the third one is election, the fourth is justification, and the fifth is glorification. Each one of these printouts has a relationship to the royal family of God. Foreknowledge, for example, means that every one of us who is a believer was in the mind of God in eternity past and there never was a time when we were not in the mind of God as a believer. God not only has a plan for our life, it is a plan which existed from eternity past. Predestination means that every believer is in the plan of God, and election means that every believer is in the purpose of God. Justification means that every believer is under the grace policy of God and glorification is simply God’s recognition of those members of the royal family of God who live in the protocol system and wind up their lives in this earth as winners. So we are all in the mind of God, we are all in the plan of God, we are all under the grace of God, but not all are winners. This does recognise the fact that decisions are made by believers whereby they are winners or losers in life. But specifically now our passage is dealing with election and to understand election there are a number of principles that must be developed.

We have to start with the omniscience of God. Just as in the doctrine of divine decrees omniscience is one of three categories of divine knowledge, the other two being God’s self-knowledge and God’s foreknowledge. God’s self-knowledge has to do with the fact that God is eternal; His knowledge is eternal. God is Himself and He knows Himself to be beyond comparison with any other creature or being, and because God is infinite His knowledge is beyond boundaries and beyond any of the limitations that we experience as members of the human race. Because God is immutable His knowledge cannot change; God cannot be ignorant about anything. God’s knowledge precedes time, it precedes space, and therefore God’s knowledge is not subject to time or to space. God knows Himself, He knows His attributes, He knows His plans, He knows His policies, He knows everything which relates to Himself. God’s self-knowledge is related to other members of the Trinity as well. Hence, God has eternally known Himself and God has eternally known the other members of the Godhead. Each member of the Trinity has perfect subjective knowledge of Himself and perfect objective knowledge of the other members of the Godhead. The omniscience of God is the second phase of His knowledge and while God’s self-knowledge always relates to the Trinity as they have always existed His omniscience relates to all creatures, both angelic and human. Omniscience is defined as God knowing perfectly, eternally, and simultaneously all that is knowable about people, the actual which goes into the decrees and the possible or the probable which does not go into the decrees but is still known to God. The actual is fed into the computer of divine decrees and becomes history, while the possible or the probable are the decisions or actions which could have occurred but did not occur. Every minute detail of both the angelic and human history is completely in God’s mind at all times. Therefore, omniscience perceives the free as free, the necessary as necessary, together with all their causes, conditions, relations, as one individual system of things. And this individual system is also indivisible and is therefore the reality of life. There is also the third category which is the foreknowledge of God, and just as God has eternally had knowledge of self the omniscience of God has knowledge of all thoughts, decisions, actions of all people in history, and that is programmed into the computer of divine decrees. He has knowledge of all the probables and what would have happened.

Election is one of the two things that we should note. We have to note that one of the printouts is foreknowledge. In Romans 8:28-32 foreknowledge is the first printout, predestination is the second printout, election is the third printout, justification the fourth, and glorification the fifth. The foreknowledge of God is not the same as the omniscience of God, they are separated by the computer of divine decrees. Foreknowledge and omniscience, therefore, must be distinguished under the principle of rightly dividing the Word of truth. Omniscience programs the computer of human history. It programs in the motives, the thoughts, decisions, the actions of every person throughout all of history, and while foreknowledge is a printout of the decree regarding believers only, nothing therefore is foreknown until it is first decreed. Foreknowledge is not synonymous with omniscience, they are different aspects of divine knowledge. Only the computer of divine decrees establishes reality, which means that foreknowledge follows as a printout of the divine decrees. Foreknowledge makes nothing certain but acknowledges what is certain: the printout of the divine decrees. God foreknows all things as certainly future because He first decreed them from His omniscience. Not only did He decree them but He decreed their interrelationship with all other people. The foreknowledge of God, like election, is a printout of the divine decrees. The omniscience of God feeds the facts into the computer resulting in five categorical printouts.

Our subject is election, and to appreciate and understand election there is Psalm 139:1-6.

Verse 2, “You know me when I sit down and when I get up; you understand my thoughts from eternity past.”

Verse 3, “You have computed my journey [through life] and my lying down [the manner of my death], in fact you are intimately acquainted with all of my ways.”

Verse 4, “Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you have known it.”

Verse 5, “You have encircled me [surrounded me with a wall of fire] behind and in front [we are protected from all sides by logistical grace], obviously you have laid your hand on me.”

Verse 6, “Such knowledge [the omniscience of God] is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain it.” None of us ever have the ability to know everything that ever happens simultaneously. God has in His mind at all times every action, every thought, every decision of every person and how it relates to everyone else in the periphery in any point of time, in any geographical location in any situation or circumstance. That is omniscience.

What is election? Election is the doctrine of the divine control of human history. Predestination is the doctrine of the divine plan for the believer in history and election relates to the purpose of that plan. Justification is how the plan is administered to believers. The imputation of divine righteousness provides the basis for divine support and blessing of all believers, winners and losers, carnal and spiritual, immature and mature. Glorification is the result of all of this when the believer is a winner in the system. Election is the divine control of history and there are three elections in the Bible.

a. The election of Jesus Christ. That has to do with His hypostatic union, His first advent, His incarnation. Jesus Christ was elected to provide strategical and tactical victory for the human race during the time when Satan is the ruler of this world.

Election is, therefore, the purpose of God the Father for Jesus Christ in the incarnation. Election is the purpose of believers in Israel when Israel was a client nation. Election is the purpose of believers during the Church Age. So we are talking about election to privilege which relates us as believers in this Church Age to the function of client nations to God. Election means that the believer is in the purpose of God as a part of the historical phase of the angelic conflict. Israel illustrates the principle for us. Israel as the first and last client nation in history is classified as the first election to privilege. The first election to privilege was Israel. The order in which they occur is: a. The election of Israel; b. The election of Christ; c. The Church in the sense of the body of Christ, born-again believers. Perhaps election is easier to understand if we start with Israel. Israel is as a nation the first and last client nation in history. It is classified, therefore, as the first election to privilege. Believers in Israel determined the status quo of Israel at any given time. In BC 1441 Israel began as a client nation. Except for 70 years along the way that continued until AD 70. So for almost 1500 years Israel was a client nation to God, and how that client nation went was determined by the believers. So born-again believers in Israel are the first category in history who are said to be elected. Sometimes it was a small pivot and therefore they went down. Sometimes it was a large pivot and therefore they had great blessing. All of the believers from Moses’ generation on are said to be elected. Not the unbelievers. Election says only believers are in the purpose of God. And it relates to history: as goes the believer so goes history. That is splitting the coin and looking at the other side of the doctrine of election. Only believers in Israel were elected to privilege and had the potential of becoming a part of the pivot as it then existed, the pivot of mature believers around which the client nation functions in freedom, evangelism, missionary effort, and spiritual momentum through the perception of Bible doctrine.

As goes the pivot so goes the nation. Those believers who are are spinning off of the pivot are elected to privilege. What is election? It is the privilege of contributing to the blessing of a Gentile nation by advancing to maturity, not by carrying signs, not by social action, not by any form of getting involved with conspiracy or revolution, but by advancing to maturity in the protocol system. Only the believer in the Church Age is elected to privilege even as only the believer starting with Moses was elected to privilege in Israel.

There are many passages which deal with the subject. For example, 1 Peter 1:1,2, “ … who are elected to privilege according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” So Peter mentions two of the printouts. Election means that God has a purpose for our lives; foreknowledge means we were in the mind of God billions of years ago. These are both printouts from the computer and so Peter relates the two of them showing that election to privilege has to do with believers only.

Election is also related to the printout of predestination, one of Paul’s favourite subjects. Ephesians 1:4,5, “Just as he has elected us in him before the foundation of the world.” The omniscience of God programmed into the computer the information and election is one of the printouts. So before the foundation of the world we were invited. He knew that we would be invited, that we would accept Christ as saviour; therefore we are not only foreknown, we are also elected. We have therefore a purpose, “so he predestined us to adoption as sons through Christ Jesus.” Election to be understood must be related to key concepts such as client nation and privilege. The Jews in the Old Testament had four different client nations and it was the privilege of the Jewish believer living under the laws of divine establishment, advancing to maturity through basically the faith-rest drill, who turned the tide. We have even a greater opportunity because we are royal family of God, we live in the Church Age, and we have the protocol system, the divine dynasphere used by Jesus Christ. So the first election is the election of Israel. That is now past. Jews are still elected by believing in Christ. They are entered into union with Christ.

There is no longer a Jewish client nation and there will not be again until the second advent of Christ. In the meantime we live in the times of the Gentiles and we have another doctrine of election based upon the royal family of God and upon the fact that between the election of the Church and the election of Israel Jesus Christ came into the world and His humanity entered into the prototype divine dynasphere. Because His humanity was perfect inside of the divine dynasphere He went to the cross and was judged for the sins of the world, another printout from the computer of divine decrees. Therefore, the invitation has always existed to all since [unlimited atonement] He was judged for all.

Now, here we are with the third election. It deals with us in the Church Age because we have the operational divine dynasphere. We have a purpose and no matter how humble our circumstances, no matter how great, no matter how discouraging, no matter how prosperous, God has a purpose for our life as believers. That purpose is called election to privilege.

Notice, for example, Isaiah 42:1 where we have the second election, “Behold, my servant, whom I sustain [through the prototype divine dynasphere]; my elected one [Jesus Christ historically is the second election] in whom my soul delights. I have put my Spirit upon him [the prototype divine dynasphere].”

Acts 2:23, “This one [Jesus Christ], delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you have nailed to the cross.” Notice that Jesus Christ in hypostatic union was also under the principle of the five printouts. At the moment of the virgin birth Jesus Christ was predestined. The humanity of Christ was in the mind of the Father, the mind of the Spirit, in eternity past. He was also not only elected but He was predestined, He was in the plan of God the Father — the plan of the incarnation. Election: Jesus Christ was in the purpose of God the Father. Foreknowledge: He was in the mind of God the Father. And His justification was His resurrection and ascension, different from our justification. His glorification took place at the session, when he was seated at the right hand of the Father. So the five printouts for us under the principle of election also applied to the humanity of Christ during the first advent.

1 Peter 2:4,6, “And coming to him [Christ] as a living stone, rejected by men, but elect and precious in the sight of God … But contained in the scripture [Isaiah 28:16]: ‘Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elected, in fact he who believes in him will not be put to shame’.” The believers of Israel were the elect, they were elected to privilege. As goes the believer in Israel so goes the client nation to God. That is what election means. We are elected to privilege. In the times of the Gentiles, the Church Age, as goes the believer in the client nation so goes that client nation. That is election. Jesus Christ brings them both together. He is the chief corner stone; He is the second election. Historically, the first election: Israel; historically, the second election: our Lord Jesus Christ; historically, the third election: the Church. Cf. Isaiah 45:4; Romans 9:6,7; 11:1-7.

The election of the Church is also an election to privilege. After the first 40 years, in AD 70, no client nation Israel could exist. There will be Jewish states throughout history but none of them can be client nations. It is now the Church all the way to the Rapture. 1 Thessalonians 1:4, “Knowing, brethren loved of God, His election for you,” it is the believer alone who is elected. Election is the motivation for the royal family of God. 2 Timothy 1:9, “The one who has saved us, and elected us to a holy station [in life], not according to our works, but according to his own predetermined plan which has been given to us in Christ before human history.” Under election to privilege the Church Age believer is responsible to our Lord Jesus Christ for the fulfillment of the privilege. And what is the privilege? To have momentum in the system, the protocol system, the divine dynasphere, to live in the system, to advance in the system from gate four to gate eight; and as a result to join the pivot and to enlarge the pivot so that the client nation may be delivered. Titus 1:1, “Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the doctrine of God’s elected ones,” Paul had a special message with regard to election, and as such he was the slave of God, he was the apostle of Jesus Christ. The doctrine has to do with election, “the full knowledge of the doctrine according to the norms of godliness” is what he goes on to speak about. Ephesians 4:1, “Therefore, I the prisoner of the Lord, continue to encourage you to walk in a manner worthy of your station in life.” He means to get back into the divine dynasphere. You not only construct and edification complex of the soul but you become a part of the pivot of mature believers, “into which station you have been elected.” Cf. Ephesians 1:3-6. Jesus Christ is pursuing us in grace right now so that we can fulfill the principle.

After e)klektoj in our verse the third classification of the royal family is kai pistoi, the last word in verse 14. It is the predicate nominative plural pistoi which means faithful, and meaning faithful it also has a different connotation. All people who accept Christ as saviour were invited, that is the gospel. Then they are elected to privilege. The final word “faithful” means that some believers in time are winners and some are losers. Attitude toward Bible doctrine, attitude toward the protocol system makes the difference. It is the winners who form the pivot and have the impact on history; it is the losers that bring trouble, because they are a spin-off and therefore have an effect on history.

Where do we find this word pistoj? Matthew 25:21, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful in a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.” Notice that God doesn’t require a high IQ, a great personality, success, prosperity, He requires faithfulness. Faithfulness in the little things leads to faithfulness in greater things which result becoming a winner. Luke 16:10, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much.” 1 Corinthians 4:1,2, “Let a man regard us [the ministry] in this manner, a servant of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required in a steward that he be found faithful.” 1 Timothy 1:12, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, putting me in his service.” Revelation 2:10, “Keep on becoming faithful until death,” the word “faithful” is talking about a winner, someone who is a plugger, not someone who sky rockets and is very scintillating for a moment and then fades out into the darkness, “and I will give you a crown of life.”

Verse 14, “These will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them because he is the Lord of lords, and King of kings: furthermore those with him are classified as invited [to believe in Christ], and selected [election to privilege], and faithful [winners in time].”

In verse 15 we have the interpretation of the waters. We have three sittings of the woman in this passage. In verse 1 we saw the woman sitting on many waters. In verse 3 we saw the woman sitting on the scarlet beast. In verse 9 we saw that the seven heads are seven mountains “on which the woman sitteth.” This is a reference to the woman sitting on the many waters in verse 1. It begins with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” followed by the present active indicative of the verb legw, communication, usually translated “said,” and the dative singular indirect object plus dative of advantage from the personal pronoun e)gw, “Then he said to me.” The subject is the nominative plural from u(dor, “waters.” Then the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, “the waters which you have seen [or saw].”

Next we note that the dominating influence of the great prostitute which is religion. We have an objective genitive from the relative pronoun o(j, “on which,” and the nominative singular subject pornh , “whore,” a reference to the great ecumenical religious system at the end of the Tribulation, ecumenical religion which performs for money and power in the same manner as the prostitute, therefore the analogy. The analogy to the prostitute is an apt view of the fact that prostitutes are a distraction to establishment truth in the same way that religion is a distraction to all truth.

The prostitute here is in the feminine gender which takes us back to the garden of Eden and the original sin of our parents. In the garden of Eden man was the authority both over the world as well as over the woman. Satan began his attack on the original parents by attacking the woman instead of the man. Religion always sides with those who have no authority for a purpose: to attack establishment authority. Religion is revolutionary; Christianity is constitutionary. Religion teaches freedom without responsibility but the power of freedom is really in virtue. Freedom demands a sense of responsibility or virtue for its perpetuation. Religion is anti-freedom, antiestablishment, and irresponsible because it has no virtue. Just as Satan rejected the authority established by God in the garden, so Satan rejects divine establishment authority in life. Therefore religion is portrayed as a woman because the woman was the first revolutionary in history. Since Adam was the ruling authority on earth his fall would have removed the issue of volition for the woman but the woman would simply have obeyed her husband in that case. However, that is not the way Satan works, he attacks the one with no authority and then destroys authority through the one who has no authority. So just as Satan used the woman to undermine the authority of Adam so Satan uses religion to undermine the authority of establishment and doctrine in life. Establishment recognises the importance of privacy, freedom, the sacredness of property and life, under the protection of the authority of government. Religion undermines all these principles by either trying to be the state or dictating to the state religious policies rather than political policies. So what the prostitute and religion have in common is they are both malcontent.

Eve as a rebellious woman in perfect environment is the perfect analogy, then, to religion. Religion distorts truth just as the woman in the garden distorted the divine mandate when she added with regard to the question: Satan said to her, speaking through the serpent, “You mean that God won’t let you eat from the tree?” And her answer was, “He will not let us eat nor touch it.” God said nothing about touching the tree. Actually, the woman assumed erroneously that if you eat from the tree you die. She also assumed that if you touch the tree you would die. In other words, she assumed that death lay in the property of the tree, when in fact, death lay in the act of disobedience. Therefore she either deliberately or inadvertently distorted the truth. The truth always deals with the issue of authority but she made it mysterious, the mystique syndrome, and she thought that if you touched the tree you would die, or if you ate from the fruit of the tree. So death did not lie in the property of the tree but in the act of disobedience, negative volition toward the divine mandate. Religion always denies the truth as illustrated by the fact that Satan, the father of religion, immediately told the woman: “Dying, you will not die.” He was denying that the wages of disobedience is death. This results in religion ascribing to God false motivation and the maligning of divine essence. As with Satan so with the woman in the garden, her fall was related to arrogance.

Using the whore as the analogy here implies that all religion is arrogant. Satan suggested to the woman that of she ate from the tree she would be equal with God, knowing good and evil. That was the implication of Genesis 3:5. Satan’s appeal to the arrogance of the woman is the transfer of Satan’s own weakness to the soul of the woman. Therefore religion is a woman receiving the inculcation of Satanic doctrine to itself. The woman was designed by God to be feminine, and to be feminine she has to be subordinate to authority. She rejected the authority of Adam. When she partook of the fruit and sinned Adam was still ruling the world, but not for long. He discovered that he couldn’t rule the world without the woman’s cooperation, and she had to cooperate by behaving. When women don’t behave and don’t cooperate it always means that the ruler is discredited. The woman discovered in her fall that she was not like God and that is when she learned what God was like. That is what happens in this chapter. Religion is a woman and as a woman is not equal to God in power but the recipient of divine power in judgment.

So we have, “Then he said to me, The waters which you saw, on which the prostitute sits,” the domination and control of ecumenical religion during the Tribulation. We have the word “sits,” the present active indicative of kaqhmai meaning domination. The prostitute rules a system and this is analogous to ecumenical religion in its dominating role in the Tribulation. The pictorial present tense depicts the ecumenical religious system dominating people and nations throughout the world in the time of the devil’s desperation. The active voice: the prostitute or ecumenical religion produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a point of eschatological doctrine.

We have four categories which are dominated by the prostitute. The first category are the cultures of the world. Cultures always appear to be strong, many cultures are strong, and people cling to their cultures. Culture, by the way, has nothing to do with race. When you think of culture, think of thought. Culture is the thought of mankind in a specific geographical area. It can be related to race, to history, to a nation, but culture expresses itself in the singing and the dancing, the thinking, the general philosophical concepts, the paintings, the artistry, the talent. Culture expresses itself in thought and talent, and the first category to be dominated is culture. The present active indicative of e)imi comes first, the verb to be. With this we have the predicate nominative plural from the noun laoj, “people.” It refers to man under the classification of culture or what people think. We have a progressive present tense, action in progress during the Tribulation. The active voice: waters are interpreted as producing the action. These people are being dominated. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the correct interpretation of waters. The predicate nominative laoj, translated correctly “people” refers to the cultural classification of people. It refers, therefore, to mankind under the classification of what he thinks in terms of culture. The cosmic dynasphere number two is a special trap for the cultures of the world. The noun laoj also means people gathered in crowds. People in crowds come to accept a system of thought, to consider a system of thought, and people in crowds are not there to think for themselves but to learn. Hence, their culture is no defense against this Satanic religion in the field of cosmic evangelism. Religion draws crowds where thinking is neutralised by emotion. Remember that most cultures of the world also express the emotion of people and this ecumenical religious system is not designed to appeal to the people who can think but to appeal to the people through emotion.

In the second category we have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, “also,” and the predicate nominative plural from o)xloj which means multitudes. This classification looks at people from the standpoint of the racial classification of mankind, “also multitudes.” There is no race in the world which is not vulnerable to this false system of doctrine.

The third category is called “nations,” kai this time is translated “both.” This is a predicate nominative plural from e)qnoj, referring to the nations of the world at that time. No nation is exempt from Satanic evangelism. Religion seeks to control and dominate nations. The phallic cult dominated Canaan, Phoenicia, and Carthage. In the middle ages the Roman Catholic church dominated most of the European nations. The union of religion and state destroys human freedom and establishes dictatorships.

The fourth category is language, glwssa, also in the predicate nominative plural. It refers to the linguistic classification of mankind, and language is no barrier to the rapid advance of this religion in the Tribulation.

“Then he said to me, The waters which you saw, no which the prostitute sits, are peoples, and multitudes, both nations, and languages.”

In verses 16 & 17 we have the interpretation of the ten horns now continued and concluded. In verse 16 we see the great civil war. We see the political finally getting tired of religion and rising up to destroy it.

Verse 16, We translate the beginning of the verse, “Both the beast dictator and the ten horns.” We translate it with two kais together, “Both and.” “Both the beast dictator and the ten horns which you saw,” this is the political leadership of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. Now finally they come to disgust and this is translated by the nominative plural subject of the immediate demonstrative o(utoj, translated “these,” followed by the future active indicative of the verb misew. They don’t start out despising, they come to despise. At first the nations of the world accept the religious system, later on they detest and abhor it. It connotes aversion leading to hostility. The progressive future denotes the concept of perpetual hostility in future time. The active voice: the political side of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation dominated all too long now turns and antagonism toward the ecumenical religious system leads to hostility. The indicative mood is declarative. The accusative singular direct object is directed again toward the

“Both the beast dictator and the ten horns which you saw will despise the prostitute.” This hostility arises over the matter of power and control plus the fact that if there is any establishment in any of these governments they can begin to see that religion is antiestablishment and attack upon their own authority, and they try to do something about it. Needless to say the antagonism results in civil war inside of the revived Roman empire. The result of this civil war is the fall of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. God uses agents in the administration of personal and historical judgment. In this case the agent is the political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire. As evil as the political system is it turns against another evil. Most civil wars are not good versus evil, they are always evil versus evil with a little good on both sides. But this is strictly evil versus evil without any good on either side. Notice that God uses an evil agent to destroy an evil agent. The union of religion and state not only produces tyranny but revolution and civil war as well. In this civil war ecumenical religion, however, is destroyed.

Next we have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “then.” After the development of hatred and hostility toward religion the political leadership will act to destroy religious power. Then we have a perfect passive participle of the verb e)rhmow which means to lay waste, to depopulate, to devastate, to bring to ruin, “having been devastated.” However, the participle is in the accusative case and is therefore used here as a noun . It is part of a double accusative and we translate it “a devastation.”

Next we have the future active indicative of poiew which will be used as an idiom. It means to do or to make but it will not be translated that way here. The predictive future anticipates the judgment of a future religious system, Satan’s greatest system. The active voice: the beast dictator and his ten proconsuls will produce the action of the verb, that is the political leadership of the empire will become hostile to ecumenical religion as a system. It is interesting to note that sometimes religion will develop an army that will nearly conquer the world. The one that almost has is the Muslims. The only thing that stopped them was good establishment organisation, the establishment armies of the Francs. So we have the phrase, “they will make her,” the double accusative “her” and then the impersonal object of the perfect passive participle, “they will ruin her and cause her to be naked [to have her power stripped from her].” The word for naked is gumnoj and it refers to all of the glamour that we studied in the first part of this chapter.

“they will both devour her flesh [converts],” even though these people are rabid. Religion always has its own army and goes in for terrorism. The army always gets very zealous. Zeal becomes a part of arrogance and that leads to terrorism on the one hand, the use of force on the other hand. Force is the one thing that you must never use in evangelism. It isn’t a genuine conversion unless it comes from their own free will. Almost every religion in the world has finally developed an army and has tried to solve its problems by violence. So this religion had an army. The army uses violence, it is not an establishment army. The armies of the middle ages were often religious armies, not establishment armies. The tried to convert people by violence. When they do sooner or later they are destroyed by an establishment army because establishment is God’s way of checking the rise of religion so that people are destroyed. One reason why the establishment army will eventually defeat a religious army is because violence leads to degeneracy.

So we note here then that religion is finally naked. Notice that nakedness means stripped of all glamour, stripped of wealth, and stripped of power. So the next point is that when religion gets degenerate, as inevitably it will because religion always seeks to convert people by intimidation and violence, establishment comes along and strips it. Religion will eventually be defeated by an establishment army, and that is what happened here. The establishment army of the revived Roman empire representing political power will eventually become stronger than religious power because political power has an organised army which is relatively free from degeneracy. The word “flesh” is in the singular here because it is still talking about the prostitute. Her body is destroyed, the body being analogous to her converts. Her converts are destroyed because the converts are depending on the wrong thing, the worst form of evil. The worst form of evil is the weakest form of evil and the weakest form of evil is the most destructive form. Religion has no security because religion is evil, “they will both devour her and burn her with fire.” The burning with fire means total destruction.

Translation: “Both the beast dictator, and the ten horns which you saw, will despise the prostitute, they will ruin her and cause her to be naked, they will both devour her converts, and consume her with fire.”

There are four attacks on this ecumenical religious system by the political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire. This is a great civil war in the midst of world war. First there is antagonism in which the whore is despised. This is followed by ruin or destruction which means loss of power and control of the political, and/or the severance of religion and the state. Where the religion dominates the state eventually the state will throw it off. Nakedness is a part of the second step in that it connotes being stripped of all power and attraction. The third step is the devouring of the converts, the flesh. This means persecution and martyrdom of religion and apostate types. Finally, to be burned by fire refers to legal punishment, which means they were destroyed legally by the establishment system and its system of jurisprudence. This is taught as a principle is Leviticus 20:14; 21:9 where the whore is burned in Israel.

In verse 17 we have the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. We begin this verse with the explanatory use of the post positive conjunctive particle gar, “For.” Gar explains the hostility of the beast dictator and the ten horns toward ecumenical religion. They previously sponsored it, now they are antagonistic. The subject is the nominative singular from qeoj, “For God.” Then the aorist active indicative of didomi which means here to give, “For God has given.” ”The aorist tense is a culminative aorist viewing the event in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results: hostility toward ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb under the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the divine decrees. Nations where religion controls always have a tremendous amount of violence. In the 19th century colonialism saved the lives of millions of people and was also the basis for great evangelism. It suppressed religions from following their trend of destruction. For example, in India the Moslems and the Hindus were always killing each other. The British came along and put a stop to it. The very day that they left a million Indians died. Where religion controls there is violence, evil, injustice.

Next we have e)ij plus the accusative plural from the noun kardia, “through their right lobes.” It can also be translated “because of their right lobes,” “For because of their right lobes God has permitted [didomi],” is the way it should be translated. In other words, because of the power lust of their right lobes God permitted them to execute His will and purpose, the judgment of international religion. Finally the political group in the revived Roman empire wanted the power, they were tired of all this nonsense. Because of what they were thinking in their hearts God used them to execute His will and purpose on ecumenical religion. Hence, there is a principle that comes out of this: Jesus Christ controls history but He often controls history by using the wrath of man to praise Him, as per Psalm 76:10. The verb didomi ordinarily means to give but here it means to permit, just as next we have an aorist active infinitive of poiew which ordinarily means to do but here means to execute, “For because of their right lobes God has permitted them to execute his purpose.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, that is, the entire action of the last half of the Tribulation. The active voice: the beast dictator of the revived Roman empire produces the action. This is an infinitive of purpose.

God used the hostility of the political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire to judge and destroy the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation. In controlling history our Lord Jesus Christ often uses finesse punishment. Finesse punishment is to punish someone by using someone who is mad at them. Our Lord Jesus Christ uses an evil nation to punish a nation, or in this case He uses an evil political system to punish an evil religious system. Because of the omniscience of God and the doctrine of divine decrees God uses the wrath of man to praise Him, to execute His will, to fulfill His purpose. The purpose of God is fulfilled in many ways during the course of human history: directly, from this who do the will of God; indirectly, from those who are evil — finesse punishment — following the natural inclination of their arrogance in the cosmic system; sovereignly, through the overruling will of God, the divine protection of believers under logistical grace and divine restraint of evil under the principle of the perpetuation of the human race throughout history; the conversion of bad or evil motivation into a divine purpose.

God’s purpose in the formation of the revived Roman empire is therefore given in the next phrase, “therefore.” We have the coupling of the conjunction kai, “therefore to give her kingdom to the beast dictator.” God has permitted the execution of His purpose. In other words, the beast dictator will take over the religious organization, “until the doctrines from God shall be fulfilled.” In other words, Jesus Christ controls history.

So far in verse 17, “For because of their right lobes God has permitted them to execute his purpose,” he has permitted the political revived Roman empire to punish the religious, “both to execute one purpose and to give their kingdom to the beast dictator.” When the ten rulers of the ten nations of the revived Roman empire gave their power and authority to the beast dictator of the empire God had a purpose in it. God permitted the formation of this great empire. He was going to use them for a finesse judgment. The formation and the consolidation of the ten nations into one great empire fulfills the purpose of God. It would be the whip by which He would take an evil whip and punish an evil religious system. The destruction of ecumenical religion, then, is both the purpose of God and the fulfillment of the seventh bowl judgment. Whether the judgment from God is administered directly or indirectly or through finesse the one principle that stands out is the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. The formation of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation is the forging of an instrument of judgment. God often permits the rise of an evil empire to fulfill His will and purpose in history without violating the volition or freedom of any individual in history. All prophecy of judgment will be fulfilled, says the last phrase of verse 17, “until the doctrines from God shall be fulfilled.”

Translation of verse 17: “For because of their right lobes [the organ of thinking] God has permitted them to execute his purpose [God used the hostility of the political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire to judge and destroy the ecumenical religious system], therefore to give their kingdom to the beast dictator, until the doctrines from God shall be completed.”

Principle:Eschatology — “the doctrines from God shall be fulfilled” —anticipates finesse judgment

1. In finesse judgment God does not coerce or violate the volition, the free will, of any human being involved.

2. Actually, God uses the motivational evil of man as His agent to punish evil; the motivational evil of one group to punish the evil of another group.

3. Here, then, is finesse. Evil is used to punish evil. One system of evil becomes the agent, the other system of evil becomes the target.

4. Finesse judgment dramatises the fact that man is the product of his own evil motivation and evil decisions.

5. In fact, finesse judgment is the counterpart to the believer’s self-induced misery from his own bad decisions. This is the other side of the coin from self-induced misery of the individual believer.

6. In application, God uses our bad decisions to punish us and He does this under the principle that every person is responsible for his own decisions. When we produce through evil motivation evil decisions we become the agent of our own punishment, and God isn’t violating our free will.

8. The misery produced by bad motivation followed by bad decisions becomes God’s agent for our punishment.

9. In a similar manner finesse judgment functions. Bad policy and evil decisions nationally become the basis of national judgment. Evil decisions bring both the individual and the nation in contact with evil so that evil punishes evil. This is the pattern of finesse judgment.

Verse 18, the interpretation of the woman. The connective conjunction kai advances the interpretation and so it is translated “Furthermore.” Next we have the nominative singular subject gunh, “woman,” “Furthermore the woman [the religious entity] whom you saw is that great city.” While the woman is called Babylon as a title for the perpetuation of religion from the epicentre of religion, the ancient city of Babylon, it is actually a reference to the city of Rome where we have Rome [the revived Roman empire] sponsoring this organisation. The revived Roman empire is the capital of international religion in the Tribulation as well as the capital of the revived Roman empire. Therefore we have the phrase, “Furthermore the woman which you saw is that great city. Then we have the kingdom of ecumenical religion, “who has a kingdom.” We have the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw which is translated as a relative clause. The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of the eschatological event in the process of occurrence in the Tribulation. The woman here, as the personification of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation, produces the action of the verb: the possession of a religious system of evil, and evil kingdom which rules many of the kingdoms of the world. The participle is circumstantial.

Translation: “The woman which you saw is that great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”

1. Religion with its power and influence in the Tribulation is the kingdom over the kings of the earth. This emphasises the international system Satan devised to influence the nations of the Tribulation.

2. Many religions have covered great continents and areas of the earth becoming semi-international but there never has been a totally international religion with the great influence of Satan’s ecumenical religious system in the world. Never, until the Tribulation, will there be a truly international religion. This future international religion will reflect the great genius of Satan in controlling people by giving people what they want. By calling the system Babylon the Great we have the combination of idolatry and the phallic cult, including human sacrifice. All of this is reflected in the religious worship of the ancient world.

The religious system is called Babylon the great prostitute, or what we might call the high class call girl. This analogy is based on several principles. For example, the prostitute is never emotionally involved with her customer and this religion in the Tribulation fulfills that principle. The religious system of internationalism never becomes emotionally involved with its converts. For example, the prostitute arouses the lust of her customer and this religion of the future arouses the lust of its converts. For example, the prostitute takes money for her services; this religious system of the future will take money as never before. The great prostitute is described as glamorous and attractive in verse four, so this religion of the future is very glamorous and attractive to its converts. The religion is associated with high classes. Since fornication is a sin the spiritual fornication mentioned in this context is analogous to distraction from the truth or rejection of Bible doctrine. Hence, the religious prostitute of the Tribulation lures even believers away from doctrine. Fornication is mentioned in our passage, verses 2,4, and in 18:3,9; 19:2 but in every case it is not literal fornication but the spiritual fornication of apostate involvement in this Satanic system. Fornication or spiritual adultery, then, is used to describe the reversionism and the apostasy of this great system in the Tribulation.

Once again we are going to meet the king of arms, the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds. Most angels do not have wings, therefore when angels do have wings it signifies rank, and with elect angels it means that they have done something special in the prehistoric angelic conflict. Seraphs are defined as angels that have six wings. They are the highest-ranking category of elect angels, according to Isaiah 6:2. Prior to the prehistoric fall of Satan the highest-ranking category of angels were cherubs, their insignia of rank was four wings. At the conclusion of the pre historical angelic conflict a new rank was created for those elect angels whose modus operandi during the prehistoric conflict had glorified the Lord in a special way. In other words, every seraph received a battlefield commission from the prehistoric conflict. Of course, this is analogous to the eternal rewards for mature believers at the judgment seat of Christ.

The king of arms is one of those who has six wings. There are probably about seven or eight out of all of the millions of elect angels who hold this highest rank and the highest of all is the king of arms. The king of arms had a very special ministry in the days of Isaiah, Isaiah 6:6. He was the herald with the special message to Isaiah, Isaiah 6:7. So the king of arms is the first personality that we meet in chapter 18.

This is the judgment of ecumenical religion included in chapter eighteen. There are three categories of seraphs in the angelic college of heralds, the one we meet in verse one is the king of arms. We have noted a number of references to the king of arms in Revelation. In 5:2 where he announced, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the books?” In 8:3-5 the king of arms is portrayed as the angel with the golden incense shovel. In 10:1 again he is called the powerful one. We also note that he has other great decorations indicating that he is the apostle Paul or the Moses of the elect angels. He is said to be the powerful one and is said to be wearing a crown. The crown indicates tremendous decorations. The rainbow over his head is a promise from God for the perpetuation of the human race, and he is the one that carries this part of our Lord’s coat of arms. His face was like the sun, a reminder of grace provision for historical disaster, his feet like columns of fire, the wall of fire for positive believers in time of historical disaster. The king of arms carries all of these messages in the coat of arms which he carries. In 14:18, “In the meantime another angel [the same king of arms] who had authority over fire came out from the altar.” Now in 18:1 we see him as “another angel.” In 18:21 we will see him again as the strong angel; in 19:5 we will see him again. He is said to be a voice coming from the throne; in 19:17, “I saw one angel standing in the sunlight; and he shouted with a loud voice, saying to all the vultures ...” All of these are references to the king of arms, the highest-ranking of all seraphs.

There are at least two having a lesser rank: officers of arms. They rank second in the seraph order. The first is the messenger sent from God the Father to God the Son, Revelation 14:15, and the second one is the angel with the key to the abyss whom we will study in 20:1-3. Third in rank among the seraphs are those who have the full rank of heralds, e.g. 15:7.

The king of arms resumes the interpretation in verse one. The first words in the Greek are part of a prepositional phrase, meta is the preposition, plus o(utoj the demonstrative pronoun in the neuter plural, “After these things.” The word “and” does not occur in this passage. It refers to the content of the previous chapter, the rise and fall of ecumenical religion during the Tribulation. Then we have the verb, the aorist active indicative of o(raw, “I saw.” John is speaking as the author of the book and the constative aorist tense is simply indicating that point of time when he saw these things. The active voice: John as the human author produces the action. The indicative mood is for the continuation of the content of the book.

At this point we have the most dramatic of all the angelic creatures described here simply under the accusative singular direct object. First of all the adjective a)lloj and the noun a)ggeloj, “another angel,” another of the same category, meaning another angel in the angelic college of heralds. This is the king of arms, the highest-ranking one. He is said to be descending under the present active participle of katabainw. At this point a higher ranking angelic creature has to come down and handle the information. Up to this point we have had a pur sui vant messenger. We studied seven pur sui vant messengers in chapter 16, and number seven, after he administers the seventh bowl judgment which destroys ecumenical religion he stayed around acting as an interpreting angel. All of the angelic creatures in the college of heralds, seraphs, cherubs and pur sui vant messengers, are qualified teachers of Bible doctrine. But after he finished teaching chapter seventeen he had to step aside for the highest-ranking of all, the king of arms, who now comes down to take over to fill us in on the rest of the fall of this great religious empire that we have noted in the past.

“After these things I saw another angel [the king of arms].” Now we come to the first relative clause which is introduced in form by the present active participle of e)xw, translated “who had.” The present tense is a static present representing a condition as perpetually existing. The king of arms has the greatest authority as the highest ranking angelic creature in the college of heralds. The active voice: the king of arms produces the action. It is a circumstantial participle to form a relative clause, and he is said to have great authority. Great authority, by the way, is a reward for both angels from the past prehistoric conflict and for believers who are advancing to maturity and glorifying the Lord in this phase. In the Millennium the greatest authority will go to those members of the royal family who succeeded in utilising the protocol system to the maximum. The exploitation of the protocol system to the maximum means that certain believers will actually rule nations for the last one thousand years in history. Therefore, members of the human race in resurrection bodies — some, a few — are going to have great authority. This is authority given by God as a reward. “After these things I saw another angel who has great authority, coming down from heaven.” Note that we have inserted the relative clause in order to make better English.

So we have the angelic replacement now for the doctrinal teaching which follows. This will be the highest doctrinal teaching of all. Therefore what follows becomes very important.

In the previous chapter 17 we had a teaching angel which was a pur sui vant messenger. This does not mean that the content of this chapter is any greater than any previous chapter, after all it is all the Word of God, but it does mean that it is a different type of content which the pur sui vant messenger is not permitted to handle. There are certain types of information that can only be handled by certain types of individuals. That is true in the realm of the elect angels and it is true in the realm of Christianity today. There are certain types of doctrinal information that demand the spiritual gift for their proper development and communication. This does not mean that there is any difference in the spiritual life between layman and clergy, it simply means that God has in the total sense of His order allowed certain functions to go with certain spiritual gifts. The content of the message communicated by the pur sui vant messenger, which we have just completed in chapter 17, reveals that ecumenical religion during the Tribulation by its own bad decisions brought about its own downfall. The policy of religion dominating the civil government of the nation inevitably leads to the downfall or loss of power on the part of that religion. Many times in medieval history the Roman Catholic church actually dominated the civil life of people. Wherever it did eventually there was a break away from it and there was a reaction to it. In the 18th, 19, and 20th centuries in South America, Central America, and Mexico, the same situation has occurred. There is never a time when religion dominates the central government of a nation when it does not lead to the destruction of freedom, the loss of concepts of privacy, freedom, and the concept of sacredness of property and life. This means, of course, the downfall or loss of power on the part of that religion because inevitably people will react to it and destroy it. And while Christianity is not a religion it suffers from the same malady when it tries to control the state or become involved in crusader arrogance through social action and civil disobedience.

Christianity is not a religion but occasionally it tries to take on the role of religion. This is because of too much cosmic involvement and the shrinking of the pivot. Christianity is not a religion, nevertheless it suffers from the same malady of religion when it tries to control the state or become involved in crusader arrogance through social action and civil disobedience. The influence of Christianity within the state must be always spiritual. When a client nation declines it is always because born-again believers have become indifferent to the Word of God and the modus operandi of the protocol system. When Christianity tries to be the state, or influence the state through revolution, through violence, through any of the systems of social action or civil disobedience, it becomes apostate. The apostasy is a religious apostasy and Christianity destroys itself and the state. God blesses the civil government and the client nation through the principle of blessing by association related to a large pivot of mature believers. That brings us back to the doctrine of historical trends: as goes the believer, so goes the national entity.

The pivot is where we have to start, then, as we move into this particular chapter

1. The pivot is defined as the accumulation of mature believers living in a client nation or under a civil government in a specific geographical location. Pivots were actually started in the 19th century because they were under the government of the British empire, and the British empire brought establishment to the bush. Behind establishment came missionaries who presented the gospel and taught Bible doctrine and so little pivots were formed in the 19th century in almost every one of the areas of the world.

2. While the pivot is composed primarily of mature believers who have achieved gate eight of the protocol system in the plan of God it may also include, of course, those positive believers whose momentum has taken them past that first great mandate, virtue first.

3. Technically, then, the pivot may include all believers who have fulfilled the principle of virtue first as one of the major priorities in the plan of God.

4. The pivot stands out in contrast to believers living in the cosmic system, believers whose arrogance from motivational evil results in self-righteous arrogance.

5. These believers are apostate, and you can always recognise apostasy by the platitudes, by the self-righteousness, by the crusader arrogance, by the distortion of doctrine and disorientation to reality. There is a certain percentage of born-again believers who are mentally ill from arrogance.

6. The true Christian influence in the national entity is spiritual while the believer’s responsibility is defined under the laws of divine establishment.

7. Christianity must never be the state. Religions always try to be the state, e.g. Iran, Arab countries. The influence of Christianity is not influencing the state with Christian principles but growing in grace, establishing a pivot. We therefore believe and advocate to the ultimate the separation of church and state for the true function of freedom and the fulfillment of human volition in the angelic conflict. We support the state, we support establishment, but we are not the establishment.

8. This does not imply that Christians should not serve in government. It does imply that believers in government service must abide by the laws of divine establishment and they must never seek to force Christianity on others. No one should be forced to believe in Christ. People must accept Christ by their own personal consent. In other words, Christianity must not be the state. The reason that ecumenical religion went out under finesse judgment is because they destroyed themselves. When religion seeks to become the state it is a bad decision, and therefore evil cancels evil. God uses evil to punish evil.

1. The client nation to God is not a Christian nation. There is no such thing as a Christian nation. A Christian nation would mean that every person in the nation is a Christian. It has never existed and it never will, but there is a such a thing as a client nation to God. However, a client nation to God is not a Christian nation, it is simply a national entity in which the civil government recognises establishment principles of freedom, including privacy and the sacredness of property and life.

2. The client nation to God contains a pivot of mature believers, those who have achieved spiritual momentum in the protocol system — spiritual influence.

3. This means that there is enough freedom in that nation to provide for extensive evangelism without government interference or federal persecution. From this evangelism there comes a cadre, a cadre for the pivot. It must be remembered, however, that in the development of a cadre for the pivot not all believers execute the plan of God. So that one of the greatest enemies to spiritual influence in a nation are born-again believers who want to crusade. Not all believers execute the plan of God, they become apostate through life in Satan’s cosmic system. And these cosmic believers become potential revolutionists through civil disobedience, they become fanatical crusaders disrupting the freedom and rights of others through social action.

1. A civil government and policy based on the laws of divine establishment. That includes free enterprise.

2. The function of evangelism under the principle of freedom. We who evangelise must recognise the freedom of others. Freedom means privacy. Our job is to clearly present the gospel but we do not force people to accept Christ. We leave people with the information; they must use their volition, and it is wrong on the part of Christians to pressure people.

3. The establishment of local churches which are autonomous. To the extent that local churches form into denominations you are destroying the client nation principle. Denominations become the enemy of client nations. Autonomous local churches: neither connected with other churches to form denominations or spheres of influence, nor involved in any movement which seeks to unite church and state. One of the things that hurt England more than anything else was the fact that Henry the Eighth established his own church and made it part of the state.

4. A vigorous and dynamic Bible teaching to believers which emphasises the protocol system in the plan of God.

5. Missionary activity to other nations under the indigenous principle of not interfering with foreign governments but providing both gospel and Bible teaching for people in the nation. No missionary has the right to interfere with the government and become involved in the politics of the nation where he goes.

God uses one system of evil to cancel another system of evil, and we are seeing that. The revived Roman empire of the Tribulation is a system of political evil and God used that agent for the destruction of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. Ecumenical religion was destroyed by the agency of the political evil that once sponsored it. That is finesse judgment. In this judgment of ecumenical religion in chapter eighteen we will note in verses 1-8 the announcement of the judgment. The announcement will come from the standpoint of finesse judgment. Then in verses 9-19 we will see the reaction of public opinion in three categories: the rulers of the world, the merchants of the world, the transportation industry of the world. Eventually we will see the response of heaven in verses 20-24.

Why is the fifth cycle of discipline administered to any given nation? Take the cause of the northern kingdom: Hosea chapter 4:1-6, “Hear the doctrine of the Lord you citizens of Israel [northern kingdom, a client nation at the time], because the Lord has a court case against you, the citizens of the nation, because there is no doctrine [no doctrine being taught] and nothing of grace being applied. Obviously there is no knowledge of God in the nation. Instead there is lying and deceiving [lack of virtue among the citizens], both murder and stealing, and rape, plus unrestrained violence. For this cause the land shall mourn, consequently everyone who lives in it shall lose strength [shall languish], along with the animals of the field,” in time of degeneracy cruelty to animals is one of the functions, “both the birds of the sky and the fish of the lakes are taken away. Yet, let no one contend [blame others for the judgment], and let no one impugn; for you people are like those who contend against the priest [the communicator of doctrine. They are resisting the doctrine]. Therefore you have stumbled by day [application of doctrine in daily life], furthermore the prophet also will stumble with you by night [the apostate teaching in Bible class]; then I will destroy your mother [nation]. My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge [of doctrine. The reason they went down]. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being my priest nation [client nation]. Since you have neglected the doctrine of your God, I will neglect the next generation [termination of the nation].”

Jeremiah 7:24-26, the reason why the fifth cycle of discipline was administered to the southern kingdom in BC 586: “They did not hear my doctrine nor inclined their ear [negative volition], but they walked in their own counsel [arrogance and human viewpoint generated in the cosmic system] and in the stubbornness of their evil right lobes [scar tissue of the soul from cosmic two], they also went backward not forward. Since the day that their ancestors came out of the land of Egypt [the beginning of the client nation] until this day, I have sent to you day by day my servants the prophets , rising early and sending them. Yet they did not listen to me [negative volition toward doctrine] nor inclined their ear, but they stiffened their neck [scar tissue of the soul]; they did more evil than all of their ancestors.

Jeremiah 15:6, “You have forsaken me, says the Lord, You keep going backward. Therefore I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you.” This is addressed to believers.

And why did the final Jewish client nation go out under the fifth cycle of discipline? Matthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered you as my children together, and you were not willing [negative volition].”

It should be noted that the influence of the believer in the client nation, then, is related to his knowledge of Bible doctrine, therefore his momentum in the plan of God. The believer does not interfere or obstruct the function of civil government. To understand the believer’s responsibility to his country it is necessary to understand the protocol system, the divine dynasphere.

“After these things,” says Revelation 18:1, “I saw another angel who had great authority coming down from heaven.” We also notice that he is highly decorated. This is brought out in the next phrase, the connective use of the conjunction kai, “and,” followed by the nominative singular subject, “and the earth.” Next we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb fwtizw which means to illuminate, “and the earth was illuminated.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in the moment of time, the great flash of light that came from his descent. The active voice: the earth receives the action of the verb as a result of the king of arms coming to earth. The indicative mood is declarative for the glamour, the glory of the uniform of glory in the form of light won by the king of arms as a part of whatever type of eternal reward he possesses. Next we have the preposition e)k plus the ablative of means from doca plus the possessive genitive from a)utoj, “because of his glory.” Usually the ablative is not used to indicate means, that is the instrumental case in the Greek. While the instrumental is used to express means when the expression of means is accompanied by the implication of origin then the ablative is used instead; in this case the ablative of the preposition e)k.

After these things I saw another angel who had great authority descending from heaven; and the earth was illuminated by means of his glory.”

The glory indicates that the elect angels already have their resurrection bodies, or whatever is the equivalent, and they have already received their rewards for the eternal state. So great is the glory of this angelic body that the entire planet earth is illuminated and the translucent light indicates the greatness of this seraph during the prehistoric angelic conflict. This angelic creature is like Moses or Paul as far as his activities in the prehistoric conflict is concerned. His glory is a reward, a part of the decorations that he received for his faithfulness to God in that ancient period.

The announcement of the king of arms is given in verse 2. We have a sequential kai, “Then.” Next we have the aorist active indicative from krazw, “Then he shouted.” This is the proclamation which he makes. The constative aorist tense covers the sound of his voice. The active voice: the one who is making the announcement, the king of arms, produces the action. The mood is declarative indicative for an eschatological event of the future. With it we have en plus the adjective i)sxuroj plus the noun fwnh, “with a powerful voice.”

Then the announcement: the aorist active indicative of the verb piptw which means to fall. We have the aorist tense as a constative aorist contemplating the function of finesse judgment in its entirety. The active voice: Babylon is the title given to the ecumenical religious system, for two reasons: because Babylon was the origin of the system that is used in the religion; because as Peter tells us is 1 Peter 5:13 Babylon became the title for Rome during the Roman empire. Today in Rome we have Rome as the capital of Italy, so that is Rome the city. In Rome, the city, we have the Vatican which is a state in itself and is a religious capital of a semi-ecumenical religion. So in Rome in the future there will be a religious city and there will be a civil city. The religious city is the one that is going to be nuked. We will see the word that tells us that under finesse judgment the political Rome will get tired of being pushed around by the arrogance of the religious system, ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. So political Rome being one system of evil is going destroy the ecumenical religious system as another system of evil. We know that from a very interesting noun purwsij, a noun that refers to conflagration and the results of a nuclear blast. This word comes later on in our passage.

In the meantime we have a similar verb repeated in the same morphology, “fallen, fallen” is a good way to translate it and bring out the constative aorist. “Then he shouted with a powerful voice, saying, fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great.” This announcement of judgment coincides with the sevenfold judgment in chapter 16:19. Though the seventh bowl judgment is like the sixth, not only is it a finesse judgment but in the administration of finesse judgment there are going to be some of those unbelievers who are going to survive under the principle of judgment by pain. This is crisis evangelism. They have been evangelised under normal conditions and said no. They went as a result into the cosmic system and in the cosmic system they cannot make a good decision because of the resultant subjectivity, and in order the restore objectivity to their souls they are given pain which blacks out the influence of the cosmic system so that one more time they have a chance to accept Christ as saviour. Then there is one more judgment by death and even though this is at the time of the second advent the principle still remains: God guarantees to keep alive the human race. The human race will not be destroyed but He will perform radical surgery on certain sections of the human race in order to protect the human race.

We have next the two analogies to demons. There is an analogy to birds at the end but that doesn’t have anything to do with the demons. First of all, then, we have ecumenical religion as a habitation for demons. The intensive use of the conjunction kai is translated “In fact.” Then we have the aorist active indicative from the verb ginomai, “it became.” This is a reference to the destroyed headquarters of ecumenical religion. The culminative aorist tense views the demon connection in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: demon influence and demon possession of the cosmic system continue even with nuclear destruction. Notice that the nuclear destruction of Babylon does not in any way keep the demons from operating in the area. The active voice: ecumenical religion of the Tribulation produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this doctrinal principle. Then we have the accusative singular direct object from katoikhthrion which means simply “habitation.” Even after the nuclear destruction of that area and everyone is standing around at a distance because they don’t want to get contaminated, and they are making their comments. Even though that happens right in the middle of it the demons are still active. Demons are not affected by nuclear activity. Then comes the possessive genitive plural daimoniwn, “it has become the habitation of demons.” This means that demons can operate in any area where any of the great sophisticated weapons are operating. Both demon influence and demon possession is always identified with any form of Satanic religion. The point is that the headquarters for ecumenical religion is destroyed by nuclear weapons and the people at headquarters are all killed but the demons continue to operate. The existence of demons there indicates the fact that the great motivation and the great sustaining power of any form of religion is demonism. Demons are always the sponsorers of religion and, as a matter of fact, religion is called the devil’s communion table, 1 Corinthians 10:19-21. When the revived Roman empire finally gets around to putting a nuclear missile into the headquarters of the religious ecumenical empire they destroy people but the demons are totally unhindered. The unclean spirit here is synonymous with demons as fallen angels. Demons function through religion like idolatry.

Demons can influence the thinking of people, both believers and unbelievers. We call that demon influence. But demon influence can only exist on Satan’s playing ground, the cosmic system. Demon influence means demons influence the thinking of believers in the cosmic system, and obviously they also influence the thinking of unbelievers. So demon influence is the first function of demons and it is always directed toward the soul, the thinking and sometimes lack of thinking, because thought is the source of true emotion and if you have emotion without thought you have unlawful emotion, like the holy rollers. True emotion is always generated by thought and the holy rollers can’t think. Unlawful emotion comes from taking dope or speaking in tongues.

Demons can indwell the body — demon possession. That is directed toward the body and demons can indwell the bodies of unbelievers; they cannot indwell the bodies of believers. The body of the believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit and he will always be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and the demons cannot go where the Holy Spirit indwells, the demon can only control the soul when the individual is in the cosmic system. Religion, by the way, is one of the many ways in the cosmic system that demons influence the thinking of both believers and unbelievers. Apart from cosmic involvement there are two volitional systems for demon possession: the unlawful isolation of dormant faculties, and passive submission to demons.

What else can demons do? Most other things have been restrained from them. Everything that demons do deals primarily with, for example, demon possession. A person is sick because demons indwell their bodies who have certain categories of illness. There are demons who produce illness. Then they have some so-called healer stand up and “bop” them on the head or wave a towel over them or pronounce the magic word, and Satan tells the demon to go. The demon then leaves the body and you have an actual case of “healing.” The healing was demon-induced and the removal of the demon means instant cure. So a lot of the extra natural activity that demons do are related to demon possession. Some are even related to demon influence. Demons can influence the thinking for very strong ideas.

“and is a prison for every unclean spirit,” the demons or the unclean spirits are synonymous. We have two phrases here mentioning that fact. The second phrase: the connective conjunction kai, meaning “and,” and with it the noun fulakh which means prison, “and is a prison.” Then we have the objective genitive singular using three words. First of all, the adjective paj, “every,” and then a)kaqartoj, meaning unclean, and then finally the word pneuma used for spirits [demons, disembodied spirits]. There are two categories of demons: those who still have their bodies and those who are disembodied spirits. This is a reference to disembodied spirits but regardless of the category we have noted that they survive any kind of a nuclear holocaust — “and is a prison for every unclean spirit.” Nothing is left of the headquarters except the demons who were there before, and they are still there. As a matter of fact it is now a prison. Apparently the Lord will not permit these demons to move out and go anywhere and now this is their prison. All of the individuals in the religious headquarters which they were influencing are all gone. Nothing is left now but the demons to keep each other company, they have no people to influence or indwell.

Because of the demon infiltration in Genesis chapter six God has placed certain restraints on demon function during the historical phase of the angelic conflict. In Genesis 6:1-6 we have the genetic attack of demons upon the human race. It was accomplished in bodies. That was the first attack and as a result of that God put a limitation on demons for the rest of human history. Until the middle of the Tribulation only disembodied spirits [demons] can function on earth and their attacks are limited to the soul of mankind which they can penetrate, but not apart from man’s consent, and the bodies of human beings which they can penetrate but not apart from human consent. The human consent has to do with involvement in the cosmic system. Demons cannot cohabit with the human race. However, they can influence the human race in various ways.

Apart from the incarnation and the resultant hypostatic union Christ could not have gone to the cross the be judged for our sins. As eternal God Jesus Christ is sovereignty, perfect righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and veracity. These characteristics of our Lord Jesus Christ make it impossible for Him to be judged for our sins. Jesus Christ is eternal life: He cannot die. Jesus Christ is immutability: He cannot change. Jesus Christ is perfect righteousness: He cannot have anything to do with sin, including bearing the sins of the world. Jesus Christ as God is omnipresent, and that means He is infinite: infinity cannot be reduced to the finite situation required for bearing our sins. Therefore, as God Jesus Christ cannot encourage sin, He is not the author of sin, He cannot tempt to sin, Jesus Christ as God can have nothing to do with sin. In order for Jesus Christ to become our saviour He had to be true humanity, and this true humanity had to be perfect. He had to arrive at the cross as Adam was created and that is exactly what happened. He was born perfect because of the virgin birth and He lived out His life inside the prototype divine dynasphere so that He came to the cross in a state of impeccability. In that state of impeccability there was a printout from the computer of divine decrees and all the sins of the entire world were in that printout. Jesus Christ was judged for those sins on the cross, but He was judged in His humanity, he bore our sins in His own body on the tree. The deity of Christ could not be judged for our sins, only the humanity of Christ. Therefore, of course, it was the greatest attack of demons with bodies [not disembodied spirits but fallen angels with bodies] which was made in Genesis 6:1-6 in an attempt to frustrate the true humanity of Christ. He had to be true humanity, there could be no angelic infiltration into the genetics of mankind. Therefore when God headed that off He also put some limitations on demon activity.

So there are two ways in which demons attack the human race today. First, demons can influence the thinking of both believers and unbelievers but demon influence can only exist in the cosmic system. This is an attack upon the soul. Religion is one of the many ways in which in the cosmic system believers and unbelievers are influenced by demons. The demon attack is against your thinking. Secondly, demons can indwell the bodies of certain unbelievers. There is no such thing as demon possession of the believer. The believer’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which eliminates any possibility of any demon penetrating the body of the believer, therefore demon possession is limited to unbelievers only. But, again, this is only in the cosmic system. Apart from cosmic involvement there are only two volitional systems for demon possession. Firstly, the unlawful isolation of dormant faculties, the body is brought under the control of the soul and the soul is given to Satan, for example, in modern times, the Satanic mass. Such a person becomes, as it were, a disembodied spirit. Other concepts of this system, in part, include mental telepathy, extrasensory perception as a vehicle for the isolation of dormant faculties, spiritism or evil supernaturalism. The isolation of dormant faculties can occur in such things as a seance where a demon-possessed medium is involved. Telepathy or thought transference can be related to demon influence but only inside the cosmic system. Certain forms of hypnosis might even be involved. Secondly, there is passive submission to demons. This can only be accomplished through religion, idolatry, the function of the phallic cult, the use of drugs.

Religious and cosmic systems are demon contact systems devised to neutralise any positive volition toward the truth. For the unbeliever, positive volition toward establishment and the gospel; for the believer, positive volition toward the doctrine of the Word.

“Then he [the king of arms] shouted with a powerful voice, saying, fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great; in fact it has become the habitation of demons and is the prison for every unclean spirit.”

In anticipation of something we will study later on we conclude this verse with the last phrase: the conjunction kai, and once more we have the noun fulakh which generally means a prison of some sort or other. But since Babylon the great has been destroyed we have to call this a prison for demons [nothing left but demons] but with the demons we have all the corpses. The demons are left with the corpses and therefore birds are invited in to the area. That is the last invitation here. Fulakh also means a sentry post and that is the way we are going to translate it here. It is the predicate nominative, “and is the sentry post for.” Then we have a)kaqartoj once more and it refers to birds that live on carrion. It is called unclean and it refers to birds, therefore, like the vulture, the buzzard, the eagle. These are the vultures of Matthew 24:28 who gather for the great feast. They are also called by the genitive singular perfect passive participle of misew used as an adjective and can be translated “hated”. With this we have the noun o)rneon, “bird.” Unclean refers to birds that could not be eaten by the Jews. Inasmuch as the vulture and the buzzard and the eagle feed on carrion they were said to be taboo. They eat human flesh. It is the king of arms who invites them to the feast. We have therefore the participle used as an ascriptive adjective and it views carrion birds from the standpoint of the average person. The average person has no appreciation of the fact that in much of the wilderness, apart from the trash that man leaves, the carrion birds do a great job, “and is the sentry post for every unclean and hated bird.”

In Revelation chapter 19:17,18 we are going to see a very interesting banquet. “Then I saw a unique angel [the king of arms] standing in the sunlight; and he shouted with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid air [birds who eat carrion], Come and gather to the great feast from God in order that you may eat the corpses of kings, and the corpses of general officers, the corpses of the mighty, the corpses of horses and their riders, in fact the corpses of all, both volunteers and draftees, both enlisted personnel and the officer corps.” So there will be a great banquet in the future and this is a part of that banquet.

We note the principle of evil. A mandate has come from God by which we are warned about these things: Romans 12:21, “Stop being conquered by evil, but conquer evil by means of the good.” That is a mandate that is directed to Christianity, to us, because we have the protocol system inside of which is insulation and protection against evil, the evil of the cosmic system. Evil is a factor the believer must face, it was not judged on the cross. For example, Hebrews 5:13,14, “For everyone partaking of milk [new believers, or losers] is ignorant of doctrine pertaining to righteousness [or virtue], because he is immature. But solid food [advanced doctrine] is belonging to the mature believer, who because of self-discipline keeps having his perceptive faculties well trained with reference to differentiating between the virtuous and the evil.” This is one of the most important factors in our daily thinking. We must differentiate between what is virtuous and what is evil, what is honourable and what is dishonourable. False doctrine is both evil and even insanity, says Ecclesiastes 9:3, “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, namely that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the right lobes of the human race are full of this evil, and insanity in their right lobes throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.”

Psalm 21:11, “For they stretch out evil upon you, they devise a conspiracy which they are not able to carry out.” Conspiracy is said to be evil. It is the result of arrogance, therefore evil, cosmic involvement.

Proverbs 12:12, 20, 21, “The evil desire the plunder of evil men, but the root of righteousness produces virtue. Deceit is in the right lobes of those who devise evil,” they are thinking evil, they are deceptive, they are arrogant. Arrogant people cannot be trusted, they have no virtue, they are thinking in terms of motivational evil, “But counselors of establishment possess happiness. No evil happens to the righteous [the believer who is inside of the plan of God], but the evil are filled with trouble.” Only the plan of God can take the evil of men against you and turn it into good.

Psalm 121:7, “The Lord will protect you from all evil; he will guard your soul.”

Proverbs 1:33, “He who listens to me [doctrine] shall live in security, and shall be at ease in the face of evil.”

There are four demon attacks on the human race. The first was a genetic attack in the antediluvian civilization, Genesis 6:1-6. That was accomplished by demons with bodies. The second was the attack of demon possession, an attack of disembodied spirits. The third is the attack of demon influence, also the attack of disembodied spirits. The fourth comes from the Tribulation: the physical attack of demon armies at the end of the Tribulation: Revelation 9:1-12; 13-21; 12:7-17. There is one other possible demon attack which we will be studying in chapter 20:7-10, the activity of demons during the Gog revolution. During the Millennium there will be no demon attacks of any kind.

Before considering Genesis 6:1-6 we should make a distinction between a fable and a myth. A fable is a story like The Fox and the Grapes in which the characters and plot neither pretend reality nor demand credence. A fable is fabricated as the vehicle of a moral or used for didactic instruction. A myth, on the other hand, is a story of anonymous origin prevalent among primitive people and by them accepted as true. They concern supernatural beings and events as well as natural beings and events influenced by supernatural agencies.

There are two kinds of demons operating today: those with bodies who at the present are not permitted on planet earth; those without bodies which we call simply disembodied spirits who are operational on the earth today. Those with bodies are visible and beautiful in appearance. They are the subject of the first demon attack in Genesis chapter 6. Disembodied spirits are invisible demons who are responsible today for both demon possession of the unbeliever, which is the invasion of the human body of the unbeliever in the cosmic system, and demon influence, the invasion of the soul and the personality of both believer and unbeliever in the cosmic system.

The antediluvian assault actually has to do with the very nature of the antediluvian civilisation. It began with the creation of man and terminated with the flood which destroyed the entire population of the earth except for eight believers, Noah and his family. Each civilisation begins with believers only and terminates with some cataclysmic judgment from God. Each civilisation even has its own climate, its own environment, and its own characteristics within species. Man has a different life span in each of these civilisations.

There are three civilisations in which demon activity occurs and is different in each one of these civilisations. First there is the antediluvian civilisation which begins with the creation of man and goes to the flood. It started with two believers, Adam and Eve. They were both saved after the fall. After the flood civilisation starts again with eight believers only: each civilisation is characterised by beginning with believers. The next civilisation is going to be the Millennial civilisation and it begins with believers only. There is demon activity in the antediluvian civilisation and there is demon activity in the post-diluvian civilisation. In the antediluvian civilisation in which demons are involved they are demons with bodies. They are involved in a sexual invasion which is recorded in Genesis 6, Jude 6, 2 Peter 2:4,5, and 1 Peter 3:18-22. This is a genetic attack on the human race to destroy true humanity on the earth and therefore frustrate the first advent of Christ: to keep Christ from coming in the flesh. The second is the post-diluvian civilisation which begins with Noah plus the seven and concludes with the second advent. There are two demon attacks in the post-diluvian civilisation but both are by disembodied spirits. The third civilisation in history is the Millennial civilisation which begins with the second advent and the Tribulational believers who survive. The attack comes at the end of the Millennium, there is no demon activity in the perfect environment of the 1000 years of Millennial history. At the end of that time Satan is released from prison and there will be an attack.

Ethnic demonology is related to the polytheism of the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Canaanites, the Germanic and Indo-European types of demonology or polytheism. All of them include the same things: violence, human sacrifice, the phallic cult, idolatry. All of this involves worship of demons , according to 1 Corinthians 10:19-21. Demons appear, then, to fall into two categories: those who possess bodies and the invisible demons who are disembodied spirits who operate on the earth today but cannot be seen by the visible eye. They have no body and therefore they seek to invade the body of the unbeliever.

In Genesis 6 the object of the demon attack was to frustrate the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, to prevent the humanity of Christ in His hypostatic union and therefore to hinder His saving work on the cross being judged for our sins. Satan tried many times during Old Testament times to destroy the true humanity of Christ. He attacked Adam’s seed through the murder of Abel in Genesis chapter four; he attacked Abraham’s seed when Sarah was found in the harem of the Egyptian king in Genesis chapter twelve. Pharaoh’s mandate to kill the male line of Israel in Exodus 1:10 or to destroy all Israel in Exodus chapter fourteen were simply other Satan-inspired attacks. There are many attacks on the line of David which we have noted before, but the greatest attack of all came in Genesis chapter six.

Verse 1, “Now it came to pass when, man became numerous on the surface of the earth.” The word for mankind is ha adam and it refers to both male and female. It is a generic term and it does not refer to women as such, it has no gender connotation. However, the gender does come into the picture with the population explosion which is mentioned in Genesis chapter six, “that daughters [beautiful women] were born to them.” This is simply a way of saying there was an excess of females.

Verse 2 — “the sons of God,” this should be translated “the sons of the gods.” It is beni-ha-Elohim which is not son of God or sons of God. It is in the plural. Elohim is a title for the members of the Trinity when they are considered as a group, and then you call it “God”. The suffix im is a plural suffix and it can be translated literally, “the sons of the gods.” It is a technical term which is used four times in the Old Testament — Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Daniel 3:25, and in each case it refers to angels. “Son of God” in the Greek is a title for the Lord Jesus Christ used in the New Testament and is a different language entirely. The “sons of gods” are demons. They would include the Titans.

In Genesis 3:15 after the fall God said to the first parents: “I will put hostility between you [Satan] and the woman [the true humanity as the source of the humanity of Christ], between your seed [Satan and the demons and unbelievers] and her seed [Christ in hypostatic union],” so one of the first titles of our Lord is “her seed.” “And he [Christ] will crush your head [the head of Satan], and you [Satan] will crush he heel [at the cross].”

So the “sons,” like Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, and grandsons like Apollo, are “the sons of the gods,” the sons of the Titans.

Verse 2, “the sons of the gods saw the daughters of mankind, that they were beautiful; so they took for themselves women, whomever they selected.” Why were they able to do so well with the ladies on earth? Because of their extreme beauty.

Verse 3, “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit [God the Holy Spirit in His function of common grace] will not contend with man forever,” the key here is “forever.” In other words, the only time you can be saved is in time, now. That is why you must believe in Christ while you are on earth, there is no change of status in eternity, “in his going astray [fornication with demons] he is flesh [true humanity],” in other words, the women who fornicated with the demons were true humanity, but their progeny will not be, “therefore his days will be one hundred and twenty years.” The Spirit would strive with man for 120 years because the judgment that would take them all into eternity would not occur until then, and for 120 years you have the same kind of powerful evangelism that will occur in the Tribulation. There would be 120 years before the flood destroyed corrupted humanity involved in that angelic conflict.

This attack apparently began 120 years before the flood. As a result of the fornication with demons we now have an attack upon the human race. We now have the progeny which is half demon half human. This group would all turn down the strong evangelism and would be destroyed by the flood. A very interesting thing comes out of this. God has promised not only that the human race will never be destroyed but that the earth will never be destroyed by flood. When the flood came there were apparently only eight human beings left on the earth who were true humanity.

Verse 4, Half human, half demons are called ha nephalim which means “fallen ones.” The word is taken from the Hebrew verb naphal which means to fall. It is equivalent to the Greek piptw. Nephalim means “fallen ones.” “The Nephalim were on the earth in those days,” the half human-half angelic creatures that were multiplying so rapidly that is was going to become a race down to the time of the flood, “therefore also afterward, the sons of the gods went in [had sex] with the daughters of men, and had children by them, were the heroes who from ancient history were famous men.”

The pattern of demon activity from the genetic attack on the human race: ecstasy, frenzy, and violence. We have Dionysus the god of wine, the promoter of orgiastic demon cults emphasising emotion taking over reason. Normal emotion is simply the result of reason. Hence, demon penetration of the soul was involved here as well. The emphasis was on utter freedom, escape from human limitations by total communion with demons in the ecstasy brought on with wine, music, torch light dancing, and so on. The results were violence, sexual orgies. Dionysus became the demon of orgy and abandon. He was accompanied by demon-possessed women called “mad ones” who abandoned themselves to the demons to produce a lust frenzy related to both sex and violence. The Dionysian cult became an orgy of sex and human sacrifice, and in the middle of these things the priest and the priestess couldn’t control it and people were just torn apart.

Demon influence on thought and politics, an entire different type of demon activity: Apollo and the oracle of Delphi is one of the greatest illustrations. Apollo is the champion of lucidity, the embodiment of the Hellenistic spirit. As the god or demon of light Apollo was very much involved in the kingdom of darkness and he had a number of priestesses at Delphi. The priestess would go into a trance, her body would be possessed by the demon Apollo, and then she would make the pronouncements. The ancient world went to the oracle of Delphi for advice and to look at the future. Delphi became a demon system for controlling the lives of famous people, rulers, and even nations. Apollo represents the doctrine of demons in 1 Timothy 4:1,2.

Mythology gives us the pattern in the god or demon of healing, the progeny of Apollo. He was the demon who had charge of all illness and could produce it. Healing temples were constructed for his worship. To understand how demon healing works you have to go Satan’s two demon princes. One is Abaddon or Appolyon, Revelation 9:11, the prince in charge of overt warfare. The second is Beelzebub who is in charge of covert warfare and who also has charge of a sub organisation, operation mole, which is a plan to give Satan’s human servants credibility in the Christian community. Satan’s human deceivers include sorcerers who perform feats of necromancy, exorcists, divine healers, unbelievers involved in the tongues movement. Beelzebub is a ruler or a prince of demons and in some of his under cover activities, we note in Matthew 12:24, “When the Pharisees heard it, they said, ‘This man [speaking of Jesus] casts out demons only by Beelzebub the ruler of demons.’” In other words, they claimed from their own theology of the past that Beelzebub was actually pulling out these demons who caused the illness and they alleged that that is how the Lord was performing the miracles of healing. Mark 3:22, “And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebub,’ and ‘He casts out demons by the ruler of demons’.” This is the way they tried to explain away our Lord’s acts of healing.

Actually, there are three sources of human illness. There is psychologically-induced illness, there is physiologically-induced illness, and there is demon-induced illness. Demon-induced illness is operation mole. Some demon gets into the body of an unbeliever, he has an illness, then Beelzebub gives a command to come out, and there is instant healing.

In Genesis 6:1-4 we have the genetic acts that started the ball rolling. Verse 5, “Then the Lord observed that the evil of mankind was great on the earth, and every motive of the thoughts of his right lobe was only evil all the time.” In other words, demon influence among those who were even true humanity, with a few exceptions. It must be remembered that all of this time great evangelism is occurring on the earth. The genetic destruction of true humanity became highly contagious. The half angel, half human creatures possessed super intellect and super strength, but with super intellect and super strength they had no virtue or restraint of any kind. The violence, the arrogance, and the unrestrained high IQ in a strong body was disastrous to the human race. The stories of the gods of Mount Olympus and the gods of the Canaanites and Phoenicans are filled with every category of evil. Evil and violence ruled the world in the antediluvian civilisation.

Verse 6, “Therefore the Lord himself repented that he had made man on planet earth, and he was grieved in his right lobe.” That He repented means that He changed His mind that he had made man on planet earth. Actually, this is merely an anthropopathism. It is going to explain why the flood; why the human race as it was then known had to be destroyed. Repent, changing the mind, is a human function and in order the bring to an end this demon invasion and to make it possible for true humanity to continue on the earth and for us to be here today we have judgment by death. Both evil and genetics were destroying the very purpose for which the Lord created mankind so something had to be done about it.

Verse 7, “Then the Lord decreed, ‘I will blot out mankind whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to reptiles, to birds in the sky; For I have changed my mind that I have made them’.”

Verse 8, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Noah was a believer. Then follows the family history of Noah. Noah, a justified man [faith in Christ, he was a believer] was uncontaminated in his entire genealogy. From Adam to Noah through the line of Seth there was no demon genetics of any kind. The line was uncontaminated by genetic attack of the demons. Furthermore, Noah himself walked with God. He was the original pivot type believer. In the perpetuation of true humanity Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Verse 11, “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God,” the effectiveness of the demon genetic attack from fallen angels with bodies, “furthermore the earth was saturated with violence.” This helps to explain judgment by death. When violence becomes too great on the earth, in order t protect the human race God destroys certain segments of the human race.

There is a parallel passage which begins in Matthew 24:37, “For the coming of the Son of Man [second advent] will be just like the days of Noah.” The genetic angelic attack in the time of Noah is comparable to the attack of the demon assault armies at the end of the Tribulation.

Verse 38, “For in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking [normal functions], they were marrying and giving in marriage [normal functions], until the day that Noah entered the ark” — they were preoccupied with their normal pleasures [preoccupation with self]

Verse 39 — “and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” There was no effective client nation in the time of Noah therefore the absence of the laws of divine establishment meant unrestrained demon activity. People were in better health than they had ever been in history. Health is not spirituality. There was no establishment, however.

Genesis 6:12, “Consequently God looked at the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” This effectiveness of the genetic attack by demons. True humanity was almost extinct. The line of Christ must be true humanity all of the way from Adam to the virgin Mary, therefore the necessity of destroying the hybrid race — half human, half angelic creature.

Verse 13, “Then God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before me,” an idiom meaning I’m thinking about destroying the entire human race, “for the earth has become saturated with violence because of their presence [of demon sexual attacks and the evil function of their progeny]; now behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth’.” Corrupted humanity and fallen angels were to be removed from planet earth to Hades.

The fallen angels who were involved in the Genesis chapter six modus operandi were judged. In 2 Peter 2:4 we have a reference to their judgment. “For if God did not spare the angels [the Nephalim] when they sinned, but incarcerated them in pits of darkness in Tartarus, to be constantly guarded for future judgment.” The fallen angels involved in the genetic attack on the human race were sent to Hades and imprisoned in Tartarus. We note that in our passage in Revelation 18:2 it says, “Then he [the king of arms] shouted with a powerful voice, saying, Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great, in fact it has become the habitation of demons and a prison for every unclean spirit.” The demons involved in the function of the ecumenical system of the Tribulation could not leave the area even though they were not destroyed by the nuclear attack. This tells us something about disembodied spirits. In Jude 6: “And the angels [demons] who had not kept their status quo, but abandoned their proper place of residence, he guarded them in eternal chains under thick darkness for that judgment day.”

1. The demons involved in the attack have been imprisoned in Hades in the compartment known as Tartarus, and they are there until the judgment day at the end of the Millennium.

2. The corrupted part of the human race was destroyed by the flood, and the corrupted part are also in Hades but their location is Torments where they are waiting for their trial and judgment at the great white throne.

3. Demons who at present function on planet earth under Satan’s command are disembodied spirits. This means that having no bodies they have no sexual capabilities. It further means that they are invisible to mankind.

4. Disembodied demons seek to invade the soul of mankind, and this is called demon influence. They also seek to penetrate the bodies of mankind, and this is called demon possession. Demon influence can only occur, however, when the believer or unbeliever is living in the cosmic system. There is no vulnerability to demons except in the cosmic system. Demon influence is the invasion of the soul of a believer or unbeliever. However, demon possession is the invasion of the body of the unbeliever only, and it can only occur in the cosmic system.

5. Present day invasions of demons do not include sex. Hence, never again will the human race undergo any genetical attack from Satan. The genetical attack was terminated at the flood, it was peculiar to the antediluvian civilisation.

6. All demon sex must be accomplished through a demon possessed person [an unbeliever] or a demon influenced person [believer or unbeliever in the cosmic system]. This means that the can simply influence mankind in that direction but they have no direct involvement. All sexual activity, however, in the phallic cult, including fornication, homosexuality, bestiality, etc. result from demonised human beings. The genetic attack upon the human race has been defeated and will never again be repeated.

The inevitable and eternal victory of our Lord Jesus Christ then comes into focus. The genetic attack failed. It failed because of the grace of God; it failed because Jesus Christ controls history; it failed because true humanity continued to live on planet earth. 1 Peter 2:24 tells us of the victory of the cross, “Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the cross.” Jesus Christ went to the cross as true humanity, and the reason He did is because Satan’s greatest attack upon salvation at the cross was frustrated by the flood. At the time of the flood there were only eight people left on earth who were still true humanity from Adam to Noah. The reason they were still true humanity and had resisted every genetic attack is because they were believers, some of them believers of maturity. All of the human race is descended from Noah and his three sons. Our Lord Jesus Christ specifically came from Shem. There were other attacks upon the line of Christ; none of them succeeded. The issue is: Jesus Christ as God cannot be judged for the sins of the world. As God Jesus Christ can only condemn sin, so it was the humanity of Christ [1 Peter 2:20] which was judged for the sins of the world. The victory occurred at the cross, 1 Peter 2:24, but the proclamation of that victory to the Nephalim was announced in 1 Peter 3:18-22. What did our Lord say to them? Hebrews 2:9-15, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than angels,” Jesus Christ did not become an angel, He was made lower than angels [the hypostatic union, true humanity], “now crowned with glory and honour; because he suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone [unlimited atonement]. For in bringing many sons to glory it was fitting that God [the Father], for whom and through whom everyone exists, to bring to the objective through sufferings the author of their salvation. For both he who sanctified [Jesus Christ through the agency of the baptism of the Spirit and resultant positional truth] sanctifies, and those who are being sanctified [the Church or royal family of God] are all from one source [God the Father is the author of the divine plan]: for which reason he [God the Son] is not ashamed to call them [the royal family] brethren, saying, I will declare your person [Christ the victor] to my brethren [the royal family], in the middle of the Church I will sing your praises [the praises of Christ as the strategic victor of the angelic conflict]. And again [quoting Isaiah 8:17], I [the Church Age believer] will put my trust in him. And again [Isaiah 8:18], Behold I and the children whom God the Father has given to me [a royal family for His third royal warrant]. Since, therefore the children share a common blood and flesh,” note the Greek order: blood and flesh. Flesh means simply the body; it is the blood that provides the life in the body, so life comes first, a reference to the perpetuation of true humanity on planet earth in spite of the demon genetic attack in the antediluvian era of history, “he also himself [Christ] shared their humanity [became blood and flesh],” the genetic attack did not frustrate the hypostatic union and the incarnation of Christ. This was our Lord’s message to the fallen angels in Tartarus, “in order that through death [the saving work of Christ on the cross] he might destroy [neutralise, render powerless] him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subjected to slavery [in the cosmic system] all their lives. For obviously he [Christ at the first advent] did not assume the nature of angels; but he did take on the seed of Abraham.” Abraham is post-diluvian and the humanity of Christ is descended from Abraham, David, and so on down the line. This gives us some concept of an attack by demons with bodies.

On the other hand, today, demons with bodies are no longer permitted on earth. They will not be permitted on the earth until the middle of the Tribulation at which time the three demon assault armies will make their attack.

Demon possession is defined as the demon invasion of the body of the unbeliever. It is in contrast with demon influence which is the demon invasion of the soul and the personality or believer or unbeliever. Of the four demon attacks in history of mankind the most prominent today is actually demon influence. It is the most general and it is the most common. The reason why the demons can penetrate the body of the unbeliever is because God the Holy Spirit does not reside in the unbeliever, and the reason why no believer can be demon-possessed is because the body of the believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit. When an unbeliever resides in the cosmic system the potential for demon-possession is there, primarily through religious activity and other ways we will discuss in the future. In the meantime we are looking at believers living in the cosmic system and we see the penetration of their soul by demons.

Indirectly, demons are capable of two categories of violence. Disembodied spirits, demons, operating on planet earth today are capable of these two categories. The first is indirect violence in which the demon must use another human being as the vehicle for the expression of his violence. This is the attack of man against man and it can come from two sources: demon possession of the body in which the body becomes violent an uncontrollable, or demon influence of the soul where a person is motivated to violence. Both demon-possession and demon influence result in violence. All terrorism, all criminal activity, including rape [which is not just fornication, it is a crime and should be punished by death in every case], all the function of religious cults, organisations like the KGB in Russia, are the results of either demon influence or demon- possession, or both. In the case of idolatry certain religious activity are involved in demon-possession. Much more common, however, is demon influence in the cosmic system which is the source of most violence at present. This would include acts of hatred, anger, and certain forms of arrogance. All Muslim activity is related to demonism. Terrorism today is demon influenced. The support of third world terrorism by the Word Council of Churches is demon-influenced. Believer and unbeliever, apart from perception of doctrine and fellowship with God in the divine dynasphere, are vulnerable to cosmic involvement and demon influence. That would be indirect violence.

Secondly, direct violence from demons is a phenomenon reserved for the last half of the Tribulation. It was also the function of the antediluvian civilisation. So only in two areas of history will there be demon violence from demons with bodies.

The origin of all of the demon influence or demon attack is always the same. It is always the decision of mankind. We are always the products of our own decisions, and in the case of demon influence, demon-possession, or the terrible things that happened in the past and will happen again in the future, they are decisions from a position of weakness. A position of weakness is described and defined as residence in the cosmic system of Satan. In that cosmic system is the function of arrogance and preoccupation with self. All decisions to enter the cosmic system are decisions made from the position of weakness; all decisions made in the cosmic system are decisions from a position of weakness. From this comes the demon influence of believers and unbelievers, and demon-possession of unbelievers only. Decisions made by the believer inside the divine dynasphere are decisions made from a position of strength. Only two decisions can be made in the cosmic system from a position of strength: the decision of the unbeliever to believe in Christ and the decision of the believer priest to rebound means the instant removal from the power of the cosmic system. Since man is the product of his own decisions it is imperative, therefore, that he makes good decisions from a position of strength rather than bad decisions from a position of weakness. Since the flood no member of the human race, believer or unbeliever, ever becomes involved with demons apart from his own free will. All demon involvement in the post-diluvian civilisation comes from one’s own decision. The decision to live in the cosmic system inevitably brings one into contact with demons. The target for the demon attack at the end of the Tribulation is the person living in the cosmic system. It is another case of finesse judgment whereby Satan’s demon armies attack Satan’s human servants living in the cosmic system. They are victims of violence. All demon activity is related to man’s free will, human consent. No one has any contact with demons apart from his own bad decisions. All demons are fallen angels under the command of Satan.

The concept of demons: there are many words in both the Hebrew and the Greek. The word shedim in the Hebrew, taken from the noun shed, is one of the common words for demons but it is also used for idols because idolatry is the most basic way to come into contact with demons. We have noted that under the devil’s communion table, and we have certain prohibitions regarding idolatry, Leviticus 17:7; Isaiah 13:21. The word for sater demons in the Hebrew is saair. In the destruction of Babylon it was prophesied by Isaiah that the sater demons “will frolic there.” In other words, they were imprisoned in that geographical location in the past, just as in the future destruction of Rome, the headquarters of ecumenical religion, the demons will be imprisoned there. Demons, in general, are called in the Greek daimwn. It is mistranslated in the King James version by the word “devils.” There is also a specific category of demons, always determined by context when they are discussed categorically, where they are called daimonion, 1 Corinthians 10:20,21. Also there is an adjective: daimoniodhj which means demonic and is used, for example, in James 3:15. Then there is a verb: daimonizw which means to be tormented by demons, to be possessed by demons, sometimes even used for being influenced by demons.

Demon-possession, again, never occurs apart from human consent. Some form of bad decision is made resulting in the demonisation of the body of the unbeliever. These decisions are related to cosmic involvement, idolatry, religious, activity, dabbling in the occult, consulting mediums, the function of necromancy, plus decisions to become involved with drugs, under the title of farmakeia, used for drug addiction leading to demon activity, Galatians 5:20; Revelation 9:21.

The phallic cult, which includes both human sacrifice and idolatry as well as unrestrained sexual activity is mentioned in Luke 8:2, “Also some women who had been healed from demons and sickness.” For example, Mary Magdalene from whom seven demons had been cast out. Idolatry is the basic system for demon-possession, Leviticus 17:7; Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 96:5; Psalm 106;37,39. Passive submission to demons is accomplished through idolatry, drug addiction, the function of the phallic cult, the emotional revolt of the soul. It is possible for emotion apart from thought to isolate normal faculties and bring them into focus for demon influence or demon-possession. Prolonged involvement in the cosmic system is really the secret. Active submission to demon-possession is violent and painful. The case history is found in Luke 13:11-16.

Demonism destroyed Canaan; demonism is a part of degeneracy. Saul is a case of demonism. He dabbled in the occult and because of his practice of necromancy he was punished with maximum disciple, the sin unto death, 1 Chronicles 10:13,14. Demons are often used by God for the administration of the sin unto death, and there are two illustrations in the New testament: 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Timothy 1:19,20. The believer involved in 1 Cor. 5:5 changed his attitude, however, and rebounded. His discipline was canceled short of death, whereas the one in 1 Timothy was carried out. Furthermore, the demonisation of a nation results in the destruction of that nation. There is a case in Isaiah chapter 47 and also in Jeremiah chapter 27. Ministers who faithfully teach Bible doctrine are often targets of demon influence, 1 Timothy 3:6,7. Demon influence is always thought transference of demon doctrines to the believer or unbeliever in the cosmic system and therefore is different from demon possession. Demon influence involves thinking, motivational thinking to many evil things. Evil can be accomplished through motivational thinking or evil can be accomplished by direct demon possession and, of course, only the unbeliever can be demon-possessed and therefore only the unbeliever is involved in those forms of evil that are direct. But those that are indirect from thought motivation come to both believer and unbeliever under the principle of demon influence.

In 1 Timothy 4:1 we read, “But the same Holy Spirit [the One who vindicated our Lord in the prototype divine dynasphere] explicitly communicates that in latter periods of time [technical for the time between the first and second advents of Christ] some believers will become apostate from doctrine, paying attention to deceitful spirits [the category of demons who are disembodied spirits] and concentrating on doctrine from demons.”

So demon influence is thought transference. Doctrine by definition is a system of teaching. Demons are engaged in a system of teaching through thought transference or demon telepathy in the classroom of the cosmic system. Demon influence is the invasion of the soul, the mind, the emotions, the self-consciousness, of the soul, and the resultant invasion therefore of the human personality of the believer or unbeliever who is living in the cosmic system. Again, the cosmic system is the classroom. One enters the cosmic system through active or passive function of the free will. Once inside the cosmic system negative volition toward true doctrine creates a vacuum in which demon influence operates. The Word of God calls that “resisting the doctrine.”

In Ephesians 4:17, “This therefore I explain, and make an emphatic demand through the Lord, that you no longer continue walking just as the Gentiles walk, in the vacuum of their mind.”

That vacuum is a system for drawing in demon doctrine once you are in the cosmic system.

1 Corinthians 2:5, “That your doctrine should not depend on the wisdom of man” — another way of saying demon influence in the cosmic system, “but on the power of God,” doctrine inside the divine dynasphere.

In James 4:6-8 we have a passage that mandates resistance to the cosmic system, “He [God] provides greater grace [grace after salvation: logistical grace, supergrace blessings]. Therefore it says, ‘God makes war against the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble. Submit therefore to God [life, residence, momentum inside the divine dynasphere]. Resist the devil and he will flee from you [the use of volition in rejecting the temptations of the old sin nature. In other words, staying out of the cosmic system]. Draw near to God [momentum in the divine dynasphere] and he will draw near to you [supergrace blessing to the believer who reaches gate eight]. Cleanse your hands, you sinning ones [the use of the rebound technique]; purify your right lobes [the avoidance of demon influence or demon telepathy], you double-minded [a description of the believer under demon influence].”

Demon influence is relative. That is, there are degrees of demon influence which in effect correspond to the degrees of reversionism. Demon influence is a process of demonisation in which every facet of the soul is essentially controlled by demon thinking so that there is a complete personality change to some form of sociopathic or psychopathic behaviour and personality. We should notice that these things become extremely important as we get into our passage in Revelation chapter eighteen. Here are demons who are forced to stay in their own geographical locality, and until someone comes back and occupies that locale those demons must remain there. However, the second advent will remove that, but there is a precedent found in verse two and that is the fact that demons are often relegated to a geographic only and unless people come back to that area they can’t have demon contact. The headquarters for ecumenical religion in the Tribulation is obviously one place that is saturated with demons and once the headquarters is destroyed then the people are dead but the demons are alive, yet they cannot go anywhere. The word “prison,” fulakh, in verse 2 is very important, it means that they cannot leave that area.

Verse 3, the influence of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. We are going to see a fascinating thing in the middle of this chapter. Even though this headquarters has been subjected to nuclear attack which totally destroys the headquarters and all the people are wiped out the demons are still alive there, but very interesting is the fact that three categories of people are going to gather in that periphery and make comments, and express the reaction of public opinion at this finesse judgment of God. That means that even though there is nuclear activity in the Tribulation the population is not destroyed and, as a matter of fact, the population in that geographical area is not destroyed. Nuclear weapons do not wipe out the population of the world.

We begin the verse with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, which should be translated “Because.” “For” is the post positive conjunctive particle gar which is not being used here. O(ti is being used all through this passage but for some reason they wanted to translate it like gar. Then we have a nominative plural subject made up of three words: paj, the adjective “all”; the definite article ta; and the noun, e)qnoj, “Because all the nations.” Then we have the perfect active indicative of the verb pinw which means to drink. We translate it, “Because all the nations have drunk” because this is an intensive perfect tense emphasising the existing results from the past completed action. Emphasis on the result is intensified, which is an emphatic method in the Greek of presenting a fact or a status. It is a strong way of saying that a thing is in the past. It has been occurring throughout the Tribulation. Ecumenical religion has accomplished under Satan a tremendous job of evangelising for the cosmic system. The active voice: the nations of the earth during the Tribulation produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of eschatological reality.

Then we have a long phrase: the preposition e)k plus the ablative from o)inoj, “wine,” not literal wine here but a reference to passion or losing the ability to think, an emotion functioning in the soul not originating from thought. It is the descriptive genitive of qumoj. Qumoj tells us that, first of all, all genuine emotion originates from thought. When you have thought with or without emotion you are in a normal status quo but if you have emotion which has no origin in thought, then you are abnormal and you are suffering from what the Bible calls emotional revolt of the soul. Here we simply translate it “passion,” passion in the sense of emotion without thought. The reason we have translated it passion is because of the next word, the possessive genitive from the noun porneia, not for literal fornication but for spiritual fornication which is life in the cosmic system. All believers in the cosmic system are committing spiritual fornication. The degeneracy of nations in the Tribulation is manifest from their participation in the phallic cult phase of this Satanic-type international religion. Idolatry is always the key to the phallic cult and this international religion is characterised by idolatry, the worship of the abomination of desolation.

Now we know something else about the geographical location of demons. Wherever someone sets up an idol of any kind demons are permitted to go to that geographical area and are permitted to function there by God. Once the idol is destroyed they have to stay there unless some idol is set up nearby and they have to have divine permission to travel. Demons are simply not free to roam around the earth at will. Even though Satan is the ruler of this world they are limited to geographical locations which can be traced by the history of idolatry in the human race. This is why in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21 we have this great principle of the devil’s communion table. The devil’s communion table is nothing more or less than an idol being set up somewhere, or an idol temple, or the unlawful isolation of dormant faculties, and this brings demons to that area. They function there until that situation is destroyed and to leave that area they have to have divine permission. Obviously, they were not given that permission to leave the area of the destruction of the headquarters of ecumenical religion, verse 2. That is why the destroyed area is said to be a habitation of demons and a prison for every unclean spirit.

The word “wine” is used here for the wine of religion intoxicating its converts, making them drunk with arrogance. Therefore “drinking from the wine of the passion of her fornication” refers to involvement in the cosmic system. This means that religion had a tremendous influence over rulers at that time. We have, again, the conjunction kai introducing additional information, translated “Furthermore.” Next we have the nominative plural from the noun basileuj, “the kings,” means the rulers, with the adverbial genitive of place gh, “the kings of the earth.” Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb pornew which means to fornicate, “the kings of the earth fornicated.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety: the influence of ecumenical religion on these kings or rulers. The active voice: the rulers of planet earth during the Tribulation produce the action. The mood is declarative indicative for eschatological reality. “With her” is a prepositional phrase, meta plus the genitive of the intensive pronoun a)utoj.

Then there is an influence over business. Not only do they dominate politics of the Tribulation but they dominate the economic situation. By the way, the Tribulation up until near the end is a time of great worldwide prosperity and a lot of it has to do with this religion.

We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, translated “also,” then the nominative plural subject from e)mporoj which means business men, wholesale dealers and retail dealers, merchants. We have the adverbial genitive of place again, “also the merchants of the earth.”

Note the next phrase: the aorist active indicative from ploutew, because the merchants of the earth became very wealthy during the Tribulation. Ploutew means to become rich. The ingressive aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb from the standpoint of its beginning. The ingressive aorist denotes entrance into a state or condition, and as never before in history there will be worldwide prosperity. The active voice: the merchants produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood: eschatological reality. Next we have “from the power,” e)k plus the ablative of dunamij, and a technical use of dunamij. Dunamij is often technical for a dynasphere, whether it is the divine dynasphere or the cosmic system. Here is refers to the cosmic system, “also the merchants of the earth became rich from the power.” Then we have a descriptive genitive, strhnoj, meaning luxury or sensuality or both, “of her luxury” or “her sensuality,” either way. This will be the basis for the second wail, the wail of the kings in verses 9,10. It should be noted that the word strhnoj in the Attic Greek means arrogance, wantonness and, in the genitive, eager desire. It also means luxury, sensuality, and this is the connotation carried into the Koine and only used once as far as the Bible is concerned.

This verse emphasises both the political power and the economic influence of international religion in the Tribulation. The lamentation of the political rulers in verses 9 and 10 indicates their loss of power and influence when ecumenical religion receives the administration of finesse judgment. The lamentation of the business men who have prospered from this religion in verse 11-16 also have a terrible grief because the world economy is going to be destroyed when this headquarters is nuked. Lust for luxury comes from life in the cosmic dynasphere. There is one way in which luxury will ruin you every time. There is nothing wrong with luxury — it is often a sign of real prosperity — as long as you can handle luxury. The only way that you can handle luxury is from virtue. People who have virtue have capacity for luxury when it is available and when they can afford it. That is true in the Tribulation. They can afford it, but those who lust for luxury really can never afford it, it destroys them because lust for luxury comes from the cosmic system whereas virtue comes from the divine dynasphere, the protocol system of God. Virtue gives you capacity for luxury but lust for luxury from the cosmic system means that luxury of any kind never makes you happy. The lamentation of the businessmen who have prospered from ecumenical religion in verses 11-16 indicates how the economy of the Tribulation is tied into this Satanic religious system.

There is something else coming up in this passage, and that is the fact that the rulers of the earth mentioned in this passage and the great businessmen have the greatest influence. Rulers have political power and the giants of business have monetary power, and they have a tremendous loyalty to this ecumenical religious system. But note that the loyalty is purchased. The rulers buy power from the religion and therefore have loyalty; business buys prosperity from the religious system and therefore their loyalty is purchased. This is generally the structure of life and this is why loyalty is never really loyalty unless there is virtue. Most cases of loyalty in life are purchased: loyalty only exists as long as the price is right, as long as someone is profiting from it, as long as someone is gaining power from it. Loyalty, therefore, is never a virtue in itself, loyalty is only a virtue where virtue preexists. Where there is loyalty without virtue, loyalty without capacity for life, it isn’t loyalty at all. So we are going to see how loyalty cancels loyalty.

That is what is going to be expressed here. Lust for luxury comes from life in the cosmic dynasphere number one. Converts to the international religious system have no loyalty. International religion of the Tribulation both controls the political life of the revived Roman empire and stimulates the world economy in certain luxury items. The more powerful the religion the greater the demand for luxury items. In other words, this Satanic system creates a market for luxury to accompany lust for luxury. First of all the religion created a lust for luxury. Religion always creates arrogance and arrogance creates lust, and one of the areas of lust is lust for luxury.

Verse 4, The word “And” is the sequential use of the sequential use of the conjunction kai. This is followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw which means to hear. Some of the visions are audio and some of them are visual, and we get both kinds in the book of Revelation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: John as the human writer produces the action: the writing of the book of Revelation under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Doctrine and truth is always associated with reality. Not only are we learning doctrine for its application but we learn Bible doctrine to keep in touch with reality in life — not the hard way, not the easy way, but the best way. The best way to keep in touch with reality is through the understanding of Bible doctrine as truth: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from two words, the adjective a)lloj meaning another of the same kind, same category, plus the nominative of a)ggeloj, “Then I heard another angel [the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds].” He is said to be coming from heaven and saying. We have in this verse a separation mandate from the officer of arms. He is the second in the angelic college of heralds in the seraph rank, he is next to the king of heralds and he is the one who comes with this mandate. This is all a part of the protocol of heaven. We have the aorist active imperative of the verb e)xerxomai, “come out” with the connotation of separation. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: Tribulational believers must produce the action of the verb by separating from the apostate religious system.

That is a very important principle of separation. If you are in an apostate religious system, a cult of any kind, you will be judged or disciplined by God as an apostate believer. You are guilty by association because one of the first principles of doctrine you learn is to separate yourself from any religious organisation. We are in the world but not of the world. That means that we can have those in charge of us — bosses, companies — made up of 98 per cent unbelievers, and that is fine. That is the way it should be. But when it comes to your off time, the time when you are away from business and away from work, then you are required to maintain the high standard of separation. Separation demands that you stay away from apostate religious systems. Both believers in the Tribulation as well as those believers who are living on the earth in this dispensation of the Church who fail to separate themselves from religion will be disciplined by association. There are two ways that believers are disciplined because they fail to obey this command. One of them, of course, is the principle of association and the second one is the principle of participation. Association means that you are as pure as the driven snow but you’re hooked up with a religious organisation; participation means that the snow starts to melt and mixes with the mud.

In your lifetime you are going to have to drive on the same streets as unbelievers, you are going to have to live in neighbourhoods with unbelievers, you are going to have to work in the office with unbelievers, but there are two places, one especially, where you must never get involved with unbelievers and that has to do with your church. The second one is in part your social life, though not altogether because regarding family life you may have a father or a mother or a sister or a brother who is an unbeliever, and you are not required to be unkind to them or to evangelise them by the procedure of snootiness. You do not separate yourself from those who by birth have been joined to you. In other words, never run down your mother. Just because she isn’t a Christian it has nothing to do with the case. There are certain times when the application of doctrine requires for you to be present with your unbelieving loved ones and not only to be present with them but be kind and demonstrate the fact that you since your new birth are royal family. But that is an exception. If you find that too many of your friends are either unbelievers or religious or both they will influence your thinking erroneously and you will suffer by association.

You have to remember that the key to separation is thought. The more doctrine you learn, the more doctrine you understand, the more you will stay away from apostate churches. That is a very difficult thing for people who have been in certain church organisations, some of which are merely social organisations with a strong trend toward liberalism, and people all of their lives had their friends in one of these denominational churches. It is very difficult to break away from those friendships. The recommendation is that people listen to doctrine long enough to understand the issue and then make their decision on the basis of the teaching of the Word of God. We need to note this much: When you compromise with religion, which is always the devil’s ace trump, you may not compromise mentally and your sins may be the same sins you would have in a good doctrinal church, but there is a principle of judgment by association. When that cult or religious organisation is judged by God you will be punished by association. And if you participate in their sins, as born-again believers did in the Tribulation, then you add another instrument of divine punishment — punishment because of participation. In other words, the Tribulational believers who got into the ecumenical religious system, and accepted the mark of the beast and went into the whole thing, they are going to share in the judgment administered to ecumenical religion. This, of course, means a lot would share in the finesse judgment which includes judgment by death.

This is an imperative of command to all believers of the Tribulation who have become involved in both the cosmic system and the ecumenical religious system of Satan. The two go together, of course. Believers in the cosmic system are prone to hook up with the wrong organisation. Remember that this has no application to your ties by birth, or your place of business. Don’t quit your job because you are the only believer in the factory, in the office, in the organisation.

We have a specific following our aorist active imperative, the preposition e)k plus the ablative of a)utoj. The gender here is feminine singular, “from her.” “Then I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out from her.” This is a reference to the great prostitute, Babylon the great, the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation.

With this we now have a vocative. To whom is this addressed? This is not a command to unbelievers, the only issue that unbelievers must face is, What think ye of Christ? This is a command to believers: the vocative singular from laoj and with it the possessive genitive from e)gw, “my people.” It is a reference to Tribulational people, both Jews and Gentiles. In fact, there were believers involved in the ecumenical religious system and that is why they were called “my people.” It simply means believers living in Satan’s cosmic system and therefore involved in the mark of the beast international religious system. And, of course, the point is: “My people” is also used in a technical way for the Jews since so much of the eschatology of the New Testament talks about the Jews and the abomination of desolation ,and how ecumenical religion came to the Jewish state in Palestine in the Tribulation; but “my people” refers to both Jews and Gentiles. The principle is that many believers would rather renounce Christ than suffer death so under the influence of the cosmic system they accept the international religious system of Satan and they become prominent in some phase of the action, either politically, economically, or religiously — or, all three. Obviously, when the abomination of desolation came to Israel as a part of the treaty between the revived Roman empire and the state of Israel many Jewish believers succumbed. They saw a chance, perhaps, to make some money, they wanted to survive, a lot of different reasons. So the vocative of laoj is addressed to them primarily but does not exclude Gentile believers also involved.

Next we have a purpose clause and it is introduced by the conjunction i(na which is one of the primary ways of introducing such a clause, “that” or “in order that.” Then we have the aorist active subjunctive of the verb sugkoinwmew, taken from the preposition sun, meaning “with,” and koinwnew, meaning “fellowship.” With this also is the negative mh, “that you might not share [participate].” The culminative aorist tense views divine judgment in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely believers revolved in the ecumenical religious system sharing the punishment of judgment by death. The active voice: there will be believers involved in the judgment, both Jewish and Gentile, and will die because they hooked up with religion; furthermore, no rewards or decorations in eternity, they will never have a chance to enjoy some of the special privileges of heaven in the future. The gazebo in the garden is closed to them, they will miss that party. The subjunctive mood is potential and has a future connotation used to form the purpose clause with i(na. Next we have the locative plural from a(martia plus the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “in her sins.” In other words, this means judgment by association and it also means judgment by participation. And, of course, judgment means guilt. Sins of religion are contagious to the religious is the principle. Once you get involved in religion and get a little religious then you are vulnerable to the contagion. So this is a warning to believers involved in the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation. This anticipates all three categories of judgment used against ecumenical religion but it anticipates believers being involved.

There are three categories of judgment we will note. First there is judgment by pain: the first five bowl judgments — Revelation 16:1-11; second, judgment by death: the seventh bowl judgment, Revelation 16:17-21; third is finesse judgment, Revelation 17:16-18; 18:2-8. Crisis evangelism is always the issue in judgment by pain but since we are talking about believers here the pain is warning rather than crisis evangelism. For the unbelievers it would be crisis evangelism but for believers it is a warning to reach down and get out of there quickly. The death principle means that these people are going to receive that particular judgment and finesse judgment means that they were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, they were in the headquarters where they go out under nuclear attack. The nuclear attack, the only reference we have in the Tribulation, is very limited and relatively few people get hurt.

This warning, then, from the officer of arms is directed to believers. They are suffering either warning or intensive discipline because of their involvement with ecumenical religion. This warning is designed to restore objectivity and if the believer will not have objectivity through perception of doctrine then he must learn objectivity through the experience of pain through whatever system of discipline God brings to them. There are only two ways that we can have objectivity: perception and application of doctrine, the easy way, or the experience of divine judgment which is the hard way. The point is that believers must remain objective. You cannot be objective in the cosmic system and you cannot be objective functioning in the system of international religion. So it is always a warning to rebound, to get back into the protocol system. Once back in fellowship the first action of the Tribulational believer must be separation from and even renunciation of the ecumenical religious system — and, of course, whatever the consequences that go with it. Separation, then, is an application of Bible doctrine, but it is in our day a limited application. We do not separate ourselves from the normal functions of life; we do separate ourselves from religion, from what is false and apostate in teaching, and in our social life from people who might have a bad influence on us. Separation is the application of Bible doctrine which can only be effective when believers function under the priorities, and the priority is virtue first. The importance of understanding God’s plan for your life is a major issue. Do you understand God’s plan for your life? If you do then you are familiar with the principle of virtue first. Virtue first will actually resolve where you make your applications and where you do not make your applications. The importance of understanding God’s plan for your life includes everything related to the principle of sorting out in your mind with whom you have contact and those with whom you do not have contact. It applies primarily to your outside-of-work spiritual life and social life.it is imperative, then, that we understand this separation in the light of God’s plan for your life. One of the ways of resolving it is to function under the mandate, virtue first. When you get to gates five and six there is no question about the subject of separation.

“That you might not share in her sins.” Again, this means two problems. There are two ways in which one shares in the punishment that comes through some form of apostasy. One is by association with it and the other is by participation in its sins.

Now we have judgment by association, the alternative to separation, in the rest of this verse. We begin with a connective conjunction kai which means “and,” followed by the conjunction i(na again, “and that.” Then the aorist active subjunctive of lambanw plus the negative mh, and one again we have a negative purpose clause, “and that you might not receive.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views punishment by association it its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the divine discipline which comes to the believer because of malfunction in the field of separation. Believers living in the cosmic system inevitably will justify their failure to separate where it is necessary. Believers living in the cosmic system become involved one way or another in something that is wrong in their off-duty hours, like ecumenical religion of the Tribulation which is the subject here. Involvement in ecumenical religion which is a Satanic system means judgment by association. This means divine discipline in three possible categories. First of all, warning discipline, then intensive discipline, and if that doesn’t work, dying discipline. Even though some believers will receive dying discipline remember they do not lose their salvation.

Separation is a very important doctrine for this reason: the believer must always be in touch with reality and his reality must come from doctrine and its application, so that the more doctrine that he has the greater the potential for being oriented to reality. But when he gets into the cosmic system then he loses touch with reality through preoccupation with self in cosmic one and through antagonism toward the truth — resisting the truth — in cosmic two. Many of the gates in cosmic two, including the religious gate, have to do therefore with failure to separate. Once you are in cosmic two you just hook up with religion, you hook up with anti-Christian organisations and anti-Christian ideas. And once you get divorced from reality in the cosmic system you may even punish yourself, it is called finesse judgment.

Believers in the cosmic system become involved in the ecumenical religious system in the Tribulation. Involvement, then, has all the forms of punishment. The active voice: in our passage we are talking about Tribulational believers, but we make application to ourselves as believers living in the Church Age. Application is very necessary when we are discussing eschatology because sometimes when we are looking at interpretation we forget that these principles of eschatology have an application to our daily lives. The subjunctive mood is potential, it implies a future reference and is qualified by the element of contingency. The subjunctive mood is used to form a negative purpose clause with i(na plus mh. The subjunctive mood emphasises the volition of the believer, in this case of making bad decisions in the Tribulation.

Then we have a preposition e)k plus the ablative from plhgh, and with it the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “from her plagues,” a reference to the three judgments of ecumenical religion at the end of the Tribulation.

Translation: “Then I heard another voice [of the officer of arms] from heaven, saying, Come out from her, my people [a mandate to Tribulational believers requiring separation from ecumenical religion], that you might not share in her sins [guilt by participation; guilt by association], and that you might not receive punishment from her plagues.”

Verse 5, the divine condemnation. We begin with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti. O(ti is used in several ways as far as the Greek is concerned. It introduces a causal clause here and we translate it, “Because.” We have a reason for all of this. God is never unreasonable. God has a perfect reason from His perfect wisdom for anything that happens. So we have the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, rather than the word “For,” beginning verse five.

Next we have the nominative plural subject from a(martia, “sins,” and with it the possessive genitive from a)utoj, “her sins.” Then the aorist passive indicative from the verb kollaw meaning to pile up, “Because her sins have been piled up.” The culminative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: divine judgment. The passive voice: the sins of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of both sin and evil in the system of Satan’s international religion.

With this we have the improper preposition a)xri plus the genitive from o)uranoj. O)uranoj here is a simple analogy meaning the third heaven or the presence of God, not literally but in a figurative sense. In other words, there are three ways in which sin is discussed in the computer of divine decrees. First of all there is the omniscience of God. The omniscience of God deals with creature action, it knows all of the knowable, has known it eternally, and knows it simultaneously billions of years before the universe existed or before any creature existed. The omniscience of God feeds into the computer of divine decrees. One of the areas that it programs is called sin, and the sins of the world have all been fed into the computer of divine decrees. There are a number of printouts of sin. For example, out of the divine decrees came the printout all of the sins in the history of the human race and they were imputed to our Lord Jesus Christ when He was hanging on the cross. That is why salvation is free and the manner of appropriation has to be compatible with grace, Ephesians 2:8,9.

There are other printouts with regard to sin in the divine decrees. Sin saturation is another printout. In any given generation of history degeneracy produces a saturation of sin and evil and whenever that comes out of the computer that means that that generation must receive judgment from the grace of God. First of all there will be judgment by pain. That is the manner of gleaning those who have rejected Christ time and time again by giving a last chance through crisis evangelism: judgment by pain. Judgment by pain will include two other categories: finesse judgment in which some evil organisation will attack and cause great damage, if not destruction, to a client nation to God; judgment by death in which whatever the cancer is it is removed by radical surgery, judgment by death, so that generations to come may have the same opportunity we have to be evangelised, and for the function of freedom.

“Because her sins have been piled up as high as heaven.” That is a generation factor. The computer of divine decrees not only contains the marvelous plan of God in its many printouts, e.g. foreknowledge, predestination, election, imputation, and glorification, but for believers only, and that is for positive believers to become winners. Then there are the printouts for divine discipline: warning discipline, intensive discipline, and the sin unto death for believers. Then there are sin printouts. There are sin printouts at the cross which is the major issue in salvation because there Jesus Christ was judged for our sins. Then there are the effects of sin and evil on any given generation of the human race. “Because her sins have been piled up as high as heaven” is not a literal pileup, that just means that the computer of divine decrees has recorded a saturation point beyond the human race would destroy itself. To prevent the human race from destroying itself we have these various judgments.

Next we have a conjunction kai which introduces a conclusion from the preceding. Therefore we translate it “therefore.” Then the nominative subject is qeoj, “therefore God,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb mnhmoneuw which means to remember, “therefore God has remembered.” We have a culminative aorist tense contemplating the action of the justice of God in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results: the grace judgments of God giving other generations of the human race opportunity and freedom, the same opportunity as those in the past have had for evangelism and for the function of the plan of God in their lives. The active voice: God produces the action in grace judgment. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Then we have the accusative plural direct from a)dikhma which means crimes. The possessive genitive from a)utoj — “her crimes.” Religion is criminal in its function. (Christianity is not a religion) Religion uses violence to resolve its problems. So in the Tribulation the sins of ecumenical religion are both criminal and evil, therefore related to the phallic cult. While God permits the escalation of these sins and crimes inevitably the justice of God will judge them. God’s timing in the administration of His justice in punishment is always perfect. God permits the free will of mankind to run its course in any given generation but in the end divine justice overrules its consequences in judgment by pain, judgment by death, and finesses judgment.

Translation: “Because her sins have piled up as high as heaven, therefore God has remembered her crimes.”

The sins piling up as high as heaven is a reference, again, to the computer of divine decrees. These sins, crime, and evil modus operandi of ecumenical religion were entered into the computer of divine decrees in eternity past before the foundation of the world. The justice of God coordinates with the omniscience of God and as a result selects the exact right time for the administration of the seven bowl judgments.

In verses 6 & 7 we see that there are always believers who understand historical trends. These believers therefore give prayers and in these verses we see the principle of imprecatory prayers related to divine judgment and understanding historical trends.

The concept of double punishment now comes into focus in verse 6. We have first of all a statement of the law of retribution and we start out with a second aorist. We are going to have a verb following the same verb in the first aorist and that means that we must now take a look at the first and second aorist. We actually have a verb with a first and second aorist of the same verb. The verb is a)podidomi. The first aorist follows the normal function of the verb, the second aorist is brought in to make it an irregular verb because there are certain expressions that the first aorist cannot bring out.

We start with a)podidomi in the second aorist active in parody. The aorist tense here is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb, the execution of divine judgment in its entirety, it takes judgment by pain, adds to it judgment by death, adds to it finesse judgment and gathers it all into one entirety: one entirety to show how we often pay double for our mistakes.

In a client nation even the foreign policy becomes a spiritual issue. We saw this when Isaiah came to his cousin, king Hezekiah, and said to him, Your foreign policy is wrong: “Woe to them who go down to Egypt for help.” The Assyrian army was about to invade the land and the worst thing that the Jews could do would be to go to Egypt to go for help. That was a foreign policy blunder and therefore there is a relationship in the client nation only between its foreign policy and its spiritual life. Today our spiritual life, generally speaking, in Christianity is stupid and idiotic with no understanding of doctrine, emotionalism, all kinds of idiotic concepts epigrams representing the worst type of stupidity. Therefore, of course, it reflects itself in our foreign policy.

The active voice: the justice of God produces the action of the verb. We have the imperative mood of entreaty. This is a prayer, not a command to God. It is a prayer from believers during the Tribulation. The imperative of entreaty does not convey the finality of a command but has the force of urgency or request. When the aorist imperative is used it denotes summary action, action without delay or formality. It is, therefore, a part of the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational believers.

It is followed by a dative singular indirect object from autoj, “Pay back to her” or “Give back to her,” a reference to ecumenical religion. Then we have the comparative particle o(j indicating the manner in which divine justice should be exercised, “as.” This is a prayer for the destruction of ecumenical religion, since sins are piled “as high as heaven.” Then we have the nominative singular object of a)utoj, “as she,” ecumenical religion.

Now we go to the first aorist, the first aorist indicative of a)podidomi. Only in the Koine Greek do we have this first and second aorist. Sometimes the morphology of the first aorist simply will not do and therefore a second aorist is added. Many verbs in the Koine Greek have two forms of the aorist tense: one which is irregular and one which is regular. The first aorist simply indicates the one that is regular. When in the same passage in the Word of God you have a first and second aorist of the same verb it has great significance. The second aorist is used for a very definite reason. Those who are praying are asking that God administer judgment, a privilege that does not belong to the believer ordinarily. For example, we do not have the right to pray and imprecatory prayer, but in the Tribulation the imprecatory prayer is acceptable under certain conditions where one understands the entire function of the historical trends.

So we have the first aorist indicative of a)podidomi. In the first aorist we have a culminative aorist and it views the action of the verb in its entirety, the persecution and slaughter of believers in the Tribulation from religion, but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: judgment by pain, judgment by death. The active voice: ecumenical religion of the Tribulation produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. Translation: “Give back to her [ecumenical religion of the Tribulation] as she has given [persecution and execution of believers].” The word “you” in the King James version does not occur in the original. Under the law of divine retribution God gives back to the evil organisation what the evil organisation gave to believers. This is the form of a prayer which becomes a summary of the seven bowl judgments of Revelation chapter sixteen. Note the faith-rest function in this prayer which takes personal vengeance out of the hands of the Tribulational believers and places the matter in the court of heaven under the laws of retribution, exactly what we are to do today. It fulfills the principle of Romans 12:19, “Stop avenging yourselves beloved,” you and I have no right to personal vengeance. The moment we do we have entered into a state of evil, “instead give place to punishment from the justice of God.” Stay out of God’s way, let the justice of God with all the facts handle the situation. Then the quotation from Deuteronomy 32:35, “for it stands written, ‘Punishment belongs to me, I will repay, says the Lord’.” Punishment is the monopoly of the justice of God and that is the basis for the law of retribution.

Next we have the law of double punishment. First of all there is double punishment for evil deeds: judgment by pain; judgment by death. Secondly, there is double punishment for bad decisions: judgment by death; finesse judgment.

We start, then, with the first category which is double punishment for evil deeds under the divine law of retribution. We have the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, “in fact,” with the aorist active imperative of the verb diplow plus a cognate accusative with the verb, the noun diplowj, and when the two are put together it is translated, “Pay back double.” The constative aorist contemplates double judgment for evil deeds, or evil function. There is evil motivation and evil function. The active voice: Christ produces the action since God the Father has given to Him the function of judgment. The imperative of entreaty is a prayer of Tribulational believers. Notice that in this prayer they ask that divine justice function according to the principle of divine justice, they are not praying as stupid emotional people whose prayers never get any higher than the ceiling.

We have the preposition kata plus the accusative plural of e)rgon, and with it the usual possessive genitive of a)utoj, “according to her deeds,” functional evil. Note that they are not seeking vengeance, they are going to the court of heaven and making a plea before the highest court of the universe. Ecumenical religion has persecuted believers; this merits judgment by pain. Ecumenical religion has killed believers; this merits judgment by death. Now it can be seen why these two judgments are redefined. It is because both of them have a grace principle. In praying for double according to her deeds they are recognising the fact that some of the people in ecumenical religion, when they have the opportunity, will believe in Christ. So they pray for double: judgment by pain, crisis evangelism. The other part of double is judgment by death which is radical surgery to eliminate from the human race the cancer so that the next generation will have the same chance that all generations have to believe in Christ. This judgment must be executed by the justice of God. The double punishment for evil function: the first five bowl judgments of Revelation 16:1-11, judgment by pain. The seventh bowl judgment, judgment by death, Revelation 16:7-21. So it was answered in Revelation chapter 16.

Then there is double retribution for bad decisions. We are responsible individually for every decision we ever make. We are also responsible as a nation for our decisions. All nations are responsible for their own decisions. So this is described in a different way, a different analogy is used in order that we might begin to understand and appreciate how these judgments work. The preposition e)n plus the locative singular of pothrion, a drinking goblet, plus “which” the locative singular of the relative pronoun o(j. So we translate: “In fact pay back double for her deeds in the drinking cup which.” Then we have our verb the aorist active imperative of kerannumi which means to mix a drink, “to her,” dative singular indirect object of a)utoj. The constative aorist is recognising this punishment when it comes. The active voice: the justice of God will produce the action at the right time. Again, it is the imperative of entreaty, indicating that this is a prayer request for the law of retribution. This is a plea before the court of heaven offered in prayer. Again, we have that accusative singular direct from diplowj, meaning double.

Translation: Verse 5: “Because her sins have piled up as high as heaven, therefore God has remembered her crime.

Verse 6, “Give back to her [ecumenical religion of the Tribulation] as she has given [the law of retribution], in fact pay back double according to her deeds [judgment by pain plus judgment by death]: in the drinking cup which she has mixed mix for her a double portion.”

Note that prior to the administration of these two punishments that the grace of God extended a last call to salvation through judgment by pain or crisis evangelism in the administration of the first five judgments.

We come now in verse 7 to the degree of punishment related to the degree of evil. We start out with the nominative plural from the correlative relative pronoun of degrees o(soj, “To the degree,” not “How much” as in the KJV. Next we have the aorist active indicative of the verb docazw which means to glorify. Then for once we have an intensive pronoun used as an intensive pronoun instead of a personal pronoun. A)utoj is in the accusative singular direct object, and it is used as the intensive pronoun. This is one of those rare cases where it is translated as such. it is the predicate use of the intensive pronoun and therefore it is translated, “To the degree that she has glorified herself.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes life in the cosmic system and gathers it up into a single whole. Life in the cosmic system is self-glorification and this is one reason why evil falls out with evil and why two evil entities cannot tolerate each other and one will inevitably destroy the other. This is also one of the ways in which Jesus Christ controls history. The active voice: ecumenical religion locked in the cosmic system produces the action of the verb in the Tribulation. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the relationship between ecumenical religion and Satan’s cosmic system. “To the degree that she has glorified herself.”

Now who will not appreciate the fact that ecumenical religion has glorified itself? Her political sponsorer, the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. The beast dictator is the one who sponsored ecumenical religion and, as a matter of fact, ecumenical religion made him the titular head of this international system of evil in the future. So, of course, when she starts glorifying herself the political aspect does not appreciate the religious aspect. Therefore there is finesse judgment: the evil agent destroys the evil entity.

We have a connective conjunction kai and the aorist active indicative from strhniaw. It does not means to “live deliciously” as in the King James version, it means to live sensually. This is a constative aorist tense contemplating the function of the phallic cult in its entirety, not only its concupiscence but its play upon the emotions of others. The active voice: ecumenical religion of the Tribulation produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative of the function of the phallic cult as a part of ecumenical religion.

“To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensually.” We have two things mentioned: the glorification of self, arrogance which is motivational evil; living sensually which is functional evil. So we have a double situation in this entity of evil. We have motivational evil which is always some form of arrogance, and then living sensually has to do with the functional evil in cosmic one. Therefore we have, once again, the accusative singular direct object from the correlative pronoun used to connote a comparative degree, tosoutoj, and it should be translated “to the same degree.”

Then we have the aorist active imperative of the verb didomi which means to give. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the administration of divine punishment in its entirety. We have here a case of nuclear attack in the Tribulation. The active voice: the justice of God produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is the imperative of request used in prayer, not the imperative of command. The imperative does not convey the finality of a command here but has the force of urgency or request. With this is the dative singular indirect object a)utoj again, “to her.” This is a reference to ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. It is followed by the accusative singular direct object, basimismoj, “torture.” Then we have a nominative of explanation with it, penqoj, used for misery. It should be translated, since it is used of stress of thought and also torture or grief: “to that same degree give her torture and grief.” There are two factors there: torture and grief. Double, in other words. This follows the concept of the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational saints but it also states the concept of divine punishment. The law of retribution must be administered by the justice of God in keeping with His perfect of the case and in keeping with His immutable virtue. When the believer takes matters into his own hands the law of retribution becomes the law of revenge and the believer sins. There is no prayer here for revenge, this is an appeal to the highest court in the universe, the court of heaven where God sits to administer justice. Believers who become involved in revenge in evil. To take matters into one’s own hands is arrogance, and that arrogance is motivational evil. Then, to go into some form of revenge is functional evil, and when believers get involved in this they are in the cosmic system and they are under demonisation [demon influence]. Hence, you have to be careful that you do not use a prayer for revenge and that is exactly how these believers handle it. They know the doctrine of prayer, the understand the law of divine retribution, and they know how to avoid turning it into personal revenge. Hence, this prayer leaves the matter of divine justice where it belongs, in the hands of God Himself. This prayer for the law of retribution is a legitimate function of the faith-rest drill.

Next we have the viewpoint of ecumenical religion in the second sentence. What is ecumenical religion thinking? The causal conjunction o(ti, “because”; the present active indicative of legw. Legw in this case does not mean to think, it means to speak what you think, “because she said.” The progressive present tense is for an action in the state of persistence. As a result of her arrogance this is her constant thought and brag. The active voice: the ecumenical religion of the Tribulation produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. This is what she really thinks, this is what she really says, this is an expression of her arrogance. First of all it is a thought because of the prepositional phrase that follows, e)n plus the locative of kardia. Kardia is the organ of thought in the soul, not the organ that pumps blood. And we have the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “in her right lobe.” The content of her thought manifests both the arrogance of religion and disorientation to reality. We have a false rationale which is actually divorcement from reality, and being divorced from reality results in fantasising. The more fantasising, the less reality. The less reality the greater the subjectivity. The greater the subjectivity the greater the arrogance. It all adds up to a real disaster.

Religion becomes more and more arrogant as it gains power. Religion always starts out humble but gains power, and as it gains power it becomes arrogant. As evil arrogance it goes into competition with other forms of evil and eventually they come into conflict. Her disorientation to reality, then, intensifies the distortion and the disorientation increases with fantasising. All of this means that religion finally becomes a pain in the neck to the political power that sponsors it, the revived Roman empire, and one day finally brings on its own destruction.

Next we have o(ti and for the first time in this chapter o(ti is not a causative conjunction. In fact o(ti will not even be translated. Here the conjunction introduces direct discourse. it is equivalent to a quotation mark in the English and we simply do not translate it, “because she think in her right lobe.” The we have what she thinks, we do not translate o(ti. This is what she thinks: the present active indicative of the verb kaqhmai, and it means “I am enthroned.” the descriptive present tense for arrogance coming from power. This religious system has gained great power in the world therefore with it there is an increase of arrogance. The active voice: ecumenical religion produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for an unqualified assertion or allegation.

“I am enthroned a queen and I am not a widow.” The predicate nominative xhra for widow is rather interesting. When “widow” is explained in the times in which it was written. It meant, as Isaiah says in Isaiah 47:8, “Now then, here this you sensual one, who dwells securely, who says in your right lobe, I am, and there is no one like [beside] me. I will not sit as a widow,” a widow means simply loss of power in biblical times. You must interpret it in terms of the time in which it was written, “nor shall I know loss of children [converts].” Not being a widow means not running out of converts or running out of power or adherents, never lacking attention, never being alone. By analogy, the queen is the one getting all the attention, therefore the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation is getting all of the attention from the general public, and being ignored by the general public is being a widow in the analogy in both this context and in Isaiah 47:8.

Then comes the prayer: “therefore” is the consecutive conjunction kai which is used with the concept of coming to a conclusion. The aorist active subjunctive of o(raw means to see or to observe, then a double negative o)u mh, “therefore I will never see grief.” This is the way she thinks: the administration of divine judgment will never come to her. Ecumenical religion of the Tribulation has fantasised power into a system of false security and it is something that people often do, people who suddenly become successful or prominent or famous in some way. They fantasise the publicity, they fantasise the attention, into a system of disorientation to reality. Disorientation to reality is one of the characteristics of life in the cosmic system. This disorientation to reality results in a false sense of security, false confidence, which comes from popularity or power or admiration, or a combination of these things. The result is lots of arrogance and lots of fantasising. Just as the plan of God can only glorify God, so religion can only glorify man or Satan as the author of religion.

Translation: “To the degree that she glorifies herself, and lived sensually, to that same degree give her torture and grief: because she thinks in her right lobe, I am enthroned a queen, I am not a widow, consequently I will never see divine judgment [grief].”

Ecumenical religion of the Tribulation will be blinded by approbation lust. The fulfillment of power lust plus approbation lust will disorient ecumenical religion to the realities of divine judgment. Ecumenical religion will have a false sense of security which will be destroyed by the administration of the seventh bowl judgment and by the tactical nuclear attack on headquarters at “Babylon”, the code name for the headquarters in Rome. There is no future in motivational evil; there is no security in motivational evil. Motivational evil, of course, is any form of arrogance.

In verse 8 we have finesse judgment from God, the inevitable punishment of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation, and the inevitable discipline of believers who follow this same pattern of motivational and functional evil.

We note first the suddenness of divine judgment. The reason it is always sudden is because we have a buildup here of a false sense of security. Anyone who builds his security ion anything in this life has a false sense of security. Our security must be built upon the structure of Bible doctrine in the soul. Without the structure of doctrine in the soul, the edification complex that comes from gate eight, there is no way that we are going to have a true sense of security and a true orientation to reality. Our reality must be the grace of God. W must be oriented to the grace of God, to the essence of God, His divine attributes and how they function, His policies, His system, all that He has provided for us. As we have noted, God has a plan for each one of us and this is where our orientation must be. Our orientation cannot be in success or approbation or fame.

This discipline comes as a shock. It means simply that the whole system of fantasising, the whole system of putting arrogance into action in one’s life, the whole false system of security and subjectivity, is a house of cards and it comes tumbling down.

We start with the preposition dia with the accusative singular from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, literally, “because of this” but it is an idiom and never translated that way. It is an inferential idiom meaning “therefore,” “therefore in one day her plagues [judgments] will come,” the future active indicative of h(kw. It means to arrive on the scene, to come suddenly over the horizon. It is a little different from the usual verb which is e)rxomai. That means to come but it is not used here because this means to show up at your front door, to arrive on the scene. The predictive future, the active voice: finesse judgment from God produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the law of divine retribution in action. The law of divine retribution in action means judgment by death and finesse judgment.

Finesse judgments always come unexpectedly and anything that is unexpected is, of course, sudden and always from a shocking source under the principle that God uses evil to judge evil. This is His finesse judgment. Evil because of arrogance and jealousy, power lust, or because of self-righteousness and crusader arrogance. Evil makes a willing agent of God to destroy another form of evil or another entity of evil. Competition for power makes it possible for evil to function as the agent of God in destroying another form of evil. We call this finesse judgment.

Note again the phrase “in one day” which emphasises the suddenness of divine judgment to the recipient of divine judgment. Even if it had been building up for a long time it is sudden simply because subjectivity never expects any form of disaster like this. By application, this is a reminder to us of how quickly the pivot shrinks, how rapidly the disorganised evil of degeneracy comes into function and is judged by organised evil. Our only protection against finesse judgment from God is the expansion of the pivot of mature believers or believers who have virtue advancing to maturity. Furthermore, in order for the pivot to be enlarged the believer must have the right priorities.

Note that in finesse judgment God does not violate the volition of man. Therefore, finesse judgment dramatises the fact that man is always the product of his own volition. Finesse judgment is the same principle as found in self-induced misery, man is the product of his own bad decisions. Finesse judgment is related to the consequences of man’s evil decisions.

1. In finesse judgment God does not coerce or violate the volition of man. No volition is ever coerced or violated in a finesse judgment. God uses the motivational and functional evil as His agent to punish evil.

2. The finesse is found in the principle that God neutralises evil by means of evil. Zero cancels zero.

3. Finesse judgment dramatises the fact that both man individually and nations collectively are the products of their own evil motivation and evil decisions.

4. The rise of organised and disorganised evil in a country results in the historical possibility of it losing its pivot of mature believers and becoming so evil that God uses the evil of some communist entity to destroy the client nation.

5. The counterpart of finesse judgment from God is the believer’s self-induced misery from his own bad decisions outside the protocol system of the plan of God.

6. God uses the believer’s bad decisions as an agent to punish the believer, which emphasises the doctrine that every believer is responsible for his own decisions.

7. Unhappiness and misery which results from believers’ evil motivation and bad decisions is another case of God using evil to punish evil.

8. Likewise evil policy and bad decisions on the part of a national government result in finesse judgment.

In the last half of this verse we have the three judgments all brought into focus. The first one is given in one word, the nominative of exclamation from the noun qanatoj, “death.” It refers to physical death or, more technically, judgment by death. Remember that judgment by death is the function of God’s grace in the perpetuation of the human race. Some generations simply hit a saturation of sin that is totally self-destructive. The cancer becomes too great and therefore God brings about the elimination of the cancer through judgment by death so that the next generation will have the same opportunity for salvation, and the next, and the next, and that the angelic conflict will continue to roll throughout human history.

Through natural generation the old sin nature is perpetuated and total depravity which follows results in the self-destructive tendencies. Man left to his own devices and without the restraint of establishment and of a pivot and a client nation somewhere on planet earth would destroy himself. Therefore the self-destructive tendency is corrected through judgment by death. Motivational arrogance and lust for power is a potential bomb in any given generation, a bomb by which man fulfills his own self-destructive tendencies. In this tendency man is in competition with other things for destruction, e.g. the flea, the virus, weapons, terrorism, etc. God has a system to protect us from these things: radical surgery whereby He separates the infected parts of the human race from the non-contaminated parts of the human race. It is called judgment by death.

“Therefore in one day her plagues will come.” Then the nominative of exclamation, qanatoj, “death.” The Dead Sea is a memorial to the grace of God. What was one of the most advanced civilisations of history is now simply the Dead Sea in a very desert area. In the judgment of Sodom and Gomorra the contamination of the human race was destroyed by death to protect the progeny of Abraham and to guarantee the perpetuation of Israel on the earth during the entire course of history. A similar judgment was leveled against Canaan. If it were not for judgment by death in the previous generations of history we, the human race, would not be alive on earth during this 20th century. Therefore, we can all be thankful for judgment by death. It is God’s grace function to guarantee the continuation of mankind through human history. Of the three judgments mentioned in our passage judgment by death is mentioned first.

The next judgment is given the phrase of judgment by pain. Judgment by pain we first noted in chapter 16, verses 1-11. Here in verse 8 we have four words: the conjunction kai repeated twice, nearly always translated “both and,” and then two nominatives of exclamation. The first is penqoj which means grief or tragedy or disaster and it actually refers here to self-induced misery, disaster that comes about because of one’s own bad decisions. With it we have a second word limoj and it refers to economic depression, economic disaster, “both grief and famine” is the way it would be translated. These nominatives of exclamation, rare in the Koine Greek, simply emphasise a thought. The nominative case is used not as the subject, in fact they are used without the verb, it is used to identify a situation. Standing alone without a verb the noun in the nominative case receives a great deal of emphasis in an identifying way.

Next we have the principle that mankind, both believer and unbeliever, is the product of his own motives, his own thoughts, and his own decisions. When a person is a believer or an unbeliever he falls into this particular law. Bad decisions, then, from a position of weakness, i.e. inside the cosmic system, is the source of man’s grief, sorrow and disaster. In other words, without anyone’s help we manufacture our own misery from our own thinking, from our own decisions, and from our motivations before we make those decisions. In addition to this God adds to our misery. Inasmuch as we have already manufactured a good batch of misery God adds a concentrate to it called judgment by pain. Judgment by pain is used to the unbeliever. It is called warning and intensive discipline as far as the believer is concerned. Judgment by pain has a purpose: the extension of God’s grace to the unbeliever in crisis evangelism.

The nominative of exclamation, penqoj, is a general term for judgment by pain. It includes all of the personal disasters except economic. The second word, limoj, means famine or economic depression and it refers to bad decisions in business or some bad decisions in government that bring about a bad economic situation. Discipline by pain, then, is the counterpart of the divine judgment for the believer under the category of warning discipline or intensive discipline. Believers living in the cosmic system are classified as carnal believers.

The next category is finesse judgment and we start this with a different use of the conjunction kai. This time it introduces a result from what precedes in negative volition toward the gospel as presented by judgment by pain. Those who did not respond were removed by finesse judgment which will be the case in the nuclear attack on the headquarters of ecumenical religion. So we are translating the conjunction this time, “furthermore.” Then we have the future passive indicative of the verb katakaiw which means to consume by fire, to be burned. It is correctly translated, “she will be consumed.” This is a predictive future, it anticipates the nuclear attack on ecumenical religion’s headquarters, code named Babylon. The passive voice: the headquarters in Rome receives the action of the verb through tactical nuclear destruction. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of the nuclear destruction of the headquarters for ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. This is followed by a prepositional phrase: e)n plus the instrumental from purwsij, “by fire.”

Next we have a causal conjunction o(ti, “because,” and the nominative singular subject from kurioj and qeoj, “Lord God.” Then the articular aorist active participle from the verb krinw, “because the Lord God has judged.”

Notice that the Lord didn’t reach out and do anything Himself, He merely used an evil agent to destroy an evil entity. This is evil canceling evil. The definite article in the participle is used as a relative pronoun and refers to our Lord Jesus Christ to whom God the Father has delegated all judgment, as per John 5:22,23. With this we have the accusative singular direct object in the feminine, a)utoj, “judged her.” It refers to ecumenical religion as Satan’s international religious system in the Tribulation. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the nuclear attack on headquarters. It also emphasises the existing results, the total destruction of that headquarters. And who destroyed it? The former sponsorer of ecumenical religion, the beast dictator, the political power of the revived Roman empire. The ellipsis demands the verb e)imi, the verb to be.

Then we have a predicate nominative from the noun isxuroj — omnipotent. It means strong ordinarily but here it should be translated, “because the Lord God who judged her is omnipotent.”

Translation: “Therefore in one day her plagues [the three judgments against ecumenical religion] will come, death, both grief and famine; furthermore she will be consumed by fire [finesse judgment]: because the Lord God who judged her is omnipotent.”

In verses 9-19 we have the public reaction to the nuclear destruction of headquarters of ecumenical religion under the code name Babylon the great. In this paragraph we have three wails of public opinion. Public opinion is always whining about something. The first lamentation is the wail of the political rulers who had so much to gain because of ecumenical religion. We have the first category of mourners in verse 9.

We meet the compromising rulers with a sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” followed by the nominative plural subject of basileuj, “kings,” with the genitive of place gh, “the kings of the earth.” These kings must be distinguished from the beast dictator and his ten proconsuls who were formerly rulers of the ten nations in the united states of western union and/or the revived Roman empire. These are a different set of kings; these are the mourners. The beast dictator became hostile when the kings of this context remained friendly. This is a part of that great world war we have already studied. With this we have the articular aorist active participle from porneuw which means to literally fornicate but it also means to spiritually fornicate. To spiritually fornicate is simply a way of expressing apostasy. So we translate it, “who fornicated.” Then the second aorist participle streniaw, “and live sensually with her.” The morphology of both participles is the same. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety: their spiritual fornication in being involved in ecumenical religion and, with that, they live sensually with her, meaning they shared her luxury in this case. The active voice: world rulers who either compromised or became adherents to the ecumenical religious system produce the action of the verb in the Tribulation. The participle is circumstantial. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, and the main verb is their weeping and wailing, their lamentation.

Next comes two verbs of lamentation used in connection with the destruction of ecumenical religion. The kings are standing by, they are not too far away but are a little out of the contamination area, and they are mourning the loss of this system. The first of the two verbs of mourning is the future active indicative of klaiw which means to weep or to cry. The second one is the future middle indicative of the verb koptw, used for the form of lamentation and mourning in the ancient world, the beating of the breast. The ancients would stand at the grave of a loved one, in this case it would be the grave of an entity, and they would bang their chests.

“Then the rulers of the world, who have fornicated [cosmic involvement] and lived sensually with her [functional arrogance of cosmic one], will weep and mourn.”

We have in each case a progressive future tense, linear aktionsart in future time. The active voice: the rulers of the world again produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a point of prophetic doctrine. The only difference is in koptw where we have the middle voice, a direct middle which refers the results of the action to the agent thus relating the action more intimately with its subject.

The reason for this is now given in a temporal clause. For the third time in chapters 17 & 18 we have a reference to the tactical nuclear attack. It all begins with the word o(tan, “when.” With the present active subjunctive of blepw we will translate it, “when they see.” The progressive present signifies action in progress. They will be watching it, either on television or being there personally. The active voice: the rulers of the kings of the earth who compromised with ecumenical religion will produce this action. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive but it is used for a future reference. Therefore this makes the clause an indefinite temporal clause. In other words, it hasn’t happened yet and it is only going to happen once in history, in the future.

Then we have the accusative singular direct object from kapnoj, “smoke.” The reason we know this is because of the ablative of source singular from purwsij which refers to burning conflagration and is a technical word used for nuclear attack.

The fascinating thing about this whole passage is that we actually have a case of where the individual who is under some kind of a misconception that we are going to be destroyed by nuclear weapons is wrong. Nuclear attacks will come and go. They will come like plagues, like the flea in the middle ages which caused an estimated 25,000,000 casualties in a short time. There is no system of weaponry, no system of disease, no concept of evil, that will ever destroy the human race.

So when they see the smoke from the conflagration ((porwsij refers to this nuclear attack), and all over the world people will be watching on television — people will visit the sight of this nuclear attack and not be harmed in any way. In spite of this and the great world war that occurs in the Tribulation there will still be millions and even billions of people alive on earth at the second advent. No matter how bad life may be in some area people in some area are living normal lives.

These kings all have great power. People assume that if you have great power that you are happy. That is why people who do not have great power do not know what it is like to have great power. There is no happiness in the possession of power. Only a certain kind of people can possess power and use it properly. That, of course, requires virtue with the personality and the leadership. Then there are those who lust for power and who have no business even being near power. When they manage to get that power then there is an immediate disaster in their area. This is true in business, in politics, and especially in social life. So when these kings see the smoke of the conflagration they are immediately unhappy, even though they have great power and even though they are surrounded by approbation. Lonely people often look for approbation.

It appears as though the city of Rome is involved here but this is no reference to any alleged religion of the moment. We have all kinds of religions claiming to be ecumenical, e.g. the National Council of Churches as a part of the World Council of Churches, and certainly they have produced enough evil to make claim to it; but they are in the wrong dispensation. Probably the record for all time for oppression is held by the Moslems. Islamic countries are inevitably the most cruel countries in the world. They have never developed even a culture of tolerance for anything else. The point is that religion is always cruel. But the fact remains that when we are talking about the two cities of Rome in the Tribulation we are not making any allegations with regard to any of the religions of the present time. Should there be any kind of an elapse of time before the Rapture several things are going to happen. The USA is going back to a pristine form of life and the civilisation will shift to other places. The religions as we know them to day will probably change their names and nations will change their names. If there is any delay then there will be other religious groups emerge and they will do the same thing that religions always do. Religion solves all of its problems by violence. It is intolerant because religion is a system of arrogance.

Translation: “Then the rulers of the world who fornicated [spiritual fornication: apostasy] and lived sensually with her, shall weep and mourn, when they observe the smoke of her conflagration.”

This is the nuclear destruction of the religious Rome as the capital and headquarters of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. As we have noted, it is destroyed by finesse judgment. The agent in finesse judgment is the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation who sponsored ecumenical religion in its infancy. Needless to say, the agent is evil. An evil agent from its own volition and policy destroys the evil entity, ecumenical religion or Satan’s international religious system of the future. Apparently the attacks of political evil against religious evil include this tactical nuclear destruction of Rome as the headquarters of ecumenical religion. Just as there are two cities of Rome today, the city of Rome and the Vatican, so in the future there will be two cities in one geographical area. Without interfering with anyone’s volition or policy God uses evil to neutralise evil. Finesse judgment dramatises the doctrine that everyone is the product of his own decisions. In this case ecumenical religion went too far and antagonised the beast dictator, the political sponsorer, and ecumenical religion was not prepared for what happened. Evil always comes into existence through man’s own decisions and man’s residence in the cosmic system.

Judgment by pain destroys temporarily the influence of the cosmic system and makes it possible for the unbeliever to have temporary objectivity. In temporary objectivity he is in crisis evangelism and he can hear the gospel again and then respond to or recall what he has already heard. In that way God gives a last chance to everyone. Normal evangelism is the presentation of the gospel in relatively normal times; crisis evangelism is the presentation of the gospel in times of individual or collective catastrophe or disaster. Under normal evangelism the unbeliever has the opportunity of objectively considering the issue of Christ, as in John 3:36. When the unbeliever rejects the gospel under normal evangelism he locates permanently in the cosmic system. His status quo is described by 2 Corinthians 4:3,4, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are lost, in whose case the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving [those who are negative at the point of normal evangelism], so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Through cosmic involvement the unbeliever becomes disoriented to reality and is subjective. Therefore it is impossible for him to respond to the gospel.

The second principle is judgment by death, physical death. Judgment by death is the function of God’s grace in the perpetuation of the human race in any generation. When a printout hits a generation from the divine decrees, when the computer suddenly prints out saturation of sin, then that means that there is a large cancer of human beings who are about to destroy the human race. In order to protect the human race God performs radical surgery on that cancer and removes it by death. That is what happened to the people of Sodom and Gomorra and to thousands of people throughout the world through history.

We start out in this verse with a perfect active participle of i(stemi . They are standing, They were not destroyed in the destruction. Nuclear warfare does not destroy the world any more than any other warfare. They stood — the perfect of existing state in which the past completed action is dropped from the thought and attention is focused on the existing state. They are alive and unhappy. They have just seen the basis of all their fun destroyed. The active voice: the subjects are kings, rulers, aristocrats. The participle is circumstantial which is best rendered into the English by the conjunction “and” with the finite construction. They are. however, not getting up too close. Even though they are miserable they don’t want to die. How do we know that they don’t want to die? Because of the prepositional phrase that follows, and it is a very strange prepositional phrase because it is a)po plus and adverb makroqen. A)po takes the ablative case in a noun or an adjective used as a substantive, but a)po does not take an adverb, but it does here because this is Koine Greek. In the Attic Greek you’d never find it. It should be translated literally, “from afar off” or from “far away.” But you don’t translate it that way, it is an idiom. You don’t translate an idiom literally, you translate an idiom in the sense that the idiom is used. It can be translated one of two ways: “some distance away” or “at a distance.” So we translate it, “And they stood at a distance.” That is because they do not want nuclear contamination. But from where they stand they can still see the whole mess. They are standing at a distance because they are still alive and because they experience fear, dia plus the accusative of the noun foboj, “because of fear.” But what kind of fear? They are afraid in themselves but that isn’t what causing all of this wailing, it is caused by the objective genitive from basanismoj which means torture and the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “her torture.” So we translate, “and because of the fear of her torment [fear of nuclear contamination from the blast] they stood at a distance.” And what did they say? “saying.” Legontej is the present active participle of legw. This is present linear aktionsart, they kept saying it over and over again. Then we have the onomatopoetic interjection of pain, o)uai. It is also a nominative of exclamation in which the nominative is used without the verb.

The attack on ecumenical religion in the Tribulation brings into focus the whole subject of nuclear development. Nuclear development moves in two directions. The thing that always makes it worthwhile is first of all the fact that it is used in warfare. It is used under the principle of violence and neutralising the enemy. We have nuclear power and nuclear medicine much of which has been rejected through public opinion. Bureaucracy alone guarantees that the peaceful use of nuclear activity will never be fulfilled.

“saying, Woe, Woe to that great city Babylon [Rome, 1 Peter 5:13]. To make a distinction between political and religious Rome, Babylon is used as the code name. It is also called, “that powerful city.” The reason that Rome is called Babylon is because Babylon was the original of the pantheon related to the phallic cult, the devil’s communion table, and all the semi-ecumenical religions of the ancient world.

Now for the reaction to the shock. It begins with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, “because.” With this is the locative of time from two words, the adjective numeral e(ij and the noun o(ra, “in one hour.” This emphasises the suddenness of nuclear attack and the quickness of its destruction. And with this we have the recognition on the part of those who survived that this was a judgment for they said, “your judgment,” and we have the nominative singular subject from krisij which means judgment. With it is the possessive genitive from the pronoun su, “your judgment has come,” the aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai, meaning to come. The culminative aorist tense views the nuclear attack in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the destruction of the headquarters of ecumenical religion. The active voice: finesse judgment produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this future event.

We should notice, then, the human motivation in finesse judgment. In using evil as the agent for punishing evil finesse judgment always takes cognisance of human motivation as well as human volition. No human volition is ever coerced. Arrogance is the motivational evil which inspires the modus operandi of functional evil, and the point is that arrogance has no loyalty. That is why the political power destroyed the religious power it had originally sponsored in the Tribulation. This nuclear attack represents the principle that arrogance has no loyalty, arrogance has no virtue. Arrogance is the motivational evil which inspires the modus operandi of functional evil. Arrogance has no loyalty to arrogance, therefore arrogance seeks to destroy the arrogant. The most vicious destruction of an arrogant entity comes from another arrogant group. An arrogant agent is the most vicious destroyer of an arrogant entity and therefore Satan cannot control the civil wars that develop in his system because of arrogance. The arrogant motivation of the dictator of the revived Roman empire, a political power, had no qualms in destroying the arrogance of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. Even though the political power of the beast dictator originally sponsored that ecumenical religious system under the principle of arrogance there was no loyalty. The absence of loyalty meant that the political made a nuclear attack upon the religious. Therefore arrogance has no loyalty to arrogance and when that becomes very strong motivation arrogance seeks to destroy arrogance. This is the principle of finesses judgment.

Verse 11, We have the doubling of the conjunction kai, and that means “Both and.” We have the nominative plural subject e)mporoj. These are the merchant class. They are called “the merchants of the earth,” the genitive of gh. Again we see two words. First of all the present active indicative of klaiw, “weep.” What makes the merchants weep? Loss of profits, going into the red. With that we have the present active indicative of the verb penqew which means to agonise over something. It doesn’t mean simply to mourn. “The merchants of the earth both weep and mourn over her [ecumenical religion].” The motive of their grief is given with the conjunction o(ti, “because.” Then with this we have an adjective o)udeij, “no one,” meaning no customers, no market. It simply refers here to the loss of market, “no one buys,” the present active indicative of the verb a)gorazw, taken from the word market and market place. A)gora is a market, and from that we have the verb a)gorazw which means to buy in the market, “no one buys their,” and the accusative singular direct object from the noun gomoj which, in this case means cargo. It also means merchandise in general or their product. With it is the adverb of time o)uketi, translated “because no one purchases [or buys] their cargo any more.” The motivation for their grief is loss of profit, indicating that they are very heavily involved in marketing their products to ecumenical religion. The merchants no longer have a market for their products, their chief customer was ecumenical religion which is now destroyed.

The destruction of ecumenical religion is the simultaneous destruction of world markets and cargoes. Therefore there will be a depression. It is the destruction of a wealthy economy and a demand for luxury items related to this power system. No ecumenical religion means no world markets for luxury items.

Translation: “The merchants of the earth both weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargo any more.”

Verse 12, the prosperity and luxury of religion. Religion created a false economy, a demand for luxury items.

“Cargoes of gold, silver, precious gems and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet cloth, and every sort of citron wood, the articles of every category of ivory, expensive wood, bronze, iron, and marble.”

Verse 13, “Cargoes of cinnamon, and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, and fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and carriages, both bodies and souls of men.”

“Horses and carriages” reminds us that the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. Cinnamon and spice were luxury items. Myrrh and frankincense refer to the perfumes of the ancient world. Olive oil was the base for fine foods as well as fine flour and wheat. Cattle and sheep in abundance and horses and carriages simply mean luxury ways of transportation.

Note that ecumenical religion encourages luxury and slavery for the last line of verse 13, “the bodies and souls of men,” refers to slavery. Always, when there is a rise in luxury items and when there is economic prosperity. That economic prosperity guarantees that certain people will be enslaved one way or the other. Luxury is a matter of personal taste, so notice the personal taste of those who are religious. Luxury not only is a matter of personal taste but it is a matter of the ability to afford those luxuries and religion has both at that time. Slavery is another item though. Slavery is a matter of freedom, therefore luxury should never include slavery without destroying the source of luxury. That is the principle. The source of luxury is economic prosperity. Slavery turns economic prosperity, sooner or later, into a form of degeneracy. Religion has no capacity for life, therefore religion is characterised by lust and greed which causes religion’s great demand and the great demand for luxury items. To us the message is very simple. It is given in Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13 — “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Verse 14, the destruction of the religious market. The “bodies and souls of men” definitely indicates another form of their degeneracy. It doesn’t mean enslavement as we understand it, it can simply be crime. Where there is luxury there is crime, and where there is crime there is slavery.

This destruction of lust emphasises two things. First of all we have the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, translated “In fact.” Then our subject in the nominative singular is o)pora which refers to the time beginning with the rising of the star Sirius in July. It corresponds to the late summer or early fall when fruit ripens. Metaphorically then, it refers to the summer of life, the time of ripeness, the peak of vigour in life. Hence, we do not translate it “fruit” as in the King James version, that isn’t what it means at all. It means the peak or the zenith. So we translate it, “In fact the peak of your soul’s desire.” The soul’s desire or soul’s lust refers to the great demand for luxury, “has departed,” the aorist active indicative of the verb a)perxomai, which means to depart, to disappear. The culminative aorist views the destruction of lust in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the destruction of the religious market in the Tribulation. The active voice: the lust and desire for luxury items departs with the destruction of ecumenical religion. The market is gone, the merchandise no longer can be sold. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the disappearance of the market for luxury items with the destruction of ecumenical religion. The principle: economic prosperity of the last half of the Tribulation depends upon the computer tyranny called the mark of the beast. With the destruction of computer tyranny there is no demand, the world markets are closed, and the merchants are now bankrupt. “In fact the peak of your soul’s desire has departed from you.” Note that these people are still alive and they have switched from lust for luxury to desire for survival. But these merchants aren’t going to survive because there is simply no way to make money and to keep going. Therefore we have as one of the judgments of that time the destruction of luxury.

Translation: “In fact, the peak of your soul’s desire [for luxury items] has departed from you [lust has been replaced for desire for survival], all things, both riches and glamorous things, have vanished,” the aorist middle indicative from a)pollumi.

The principle is a very simple one: Wealth without capacity eventually destroys the effectiveness and the meaning of wealth. Wealth demands the consideration of the entire economy but it demands a sense of responsibility. Wealth without capacity destroys the effectiveness of wealth. People who are rich without the capacity for wealth are miserable. In this case there was no capacity, this was a religious market. Glamorous things without capacity invite self-destruction. Glamour without meaning becomes evil. Capacity, of course, means class, good taste, virtue, happiness, the ability to possess, the ability to be wealthy without arrogance. It means leadership without tyranny, “consequently they will no longer find these things.” The future active indicative of e(uriskw, to find, means that this economy is shut down permanently, plus the double negative: they will not ever find these things again. The destruction of ecumenical religion with its monopoly, including computer tyranny, will remove forever the wealth, the luxury, the glamour of its adherents. For those still alive the law of supply and demand is replaced by a scramble for survival. The market is closed and the demand has vanished. The question is asked: What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

This verse emphasises the punishment of ecumenical religion as an evil entity. Finesse punishment is defined, then, as God using an evil agent to punish an evil entity. This punishment is accomplished without divine coercion of human free will. The motivational evil of the punishing agent destroys the functional evil of the guilty entity being punished.

Verse 15, The ecumenical religious system was the best market for the merchants’ items and all of this was lost. Destruction of ecumenical religion, then, is the destruction of the markets and the resultant loss of profit.

In verse 16 we should note again that when this lamentation over the headquarters of ecumenical religion is given all of the glamour is gone.

In verses 17-19 we see the second lamentation, the wail of the shipping industry. The reaction of the shipping industry is brought in in verse 17. “Because in one hour such great wealth has been devastated.” That much of the verse should have been included in verse 16, and in the Greek verse 17 begins with the next word, “Furthermore.” “Furthermore every ship captain, and all who travel by ship, and all sailors, as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance.”

Verse 18, “When they see the smoke of her conflagration,” a reference to the nuclear attack; the word is purwsij in the Greek, “they keep screaming and saying, What city is like this great city?”

Verse 19, “And they threw dust on their heads, and they were screaming, both weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, is the great city, in which all who had ships at sea were made rich by her extravagance! and because in one hour she has been ruined.” This refers to a literal hour in which there was concentrated nuclear attack.

We learn from the three wails [the three categories] the first lesson: with finesse judgment, wherever it is found, there is always a question. It isn’t worth it in the end. The first great lesson of this finesse judgment is in Mark 8:36,37. Only those segments of the human race that were destructive to the perpetuation of the human race were wiped out. These are unbelievers who were destroyed in these nuclear attacks. There is no answer to this question. The soul of man is valuable, our Lord purchased it on the cross when he was judged for our sins. And for a man to gain the whole world as these kings gained political power, as these merchants became very wealthy and therefore had wealth and influence, and as those in the shipping industry were so successful and so profitable from these things, what did it profit them to gain the whole world and yet lose their own souls? What a tragic thing it is to live in this life, to come into this world, to have all of the opportunities of personally believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving Him as your own saviour, and to go through life as a vapour trail. There are so many people who reject Christ, they are just vapour trails.

Verse 20, begins the response in heaven. In heaven we have a different picture. On earth we see all those people who are vapour trails, and all of those people who have power and have succeeded in some special way, and they are all weeping and wailing. They are all losers. Achievement hasn’t brought them a thing. But there is happiness on earth for those who keep their priorities straight, and to keep priorities straight you have to go right back to the protocol system.

The first command here, and these are imperatives, is a mandate for a celebration. “Rejoice” is not a good translation. We have the present middle imperative of the verb e)uphrainw. E)uphrainw is the mood of joy, it means to celebrate. It has the concept of celebration over the effectiveness of what God has wrought. “Celebrate over her.” The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of future events in the process of occurrence. The middle voice is direct middle in which the subject participates in the results of the action. There is celebration in heaven, and celebration where evil destroys evil. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, a mandate for celebration. “Celebrate over her [the ecumenical religious system],” and then that vocative “O heaven.” The wailing on earth is drowned out by the celebration in heaven. The imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs have been answered.

The recipients of this mandate are now described. Three categories are mentioned: all believers in heaven, Old Testament believers , royal family, and Tribulational martyrs. There is a second category, the New Testament leadership called apostles. The third category is the Old Testament leadership called prophets. We start with believers. We have the conjunction kai translated “even.” We have the nominative plural of exclamation from a(gioj, “saints.” The word saint means simply set apart to God. The moment you believed in Jesus Christ you became a saint, you were set apart to God. it is a reference then to the family of God. Three categories are involved under the title “the saints.” First of all, the Old Testament believers whom we call “family of God.” Then the New Testament believers whom we call “royal family of God” or “Church Age believers.” Then there are the Tribulational martyrs, the ones who offer the imprecatory prayers in Revelation chapter eight.

Next we have the New Testament leadership under the nominative plural of exclamation, a)postoloj which does not mean one sent. A)postoloj is taken from the Attic Greek. When Athens developed its great fleet it always had two or three admirals waiting to see who would be sent out to command the fleet. The selected one was called a)postoloj. So a)postoloj doesn’t mean one sent, and doesn’t refer to missionaries, it refers to the highest ranking officer in the fleet. When it came over into the Koine Greek it simply meant the highest ranking officer and it refers to the New Testament leadership before the canon of scripture was completed. It is a reference to the gift of apostleship.

Then there is the Old Testament leadership under the title proqhthj, another nominative plural of exclamation. It is referring to the prophets of the Old Testament. These three categories are not taking personal revenge, that is forbidden, instead they are rejoicing over something that God has done. God is preserving the human race and keeping it going until the end of history through this radical surgery.

We have the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, “because.” This is the reason for the rejoicing or the celebration. Then the nominative singular of qeoj, “because God has judged, ” the aorist active indicative of the verb krinw. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the three judgments of ecumenical religion, gathers them into a single entity and becomes the basis for the celebration — judgment by pain, judgment by death, and finesse judgment. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb under the law of divine retribution. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the function of the justice of God in the execution of the law of divine retribution.

With this we have the cognate accusative krima which means judgment, “because God has judged judgment.” That is a literal translation and not the correct translation because it is an idiom. With the cognate this becomes “God has pronounced judgment [God has executed judgment] on your behalf.”

Here is the proper use of the faith-rest drill during the Tribulation. Here is the faith-rest drill regarding evil in any dispensation. It is the application of the essence of God rationale with emphasis on divine justice. It is an application of the law of retribution. The law of retribution is found in Romans 12:19. Punishment is the monopoly of God. For the believer this becomes a very important law because this keeps us from getting involved in revenge tactics.

Verse 21, a proclamation of the king of arms and a lesson for all of us to learn from history. We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” With this we have a subject in the nominative singular made up of three words: e(ij, meaning one or unique; the adjective isxuroj, meaning having attained high rank and therefore having great power; the noun a)ggeloj, “one strong angel.” This is the king of arms of the angelic college of heralds, the highest-ranking of all of the elect angels.

He does something significant and teaches us a lesson from history, the aorist active indicative of a)irw which means to pick up or to lift up. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The king of arms produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. What is picked up is said to be a stone but it is a great stone. The word for stone is liqoj, but in apposition to this we have some other words. We have a comparative conjunction o(j, an appositional accusative from the adjective megaj, and then the noun which tells us we are talking about a stone, mulinoj, a millstone. This stone is then cast into the sea. We have a connective kai, “and,” the aorist active indicative of ballw, he threw it. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the king of arms does it, he throws it into the sea.

Translation: Then the unique powerful angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and tossed it into the sea.”

This is a sign of judgment. This is a warning from the king of arms before the headquarters of ecumenical religion went under nuclear attack, before it was destroyed by finesse judgment. Remember that God always destroys a client nation by an evil entity. Finesse judgment is the means of administering the fifth cycle of discipline. This is not only a warning but it is a prophecy as to the outcome of the nuclear attack made by the beast dictator as the evil agent in finesse judgment. The sea represents the people throughout the world who adhere to international religion. The Greek word is qalassa, and when that boulder hits the sea of people that means divine judgment. Waves go out from the point of impact, they move all the way out from the epicentre to the very edges. This means that ecumenical religion which is worldwide will be destroyed by the administration of the seventh bowl judgment. Just as the falling millstone drops suddenly and destroys so the religious headquarters will be the recipient of falling missiles which will destroy it and the entire system.

This analogy of destruction has been compared to Jeremiah 51:60-64 — “So Jeremiah wrote in a single book all the disasters which would come to Babylon, all these words [verses 1-59] which have been written concerning Babylon.”

Verse 61, “Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah [was a prince of Judah who would go into captivity with king Zedekiah], ‘As soon as you come to Babylon, make sure that you read all these words aloud,

Verse 62, “and say, ‘Thou, O Lord, hast spoken concerning this place [Babylon as the political capital of Chaldea] to cut it off so that there be nothing living in it, from man even to beast, it will be a perpetual desolation’.” (This confirms the fact that the Babylon of Revelation is a code name for ecumenical religion whose headquarters is in Rome and not a literal Babylon)

Verse 63, “And it will come to pass as soon as you finish reading this book [the part dealing with the fall of the Chaldean empire] that you will tie a stone to this chapter and throw it in the middle of the Euphrates,”

Verse 64, “and say, ‘Just as Babylon will sink down and not rise again, because of the disaster I am going to bring about’.”

So a stone thrown in the water, making waves, is not unusual. Daniel tells us how the finesse judgment was administered. Jeremiah prophesied concerning the fall of the literal Babylon whereas in our passage we have the fall of the spiritual Babylon. The literal Babylon was destroyed in BC 539. In the case of the literal Babylon a stone was thrown into the middle of the Euphrates, in the case of the spiritual Babylon of the Tribulation, ecumenical religion, a giant millstone was thrown into the sea.

Next we have “saying,” the present active participle of the verb legw. This is what the king of arms announced. “In this manner Babylon the great city [the headquarters of ecumenical religion] will be thrown down with violence.” It will be thrown down, the future passive indicative of the same verb, ballw. This time it is in the future tense, this is a warning before it happens. The passive voice: Babylon the great, headquarters of ecumenical religion, will be destroyed. The indicative mood is declarative for the statement of reality in eschatological doctrine. It is said to be done with violence, and that would be the tremendous repercussions of that nuclear attack, “will be thrown down with violence, and never be found again.” That means that with the fall of ecumenical religion there is a judgment of peripheral categories, found in verses 22-23. Once the boulder hits a point in the sea, that would be Babylon, headquarters of ecumenical religion, there would be a great waves, and there would be other waves. Now we are down to the peripheral judgments which follow. In this paragraph the destructive path of the waves or the peripheral judgments related to the judgment of ecumenical religion is given. There are five categories of peripheral judgment mentioned in verses 22 & 23.

First of all, musicians, the entertainment industry. Then there is skilled labour. The third is industry, the fourth is utilities, and the fifth is the social and sexual life of the people. These are the peripheral categories that are destroyed throughout the world. This paragraph then continues the proclamation of the king of arms. Three categories are mentioned in verse 22 and two of the categories are mentioned in verse 23.

Note the pattern, then. In verse 21 we have the centre of impact of the millstone: divine judgment of ecumenical religious headquarters under the code name Babylon the great. Then in verse 22 judgment waves from the centre of the impact move out to engulf musicians, skilled labour and industry. In verse 23 judgment waves from the epicentre move out to engulf utilities and the social-sexual life of the adherents to ecumenical religion. In verse 22, without skilled labour industry cannot function. In verse 23 without utilities, like gas and electricity, there is no social life.

In verse 22 the judgments waves move from the centre of impact to engulf musicians, skilled labour and industry. In verse 23 the judgments waves continue and destroy the social-sexual life of the people. Verse 22 in corrected translation: “Furthermore the sound of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpets, will never be heard again in you.”

Sound has a very strange result in human life. Sound apart from words becomes a direct attack — or sometimes stimulation of — on the emotional system. Remember that the soul has the two frontal lobes which depend on words and vocabulary and how you put them together. Subordinate to them is the emotion of the soul and music apart from lyrics [the sound of music] often makes a direct assault upon the soul. Music therefore becomes a reflection of the status quo of the people in any given geographical area. For example, over the last several thousand years in Africa, India, China, and Japan, the sound without the lyrics produces a strange effect and indicates the condition of the people. The sound in Africa is the beat, and with it very primitive sounds indicating a very primitive status quo of those people. The sound, for example, in India is the terrible screeching noise of strings. The sound in Japan is very mournful and sad and causes the occidental to hear it and be under some form of being depressed. What this is saying is that the sound produced by instruments or by drums reflects the culture of the people. In the case of primitive cultures they have primitive music. Degeneracy in a nation often goes back to that primitive culture.

In the case of ecumenical religion we find the destruction of the life of many peoples through the influence of music. Notice that the music, which includes entertainment, includes many instruments. So it was not a primitive sound, it was not a beat, it was a very excellent form of music — the music of the harpists, the musicians including the flute players, the trumpeters. Generally speaking, music is entertainment. It was more than this as far as the people were concerned in the Tribulation who were related to this system. Entertainment, of course, requires skill. The skills are gone as illustrated by the fact that the musicians are destroyed. The judgment of ecumenical religion destroys the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry as represented by music was undoubtedly very similar the to the tremendous development of music back in the 5th century BC.

Next we notice the category of skilled labour, “in fact no workman of any skill will ever be found in you again.” The principle” Without technical skills industries are shut down. Industry cannot survive the loss of a skilled labour force. In a degenerate society or nation skilled labour disappears, industry declines. The decline of industry means terrible self-destruction to the nation.

The third category in verse 22 is industry itself, industry which depends on the ability of skilled labour, “also the sound of the mill will never be heard in you again.”

Verse 23, two more categories are given: utilities, and there is a relationship between that and social life. Without the utility industry mankind cannot function in population centres like large cities. Utility and energy industries are essential to the function of life in large cities.

The final category is social life (including sexual life), “in fact the voice of the groom and the bride will never be heard in you again.” The two principles of direct discourse follow. Each principle of direct discourse is introduced by the conjunction o(ti, when o(ti is used in direct discourse it is not translated. It is comparable to our modern quotation marks. This introduces the direct discourse of the king of arms, therefore an application from the passage:

1. Economic prosperity did not deliver the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation.

2. The power of deception, demonism, and drugs did not deliver her. The application to us is obvious: economic prosperity will not deliver this nation. The power of deception, demonism, drugs, will not deliver us either.

In the direct discourse we have two principles coming up in verse 23. The first is: economic prosperity did not deliver ecumenical religion: “your merchants,” we have the nominative subject of e)mporoj. With this phrase we have the fact that in ecumenical religion the merchants “were great,” the imperfect active indicative of e)imi, they were always great during the course of the function of ecumenical religion. When it says they were great it says they were actually successful men, the predicate nominative plural from megistan, which means successful, “your merchants were successful.” It means the economy of the ecumenical religious system was very strong. A strong economy does not guarantee the deliverance of the nation in times of disaster. Economic prosperity did not deliver the ecumenical system of the Tribulation. There is not enough wealth or influence in the world to hold back the tide of divine judgment. Divine judgment, therefore, has greater power than any system of influence the world has ever known. The justice of God cannot be bribed by the influence of man. The key to the first principle then is influence; the key to the second principle is power. Influence and power are the two things in the world that generally deliver people, but neither influence nor power in man can stand up against divine judgment. So the power and the influence of the ecumenical religious system will not deliver them from judgment.

The second principle in verse 23 is very simple. It is the principle that the power of demonism, the power of deception, the power of drugs, does not deliver ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. We begin with the prepositional phrase e)n plus the instrumental of farmakeia which has three meanings. First it means sorcery, the use of magical arts related to idolatry and demonism. So it has the connotation of demonism. Secondly, it has to do with the use of drugs which in this context has an evil rather than a medicinal connotation. Hence, drug pushers, drug users, adding up to drug abuse. Thirdly, it is related to poisoning. Here is would be the poisoning of the mind of mankind with false doctrine from the cosmic system. We translate it, “by means of your farmakeia.” The reason that we are transliterating farmakeia is because it refers to demonism related to idolatry, it also refers to drug abuse, and to cosmic poisoning of the mind. All three were involved.

With this we have the phrase, “all the nations of the world were deceived.” So we have the power of demonism, the power of deception, demonism, drug abuse, which did not deliver these people. The word for “deceive” is the aorist passive indicative of the verb planaw. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. What were the results? False doctrine deceives the mind, so there was deception; the Satanic system produced demonism and, thirdly, the Satanic system produced drug abuse. This influenced the nations of the world: deception, demonism, and drug abuse of the nations of the world influenced by Satan’s international religious system. The passive voice: the nations of the world in the Tribulation received the action of the verb, they were deceived, influenced by demonism, influenced by drug addiction, influenced by farmakeia in the sense of mind-poisoning from the cosmic system. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality.

Translation of verse 23, “Furthermore the light of the lamp will never shine on you again [the destruction of the utility system]; in fact the voice of the groom and the bride will never be heard in you again: your merchants were great men, successful men of the earth; by means of your farmakeia [demonism related to idolatry, drug abuse, cosmic poisoning of the mind] all the nations of the world were deceived.”

Verse 24, the inherent criminality of religion. Religion is a criminal activity. Remember that Christianity is not a religion. The emphatic use of the conjunction kai, “In fact.” Then, “in her” is the prepositional phrase that follows, e)n plus a)utoj, ecumenical religion being in view. Then the aorist passive indicative of the verb e(uriskw, “in her was discovered.” Next we have a nominative singular subject, “the blood.” Blood refers to martyrdom. There are two categories of martyrdom mentioned: the prophets, referring to the communicators of doctrine in the Tribulation, and the saints, the general run of believers in the Tribulation. This is criminality, the murdering of believers. Religion becomes criminal at this point. When anyone tries to control, to gain power through a religious system and they use any form of terrorism or murder they become criminal. The criminality even of the National Council of Churches can be demonstrated in giving money to terrorist groups or supporting terrorist groups. So people might start out with true doctrine but once they sponsor any form of violence or indicate that violence is a solution to any problem or seek to gain converts through violence, they become religious and at the same time they become evil. This becomes a criminal activity.

The criminality of ecumenical religion is given in the last phrase when it says, “all who have been slain on the earth.” Not only did they murder believers in the Tribulation but they also were terrorists killing others. This is taken from a genitive absolute at the end of this verse. It isn’t usual for John to use a genitive absolute. The genitive absolute is made up of the genitive plural of the adjective used as a substantive, paj, and it is in the genitive case. The subject is usually in the nominative case but this is a genitive absolute.

Then we have a genitive perfect passive participle from the verb sfazw, used here for the use of great violence, the use of terrorism and violence, “and all who have been slain on the earth.” The ecumenical religion is guilty of terrorist activities, therefore criminal behaviour. Frustrated by their attempt to seize more power, frustrated by the power of God, religion as a Satanic organisation resorts to violence and murder to accomplish its objective, to gain influence and power through terrorism. Criminality is always a sign of failure in life. There is no system of criminality that has ever existed but what it has written across it, “loser.” Losers are criminals. There never was a criminal who was a winner. They are always losers, they have failed in life, they are frustrated in life, they try to compensate for their failure and their frustration by using some form of terrorism, some form of violence in order to compensate for their failure. Criminals are losers in life, the products of their own lust, their own arrogance, and their own bad decisions.

Translation: “In fact the blood of the prophets [the ministers of the Tribulation], and saints [believers of the Tribulation], was discovered in her [the ecumenical religious system] and all who have been slain on the earth [the general public was also the product of this disastrous situation].”

We have, therefore, in all of this a challenge and an application to us as believers today, because we are going the same way. Everywhere you turn you find what was previously Christianity is now becoming very religious. Everywhere you turn believers are becoming religious by living in cosmic one and cosmic two.

What is a client nation? It is a nation where there is enough freedom for evangelism. Once you accept Christ as saviour then the plan of God is before you. You are free to execute the plan of God. Not all believers execute the plan of God and this is why we have a spin off and why the pivot is shrinking. Cosmic believers become potential revolutionists through civil disobedience and through fanatical crusades, disrupting the freedom and rights of others through social action.

2. The function of evangelism under the principle of freedom: where there is no coercion on the part of government or on the part of the evangelist.

3. The establishment of local churches which are autonomous, neither connected with other churches to form denominations or spheres of influence or involved in any movement which seeks to unite church and state.

4. The function of vigorous and dynamic Bible teaching to believers which emphasises the protocol system of the plan of God.

5. Missionary activity to other nations under the indigenous principle of not interfering with foreign governments, regardless of what type of government they have, but providing both the gospel and Bible teaching for the people of other countries.

Verse 1, “Hear the doctrine of the Lord,” doctrine is for believers in a client nation, so this is not addressed to unbelievers, it is addressed to believers. Believers determine whether a nation goes up or down. With a large pivot the nation goes up to blessing; with a small pivot the nation fails, “O people of Israel, because the Lord has a court case against the citizens of the nation, because there is nothing of doctrine being taught, nothing of grace being applied,” without doctrine you can’t use grace properly, “or knowledge of God in the nation.”

Verse 2, “Instead there is lying and deceiving,” lack of virtue. Once you remove virtue from the nation there is no way to be a client nation. There can be neither establishment nor the functions of the spiritual life, “both murder and stealing and rape.” One of the first signs of degeneracy is lack of restraint of criminality. Murder fails to recognise the sacredness of human life; stealing fails to recognise the sacredness of property; rape fails to recognise the volition of the individual, therefore the sacredness of human freedom, “plus unrestrained violence.”

Verse 3, “For this cause the land shall mourn, consequently everyone who lives in it shall lose strength along with the animals of the field (cruelty to animals is also a sign of degeneracy), both the birds of the sky and the fish of the lakes are taken away.”

Verse 4, “Yet let no one contend [blame others because the nation is being judged], and let no one impugn [don’t blame it on the leaders or some group in the nation]; for you people are like those who contend with the priest,” the priest in Israel was a communicator of Bible doctrine. They are contending with the priest which means they are resisting the doctrine.

Verse 5, “Therefore you have stumbled by day [application of doctrine in daily life], furthermore the prophet also will stumble with you,” those who were supposed to be teaching doctrine have become religious and are now teaching the apostasies of the cosmic system, “by night [apostate teaching in Bible class]; then I will destroy your mother [nation],” a reference to the fifth cycle of discipline.

Verse 6, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge of doctrine.” As goes the believer, so goes the nation. “Because you have rejected knowledge of doctrine I also will reject you from being my priest nation [the client nation is a priest nation to God]. Since you have neglected the doctrine of your God, I will neglect your next generation.” The client nation will be destroyed.

“But he gives greater grace [God’s daily provision to believers in the client nation. He gives them the opportunity, the protocol system, protected life, security, so that they can form a pivot in the client nation]. Therefore it says, ‘God makes war on the arrogant’,” when the pivot becomes so small you can’t see it the spin off always goes into the cosmic system and the cosmic system then has the bulk of believers. Once the bulk of believers are in the cosmic system then “God makes war against the arrogant”. How does God make war against arrogant believers? The destruction of the client nation, “ ‘but he gives grace to the humble [the believers who have discovered virtue in the protocol system]’.”

Verse 7, “Therefore submit to God [life in the protocol system, the divine dynasphere]. Resist the devil [stay out of the cosmic system or, if you get in, get out in a hurry] and he will flee from you.”

Verse 8, “Draw near to God [the function of the protocol system] and he will draw near to you [the blessings of motivational virtue, but more than that, blessing by association with the client nation]. Cleanse your hands [rebound], you sinning ones [believers in the cosmic system]; purify your right lobes [momentum at gate four], you double-minded [a believer under the influence of the cosmic system].”

Verse 9, “Be miserable [self-induced misery], both mourn and weep [believers are the products of their own bad decisions]; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your happiness be turned into gloom [the results of living in the cosmic system].”

Verse 10, “Humble yourselves [the beginning of virtue at gate three] under the mighty hand of God [the protocol system, the divine dynasphere], and he will exalt you [the believer becomes a winner in the protocol system].”

Verse 6, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God [function in the divine dynasphere], that he may exalt you at the proper time,

Verse 8, “Be vigilant, be on the alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour [the devil taking a believer into his cosmic system].”

Verse 9, “But resist him [life in the divine dynasphere], be stabilised in doctrine ...”

The subject of this chapter is two banquets at the second advent. The outline is threefold, there are three paragraphs in this chapter. The first paragraph deals with the marriage supper of the Lamb which is a banquet of blessing, verses 1-9. The second paragraph deals with the second advent of Christ, verses 10-14.

The third paragraph deals with the supper of the great God, a judgment banquet, verses 15-21.

The supper of blessing or the marriage supper of the Lamb begins in verses 1-3 begins with a celebration in heaven over the judgment of ecumenical religion, the subject of chapters 18 and 19. The celebration in heaven begins with a shout of heavenly praise in verse 1.

There are two words in the King James version which do not appear in the original manuscripts; the words "honour" and "Lord" at the end of the verse. The time of the victory shout is given first with a prepositional phrase, meta plus the accusative plural of the immediate demonstrative o(utoj, "After these things." The word "and" in the KJV is not found here either. The prepositional phrase indicates the sequence of time, after the administration of the judgment against ecumenical religion. So after the administration of this judgment we now move on to the celebration in heaven.

Heaven is always a place of great happiness and celebration, a place of tranquillity, a place of "no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more death." Immediately after physical death, whether a believer is a winner or a loser, he goes immediately into the presence of the Lord. He has an interim body, he recognises all of his friends who have preceded him into heaven. So it is always a place of great happiness. So, "after these things" we have John indicating an auditory vision rather than one by eye, "I heard," the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety — the auditory vision. The active voice: the apostle John as the human writer of the book of Revelation produces the action under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The indicative mood is the reality of a doctrinal principle: that God in His justice always rectifies wrongs committed against believers, but the believer must be patient under the principle of the faith-rest drill.

This anticipates something of the first two verses in this chapter, and that is the fact that every believer, sooner or later, is wronged. There are going to be times in your life when you are absolutely right and someone else is absolutely wrong, or an approximation of that principle. When that happens you are under great pressure to do the right things rather than the wrong things yourself. Any time that an individual is wronged immediately there comes into the soul some form of resentment or reaction. It is so rare that when we are right we generally make the most of it! By making the most of it we get up on our self-righteous high horse and scream "bloody murder." We are all right, someone else is all wrong! It is a sort of a refreshing immediate reaction. But the whole thing does not follow suit if one flunks this test, he is in a state of arrogance immediately. Any time that you are wronged the procedure is given in the principle of eschatology in this passage. So you are wronged. Someone has done something to hurt you, to undercut you, to destroy you, to tear you up, or something of that sort. What are you going to do about it? The principle is found as a part of the faith-rest drill in Romans 12:19, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." If you get into motivational evil when you are wronged, which is very easy, you've had it, because revenge or vengeance belongs to the Lord. It does not belong to us at all, and the reason is because we never have all the facts.

What should we do? Instead of getting into gate one of cosmic one there are two things that we need to do: the function of the faith-rest drill, i.e. "Revenge belongs to me, I will repay, saith the Lord." That is the first stage of the faith-rest drill. Secondly, switch over to the rationales. When the Lord says "I will repay" you have the essence of God rationale, God knows all the facts. Furthermore, the plan of God rationale. Under the plan of God God handles all of the antagonism, that is His monopoly. It is a protocol. We leave to God all of the wrongs and injuries done to us. We leave that in His hands. Of course, we can go to others as well. The logistical grace rationale: the fact that we have been wronged doesn't cut off any support from God. We are not going to be the less for it because we have been wronged. So the first factor then is to leave the matter in the Lord's hands, and that is a matter of the faith-rest drill.

The second function is separation. Life is too short to fool with that person; move on. There is no justice on earth regarding these things. You can't look for justice on earth, you go to a higher court. That is why we have those three categories of judgment administered to ecumenical religion.

So this first victory shout indicates again that God has fulfilled His promise. They had left it in the hands of the Lord. One thing about imprecatory prayers is that the one who offers that prayer is not administering the judgment. He is asking the Lord to do it and the Lord will filter it all out and handle it. With imprecatory prayers or the faith-rest drill once you put it in the hands of the Lord you don't fool around with it any more. You therefore replace your disturbed and upset condition with tranquillity knowing that in the Lord's time, which is far better than our timing, the Lord will take care of it one way or another.

In verse 1 and in verse 3 we are going to find a lot of people rejoicing in heaven because they did not try to take revenge. They left the matter in the Lord's hands and they get the announcement of the judgment, and having left it in the Lord's hands they simply express their own +H and their own wisdom in not trying to personally get revenge. The principle of rejoicing in heaven is a principle that applies to us on earth: the happiest people in the world and the best adjusted people in the world are the people who do not seek revenge, who do not take matters into their own hands. God in His justice rectifies wrong provided that you do not interfere with divine justice. Interfering with divine justice is simply taking matters into your own hands.

First of all we hear the first chorus of the hymn of praise. It begins with the comparative particle w(j, and with it, fwnh, "what sounded like." It is an idiom. We have fwnh as the accusative singular direct object of a)kouw, and with it we have the adjective megaj, which translated in its true idiom [not literally], "After these things [after the administration of these judgments] I heard what sounded like a large crowd." That is the way it should be translated. We have a descriptive genitive for the large crowd: the adjective pollouj followed by the noun o)xloj, "crowd." This large crowd is located "in heaven," e)n plus the locative of o)uranoj, they cannot see what is going on on earth.

The content of the first shout: God the Son has just executed one of the greatest judgments of history. He has administered all three categories of judgment against ecumenical religion and destroyed it. We have a present active participle from legw and it means to shout. This is the cheering session. The descriptive present indicates the cheering session. The active voice: the cheering session of the Tribulational martyrs who produce the action of the verb. This is a victory cheer. These are the believers who offered the imprecatory prayers in chapters 6:9-11; 8:4 which were answered in the administration of the seven bowl judgments. And what did they shout? The King James version says, "Alleluia," but that isn't what they shouted. This is an unfortunate transliteration. It should be Halleluia. It is actually a transliteration from the Hebrew: "Hallelujah." "Hallelu" means praise, and "jah" means the Lord. So it actually should have been translated "Praise the Lord," and the reason they can praise the Lord: It is a great word when you put matters in the Lord's hands and the Lord has taken care of the whole matter. That is why we have this in heaven. Heaven is one place where you can say "Hallelujah" without being a jackass! So the cheering crowd says, "Praise the Lord." These are the shouts of victory as well as expressions of praise. There is no verb in the Greek but the possessive genitive will act as the verb. The possessive genitive is qeoj. Translation: "After these things I heard what sounded like a large crowd in heaven, shouting, Praise the Lord .."

Something "belongs to our Lord." The word for "our" is the possessive genitive plural from e)gw, all of these are believers, "our Lord." And what belongs to our Lord? There are four words here, not three words as in the King James version. Each of this is connected by kai, but kai merely is used as a comma here.

The first is swthria. It often means salvation and it can be salvation here, but it also means deliverance. Deliverance belongs to our Lord as well as salvation. When we are talking about entrance into the plan of God it is salvation; when we are talking about deliverance in phase two then it is phase two of the plan of God rather than phase one.

Next we have doca, "glory," a reference to the essence of God as the source of the divine plan for the human race. What better way to handle your problems than to put them in the Lord's hands, "Casting all your cares on him, for he careth for you." Emphasis is placed on the believer's point of reference here which is the integrity of God, described by the word "glory."

Finally, there is dunamij which refers to the system, the protocol, "power." Whatever the plan of God is for the believer in the Tribulation it includes a protocol system of some sort. By application, dunamij to us refers to the divine dynasphere.

So we can say, "Deliverance, glory and power belongs to our God," or we can translate it, "Salvation, glory and power belongs to our God." Both are true. The point is: To which does it refer here? Probably deliverance because these people were delivered through death.

Translation of verse one: "After these things [the great judgments of ecumenical religion] I heard what sounded like a large crowd in heaven, shouting, Praise the Lord; deliverance and glory and power belong to our God."

There is no word "Lord" here in the original manuscript and there is no word "honour." They are true but they just don't happen to be in the text. Deliverance is provided for every believer, any believer who will use the faith-rest drill. First of all you claim a promise or promises; secondly, you go to the rationales; from the rationales you come to your conclusion that the Lord can handle it better than you can. Therefore you leave it in His hands which gives you instant tranquillity. As a result of this you have control of your own life and you have a personal sense of destiny because you are not distracted by the pettiness, by the jealousy, by the bitterness, by the vindictiveness, by the hatred of other people. So you are lining up with what God's plan for your life happens to be, glory. Glory is not only perfection of divine attributes but glorification of the Lord is accomplished by doing this.

The word "power" not only refers to God's protocol plan but it is a reminder to us that Jesus Christ controls history. The power of God is infinitely greater than the power of Satan who is the present ruler of this world. To the believer in the Church Age power is, of course, the plan of God relating to the divine dynasphere. But the principle that comes out of this from the eschatological viewpoint is this: Divine judgment protects the human race from self-destruction. It also protects the believer from destroying himself through fear, worry and anxiety.

Verse 2, the reason for this victory shout. We begin with the first of two conjunctions that are similar, o(ti, used this time as causal conjunctions. We translate it "Because." With this we have a predicate nominative plural from a)lhqinoj, "truth." It refers to divine veracity in the administration of judgments. It also refers to the fact that Bible doctrine explains the reason for divine judgment such as those we have studied in chapters 17 & 18. Actually, the explanation deals with the grace of God in preserving the human race as well as removing the cancer of evil. The second predicate nominative is dikaioj which, with a)lhqinoj should be translated "true and righteous." Both of these are in the plural and although we can't translate them that way into the English there is a reason for it. We have an ellipsis here so we insert the verb e)imi, "true and righteous are." Then we have a subject, the nominative plural from krisij with the possessive genitive from a)utoj, "his judgments." Translation: "because his judgments are true and righteous."

The plural of "righteous" means the integrity of God. It is in the plural because He has two parts to His integrity: justice, our point of reference, and perfect righteousness, our point of blessing. Remember that this is the basis whereby we are sustained in time. The justice of God has imputed one half of His integrity or His righteousness to us, perfect righteousness. Therefore justice sends down the grace pipeline logistical as well as supergrace blessings. "Righteous" here is in the plural because it covers the entire holiness or integrity of God. Behind the function of the justice of God is the fact that God is righteous, therefore He can make no mistakes in the exercise of His judgments. The fact that God exercised judgment by pain, followed by judgment by death, followed by finesse judgment indicates that these are perfect judgments. He handled them at the right time, at the right place, in the right way.

The plural of "true" refers to the facts of history as they come out of the computer of divine decrees. First of all, the omniscience of God enters into the computer of the divine decrees all these facts: every thought, every decision, every action, every motive of every person and how it relates to all others. And that is true of the Tribulation. The whole history of the Tribulation is in the computer and it rolls out bit by bit the function of ecumenical religion, followed by the judgment of ecumenical religion. The function of ecumenical religion came first in which there was the torture and the martyrdom of those who were winners. The whole thing rolls out of the computer and therefore it is in the plural. That is because the word "true" refers to the facts of history. "Truth," on the other hand, refers to the essence of God. The essence of God is truth, God is truth, and what He puts into the computer from His omniscience in eternity past comes out as true, both as to sequence and interaction. So there is a difference between true and truth. The facts of history in any given generation may be evil, they may be good, but they are true events. Whatever happens in history comes out, and that is true, so that the doctrine of the Word of God is absolute truth. Since doctrine comes from God it is truth. Since the facts of history are the results of our decisions, our motives, our functions, they are true.

The content of divine judgment: we have the second o(ti introducing the fact of the three great divine judgments against ecumenical religion of the Tribulation, "because." Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb krinw, "because he has judged." This is what they are shouting about. This is a culminative aorist tense, it views the threefold judgment of ecumenical religion in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, which includes the perpetuation of the human race during the course of human history. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the three categories of divine judgment used against ecumenical religion. With this we have the accusative singular direct object from an adjective and a noun: the adjective megaj, meaning great, and pornh, "the great whore," referring to the spiritual fornication of the religious ecumenical system of the Tribulation. Religion is the greatest seducer of souls and is one of Satan's greatest systems. So we translate: "because his judgments are true and righteous because he has judged the great prostitute."

Next we have a rather strange relative pronoun. It is the qualitative relative pronoun, o(stij which means a special category. It is a relative pronoun indicating that the prostitute belongs to a special category. "Who" is the way we will translate it but it should be literally, "who is such a category as." Then we have the aorist active indicative of fqeirw which often means to corrupt, here it means here to seduce, "the great whore who seduced." The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the evil of ecumenical religion in its entirety. The active voice: ecumenical religion as the great whore produces the action of the verb through cosmic evangelism. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality of the evil function of ecumenical religion. And who is the victim? The accusative singular direct object of gh, meaning earth. The means by which it is accomplished: e)n plus the instrumental from porneia plus the genitive of a)utoj, "by means of her fornication." A reference to the function of cosmic evangelism in the Tribulation.

The reason for the victory celebration is given in verse two, and the perfection of divine judgment is the first subject in verse two. We have the causal conjunction o(ti, "Because" followed by two nominative plurals, both were adjectives used as substantives, "Because true and righteous." Then we have an ellipsis using the verb to be, "are his judgments." "His judgments" is actually the subject and the others are predicate nominatives, so it should be translated, "Because his judgments are true and righteous." This becomes a very important principle for us. The interesting thing about these two words in the Greek is the fact that both of them are in the plural and practically non-translatable into English because of this. The plural of "righteous" is not translated but it actually refers to the integrity of God. The reason it is in the plural is because the holiness or the integrity of God has two attributes: justice and righteousness. Behind the function of the justice of God is the fact that God is righteous, therefore He cannot make mistakes in the execution of judgments. The plural of "true" refers to all the facts of history entered into the computer of divine decrees: the facts of history as they emanate from the person of God and the printout from the divine decrees. Hence, "true" is a technical word here referring to the printout from the divine decrees regarding history. True refers to all the facts of history, that is why it is in the plural; truth is a reference to two things: the essence of God and, as the source of the essence of God, Bible doctrine which is absolute truth. So we have to rightly divide the Word of truth and make a distinction between two words as they come into the English from the translation.

"True," being in the plural here refers to the printout of history, all the facts of history as they unroll; truth has to do with Bible doctrine. True refers to the facts of history as facts, not things that are true but facts that are true. So we have to distinguish between true and truth. The facts of history in any given generation may be evil but they are true facts, true events of history. The doctrine of the Word of God is absolute truth while the facts of history are both good and evil as true facts. Historically a person may lie but that lie is still a part of the facts of history and therefore it is true. It is true that he lied, in other words. It is true that the devil lied in the garden. That is a fact of history. True is the accuracy of history as it comes from the computer of divine decrees while truth is an attribute of God, both accurate and perfect, both infinite and absolute. Truth, then, is the source of Bible doctrine, while true is the unfolding of history as it occurs.

Notice here: "Because his judgments are true and righteous," not truth and righteousness but true and righteous. This is technical but very important. The fact that His judgments are true means that they occur periodically in history when necessary. The fact that His judgments are righteous indicates that they come from His justice and that He never fails to be right in any estimate of the situation. God always has the facts.

Next we have the content of judgment. We go on with the second use of o(ti, "because," and the aorist active indicative of the verb krinw, "because he has judged." God judges; that is a fact. God's judgments are perfect; that is a doctrine. The culminative aorist tense views the threefold judgment of ecumenical religion in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the perpetuation of the human race on earth during the course of human history. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb because God the Father delegated all judgment to Him. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the these categories of judgment in this context and found throughout history.

Then that strange relative pronoun which is a qualitative relative pronoun. We never translate it fully into English. We simply translate it, o(stij, "who." It is actually referring to a specific category, a qualitative category. That means that the category is distinct from all other categories in focus at the moment. In this case it is referring to ecumenical religion as an evil entity, "who seduced," the aorist active indicative of fqeirw. The ecumenical religious system as the great prostitute produces the action of the verb through cosmic evangelism in the Tribulation. And we have the accusative singular direct object, gh, "the earth."

We break off here for concept which begins in Psalm 89. There are three categories of protocol in heaven.: the person of God, the divine decrees, and the angelic college of heralds. These are three systems of protocol in heaven that have control over the protocol systems on earth. There are three protocol systems on earth: the laws of divine establishment, the concept of the client nation to God [or priest nation as Israel was called], and the plan of God for the believer. Nothing is more important than that the people of a client nation understand the attributes of God as the ultimate source of all protocol.

Psalm 85:8-13 is where we begin to develop the concept which is found in our passage in Revelation 19. All protocol originates from God; all protocol that originates from God is His plan, His purpose, His policy. It is imperative that we as believers understand the purpose, the plan, and the policy of God.

Verse 8, "I will hear what the God Jehovah will say," we start with the source of all protocol. God's plan is totally linked to a protocol system. Nothing is more important than understanding the attributes of God. If you understand the essence of God then you will listen to what He has to say. If you do not understand the essence of God it is very easy to become flippant, to resist the doctrine and even resent the doctrine because you can't distinguish the difference between truth as an absolute and what is true in life. So reception is the first stage of GAP. "The Lord" refers to our Lord Jesus Christ. Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ and doctrine is the very basis for the protocol system, the plan of God on earth, "for he will communicate prosperity," the Tribulation is a time of great disaster, a time when people here and there are dying by the millions, but there will be many alive at the second advent. The word "peace" is the Hebrew word shalom, and it also represents the concept of the doctrine of reconciliation; and He will communicate salvation, reconciliation, and prosperity. The plan of God starts with reconciliation, "to his people," the client nation to God [in the context, Israel as a client nation], "and to his gracious ones," the winners, believers who follow the protocol system and advance to maturity; the pivot of winners, "let them not return to stupidity," the worst thing that can happen to anyone is to have absolute truth, Bible doctrine, in his soul and to stop thinking. That is the return to stupidity, that is cosmic evangelism.

Verse 9, "Nothing but his deliverance is near to those who respect him," respect comes from the laws of divine establishment as a protocol system. It also means reverence which comes from the protocol system, the plan of God, "in order that glory may dwell in your land," the secret to the client nation is not its prosperity or greatness or size or any of its leadership, it is whether it has glory or not, glory from the protocol system, the essence of God. Glory can only dwell in the land where there is a large pivot of mature believers, believers who have followed the colours, the protocol system, to maturity. These are the winners and provide the prosperity for the client nation to God. They are the ones on which the nation depends.

Verse 10, "Grace and doctrine have met together," that is the glory of a nation. As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God. How can grace and doctrine meet together? Through the protocol system which God has designed. Grace is the principle of the system; doctrine is the momentum of the system. Grace is the function of the justice of God in the imputation of divine blessing. That imputation goes to those who possess +R, divine righteousness: believers as possessors of divine righteousness. This demands not only an understanding of the attributes of God but relating it to the protocol system that emanates from certain divine

attributes. For the system to work among believers there must be an understanding of protocol, there must be truth [absolute truth: Bible doctrine] in the right lobe. Essentially, of course, protocol eliminates human ability, human works, human talent, "righteousness and peace have kissed," that is the story of how protocol began. It all began with a kiss, and the righteousness has to do with the integrity of God, the essence of God. In the essence of God are all of His attributes; +R [perfect righteousness] is one of them, and God has found a way to bless us. One half of divine holiness is +R, and by imputing +R to us at the moment we believe in Christ the justice of God has found a way to bless us and to bless others who are related to us, though they may not be related to God. "Righteousness and prosperity have kissed"; God has found a way to bless us. The integrity of God is that part of divine essence known as His holiness. Holiness is composed of two divine attributes. From it comes all protocol, all authority, everything of that nature. We have one half of that system in us by imputation, righteousness. Divine righteousness is the principle and divine justice is the function. The justice of God gives us the blessings. Hence, only what the righteousness of God demands can the justice of God execute. The righteousness of God indwells every believer. And righteousness and prosperity have kissed; grace and doctrine have met together; and that is the basis, then of our study. That is the finding out how we can avoid the terrible things that happened to ecumenical religion in the Tribulation.

Verse 11, "Doctrine [doctrinal teaching] shall spring up from the land [a client nation]," the Hebrew word for land is haeretz and it refers to Israel as a client nation to God, "righteousness shall look down from heaven," the potential for great blessing because of the pivot by which God can bless. True blessing is always an overflow concept. The justice of God imputes blessing to the mature believer and that blessing overflows to the client nation. This emphasises the importance of the pivot.

Verse 12, "Also the Lord himself will give the good [the plan of God: X+Y+Z]; and our land [the client nation] will give her economic prosperity."

Verse 13, "Righteousness will go before his face [an idiom meaning "before Him"], the word "righteousness" here means integrity. The real key to a nation is the integrity of the pivot. The pivot has an integrity and if it is a large pivot then that integrity overflows to the nation, and the nation with integrity has great prosperity. If the pivot is small the pivot has integrity but the nation has instead of integrity, degeneracy and eventually the nation destroys itself, "that he [the believer] may march toward the way [the protocol system]." Marching here means advance, momentum in the protocol system.

Generally, orthodox theology divides divine attributes into two categories: the absolute attributes of God and the relative attributes of God. The relative attributes are not relative in the character of God, they simply relate to something connected with mankind. The absolute attributes are actually three: spirituality, infinity, and perfection. Under the principle of spirituality we have the life of God and the personality of God. Under the principle of infinity we have God's self-existence, God's immutability, and the unity of His attributes, though these same attributes are found in three separate and distinct persons. Under the concept of perfection we note that God is truth, God is love, and God is integrity. Under the relative attributes we have first of all the divine attributes that relate to time and space. We have the eternity of God and the immensity of God. The eternity of God means that God has always existed, in three persons, there never was a time when God did not exist. God, therefore, is not subject to time, God is the cause of time. Both time and space, though without substance are the objects of His creation. God has created many things that have no substance, time is one of them and so is space. All life is from God, but not of God as claimed by pantheism. God is a person. Personality connotes self-consciousness, self-determination. There never was a time when God was not a person, there never was a time when God did not exist. God has no beginning. God recognises Himself to be a person and as such He always acts rationally. Therefore, any protocol system that God passes on to man depends upon acting rationally, and to act rationally you must be able to think. And you must be able to think not in terms of what is true, like the events of history, but in terms of truth. Truth is Bible doctrine; it is the absolute, the thing that never changes. That is because God is infinite personality. Perfection and self-determination characterise His purpose, His design, and His execution. Therefore infinity becomes a major issue. God is infinite, and by infinity is meant that God is without boundary, without limitation; He unites in Himself those perfections which belong to His person and His character. God cannot be complicated with ignorance or absurdities. God cannot sin, God cannot tempt, God cannot solicit to sin or to evil or to human good. In other words, once again, God cannot be complicated with ignorance or absurdities.

God may be self-limited. God sovereignly chooses to limit Himself at certain times, as in the case of the humanity of Christ during the incarnation. Our Lord Jesus Christ limited Himself. He limited the function of His deity in order to comply with the Father's plan for the incarnation. In the hypostatic union our Lord Jesus Christ limited Himself, and yet as eternal God there is no limitation. God's infinity is intensive rather than extensive, He has infinite energy and infinite power. Infinity, therefore, characterises everything that God does. His love, His integrity or holiness, the dissemination of His truth, are all accomplished under the principle of infinity, so that absolute authority and absolute thought emanate from absolute infinity. The divine motive is for His own glory for which he has an eternal right. God is not motivated by mere self-praise. God recognises His glory, that is inevitable. Everything related to the attributes of God relate to His glory. For this, of course, all creatures exist. All creatures exist as an extension of the policy, the protocol, the plan of God related to His glory. This is why we exist, and when we tap this protocol system life is a very wonderful thing; when we ignore it life is a most horrible and miserable thing.

God's glory always existed, there never was a time when it did not exist. God's infinity always existed. The infinity of God involves, therefore, three factors. When we think of God's infinity we think of His self-existence. God existed eternally, unsustained by Himself or any source. The very word for God in the Old Testament — YHWH (Jehovah). Jehovah is a sacred word meaning the self-sustaining one, and it refers to the infinity of God. God's existence is unalterable; God's existence is the cause for all existence outside of Himself. He has always existed and therefore God's self-existence, that's the word Jehovah.

Then we have His immutability. God has not only eternally existed but He exists in an unchangeable form. He can't improve because He is perfect. Because of His essential character, therefore, God cannot be better; God cannot be worse. God's immutability is consistent with His perfect self-determination, freedom, and His ceaseless activity. Immutability is freedom to do according to His divine nature and therefore salvation is not God's second best. God has no second best and salvation is all a part of His eternal purpose.

Because of God's integrity or holiness plus His immutability and eternity it is impossible for God to be imperfect. God was perfect in eternity past, there never was a time when He wasn't perfect. He was perfect before any creature ever existed and He continues to be perfect with all of the creatures He has produced and all of the universe He has produced continuously. God is not changed by all of the relativities connected with people and creatures.

Divine perfection includes God's truth, God's love and God's holiness which are essential to understand in comprehending the fact that He has a protocol system. What comes from God is perfect, the only trouble with the plan is that it involves imperfect people. The difficulty is to get someone to stay with the plan long enough to be a blessing to others as well as himself. That is the problem and that is why we have absolute truth.

In connection with all of this we have time. Time is finite and it has two categories. It has succession and it also has duration. Eternity which is infinite has only duration. God is infinite and eternal, God is not in time but time is in God because God invented time. God is logical as a part of His protocol system, therefore He doesn't need to be chronological. We are chronological. God is absolute existence. Jesus Christ as God is eternal life, therefore He has always existed. When we believe in Him He shares His life with mankind at salvation. That is why when we believe in Christ we have eternal life and that is why when we believe in Christ we receive an absolute. God is an absolute. He is so absolute and so infinite that man's sin has never changed that, so when we as believers sin we have the absolute of eternal life, we have the absolute of God's righteousness and even though we sin and fail we can't lose our salvation. The absolute is never changed by the relative.

God is also immensity. God is not subject to space. God cannot be more or less than He is. God is the cause of space. In relationship to space God is both imminent and transcendent. Hence, immensity is a descriptive theological term for God's relationship to space. Omnipresence is a descriptive term of space in relationship to God. Since God is the cause of space, if space were defined in terms of boundaries, God would exceed those boundaries to the point of infinity.

There are three systems of protocol in heaven. The first has to do with the essence of God, the second has to do with the divine decrees, and the third has to do with the angelic college of heralds. There are three systems of divine protocol on the earth. The first is the laws of divine establishment, the second has to do with the client nation to God in the significance of the pivot, the third has to do with the plan of God for the believer: the protocol system which we call the divine dynasphere, God's plan for your life, the modus operandi of the royal family of God during the Church Age. These six categories are all very carefully and closely related. Certain things happen in heaven and they have a very definite relationship with what is going on on the earth.

The computer of divine decrees is a result of the second system of knowledge that God has. All of God's knowledge is infinite, eternal, and simultaneous. There never was a time when the omniscience of God did not know everything that was knowable. All of that was prior to the creation of man, the creation of the angels, and the creation of the universe. All of this knowledge was entered into the computer of divine decrees.

The plan of God for us as believers in the Church Age was entered into this computer. We have seen its various aspects under such things as the printout of foreknowledge. Nothing can be foreknown until it is first of all decreed, and the foreknowledge of God simply means that God has a plan for your life and you personally were in the thinking of God in eternity past. Another printout is predestination. Predestination means that in eternity past you were in the plan of God. Another printout is election which has to do with your privileges as a believer in God's protocol system. Your privileges under the concept of election are many.

There is a printout of sin which is in the computer of divine decrees. It is a chip called the saturation of sin. Periodically in history in certain generations evil reaches a peak which would be completely and totally self-destructive and at that point it becomes necessary for God to preserve the human race from self-destruction by judgment. In other words, in eternity past the omniscience of God programmed into the computer of divine decrees the sins of the entire human race during the course of history. The result of that printout, again, was the cross where our sins were judged and where salvation was accomplished. But the one in view as far as the protocol system is concerned is the second category of sin. They were entered into the computer of divine decrees under the concept of the saturation of sin and evil in any given generation. The saturation of sin and evil in any generation might jeopardise the perpetuation of the human race in history. God has promised that the human race will continue to live on planet earth until the end of time.

The saturation of sin and evil in any given generation of history results in the function of two laws. First of all, there is the law of self-retribution. This law is one in which mankind is the product of his own decisions. Whenever we fail, whenever we get into some kind of a problem it is always the result of our own decisions. We are inevitably the products of our own decisions. Secondly, there is the law of divine retribution in which the justice of God provides three categories of temporal judgment to protect the human race from self-destruction. These laws are the subject of chapters 16,17, 18, and the first three verses of chapter 19 of the book of Revelation. In chapter 19 the emphasis is on the Tribulational martyrs in heaven, they are celebrating a victory and the fact that they left the entire matter of judgment of ecumenical religion to the Lord Himself. They put the matter in the hands of the supreme court of heaven and now they are seeing the results of that decision.

At this time in the 20th century throughout the world in general we are now reaching a saturation of sin and evil. Such a saturation of sin and evil is self-destructive. Man has to potential of destroying himself on planet earth but God will never permit that to happen and He prevents it by three categories of judgment. The first category is called judgment by pain. Each one of these judgments is a grace function of the justice of God. Judgment by pain, for example, is the function of God's grace in crisis evangelism. It fulfills the principle that God never judges an individual or a segment of the human race without giving them the grace opportunity of changing the entire situation. We have seen this in the first five bowl judgments of Revelation 16:1-11, and the key to this category of judgment is found in 16:10, loss of utilities means you cannot function in life very well and all normal life comes to a stop when they disappear. Crisis evangelism is the presentation of the gospel in times of individual or collective catastrophe and disaster. In other words, while under normal evangelism the unbeliever has the opportunity to objectively consider the issue of Christ and eternal salvation, judgment by pain is God's last call to any generation when that generation is in the process of destroying itself by the concentration of sin and evil. A printout from the computer of divine decrees says that sin and evil has reached a saturation point, man is now on the verge of self-destruction, and in order first of all to take care of anyone who might once again consider and believer there is judgment by pain to restore objectivity, the last call in the field of evangelism.

The second category of judgment mentioned in this passage is judgment by death, the function of God's grace in the perpetuation of the human race from generation to generation through human history. God has provided that the human race will not be totally destroyed and therefore until the end of history people will always live. At the second advent there will have been seven years of concentrated disaster and catastrophe and yet millions and millions of people are still alive on the earth. However, the problem will continue to exist. Man through his own bad decisions and functions of evil keeps trying to destroy himself on the earth. Man's volition combined with man's freedom apart from virtue and apart from establishment restraint is always self-destructive. When mankind is negative toward the gospel and the laws of divine establishment he becomes degenerate under one of two categories: disorganised evil or organised evil. So God has a system: judgment by death. It is a system of radical surgery whereby the grace of God removes from a given generation in a given geopolitical area of the world the cancer of evil and thereby protects the human race from its own self-destruction. The removal of certain contaminated parts of the human population in any given generation guarantees the perpetuation of the human race for the next generation and the opportunity to possess eternal life through personal faith in Jesus Christ. Judgment by death destroys one portion of the human race to preserve the rest for evangelism. If it were not for judgment by death in the previous generations of history we as believers would not be living on planet earth today. Judgment by death guarantees the evangelism of the human race in every generation, either through normal or crisis evangelism. The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrha except for Lot and his two daughters illustrates the principle of judgment by death. Therefore we look at the Dead Sea today as a memorial to the principle of judgment by death. The annihilation of Tribulational people with the mark of the beast under the administration of judgment by death is radical surgery. This was the administration of the seventh bowl judgment.

Of all of the systems of judgment which protect the human race the third category is perhaps the most interesting, judgment by finesse. God uses evil as the agent to destroy evil without coercion of human volition. It is a system of judgment whereby God does not violate the volition of anyone involved. The union of two evil entities becomes the basis for finesse judgment in history. In the concept of finesse judgment from God he uses an evil agent to punish and destroy an evil organisation. The revived Roman empire in the Tribulation was originally the sponsorer of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation but eventually there was a falling out between the two. Eventually the system of religious evil, the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation, became so hateful to the political entity, the revived Roman empire, that the latter destroyed it. The principle in finesse judgment: Nature takes its course. No human volition is violated. Finesse judgment, then, dramatises the fact that man is simply the product of his own volition when he becomes involved in the cosmic system and its resultant evil. In other words, Psalm 76:10, "God uses the wrath of man to praise him."

In judgment by death of client nations, then, Israel went this way. Israel comes in three categories of client nation (four of you include the united nation). Then you have the divided kingdom, then the southern kingdom, and finally the kingdom of Judea; and these were all Jewish client nations to God. There is no Jewish client nation today, and cannot be. The Church Age, starting in AD 70, is the time of the Gentiles and will be that way until the resurrection of the Church. But all three of these entities that came under judgment were destroyed by an evil agent when there was a saturation of evil in the nation: the northern kingdom in 721 BC; the southern kingdom in 586 BC; Judea in AD 70. All three of these client nations once did a great job for God but were wiped out when the printout from the computer of divine decrees said "saturation of evil."

Geopolitics relates to historical trends in any given generation or century to a geographical area. This all came about when the fertile crescent became accepted into historical language and became the basis of developing the concept. The only thing that is missing from the concept of geopolitics is a relationship between the so-called science of geopolitics and a pivot of mature believers of any kind in history. Geopolitics was kicked off with what is known as the fertile crescent which basically follows the shoreline of the eastern Mediterranean, emphasising Egypt, Babylon, and the Hittite empire. What was ignored was that somewhere under the principle of geopolitics there is always a pivot. This explains the birth of the client nation Israel and how it functions, not only as a pivot but as it sent out missionaries and actually dealt with the vortex of thought in the fertile crescent. There is always a constant relationship between geopolitics and those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Geopolitics recognises the Mediterranean as the Roman sea and there was the era of some 300 years of the Roman sea. During that time there was the development of a pivot of mature believers. Then, of course, the great one is western European civilisation which is related to the science of geopolitics and reaches its peak under two concepts: the Renaissance and the Reformation. Out of this came four major pivots: the pivots in Germany, France, Holland and England. Starting in the 15th and 16th centuries we have the Atlantic basin, the age of discovery, and eventually what resulted was a dual pivot: a pivot in England and a pivot in the colonies which became the United States of America. We can relate it also to the Anglo-Saxon culture in that we have the dual Anglo-Saxon pivot. The part related to western European culture in the continent of Europe is about shot down. The pivot has all but disappeared from England. The great movement now is into the Pacific basin. This is the basin of the future as far as geopolitics in concerned. You can always count on the fact that when you have a new geopolitical area you always have a pivot moving with it.

The pivot is defined as the accumulation of mature believers living either in a client nation under a specific type of civil government in a specific geographical location. Sometimes there is a pivot without the civil government. While the pivot is composed primarily of mature believers it also includes the principle of those who have fulfilled the principle of advancing to gates five and six and have obeyed the mandate virtue first as far as the protocol system is concerned. Technically, then, the pivot may include all believers who have fulfilled the principle of virtue first. The pivot stands out in contrast to believers living in the cosmic system whose arrogance and motivational evil at gate one, cosmic one results in the self-righteous and crusader arrogance which inevitably leads to the reaction of total degeneracy. Believers who are apostate can easily be recognised today as a part of the historical trends because born-again believers who are apostate are involved in civil action (sometime called social action) and civil disobedience. The true Christian influence in a national entity is always spiritual, it is never political and it is never social. It is inevitably a spiritual principle and the tragedy is that believers in their arrogance working for the devil and becoming the enemies of the cross, as in Philippians 3:16, are born-again believers living in the cosmic system — in their crusader arrogance, in their self-righteous legalism. The true Christian influence, again, is always spiritual. The Christian's power is always related to his spiritual life and therefore the Christian life becomes the issue and it starts with the protocol system. There are three protocol systems in heaven. The first is related to the essence of God, the second the decrees of God, and the third to the angelic college of heralds. There are three protocol systems on earth: the laws of divine establishment, the client nation to God, and most important of all is the protocol system, God's plan for your life, the divine dynasphere with it eight gates. Because the spiritual life is being neglected today or because believers in arrogance are distracted from the spiritual life and the protocol system, we are in danger of being destroyed as a client nation to God.

Christianity must never be the state. There must always be a separation between church and state for the true function of freedom and the fulfillment of human volition in the angelic conflict. This does not imply that Christians should not serve in government but it does imply that believers in government service must abide by the laws of divine establishment and never seek to force Christianity on others apart from their own personal consent. Christianity must not be the state. The pivot is then defined as the protocol of heaven meeting the protocol of earth for the blessing of mankind. The client nation to God is not a Christian nation, there is no such thing as a Christian nation, but it is any national entity in which the civil government recognises the establishment principles of freedom, including privacy, the sacredness of property, and the sacredness of life. The client nation to God contains a pivot of mature believers who achieved through spiritual momentum the principle, the mandate, of virtue first. This means that there is enough freedom in such a nation or in a specific geographical area to provide for extensive evangelism without government interference or persecution, and without the evangelism itself violating a principle: the issue in evangelism is between the individual's soul and God, not raising a hand, not walking an aisle, not weeping tears of repentance at an altar.

Whatever form it takes, the gift of evangelism or personal witnessing or the written page, no one must ever be embarrassed by making a jackass of themselves in public.

1. A civil government and policy based on the laws of divine establishment. The laws of divine establishment are for believer and unbeliever alike.

2. The function of evangelism under the principle of freedom. That means that the individual has a right to consider the gospel in the privacy of his own soul without someone trying to make him a number in some paper or computer.

3. The establishment of local churches which are autonomous, neither connected with other churches to form denominations or spheres of influence, nor involved in any movement which seeks to untie church and state.

4. The function of vigorous and dynamic Bible teaching so that believers can understand the protocol of heaven how it relates to the protocol of earth, and what is the Christian way of life.

5. There must be not only the spiritual growth inside the divine dynasphere, the protocol system, but missionary activity to other nations under the indigenous principle of not interfering with foreign governments but providing both the gospel and Bible teaching for people of other countries.

The first client nation to God was Israel. The record is from BC 1440 to AD 70. During that time portions of Israel were under divine discipline for their failure to function as a client nation to God. We have seen under the principle of finesse judgment how each segment of Israel was finally eliminated as a client nation to God. First the northern kingdom in BC 721. The evil agent was Assyria. The southern kingdom went out in BC 586. The evil agent was the Chaldean empire. Finally Judea, the last of the Jewish client nations, went out in AD 70. The evil agent was the Roman empire. With that the times of the Gentiles began.

James 4:6-10, the impact of the believer must be spiritual. When it is not a spiritual impact there is no blessing by association, there is the violation of the protocol system on earth which is the rejection of the protocol system in heaven. The rejection of the protocol system in heaven means judgment.

Verse 6, "He gives greater grace [the principle of logistical grace]. Therefore it says, ‘God makes war against the arrogant, but gives grace to the humble'." Humility is the beginning of virtue. Virtue is necessary to be in the pivot.

Verse 7, "Therefore submit to God [life in the divine dynasphere]. Resist the devil [avoidance of the cosmic system] and he will flee from you."

Verse 8, "Draw near to God [the function of the protocol system] and he will draw near to you [the blessings of motivational virtue]. Cleanse your hands you sinners [the function of the rebound technique. Sinners are believers in the cosmic system]; and purify your right lobes [momentum from the function of GAP], you double-minded [a believer involved in both cosmic one and cosmic two]."

Verse 9, "Be miserable [self-induced from making wrong decisions from a position of weakness] and mourn and weep [the result of bad decisions]; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your happiness into gloom." This is the result of living in the cosmic system, the rise of degeneracy, and the destruction of the client nation to God.

Verse 10, "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God [the believer living in the protocol system], and he will exalt you." The believer becomes a winner in the protocol system and this is the only deliverance for our nation.

Returning to our passage in Revelation 19:2, we have seen how believers can resolve their problems by utilising the various rationales. First there is the essence of God rationale. God knows all the facts and is better qualified to make a judgment in very case. This is why the Tribulational martyrs left the matter of their martyrdom, their torture, their persecution in the hands of the Lord. No retaliation on their part. This took great virtue, the kind of virtue you find in the pivot. Secondly, the plan of God rationale. To believe in the plan of God you must remember that the battle is the Lord's. Thirdly, the logistical grace rationale. The justice of God is the source of life and blessing, not other people who have disappointed you. Fourth was the A fortiori rationale of Romans 8:32. In the fifth place, the historical trend rationale. God does a much better job in dealing with evil than we do. Arrogance says, Step aside God, I'm on a crusade. Sixth, the protocol rational. The protocol of heaven is much more capable of administering judgment than we will ever be. From these rationales comes the doctrinal conclusion that we should always leave revenge in the hands of the Lord, so that in the third stage of the faith-rest drill we then have control of our own lives, we have a personal sense of destiny, we must not surrender our happiness to loved ones, to friends, to enemies, to strangers.

We continue in verse 2 with "because he has judged the great prostitute" and we noticed that it we she who "seduced the earth by means of her fornication". This fornication is not the literal fornication but the spiritual fornication which is related to the ability of religion to distract the world.

Next we resume with the dynamics of the faith-rest drill. We start out with the conjunction kai which introduces a result from what precedes, and therefore we translate it "furthermore." This refers to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs who have left vengeance in the hands of the Lord. In answer to the faith-rest drill, then, of these Tribulational martyrs there are three judgments which were administered: judgment by pain, judgment by death, judgment by finesse. The faith-rest drill of the Tribulational martyrs is based on the principle of Romans 12:19, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." That is a principle that belongs to us right now, just as it belongs to the dynamics of the spiritual life in the Tribulation. It is not our responsibility to take vengeance on others, to retaliate. Vengeance in the monopoly of the Lord and we are to put the matter in the Lord's hands and leave it there. This is the function of the first stage of the faith-rest drill. In the second stage we have noted the various rationales which apply, and from these rationales again comes that doctrinal conclusion: revenge is the monopoly of God. Leave it in His hands; He has all the facts and he will handle the matter. And so we have "furthermore he avenged," the aorist active indicative of e)kdikew. This is a dramatic aorist tense, it states the present reality of a future act of justice on behalf of the Tribulational martyrs. This is accomplishing the entire function of the protocol of heaven. The active voice: Jesus Christ to whom the Father has committed all judgment produces the action of the verb through the protocol system: judgment by pain, judgment by death, and judgment by finesse.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object a(ima referring to the blood of the martyrs, and they are called "his servants," douloj. These are servants in very technical way. They are ones who had a great spiritual impact in the time in which they lived. They remained the servants of the Lord, they did not take vengeance, they did not take anything out of the hands of the Lord — "furthermore he avenged the blood of his servants." This statement answers the faith-rest function of these martyrs, including their imprecatory prayers.

The believer who is free from revenge is motivated to be a winner in time. Freedom from revenge is one of the greatest freedoms that we enjoy in this life and it is a freedom that only comes from the perception of doctrine and the function of the faith-rest drill. This means freedom from motivational evil as in gate one of cosmic one, anytime you are jealous or bitter or vindictive or implacable or full of self-pity or full of hatred and antagonism. Freedom from motivational evil is one of the greatest freedoms in life, and by placing the matter in the hands of the Lord the believer never loses. The only losers are those who seek to retaliate, those who seek to hurt, those who seek revenge against others when wronged.

The ellipsis demands that a verb go with the word "blood," and "by means of her hand" is the final prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative xeiron a)utoj. Ordinarily, the instrumental is used in the expression of impersonal means. However, when the expression of means goes back to the origin we have the ablative of means. So it is "by means of her hand," referring to ecumenical religion, the great prostitute.

Translation: "Because his judgments are true [actual historical events, the printout of the computer of divine decrees] and righteous [divine judgment is based upon the function of divine integrity]: because he has judged the great prostitute [ecumenical religion], who seduced the earth by means of her fornication [ecumenical religion as the chief agent of the cosmic evangelism in the Tribulation], furthermore he avenged the blood of his servants shed by means of her hand."

Ecumenical religion in the Tribulation is Satan's chief agent in the function of evil. It had two functions which were mentioned in this verse. First of all, the evangelism or seduction of the world's population to Satan's cosmic system — the means by which he controls mankind, both believer and unbeliever. However, Satan cannot control the evil which has developed in his own system, and therefore the basis for finesse judgment. Secondly, for those mature believers who resist the cosmic system of ecumenical religion there was torture and violence and finally murder. Those who resisted ecumenical religion are the believers who were in the pivot in that day. Rejection of ecumenical religion meant refusal to compromise with evil and it will cost many of the mature believers their lives. The only exceptions would be mature believers in some geographical location in the Tribulation where they continue to have tranquillity and prosperity. during the course of the martyrdom of those mature believers so involved they will put aside all thoughts of revenge. They die in complete mental peace. They have placed the matter entirely in the hands of the supreme court of heaven and therefore they die in great tranquillity and blessing, even though their martyrdom, for some, will be painful.

Then there is a second shout of victory. This will give us the story of that nuclear mushroom cloud which God is going to freeze in place over Rome, and the "eternal city" of Rome will be famous throughout the Millennium and throughout all eternity. It will be the museum where people will go to see what a nuclear bomb was like. And that is all Rome will be in the Millennium and in the eternal state.

Verse 3, we have the second shout of victory which is very much like the first, except it is shorter. We have the connective conjunction kai referring to sequence, "Then." Then a nominative neuter singular adjective deuteroj meaning "second," "Then a second time," followed by the perfect active indicative of the verb legw, the verb of communication. It indicates, by the way, communication through words. In other words, communication from one's thinking. It is related to logoj which is the word in the Greek for word, thought, doctrine, and other things. "Then a second time they shouted." The perfect tense is an intensive perfect, it emphasises the results of the action so that the existing fact is intensified, and therefore the Greek way of saying a thing is. They are having a wonderful time in heaven and from time to time there is something very special announced and they stop having a good time long enough to cheer. The idiom is often translated in the English present, as here. The active voice: the Tribulational martyrs produce the action of the verb from a position of strength and happiness. Disaster on earth does not mar happiness in heaven. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the eschatological event in heaven, the cheering section.

Once again we have the Greek word which is not even correctly transliterated in the King James version, A)(llelouia. It is taken from the Hebrew which is hallelujah, "praise the Lord." This is a great cheer from thousands of winners from the Tribulation. The concept is very important here. This is not gloating. Gloating is a sign of no virtue, by the way. They are very happy because ecumenical religion has been judged, and judged properly. Actually, this is occupation with the person of Jesus Christ and the administration of His justice. The reason they are cheering is because they had the good sense to leave the matter in the Lord's hands: the principle of the faith-rest drill as we have previously noted. The Tribulational martyrs do not gloat over the judgments of Christ but they rejoice in the justice of our Lord as a part of His divine holiness. The same justice of Christ has provided blessing for them in heaven while exercising judgment on the earth. Heaven is a place of great happiness for believers during the interim life.

Since three divine attributes are related to the plan of God for the believer, one of the divine characteristics is always the object of human praise and worship. The first is the omniscience of God because God has understood us from eternity past and has provided for us through His policy of grace. Remember, under the principle of the infinity and the eternity of God the omniscience of God knew everything simultaneously. There never was a time when God had to learn anything. The omniscience of God fed all of these things into the computer of divine decrees so that there are many different printouts as a result. The computer of divine decrees made many printouts. We have noted some of them related to sin, some of them related to historical trends, some of them related to the function of the essence of God related to the protocol system in the plan of God. But the point is, the omniscience of God is always one of the bases for our worship of Him, our appreciation of Him, and our praise of Him. Secondly, of course, the love of God because we as believers are the object of His eternal and infinite impersonal love, which means that He has provided for us in grace under the pattern of Romans 8:32. Thirdly, the integrity of God is composed of His righteousness and justice which means that God has perfect virtue, always had perfect virtue, there never was a time when He did not have perfect virtue. Because God has always had perfect virtue it is impossible for Him to let us down. We are going to let God down and others as well from time to time but God will never let us down even once. No matter how we fail, no matter what we do that is wrong, no matter how we become involved in the cosmic system through our own stupidity and bad decisions we are going to let people down but He will never let us down. Therefore, He is the object of our worship. Furthermore, the integrity of God establishes the grace pipeline, the means of blessing the believer without compromising the character of God. Divine justice is on the giving end and on the receiving end we have indwelling us God's perfect righteousness. God sends all blessing, all grace support — not to us because we earn it or deserve it but to His own perfect righteousness. In that way there is no compromise of the attributes of God. Imputed righteousness not only means therefore justification at salvation but it means the basis by which God can bless us with our frailties in time.

The reason for the second shout of victory is also related to one of the most unusual museums in the Millennium, a museum that appears will not only survive the Millennium but also be a part of the eternal state. Furthermore, it is a museum city related to a museum city at the present — Rome. Rome is going to be a museum in the Millennium and a Museum for all eternity.

Let us notice the Greek. We have the expletive use of the conjunction kai, translated "and so." The subject is the nominative singular from kapnoj, and it means smoke with a chemical content of some sort. We simply translate it "smoke." This smoke is the result of the nuclear attack which destroyed the headquarters of ecumenical religion at the end of the Tribulation. Hence, it is a reference to the finesse judgment in which the evil agent, evil one, the revived Roman empire, finally destroys evil two, the ecumenical religious system.

Finesse judgment is an evil agent totally apart from divine coercion doing God's work by destroying an evil entity, evil two. This can also describe how the believer and the human race in general are all our own worst enemies. Evil one is our bad decisions, negative volition toward doctrine, all of the decisions to go contrary to what the Word of God tells us is the will of God for our lives. But those bad decisions we destroy ourselves. When we get into a jamb it is always of our own making. It all adds up the fact that we destroy ourselves and we bring about our own misery by our own bad decisions, we lose control of our lives, and we have no personal sense of destiny. This is finesse discipline, we discipline ourselves, we manufacture our own misery.

"and so her smoke," the possessive genitive singular from a)utoj. Her smoke refers to ecumenical religion, "goes up," the present active indicative of the verb a)nabainw, which means to ascend, to go up. The simplest translation would be "and so her smoke goes up."

The next phrase is going to be "forever and ever," and the point is: Does the smoke keep going up forever and ever and form the typical nuclear cloud. This is envisioned as a perpetual mushroom cloud, going up constantly, and it is there for all people to see. The "eternal city" (Rome) is certainly going to be an eternal museum which will describe how stupid man is without God, without Christ as saviour, without Bible doctrine. There will be no contamination in this Millennial museum. The Millennial people have to learn a lesson because they are not going to have any religion in the Millennium. One of the signs of perfect environment is the removal of all religion. There will be worship of the Lord of course, but worship of the Lord and faith in Christ is not a religion. A true relationship with God is not a religion. So people have to learn some way, some how, what a terrible thing religion is and how self-destructive it is, and what a terrible thing evil is, and how evil always is divided. Satan with all of his genius could never control evil. He cannot keep his team together. There is always dissension on the team and dissension on the team means evil one attacks evil two and destroys evil two. So Satan cannot control his own cosmic system because his cosmic system produces evil and evil does not stick together. Evil is always falling apart and is always mutually antagonistic. People from all over the world will come to see the mushroom cloud, the only reminder on earth that there was ever warfare.

The passage should read: "Then a second time they shouted, Praise the Lord. And so her smoke goes up ..." The perfective present tense denotes a continuation of existing results of the nuclear attack and the destruction of ecumenical religion. There will be a constant ascending of smoke, a constant mushroom cloud. It will be a perpetual museum, a reminder of the power of God, a reminder to us as believers that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of eschatological doctrine to us. In the future this will be a dogmatic statement of historical doctrine. It will be an eternal monument to the self-destructive power of evil.

The eternal status of this sight in Rome is given by the prepositional phrase: e)ij plus the accusative

plural of a)iwn plus the genitive plural of a)iwn which is literally, "unto the ages of the ages" but is an idiom that should be correctly translated "forever and ever."

The destruction of religion through judgment by pain, judgment by death, and judgment by finesse removes Satan's most powerful weapon as a prelude to the second advent. Satan with all of his genius has never been able to control the power generated by evil. It is a power that gets out of control. Satan is the source of all evil but he is never able to control this power. Therefore evil becomes the agent in the destruction of evil as the principle of finesse judgment. The second victory shout, then, celebrates the power of our Lord Jesus Christ in destroying the greatest system of evil the world will ever know. This reminds every believer again of 1 John 4:4, "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." It also confirms the principle of Psalm 76:10, "The wrath of man shall praise thee." The point of doctrine: Jesus Christ controls history.

While Jerusalem in the Millennium will enjoy great blessing and prosperity, Rome, the so-called eternal city, will be characterised by one of the most unusual phenomena of all time, a huge mushroom cloud which people will go to see.

Verse 4, we see, once again, the angelic aristocracy with their worship. This is not a general worship of all angels, only the aristocracy, the top winners in the prehistoric angelic conflict. There are two categories of aristocracy, both are found in this passage. The first is found under the nominative plural subject presbuteroj which is unfortunately translated "elders" in the King James version. With it we have indeclinable numerals e)ikosi and tessarej, "twenty-four." So we have twenty-four elders, but they are not elders as such. Technically presbuteroj, by the way, is used for pastor-teachers, emphasising their authority over a local church as far as the congregation is concerned. The word does not mean elder, it does not mean old man, it simply means the top authority within the framework of some organisation. The word presbuteroj is also translated "senator." It was used for administrative authority. Here it means one of the 24 highest-ranking staff officers in the angelic order of battle. This is one of the two categories of aristocracy in the angelic order of battle.

The second category is from the aristocracy of the angelic college of heralds. And, again, it is the staff, the angelic staff made up of four, "the four living creatures [heralds]." "Then the twenty-four elders [staff officers of the angelic order of battle] and the four living creatures [the seraph officers of the angelic college of heralds]," since both categories are elect angels and since both categories were top winners in the prehistoric angelic conflict they have the ability and the capacity to offer maximum worship to the Lord. The previous worship of the 24 angelic staff officers we studied in Revelation chapter four, verses ten and eleven. But at this time it isn't the rank and file of elect angels, it isn't even the lower aristocracy, we just have one special category which is permitted to enter into worship at this particular time, worship related to the mushroom cloud.

Probably one of the words that seems very dull as far as most people are concerned is the word "worship." Generally speaking people do not associate the word with any form of happiness or enjoyment. Most people think of worship as an obligation, something that has to be done, often a way of gaining some good fortune from God! Worship is often a trade-out in the minds of people who are so involved. Probably the reason for this is that we do not understand that once we are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord the capacity for worship will reach its maximum, and once it does it becomes the most stimulating and the most exciting thing in the world. The idea of worshipping God is a phenomenal thing.

Worship is generally associated in the Bible with happiness because one of the most basic concepts of worship is thanksgiving. Generally, people who are grateful are happy while they are grateful. Worship is actually one of the greatest tests for capacity in life and as your capacity for worship increases so does your capacity for life and for happiness. Worship is also probably the greatest expression of objectivity in life, and objectivity is always associated with the better things in life and the greater things. All virtue is related to objectivity and without objectivity there is no virtue. But people who are self-centered and arrogant, people who are full of involvement with themselves to the exclusion of reality and everything else, really have no capacity for worship and no understanding of it. Of course, worship is related to absolute truth and therefore becomes the key to many things in life. By absolute truth is meant Bible doctrine.

In verse four which we have just begun to study we have noticed that the subject is angelic worship. We also note that the angelic worship involves only the two categories of elect angel aristocracy, the first category being the 24 "elders" who are from the angelic aristocracy called the angelic order of battle. They are the staff officers in the angelic order of battle. And the four living creatures who are seraph-ranked heralds are also staff officers in the angelic college of heralds. They are the subject and they have been in eternity for as many years as have elapsed since the creation of man and woman and placing them in the garden, however long that is. The universe is much, much older than man. Long before man was created the angelic conflict existed, and in the angelic conflict there were winners and losers. The great winners are those angels who became a part of the aristocracy of eternity for angels. There are two categories: the angelic order of battle and the angelic college of heralds. These are the greatest winners in the prehistoric angelic conflict. One thing is certain: when it comes to worship the winners are always mentioned. We are dealing here with angelic winners and they have full capacity for worship. They have the greatest capacity for worship, they are a part of the eternal aristocracy of angelic creatures, the elect angels, in heaven.

We now have their worship mentioned in verse 4 because they have greater capacity for worship at the time that this event will occur than any other kind of creature. The aorist active indicative of piptw has to do with their posture. Posture often has a great deal to do with attitude. Piptw means to fall down and prostrate themselves. They fell down. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The posture of their glorified bodies is one of total humility which is a prerequisite to any form of worship on earth or in heaven.

There is a principle that comes out of this immediately: Anything that produces maximum happiness is an exclusive club, and the greater your capacity the more exclusive you become in life. And the greater your happiness from your capacity, the daily perception of Bible doctrine, the more you are in the ranks of a few as a winner in human history. One of the greatest sources of happiness that man can experience is worship under full capacity. There is no greater form of happiness, there is no greater pleasure, but it is a pleasure and a happiness which eludes most believers simply because believers do not have the capacity and simply because believers have a false scale of values.

The active voice: only a very limited group of creatures produce the action. These are creatures with the most capacity, creatures with an ability for happiness in heaven in eternity that many creatures will never have. Both elect angels and born-again believers. For one thing is certain as a part of the rewards of being a winner either in the prehistoric angelic conflict or in the Church Age or in any dispensation of human history the capacity goes with you. Worship in heaven will be in degrees just as there will be degrees of reward. The expression of worship that is given to us is only a very small thing like "Praise the Lord." That doesn't sound like much, but when we have a record such as we have here these are the highest decorated angels from the prehistoric angelic conflict. Just as a few are going to have the order of the morning star and the gazebo in the garden, and in the new knighthood of eternity they are going to be high on the list; and they will be aristocracy forever, and will have a greater capacity forever and ever to worship God because they have something to give. This is the definition of worship: a creature who has a relationship with God and from that relationship has something to give. That is worship. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this worship on the part of the angelic aristocracy of heaven, the staff officers from the angelic order of battle and the staff officers from the angelic college of heralds.

The connective conjunction kai is followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb proskunew, correctly translated "worship," but the corrected translation does not explain all that it means. It is a culminative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the ability in eternity, an ability that few are going to have, elect angel or born-again believer, to express maximum worship of God and from that expression to derive a happiness that very few will possess. It is one thing to have eternal life and eternal security, it is one thing to be in heaven as a loser and still have a resurrection body, but capacity is very definitely involved. The reason that we have this antiphony in heaven is simply because we have at this point those with maximum capacity to express worship. They have something to give God. The something that they have to give God falls into three categories. First of all there is glory; secondly, honour to God; thirdly, thanksgiving. They have the capacity for maximum worship in the giving of glory, honour and thanksgiving to God. The active voice: the subject again, both the angelic staff officers of the order of battle and the heralds of the college of heralds produce the action of the verb as they did in Revelation 7:11.

Psalm 29:1, "Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of power," a title for winners in the Old Testament, "ascribe to the Lord glory and strength." Glory is again a category of worship. You cannot give to God in worship what you do not have. You must have glory in order to give Him glory. That is why in Revelation 4:10 the 24 angelic staff officers were able to throw their crowns down before the throne — because they had crowns. the crowns represented the rewards that they had received for being winners in the prehistoric angelic conflict.

Verse 2, "Ascribe to the Lord glory of his name; worship the Lord in the majesty of his integrity." We are familiar with the format for the royal family of God for it was predicted by our Lord Jesus Christ in John 4:22-24, "You worship what you do not know," this is our Lord speaking to the Pharisees who alleged to be the great worshippers on God in their day, and were not. In other words, He is saying to them that they worship in ignorance. When you put the word "worship" and "ignorance" together worship is canceled. You cannot worship God in ignorance. Worship can only function and exist in any form as creatures on this earth or in heaven have cognizance. Worship demands cognizance, perception of absolute truth, perception of Bible doctrine — "we worship what we know; for deliverance is from the Jews," Christ being the Jew is the only saviour. "But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in doctrine," prophecy concerning the royal family of the Church Age, "for such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers," God created man with free will and with soul capacity to worship Him. "God is a spirit; and those who worship him must worship in spirit [the power of God the Holy Spirit] and in doctrine." So it is impossible to have any capacity for worship until there is the filling of the Holy Spirit and the perception and application of doctrine.

Philippians 3:3, "For we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh." Putting no confidence in the flesh means that any time your scale of values puts anything else before doctrine, anything else before the principles of the protocol system, then you are putting confidence in people, and a negative part of worship is putting no confidence in the flesh.

So human worship is the expression of the believer's capacity from doctrine, the believer's category one personal love for God. As such it can only be expressed inside God's protocol system, the divine dynasphere. As the function of the royal priesthood inside of the divine dynasphere it demands perception of doctrine as the prerequisite for any capacity for worship. While worship is the priestly function of the believer, especially at gate five of the divine dynasphere, it is not a true function apart from the interlocking systems of the protocol. The worship function of gate five begins with love of God through perception of Bible doctrine. The first thing that we can give God is love but we must have capacity for it, and the capacity has nothing whatever to do with emotion but it has everything to do with the perception of doctrine.

According to Revelation 4:10,11 there are three categories in worship. The first category and the highest category that we can give God then is what is described in verse 11 as doca, "glory." This is the form that expresses maximum capacity. To have maximum capacity as a believer (or as an elect angel) you must be a winner. For the royal family of God it is impossible to give this form of worship until we have received our resurrection bodies at the Rapture, and until we have received those awards and decorations that are compatible. No one can give glory in worship unless he has glory, and glory belongs only to those believers who are winners — only those believers who advance to gate eight. So we are talking about the type of worship expressed in our passage as something that only angels, only those winners, only those elect angels of the highest order of aristocracy can give at the present time. That is why when any worship is expressed in the book of Revelation sooner or later those elect angels who were winners in the prehistoric angelic conflict are the subject of the verb proskunew, the verb to worship. So the royal family of God is eliminated. We do not have glory until we have a resurrection body. Having a resurrection body doesn't even mean having glory. Having glory means having advanced to maturity before glory can exist. The believer cannot give in worship what the believer does not possess. At the present, under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, the believer can give worship only in what he possesses, a mind to concentrate on doctrine, a voice to sing praises, a volition to perpetuate perception of doctrine.

The believer's capacities for worship are all related to his life inside the divine dynasphere. The principle: Capacity for worship must precede the function of worship, and ritual without reality is the status quo of a believer until he has something to give to God, something that he has developed in his own soul and in his own life. In this body of corruption we cannot give this highest form of worship.

The second category is called timh, "honour." But timh means three things, therefore there are three areas of worship expression connected with this noun. The first meaning of timh, and the lowest in the order of worship but still a part of worship and a part of capacity, is respect. Timh means respect. The believer can only respect the Lord Jesus Christ through understanding His thinking, which is another way of saying perception of doctrine at gate four. In 1 Corinthians 2:16 we discover that doctrine is the thinking or the mind of Christ. Respect is the beginning of love for God. You cannot give in worship what you do not have and until you have respect for God you cannot worship Him under this category. Apart from positive volition toward doctrine, apart from putting doctrine first in your scale of values, this is impossible. Respect for the written Word must precede respect for the written Word.

The second meaning of timh is reverence. It is the concept of personal love. Personal love for Christ in worship begins with respect which is personal love of God, gate five. It continues into reverence, which is occupation with the person of Christ. Once you are occupied with the person of Christ you have something to give. Respect is the worship of the immature believer who has legitimate function in worship whereas reverence is the worship of the advancing believer. Both respect and reverence are possible for the believer in time and the believer can give in worship both respect and worship. They are the function of the believer's royal priesthood as motivational virtue in worship. All motivational virtue must express itself in the function of worship for all motivating virtue is directed toward God.

The third meaning of timh is honour. To honour God in worship requires virtue and integrity manufactured inside the divine dynasphere. Only honourable believers can honour the Lord and give honour to the Lord in worship. You cannot give what you do not have.

The simplest form of worship is the giving of thanks, the most basic form of priestly worship and modus operandi. The capacity for this worship is gratitude. You must have capacity to have gratitude, to be in a state of appreciation. Capacity for thanksgiving comes from the perception of doctrine, while gratitude is the expression of that worship toward God. If you are grateful to God for anything you express it in worship. If you have gratitude you can express it. The believer in the cosmic system does not have capacity for gratitude and therefore he cannot fulfill this form of worship. Arrogance is the absence of gratitude and thanksgiving. No matter what is done for an arrogant person they are never appreciative.

So we have the concept of worship as it is expressed in our passage: angelic creatures who have reached the top in the prehistoric angelic conflict and therefore have maximum capacity. Therefore, their posture merely indicates their attitude: their respect, their reverence, their integrity, their gratitude and their glory. All of these things they are able to give in worship. "Then the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped..."

The object of worship: "the God," the dative singular indirect object from qeoj. An interesting thing here is that we do not have the accusative direct object. This is in the dative case, the dative of advantage, and it expresses the whole concept of worship. In the dative indirect object the one who is the object receives the advantage and this is why God created us. Two members of the Godhead sit on the throne and it will be noticed that what we have next is the fact that the worship is directed toward "the God who sat on the throne." The Father is obviously sitting on the throne and also the Son, for the Father said to the Son, "Sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool for your feet." He said this first prophetically in Psalm 110:1. It is expressed then post-prophetically, and therefore historically, after the resurrection, after the ascension and session of our Lord. Therefore, this prophetic phrase of Psalm 110:1 is mentioned in Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1,2; Hebrews 1:3; 1:13; 8:1; 10:12; 1 Peter 3:22. So it occurs quite a number of times indicating the fact that Jesus Christ in hypostatic union is visible on the throne; God the Father is invisible. Jesus Christ as the exalted God-Man is the visible member of the Trinity — John 3:18; 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16. As the winner in the angelic conflict our Lord Jesus Christ is the object of worship in this context.

We have the articular present active participle from the verb kaqhmai, which means to sit and is translated here "the one who is sitting." The definite article is used as a relative pronoun and refers to our Lord Jesus Christ. The perfective present tense denotes what has come to be in the past, the ascension of our Lord, but is emphasised as a present reality. Jesus Christ is seated at the place of honour at the right hand of the Father to be the object of our worship. The active voice: the glorified Christ produces the action of the verb and the participle is circumstantial. It refers, then, to the ascension and session of Christ. He is said to be seated "upon the throne," e)pi plus the locative of qronoj.

The shout that is given is very brief. It doesn't express everything that they are saying but merely what applies to us at the present time. We start out with the present active participle of legw which means to speak, to say, to communicate. The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time, obviously a futuristic present. The active voice: the representatives of the two categories of angelic aristocracy produce the action of the verb, the angelic order of battle and the angelic college of heralds. The participle is circumstantial which can be translated with the conjunction and the finite verb, "and they shouted," as being literal. With this we have the word "Amen" and the word "Hallelujah," "Praise the Lord."

Translation: "Then the twenty-four elders [the staff officers of the angelic order of battle] and the four living creatures [the seraph-ranked heralds from the angelic college of heralds] fell down and worshipped God who sat on the throne [the glorified Christ, the visible one sitting on the throne], and they shouted, Amen [we acknowledge]; Praise the Lord."

At this point we have a break-in from the highest-ranked officer in the angelic college of heralds. We go back now to the king of arms.

Verse 5, we have a sequential use of the conjunction kai, "Then." It introduces a mandate from the king of arms. With this we have the nominative singular subject fwnh, "voice." We have the aorist active indicative of e)xerxomai, it means the voice was coming from a direction, "Then a voice came from." And then we have the word for throne, qronoj. The king of arms is the voice from the throne. In the indicative mood we have the declarative for the reality for the worship mandate from the throne, "from the throne" is a)po plus the ablative of qronoj. So we have, "Then a voice came from the throne." The king of arms might be described as the angel of the presence. He occupies the position which Satan held before the angelic conflict began. The only difference is that Satan held that position as the anointed cherub while the king of arms holds that position as the highest-ranking seraph from the angelic college of heralds. Satan was created with his title in the prehistoric angelic conflict. He entered that with his title already a part of him; he was so created. Hence, while not named the king of arms is the greatest of all elect angels, with the possible exception of two in the order of battle: Michael and Gabriel who are in a different form of nobility.

As the angel of the presence the king of arms would be comparable to Moses or Paul in the eternal state. The spiritual greatness of the king of arms will only be known to us in the eternal future. In the meantime we observe some of his functions as the angel of the presence. There is something we can learn from this: the highest-ranking creature by creation was the anointed cherub called Lucifer, son of the morning. Down in the order was another elect angel, and once the angelic conflict was started by Satan this elect angel who was a plugger eventually reached the top, not because he was above Satan at the beginning but in the conflict he rose to the top through his momentum. Now he is a seraph forever and ever whereas Satan the anointed cherub will spend eternity in the lake of fire. So it isn't how you start that counts, it is how you end up. How you end up is determined by your volition, by your scale of values, by what you think and how you go about it.

In verse 5 we have "Praise our God, all you his servants." This mandate of the king of arms starts out with the present active imperative of the verb a)inew, the Greek word for praise. It is an Attic Greek verb, not a Koine verb at all. Every now and then when there is a switch from the Koine to the Attic Greek it has great emphasis. Attic Greek, along with Ionian, is the most literary of the Greek dialects. A)inew means to commend or extol or to praise. It denotes a very joyful praise. It means you are not being forced to do it, you are doing it because you are motivated and because you are in a state of great happiness and blessing. It can be translated, "Give praise." It is the customary present tense for the celebration of our Lord's victory in heaven and it anticipates the coronation of Jesus Christ after the second advent plus the marriage supper of the Lamb. The active voice: both winners and losers are given this command. It is an imperative mood and it is given to winners as well as losers. We have the dative singular indirect object from qeoj plus the possessive genitive from e)gw which means "our God," "Give praise to our God."

Then the vocative plural is addressed to those who are to be involved, the adjective paj, meaning "all," and douloj meaning "servants" or "slaves," "all of you his servants." While the subject for praise is not given in this verse the context will indicate it as we move into verses 7 and 9 especially. Douloj refers to believers who are attending the coronation and then the wedding banquet of the Lord.

Now we have classification. The articular present middle participle of fobew gives us a classification which at this time in the eternal state can include both losers and winners. Fobew has two different meanings: respect and admiration on the one hand, fear on the other. The definite article is used as a personal pronoun translated "you." The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality at the time of fulfillment, i.e. second advent of Christ. The middle voice describes the subject as participating in the results of the action or the subject acting with a view toward participating in the outcome. There is one form of worship that winners and losers in resurrection bodies in eternity can give, and that is respect and admiration for the Lord. The circumstantial participle follows, the accusative singular direct object from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun, refers to our Lord Jesus Christ, "you who respect him."

The first category mentioned is losers. We have an appositional nominative plural from mikroj, an adjective used as a substantive, and it refers here to losers in time, "both the small." The adjective means small in importance, influence or power. It is a reference to those believers who attend our Lord's coronation at the second advent who were losers in time. There are two important points here. First of all, even though they are losers they do not lose their salvation. They merely failed to utilise the plan of God in time and they do in resurrection bodies occupy an inferior state. The second principle is that the eternal state in heaven is one where there is no equality. Everyone is happy; no one is equal. Equality is unnecessary for happiness.

There are three categories of believers who attend the second advent coronation of Christ and all three categories have losers as well as winners. "Small" refers to the losers. First of the categories is the bride made up of Church Age believers, royal family of God in resurrection bodies. Your attitude toward Bible doctrine in time will determine whether you are a winner or a loser — your understanding of the protocol system, your understanding of how protocol functions in heaven, how protocol functions on earth. The second category is the friends of the groom, Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs. They are now in their resurrection bodies. Some are losers and some are winners. Mikroj describes those who are losers. The third category is the friends of the bride. These are the believers who lived through the Tribulation. They will become the cadre for the Millennial reign of Christ and the basis for forming a new population in a new dispensation and a new civilisation. So they are ones who survived as winners and losers. Two categories appear in resurrection bodies: the bride or Church Age believers and the friends of the groom, Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs. The losers are going to be those believers in this dispensation who failed to reside, function, and continue their momentum in the divine dynasphere. Instead they lived in the cosmic system. They lose all rewards and will be low on the totem pole in eternity, even though they do have resurrection bodies. One category of losers, the believers who lived through the Tribulation, still have their bodies of corruption until the end of the Millennium, and they are present as the friends of the bride. Note that all losers have the opportunity to advance to maturity, all losers have the opportunity of glorifying God in time; but they made a large number of wrong decisions from a position of weakness, resided therefore in the cosmic system, and as a result lost control of their lives in the cosmic system; and they had no personal sense of destiny related to the plan of God for their lives. They had the wrong scale of values. And note again: Losers means loss of reward, loss of knighthood, loss of decorations at the judgment seat of Christ. They experience shame at the judgment seat of Christ but they do not lose their salvation.

The second category is the appositional nominative plural from the adjective megaj, in the plural here and it refers to those who are winners, "the great." Once again, we have three categories of winners: the bride [Church Age believers], the friends of the groom [Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs], and the friends of the bride [believers who lived through the Tribulation]. In all three categories there will be winners through their momentum inside the plan of God in their respective dispensations.

Inasmuch as the wedding of the Lamb takes place in heaven and the wedding supper takes place on earth it is assumed that the coronation also will take place on earth. So we have some different places where these things occur.

In verses 5, 7 we anticipate the celebration on earth after the wedding occurs. Therefore verses 5-7 anticipate the second advent. The actual wedding in the ancient world is divided into three stages. Stage one was when the contract was made. The parents decided when their children were born, or shortly thereafter, whom they would marry. The parents of the groom would make a contract with the parents of the potential bride. At the time of the wedding the groom goes to the home of the bride, and when he picks up the bride they are married, that's it, they didn't go through any ceremony. The groom picking up the bride at the home is comparable to the Rapture and the judgment seat of Christ. Then, in stage three, the groom takes the bride to his home. When the chariot is going up to the house of the bride there is a long procession behind the chariot. Those are the friends of the groom. In the analogy the groom is our Lord Jesus Christ and the friends of the groom are the Old Testament believers and the Tribulational martyrs. At the home of the groom the bride's friends wait. They didn't mix with the friends of the groom until after they went to celebrate the marriage. They had to wait outside until the groom and the bride arrived, cf. the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. These are the friends of the bride. They are waiting for the chariot to come back with the procession. The friends of the bride had to have light so that they could find the path. No electricity in those days. When they heard that the procession was coming they lit their lamps. No oil in the lamps in the parable is an illustration that they were unbelievers and were to be eliminated by the baptism of fire, they would not go into the Millennium.

Verse 6, we have, before the wedding, the coronation. The actual coronation is not given. This is the celebration that immediately follows. We have a sequential use of the conjunction kai and the aorist active indicative of a)kouw which means to hear. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The apostle John produces the action of the verb because he is reporting. The indicative mood is declarative representing the action from the viewpoint of eschatology. The word "voice," fwnh, we are going to translate as a sound. With w(j it is going to be translated "what sounded like." In other words, we know the idiom; we translate the idiom, "Then I heard what sounded like."

Next we have the objective genitive singular from a noun and an adjective, poluj and o)xloj, "a large crowd of people." The large crowd is a reference to the royal family of God. Naturally, the royal family is at the coronation and is about to become a bride. But first of all they are celebrating the coronation of the groom. Church Age believers in their resurrection bodies are a part of the coronation celebration. The second category of those celebrating are also given by the phrase, w(j fwnh, meaning "what sounded like," and again we have the objective genitive plural from a noun and an adjective, poluj and o(udor, "many waters," a reference to the friends of the groom, the Old Testament saints and the Tribulational martyrs in their resurrection bodies at the second advent. Special emphasis is given to one friend who in John 3:29 is called a friend of the groom, John the Baptist. The third category of those who are celebrating. This time we have a different phrase altogether: the adjective isxuroj which generally means "strong" but here it means "loud" or "mighty." With it we have the noun bronth which means "peals of thunder," so it is translated "mighty peals of thunder." These are the believers who survived the Tribulation to the second advent of Christ by which they are delivered and are called the friends of the bride. So we have three categories celebrating the coronation of our Lord Jesus Christ who has just become the ruler of the world.

Now we have the recognition of God's policy of grace in the last phrase of this verse. First of all we have the present active participle of the verb legw, and we translate it "shouting." All of them are celebrating. We have the pictorial present tense. The active voice: all three categories are joining in the celebration and they are shouting "Praise the Lord," as we have already noted. It is a celebration of our Lord's coronation plus the recognition of the grace policy which made it all possible. They are celebrating the fact that they are there, as well. No one would be present at the coronation of Christ apart from God's policy of grace. So the celebration not only recognises the principle of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ but, at the same time, this celebration will commemorate grace.

Then we have the recognition of the king, "because," o(ti, then the title of our Lord, "the Lord our God the omnipotent one has become King." The word for "omnipotent one" is a nominative singular from pantokratwr, "all ruler," translated "omnipotent one." Pantokratwr stands up in contrast to kosmokratwr, used in Ephesians 6:12 for powerful demons who function under Satan during Satan's rule. Now the Lord is the pantokratwr whereas the these great demons were only kosmokratwr, rulers of the world. God's relative attribute here is omnipotence. He is all-powerful, He is able to do all things which are the object of His power and within the range of His own holy character. God has unlimited authority and power under His attribute of omnipotence.

We have, then, the final phrase, the aorist active indicative of basileuw which means to rule or to reign, "because the Lord our God the omnipotent one has become King [or rules]." The culminative aorist tense views our Lord's coronation at the second advent in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Jesus Christ rules for the last one thousand years of human history over planet earth. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this eschatological principle.

Translation: "Then I heard what sounded like a large crowd of people, and what sounded like many waters, and what sounded like mighty peals of thunders, saying, Praise the Lord; because the Lord our God the omnipotent one has become King."

The greatest party in all of history will be held in connection with the coronation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The categories of guests are very simple. It is in a sense a wedding party and it is called, unfortunately in the King James version, a wedding supper. A supper is a light meal at night. The Greek says, a wedding banquet. It will be a banquet in which there will be not only protocol but there will be maximum happiness. For maximum happiness there must always be protocol related to it. Abandonment of protocol means loss of happiness, someone always gets hurt.

There are four categories involved in this great wedding banquet. First of all there is the host Himself who is called the groom. That, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has just been crowned King; He has superseded Satan as the ruler of this world; He has just had a great coronation in heaven, and He comes to earth for the celebration of the marriage banquet of the Lamb. Secondly, there is the bride. The bride is made up of all believers of this dispensation, Church Age believers. Then there are the friends of the groom, the Old Testament believers plus the Tribulational martyrs. These two categories will have resurrection bodies, therefore maximum capacity for happiness. Then there are the friends of the bride, those millions of believers who lived during the Tribulation, who will survive the Tribulation and will go into the Millennium to form the cadre for the population explosion of the Millennium. They are the Tribulational believers and they are still in their bodies of corruption. So this is the categorical development of the guests.

Verse 7, the wedding of the Lamb. The marriage or wedding of the Lamb takes place immediately after the coronation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The celebration in this verse relates to the marriage of the Lamb. The verse describes the attitude of all who attend. It is given in the present active subjunctive of the verb xairw, which means to rejoice, to be glad, to be happy, to enjoy yourself at a party. We will simply translate it, "Let us rejoice." It is happiness based on attitude and the condition of your own soul. This verb always has to do with when the thought pattern is stimulated. Therefore rejoicing is related to the doctrinal content of thinking in the three categories of those who are invited this wedding feast. The present tense is a pictorial present, it depicts the celebration in the process of occurrence. The active voice: three categories of believers produce the action of the verb. First of all the Church as the bride in resurrection bodies, and then the Old Testament believers and Tribulational saints, friends of the groom in resurrection bodies, and finally believers who survive the Tribulation still in their bodies of corruption. The subjunctive mood is what we call a hortatory subjunctive in which the bride of Christ encourages the rest of the guests to join in the common expression of great happiness because of the occasion.

Next we have a conjunction kai which introduces a second verb connected with the party, the present active subjunctive of a)galliaw, another word for celebration. It actually means to celebrate a great victory, to celebrate something that is absolutely phenomenal. This is the greatest celebration of all time. Generally this verb always appears in the middle voice. Here it does not; it appears in the active voice. When combined with the verb xairw it should be translated, "Let us be extremely happy and celebrate." The static present tense represents a condition which is taken for granted as a fact at the wedding of the Lamb and the great banquet which will follow. The active voice: those present at the wedding produce the action of the verb. Finally, we have another hortatory subjunctive in which one exhorts others to participate in a festal occasion. The hortatory subjunctive is always used in the first person plural.

Then we have another verb and this time it introduces a new concept because of the change of tense. We have the aorist active subjunctive of the verb didomi which always means to give or to delegate. Here we have the expression of worship: you cannot give in worship what you do not have. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the same three categories present at the great party produce the action. It is, again, a hortatory subjunctive.

We have to find out what we are giving here and the accusative singular direct object of doca indicates what is being given, "glory." The dative singular indirect object from a)utoj means, of course, "glory to him." "Let us give glory to him," referring to our Lord Jesus Christ as the groom. That is the basis for the greatest party in all of history.

The reason for the celebration is now declared, beginning with the causal conjunction o(ti, translated "because." Next is our subject, the nominative singular from gamoj which means generally marriage, it also means the wedding banquets or the wedding celebration which follows. Therefore we have the wedding of a)rnion, the "Lamb," "has come," the aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai. This means that the time finally arrives for the greatest of all parties. The culminative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the banquet, the party which follows.

It was customary in the ancient world to have a wedding party. The party generally lasted a week or ten days during which time, at some time, the bride and the groom finally slipped off. The indicative mood is declarative from the verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatological reality, the greatest party of all time. The sequence of events: the second advent of Christ, the incarceration of Satan, the resurrection of the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs, the baptism of fire which eliminates all unbelievers from the world, the coronation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then the great celebration.

In the marriage situation of the ancient world, when the groom comes to pick up the bride, the bride must be prepared. In those days women were never tolerated to be late, they had to be prepared. When the groom showed up at the door the bride had to be waiting, otherwise the groom could turn around and nullify the contract of marriage simply because the bride was not ready. So the preparation of the bride becomes the next issue.

It is introduced with a connective conjunction kai followed by the possessive genitive from a)utoj, "and his." Then the nominative singular subject of gunh, meaning woman, but also meaning bride, "and his bride," a reference to the Church Age believer. The reason that we will be prepared as the bride of Christ is because we have all passed through the judgment seat of Christ. We have received our resurrection bodies and we have been evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ.

With this we have the aorist active indicative of the verb e)toimazw which means to be prepared. With the accusative singular direct object of the reflexive pronoun h( a)utou the translation has to be changed slightly. There is no nominative so we use the genitive here as the vocabulary form. h( a)utou is a reflexive pronoun and when the action expressed in a verb is referred back to its own subject the construction is called reflexive. Therefore we have the phrase, "because the marriage supper of the Lamb has come and the bride has prepared herself." In other words, the Church called the bride of Christ in 2 Corinthians 11:2 and Ephesians 5:25-27, and the Tribulational believers who survive called the "friends of the bride" or "the wise virgins."

Translation: "Let us rejoice and celebrate [the expression of maximum happiness at the marriage banquet of the Lamb], because the marriage banquet of the Lamb has come [following the second advent and the coronation of our Lord] and the bride has prepared herself."

The marriage banquet is important because there was no such thing as a marriage ceremony. Therefore the noun gamoj does not mean marriage, it always means the marriage banquet. The moment that the believer received Christ as saviour, that is the moment the marriage contract was entered into. In the ancient world often the bride and the groom were not acquainted until the groom picked the bride up in the chariot. So the friends of the bride and the friends of the groom had to become acquainted with each other. Therefore there was one big party that lasted for a week or ten days, and in some cases a month. The analogy here: the groom picking up the bride in the air. The groom is the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father; the bride is the Church. So at the Rapture our Lord picks us up and gives us our resurrection body. This is the bride being prepared and ready. Then comes the big genuflect in the sky when we as the bride recognise our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. After that we have during the entire period of the Tribulation the judgment seat of Christ, the decorations and awards to winners and the explanations to the losers why they are losers. Then there is the wedding banquet. The friends of the bride are waiting outside. Once the groom has arrived with the bride, then you have the wedding banquet.

Remember that the groom is our Lord Jesus Christ who has just been crowned ruler of the world after His second advent. The bride is the Church, she has prepared herself beginning at the Rapture and continuing through judgment seat of Christ during the seven years of the Tribulation. During that time every believer will be evaluated as a winner or a loser, and winners will receive their proper rewards and decorations.

The friends of the bride, the believers who survive the Tribulation, are still on the earth. They are waiting at the home of the groom, Castle Zion in Jerusalem. The groom who now rules the earth is coming to His castle with His bride, the Church Age believers, and the friends of the groom are the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs who have now received their resurrection bodies. Of course, there are false friends or unbelievers who also survive the Tribulation and they are trying to get in on the action. The baptism of fire eliminates them.

Matthew 25:1-13, a parallel passage. The unbelievers who survive have not been invited to the wedding banquet is the story of Matthew chapter 25 where we see what happens to the unbelievers who survive the Tribulation, whereas Revelation 19:7 tells us the story from the standpoint of the believer.

Verse 1, "Then the kingdom from heaven [the Millennial reign of Christ beginning with the second advent] will be analogous to ten virgins [the survivors of the Tribulation and the word "virgin" is used not in the literal sense that we use it but in the sense of the friends of the bride], who took their lamps, and went to meet the groom [second advent]."

Verse 2, "Now five of them were foolish [unbelievers], and five of them were wise [believers who survived the Tribulation]."

Verse 3, "For when the foolish took their lamps [representing their volition. Man is always the product of his own decisions], they took no oil in them [negative volition toward the gospel as it was presented dramatically during the Tribulation]."

Verse 4, "But the wise took oil in flasks along with their lamps [positive volition of Tribulational people]."

Verse 5, "Now while the groom was delaying [He is picking up the bride during the seven bowl judgments], they dropped off to sleep and continued sleeping [they survived the seven bowl judgments but they did not believe in Jesus Christ]."

Verse 6, "But at midnight [the second advent] there was a shout, "Behold the groom! Come out and meet him'."

Verse 7, "Then all the virgins [all the survivors of the Tribulation] arose and trimmed their lamps.

Verse 8, "Then the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out'." The principle is very obvious here: Every person must stand on his own decisions, not on someone else's.

Verse 9, "But the wise [the believers] answered and said, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and for you [unbelievers cannot avoid the consequences of their own rejection of Christ at the last moment]; Go instead to the dealers [to the evangelists] and buy for yourselves'." But at the second advent evangelism has been closed down.

Verse 10, "And while they were going away to make the purchase the groom came [second advent], and those who were ready went in with him [a picture of the friends of the bride] to the wedding feast; and the door was shut." The second advent is the last chance for salvation for unbelievers of the Tribulation.

Verse 11, "Then later the other virgins came also, shouting, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us'."

Verse 12, "But he answered and said, ‘It is a fact, I do not know you'." This is equivalent to the baptism of fire for all the unbelievers are taken off the earth and cast into fire. This is the parable of the wheat and the tares. The wheat are the believers of the Tribulation going into the Millennium, the tares are the unbelievers who are cast out.

Verse 13, "Be alert then, for you do not know either the day or the hour." The phrase, "the Son of Man cometh" is not found in the original.

In revelation 19:7, the aorist tense of the verb e)toimazw is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It refers to the judgment seat of Christ or the evaluation of the royal family of God which occurs in heaven while the Tribulation is going on on earth. The active voice: the bride or the believers of the Church Age produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this preparation beginning with the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church, the big genuflect in the sky, the judgment seat of Christ, the establishment of a new order of eternal knighthood and the presentation of winners in the court of heaven as being those on the honours list. These three doctrines explain how the bride prepares herself: the Rapture of the Church, the big genuflect in the sky and the judgment seat of Christ. The wedding, therefore, occurs in heaven. The marriage supper or wedding feast occurs on earth. The contract phase occurs on earth when you believe on Jesus Christ.

One of the basic laws of hermeneutics is the fact that the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. The background for the paragraph we are studying is the wedding ceremony of the ancient world which is very different from anything we have today. They had no ceremony as we understand it. They had a contract which was generally made when the bride and the groom were children. The contract, of course, is analogous to our faith in Jesus Christ. Secondly, they had the actual function where the groom went to pick up the bride. That is analogous to the preparation of the bride which is the subject of verse eight. In that particular phase we have the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church followed by the judgment seat of Christ. In the third category we have the groom bringing the bride back to his own home, and that is the actual marriage, the wedding banquet which often lasted a week or ten days, sometimes longer. That was the official beginning of the marriage.

In verse 7 we have the home of the groom and the home of the bride. The entire procedure is a very simple one and there are three categories of those involved, apart from the groom. The groom, of course, represents our Lord Jesus Christ. The bride represents the Church as the royal family of God. Then there are the friends of the groom, the Tribulational martyrs plus the Old Testament saints. Finally, there are the friends of the bride who are the Tribulational believers who survive the Tribulation to go into the Millennium to form the cadre for the population explosion at that time.

In verse 8 the preparation of the bride is amplified. This begins what is known as ultimate sanctification. There are two doctrines which introduce the subject. The subject is all those who are involved in this party and the bride is specifically in view at this point. We start out with the connective conjunction kai introducing a result of the previous verse, translated "Furthermore." Then we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi which means to give, "Furthermore it has been given." The culminative aorist regards the preparation of the bride in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint if existing results. The existing result is, first of all, ultimate sanctification, and this is followed by the decorations and rewards. The preparation of the bride begins with the resurrection of the Church. The winners and losers all receive resurrection bodies. Then the great genuflect and the judgment seat of Christ when every believer in the Church Age is evaluated. Some will be decorated because they are winners. Others, as losers, will not be decorated, nevertheless they will still have a resurrection body. All believers are going to be involved, "Furthermore it was given to her." The passive voice: the Church, the bride of Christ, all believers. The distinction between believers begins in time. It may not always be obvious, it may not be apparent to others. It isn't necessary for you to judge the life of other believers, that is their responsibility before God. Every believer is a priest; every believer-priest has the right to evaluate his own life before the Lord. But the real distinction between winners and losers in time is the manner in which blessing is given from God. The winners receive great blessings, first of all under logistical grace, but more than that, under the principle of supergrace blessing under six paragraphs. The winners have the greatest testing; the winners have the greatest blessing. So the distinction begins in time.

"Furthermore it has been given," the indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the preparation of the bride. All believers are involved in ultimate sanctification. Sanctification begins at salvation, it is the imputation of divine righteousness to every believer. The thing that distinguishes believers of the Church Age is the fact that we are in union with Christ. The baptism of the Spirit does not occur in any previous dispensation, nor in any future dispensation. Only believers of this dispensation are formed into the royal family of God.

We have next the fact of clothing, the dative singular indirect object of a)utoj refers to the entire body of believers for this dispensation, and it is translated, "Furthermore it has been given to her." The Church is the bride of Christ, so mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-27. Then we begin the purpose clause, a semifinal purpose clause which is introduced with the conjunction i(na, "that" or "in order that." It introduces a semifinal purpose clause here which denotes the direction of the action of the main verb. Where is the verb to give going? "Furthermore it was given to her," a verb with action. God is giving us something and if He is going to give us something we need to know the direction of that verb. What is being give? How, when, and where?

Next we have the aorist middle subjunctive of the verb periballw which means to be clothed. The dress of the bride is very important, she does not come to the wedding to embarrass the groom. We are not going to embarrass the groom in that future day when this great party is going to take place. That is because the groom is going to provide for us the clothing. The dramatic aorist tense states a present reality with the certitude of a past event, the fact that at the Rapture of the Church every believer will have a resurrection body. That is the resurrection of the bride, that is the clothing of the bride. The middle voice is a direct middle in which the subject, the bride of Christ, acts with a view toward participating in the outcome of the action. We will be properly attired for that occasion. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive implying a future reference. This is not going to happen yet, it is in the future.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun bussinoj which refers to something that was very rare and very difficult to find in the ancient world where everything was generally done by hand, "fine linen." The fine linen emphasises the resurrection body of the believer. At the point of salvation we receive the first thing necessary to be at that great party, the righteousness of God which we then have forever. It is imputed to us; it indwells us; it is not only the basis of justification but all during our time on earth all divine blessing comes from one half of divine holiness, the justice of God. The righteousness of God qualifies us for a resurrection body. So bussinoj refers to imputed righteousness received at salvation, phase one sanctification. Phase two sanctification is the believer inside of the divine dynasphere. Phase three sanctification has to do with the resurrection body. All of this has to do with the preparation of the bride.

Then there is a distinction between winners and losers. This comes next in a very interesting way. Two adjectives are used to describe the winners in contrast to the losers for that distinction will last for all eternity. The first of the two adjectives lamproj which means "shining." So the first thing we notice is that there is something shining about the resurrection bodies of winners. This is what we call the uniform of glory. It actually covers the resurrection body with a beautiful translucent light and it distinguishes winners from losers throughout all eternity. It is a reward for advancing to maturity during phase two or time on this earth. The second adjective is kaqaroj which means pure. It is the ultimate and eternal righteousness of all Church Age believers as a part of their ultimate sanctification. The word shining is very important at this point because it introduces a concept which we have not previously noted. That is the concept that this distinction will exist. It all starts with the concept of the uniform of glory, a robe of translucent light worn by our Lord Jesus Christ at His resurrection. Before our Lord received His resurrection body, the uniform of glory, the uniform was actually displayed before three of His disciples Peter, James and John, on the mount of transfiguration, Matthew 16:28ff. This was the first time that any human being had ever seen the uniform of glory. Since the order of the morning star is the highest decoration in heaven and can only be given to a believer who is mature the uniform of glory is to be worn with the order of the morning star. That explains "shining" in the middle of verse 8. Only mature believers will have the uniform of glory covering their resurrection bodies and this is merely to accompany the wearing of the order of the morning star.

In Numbers 24:17 we meet for the first time the order of the morning star in a prophecy of the first coming of Christ. The phrase, "a star shall come forth from Jacob." That star was actually the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Peter 1:17-19 Peter tells us what he learned at the mount of transfiguration, "When he [the Lord Jesus Christ on the mount of transfiguration] received from God the Father honour and glory," the honour is the uniform of honour, the uniform of glory, "such a sound as this was made to him by the majestic glory, ‘This one [our Lord Jesus Christ] is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased,' and we heard this same voice carried from heaven when we were with him in the holy mountain. And we keep on having a more reliable prophetic doctrine," that is, than the empiricism of observing the Lord's uniform of glory on the mount of transfiguration, "with reference to which doctrine you perform honourably." If you perform honourably by habitually concentrating in your right lobes, Peter says, then you will receive this uniform of glory, "as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns [the second advent] and the morning star [Jesus Christ] has come." This decoration is revealed with the winners at the second advent of Christ. Colossians 3:4 says, "On the occasion when Christ our life shall become manifest [second advent] you [the mature believer with the order of the morning star and the uniform of glory] shall become manifest with him in glory [wearing the uniform of glory]." So this decoration is worn at the greatest party of all time.

Next in verse 8 we have the final phrase, the explanation of final sanctification for all believers. We have the explanatory use of the post positive conjunction gar which introduces the concept. Then we have the repetition of the subject, the nominative neuter singular from bussinoj, "For the fine linen." Then the verb, the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, the verb to be, in the static present. The static present represents a condition as perpetually existing. The active voice: the fine linen represents the resurrection body and ultimate sanctification for all believers, winners and losers. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine, the doctrine if ultimate sanctification. Then the predicate nominative plural from dikaiwma which here means a right act, the fulfillment of a legal requirement. Therefore we will call it the completion of justification — "for the fine linen is the fulfillment [or completion] of the justification of the saints." Justification is fulfilled or completed at the point of ultimate sanctification at the time of the Rapture when all believers receive that resurrection body. The beginning of justification begins at salvation with the imputation of divine righteous; the fulfillment of justification is when each one of us receives a resurrection body: Church Age believers at the Rapture; Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs at the second advent; at the end of the Millennium the Millennial saints who survived the Tribulation. The fulfillment, then of the completion of justification occurs at the point of ultimate sanctification.

Translation: "Furthermore, it had been given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, shining [winners only], but for the rest pure: for the fine linen is the fulfillment of the justification of the saints [all believers]."

Verses 5-7 refer to the wedding banquet on earth after the second advent. Verse 8 refers to the marriage in heaven prior to the second advent.

Verse 9, the wedding supper of the Lamb. We begin by noting the sequential use of the conjunction kai, "Then." With it we have the present active indicative of the verb legw, a communication word, and here it means simply to speak, "Then he said to me." The historical present tense views the past event

with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: John's teaching angel produces the action of the verb. The teaching angel is not identified but is probably the same officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality.

With this we have the dative singular indirect object from the pronoun e)gw. It is also a dative of advantage, it is to our advantage to have this information. Then the mandate, the aorist active imperative given to the apostle John. Being one of the writers of the scripture, being an apostle under the mandate of God, he is now to write down what he sees. We have the aorist active imperative of the verb grafw which means to write. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The passage is a part of the Word of God which lives and abides forever. The active voice: John as the human writer will produce the action of the verb under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, a mandate from one of the highest-ranking elect angels to the highest-ranking believer alive on the earth at that time. Note that the angelic members of the angelic college of heralds outrank the apostles while the apostles are still on earth. The teaching angel had to be one of the seraph rank angels who presents this information.

Next we have the blessing for the invited guests and the first word is the nominative plural of makarioj which is a word for happiness. Pindar was the first one to use makarioj in the Greek language. He used it in the Attic Greek, it was also then spread to the Ionic Greek, and eventually it went to several of the other forms and came down to us from Pindar in the Koine Greek. It denoted transcendent happiness in life, having a life beyond care, labour and death, a life which can overcome all of the problems, a happiness which has a greater reality in the life of the individual than any problem in life. In the Attic Greek makarioj was used for a happy state of the gods — the noun used here in its stylistic form which is the beatitude form. We have noted that there are seven beatitudes in the book of Revelation. The noun connotes blessing from God to man resulting in great happiness for the recipient. This happiness is the basis for understanding what this marriage supper is all about.

John 15:11, "These things I have spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full." This includes the perfect tense of the verb lalew which has many meanings, but one of them is to express one's self, to proclaim, to teach. So we will translate it: "I have taught." The perfect tense is an intensive perfect, it emphasises what has occurred in the past and the existing results are then brought into focus. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb in communicating His mandates regarding the believer's residence inside the divine dynasphere. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact. Jesus taught His disciples regarding the new way of life, the new protocol system, which would come with the Church Age inasmuch as believers in this dispensation are different from other believers in that we are royal family of God.

Jesus tells us that there is a reason for teaching these things. The conjunction i(na introduces a purpose clause. He has a purpose in teaching us all of these things, "in order that my joy," the word for "joy" is the noun xara and it has to do with happiness, "might be in you." "Might be" is a present active subjunctive of the verb e)imi, the verb to be. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs when the believer continues his momentum at gate four of the divine dynasphere. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb inside of the divine dynasphere. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive denoting the purpose clause and implying a future reference.

We will call this joy "+H," happiness which is derived from the protocol system. We have studied in the past three kinds of happiness. First of all there is pseudo-happiness which we will call "-H." It is the occasional fun that someone might have living in the cosmic system. The cosmic system of Satan can produce stimulation, something that approximates happiness, but it is actually a pseudo-happiness. It is not a real happiness, it doesn't last and it doesn't sustain, and it is often followed by an equal and opposite reaction of depression. The second category of happiness might be called "neutral H," simply the human happiness derived from compliance with the laws of divine establishment plus the development of human integrity and honour. The unbeliever can have neutral H through his function under establishment. Genuine humility under establishment provides the basis for capacity for happiness, for love, for life limited to time, e.g. Eccl. 9:9. This is directed to the unbeliever, he can find happiness in human relationships, in his occupation — neutral H.

The third category is God's happiness which we call "+H." It is found through life in the divine dynasphere.

There are certain guests who are invited to the marriage banquet of the Lamb and there is a blessing for these guests. This blessing comes from the word for this absolute happiness — makarioj. "Blessed are they". That introduces the articular perfect passive participle from the verb kalew which means to be invited here. The definite article is used as a personal pronoun and it refers to those who are invited. Obviously the groom will be there. He is not invited; it is His party. The groom is the Lord Jesus Christ. The bride, the Church Age believers, will be there. But this is talking about the guests and there are two categories of guests who are invited under the principle of kalew. The first category are the friends of the groom. These are the Old Testament saints. They are in their resurrection bodies. Then there are the friends of the bride, those Tribulational believers who survive the Tribulation.

We have in this verse, "Then he said to me [the apostle John], Write, Blessed are they who have been invited." The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect for the completed action and existing state of these believers. Those who are invited are prepared for this magnificent banquet because in the resurrection body there is capacity for +H, and for the Tribulational believers who survive the Tribulation they have capacity because of the very doctrine by which they survive. So this is one of the happiest parties which ever existed. This is a party where no one is invited without capacity to enjoy our Lord and to enjoy the party. Therefore the dramatic perfect emphasising the results of the action. We are talking about those who have believed in Christ in time and we are talking about guests with the capacity to appreciate what is happening. The passive voice: two categories of believers receive the action as guests — the friends of the bride, the friends of the groom. This is a circumstantial participle, and with it we have a

The next phrase in this verse is very important. We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, "also," and again the present active indicative, "also he said to me." This becomes the first of two reasons why we have the book of Revelation. We are going to discover in verse 10 that the doctrinal communication about Jesus is the perceptive insight into prophecy. There is a great need for prophecy because it is the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is also another need for prophecy: we learn to apply from the future to our present lives just as we have learned to apply from the past to our present lives. Many of the things we learn about the spiritual life we learn from the study of prophecy. And prophecy is stated right here, under this principle. We have a subject, the nominative plural subject made up of two words, a demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, and with it logoj which has a number of meanings but here it has to do with doctrine. Note that these are in the plural, "these doctrines." Here we have the present active indicative of e)imi, a verb which is used in its absolute sense here, "these doctrines are." The static present represents a condition as perpetually existing. The active voice: eschatological doctrine in this context produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of fact. With it we have a predicate nominative from the a)lhqinoj, generally translated "true," "these are the true doctrines from God," the ablative of source from qeoj. That means that there is a meaning and purpose for us having these things at this time.

Revelation 19:10 — We now begin a second section to this particular context: the second advent of Christ. This will be the subject in verses 10-14. Verse 10 is a transitional verse. Here we have John the apostle not only making a mistake but a mistake that is recorded for all eternity. He was so overcome by the teaching of the angel that he fell down and worshipped an angel. This helps us the understand the principle: it isn't the man, it is the message.

We start out with what has been called the apostle's impulsive mistake, or the angel with feet. We begin the exegesis with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb piptw which often describes either an accident or an impulsive action. It means to fall. Sometimes it means to fall because of a stumble, sometimes it means to fall because of being impulsive, sometimes it even means to throw yourself on the ground because you are emotional. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It represents an impulsive move on the part of the apostle John. The active voice: this holy man of God, John, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this impulsive mistake.

With this, and following it, we have an improper preposition for an improper action. The preposition of e)mprosqen plus genitive of pouj, "at his feet." The word "his" is the possessive genitive from a)utoj. The purpose for falling down is then expressed: the aorist active infinitive of proskunew which means to worship — "I fell down at his feet to worship." The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the impulsive action in its entirety. The attempt to worship and backed by emotion is not worship. God does not want our emotion, God is not complimented by our emotion, and God is not glorified by our emotion. It is our thought, it is the content of Bible doctrine in the soul that we give to God. We have noted that you cannot give to God what you do not have. At this point John is obviously not thinking. He is overwhelmed by the message of the marriage banquet of the Lamb, and being overwhelmed he goes into that slide that often ruins so many people and that is the principle of allowing the emotions to take over control of the soul and to suppress the thought. John, the human author of the book of Revelation is now worshipping another creature! This is the infinitive of purpose expressing the aim or the action denoted by the main verb, piptw. Then we have the dative singular indirect object from a)utoj, he worshipped him, the teaching angel. There is a great danger right here. When someone communicates doctrine, whether it is an angel to John or the apostle John to his congregation, or any pastor to a congregation, you are assembled not to hear a good message but to learn Bible doctrine. Idolising of the pastor must be avoided at all cost. The congregation is there to learn doctrine so that it can worship God, not to have its emotions titillated so that it can worship the pastor.

The rebuke of the teaching angel comes next. We have also the identification of the communicator. This angel is the second highest angel in the angelic college of heralds. He is next to the king of arms. He holds the rank of officer of arms. We have the connective conjunction kai, translated "and so," followed by the present active indicative of legw, "and so he said." With John down at his feet now the teaching angel is going to have to add something to the message. The historical present views the past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: the teaching angel produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Then John brings in his own person: the dative singular indirect object from e)gw, "and so he said to me." What he said is of the greatest importance. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the rebuke is given. After all of this teaching comes the rebuke. We are never too old to learn. John is already an old man and he is going to learn a great deal more. The first principle of this verse: rebukes should be regarded as blessings and part of the learning process in spiritual growth and momentum. Of course, the rebuke should always be impersonal. It should come impersonally from a doctrinal source, and that is exactly what we have here.

Next we have a strong negative idiom which includes the present active subjunctive of o(raw plus the negative mh. This is only half of what is actually an idiom. All you have to do is introduce the first two words of a well known idiom and the rest of it follows. Only half of the idiom is here because of ellipsis and you have to add what was very well known at the time as a very definite idiom, poihsh touto, "do not do this" is what it actually says. The rest of the idiom is the aorist active subjunctive of poiew, and with it is o(utoj, the demonstrative pronoun and it is a very strong idiom which says "Don't" or "Don't do it."

Then we have the present active indicative of e)imi in which the angel identifies himself in what is necessary for communication. He doesn't give his name, that isn't necessary. But he does express the principle that he is a servant of the Lord. The present active indicative of e)imi: the present tense is a customary present for a status assumed to be true in the present as well as the past and future, hence the temporal element is very remote here. The active voice: the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds produces the action of the verb, and it produces it without any possible touch of arrogance. The indicative mood is declarative for a principle of doctrine, "I am your fellow servant." Both the teaching angel and the apostle John serve the same Lord Jesus Christ even though they are from different categories of creation. This officer of arms does in the angelic realm what John does in the human realm, he teaches divine doctrine and the protocol system of God.

We have a conjunction kai which is expletive in the usage and therefore we translate it "along with" rather than "and." The conjunction kai also introduces a genitive absolute, "along with," a very unusual use of the conjunction kai. Then we have what is going to be a genitive absolute, the genitive plural of a)delfoj plus the genitive of relationship su, "your brothers." Then we have the articular present active participle in the genitive case, so that the genitive of a)delfoj becomes the subject of the participle. This is what is called a genitive absolute. The subject of the articular present active participle of e)xw is translated "who have." The definite article with the genitive case is used as the relative pronoun, "who." The customary present denotes what habitually occurs during the Church Age. God the Holy Spirit sovereignly bestows on certain male believers the gift of communication — pastor-teachers. The active voice: those believers of the Church Age who possess the gift produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. The royal family of God in the Church Age is never left without the gift of pastor-teacher and the doctrine which is thereby communicated.

Then we have next the accusative singular direct object of the participle marturia, historical attestation or a declaration in matters of doctrine. It is sometimes translated "witness" but it is much stronger than that. With this is the objective genitive of the word "Jesus," I)hsouj. When he says, "having the doctrinal communication about Jesus" he is using a proper noun, I)hsouj, derived from the Hebrew noun Jeshua. It means saviour and emphasises the uniqueness of the person of Christ in hypostatic union in the incarnation. The whole realm of doctrine pertaining to the first advent and the Church Age is in view, and therefore it is a reference to the pastor-teachers of the Church Age and the New testament doctrine of the mystery which has now been revealed.

Then he gives a mandate which is very important. The purpose in communicating doctrine is for spiritual growth and so that worship on earth will be meaningful. The mandate: the aorist active imperative of poskunew, "worship" the God. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the many actions of worship and gathers them into one entirety. We have seen that you cannot give in worship what you do not have. To give in worship you must have cognisance of the person of Christ, and that comes through the perception of Bible doctrine. The active voice: the highest ranking Christian on the face of the earth is commanded to produce this action. Even the greatest fail. The imperative mood is an imperative of command. The dative singular indirect object qeoj with the definite article translated "the God," and is a reference to Jesus Christ as the manifest person of the Trinity. The Father and the Spirit are invisible and this is a command to worship Christ. The fact that Christ is the manifest person of the Trinity is found in John 1:18; 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12.

Then finally we get the biblical perspective of Bible prophecy. We have a second sentence in verse 10 and it begins with the explanatory use of the particle gar, "For." This is an explanation. Next we have the nominative singular subject of marturia which means testimony in a technical sense. Testimony in the ancient world was called witness. They were synonymous words, and this means testimony in a court, historical attestation, the declaration in matters of doctrine. So we will translate it "For the doctrinal communication." Then the objective genitive of I)esouj, "about Jesus." Then the verb: the present active indicative of e)imi, the verb to be. This is a static present for a condition perpetually existing. The active voice: doctrinal teaching about our Lord produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement about Bible doctrine.

What follows is a predicate nominative from the noun pneuma which has so many related meanings. Sometimes it is used as a title for the third person of the Trinity, preceded by a(gioj, "Holy Spirit." Occasionally the word "Spirit" alone refers to the Holy Spirit. It also means wind, breath, breathing, and therefore it comes to mean life. It is also used technically for the human spirit as the third part of man which is received at regeneration. Regeneration means that God the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit so that we become trichotomous at the moment of salvation. It is a neuter noun and is used with sarc to denote the immaterial part of man. It denotes a mental attitude, a human personality. It also has a meaning which seems to apply here in our verse, perceptive insight, the function of the soul, for the doctrinal communication about Jesus is the perceptive insight. Then we have the genitive of reference from the noun profhteia which means "prophecy." It should be translated, "for the doctrinal communication [the teaching about Jesus] is the life of prophecy [or, is perceptive insight into prophecy]." In other words, the key to prophecy is the unique person of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is both the key to prophecy and the central theme of eschatology. In the gospels Christ is presented as rejected, ridiculed, maligned, and dying for the sins of the world. But in the book of Revelation Christ is presented as the King of kings and the Lord of lords returning to the earth in all of His glory. The second advent is the high point of history.

Positive volition is a prerequisite to all worship of God. This is taught in Hebrews 10:25 where we read, "Stop neglecting the assembling of yourselves together as is the habit of certain ones." Believers become indifferent to doctrine, to the Word; believers become preoccupied with their own lives, and as a result they become negative. It is not that they are against doctrine but simply that other things are more important. So the believers who are negative and living in the cosmic system develop this concept, especially in cosmic one where preoccupation with self supersedes the importance of Bible doctrine. If Bible doctrine isn't everything then Bible doctrine is nothing in your life.

The mechanics of worship: In John 4:24 we read that God is a Spirit and all those who worship Him must worship in the Spirit and in doctrine. This means that all worship must be conducted inside the divine dynasphere. The filling of the Spirit: gate one; the perception of doctrine: gate four. So there is an interlock between gates one and four that spells out worship. Worship is your perception, your intake and, as a result, your appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is the principle of worship itself, the function of gate five in the divine dynasphere. Eventually the intake of doctrine will cause you to fall in love with Jesus Christ, you will have a personal love for Him, "having not seen ye love," and that is where worship begins to gain momentum and stay on track. Gate five: motivational virtue which is personal love for God.

There is the expression of worship: giving what you have. You cannot give in worship what you do not have.

Our worship is incomplete without a thorough knowledge and inculcation of the prophetic doctrine dealing with the second advent. It is impossible to have a complete and total view of our Lord and to worship Him on the basis of doctrine unless you understand the second advent of Christ. The understanding of the doctrine is cognisance of Christ and understanding the Father's plan for the Son related to both the angelic conflict and to world history. This is the verse which introduces our next subject. In verses 10-14 we have the second advent of Christ and until you understand the second advent your capacity for worship is limited and your ability to be occupied with the person of Christ has blank spots. The second advent of Christ is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies and all of the eschatological doctrines of the Word. The hope of history is the one who controls history and the one who will return to the earth at the second advent to establish perfect environment.

Translation of verses 9 and 10: "Then he [the teaching angel] said to me [the apostle John], Write, Blessed are they who have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Also he said to me, These doctrines [of eschatology] are the true doctrines from God."

"Then I fell down at his feet to worship him. And so he said to me, Don't do it: I am your fellow servant, along with your brethren [pastors who would exist in every generation of Church history in this dispensation and would communicate Bible doctrine] who have the doctrinal communication about Jesus: worship God: for doctrinal communication about Jesus is the perceptive insight into prophecy."

Next we have an introduction from Peter. Here is one of the most phenomenal statements of all time for doctrinal communication about Jesus as the life of prophecy. Prophecy is about Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:12, "Therefore, I will always be ready to keep reminding you [repetition of Bible doctrine is necessary for inculcation] concerning these things [eschatological doctrine and, of course, doctrine

in general], although you have known [they have already learned this doctrine] them, and have come to be stabilised by means of resident doctrine."

Verse 13, "Moreover, I consider it my duty, as long as I am in this tabernacle [human body], to arouse you by means of a reminder."

Verse 14, "Knowing [there is the key] that the laying aside of my tabernacle is imminent [Peter knows that he has a very short time to live], just as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me."

Verse 15, "Indeed I will be diligent that in fact at any time you may have the doctrine after my death," Peter has left us a permanent legacy, "to call to remembrance those things [things pertaining to the second advent]."

Verse 16, "For not having followed [he learned not to follow false trails, he followed the Word] as a source cleverly concocted myths when we have communicated to you all the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ [the doctrine of the second advent], but we have been made spectators [Peter was one of the three] of his majestic magnificence."

Verse 17, "For when he [Christ on the mount of transfiguration] received from God the Father honour and glory, such a sound as this was made to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This one [our Lord Jesus Christ] is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased'." Note that Peter does not quote the rest of what was said, i.e. "Listen to him." In other words, Peter was rude on that occasion, he was talking. He doesn't talk about his rudeness because it is really not an issue here.

Verse 18, "and we [Peter James and John] heard this same voice carried from heaven when we were with him in the holy mountain."

Verse 19, "However, we keep on having a more reliable prophetic doctrine," What is more reliable than seeing the second advent? What could be more reliable than the empirical experience? What is more reliable is what is recorded in the Word of God that lives and abides forever. The Biblical account of the second advent is much more reliable than the empirical observation on the mount of transfiguration, "with reference to which doctrine you perform honourably by habitually concentrating in your right lobes." What is honourable in the spiritual life? Habitual concentration. Concentration on the teaching of doctrine; concentration on the learning of doctrine; concentration under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

The next word in the Greek is w(j, usually translated "as' or "like," but that isn't the translation here. This is the w(j of actual quality, and actual quality is translated "on," "on a lamp shining in a dark place," the dark place is the devil's world with all the false concepts and ideas. The lamp shining is Bible doctrine, the Word of God. Until the second advent we concentrate on the Word of God, "until the day dawns [the second advent of Christ] and the morning star [the title of Christ at the second advent] has come." That is Peter's description of the second advent in brief.

Verse 20, "Knowing this first [we must know something first], that all prophecy of scripture does not originate from one's own personal cerebration [thinking, conclusion, explanation],

Verse 21, "for the prophecy was never produced by human design, but holy men [the human authors of scripture] communicated from God being carried along by the Holy Spirit." The fact is that God the Holy Spirit is the divine author and he uses the human vocabulary, human personality, the human ability, and without waving the personality of the individual or his vocabulary or his thinking ability He provides in the original with perfect accuracy God's complete and connected thought toward man. That is what we call the doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration.

What is the dying message then? What has been written down in human language as the scripture, this becomes the most important. If there is a conflict between your experience, what you observe, what you think, and what the Bible says you are wrong and the Bible is right. And the conflict can only be resolved by knowing what the Bible teaches.

The first principle of the Armageddon campaign in the dissertation on causes. We have studied from the book of Revelation three causes. The first is the cause of the Middle East campaign, the sixth bowl judgment of chapter 16 verse 12. Then the second cause noted was the cause of the last world war, the kosmokratwr demons of 16:13,14. Thirdly, we noted the cause of the specific battle of Armageddon: Jesus Christ controls history, 16:16.

Secondly, we studied the Middle East campaign from the standpoint of Daniel 11:36-45.

Thirdly, the emergence of Jewish leadership, and we studied the principle of leadership from Proverbs 24:1-6. But we noted the prophecy of leadership in Armageddon in Zechariah 12:1-6.

The fourth point that we studied in this great campaign was the siege of Jerusalem. We noted the Jewish believers who did not participate, Matthew 24:4-28, and the Jewish believers who did participate, Zechariah 14:1-9.

The fifth point is one we left hanging. Before we could get to the termination of the Armageddon campaign we had to first of all see something of the seventh bowl judgment and ecumenical religion, code named Babylon the great. Then we had to study in chapters 17 & 18 the fall of Babylon the great in judgment.

Then, of course, having noted the blessing of being involved in the wedding banquet of the Lamb we were then able to come back to this point, Revelation 19:11 and not the doctrine of the second advent and to see how the Armageddon campaign terminates. The major passage on the termination of the Armageddon campaign is Revelation 19:11-21.

The second advent of Jesus Christ is one of the greatest events in all of human history. It is the greatest outside of the strategical victory of the cross where our so great salvation was provided. It is very important, of course, to distinguish between the strategical victory of Christ bearing our sins on the cross and the tactical victory that occurs at the second advent.

The second advent is the subject of a tremendous amount of scripture, Deuteronomy 30; Matthew chapters 24 & 25; Mark 13; Luke 21; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 5:1-5; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-2:12; 2 Peter 1:2,3; Jude 14, 15; Revelation 19:11 and many, many other passages. The second advent has many events connected with it. The baptism of fire is a very unusual thing in that it eliminates from the world all unbelievers when Christ returns, because we are not only starting a new dispensation — the Millennium — but a new civilisation as well. Every new civilisation begins with believers only. The second advent is also the time of the fulfillment of the unconditional covenants to Israel, which is a major principle of eschatology, and it is also the time in which Israel will be restored and again will become a client nation to God. The capital of the world in the Millennium will be Jerusalem. The second advent is also the termination of Satan's rule on this earth. The second advent also terminates the Armageddon campaign.

2 Peter 1:12, Peter's introduction to the second advent. "These things," he is talking about doctrine in general in the first eleven verses but he is also getting ready to develop the eschatological doctrine of the second advent. "Have known," Peter addresses this to people who already have known Bible doctrine. "And have come to be stabilised by means of resident doctrine" — their stability in studying eschatology is based upon the fact that they have learned other categories of doctrine first.

Verse 15, "remember these things." That is the great issue: the ability to recall doctrine and to make the application.

Verse 16, The subject of 2 Peter is the "power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," the doctrine of the second advent.

Verses 17, this is Peter's empirical observation of the second advent at the mount of transfiguration. That actual event is described, beginning in Matthew 16:27 where our Lord was prophesying with regard to the second advent.

Matthew 16:27, "For the Son of Man [the title of Christ in His hypostatic union] is destined to come [reference to the second advent] in the glory of his Father" — at the first advent He came in humility; at the second advent He comes in glory, "with his angels; and at that time [second advent] he will reward each one [the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs who are resurrected at the second advent] according to his deeds." This is the equivalent to the Church Age believers' judgment seat of Christ.

Verse 28, "Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here [Peter, James and John] who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." The empirical observation of the second advent took place a few days later. To the apostle Peter the experience of the second advent made the doctrine a reality through empiricism. He actually observed the second advent as it would occur. He saw our Lord exactly as he would be at the second advent. That is what is described in the first nine verses of Matthew chapter 17 which follows.

Chapter 17:1, "Then six days later Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain [probably Mount Tabor] by themselves."

Verse 2, "And He was transformed before them; and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light."

Verse 3, "And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him [talking with our Lord]." Moses and Elijah are the two witnesses of Revelation eleven, the human heralds of the second advent.

Verse 4, "Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, ‘Lord it is good for us to be here," here is enthusiasms expressing itself, he liked the idea of staying there. The he used a first class condition, "if you wish," and Peter superimposed upon Him his own will in the matter by using the first class condition [and, of course, you do Lord. I am assuming you do, "I will make three tents here, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

Verse 5, While he [Peter] was still talking [he still had big plans that he hadn't finished giving], behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them; and behold, a voice from the cloud, saying ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him'!" Shut up Peter, you can't learn the plan of God by cooking up your own ideas.

Verse 6, "And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and they were terrified."

Verse 8, "And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus himself alone." The party was over.

Peter opened his mouth and came up with his big plan. So many people are well-intentioned and really hurt others even though they have good intentions. But they always manage to foul it up because they are not personally oriented to the plan of God. The more we are oriented to the plan of God the less we use the tongue to hurt others.

Verse 9, "And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, ‘Tell no one [the vision] until the Son of Man has risen from the dead'." James and John were probably most anxious to get down the mountain and pass the word about what a nitwit Peter was, but that is not to be the case. Peter was not going to be hurt by this because of that one word "until". After the resurrection these things would become public knowledge. The question is: Who told Matthew? Matthew was the one who writes it.

2 Peter 1:17, the Petrine conclusion which is the introduction to our subject in Revelation 19:11. "For when he [Christ on the mount of transfiguration] received from God the Father honour and glory, a sound of this category came to him," when Peter, James and John had the empirical experience of observing our Lord as he would appear at the second advent. That is when a sound of this category came to Him, "by the Majestic

Glory, ‘This one [our Lord Jesus Christ] is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," that is where he ends the quote because since then he has listened to our Lord.

Verse 18, "and we heard [empiricism] this same voice carried from heaven when we were with him in the holy mountain."

Verse 19, However, we keep on having a more reliable prophetic doctrine [the Bible account of the second advent], with reference to which doctrine you perform honourably by habitually concentrating your right lobes," concentration on the Word of God, "as on a lamp [Bible doctrine] shining in a dark place [the world] until the day dawns [the second advent when the world shall see Him face to face, Revelation 1:7] and the morning star [title of our Lord Jesus Christ] has come."

If we have a more reliable prophetic doctrine just what is the origin of this more reliable source?

Verse 20, the answer. "Knowing this first, that all prophecy of scripture does not originate from one's personal explanation,

Verse 21, "for prophecy was not produced by the design of man, but holy men [human authors of scripture] communicated from God being carried along by means of the Holy Spirit."

God so supernaturally directed the writers of scripture that without waving their human intelligence, their individuality, their literary style, their personal feelings, or any other human factor, his own complete and coherent message to man was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of scripture, the very words bearing the authority of divine authorship.

2 Timothy 3:16, the Greek noun is qeopneustoj, and it doesn't means "inspiration of God," it means "all scripture is God-breathed." All scripture is given by inspiration of God means inhale only, but in reality the doctrine of inspiration is inhale and exhale. The exhale comes from the human author, and he exhales it in writing and it becomes a part of the canon of scripture. The inhale: God the Holy Spirit communicates to human authors God's complete and coherent message, both for that generation and all generations. While writers of scripture had many other messages for their own generation only what was pertinent to all generations was actually recorded and retained as a part of the canon.

There are certain passages that deal with the subject of the inhale only, 2 Sam. 3:2,3; Is. 59:21; Jer. 1:9; Matt. 22:42-43; Mark 12:36; Acts 4:24,25; 28:25. That is the inhale. God the Holy Spirit controls the subject matter. Sometimes angels were used in the Old Testament and part of the New Testament. There were visions, dreams, direct communication from the Holy Spirit, God the Father giving certain things that were quoted (quotes from the Trinity).

In the exhale the human writers of scripture wrote down in their own language of communication the divine message to man.

The Bible is actually described as the canon in three ways. It is called the Word of God in Hebrews

4:12, hence it is related to God the Father; it is called the mind of Christ in 1 Corinthians 2:16, and therefore it is related to God the Son; it is called the voice of the Spirit in Hebrews 3:7, and therefore it is related to God the Holy Spirit. God has placed the highest possible value on the scripture since the completion on the canon, and this was anticipated in Psalm 138:2 where He regards the canon above His name.

What is the extent of inspiration? How far does inspiration go? There are seven areas to which is extends.

1. Inspiration extends to the unknown past. The Bible portrays past history and details of pristine life totally unknown to history and unconfirmed by human records or documents. That would be Genesis 1-11 or any passage dealing with the prehistoric angelic conflict, like Isaiah 14 or Ezekiel 28.

2. Ancient history, before records were properly kept. The Bible is not an historical text book but it contains many historical citations related to doctrine or the policy of God. All of these historical records in the canon provide the background for the communication of doctrine under the principle of isagogics.

3. The objective type law. The Bible contains many laws for both individual and national life. The laws are part of God's plan for Homo sapien and they perfectly represent God's will for the preservation and the protection of human volition, human property, and human life. Repetition of these laws and subsequent recording of them, demonstrates the application to other generations.

4. Dictation. Some portions of the Word of God are simply dictated, they contain direct quotations from God. The doctrine of inspiration guarantees that such commands or quotations are properly recorded in the exact way that God wills them to be recorded.

5. Devotional literature, like the Psalms or Ecclesiastes. God uses the problems, the pressures, the property, the failure, the worship, the happiness, of certain individuals to reveal principles, provisions and blessings from the protocol system.

6. Prophecy. Inspiration involves both the selection of prophetic materials and their complete accuracy. We do not have details of prophecy. There are literally thousands of details that are not recorded in the Word, only those that are related to the principle that the Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. Only those materials are included.

7. The recording of lies and what is false. Satan tells a lot of lies. Many of the things that are recorded are not true, so the scripture records lies, untrue statements, blasphemies, and inspiration does not sponsor these untrue statements. Inspiration does not sponsor falsehood or evil modus operandi but guarantees the accuracy of these lies and evil modus operandi.

Verse 11, the second advent of Christ. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated "Then." The sequential conjunction begins the actual description of the second advent of Christ although it has been anticipated in references to the wedding feast of the Lamb and in the Armageddon campaign. While the wedding feast takes place in earth after the second advent of Christ the preparation takes place in heaven prior to the second advent.

Our next word is the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, the verb to see, "Then I saw." We are back to the concept of the vision again. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, that is the vision of the second advent of Christ. The active voice: the apostle John, the human author of Revelation, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint if eschatological reality. With this we have the accusative singular direct object from o)uranoj which can be used in three different ways. It is used for the atmosphere, for stellar space, and also for the eternal heaven. Here it would be what would be visible to John and therefore the opening up, as it were, of the stellar universe.

The perfect passive participle follows. A)noigw is the verb meaning to open, "Then I saw heaven opened. The perfect tense is an intensive perfect which places emphasis on the existing results or the completed action. This is the emphatic method of the Greeks to present a fact as existing. There is no equivalent to the intensive perfect, it is an idiom and in the English language the best we can do would be to approximate it by using the English present tense. Therefore, "I saw heaven opened." The passive voice: heaven receives the action of the verb at the second advent. The participle is circumstantial.

Then we begin to note what is said, "and behold." The demonstrative i)dou introduces what we are going to see. In the Greek the first thing we are going to see is a white horse. We have the nominative of appellation from the adjective leukoj and i(ppoj, "and behold, a white horse." The white horse is the status symbol of the winner, the victorious commander. During the first advent Christ rode into Jerusalem on an ass colt, but in the second advent He is mounted on a white horse which is always in history the symbol of victory as well as the symbol of aristocracy. Christ came the first time to save mankind but He comes the second time to deliver mankind. Therefore Christ comes as a winner. He came the first time to defeat Satan in the angelic conflict but He comes the second time to replace Satan as the ruler of the world. Therefore He comes on the white horse. Here the white horse in the symbol of victory and aristocracy. It must be remembered that both the ass colt on which our Lord rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and the white horse are mounts of kings at the time in which the Bible was written. Kings rode the ass as well as the horse. The only difference is that humiliation was involved in our Lord's strategic victory of the cross at the first advent, while exaltation is involved in our Lord's tactical victory and therefore the white horse. So in reality Christ is a winner in both the advents and both the ass and the white horse are used to indicate that.

The white horse is fitting for the second advent because it portrays the majesty of His battlefield royalty. Christ is always the winner, therefore the Christian way of life is designed to make every believer a winner and to complement and glorify the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why protocol is so important. The Lord has given to us as His royal family the operational divine dynasphere, the protocol system, so that we can become winners in the devil's world. So when we come back with Him in a resurrection body we too will have those accouterments by which we glorify the Lord, like the order of the morning star and the crowns, and all of the privileges, the new knighthood.

Now we have the rider, "and he that sat upon him." It should be "and he who was mounted," the articular present active participle of kaqhmai which here means to be mounted. When used with a horse it means to be mounted. This is a futuristic present denoting an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ is the rider of the horse and therefore he produces the action of the verb from the source of His hypostatic union. As God He doesn't ride a horse because God is everywhere, but as the God-Man His humanity is mounted on this horse. Just as our Lord is now seated at the right hand of the Father that, of course, is His humanity. Deity doesn't sit. Now He is seated at the right hand of the Father, the place of honour; then he will be mounted on a white stallion, the sign of victory. This is a circumstantial participle followed by a prepositional phrase e)pi plus the accusative singular of a)utoj, "and he who was mounted on it."

Then we have the designation of the rider of the white horse, the present passive participle of kalew, used to indicate the rider. The present tense is a pictorial present which presents to the mind a picture of the classification. The passive voice: our Lord receives the action, he receives a designation here. We have two nominatives of appellation. Each one is an adjective used as a substantive. The first one is pistoj and the second one is a)lhqinoj, "Faithful and True." So a name is not given but rather characteristics are introduced first. The point is that these two characteristics are necessary to be a winner. So the first thing is that it is not that we know it is the title of our Lord or the name, but two that characteristics are given. The first of these is "faithful." This is what is necessary to be a winner. It doesn't say smart or talented or having great ability, but what it says is faithful. The whole system of God's plan is protocol and protocol demands faithfulness, adherence right down to the last point of how our Lord says it should be done. Faithfulness means that you just keep right on plugging. Our Lord was faithful, and that is the story of the first advent victory. He was faithful to the plan. The plan called for eternal God to become true humanity and to obey the Father's will for His life for 33 years on the earth. The only way to do it was to be born into a system, a protocol system. Our Lord was given for His first birthday the protocol divine dynasphere. From birth he was filed with the Spirit. He learned the principle of faithfulness at gate two, He had enforced and genuine humility, enforced humility when He went to the cross: he humbled Himself and became obedient unto death. By the time he was twelve He had learned the whole realm of doctrine: Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man, momentum, gate four. At gate five He had love for God the Father; Gate six, He had virtue love, impersonal love for all. At gate seven all of the various tests: our Lord passed the eight momentum tests and many more.

This is a protocol system that is precise. There is only one way to do it and that is the Lord's way. So there are all of these things that God has given to us, and these procedures must be executed the Lord's way. Since we do not have the power to do them in God's way he has provided the power in God the Holy Spirit. Why was our Lord a winner in His humanity? Because He was faithful. Faithfulness is a manifestation of virtue and integrity.

The second word is alhqinoj, "true." True means that God keeps His word. Jesus Christ is God; Jesus Christ keeps His word. Jesus Christ keeps His word in the deliverance of Israel; Jesus Christ keeps His word in the second advent. No matter how great the historical disaster Jesus Christ delivers the believer living in the divine dynasphere. No historical disaster is greater than the faithfulness of God and the fact that He is true. "True" [a)lhqinoj] describes the virtue that makes faithfulness wonderful. In other words, a servant should be faithful to his master in some way but he would be motivated by the fact that his master treats him kindly or he gets money or something out of it. But when the motive is virtue the faithfulness is great. So true here represents the whole protocol system of virtue that motivates faithfulness. What does God require of us? Faithfulness: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

We note the two functions of deliverance at the second advent in the last half of verse 11. We begin the second sentence in the verse with the connective kai introducing the result from the preceding, therefore translated "consequently." With this we have a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental of dikaiosnunh , "and with justice." Dikaiosunh always refers to the integrity of God. Sometimes it becomes synoymous with the word holiness. Here it refers to divine justice as one half of God's integrity and man's point of reference in human history.

We are getting ready to note that He is going to do some judging and He is going to make war. The connotation of making war obviously has the implication of some form of violence and the principle is immediately raised about violence. All violence in this passage comes from the integrity of God. Perfect righteousness can use violence without abusing the power of violence. The only way to meet the violence of evil is the meet violence with the violence of righteousness. The violence of evil has no respect for talk. The violence of righteousness takes life both under the authority of the laws of divine establishment and from the integrity of divine essence. There are two functions of righteousness under the laws of divine establishment. The first is the principle of freedom through military victory. The military has the right to use violence. The second is law enforcement.

1. The key to the proper use of violence in history is virtue and integrity which uses authority without abusing authority. There is nothing honourable, however, in the violence of activism. Civil disobedience is evil.

2. Arrogance abuses authority and has no sense of responsibility. Therefore because arrogance rejects authority it uses violence. Using violence under these circumstances is an expression of evil. Terrorism and terrorist organisations are evil; military in uniform in a nation is honourable. (The Russian and the Chinese communists use violence because their ideology is evil and will not work. Therefore their violence is the power of lawlessness and the power of evil)

4. The criminal uses a gun which gives him power over law-abiding citizens. Hence, the criminal misuses the gun for illegal power and illegal violence. But because the criminal has a gun it does not follow that we should forbid the possession of firearms by law-abiding citizens. The fault does not lie with the weapon, the fault lies with the criminal. Criminals are criminals whether they have weapons or not.

5. The violence of tyranny and the murder function of the criminal cannot be blamed, then, on firearms. It is not the fact that a gun has a trigger, it is the fact that someone pulls the trigger.

6. Murder and terrorism is a matter of the volition of the soul, not the gun in the hand. In other words, you cannot stop crime and violence by passing laws against the means employed by criminals.

7. The only way to meet the violence of evil is with the greater violence of integrity and honour. In establishment there are two systems of honour and integrity: law enforcement and the military. That means you do not take the law into your own hands. The violence of righteousness in law enforcement is designed to restrain the violence of crime. The violence of righteousness in military function provides national freedom so that the citizens of the client nation can function in privacy and freedom, and under the principles of the sacredness of property and life.

Our Lord demonstrates this principle of doctrine at the second advent for He uses the violence of righteousness to express His justice in both warfare and the judgment of the baptism of fire. And He ends the last great world war of history by annihilation of the enemy. Both are a matter of violence.

The first function of deliverance is judgment, the present active indicative of krinw, "judge," "consequently he will judge." We have the futuristic present denoting the future reality of the baptism of fire by which our Lord removes all unbelievers from the earth at the beginning of the Millennium. Only believers will enter the Millennium. That is because the Millennium is not only a new dispensation but at the same time it is a new and the third of four civilisations. Every civilisation begins with believers only. The active voice: Jesus Christ from perfect integrity produces the action of the verb. He is the judge. It is the judgment of all surviving unbelievers from the Tribulation. This includes the dictator of the revived Roman empire and the dictator of the Jewish state in Palestine. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality of the baptism of fire immediately after the second advent, "and with justice he will judge." The judgment function of deliverance makes it possible to begin the Millennial reign of Christ with perfect environment such as existed in the garden of Eden for our first parents. God gave our first parents everything possible to make life perfect and happy and wonderful. But He also gave them free will so that they could wreck their own perfect environment. But this time there will be 1000 years of perfect environment. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality of the termination of the Armageddon campaign and the general world war at the end of the Tribulation.

Next we have the present active indicative of palomew which means to make war in the strict sense of the word. it means to kill the enemy. Our Lord Jesus Christ is doing it. We have the futuristic present denoting the termination of the last world war in history. Our Lord ends a war by killing all the enemy. When there is no enemy left to sign the treaty you can be guaranteed peace for 1000 years! Our Lord returns to utilise the power of His perfect holiness to destroy the power of evil. Therefore He uses the violence of His perfect integrity to neutralise and destroy the violence of evil. At the second advent the violence of evil is the destroyed, and with the destruction of the violence of evil and the source of evil (Satan goes to jail for a thousand years) you can have perfect environment on the earth. This 1000 years of perfect environment starts by killing all the enemy. The active voice: Jesus Christ, from His perfect integrity, produces the action of the verb. Our Lord will annihilate all the unbelievers of all the armies of the world which are on the side of evil in the last world war of history.

Translation: "Then I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse: and he who was mounted on it [our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent] is called Faithful and True. Consequently, with justice he will judge and he will make war."

Not only does the second advent terminate the middle east campaign but it also terminates the last great world war in history. The revolution at the end of the Millennium [the Gog and Magog revolution. God is the code name for Satan, Magog is for all of the unbelievers who followed Satan when he is released from prison] will start war but it will never get off the ground because the Lord will end it. Our Lord returns, then, at the second advent to annihilate all evil forces — the kings of the east, the king of the north, the king of the south, and the revived Roman empire.

The last phrase of Revelation 19:9 reads, "these doctrines are the true doctrines from God." The eschatology of Revelation is doctrine, true doctrine from God. It is just as important as other passages which seem to be much more popular for many people.

The last phrase of verse 10, "the doctrinal communication about Jesus is the perceptive insight into prophecy."

Those two phrases introduce the subject we have been studying in verse 11, the second advent of Jesus Christ. Verse 11 says in corrected translation: "Then I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he who is mounted on it is called Faithful and True, consequently with justice he will judge and he will make war." The last part of chapter 19 will tell us all about how He makes war. In the meantime the one phrase that we need to note says, "he will judge." When it says the Lord is going to do a special type of judgment at a special time it becomes necessary for us to understand exactly what is necessary for us to understand exactly what is meant when it says He will judge. Since the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, at which time He provided for us this so great salvation, there will be seven major judgments between the cross and the end of history.

Starting with the cross we have the seven major judgments of all history. The judgment on the cross: In the computer of divine decrees the omniscience of God programmed all the sins that would ever exist. One of the major chips in the computer of divine decrees is the record of every sin committed by every person in all of human history. The printout occurred at the cross when God the Father called for the printout and all of the sins of the human race were imputed to our Lord hanging on the cross and were judged. That is the basis of our so great salvation and is number one major judgment. Starting with the judgment on the cross where Christ received judgment, there are six more major judgments in history.

The second judgment occurs during the Church Age, during the Tribulation, and will occur during the Millennium, the function of the believer in self-judgment, the recovery from the cosmic system. We simply call it the rebound technique. This is simply the believer naming his sins to God. The power of forgiveness belongs with God only. Therefore the believer names his sin to God from the privacy of his priesthood and God is faithful; always does the same thing, and God is justified on the basis of the fact that those sins were judged on the cross to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is the principle of if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. So we have the self-judgment of the believer as the second great judgment in history. It is an ongoing judgment perpetuated from one generation to the other. It is the only way to recover the filling of the Spirit, the only way to reenter into fellowship with God, the only way to reenter the divine dynasphere, God's protocol plan for your life, the only way to have freedom from the cosmic system. Without the rebound technique you cannot live the Christian life. Being a Christian does not mean that you live the Christian life.

The third major judgment is the evaluation of the believer's life on planet earth in phase two. We call it, from Romans 14:10, the judgment seat of Christ. We shall all be gathered at the judgment seat of Christ and there we have the evaluation of your life. Did you use the protocol system? Did you follow the priorities of God's plan for your life? Did you follow the mandate, virtue first. All of this plus the production that results will be the subject of the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment seat of Christ guarantees inequality in heaven forever.

The fourth judgment is the judgment carried out by our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent: the baptism of fire.

The fifth is the judgment or incarceration of Satan found in Revelation chapter 20:1-3. Satan is removed as the ruler of this world, judged and sentenced to the abyss. His prison term is 1000 years during the course of the Millennial reign of Christ.

The sixth judgment occurs at the end of the Millennium, the judgment of all fallen angels. They have actually already been tried, they were arraigned before the court of heaven prior to the creation of Adam. They were found guilty but their sentence was postponed until the end of human history. Now, in this judgment, their sentence is carried out. Fallen angels have been sentenced to the lake of fire forever, Matt. 25:41, and Satan as the chief of fallen angels is included in this judgment, Revelation 20:10. The sentence is carried out at the end of the Millennium.

Judgment number seven is the last judgment, Revelation 20:11-15, and it fulfills the principle of John 3:18.

Revelation 19:11 has judgment number four in view. So what is meant in detail by the phrase, "He will judge?"

The etymology of baptism becomes the first major consideration because most people have a very definitely slanted idea about baptism. The less you know about the subject the easier it is to assert your arrogance and therefore to have an erroneous view about the subject. A great deal is made of baptism simply because of the superficiality of teaching today and very few people understand what baptism is all about.

There are three words in the Greek New Testament which make references to baptism. The first of these is the noun baptw. It can be translated "baptise" but it was often translated "dip," and occasionally it was used for dying. Baptw is used, for example in Luke 16:24; John 13:26; Revelation 19:13. A second word is baptizw, and it means to baptise, to dip, to immerse. Then there is another noun, baptismoj, which is used for cleaning, for washing dishes in Mark 7:4, for the various technical uses for the doctrine of baptisms, and it is translated in Hebrews 6:2 "baptisms." There is also another noun, baptisma, used for the concept of identification. It is used for ritual identification in Matthew 3:7, 21, 25; for actual identification in Romans 6:4 where it is used for the baptism of the Spirit; it is used as a figure of martyrdom in Mark 10:38 and Luke 12:50. Then there is a fifth word found in the New Testament, baptisthj, referring to one who performs the ritual of baptism.

The categories of baptism. In Hebrews 6:2 we have the doctrine of baptisms. If we are going to advance spiritually we must understand the doctrine of baptisms. That means that there is more than one baptism in the scripture. There are two categories of baptisms: a. Real baptisms; b. Ritual baptisms. A real baptism is an actual identification; a ritual baptism is a ritual whereby water is used. All rituals are analogous to something else, like parables.

1. The baptism of Moses, mentioned in 1 Corinthians 10:2, which was a dry baptism because it refers to the Jews passing through the red Sea. They were said to be identified with Moses. What is the significance of baptism here? Identification with the mandates of the leader.

2. The baptism of the cross, Matthew 20:22, "Jesus answered and said, ‘You do not understand for what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with?' "

What was He saying? He was talking about the cross, the baptism of the cross. No water here. It means that He was identified with the sins of the world. Baptism means identification. The Jews were identified with Moses and the cloud, a real baptism; Jesus Christ was identified with our sins on the cross.

3. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, used to form the royal family of God. At the moment of salvation in the Church Age only God does more than just regenerate. He indwells every believer. It never happened before. God the Holy Spirit seals every believer, the sealing ministry of the Spirit is unique to this dispensation. God the Holy Spirit takes every believer at salvation and baptises him, not with water, and enters him into union with Christ. That is because when Jesus Christ ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father He had no royal family. So God the Holy Spirit takes each one of us and enters us into union with Christ forever. That is the uniqueness of the Church Age. Therefore each believer is identified with Christ in His death, rejection of human good and evil of the cosmic system, and he is also part of the body of Christ. This concept is found in such passages as Acts 1:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:26-28; Ephesians 4:5.

A ritual baptism represents identification in which water is used as the system of analogy. Every time there is a legitimate reason for a ritual baptism the person going into the water there must be an understanding of what the water means.

1. The baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 3:13-17. The water in this case represents the Father's will for His public ministry. Our Lord was saying before He began His public ministry that he would fulfill it all of the way to the cross. So Jesus identifies Himself with the Father's plan for the incarnation. The water represents the Father's plan and the provision of the prototype divine dynasphere, and the baptism is simply Jesus giving positive affirmation.

2. The baptism of John, Matthew 3:1-10; John 1:25-33. John the Baptist is the herald of the first advent and there had to be some way to represent who was coming. So the water in this case represents the kingdom because the King has come, the first advent; it represents the kingdom of God represented through the message of John and the presence of Christ in the first advent. In the preaching of John he brought out this message. Those who were converted under John's ministry, those who believed in Christ, gave ritual testimony to the first advent and the hypostatic union and their faith in the work of Christ on the cross. To them the cross had not yet occurred, it was still a matter of eschatology. The water represents the plan of the Father in the first advent.

3. Christian baptism, Acts 2:38; 8:36-38; 16:15; 16:33. It is the ritual testimony of the baptism of the Spirit. In other words, prior to the completion of the canon of scripture the thing that was unique about believers at the beginning of the Church Age is that they are royal family. Therefore the believers before the canon they had to have some way of teaching Jews. How had they been learning throughout all of their history? By ritual. So they get one more ritual until AD 96 when the canon of scripture was closed. The water represents identification with Christ in His death. The believer was immersed under the water and was identification with Christ in His death, and as the believer comes up out of the water then he is identified with air representing identification with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father.

Matthew 3:11, "As for me [John the Baptist], I baptise you with water because of your change of mind, but he [Jesus Christ] who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to unlace his sandals; he himself will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." There are three baptisms in this verse: the ritual baptism of John, the baptism of the Spirit, and the baptism of fire. When he says "He will baptise," that is baptizw, future tense. The subject is our Lord Jesus Christ, future tense, the baptism of the Spirit was future when John spoke and the baptism of fire was also future. The baptism of the Spirit began on the day of Pentecost, 50 days after our Lord's resurrection. When the second advent occurs and the Jewish Age is finished, the baptism of the Spirit interrupts the Jewish Age, we have the baptism of fire.

Verse 12, "And his grain shovel is in his hand," the grain shovel in the ancient world separated the wheat from the tares, "he will clean the threshing floor," the threshing floor is the world being cleansed for the Millennium, the new civilisation which begins with believers only, "therefore he [our Lord at the baptism of fire] will gather the wheat [the believers who survive the Tribulation] into the barn [the Millennium], and he will burn up the chaff [the unbelievers of the Tribulation] with unquenchable fire."

So at the second advent, when it says in Revelation 19:11, "He will judge," it is referring to the fact that all the believers in the Tribulation who survive will enter into the Millennium, and all the unbelievers will go off the earth, they will cast into fire, identified with fire, therefore it is called the baptism of fire. All Tribulational unbelievers who survive the Tribulation are judged by Christ and cast into the lake of fire, and this is what we call the baptism of fire.

In our study of the baptism of fire are some parables. The first is found in Matthew chapter 13:24-30, the interpretation of which is found in verses 36-43.

Verse 24, "He presented to them another parable," a parable is a narrative from which a spiritual lesson is derived. The narrative is something that everyone can understand. A parable simply takes a simple narrative, a story that all people can understand and about something that happens in normal living, and that narrative is then related to a principle of Bible doctrine. It gives the literal outward sense of the matter but requires that the audience, the recipients of the parable, make a deduction from the short story to understand the doctrine being taught. It is doctrine being taught by a short story. Characters and incidents are figurative or typical, therefore proper names and geographical locations are never made. In this case the principle of Bible doctrine has to do with the subject of the baptism of fire, "saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven was compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field." The good seed are the believers of the Tribulation, the field is the world. The sowing of good seed in the Tribulation is Tribulational evangelism.

Verse 25, "But while men were sleeping, his enemy [Satan and the ecumenical religious system] came and sowed tares [the unbelievers living side by side with believers in the Tribulation] among the wheat, and went away." The point is that there is a coexistence of believer and unbeliever during the course of the Tribulation, just as in this dispensation.

Verse 26, "But when the grass grew up and bore grain, then the tares appeared also."

Verse 27, "Then the servants of the landowner came to him and said, ‘Sir, did we not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' "

Verse 28, "And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!' Then the servants said to him, ‘Do you want us to go in and gather them up?' "

Verse 29, "But he replied, ‘No; lest while you are weeding out the tares, you might damage the wheat with them'."

Verse 30, "Let them both grow up together until the harvest [the baptism of fire]; then in the time of the harvest I will instruct the reapers, ‘First gather up the tares and bind them into bundles and burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn'."

Verse 36, "Then he [Jesus] left the crowd, and entered into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field'."

Verses 37, 38, 39, Then he replied to them and said, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man [title of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union], and the field is the world [during the Tribulation]; regarding the good seed, these are the citizens of the kingdom [believers who survive the Tribulation]; while the tares are the sons of the evil one [Satan]; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age [end of the Jewish Age]; and the reapers are angels.

Verse 40, "Therefore just as the tares are gathered and burned with fire [analogous to the baptism of fire at the end of the Tribulation], so shall it be at the end of the age [the Jewish Age]."

Verse 41, "The Son of Man will send forth his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom all that offend and those who commit lawlessness [the unbelievers who survive the Tribulation],

Verse 42, "and he will throw them into the furnace of fire [a reference to Hades where these unbelievers who survive the Tribulation will reside in torments until them last judgment]; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Verse 43, "Then the righteous [the believers who survive the Tribulation. This refers to imputed righteousness] in the kingdom of their Father [the Millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ]."

The parable of the ten virgins, Matthew 25:1-13, is another parable about the baptism of fire. The groom is our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent. The bride is the royal family of God, the Church Age believer. The friends of the groom are the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs who are resurrected at the second advent. The friends of the bride are the believers who survive the Tribulation and who will become the cadres for the population explosion in the Millennium.

The focus in Matthew 25 is on the friends of the bride, the believers who survive the Tribulation. It is also on the pseudo friends of the bride, the unbelievers who survive the Tribulation and are removed from this earth by the baptism of fire. So we have the five wise and the five foolish virgins. The five foolish virgins are unbelievers and they go out under the baptism of fire. The unbelievers of the Tribulation who survive have not been invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb.

That brings us to the time of the baptism of fire: immediately after the second advent.

2 Thessalonians 1:7, "And to give relief to you who are afflicted along with us, when our Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven." The Rapture is not the time of the revealing of Christ. We meet Him in the air, he does not come to the earth at the Rapture. Here we have "Christ shall be revealed from heaven," second advent, "with his mighty angels in blazing fire,"

Verse 8, "dealing out judgment to those who do not know God, even to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." The mandate of the gospel is "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

Verse 9, "Furthermore these [unbelievers] will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power." This is a description of the baptism of fire. They are away from the presence of the Lord. He comes back; He judges them; they are the tares gathered up into bundles and cast into Hades, "away from the glory of his power" which is a one-phrase description of the Millennial reign of Christ.

Where is the punishment area for the baptism of fire? That compartment is Sheol or Hades, known as Torments, the place where all unbelievers wait in fire for the administration of the last judgment. Paradise, a compartment of Hades for Old Testament saints, is the subject given in Ephesians 4:8-10.

Verse 8, "For this reason the scripture says [quoting Psalm 68:18], When he [Christ] had ascended up on high, he led captives [Old Testament believers] in a triumphal procession from a state of captivity [they were in Paradise, hence the transfer from Paradise to the third heaven as per Matthew 27:52,53]… "

Verse 9, "(Not this doctrine that he ascended, what does it imply except that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? [the location of Hades] )." Christ could not have ascended out of Hades until He first went into Hades.

Verse 10, "For the one who descended is the same person also who ascended far above all heavens..."

From Adam to the resurrection of Christ all believers when they died went to Paradise, to Abraham's bosom. After our Lord's resurrection they were transferred to the third heaven which is called also the new Paradise.

The second compartment of Hades is the one dealing with the baptism of fire. The nomenclature is Torments. This is the residence of all unbelievers until the Millennium. The third compartment is called Tartarus and is the location for the fallen angels who were involved in the genetic attack against the human race in Genesis 6:1-6. Along with that we have a fourth compartment which is very similar called, unfortunately, the bottomless pit in the King James version. It is actually the abyss and it is defined as a jail for demons who for one reason or another have been incarcerated since the Genesis 6 fiasco, Romans 10:7; Luke 8:30,31.

Verse 36, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son of Man [in His humanity], but the Father alone [the deity of Christ has always known it]."

Verse 37, "For the coming of the Son of Man [second advent of Christ] will be just like the time of Noah."

Verse 38, "For in those days which preceded the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark," they had a big social life and family life which was a distraction from doctrine.

Verse 39, "In fact they did not understand [ignorance of historical trends] until the flood came and swept them all away [the judgment removed the unbeliever from the earth], this is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man."

Verse 40, "At that time [the baptism of fire] there will be two men in the field; one will be taken [the unbeliever], one will be left [the Tribulational believer who survives into the Millennium]."

Verse 41, "Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken [unbeliever], and one will remain [Tribulational believer]."

Revelation 19:11, "Consequently with justice he will judge [execute judgment]." The personnel categories involved in the baptism of fire are two: Jewish unbelievers and Gentile unbelievers. Both Jews and Gentile unbelievers will survive the terrible events of the Tribulation. The baptism of fire for Jewish unbelievers is found in the Old Testament. Two passages should be noted. The first is Isaiah chapter one verses 2-4, "Listen, O heavens, and hear O earth; for the Lord communicates, Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against me." This is the revolution of the Jews who have not accepted Christ as saviour. The analogy is then given in verse three: "The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand." This has a specific eschatological reference to Jews in the time of the Tribulation: those who refuse to receive Christ as saviour. Verse four: "Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, descendants of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel [a title for Christ], they have turned away and gone backward."

Add to that Ezekiel 20:33, "As I live, declares the Lord, emphatically with a mighty hand and with an outstretched hand and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you," the baptism of fire for the unsaved Jews.

Verse 34, "And I shall bring you out [the recovery of Israel from their dispersion] from the Gentiles and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out," second advent judgment, baptism of fire.

Verse 35, "Then I shall bring you into the desert of the peoples [probably Saudi Arabia], and there I shall enter into judgment with you face to face." There the unbelievers are going to be judged.

Verse 36, "As I entered into judgment with your ancestors in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will enter in to judgment with you, declares the Lord."

Verse 37, "And I shall make you pass under the rod," a reference to the ancient world where the shepherd made his sheep pass under his staff for inspection and protection. Therefore the analogy to Jewish Tribulational believers being delivered from this judgment, "then I shall bring you into the bond of the covenant," referring to the believers: the fulfillment of the covenants to Israel.

Verse 38, "But I shall purge from you the rebels [unbelievers] and those who transgress against me; I shall bring them out of the land where they reside, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Therefore you [Jewish believers] will know that I am the Lord."

Note that the Jews who are unbelievers and who survive the Tribulation will not be permitted to enter Israel at all.

Malachi 4:1, "For behold the day is coming, burning like a furnace, that all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; for, the day that is coming will set them afire, says the Lord of the armies, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch." This, again, is a reference to the baptism of fire for the Jews.

Matthew 25:31ff, a terribly misunderstood passage because of one Greek word. The way it looks in context is ta e)qnh. It is in the plural, the vocabulary form is e)q)noj which refers to nations only occasionally, even rarely. Actually, it just means Gentiles in general. That is the way it is used here: Gentile unbelievers who survive the Tribulation. The judge on the throne at the second advent is found in the first verse, verse 31.

"Now when the Son of Man [title of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union] comes in his glory [second advent], and all of the elect angels with him, he will sit on his throne of glory."

Verse 32, "And all the Gentiles will be assembled before him; then he will separate from each other, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." Two categories of Gentiles: the sheep [believers] and the goats [analogous to unbelievers].

Verse 33, the separation of gentile believers from Gentile unbelievers: "Then he will place the sheep [Gentile believers] on his right hand, and the goats [Gentile unbelievers] on his left."

Verse 34, "Then the King will say to those on his right [the believers], ‘Come, you who are blessed from my Father [the Father is the one who imputes His own righteousness at salvation], inherit the kingdom [the Millennial reign of Christ] prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Verse 35, an overt manifestation of salvation during the Tribulation: "For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in;

Verse 36, "naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me." The Gentile believers know that they are saved and they understand eternal security, but they are just a little puzzled by what was said.

Verse 37, "Then the righteous [imputed righteousness at salvation] will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we observe you hungry, and feed you, or thirsty, and give you drink?'

Verse 38, ‘And when did we observe you a stranger, and invite you in, or naked, and clothe you?'

Verse 40, "And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of these my brethren, even the least of them, you did it unto me.' " Who are these brethren? They are Jews, the are the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of revelation 7:4-8; 14:1-5. The evangelists of the Tribulation are going to be under great pressure and persecution and all of these things are going to happen to them. The converts are those who help them at that time, those who have accepted Christ under their ministry. The manifestation of their faith was their attitude toward the Jew. The Gentile believers befriend them in a friendless world of the Tribulation. Therefore, our Lord as the judge emphasises an overt manifestation of their inner faith in Christ, and He does it for the benefit of those unbelievers who are about to be judged. Because the unbelievers rejected the message, because they accepted the mark of the beast, because they became involved in ecumenical religion, they rejected helping these people. They were anti-Semitic. So our Lord as the judge emphasises an overt manifestation of the believers' inner faith. They did not hide their faith under a bushel.

Verse 41, the judgment and the sentencing of the Gentile unbelievers, "Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, accursed ones [doomed ones, guilty ones], into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels [fallen angels];" the basis for the indictment: the overt manifestation of their rejection of Christ.

Verse 42, " ‘For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat [attitude toward the gospel is reflected in the attitude toward the messenger of the gospel]; I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink;

Verse 43, ‘I was a stranger, and you did not offer me hospitality; naked, and you did not provide me clothing; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.'

Verse 44, the plea of innocence. "Then they themselves will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not help you, serve you, support you?' " As unbelievers these Gentiles of the Tribulation were totally indifferent and callused toward the Jewish evangelist who was bringing the gospel.

Verse 45, the indictment of the Gentile unbelievers. "Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of these my brethren, even the least of them, you did not do it to me'."

Verse 46, their sentence for during the course of the Millennium. "Then these [Gentile individuals] will depart into eternal judgment, but the righteous into eternal life."

The role of the baptism of fire has many applications. There is an application to the Jews of the Church Age, Hebrews 12:27-29, "And this [reference to Haggai 2:6], ‘Yet once more,' denotes the removal of those things which are shaken," you cannot handle life if you are easily shaken, if you are without poise. Poise belongs to protocol. Protocol is God's system. What is poise to the believer? It is the ability to think under pressure. And what is it that you think under pressure? You think doctrine; you apply doctrinal principles. If you can't think you cannot apply doctrine. You have to have poise, it is a part of protocol. Who is "shaken" here? The unbelievers of the Tribulation removed by fire. You can't have perfect environment with crybabies. The removal of those things which are shaken refers to the eternal losers, the unbelievers of the Tribulation. They are removed by the baptism of fire, "like the removal of discarded things [things done with], in order that the ones not being shaken [believers who survive the Tribulation] might remain [on earth during the Millennium]."

How can you enjoy heaven on earth? How can you enjoy life in this wild world today? Doctrine and only doctrine. You have to know it first, you cannot apply what you do not know.

Verses 28, "Therefore, because we have received to ourselves an unshakable kingdom [the royal family of the Church Age, the protocol kingdom], let us hang on to grace," How do you hang on to grace? You have to understand it, you have to understand how it works. To hang on to grace you have to have no illusions about yourself. You must never take yourself seriously. Anything about yourself that comes out right or you do well, it is God's support of you. We must beware not to take credit and try to take the credit away from the Lord, "through which we might render acceptable service to God with reverence and respect." So the baptism of fire even has an application for us.

Verse 29, we are talking about the baptism of fire. "Our God is a consuming fire."

Another application of the baptism of fire is the importance of believing in Christ, especially at crisis

points in history. Crisis points of history often take away the distractions and give the individual the opportunity of considering the claims of Christ on his life, and therefore believing.

Furthermore, one of the great applications of the baptism of fire is the vindication of the integrity of our Lord. In fact, that is the point in Revelation 19:11, "with justice he will judge."

Another application is an historical application. The baptism of fire is necessary for the beginning of a new civilisation. A civilisation is the divine protection of the entire human race and the guarantee of its perpetuation during the historical phase of the angelic conflict. Every civilisation has a beginning and an end. A civilisation begins with believers only. By definition a civilisation is a divine protection of all the human race, not just believers, and its perpetuation during the historical phase of the angelic conflict. And a civilisation has termini, it terminates with a heavy saturation of unbelievers and a cataclysmic judgment. In the termination of historical judgment that follows the end of a civilisation God destroys the entire human race, that is, unbelievers — and a new civilisation begins with believers only. Each civilisation of history has its own climate, its own environment, its own variations within a species. In each civilisation man has a different life, a different life span, and apparently even a different metabolism.

There are four civilisations in human history. There is the antediluvian civilization, the one before the flood, which began with Adam and Eve as believers. (Eve was not called Eve until she was a believer, she was called Isha, woman) Then just before the flood there was a tremendous saturation of unbelievers. There were only eight believers who survived the flood to start the post-diluvian civilisation which will continue until the second advent of Christ. The historical civilisation began with the man and the woman outside the Garden, as believers, and it concluded at the universal flood which destroyed the entire population of the earth except eight believers, Noah and his family. We might call the conclusion of that civilisation the baptism of water. They all drowned in the water. Then there is the post-diluvian civilisation of which we are a part. It began with believers only and it terminates with the baptism of fire when all unbelievers are cast off the earth. The third civilisation is the Millennial civilisation which begins with those who are believers who survive the Tribulation and terminates with the Gog and Magog revolution [Gog is for Satan; Magog is the unbelievers who follow Satan]. At that time we have another cataclysmic judgment, the destruction of the entire universe. At that point believers only, in resurrection bodies, will begin the eternal civilisation which, of course, has no end. This civilisation continues forever with a new heavens and a new earth and the new Jerusalem.

Verse 12, we have a post positive conjunctive particle translated "And," "And his eyes," o)fqalmoj. There is no verb here because it is very elliptical. How the Lord will appear at the second advent is now noted. The nominative of explanation from floc which means a flame. With it is the descriptive genitive pur, "And his eyes a flame of fire." The word w(j is not found there. In the King James version it says "like a flame of fire" but it simply says "his eyes a flame of fire." This is a description of Christ at the second advent as the judge of history. The deity of Christ is invisible, hence the description here is of His humanity, the humanity of Christ in hypostatic union. The passage emphasises the integrity and perfect righteousness of the deity of Christ plus His impeccability from His life in the prototype divine dynasphere. For the unbeliever of the Tribulation divine judgment is designed to bring the individual to the reality of his status and his need of salvation. First of all, the eyes of the flame of fire has that connotation. Then it has the connotation of the judge. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the judge. Because He controls history God the Father has delegated all judgment to Him, John 5:22,23.

Two principles are involved as far as the unbeliever in the Tribulation is concerned: there is always grace before judgment; there is grace by means of judgment. There is always a period of intense evangelism before judgment; there is also a period of evangelism during judgment. The second concept is that all divine judgment has the purpose of bringing the unbeliever involved in the cosmic system back to reality. Positive volition is the major issue and it is stimulated often by divine judgment. Some people will never face reality and therefore make good decisions until they are motivated, and people often have to be motivated by pain. So decision from human volition and its consequences is always the issue in the historical phase of the angelic conflict. The concept of judgment always has the connotation of pain to bring the individual back to reality, therefore to motivate consideration once again of the gospel.

Most people are indifferent to important things until they are in some form if disaster, and then in looking for solutions to disaster and pain and heartache and problems, and saying Why, Why, Why these things? then they begin to look to where the answers can be found, and that is the truth of Bible doctrine. There are some believers who will never reach maturity though because they cannot pass the prosperity test. The prosperity test means to have the same attitude and the same priorities toward Bible doctrine that you have in time of adversity, and one of the signs of reaching some form of spiritual maturity is the ability to have exactly the same scale of values in prosperity as you have in time of disaster or adversity.

The option for the unbeliever is either to believe in Christ for salvation or to be judged in eternity. Jesus Christ not only controls history, Jesus Christ is the issue of history. To the believer in Christ in time, time cancels the judgment from Christ in eternity. So historical disaster offers the option of grace or eternal judgment and to bring someone back to reality is brought out by the appearance of our Lord.

"And his eyes a flame of fire" is a reminder of the baptism of fire. While the phrase applies directly to the unbeliever of the Tribulation who sees our Lord's eyes, the eyes of the judge, as a flame of fire it is a reminder that Jesus Christ controls history through judgment and through His policy of grace. Our Lord's eyes as a flame of fire also has the application to the believer of the Church Age. There never was a bit of eschatology whereby we cannot personally apply it to ourselves. First we learn from interpretation what the eschatology is and then we apply it. For the believer alive in the devil's world two categories of grace are available. Just as God provides grace often through pain God provides grace for us in all circumstances of life. All believers who are alive are alive for one reason only: logistical grace. God's logistical grace is the perfect illustration of impersonal love toward all. God loves all believers. Logistical grace is why we are all here. God has graced all of us out, none of us deserve to be alive. When you understand that you have taken a giant stride in the spiritual life.

The eyes as a flame of fire are never directed toward the believer when he is making good decisions from a position of strength, when he is positive toward the Word, when he has control of his life inside the protocol system. Negative volition toward the plan of God means divine discipline; positive volition means great blessing and orientation to life.

Our Lord has three royal warrants and they are mentioned. "His eyes were as a flame of fire" and that is really, by interpretation, for the Tribulational unbelievers. But next we have something for the believers because it says "also." We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, translated "also." Then we have a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of kefalh, and with it the usual a)utoj, "Also on his head." Then we have an appositional nominative plural which can be construed as a predicate nominative as the thing emphatically defined in the sentence, "many crowns." The word for crowns here is quite unusual. First of all is the adjective poluj and then diadhma from which we get our word "diadem." Diadhma is used for crowns here because it is a crown worn by a king. The King of kings wears three crowns. Diadhma was used as a sign of royalty among the Persians, hence it is a reference to our Lord's royal warrants. Christ wears many crowns because He has many categories of royalty, "also on head many crowns." Notice there is no verb at this point. Remember that stefanoj is a wreath or decoration awarded athletes who were winners at the games, or the highest decoration for valour in the Roman army, but diadhma is for kings only. Jesus Christ returns as the King of kings.

The adjective "royal" means kingly or pertaining to a crown. It is used to describe a king as the sovereign ruler of people. The connotation of royalty is portrayed in both of the original languages of the Word. First of all we have the Hebrew melek, and the verb that goes with it, malak which means to rule as a king. We also have in the Greek the word basileuj, and the verb is basileuw. Our Lord Jesus Christ possesses three categories of royalty. First of all by virtue of His infinite and eternal being as God, His divine royalty; secondly, by virtue of the virgin birth, His Jewish royalty; thirdly, by virtue of His strategic victory of the first advent, battlefield royalty, the angelic conflict.

First of all, then, there is God's divine royalty, Jesus Christ is eternal and infinite God. He is coequal with the Father; He is coequal with the Holy Spirit. As God, Jesus Christ therefore has a special divine royalty. As the manifest person of the Trinity our Lord wears the crown of divine royalty.

The second category is the Jewish royalty of Christ and the virgin birth introduces the humanity of Christ into the world. Because of the virgin pregnancy we have the virgin birth and there was no genetic formation of the old sin nature. No old sin nature means no imputation of Adam's sin. That is the basis for the Jewish royalty of our Lord. He was born royalty. So at the point of the virgin birth Jesus Christ became Jewish royalty as a direct descendant of king David. David and Bathsheba had four children, Solomon and Nathan are the two whose lines have survived. The line of descent from Solomon is the one given in Matthew, it goes down to Joseph. The line of descent from Nathan is given in Luke, it goes down to Mary. So Mary is the mother of the humanity of Christ. Joseph is not the real father, he is the legal father. Note that the first two categories of royalty relate to our Lord's hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is the God-Man. As God we have the royalty of His deity and as man we have the royalty of His humanity, divine royalty and Jewish royalty. These are the first two crowns in our passage.

The third crown is based on the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. This might be classified as battlefield royalty when you think of the battlefield as being the angelic conflict. By living in the prototype divine dynasphere our Lord Jesus Christ from the virgin birth — as God he cannot sin; as true humanity in the hypostatic union He has the potential of sin — was able not to sin. The third crown becomes the major issue because it also has connected with it the cross. Our Lord had to be true humanity to be judged for our sins. All of our personal sins were waiting for someone who could be judged for them, waiting for the sacrifice, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. In the prototype divine dynasphere, the first Christmas present that God the Father gave to the Son, the humanity of Christ, even though He was tempted far beyond anything that we have ever known in temptation, remained perfect. Therefore He was qualified to go to the cross — in His deity, perfect; in His humanity, perfect. God the Father then called for the printout and all of the sins of the world came out of the computer of divine decrees, and when they were imputed to Christ on the cross by God the Father they were judged. They had never been judged until the cross. But they could not be imputed to anyone. Anyone who is a sinner is not qualified, the Lamb had to be spotless. Therefore our Lord bore our sins, 1 Peter 2:24, "in his own body" on the cross. So it was in the humanity of Christ that the issue existed.

Notice something about our Lord's royal titles. The general title of divine royalty is the Son of God; the Jewish royalty: the general title is the Son of David. When you put the divine royalty and the Jewish royalty together you have the hypostatic union, and the royal title of the hypostatic union is Son of Man. The battlefield royalty: King of kings and Lord of lords, the morning star — Revelation 19:16.

In Matthew 13:55,56 we have one more principle that has to do with Maryology, a heresy which is the worship of the virgin Mary. There is only one virgin birth in all of history, the uniqueness of the person of Christ.

Verse 55, "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joseph and Simon and Judas?" After our Lord's birth Mary had a normal relationship with her husband Joseph and they had four sons.

Verse 56, "And his sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" We learn from these comments that Joseph and Mary had quite a family, at least six.

All of this is a part of the second advent, and as such we must remember that all three categories are related to the second advent. The issue in the first advent was the hypostatic union, therefore there were only two categories of royalty which involved the issue, but now here are three. Each category of our Lord's royalty performs a special function at the second advent. For example, the divine royalty, Jesus Christ as God: At the second advent of Christ divine royalty controls history, changes creation for the Millennial reign, judges ecumenical religion, destroys the armies of the world nations to terminate the last world war of history including the Armageddon campaign, removes unbelievers under the baptism of fire, establishes the perfect environment of the Millennium. The Jewish royalty, the second crown, also has certain functions: Regathers Israel, terminates the fifth cycle of discipline, establishes Israel as the client nation for the Millennium, fulfills the unconditional covenants, and makes Israel a source of blessing in the Millennium. Then the battlefield royalty performs a function at the second advent: Makes Christ the strategic victor of the angelic conflict, complements His victory with the tactical victory, and therefore the battlefield royalty includes the replacement of Satan, the incarceration of Satan for a thousand years, the removal of all demons, the marriage of the Church the bride of Christ, and ruling the earth in the place of Satan for the thousand years of the Millennium. Therefore this becomes the explanation for many crowns, not one crown.

We must stop long enough to recognise the doctrine which pulls all three of these crowns together, and that is, the doctrine of the hypostatic union. It is very difficult for people to understand the principle involved and it is very easy to go astray here without some type of a guideline.

In the person of Christ since the incarnation there are two natures, divine and human. They are inseparably united but they are united without mixture or loss of separate identity. That means without the loss or transfer of properties or attributes. Under the doctrine of the hypostatic union the union is personal and eternal. In other words, Jesus Christ will be the God-Man forever, there will never be a change in the hypostatic union. Since the incarnation Jesus Christ who is and always has been eternal God, coequal with the Father and the Spirit, is also true humanity. So we say he is true humanity and undiminished deity in one person forever, or the God-Man. Jesus Christ is different from God in that He is mankind and different from mankind in that He is God. The divine and the human attributes are combined in one person forever, there will never be a change. So Jesus Christ, therefore, becomes the unique person of the universe. As God, of course, He is infinitely superior to man and angels and all creation; as humanity He is now superior to all angels and all other human beings. The pre incarnate person of Christ was deity and since the incarnation, since the moment of the virgin birth. Jesus Christ combines in His person, one person, two separate natures: divine and human natures. Through the virgin birth, then, Jesus Christ was born without a sin nature, without the imputation of Adam's sin. His humanity is trichotomous; he was born as Adam was created. Jesus Christ is the only member of the human race who was born trichotomous. Adam was created trichotomous, body, soul, and spirit. We are born dichotomous with a body and a soul.

We have two categories in us as human beings. We are born with a soul and human life is imputed by God in every case. That is the immaterial part of man, the part of man that was created in the image of God, and somewhat marred by sin because the human spirit was lost. The human spirit is man's ability to have a relationship with God; the human soul is man's ability to have relationship with man. Originally the human soul was the ability to rule the earth, for when Adam was created he was the ruler of the earth and he lost dominion to Satan through the Fall. Simultaneously imputed to us at birth is Adam's original sin and it is imputed to the genetically formed old sin nature. This becomes a very important principle because when it says the wages of sin is death, Romans 5:17ff, we are sinners by birth, and we came under the wages of sin at birth. God didn't stand around and wait for us to commit a sin, Adam's sin was imputed to us and had to be because there was a vacuum until Adam's sin was imputed. The vacuum was created by the old sin nature, and the fact that we have it genetically in the cell structure of our body becomes the basis of a great conflict as to whether the old sin nature or the Holy Spirit will control the human soul. When the Holy Spirit controls the soul we are said to be spiritual and when the old sin nature controls the soul the Bible says we are carnal. Both carnality and spirituality are absolutes, mutually exclusive. There is no such thing as being partially spiritual and partially carnal. When we sin we become carnal and when we rebound we become filled with the Spirit, but that anticipates an application of this doctrine. What we need to understand here is that you and I are not sinners because we commit personal sins, we are sinners and are spiritually dead because Adam's sin was imputed to us.

When human life is imputed with members of the human race since the fall of Adam there is also genetically passed down through the 23 males chromosomes in copulation, the old sin nature. The old sin nature which is passed down demands, it is a vacuum, residence as a home. What goes with the old sin nature? That which originated the old sin nature: Adam's original sin. The old sin nature is passed down genetically, that is why the virgin birth is so important to the hypostatic union. Apart from the virgin birth Jesus Christ could not have gone to the cross. The fact that Mary had a virgin pregnancy and the 23 female chromosomes through meiosis and polar body were free from the old sin nature meant that when the Holy Spirit provided the 23 male chromosomes because of that it immediately cut off the imputation of Adam's sin because there was no old sin nature transmitted. Male and female both have the old sin nature but we are not talking about the possession of it, we are talking about the transmission of it. It is transmitted through the male and the reason is because Adam willfully sinned, knew what he was doing and committed the sin of cognizance, whereas the woman sinned in ignorance — she didn't know what she was doing but she was equally guilty, and that is why she is the one who has the womb and bears the children. That is why through meiosis and polar body the 23 female chromosomes are totally free from the old sin nature. The only way that they can ever be related to an old sin nature is for 23 male chromosomes to be added through copulation, which is the reason why we are born physically alive, because God imputes life. But God is just and the justice of God demands that there be a complete imputation at birth, and there is the old sin nature which is transmitted through the male which demands a residence. The only residence that the old sin nature will take is Adam's original sin. That is why we call these "real imputations." A real imputation has an affinity. There is a home and there is a natural occupant for that home. The soul is a home and it demands something that has affinity and the thing that has affinity is human life. There is a tremendous arrogance in the world today, and that is the arrogance that there is life in the womb. There is reflex motility and there is physiological activity but there is no life in the womb. God is the giver of life and if there was life in the womb sooner or later science would have been able to create life. Only God can create life.

When did you commit your first sin? You don't know. We all did have a starting point when we committed sin, but it doesn't make any difference when we committed our first sin because we were already spiritually dead. You and I are spiritually dead at birth. Spiritual death is the cause of sin. When did you come under the wages of sin? When Adam looked at the woman and said, "I'll take it." Personal sins are not the wages of sin that brought death, it was one thing that brought death: God in His matchless, perfect wisdom imputed Adam's sin to each one of us. All of our personal sins were in the computer of divine decrees and every sin that has ever been committed in the history of the human race was imputed to Christ on the cross. Christ was qualified to go to the cross and die for those sins. Why could not someone else? For one very simple reason: the hypostatic union. There is only one person in all of human history who was qualified to bear the sins of the world and to be judged for them, to be our substitute. He was God, and as God He couldn't do it. Jesus Christ under the hypostatic union is eternal God and eternal God can simply not die for the sins of the world, or have anything to do with sins. The very essence of God makes it impossible for God to bear sin or be judged for sin or die for sin. God can't even die. So what does it mean when it says that Christ died for our sins? For Jesus Christ to do this wonderful thing for us He had to become true humanity, but in becoming true humanity there could be no bleed-over of the divine attributes into His human nature, and the human attributes could not bleed into the divine nature. He had to be two separate and distinct persons. He had to continue to be God and He had to continue to the be Man. So He had to be born like a human being and the virgin birth guaranteed that he would not come under imputed sin or have an old sin nature. As eternal God the attributes of His deity always stay with His deity, they never bleed over to His humanity; and the attributes of His humanity never bleed over into His deity. Jesus Christ is God; Jesus Christ is Man, and Jesus Christ is the God-Man forever without any crossover of attributes. Because the humanity of Christ was in the prototype divine dynasphere, He arrived at the cross without ever committing a personal sin, though he was tempted far beyond anything we have ever known.

None of the divine attributes are in any jeopardised or compromised by the hypostatic union. The incarnate person of Christ is true humanity with a body, soul and spirit. Because of the virgin birth He was born without the old sin nature and the imputation of Adam's sin and, what is even more important, Jesus Christ was born as Adam was created in the image of God. And that is the relationship between the image of God passages in Genesis and the doctrine of the hypostatic union. When God the Father gave the Lord Jesus Christ the spark of life it was the only case on record where He provided both human life and spiritual life. So God the Father imputed human life to the human soul of our Lord. He gave His uniquely-born Son — His was a unique birth — "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." And why can we simply believe in Him apart from any human merit? Because all of the merit resides in Him in the hypostatic union. The hypostatic union, then, is the key to the glory of Jesus Christ.

Our Lord was also born with a human spirit and therefore what could be imputed to the human spirit? He already had eternal life as God. Jesus Christ already had eternal life so what could God the Father impute? Something that becomes the key to the modus operandi of every believer. He imputed to the human spirit of our Lord the protocol system, the prototype divine dynasphere. We now live under the mandate of the operational type divine dynasphere.

When we accept Christ as saviour we have a judicial imputation. God the Father takes one half of His holiness which is perfect righteousness and he imputes it to us. So every believer has God's perfect righteousness. At the same time He imputed God's life. There are two things you must have if you are going to live with God forever: His life (eternal life) and His righteousness. Since we can't make it ourselves He provides the means. That also is the system for logistical grace. God takes this eternal life and He imputes it, and just before it arrives God the Holy Spirit creates the human spirit for each one of us. Now each one of us who are believers is trichotomous.

So in the hypostatic union we have the two natures of Christ united without transfer of attributes. In other words, the attributes of deity adhere to the divine nature; the attributes of humanity adhere to the human nature. The attributes adhere to their corresponding natures. The essence of deity cannot be changed, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, immutability. The infinite: Jesus Christ is God, infinity cannot be transferred to His humanity. Man does not become infinite in the hypostatic union. To take from God a single attribute of His deity would destroy His deity; to take from the humanity of our Lord a single attribute of His humanity would destroy His humanity. In fulfilling the Father's plan for the first advent certain attributes of Christ's deity were not used in obedience to the Father's plan. But this does not imply that they were surrendered or destroyed (the false doctrine of Kenosis). In the true doctrine of Kenosis Christ voluntarily took on Himself the form of mankind in order to redeem man from sin, to reconcile man to God, and to propitiate God the Father. In completing the mission of the first advent our Lord did not exercise His divine attributes to benefit Himself or to provide for Himself or to glorify Himself. Therefore the union of divine essence and the human nature in the incarnate person of Christ must be considered both hypostatic and personal. It is this doctrine which explains the many crowns in our passage and it is the key to all theology.

"and on his head many crowns," the multiplicity of crowns is based upon the various categories of royalty of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is eternal God. As eternal and infinite God He possesses all of the attributes of the essence of God, which means that infinitely and eternally he has coexistence with the Father and with the Holy Spirit on a coequal basis.

We now move in the last half of the verse to the royal title of infinite deity, known as the unknown royal title. We begin with the present active participle of the verb e)xw, "to have." This is a static present for a condition which has always existed. Jesus Christ is eternal God and the unknown title is the royal eternal title of God, the royal dignity of Christ as infinite eternal God. This title is unknown to us only in the sense that we do not know Christ as God as he has eternally known Himself. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb as eternal and infinite God. The participle is circumstantial, best rendered in the English by the conjunction "and" plus the finite construction of the verb, "and he has." Then we have the accusative singular direct object from onoma. The word means name or title, personality, reputation. Here, of course, it refers to a royal title, "and he has a royal title." The word "crowns" indicates that it is not just a name, it is a royal title. Then we have finally the perfect passive participle from the verb grafw which means written, and it has the connotation of "recorded." The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. The dramatic perfect emphasises the results of a completed action. The results include the removal of Satan as the ruler of this world. Also, the results are threefold. As divine royalty Christ judges the world as per the baptism of fire; as Jewish royalty Christ regathers Israel and fulfills the unconditional covenants; as battlefield royalty Christ terminates the Armageddon campaign and the last world war of history, removing Satan as the ruler of this world. The passive voice: the royal warrant has been recorded. The participle is circumstantial.

"And his eyes were a flame of fire, and also on his head were many crowns [representing the three royal warrants plus the unknown one which has to do with infinity]; and he has a royal title which has been written, which no one understood except himself."

O)ida in the perfect tense has to do with knowledge that has always existed. O)udeij is the subject and it means no one [human race], and does not refer to the Father or to the Holy Spirit. The three members of the Trinity all understand the title.

Neither the unbeliever nor fallen angels can properly interpret history or understand historical trends. That is impossible and that is because the pattern of history throughout the entire Church Age is set up under doctrinal and spiritual principles. The unbeliever is the yuxikoj man. He is dichotomous, therefore he cannot understand spiritual things, he can only learn from past history. No creature outside of the plan of God can understand or appreciate our Lord's royal titles or their significance as far as the second advent in concerned. The key to history is the understanding of Bible doctrine as found in the Word of God. Since they cannot understand doctrine they cannot interpret history. Therefore both fallen angels and those living in the cosmic system, unbelievers and cosmic believers, can only distort history. Doctrine resident in the soul of the positive believer is the key which fits the lock of historical trends. Therefore history overtakes and crushes both the fallen angels and the unbelievers of the Tribulation at the second advent. That is the importance and the gist of verse twelve. What you don't understand will destroy you, that is the issue, the point being that we have volition and we have motivation to understand what we want to understand. The fact that people do not accept Christ, the fact that people do not know Bible doctrine, the fact that believers do not know doctrine, means that they are generally ruined by what they do not understand. The reason we have so much trouble and so many problems in our lives is not because we are great Christians and the devil is after us, it is because we are the products of our own bad decisions. We manufacture out of bad motivation and we manufacture out of the wrong priorities all of the troubles and disasters that come to us.

Verse 13 — we now come to the revelation of the royal title. We have the adverbial use of the conjunction kai, translated "Furthermore," followed by the perfect passive participle of the verb periballw which means to wrap around or to be clothed, or to put on clothing. Furthermore, he was clothed." The dramatic perfect is one in which the existing state is described in an unusual and vivid way. The passive voice: our Lord receives the action at the second advent. The participle is circumstantial and translated as a finite verb with the conjunction "and." "Furthermore, he was wearing a robe." The robe is a sign of His strategic victory of the angelic conflict, along with the title which follows. First we have the clothing of victory and then we have the title of victory in this verse.

Next we have another perfect passive participle from noun baptw which means to dip or to sprinkle. Here we translate it "splattered." Then we have the instrumental singular from a(ima, "with blood." The blood is used in relationship to both advents. The blood of Christ for the first advent to represent redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, the saving work of Christ on the cross; the blood here on His robe is literal blood. The fact that our Lord wears a robe splattered with blood is explained by several passages of scripture. Needless to say the blood is literal, the blood of those whom our Lord has slaughtered at the termination of the Armageddon campaign.

First we note the full uniform our Lord was wearing on the occasion of His second advent. It is described in Isaiah chapter 59 verse 17 which says, "he put on righteousness like a breastplate and a helmet of victory on his head; furthermore he put on the garments of vengeance for a uniform, and he wrapped around himself a military robe of zeal." His military robe of zeal is splattered with blood, human blood of annihilated armies. We noted this first in Revelation 14:20. The blood of our Lord's robe is also explained in Isaiah 34:2, 3, 5, 6. This is the termination of the last great world war in history. Other passages describe a similar scene: Joel 2:20; Revelation 19:21; and a more detailed passage is found in Isaiah 63:1-3 which describes the second advent. Ezekiel chapter 39 describes a similar slaughter. We simply note in passing that this is one of the signs of victory; A principle comes out of this: the violence that is involved in the last world war in history is put down by a greater violence from the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the second part of verse 13 we have the title that no one understood. We have a connective conjunction kai, and we noted in the previous verse that we had this unknown title of Christ as infinite and eternal God. In this verse we have the royal title of Jesus Christ as the strategic victor of the angelic conflict. This royal title also relates to the second advent of Christ or the tactical victory of the angelic conflict, for one category of victory leads to the other category. In verse 14 we have a royal title of Jesus Christ as the tactical victor in the angelic conflict, so all of these royal titles come together. But this one is probably the least understood of all. We have the adverbial use of the conjunction kai, translated "furthermore," and next the nominative singular subject of o)noma which has many meanings, all related. It is generally translated "name" but it means "title," "royal title," "personality." Here it means "royal title." Then the perfect passive indicative of kalew, a verb used here for nomenclature, "has been designated [or called]." It is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. Completed action and the results of the completed action of the perfect tense are emphasised here is a vivid and dramatic way. The passive voice: Jesus Christ as the unique person of the universe is the one who is in hypostatic union and receives the action of the verb — the royal title for His strategic victory followed by His tactical victory in the second advent. The indicative mood is declarative for the verbal idea being presented from the viewpoint of reality. This title is given: o( logoj tou qeou, "the Word of God." That would be a literal translation were it not for the fact that logoj just simply doesn't mean word. Very rarely does it means word, it has meanings that are way beyond this. Translation: "now his title has been designated the Word of God."

John 1:1 starts out E)n a)rxh h)n o( logoj, "In the beginning was the Word," but that is not the translation at all. First of all a)rxh is very much in the picture here, the word "beginning." Beginning does not always mean beginning, sometimes it is idiomatic. A)rxh has numerous meanings and they are always determined by the context. In John 1:1 a)rxh refers to eternity past; in 1 John 2:7 a)rxh refers to the time when the believer became a Christian; in 1 John 3:8 a)rxh refers to the time before the creation of mankind. In other words, prehistory; in 1 John 1:1 a)rxh refers to the incarnation; in 1 John 2:13,14 it refers again to eternity past. There are so many different meanings. How do they get the idiom "in eternity past" out of this? By omitting the definite article. The preposition e)n plus the locative of a)rxh should be translated "in a beginning which is not a beginning," meaning in eternity past. This means that whatever is used here preexisted all creatures, and the word that is used for preexisting all creatures is logoj. Logoj means a thought, a vocabulary, a person with thought and vocabulary that preexisted all human beings. Logoj, therefore, is used in a very technical sense. It is a way of cracking the barrier of time and going back into eternity.

Every system of philosophy would like to establish a premise on the absolute but neither rationalism or empiricism has ever succeeded in doing so. Rationalism is the concept that reason is the source of knowledge in itself, superior to and independent of any sensory perception. Only the Word of God can penetrate the barrier of time and go into eternity past and tell us what happened in eternity past. And only faith as a non-meritorious system of perception can understand the events which preceded time, the creation of man, the planet earth, the existence of the universe, what is beyond all of these things. Empiricism is also a meritorious system of perception for empiricism is the pursuit of knowledge by observation and experimentation. Empiricism has not succeeded in breaking the time barrier and going into eternity past. The apostle John using faith as the system of perception reached beyond empirical knowledge and went beyond the incarnation, broke the barriers of time, and came up with this marvelous phrase, "In a beginning which is not a beginning, in eternity past."

Then the verb, the imperfect active indicative of e)imi, the verb to be used here in its absolute sense in the imperfect tense of duration, hence linear aktionsart in past time and, with the idiom e)n arxh, meaning there always existed. "In a beginning which was not a beginning in eternity past there always existed." The active voice: the Logoj produces the action of the verb, and the Logoj here is Jesus Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine. There existed in eternity past the Logoj. We know that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit existed in eternity past. Christ was and always has been eternal God, therefore He possesses all of the attributes of eternal God. All divine titles are ascribed to Christ for He is called God. He is called the Mighty God, He is called the great God, He is called God over all, He is called Jehovah, He is called Lord, He is called King of kings and Lord of lords. He declares that He and the Father are one; He is the creator of the universe; He is the object of worship from both mankind and angelic creatures. God is not more, therefore God cannot promise more; God cannot do more than Jesus Christ is said to be to promise and to do. Therefore the verb e)imi denotes absolute existence. Christ eternally existed in past time. There are many passages dealing with this, starting with Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 9:6; Micah 5:2; John 8:58; Colossians 1:16,17; Ephesians 1:14; Revelation 1:11, etc.

In contrast to the verb e)imi, used here for the eternal existence of Christ, we will see the meaning of the logoj related to another verb, ginomai, which means to become. There is a difference between e)imi and ginomai. Ginomai is used for something that has a beginning; e)imi can have a subject that has no beginning. So we have the two verbs in contrast in John chapter one. This prepares us to take a look at this title which links eternal God, the second person, with the incarnation, o( logoj, and that is the predicate nominative. Since we are talking about a title for the Lord Jesus Christ it should be Logoj, and it is used to indicate infinite God manifest to finite creatures, Homo Sapiens. Logoj connotes both thought and revelation of that thought. Logos often means doctrine but here it is used with the descriptive genitive of Qeoj to refer to Jesus Christ. Here it means the originator of doctrine, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Greeks used logoj as a metaphysical reality, a term in both their philosophy and their theology. They also used logoj for word, speech, utterance, revelation, thought, vocabulary, not in the sense of something proclaimed but thought in the sense of something displayed, clarified, recognised and understood. Therefore, when Heracleides used logoj extensively it must be understood that he not only used the noun to express relationship between man and God but between man and the world. He also used it to establish a relationship between man and virtue. The sofoj who broke away from Heracleides used logoj as the rational power inside of man — the power of thought, the power of speech. To Socrates and Plato logoj became not simply thought, but in the plural they both used logoi for a preexistent vocabulary, a preexistent harmony between thought of soul and the matter that existed with it. Aristotle summarised logoj by contending that man had the word in two ways, namely that his manner of life is determined by logoj or thought and he can express his manner of life by logoj, and therefore speech. The relationship between thought and speech is the issue.

When we were created in the image of God there were three characteristics involved. God is a spirit and therefore the immaterial part of man is the image of God. Man was created with a human soul and a human spirit in the image of God. When Adam sinned we lost the human spirit and became dichotomous but this much of the image of God we still have. First of all, I think, thought, vocabulary. Then we have volition, and that is self-determination. All of the philosophers recognised that they had to use something, they didn't invent it, they did not invent vocabulary, they did not invent words, they did not invent language, it came through the barrier of eternity when man was created in the image of God. Therefore logoj, used of our Lord Jesus Christ, has a very unusual meaning. In John 1:1 we have Jesus Christ in eternity past, and this is the unknown title. This is the title that no one knew in the previous verse; it is now revealed as the Logoj. In 1 John 1:1 we have the Logos in time; in Revelation 19:13 we have the Logoj in eschatology, the Logoj in the future.

All of this discussion about etymology of logoj is to bring us to a single fact which could not have been said in the first place: logoj is not only a designation for Jesus Christ in hypostatic union but is the title of our Lord Jesus Christ as the test pilot for the divine dynasphere, the entire protocol system that belongs to the family of God. There is only one period in all of human history where there is no legitimate tabernacle and no legitimate temple. There is no sacred building in the Church Age and it is the only dispensation in which there is no sacred building, but there is a statement of scripture which says that there is no temple in the eternal state. In the eternal state there is a satellite city called the holy city, the New Jerusalem, but there is no temple. Only twice in all of the scripture do we have this significant statement, "no temple." In this dispensation only the body of the believer is the scared building, it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:19,20. Only the body. Why? What does that have to do with Logoj?

"In the beginning which was not a beginning, in eternity past, there always existed the Logoj." The next verse, John 1:2, says, "He existed in eternity past face to face with God." There always existed the Logoj, furthermore the Logoj always existed face to face with God, and finally it says, "and the Logoj was God." In other words, we have a distinction between God the Father and God the Son. Both existed in eternity past, both were eternal, both were infinite, both had identical eternal and infinite attributes, one did not have more attributes than the other. So they eternally coexisted, "the Logoj was God." That is Jesus Christ in eternity past and that is the unknown title. In verse 2 we see that "the same one was in the beginning with God." O(utoj is a nominative singular demonstrative pronoun, it can be translated "this one," but a demonstrative pronoun of this emphasis can be used as a personal pronoun. He always existed in eternity past face to face with God, proj plus the accusative of qeoj. Verse two just reinforces the fact that when this unknown title logos is used it takes us out of time in the Church Age and takes us back into infinity in eternity past and indicates that Jesus Christ is, always was, and there never was a time when He was not eternal God. To prove that John 1:3 simply says that He is the creator of everything.

Verse 14 is going to explain why the Christian way of life is entirely different from the way of life of believers in the Old Testament dispensation, the way of life of believers in the Tribulation, the way of life of believers in the Millennium, why we have something unique and why we have never been given a sacred building, why there is no temple and why we do not go to Jerusalem to worship, why there is no tabernacle in existence extant any longer. It is very simple: Kai o( logoj sarc e)geneto, "And the Logoj became flesh." Notice that we have here the constative aorist, the aorist active indicative of ginomai. When we are talking about eternity past we have e)imi; when we are talking about the incarnation we have ginomai. Jesus Christ who was eternal God in eternity past and the creator of the universe became something He never was before; He became sarc — "flesh." God is not flesh, God is not material, the image of God is not material. Jesus Christ became sarc — "flesh." The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It refers to a momentary action, it refers to the virgin birth. That is when Christ became flesh, at which time He became the God-Man, the unique person of the universe, i.e. hypostatic union. We have one more verb, the aorist active indicative of skhnow, which is translated "dwelt" in the King James version but it means to tabernacle, "and the Logoj became flesh and tabernacled among us." The tabernacle came to the earth, "among us." Jesus Christ tabernacled on earth for 33 years during the first advent. Logoj Qeou refers to God the Father; Logoj refers to God the Son. Tou can be ablative or genitive of source, "the Logoj from God the Father."

Why is it that we are priests? That never occurred before and will never occur again. Why is it that God the Holy Spirit for the first time in all of human history indwells every believer? It has never happened before? Why is it that we have union with Christ, the baptism of the Spirit, retroactive and current positional truth, and it never happened before? Why is it that we have a protocol system that has never preexisted? Why is it that we do not have ritual, except for the Lord's table? This is not the age of ritual, this is the age of protocol. Every other dispensation is a dispensation of ritual, including the Millennium. Why? In human history, except for the Church Age, there has always been a tabernacle or a temple, a sacred building representing the invisible presence of God and portraying a system of Christology which did not exist prior to the first advent. This invisible presence in the Old Testament is called the Shekinah glory. What is the Shekinah glory? The Hebrew noun, shekinah, doesn't occur in the Old Testament, and it comes from the Hebrew verb shakan which means to dwell. But there is one thing that Jesus Christ never did in the Old Testament. He did not dwell on the earth; He did not skhnow, but He did have a shekinah presence: the Shekinah glory. So while the Hebrew noun shekinah is not found in the Old Testament it was used by Jews since time immemorial to express the invisible presence of Jesus Christ in the Tabernacle.

Between the two cherubs looking down on the mercy seat in the tabernacle was the Shekinah glory. When the cloud was over the tabernacle that meant that there was a glory inside between the cherubs, and that glory was called in the Hebrew, kabhodh. That was the invisible presence of the God of Israel, Jesus Christ. He didn't come in the flesh, He came in light. He was invisible. There was a cloud above that they could see and they knew when that cloud was there. And when he spoke out of that cloud there was a glorious light. There was no light inside of the holy of holies. Where was the light? The candle was in the holy place; there was no light inside of the holy of holies, it was dark and it was supposed to be dark because the only light that was ever supposed to be in the holy of holies was Jesus Christ the Shekinah glory, the light of the world. So Jesus Christ, the invisible God of the Old Testament, occupied that sacred building. That is why it was sacred, because in the form of light He was there. Cf. Exodus 25:22 with Leviticus 16:2. This same Shekinah glory represents the invisible presence of Christ and is mentioned in the New Testament. Hebrews 9:25, that glorious light, whatever it is, is in certain passages equivalent to doca, "glory." There is a passage in which the tabernacle is described in the New Testament, Hebrews 9:25 where it is describing the mercy seat, and above it the cherubs representing the holiness or the integrity of God. They are called the cherubs of doca. Why? They are just made out of gold, there is no glory in the cherubs. This glory is related to something alive, eternally alive, and doca is the same as kabhodh and kabhodh is the Shekinah glory, and the reason they had sacred buildings in the Old Testament is because there in that building is the invisible presence of the second person of the Trinity who had not yet become visible, had not yet become the God-Man. This is His pre-hypostatic union relationship with Israel, and in the Tribulation the temple is a false one and there is no glory there. In the Millennium there is a legitimate temple as a memorial to all of this: that Jesus Christ has throughout all the Old Testament dispensation been always faithful because always there. When they failed miserably the cloud went away. A pillar of fire at night, a cloud by daytime, the Shekinah glory in the tent called the tabernacle. So, above it the "glory," the Shekinah glory, the invisible presence of Christ as the God of Israel overshadowing the mercy seat. Overshadow means life, the only life. Doca refers to the presence of Jesus Christ as the God of Israel.

Jesus Christ is also mentioned as Shekinah glory in James 2:1, "My brethren, do not exhibit partiality," partiality is living in cosmic one; when you do not exhibit partiality you are living at gate six of the divine dynasphere, "as you keep having the doctrine from our Lord Jesus Christ." Then something is added, "we have doctrine from our Lord Jesus Christ." We have doctrine we are to use. When it is doctrine we are to apply it is called pistij; when it is doctrine we are to learn it is called a)lhqeia; if it is doctrine we are to put together categorically it is logoj. Here we have doctrine — "as you have doctrine from our Lord Jesus Christ." Who has doctrine? Some don't have enough doctrine to fill a thimble. In what form do we have the Shekinah glory? Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. We have the Shekinah glory in doctrine. How do we know that? This is what James says in 2:1, "My brethren, do not exhibit partiality as you keep having doctrine from our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory." The last two words: the Shekinah glory of the tabernacle is the glory of the hypostatic union where His humanity functioned in a prototype divine dynasphere.

That explains something. Shekinah is derived from shakan which means to dwell. The Shekinah glory is the dwelling glory. Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, dwelt with Israel overshadowing the mercy seat. The presence of the Lord Jesus Christ between the cherubs was the Shekinah glory. At the virgin birth the Shekinah glory became the incarnate Christ, the God-Man, the hypostatic union which exists forever. During the first advent the humanity of Christ produced a new glory inside a protocol system, the Father's protocol system, the prototype divine dynasphere. Believers in the Church Age have it now. They have something that no one could even touch before. They couldn't even go into the holy of holies, the Shekinah glory would have killed them if they had even tried to step into the holy of holies and see it. Yet that glory is available to us now. That Shekinah glory is Jesus Christ inside the prototype divine dynasphere. He made the Shekinah glory available and now for one dispensation only, while the royal family is being called out, their way of life is that same divine dynasphere, and they only glorify God, and they only produce glory inside of those eight gates of the divine dynasphere. That is why our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, that is why gate one is being filled with the Spirit, and that is something that has never existed before and will be shut down and never seen again until the eternal state.

John 1:14, "And the Logoj became flesh," Jesus Christ as eternal God, "and he tabernacled among us," the Shekina glory became for the first time visible God-Man. The God-Man was the tabernacle. It isn't the tabernacle that counts, it is the One who occupied it, and the One who occupied it came in the flesh. The presence of God supersedes all sacred buildings that represent God, "and we observed his glory," the invisible God of Israel residing between the cherubs. No Jew could ever see His glory and live, that is why the holy of holies was off limits. Now, we can not only look and live but it is a part of the protocol plan. We observe His glory in the prototype divine dynasphere. It is not His glory as God but His glory as true humanity inside the prototype divine dynasphere. Why is that important? Because that is the glory He left us, the operational type divine dynasphere, and it never was given to anyone else, "the glory of the uniquely born one from the Father," we observe monogenhj glory, not the glory of God but monogenhj (uniquely born), the glory of His humanity functioning inside the prototype divine dynasphere. The glory of His deity was never in question — "full of grace [the policy for the protocol system] and doctrine [the authority and instruction for function in the system]." The only glory that can exist today is the glory of the believer inside the divine dynasphere.

Israel in the past had many failures. One of them was found in 1 Samuel 4:21,22 when the ark of the covenant was in the camp of the Philistines, "And she called the boy Ichabod [no glory], saying. ‘The glory has departed from Israel because the ark of God was taken'." What is the ark of God? It is not just that box, it is the mercy seat, the golden throne, and the golden throne was in the hands of the Philistines. So the woman called her son Ichabod, meaning no glory. Why? Because glory had departed from Israel. Without that piece of furniture in the holy of holies there is no residence of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The glory of the Lord only resided there when the furniture was in place. "And she said, ‘The glory [Shekinah glory] has departed from Israel, for the ark of God was taken'." The Shekinah glory represents the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling between the cherubs until such time as He would become Immanuel, "God with us." So that the glory of the past is gone, and should be; a greater glory has come.

The rest of the story is the fact that the Logoj went to the cross. So He is called the Logoj of the cross in 1 Corinthians 1:18, "The Logoj of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved he is the power of God."

In describing the eternal state and the capital of the eternal state in chapter 21 we have the New Jerusalem called the holy city coming down from heaven, and actually it is a satellite city suspended above the new planet earth. In that satellite city a very remarkable statement is made in chapter 21:3, "Then I heard a voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with mankind..." In the eternal state we have a tabernacle, but the tabernacle is immediately defined as Jesus Christ who is the Shekinah glory "… and he will tabernacle with them."

There are two questions that arise from this statement in Revelation 21:3. The first question: What is the tabernacle of God? The second question: What does it mean, "he will tabernacle with them"? This has to do in context with the eternal state.

The tabernacle of God is Jesus Christ as the Shekinah glory, Jesus Christ who dwelt in the tabernacle of Israel. The tabernacle is the beginning of a series of sacred buildings which exist throughout human history, and these sacred buildings include both the doctrinal significance of the furniture and the ritual which goes with it. They teach, of course, both Christology and soteriology. The first of these sacred buildings was a giant tent called the tabernacle of Moses, Exodus chapters 25-40. It was not only a portrayal of the person and the work of Jesus Christ but it included the actual presence of Christ. Christ actually resided in that tabernacle.

In the history of Israel two temples followed of more permanent type structure. The first temple is called the temple of Solomon, described in 1 Kings 6-8; the second is called the temple of Zerubbabel, described in Ezra 3-6. There is also a temple in Jerusalem during the Tribulation. This is the temple in which in the middle of the Tribulation the abomination of desolation is set up, Matthew 25:15. This temple of the tribulation is mentioned in Revelation 11:1. There will also be a Millennial temple in Jerusalem during the last dispensation of history and this temple not only represents the restoration of Israel as a client nation to God but it also acts and functions as Israel's communion table, Ezekiel 40-47. There is also a temple/tabernacle in heaven which gives testimony to the person and the work of Christ during the first advent, Revelation 11:19; 13:6; and 15:5 which says, "And after these things I looked, and the temple tabernacle which serves as a testimony in heaven was opened." With Christ the Shekinah glory in heaven there would naturally be a temple tabernacle there.

In all of this there are two exceptions to sacred buildings, and they are extremely important. The first is that there is no such thing as a sacred building in the Church Age — no sanctuary, no temple, no tabernacle. Sacred buildings simply do not exist in the Church Age. The exception includes the fact that your body as a believer is said to be the only sacred building. So instead of a tent, instead of some building constructed to be a temple, the only temple in existence is found in 1 Corinthians 3:16, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God." In other words, this is the only dispensation in which the body of every believer is the temple of God, "and the Spirit of God dwells in you." That is a radical change from any sacred building in any previous dispensation to the Church Age and is also a radical change to any dispensation or part of a dispensation (there are seven years of the dispensation of Israel to run, the Tribulation) after the Rapture, after the Church Age. The second exception is the eternal state. There is no temple and no tabernacle in the new Jerusalem, the satellite city suspended in space above planet earth, Revelation 21:22, "And I saw no temple in it: for the Lord God the Almighty one, even the Lamb, is its temple." Note that in these two exceptions, in place of a sacred building we have human bodies. In the Church Age the only sacred building is the body of every believer, said to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:19,20. That passage goes on to say, "therefore glorify God in your body." That word "glorify" means that the body is a temple only for the purpose of glorifying God, for the presence of God in the sacred buildings of the past was called the Shekinah glory. The sacred building, of course, emphasises ritual whereas the body of the believer in the Church Age and the presence of Christ as the Shekinah glory in the new Jerusalem in the eternal state indicate protocol and power. So all dispensations are ritualistic except the Church Age. There is only one authorised ritual for the post-canon period of the Church Age, the Lord's table. In all other dispensations there is extensive ritual.

The next question is: What is the Shekinah glory? During the entire course of human history, from the Exodus to the Millennium, except the Church Age, there has always been a tabernacle or a temple to represent the presence of invisible God. This invisible presence is called the Shekinah glory. The Hebrew word for shekinah is a word not found in the canon of scripture but used as a technical theological term to describe something in scripture. It means the dwelling place and it is taken from the Hebrew verb that is taken many times in the scripture, shakan. Shekinah means the dwelling place: the dwelling place of God, the dwelling place of glory. Jesus Christ as the God of Israel is also called kabhodh, which means "the glory." The Shekinah glory lived or tabernacled in the holy of holies over the mercy seat between the cherubs and was the only light in the holy of holies, according to Exodus 25. The Shekinah glory means God dwelling in the tabernacle or in the temple. Jesus Christ as the God of Israel is called the Shekinah glory.

What are the titles of Christ as the Shekinah glory? There is one title that is especially important that is found in Deuteronomy 6:4, "Shema Israel [Hear O Israel], Adonai Elohenu [Jesus Christ is our God], Adonai echad [Jesus Christ is unique]." In the New Testament there are two basic words used for the Shekinah glory. The first is doca, translated "glory." The second is the noun logos, generally translated in the King James version by the word "word."

Romans 9:4, describing the privileges that belonged to Israel in the past dispensation: "who are Israelites, to whom is given the adoption [referring to the unconditional covenants and the client nation] and the glory [the Shekinah glory," Israel had something in the Old Testament no Gentile group ever had. They had doca, the exact equivalent of the Hebrew kabhodh. The Jews had the Shekinah glory, the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the tabernacle as the God of Israel, "and the gift of the law, both the worship and the promises." The worship has to do with the functions of the Levitical priesthood related to the tabernacle, and the promises has to do with the unconditional covenants to be fulfilled at the second advent.

Exodus 25:21, 22, the description of the mercy seat and the holy of holies. "And you [Moses] will put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you will put the testimony which I shall give you."

"And there I will meet with you" notice: God says, There, at the mercy seat, I will meet with you, the presence of God, "and from above the mercy seat, and between the cherubs [the Shekinah glory would reside above the mercy seat]," so the Shekinah glory was the brilliant light in the holy of holies. The light that brought out all of the beauty of the beautiful colours of the tabernacle is the Lord, "which are on the ark of the testimony." Romans 3:25-28 identifies Christ as the mercy seat. The only light in the holy of holies was Jesus Christ the Shekinah glory.

1 Samuel 4:19, Eli was the high priest of Israel and he had a son by the name of Phinehas. Eli and Phinehas died the sin unto death. The wife of Phinehas heard the news, "Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth; and when she heard the news that the ark of God was taken [captured by the Philistines] and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she knelt down and gave birth, for her labour pains came upon her."

Verse 20, "Then about the time of her death [she died after giving birth] the women who stood by her said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son.' But she did not answer or pay attention."

Verse 21, "Then she called the boy Ichabod [No glory; no presence of God in Israel]," she heard that the Philistines had captured an article sacred furniture: the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat on top of it, and the two cherubs, which means that God had departed from Israel — "saying, ‘The glory [Shekinah glory] has departed from Israel,' for the ark of the Lord was captured."

Verse 22, "And she said, ‘The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God was captured'."

Leviticus 10:1, we have what is called "strange fire." Aaron had four sons. Aaron was to be the source of the Levitical priesthood and his elder son was Nadab; his next son was Abihu. Nadab should have been the next high priest but that was not to be. The reason is because Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire. What they did is not that difficult to understand when the Hebrew of Leviticus 10:12; Numbers 3:4; 26:61 is studied. What they did was to take fire from the altar and go into the holy place. As members of the family, the next priests under Aaron, they are allowed to go that far. And they came to the altar of incense and offered strange incense there with the idea of breaking through the curtain, pulling back the curtain and going to see what was in the holy of holies. When they threw back the curtain and started to go in with strange fire they died instantly. They were killed right then and there by the Shekinah glory. The first result was that the Levitical priesthood of Israel descends through the youngest sons, the third son and the fourth son. The third son who became the next high priest was Eleazar. Eventually the priesthood went over to Ithamar in the days of David, but the priestly line came down through the two youngest sons of Aaron.

The second result is stated in Leviticus 16:1,2, "Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they approached the presence of the Lord." In other words, what they were going to do was satisfy their curiosity. That explains the meaning of the phrase "strange fire." Nadab and Abihu tried to enter the holy of holies with strange fire to see what was there, "and died." No one was to see the Shekinah glory ever.

Verse 2, "Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell you brother Aaron that he shall not at any time enter the holy place inside the veil [the holy of holies], before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in a cloud over the mercy seat'." That is the Lord Jesus Christ and His presence as the Shekinah glory. That is why the tabernacle was sacred, why the temples were sacred, why sacred buildings existed.

Hebrews 9:5, the tabernacle of Moses is described in the Greek just as it is described in passages in the Hebrew: "And above it [the mercy seat] the cherubs of glory [doca], referring to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, "overshadowing the mercy seat." In the Old Testament tabernacle the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ between the cherubs was the Shekinah glory. The cloud over the tabernacle indicated the fact that He was present in the holy of holies. However, beginning with the virgin birth of Christ, the incarnation, and the hypostatic union, Jesus Christ produced a new glory, a new glory in the sphere of His human nature. Before the incarnation Jesus Christ was eternal, infinite God, not true humanity. This new glory was produced in the protocol system, the prototype divine dynasphere. The humanity of Christ produced this glory. As God Jesus Christ is glory; in His humanity He produced this phenomenal glory. This same protocol system has been given today to us as members of His royal family. Because we have this protocol system we have no sacred building, and for the first time in all of human history God the Holy Spirit indwells every believer so that his body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The protocol system for glory has become the unique plan of God: residence, function, momentum inside the operational type divine dynasphere.

There were certain things that never existed before the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. There were certain privileges that believers did not have. Never in the history of the human race was there such a wonderful thing as was given after the Shekinah glory came.

2 Corinthians 3:17,18, we live in the most exciting dispensation of all human history, the dispensation of the greatest privileges and the greatest opportunity, when things have been given that were never given to any Old testament saint nor will ever be given again. The most phenomenal things have been provided but they are all on an optional basis. "Now the Lord [Kurioj] is the Spirit," a reference to the deity of God the Holy Spirit, a reference to the function of gate one of the divine dynasphere. God is actually there to help produce glory in us and the filling of the Holy Spirit is gate one in the protocol system. This is the power of God being provided for us to fulfill this function, "and where the Spirit of the Lord is," never in the Old Testament was there such a thing as the indwelling of the Spirit. There was enduement for a few believers. For the first time in history we have the indwelling of the Spirit. Where is he? He indwells every believer, "there is freedom [to execute the plan of God, to produce a greater glory than ever existed in OT times]."

Verse 18, "But we all [all believers], with unveiled face [the filling of the Spirit making it possible for the believer to walk by means of the Spirit at the other gates]," for the believer who fails his brain remains veiled, he is in cosmic one under the blackout of the soul; he is in cosmic two under scar tissue of the soul. In cosmic one he is said to be grieving the Holy Spirit; in cosmic two he is said to be quenching the Spirit, "looking into a mirror to produce a reflection," it takes all of those words to translate one Greek verb, katoptrizw, which means to look in a mirror to see a reflection. It is a present middle participle, the mirror is perception of Bible doctrine, i.e. "the glory of the Lord," the Shekinah glory is not in a scared building any more. That is, not in the tabernacle or the temple. The Shekinah glory is produced by looking in the mirror of the Word of God, "we are being transformed into the same image," we are able to produce (without the perfection) what our Lord produced in the prototype given at the virgin birth. The operational type is only extant in the Church Age, "from glory [the Shekinah glory of Christ in the prototype] to glory [gate eight of the operational type], from the Spirit of the Lord." God the Holy Spirit provides the power, that is why we call it the divine dynasphere. The same glory that our Lord produced in the divine dynasphere can now be produced in the Church Age believer. The believer can be transformed into the same image from the source of glory, that is, the same as produced by the humanity of Christ when He was in the prototype. We can't have perfection; we can produce a glory. That is why the operational type divine dynasphere has been given to us. The protocol system used by our Lord's humanity in the first advent has become the plan of God for the Church Age believer: residence, function, momentum inside the divine dynasphere.

The first advent of Christ changed everything. Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall become pregnant consequently bearing a son, therefore his name shall be called Immanuel" [God is with us]. Once the virgin birth occurs the presence of the Lord is no longer in a sacred building. The sacred building of the Millennium is a memorial just as the Eucharist is a memorial, but here we have Immanuel, God is with us. The Shekinah glory has come to earth in the hypostatic union and once the hypostatic union occurs there can be no more Shekinah glory, no more sacred buildings. In the Old Testament God was with Israel in the Tabernacle, above the mercy seat, but in the New Testament God is with mankind in the hypostatic union, His true humanity residing in the prototype divine dynasphere. The Lord's title related to His eternal deity and this great event is the title Logoj. The Lord's title related to His eternal and infinite glory is Logoj tou Qeou, the Logoj of God. The Shekinah glory is the Logoj of God. The Shekinah glory comes in the flesh and therefore supersedes all sacred buildings. He tabernacled among us; He is now in human form, the God-Man forever.

Next we note that as a result of His coming in the flesh, He lived in the prototype divine dynasphere. He was able to succeed in doing what the first Adam did not do, and that is to remain impeccable for His thirty-three years on the earth. He had no imputed sin, He had no sin nature, He used His volition inside the prototype divine dynasphere to resist all sin, and therefore He was able to go to the cross. As God Jesus Christ cannot be judged for our sins. To be judged for our sins He had to arrive at the cross as perfect humanity, and He did so in the Shekinah glory protocol system. Therefore in 1 Corinthians 1:18 He is called Logoj once again, related to the Shekinah glory. This time He is called the Logoj of the cross. To those who are saved it is the power of God, dunamij, and that is the whole system. Now, instead of all the things that they did in the Old Testament, we have it all in a protocol system; we have the operational divine dynasphere. So glory is now produced by believers whose body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, therefore no sacred building. The Shekinah glory is therefore visible to believers, 1 John 1:1. No one ever saw God in the Old Testament. Now the veil has been removed and, therefore, when Jesus Christ came in the flesh he was observed empirically by John.

Then we have the Shekinah glory at the second advent — Revelation 19:12-13. In verse 13: "… now His title has been designated o( Logoj tou Qeou [the Logoj of God]." That is the title that no one understood because they didn't relate it with the Shekinah glory of the Old Testament. All of this means simply this: that the Shekinah glory comes to the believer of the Church Age through the Logos. We have noted before that Heracleides used logoj for the principle that controls the universe. He thought of logoj as the original thinker, the one who had vocabulary originally, the one who invented language and thought. hence, from the beginning logos had the connotation of vocabulary and thinking, and life is nothing unless you are able to think, unless you have vocabulary, unless you can build thought upon thought, concept upon concept. But related to the Shekinah glory logoj means the originator of doctrine, our Lord Jesus Christ. When the Sofoj were fighting Heracleides and finally broke away from his school they used logoj in a different way. They used it for rational power inside of man. Socrates and Plato used logoj for preexistent harmony between matter and the thoughts of man's mind. Aristotle said no, that logoj represents manner of life: what you think is what you really are. Neoplatonism came along and in its debate with stoicism recaptured the meaning of logoj as revelation. Today, of course, the Shekinah glory is revealed through Bible doctrine. So they all had a piece of the action but they all missed the point. They couldn't put it all together and therefore this title of the Lord remained obscure. That is why it is so stated in Revelation. Today the Shekinah glory is revealed only through doctrine — categorical protocol system, no ritual. In the Old Testament doctrine was taught through ritual. We live, therefore in the dispensation of protocol rather than ritual, and to learn through protocol requires the function of the privacy of your priesthood, the individual motivation, positive volition, and understanding such phrases as o( logoj tou Qeou: the Logoj of God.

In Hebrews 4:12 we have that same phrase again, but it no longer refers to Jesus Christ as such, it refers to what He thinks, "The word of God is alive and powerful." That is the same phrase used again, used for the Shekinah glory. In the Old Testament the Shekinah glory had to be covered by a sacred building, it had to be hidden from the eyes of people. But now, o( Logoj tou Qeou, the Word of God, is alive and powerful. Now it is opened up to us through doctrine, through thought, through what we find in the scriptures. And there is no substitute for Bible doctrine. If doctrine is not everything in your life, doctrine is nothing in your life and you will never see the Shekinah glory this side of heaven. But God has now permitted us to do something that even Moses couldn't do. It says that Moses saw His backward parts on the mountain but he never saw His Shekinah glory. The Shekinah glory was reserved for the royal family of God.

So we have, therefore, the Shekinah glory in the Church Age. 1 Corinthians 2:7, "We speak God's wisdom in a mystery [Church Age doctrine formerly hidden, now revealed because the Shekinah glory became flesh], the hidden doctrine, which God predestined before the ages to our glory," in a very special sense, through the perception of Bible doctrine, the Shekinah glory becomes ours.

Colossians 1:25-29, "Of which [the dispensation of the Church] I have become a minister according to this dispensation from God," the dispensation of the Church calls for the ministry rather than the priesthood and the gift of prophecy as existed in the Old Testament, "which was given to me for your benefit." What is for our benefit? The fact that we can have the Shekinah glory. We can see the Shekinah glory in doctrine resident in our souls. We can come to the point of occupation with Christ, gate five of the system, "that I might implement your deficiency of ton Logon tou Qeou [the doctrine of God]." Deficiency of the Logoj of God means that we miss the boat, we miss the glory, we are losers in this dispensation.

Verse 26, "that is, the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and other generations; but has now been revealed to his saints," it was always a mystery. Nadab and Abihu wanted to solve the mystery. They died. No one ever solved the mystery, the mystery was reserved for this dispensation. We are the resolvers of the mystery as we learn Bible doctrine at gate four.

Verse 27, "to whom God has decreed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery," the riches of the glory of this mystery is Bible doctrine which will change our lives, "among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory." If you learn the protocol system you will go from glory to glory, as per 2 Corinthians 3:18, and you will have eternal reward, you will be a winner in time, you will see the glory in time.

Verse 28, "Whom we teach," teaching doctrine is the proclamation of the Shekinah glory — "admonishing [or warning] every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we might present every person mature in Christ," there is the Shekinah glory.

Verse 29, "For this purpose I also labour to the point of exhaustion, competing according to his [God's] game plan," the word "competing" is a)gonizw which means to compete as an athlete. What is God's game plan? We have seen the glory; we are therefore to participate in the glory — "which is operational inside the divine dynasphere."

Revelation 19:14, the second advent order of battle. There are three separate and distinct armies in heaven. First of all, there is the army of the elect angels. There is the angelic order of battle which we have noted in the past. We have seen the seraphim officers of the angelic order of battle, the ones that have six wings as their insignia of rank, who are the highest-ranking angels in that order of battle. There is the powerful angel of Revelation 5:2 who ranks as a king of arms in the angelic college of heralds. So we note that the angelic college of heralds had seraphs; but there are also ones in the order of battle as well. For example, the archangels, two army commanders, Michael and Gabriel are mentioned in the Bible; the book of Enoch mentions Rahael and Uriel. Michael commands the army of angels who defend Israel, therefore he is called the prince of Israel in Daniel 10:21. So Michael will be leading "army group A." Along with Michael is Gabriel who is not only an archangel and an army commander in the angelic order of battle but is mentioned as being in connection with the college of heralds as well. We have studied the angelic general staff, the 24 elders who are 24 staff officers. We have also noted the rank and file who are called the "hosts." The second army is "army group B" made up of the royal family of God or Church Age believers in their resurrection bodies which were received at the Rapture of the Church. Then there is "army group C" which is the family of God or the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs in their resurrection bodies. We are talking about millions of creatures, angelic and human. The angelic creatures of army group A are already in whatever is equivalent to our resurrection body.

While Revelation chapters 5 and 12 discussed in detail the angelic order of battle, in this context we are actually dealing with the armies of heaven pertaining to mankind. So army group A, the elect angels in the angelic order of battle will not be under discussion. Army group B, the royal family, will be, as well as army group C, the Old Testament saints. The Church or the royal family returns with Christ, Colossians 3:4, "When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you also [we as believers] will be revealed with him in glory." So it is true that the army group A of heaven will be involved, Matthew 25:31, but the emphasis here is on the armies of regenerate Homo Sapien.

They are called armies for a special reason. Heaven has its system of protocol as we have noted in the past. Heaven has organisation, heaven has authority, and heaven has something else that is very important: heaven is going to be filled with creatures of unequal status. Some believers will have decorations and some will not. Everyone will have a resurrection body but there is no equality in the eternal future. Happiness does not depend on being equal. So these army groups indicate immediately inequality. Whenever you see the word "army" there are several things implied. The word is used in the Bible all the time but hasn't been translated right. The word "hosts" is armies. The Lord of hosts is the Lord of armies. Army means, first of all, discipline. Discipline means authority, there is a system of authority. Authority means protocol; protocol means rank; rank means inequality; inequality means happiness. When any military organisation has these things and they turn out to pass in review it is one of the most beautiful sights sin the world. There is discipline and authority in heaven, and when Jesus Christ returns he returns with organisation — three army groups.

Verse 14 begins: "And the armies in heaven." Armies in peace time have a system for going from point A to point B. We then have an imperfect active indicative from the verb a)kolouqew which means to follow, "in heaven," the prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative o)uranoj. The active voice: the armies of heaven produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality of these armies coming to the earth with the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says, "[they] followed him," the dative singular indirect object from a)utoj, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent.

Now the strange thing. Jesus Christ is coming back to end the greatest world war in history, the last one, but there will be no fighting as far as the armies are concerned. Only the Commander-in-Chief fights. All the fighting is accomplished by one person, Jesus Christ the God-Man, the Lord of the armies. Well, that is not unusual because the whole principle of the spiritual way of life is based on that concept, the battle is the Lords. Hence the principle of grace applies at the second advent just as at the first advent. At the first advent Jesus Christ did all the work. He received the imputation of our sins and He was judged on the cross. He took our place. At the second advent Jesus Christ does all the work, all the fighting, alone, without our help. But that is the way it has always been. Grace means God does the work. We need God's help; God does not need our help.

"And the armies of heaven followed him on white horses." What is the significance of this passage? First of all, believers have victory only by means of the grace policy of God and the protocol system. No believer is a winner apart from grace. Believers do nothing; Christ does the fighting, the battle is the Lord's. The only way to be a winner is through grace, and grace means God provides, God does the work. We simply latch on to what He has provided.

We are now ready for the third paragraph in this chapter, verses 15-21. It deals with the judgment feast which has to do with the last world war in history which will be the greatest world war of all time. We do not know when it will occur because we do not know when the resurrection or the Rapture of the Church will occur. But after the resurrection of the Church there will be a period of seven years which is the end of the dispensation of Israel. It will be the greatest period of concentrated power politics of all time. In that connection there will be the rise of a great Asian power. If the Rapture should occur sometime soon that Asian power could involve an amalgamation of China, Japan, and the various Asiatic peoples of south east Asia. Then there will be a great king of the north, and if the Rapture should take place anytime soon it is now comparable to the Russian communist empire. We have passages like Ezekiel chapters 38 & 39, Daniel chapter 11, and other passages like Joel chapters 2 & 3 which all add up that when that great world war comes, as inevitably it will as a part of the eschatological doctrine of scripture, then this king of the north will play a major part. Then, of course, there is the troubled Middle East. The Arabs cannot get together now but the time will come when Iraq and Iran and the Arab world will unite and form a very powerful Middle East sphere of influence, and they are called the king of the south in the eschatological passages of scripture. They will make a very major contribution to the last world war in history because they will stir up the trouble that leads to the Armageddon campaign. Then there is Western Europe. People are not aware of it today but when General Charles de Gaule made a decision to give up the North African empire he recognised that the only way that he could save France from a Russian takeover was to lose out there. He had to concentrate and he was a smart enough military man to realise that a concentration of forces was the only deterrent, and he gave up the North African empire. Now, today, France is about to become one of the greatest industrial powers in Europe. Germany, of course, is still in the picture but the point is that with the Common Market and with NATO, and with the rise of France again as a major power there is every possibility that we are getting closer than we think to the Tribulation. Of course, it could be a hundred years from now or it could be even longer. We just simply do not know when the Rapture will occur, but when it does there is going to be the king of the west and the revived Roman empire and there will then be all of the spheres of influence that will lead to the greatest world war in all of history.

We now note the end of the greatest war of history, verse 15, the termination of the last world war in history. We have seen the causes and some of the activities of this war. We have also noted that the second advent of Jesus Christ means that He is going to fight, even though He has available three army groups: the elect angels, the royal family of God, and all of the Tribulational martyrs and Old Testament saints in their resurrection bodies. But as we have seen, Jesus Christ fights alone, a perfect illustration of grace.

In the first part of verse 15 we have the concept of peace through military victory. Peace is not a real peace unless there is decisive victory. We begin with the connective use of the conjunction kai indicating the continuation of the subject. With it we have a nominative singular subject made up of two words: o)couj, meaning sharp, and with it the r(omphia, the famous broadsword of Thrace, "sharp sword." This is a long sword, not the maxiara which is used in the analogy, "The word of God is alive and powerful," and which is the Roman short sword. Whenever maxaira is used it talks about success in ranks because you are well trained with the maxaira. The maxaira speaks of balance, self-discipline, of having a solid base from which to function in your life, and that is why it is used with regard to the Word of God. But when it comes to great power and slaughter we have a different word used here, r(omphia, referring to the long Thracian broadsword which requires a man of considerable strength to use it. It was a barbarian sword and was used by the giant barbarian six and a half feet tall. The sword was often six feet long.

This sword is said to proceed from our Lord's mouth, the present middle indicative of the verb e)kporeuomai which means to go out or to proceed. The sword produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of a great slaughter by which our Lord Jesus Christ terminates the last world war of history. And it is said to come from His mouth, e)k plus the ablative of stoma. The mouth emphasises the fact that the deity of Christ is invisible at the second advent but His humanity is visible. "And a sharp broadsword comes out of his mouth." Here is the principle of freedom through military victory. The only thing organised evil can understand is force and punishment. Organised evil does not understand and is not impressed by words or by threats. Only force and punishment impresses organised evil. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ from His perfect integrity, from the perfection of His deity and humanity, uses force. The last and greatest world war in history was terminated by the use of force. When integrity uses force it always functions professionally, and that is how it all ended. When integrity uses forces it is in no way related to murder, and the principle is: It takes violence to stop violence when the violence is initiated from arrogance and organised evil. Our Lord Jesus Christ returns the second time with the greatest violence the world has ever known and with the greatest slaughter of people the world has ever known. The same principle is found in the control of crime through capital punishment.

Next in our verse we have a purpose clause which begins with the conjunction i(na. This conjunction plus the subjunctive mood introduces a purpose clause. Behind this all is a purpose. I(na introduces a final clause in the Greek which expresses a purpose, an objective, and a goal. This is the purpose, objective and goal of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have following that prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, and it should be correctly translated "with it," "in order that with it." That is, with the sword that He uses, "he might strike and kill," the aorist active subjunctive of the verb patassw, and it means to strike, to hit, and to kill. Homer in the Iliad used this verb to knock on a door very loudly and therefore to strike a door. Eventually it was used to destroy a door, and from that Demosthenes and Polybius used the verb for a fatal blow, a blow that kills and destroys. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, uses this verb patassw for the Hebrew verb makah, and this demonstrates the meaning of the verb because it is used for the act of Moses when he killed the taskmaster in Egypt, according to Exodus 2:12. So it means to kill with the maximum amount of violence, and the subject of the verb is the Lord Jesus Christ. So we translate: "And a sharp broadsword comes out of his mouth in order that he might strike the nations," the accusative plural direct object from e)qnoj, referring to Gentile nations. The aorist tense of patassw is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it collects into one concept every time our Lord strokes one of the nations at the second advent. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb by the annihilation of the armies.

As we have noted, this war will be a war of spheres of influence, of power blocs. These are antichrist nations, they are involved in the greatest world war in history. The war will be fought in every part of the globe. With this we have the subjunctive mood indicating the purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 34:6, "The sword of the Lord is filled with blood." That is the way wars are won. Apart from the slaughter and resultant military victory there would be no blessing and no perfect environment for the Millennium for when Jesus Christ returns to the earth He is going to introduce 1000 years of perfect environment, in the last dispensation of history, but you cannot introduce perfect environment without slaughtering the enemy. One of the keys to the perfect environment that follows is the fact that the enemy is going to be slaughtered in every part of the world so that people can see other people die and know that they cannot contend with the power of the Lord. For one thousand years after that there will be no wars. Victory in battle precedes the prosperity of a nation; victory in battle means the destruction of the enemy army.

The victory is won by our Lord Jesus Christ and the result is now given. We have next the sequential use of the conjunctive kai, which means "then," after military victory, after the slaughter of the nations, "then he," the nominative singular subject "he" is from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun, and "he" refers to our Lord Jesus Christ, the God-Man, "shall govern," the future active indicative of the verb poimainw. Poimainw meant originally to shepherd, to rule, to govern. Here the future tense is a predictive future for an event which is expected to occur at the second advent and thereafter, after military victory.

Whenever you have indecisiveness in some area of the world you are constantly having warfare. This means that the lessons that are learned from decisive victory have disappeared and as they gradually move over the horizon of history then new ambitious, arrogant people replace them, and warfare of all kinds begin to develop.

When it says "he shall rule" it is a predictive future, it is an event that is expected to occur after military victory. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb after terminating the last world war in history. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of eschatological doctrine.

How does our Lord rule? When there is going to be perfect environment in the world there must be a policy, and the policy is given in the prepositional phrase that follows, e)n plus the instrumental of r(abdoj. R(abdoj is a sceptre. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and a sceptre was simply a sign of rank. People did not wear their crowns all the time when they were rulers in the ancient world but they carried a badge of rank called a sceptre, a stick of some kind. What kind of a sceptre does our Lord have? We have an adjective, sidhreoj, which means an iron scepter, "he shall rule them with an iron sceptre." An iron sceptre means an inflexible instrument, an instrument that was consolidated into some form and remained that way. The iron sceptre then stands for the laws of divine establishment, category #1 truth in the Bible, the laws of divine establishment to guarantee freedom for all. The laws of divine establishment recognise the importance of privacy and they interpret freedom in terms of privacy. You cannot have freedom unless you have privacy. To have privacy two things must be sacred: your life and your property. The sacredness of life and property are necessary for privacy; privacy is necessary for freedom. Then you must have one other thing. When you have freedom you must also have a system for the maintenance of freedom, and that is authority. If you have freedom without authority you have anarchy; if you have authority without freedom you have tyranny. So you can have tyranny or anarchy. There must be a balance and the laws of divine establishment recognise that balance. Therefore the ruling with the rod of iron refers to the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, the tremendous system of jurisprudence which will exist throughout the earth; a perfect system of laws to process and to administer every violation to privacy or property and life. This is only one of many blessings because it says in Psalm 46:9 — "He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth," that is because of the great slaughter, "He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; he burns the chariot with fire." Isaiah 2:4, "And he will judge between nations, in fact he will render decisions for many people; and they will therefore hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war." That will be the result of the decisive victory of our Lord at the second advent.

This fulfills, therefore, a prophecy which is found in Isaiah 9:6,7, "For a child is born to us, and a son will be given to us." The word "child" refers to the humanity of Christ coming from the virgin birth. The "son" refers to Jesus Christ as eternal God, coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. So it refers to the first advent of Christ. The first advent of Christ could not accomplish these things because it was necessary to do something else. The omniscience of God programmed into the computer of divine decrees a special chip, and on that chip are all the sins of the world since human history began down to the end of time. All of those sins were actually in that chip so that when Jesus Christ came the first time He had to be true humanity, and His true humanity functioned in the prototype divine dynasphere so that He would get to the cross the way Adam was created — perfect. Adam was created perfect; Jesus Christ arrived at the cross perfect. At the cross God the Father had to set aside His love for God the Son and He functioned under His justice. The justice of God the Father programmed out of the computer all of those sins and imputed them all to Christ on the cross, and there they were judged. Having accomplished this so great salvation and having broken the back of Satan by His saving work on the cross Jesus Christ died, rose again, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father while a royal family for his third royal warrant is being formed, the royal family of the Church Age. Jesus Christ had to solve the sin problem and he did that on the cross. Now, when He returns the second time He is going to return with that same royal family which is formed during the Church Age. The royal family will return with our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent, and after the annihilation of the enemy and the end of the last great world war of history, then He will rule for a thousand years with an iron sceptre. In that rule of the iron sceptre you will have a perfect function of the laws of divine establishment plus perfect jurisprudence operating on the earth. All of that is brought out when it says in the middle of Isaiah 9:6, "And the government [of the world] will be on his shoulders [that is second advent]; furthermore his name will be called Wonderful Counselor [the perfect judge]," our Lord Jesus Christ will judge or have a system of administration of law that will be perfect, "Mighty Hero," corrected translation from the Hebrew referring to the fact that he slaughtered the enemy and ended the last great world war of history, "the Father of Eternity," Jesus Christ is the saviour of all who believe in Him during the Millennium and He will be the Father of eternal life for all the citizens who receive Christ as saviour during the Millennium, "Prince of Peace [or prosperity]," as a result of slaughtering the enemy in the last world war both peace and prosperity will exist for the last 1000 years of history, called the Millennium.

Verse 7, "There will be no end to the increase of his government or of world peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it," He will not only rule the world but He will fulfill the unconditional covenants to Israel, mentioned here as the Davidic covenant under the phrase throne of David. Note how all of this is accomplished. It is not accomplished through love, it is accomplished through integrity, "with justice and righteousness from then [the Millennial reign of Christ] on and forevermore [the eternal rule of Christ]," and how did he establish His rule? By military victory. The last phrase of this verse says, "The zeal of the Lord of the armies will accomplish this." He will accomplish it through military victory.

Notice the last phrase of Revelation 19:15. How does He rule the nations with an iron sceptre? "and [prior to this] he treads down the winepress of the wine of the wrath, even the anger of God the omnipotent one." Thereis a series of five different genitives in the exegesis in the description. First of all we have the descriptive genitives of o)inoj, meaning of the wine. Then the subjective genitive of qumoj meaning "of the wrath." Then the genitive of apposition from o)rgh meaning "even the anger." Then the possessive genitive of qeoj, "of God," and finally, the appositional genitive "the omnipotent one."

What does it all mean? The winepress was used in the first stage of manufacturing wine after the harvest from the vineyard. Each vineyard possessed a winepress to extract the juice of the grape for the distillation process. The juice of the grape was extracted by trampling the grapes. The juice of the grapes filled the press, stained the robes of the workers, and became a euphemism for the slaughter or annihilation of the enemy army in the field of battle. Then when it says who is going to do this, "God the omnipotent one," that is a reference to Jesus Christ, for the word for omnipotent one is pantokratwr which means the all-powerful ruler. Satan rules the world at the present time and he rules the world through the kosmokratwr, demon rulers, Ephesians 6. So there are two references in this verse to the annihilation of the armies of the antichrist, the great slaughter which precedes the Millennial reign of Christ.

Principle: it takes virtuous violence, holy violence, the violence of integrity to neutralise and destroy the violence of evil, the violence of arrogance. No country can survive the loss of its integrity. Integrity is what makes a nation great.

Our Lord assumes the role of military establishment at the second advent in order to destroy the violence of arrogance and evil. There are two legitimate systems of violence which represent establishment doctrine: the professional function of the military establishment and the professional function of law enforcement. The principle of these two systems is the doctrine of fighting violence with violence to end violence, the same concept as freedom through military victory. The 1000 years of world peace directly related to the military victory of our Lord Jesus Christ is the termination of the last world war in history.

Note that believers have a perfect seat for watching our Lord win the victory. They are mounted in comfortable saddles secure in our Lord's victory. Under the grace policy believers go along for the ride just as believers living inside the divine dynasphere are securely mounted on the white horse of victory. Today, in bodies of corruption, our mount is the divine dynasphere; tomorrow in resurrection bodies we will come back with our Lord Jesus Christ mounted on the white horse.

1 John 5:4,5 describes the winner, "For whoever is born from God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith [not works, faith]. And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" Faith is the key; faith is the pattern. We are saved by faith, we walk by faith, "For by faith we stand," says Paul to the Corinthians.

So this victory is celebrated when believers in resurrection bodies mounted on white horses of victory return with Christ at the second advent.

Now we note the uniform of the army groups in this passage. We have the perfect passive participle from the verb e)nduw, "and they were clothed." There is no "and" here in the Greek but this is a circumstantial participle and to translate a circumstantial participle it is legitimate to put it in the normal verb form with the conjunction "and." The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which is a rhetorical use of the intensive perfect, it is used for completed action with the existing status quo described in a vivid and realistic way. The completed action is the ultimate sanctification of the believer in a resurrection body: Church Age believers who receive their resurrection bodies at the Rapture plus Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs who receive their resurrection bodies at the second advent. Therefore their uniform is the uniform of ultimate sanctification. The passive voice: two categories of believers receive the action of the verb — army group B, the royal family at the Rapture; army group C, the family of God and/or Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs at the second advent. Just before Christ returns there is a resurrection of all the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs. The participle is circumstantial which can be translated with the conjunction "and," and the finite construction of the verb.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object made up of three words. First of all, a very fascinating noun, bussinoj which has the concept of white, white in the sense of the resurrection body here. It is not the usual word for white which has to do with the concept of the uniform of glory. This is the word for linen, and with it leukoj, "white linen." Sometimes the word leukoj alone refers to the uniform of glory; here it refers to everyone's resurrection body. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and linen was considered to be one of the most valuable of all garments. The resurrection body is the most valuable garment we will ever know. With it we have an adjective kaqaroj referring to the fact that we are now in a state of purity. In the resurrection body which we will have for all eternity there will never again be any sinning or any failure of any kind.

"and they were clothed with fine linen [ultimate sanctification], white [resurrection body] and pure [the ultimate sanctification of the eternal state]."

That brings up the question: What is sanctification? Sanctification is a very technical term. Unfortunately some technical terms get distorted. In theology it is a very good word. It is a technical theological word for the status of the believer in the three phases of the plan of God. Phase one of the plan of God is salvation and that takes place in an instant of time. The second phase is the believer in time, and the third phase is the believer in eternity. Sanctification as a word means to set apart as sacred, or set apart as consecrated to God. Therefore sanctification is a priestly term, it ties the Church Age believer into God's grace contract forever. The resurrection, ascension and session of our Lord Jesus Christ abrogated the old contract which we call the Mosaic law and simultaneously interrupted the dispensation of Israel. The interruption of the Jewish dispensation was caused by our Lord's new battlefield royalty. Our Lord, after His ascension and session was given His third title of royalty but He was minus a royal family. So the Age of Israel came to a halt and we now have the Church Age and the calling out of the royal family of God. Certain privileges occur here that have never existed before, like the baptism of the Spirit, the sealing ministry of the Spirit, God the Holy Spirit regenerated Old Testament saints but four ministries of the Holy Spirit have been added, the whole protocol system has been added. For the first time in history every believer is a priest, every believer is an ambassador, every believer has two royal warrants. There are many unique things about the Church Age and they all have to do with the fact that this is the dispensation of the royal family of God. Therefore we have a new contract or new covenant to the Church. It authorises a royal family, a royal priesthood consecrated under three stages of sanctification. Sanctification was the ministry of the priest. In the past the priest carried on the functions of sanctification. The priest offered the animal sacrifices, the priest went into the holy place and performed certain functions. The priest went through certain rituals on certain holy days such as the day of atonement. Sanctification means that God has a purpose for every one of us now because every believer is a priest representing himself to God.

In the framework of our royal priesthood there are three categories of sanctification. The etymology of sanctification is important because it says in John 6:69, "And we have believed, in fact we have come to know that you are the Holy One come from God." This is a young man speaking with regard to Jesus Christ, and just as we have seen Jesus Christ as o( Logoj tou Qeou now we have almost a similar phrase, only this time it o( a(gioj tou Qeou. Jesus Christ is called the Holy One of God and that is where sanctification originates, it comes from this word a(gioj which is translated "holy." The word is used to describe technically the royal family of God. Jesus Christ is the Holy One from God but when Jesus Christ ascended into heaven he was minus a royal family. Therefore the Church Age is the calling out of the royal family, and one of the titles for people in the royal family is saint. Every believer is a saint as of the moment they accept Jesus Christ as saviour. Saint, therefore, becomes synonymous with the royal family of God in contrast to believers in other dispensations who are simply known as family of God. This means quality possessed by persons who approach God. If there ever was a word described the meaning of saint this is it, quality. It means that God gave you 37 things at salvation, that is quality, not experiential quality. The issue here is that the moment that you believed in Christ God the Holy Spirit entered you into union with Christ, the baptism of the Spirit. It means that the moment you accepted Christ as saviour you became royal family. A saint is a believer who is different from all other believers of all other dispensations because he is a member of the royal family of God. Sanctification means that God has a purpose for your life all the way from salvation to eternity.

There are certain words that are used. The first is a(gioj. That means that you are consecrated to God. God has a plan for your life; God has a system for your life. With this there is another word very closely related to it, a(giothj which is translated holiness, which means the status quo of the believer as royal family of God. It describes the principle by which all believers are related to the integrity of God. Then there are several words that are translated the same. The first of these is a(giosunh, one of several words translated "sanctification." It emphasises the first blessing to flow through the grace pipeline from the integrity of God. It means the possession of divine righteousness, one half of God's holiness or perfect integrity. It describes the relationship between the royal family of believers and the integrity of God in this dispensation. There is one other noun, a(giosmoj, which means holiness, consecration, sanctification, and it refers to the state of being made holy and is used for the three categories of sanctification. There is also a verb which generally means to sanctify, a(giazw.

There are agents in sanctification. Phase one sanctification is salvation, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and though shalt be saved." So the agent who provided phase one sanctification is Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10:9, "then [at that time, in the cradle] he [Jesus Christ said [in the past with the result that it stands spoken forever], ‘Behold, I have arrived to accomplish your plan [purpose]'." He has abrogated the first covenant, the law, in order that he might establish the second .

Verse 10 adds, "By means of which will [purpose, design] we have been sanctified [in the past, salvation] with the result that we remain consecrated to God forever through the offering of the body of Christ at one time [on the cross]."

Verse 14, "By means of one offering [the work of Christ on the cross] he has perfected for all time the ones being sanctified."

So in phase one sanctification Jesus Christ is the one who accomplished it. We do not accomplish sanctification, Christ accomplishes it. We simply accept it by faith.

Next we have, after salvation, two agents in phase two. God the Holy Spirit, Romans 15:16, "To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as the priest the gospel of God, that my offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

2 Thessalonians 2:13, "But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because the God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit by faith in doctrine."

The next three verses teach the lesson related to the second advent that you cannot depend upon people for your happiness. To the extent that you depend upon people to make you happy to that extent you are going to be miserable all of your life. People were not designed to make other people happy. You can be happy with people if you already have happiness but the idea that you depend upon people for happiness is always a disaster. The second advent brings out many concepts of eschatological doctrine but this passage has some very practical aspects. Happiness depends upon your relationship to the plan of God as a believer; happiness depends upon your cognisance of the protocol system and functioning in it. Happiness depends entirely on who and what the Lord is. As the scripture says, "Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm." If you depend on people for happiness you are trusting in man, if you are trying to use people for your happiness you are making flesh your arm. There is absolutely no way that people will ever make you happy if you depend on them for happiness. If you do not depend on them for happiness and you find your happiness in God's plan then you are going to have a most wonderful relationship with people. Love will have significance in all of its human categories. But these are not designed to make you happy, they are really designed for happy people. The social life of unhappy people is a rat race and no matter how many VIPs you contact or how many people of success or prominence or fame you know, name dropping is a sign of unhappiness and instability, and you will never find happiness from famous people. As a matter of fact famous people are more insecure than infamous people, than the average man in the street. The higher you go in life the greater become your insecurities and your instabilities apart from finding your happiness and your blessing in the Lord.

Verse 16 does not start with unhappiness in depending upon people, it starts with the royal title of our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent. But the royal title itself reminds us of the fact that only in the Lord is there happiness both in time and in eternity. Happy people are wonderful to know. Happy people who find their happiness in the Lord are wonderful to be with and are wonderful to love and to be loved by them. Unhappy people are a pain in the neck.

In verse 16 we simply have, "Furthermore he has a royal title which has been written on his robe [His military tunic] and on his thigh," that is the corrected translation. The title on His tunic has been customary for 2000 years. It identifies the rider of the white horse by His third royal warrant, His battlefield royalty of our Lord Jesus Christ. The title on His thigh is a little different, it goes back to an ancient custom of engraving one's name or title as an artist. Of course, the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. To understand the title on His thigh we have to thank Cicero. Cicero once remarked about a beautiful statue of Apollo on the thigh of which was the name of Myron engraved in tiny letters of silver. Myron was one of the great sculptors of all time and he lived in the fifth century BC. Always Myron in very small letters in silver actually inscribed his name on the thigh of his statues, the purpose being that any time you were successful or any time you were royalty you put that down in two different places in the ancient world. So the Bible being interpreted in the time in which it was written this refers to the battlefield title of our Lord Jesus Christ. Written on His tunic or military robe referring to His tactical victory of the second advent; the same royal title written on the thigh indicates that our Lord Jesus Christ is the author of the dispensation of the Millennial kingdom — perfect environment on earth for 1000 years. The fact that he has these titles, of course, becomes extremely important as far as where we are putting our trust and what is the source of our happiness. The answer to the next two verses is found here. If your happiness is not anchored in the person of Christ then you have no true happiness. You can be stimulated and have your ups and have your downs, but being up and being down is not being happy. Being up means that you are depending upon overt stimuli of one source or another, one of which is people. Too many born again believers are simply depending on some person to make them happy. Happiness does not come in that way.

Then we have the revelation of the royal title, "King over kings." The translation comes from the objective genitive of the noun basileuj which occurs twice. The objective genitive should be translated "King over kings," and, of course, "Lord over lords," the nominative of basileuj followed by the objective of basileuj.

The entire verse simply sounds like this: "Furthermore he has a royal title which has been written on his robe and on his thigh, KING OVER KING [a reference to our Lord's sovereignty over all human rulers], AND LORD OVER LORDS [our Lord's sovereignty over all angelic rulers, both fallen angels and elect angels." The Bible indicates our Lord's total victory in both phases of the angelic conflict: our Lord's victory in the prehistoric phase as well as in the historical phase. Our Lord has additional titles related to the angelic conflict: His title of Angel of the Lord, which makes Him the head of the angelic college of heralds, and His title Lord of the armies, which means He is the ruler over the angelic order of battle.

Verse 17, we have the invitation to the judgment feast. We have this time a sequential conjunction kai which is translated "Then." Along with this we have the usual introduction to the vision, "The I saw one angel." The words "one angel" probably means "unique" and it refers to the seraph rank king of arms from the angelic college of heralds. He is said to be standing, the perfect passive participle of the verb i(stemi. The perfect tense is an intensive perfect in which special attention is directed to the results of the action, therefore the existing result is intensified. This is an emphatic method for presenting a fact or condition in the Koine Greek. The English language has no equivalent to the idiom and it is generally translated by the English present, though not always. The active voice: the king of arms of the angelic college of heralds produces the action and he is said to be standing not in the sun but in the sunlight, a reference to the fact that the supernatural darkness which occurs at the second advent in the final phase of the Armageddon campaign is now replaced by sunshine. Hence, the war is over. The enemy has been annihilated and defeated. And in our Lord's deliverance in the Middle east campaign, known as the Armageddon campaign, Jesus Christ destroyed the enemy armies. In this great slaughter of the enemies a feast is being prepared for the vultures of Palestine. The significance of standing in the sunlight is the fact that the supernatural darkness of the second advent has been removed and now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The carrion birds can find the rotting carcasses of invading armies which signifies the end of the last world war in history.

"Then I saw one angel standing in the sunlight; and he shouted with a loud voice." This phrase introduces the king of arms, the highest ranking angelic herald, and he is going to invite birds to a feast. We have already seen the great banquet to which we are invited in the future, the wedding banquet of the Lamb. This is the second of the two banquets in this chapter. The once-great armies that invaded the Middle East, the armies of the great spheres of influence, are now carcasses. The manner in which the mandate was communicated to the vultures is unknown but the gist of it has been translated into human language for our edification.

Why have we spent a relatively unusual amount of time talking about corpses, about putrefying flesh, about dead soldiers scattered throughout the earth? The answer is because great armies are fighting for wrong causes at the end of the Tribulation, and great armies fighting for wrong causes are destroyed. The reason they are fighting for wrong causes is because they have related to their esprit de corpse arrogance. Arrogance destroys the great virtue in esprit de corpse and now makes them proper food for the vultures. The vultures profit more than anyone else from the last great world war. So the first lesson for the banquet for the vultures is the fact that arrogant an unthinking men fight for wrong causes. The wrong cause here is the attempt to destroy the Jewish nation in the Middle East campaign, and the attempt to destroy the plan of God for planet earth. Anti-Semitism is a part of that cause and is sponsored by Satan himself. The personnel of armies dedicated to the annihilation of the Jews became rations for the vultures. This means that their arrogant and evil thinking is not even on a level with that of the vulture. The armies have invaded Israel like vultures and consequently they become food for the vultures. Glory becomes gory. The invading armies in an evil cause become a feed for the vultures in a good cause. The vultures in the Millennium are going to be very, very healthy!

The guest list for the judgment seat follows, all the birds that fly in midair. And here is the invitation: "Come and gather to the great feast [banquet] from the God." It is called a great banquet because the vultures and the other carrion birds are going to have plenty to eat for a long time. "The God" here refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, the manifest person of the Trinity, as taught in John 1:18; 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12.

Verse 18, the purpose clause or the finale of the divine judgment. The principle that comes out of it: You cannot depend upon human beings for happiness. This second banquet demonstrates a number of principles:

4. You cannot depend upon famous people, great people, or any people for happiness.

We now begin to see some of the applications from this buzzard feast. It is no accident that God the Holy Spirit has selected certain categories on whom people depend for their happiness. The banquet table is not just Palestine, the banquet table is the entire earth. The banquet for the vultures is the finale for judgment by death.

In order that we might understand that this is a judgment we have the purpose clause, the conjunction i(na with the aorist active subjunctive of e)sqiw, "in order that you may eat." The point is, there will be no honourable burial of the dead. These dead have fought on the wrong side. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the banquet of the vultures, the judgment feast of carrion eating birds, and gathers them up into one entirety, The active voice: the vultures produce the action of the verb throughout the world where the corpses from the judgment of our Lord at the second advent occur. Remember that "killed in action" covers planet earth for all of these armies. To be an unbeliever and to be under the Satanic influence of the cosmic system at the end of the Tribulation means becoming a victim of history. First, miserably alive under the category of judgment by pain, then horribly dead, a putrefying corpse on a forgotten battlefield being devoured by vultures and finally spending eternity in the lake of fire. That certainly doesn't spell happiness for those involved. We have seen, however, that they had a grace opportunity. Judgment by pain is crisis evangelism prior to the Armageddon campaign, the word war of the devil's desperation. Every soldier executed by our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent was given a final call through crisis evangelism. Then judgment by death, our Lord's return killed millions and millions of troops fighting in the field. Finally judgment for eternity, the unbeliever stands before the great white throne.

This is the finale of the last world war and those who reject Christ as saviour are on the wrong side of history. There is nothing worse than being on the wrong side of history. The profile of those who are on the wrong side of history includes the fact that they had God-consciousness, they had normal evangelism, they had crisis evangelism, and they were still negative. Those who came up negative at every opportunity are subjected to the following judgments. First of all, being on the wrong side of history they are dependent upon people for happiness. That is self-induced misery. Then they had judgment by pain to give them another chance at objectivity and listening to the gospel. Then they had judgment by death, clearing the decks for action for the perfect environment of the Millennium. Finally, they have eternal judgment in the lake of fire. The transition between judgment by death and eternal judgment finds the vultures hard at work having a great banquet on all the battlefields of planet earth. The armies are composed of those who resisted the grace of God and were caught up in the cosmic system.

Now we have a roll call, and in this roll call of judgment by death we have almost every category of person on whom people depend for happiness. But these people on whom people depend for happiness were miserable in themselves. We notice first an accusative plural direct object from sarc with a descriptive genitive plural from basileuj, referring to world rulers at the time of the second advent. These kings were rulers who had attained the highest political rank and distinction in history at that time. Being rulers they have a number of things. Any ruler at any time in history has power, he also has wealth, fame. That goes with being a ruler. They also have control, maximum opportunity for gratification of every lust and every ambition in life. Ordinarily one thinks of rulers as having great security in life, but if there is anything that rulers do not have it is security. When faced with divine judgment by death these rulers have no security. They are casualties to their own negative volition and people associated with them can have no greater security than they have, and even though people might be the friends of these rulers and dependent upon these kings for happiness, all that they are going to get out of it is the misery and unhappiness of great insecurity. For the kings are the most insecure of all. They saw how easy it was to gain their power; they also know how easy it is to lose that power. These kings include those we have noted: the king of the north, the kings of the east, the king of the south and the king of the west. It would also include other rulers throughout the earth.

What is the principle? A lot of people depend upon the rulers whom they know personally for happiness. They depend upon them as influence peddlers, they depend upon them in order to gain a little slice of the wealth, to gain a little recognition, in order to move up into what they think is a better society. These rulers make wrong decisions personally and in the administration of their foreign and domestic policies. They are very insecure. Power is useless unless one has the capacity for power, and these rulers in the Tribulation do not even have the capacity for power. Capacity for power comes from truth, or categorical doctrine which they have rejected. In essence, they have rejected three categories of Bible doctrine: the laws of divine establishment which would give them a sense of responsibility and leadership; the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which would provide the beginning of happiness through eternal salvation; the doctrine for believers and the responsibility to God and to man which is mandated in the Word of God. Hence, these kings and rulers hold maximum power and authority but as people they are losers, and everyone who depends on them inevitably by association becomes a loser. So we have the principle by association. Losers have no capacity for power or wisdom or its proper use, and through bad decisions these rulers have lost control of their personal lives and the historical situation at the end of the Tribulation. Being negative toward truth or doctrine these kings have no capacity for life, no capacity for happiness, and having no capacity for happiness they are simply going to make those who depend on them for happiness very unhappy. Hence, they demonstrate the principle that great human power, great human success, which most people are very ambitious to achieve, is the basis for the greatest insecurity and the greatest unhappiness in life. Jesus Christ controls history and no attainment of wealth, power or success is meaningful unless one has personally believed in Christ for salvation and has daily fellowship with Him through life inside the divine dynasphere. And while those with maximum human power become a feast for the vultures the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent are enjoying the great party, the wedding banquet of the Lamb. A good decision today brings great happiness tomorrow. Your good decision today is to take in doctrine today and take in doctrine tomorrow.

Next we have a second category, field marshals and generals. Again we have the word sarc for corpses, and also we have a descriptive genitive from xiliarxoj. A xiliarxoj is supposed to be a person who commands a thousand men but actually it is for anyone who commands more than a thousand men. So we simply translate it "top brass" or the corpses of general officers and field marshals. So next to the rulers of nations the greatest authority on earth during the last world war of history at the end of the Tribulation are the field marshals, general officers. There is no safety nor security in attaining the highest military rank. The implication is that this rank has no real leadership, being influenced by the degeneracy which exists during the last half of the Tribulation. That is not necessarily true in every case but one thing is true, if you are in the military and you are ambitious to attain the highest rank, and you think you are going to be happy as a general officer, etc., success in the military or any other profession is not going to make you happy.

The next category is the officer corps, that is, below the rank of general. This time we have again the word for corps and with it the noun i)sxuroj which means power or rank, used in a technical sense here, and it refers to company grade and field grade officers of the various nations in that last world war of history. They all had one thing in common: they were negative toward the truth, the were unbelievers, and their volition at each stage of opportunity rejected Christ and therefore they failed to avail themselves of the only hope they had, and as a result, they are the corpses strewn throughout the world. They are all commanding units designed to execute the mandates of Satan in the last world war of history. All had experienced judgment by pain, and all experienced judgment by death.

The next, of course, is the mechanised army. Mechanisation does not protect an army from destruction. We have here "the corpses of horses, and of those mounted on them," that is their riders. In this case, of course, we are talking about mechanised armies today. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and the only mechanisation was the cavalry and the chariot at the time of writing. Military effectiveness and victory depends upon the born-again Jewish soldiers whom we have already noted in the Armageddon campaign and they are survivors, along with other believers involved in the world wars.

The fifth category are the combat service support groups, and they are dead too. The word "free," e)leuqeroj here, refers to volunteers; the word douloj, translated "slaves," refers to draftees. The word "small," mikroj, refers to enlisted personnel, and the word "great, megaj, refers to the officer corps.

This fulfills the second advent prophecy of Matthew 24:27-28, "For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpses are located, there the vultures will gather."

Corrected translation of verse 18: "In order that you [the vultures] may eat the corpses of kings, the corpses of general officers, the corpses of the mighty, both the corpses of horses and their riders, in fact the corpses of all combat service support organisations, both volunteers and draftees, both enlisted personnel and officer corps." Notice the translation takes cognisance of modern terminology for ancient functions.

Jesus Christ completely annihilates every military category in every army of antiChrist involved in the last world war of history. But the greatest application to us belongs not just to the military, whose categories are mentioned exclusively here because of this war, but it belongs to all of us today because some of us, perhaps all of us, have at some time or another placed the entire happiness of our lives in the hands of another person, so that that person has the power to make us happy, that person has the power to make us unhappy, that person has the influence over our life. This is a terrible trap, for your relationships with people under those conditions can only make you unhappy. The only secret to happiness is to have the happiness before you meet these people to whom you are attracted, the people that you love, the people that you admire. There is only one way to be happy when you are going up or you are going down, and that happiness depends on Bible doctrine.

As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you must find your happiness in God's protocol system. There is no happiness in love, sex, or marriage. If marriage is your source of happiness then you are going to be miserable and off balance all of your life. This does not imply that there is anything wrong with marriage, it is a divine institution, but it does imply that people who enter marriage must bring their happiness with them. The same thing can be said for another category: wealth and prosperity. If you come into wealth, success and prosperity and you do not have capacity for happiness, if you do not bring your happiness with you, these things will not bring you happiness as such.

Your happiness must come from a greater source and therefore the existence of God's protocol system, God's plan for your life, the residence, function, momentum inside the divine dynasphere. The key, of course, is Bible doctrine, your daily perception of Bible doctrine as a believer. Our Lord Jesus Christ in the first advent was the pioneer, the perfect pattern of happiness in the original protocol system. In that most dramatic moment of history our Lord Jesus Christ came to the cross and was crucified as a result of seven trials. All seven trials violated the jurisprudence of both Israel and the Roman empire. These two systems met in the seven trials of our Lord Jesus Christ and they malfunctioned. But the malfunction became the benefit of the entire human race, "all things working together for good," for out of it came our so great salvation. In the most dramatic moment of history, in that six hours when our Lord was hanging on the cross bearing our sins, he spoke seven times, giving us the key to happiness and the answer to this riddle of success not bringing happiness.

Luke 23:32-34, we have several of our Lord's expressions. In this passage we see that he was not crucified alone, there was a criminal crucified on each side of Him. These men had been tried by Roman law and had been found guilty. Roman law had three systems of capital punishment. For the aristocrats, the senators or those of Patrician background, they were permitted to get into a tub of hot water and slit their wrists. Roman citizens in general were decapitated. Then, the third category was for non-Romans, and that was crucifixion. All of the enemies of Rome, anyone who was not a Roman citizens, was crucified. Our Lord Jesus Christ as the King of Israel was not a Roman citizen and as such He was put on the cross.

Verse 32, "And two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with him."

Verse 33, "And when they came to that place called The Skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right hand and one on his left."

Verse 34, "Now Jesus kept saying," the first comment that He made on the cross was one that indicated the fact that He had lived in His humanity inside the protocol divine dynasphere. The protocol of heaven provided for the humanity of Christ this marvelous system, the first Christmas present. At the point of the virgin birth our Lord Jesus Christ was given a protocol system. As eternal God He doesn't need support but as true humanity He needed to be sustained during His first advent. This first comment is present linear aktionsart, He kept saying it. He said: "Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." He repeated this many times. So the first category of remarks has to do with the expression of His functional virtue. He had perfect virtue and perfect virtue means perfect happiness. The achievement of virtue is the only source of true happiness in life. Therefore virtue means humility directed toward authority, motivational virtue directed toward God, functional virtue directed toward mankind. For example, Jesus Christ had perfect love for God the Father. That is motivational virtue. That was a personal love. The only personal love that has virtue is personal love for God. Functional virtue was impersonal love toward all mankind. Here, of course, the emphasis is on the integrity of the subject. Jesus Christ could love His persecutors, He could love the judges who failed in the function of jurisprudence, he could fulfill every concept of impersonal love. Our Lord Jesus Christ pioneered the system of perfect happiness in life, a happiness you can have regardless of circumstances. Our Lord's perfect expression of integrity is given when He said, "Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." They were ridiculing Him, they were despising Him, they were making fun of Him, they were doing everything to express their antagonism toward Him. They were implacable but He loved them, they were absolutely filled with hatred but He returned the favour with love. He was not disturbed by their negative attitude. It was a demonstration of perfect happiness. Jesus Christ had perfect happiness without any of the things that we regard as being important in happiness. So His impersonal love inside the prototype divine dynasphere is manifest in the expression of His first statement on the cross. This phrase was uttered while He was beginning to endure physical pain.

The second statement on the cross is also found in this chapter, in verse 39, where it says, "And one of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him, saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!' " This is the manifestation of the criminal status. He was in the cosmic system, a place of great arrogance. While cosmic one was his mental attitude arrogance it interlocked with gate seven of cosmic one, which is criminal arrogance. All criminals are arrogant. The other criminal in verse 40 had a different attitude by this time. He was much more observant, he was objective. The criminal who rejected our Lord was subjective in the cosmic system, but this man under the pressure of his dying had a surge of objectivity. "But the other [criminal] answered, and rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?' " And then he adds in verse 41, "And we indeed justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this one has nothing wrong." He recognised the perfection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore he began to concentrate on our Lord and "he kept on repeating," says verse 42, "Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom!" And the Lord, of course, gave him and answer, an answer that once again expressed the perfect stability, the perfect happiness of our Lord. "And he replied to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise'." The criminal at that moment had expressed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is said, therefore, to be with our Lord in Paradise. When our Lord died physically His soul went to Paradise, the place where all of the Old Testament saints resided until the resurrection. His body went into the tomb, His human spirit went into the presence of the Father. When this criminal expressed, even though he was under the penalty of death, these words he had personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of his sins, all of his evil, all of his past were forgiven at that moment when he believed in the Lord. He will be in the first resurrection but the other criminal is going to be in the second resurrection, the judgment. So two criminals were crucified. One became a believer; one remained an unbeliever. And so the human race is separated by attitude toward Jesus Christ.

The third statement of our Lord on the cross is found in John 19:25. Happy people have integrity, they are thoughtful of others, they have constructed into their souls that protocol system of happiness that guarantees stability in life. Happy people take their happiness with them. In John 19:25 even though our Lord is in great pain He is still thoughtful of loved ones. There was standing there the mother of His humanity. In verse 26, "When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved [John] nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Woman [gunh], behold, your son!' " Then in verse 27, "He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household." From that time until she died she was under the care of the apostle John.

The fourth expression is that of spiritual death and it is found in Matthew 27:45, "Now from the sixth hour [noon] darkness fell on all the land until the ninth hour [3pm]." So from noon until three o'clock in the afternoon our Lord Jesus Christ was constantly receiving the imputation of every sin in the history of the human race. "And about the ninth hour Jesus uttered a cry with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani?' that is, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?' " The forsaking of our Lord Jesus Christ is very simple. God the Father loved God the Son with an eternal love, but when Jesus Christ became true humanity so He could bear our sins in His own body on the tree, then love had to be set aside and the justice of God had to function. Justice supersedes love in the provision of our so great salvation. The justice of God the Father fed out of the computer of divine decrees all the sins of the history of the human race. So when our Lord was using the vocative, "My God", He was addressing God the Father who was imputing our sins to Him and judging every one of them. The courtroom in which all human sin was judged was the cross and it took three hours for this to occur. In judging our sins in the body of Christ on the cross the Father and the Holy Spirit had to forsake Him. "He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

In John 19:28 we have the expression of His human suffering. Even though He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree and fulfilling the plan of the Father He recognised that not only was He now in possession still of His perfect happiness but that perfect happiness would be the heritage of any believer who lived in the protocol system. Very few believers are truly happy today. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is the beginning. Being a believer does not guarantee happiness in time, only happiness in eternity, but you can have perfect happiness. You can take it wherever you go. "After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, ‘I am thirsty'." Thirst is one of the great physical agonies of the cross. "A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge into the jar of wine and moved it up to our Lord's mouth." That was His expression of great suffering, but even in great suffering he still has His happiness. For every person there is suffering somewhere on the horizon. The one who has happiness doesn't lose it when suffering comes.

The sixth expression of the cross is that of a completed mission, fulfilling the purpose for the residence of His humanity on this earth, John 19:30: "When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, he said, Tetelestai, the perfect tense of the verb telew. It means it has been finished now with the result that is stands completed forever with the result that for anyone who has believed in the past their salvation has now been provided. And for anyone who believes in the future there is a message from God: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." Salvation for the human race was accomplished by the spiritual death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was still alive when He finished dying for our sins, this was His spiritual death on the cross bearing our sins. The implications are many. When He said, "It is finished," nothing can be added to the work of Christ for salvation. "And having pushed forward his head he handed over his spirit [human spirit]." The human spirit goes into the presence of God the Father. Why did he push Himself forward? John 19:34 tells us what happened. "One of the soldiers pierced his side [chest cavity] with a spear, and immediately there came out a(ima and o(udor [blood clots and serum]." The issue of John 19:34 is somatic death. He was dead physically at this point as proved by the fact that when His side was pierced the blood clots and the serum came out. In dying on the cross our Lord Jesus Christ positioned His body so that a maximum amount of blood would settle in the dependent part of His heart in the lower chest cavity. He pushed His body forward in dying to prove that He did not bleed to death on the cross. Jesus Christ did not bleed to death on the cross. The blood of Christ refers to His saving work. It refers to redemption, reconciliation, propitiation. He moved His head forward and exhaled His last breath. he did not inhale again. The arrangement of the order in the pulmonary artery in the diaphragm and the various veins were such that a large amount of blood remained and settled in His left and right ventricles where it would be vulnerable to the spear thrust. He was thrust with the spear in that lower region of His heart. When the Roman soldier plunged the spear into His chest cavity out came blood clots and serum. While hanging on the cross our Lord Jesus Christ anticipated the distortion and the perversion of the true connotation of the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses from all sin. By distorting the true meaning of the blood of Christ Satan would attack the cross in several ways. First he would obscure the fact of the hypostatic union by denying the existence of the true humanity of Christ. Secondly, he would obscure the importance of our Lord's spiritual death on the cross bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. Thirdly, Satan would philosophise the cross through declaring the cross to be an optical illusion. One of the greatest problems with emotional believers who are ignorant of Bible doctrine — therefore also without that true happiness of life — is the fact that they somehow think that there is a mysterious "something" in the blood of Christ, and that He bled to death, and that the blood was caught in a pot by an angel and carried to heaven. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is one more expression, and the expression is the key to human happiness, Luke 23:46. This is the expression of the royal family of God heritage. This is why we are here and why we have a special mission in life. This is where the protocol of heaven meets the protocol of earth in the fantastic system of the plan of God. "And Jesus, having cried out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I deposit my spirit.' And having said this, he expired."

In the great prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah 53, verse 12 becomes pertinent. "Therefore, I [God the Father] will distribute the spoil [the plunder of victory] to him [Christ] because of the many [royal family believers], that he [Christ] will distribute the spoil to the great ones [believers who attain the victory gate eight in the protocol system]; because he [Christ] poured out his soul to death [physical death]. Prior to this physical death he was identified with the offerings of sin [He fulfilled the Levitical offerings]; because he himself carried the sins of the many, and concerning the offering for sin it [the whole thing] was caused to fall on him."

The key to what was said in its entirety is found in Psalm 31:5 where this was quoted prophetically, "Into thy hand I deposit my spirit." That part is recorded in Luke, but the rest is not recorded, "For you have delivered me, O Lord, God of doctrine." That was the last thing uttered by our Lord: the word "doctrine." The key to happiness, the key to capacity for life, for blessing, the secret to the believer's modus operandi, the protocol of heaven meeting the protocol of earth, is Bible doctrine. It is the heritage of the royal family of God, the basis for momentum inside the divine dynasphere, the secret to the protocol of heaven being brought to earth so that our life can be full of meaning and purpose and definition. Doctrine must be the number one priority for every believer. Doctrine becomes the true greatness of the individual. Doctrine, of course, is located in the pages of the scripture but doctrine is useless unless it is transferred into your individual soul.

The introduction to this verse is found in Revelation 13:6, speaking of the beast dictator: "And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to slander his people and his tabernacle," the word for "tabernacle" is the Greek skhnh and it has something to do with the shekinah glory, the shekinah glory in heaven a memorial to the person and the work of Christ in His strategic victory of the first advent, "and those believers who tabernacled in heaven," and again we have the verb skhnow, the same verb that we studied in connection with the shekinah glory coming to earth in the first advent. This is a paronomasia and it introduces the profile of the beast dictator. We have noted that first of all he was a military genius, he gains control of the revived Roman empire through defeating three of the ten nations of the old Roman empire. This was noted in Revelation 13:1 as well as Daniel 7:20,21. He is certainly a political genius and this is basically the story of Revelation 13, Daniel 7, and 2 Thessalonians 2. He is thirdly a religious genius and this is his story of his support of the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation which is known under the code name Babylon the great, the great harlot. Fourth, he has the power of miracles as we have noted in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. This is the appeal to the emotionalism of the masses, and is also man's worship of power and the idolising of evil because of involvement in Satan's cosmic system. Those who worship power and idolise evil will never appreciate freedom or have the capacity for happiness in this life. When people do not have truth or doctrine they are always impressed by the wrong things. We have also noted in profile that he had the dynamics of verbal communication, he had a good voice. The ability to communicate is one of the most important functions in life and Satan gives this dictator a supernatural power of communication in order to communicate evil concepts. We noted that he had, however, a time limitation on his power, and so it always is. Those who have power always have a time limitation. Time runs out and when it does the power is gone, Revelation 13:5. We also noted that evil power is frustrated by humour and the power of the paronomasia, Revelation 13:6. Humour is a great weapon in the hands of those who adhere to Bible doctrine. The paronomasia of the first advent strategic victory of Christ is emphasised in John 1:14 where our Lord tabernacled among us, the shekinah glory came to earth. With all of his great power the beast dictator cannot laugh at himself and he can only slander those who are beyond his power. That was the way it was with the Tribulational martyrs whom he slaughtered. They were beyond his power, they tabernacled in heaven with the shekinah glory. So the play on words produced a marvelous pun describing the fact that the believer in heaven and the believer on earth with maximum doctrine in the soul are beyond the power of any beast dictator. Furthermore, at this time Satan is confined to the earth and these martyrs are in heaven. Therefore the humour of it all, they have gone where Satan can never go again. It is a bad joke to Satan but it is very humorous to us. People who have too much power have no sense of humour. Too much power is defined as power acquired by arrogance. Arrogance plus power cannot laugh at self or at anything that is humorous. Any arrogant preoccupation with self always takes self too seriously and therefore the omission of a sense of humour. The believer with maximum doctrine in the soul with that happiness that we have noted is beyond the power of any dictator of this earth. In life he will not compromise doctrine; in death the interim life puts the believer way beyond the power of Satan or any dictatorial power of tyranny. Even by killing believers the beast dictator puts the martyr believer beyond his own power. The beast dictator is miserable in his frustration while the martyred believer is happy in heaven. The dictator cannot see the humour in the situation, namely that with all of his tremendous power with which he is able to kill the believer he cannot control him in time and the believer martyr is beyond his control in eternity. The mature believer is beyond the control of any dictatorial power in life because of the greater power of Bible doctrine in his soul. Furthermore, he is beyond dictatorial power in death because he is transferred to heaven. What is humorous is the fact that Satan who has this great power and who has delegated it to the beast dictator has been driven out of heaven permanently in the last half of the Tribulation. As the ruler of this world he has no power, no authority over believers apart from his cosmic system.

The introduction to Revelation 19:19 is in the principle that comes out of this concept, the principle of organised evil, for the beast dictator represents organised evil in contrast to disorganised evil. The beast dictator has a systematic or organised system of evil. As the ruler of the revived Roman empire, as the leader of ecumenical religion, disorganised or non-systematic evil is simply a degeneracy without power. With the martyrdom of Tribulational believers in the last half of the Tribulation we learn the principle that while doctrinal believers can coexist with degeneracy or disorganised evil they cannot coexist with organised evil. The society of organised or systematic evil always persecutes the truth. Organised or systematic evil cannot stand any form of truth or doctrine. When a client nation has too much degeneracy and disorganised evil is not controlled by the laws of divine establishment some dictator rises up to suppress degeneracy and disorganised evil. In so doing he often substitutes what is far worse: systematic evil or organised evil in which the government commits the crimes instead of private citizens. The power of degeneracy or disorganised evil is crime and violence while the power of systematic evil is government using its authority to destroy freedom, to confiscate property, and to murder behind the facade of the greater good for the greater number. Systematic evil is characterised by self-righteous arrogance while disorganised evil is characterised by criminal arrogance. The dictator eliminates private crime because the dictator wants a monopoly on private crime. He substitutes public crime for private crime. The enlarged pivot of mature believers, the effective function of law and order, free enterprise and the military establishment plus law enforcement and good jurisprudence, hinders the effectiveness of organised evil. Disorganised evil generally opens the way for the use of a systematic system of evil. The pattern if systematic evil replaces disorganised evil and this is often seen in history, as illustrated by the French revolution, the Russian revolution, the communist takeover of China, the rise of Adolf Hitler. It proves the point that self-righteous arrogance has more power than criminal arrogance. Self-righteous arrogance is morality without virtue, therefore the importance of the priority of the plan of God which is virtue first. Morality minus virtue becomes self-righteousness and self-righteous arrogance leads to organised evil, the systematic evil by which the dictator rises to power.

In permitting evil to run its course in human history God demonstrates the power of doctrine resident in the soul of the mature believer and the tremendous happiness that comes from that doctrine mentioned in our Lord's dying words. The mature believer keeps his priorities straight, doctrine is more important than life itself and a period of martyrdom often occurs under these circumstances. The dictator, of course, demands and gains respect from the wrong kind of people. The leader functions under the principle of mutual respect but with the dictator he demands respect through the infusion of fear, and therefore the dictator uses his power to gain respect rather than any leadership ability that he may possess. The worship of power is the dictator's way of controlling people in contrast to the person who is a leader. The ability that comes to the dictator comes from evil; the ability of true leadership comes from the truth. This also leads to the fact that now, as well as in the future, there is no real power or real significance to public opinion. Public opinion caters to the viewpoint of the majority and the majority has no power or control in history. This is one thing that disorganised evil demonstrates: that there is no power or control in history from that standpoint. The control always comes from organised evil. Organised evil means a minority control. It is always a minority which controls and influences history. Sometimes it is a good minority, like the pivot of mature believers in the client nation to God, but frequently it is the minority of evil which controls the historical trend. Public opinion reacts to minorities but public opinion has no power, no organisation. Public opinion is news today and gone tomorrow. A Gallup poll in representing public opinion is only good in a republic or in a democracy with an overextended voting franchise, but public opinion has no power against organised minorities and their depredations. Public opinion can only bully the weak and flatter the successful. Public opinion has no power with the communists who ignore it in their invasions. Public opinion is all to often a system of arrogance, a system of public self-righteousness, a system of mass hysteria which assumes that their condemnation has power or influence. In reality, evil cares nothing for public opinion.

The power of the dictator, therefore, prevents him from thinking beyond the inventory of his own ideas. The corrupting influence of power not only erases the norms of the divine establishment and supersedes the standards of category #1 truth, but hinders the cosmic dictator from utilising any previous inventory of honourable principles that he might have possessed. This explains the conflict between organised and disorganised evil, the conflict between free enterprise and evil. While disorganised evil and degeneracy coexist with Christianity organised evil always persecutes Christianity. Self-righteous arrogance and its accompanying fanaticism is just as cruel and just as degenerate as any other category of degeneracy. That is why we have in verse 19 organised evil, the last conspiracy of the last war.

In this passage there are three categories of evil. All three categories are organised evil. Category #1 is the chief conspirator and agitator of history, Satan himself. He is introduced first with a connective and sequential use of the conjunction kai, followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety, John's vision of organised evil at the end of the Tribulation. The active voice: John as the human author produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. The accusative singular from the noun qhrion introduces the object of the vision, the dictator. The word means "beast," we call him the beast dictator. "Then I saw the beast dictator," the beast dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation.

In the trinity of evil the beast dictator is number two. The trinity of organised evil includes first of all Satan, and secondly, the beast dictator. The trinity of organised evil includes Satan as the ruler of this world and the beast dictator as the chief agitator. Along with these two is the false prophet or "beast out of the land," the religious motivator. So we have to distinguish between the conspiracy at the beginning of the world war and those which occur at the end. In other words, there are several conspiracies around this world war. The first conspiracy occurred at the beginning of the last world war of history. This is the one we studied in Revelation 16:13-16, a Satanic conspiracy to destroy the Jew so that Christ cannot return to deliver Israel and fulfill the four unconditional covenants. Satan seeks to frustrate the plan of God for Israel by total annihilation of all Jews on the earth. Therefore the Middle east campaign came into very sharp focus in chapter 16. It included the battle of Armageddon, the battle of Idumea, the battle of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and the siege of Jerusalem. But with the second advent of Christ a second conspiracy is formed. This is the conspiracy at the end of the last world war of history, the conspiracy mentioned first in 17:14, then 19:19-21. This conspiracy is the most ambitious of all Satanic attacks until he is released from prison at the end of the Millennium. It involves the use of violence inspired by Satan to turn the warring armies of the last world war all against our Lord Jesus Christ and the three army groups who return with Him. The conspiracy refers to 17:14 and emphasises the believers of the Church Age, the royal family of God. This conspiracy emphasises also the attack on all three army groups who come back with our Lord. However, this conspiracy fails, Satan's time is running out, and therefore his power is running out. The elapse of time is always against a dictator.

So Satan cannot stem the tide and he cannot prevent the blessing of eternal life in resurrection bodies to all categories of believers. Nor can he harm elect angels or believers who survive on earth. Satan's power is completely destroyed by the second advent. Note the principle of grace: Only Christ does the fighting. The accompanying armies observe only.

The second category of organised evil are the political rulers alive on the earth, the dictators in the last half of the Tribulation. They are involved in the conspiracy under the title of the accusative plural basileuj. These are the political rulers of various nations involved in the last world war. They are rulers especially under the influence of the beast dictator. These would include the seven nations of the revived Roman empire who came voluntarily under the control of the beast. Furthermore, he is the leader of ecumenical religion and that means that other national leaders will be brought under his sphere of influence. In addition, rulers in three great spheres of influence, Tribulation empires, are involved. The king of the north, the kings of the east, the king of the south and, of course, the ten proconsuls under the rule of the revived Roman empire. They are said to be the first two sources of organised evil.

"Then I saw the beast dictator, and the kings of the earth." The third are the military forces involved in the conspiracy, and this is our third direct object from the verb, the accusative plural direct object from strateuma which means "and their armies." The conspiracy calls for the use of force to gain the objectives of Satan which are to destroy the Lord and His elect angels plus all resurrected believers who are accompany Him at the second advent. The principle: When force is used for evil it must be destroyed. Satan's violence cannot cancel the power of our Lord. These armies are organised evil, they use violence to fulfill Satan's policy. This explains the resistance to their armies on the part of Jewish believers in the state of Israel. This explains why Christ slaughters them at the end of the Tribulation. These armies and their rulers are going to become a banquet for all the vultures of the world. Violence of disorganised evil can only be restrained by law — law enforcement, capital punishment during human history — but the violence of organised evil can only be restrained by military establishment. Therefore we have two restraints on violence. For the violence of disorganised evil, law enforcement and capital punishment, but organised evil requires more. Organised evil is lawless; organised evil is the law. Organised evil can only be restrained by military power, therefore the importance of our military establishment. In the very last conspiracy only the force of our Lord Jesus Christ neutralises the power of the last great conspiracy.

Translation: "Then I saw the beast dictator, and the kings of the earth, plus their armies."

This represents the violence of organised evil. There are many systems of organised evil on the earth

The application of all of this is found in Psalm two where the last great conspiracy is described. The first three verses gives us the situation, the status quo in the last half of the Tribulation, where the evil trinity, organised evil in general, has developed the tremendous conspiracy.

Verse 2, the kings of the earth take their stand [the great conspiracy of Revelation 19:19], and the rulers plot together against the Lord [God the Father], and against his anointed one [God the Son], saying,

Verse 3, "Let us break their bands [the authority of divine establishment], let us destroy their restraining forces and throw of the chains [the chains with which they bind us]." The principle is: Let us destroy the principle that Jesus Christ controls history.

In answer to this in verses 4-6 we have the plan of God the Father. The protocol of heaven comes into action.

Verse 4, "He [God the Father, author of the divine plan] who is enthroned in heaven laughs," it is nice to know that the absolute power of heaven has a marvelous sense of humour, "the Lord scoffs at them," the anthropopathism for divine power.

Verse 5, "Then [at the end of the Tribulation] he will speak to them in his anger [the anthropopathism for divine judgment], and he will terrify them in his wrath [the seven last plagues of Revelation 16, the seven bowl judgments]."

Verse 6, "But as for me [God the Father] I have installed my King [the coronation of Christ at the second advent] on Zion [fulfillment of the Davidic covenant], my holy mountain [the ultimate victory of Christ in the angelic conflict]."

In verses 7-9 we have Jesus Christ coming into the picture. Jesus Christ controls history.

Verse 7, "I will proclaim the decree of the Lord [the printout of the computer of divine decrees]: he [God the Father] said to me [God the Son], You are my Son [first advent]; today [moment of the virgin birth, the incarnation] I have begotten you."

Verse 8, this is after the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ: "Ask from me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance [anticipating the Millennial reign of Christ] plus the very ends of the earth as your possession [Christ will rule in the last dispensation of history]."

Verse 9, "And you will rule them with an iron sceptre [the Millennial reign of Christ is a rule of virtue] and you will shatter them to pieces like pottery [the function of jurisprudence and capital punishment in the Millennium]."

Verse 10, "Therefore [divine advice to nations of the Tribulation] you kings [rulers of the earth]; become wise [believe in Christ and then learn the protocol system from Bible doctrine]; be warned [crisis evangelism] you rulers of the earth."

Verse 11, "Serve the Lord with a sense of responsibility [with reverence], and rejoice with trembling [rulers can be happy if they are born again, if they have learned Bible doctrine]."

Verse 12, "Kiss [pay homage] to the Son [faith in Christ, perception of doctrine after salvation], lest he become angry and you perish in the way [rulers without Christ have no chance], for his wrath may soon be kindled. How happy are those who take refuge in him."

Leviticus 16:1,2, "Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron [Nadab and Abihu], when they approached the presence of the Lord [the explanation for the strange fire which they offered and for which they died]. Then the Lord said to Moses, Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not at any time enter the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lets he die; for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat."

As we have noted, this was the shekinah glory, the presence of Jesus Christ as the God of Israel. In Hezekiah's prayer of Isaiah 37:16, he said, "O Lord of the armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned between the cherubs," that golden throne is called the mercy seat. The reason it is called a seat is because no one ever had the nerve just to say that the Lord actually sat there since the shekinah glory was between the cherubs or over that mercy seat. So when Hezekiah got down to serious praying he prayed to the Lord who resided between the two cherubs, to the shekinah glory.

The Jews got into a war with the Philistines and in the first battle the force that went were almost annihilated, about 4000 casualties. So they decided that they were a little rusty and needed some good luck. The good luck charm they selected was the ark of the covenant, which means the golden throne and the cherubs on each side, the whole package. So in 1 Samuel 4:4 it says, "The people went up to Shiloh [where the tabernacle was being kept at the time], and from there they carried the ark of the Lord of the armies, who sits between the cherubs: and the two sons of Eli [the high priest], Hophni and Pinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God [they carried it into battle]."

A second battle was fought in which the Jews were defeated again and in the course of the defeat both Hophni and Pinehas were killed in battle. The ark was not designed to be a good luck charm. The ark itself was taken by the Philistines to Ashdod and put in their temple there, the temple of Dagon. When they brought the word to Eli [he was 98 years old] he was apparently sitting on a fence and when he heard that the ark was taken he fell over backwards and broke his neck and died. That meant that there was only one person left in the clan and that was the wife of Pinehas and the news resulted in the events of 1 Samuel 4:19-22. She named her newborn son Ichabod which means "there is no glory" or simply "no glory," saying, "the glory [kabhodh] has departed from Israel; because the ark of God was captured." Then her dying words were, "The glory [kabhodh] is departed from Israel; for the ark of God is captured." The woman understood in dying that the shekinah glory, or the dwelling presence of Jesus Christ as the God of Israel between the mercy seat, was the key to understanding Israel in time of blessing. Israel is a client nation to God and any time the glory departs then it is all over.

The application to us is obvious: No pivot of mature believers means that the glory of the Lord has departed from the client nation. We live in the dispensation of no sacred buildings. The shekinah glory today resides in the divine dynasphere, as it were, and our function in the divine dynasphere is the only way our country can be delivered. In the Old Testament the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ between the cherubs was the shekinah glory and the cloud over the tabernacle indicated His presence in the holy of holies. However, beginning with the virgin birth and the incarnation we know that the hypostatic union made a great difference. Once the shekinah glory came in the flesh the shekinah glory lived in the prototype divine dynasphere. Now in the Church Age the client nation depends on believers living in the operational type divine dynasphere. When you find believers not living in the divine dynasphere and not understanding the significance of the protocol plan of God, then the glory has departed from the client nation just as obviously as the glory departed from Israel in that day. That is why 2 Corinthians 3:17,18 is so important because in essence it describes our responsibility as believers, not only to God but to the client nation. There is no solution to the problems of the client nation apart from the believer living, functioning, having momentum, and achieving maturity, inside the divine dynasphere. "Now the Lord is the Spirit [reference to the deity of the Holy Spirit and His function at gate one]; and where the Spirit of the Lord is [the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer's body], there is freedom [freedom to execute the plan of God]." The same concept is Galatians 5:1, "Stand fast, therefore, in the freedom wherewith Christ has made you free." That can only be accomplished inside the divine dynasphere.

The application to this is found in our passage in Revelation chapter 19 for we find divine judgment coming to the beast dictator and his nation at the second advent. So far we have covered this much of verse 19: "Then I saw the beast dictator, and the kings of the earth who had been concentrated to make war against him who is mounted on the horse [our Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent] and against his army."

This is the last phase of the last world war of history, Satan's last effort to frustrate the plan of God as the ruler of this world. Of course, Satan has to use violence because he cannot fight truth with the lie. The concentration of the combined armies of the political blocs and the systems of power politics in the Tribulation under many dictators, and especially at the end under the dictator of the revived Roman empire, is the greatest concentration of Gentile troops in all of human history. It is designed to destroy the Lord, the elect angels and believers, in one fell swoop. The invasion of the kings of the east, of the Asiatic bloc; the invasion of the king of the north plus the attempted invasion of the armies of the revived Roman empire, plus the attack of Arabic nations known as the king of the south, are all combined to meet the challenge of the second advent at this point. In many cases they have been fighting each other but Satan in one last tremendous effort takes all of the fighting armies and gets them to have an armistice and turn against the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is one eschatological problem in this connection: the treaty between the Jewish dictator and the revived Roman empire in the middle of the Tribulation. This is not a case of a broken treaty but a new phase of the last world war, and the dictator of the revived Roman empire turns his forces toward the invasion from heaven in contrast to the previous conspiracy. A simpler passage is found in Joel chapter three, verses nine though seventeen:

"Proclaim among the nations, Prepare for war [necessary to survive in the last half of the Tribulation], assemble the warriors [troops], let all the fighting men advance and attack. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears [revive the industrial complex for war]; let the weakling say, I am strong. Concentrate your armies, and all you surrounding nations invade [attack Israel, concentrate there, because Christ returns to Israel]; bring down your armies, O lord [the prayer for the second advent of Christ and the three armies that we have previously noted]. Let the nations be aroused [propagandised]," if you are going to get into a full scale war you have to have people aroused, you have to arouse their antagonism, they have to get mad, and you have to use propaganda to do it. One of the major signs of degeneracy is the principle of getting people angry from that which is false, "therefore attack [motivation for attacking another country comes from propaganda] the valley of Jehoshaphat [attack Israel]; for there [our Lord's answer] I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations."

One conspiracy starts a word war, Revelation 16; one terminates it, Joel 3; Revelation 19:19.

"Put in the sickle [the seven last plagues]." What do the seven bowl judgments add to this? First of all, there are a lot of people there under pressure of warfare, economic disaster, disease, the four horsemen in other words. This is the judgment by pain. As a result of the four horsemen many people are going to believe in Christ. Some of them will even survive and spend 1000 years in perfect environment in the Millennium; many will die because they continue to make negative and bad decisions. That is judgment by death. Then there is going to be judgment by finesse in which great nations will be destroyed. New nations will come out of those nations in the Millennial reign of Christ. So the three major judgments are always God's grace opportunity, "for the harvest [the five bowl judgments, crisis evangelism] is ripe; come [prayer for the second advent], trample the grapes [our Lord's destruction of all the armies of the world]; for the winepress is full [the sixth bowl judgment, judgment by death], the vats overflow; for their evil is great."

"Multitudes, multitudes [millions, millions, millions of troops] in the valley of decision.… The sun and the moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness [the earth will be completely enveloped in darkness just before the second advent]. Then the Lord roars from Zion, and thunders from Jerusalem [where He comes at the second advent], consequently the heavens and the earth tremble; however the Lord will be a refuge for his people [many millions will survive], and a fortification for the citizens of Israel. Then you, o Israel, will know that I [the Lord Jesus Christ] am the Lord, your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; therefore Jerusalem will be holy, and strange [armies] will no longer pass through it."

The last world war of history is terminated, it is all over, there is nothing left but the dead. That is the reason for the vultures' banquet that we have been noting.

Revelation 19:20,21: Verse 20, the judgment of the Satanic conspirators. The termination of the last conspiracy means that the conspirators do not get away with it. We have the aorist passive indicative of piazw can be translated arrested as long as you understand he, the dictator, was arrested violently ‘Then the beast dictator was seized," the constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. He was not just captured, he was seized violently. The passive voice: the Tribulational dictator receives the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality of the arrest of the great agitator of the last conspiracy. he is the arch conspirator, he is the agitator of Satan's organisation, he is the chief human conspirator in starting the last world war of history, "and with him the false prophet," the coconspirator, the religious motivator. As coconspirator the false prophet is the religious motivator and he joins in the conspiracy with Satan which began the last world war in history. That is how so many gung-ho religious types wind up on the battlefield and wind up as the vultures' banquet. The "false prophet" here is a nominative of exclamation, it is the title of the Jewish dictator.

We have a series now of relative clauses. The first of these is "who performed the miracles in his presence." "Then the beast dictator was seized, and with him the false prophet [the religious motivator] who performed miracles in his presence," the function of demonism is a part of that miracle worker. There are always certain people who are so stupid that the only thing that will move them is a miracle, or what appears to be a miracle, therefore the function of demonism and Satanic miracles. Religion, of course, emphasises miracles while Christianity emphasises the content of doctrine. Christianity emphasises thought, accurate thought, Bible doctrine; religion emphasises miracles and fanaticism, and gung-ho'ism. The power of the Word is greater than the power of miracles, for the power of the Word is in the soul while the power of miracles is in the function of empiricism. The legitimate function of miracles to call attention to doctrine was no longer valid in the Church Age after the completion of the canon of scripture, so no one is performing miracles today in the name of the Lord. The miracles of the false prophet are primarily demon-type miracles.

"In his presence" is a reference to the Gentile dictator of the revived Roman empire.

The second relative clause "by which [miracles] he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast," "he deceived those," and a third relative clause, "who received the mark of the beast," computerised tyranny, the ID card indicating that the holder is a member of the ecumenical religious system, hence a system for identifying the converts of Satan's cosmic system. The ID card or mark is given to everyone who becomes a member of the ecumenical religious system, and on this card is a code number, 666, which is printed on the hand and on the forehead. This number 666 is tied into a computer memory system which has detailed information about each convert to Satan's cosmic system. Without this card and the system of computerised tyranny the people of the Tribulation will not be able to survive in certain areas of the world. Those who accept this system are the ones who are entered into this giant computer programmed under the code number 666. The memory bank of the computer under the code number 666 destroys all privacy, all freedom, of

Application: Religion destroys your privacy. Christianity is designed to give you your privacy. In Christianity every believer has the privacy of his priesthood; under religion you live in a glass cage, and there is no more vulnerable cage than the one that will be designed by computerised tyranny. Christianity is designed for you to get information and for you in the privacy of your priesthood to reject that information or accept it; to do with it what you will.

These converts to ecumenical religion have rejected normal and crisis evangelism, they are under the program 666 in the computer, and they are a part of the religious system. Even the first bowl judgment of skin cancer [God put His mark on them] is a reminder that where there is life there is hope, and they could still have accepted Christ as saviour under the skin cancer of Judgment by pain. Those who do not have the mark of the beast or this ID card with code number 666, cannot buy or sell, therefore they are excluded from the economy of the revived Roman empire and anywhere else where ecumenical religion is operative. Generally those who possess the card or mark are unbelievers who have rejected the gospel under normal evangelism and are under the influence of the cosmic system. The mark of the beast is rejected by winners, believers who have advanced to maturity, and we have studied them as the Tribulational martyrs. These winners are not only frequently martyred for their stand but we have also noted their prayers as well.

There is a fourth relative clause — "even those who worship his idol." It is a reference to the abomination of desolation, the idol which is the facsimile of the dictator of the revived Roman empire. The idol is called not only the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24:15 but even in Old Testament passages like Daniel 11:31. Demonism in the Old Testament is related to idolatry and human sacrifice, therefore sacrifice to demons was prohibited. The function of idolatry and demon worship includes always human sacrifice. Nations in the ancient world, like Canaan, were destroyed because of this demon activity. Hence, idolatry and resultant demonism is what we call the devil's communion table, 1 Corinthians 10:19-21.

The punishment of the two dictators follows in the final statement, "though still alive these two were thrown into the lake of fire burning with sulphur." This is the fact that they are physically alive when thrown into the lake of fire, and they do not lose consciousness in the lake of fire. They continue in a state of terrible suffering without dying physically. This is, of course, extreme punishment which indicates the gravity of their crimes. For one thousand years they are the only two human occupants of the lake of fire, and it is not until the end of the Millennium that the great white throne judgment and second resurrection of unbelievers occurs. Hence, they have the lake of fire all to themselves, and since all other believers go to Hades, the place of torments, they are the only two in the lake of fire. No two human beings ever sold out to Satan in the manner in which these two dictators, one Jew and one Gentile, have done. They reached the peak of organised evil in both religious and political categories, they were the worst unbelievers of history. Hence, they are the advance guard for the final and eternal hell. They are alive in the lake of fire for 1000 years.

Translation of verse 20: "Then the beast dictator was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed miracles in his presence, by which [miracles] he had deceived those who received the mark of the beast, even those who worshipped his idol. Though still alive, these two were thrown into the lake of fire burning with sulphur."

Verse 21, The termination, then, of the Armageddon campaign and the last world war is mentioned in this final statement of the vultures' banquet. "And the rest were slain with the sword of him that sat on the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."

The "rest" refers to all the kings of the earth and their armies. This includes the armies which have invaded the Middle East and the armies that are fighting all over the world in that last world war. Note that the dictator of Israel is called the false prophet. This implies that he was overthrown by believers who resisted the king of the north in the siege of Jerusalem. So they were "slaughtered" literally. We have noted before that our Lord does it alone with the broadsword which came out of His mouth. The inevitable winner, then, of the last world war is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then the final phrase. The subject is made up of two words, the adjective paj and the noun o)rneon. O)rneon refers to birds. And what did they do? The aorist passive indicative of xortazw, they "gorged" themselves. The constative aorist: they had a banquet such as has never been known before. The passive voice: the carrion-eating birds receive the action of the verb. They have the greatest meal that any carrion bird group ever had, "then all the birds were gorged from eating their corpses."

At the same time that this is going on the wedding banquet of the Lamb, where all of us will be attending, will be in progress where we will be having a marvelous party in the presence of the Lord.

The chapter we are about to study is the last millennium in history. The outline has four paragraphs.

This is a chapter of judgment. There are two general categories of divine judgment: direct and indirect. Indirect judgment are the divine judgments of history where God is not seen and God is not present. Direct judgments can be classified as those judgments when God is on the scene. That means that the indirect judgments are the ones we have been studying: the divine judgments related to time, to human history, to the function of the grace of God. So indirect judgments are judgments by pain, by death, and finesse judgments. Direct judgments are divine judgments related to the presence of Christ on earth, like the second advent or the end of the Millennium. The judgment of the armies of the last world war which we have just noted in chapter 19 would be classified as a direct judgment. Jesus Christ personally annihilated these armies that led to the banquet of the vultures. Right now in human history we are under indirect judgments, illustrated by judgment by pain, the function of God’s grace in crisis evangelism fulfilling the principle of grace before judgment; illustrated by the bowl judgments, especially the judgment of Revelation 16:10 where judgment by pain is mentioned specifically. The two categories of normal evangelism take cognisance of this judgment. First of all there is normal evangelism which is the function of evangelism under more or less objective circumstances, and secondly there is crisis evangelism which is the presentation of the gospel in times of individual or collective catastrophe in history. Under normal evangelism the unbeliever has the opportunity of objectively considering the issues of Christ and eternal salvation. Normal evangelism is conducted in many ways, generally through witnessing, the gospel message in print or broadcasted through some form of technology, some form of function by an evangelist. When the unbeliever rejects Christ as saviour he goes into the cosmic system again and now becomes subjective, and for evangelism to occur it must include judgment by pain. This is what we call indirect judgment. God is not here personally, He uses the events of history. That is true of the second category of indirect judgment which is judgment by death, the function of God’s grace in the perpetuation of the human race from generation to generation through human history. God has promised that the human race will never be totally destroyed on planet earth until the end of history, and in order to do this the computer of divine decrees occasionally gives a readout of maximum degeneracy and sin which would destroy the human race. Therefore the cancer is removed by judgment by death. The third category, the one which we have noted in some detail, is judgment by finesse in which an evil agent is used to destroy something representing God that has become evil — generally the destruction of a client nation, sometimes a group of believers, it varies from time to time and from place to place. God uses envy and power lust plus evil’s hatred of hypocrisy in another to destroy an evil system. Finesse dramatises the fact that man is simply a product of his own volition when he becomes involved in the cosmic system and its resultant evils. In other words, God uses the wrath of man to, praise Him, as per Psalm 76:10. Therefore Jesus Christ in controlling history uses a great deal of finesse judgment. These are indirect divine judgments.

We are now coming down to direct judgments in the last part of the book of Revelation.

We might say that the judgment at the cross was a direct judgment in that Jesus Christ was present on earth. He was being judged, however. God the Father took the printout of all the sins of human history right out of divine decrees and imputed them all to Christ when He was hanging on the cross and all human sin was judged at the cross. The self-judgment of the believer does not come into this category at all, but after the Rapture and the judgment seat of Christ the Lord Jesus Christ is there to judge personally. That would be categorised as a direct judgment. But beginning with the second advent when Christ is personally on earth the baptism of fire is a judgment by God the Son, the removal of Satan as the ruler of this world and his incarceration for a thousand years is a judgment by God the Son. Therefore these are called direct judgments. The judgment of fallen angels at the end of history is a direct judgment by God the Son. Finally, the lake of fire is a direct judgment by God the Son. The eternal judgments fall under the category of direct judgment.

One other thing we need to understand in a little detail is to review the concept of dispensations since one of the great dispensational issues is found in this particular passage and the recognition of dispensational activity becomes very important.

Ephesians 3:1-5 gives us our mandate for recognition as a part of the introduction to Revelation chapter 20. In verse 1 the apostle Paul says, “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles —

Verse 2, “if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God [and you have, 1st class condition] which was given to me for your benefit;

Verse 3, “that by revelation [divine disclosure] the mystery [the historical trends of the Church Age] was revealed to me, just as I have previously written in brief.”

Verse 4, “Face to face with which doctrine of the mystery when you exegete [that is, the pastors] you want to be able to understand my categorical insight into the mystery of Christ [Christ and His royal family],

Verse 5, “which in other dispensations was not revealed to man of other generations, so that now it has been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by means of the Holy Spirit.”

A similar passage is found in Colossians 1:25-29. We begin with a relative pronoun, “Of which,” referring to the Church. “Of which dispensation I have become a minister according to this dispensation from God which has been given to me for your benefit, that I might implement your deficiency of Bible doctrine,” it is always true that people who do not understand dispensations, especially in this Church Age, have a deficiency of Bible doctrine. That deficiency is a handicap that is very difficult to overcome. In fact many portions of the Word of God are closed unless you have some knowledge of dispensations, “that is, the mystery that has been hidden from past ages and other generations; but has now been revealed to his saints [believers of the royal family], to whom God has decreed to make known what is the prosperity [or the riches] of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you [the Shekinah glory], the hope [or confidence] of glory. Which we solemnly proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we might present every one mature in Christ [at the judgment seat of Christ]. For this purpose I labour to the point of exhaustion, competing according to his game plan [the protocol system], which is effective in me in the divine dynasphere.”

The first dispensation of history was the era of positive volition. It begins at the creation of man and terminates with his fall. It is the era of the Garden of Eden, it is mankind in perfect environment with only one volitional test: he was forbidden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The dispensation terminates with the fall of man.

The second dispensation is the era of negative volition from the fall of man to the tower of Babel. It is the dispensation of internationalism which dramatises the function of man’s old sin nature, not only in relationship to man but in relationship to fallen angels as well. Internationalism is a total failure and this was demonstrated in the second dispensation. In the dispensation of internationalism or the era of negative volition there was one language, one race, one skin tone, and this did not solve any of man’s problems. None of them were solved in the environment of internationalism. However, man continues to cling to this thread that some form of internationalism will solve his problems. The tower of Babel was a Satanic attack against nationalism in anticipation of the next dispensation. That is the story of Genesis 11:1-9.

The third dispensation is the era of divine establishment and nationalism. It goes from the tower of Babel, which is around 5000 BC, to the establishment of the first client nation in BC 1441. There is some overlap with the next historical era but the key is to distinguish between the Jews and Gentiles at this point. There are three basic races with many subdivisions, many languages, forcing people to divide into tribes and nations. So we have the era of divine establishment as the third dispensation.

The fourth dispensation is the era of the first client nation and/or the dispensation of Israel. In that, of course, the overlap comes and the formation of the Jewish race. Abraham is the father of the Jewish race. For the first 99 years of his life Abraham was a Gentile. He became a Jew in his 99th year; circumcision was the sign. Abraham is the father, then, of the Jewish race and the period of the patriarchs runs roughly from BC 2161 to BC 1441, but the actual dispensation of Israel is the function of the Jewish client nation and Moses is the father of the Jewish nation. So the dispensation of Israel runs from BC 1441 to AD 70. There is an overlap there with the Church Age. The laws of divine establishment were declared in the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law is divided into three parts: Codex #1 was a freedom code, simply a statement of human freedom in ten mandates; Codex #2 is a complete Christology and soteriology; Codex #3 is a detailed development of establishment principles and everything necessary for the correct function of nationalism, including economy, military establishment, law enforcement, jurisprudence and even dietary laws. Israel as the first client nation was responsible as the custodian of the Word of God as it existed, and was responsible for evangelism both at home and among the heathen nations. Thirdly she was responsible for spiritual growth to perpetuate the client nation and for sending out missionaries. There were three administrations of the fifth cycle of discipline: BC 721, administered to the northern kingdom under finesse judgment by the Assyrians; BC 586, administered to the southern kingdom by the Chaldeans under same principle of finesse judgment; AD 70, administered to Judea by the Romans under the same concept. Nevertheless, in spite of the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline Israel has a future guaranteed by the unconditional covenants — the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New covenants to Israel, all to be fulfilled at the second advent (That is the key to premillennialism). Any Jew today believing in Christ enters into the royal family of God. He is no longer a Jew just as any Gentile who believes in Christ is no longer a Gentile, he is royal family of God. The Jewish Age was stopped before it was completed, there are seven years to run. The insertion of the Church Age is for the calling out of the royal family of God. When the royal family is completed, only God knows when that is, then we have the resurrection of the royal family, and time begins again for the Age of Israel, the seven years of the Jewish Age sometimes called by Matthew the end of the [Jewish] Age. That is where we get the Tribulation.

But the dispensation of intercalation [Church Age] means that upon the strategic victory of Christ on the cross He was awarded His third royal patent. Therefore the mystery age, mystery meaning that the doctrine concerning the Church Age was not revealed in the past but is now revealed to us. It was prophesied by our Lord but there is no Church Age doctrine in the Old Testament. In His first royal patent Jesus Christ has a royal family. His title is Son of God; His royal family, the Father and the Holy Spirit. In His second royal patent He has a title, Son of David; His royal family is the Davidic dynasty. In His third royal patent, King of kings, Lord of lords, bright morning star. But He has no royal family, therefore the entrance of the Church Age. As a mystery age, then, the Church dispensation is the era of no prophecy: no prophecy in the Church Age, all historical trends are determined by volition with emphasis on the volition of believers, the formation of the pivot in the client nation. Historical trends of prosperity result from good decisions to live in God’s protocol system, the divine dynasphere, while historical trends of disaster are determined by bad decisions of believers to live in the cosmic system. The Church Age is the mystery dispensation, the dispensation of the great parenthesis. No Church Age doctrine is revealed in the Old Testament, there is no prophecy of or any reference to historical trends except the times of the Gentiles mentioned very briefly in Daniel 9:26ff.

The Church Age is divided categorically two ways: the pre canon period and the post canon. The pre canon period is the book of Acts, roughly from AD 30 to AD 96. It is the period where temporary gifts were used such as the gifts of apostleship, tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing, faith. All of these spiritual gifts were designed with a specific purpose; once the canon of scripture was completed they were removed; and so we have the post canon period of scripture, the period of the New Testament epistles, and it goes from 96 AD to the Rapture of the Church whenever that occurs. The overlap is the times of the Gentiles mentioned in Luke 21:24. It begins in AD 70 and goes to the Rapture of the Church. There are no client nations to God in the Tribulation. These categories help us to understand the difference between temporary gifts, also to understand some of the phenomena that existed prior to the completion of the canon in the place of Bible doctrine, now that the canon of scripture is completed. We live in the most thrilling of times, we have everything in writing. We have no gift of healing, we have no legitimate gift of tongues, we have no spiritual gifts related to miracles, we have something far greater, Bible doctrine. The post canon period of the Church Age is the time of permanent gifts and the highest-ranking gift extant is the gift of pastor-teacher. Next come administrative gifts in the local church. The gift of evangelism is not to function in the local church at all, it is the highest gift outside of the local church.

The unique character of the Church Age is very important. First of all, the dispensation of the royal family of God has something that never occurred before and never will occur again after the Rapture. It is called the baptism of the Spirit, the basis for forming at salvation the royal family of God. God the Holy Spirit takes every believer and enters him into union with Christ. That is the doctrine of positional truth. It is absolutely unique. Never before the Church Age began and never after the Rapture will the baptism of the Spirit occur. It is for this dispensation only and it is not an experience, it is something that God the Holy Spirit does instantaneously. We do not feel it, we do not have any rosy glow because of it, it is one of 40 things that occurs simultaneously at salvation. Secondly, this is the only dispensation in which there is no prophecy and no sacred buildings. The third unique characteristic is the universal priesthood of the believer with privacy to live his life as unto God. A priest represents mankind to God, and since every believer is a priest every believer represents himself before God. The fourth unique characteristic is the royal ambassadorship of the believer with a special challenge to one’s life directed toward man and circumstances. Application of doctrine comes from the function of the royal ambassadorship. The fifth characteristic: the only dispensation which provides the divine dynasphere is the Church Age. This is the dispensation of protocol and God’s protocol system is fully developed for this dispensation only. This is the only dispensation in which there will ever be a divine dynasphere. The sixth characteristic is the completed canon of scripture. All divine revelation and all doctrine is reduced to writing and is contained in the canon. Therefore, there is no doctrine taught through dreams, visions, trances, angels, or alleged voices from God. Number seven is the intensification of the angelic conflict which results from our Lord’s strategic victory of the cross. We live in the only dispensation that has the intensification of the angelic conflict without any angels being seen. This is the dispensation of doctrine, conflict in the soul, but the angelic conflict is intensified because the enemy is not seen and because those angels who help us, the guardian angels, are not seen. The eighth characteristic is that the Church Age is the only dispensation to have the indwelling of Christ and the first dispensation in which Jesus Christ controls history from His hypostatic union.

It should be pointed out that in every one of these dispensations salvation is always the same: personal faith in Jesus Christ. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” is just as pertinent in the dispensation of Israel as it is right now. “Abraham believed in the Lord and it was credited to his account for righteousness.” No one has ever been saved by keeping the law or by any other system of human works.

Number seven is the era of our Lord’s rulership of the world, the Millennium. This is the dispensation of one thousand years of perfect environment, beginning at the second advent and terminating with the Gog and Magog revolution. Salvation through faith in Christ and spirituality is related to the filling of the Spirit in that dispensation. The Millennium begins with believers only, those believers who survived the baptism of fire which is a direct judgment. There will be a tremendous population explosion because of perfect environment in the Millennium and unbelievers will be the children and the grandchildren of the original believing families. Perfect environment includes the incarceration of Satan, the removal of demons, and the abolition of religion — Revelation 20:1-3. Optimum spirituality will result from the filling of the Spirit, according to Isaiah 65:24; Joel 2:28,29. Israel will be restored as a client nation to God. All unconditional covenants to Israel will be fulfilled. Perfect environment will include no more war. It is a time of universal prosperity, perfect world government under Christ, and national rulership delegated to Church Age believers and Old Testament saints. There will be a universal knowledge of God, according to Isaiah 11:9, and longevity in the human race, Isaiah 65:20. The Millennium is also a time of perfect environment in nature, creation is released from the bondage of man’s sin, and plant life will abound. Animals will lose their ferocity, the child will be able to put his hand in the cobra’s den. The perfect environment of the Millennium will terminate with the Gog revolution. Satan is released from jail after serving his 1000 years of sentence and will stir up discontent among certain unbelievers, Revelation 20:1-7. In the meantime the lesson is obvious. Perfect environment or ideal environment is not the solution to man’s problems.

We begin chapter 20 with the incarceration of Satan. Satan’s jailer is mentioned in verse 1. We have a sequential kai, translated “The,” with the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw which indicates another of the many visions of Revelation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety, the arrest of Satan. There is no one on the earth at the present time who has such power. This power belongs to God and in the protocol system He has delegated that authority to the angelic college of heralds. The active voice: John, the human author, produces the action of the verb, seeing this eschatological event. The indicative mood is declarative for the accuracy of the eschatological sequence. The object of the verb in the accusative case is a)ggeloj, “an angel.” Satan is an angel; Satan is arrested by an angel. The absence of the definite article emphasises the qualitative aspect of the noun. The angel is identified as the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds. Satan, being the greatest and most powerful creature ever to come from the hand of God, and being more powerful than any angel in eternity past, this indicates quite a reverse. Application: No matter how great you become, no matter how powerful, how successful, or how much approbation you receive, all you need to add to it is a little arrogance and you will fall flat on your face.

“Then I saw an angel descending from heaven.” The officer of arms comes directly from the throne room of God, as he did in Revelation 14:15. He is commanded by God now to arrest Satan. He is to remove him from office as the ruler of the world in preparation for the perfect environment of the Millennial reign of Christ. At the present time Satan is the ruler of this world, Luke 4:5-7; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2. As long as Satan is the ruler of this world there cannot be the perfect environment enjoyed by Adam and the woman before the fall. Human history began with perfect environment in the garden of Eden and human history will terminate with perfect environment, the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. There is a difference, however, since the perfect environment at the beginning of history found man in innocence while the perfect environment of the Millennial reign of Christ finds man living on this earth under the control of his old sin nature. Perfect environment on the earth for 1000 years does not solve man’s problems in that the old sin nature in perfect environment is never improved. You cannot improve the old sin nature. Furthermore, environment improved or perfect is never the solution to man’s problems. The solution begins with regeneration at the point of personal faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and the first step in providing the perfect environment of the last millennium of history is the arrest of Satan and his removal from the rulership of this world. His replacement as the ruler of the world is our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore the arrest and imprisonment of Satan becomes the most important coup de tat in history. Note that God uses an elect angel to arrest a fallen angel. God usually uses that which is of the same kind for any indirect judgment.

The equipment of the arresting officer is also very interesting. He is said to have the key to the abyss. The word for “have” is the present active participle of the verb e)xw which means to have or to have and to hold. The pictorial present conveys to the mind the event in the process of occurrence. The active voice: the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds produces the action of the verb as the arresting officer. The participle is circumstantial. The accusative singular direct object from kleij is the word for “key.” The descriptive genitive singular of a)bussoj is used, “the key to the abyss.” The abyss is the fourth compartment of sheol or Hades, it is synonymous with Tartarus in 2 Peter 2:4, the prison of certain fallen angels. He also is carrying what is called “a great chain.” The word for chain is a(lusij and it could also be translated today “handcuffs.” This angel holds the key to the abyss and a pair of giant handcuffs. He doesn’t need anything beyond this because of the inherent power provided by God. He can overcome Satan at any time even though it wasn’t that way in the original creation. We can learn something from that. A lot of people who appear as though they are not going to make it have a tremendous tenacity in life and develop a wisdom which often surpasses the smart ones, the talented ones, the beautiful ones, the ones who are always voted the most likely to succeed.

Translation: “Then I saw an angel [the officer of arms, college of heralds] descending from heaven, he had the key to the abyss and was holding a pair of giant handcuffs.”

The chain is used to control Satan after his apprehension and arrest so that he can be imprisoned for 1000 years in the abyss. This is the longest prison sentence in history. Translating the last phrase, “holding a pair of giant handcuffs,” is attempting to convey the concept of the Greek text. As the arresting officer the officer of arms is equipped to bring Satan into custody. He has the key to his jail and a large chain to control him after his arrest. Note that an angel is used to arrest an angel. God follows protocol in judgment just as He follows protocol in blessing. Protocol is the name of the game. The fact that God has a protocol system is extremely important because there will never be any happiness, any blessing, or any capacity for life, until the protocol system is learned. That is the key to everything.

The king of arms is the second highest ranking angel in the college of heralds, therefore one of the highest ranking elect angels of all time. And the protocol system is followed: an angel is used to arrest an angel. Prior to the fall of Satan Lucifer himself was the highest ranking angel in creation. In fact Satan was the anointed cherub which means the king of arms was lower in rank by creation. There were no seraphs when God originally created the angelic creatures. However, all of that is changed since the arrogance and fall of Satan. If there is any one thing that will destroy faster and lead down the path to destruction in a hurry it is entertaining arrogance in the life. None of us can afford arrogance. During the ensuing prehistoric angelic conflict the king of arms chose for God, the officer of arms chose for God. They became elect angels of the highest rank and God created a new aristocracy as a result of the prehistorical angelic conflict. While Satan revolted against God, and at this time lost his power, we find elect angels going through whatever system of salvation was to become elect angels and rising to the top. So it isn’t how you start life that counts, it is how you end up. That is one of the great applications that we can learn from this eschatological event.

The officer of arms is an elect angel and he ends up being the second highest aristocrat in the college of heralds while Satan ends up in the abyss for the longest prison sentence of any creature in all of history. The principle: No one ever loses by choosing the plan of God; no one ever loses by learning the protocol system of God and following it. Satan in revolt gained more power and approbation than any creature, but he lost it all. One of the manifestations of arrogance is greed, and greed is one of the great enemies of the human race. Arrogance is the greatest enemy to the creature whether angelic of human. With arrogance is motivational evil. Evil was created from Satan’s arrogance. God despises evil; God has nothing to do with evil; God is not the author of evil; evil started with a motivation called arrogance in the greatest of all creatures, Satan himself. The one who rules the world and has ruled the world since the fall of man is now the source of all evil.

One thing about evil: Evil is always restless. There is no tranquillity in evil. People who are gossips and maligners and judgers are restless people, they never have any tranquillity. They are always on the move. Evil is never satisfied with approbation and in arrogance demands more and more power, more and more approbation. In his lust for power Satan wanted to displace God, but he discovered instead that God replaced him. Now there is an entire order of angels called seraphs.

Note another principle: God never sends a boy to do a man’s job. So if you want to be used by God — which is a legitimate ambition in life, you must continue momentum in the protocol system. In other words, you have to grow up spiritually. Your spiritual growth is the basis of your usefulness to God, not your talent, not your personality.

Verse 2, Satan’s arrest. We do not know if Satan put up a fight but if he did he got whipped by someone he could have whipped by natural creation. The supernatural always supersedes the natural. Whatever you have naturally all you need to neutralise it is a little arrogance, but what you have spiritually requires the tenacity of day-by-day perspicacity, learning the protocol system and functioning under it.

We have a verb at the beginning of the verse, an aorist active indicative of kratew which means to seize with violence, to use force, to arrest by using force. So force was used, which indicates some resistance on the part of the most powerful of all creatures. An interesting thing is, Satan doesn’t have his bodyguard any more, he doesn’t have any of his angelic creatures, they have all been processed out. He stands alone and he gets whipped. The active voice: the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds does the job. The indicative mood is declarative representing the reality of Satan’s arrest. The officer of arms, once inferior, has stayed in God’s protocol system, has risen to the top in God’s protocol system, and now arrests Satan. Satan is called, this time, drakwn, “the dragon.” It has the connotation of beauty. This is the most sensational arrest in history. Public enemy of all time is taken into custody. Perfect environment would be absolutely impossible with Satan roaming around the universe unrestrained and unfettered.

Concept: Criminals have no rights. A criminal is a criminal because he has rejected establishment, he has rejected freedom, he has rejected privacy, he has rejected the sacredness of property and life. Anyone who rejects the sacredness of freedom, property and life has no rights whatever. Criminals should be removed from society and normal living. Imprisonment means the absence of normal living. Perfect environment would be impossible without the greatest criminal of all time being imprisoned for a thousand years.

Next we see that Satan is called “the ancient serpent.” That means that Satan was the original source of temptation plus the inventor of cosmic one. He is called “the Devil,” Satan as the accuser of the believer in the court of heaven. Then we have “even Satan.” Satan means enemy, enemy of both God and man, plus the inventor of cosmic two. So we have a number of his aliases. Note that Satan is not called by his original name when he is arrested. His original name, as stated in the King James version, was Lucifer the son of the morning. Actually, that is not the correct translation. What is wrong with it? First of all, Lucifer is not Lucifer. Lucifer means the morning star, and that is his real name: The morning star, the son of the dawn. The morning star is the decoration which all of the great believers, the winners, will wear. It is a title that later was given to our Lord Jesus Christ in relationship with His hypostatic union. But Satan was the original morning star, the son of the dawn.

Isaiah 14:12, “How you are fallen,” a reference to the fall of the Devil — from heaven, O morning star, o son of the dawn!” Thisis the one who is called the dragon, the serpent, the Devil, even Satan, in the arrest passage, Revelation 20:2. “You have been cast down to the earth, you who weakened the nations!”

Verse 13, “You thought in your right lobe,” arrogance always begins with a thought. There is no such thing as an arrogant act without thought, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars [angelic creatures] of God” — in other words, Satan decided he was going to rule the angels since he was the highest ranking of all creatures. The stars of God are angelic creatures, “I will sit enthroned on the mount of the assembly,” the heavenly location for the angelic for the angelic convocation, “ in the uttermost extremity of the north.’

Verse 14, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High God [I will be God].”

Verse 15, “Nevertheless you will be cast down into Sheol, to the recesses of the abyss.”

Ezekiel 28:12, “Thus saith the Lord God, ‘You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect beauty’.”

Verse 13, “You were in Eden, the garden of God,” not the garden of Eden where man existed, that came later. This is another Eden, garden of God, “… On the day that you [Satan] were created,” he was in Eden, the garden of God. Not the garden of Eden of Genesis 2.

Verse 14, “You were the anointed who guards the throne room, and I [God] placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire.”

Verse 15, Satan was created perfect, just as Adam and the woman were created perfect. “You were blameless in your ways from the day your were created, until unrighteousness was found in you,” his original sin.

Verse 16, “… you were internally filled with violence,” arrogant people always try to solve their problems with violence or its equivalent, putting down someone else. Arrogance cannot stand competition, “And you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God.” Profane means lack of protocol. He rejected the protocol of heaven in the original creation. “Furthermore I have destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.”

Verse 17, “Because of your beauty your right lobe was lifted up; you distorted your wisdom because of your glamour.”

Verse 18, “By the multitude of your iniquities and dishonest trade,” he traded his relationship to God in protocol by creation for arrogant, inordinate ambition. He multiplied his evil which started with arrogance, “you have desecrated your sanctuaries,” his responsibilities in the castle of heaven.

This is the one who has aliases. Notice in Revelation 20:2 there is no morning star, no son of the dawn mentioned any longer. Notice the aliases: “the ancient serpent,” Satan as the original source of temptation of man, the inventor of cosmic one; “the Devil,” Satan as the maligner; “Satan” [or enemy], Satan is both the enemy of God and man plus the inventor of cosmic two.

Translation: “And he [the officer of arms] seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil, even Satan, and bound him a thousand years.”

1. He is the enemy of mankind in general, illustrated by the fact that he is the original murderer, John 8:44.

3. He is the enemy of the unbeliever, Luke 8:12; 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10; Colossians 2:8.

As far as human history is concerned Satan has two advents. Both advents find Satan entering the world in a time of perfect environment. The first time Satan came it was to the perfect environment of the garden of Eden — Genesis 3:1-21. The result: Satan took over the rulership of the world from man. The second time Satan enters perfect environment is at the end of the Millennium. The result is the Gog and Magog revolution which results in Satan being cast into the lake of fire. Satan also has strategy to control the world which he rules. His control of the nations is mentioned in Revelation 12:9; 20:3. He also has control of the human race, but only by consent of the human race. You must of your own free will do something to enter the cosmic system. Satan controls the human race through cosmic involvement and/or demon influence. And, of course, he has control of believers in that cosmic system, 2 Corinthians 2:11; 11:3.

Advice for believers: James 4:6-10, our protection is grace as the policy of the plan of God. “He gives greater grace [greater than He has ever given before: the protocol system]. Therefore it says, ‘God makes war against the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble’. Therefore submit to God,” submission has to do with the protocol system, “Resist the devil [avoidance or recovery from the cosmic system] and he will flee from you,” the protocol system God has given us is greater than the power of Satan, “Draw near to God [momentum in the divine dynasphere] and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinning ones [rebound]; and purify your right lobes [momentum at gate four of the divine dynasphere], you double-minded,” a believer living in cosmic one and cosmic two, “Be miserable, both mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your happiness into gloom,” result of living in the cosmic system. The believer becomes the product of his own bad decisions. He loses control of his own life, he has no personal sense of destiny, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,” the believer learning and using the divine protocol system, “and he will exalt you [the advance in the protocol system].”

The prison term of Satan: we have the aorist active indicative of dew which refers to incarceration, “and he bound him [incarcerated him] for a thousand years. The constative aorist contemplates Satan’s prison sentence in its entirety. He didn’t escape, he was bound for a thousand years. The active voice: the officer of arms produced the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of Satan’s imprisonment during the entire Millennial reign of Christ. “Him,” the accusative singular direct object of a)utoj, refers to Satan. This phrase occurs six times in our context, verses 2,3,4,5,6,7. The Latin word for a thousand years is millennium. In the Greek it is xilioi e)toj. It is both a dispensation and a civilisation.

Verse 3, we have the aorist active indicative of the verb ballw, which means to throw. Here it means to throw with vigour and therefore to throw with violence. The subject is the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds, the second ranking seraph in the elect system of aristocracy among angels. The object of the verb is Satan who in prehistoric times was the guardian cherub, at that time being the highest ranking of all angelic creatures by creation. Hence, Satan was higher in rank than the one who now throws him into prison. The principle has application to us, even though it deals with the prehistoric angelic conflict: Those who make decisions against God wind up as losers. Satan is overpowered by an angel who was once inferior to him both in power and in beauty. The principle is: No one wins in rebellion against God. This is demonstrated by the dramatic arrest in verse 2.

The abyss is a part of Tartarus, the fourth compartment of Sheol or Hades, the prison of certain categories of fallen angels. The abyss is synonymous with Tartarus, according to 2 Peter 2:4 where the fallen angels of Genesis 6 are imprisoned. “Then he [the officer of arms] threw him [Satan] into the abyss [the fourth compartment of Sheol or Hades], he both locked and sealed it over him.” The word for “locked” is the aorist active indicative of the verb kleiw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The prison door of the abyss was locked, and that is a very impressive thing because when we get to the end of this chapter we will see something of that prison door. The active voice: the officer of arms produces the action of the verb. By the way, this rank was achieved during the angelic conflict, and the principle: Those who are faithful to God surpass losers both in time and in eternity. The indicative mood is for the reality of Satan’s future imprisonment during the Millennial reign of Christ.

The second verb used here is the aorist active indicative of sfragizw. The culminative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, 1000 years of incarceration for the most powerful creature that ever came from the hand of God. Satan has neither power nor influence during the Millennial reign of Christ and this is a part of the perfect environment of the Millennial dispensation and civilisation. The active voice: the officer of arms produces the action of the verb. By creation this officer of arms was lower in rank than Satan but as a result of Satan’s fall in the prehistoric angelic conflict a higher rank was created by God, namely the seraph rank, and the officer of arms is the second highest in that particular rank. Therefore he is a very high angelic aristocrat as a result of his faithfulness to the person, to the plan, to the protocol, and to the policy of God in the prehistoric angelic conflict. “And sealed it over him,” this is a maximum security system.

The purpose for maximum security is also given in this verse. A purpose clause always begins with the conjunction i(na. We have i(na plus the subjunctive mood. This also has the negative mh in it, so it is a negative purpose clause, “that he should not.” The verb is the aorist active subjunctive of planaw which means to deceive, “that he should not deceive.” The culminative aorist tense views the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. During the Millennial reign of Christ the nations of the world for the first time in human history will not be deceived by Satan. The active voice: Satan as the ruler of the world today is the deceiver of nations and as long as Satan rules this world there will be wars because Satan deceives nations. War and many other problems cannot be abolished without the incarceration of Satan. The accusative plural direct object from e)qnoj is the word for nations. In the plural it often refers to Gentiles as a race, but it also has national connotations as well. The adverb e)pi means “any longer”; “that he should not deceive the nations any longer” is the literal translation, but we translate it in better English, “that he should no longer deceive the nations.” This implies that Satan as the ruler of the world deceives nations as his perpetual policy in human history. However, the nations cannot be deceived apart from their own arrogance and culpability. Nations are protected from Satanic deceit by a pivot of mature believers. Satan uses demonism related to idolatry, dope pedaling, drug abuse, to deceive nations as well as individuals, Revelation 18:3. Satan uses religion to deceive the nations, Revelation 19:20. The results of Satan’s deception are given in 2 Timothy 3:13, “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived,” deceiving with false doctrine and demonism, being deceived by their own involvement in the cosmic system. Arrogance is the major form of self-deception.

Then we have a final phrase, the term of the imprisonment, “until,” an Attic adverb. All of a sudden, in the middle of Koine Greek we have a)xri. This is not a Koine word at all. It is a temporal conjunction introducing a temporal clause of future purpose, “until.” One again we have the phrase, “until the thousand years are completed.” The thousand years are literal, the last dispensation of human history. The aorist passive of telew is the phrase for completed. The aorist tense is constative, contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: the Millennium or thousand years receives the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood is potential implying a future reference, future to the time of Satan’s imprisonment. The prophecy of the devil’s release from prison is also mentioned at this time, “after these things he must be released for a short time.”

The longest prison sentence in history goes to Satan himself. After serving his prison sentence of a thousand years, during which we have the Millennial reign of Christ on earth and perfect environment, Satan is released to once again enter perfect environment and try to do something about it.

There is an important lesson here. Very few ever profit from incarceration. It is generally true that you cannot profit from any form of punishment or any form of rebuke or any form of being censored, unless you have humility. Humility is teachablility. Arrogance cannot stand rebuke, to be put down, and arrogance destroys any possibility of profiting from any of these things. Imprisonment is generally useless as far as rehabilitation is concerned. There are some wonderful exceptions.

Satan did not learn all of the time he was in prison and he burned with arrogance. When he comes out after his release he will once again stir up trouble. Interestingly enough, after one thousand years of perfect environment on the earth he will find a lot of people who will join his revolution. Putting people in perfect environment means nothing because arrogance has no capacity for love or life or happiness or blessing or any anything that approaches good environment. This literal thousand-year prison term did not help Satan a bat all. When you do not learn humility the hard way there is no way that you will ever learn this basic virtue. Learning the hard way is, of course, enforced humility; genuine humility is the basic virtue of life. Without the basic virtue of genuine humility there can never be true happiness in life and you do not carry built into your own soul any capacity for life or happiness.

Christ reigns in perfect environment for a literal 1000 years of history; the last 1000 years of history. The release of Satan from his prison at the end of the Millennial reign of Christ and the subsequent revolution merely demonstrate the fact that perfect environment is not the solution to man’s problems. We live in a time when there is no such thing as perfect environment on the earth but protocol from heaven has provided perfect environment. It has provided a perfect inner happiness for each one of us through the perception of Bible doctrine, through the modus vivendi of the divine dynasphere, through function in the protocol system. Man’s problems can only be solved spiritually from within, not environmentally from without.

Verses four, five, and six in this chapter deal with the general subject of the first and second resurrections. By way of introduction to the next two verses we note that there are two ways in which people in the Bible have returned from the dead. One is called resurrection, the other is called resuscitation. Resuscitation is when a person returns from the dead in his body of corruption and therefore subsequently he dies again. This was true of Lazarus. Resurrection is when a believer or, as we will note, an unbeliever is resurrected from the dead. A person returns from the dead as far as the believer is concerned in a body of incorruption and he is never again subject to any form of death. Therefore resurrection is rising again from the dead, the soul and the spirit joining the body and being in a permanent body forever and ever in the eternal state. More than that, resurrection is the beginning of the eternal state for the persons involved. Resurrection, therefore, is one of the basic doctrines which all believers must understand for spiritual growth, as stated in Hebrews 6:1,2. Resurrection is also a part of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. The resurrection also emphasises the difference between a theophany and a Christophany. A theophany is an appearance of Jesus Christ prior to His incarnation: He appeared as an angel, as a man in Abraham’s tent, as a man who wrestled with Jacob, and in other forms as well. A Christophany is an appearance of Jesus Christ after His resurrection from the dead. There are 23 different appearances which are recorded in the Word of God.

The resurrection of Christ is also a part of His strategic victory, 1 Corinthians 15:20-25. In verse 23, “But each one [category] in his own order [tacij, battalion]: Christ the firstfruits,” Christ is a part of the first resurrection. We actually have four companies. The firstfruits refers to Christ who has already been resurrected. The second in line is going to be the Church, the royal family of God who will be resurrected at the Rapture. Then we have the Old Testament believers plus Tribulational martyrs who will be resurrected at the second advent. Finally, there are those Tribulational believers who survived the Tribulation and they will be resurrected after the end of the Millennium.

The second phase of resurrection is necessary for the perpetuation of the line of David and the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, Romans 1:3, “Concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh.” Jesus Christ came as the seed of David. The reason is because David was promised that he would have a Son who would reign forever. The Davidic dynasty is gone but the Son who would reign forever is descended from David and Bathsheba. Mary was descended through the fourth son, Nathan. The line of Solomon goes down through Joseph who was the legal but not the real father of our Lord’s humanity. However, the Son dies on the cross. How can He reign forever? Through resurrection, and when the Son returns He will fulfill the Davidic covenant. Romans 1:4, “Having been established the Son of God in the sphere of inherent power [the deity of Christ], according to the standard of the Spirit of sanctification [ministry of the Holy Spirit] from the source of resurrection from the dead.” So this will be fulfilled through resurrection from the dead. And 2 Timothy 2:8 says, “Keep in mind Jesus Christ has been resurrected from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel.”

There are two agents in resurrection. God the Father is said to be the agent of resurrection in Colossians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Peter 1:21. There is also a reference or two to God the Holy Spirit raising the humanity of Christ, Acts 2:24; Romans 1:4; 8:11; 1 Peter 3:18. But the Lord is also said to raise Himself, so the resurrection is the function of the entire Trinity. The resurrection is necessary for the advance of the plan of the Father, Isaiah 53:10, “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days [resurrection], therefore the plan of the Lord will advance in his hand [of our Lord Jesus Christ].” The resurrection of Christ is the basis for the believer’s confidence in the future, 1 Peter 1:3-5.

Resurrection has always been a source of great application to believers in time of discouragement. In Hebrews 11 we have some illustrations of this principle. In verse 9 we read about Abraham: “By means of faith [doctrine] he lived as a temporary resident with reference to the land, as a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, joint heirs of the promise.” Abraham was an extremely wealthy man but he chose to live in a tent until God chose to provide him with a home. Abraham was claiming a promise and therefore living in a tent didn’t make any difference to him. Verse 10, “for he himself kept waiting with anticipation for a city having foundations whose builder and designer is God.” Verse 13, All of these were still living by faith when they died,” Abraham died in a tent. He was still waiting for the promise, he wouldn’t move out of the tent and into a permanent shelter, “not having received the promise, but having seen the same from a distance, they saluted and embraced it.” By faith, even in dying, they recognised that God would keep His word and that the promise would still be fulfilled. How did they know it? Why did they salute it? Why did they embrace the promise? They are going to receive it in resurrection. In his resurrection body Abraham will enjoy that city coming down out of heaven. Abraham constantly applied the doctrine of resurrection and as a result of that application he was never discouraged, he lived a marvelous life, and he always lived in a tent. And he made other applications of resurrection as well. Isaac on the alter, verses 17,18, “By means of faith Abraham, when he was being tested, offered Isaac as a sacrifice; and he who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his only son [the only one who was recognised in the line]; even though God had said to him, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be designated’.”

There is an even more dramatic verse, verse 22, “By means of faith, Joseph, while he was in the process of dying, recalled to mind about the exodus of the people of Israel, so he gave an order concerning his bones.” He knew that by the time the Jews left Egypt his body would be gone, all except the bones. So he gave an order concerning his bones. Why? Because he was an heir of the promise with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he wanted to be resurrected on the very spot that belonged to him for all eternity. So in Genesis 50:24-26 we have an amplification of what it means “concerning his bones.” “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die, but God will definitely come to your aid, and take you out of this land to the land he has promised you with an oath’.” The land was promised to Abraham in Genesis 13:14,15; 15:18,19; to Isaac in Genesis 26:3,4; to Jacob in 35:12. It was an unconditional promise, there were no strings attached of any kind. For the next 400 years, after Joseph was buried, the coffin of Joseph remained outside, above ground. When the Jews went into slavery this was the source of their hope. Though he had been the Prime Minister of Egypt he was not buried, he had no funeral. For 400 years the bones of Joseph remained unburied as a testimony both to God’s faithfulness and to the doctrine of resurrection. Every generation in slavery saw the unburied coffin and they learned the story, the learned about God’s plan plus the fact of the doctrine of resurrection. Joseph was not to be buried until the Jews as a free people could enter the land of promise and be buried in the land that belonged to him forever. That is exactly what happened. In Exodus 13:19 Moses, understanding the issue, took the bones of Joseph with him when he left Egypt, “for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly promise, saying, ‘God will definitely deliver you; and then you must carry my bones from this place’.” Sothe coffin was at the head of the column all of the march through the desert for forty years. When the Jews finally came into the land Joseph was finally buried after more than 400 years. So when the resurrection occurs at the second advent Joseph will stand beside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he will survey for the first time the land that has been promised to him. In Joshua 24:32 — “And Joseph’s bones which the Jews had brought up from Egypt were buried at Shechem, on a track of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor for one hundred pieces of silver.” This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants.

So we come to Revelation 20:4 and we see two rewards given to the Tribulational martyrs. The first is, they act as judges, and in other cases they actually rule nations. The judges of the Millennium are mentioned first, John sees all this as a vision, the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw. “And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them,” the aorist active indicative of kaqizw is for sitting on these thrones of judgment. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety this vision. The active voice: Tribulational martyrs who were willing to die for the Word of God, who made application of Bible doctrine in their martyrdom, who recognised that life on earth is not nearly as important as life in eternity, and were willing to die rather than to compromise Bible doctrine. They refused to accept the Satanic ecumenical religious system that will exist in the Tribulation. Therefore, to them life is not nearly as important as Bible doctrine. Principle: If doctrine is not everything to you, doctrine is nothing to you.

An aorist passive indicative follows, the aorist passive of didomi which means to give, “and judgment was given to them.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, in resurrection bodies they are judges throughout the earth, but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Tribulational martyrs resurrected at the second advent as a part of the third phase of the first resurrection are rewarded with judgment responsibilities in the Millennium. The passive voice: Tribulational martyrs, mature believers, winners in time, receive the action of the verb as a part of their reward for their victory in the Tribulation. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality, many of the judges of the Millennium are going to be those Tribulational martyrs to whom doctrine was much more important than life itself.

Then the dative plural indirect object, also the dative of advantage, “it was given to them,” a)utoj. It is to their advantage to have these wonderful blessings. The dative of indirect object also indicates the ones in whose interest the act is performed. It is to their advantage and in their interest that they were rewarded with judgeships in the Millennium. This is the second vision of John regarding the Millennial reign of Christ and each vision is introduced by the aorist active indicative of o(raw, “I saw.” The phrase occurs three times in this chapter, in verses 1,4,11.

Next we have the identification of the judges. We have the accusative plural direct object of yuxh , “the souls.” With this an articular perfect passive participle from pelekizw which means to be beheaded with an axe. “Furthermore I saw the souls of those who have been decapitated.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun, “who.” The perfect tense is dramatic, a rhetorical application of the perfect tense. This perfect tense indicates a completed action with emphasis on the results of the action, and that is the existing state of martyrdom. But if they had been immature they could very easily have chosen to say: “Well, I can’t lose my salvation, I’ll just go ahead and become one of the converts to ecumenical religion.” But they didn’t say that. Doctrine was more important than compromise. The passive voice: believers who are winners in the Tribulation receive the action of the verb. Then he says, “because of the testimony for [or about] Jesus.”

Translation of verse 4 so far, “The I saw the thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them: furthermore I saw the souls of those who had been decapitated because of the witness for Jesus.”

Then he adds a connective conjunction kai, but it is used as an emphatic conjunction and is translated, “really.” This is really why they were willing to accept death rather than compromise. Then we have a prepositional phrase, dia plus the accusative of logoj, “because of doctrine from God.” Doctrine made the difference, doctrine was the source of their happiness, “and these [winners] who are such a category as do not worship the beast dictator, nor his image, and did not receive the mark on the forehead, and in their hands.”

Then we have a specific reference to their resurrection. Just as today in the Church Age, so also in the future in the Tribulation, all spiritual momentum in the plan of God is accomplished through doctrine, “really because of doctrine from God.” This emphasises the importance of Bible doctrine and, of course, it must be the number one priority in the life. It says “they lived,” the aorist active indicative of zaw, this is their resurrection. They took the side of doctrine and now they see its wonderful benefits on earth, “they both came to life.” This is an ingressive aorist, it denotes entrance into a state or condition, therefore into a resurrection status. The active voice: Tribulational martyrs produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine, the resurrection of Tribulational martyrs as a part of the first resurrection. This is the concept of Isaiah 26:19,20 and Daniel 12:13.

The entire verse in corrected translation: “Then I saw the thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them: furthermore I saw the souls of those who had been decapitated because of the witness for Jesus, really because of doctrine from God, and these winners who are of such a category as do not worship the beast dictator, not his image, and do not receive the mark on their foreheads or on their hands; they both came to life and ruled with Christ for a thousand years.”

Verse5 — we have reached a parenthesis. The next sentence, “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” is a parenthesis, and the sentence of verse 4 is concluded at the end of verse 5. So without the parenthesis it would read: “and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years; this is the first resurrection.” The sentence is completed after the parenthesis. So we note in verse 5 that we have a parenthesis regarding the second resurrection. There are two sentences in this verse. The first sentence is a parenthesis to bring out a contrast between the first and second resurrections. After the parenthetical sentence the subject of verse 4 is continued regarding the first resurrection.

The first word of the sentence, “But,” does not occur in the original. It simply refers in the nominative plural from loipoj specifically to unbelievers now in the Tribulation. With have a contrast to the believers in verse 4 set up here without the use of the conjunction. Loipoj, “The rest,” means the unbelievers. A descriptive genitive follows, “The rest of the dead,” nekroj, referring to Tribulational unbelievers who died prior to the second advent. These unbelievers survived the Tribulation but they were removed by the baptism of fire. Actually, this is the second resurrection which includes all the unbelievers of history.

Then we have the aorist active indicative of zaw, and it means “came to life.” It is an ingressive aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning, hence it denotes entrance into a state or condition, in this case the unbelievers in the second resurrection. As we will see at the end of this chapter the second resurrection is simply a means of bringing all unbelievers of the human race together for the last judgment, after which time they are cast into the lake of fire. “The rest of the dead [the unbelievers of the Tribulation plus all the unbelievers of history] did not come to life until the thousand years had been completed.” We have the negative plus zaw. The ingressive aorist contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning, the entrance into the state of the second resurrection. The active voice: all unbelievers are judged at this time. Why are they judged? Because they have rejected Jesus Christ as saviour. “He that believeth not on him is condemned already because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.” But when they are indicted on the cross the evidence is based not on the fact that they have rejected Christ but on the fact that they are standing there on the basis of their human good. No sin will be mentioned at the last judgment because every sin in the history of the human race went to court at the cross, and God the Father from His justice imputed all of these sins to Christ on the cross. He programmed them right out of the computer of divine decrees and He judged those sins. So at the last judgment what is left for the indictment? The people who stand there are unbelievers and only one thing is left, their good deeds. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” So they will be judged on the basis of their good deeds and cast into the lake of fire forever. But to get them there, to court, they have to be resurrected.

“The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years had been completed,” the aorist passive subjunctive of the verb telew. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety, the resurrection of all unbelievers at the end of the Millennium, but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results, the last judgment. Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed unto man once to die, but after that the judgment.” “Once to die” is physical death, the soul leaving the body and in the case of the unbeliever goes into Hades. In the second resurrection the soul leaves Hades, returns to the body and then stands before the great white throne for the last judgment. This is at the end of the Millennium; it is called the second death. “After that the judgment” is the second death, being cast into the lake of fire forever and ever.

“Until the thousand years have been completed” is the end of the parenthesis. Now we pick up the sentence which was begun in verse four: “This is the first resurrection.” That is the completion of the sentence.

Verse 6, the characteristics of the first resurrection. We start out with the nominative singular subject makarioj, a word for happiness. This is what is called a beatitude, simply a provision of happiness. This is the fifth beatitude in the book of Revelation. The first was in chapter one, verse three, the blessing which comes from mastering the content of the book of Revelation. The second beatitude is related to dying. People are afraid of dying; the fear death. So the second beatitude, Revelation 14:13, says, “Happy are the dead who die in the Lord,” a reference to dying grace and also to any believer who dies. Any believer who dies is going to be with the Lord, so any believer is going to be happy immediately after he dies. The believer living in the divine dynasphere has happiness in dying just as in living. Furthermore, there will be no regrets. The third beatitude is the blessing of application of doctrine found in Revelation 16:15. All of us face situations where we can only handle them through the proper application of doctrine. Many of the doctrines that we learn are simply to give us a personal love and appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ. This expresses itself in our confidence in Him, our worship of Him, our love of Him, and being motivated by that love for him. There are situations where certain doctrines are applied. Here is a situation, the Armageddon campaign: “Be alert, I will come suddenly as a thief,” surprise element, “happy is he [the Tribulational believer who is a winner] who stays alert, guards his uniform equipment so that he may not march naked and they see his shame.” The fourth of the beatitudes has to do with being invited to a party, the blessing of being invited to a special party at the second advent. It follows the coronation of Jesus Christ. It is found in Revelation 19:9. The fifth of the beatitudes is the blessing of being part of the first resurrection. Ultimate sanctification is in view there. The sixth of the beatitudes is found in Revelation 22:7, the blessing of positive volition toward doctrine: “Behold, I am coming quickly: happy is he who heeds the doctrines of the prophecy of this book.” So there is always great happiness related to doctrine, both in its perception and application. The final beatitude of the book of Revelation is the blessing of being a winner in the plan of God: 22:14, “Happy are they who wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gate of the city.”

Here we have the fifth beatitude, the blessing of being a part in the first resurrection. It also says more than happiness here. There is a second subject, a(gioj, which is translated “holy,” a good translation but sometimes rather abstruse. There are three categories of sanctification and this is really what it connotes here. First of all, the moment we accept Christ as saviour we enter into union with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit, and that is called phase one sanctification. Secondly, certain believers advance from gate four to gate eight inside the divine dynasphere, the advanced to maturity, and that is called temporal sanctification. Phase three sanctification comes at the end of the Church Age with the resurrection or the Rapture of the Church. That is called ultimate sanctification. Ultimate sanctification belongs to all believers as does positional sanctification. The sanctification that is always in doubt is the one that deals with the protocol system, and that has to do with whether you are a winner or a loser. Only winners have the second sanctification. So we have “Happy and holy is he,” the reference to the believer in a resurrection body. All believers, therefore, are going to have happiness in the eternal state.

We have something here that adds to the happiness, the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw which means to have or to have and to hold. The definite article is used as a personal plus a relative pronoun. The static present refers to a condition which will exist in the eternal state. We will always be happy in the eternal state. The active voice: the believer produces the action. It is a circumstantial participle. Then we have an independent nominative from meroj, meaning a part, a part of the whole. One would expect here the accusative direct object of the participle but instead we have an independent nominative. Why? It is technical in the Greek language, but when an idea is conceived independent of any particular verbal relationship the expression may be left standing alone in the nominative case with descriptive or explanatory phrase added. Therefore it takes the happiness all of us will ultimately have and isolates it from everything that we are experiencing today. We may be miserable but ultimately God is going to work it out no matter how many bad decisions you make, no matter how miserable you make yourself, ultimately all of us are going to be happy. That is grace. Grace can overrule and take care of every failure we can ever have. “Happy and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection,” because the believer is going to be happy under a state of ultimate sanctification and it is going to be that way forever and ever.

The second half of the verse says, “the second death does not have jurisdiction over you.” All of the unhappy people in the eternal state are going to be unbelievers. And they will be unhappy forever because the lake of fire is a place of second resurrection, a place of consciousness, a place of intense pain, a place where the pain never ceases. Ultimately in the eternal state God who has worked all of this out in His grace is going to provide for us perfect happiness but He can’t provide it for those who rejected Him as saviour.

“but they shall be priests,” there is a Millennial priesthood, “of God and of Christ, in fact they shall rule with him a thousand years.” This priesthood is a different priesthood. Today every believer is a priest, in the past they had specialised priesthoods, the Levitical priesthood of Israel, the family priesthood of the patriarchs, but in the future there is going to be one of great strength and that is the one dealing with the Tribulational martyrs. The Tribulational martyrs were mature believers, they thought more of doctrine than they did of death and they would not renounce the Lord and thy died. Therefore, some of them are going to be judges in the Millennium, some are going to rule, but all of these martyrs are going to form a specialised priesthood.

The first thing we note in verses 7-10 is the release of Satan from prison. Verse 7 begins with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Now.” The conjunction o(tan introduces an indefinite future temporal clause. We can translate it “when” or “whenever.” It is looking forward to the completion of the thousand-year sentence, “Now when the thousand years had been completed.” We have the aorist passive subjunctive of the verb telew. The culminative aorist tense contemplates the last Millennium as history in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. When the last dispensation is completed it coincides exactly with the release of Satan from prison. Satan has been in prison for a thousand years and during that thousand years on earth perfect environment has existed. The passive voice: the Millennial reign of Christ receives the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood is used to indicate the indefinite temporal clause where the time involved is a future event in history. We are looking at something prophetically.

Then we have the subject, satanaj. When we have a transliteration of Satan it is taken from shatan, so you would think this came from that, but it came from the Aramaic rather than the Hebrew. Therefore, in the Greek it is satanoj. The proper noun is simply translated “Satan,” it is not a transliteration. It would only be a transliteration if it had been taken from the Hebrew. What is the difference? People expected a new person to come out of jail, so instead of calling him shatan, the same old criminal, he is actually called satanaj. That is taken from the Aramaic which is very similar. So Satan is now released: future passive indicative of luw. It is a predictive future anticipating his release at the end of the Millennium. The passive voice: Satan receives the action of the verb. He is released from his jail. Neither Satan nor fallen angels will function during the Millennial reign of Christ. The removal of fallen angels and Satan from the earth is a part of the perfect environment of the Millennium. While human volition is no longer influenced by Satan many of the people of the Millennium will reject Christ as their personal saviour and they will continue to produce evil from the function of their own volition. It is a rather subdued evil because any evil that is involved in criminality means instant death: capital punishment. We need to remember that Satan is the arch criminal of all history. In fact he is the arch criminal of the prehistorical angelic conflict. Satan, then, as the inventor of the cosmic system, and as the inventor of criminality, has now been released from prison. The leopard does not change his spots and he is now ready to start a revolution.

Verse 8, the Gog and Magog revolution. Gog is Satan as the leader of the last international conspiracy. This is the code name for Satan. We start out with the future active indicative of e)xerxomai, “He will appear.” As soon as Satan gets out of jail he goes back to planet earth, his old haunts. This is a reference to Satan’s return to the earth from his prison in Hades and therefore we might call this the second advent of Satan. The first advent of Satan, Genesis 3:1-5, was where Satan came to perfect environment and destroyed it; the second advent, Revelation 20:7,8, the same thing is true. In both advents of Satan he found perfect environment on the earth and conspired to destroy it. In his first advent he was successful; in his second advent the conspiracy and the revolution will fail. In both advents Satan alleges to improve perfect environment. To do that he has to lie a lot, so he lies, he distorts, and he uses a system of flattery in order to appeal to the arrogance of individuals.

Part of Satan’s philosophy includes the idea that by improving man’s environment, by eliminating the weak and unfit from society. Environment is not the solution to man’s problems, only a personal relationship to God will solve it. Satan also likes to promote education, he also likes to promote reformation and better social understanding; and one of his greatest systems of flattery is that gimmick: better social understanding. So man by man’s efforts cannot produce a golden age, but Satan comes along with a lie and says, “O yes, you can. All you have to do is to eliminate the weak; all you have to do is to improve the environment by reformation, by better social understanding.” There’s always a gimmick, and the principle is: The end of history, like the beginning of history, will demonstrate man’s need for relationship with God through faith in Christ, and then the blessing of the protocol system which follows.

“He will appear.” The future tense indicates that the second advent of Satan is a future event of eschatological doctrine. Hence, the predictive future anticipates the return of Satan to planet earth after his release from prison after serving his 1000 years. The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb in returning to planet earth, the only option left. In fact, Satan is running out of options. He cannot return to heaven, he does not desire to remain in that section of Hades after he gets out. The principle is: Evil always closes down one’s options in life. The more decisions anyone makes for evil the more they limit their options in life until their options are choked off. For the unbeliever or fallen angels the options are also destroyed for eternity. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Why did he come back? The aorist active infinitive of planaw, to deceive. If ever there was a word to describe revolution, the Russian revolution, the French revolution, the Cuban revolution, etc., this is it: a few smart people have deceived a whole lot of idiots who are the pawns in the game of revolution. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the last Satanic conspiracy in history. It regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results, the revolution against the rule of Jesus Christ, the perfect environment of the Millennium. Because of the perfect environment of the Millennial reign of Christ Satan must use his greatest genius, deception, lies, to awaken dissatisfaction. Where no dissatisfaction could legitimately exist he manages to do it. There is no organisation, there is no church, there is no business, there is no profession, there is no group of people in a social relationship, no matter how perfect or sublime, that cannot be destroyed by the entrance of some person with that in mind. That is demonstrated by the perfect environment of the Millennium. The trouble maker this time is Satan, he has the great genius and ability to do this. He will open his mouth, use his personality, and he will gain thousands and perhaps even millions of revolutionaries to join his group. All of this, of course, is deception. People are easily deceived unless their soul is loaded up with truth, with doctrine. The only thing that frees us from deception is doctrine: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb through dishonesty, through deceit, through misrepresentation, collusion, treachery, fabrication, hypocrisy, sham, subterfuge. The infinitive of purpose: it is Satan’s purpose to use his genius, to use his personality, to use his beauty, to regain control of planet earth. One thousand years of imprisonment have not changed Satan a bit, and while Satan is a genius he has not learned the simplest lesson of society: the power of God is infinitely greater than the power of man or the power of any angelic creature.

The culminative aorist tense of the verb planaw contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the last Satanic conspiracy against Christ, and it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, a revolution against the rule of Christ, the perfect environment of the Millennium. Because of the perfect environment of our Lord’s Millennial reign and all that goes with it Satan must use tremendous deception in order to pick up revolutionaries. He does. The fact that he is able with his genius to lie, one of the concepts of criminality, and to deceive, and to gain influence over people, is very important. It all goes to prove a very interesting principle and the inference is quite obvious. Here is a period of a thousand years after the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, a period of perfect environment. The only thing that isn’t perfect is the fact that man still has an old sin nature. Life is extended, the only reason anyone ever dies in the Millennium is simply because of capital punishment, and the lion and the lamb lie down side by side so there is no violence in the animal life. Swords are turned into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, man will learn war no more. All of this adds up to the fact that you would think that people would be very happy and very satisfied. But there is a kind of person who if he can’t find something to complain about is not happy. And there is nothing to complain about. If there is anything that is frustrating it is for a gripey person not to have a gripe. So when Satan is released from his thousand years of incarceration, the first thing he does is to try to use his genius to establish a few things to complain about. That is exactly how deception begins.

The principle that goes with this, and the one that we can apply though we are not in the Millennial dispensation, is this: The only happiness that the believer, or anyone for that matter, can ever have is the happiness that is manufactured inside the divine dynasphere. The divine dynasphere is a factory for manufacturing happiness. Happiness therefore comes from a system, whereas unhappiness also comes from a system, Satan’s cosmic system. When the believer is in the divine dynasphere we call him the protocol believer; when he is in the cosmic system we call him a cosmic believer. So using that nomenclature the protocol believer has happiness; the cosmic believer has unhappiness. The other way of looking at the absolute category of the spiritual life is to recognise the principle that when God the Holy Spirit controls the soul the believer is said to be spiritual; when the old sin nature gains control of the soul then the believer is said to be carnal. The fruit of the Spirit, when the Holy Spirit controls the soul, is happiness, “love, joy”, etc. From the standpoint of who controls the soul you are either carnal or spiritual. The spiritual believer has some degree of happiness, depending on his growth, of course. (There are no degrees of spirituality; there are degrees of growth) A mature believer has more happiness when he is filled with the Spirit than an immature believer. The carnal believer can have a pseudo stimulation but no real happiness. So, once again, a system: spirituality manufactures happiness; carnality manufactures misery. So when we are looking at life from the control of the soul we talk about the carnal believer and the spiritual believer; when we look at life from the standpoint of God’s protocol system, the divine dynasphere, we have the protocol believe and the cosmic believer. The principle is this: When you vest your happiness in a person, in a social life, in a sexual life, in a business life, in a professional life, in some form of success and human security, immediately you have a problem which is not happiness because you are using something that cannot manufacture happiness. If you want to have a relationship with a member of the opposite sex and you depend on that for happiness, you have done a terrible thing to that person. By depending on her for happiness you are not happy, because you are depending on the wrong thing. A woman simply cannot manufacture happiness; stimulation, yes; happiness, no. Personal love is one of two ways that we guarantee a miserable life if in personal love we depend upon our opposite number for our happiness. This is because in personal love if you love someone of the opposite sex or you depend on friends for your happiness then obviously you have surrendered the control of your life to that person. Furthermore you have surrendered your happiness to that person. That person will disappoint you, disenchant you, disillusion you, and distract you. The point is that you are going to be disappointed sooner or later in that person, some how, some way, along the way. Therefore that person has made you miserable because you surrendered your life to them. That is a tragedy because you have done that person a disservice in many ways because you blame that person when anything goes wrong and you blame that person when you are disenchanted, disillusioned, upset. But it is not just personal love where you turn the custodianship of your life over to someone else, you do it also with personal hatred — anything that is personal.

The reason that Satan can pick up so many people in the Millennium for his revolution is because in perfect environment it is personal, and people are still depending on people for happiness. People are seeking happiness by trying to extrapolate it from people, from pleasant circumstances. There are pleasant circumstances and lovely people.

We could learn something from this revolution, then. Don’t get personal until you have your very own happiness. Take it wherever you go. Once you carry your very own happiness around with you then you become personal and you interact in groups or traffic, or wherever your interaction is involved, you bring happiness into the picture because you have been functioning in God’s protocol system. In the divine dynasphere you have developed virtue. Virtue must precede happiness. And at gate six you have developed impersonal love which is the capacity for personal love. No one can succeed in human relationships without impersonal love, without virtue. This becomes a major issue because from impersonal love you have an attitude toward the entire human race, toward all. Impersonal love toward all means you can concentrate on one person and bring happiness into the picture and you are not surrendering your happiness to them or the custodianship of your life to them, you are bringing to that one person your happiness, therefore blessing by association. Where there would be formerly antagonism toward a stranger or toward someone you have loved and they have disappointed you, and where you would bring to them this antagonism now you bring to them impersonal love, and you bring into their life happiness by the very fact of your toleration, by the function. So don’t get personal until you have the virtue to do it.

Now Satan comes back, and there are two kinds of people on the earth in the Millennium. There are believers and there are unbelievers. There are believers who have functioned in God’s protocol system that will exist in the Millennium, a system that is different from ours but it produces happiness. There are unbelievers and since there is no cosmic system there are believers who are frustrated but the old sin nature has nowhere to go. But they are waiting, they are biding their time. They will be irritated and stay irritated. The point is: Satan has not been rehabilitated and after his release from prison he comes back to find a potential for revolution and terrorism. (Terrorism is a splinter of a revolution; the whole log is the revolution itself). The infinitive of purpose indicates that Satan’s purpose is to use his genius to regain control of planet earth. One thousand years of imprisonment have not changed criminality in the father of criminality. While Satan is a genius he has not learned the simplest lesson that the power of God is infinitely greater than creature power, and so he goes about to deceive, the accusative plural direct object of e)qnoj, “the nations.”

We have so far, then, in this verse: “Then he [Satan] will appear on earth to deceive the nations,” and then we have the phrase, “those in the four hemispheres of the earth.”

The revolution, then, is universal and international. This means the human beings with one thousand years of perfect enjoyment throughout the entire earth have their malcontents who are ready to join. This proves that man can be given every category of blessing, the best possible environment in which to enjoy it, and cannot be satisfied apart from a personal relationship with God. That begins with regeneration, and that introduces the subject of protocol whereby all of the freedoms and blessings are channeled into a system of capacity and therefore become a part of enjoyment of life. So the whole principle is that man can be given everything that he associates with happiness and blessing but he can’t be satisfied unless he has a relationship with protocol. The most shocking principle here is the total depravity of man still existing in the Millennium. While restrained by the ruler of this world, our Lord Jesus Christ, it is still ready to break out just as soon as a leader shows up. One thousand years of perfect environment which can only produce happiness find millions who are discontented and ready for a change.

How can Satan deceive so many Millennial citizens? Mankind apart from absolute truth, Bible doctrine, and apart from the protocol system of God can be very easily deceived. Discernment comes from doctrine and the ability to recognise the situation as it is, and the solution, comes from the protocol system. In spite of the perfect environment, the fantastic prosperity of the human race, the dynamic spiritual life of many of the believers, and everything associated with human happiness, there are actually millions of people on the earth at that time ready to follow anyone who would overthrow the perfect reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. The reason is obvious. Millions of people in perfect environment still have no capacity for this blessing, no capacity for life, no capacity for happiness or success, because they have rejected the three categories of Bible doctrine, category #1, the laws of divine establishment for all the human race; category #2, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ for the unbeliever; category #3, Bible doctrine for the believer. Negative volition toward absolute truth and/or Bible doctrine destroys capacity for life, capacity for blessing, capacity for prosperity, and capacity for happiness. Only the believer living in the protocol system and perpetuating momentum in the plan and policy of God has the necessary capacity to enjoy blessing and perfect happiness in the Millennial reign of Christ. Happiness is the status of the soul with maximum doctrine, not the possession of things, not approbation from people, success, prosperity or achievement. Life is meaningless, then, without Bible doctrine and the resources of arrogance can only produce unhappiness and self-induced misery.

This brings us to the code name of the conspiracy. It is given under the first word, “Gog.” The accusative singular definite article goes with it. So we have “Gog and Magog,” from all nations there will be those who will join the conspiracy. They will follow Satan in the last revolution. There are only four other references to Gog and Magog and they are all found in the Old Testament. All of them distinguish between Gog as the leader and Magog as the people, Genesis 10:2; 1 Chronicles 1:5; 5:4; Ezekiel 38:2. In each of those four references we have phrases like Ezekiel 38:2, “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog.” So the four Old Testament references always recognise Gog as the leader and, for example, Magog as the people or the land involved. So it is always Gog of Magog as in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Gog is the ruler of a great empire in the Tribulation; Magog are the people that he rules. If the Rapture occurs soon it is quite obvious that Gog is the dictator of the Russian communist empire of the king of the north; Magog is used to describe the people of that empire because they represent many different races.

This is a code name here for the conspiracy and it is taken vocabulary-wise from what we have in the Old Testament. It is Gog and Magog. God is, again however, Satan; Magog are the people who follow him. He goes forth “to deceive the nations, those from the four hemispheres of the earth, Gog and Magog.” What is the meaning of the code name Gog and Magog? Gog is the code name for Satan as the leader of the last revolution in history; Magog is the code name for those who join the revolution. Since they join the revolution from all races and nations of the earth, and since they are anti-God they are under the code name Magog. While Gog and Magog is not the same as Gog of Magog, the king of the north in the Old Testament, the code name is taken from Ezekiel 38 and 39 because of a similarity in pattern. Gog is used to designate the antichrist leader, the king of the north in Ezekiel 38 and 39 and, of course, Satan released from prison at the end of the Millennium. Magog is used to designate the antichrist followers from all of the nations and races. The army of the king of the north was the eschatological reference in Ezekiel. So the code name Gog and Magog explains the structure of this verse. First we are introduced to Gog, who is Satan, as the leader and the arch conspirator of the last revolution in history. In the last half of this verse we meet Magog, the international revolutionary army who concentrate to overthrow the rule of Christ on earth. So that once again the code name follows the pattern just as it was in Ezekiel 38 and 39.

One of the most phenomenal demonstrations in all of history of God’s grace toward the unbeliever is found in the Millennium. Instead of judgment by pain it is warning by perfect environment. The unbeliever in the Millennium shares the perfect environment that God provides. Jesus Christ rules the earth and He rules the believer and the unbeliever, and the unbeliever is the beneficiary of the most phenomenal things in the Millennium. Yet he rejects the gospel, and he refuses to believe in Jesus Christ who is not only ruling the world at that time but in the first advent went to the cross and was judged for his sins. People who are thrown into the lake of fire who lived in perfect environment will probably, once they are in the lake of fire forever, have a comprehension of grace that few people ever had.

Our next phrase begins with the aorist active infinitive of sunagw, and it means to assemble. Here it is a military word, “to concentrate.” So the people of the revolution are concentrated, “to concentrate them.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Satan’s revolution gains momentum and it suddenly has a tremendous mob. Satan as the leader in the active voice produces the action under the code name Gog. The direct object refers to Magog, the antichrist revolutionary army. Note a principle here. There hasn’t been any warfare for a thousand years but revolution must resort to violence to fulfill its purpose. That is why we have Islamic and Marxist terrorist groups throughout the world. The infinitive of intended result means when the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate objective, a blending of purpose and result. Note that they have come to fight, they have come to kill, they have come to use terrorism.

We have a prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of polemoj which means battle. Satan seeks to overthrow the rule of Christ by violence because he cannot meet the wonderful administration of our Lord’s rulership of the world. There is no argument that he can present so the time for argument is gone, we have now come to violence. Revolution ignores and rejects virtue, therefore it cannot succeed by peaceful means. Virtue is always pro-establishment and anti-revolutionary. Revolutions are born in violence and they die in violence.

The next phrase is Magog’s numerical advantage. The phrase is a very simple one: “whose number is like the sand of the sea.” Whether this refers to the sand on beaches or the sand under the ocean the analogy is the same, the revolutionary army numbers in the millions. Millions of people rejected Christ as saviour under evangelism in perfect environment. During the Millennium there is no military establishment, Isaiah 2:4; Hosea 2:18; Micah 4:3; Psalm 46:9; there is no army to fight against the revolution. So in our Lord’s rule there is no army. This is parallel to the danger which threatened Israel when they became the first client nation to God and they were leaving Egypt, when they were threatened at the Red Sea. They had no military establishment. There is a direct parallel between Israel at the Red Sea and the world at the end of the Millennium. The threat to Israel was the best organised armoured force of the day, Pharaoh’s chariot army. At the end of the Millennium the whole world is facing disaster because suddenly a great revolutionary army appears and there is no army for establishment. So we have a similar situation. At the Red Sea Moses said, “Stand still and watch the deliverance of the Lord. The Lord will fight for you this day.” So in the situation of Israel the Lord did the fighting, and that is exactly what is going to happen here. Superior numbers are inconsequential against God’s plan and God’s people. Here is a final demonstration that the majority is not right. The majority are in the revolution. Absolute truth and/or Bible doctrine is right whether one person believes it or a million.

Translation: “Then he [Satan] will appear on earth [second advent of Satan] to deceive the nations, those in the four hemispheres of the earth, Gog and Magog, to concentrate them for battle: whose number is as the sand of the sea.”

In verse 9 we have the end of the antichrist revolution which goes under the code name of the Gog and Magog revolution. The advance of the revolutionary army is the first item in the verse. We have the aorist active indicative of a)nabainw which is a very aggressive verb in the Greek, and it means to ascend. Here it has the classical connotation of Xenophon which means to march, to advance. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of he verb in its entirety, the tremendous organisational ability of Satan’s genius in getting together a revolutionary army where weapons have ceased to exist. Nevertheless, weaponry is available or produced very suddenly and at the same time an army is organised for the coup de tat, the takeover of the rulership of the world. The active voice: the revolutionary army under the code name Magog and under the leadership of Satan whose code name is Gog, produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the aggressiveness of the revolutionary army. They became the aggressors and this aggression confirms the negative volition of the revolution.

Then we have e)pi plus the accusative of the adjective platoj which means wide. With this we have the word gh referring to the land rather than planet earth. “Then they marched over the wide terrain of the land,” the high desert country of southern Israel. Even though the world has been disarmed during this thousand years of our Lord’s reign Satan, on his release from prison, organises all of the negative volition into a very large revolutionary army. There is a principle that emerges from this: World peace and international disarmament do not prevent war. International disarmament has never been a prevention of war, it has been an encouragement to war. World peace movements always bring on bigger and greater wars to the extent that they are successful. The secret, of course, is the military establishment. In this case there is no military establishment, except our Lord Jesus Christ and we will see what He does to the revolution. While the world has been without weapons for a thousand years the evil genius of Satan is quick to arm and to organise this revolutionary army. Well-armed and possessing overwhelming numbers the revolutionary army has great confidence in Satan and the fact that they outnumber the believers of the Millennium. This is an army made up of millions of people.

So it would appear from the context in the Greek that the concentration point of the revolutionary army is the great valley of Esdraelon which is associated with Armageddon prior to the Millennium. Millions of unbelievers who have enjoyed the benefit of prosperity, perfect environment and have enjoyed perfect government are looking for a leader like Satan around whom they can rally and express their discontent, their rejection of the whole thing. Again the principle: the power of arrogance is always greater than the power of prosperity. Both the doctrine and the prosperity provided by our Lord Jesus Christ in His thousand-year reign is rejected by the arrogance of power lust. Again, the principle is: arrogance demands power. Arrogance is never satisfied with perfect environment.

The objective of the revolutionary army is given in the next phrase in the Greek where we have the aorist active indicative of kuklow which means to surround or envelop, “and they surrounded.” They surrounded “the bivouac of the saints.” The culminative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the use of aggression to gain a tactical advantage. An aggressor army generally gains such tactical advantage. The culminative aorist signifies the effort or process. The aorist denotes the attainment of the end of such effort or process. Aggression gives tactical advantage. The active voice: the revolutionary army under the code name Magog produces the action of the verb though logistics and tactics, the genius of Satan’s leadership. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of eschatological doctrine. Remember that this time Satan is doing it alone, he has no angelic force to back him up. The fallen angelic force is incarcerated and will not be seen again until their last judgment.

The next word is the object of the verb, the accusative singular direct object of the noun parembolh, which means bivouac or fortified camp or barracks. In addition is a second accusative direct object from the noun polij, meaning city, plus the perfect passive participle of the verb a)gapaw meaning to love, but is used here as an adjective and therefore correctly translated “the beloved city.” The beloved city refers to Jerusalem, both the capital of Israel as Millennial client nation to God, and the capital of the world during the reign of Christ. But it is not the capital of the world in the eternal state. The target or the objective is twofold: first, to annihilate the army protecting the holy city; secondly, to destroy Jerusalem as the capital of the world during the Millennial reign of Christ.

The divine judgment then follows: a sequential use of the conjunction kai, “then,” plus the nominative singular from the noun pur which is generally translated “fire” or something approximating fire. The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of our Lord’s weapon. Whatever it is it is associated with fire and it is supernatural. Once again our Lord personally administers the judgment just as He did at the second advent. The army of the saints outside Jerusalem do absolutely no fighting. The only armies that could be in existence is one of the three armies that came back with our Lord, and since it says “saints” it would refer to a human army. Two human armies returned with Christ: the royal family of God and the Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs. The tactical disadvantage of being surrounded by superior numbers is offset, then, by the function of our Lord’s weaponry.

So the passage says, “and fire came down,” katabainw; They came up, the advance was called a)nabainw. Here is the humour of it all: “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.”

So the beloved city is the target, and the army, whichever one it is, and the fact of its superiority of numbers is offset by katabainw. Again, it is our Lord’s marvelous sense of humour. Satan made the first move, an aggressive move, and that was a)nabainw, he advanced; our Lord counters with katabainw and that destroys the revolution. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Against this weapon all superior tactics and numbers are absolutely useless. The active voice: the divine weapon, simply called here pur or fire, produces the action. So the declarative mood is for the eschatological reality of the fact that once again our Lord in His perfection, in His infinite righteousness, uses violence to stop violence forever. Violence and evil can only be stemmed by the violence of virtue.

Translation: “Then they marched [advanced] over the wide terrain of the land, and surrounded the bivouac of the saints, and the beloved city: then fire came down from heaven, and devoured them.”

This is the category of judgment by death from heaven. Being from heaven it is being administered in two ways: either through the protocol system of the angelic college of heralds or directly by God. In this case, the latter, directly by God. Not again, the Lord does the fighting, not army of the saints who are surrounded. The bivouac of the saints are merely spectators to this judgment function of the grace of God. The revolutionary army comes to nothing. This last evil function of Satan is defeated. Notice again that the numerical superiority and tactical advantage is meaningless when the battle is the Lord’s.

Verse 10, the divine judgment of Gog, the code name for the revolutionary leader. Note that the revolutionary leader here is called by a slightly different name: diaboloj, which means enemy. As Satan he is the deceiver; as Devil he is the enemy of God. It says, “And the diaboloj [enemy] who had deceived,” this is the present active participle from planaw because it was a continuous thing. It is a retroactive progressive present, which denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time. It is called the present tense of duration. However long it took, apparently a very short time, it resulted in a great revolution. The idiom is best translated by the English perfect tense, therefore “the devil who had deceived them.” The active voice: Satan produces the action of the verb. It is a circumstantial participle translated as a relative clause.

And what happens to him? The aorist passive indicative of ballw, which means to throw, “was thrown.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results: the judgment of Satan who has already been tried and found guilty before human history began, and he will be judged before all fallen angels. The lake of fire was created for the devil and his angels, Matthew 25:41. The fact that unbelievers also share in the eternal lake of fire is the subject coming up at the end of the chapter. The passive voice: the devil receives the action of the verb and gets preferential treatment. He goes into the lake of fire before any of the fallen angels. They are still incarcerated in Hades. But two members of the human race precede him which must have been very humiliating: the beast and the false prophet. The passive voice: the devil receives the action of the verb at the end of the revolution. The declarative indicative mood represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Once again, it is called “the lake of fire and sulphur.”

The lake of fire is literal and eternal, it is said to be a place “where the worm dieth not” and “fire is not quenched,” the description of Mark 9:44,46,48. So it is a literal lake of fire, unquenchable, eternal, where the worm dieth not. The lake of fire is the final destination and the eternal abode of both fallen angels and unbelievers in the human race. All unbelievers of history will occupy the lake of fire because they have rejected Christ as saviour, John 3:18. As far as unbelievers are concerned Hebrews 9:27 applies.

Some of the categories of unbelievers who are thrown into the lake of fire are actually mentioned in Revelation 21:8 and we will study them when we arrive at the eternal state. The two great dictators of the Tribulation, the beast dictator and ruler of the revived Roman empire and the dictator of Israel known as the false prophet, are the first occupants of the lake of fire, even though Satan and all fallen angels were sentenced to the lake of fire before man was created. The sentence was not carried out because of Satan’s appeal and the resultant angelic conflict, this time in human history.

In the human race it takes two witnesses to establish the reality of the situation. In the case of the angelic creatures it takes one. So we have a strange trio, the unholy trinity: Satan, the beast, and the false prophet, two members of the human race and the highest created angel of all time.

So it says, “thrown into the lake of fire and burning sulphur where the beast [the dictator of the revived Roman empire] and the false prophet [false messiah and dictator of Israel] are located.”

Then we have the eternal punishment mentioned in a very specific way. A lot of people try to rationalise Hell or say that there is going to be some point at which you can get out of Hell. But this is not true. We have the future passive indicative of the verb bassanizw which means to torment, “and they will be tormented.” The progressive future tense is linear aktionsart in future time. It goes on forever. The passive voice plus the third person plural suffix refers to the unholy trinity who receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine, “and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Note that Satan is the greatest deceiver of human history, the greatest liar, having begun with Eve in the garden and going all the way to the end of history. The protection against the deception of Satan is the perception of Bible doctrine plus the marvelous protocol system that God has given to us. We should note that the unholy trinity are in a state of being alive in the lake of fire. To be tormented forever one must live, to be tortured one must be alive. The torture is over when you die, but notice that they are tortured forever and ever. Hence, physical death is not the end for the unbeliever, as per Hebrews 9:27.

Revolution generally starts with some form of arrogance, some major function inside the cosmic system, some major contact with evil on the part of those involved. When we talk about evil here we are not talking about obvious degeneracy, we are talking about self-righteous arrogance. Most revolutions are started by self-righteous people. Self-righteous arrogance hooks up with criminal arrogance, criminal arrogance hooks up with crusader arrogance and the combination produces revolution. There is great power in public opinion when the public loses authority orientation and becomes arrogant and emotional. Hence, public opinion becomes a power without facts and without reason, a tool to be used by revolutionaries. Revolutions are not started by the majority, they are started by a small well-organised group of people. They never have the majority on their side but they use as a tool public opinion where public opinion is without facts or without reason. Public opinion arrogance is created into a revolutionary weapon, and that revolutionary weapon in the hands of a good organisation means an effective revolution. Then public opinion which becomes power for revolution is a weapon formed from strong delusion. Satan deceives, he is the author of strong delusion. Truth is the only protection the public has against revolution. So in effect crusader arrogance plus criminal arrogance equals revolution. Behind crusader arrogance is self-righteousness, so self-righteousness is the motivational evil behind it all.

Revolution has to be understood as the overthrow by violence of duly constituted authority resulting in fundamental changes in political organisation, constitution or government. revolution is a form of conspiracy to overthrow establishment, to remove authority of establishment by means of violence. Conspiracy is a combination of persons whose objective is evil and to overthrow establishment. The carefully devised and secret plan of the conspirators is called a plot, while the means of carrying out the plot is called intrigue. Machination emphasises the crafty and tortuous process often used in doing so. So revolution has its own vocabulary and has had for many centuries. Revolution is the antagonism of evil for the laws of divine establishment designed by God to guarantee the freedom of the human race and to give every opportunity for a person to be evangelised.

Evil is the concept behind all revolution, as in Proverbs 17:11, “A revolutionary man seeks only evil.” Hence, revolution has to be related to evil, Psalm 64:4,5, “They shoot from concealment at the blameless; suddenly they shoot at him, and do not fear. They hold fast to themselves an evil purpose; they conspire to lay snares secretly; they rationalise, ‘Who can see them?’ ” So since evil is the plan and the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world evil is related to the whole cosmic system: sin + arrogance = evil. The evil motivation for evil involves many of the categories of the cosmic system we have studied. Revolution involves the overthrow of laws of divine establishment, Romans 13:1-7. Revolution involves lawless mobs of people who cannot think nor achieve, therefore the mob is manipulated by the criminal element, but generally the self-righteous criminal element. The mob is the weapon of the revolution, exploited by the crusader, exploited by criminal arrogance, as well as political arrogance. The Bible condemns revolution — Numbers 16 where we have the rejection of the first revolution in Israel; the family of Aaron was challenged as being the family of the priesthood.

The source of revolution is always reversionism, according to Jeremiah 5:23; Isaiah 1:2-5. When a mob of people have rejected Bible doctrine they are a weapon to be forged by a revolutionary organisation. They are stupid and blind. There are three categories of people involved in a revolution: the hard core conspirators, the general public, who will never join a revolution unless they become stupid, and once they do they become the sheep who follow the propaganda machine; they have to be malcontent from arrogance plus the recipients of strong delusion, the propaganda of Satan; then they are motivated to join the revolution and are manipulated by the hard core revolutionist, and category three are the incorruptibles, the people in the client nation whose establishment norms and perception of doctrine combine with their honour and integrity to reject all revolutionary overtures. These are the people who live and die by their convictions. They have accepted some category of truth so that they are insulated against strong delusion. Furthermore, the incorruptibles are free from the cosmic system.

No revolution can gain momentum m apart from the function of the cosmic system. Both arrogance and strong delusion are the necessary ingredients for a revolution. Most revolutions lead to a civil war. They become a struggle for power and violence. If revolution does gain enough converts from the general public and the common people civil war is inevitable. When revolution starts a civil war there are two opposing forces seeking to gain control of power, and everyone is caught in between them. When revolution starts a civil war the issue is always truth, but somehow truth gets lost in the violence. Violence always submerges truth and the facts of an issue at hand.

When politics starts a civil war the issue is freedom; when revolution starts a civil war the issue is truth: both get lost. Revolution is inevitable where no distinction is made between authoritarian government and totalitarian government. This is one point that we must understand: Many forms of government, including monarchy, oligarchy, republic, and even dictatorships, can function under the laws of divine establishment which provide the umbrella for the modus operandi of freedom. Revolution is antiestablishment, therefore anti-authoritarian. Revolution generally starts in a totalitarian government that is a highly centralised form of government under the control of one political group. It is imperative that we distinguish between authoritarian government and totalitarian government. An authoritarian government provides the balance between authority and freedom and is compatible with the laws of divine establishment. A totalitarian government destroys freedom with the total ascendancy of authority producing tyranny.

Two categories of human freedom exist in life: temporal freedom and spiritual freedom. Temporal freedom results from the imputation of human life at birth and the function of an establishment organisation. Spirit freedom results from the imputation of divine righteousness at the moment of faith in Christ and provides under the protocol system freedom in either totalitarian or authoritarian nations. In other words, the possibility of blessing for a believer in any part of the world is there once, of course, he accepts Christ as saviour.

In studying the last judgment we come first of all in verse 11 to the courtroom. We have to remember that this is a second courtroom as far as eternal judgment is concerned. The first courtroom is the cross where 1 Peter 2:24 “He [Christ] bore our sins in his own body on the tree.” Our sins were judged at the cross. That resolved the problem of sin and that opens the door to salvation for anyone who will believe in Christ. The second courtroom occurs at the end of the Millennial reign of Christ. After the Gog and Magog revolution there is a second resurrection called the great white throne judgment, the last judgment, and all the unbelievers, all of those who rejected Christ as saviour, will be brought up into court. So courtroom number one is the cross; courtroom number two is the last judgment, the great white throne judgment at the end of human history.

In verse 11 the judge’s bench is mentioned first. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” The words “I saw” is simply a means of expressing the eschatological vision which would be the content of the next few verses. The constative aorist of o(raw means that the entire action of the verb is contemplated in its entirety, this is a vision of the courtroom of the last judgment of human history. The active voice of the verb: the apostle John observes eschatologically a future judgment. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that there will be a judgment of all unbelievers once human history is terminated. The combination is based on John 3:18 — “He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Condemnation comes from failure to believe in Christ. Unbelief, rejection of Christ, is the basis for being indicted in the courtroom at the last judgment. Those who have personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ will not be there, Romans 8:1.

We note the name of the courtroom in the accusative singular direct object of the verb. It takes three words: megaj, the adjective for “great”; leukoj, the adjective for “white”; and the noun qronoj, “the great white throne”, the name of the courtroom. The first adjective, “great,” emphasises the importance of the judge, our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. The second adjective, “white,” emphasises the integrity of the judge, His infinite and eternal holiness. The judges bench emphasises the fact that none of the culprits, all unbelievers of history, possess the perfect righteousness of God. The perfect righteousness of God, however, is imputed to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The judge is mentioned in the next phrase, “and he who was sitting on it.” We have the present active participle of the verb kaqhmai to indicate that the judge is now in the court. The present tense is a futuristic present noting an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain in thought that it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, He is the Judge occupying the bench and presiding over the court of the last judgment. The participle is circumstantial. It is fitting that Jesus Christ as the only saviour should occupy the judge’s bench. Those who rejected His saving work face Him at the judgment bar. By refusing to believe on Him in time the unbeliever will find that our Lord is a reality when they are on the edge of eternity. They refused to face the fact that Christ is the saviour in time; now they will face the fact that Christ is the judge for all eternity.

The destruction of the universe is mentioned next to indicate that this courtroom finds that there is no longer a universe for those who have failed to make the right decision in time. So we have the phrase, “from whose presence the earth and heaven have vanished.” So just before this judgment occurs both earth and heaven have vanished. We have two nouns as a dual subject. The first is the noun gh referring to planet earth and also there is o)uranoj referring to the rest of the universe. They are said to have fled. This is the aorist active indicative of the verb feugw, and it actually means here to vanish. The old universe has disappeared.

The culminative aorist tense contemplates the destruction of the universe at the end of the Millennium after the Gog revolution in its entirety, but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely the last judgment and the creation of the new earth to follow. The active voice: heaven and earth produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the destruction of the universe which is the last item on the agenda before all unbelievers are resurrected and judged. The last judgment, known as great white throne, immediately follows the destruction of the universe. Actually, it is not the objective of this verse to discuss how the universe is destroyed, that will be in the next chapter, but merely to show where in the sequence of events this judgment occurs. So the last judgment follows the termination of the Millennium, the release of Satan from his one thousand years incarceration, and following the Gog revolution and the destruction of the universe.

The fact of the destruction of the present universe is mentioned by way of contrast with Bible doctrine in Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33, which essentially all say the same thing, but it is so important it is repeated by all three of the synoptic writers. The universe as we now know it will be completely destroyed: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my doctrines will never pass away.” The Word of God lives and abides forever. We have that in writing which can never be destroyed even though the universe is destroyed. So in contrast Bible doctrine as absolute truth and a future fact of history which is true are brought into focus. It is true that the present universe will be destroyed at the end of the Millennium. It is a fact that absolute truth and Bible doctrine cannot be destroyed, they are indestructible.

We should notice the distinction between two words: Truth and true. Truth is a noun and true is an adjective, therefore an obvious distinction exists grammatically. But there is more to it as these two words are found in the Bible. True is an adjective describing the facts of history as they are printed out on the computer of divine decrees; truth is a noun referring to both the attributes of God and Bible doctrine. The attribute of God especially in view is His veracity. Bible doctrine is absolute truth while the facts of history are true but not necessarily truth. The facts of history at any given time may be the function of sin, evil, deception, lies, but their occurrence is true. Lies are told, deception occurs, so while that is true it is not truth. The doctrine of the Word of God is absolute truth while the facts of history, both good and bad, are simply true facts. Therefore true describes the accuracy of the historical events as they come from the computer of divine decrees while truth is both an attribute of eternal and infinite God and the content of the Word of God/Bible doctrine. The source of truth is Bible doctrine; the source of what is true is history as it reads out from the computer of divine decrees. The believer who rightly divides the Word of truth will always distinguish between true and truth.

For a brief resume of the destruction of the historical universe in a little more detail we look to 2 Peter

3:5, “For they are willfully ignorant of this fact, that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water.”

Verse 6, “Through which the world at that time [the antediluvian planet earth] was destroyed being flooded with water.”

Verse 7, “But the present heavens and earth [post-diluvian universe and earth] by his word are being reserved for fire [nuclear destruction], kept for the day of judgment [end of the Millennium] and destruction of ungodly [all unbelievers] men.”

Verse 8, “But do not let this one doctrine escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Verse 9, “The Lord is not slow about his promises, as some men conclude slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing than anyone should perish [referring to the last judgment] but for all to come to repentance [a technical word for a change of mind about Christ].”

Verses 10-12 gives us the story of the destruction of the universe which occurs at the end of the Millennium.

Verse 10, “But the day of the Lord [a portion of the day of the Lord dealing with the destruction of the present universe and the last judgment of all unbelievers] will come like a thief,” “like a thief” must be understood in the time on which the Bible was written. The thief in the ancient world came suddenly, he had to take the household by surprise. So suddenly, not stealthily, is the connotation of coming like a thief. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written: the thief in the ancient world had to take his victims by surprise, “in which the heavens [the present universe] will vanish with a sudden roar, and the elements will be dissolved with intense heat, both the earth and the works [reference to the book of works, the basis for indictment at the last judgment] in it will be investigated,” the future passive indicative of e(uriskw and it is a reference to the last judgment which follows the destruction of the universe. Note that both the destruction of the present universe and the last judgment are both related and sequential. The destruction of the present universe is followed by the last judgment in which the unbeliever is indicted by his good works found in the “books according to their works.” Then, of course, the books are destroyed.

Verse 11, “Since all these things are in the process of being dissolved in this manner, what kind of people ought you to be [directed to the believer] in holy manner of life and godliness [a reference to the protocol system],

Verse 12, “anticipating and earnestly desiring the coming day of God,” the day of Christ is the Rapture of the Church; the day of the Lord is the Tribulation, second advent, and Millennium; the day of God is the eternal state. Notice that “day” is not used in any of these connotations as a 24-hour day, “because of which the burning heavens will be dissolved and the elements will melt with intense heat!”

Verse13, “But according to his announced promise,” which occurs twice in Isaiah: 65:17; 66:22, and once in Revelation 20:1, “we are anticipating new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness [virtue and integrity] is at home.” In other words, in the eternal state the believer in his resurrection body will enjoy ultimate sanctification and he will have perfect righteousness and integrity forever. At that point the modus operandi and the behaviour pattern of every believer in the resurrection body will be equivalent to the imputed righteousness he now enjoys.

Verse 14, “Therefore, beloved, since you anticipate these things, be zealous that you may be observed by him [or investigated by Him as a winner] in prosperity, spotless [living in the divine dynasphere] and blameless [the fulfillment of the divine mandate, virtue first].”

Revelation 20:11 so far, “Then I saw a great white throne [the courtroom of the last judgment], and he [our Lord Jesus Christ] who was sitting on it, from whose presence the earth and heaven have vanished.”

The basis for the last judgment is now given. We have an inferential use of the conjunction kai, “consequently.” Then we have a subject in the nominative singular, topoj, which means place, a room, and we will translate it “an inhabited place.” But we have to stop for a moment because we have the negative conjunction o)uk, and it says “no room” or “inhabited place.” Then we have the verb, the aorist passive indicative of e(uriskw, “was found.” Translation: “no inhabited space was found.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the destruction of the universe in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, no place in God’s universe for the unbeliever of human history. In eternity they are consigned to the lake of fire. There is no place for the unbeliever because the universe because the universe in which they made wrong decisions has now been destroyed. The passive voice: no room or place receives the action of the verb. We have a dative plural indirect object from a)utoj, “for them.”

Translation of verse 11: “Then I saw a great white throne, and he who was sitting on it, from whose presence the earth and heaven have vanished; consequently no inhabited space was found for them.”

At the end of verse 12 and the end of verse 13 we have repetitive statements: “then the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their works.” This same sentence ends both verse twelve and verse thirteen. So before we get into these two verses it is better that we approach with some concept of the doctrine of human good.

Human good is then production of mankind living inside Satan’s cosmic system, consequently human good is not valid as far as God is concerned, except in one case. Human good production of the believer in the cosmic system is classified as “wood, hay, and stubble” at the judgment seat of Christ. We begin, then, the study of human in 1 Corinthians 3:11-16.

Verse 11, we have a foundation for the Christian way of life: personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation, then, is the base on which the believer builds his life. “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

Verse 12, “Now if any man builds on the foundation [the function of the believer in the protocol system] with gold, silver, precious stones,” that is one category, protocol believer’s production from the divine dynasphere, “wood, hay, straw,” the cosmic believer’s production doing the same things: witnessing, giving, and so on; Christian service of all categories.

Verse 13, “each man’s work [Christian works or production] will become evident; for the day will show it,” the day refers to the judgment seat of Christ immediately after the Rapture, “because it is revealed by fire; in fact the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.”

Verse 14, “If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward.”

Verse 15, “If any man’s work which he has built on it [on the foundation of time, phase two: plan of God] is burned up, he shall suffer loss [loss of reward]; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.”

Verse 16, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” That is the beginning of the protocol system which has God has ordained.

God has a plan for your life and that plan is related to the protocol system. Human good, of course, is the production of mankind apart from the plan of God. Human good is motivated by arrogance and has absolutely no credit with God whatsoever. Because human good originates inside the cosmic system and is totally divorced from God’s protocol system, it is dead to God. Hence, it is called dead works, Hebrews 6:1. Christian service inside of the divine dynasphere is classified as divine good but Christian service inside the cosmic system is called human good. Only inside the protocol system, the divine dynasphere, is divine good manufactured. Human good is characterised by many things. One of its more obvious characteristics is fanaticism- zeal without knowledge; Christian service, human good outside of the divine dynasphere. Fanaticism is good works from arrogance, Christian service inside the cosmic system. Fanaticism is excessive enthusiasm without motivational virtue. This means enthusiasm without motivational virtue. This means enthusiasm plus the three categories of virtue for legitimate enthusiasm. Fanaticism is irresponsible arrogance without functional virtue, without motivational virtue, without basic virtue from the protocol system. Fanaticism is arrogant concentration without doctrinal inculcation. It is misguided zeal, inordinate ambition, humourless bigotry, the distortion and misapplication of Bible doctrine. Fanaticism produces human good — Christian service in the cosmic system.

There are three classification of human good. Number 1 is what we have just been noting: human good of the believer living in the cosmic system. Number 2 is the human good of establishment orientation in the client nation to God. This is an exception. It is not really human good, it is establishment good. Number 3 is the human good of the unbeliever registered in the book of works, the basis for the indictment of all unbelievers at the last judgment. The sins of the unbeliever were judged at the cross, along with all of the sins of the believer, but human good was not judged at the cross. Therefore, human good becomes the basis for the indictment of the last judgment. At the end of Revelation 20:12, “then the dead were judged from the things which had been written in the books, according to their works”; at the end of verse 13, “then the dead were judged from the things which had been written in the books, according to their works.” So the principle that we now note is the fact that this trial has no reference to sin. There is no such thing as the last judgment somehow related to sin. Those who are arraigned before the throne of God are unbelievers only and these unbelievers cannot be judged for their sins because their sins already went to courtroom number one, the cross.

Courtroom number two, however, is a different story. There we have the great white throne and there the unbeliever will be arraigned and indicted. The indictment is not based upon his sin but on his human good.

Verse 12, “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written into the books, according to their works.”

We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then,” followed by the aorist active indicative of o(raw which introduces another view of the last judgment. We have the accusative plural direct object from nekroj, translated “dead.” All believers have been resurrected by this time and are in resurrection bodies, the first resurrection has been concluded. This is a reference to dead said to be great and small. However, they are all unbelievers. We have two adjectives here: megaj and mikroj, “great,” unbelievers in history who were famous or great, or who performed an unusual number of good deeds during their lifetime; “small,” which means small in importance, small in influence and power, a reference to all unbelievers who were losers in life.

These are said to be standing, therefore we now come to the second resurrection: the perfect active participle i(stemi, which means to stand and is used here to designate the second resurrection, the arraignment of all unbelievers before the bar of God. The unbelievers are resurrected to answer to the indictment before the divine judge. The intensive perfect emphasises the results of the second resurrection of all unbelievers. When special attention is directed to the results of the action stress upon existing results is intensified. Therefore it is called the intensive perfect. It is the Greek way of saying a thing is, and since the intensive perfect is a Greek idiom there is no exact translation on the English. The closest we can come is to use the English present tense, therefore translated “standing” instead of “having stood.” The active voice: all unbelievers of history produce the action of the verb. They are arraigned into the final court for the last judgment. The participle is circumstantial. There is no word for “God” here in the original text. It simply is a prepositional phrase which says, “before the throne.”

It is important to notice the principle of books. We will call this library the evidence for the prosecution. We have the nominative plural subject from biblion, and it refers to a tremendous gathering of evidence, evidence gathered into books. The absence of the definite article with biblion emphasises the quality of the evidence. There is no hearsay. Nothing but facts have been accumulated as evidence, “and the books were opened,” the aorist passive indicative of the verb a)noigw. It is a culminative aorist contemplating the presentation of the evidence in its entirety, but regarding it from the viewpoint of its existing results, all unbelievers condemned on the basis of their good works, their human good. The passive voice: two categories of books receive the action of the verb. First there is the book of life. Originally it contained the names of everyone ever born into the human race, since Christ died for all when He was on the cross. The doctrine of unlimited atonement is taught in 1 Corinthians 5:14,15,19; 1 Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Titus 2:11; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:2. At the time of the last judgment the book of life does not contain the names of all the human race, for once a person dies without believing in Christ his name is blotted out of the book of life. So at the last judgment the book of life contains only the names of believers. No unbelievers are listed and therefore the first evidence against those who have been arraigned is the fact that their name is not found in the book of life. They have not personally accepted Christ as saviour. So the first point of evidence at the last judgment is the fact that there is no registry in the book of life of these people. That is evidence of the fact that they did not personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they did not receive Him as personal saviour during their life on this earth. The second book to receive the action of the verb in this verse is the book of works. It contains the names of all unbelievers.

So we have two types of evidence. First of all we have negative evidence. In the book of life no unbeliever is there. Their name has been blotted out. Then there is the book of works and their name is in this book. So the book of life is the registry of believers only, however the book of works is a registry of unbelievers only. Each unbeliever has a section in the book of works, depending on how many good deeds. In the book of works are recorded the good deeds of every unbeliever since the beginning of time. Every person who rejects Christ as saviour is recorded in the book of works and such rejection is tantamount to accepting one’s own good works in place of the work of Christ on the cross for salvation. The salvation issue is the work of Christ on the cross versus the works of mankind. Hence the unbeliever chooses to stand on his own works and on his own human merit rather than the merit and the work of Christ on the cross. Therefore the unbeliever is judged from the book of works and condemned because his works are not adequate for salvation. Note, once again, that the unbeliever is not judged for his sins, his sins have already been judged on the cross. All the sins of human history were taken out of the computer of divine decrees by God the Father, imputed to Christ on the cross, and judged. Therefore, under the law of double jeopardy all sins have been judged once on the cross and cannot be judged again in the arraignment of the supreme court of heaven at the second resurrection. Because all sins have been judged at the cross anyone can believe in Christ and have eternal life.

There are several implications from the judgment of all human sins on the cross. a. Human sins cannot be the basis for the indictment of the last judgment. b. The mechanics of the rebound technique for the believer recognises the judgment of our sins and cites those things which have been judged. We rebound by simply naming our sins to God. Why? Because by naming those sins no works are involved. All of the work was in sinning but there is no work in simply citing them or naming them. So we name them to God and we are instantly forgiven because those sins were judged on the cross.

The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Two sets of books are used to indict the unbeliever in the last judgment. The evidence from the book of life: the unbeliever’s name is blotted out of the book of life when he dies without believing in Christ. The second part of the evidence is the book of works. The unbeliever’s works recorded in the book of works demonstrate the fact that minus R cannot have fellowship with plus R. To live with God forever one must have the life of God, eternal life; and be as good as God is good and therefore possess His righteousness. The only way we can possess His righteousness is to personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Guilt is proved with two witnesses, and that is why it says in the middle of verse 12. “then the books (plural) were opened.” First, “another book was opened which is the book of life.” There is the first witness, the roster of all believers in history. Then, “the dead were judged” but their name was not found in the book of life, so then the dead were judged from the “things which had been written in the books (plural), according to their works.” So first we have the book of life which originally contained the names of all members of the human race, since when Christ died on the cross He was judged for the sins of the world — the doctrine of unlimited atonement, 1 Corinthians 5:14, 15, 19; 1 Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Titus 2:11; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:2. Christ died for the sins of the world. He did not die for the elect, He died for all, believer and unbeliever. However at the time of the last judgment the names of all unbelievers have been blotted out of the book of life since they rejected this so great salvation in time. Hence, the first part of evidence at the last judgment is the fact that the unbeliever does not have his name written in the book of life. This is the principle of John 3:18. The opposite side of the picture is very clear. No believer will be found at the last judgment, “There is therefore now no judgment to them who are in Christ Jesus.” The second book to receive the action of the verb is the book of works containing the names of all unbelievers since the beginning of human history. In the books of works are recorded the good deeds of every believer since the beginning of time. Every person who rejects Christ as saviour is recorded in the book of works. Such rejection, of course, is tantamount to accepting one’s good works in place of the saving work of Christ on the cross. The salvation issue, therefore, is the work of Christ versus human works, human good. Hence the unbeliever chooses to stand on his own merits rather than on the merit of the work of Christ on the cross which is described in many ways: redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, unlimited atonement. Therefore the unbeliever is judged from the book of works and condemned. This is the second witness against him. He is condemned because his works are not adequate for salvation, and we note that the unbeliever is not judged for his sins, which are not even mentioned, because they were judged at the cross. Therefore two courtrooms are involved: the cross and the great white throne, the last judgment at the end of the Millennium and the Gog revolution.

We have noted that even the believer produces human good but that human good is never found in the books of works because that human good is burned at the judgment seat of Christ. It is the wood, hay, and stubble of 1 Corinthians 3:11 which is burned in 1 Corinthians 3:15.

Verse 13, the mechanics of arraignment and indictment. This is the second resurrection and, strangely enough, it begins with the sea. This is not talking about people who drown in the sea, nor is it talking about people who were buried in the sea. It is talking about the sea as the most powerful set of gates ever used for a prison.

The verse begins with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” followed by the nominative singular subject qalassa, “the sea.” It refers here to the flood waters generally of the universal flood. That is one way in which it is used. So it can refer to all the waters which cover planet earth.

At the time of Noah he and his family were not only living believers on planet earth but they were the only true human beings left after the flood. The rest of the human race had been contaminated, Genesis 6:1-13. Verses 12, 13, “And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh is at hand’.” all flesh being those members of the human race who were half human and half angelic, “ ‘for the earth is filled with violence because of them’,” these angelic creatures were very violent and unrestrained because they had not been judged in the judgment of fallen angels before human history began, at the time of Matthew 25:15 where Satan and all fallen angels were indicted and their judgment was the lake of fire, and judgment not carried out because it was appealed, “ ‘now behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth’.”

Many believers and unbelievers have died at sea. This does not refer to human beings. This has nothing to do with burial at sea. Human beings, whether buried on land, or sea; whether their bodies were blown up and disappeared, whether their physical bodies were burned or used for the advance of medical science, they are resurrected from Hades as unbelievers and resurrection from heaven as believers. Notice that it says the sea gave up the dead, not Hades. That is coming up next under the mistranslation “Hell.” So actually what we have here is something very different, we are not talking about the normal human unbelievers whose souls are in Hades. This is something very unique. We have the nominative singular subject of qalassa which refers to the location of the Nephalim, those who are not with the fallen angels in a compartment of Hades called the abyss or Tartarus. Neither are they with unbelievers in that compartment of Hades called torments. The souls of all unbelievers are located in torments until the second resurrection but they are not mentioned under “the sea gave up its dead,” they are mentioned when it says “death and Hades gave up its dead.” Tartarus, which also has another name, the abyss, is where the fallen angels are. They will be brought out of the abyss and brought up for their judgment at the end of time and they will be cast into the lake of fire. But this is not a reference to Tartarus, a reference to torments; this is a place that deals with unbelievers. All angelic unbelievers during the Millennium are in Tartarus. It does not say Tartarus gave up the dead, it doesn’t say the abyss gave up the dead, it doesn’t even say Hades gave up the dead, it says the sea gave up its dead. There is another category at the gates of Tartarus. The gates of Tartarus are called the sea and the reason they are not in Hades is because they are one half angel, they are one half human being. Therefore they are not even permitted in Tartarus, they are in the gate to Hades.

Being half human and half angelic, after their death, Genesis 6, they did not go to Hades. The dead Nephalim are not with the fallen angels in the compartment known as Tartarus or the abyss, neither are they will human unbelievers in the compartment of Hades known as Torments. They were all drowned in the flood. That is the way the super race died, and they all are located on the bottom of the sea. It is possible that the sea or qalassa refers to the very gates of Hades, Luke 8:31 which says, “And they [the demons known as legion] were entreating him [Jesus] not to command them to depart to the abyss.” In the King James the word “sea” or “deep” is used, which is inaccurate. The abyss is the jail for demons, fallen angels, and they begged Him not to go to jail. The same word a)bussoj is used in Revelation 20:3 where Satan goes for his 1000-year sentence. In the Septuagint of Genesis 1:2 uses the word a)bussoj which is synonymous with water. The gates of Hades are water gates, and the Nephalim couldn’t go through the gates into the prison. They have to stay at the gates because they are not human and they are not angelic, they are half human and half angelic. Job 38:8 says, “Or who closed the sea with doors?” There it is, the water gates, the gates to the prison of fallen angels. This phrase tells us that the abyss or Tartarus has sea doors and the reason the sea has to give up its dead is because when they came to the sea doors after Noah’s flood they couldn’t go in. There was no place for them. So since the flood the Nephalim have been cooling it at the water gate. From the water gate they join the second resurrection to be judged with human unbelievers. They are judged with human unbelievers because they rejected Christ as saviour in human history. They did not reject God in the angelic conflict, they were not there.

We come to the verb now, the verb to give up: the aorist active indicative of didomi which means to give. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the Nephalim in its entirety. While half human and half angelic creatures they rejected Christ as saviour during human history before the flood. Noah constantly evangelised them, they had every opportunity to believe and they rejected Christ as saviour in human history. Therefore they are judged with human unbelievers of history. The active voice: the sea or the water gates of Tartarus produce the action of the verb at the second resurrection. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the second resurrection including the Nephalim. Since all Nephalim are unbelievers they are included in the second resurrection. Mechanically the human soul of the Nephalim leaves the water gates of the abyss

or Tartarus, rejoins its super body at the point of its death and is arraigned before the great white throne court.

When this verse says, “the sea gave up the dead,” it refers to the resurrection of the Nephilim of Genesis 6:4, and since all the Nephilim were unbelievers they are included in the second resurrection. Mechanically, the human soul of the Nephilim leaves the water gates or the abyss, rejoins its super body at the point of its death and is arraigned before the great white throne with human beings. The Nephilim are classified as the older heroes in Greek history. In discussing the first heroic age, Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 2, part 1, quotes the distinction between the first heroic age and the second.

“those in it.” That is, those located at the sea gates. So the second resurrection actually has two stages. The first stage has to do with the Nephilim who being half angelic and half human, but having lived in human history, having rejected Christ as saviour, and having not been judged with fallen angels before human history — the Nephilim are brought up to be judged. Since they are half human they have a resurrection. The second stage is the unbeliever Homo sapien who is also resurrected. All are judged in the same way.

Next we have the arraignment of human unbelievers. We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, “also.” Then we have two words for the subject, both are in the nominative singular: qanatoj, translated “death,” referring to the fact that no matter where the body of the unbeliever is located and no matter how it was destroyed the unbeliever will participate in the second resurrection in the last judgment; and a(dhj, referring to the location of the unbeliever’s soul until the second resurrection. Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb didomi which means to give, and here it means to give up, “also death and Hades gave up the dead, those in them.” The dead this time refers to all unbelievers in human history. These unbelievers in their life time had every opportunity to accept Christ as saviour. There is no such thing as an unbeliever who didn’t have a chance for salvation. The first chance is at the point of God-consciousness. Then there is the point of gospel hearing under two categories: normal evangelism and crisis evangelism. So in principle there are three possible exposures and no one ever departs from this life without having a chance one way or another.

Next we have the word “then” which introduces the third sentence in this verse: the sequential conjunction kai, and the aorist passive indicative of krinw which means to be judged, “then they were judged.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: every unbeliever in the history of the human race receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the dogmatic statement of fact and of doctrine: all unbelievers are judged at the end of human history.

Then we have a very strange appositional nominative which is very important, e(kastoj, “each one.”

There is no mass judgment, no mass indictment. Obviously there is a mass arraignment but each one has his turn at the judgment bar. Then that very important prepositional phrase, kata plus the accusative plural from e)rgon, “according to their works.” Every unbeliever is personally judged from his own records. Evidence is found in two records: the book of life where his name is blotted out, and the book of works. Note again, the unbeliever is not judged for his sins, and this is because his sins were all judged at courtroom number one, the cross. Hence, the indictment is based on human works which were not judged at the cross. This is the application of the law of double jeopardy: human sins can only be judged once, at the cross. No sin will ever be mentioned at the last judgment.

Translation: “Then the sea gave up the dead, those in it; also death and Hades gave up the dead, those in them: then they were judged each one according to their works.”

Because of the doctrine of unlimited atonement the unbeliever cannot be judged for his sins, therefore the basis for the indictment of all unbelievers is the area of human good. Human works and good deeds add up to minus R. Minus R cannot have fellowship with plus R, you must have perfect righteousness to live with God forever, and when you believe in Christ one of the things that you receive is the righteousness of God. That is the basis of your justification. Every person in human history who believes in Christ, at the moment he believes he receives eternal life. If you are going to live with God you must have his life and you must be as good as He is by the imputation of eternal life and the imputation of God’s righteousness. All of that is fulfilled.

The Old Testament believers received the imputed righteousness of God, Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3. They were not saved by keeping the law, they were saved by faith in Christ. Church Age believers received the imputed righteousness of God, 2 Corinthians 5:21. The Tribulational believers receive the imputed righteousness of God, Revelation 7:14. And we can infer from the fact that Old Testament believers are said to have imputed righteousness at the point of faith, Genesis 15:6, Church Age believers are said to have it at the point of faith in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:21, and Tribulational believers are said to have it, Revelation 7:14, that believers in every dispensation have received God’s righteousness at the moment of salvation. The fact of unlimited atonement means that the sins of the unbelievers cannot be used as the basis of their indictment, therefore they are judged according to their works, Romans 2:5,6.

1. The last judgment is also known as the great white throne judgment. It is the divine administration of permanent judgment to all unbelievers. It is an eternal sentence. The last judgment is the alternative to eternal salvation through faith in Christ, therefore the last judgment is for all unbelievers in history. Like all judgments the last judgment is the expression of the integrity or holiness of God toward those who reject Christ as saviour. The holiness or integrity of God is composed of two attributes: justice and righteousness. To those who believe in Christ God imputes one half of His integrity and/or divine righteousness at the moment of salvation. This means that the unbeliever does not have this righteousness because he has not believed in Christ. If you don’t believe in Christ you do not receive this perfect righteousness of God by imputation. The last judgment is a demonstration that human righteousness and good deeds will not qualify mankind for salvation. The very good deeds on which the unbeliever depends are used to indict him at the last judgment. Hence, the great white throne is the culminating judgment of history in which all unbelievers are arraigned, the second resurrection, and indicted on the basis of the evidence and sentenced to the lake of fire forever. This is also called the second death or living in the lake of fire forever. There is no second chance beyond the grave. When a person dies physically without believing in Christ as saviour he will be arraigned and judged at the last judgment, Hebrews 9:27.

2. There are two categories of the human race: believers and unbelievers. Those who do not reach accountability are always on the believer’s side; they are included with believers, they are automatically saved.

3. At the last judgment the unbeliever’s indictment is John 3:18. The ministry of the Holy Spirit of God in common grace or convicting the world is related to one sin, John 16:9, “Concerning sin because they believe not on me.” Revelation 20:15, “Everyone who was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” The book of life at the last judgment is a registry of believers only. Since Christ died for all, all names were entered into the book of life when God imputed human life after birth. However, when anyone dies without accepting Christ as saviour his name is blotted out of the book of life. Therefore the unbeliever is said to have two appointments, Hebrews 9:27, physical death and judgment. The arraignment of the unbeliever is accomplished through the second resurrection, Daniel 12:2, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake [analogous to resurrection], those to eternal life [first resurrection], but the others to disgrace and eternal rejection [the unbeliever at the second resurrection].”

There are a number of different kinds of death mentioned in the scripture. For example, the most prominent death and the one that people seem to understand is physical death. Out of the seven types of death used in the scripture physical death is probably the most obvious. It is defined as the separation of the soul from the body so that the person involved no longer lives on planet earth. Such death cannot separate the believer from God according to Romans 8:38,39. Physical death, then, is a matter of the sovereign decision of God based on His perfect knowledge of all the facts, Psalm 68:19,20. God does, and God can, prolong physical life under certain conditions that are specified in the 102nd Psalm, verses 19, 20, 23, 24, and also in Psalm 118:18. God also delivers the believer from death under many circumstances, Job 5:20; Psalm 33:19; 56:13; 116:8. The believer who advances to maturity departs from life under the principle of dying grace, Psalm 23:4; 116:15. Resurrection is the victory over death, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57. Physical death is also defined in terms of the believer’s victory in life because of faith in Christ. Death means no appointment with judgment, Hebrews 9:27. Death means face to face with the Lord, 2 Corinthians 5:8; the end of any kind of pain or suffering, Revelation 21:4. Death means an inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled, 1 Peter 1:4,5. Death for the believer means a new home, as per John 14:1-6; the full realisation of eternal life in John 11:25; 10:28; 20:31. Physical death means waiting for the resurrection in an interim body, John 11:25; 1 Thessalonians 4; Job 19. For the believer whose momentum carries him to gate eight of the divine dynasphere death is said to be profit forever and ever, Philippians 1:20,21. For the believer who spends his life inside the cosmic system death is a horrible thing, he dies under discipline called the sin unto death, 1 John 5:16; Psalm 118:17,18; Revelation 3:16; Acts 5.

Sometimes death is referring to spiritual death, not physical death at all. The reality of spiritual death is the fact that the penalty of sin is death. God told our first parents in the garden that the day they disobeyed His mandate about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ate of the fruit, dying they would die. When they ate the fruit they did not die, therefore it was not a physical death, it was a spiritual death. They died instantly, but they died spiritually. They were still very much alive physically. The penalty was imposed, then, at the fall of man and is perpetuated in the human race through the imputation of Adam’s original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature at birth, Romans 5:12. In effect, the entire human race sinned when Adam sinned. Being the federal head of the human race, the entire human race was “in Adam” seminally. That is another reason why at the point of physical birth, when we receive physical life, we also receive the imputation of Adam’s sin. Mankind is not condemned by the imputation of personal sin. Our personal sins have never been imputed to us, they were imputed to Christ. Mankind is not condemned by the imputation of his personal sins but by the imputation of Adam’s sin which is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. The solution to spiritual death is stated in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is [spiritual] death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The third category of death in the Bible is positional death of the believer. Positional death occurs as a result on one of the 37 things we receive at the point of salvation, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes every believer at the moment of salvation and enters him into union with Christ. Through baptism of the Spirit at salvation the believer is identified with Christ in his death burial and resurrection. Positional death, also called retroactive positional truth. It is the believer’s identification with Christ in His death. Just as Christ rejected human good and evil on the cross, so we have done so positionally. Human good, evil, and sin are three of the issues from the cosmic system. When Christ was on the cross He received the imputation of our sins but He rejected human good and evil because they continue to be an issue for the believer. He can choose human good as over against divine good; he can choose evil in the cosmic system as over against God’s protocol plan for his life in the divine dynasphere. So we have the concept that positional rejection of human good and evil is the basis for experiential rejection. Colossians 2:11-12, “In fact, in him [union with Christ] you have been circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, by the renunciation of the body of the flesh [the old sin nature] by the circumcision of Christ [reference to retroactive positional truth]; having been buried with him by means of the baptism [of the Spirit].” Retroactive positional truth or positional death, then, is identification with Christ in His death when He was judged for our sins when at the same time He rejected human good and evil as the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world. Therefore we can only sin outside of the divine dynasphere. We can only produce human good and evil in the cosmic system, therefore all personal sin places us immediately outside of the divine dynasphere and inside of Satan’s cosmic system.

That becomes the issue for the fourth death which is cosmic death of the believer. Cosmic death is what we call carnality. There are two ways of looking at the believer who is a loser. One is to look at it from the standpoint of the body of the believer. The body of the believer is said to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is also the location of the old sin nature. The issue is who controls the soul. Volition guards the gate of the soul. The old sin nature tries to gain control of the soul through temptation. All you have to do is say no to temptation to keep the old sin nature from controlling the soul. When the old sin nature is not controlling the soul the Holy Spirit is, and that is the filling of the Spirit. So from this standpoint every time you sin — the source of all sin is human volition — temptation is converted into sin and then the believer is said to be carnal. It means the old sin nature controls the soul. When the Holy Spirit controls the soul then the believer is said to be spiritual. So at any given time you are either spiritual or carnal. Therefore spirituality is an absolute and carnality is an absolute.

The fifth category of death is the production mortality of the believer. This category combines the arrogance of Christian service with the function of human good. It also can include the function of crusader arrogance with the modus operandi of functional evil, the motivational evil being arrogance itself. Arrogance plus self-righteousness plus crusader arrogance equals the total function of evil. In other words, the production of Christian service, good works, legitimate things, become wood hay and straw. They are called dead works in Hebrews 6:1.

Number six is sexual death, Hebrews 11:11,12; Romans 4:17-21. Abraham is the one person who was said to have sexual death in the Bible.

The seventh death in the Bible is the second death when the unbeliever is judged. He has rejected Christ as saviour. He is not judged according to his sins but he is judged according to his works.

The eighth death found in the scripture is the sin unto death: maximum punishment of the believer in time, a horrible death as a maximum discipline.

Hades is the Hebrew word sheol, and the Greek word a(idhj. Both words are talking about the same place, the vast suffering place of the departed dead of the human race and the abode of certain categories of fallen angels. The dying are said to go to Sheol in Numbers 16:30; Ezekiel 31:15,17. Those who were saved in the Old Testament went to Sheol, according to Hosea 13:14; Psalm 49:16. The reason for that, called Paradise or Abraham’s bosom, is because all of the born-again believers went there until the resurrection of Christ when they were transferred to the third heaven. The unbeliever is also there and said to be in torments, a different compartment. By the way, wherever Sheol is used the Septuagint always used Hades. There is also another compartment called Tartarus which is the location of certain fallen angels. This is called the abyss.

Verse 14, the sentence of the court. We have a sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then,” followed by the nominative subject qanatoj, used for death number seven, the second death. With this is the appositional nominative a(idhj, “Hades” is the location of all unbelievers until the second resurrection. Then we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb ballw which means to throw. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it contemplates the execution of the sentence in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. The unbeliever resides in the lake of fire forever. The passive voice: the unbeliever receives the action of the verb at the last judgment. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the unbeliever living in the lake of fire. Then we have the phrase, “into the lake of fire.” Translation: “Then death even Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.” Every human being is the product of his own decisions, the function of his own volition. The lake of fire is the eternal residence of the unbeliever because he has made the worst of all decisions under three categories: God-consciousness, the point at which he became aware of the existence of God; gospel hearing, normal evangelism and crisis evangelism. So he is the product of his own decisions. There is no excuse, Romans 1:18-25.

What about the heathen? Heathenism is the apostasy of the unbeliever in three stages of negative volition. Consequently heathenism is simply a way of describing the rejection of God’s plan of salvation.

Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and anti-justice of those who suppress the truth through unrighteousness.”

The unbeliever suppresses the truth by its rejection. That means that salvation maladjustment occurs at either God-consciousness or the two categories of gospel hearing. The word “heathen”, by the way, is a Gothic word. The Gothic word means “open country”, hence the word originally meant heath or the open country. It is equivalent to the Latin paganus, from which we get the word “pagan.” Heathenism is defined as one of a nation or a race or a people who do not acknowledge the God of the Bible, and we call them simply heathen or pagan.

Wherever a place in this earth is described as heathenistic it is a place where the truth has been at some time in the past. Many doctrines of the Word of God resolve the problems of heathenism, such as the doctrine of divine essence applied, the doctrine of unlimited atonement applied, the doctrine of God-consciousness applied, the application of the doctrine of the justice of God.

The biblical documentation is very important. It tells us that there never has been a generation that has not been evangelised or has not reached the point of God-consciousness.

Acts 17:6, “And when they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some of the brethren before the city authorities, shouting, ‘These men who have upset the world have come here also.”

Colossians 1:6, “The gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world and is constantly bearing fruit and spreading.”

1 Timothy 3:16, “And by consent of all great is the mystery of doctrine with reference to godliness:

The unique one [Christ as eternal God] became visible by means of the flesh, the same one was vindicated by means of the Holy Spirit, was observed by angels, was proclaimed to all the nations, became the object of faith in the world, was taken into his place of glory.”

Justin Martyr, who lived in the second century, said: “There is no people, Greek or Barbarian, or any other race by whatsoever appellation or manner by which they may be distinguished, however ignorant of art and agriculture, whether they dwell in tents or wander about in covered wagons, among whom prayers and thanksgiving are not offered in the name of the crucified Christ to God the Father.” In other words, all over the world the Lord was known.

Tertullian, who also wrote in the second century: “We are but yesterday and yet we already fill your cities, your islands, your camps, your palaces, your senate and forum. We have left you only your empty temples.”

Origen, who goes into the third century, said: “In all Greece and in all barbarous races within our world there are tens of thousands who have left their national laws and customary gods for the law of Moses and the word of our Lord Jesus Christ, though to adhere to the Word of God is to incur the hatred of idolaters, and to embrace that word is to incur the risk of death as well; and considering how in a few years, and with no great store of teachers, in spite of the attacks which have cost us life and property, the preaching of that word has found its way into every part of the world so that the Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise, adhere to faith in Jesus Christ.

Eusebius, the fourth century historian: “There flourished at that time many successors to the apostles who reared to edifice on the foundations that were laid, continuing the work of preaching the gospel, and scattering abundantly over the entire earth the wholesome seed of the heavenly kingdom. For a very large number of disciples carried away by fervent love of doctrine which the divine Word had revealed to them, fulfilled the command of our saviour, leaving their country they fulfilled the office of evangelist to carry the gospel to those who had never heard the word of faith.”

Missionary documentation regarding the dissemination of the gospel goes all of the way up to the present time.

God’s perfect righteousness and perfect justice prohibit Him from being unfair. God is the epitome of all involved in perfect integrity — perfect, eternal, infinite integrity. Therefore, since it is impossible for God to be unfair there never was, and there never will be, a person who didn’t have a chance to hear. Since God cannot be unfair or compromise His justice, positive volition at the point of God-consciousness is always met with missionary and evangelistic activity. In other words, there is no such thing as a human being who does not have the chance to be saved. It is God’s will that all members of the human race be saved, 2 Peter 3:9. Only negative volition to the gospel, either under normal or crisis evangelism, frustrates the will and desire of God.

God does not violate or coerce human volition. Such a course of action violates the principle of the angelic conflict and its extension into human history. God has provided salvation for the entire human race. Each person must make his own decision. God cannot force you to make a decision, you must make your own. Furthermore, to avoid any works it must be made in privacy, and therefore, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Unlimited atonement indicates God’s desire for everyone to believe but He can’t force you to do it.

God-consciousness is the point at which mankind becomes aware of the existence of God through the function of his own mentality. Every human being has at least three chances. First, God consciousness; secondly, gospel hearing or normal evangelism; thirdly, gospel hearing under crisis evangelism. The major issue is your own mentality because by your own thinking you can become aware of the existence of God. Man has the ability to arrive at God-consciousness through the function of his mentality, and when a member of the human race has reached God-consciousness that is called the point of accountability. Such accountability varies with culture, languages, environment and circumstances. Those members of the human race who are morons and do not reach accountability are automatically saved at the point of death. Babies and others who die before reaching accountability are also saved according to 2 Samuel 2:22. The issue of God-consciousness is the subject of Romans 1:20-21. Jeremiah 29:13, “And you will seek me [positive volition at God-consciousness] and find me [positive volition at gospel hearing], when you search for me with all your heart.” John 7:17, “If any man is willing to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is from God or I speak of myself.” Acts 17:27, “That they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each of us,” relating God-consciousness to the principle.

There are five ways in which God-consciousness may be arrived at through a system of thought. These are different categories of thinking and the ability is one of IQ. But no matter how low the IQ, as long as it does not drop below the level of accountability, then there are there are five different ways that by thinking, apart from any information outside of your own mentality, you can reach God-consciousness.

1. Theological. The principle is very simple. God must exist because men universally believe in His existence. The creature does not crave what does not exist. “Men seek after God,” says Psalm 42:1,2.

2. Anthropological. To a greater or lesser degree man’s soul possession, both volition and conscience, are an urge to choose right rather than wrong. When anyone has a desire to choose right over wrong, not even being able to define them but saying, “This is wrong, and this is right,” then you have the principle of awareness of a higher standard. The structure of society is based on human recognition of virtue and truth. This phenomenon has no explanation apart from the existence of God. A material, ungoverned universe can know nothing of moral values and distinctions apart from the absolute righteousness of a supreme being.

3. Ontological. Since the human mind possesses the idea of perfection or perfect and absolute being, such a being must exist, and apart from religious or moral tendencies previously considered the existence of God is a necessary ideal tendency of the human mind. Beyond the relative with which man measures there is the absolute which gives character or value to the relative. The relative must have an absolute to provide its value.

4. Teleological. This is the structure of the universe. Once you examine the structure of the universe it demands a designer no matter how you examine it. Scientifically you can be either telescopic or microscopic. Telescopic phenomena or microscopic phenomena possesses order, design, arrangement, purpose, and adaptation, all of which suggest a Designer. Whether we are looking at the structure of the atom or the design of the galaxies their order can no more be accidental than the shuffling of 26 letters of the English alphabet into a beautiful poem. Behind the design is a Designer.

5. Cosmological. The intuitive law of cause and effect demands the existence of God. In no sense can the universe be its own cause. Order and arrangement in the universe demand a creator as well as a sustainer, as per Colossians 1:16,17. If God is left out design, arrangement, order, function and operation of the universe become an unsolvable problem of infinite proportions.

The question arises: Which came first, the gospel or the heathen? The gospel came first. The origin of heathenism is very simple then: heathen are heathen not because they have never heard the gospel but because they have and rejected the gospel, as per Romans 1:18-23. Heathenism is related to liberalism and various forms of cosmic reversionism. Salvation is personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; negative volition toward the gospel is rejection of Christ. Rejection of Christ produces a vacuum in the soul into which all of the cosmic system of Satan — all of the propaganda — is developed. Evil [cosmic doctrines in the soul] produces reversionistic liberalism. The mechanics of this liberalism and evil are found in Romans 1:24,25. Both theological and political liberalism exploit the ignorance of man by catering to his emotional revolt of the soul, and sometimes his lust. Liberals, whether theological or political, seek to satisfy their arrogance on the one hand or a guilt complex on the other by trying to play God. As was once said, “When someone is running toward you to do you a favour, run in the opposite direction as fast as you can.” Liberalsseek to establish a perfect world order without God. It is always the same pattern and tradition of operation fig leaves: man by man’s efforts seeking to establish a perfect environment and world order apart from God. Liberalism, then, is another manifestation of heathenism with a veneer of human good added. Heathenism rejects truth and there is not truth is the premise of heathenism. Therefore the conclusion can be no stronger than the premise. If you start without truth you end up without truth no matter what system of logic and no matter how illogical you may be. No matter how logical or rational you are in between a false premise inevitably leads to a false conclusion. Truth is designed to free man from both heathenism and liberalism, and therefore heathenism must find a substitute for the truth it has rejected. That is the story of Romans 1:22-24. In starting without truth heathenism seeks to establish a society without God, and the false premise of this society leads to the false conclusion of this society and the inevitable judgment from God. So heathenism is the story of the unbeliever rejecting the gospel.

Translation of verse 14: “Then death even Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”

The judgment of our Lord at the great white throne is a just and fair sentence. The work of Christ on the cross demands nothing less than the administration of eternal punishment at the last judgment, Romans 1:20, “So they are without excuse.”

Verse 15, the punishment fits the crime. We start out with the protasis of a first class condition, a supposition from the viewpoint of reality, and it is introduced by the Greek conjunction e)i. The first class condition is formed with e)i plus any tense and the indicative mood in the verb. The nominative singular subject is the indefinite pronoun tij, and the indefinite pronoun is used to express a category. In this case the category is the unbeliever, “And if anyone was not found,” the aorist passive indicative of the verb e(uriskw plus the negative o)ux. The culminative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results given in the apodasis, “thrown into the lake of fire.” The passive voice: the unbelievers of history receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that all unbelievers are blotted out of the book of life by the end of the Millennium and therefore they end up in the lake of fire.

As we have already seen, the book of life is the first category of evidence at the trial and that category says that they are not believers, they did not personally accept Christ in time though they had three categorical opportunities. The tragic fact is that all members of the human race were originally in the book of life but when they died without accepting Christ as saviour their name was blotted out. So the book of life at the end of human history, at the end of the Millennium, is a registry of believers only. The reason the registry at the end of the Millennium is called the book of life is because God has imputed to every member of the human race human life with the opportunity of getting a second imputation: eternal life.

Then we have the apodasis, the punishment. The logical conclusion is based on the premise. The fact that the unbeliever was not registered in the book of life at the end of the Millennium means that they will suffer eternal punishment: the lake of fire.

The book of Revelation is primarily eschatological after chapter five and everything that it presents with regard to the Tribulation, the second advent, the Millennial reign of Christ, and the end of history are interlaced with a great deal of divine judgment. There are three categories of judgment found in the Word of God: indirect divine judgment, the unique divine judgment, and direct divine judgment. All three categories are found extensively in the book of Revelation.

First of all we note the source of all divine judgment as being the same source as the Christian way of life, the same source as the same so great salvation we enjoy. That has to do with the concept of protocol. God has a plan for your life and that plan is summarised in one word: protocol. Protocol is the divine system in the plan of God for every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ in this dispensation. The Church Age believer is classified as royal family of God, and this means that God’s plan is based on protocol rather than milk. Protocol is the expression of God’s power and infinite genius. Protocol is the overlay map of human history. We saw this in the historical trends of Revelation chapters two and three. To fulfill the plan of God the believer must not only understand protocol but he must be inculcated into its procedures. The believer must understand the protocol of the royal priesthood as it relates to one’s attitude toward God. Furthermore, he must understand the protocol of the royal ambassadorship as it relates towards people and circumstances. Therefore the importance of a good definition.

By definition protocol is a rigid long-established code and procedure prescribing complete deference to superior rank, followed by strict adherence to due order and precedence, coupled with precisely correct procedure.

Protocol, then, is a rigid, long-established code and procedure. The code is God’s game plan for the Church Age, the system God has devised to make the believer in Christ the winner during this stage of the angelic conflict. The code defines the modus vivendi living inside of the divine dynasphere. The procedure is the modus operandi of the believer living also in that same protocol system. Therefore procedure connotes residence, function, momentum inside the divine dynasphere. The rigidity of the code is the fact that God has always one way of doing a thing. That is the right way. Under God’s protocol system the end never justifies the means. Both means and end must comply with the divine standard of protocol. Therefore a wrong thing done in a wrong way is wrong, a right thing done in a wrong way is wrong, a wrong thing done in a right way is wrong. God’s protocol system guarantees that we do a right thing in a right way. A right thing must be done in a right way to comply with God’s protocol standards.

The protocol system of God is structured into a plan which we call the divine dynasphere, which is the power system composed of eight gates. This protocol system in the divine dynasphere is actually the Christian way of life. In fact, the divine dynasphere is the only place where the protocol of heaven meets the protocol of earth to provide blessing and happiness for every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The divine dynasphere is the only place of influence which is designed to do a right thing in a right way. This means that whether God is blessing or punishing from the protocol system it is always a right thing done in a right way.

Protocol is complete deference to superior rank. This is the believer’s authority orientation to the plan of God. Protocol as a system demands a recognition of authority which God has delegated to the system. In the administration of judgment God often delegates punishment to another entity: angels, people, and nations.

The freedom of the Christian life is mentioned in Galatians 5:1. It depends on submission to a system of authority established by divine protocol. Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, therefore keep standing firm [the believer living in the divine dynasphere] and do not become entangled again [subordinate again] in the yoke of slavery.” All teachability, objectivity, and virtue begins with humility produced through several protocol systems: gate three of the divine dynasphere, authority in the home, or some other establishment system of judgment. Submission to authority in any protocol system can be enforced or genuine humility but it cannot, of course, be involved in any form of arrogance. Delegated authority from God resides in the content of the Word of God.

Protocol is strict adherence to due order of precedence. This is the basis for identifying one’s priorities in life and forming a good scale of values. A false set of values destroys motivation for living the Christian life. The believer must have a frame of reference for the protocol system, the possession of a true scale of values.

Protocol is precisely correct procedure. As it relates to the Christian life it is also a correct procedure that relates to divine judgment. Protocol is not only a source of blessing and happiness for the believer but God’s protocol is a source of judgment. The protocol of heaven and the protocol of earth combine to perform systems of judgment and punishment of human beings on this earth. The protocol of heaven includes the function of the divine attributes. All judgment of any kind has its origin from the essence of God. The protocol function of the computer of divine decrees, certain programs in the computer, certain chips, result in periodic historical judgment. The protocol function of the elect angelic aristocracy also means that certain judgments are administered by the angelic college of heralds. With regard to the protocol of earth we have the protocol function of the laws of divine establishment, and the laws of divine establishment are designed to punish crime, terrorism, degeneracy. Many a person has suffered, and rightly so, because they have violated the laws of divine establishment which recognise the sacredness of human life, the sacredness of property, and the sacredness of human freedom. The protocol function of the client nation of God: the five cycles of discipline are administered to a client nation for apostasy, for a shrinking pivot of believers living in the protocol system. The protocol function of the divine dynasphere determines whether you are a winner or a loser as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Under divine discipline there is not only self-induced suffering but there are three systems of discipline from God: warning, intensive and dying. All divine judgment, then, is the result of negative volition and bad decisions. The poor judgment of man results in protocol judgment from God.

There are categories of judgment. The first is indirect judgment in which God uses an agent for the administration of punishment — angels, mankind, some organisation. There are three categories of indirect judgment: judgment by pain, judgment by death, and judgment by finesse. Secondly, there is the unique judgment of history: the cross where God the Father printed out of the computer of divine decrees all the sins of the world. They were imputed to Christ and judged. There is one PROM chip which in eternity past the omniscience of God put into the computer of divine decrees. He programmed into this chip all the sins of the history of the human race. These sins are not imputed to the ones who commit them, they were reserved in this PROM chip. The printout of that chip occurred at the cross. This is the basis of our so great salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ became our substitute and took our place. This is the unique judgment of history: God the Father judging God the Son as the basis of the saving work of Christ and resulting in the principle, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

There is also direct judgment. This is judgment directly administered by our Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection. We will note briefly the judgments involved at the Rapture and at the second advent, and at the end of the Millennium, but it all starts with the computer of divine decrees. In eternity past the omniscience of God programmed into the computer of divine decrees the sins of the entire human race, from Adam’s original sin to the last sin of the Millennium. This is on a PROM chip for a printout at the cross. In addition to this there are, of course, other chips relating to sin. There is a category called the saturation of sinfulness and this was programmed into the computer of divine decrees. The saturation of sin, human good and evil in a given generation is on a separate chip. The reason for this is to protect the human race from self-destruction, for in any given generation the saturation of sin, degeneracy, evil, human good, often reaches a peak, and that peak would destroy the human race. But God has promised to preserve the human race from generation to generation, giving every generation the opportunity of believing in Christ. Therefore there is a form of judgment of radical surgery whereby this strong peak is destroyed giving opportunity for the next generation.

So there are several chips involved in the computer of divine decrees with relationship to sin. One is the saturation of sin and the other has to do with all of our personal sins. When we were born into this world, at the moment of physical birth, God imputed human life to the soul of every person involved. Simultaneously He imputed Adam’s original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature. We are condemned at birth — born physically alive but spiritually dead. In the wisdom of God this fulfills several principles. First, condemnation must precede justification. Secondly, the principle that anyone who does not reach accountability automatically goes to heaven because they have been automatically condemned at birth. There is always in each generation a segment of the human race who do not reach accountability because of some mental problem. They are morons and therefore never reach that accountability. Finally, there are those who because there own sins are not imputed to them are going to have three opportunities for evangelism: God-consciousness, gospel hearing under normal evangelism, and gospel hearing under crisis evangelism. All of our personal sins are collected in that PROM chip. They were programmed in in eternity past: every sin ever committed in the human race. The printout occurs, again, at the cross where those sons were judged by God the Father. Because those sins were judged the scripture says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

There are three systems of indirect judgment from God. The first of these systems we simply call judgment by pain. Judgment by pain is the function of God’s grace in crisis evangelism. It is the primary system of evangelism in the book of Revelation. It fulfills the doctrinal principle of grace before judgment where the divine policy is always the fact that grace precedes any form of judgment of the human race. God always gives the human race an opportunity to change its mind. Judgment by pain was illustrated to us in the five bowl judgments of Revelation 16:1-11. Pain often produces an objectivity that cannot be produced in any other way. Pain brings one back to reality when nothing else will do it. This is the basis for crisis evangelism.

We should note the fact that normal evangelism always comes first. Normal evangelism occurs in the presentation of the gospel in times of relative tranquillity and prosperity. Under normal evangelism the unbeliever has the opportunity of objectively considering the issue of the Lord Jesus Christ in eternal salvation. John 3:18 tells us, “He who believes in him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name [person] of the uniquely-born Son of God.” Normal evangelism can be conducted in one of several ways: preaching from an evangelist, personal witnessing, the distribution of the gospel message in print, the communication of the gospel through technology — radio, television, tape recorders. When the unbeliever rejects Christ as saviour in his negative volition he enters the cosmic system. Crisis evangelism, then, is the presentation of the gospel in times of individual or collective disaster. It is primarily designed to reach the unbeliever in the cosmic system who has rejected Christ as saviour. Because the unbeliever is very subjective he needs objectivity to consider again the gospel and therefore the administration of judgment by pain. The condition of the unbeliever at this point is described in 2 Corinthians 4:3,4. He has heard the gospel under normal evangelism. “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbeliever, so that he might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” So his mind is veiled through subjectivity, preoccupation with self, living inside the cosmic system. Through cosmic involvement the unbeliever becomes disoriented to reality, he becomes subjective in his outlet so that he cannot give proper consideration to the issue of salvation. Therefore God in His matchless grace introduces judgment by pain, some form of personal catastrophe or historical disaster in order to restore objectivity and to bring the unbeliever back to reality, and also to the place of recall. Judgment by pain temporarily negates the influence of the cosmic system. Hence, it is used under the grace policy of God as the last call, the last invitation, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Direct judgment: the unbeliever faces at the last judgment the judge, our Lord Jesus Christ whom he rejected in time. This principle is stated by the apostle Peter in 2 Peter 2:20-22, where the apostle makes it very clear that they have escaped the cosmic system for a reason. Judgment by pain is to establish reality in the life; to reestablish, therefore, a temporary reality; to give the opportunity to recall what one has heard about the gospel and to believe in Christ, or to hear it again and believe. “For if they have escaped the defilements of the cosmic system [judgment by pain, the restoration of objectivity for a last call for the gospel] by the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them [in the cosmic system] and are overcome, the last state [the status of rejecting Christ] has become worse than the first’ — they have lost, in other words, the last opportunity to have eternal life. They have rejected Christ as saviour under crisis evangelism and the passage goes on to point out all of the tragedy that results from making this wrong decision.

The second category of indirect judgment is judgment by death. Judgment by death is the function of God’s grace in the perpetuation of the human race from generation to generation throughout human history. God has promised that the human race will not be totally destroyed on planet earth until the end of history. This means that after the Millennial reign of Christ, after the last judgment, the Gog and Magog revolution, the greatest threat to this premise is the saturation of evil in any generation of history. God has said He will not destroy the human race. This means there is nothing today that could destroy the human race. There is no system of weaponry or any concept ever devised which is destructive to mankind, whether it is the flea which is one of the greatest destroyers of all time and has proved to be very successful in the middle ages where 5-million people died in three years, or the virus which in 1918 wiped out 25-million people in just a few months. Nothing will ever destroy the human race during human history. In every generation the potential for self-destruction, however, continues to exist. When a maximum number of people live in the cosmic system there is always a saturation of evil which is self-destructive. All man’s self-destructive tendencies are controlled by the administration of the judgment death. This is from the protocol of heaven. The saturation of degeneracy plus inventive evil cannot offset the laws that God has provided to protect us. Great segments of the population of the world are often destroyed by the administration of judgment by death, and yet man continues to survive because judgment by death is a system of radical surgery whereby the grace of God removes the cancer of evil from a threatened generation, thus protecting the human race from self-destruction. The removal of certain contaminated parts of the human race in a threatened generation guarantees the perpetuation of mankind on earth and gives the next generation equal opportunity to evangelise and respond by believing in Christ. Judgment by death destroys one portion of the human race to preserve the rest in this historical phase of the angelic conflict. Judgment by death guarantees the evangelism of the human race in every generation, either through normal or crisis evangelism, or both. Therefore judgment by death is a grace blessing from God in every generation of human history. The very existence of the Dead Sea in the Middle East is a memorial to the principle of judgment by death for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra was the removal of a cancer of the generation that would have eventually destroyed the human race.

Perhaps the most subtle of all judgments, however, is the third: judgment by finesse. Under the principle of indirect judgment God often uses evil as His agent to destroy evil without using or involving human volition. No coercion of human volition is involved in judgment by finesse. Either the union or the conflict of two evil entities becomes the basis for finesse judgment in which God uses an evil agent to punish and destroy an evil organisation. With all of his genius Satan has never solved the problem of civil war in his own system. The very nature of evil causes one category of evil to despise another category of evil. This is illustrated by the antagonism which exists between self-righteous arrogance and concupiscence. It is inevitable, therefore, that certain categories of evil may become hostile toward other categories of evil, resulting in zero canceling zero, evil canceling evil. By its very nature of imperfection evil can never be consistent, and since God uses agents in the administration of divine judgment it is not surprising that the agent is often an evil person, an evil organisation, and evil nation or some form of angelic evil like demonism. For example, demons were used to punish evil exorcists in Acts 19:13-16. In Revelation 9:1-11 the first demon assault army tortured for five months unbelievers on the earth. Evil was used as an agent to punish evil. In Revelation 9:13-21 the second demon assault army killed one third of the population of the earth, and this combined finesse judgment with judgment by death. As a result the Tribulation was still liveable and many millions survived the Tribulation. In the first half of the Tribulation the beast dictator of the revived Roman empire actually was the sponsorer and the leader of ecumenical religion of the world, religion as the devil’s ace trump, a Satanic system. However, it was inevitable that the two systems of evil, political and religious, would become antagonistic. In this classical case of finesse judgment the evil agent was the dictator of the revived Roman empire and the victim was the religion. So in this case we have the political power of the dictator of the revived Roman empire as the agent and the victim was the international religious organisation. In Revelation 17:16,17 we see that remarkable case of finesses judgment where we have the dictator of the revived Roman empire turning against the religious system which he organised and developed and becoming the evil agent to destroy the evil system.

Out of this comes a principle. God uses evil to destroy evil. God uses arrogance to destroy arrogance. God uses envy and power lust of an evil agent to destroy an evil system. The political power of the revived Roman empire is the evil agent turned against the religious hypocrisy of ecumenical religion as the evil entity. No human volition is violated. God merely uses the evil motivation of one evil organisation to destroy the function of another evil organisation. Finesse judgment exploits civil war and natural antagonism which exists within the framework of evil. Finesse judgment dramatises the fact that man is simply the product of his own volition, and when he becomes involved in the cosmic system of Satan he becomes involved in its attendant evils and therefore is liable for destruction from evil. Nothing is more embarrassing for believers to be punished by an evil agent. As it says in Psalm 76:10, “God uses the wrath of man to praise him.” Jesus Christ often uses finesse judgment in the control of history.

The result of all of this is that client nations are often destroyed because they become evil. In the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the client nation to God finesse judgment was always used and employed. The client nation to God under the fifth cycle of discipline is an evil entity at that point while an evil agent is some foreign power antagonistic to the client nation. For example, there were three Jewish client nations in history. First of all, the northern kingdom, then the southern kingdom, and finally Judea. God used an evil agent, Assyria, to punish the evil of the northern kingdom as a client nation to God in BC 721. In BC 586 the southern kingdom had been functioning as a client nation to God and it was destroyed by an evil agent, the Chaldeans. Then after the return of the Jews to the land there was the third client nation, Judea, and God used an evil agent, Rome, to punish the evil of the kingdom of Judea in AD 70.

There are three categories of indirect judgment which are usually used in the destruction of a client nation. It should be noted that normal evangelism occurred in Judea, for example, between 30-66 AD. But in 66 AD the Jewish wars began and at that particular time it became not the normal evangelism but the crisis evangelism of judgment by pain. Furthermore, at this time there was the legitimate function of the gift of tongues, as in Isaiah 28:11. The Jews were warned that they were about to be destroyed, that they had reached the saturation point of evil, that as a client nation they were no longer acceptable to the protocol of God, and therefore they were warned by the function of the gift of tongues. That was the only purpose for it. It was a purpose so stated in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22, which says, “In the Torah it stands written, ‘By means of foreign languages and from the lips of strangers [Gentiles speaking Gentile languages to evangelise the Jew], I will speak to this people’.” The Jews were responsible for evangelisation but they failed, and so in the period between 30 and 70 AD the gift of tongues was not only a means of evangelising Israel but it was a warning: the fifth cycle of discipline is coming. “So then tongues are for a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers.” In 70 AD the gift of tongues ceased altogether. Obviously the gift of tongues was a part of normal as well as crisis evangelism in Israel. Judgment by pain means that normal evangelism is changed into crisis evangelism and between 66-70 AD there was judgment by pain.

Our Lord Jesus Christ warned the Jews that this was coming, and He even explained why judgment by finesse would be administered under the system of the fifth cycle of discipline. Luke 13:34 — “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! [Negative volition under the function of normal evangelism] How often I would have gathered your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you did not wish it!” We have here the aorist active indicative of the verb e)qelew which is not Koine Greek, it is Attic Greek, the classical Greek of Athens in contrast to Ionic Greek, the classical Greek of the Athenian colonies. When He used this word instead of the normal Koine word [which is very similar: qelw] it was one of the greatest warnings the Greeks could have had, because instead of using the Koine of the day He turned to something that was far more important, the Attic Greek. When he said that in the Greek it is translated, “You did not desire it, you did not wish it,” and He indicated the problem with that client nation. Negative volition toward the gospel. The administration of the fifth cycle of discipline follows the pattern, then, in Job 12:23, “He makes a nation great, then destroys them; he enlarges the nations, then leads them away.” Historically, this is accomplished by indirect judgment in all three categories. However, the primary destruction of the client nation is the result of human volition making bad decisions from a position of weakness in the cosmic system. Because evil is arrogant, one form of evil like Rome cannot tolerate another form of evil like Israel became. The principle then: Arrogance cannot tolerate arrogance, therefore evil tends to cancel evil. This is the basis for the finesse judgment. Our Lord Jesus Christ prophesied the modus operandi of all three categories of indirect judgment in Luke 21:20-24, “They shall fall by the edge of the sword [judgment by death], and will be led captive into all nations [judgment by pain]; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles [judgment by finesse] until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Since 70 AD we have lived in the times of the Gentiles. No Jewish nation can be a client nation to God. In fact there never will be a Jewish nation as a client nation to God again until the second advent. Therefore, whether they are Jews in the land today or not is totally inconsequential as far as prophecy is concerned. There will not be any Jews in the land of significance until after the Church is removed. We live in the times of the Gentiles which means that only a Gentile nation can function as a client nation to God.

Now the theme changes completely and we move to the eternal state. Forget everything about our life on this earth, we are now going to see what it is going to be like forever and ever and ever. The eternal state covers chapter twenty-one and the first five verses of chapter twenty-two. From chapter 22:6-21 we have the conclusion of the book.

There are three paragraphs in chapter twenty-one: The description of the eternal state, verses 1-5; The citizens of the eternal state, verses 6-8; The capital of the eternal state, verses 9-27.

In verse 1 we note the new universe. We have seen the destruction of the old universe, now there is a new universe created for the eternal state. So, in effect, there have been three universes in history. The first one was the angelic universe, the one which included planet earth, having all of the monsters and an entirely different way of life. Many of the things that have been dug up, called dinosaurs and other things, simply belong to another universe, the angelic universe. Secondly, we have the universe of mankind, the universe of human history. There are some differences. The first universe, the angelic, was quite different not only with regard to planet earth and not only with regard to the planets around planet earth, but in the universe at large. The third category is the new universe of the eternal state and this is the one we are about to study.

Three things are noted in verse one. First of all, there is a new vision, the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” With this we have the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, indicating we are now starting a new vision, “Then I saw.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the apostle John is about to observe what life will be like in the eternal state. The eternal state doesn’t even exist at this time. Heaven does but the future existence of the universe and how it will be is only described briefly in this chapter. The apostle John gets to see this. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this eschatological doctrine regarding the eternal state.

The second thing we note is the new heaven, “a new heaven.” The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the direct object. The new heaven is a reference to that part of the universe called heaven. We should note that the Bible speaks of three heavens. There is the band of atmosphere around the earth, called the first heaven in Genesis 1:6-8. The second heaven is the stellar universe (Acts 7:42) which is the realm of prehistoric angelic activity as well as present angelic activity, and this second heaven includes billions of light years of space. The third heaven is the throne room of God which is beyond stellar space. It is discussed as the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12:2 and Revelation chapters four and five. There are three heavens, including planet earth, in the universe: the original universe of the angels, Genesis 1:1; 2 Peter 3:5; the restored earth for the occupancy of man, Genesis 1:3-31; 2 Peter 3:7; the new heavens and the new earth, Revelation 21:1; 2 Peter 3:13. There is also the new earth. The destruction of the universe of human history is the subject of 2 Peter 3:5-13. The destruction of the historical universe is the subject of Revelation 20.

We have so far: “Then I saw a new heaven, a new universe and a new earth.” That is followed by the fact that some explanation is demanded once again so the apostle adds under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit an insertion. Starting with the post positive conjunctive particle gar he explains the need for a new universe, a new heaven and a new earth to replace the historical universe in which we now live. The dual subject follows which is in the nominative singular, and the dual subject here is the first heaven and the first earth: “the first heaven and the first earth were departed,” the aorist active indicative of the verb a)perxomai, which means to go away, to vanish, or to depart. We will translate that, “for the first heaven and the first earth were blown away.” That is the best translation because of the thermonuclear destruction of the historical universe which is described in 2 Peter chapter 3:5-13. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety: the destruction of the universe that we now occupy. Man cannot destroy this universe but God can and God will, as we have noted, after the last judgment. The active voice: the first heaven and the first earth, or the universe of human history, produces the action of the verb. It is dramatically destroyed. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the destruction of the universe that we are now occupying. The destruction of the present historical universe provides the explanation for the creation of a new heaven, new earth, and new universe.

Isaiah 65:17, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; consequently the former things shall not be remembered or entered into the right lobe [come to mind].”

An analogy between the eternal state and the eternal state of regenerate Israel is given in Isaiah 66:22, “For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I create will endure before me, saith the Lord, so your offspring and your name will endure.” In other words, we will see the fulfillment of this when we study the satellite city of the new universe. The believers of Israel will definitely be there.

2 Peter 3:5, “For they are willfully ignorant of this fact, that by the word of God the heavens [the universe of the prehistoric angelic conflict] existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,” planet earth of present history.

Verse 6, “through which the world at that time [antediluvian planet earth] was destroyed, being flooded by water.”

Verse 7, “But the present heavens and earth [post-diluvian universe] by his word are being preserved for fire [God’s nuclear destruction at the end of the Millennium], kept for the day of judgment [the last judgment] and destruction of ungodly men [the unbelievers cast into the lake of fire forever].”

Verse 8, “Do not let this one doctrine escape your notice, beloved, with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Verse 9, “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some men conclude slowness, but he is patient toward all of you, not wishing for anyone to perish,” it is God’s will, God’s desire that all should believe in Christ. The fact that men reject Christ as saviour means that they are rejecting the will of God for their lives, “not wishing for anyone to perish but for all to come to a change of mind [about Jesus Christ].”

Verse 10, “But the day of the Lord [that portion of the day of the Lord related to the destruction of the historical universe] will come like a thief [in the ancient world the thief came suddenly and took his victims by surprise] in which the heavens [the universe about us now] will disappear with a sudden roar [the nuclear destruction of the present historical universe] and the elements will be dissolved with intense heat, but the earth and its works will be burned up,” that is when the evidence by which the unbeliever was convicted, the book of works, will be destroyed.

Verse 11, “Since all these things [temporary existence of the historical universe] are in the process of being dissolved in this manner, what kind of people ought you to be in your Christian way of life and godliness,

Verse 12, “anticipating and earnestly desiring the coming day of God, because of which the burning heavens will be dissolved, and the elements will melt with intense heat!”

Verse 13, “But according to his announced promise [the promise of Isaiah 65:17; 66:22] we are anticipating new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness is at home.”

Verse 14, “Therefore, beloved, since you anticipate these things, be zealous that you may be observed by him [Christ as the judge] in prosperity [found a winner by the protocol system], spotless [life in the divine dynasphere] and blameless [to fulfill the priorities of the plan of God at present].”

We still have one phase left in Revelation 20:1, “and there was no longer any sea.” Planet earth of the eternal state has no sea or water like the present planet earth. Water and sea is necessary for the historical planet on which we now find ourselves. It is necessary for the function of evaporation and precipitation, hence necessary for the basic needs of man, food, water, and survival. The implication of Revelation 21:23 and 22:5 is that there will also be no sun for light, hence in the eternal state God will provide directly rather than through natural laws not only our light but anything else we need. There will be water and oceans in the Millennium but no water, no oceans, in the eternal state. Therefore the contrast between the present universe and planet earth and the eternal universe and its planet earth at that time. Millennial passages indicate seas and waters on planet earth, Psalm 72:8; Ezekiel 47:10, 15; Zechariah 9:10; 14:8. One of the proofs that the context is dealing with the eternal state is the fact that there is no sea on the new earth whereas in the Millennium there is lots of water. In the universe of the future which we will occupy in resurrection bodies no water is necessary.

Water on planet earth during the eternal state is not necessary for either man’s survival or the imprisonment and control of fallen angels. The sea is often related to the abyss or Tartarus, the prison of angelic hordes, fallen angels, but once all fallen angels are put into the lake of fire, Matthew 25:41, it is unnecessary to have sea or water as the gates of their present prison. Furthermore, the sea during human history is not only the source of perpetual unrest and instability of weather but at the same time is used as an analogy to evil. We saw that is Revelation 13:1, the beast out of the sea is the product of evil. Hence, the absent of sea on planet earth during the eternal state connotes the absence of evil during the eternal state. In the historical planet earth the seas form the boundaries for nations. Acts 17:26, “And he made from one, every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times [historical duration] and the boundaries of their habitation.” One of the boundaries of their habitation are the seas. In the eternal state nationalism will no longer be necessary, even though it will exist. Hence the sea will not be a necessary boundary for nations.

In verse two the proper noun “John” does not occur in the original manuscript, hence it is omitted from the translation. Obviously, the apostle John is the subject of the verb o(raw which is in the aorist active indicative. It simply says, “I saw.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the vision of the new Jerusalem, the capital of the eternal state. The active voice: John produces the action. The declarative indicative is for the reality of eschatological information about the eternal state. The verse begins by saying, “I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem.” This is not the Jerusalem of the present time, this is the satellite city which will be suspended above the earth. In the eternal state the new Jerusalem is suspended in the sky above the sight of the original Jerusalem but it is a much larger city. In eternity the new Jerusalem fulfills several important functions. First of all it will be the capital of the new universe of the eternal state and the residence of our Lord Jesus Christ. It also fulfills the divine promise to Abraham which is given in Hebrews chapter 11.

Verse 8, “By means of faith [doctrine resident in the soul] Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.”

Verse 9, “By means of faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, joint heirs with him of the same promise.” Why did he live in a tent? Because Abraham had tremendous happiness, tremendous capacity for life, capacity for success, for wealth. He was living in a tent not to be a martyr but he was living his life in the light of eternity, even though he was enjoying life.

Verse 10, “For he kept waiting with anticipation for a city [the new Jerusalem] which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Note that the city has foundations even though it is suspended in air, and while there is no description outside of the fact that the builder and the architect is God we are going to see it in great detail. Abraham’s lived in the future, knowing that he would have this great city. His testimony to the fact that this would be his city is the fact that he continued to live in a tent.

Verse 13, However, he died without ever receiving the city: “All these died in faith [in doctrine], without receiving the promises, but having seen them and saluted them from a distance [Abraham died saluting the city], and having acknowledged that they were strangers and transients on the earth.” In other words, they were passing through types from grace to glory.

Then in chapter 12:22 we have once again a reference to that city. “But you have come to Mount Zion, even the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the millions of angels,”

Verse 23, “also to the church of the firstborn [the royal family of God will be living in this great city] who have been registered in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of justified ones made perfect,” This is a reference to ultimate sanctification.

The location of the capital is now given in Revelation 20:2. The present active participle of katabainw indicates that it is suspended in space. Katabainw means to descend, “descending out of heaven from God.” Along with Revelation 3:12 which uses the same Greek words this phrase suggests that the new Jerusalem, the capital of the universe in the eternal state, is suspended above the earth as a satellite city. The size of the city: 1400 miles square times 1400 miles high. This city is not to be confused with the Millennial Jerusalem which is the capital of client nation Israel and the capital of planet earth during the Millennium. Note, therefore, that there, are some great differences between this satellite city and the Millennial city of Jerusalem.

There is a Jerusalem of the Millennium; there is a Jerusalem of the eternal state. The new Jerusalem in the eternal state is the satellite; the Jerusalem of the Millennium is located around the present site. There are differences. For example, in the Millennial Jerusalem there is natural light; in the eternal Jerusalem there is supernatural light, the shekinah glory. The Millennial Jerusalem has no walls but the eternal Jerusalem has very high walls. There is a temple in the Millennial Jerusalem; there is no temple in the eternal Jerusalem. The shekinah glory who now indwells the believer as the Lord Jesus Christ will function as the temple. In the Millennial Jerusalem there are animal sacrifices mentioned — Ezekiel chapters 40-48; there are no animal sacrifices in the eternal state. Living water comes from the temple, according to Ezekiel 47:1, in the Millennial Jerusalem; the water of life comes out from the throne of God in Revelation 22:1. Unbelievers live in the city of Jerusalem in the Millennium, Zechariah 12:6; 14:11; only believers live in the city in the eternal state, Revelation 21:4,7; 22:14. There are trees for food and healing in the Millennial city of Jerusalem, Ezekiel 47:7-12; there is the tree of life in the eternal Jerusalem.

We have an analogy now, the analogy as to a bride. This is the most beautiful city of all eternity as well as time. It is introduced with the perfect passive participle of the verb e(toimazw which means to prepare, “having been prepared.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect, the rhetorical application of the perfect tense. The action of preparation has been completed. The existing state of beauty is described in an unusually vivid and realistic way. This is the most breathtaking city that will ever exist and it will exist forever and ever. The passive voice: the new Jerusalem, the capital of the eternal state receives the action of the verb. This is a circumstantial participle and it is translated, ”having been prepared as.” “As” is the Greek word w(j, the conjunction of analogy. It simply means this is an illustration, nothing more, nothing less. “For her husband” is a reference to its inspiring beauty. The sheer beauty of the holy city, the new Jerusalem, will be reserved for the passage we will study from verse nine. The Church is called the bride of Christ, it is not related to the analogy in this verse. So we have the beauty of the city suddenly appearing in the sky. We have those who are occupying it. There is one thing about that city that emphasises the importance of it and that is found back in Revelation chapter three, verse twelve. The first three words are “The winner,” the believer who advances to maturity, the believer who reaches gate eight, the believer who forms the pivot for the client nation. “The winner, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.” This “temple of my God” is not the temple of the eternal state, there is none, the shekinah glory is the temple. This is a public building, and it can be translated “I will make him a pillar in the public building of my God.” The word “temple” is used because in the ancient world one of the ways of keeping historical records was to inscribe on the pillar of a temple the name of some famous king who had done great deeds. That was the historical record. There were many temples in the ancient world and inside was like walking into a book. The pillars had the names of people and all of the things that they did, and their greatness. Those temples have been destroyed and we do not have records from that particular source any more, they didn’t last. But the idea is there because the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written.

“The winner, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God,” that is, if you advance in the protocol system and form up in the pivot with other like-minded believers. Then the client nation will be delivered. It is the only way it will be delivered. In the future, in that magnificent satellite city of the eternal state, there will be a pillar in the temple of God. There will be a permanent historical record of your life and your impact on history. The greatest impact on history is the believer, either for good or for bad. If the client nation survives the believer is a winner. If the client nation goes down the believer is a loser, “furthermore, he will never vanish from history; in fact I will emblazon on him the title of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which shall descend from heaven from God, also my new title.” The winner is recorded in the temple of records in the eternal state.

Verse 3, This is a proclamation from heaven which begins with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw meaning to hear. “Then I heard.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. “Then I heard a great [or loud] voice [the voice of the king of arms actually] from the throne, saying.” The present active participle of legw gives us the announcement of what he is about to say. The present tense of duration is for doctrine taught in the past with the result that it stands forever in the canon of scripture. The active voice: the king of arms makes this announcement. The king of arms actually functions as a teaching angel to communicate the fact that instead of a tabernacle or temple the Lord Himself is going to be the scared building. Then we have the demonstrative particle i)dou which occurs quite frequently in this section of the book of Revelation. It is taken from the aorist middle imperative of o(raw and is used as a particle to demand concentration on a point of doctrine, “Behold, the tabernacle.” The word for tabernacle is skhnh. “Behold, the tabernacle of God is [ellipsis demands the insertion of the verb to be] with mankind,” which means simply that those believers living in the capital suspended above the earth actually had the presence of God. This is the capital of the new universe.

The question arises: What is the tabernacle of God? It is no other than the person of our Lord Jesus Christ who as the Shekinah glory dwelt in the tabernacle of Israel. Not only on earth but in heaven there is what we call a tabernacle-temple which gives testimony to the person and the work of Christ on the cross. The tabernacle of Moses in Exodus chapters 25-40 is not only a portrayal of the person and the work of Christ during His first advent but is actually the sacred building for the location of the presence of Jesus Christ as the God of Israel.

There is also the Millennial temple in Israel indicating the restoration of Israel as the client nation during the 1000-year reign of Christ. The only other exception is the eternal state in Revelation 21:22 where we read that there is no temple in the new Jerusalem: “for the Lord God the Almighty One, even the Lamb is the temple.” This explains the concept of the Shekinah glory.

The word “shekinah” is not a Bible word but is a noun based on a Bible word. The word in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word shakan, and it means to dwell. Often a verb was converted into a noun by adding a suffix and then shortening up a vowel. So we have the noun which came into being to describe it, shekinah. However, the next word is a Bible word, kabod. Its equivalent in the New Testament is doca, “glory.” The shekinah glory is a technical word used to describe the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with Israel as the God of Israel. Romans 9:4 adds to this: that the Jewish heritage included the Shekinah glory.

We live in the Church Age, a dispensation which is unique. It is the dispensation of the royal family of God. After the Church Age is the resurrection of the Church, then the Tribulation, the second advent, then 1000 years of perfect environment on earth, followed by the end of history, the point at which we get the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, the satellite city. Then we have the fact that there is no temple in the eternal state because the sacred building is present and visible to all in the eternal state. The temple is the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one time in history when there is no temple, no sacred building, and that is the Church Age. Therefore we live in the most unusual of all dispensations.

1. The Shekinah glory in Israel was the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the holy of holies, Exodus 25:21,22; Leviticus 26:11,12; Psalm 99:1; Hebrews 9:6.

2. At the first advent and the incarnation there was a change. The Shekinah glory changed residence. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth as the God-Man, undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. The Shekinah glory resided in the prototype divine dynasphere, “The word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”

3. 2 Corinthians 3:17ff, the first word starts out by telling us that God the Holy Spirit is deity, kurioj refers to deity. “Now the Lord is the Spirit [the Holy Spirit is God]; and where the Spirit of the Lord is,” He indwells the body of every believer, so when the believer enters gate one of the divine dynasphere the Holy Spirit controls the soul. We call that the filling of the Holy Spirit, that is the power gate. There is a reason why God the Holy Spirit indwells the body of ever believer, “there is freedom.” Never before in human history did God the Holy Spirit ever indwell anyone. The freedom here is the freedom to execute the protocol plan of God inside the divine dynasphere, Galatians 5:1. 2 Corinthians 3:18 adds: “But we all, with an unveiled face,” the story of the ritual modus operandi of

the Age of Israel is one of veils. Moses put a veil on his face when he went up to the Mount Sinai to receive the law so that the people could not see the tremendous glory that shone on his face from being in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ as the God of Israel. There was a veil in front of the holy of holies, no one was to pass that veil on pain of death. The veil was used constantly to indicate that that was a ritual dispensation and that doctrine was learned through ritual function, but the ritual is gone because the Shekinah has departed from all the ritual systems. The Shekinah glory came in the flesh and dwelt in the prototype divine dynasphere. That changes everything. That is the reason why for the first time in all of human history God the Holy Spirit indwells the body of every believer as of the moment of salvation. That means something else: that we can be filled with the Spirit, and that one of the 40 things that happens to us at the point of salvation is that we not only receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit but we enter into the divine dynasphere and once we do the veil is removed. We live in a dispensation with no veil. There is no veil except negative volition toward doctrine, the veil over the soul, “looking into a mirror [God’s Word and the function of gate four, the momentum gate, to produce a reflection] the glory of God,” we look into the mirror of gate four not to produce our reflection but to produce the reflection of the Shekinah glory who also indwells us, “are being transformed into the same image,” life in the divine dynasphere reflects the glory of God. Being transformed into the same image means the protocol system transfers the believer of the Church Age into the reflected glory of our Lord, that is the Shekinah glory. In other words, the life in us shows on the outside as we gain momentum from gate four of the divine dynasphere, “from glory to glory,” the first “glory” is the humanity of Christ indwelling the prototype divine dynasphere during His life on earth. That was the Shekinah glory coming in the flesh, that was Immanuel, “God with us” prophesied by Isaiah. Then we have the operational divine glory and the second “glory” is function of the believer only inside the protocol system, “to glory, just as from the Spirit of the Lord,” the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the protocol system, gate one of the divine dynasphere.

4. You should now reach some conclusions. The first conclusion demands that we understand three things: In the dispensation of Israel Jesus Christ the shekinah glory dwelt in sacred buildings; at the second advent the Shekinah glory came personally to Israel inside the prototype divine dynasphere so that Israel could see the humanity of Christ and draw conclusions that this was the God-Man, this was the Messiah for whom they were waiting; for the first time in human history both God the Son and God the Holy Spirit now indwell every believer, each having a separate purpose. The Holy Spirit indwells to make the believer’s body a temple fit for the occupancy of the Shekinah glory, and Christ the Shekinah glory indwells to produce that glory in us as the royal family of God.

5. The Holy Spirit indwells the believer as part of the protocol plan of God for the Church Age. The protocol plan of God is based on the fact that all ritual is canceled, that all ritual had to do with sacred buildings. There are no scared buildings in the Church Age even as there will be no sacred building in the eternal state, the new Jerusalem, the satellite city above the earth. The Holy Spirit indwells the believer as a part of the protocol plan of God for the Church Age. And since the Shekinah glory dwells in sacred buildings, and since there are no sacred buildings in this dispensation, the body becomes the issue. Your body is therefore occupied by God the Holy Spirit who makes it a temple for the residence for the Shekinah glory. The fact that you are indwelt personally by God the Holy Spirit and indwelt personally by Jesus Christ means that there is a way of life which is greater than anything which ever existed before and demands a greater personal responsibility than has ever existed in all of human history with regard to anyone, believer or unbeliever. On your shoulders rests the responsibility for the perpetuation of the client nation.

2 Corinthians 6:16 says, “We are the temple of the living God.” Why? Well, we have a paraphrase from the Old Testament and the Shekinah glory: “Just as God has said, ‘I will dwell in them’.” When did He say that? In the Old Testament. He said that He would live in the holy of holies; now, He lives in us, “I will dwell in them and walk among them,” that was Israel, but Israel is no longer a client nation, this is the times of the Gentiles and this is the times of the royal family of God. And whether a client nation survives or not depends on the daily decisions of believers and no one else. It is because the body of the believer is the temple that a new protocol system is designed by God to replace the ritual system of the tabernacle and the temple in Israel.

6. Our Lord prophesied on earth when the shekinah glory was in the prototype protocol system. When the Shekinah glory indwelt the prototype this is what the Shekinah glory said in prophesy, John 14:20, our Lord prophesied during the first advent that He the Shekinah glory would indwell every believer in this dispensation. You are not only indwelt by the Holy Spirit you are indwelt by the person of our Lord Jesus Christ: “In that day [the Church Age] you will know that I am in the Father,” Jesus Christ as eternal God is coequal and coeternal with God the Father, and that means that they have identical essence though they are two separate and distinct persons, “and you [believers of the Church Age], and you are in me [positional truth, the formation of the royal family of God through the baptism of the Spirit], and I in you,” that was something that was the most difficult of all for them to understand and it is the most difficult thing for believers to understand today — the indwelling presence of the Shekinah glory, the indwelling presence of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Shekinah glory in every believer in this dispensation.

7. Therefore, the necessity for the new plan of God, the protocol plan in the divine dynasphere. This is the fact that every believer be indwelt by Jesus Christ the Shekinah glory calls for something by way of a plan for believers that never existed before. God has a plan for your life and it is like something that never existed in the Old Testament. It is superior to everything in the Old Testament. Those who believed in the Old Testament are called “family of God” but you and I as believers are “royal family of God.”

Colossians 1:27, “To whom God decreed [or purposed] to make known what is the wealth [not riches. Wealth is invisible; riches are very visible] of the glory of the mystery,” the indwelling presence of the Shekinah glory, “in the Gentile [believers], which is Christ in you, the confidence [or hope] of glory.” Only the divine dynasphere contains the machinery to glorify the Shekinah glory.

Verse 28, “Him we teach, warning every man [about living in the cosmic system] and teaching every man in all wisdom [teaching the mechanics of the protocol system], that we might present every man [believer] mature in Christ.”

Verse 29, “For this purpose I also labour to the point of exhaustion, competing according to his game plan [the protocol system, the divine dynasphere], which is operational in me [inside the divine dynasphere].”

Romans 8:10, “In fact if Christ is in you [1st class condition: and He is], though the body is dead [because of the sin nature] because of sin [the sin nature], on the other hand the Spirit [God the Holy Spirit] is life because of righteousness.”

2 Corinthians 13:5, this approaches it from the standpoint of the privacy of the believer’s priesthood.

“Test yourselves [only you can determine your status] to see if you are in the doctrine [also used here for the divine dynasphere]; examine yourselves,” only the individual believer under the privacy of his own royal priesthood can determine whether he is living in the protocol system of God or in the cosmic system of Satan, “Or do you not know this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ [the Shekinah glory] is in you, unless indeed you have failed the test?” If you don’t know that, you have failed the test. The believer fails the test through ignorance of the Shekinah glory, ignorance of God’s protocol system, ignorance of the divine dynasphere and even ignorance of the enemy, Satan’s cosmic system. You have to know something to test yourself.

Philippians 1:20, the testimony of the apostle: “According to my intense concentration [on doctrine, on Christ] and resultant confidence, that in nothing shall I be disgraced [life in the cosmic system], but with all integrity [of the protocol system], even now, as always, Christ [the Shekinah glory] shall be exalted in my body,” Paul is saying he passed the test, he was in the divine dynasphere and living there — “whether by life or by death,” Christ indwells Paul. Paul cannot see the indwelling of Christ except as he looks into the mirror of the Word of God and gets the reflection of the Shekinah glory. But once he dies he is absent from the body and face to face with the Shekinah glory. For those who are living in the divine dynasphere life is wonderful and death is even more fantastic because the Shekinah glory which we see reflected in the mirror of the Word of God at gate four becomes a face to face proposition the moment we die. That is why he concludes his testimony in verse 21 by saying, “For me, living is Christ [the reflected glory of Christ from living in the divine dynasphere], dying is profit.” Why is dying advantage? Because as long as he lives he is in the protocol system; when he dies he is face to face with the Lord. He can’t lose, he is a double winner. He is a winner in time and he is a winner for all eternity.

Next we have the future active indicative of the verb skhnow which means to tabernacle. It is used of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Shekinah glory. He tabernacled in the tabernacle in the Age of Israel, then He came in the flesh: “the Logoj became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Now it says He will tabernacle in the New Jerusalem, the satellite city suspended above the earth in the eternal state. The predictive future tense anticipates the eternal state and explains there is neither tabernacle nor temple in the new Jerusalem, the capital of the eternal state. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ, the Shekinah glory is there. The active voice: Jesus Christ as the Shekinah glory produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of eschatological doctrine.

We have a prepositional phrase meta plus the genitive plural of the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “with them.” Not all believers are going to live there, though a lot of believers are. In that satellite city in the eternal state will be living the winners. Since they are the ones who saw the reflected Shekinah glory in the mirror of the Word of God, living in the divine dynasphere, they are going to be there as citizens. Losers are not going to be living in the new Jerusalem, though they can visit.

In the next phrase we have the new citizens of the eternal state. It begins with the conjunction kai, “and,” “and they shall be his people.” The word for “peoples” is a predicate nominative plural from laoj. In the plural it indicates the fact that there are several categories of believers in resurrection bodies whilst citizens of the satellite city, the headquarters for the eternal state. Mature believers of the Old Testament would be included, mature believers in the Church Age, mature believers in the Tribulation and Millennium. So the plural refers to certain great believers in every generation of human history, those who were winners, those who advanced to maturity in the plan that God has set up. We also have the future active indicative of e)imi to remind us that we are now in the eternal state. The future tense is a predictive future anticipating the existence of the capital of the eternal state, the satellite city which is suspended above the earth. The active voice: certain mature believers produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative and a reminder once again that there is very little said about the eternal state. This is the most concentrated passage. There are several passages in Isaiah which talk about the new heavens and the new earth, and those passages simply mention the eternal state in passing.

Verse 4, the abolition of all suffering. This is a description of the eternal state in which there will be no suffering. All suffering is confined to time, and for the believer it has two purposes: the acceleration of spiritual growth; discipline for bad decisions. “God” does not appear in the original manuscript as a word; He is the subject, but the word qeoj does not occur. Again, it is the inferior manuscripts and translation of the King James version. “And he shall wipe away [remove or erase].” Again, the future active indicative of e)xaleifw which means to erase. But, of course, you don’t erase tears, you wipe them away. The predictive future anticipates the eternal state. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, the abolition of all human suffering. Suffering is obliterated. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. There will be no suffering forever and ever and ever. Tears are associated with sorrow, suffering, pain, disaster, discomfort, all of which does not exist in the eternal state for the believer in Christ. The suffering of the unbeliever in the eternal state is intense; the believer will never suffer again in the eternal state. This phrase means that the past is blotted out. Tears not only refer to actual pain but tears refer to regret. All types of suffering are going to be removed in the eternal state and there will be no remorse, no regrets, and no sadness. The remorse, then, of the loser at the judgment seat of Christ is temporary and cannot extend into the eternal state.

Not only is suffering abolished in the eternal state but so is physical death. We have a conjunction kai introducing a result from what precedes and it should be translated “furthermore.” Then we have a nominative singular subject, qanatoj, “death.” It refers to physical death which is a subject of fear and uncertainty, and often pain, in this life. Physical death occurs officially when the soul departs from the body, terminating life on planet earth, and means entrance into the eternal state. The entire human race enters into the eternal state in one of two ways: as a believer, and therefore go to heaven waiting for the official eternal state to begin at the end of human history; as an unbeliever, go to Hades and wait for the second resurrection which occurs at the end of history and the great white throne or last judgment, followed by the inevitable and eternal lake of fire. For the believer, of course, entering into heaven means waiting for the first resurrection. For the average person, then, death is one of the most feared of all experiences in life, but for the believer death is simply a transfer from time to eternity, from planet earth to heaven. The eternal state abolishes physical death for all mankind, both the unbeliever in the lake of fire and the believer in heaven. “No more death” refers to the believer in the eternal state. Remember, the unbeliever is under the punishment of the second death.

Translation of verse 4 so far: “And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; furthermore death will not longer exist.”

For the winner death is one of the greatest blessings in life, it is not something to be feared. For the believer who is a loser it is going to be the last terrible suffering outside of the chagrin at the judgment seat of Christ.

“In six troubles he will deliver you,” the hiphil imperfect of the verb natsal which means to deliver and emphasises the wall of fire principle which God has provided for the positive believer — “Furthermore in seven evil will not touch you.”

Verse 20, logistical grace has a wall of fire and it is parlayed into deliverance of the winner, the believer who is mature or advancing. Not all of the seven troubles are given, but here are some of them. The first is depression, economic disaster, “In famine he shall preserve you from death.” Famine is economic disaster under the agricultural economy of the ancient world. “And in war from the power of the sword,” just because you go to war it doesn’t mean you are going to die. If you are a believer and you are advancing in the plan of God and you stay in the divine dynasphere you can survive even military disaster.

Verse 21, “You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,” let the Lord handle it. That is real deliverance, but if you are in the cosmic system, forget it! “Neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes,” but the word destruction is our word qanatoj, or the Hebrew equivalent, and refers to violent death. One thing the believer in God’s plan does not fear is death.

Verse 22, “You will laugh at death and economic depression,” this doesn’t mean historical laughter, “and wild animals of the earth,” in the day in which this was written wild animals were a source of violent death. If this had been written today it would have been talking about automobiles, aircraft, nuclear weapons, conventional weapons. The point is: laughter here means the inner resources of doctrine producing a good sense of humour in time of pressure. Doctrine provides a sense of humour for disaster is the principle.

Verse 23, “For your contract,” has to do with a covenant, and the covenant has to do with God’s provision of logistical grace, “will be with the stones of the field,” until God is ready to take you home nothing can destroy you. Again, the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written, and when Job was living a good round stone was a good weapon, a good bullet from a sling. So it is talking again about weapons, and you have nothing to fear from weapons, “And the wild animals will be at peace with you,” as a source of disaster. What this passage is saying is that no instrument of death can remove the believer in God’s plan from this life until God permits. Only the integrity of God can transfer the believer from time to eternity.

Verse 24, “Therefore you will know that your tent [body, a temporary shelter] is in peace,” a state of prosperity. Dying grace, “For you will visit your home [heaven] and you will not forfeit blessing.” You do not forfeit blessing by dying, you gain blessing. The mature believer in eternity will receive the imputation of blessing and reward to his resurrection body.

does not refer to your own progeny, it simply means here that the human race will go right on. You will die and someone else will be born and take your place. The seed of the human race goes right on. You do have an impact in dying if you are a mature believer, it is the fact that “Your descendants will be like the grass of the earth.” It means blessing by association. Your children, grandchildren, etc., will be blessed by association, even if they are unbelievers. God blesses those people as long as they live not because they are saved or unsaved but because they were associated with someone who advanced to maturity.

Verse 26, “You will come to the grave in a full age,” which doesn’t mean that you are going to be old, it simply means that God is going to take you at the right time. In matters of life and death timing is very important. God’s timing is perfect because God is perfect. God’s timing of the death of the mature believer is perfect. The point of dying grace is dying at the right time, “Like the shock of corn in its season,” there is a right and a wrong time to pick corn, only the expert can determine. God is the expert; God decides when it is time to take you home. All corn does not ripen at the same time, but when corn is ripe it is harvested and separated from the sheaf. The separation of the corn from its sheaf is comparable to the soul and the spirit of the believer leaving the body in physical death. When the right time comes the integrity of God removes the soul and the spirit from the body we are said to be absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. Since God knows the best time no one should ever question His judgment.

Verse 27, We are not in the eternal state yet, so what is the conclusion? “Behold this [doctrine], we have investigated it [researched it, we have the facts],” getting the facts is learning Bible doctrine, so when you have the facts you make right decisions from a position of strength. You can have control of your life and a personal sense of destiny. Get the facts, research it, before you make decisions — “this is the gist of it; hear it, and know it for yourself,” you can be taught it but no one can make you know it for yourself, that’s your problem. You have to concentrate, you have to learn doctrine, you have to know it for yourself. Hear it and apply it to yourself.

We move on now to abolition of human suffering under the phrase, “neither, no, nor,” which is a particle which occurs three times in the Greek, o)ute, translated “negative, nor, nor.” The three categories are added as far as the eternal state is concerned. The happiness and the blessing of the eternal state is so fantastic it is indescribable, therefore the only way to get any concept of what it is all about is to note it from the negative standpoint.

At this point there are three categories which we add to the abolition of human suffering They are connected with each one of these negative particles, o)ute. The first is penqoj which means sorrow, sadness, grief, and it is a reference to mental pain. The next word is kraugh which means crying from grief or from anxiety and is actually a manifestation of pain. The final one is ponoj and it refers to physical pain. So these are all different aspects of suffering and of anguish. So we translate it: “Neither mental pain [sadness, grief, sorrow], nor crying [the manifestation of pain in this case], nor pain [meaning physical pain].” With this we have the adverb e)ti, which is translated in several ways. Here it is used in the eternal state and it means “no longer.” But we are going to see it in connection with the Rapture of the Church where it means “soon” in the sense of imminency. And with this is the future active indicative of e)imi plus the negative o)uk, “will exist no longer.” “Neither shall there any longer be” is the easiest way to translate it with the negative particles, “any longer be mental anguish, nor crying, nor physical pain.”

With this we come now to the concept: For the believer in Christ suffering, sorrow, pain, depression, is limited to our lot on this earth. Sometimes suffering is self-induced through our own bad decisions; sometimes suffering is a reminder that we must take the responsibility for our own decisions in life. Our decisions often create the suffering, therefore we must take the responsibility and not pass it on to others. Sometimes the suffering is divine testing, the more infrequent reason for suffering. All such suffering is for blessing and establishing the right priorities and continuing our spiritual momentum. So whether it is suffering for blessing or cursing it can all be worked into momentum in our life on planet earth. In the case of divine discipline the issue is cosmic involvement plus sin, human good and the function of evil, whereas the issue in suffering for blessing is involvement in the divine dynasphere, being a protocol Christian rather than a cosmic Christian. In suffering for divine discipline the category is always painful and unbearable, whereas suffering for blessing is both bearable and solvable. All suffering is not solvable. If the suffering is self-induced then the born-again believer is going to suffer. As long as he lives he will be off-balance, he will never get straightened out, and his suffering is hopeless. When you find someone is in hopeless suffering they are always looking for someone to lean on. The solution to self-induced misery is the rebound technique which turns cursing into blessing and changes the category of suffering from divine discipline and judgment to the rearrangement of priorities and the perspective of life, and whatever suffering is left over is for blessing.

1. One’s spirituality change must dominate personality change after salvation. In other words, your personality changes, whatever they are, must be related to the filling of the Spirit, the use of the faith-rest drill, the proper use of prayer, humility (enforced or genuine), perception and application of doctrine (momentum). The changes must be spirituality changes, not personality changes.

2. This is only possible through inculcation of doctrine regarding God’s protocol plan as manifest through life inside the divine dynasphere.

4. In the cosmic system all suffering is self-induced misery plus divine discipline tacked on to it.

5. So to avoid suffering for cursing the believer must substitute spiritual righteousness for his self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is arrogance; spiritual righteousness is your stage of growth in the divine dynasphere. W are all at a different stage of spiritual growth and, therefore, at a different stage in our attitudes and in our lives.

6. To do this, we as believers must reside, function, continue momentum inside the protocol system, the divine dynasphere.

7. But any alteration of personality accomplished by self produces a chain of self-induced misery and suffering by legalism.

8. This suffering brings on a series of solutions which compound the suffering. If you are trying to solve your problems and your source is arrogance, and you are going around being counseled, and people are telling you as an excuse you came from a broken home, or your mother dropped you on your head when you were a baby, or your father threw acid in your face at five, then you say, “All of my problems come from the fact that my father threw acid in my face,” and it never occurs to you that your problems are related to your arrogance, present and now arrogance. So what happened in the past is inconsequential and has nothing to do with the case. Each suffering brings on a series of solutions which compounds the suffering on the one hand, and rationalises the suffering as Satanic persecution on the other hand. Solutions become intensified suffering because there is only one solution, and that is God’s protocol plan for your life.

9. In reality this suffering is compounded with ignorance and bad decisions combining to form a miserable life, making the believer dependent upon human viewpoint counseling and false teaching. However though, suffering for blessing and suffering for cursing are both abolished in the eternal state.

We move on now in verse 4 to abolition of human suffering under the phrase, “neither, no, nor,” which is a particle which occurs three times in the Greek, o)ute, translated “negative, nor, nor.” The three categories are added as far as the eternal state is concerned. The happiness and the blessing of the eternal state is so fantastic it is indescribable, therefore the only way to get any concept of what it is all about is to note it from the negative standpoint.

1. Because the believer has misconceptions at the point of salvation he often suffers for the entire time of his Christian life on this earth. This suffering does not mean that he has lost his salvation and it does not mean that he wasn’t saved in the first place. When you believe in Christ you are saved: once saved always saved, you can’t lose your salvation.

2. The misconception is that salvation means instant change, and if there is not instant change for the better you really weren’t saved in the first place. Nothing in life that is worthwhile comes in an instant, except one thing: salvation.

3. In an instant of time you give up something, and giving up something or changing your personality and behaviour pattern may be very commendable but do not confuse it with the Christian way of life. At best it is reform; at worst it is guilt reaction or herd conformity. Herd conformity is a terrible thing because it comes from ignorance: the ignorance of the preacher, the ignorance of the congregation, the ignorance of the evangelist, the ignorance of Christians in general.

4. One of the major issues after believing in Christ for salvation is therefore the conflict between personality change and spirituality change, and you must distinguish between them. Personality change is phony and false as far as doctrine is concerned; spirituality change is a gradual thing that comes through learning and utilising the divine dynasphere, God’s protocol plan for your life. The changes that come gradually from life in the divine dynasphere, from perception of doctrine, are the real changes, the wonderful changes and the things that make you a winner. But they are not personality changes, they are spirituality changes. Spirituality changes are made through life in the divine dynasphere; personality changes are made through herd conformity through being terrorised or bullied by a lot of legalists.

5. Personality change is the function of instant legalism. Instant legalism means instant arrogance. Instant arrogance means the acquisition of self-righteousness, and one of our greatest enemies is self-righteousness.

6. Personality change is often mistaken for spirituality and even assumed, erroneously, to be the Christian way of life.

7. When this distortion exists in your life you have become your own worst enemy because you will, keep making many bad decisions, and these bad decisions will distract you from God’s protocol plan for your life residence, function, momentum inside the divine dynasphere.

8. Once the believer is locked into the idea that personality change, a reverse behaviour pattern — and self-sacrifice is the Christian way of life he has dedicated himself to full-time self-induced misery, the inevitable result of legalism.

9. Once a person decides that by rigid observation of a few taboos he is a great Christian, a spiritual giant, he will never regain balance and all suffering is brought about by his abysmal ignorance of the protocol plan of God and his evil, arrogant function in the cosmic system. In other words, change in personality and behaviour pattern maybe good and it maybe bad; and it may be acceptable to society and it may not be, but one thing it is not: whatever the value, whatever it is, it is not the Christian way of life.

We continue verse 4 with the causal conjunction o(ti, correctly translated “because.” With it we have a nominative neuter plural subject prwtoj, which means here the first things of the old order of things, “because the old order of things.” Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb a)perxomai, “have passed away.” The culminative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Historical suffering, group suffering, suffering where you were the innocent party but someone else made the mistake, is gone forever in the eternal state. The active voice: historical suffering, the old order of things, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine: the historical sufferings of man’s life on earth during time have departed forever because the old order of things, historical suffering, has passed away. Historical suffering, then, is that period of time from the fall of man to the end of the Tribulation and/or the second advent. It is doubtful that there will be any historical suffering during the perfect environment of the Millennium — only at the end when the Gog and Magog revolution occurs. However, at the end of the Millennium when Satan is released from prison historical suffering related to that revolution will be very brief and will be put down.

1. In historical suffering generally there are innocent people who did not make the decision to enter into a state of self-induced misery, who did not make the decisions that brought on the suffering; but they are so related to someone who did that they suffer as the innocent party.

2. The system of suffering, whatever it is, reaches both the innocent and the guilty in a specific geographical location, as small as a home or as large as a country.

3. Historical suffering may be internal and external to a nation or group of people.

4. External suffering is the repercussion of power politics: world wide economic disaster, invasion from an enemy nation, bad business judgment on the part of, say, bankers.

5. Internal suffering is natural disaster: warfare, revolution, terrorism, crime, economic depression, social defamation from gossip, etc.

6. When government interferes in private industry the innocent suffer with the guilty.

7. When the government through regulation and taxation destroys private industry and the economy the innocent suffer with the guilty.

8. When law and order malfunction in the courts and capital punishment is not in force for the guilty there is always a crime wave. In that crime wave the innocent suffer with the guilty. The victim is forgotten.

9. In the rise of Marxism, socialism or communism, it destroys the basic laws of divine establishment such as freedom, privacy, the sacredness of property and life. This results in the innocent suffering with the guilty.

11. When gossip, maligning, revenge modus operandi, occur in the local church the innocent suffer with the guilty.

Verse 4 in corrected translation: “And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; furthermore death shall no longer exist, neither shall there be any longer mental anguish, nor crying, nor physical pain: because the old order of things has passed away.”

Why do the innocent suffer with the guilty? The question poses a number of problems and applications of doctrine. One thing: God is fair. You always start with that principle. It is impossible for God to be unfair. We say the innocent suffer with the guilty because we know that certain people are responsible for the suffering of a lot of other people. The real problem is, are they innocent, and what does it mean if they are innocent? Here is the principle that you must remember when it comes to this category, because sooner or later you will be involved with some group where you had nothing to do with it but you are feeling the pain: God always protects the innocent and whenever apparently an innocent person suffers with the guilty it means there are facts that we do not have, but God reads minds. Therefore, we have to leave these things in the Lord’s hands. Sometimes it is a testing for believers to accelerate their spiritual growth. And logistical grace is still operational.

Verse 5, We note first the declaration of our Lord Jesus Christ. It begins with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then,” rather than “And.” With this is the articular present active participle of the verb kaqhmai which means to sit, “And he that sat.” The definite article is used as a personal pronoun referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. The present tense of the participle is futuristic and it denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain in thought that it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice of the participle: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The participle itself is circumstantial. It is followed by the prepositional phrase, “on the throne.” “Said” is the aorist active indicative of legw. Then that demonstrative particle that always acts as a warning for intense concentration, i)dou. It is formed on the aorist middle imperative of o(raw and is translated “Behold” but it simply means regroup and concentrate.

Next we have the present active indicative of the verb poiew, “Behold, I am making.” It is translated “I am making” because the perfective present tense denotes the continuation of the existing results. Hence, it refers to a fact which has come to be in the past, the beginning of the eternal state, but is emphasised as a present reality to the citizens of the state. With this we have the double accusative of direct and predicate object, “all things” in the accusative plural, followed by “new”, also in the accusative. “Behold, I am making all things new.” New in species is what it means. This means a new body for the believer, the resurrection body. In addition to the newness for people we have the newness of the universe, the new heavens and the new earth which we have noted.

Isaiah 65:17, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.” In the eternal state you will never recall a sin or a failure. You have a capacity for a higher state of life than has ever existed, and that is what this phrase is all about. Never has there been anything like it and it will go on forever and ever just because you made the one right decision, and you only had to make it once: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

Verse 18, “Therefore be glad,” the only reason we are given this information is so that in the midst of the trials and tribulations of this life we can be glad, we can look forward to the future. This is called living in the light of eternity, “and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold I create the new Jerusalem for rejoicing, and her people for gladness.”

Verse 19, “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people; furthermore there will no longer be heard in her [the new Jerusalem] the voice of weeping and the sound of crying.”

Isaiah 66:22, “For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I shall make will endure before me, declares the Lord, so shall your name and your progeny endure.” The name means you are in the book of life and those of your family and loved ones who are believers are also in the book of life and will be in the eternal state.

Verse 23, “And it shall be from the new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before me, says the Lord.”

Verse 24, “Then they shall go out and look on the corpses of men [unbelievers] who have revolted against me. For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be an abhorrence to all mankind.”

The word that we have for “new” in our passage in Revelation is kainoj. The other Greek word is neoj. They are both translated “new” but neoj is not used here. Kainoj means new in species; neoj means new in time. Since we have passed time into eternity neoj cannot be used. The eternal state is brand new and forever. Nothing is carried over from the old universe of human history except the individual who personally believes in Christ as saviour. The unbeliever is in the eternal lake of fire where the worm dies not.

Now there is a mandate to John. He is to understand that all of this is to be recorded. he gives the mandate in the present active indicative, “Then he said.” The descriptive or pictorial present conveys to the mind a picture of the event in the process of occurrence. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action, speaking to John. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the mandate to continue and finish the book of Revelation. We can translate this: “Then he continued.” The Lord is personally talking to the apostle at this stage, though we go back to an angel communicating very shortly.

Then we have the mandate, the aorist active imperative of grafw, “Write,” “Keep writing.” This is a culminative aorist tense, it contemplates the action of the last two chapters of Revelation in their entirety but regards them from the viewpoint of existing results, the completion of the book of Revelation and thereby the completion of the canon of scripture. The active voice: John, the human author, produces the action. The imperative mood is the imperative of command. “Then he continued speaking, Write:”

The description of what is to follow is the doctrinal content of the rest of Revelation: “these words [doctrines], o(utoj plus logoj. Then we have “are,” the standard present tense of e)imi, a condition assumed as perpetually existing. The doctrines of the Word of God are always dependable, always true. The active voice: Bible doctrine in the canon produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of fact. The predicate nominative from pistoj is an adjective used as a substantive, and it means here not faithful but dependable or accurate. It can also mean faithful and trustworthy but here it means dependable or accurate. “These doctrines are dependable.” Bible doctrine combines the protocol of heaven with the divine attributes and the decrees with the concept of canonicity and inspiration.

Translation: “Then he [our Lord Jesus Christ] that was sitting on the throne said to me [the apostle John], Behold, I am making all things new [new in species from ultimate sanctification all the way to the new universe]. Then he continued speaking, Write: these doctrines are accurate, dependable and true.”

Verse 6, at this point we have a change of subject: the citizens of the eternal state. Who is the number one citizen?

We note first the power of the first citizen, and that power is contemplated in the principle that Jesus Christ not only controls history but Jesus Christ completes history. We have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, followed by the aorist active indicative of legw, plus the dative singular indirect object from the pronoun e)gw, “Then he said to me.” This is dative of advantage as well as dative of indirect object. It is to John’s advantage to know these things and it is to our advantage to study what John has written down as the human author of the book of Revelation. This is followed by the perfect active indicative of the verb ginomai, and it is translated “It is done” to make a contrast with the perfect of telew: tetelestai, it has been finished in the past with the result that it stands finished forever. Our sins were imputed to Christ on the cross and judged, salvation was completed while He was still alive and speaking. So when it says that “God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us,” it is talking about His spiritual death bearing our sins in His own body on the cross, not His physical death. But at the point of the completion of Revelation in AD 96 He said something else. He used this time the perfect tense of ginomai which is translated, “it is done” or perhaps a better way of saying it would be is “it has been accomplished.” This is a reference to human history. Human history is completed at the end of the Millennium with the result that the eternal state begins. In John 19:30, when Jesus said, “It is finished,” He was talking about salvation which was completed on the cross. In our passage history comes to an end with the completion of the Millennium. So we have the perfect active indicative of the verb ginomai. This is what is called a dramatic perfect in the Greek, it emphasises the results of a completed process; the process of the extension of the angelic conflict to human history has been completed. History has been completed, everything in the computer of divine decrees has run its course, with the result that the eternal state has begun. The dramatic perfect emphasises existing state which is the eternal state. For the unbeliever this means the lake of fire; for the believer this means the new universe. Just as salvation is completed on the cross — the dramatic perfect of telew, so human history is completed with the creation by our Lord Jesus Christ of the new universe, including a new heaven, new earth, and a new Jerusalem. Prior to the eternal state all history has been accomplished. The computer of divine decrees has printed out all of the chips of human history and it has been accomplished with the result that the eternal state begins. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb and the indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of eschatological doctrine.

We now look at the unique person of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Alpha and the Omega. We need to review why the Lord Jesus Christ is unique and therefore why His work on the cross is also unique. That takes us to the concept of the hypostatic union, one of the most misunderstood of all the doctrines in the Word of God. Essentially, by definition, the hypostatic union describes the person of the incarnate Christ as having two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. These two natures are inseparably united. They are without mixture or loss if separate identity, without loss or transfer of properties and attributes, the union being personal and eternal. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal God. As eternal God He is coequal with the Father, He has the same sovereignty, the same holiness, including righteousness and justice, the same love, the same eternal life, the same omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and veracity that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit possess. There never was a time when God the Son did not fully exist and have co-eternity and infinity with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. But He is now different from the other members of the Godhead in that He is true humanity, true humanity but even different in His humanity from us for our Lord was born as Adam was created — with a body, a soul, and with a human spirit. He was born trichotomous; He was unique as the last Adam. So he is different from God in that He is Man; He is different from man in that He is God. Jesus Christ therefore is the unique person of the universe.

Since Jesus Christ is also the God of Israel it is essential to understand that the Jews have the best crack at understanding and appreciating this principle, for they had in Deuteronomy 6:4 three lines which they memorised before they could do anything else in the way of talking. From the cradle all the way to the grave once a week at least and sometimes every day under certain conditions they uttered these words; Shamah Israel, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai echad. “Hear O Israel,” a command for perception of Bible doctrine, a mandate to understand the Mosaic law. All that was necessary was provided for them, all they had to do was to demonstrate positive volition toward the information. Then the information came, beginning in the second line where we have the scared tetragrammaton: “the Lord” [Adonai]. Then they would say this marvelous word, “Elohenu,” “the Lord is our God.” Jesus Christ the God of Israel was recognised as deity. Then, under the third line, Adonai echad — translated “the Lord is one” but it really means the Lord is unique. The Lord is unique because He is now the God-Man, He is in hypostatic union forever. So the Jews will say these three lines again and again and they will not understand it apart from recognising that the key to those three phrases is the Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union, the Lord Jesus Christ who was judged for our sins and took our place. So in the person of the incarnate Christ are two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. They are inseparably united, without mixture or loss of separate identity. They are without loss or transfer of properties and attributes, the union being personal and eternal.

Since the incarnation Jesus Christ is, therefore, true humanity and undiminished deity but in one person forever. Jesus Christ, therefore, is echad [unique]. “The Lord is unique,” says the third line of Deuteronomy 6:4. He is infinitely superior to man and angel. As humanity He is now superior to all angels and all other human beings. The pre incarnate person of Christ as deity was coequal, coeternal, co-infinite with the Father and the Spirit. The post-incarnate person of Christ includes undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. Through the virgin birth Jesus Christ was born without a sin nature, therefore without the imputation of Adam’s sin. In His humanity Jesus Christ is not only trichotomous but God the Father gave Him a source of sustaining His humanity since in the agreement that brought Jesus Christ into the world, first advent, as our saviour it was agreed the that the humanity of Christ would depend upon the plan of God the Father. That plan is a protocol plan. In that protocol plan Jesus Christ, even though he was in union with His deity, he will not depend upon the use of His deity independently of the Father’s plan. This was tested in what is called in Matthew chapter four, “the great temptation,” where Jesus Christ was tempted in every way that we are and apart from sin, and He was also tempted in unique ways that we could not even begin to understand. The humanity of Christ had to function inside the divine dynasphere. He could not depend upon His deity for any kind of deliverance, He had to depend upon the protocol plan of God while He Himself was God. This is the significance of the three unique temptations which are given in Matthew chapter four.

But there was one sense in which the deity of Christ was extremely important, and that has to do with temptation as such. Satan, of course, offered temptation (there was no old sin nature) and in offering these temptations we have to recognise the impeccability of Christ because He was inside the prototype divine dynasphere in His humanity and because God cannot be tempted. As our Lord told Satan in the great temptation, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,” and therefore He said, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” The deity of Christ can never be left out of the concept. While our Lord’s humanity utilised the prototype divine dynasphere it is impossible for God to sin, it is impossible for the God-Man to sin. Therefore, theologically we say, he was temptable but impeccable. The temptations were real and legitimate as directed toward His humanity but because of the hypostatic union and because of the prototype divine dynasphere He approached the cross as the last Adam. He was called the last Adam simply because “Adam” in the Hebrew means “man.” He was called the last Adam in the sense that He was, as He approached the cross, the way Adam was when he was created: perfect and without sin. But the first Adam looked at the woman holding out her hand with the forbidden fruit, and took of the fruit and became a sinner.

First of all, that created the old sin nature. Secondly, the personal sin which created the old sin nature set up a pipe line between personal sin and the old sin nature which exists to this moment. It is a reverse pipe line however because while at the point of birth human life is imputed to us there is no life in the soul. God alone creates life; life is not manufactured in the woman’s womb. Reflex motility is not life. Life starts at birth and God imputes life immediately at the time of birth, and He imputes it to the human soul. We have a genetically-formed old sin nature which is developed at the point of conception. That means we are born with an old sin nature and it means that Adam’s original sin is imputed to that old sin nature so that we are born physically alive and spiritually dead. We are born under condemnation and the wisdom of God does several things here. First of all, the wisdom of God in imputing Adam’s sin means that we are condemned at birth and since we are under condemnation we are now in a position to receive salvation. You cannot be saved unless you are condemned. Condemnation must precede salvation and this means that anyone who dies before reaching accountability is automatically saved. That could not be true unless we were condemned at birth. Our personal sins are never imputed to us for judgment. Therefore, when it says the wages of sin is death it is talking about the wages of Adam’s sin.

The last Adam must get to the cross without a personal sin, otherwise He is not qualified to be judged for the sins of the world. And the last Adam got to the cross in hypostatic union. As God He can’t be tempted; as humanity He can be tempted. As the God-Man and the last Adam was in the prototype divine dynasphere He arrived at the cross perfect without any personal sin. He was therefore qualified to take our place, and that is exactly what He did. He went to the cross and as He was hanging there all of the sins in the history of the human race were imputed by God the Father to God the Son. All of those sins were judged on the cross. With all of those sins imputed and judged on the cross the door is opened for our salvation just as though those who believed in Christ before this happened were saved by faith in the Lord as He was revealed. All of this would have been impossible had not Jesus Christ come in the flesh, had our Lord not become the God-Man. Therefore this becomes a crucial issue in the entire situation.

The Logoj of the cross, or the Shekinah glory, in John 1:14: “The Logoj became flesh.” That is where the hypostatic union began, the virgin birth, “and tabernacled among us.” “And we beheld his glory, the glory of the unique one from the Father.” As God he is coequal with the Father, but the glory that we saw came from the humanity inside the protocol divine dynasphere, still inseparably united with the deity. In other words, Adonai echad, Jesus Christ is absolutely unique. That is why it says in Romans 1:3-5, “Concerning his Son [Jesus Christ], who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,” His humanity, “who has been demonstrated the Son of God by means of power [the prototype divine dynasphere], according to the Holy Spirit because of the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace.”

Romans 9:5, “… and from whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God blessed for all.” He is said to be according to the flesh; He is also said to be God.

1 Timothy 3:16, “And by consent of all great is the mystery doctrine with reference to godliness: The unique one [Jesus Christ] became visible by means of the flesh, was vindicated by means of the Holy Spirit, was observed by the angels, proclaimed among the nations, He became the object of faith in the world, and He was taken up into His place of glory,” the resurrection, ascension and session of Christ.

The hypostatic union has two natures of Christ. They are united without ever having any transfer of attributes. In other words, the attributes of deity adhere to deity; the attributes of humanity adhere to humanity. The essence of deity cannot be changed. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to day, and forever. The infinite cannot be transferred to the finite. To take from God a single attribute of His deity would destroy His deity; to take from the humanity of Jesus a single attribute of His humanity would destroy His humanity. Therefore, no attribute of divine essence was changed by the incarnation. In fulfilling the Father’s plan for the first advent certain attributes of our Lord’s deity were not used. But this does not imply that they were either surrendered or destroyed. That is part of the false doctrine of Kenosis. The true doctrine of Kenosis simply says, Christ voluntarily took on Himself the form of mankind in order to redeem man from sin, in order to reconcile man to God, and in order to propitiate the Father with regard to that PROM chip which has programmed into it all the sins of the human race. In completing the mission of the first advent Christ did not exercise His own divine attributes independently of the Father’s plan. He did not exercise His divine attributes to benefit Himself, to provide for Himself, or to glorify Himself. That is the true doctrine of Kenosis. Consequently, the union of divine essence and the human nature of the incarnate Christ must be considered personal and hypostatic. Why hypostatic? From what source do we have this strange word? What does it mean? It is the Greek word hupostasij. In the English we have a very bad habit of transliterating the “u” as a “y,” and that is how we get “hypostatic.” U(postasij means to stand under, it means substance, essence, taking a thing on one’s self, and therefore it is as close as we could come from the original language of the New Testament to find a theological word to describe the uniqueness of the person of Christ.

In verse 6 of our passage we read, “I am the Alpha.” That means Jesus Christ is the beginning which was not a beginning. A)lfa simply refers to God, and when our passage says “I am the A)lfa” it is the second line of Deuteronomy 6:4, but a different language: “Adonai elohenu,” the Lord is our God. A)lfa is another way of saying that. Then He also says in the same passage, “I am the O)mhga.” That is the last letter of the alphabet. And what is the O)mhga? It means the hypostatic union. And so just as our Lord is A)lfa, Adonai elohenu, He is also O)mhga,— Adonai echad. That is the hypostatic union. So when we have in our passage, “I am the A)lfa and the O)mhga,” we are talking about the hypostatic union, the unique person of the universe. Hypostatic is derived, then, from u(postasij meaning essence, substance, taking another essence on one’s self. U(postasij means you have one essence: Jesus Christ is God, He has the essence of God, and He took upon Himself another essence, the essence of man. And there is no bleed across the line between the attributes of deity and the attributes of humanity. Therefore we find the hypostatic union. Hypostatic, therefore, refers to the whole person of Jesus Christ as distinguished from His two natures. Sometimes we talk about one nature, His deity; other times we discuss His other nature, His humanity; but they are actually in one person forever, therefore they are both hypostatic and personal. Personal refers to the emergence of the unique person of the universe. As God, Jesus Christ is coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Spirit; as man, Jesus Christ is superior to all mankind from the viewpoint of His deity and from the viewpoint of the last Adam.

The false interpretation of the hypostatic union occurs quite frequently, and it simply says that Jesus Christ has harmony or sympathy between God and His humanity; which, of course, is a terrible blasphemy.

Jesus Christ is the God-Man, He is in one u(postasij or essence forever. He can therefore never be considered as to His whole person apart from the union of deity and humanity. This means that during the first advent Jesus Christ could be simultaneously omnipotent and weak, omniscient and ignorant, omnipresent and located in one place. However, the ignorance of His humanity was quickly overcome through His function inside gate four of the divine dynasphere.

Why did Christ have to become a man? He could not be our saviour as God. The PROM chip that has all of the sins of the world programmed into it in eternity past: these sins could not be imputed to Jesus Christ as God, they could only be imputed to His humanity. Only humanity can be judged for sin. Only two members of the human race were ever judged for sin: the first Adam in the garden and the last Adam on the cross. Therefore, Philippians 2:7,8; Hebrews 2:14,15 tell us that Jesus Christ had to become true humanity to be our saviour. But that isn’t all. In Job 9:2, 32, 33 we learn a principle. Jesus Christ is also the mediator between God and man. A mediator must be equal with both parties in the mediation, says Job 9:2. Jesus Christ as God is equal with God; Jesus Christ as true humanity is equal to and superior to true humanity. That is why it says in 1 Timothy it 2:5,6 there is only one mediator between God and man. Why does it say this? Because a mediator must be equal with both parties. If Jesus Christ is only God He cannot be mediator; if He were only man He could not be mediator. He must be equal with both parties. Salvation brings God and man together at the cross, and no other place. Therefore, there is one mediator between God and man, “the man Christ Jesus.” Christ is deity; Jesus is humanity. He had to be equal with both parties in the mediation.

Then in Hebrews 7:4,5, 14, 28; 10:5-14 we have another astounding thing. A priest, in order to represent man to God must be a man himself. Jesus Christ is called our high priest and in order to be a high priest Jesus Christ had to be true humanity. And that isn’t all, He had to be born in the right lineage. He is a King-Priest; He is descended from David as a King and as such He fulfills the priesthood of a city called Jerusalem [or Salem]. So as the King-Priest Jesus Christ is our high priest forever, but He couldn’t do it unless He was true humanity. The kingship side is 2 Samuel 7:8-16; Psalm 89:20-37, and in these passage Jesus Christ had to become a man to fulfill the Davidic covenant, and He had to be a man born in the line of David.

The virgin birth included a father who was not real but legal, Joseph, and a mother who was His real mother [of His humanity, not the “mother of God”]. Mary was descended from David and Bathsheba. David and Bathsheba had four children. The lines of two of them were perpetuated to the time of our Lord. The line of Joseph is given in Matthew and it is from Solomon, David’s eldest son by Bathsheba, who became king after

David. There was a younger son, Nathan, and Mary was directly descended from Nathan and therefore we have her genealogy in Luke. The genealogy in Luke is important because it fulfills 2 Samuel chapter 7 and Psalm 89. But it does something else: it tells us why our Lord had to be true humanity.

Because Jesus Christ is in hypostatic union, sometime while He was on earth He said, for example on the cross, “I thirst.” He cannot say that today. Only while He was on earth could He say that, and when He said “I thirst” God wasn’t thirsty. God never has been thirsty. This came from His humanity. He also said, “Before Abraham lived on this earth I existed eternally.” He said that from His deity. He didn’t exist in His humanity until long after Abraham. But sometimes He would say something from His hypostatic union, combining deity and humanity, like “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest,” and “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” John 14:6 is the hypostatic union speaking, and since His resurrection, ascension and session our Lord can only speak from the hypostatic union. Never again from His deity alone or His humanity alone, always from the hypostatic union. That explains the middle part of our verse 6, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.”

“I am the Alpha,” Jesus Christ as eternal God. To the Jew, Adonai Elohenu; to the Church, e)gw to A)lfa. Then, the second and the final line in the Jewish ritual and the final word in the protocol plan, for protocol has superseded ritual, Adonai echad. John interprets that: kai to Omhga, “and the Omega,” the last letter in the Greek alphabet. The first person singular pronoun ego is in the emphatic position, it refers to our Lord Jesus Christ, the unique person of the universe. Actually, the personal pronoun introduces the hypostatic union. “And the Omega,” Jesus Christ is unique as the God-Man.

Verse 6, “Then he [Jesus Christ] said to me [the apostle John], It is done [human history is completed]. I am the Alpha [the deity of Christ] and the Omega [Christ in hypostatic union], the beginning and the end.” The word a)rxh simply takes us back to John 1:1. This is the word for beginning. There never was a time when Jesus Christ did not exist, and so the word “beginning” used once again refers to the fact that Jesus Christ as eternal and infinite God preexisted history. Then we have a second noun, teloj, “and the end.” The end means the one who terminates history.

Next we have a salvation parenthesis, the grace policy of the first citizen of the eternal state, the first citizen of the new Jerusalem. This salvation parenthesis or grace policy of our Lord Jesus Christ is noted in other passages, such as Isaiah 55:1; John 4:13,14; Revelation 7:17; 21:6; 22:17. In each case being thirsty is the desire for eternal salvation. In each case of drinking the water of life we have an analogy in Jesus Christ for eternal salvation.

Water also represents the Word of God, Bible doctrine, in Psalm 23:2; Ezekiel 16:9; Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5; 1 Peter 1:23. And there are some passages where water represents the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, Isaiah 34:3; John 7:37-39. So water is mentioned quite frequently in the scripture.

“I will give without cost to him who thirsts.” We have the dative of advantage, articular present active participle of the verb dipsaw which means to thirst, “to him who is thirsty [or thirsts].” This is a reference to positive volition. When the water of life is presented through the gospel the thirsty one drinks. This is analogous to faith in Christ. The definite article is used as both the personal and relative pronoun, “to him who.” The dative singular indirect object in the definite article is also a dative of advantage. It is to your advantage to want something far greater than anything this world has to offer. The retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun at God-consciousness and continues into one of the two categories of gospel hearing. The active voice: mankind who is positive at God-consciousness produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

With this we have the future active indicative of the verb didomi, “I will give.” Never is there an exception. If you have positive volition God will provide. The gnomic future tense is for a statement of fact which may be expected when the positive one hears the gospel and believes in Christ. The active voice; Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb as one of the greater grace functions of this life. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine: “I will give to him who thirsts from the spring from the water of life.” The water of life is eternal salvation through faith in Christ. Again, drinking is analogous to faith as a non-meritorious system of perception.

Then there is one more word: the accusative of dorea used as an adverb, dorean. It means gratis, a gift without payment, a gift we do not deserve. “I will give without cost to him who thirsts from the spring of the water of life.” This is the parenthesis at the end of verse six. It seems to be a paraphrase of Isaiah 55:1.

Verse 7, the eternal state includes other citizens, all who in human history have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The verse starts out with the articular present active participle o( nikaw. It can be translated “he who overcomes” or “the winner,” but since we are talking about all believers and since all believers are not winners we go to the participle rather than the participial adjective becoming a substantive. The definite article is used as both the personal pronoun and the relative pronoun, “he who.” The present tense is aoristic present, referring to present fact without progress, therefore punctiliar action in present time. This means at the very moment when you believe in Christ you have eternal salvation. The active voice: the person who believes in Christ produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial for the moment of salvation. Nikaw is defined not in terms of the believer being a winner in the protocol plan of God but the believer being an overcomer as per 1 John 5:4,5, “Whoever has been born from God [born again] overcomes the cosmic system.” This is the initial victory which has defeated the cosmic system, our faith in Jesus Christ. Overcoming the cosmic system occurs at the moment of faith in Christ because at the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we enter for the first time into the divine dynasphere, God’s protocol system.

We know that overcoming in verse 7 refers to believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, the strategic victory which every believer possesses by virtue of faith in Christ. But the important thing here is the inheritance, and the concept of inheritance is very important. It is our relationship with Jesus Christ that brings it about. Jesus Christ is said to be the heir of all things, Hebrews 1:1,2: “whom he has appointed heir of all things.” Because He is appointed the heir of all things and we have personally believed in Him, and God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation entered us into union with Christ, we are joint heirs to all things. Heirship is based on personal faith in Christ, 1 John 5:4,5; Titus 3:7. We are the heirs of eternal life right now; in the future we will enjoy the eternal state. Therefore heirship is based on sonship, we are heirs because we are the children of God, Romans 8:16,17. The heirship of the royal family of God is the subject of Ephesians 1:10,11, “… in summing up of the all things in Christ, things in heaven and things upon earth. In whom also we have received an inheritance, having been pre-designed according to his predetermined plan.” The Holy Spirit is the down payment on this inheritance — Ephesians 1:14. In other words, the heirship that we now have, the inheritance, is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The royal family is secure forever, according to 1 Peter 1:4,5.

The eternal state belongs to us except that those who are losers will not have access to the gazebo in the garden or the tree of life. Abraham is the pattern of heirship, the illustration — Galatians 3:29; Hebrews 11:8-10,13.

Translation: “He who overcomes shall inherit these things; furthermore I will be his God, and he will be my son.”

Verse 8, we note that the eternal state excludes all unbelievers. But what we have listed in verse 8 is a list of sins that we as believers can commit now but sins which are mentioned not because these are the only sins and not because these sins means you are going to hell, but because these sins are distracters to believing in Christ, distracters to the function of common grace. This categorical list emphasises the fact that classification of sin and evil is a distraction. There are six categories in this list and the reason is because when people have the chance to receive Christ as saviour, because they were distracted at the point of common grace, they failed to believe in Christ. The systems of scales and values that they represent was far more important. The priorities assigned to these sins were far greater in the thinking of the unbeliever than the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The list is given a subject title: “But with reference to the cowardly, even the unbeliever.” The unbeliever is called cowardly, the dative of reference plural from the adjective deiloj used as a substantive. The unbeliever is said to be a coward but a lot of unbelievers have personal courage, so personal courage is not in view. What is in view, however, is the fact that deiloj also refers to those who have lost touch with reality, and unbelievers through these six sins categorically mentioned in this list have lost touch with reality. By losing touch with reality they have been distracted under the principle of common grace from accepting Christ as saviour. So they are called “cowardly ones, even the unbelieving ones.” Unbelievers are cowards in the sense of subjective arrogance avoiding the reality of eternity. The six sins listed categorically, then, are major systems of distraction with regard to the reality of eternity, with regard to the message of the gospel. The implication is that all of those who are involved heard the gospel under two categories, normal evangelism and crisis evangelism, but they rejected it. Therefore they failed to face the issue of Mark 8:36,37, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul...”

The list starts out with the perfect passive participle from a verb that really means to throw up, bdelussomai. It doesn’t actually mean to vomit, it means to see someone who makes you want to vomit mentally. Therefore we call that “loathsome, abominable, detestable, unpleasant, disagreeable.” In other words, what kind of an unbeliever would be detestable to a grace oriented born-again believer. The answer is a self-righteous moral stick-in-the-mud. It refers here to self-righteous arrogance, the motivation for many systems of evil as well as many systems of human good. Self-righteous arrogance is a great distracter from the gospel when it is heard.

The second one is “murderers,” the dative plural of disadvantage from foneuj and it refers to homicide. This type has no respect for life from criminal arrogance. So the first one is self-righteous arrogance producing criminal arrogance.

The next is fornicators, the noun pornoj which refers to the fact that they were so preoccupied with sex that they turned down the gospel. It is one of the areas of distraction.

The fourth is farmakoj, and it means drug addiction. Those who have put drugs number one on their list are unable to comprehend the gospel and therefore the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in common grace, the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit, passes then right by. This could be translated “drug users” or “drug abusers.”

Number five dative plural of disadvantage from e)idololatrhj, “idolaters,” refers to demonism and the phallic cult. Demonism is another great distraction.

Finally, the word liars refers to pathological liars. These are never associated in any way with reality and therefore cannot face the reality of the eternal state.

Translation of verse 8: “With reference to the cowardly, even the unbelievers, the detestable, the murderers, the fornicators, the drug abusers, the idolaters, and all the liars, their part will be in the lake of fire which burns with fire and sulphur: this is the second death.”

So they are in that lake that burns continually with fire and sulphur. They are unbelievers, they have rejected Christ as saviour, they were distracted by certain sins which are listed. This is the second death and that means no chance in eternity.

That concludes the second paragraph of this passage and the third paragraph is not going to be very difficult. We should note one thing in the following verses. In the eternal state the only precious metal that seems to carry over is gold, but the rest of the precious gems are not the same as ones today. In analogy this is as close as you can come. The great capital of the future, the eternal state, is called the new Jerusalem. All of the building materials in it are quite different from anything that we have today. First of all, then, we have the capital of the eternal state which covers the rest of this passage.

Verse 9, “Then one of the angels [a pur sui vant messenger] who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues [he was on the death squad the last time we saw him], spoke with me, saying, Come, [and at this point he doubles as a professor of eschatology dealing with future things] I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

He is going to show us a city. Therefore we notice immediately that when he says he will show us the bride, the wife of the Lamb, since the city is neither a bride nor a wife and since the city will now be discussed, obviously the word “bride” is symbolic here. Just as the Church is often called the bride of Christ so this city in the future is called a bride, for three reasons. First of all, a bride is generally considered beautiful and therefore we have the emphasis on the beauty of the city. Secondly, the city is called a bride because it emphasises the light of the city, and this is analogous to the animation of the bride. Thirdly, the emphasis on the relationship of the city. The satellite city is headquarters of the eternal state and a bride always connotes the concept of relationship. This woman is marrying this man and that is that.

We should note the future active indicative of deiknumi, which does not mean an explanation but it means a visibility. It means that he is just going to show us this city and all of its beauty. The future tense is a gnomic future for a statement of performance rightfully expected of this angelic guide tour. Deiknumi also means tour guide and this angel is the tour guide who is going to point out the things of interest in the future city. This city is in the eternal state, therefore it is not located on earth. While it is called the new Jerusalem it has nothing to do with the Jerusalem of the present. We have noted that the Millennial Jerusalem has natural light, but the eternal Jerusalem has supernatural light. Jesus Christ, the Shekinah glory, is the light of the Jerusalem of the eternal state. The Millennial Jerusalem probably has its greatest description in Ezekiel 40-48, and there is a very beautiful Millennial temple. But in the new Jerusalem there is no temple, Revelation 21:3, 22.

Verse 10, the beginning of the tour. “Then he carried me away in the spirit,” John was filled with the Spirit, a prerequisite for seeing a city that does not yet exist, and yet in this vision he sees it very clearly, “to a great and high mountain [which will exist in the eternal state].”

There are only a few mountains mentioned in scripture which are mountains in heaven. In Ezekiel chapter 28 we have the prince of Tyrus. Tyre at the time of writing was the headquarters for demonism in the world, soon to be destroyed. In warning Tyre that it would be destroyed by divine judgment the prophet Ezekiel goes a little further and begins talking about another prince of Tyrus who was Satan himself, the angelic cherub. At that particular point there is the mountain of God mentioned, a mountain in heaven. There will be such mountains visible to us in the eternal state but occasionally we find a high mountain and that high mountain is not on the earth at all. The one to which John went with the tour guide was a high mountain in space, something for the future.

“and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” In other words, it is suspended above the earth and it came down out of heaven but did not touch the earth.

Verse 11, the glory of the satellite city. The first thing that we see is the glory of God. That means the presence of the Shekinah glory. That is the big thing: “Having the glory of God,” the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Shekinah glory, “her brilliance was like a very precious jewel.” Unfortunately we have a very difficult translation here because we have the word i)aspij which is generally considered to be a jasper, but we must remember that the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. It is not a reference to the modern jasper which is limited to a variety of quartz but is a translucent precious stone which will exist in the eternal state, very much like a diamond. Apparently diamond is the foundation for this satellite city, not the diamond we know now, but tons of diamond without any kind of a flaw. That is the glory of the satellite city. It is fitting that the foundation should represent in some way the glory of the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Shekinah glory.

“like a gem of crystal clear diamond.” In other words, diamond without flaws measured in tons.

Next we have the walls of the city in verses 12-14. “It had a great and high wall,” verse 17 tells us that the walls are 200 feet high, “with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates,” we have an honour guard from the angelic order of battle, a memorial to our Lord’s victory in the angelic conflict, “Furthermore names were inscribed on them [the gates], which are the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.”

Verse 13, there are three gates on each side. “On the east side” as in Numbers chapter two the gates would be named Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, “on the north side,” Dan, Asher, Naphtali, “on the south side,” Reuben, Simeon, Gad, “on the west side,” Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin.

Verse 14, “The walls of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” So on these stones would be the names of Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddaeus, Simon and Paul. Paul is the twelfth apostle, according to 1 Corinthians 15:7-10. All of these inscriptions are permanent therefore they have spiritual connotation.

Verse 15, “And the one who spoke with me [the tour guide, the pur sui vant angel] had a gold measuring instrument to measure the city, its gates and its walls.”

Verse 16, “Now the city was laid out in a square [actually, in a cube], and its length is as great as its width: and he measured the city with the measuring rod, fourteen hundred miles, fourteen hundred miles wide, fourteen hundred miles high.” In other words, it was a cube.

Verse 17, the walls. “Then he measured the walls, two hundred feet by man’s measurement which the angel was using.” God always stays with our concepts of measuring in communicating measurements. While the angel did the measuring he used a human standard of measure. This would imply that angels have a different metric system from mankind. This passage is for mankind, therefore man’s standards and man’s measurements are used. It is so that we can get the drift of this marvelous city of the eternal state. So we have, then, the principle of communication. If you are going to communicate, communicate in the language of the people. Communicate in a language they can understand. Communication of information must be related to the frame of reference belonging to the recipients.

Verse 18, “Now the material of the wall was diamond [flawless diamond] and the city was pure gold like translucent glass,” so that is not the gold of the universe today, it is the gold of the universe of the future. The gold of the future will be so pure that it will be translucent.

Verse 19, “The foundation stones of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious gem.” The decorations on the walls, then, are gems of the future. But we have to relate them to gems of the past. “The first foundation stone was diamond [a superior diamond of the future]; the second, sapphire [something translucent light blue, but not the sapphire of the present]; the third, turquoise [again, translucent]; the fourth, emerald [translucent green with no flaws];”

Verse 20, “The fifth is sardonyx; the sixth, ruby; the seventh, topaz; the eighth, paradole; the ninth, a topaz [red, rather than topaz yellow]; the tenth, chalcedony; the eleventh, blue aquamarine; the twelfth is amethyst.” All of these are merely approximations for in the eternal state these materials are all translucent and they all reflect the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the only light in the city.

Verse 22, there is only one light company in the eternal state, and that is the magnificent glory of the Lord. “Furthermore, I did not see a temple in it [there is no need for a temple]: for the Lord God the Almighty, even the Lamb, is its temple.” So as the Lord templed or tabernacled among us in the first advent as the Shekinah glory, and as He given to us a means of representing Him since the Shekinah glory now indwells us, God the Holy Spirit indwells us to form a temple for one reason: to provide a residence for the indwelling of Christ. Christ is the Shekinah glory and the manifestation of the Shekinah glory is in the operational divine dynasphere, God’s protocol system. So there is not temple, there is no light; instead there is the Shekinah glory, He is the temple.

Verses 23, the illumination of the city. “So the city had no need for the sun, nor the moon, to shine on it: for the glory of God [Christ, the shekinah glory] has illuminated it, and the Lamb is its lamp.”

Verse 24, “Then the nations will walk by its light,” these are the nations on the new planet earth in the eternal state and they will get the light from the satellite city, “and the kings of the earth will bring their glory to it.” In other words, the light of nations made up of believers in the eternal state will not be the reflected light from the sun, not the light from the moon, but the light from the Shekinah glory from the satellite city.

Verse 26, “And they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it.” Whatever glory and honour is we note that the preservation of the divine institution number four is a memorial in the eternal state, a memorial to the grace of God who preserved the human race from self-destruction; and in so doing He invented divine institution number four, nationalism. This is also a memorial to category 1 truth then, the laws of divine establishment.

Verse 27, there is no garbage of any kind. “And nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination [religion], and lying [lack of integrity] shall ever come into it [they are all in the lake of fire],” in the eternal state all believers function on the honour code, but the unbelievers are excluded, “but only those [believers] whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Note that the unbeliever continues to live in the lake of fire. Notice, however, he is excluded from the satellite city. The unbeliever in the lake of fire is in that status quo for ever. Only believers in Christ are permitted to enjoy the blessings of the eternal state.

The reason for the description in the previous chapter of the satellite city that is suspended above the earth and all of the translucent stones is to reflect or to show through translucence the Shekinah glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We notice that the gates are the names of the twelve tribes, therefore the twelve patriarchs of Israel, and we note that the twelve apostles are on the foundation stones. The point is a very simple one: the glory of our Lord was shown in the lives of these men at some time and now this is an eternal reminder of that principle. The reflected glory of the Lord is the key to the indwelling of Christ, the Shekinah glory today. That day will be the translucent glory of the Lord.

The pearly gates of chapter 21:25. Each gate is one pearl. There are no oysters in the eternal state! Therefore once again in the principle of the new heavens and the new earth we have approximations. These are all the metals and even the gold is different from the gold of the present universe. What do the pearly gates mean? They are not the entrance to heaven; “St. Peter” is not standing there. It means that for every great person in the eternal state there is a team of some kind behind him. It means that when anyone comes to the front spiritually or in any profession, system, or organisation, there is always and inevitably others who have contributed to that greatness. No person is great by himself. Always others have done things for that person.

There are four paragraphs in chapter twenty-two. Paragraph one is the final description of the eternal state, verses 1-5. Paragraph two is the dialogue of John and the angel, verses 6-11. Paragraph three is the final declaration of Jesus Christ, verses 12-17. Paragraph four is the final declaration of John the apostle, verses 18-21.

Verse 1, “And he [the pur sui vant messenger from the angelic college of heralds] showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God [the Father] and from the Lamb [God the Son].”

This is the continuation of the eternal state. This is not the same as the river coming from the Millennial temple in Ezekiel 47:1ff, nor is it the living waters which flow from the Jerusalem of the Millennial state in Zechariah 14:8. We are now discussing the eternal state which must be distinguished from the Millennium, the last dispensation in history. We have passed from history into the eternal state, as of Revelation 21:1. The water of life emphasises the fact that this is the eternal state in contrast to time and human history. Furthermore, the water of life emphasises the fact that the believer in the eternal state is in a place where there are no changes. Eternal life is guaranteed by the water of life. He has eternal life, he cannot lose eternal life, he cannot in any way diminish or delete eternal life. Furthermore, the eternal state is guaranteed by the water of life forever, and just as the rainbow was God’s guarantee that the earth would never again be destroyed by water, so the water of life is the eternal guarantee of the eternal state. This verse further emphasises the fact that the satellite city known as the new Jerusalem is the headquarters of the universe in the eternal state. Both the throne of God the Father and the throne of God the Son are located in this satellite city. The Father and the Son are mentioned as the two members of the Godhead who are directly involved in the vision of our so great salvation. The pattern of the cross involves two members of the Godhead and that is why the throne of God the Father is mentioned and “from the Lamb,” God the Son. The omniscience of God programmed into the computer of divine decrees all the sins of history. The justice of God the Father called for the printout of this chip when our Lord Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross so that God the Father imputed all of these sins to Jesus Christ on the cross. He was judged for our sins.

Verse 2. In addition to the water of life we have the tree of life mentioned for the first time but not the last time in this chapter. In the middle of verse 1 we have the first monument of eternal life, the river of the water of life. “In the middle of the street.” This is actually the end of verse one.

Now we begin verse 2, “So on either side of the river was the tree of life [the second monument, guarantee of eternal life in the eternal state], bearing twelve categories of fruit, yielding its fruit every month [the variety of blessings for each month of the year in the eternal state]: and the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations,” the nations are perfect, the function of the nations, the memorial to the laws of establishment, all of this is involved.

What does all of this mean? The first phrase belongs to the previous verse as the location of the river of life in the satellite city. While the river runs down the middle of the street from which the throne of God the Father and God the Son is located. They are the source. Hence, the street which begins at the throne is divided by a median and the median is the river of life. The presence of the tree of life is the second symbol guarantee that all believers in the eternal state, cannot lose it, couldn’t lose it in time, can’t lose it in eternity. There is no indication in the context that the believer must drink from the water of the river and eat from the tree to perpetuate eternal life. Not at all, these are monuments to be viewed but not necessary in order to keep going in eternity. Rather the river of life and the tree of life are visual guarantees to all believers of the integrity of God: that God keeps His word.

We can make application from that now in time. Those who believe in Christ have eternal life and everywhere the eye moves in the satellite city the believer is reminded that he is the possessor of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, and nothing can change his status in the eternal state. Whatever changes occur in the prehistoric angelic conflict and in its extension into human history are no longer possible. It is impossible to lose your salvation. Therefore, both the river of life and the tree of life are the visual monuments of the reality of eternal life for every person who has or ever will believe in Christ. Human history is now terminated; the eternal state has begun. Nothing will destroy the status of the believer in the eternal state.

Daily the believer has two reminders in the satellite city: the river of life in verse one and the tree of life in verse two. The river of life in verse one is a memorial to the grace of God the Father while the tree of life in verse two is a memorial to the grace of God the Son. God the Son was judged on the tree, 1 Peter 2:24, that we as believers might have eternal life from God the Father, represented by the river of life. Hence, both the river of life and the tree of life are monuments to the so great salvation we possess as believers.

The trouble is that we are noting these things in the eternal state in the body of corruption, a body that still has an old sin nature. We are discussing things that are perpetual and eternal and can never change. Somehow people get a little bored with the idea of no change. So the twelve fruits also have significance. There will be different things going on and no one will ever be bored. To have eternal life is one thing and never to be bored is something else. To have a perpetual state in which you will never be bored is “the dark side of happiness.” Just as the tree of life in the Garden of Eden was a motivation to our first parents, so the tree of life in the satellite city of the eternal state is a monument to the so great salvation we enjoy. Note that there will be nations in the eternal state but no conflict of nations. Grace prevails for the healing of nations. And the reason we have nations again is a memorial to the laws of divine establishment.

There is never a dull moment in the eternal state as illustrated by the twelve categories of fruit on the tree of life. Every month brings something different for the capacity of the resurrection body. Again, there is no indication that we eat the fruit, but it represents a concept. Apparently, God will find plenty of things to make us happy every moment of the eternal state. The eternal state will be divided into nations of believers in glorified bodies but there will be no conflict, no antagonism.

Verse 3, the removal of the curse. “And there shall no longer be any curse: furthermore the throne of God [the Father] and of the Lamb [God the Son] shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him.”

During the Millennial reign of Christ the curse was lifted from planet earth, that is from nature, but not from people. People still had their old sin natures. Man was still born with the old sin nature, the body of corruptibility, and the concept of total depravity. The demonstration of the Millennial reign of Christ is that man in total depravity cannot enjoy perfect environment. The difference in the eternal state from the Millennium is perfect people in perfect environment, so that perfect environment will be enjoyed by perfect people with perfect capacity. The eternal state is the status of perpetual perfection on the part of believers, hence ultimate sanctification. The problem of trying to visualise this in the mind is the problem that so many people have. They know so many self-righteous believers, and these self-righteous believers think that they are already perfect when in reality they are a pain in the neck to everyone who knows them and has to be in their presence for any length of time. So you have the idea of imposing prejudices on everyone in the eternal state, but everyone will be perfect there. There will be no such thing as a flawed personality or any “unfortunate” personalities or personality conflicts.

Verse 4, a new relationship with God. “They shall both see his face; and his royal title shall be on their foreheads.” The believer will be face to face with the Shekinah glory, our Lord Jesus Christ, without any fear of death, and the believer will be identified forever by having the title of our Lord on his forehead. We belong to Christ forever.

Verse 5, the eternal relationship with God. “And there shall no longer be night; furthermore they do not have need of light of a lamp, or the light of the sun; because the Lord God [Jesus Christ, the Shekinah glory] will give them light [He will illuminate them]: and they shall reign forever and ever.”

The new universe is illuminated by our Lord Jesus Christ as the Shekinah glory. This is why there is no sacred building or temple in the eternal state.

“All the glorious purposes of God ordained from the foundation of the world have now been attained. The rebellion of angels and mankind is all and finally subdued as the King of kings assumes His rightful sovereignty. Absolute and unchangeable holiness characterises all within the kingdom of God. The redeemed, made so by the blood of the Lamb, are in resurrection and eternal glory. Life is everywhere and death will never intrude again. The earth and the heavens both are renewed. Light, beauty, holiness, joy, the presence of God, the worship of God, the service to Christ, likeness to Christ, all are now abiding realities. The vocabulary of man made for life here is incapable of truly adequately depicting what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Verses 6-11, we now have a dialogue between John and the angel. First of all we have the doctrinal veracity of the book of Revelation. We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, followed by the aorist active indicative of legw, “Then he said.” When it says “he” we are referring to the pur sui vant messenger, this angel who was on the death squad but is now a professor of eschatology. The tour guide is now almost over and we are going to pull together the loose ends for the Church Age believer. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, which means that the angel is now going to summarise the essential loose threads, important principles and doctrines that we must understand before the Bible is closed out. We have the dative singular indirect object of the personal pronoun e)gw, correctly translated “to me.” This is also dative of advantage. It means that John is to be benefited by communication with his professor, “Then he said to me.”

Next we have the nominative plural subject from the near demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, “These.” With it is the nominative plural subject, logoj, “doctrines.” “These doctrines,” that is the subject, the content of the book of Revelation. We have an ellipsis which demands the verb to be, e)imi, “These doctrines are.” Then we have two predicate adjectives used as substantives, pistoj and a)lhqinoj: “faithful” means dependable. You can count of these doctrines. The word pistoj means dependable or inspiring faith; alhqinoj means true.

Translation so far: “Then he said to me, These doctrines are dependable and true.” The principle is very simple. God’s Word, including the book of Revelation, reflects the absolute veracity of God’s attributes. When we are studying the Word of God we are studying the absolute. The absolutes behind the Word of God are the perfect attributes of God Himself. The Bible, then, is a reflection of divine essence. Hence the Bible contains doctrine from God as absolute truth. Not everything contained in the Bible is true because it records the Satanic lies, the evil functions of fallen angels and men, and it has a lot to do with people in the cosmic system. But inspiration guarantees the veracity of what is recorded.

Now we have a statement from the angel, and in the middle of verse 6 we have a kai, but this is an inferential kai, a conclusion from the preceding. It is translated “therefore.” Then there is the nominative singular subject kurioj, meaning “Lord.” It can be used for any member of the Trinity, the connotation is deity. Kurioj is generally used for God the Son as the revealed member of the Godhead, but in 2 Corinthians 3:17,18 kurioj is used for the Holy Spirit. That is the designation here, “therefore the Lord,” a reference to God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is introduced for the first time but not the last. The Holy Spirit is the member of the Trinity who functions, as it were, behind the scenes. If there is any word that would describe the ministry of the Spirit it is the word “power” or “enablement.” God the Holy Spirit is the enabler, He gives us what is necessary. None of us have the ability to understand the gospel apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Note that the word “Holy” does not occur in the King James version, we have the noun pneuma but not hagioj, “therefore the Lord [the Holy Spirit], the God of the spirits of the prophets.” The only use of pneuma here is for the human spirit. The Old Testament was written by those who had the gift of prophecy. God the Holy Spirit so presented to them the material that they used under the doctrine of inspiration that they were able to communicate God’s complete and connected Word to us. These prophets were born again, they had human spirits, and the point is that the Holy Spirit communicates spiritual phenomena to the human spirit. But you don’t have a human spirit until after you believe in Christ. The pattern of the Holy Spirit to the human spirit of the prophets is the pattern by which the believer of the Church Age learns Bible doctrine at gate four of the divine dynasphere.

The middle of verse 6 is where we find ourselves: “therefore the Lord the God of the spirits of the prophets.” This is the principle of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:4, “That my doctrines and my preaching were not in persuasive words of man’s wisdom.” The Greeks admired beautiful speech no matter what the thought content was. The Romans had adopted Greek culture and therefore were often were interested in eloquence rather than what was being said. Paul continues: “instead they were a demonstration of the Spirit.” When he says this he is recognising the fact that no unbeliever can ever understand the gospel apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. We are born spiritually dead. Adam’s original sin is imputed to us the very moment that we are born. It is imputed to the old sin nature. Human life is imputed to the soul, therefore we are born physically alive but spiritually dead. Spiritually dead means we cannot understand spiritual phenomena. The gospel is spiritual phenomena. We are here as believers not because we were able to take it up, being a genius, but because God the Holy Spirit under a doctrine called common grace made it real. In other words, the only thing that God the Holy Spirit can give us by way of salvation fact is what is accurately communicated in witnessing, by the evangelist, by the pastor, by whomever is giving the information. God the Holy Spirit uses only accurate information and none of us would ever be here as believers were it not for the third person of the Trinity. That is why Paul says, “my teaching is in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”

He is talking about two things. First of all he is talking about the unbeliever, and then he is talking about the believer. The unbeliever is spiritually dead. If the unbeliever is going to be saved he must have facts. The facts are called the gospel. But he can be given gospel facts and never understand it, it is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit called enablement in which He acts as a human spirit to enable the unbeliever to understand the facts of the gospel. The facts of the gospel would be totally incomprehensible were it not for the fact that God the Holy Spirit enables us to understand. The same ministry of God the Holy Spirit functioning at gate one of the divine dynasphere enables us as believers to understand doctrine.

Verse 5, “that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God,” he is talking now about believers and life in the divine dynasphere, God’s protocol system.

Verse 6, “However, we keep on teaching wisdom among the mature; not the wisdom of this age, nor the rulers of this age, who are fading out;

Verse 7, “but we communicate wisdom from God in a mystery [the technical word for Bible doctrine for the Church Age], which has been concealed, which God predesigned before the ages resulting in our glory [the function of the protocol system];

Verse 8, “doctrine which none of the rulers of this age have understood,” The Roman empire was the first client nation to God. It’s rulers were generally degenerate. Some were not but they were still evil. The client nation to God functioned magnificently with terrible rulers. The point is that it doesn’t make any difference who is ruling the nation. What counts is the size of the pivot of mature believers, “for if they had known [but they did not], they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;

Verse 9, “but as it stands written, ‘Things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard [empiricism as a system of perception], also the things that have not entered into the right lobe of man [rationalism as a system of perception],” doctrine is not learned by rationalism and doctrine is not learned by empiricism. In other words, we do not learn doctrine by our human ability. None of us can understand doctrine apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Doctrine is spiritual phenomena and spiritual phenomena can only be understood by a spiritual apparatus.

Verse 10, “For to us [believers] God has revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit investigates all things, including the deep things from God.” God the Holy Spirit is ultimately our teacher, the One who enables us to understand.

Verse 11, “For what man understands the things of man except from a frame of reference, which is in him? But even so the things of God [doctrine] no one has known except the Spirit of God.” What we know now the Holy Spirit has always known, and He makes it possible for us to understand these things.

Verse 12, “Now we have not received the world’s frame of reference, but the spirit [human spirit],” for us to begin to learn we must be trichotomous. The unbeliever cannot understand anything because he is spiritually dead, he has a body and a soul but no human spirit. He can understand in his soul things related to human life but he cannot understand things in his soul things related to God. After a person accepts Christ as saviour he has a body and a soul and now a human spirit. When we were spiritually dead the Holy Spirit must act as a human spirit so that we can understand the gospel to have enough facts to make a decision.

Verse 12, “Now we have not received the world’s frame of reference, but the human spirit from the source of God, that we might have permanent knowledge of things [doctrines] which have been graciously given to us under the authority of God.” The whole system of learning doctrine is a protocol system.

Verse 13, “which things we also teach by categories,” if we are ever going to learn the Christian way of life we must learn it systematically, that is why we have categories of doctrine, not by the teaching from the source of man’s wisdom, but by teaching from the source of the Spirit, bringing together truth [doctrine] to a spiritual apparatus [the function of GAP].”

Verse 14, the unbeliever. “But the soulish man [the unbeliever is dichotomous, he is called the yuxikoj man] does acquire knowledge from the doctrines of the Spirit of God; to him they are foolishness, furthermore he is not able to acquire knowledge because they [the doctrines, the gospel message] are discerned from the source of the [human] spirit,” and he doesn’t have the human spirit, a spiritual apparatus. He is spiritually dead.

Verse 15, “But the spiritual [the protocol believer living in the divine dynasphere] discerns all things [of doctrine], but he himself is discerned by no man [the privacy of the priesthood in perception of doctrine].”

Verse 16, “For who has come to know the Lord’s mind, who shall instruct him? But we keep on having the mind of Christ [Bible doctrine]?”

This explains the first part of Revelation 22:6: “therefore the Lord God [the Holy Spirit] of the prophets has sent his angel to make known.”

1. The doctrine of the total depravity of man finds the unbeliever totally helpless to understand the gospel. Therefore the integrity of God demands that the power of God be effective not only in the life of the believer but in the life of the unbeliever as well. How can anyone accept the gospel if he doesn’t understand the issue? He cannot. He is spiritually dead and is incapable of understanding, therefore the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in “common grace.”

2. Therefore the enabling ministry of God the Holy Spirit is directed toward both believer and unbeliever. God the Holy Spirit has a major portion in the life of the human race. Unbeliever: the Holy Spirit has a responsibility called common grace. Common grace means simply the Holy Spirit enables the unbeliever to understand the gospel. The believer therefore has facts on which to make a decision.

3. For the believer the provision is the divine dynasphere for understanding. Everything in relationship to God demands perception: understanding God as God is revealed.

4. The grace of God always finds mankind helpless, whether it is believer or unbeliever. The unbeliever is spiritually dead, therefore totally helpless to understand the gospel and to perceive the issue of salvation.

5. Therefore God the Holy Spirit functions as a human spirit to reveal the gospel to the dichotomous unbeliever, “the soulish man receives not the things of the Spirit of God.”

6. Not only is mankind born dichotomous, body and soul, but at the same time the imputation of Adam’s original sin means that he is spiritually dead — also called totally depraved, the doctrine of the total depravity of man.

7. Just as you cannot communicate with a corpse, or just as a corpse cannot perceive, so the gospel cannot be understood by the unbeliever. Therefore, God the Holy Spirit functions as the one who makes us understand, the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

8. When mankind became spiritually dead, when Adam sinned in the garden, Adam as the federal head of the human race sinned, and therefore when man became spiritually dead Adam lost the power to understand what God taught. But he did not lose simultaneously self-determination. Hence, the free will or human volition of man must have facts on which to make a decision. Though spiritually dead man still has self-determination. These facts are learned by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit whose function as a human spirit enables an unbeliever to understand Christ as the issue in salvation. Common grace can be compared to the inhale of the gospel.

Efficacious grace is the exhale of faith in Christ through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. So that when it says, “By grace are you saved through faith”, grace means that God the Holy Spirit gave you the ability to believe, because under the doctrine of total depravity we don’t have that ability on our own, even with the facts. All we can throw up is this weak positive signal. That positive volition is converted into faith in Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Even after understanding some phase of the gospel or the saving work of Christ man is still incapable of believing in Christ. Man’s helplessness is simply the expression of his total depravity. The unbeliever with gospel understanding now needs help even to believe in Christ. Remember the man who fell down at Jesus’ feet and said, “I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” He was simply expressing that even when we are positive we need help. There never will be a time when we do not need help.

The unbeliever with gospel understanding needs help. From what source does the help come? First of all it comes from eternity past. The omniscience of God programmed into a PROM chip called “election”. Billions of years ago God knew that at a certain point we would hear the gospel. God the Holy Spirit had already agreed before man existed to function as the perceptive instrument for the facts, to enable us to understand the gospel as spiritually dead unbelievers. He knew that as a result of having the facts these weak positive signals would go up, but they are helpless. God the Holy Spirit converts them into exhale, faith in Christ. Knowing that, God called us. We respond, but we are too weak to do anything, so God the Holy Spirit gives us the necessary breath to exhale. In eternity past God the Father programmed into the computer of divine decrees the positive decision of every human being who would believe in Christ, and this PROM chip known as election to privilege is a printout of the computer of divine decrees. It is simply God’s prior knowledge of what we would do when came into contact with the gospel. Hence, the gospel understanding from common grace results in a call, kalew, the verb of election, a divine call to those with positive volition at God-consciousness. This divine call is made by God the Holy Spirit under the concept of efficacious grace. The human will of the positive believer is weak and because of total depravity and spiritual death God the Holy Spirit enables our volition to believe in Christ. Even our volition needs help. Common grace is the inhale of the gospel; efficacious grace is the exhale of faith in Christ. In both cases we have the enabling work of God the Holy Spirit. Efficacious grace is not a process but an instantaneous act of God the Holy Spirit in enabling the unbeliever to believe in Christ. If you accept the fact of doctrine that the imputation of Adam’s original sin at birth means spiritual death, then you have to recognise our total inability to believe in Christ apart from the enabling work of God the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine understanding from common grace results in a call, an invitation, kalew, the divine call to those with positive volition at God-consciousness and at gospel-hearing. This divine call is made by God the Holy Spirit under the principle of efficacious grace. But the human will of the positive believer is weak and there is where total depravity comes in again: spiritual death. Therefore God the Holy Spirit empowers the weak human volition to believe in Christ where positive volition exists at the point of common grace. Remember that common grace is the inhale of the gospel; efficacious grace is the exhale of the gospel.

The next verb in verse 6 is the aorist active indicative of a)postellw which means to send. The culminative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the enlightenment of the apostle John, the human author of the book of Revelation, “therefore the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets has sent his angel.” The active voice: God the Holy Spirit, divine author of the scripture produces the action of the verb in sending to the human author the information to the angel. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the Spirit sending the pur sui vant messenger for the function as a professor of eschatology to the apostle John. The accusative singular direct object a)ggeloj, “his angel,” possessive genitive. This is how John receives the information which he passes on to us through the Word of God.

The purpose of the angelic professor is given in the final phrase of the verse, the aorist active infinitive of the verb deiknumi which means to declare, to show, to reveal. We will translate it “to make known.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the function of the teaching angel from the angelic college of heralds. The active voice: the professor of eschatology, the pur sui vant messenger, produces the action. This is the infinitive of intended result when the result is indicating or fulfilling a deliberate objective, therefore a blending of purpose and result. Then we have the dative plural indirect object of douloj which means “slave.” Notice the plural. Anyone who communicates the message of the Word of God is a slave. Not only to John is this word addressed but in the plural it is addressed to every pastor who has ever studied this passage since the first century. Furthermore, this is the dative of indirect object which means that John and any pastor who studies it receives blessing from doing so.

Then he goes on to say, “to make known to his servants,” John and future students of Revelation, “the things which soon must come to pass.” This is a very important phrase because it introduces our next doctrine. The accusative neuter plural from the relative pronoun w(j is translated, “the things which.” The impersonal verb dei means “must.” Then there is the aorist active infinitive of ginomai, “come to pass.” But that is not the key. The real key here is the adverb taxu, correctly translated “soon.” In other words, the word “soon” or taxu actually tells us that the book of Revelation is an historical textbook, beginning at AD 96 and going to the end of time, and then jumping over into the eternal state for just a few paragraphs. This historical textbook is divided into two sections. The historical trends of the Church Age, the word taxu also means that prophecy will begin again. The Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy. When the Rapture of the Church occurs that is the next prophetical event. The word “soon” means prophecy beginning again. When does prophecy start? The next item of prophecy on the agenda is the Rapture. It could have happened in John’s day, “soon.” It could have happened in Paul’s day, he used the word “soon” also. “Soon” means that there is no prophecy to be fulfilled before the Rapture of the Church; it is an adverb for prophecy beginning again.

Translation of verse 6: “Then he said to me, these doctrines are dependable and true: therefore the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets has sent his angel to make known to his servants the things [prophecies] which must soon come to pass.”

Verse 7, taxu or “soon” refers to prophecy. There is no prophecy in the Church Age. So we are going to have the word “soon” and we are going to have the phrase, “I am coming soon,” a phrase for the Rapture of the Church. And it isn’t mentioned only once in verse 7, it is mentioned in verses 7, 12, and 20. Three times in the last chapter in the Bible we have the phrase, “I am coming soon.” Obviously it has great significance.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit occurred for the first time on the Day of Pentecost. God the Holy Spirit took every believer alive on planet earth and entered him into union with Christ. That was the beginning of the formation of the royal family of God. That was a prophecy which our Lord mentioned in John 14:20. There is no prophecy during the Church Age. The next prophecy will be at the end of the Church Age. “Soon” is verse seven doesn’t mean “quickly,” as it is translated in the King James version. It means in sequence of events, this will be the next time there is prophecy.

We begin with the conjunction kai which introduces a conclusion, so we translate it “Therefore.” The conjunction refers to the last phrase of the previous verse. Hence, the Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy, the dispensation of historical trends. We have the demonstrative particle i)dou, and it means to concentrate, “Therefore, behold.” It calls attention to the next prophetical event. Then the present active indicative of the verb e)rxomai. E)rxomai can be used either for the second advent or the Rapture, the context determines. It means to come, “Therefore, behold I come,” followed by the adverb taxu again, “soon.” This is the imminency of the Rapture. What does “soon” mean? When our Lord gave us this promise it was AD 96. The elapse of time means no unfulfilled prophecy, the Rapture is imminent. When the Lord said, “I am coming soon,” in AD 96 He was saying that the next prophetical event is when He comes in the air and we meet there.

The present tense of e)rxomai is a futuristic present, it denotes the Rapture as not yet occurring but it regards it as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. In other words, the futuristic present confirms the doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture. Nearly all of the apostles have something to say about the fact that the Rapture could have occurred while they were still alive. It didn’t occur while they were still alive but it could have because there is no prophecy to be fulfilled. “Soon” means tonight, tomorrow night or a thousand years from now. The active voice: our Lord produces the action, the Rapture of the Church. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine, the doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture. While e)rxomai is used for the second advent of Christ it must be remembered that Revelation was written to the Church, not to the Tribulational believers or the Millennial believers. Revelation is a book of history and prophecy, therefore the historical textbook from the completion of the canon of scripture to the end of time.

The Rapture is defined as an act or a fact of being transported; hence, used in a technical theological sense to describe the resurrection of the Church. It is the doctrine of the transfer. The entire Church, the dead in Christ first and then we who are alive and remain, are caught up together with Him to meet Him in the air. “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” That is a permanent transfer. Since the Church is the royal family of God it has certain privileges that other believers in other dispensations do not have. In fact, this is the dispensation of privilege. The privilege here is that before Old Testament saints, Abraham, Moses, David, etc., are resurrected we, the Church, are resurrected first. Why? Because we are royal family of God. All of the Old Testament saints were simply family of God. The imminency of the Rapture means no prophecy to be fulfilled before the resurrection of the Church. When the royal family is completed, whenever that is, then the resurrection of the Church will occur. Since the Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy and since there are no intervening prophetical events between the baptism of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost we simply say that the Rapture is imminent.

An example of something that is not imminent would be the second advent of Christ. The second advent of Christ is a prophecy but it is not imminent because first of all there must be the resurrection of the Church and then all of the events between Revelation chapters 6 and 19 have to be fulfilled first. So the second advent is not imminent but the Rapture is. By way if contrast the Rapture can occur at any time since no prophecies have to be fulfilled.

In verse 7 we have the end of the Church Age. It will end in a moment of time with a resurrection: the Rapture of the Church. “I am coming soon” is the doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture. The futuristic present tense of e)rxomai denotes the Rapture as not yet occurring but regards it as so certain that in thought it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. Hence, the futuristic present emphasises the imminency of the Rapture.

The next phrase says, “Happy is he.” We have the nominative singular subject makarioj which means “happy,” then the articular present active participle of terew which means to have it and to guard it. Being an articular participle the definite article is used as a personal pronoun. It refers to the believer who resides and functions and continues momentum inside the divine dynasphere, the sphere of the enabling power of God the Holy Spirit. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs to the believer living inside the divine dynasphere. As a protocol Christian, as a winner in the spiritual life through momentum inside the divine dynasphere, he has both capacity for happiness and the reality of happiness to match his capacity. In God’s plan is the capacity first, but once you have the capacity He provides the happiness, the blessings. The active voice: the believer living inside the divine dynasphere produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. The object of the participle in the accusative plural is logoj, “doctrines.” “Happy is he who keeps the doctrines,” referring to Revelation specifically but to the completed canon of scripture in its entirety.

The word “doctrines” is followed by the ablative of source from biblion. This recognises, now, that the canon of scripture is completed. With it we have a demonstrative pronoun, o(utoj, the near demonstrative translated “this book.” Nothing is more important to the believer than “this book.” “Happy is he who keeps the doctrines of the prophecy from this book.” Note that the happiness derived from life in the divine dynasphere is greater than any of the circumstances of life. Happiness belongs to believers regardless of circumstances.

Verse 8, in his enthusiasm John glorifies a creature. This is a repetition of John’s mistake in Revelation 19:10. It is possible to become so carried away with the Word that you confuse the communicator with the content, a very dangerous situation. For the second time this great apostle makes that error. The first mistake occurred with the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds; this occurs with the pur sui vant messenger from the angelic college of heralds. There must be an increasing enthusiasm here because the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds is the king of arms, but the lowest-ranking angel in the college of heralds is the pur sui vant messenger.

Corrected translation of verses 8 and 9: “And I John am the one who heard and saw these things. Then when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who made known these things to me. Then he [the angel] said to me, Don’t do it: for I am your fellow servant, along with your brethren the prophets, and along with those who keep the doctrines of this book. Worship God.”

“worship God,” the aorist active imperative of the verb proskunew. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the apostle John, the highest-ranking Christian alive in AD 96, is commanded not to fall down at the feet of the angel but is commanded to produce the action of the verb toward God. This is the imperative of command. The active singular indirect object from the noun qeoj includes an understanding of the ministry of all members of the Trinity.

The content of the doctrine of the teaching angel was so fantastic, so inspiring, to John that he had an emotional reaction resulting in what might be classified as an impulsive act. He worshipped the creature source of the information rather than the one who provided it, the Lord Himself. In other words, enthusiasm for doctrine sometimes leads people to glorify the teacher of doctrine rather than the subject of doctrine who is our Lord Jesus Christ. The teacher of doctrine is a voice, the means of communication of doctrine.

In John’s first mistake he received a powerful answer from the officer of arms. Revelation 19:10 is that answer: “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” or in corrected translation, “Doctrinal communication about Jesus is perceptive insight into prophecy.” In other words, emphasis must be placed on the content of the Word — in this case prophecy, not the one who communicates it. Though different categories of creation both the teaching angel and the apostle John serve God as communicators. Essentially the message from the angel to John was simple. It is not the angel it is the message. The worship of the subject of eschatological doctrine is worship of Jesus Christ. So it is the same old story: it is not the man it is always the message. The day one gets his eyes on the teacher of doctrine he ceases to understand and learn the content of doctrine. Momentum in the Christian life comes from perception of doctrine. The believer must be occupied with Christ, not preoccupied with the pastor-teacher.

Verse 10, the importance of the book of Revelation. The Lord Jesus Christ has made two important prophecies in His life. Remember that in His humanity He is a king, the son of David; He is a priest, the high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, therefore a king priest. And our Lord Jesus Christ is also a prophet. As a prophet He gave two prophecies: one with regard to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and one that He was coming soon. Between the prophecy of the baptism of the Spirit and the prophecy of the Rapture of the Church there is no prophecy. The Church Age is the dispensation of historical trends.

We begin verse 10 with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then,” followed by the present active indicative of legw, “Then he said to me.” Then comes the prohibition, the aorist active subjunctive of the verb sfragizw plus the negative mh, “seal not.” The ingressive aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning, hence it denotes entrance into a state or condition. With the negative mh it prohibits the sealing of the book of Revelation. Why? Because what John has been doing is writing these things down and sending them across the water to the seven churches of the book of Revelation. After he gets through with it he seals it and sends it as his sermon. It is like mailing something. Don’t seal it! This book is very important it is going to be a part of the canon of scripture. The active voice: John as the human author is commanded not to produce the action, not to seal the book. Revelation is therefore said to be an open book, not a closed one. Therefore it is a book that can be understood. Any book in the Bible can be understood by someone who has advanced enough to understand it, and any book in the Bible can be taught by one who has the gift of pastor-teacher. The subjunctive mood of prohibition with the negative mh means a negative command, “Do not seal up.” Then we have the word logoj in the accusative and which means “doctrines,” “Do not seal up the doctrines of the prophecy of this book.”

The Church Age is the dispensation of no prophecy, therefore historical trends rather than prophetical trends. Once the Church Age is completed by the Rapture then the prophetical trends of history will resume.

The next phrase begins with the post positive explanatory conjunction gar, “for.” Then we have a nominative singular subject from kairoj, “for the time.” Kairoj means historical sequence of time, therefore it could almost be translated the historical sequence moving on. We have the present active indicative of e)imi, “is.” Then an adverb of time e)gguj, “near.” The ministry of the apostle John in AD 96, including the completion of Revelation, is in a most important transitional period. Judea, the last Jewish client nation, having been destroyed and having moved into the times of the Gentiles when only a Gentile client nation could function, means that this is a very important period. SPQR is now the first Gentile client nation to God.

Translation of verse 10: “Then he instructed me, Do not seal up the words [doctrines] of the prophecy of this book: for the time is near.”

The ministry of the apostle John in AD 96, including the completion of Revelation, was the time for preparing the Roman empire for its role as a client nation. In 70 AD the fifth cycle of discipline was administered by Rome to the Jewish nation. The Jewish nation was wiped out as a client nation to God. So in 70 AD a new time clock began to tick which has to do with the times of the Gentiles. Only Gentile nations can function as a client nation to God during the Church Age.

This book must be open to all the seven churches, to Christians in every generation. It is an open book, and “seal not” means that when a believer has mastered certain basic doctrines he is ready for the book of Revelation, though it isn’t where you start as a Christian. Revelation is an orientation to the doctrine that you have to the time in which you live. The book of Revelation recognises the initial pivot of the new client nation to God, the first of the Gentile client nations, a pivot formed around seven churches of Revelation chapters two and three. The time is near for this drastic change in history. The times of the Gentiles prophesied by our Lord in Revelation 21:24 is now coming to pass. The pivot centre for the first client nation will be the Roman province of Asia, the west coast of Turkey. The trends of the Church Age, the dispensation of no prophecy, are recorded in Revelation chapters two and three. The next prophetical event is the Rapture of the Church and this is why the Rapture is said to be imminent. The Church in heaven as a result of the Rapture is found in Revelation chapters four and five. In Revelation chapters six through nineteen we have a detailed eschatology of the Tribulation and the second advent.

If there is so much detail why is the book of Revelation written to the Church and not the Tribulational saints? So there will never be any doubt in our minds. There will be great periods of adversity, of historical disaster, but we are to understand that the Church will not go through any part of the Tribulation. We are not in the Tribulation, we will never be in the Tribulation, the Rapture will occur before the Tribulation, and therefore whatever adversity we have we have brought upon ourselves. The eternal state is the subject of Revelation 21:1-22:5 and we have noted this in just enough detail to realise that we have a glorious future ahead. Therefore, Revelation must not be sealed. The last book of the Bible is a historical textbook, it is going to give us trends in our time, it will keep us from making the stupid assumption that we are going to be in any part of the Tribulation.

Verse 11, there are some options in history. We have the articular present active participle of the verb a)dikew. A)dikew means he who does wrong. The definite article is used as the personal pronoun. The present tense is retroactive progressive, denoting what has begun in the past and continues into the present time — also known as the present of duration. The active voice: mankind produces the action of the verb. This is a circumstantial participle followed by an aorist active imperative of the same verb, a)dikew. It should be translated: “He who does wrong, let him do wrong.” Notice was it does not say: He who commits crime let him commit crime. Crime must be restrained but people are free to follow their own volition in life. They are free to make mistakes, they are free to do wrong, but they are not free to commit crime. Crime is an attack upon human freedom.

Now the word “filthy.” We have the nominative singular from Greek word ruparoj which means a degenerate person, a defiled person. With this we have the aorist passive imperative from rupainw, “continue to be defiled.” And what are we to do? Let him alone. Let the degenerate continue to be degenerate. As long as history continues those in the cosmic system will continue to manifest and display various types of degeneracy. Some will manifest moral degeneracy: self-righteous arrogance, crusader arrogance. Some will manifest immoral degeneracy. All mankind must take the responsibility for his own decisions.

Then we have the other side of the picture. We start out with the aorist passive imperative of the verb a(giazw, “let the saint [believer] continue to be set apart.” In other words, don’t bother believers in the divine dynasphere, let them live there. This passage says, “furthermore, let the righteous [the believer living in the divine dynasphere] still produce something.” What is he going to produce? He is going to produce integrity — “and let the holy person [the saint, the set apart one] still be holy [continue to function in the protocol plan of God].”

Translation of verse 11: “Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong: let the defiled person continue to be defiled: furthermore, let the righteous one still produce integrity: and let the saint continue to be set apart”

This passage is dealing with life in the cosmic system versus life in the divine dynasphere which is the protocol plan of God. As long as human history continues mankind possesses volition with freedom to choose for God or Satan’s cosmic system. Furthermore, this option or free will exists in the entire period of the believer’s life in time. The options are clarified by the divine mandates and these mandates are the basis for the believer’s responsibility to fulfill the protocol plan of God. From the standpoint of the plan of God all believers are either winners or losers. They should be free to function outside of the function of crime, they should be free to continue to be winners or losers, for they will be held accountable at the judgment seat of Christ.

The final declaration of Jesus Christ recorded in the book of Revelation is in verses 12-17. The next prophetical event in history is mentioned for the second time in this passage. It will finally be mentioned in verse 20. Each time something is added for a slightly different emphasis. Again we have the imminency of the Rapture.

Verse 12, the demonstrative particle i)dou begins this verse and again demands the same concentration, a recognition of the fact that there is no prophecy in the Church Age. The present active indicative of e)rxomai presents to us once more the doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture. The present tense is a futuristic present denoting the fact that the Rapture has not yet occurred but regards the event as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb in the active voice. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the imminency of the Rapture. Because there is no intervening prophecy between the baptism of the Spirit at the beginning of the Church Age and the Rapture we therefore use the word imminency. Imminency means that the Rapture could occur any time. No one knows the time when it will happen. When the royal family has been completed the Church will be resurrected. Added to the imminency concept is the adverb taxu which does not mean “quickly,” it means “soon.” Again it is the concept of the imminency of the Rapture.

This time there is a different emphasis from verse 7, the judgment seat of Christ. The connective conjunction kai is translated “and.” Then the nominative singular misqoj means reward or decorations or anything that indicates something well-deserved, “and my reward.” We insert the verb e)imi because of ellipsis, “is with me,” meta plus the genitive from e)gw. This means that Christ is speaking to the Church. Again, the book of Revelation was written to the Church and therefore this is a reminder that when the Rapture occurs there will be decorations and rewards. In the context of verses 12-17 our Lord’s final words are specifically given to us — members of the royal family of God. In contrast is the similar phrase about coming soon in verse seven, referring to the fact that the Rapture has many different aspects. Once more in verse 20 the phrase will be repeated and, once more, with a different emphasis. The rewards mentioned here refer to the decorations, the eternal blessings, the rewards that belong to the winner only. Losers have no rewards. That is the emphasis.

Next we have the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)podidomi which means to give back, to reward, to award, and it can mean here to decorate in the sense of presenting an award. The culminative aorist tense contemplates both rewards and decorations given to winners at the judgment seat of Christ. It contemplates them in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of eternal results. Winners in the eternal state have certain rewards, decorations, privileges which distinguish them from believers who are losers. All are in resurrection bodies but many privileges, rewards, opportunities for winners are above and beyond those of losers. Active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb by decorating certain believers as winners at the judgment seat of Christ. The infinitive is the infinitive of intended result, it indicates the fulfillment of a deliberate objective, therefore it is a blending of purpose and result. The dative singular indirect object of e(skastoj follows. It means “to each,” to each winner. This is the dative of indirect object, it indicates the protocol Christian as the one in whose interest the award is given. Only the believer who advances to gate eight of the divine dynasphere will receive the top awards and decorations. The believer who achieves gate eight in the divine dynasphere is on the honours list and will be knighted at the judgment seat of Christ. He will have thereafter in the Lamb’s book of life a certain type of knighthood after his name. You never make the honours list until you understand and execute the plan of God for your life — residence, function, momentum inside the divine dynasphere.

With this we have a comparative conjunction w(j which can also be used as a temporal conjunction. It is comparative generally but there is a hermeneutical principle that words change their meaning because of their relationship to other words. So the meaning of the word is determined by its usage. Here is a temporal connotation to award each believer when rather than as. With it is the nominative singular subject e)rgon which means production or work. And with it is the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “his work.” Then the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, “when his work is.” The ellipsis demands another word in the English; something like evaluated.

Translation: “Behold, I am coming soon [the announcement of the imminency of the Rapture]; and my reward is with me, to award each winner when his accomplishment is evaluated.”

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13 we have reference to this resurrection which will be followed by the awarding of the decorations and privileges to believers who in time were winners.

“But we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren” the worst thing a person can be is ignorant and there is no excuse for it. Due to the enabling ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the perception of Bible doctrine, a ministry which begins with the restraint of the human race for freedom of evangelism, followed by the enabling ministry of the Holy Spirit in common and efficacious grace, followed by the tremendous ministry of the Spirit in which He does six things for us at salvation, followed by His enabling power inside the protocol system, the divine dynasphere, “concerning those who are asleep,” sleep is used for the rest of the body after physical death in connection with the believer. The Church Age believer who has died and gone to heaven is often described as being asleep. A heresy has come out of this, however, called “soul sleep.” The soul never sleeps, it is the body that sleeps. In the analogy waking up from the sleep is the resurrection of the body. The soul is absent from the body in heaven: absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. The body sleeps in the grace waiting for the resurrection, “that you do not grieve like the rest.” There are two categories of people who grieve unnecessarily. Grief is normal because we miss our loved ones who have departed, but it should never become abnormal. There is abnormal grief under two conditions: the unbeliever who has no hope; the believer in the cosmic system who is ignorant of the hope, “who have no hope.”

Verse 14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again [and we do: first class condition], so also God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”

Verse 15, “For this doctrine in the word of the Lord we communicate to you, that we [believers] who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.” The body sleeps in the grave. The problem here with the Thessalonians was that they thought that if you died you might miss the Rapture!

Verse 16, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a command,” there are two commands here, a voice command and a trumpet command. Both are brought into one in order to bring into view the fact that the Rapture includes the dead in Christ and those who are alive at the time the Lord comes in the air, “with the voice of the archangel [the highest ranking angel in the angelic order of battle],” the voice command is given for the believers who are alive on the earth, and when that command is given all believers alive on the earth will go from mortal to immortal in a second. The body of mortality will be changed into a resurrection body instantly, “also with the trumpet of God,” for the dead believers. The soul and the spirit will enter the body and there will be resurrection from the spot from which the body was buried, “in fact the dead in Christ shall rise first.”

Verse 17, “Then we who are alive and remain [on the earth] shall be caught up together with them in the clouds,” for the great assembly of all the royal family in the air, “for the purpose of meeting the Lord in the air,” that is why the Lord doesn’t come to the earth at the Rapture. To assemble millions and millions of believers the parade ground is the atmosphere, “and so we shall always be with the Lord [in resurrection bodies].”

This is background for the fact that He says in Revelation 22:12, “I am coming soon [Rapture]; and my reward is with me.” Following the assembly of all believers in the air we have Philippians 2:9-11. The first item on the agenda is an unprecedented worship of Christ by the entire assembled royal family of God which is assembled for the first time in history.

Philippians 2:9, “Therefore also God [the Father] has exalted him to the maximum,” the exaltation came when our Lord’s third royal patent was awarded after His ascension, “and has given him a royal title which is superior to every royal title,”

Verse 10, “that in the presence of the person of Christ [this is the Rapture] every knee in heaven shall bow,” this assembly takes place in the air, the first heaven, “both the ones who are on the earth [believers who are alive at the Rapture], and the ones under the earth [believers who died before the Rapture],

Verse 11, “and every tongue will acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Then following is the judgment seat of Christ where the rewards are given to the winners of the Church Age. There are many passages giving us the purpose for this evaluation: 2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10-12, etc. The rewards are in the form of crowns, for example: the crown of life of James 1:12; Revelation 2:10, a decoration for protocol believers, those who are winners inside the divine dynasphere; the crown of righteousness, a decoration to the protocol believer or winner from production inside the divine dynasphere, like virtue; the crown of glory of Philippians 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:19,20, for pastors who fulfill their ministry inside the divine dynasphere.

There are some warnings given regarding the possibility of losing those crowns before you depart from this life, 2 John 8, 10, 11; Revelation 3:11.

The highest decoration of all is the order of the morning star. It goes with the highest order of chivalry in Revelation 2:26-28. There is also an eternal order of chivalry which is established at this time. The new knighthood is found in Revelation 2:17, the uniform of glory which covers the resurrection body of winners only is found in Revelation 3:4 and 5, a permanent historical record centre is established in heaven and with it an eternal heraldry including those who are in the pivot and whose names will be in the record centre along with accomplishments regarding their influence on history and their new patent of heraldry, Revelation 3:12. At the second advent the winner will return with Christ and reign with Him as a winner, “Behold I bring my rewards with me.”

Verse 13, Jesus Christ as the key to history. The personal pronoun nominative singular of e)gw is the first of six predicate nominatives referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is followed by the first letter, A)lfa, which refers to the deity of Christ; the last letter of the Greek alphabet is O)mhga, referring to the humanity of Christ and the hypostatic union. “I am Alpha and Omega” was a reminder to the Jews of Deuteronomy 6:4 which was their worship ritual. The Alpha glory of our Lord Jesus Christ plus His Omega glory is a reminder that the Shekinah glory came in the flesh to Israel. “I am Alpha [the deity of Christ] and the Omega [Christ in hypostatic union].” The phrases which follow simply are appositional nominatives: prwtoj, “the first”; e)sxatoj, “the last.” Jesus Christ controls history from this first appositional phrase. As the first, Jesus Christ is eternal God and he preexists human history; as the last, Jesus Christ is the God-Man who terminates history with the judgment of unbelievers at the great white throne and the blessing of believers in the eternal state. This phrase emphasises the fact, then, that Jesus Christ controls history.

One of the greatest controls of history is the restraining ministry of God the Holy Spirit. He restrains sin, and in the restraint of sin that provides freedom necessary for evangelism and for function in the protocol plan of God.

There are two more predicate nominatives, a)rxh, “the beginning,” and teloj, “the end.” The beginning means that eternal God, Jesus Christ, began history with the creation of mankind. Jesus Christ is the creator of the universe as well as the creator of man. As eternal God Jesus Christ began history with creation, John 1:3; Colossians 1:16. The word “end” means Jesus Christ as the God-man in hypostatic union terminates human history.

The issue that comes out of this is the plan of God. In verse 14 we have the eternal reward of the believer; in verse 15 we have the exclusion of the unbeliever.

Verse 14, we have a nominative plural subject, makarioj, which means “blessed” but perhaps a much better translation in modern English is the word “happy.” The next phrase is grossly mistranslated in the King James version because of a textual problem. The correct text is Codex Aleph and Codex A which is Alexandrinas. The incorrect text is the King James based on the Vulgate and the Syriac rather than the good ones. So we have, not “Blessed are they who do his commandments” but the articular present active participle of plunw which means to wash. The corrected translation is, “Blessed are they who wash.” The definite article is used for a plural pronoun and it refers to mature believers in the protocol system, gate eight of the divine dynasphere. The perfective present tense denotes what has come to be in the past but is recognised as a present reality. The active voice: the believer produces the action. The participle is circumstantial for the reward of mature believers in the eternal state. The next phrase is the accusative plural direct object, not from swma, “bodies,” but stolh , “robes.” So: “Happy are they who wash their robes.”

The washing of robes is the function of the believer using the rebound technique by which he escapes the cosmic system of Satan and simultaneously recovers life inside the divine dynasphere. Believers who use the rebound technique by which they escape Satan’s cosmic system recover fellowship with God and get back into the divine dynasphere. As a result of the consistent use of the rebound technique, therefore coming under the ministry of the enabling of the Holy Spirit, believers advance to maturity and there are rewards mentioned in this verse which result. You cannot advance or have momentum in the spiritual life apart from living in the divine dynasphere. Living in the cosmic system means you are going nowhere in a hurry. There is no life in the divine dynasphere apart from the use of the rebound technique. Therefore consistent use of rebound is not only the basis of fellowship with God in time but the means of advancing to maturity inside God’s protocol plan, the divine dynasphere. Note the analogy in the passage: many washings of the robe. Hence, not a reference to salvation but to the means of advancing spiritually — one robe, many washings; one salvation, many rebounds. The object of divine blessing here is the winner who has consistently used the rebound technique so that he has lived out most of his life inside the divine dynasphere.

Next we have the reward for mature believers in the eternal state. It begins with the conjunction i(na which introduces a final purpose clause, “that.” Next is the future middle indicative of e)imi and a present nominative e)cousia, “in order that they may have the authority.” The future tense of the verb e)imi is a predictive future, it anticipates the privilege of the mature believer in the eternal state. It is something only a winner receives. The verb to be becomes the verb to have when used with certain other verbs in the context. E)cousia here is not “authority,” it means “privilege.” This is a direct middle voice in which the subject, the winner in time, acts with a view toward participating in the results of the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the eternal state and the reality of special rewards and blessings for winners. The mature believer who achieves gate eight is a cut above everyone else in the eternal state and therefore there are certain things he can do and no one else can do. One of them is to attend the special parties in Paradise in the garden and to be in the presence of the tree of life.

With this we have the preposition e)pi plus the accusative of xulon, which originally meant wealth but eventually was corrupted in the Koine and became “tree.” It is translated, “that they might have their right [privilege] to the tree of life.” The “tree of life” is the descriptive genitive of zoh.

What is this tree of life? The tree of life is described first in Revelation 2:7, “… to the winner, I will give to him the privilege of eating from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise [the King’s Garden] of God.” The tree of life and the privilege of eating there is a privilege that belongs to a few, those who are called here, not overcomers (which is of English) but winners. Winners are the ones who are allowed into this giant garden located in the new Jerusalem. This is not a tree to keep you alive. You are in a resurrection body in the eternal state, you have no trouble staying alive, you will live forever and ever. This is a privilege. Actually, eating from the tree of life just means the best parties in town. Eternal happiness and blessing are always associated with the tree of life in the eternal state, which emphasises the fact that the tree of life is the ultimate reward for the mature believer. It is the ultimate in eternal blessing and reward and it separates winners from losers in time.

The winner or mature believer is the one who consistently resides in the divine dynasphere which is God’s protocol plan for the Church Age believer, and it is fitting that the winner should receive a special privilege which differentiates him from all other unbelievers. Differentiation has to do with the wonderful decorations and the fact that the winner ruled a kingdom during the Millennium. Pardhj [Paradise] was a king’s garden. When the king threw a party in the ancient world he always sat on a dais on which was his ivory throne. He could sit there and see all of his friends. The idea was that it was a party concept. When Alexander the Great conquered the Persians one of the first things he did was to coin into the Greek language the word Pardhj. He called it paradeisoj, Paradise. Revelation 2:7 talks about the Paradise of God, “the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.” This is the near context of the word. It is that special park in the new Jerusalem where the winners gather to party in the eternal state. The tree of life is available to all believers who achieve maturity, to winners only. The tree of life is both capacity for blessing and happiness plus the total appreciation of God. God is the centre of the party. Hence the tree of life is only mentioned in three areas of the Word of God: first in Genesis, secondly in Proverbs, and thirdly in the book of Revelation. Wherever it is found it is always associated with not living on and on but great happiness, super happiness that cannot be duplicated.

To get a fix on this we have to go back to the law of first mention. That takes us back to Genesis. By creation man, in the garden with the tree of life, was designed for happiness. The happiness-capacity principle is the fact that there were four categories of trees in the original garden of Eden, one being the tree of life. Man could perpetuate his happiness indefinitely in the garden. There was one tree called the testing tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If used his volition to reject God’s plan for the garden of Eden and ate from the forbidden tree then it was all over. Only negative volition toward the plan of God could destroy man’s perfect happiness in the garden, the original Paradise called the garden of Eden. The tree of life was originally in the garden of Eden for man as the ruler of this world. Man was created a winner; man was created a ruler. Adam ruled the world. Man’s sin separated from the tree of life. In other words, when man died spiritually through sin he lost both the rulership of the world to Satan and access to the tree of life in the garden of Eden. The tree of life had never been used by Adam apparently in the first place, except that it was part of the capacity package for great happiness. It is now denied to Adam in the second place. When Adam sinned, then, the tree of life was no longer available in time, it is postponed as a reward for winners only in the eternal state.

Cf. Genesis 3:24. The fact that neither Adam nor Eve touched the tree of life prior to their fall seems to be quite obvious from inference. If man in a state of spiritual death, however, had eaten from the tree his immortality in a state of spiritual death and his lack of capacity for happiness would condemn the human race to total unhappiness in the lake of fire with the devil and his angels. Genesis 3:22, “Behold, man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; therefore, lest he, extend his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever [in a state of spiritual death],” that is where man was thrown out of the garden. The inference is obvious: life forever in the state of spiritual death would be life in the lake of fire for all eternity. But the tree of life has been reserved as a blessing for those believers who are winners in time.

The first issue in human history is another tree of life. The tree of life has been closed down and a new tree of life replaces it, the cross where Jesus Christ was judged for our sins. The issue is John 3:36. The tree of life is available to every member of the human race under three categories: positive volition at God-consciousness; positive volition at gospel hearing — normal evangelism; positive volition at gospel hearing under crisis evangelism. The tree of life in the garden could not provide salvation, it could only provide perpetual happiness. Man after spiritual death needed salvation. If man had partaken of the tree of life there would be no extension of the angelic conflict. Therefore God prevented man from eating of the tree of life. Once man sinned he wanted happiness. The easy way was to go and eat from the tree of life, but God shut it down and the tree of life was never touched. The only tree that was eaten was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; therefore, man’s original sin and the historical extension of the angelic conflict.

We have an option now. Just as our original parents partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which was forbidden, and became spiritually dead, so we now have the option of partaking of the tree of salvation, the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Therefore the fall of man provides another tree of life, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For those who believe in Jesus Christ there is eternal life. We have an option which can be exercised as long as we live: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” After we believe in Christ 40 things are given to us. One of them is our immediate entrance into the divine dynasphere. Entering into gate one of the divine dynasphere creates the best part of the option of the spiritual life. We start out with the option already fulfilled. We have the option of being positive and living in the divine dynasphere; we have the option of being negative and living in the cosmic system. In the divine dynasphere we make decisions; in the cosmic system we make decisions. In the divine dynasphere we have good decisions from a position of strength; in the cosmic system we have bad decisions from a position of weakness. Bad decisions from a position of weakness cut down future options and can only be changed by “washing your robes,” daily rebound.

For those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ God has provided a protocol option. Rejection of that protocol option means that even though you have eternal life, and even though there is nothing that you can do to lose your salvation, you will never enjoy the tree of life. That is for those who exercise a positive option in time.

The privilege of mature believers in the eternal state is given in the final clause of verse 14. We have the aorist active subjunctive of the verb e)iserxomai which means to enter, “that they may enter.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: mature believers produce the action of the verb in relationship to eternal rewards of the garden. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive. It implies a future reference and is qualified by the element of contingency. It is used here as a part of forming a second phrase to the purpose clause.

The entire verse says: “Blessed [Happy] are they who wash their robes, in order that they may have their right to the tree of life, and may enter into the city by the gates.”

Verse 15, the eternal cursing of the unbeliever. We are still dealing with the eternal state at this point and in the eternal state the unbeliever does not have a second chance. The unbeliever remains in the lake of fire forever and ever.

The adverb of place begins the verse, e)xw, which means “outside,” outside of this eternal state that we have been studying. It is a reference to outside of the status of the believer in the eternal state. In other words, it is describing the unbeliever. “Outside” means inside the lake of fire. In this passage there are six categories of unbelievers listed. A similar list of six categories was previously noted in Revelation 21:8. Some overlap exists. In both verses we have the description of unbelievers categorically by certain sins. The sins of these unbelievers are mentioned only because they were a distraction in normal or crisis evangelism.

Next comes the list. We have to put in a verb because of ellipsis, “Outside are.” First on the list is the predicate nominative plural of the noun kuwn, “dog.” The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. Man’s best friend was apparently not man’s best friend in Bible times. Dogs were generally regarded in a derogatory manner. Dogs were scavengers and hence in most Bible passages you will find that dogs are identified with some form of degeneracy. There is one reference to dogs being useful, Job 30:1. Isaiah sees an analogy between the local police force and dumb dogs. This is not complimentary either to the dog of the ancient world or to the police officer, Isaiah 56:10-11. A dumb dog was a dog unable to bark, “all of them are dumb dogs unable to bark.” Homosexual prostitutes were also called dogs in the ancient world, “You shall not bring the wages of a dog for an offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord.” In other words, they didn’t permit the prostitute or the homosexual prostitute to give money in the temple. Hence, the dog is related to sexual deviation. A seducer of women was called a dog’s head in 2 Samuel 3:8. Unbelievers at the cross were called dogs in Psalm 22:16, 20. Hence, the word “dog” is generally used to classify unbelievers. It is this connotation which begins the categorical description of unbelievers in Revelation 22:15. “Outside are dogs” — unbelievers. So this first category is describing unbelievers and the things that distract them. The unbeliever is such because he has failed to exercise his three options: at God-consciousness, at gospel hearing under normal evangelism, at gospel hearing under crisis evangelism. This means that somehow the word “dogs” in describing unbelievers describes something they did that distracted them from the gospel. It is a reference to unbelievers with emphasis on cosmic evil. The fact that dogs are used as the analogy to the unbeliever is documented by certain passages such as Matthew 7:6; Philippians 3:2; 2 Peter 2:22; Psalm 22:16, 20. “Dogs” is simply describing unbelievers distracted from this principle which deals with the fact that there are going to be many people in the lake of fire because they would not understand Ephesians 2:8,9. “Dogs” is dedicated to the fact of works.

Category #2 is farmakoj which refers to drug abusers. This is a category of people who are distracted from believing in Christ. When God the Holy Spirit reaches out with common grace and gospel facts and presented and understood because the Holy Spirit acts as the human spirit, there are some who cannot believe and will not believe and do not believe because they have opted for drugs. They have therefore gone in for hallucinatory, illusionary type of activity and they are distracted from the gospel.

This is not a message on sin, it is a message on distraction: that distraction which causes the unbeliever to reject the enabling ministry of God the Holy Spirit at the point of common grace.

Category #3 is the predicate nominative plural from pornoj, and it simply means fornicators. Members of the opposite sex can be a distraction to a lot of things. For example, Adam did not walk over to the tree and partake of the forbidden fruit, he walked over to the woman and took it out of her hand. The tree was not his interest, it was the woman. The woman was a distracter.

Category #4 is foneuj which means murderers. Criminal arrogance has no respect for human life. Murder is a distraction to normal living and it is also a distraction to the gospel as presented under the principle of the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, the principle of common grace. Freedom in life depends on respect for privacy of individuals, the sacredness of property and life. While believers can be criminals, and while believers do and have committed murder, this context is referring to unbelievers who have been distracted from the gospel by their arrogance and criminality.

Category #5 is the predicate nominative plural of e)idololotrhj, which refers to idolatry. This distraction refers to idolatry and the phallic cult. It combines fornication with demonism as a distraction to the gospel presentation and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in that category.

Finally, there is category #6. It starts out with a connective conjunction kai, a nominative singular paj, “ and everyone,” and the present active participle of filew is followed by the present active participle of poiew. These two words are combined to form not someone who tells lies but a phrase that says “everyone who loves and practices yeudoj, “the lie [or falsehood].” The literal translation doesn’t tell us what it means. Actually, it should be translated in modern English, “and every pathological liar.” It isn’t lying that distracts one from believing in Christ or considering the claims of Christ in the gospel, it is the pathological liar. There is a vast difference. A pathological liar is in a system which is distracted from both normal and crisis evangelism. He can’t tell the truth, he is an impulsive liar. He lies when it is unnecessary. Lack of integrity often poses a barrier between the unbeliever and the gospel. Because he is so caught up in the function of lying if he says he believes he is lying. Therefore he becomes a psychological demonstration that if you have dealt with falsehood all of your life when the truth comes and you say you believe the truth you say it just for some reason other than believing. So much of the gospel deals with the integrity of God that the pathological liar simply resents the gospel message.

Translation: “Outside are dogs, and the drug abusers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every pathological liar.”

While the sins listed in this verse are also committed by born-again believers in time they are listed here as the sins of unbelievers which distract from the gospel. The things unbelievers emphasise to the extent that they become negative toward the gospel and reject Christ as saviour in time are presented here. Certain sins create a preoccupation syndrome in the cosmic system so that the unbeliever disregards the gospel message no matter how many times he has heard it.

The source of the book of Revelation is the subject of chapter 22:16. We begin with the personal pronoun in the first person singular, e)gw\. It is a reference to the unique person of the universe, our Lord Jesus Christ. The next word is the proper noun “Jesus.” This is the name for his humanity and emphasises the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. When the omniscience of God entered into the computer of divine decrees on one PROM chip all of the sins in the history of the human race they were all reserved for one point. When we come into the world we are automatically spiritually dead because of the imputation of Adam’s original sin to each one of us. Our sins are not imputed to us for judgment. We are born spiritually dead because of the imputation of Adam’s sin and all of the sins in the history of the human race, from the original sin to the last sin of the Millennium, are all on one PROM chip. They were programmed in in eternity past. When our Lord Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross the printout occurred and all of these sins were imputed to our Lord Jesus Christ and were judged. Jesus Christ was judged for every sin that has ever been committed in the history of the human race. “Jesus” means saviour. Jesus Christ is the only saviour.

Next we have a delegation of communication, the aorist active indicative of the verb pempw which means to send, “I Jesus have sent.” The culminative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The Church is briefed on the rest of human history from AD 96 to the end of history. The book of Revelation, then, is an historical textbook starting with the first Gentile client nation, the Roman empire, and going to the end of time. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of delegated authority in communication.

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from a)ggeloj referring to the angels who taught John while on the Isle of Patmos. With it is the possessive genitive from e)gw, “I have sent my angel” which is a reference here to the pur sui vant messenger from the angelic college of heralds who has been explaining things to John since chapter 21:9.

The purpose is in the aorist active infinitive of the verb marturew, which means to testify, to be a witness and to give accurate information in a courtroom. In this case the courtroom is the world and the apostle John is the recipient of this information which is written down under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and given to us. The constative aorist tense contemplates the angelic teaching to John in its entirety. The active voice: the pur sui vant messenger from the college of heralds produces the action. This is the infinitive of intended result which fulfills a deliberate objective, hence a blending of purpose and result. The Church is to be briefed with regard to what is to happen in the future and what are the historical trends of the Church Age.

Next we have the recipients of Revelation. We have e)pi plus the dative plural from e)kklhsia, referring to all of us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. E)pi plus the dative should be translated “for the benefit of the Churches.” This is also a dative of indirect object in the sense that it indicates the ones in whose interest the action is performed. It adds up to the blessing of all believers in the Church Age who master the content of the book of Revelation.

Now we have the first of three royal warrants of our Lord Jesus Christ mentioned in this verse. Our Lord Jesus Christ has three royal titles. By virtue of His eternal and infinite being as God Jesus Christ has His first royal warrant. By virtue of the virgin birth and His genetic descent in that virgin birth we have the second royal warrant. Then, by virtue of His strategic victory on the cross at the first advent we have our Lord’s third royal warrant. Our Lord has three royal titles and all three are mentioned in this verse. His first is a title of divine royalty. Jesus Christ as eternal and infinite God possesses all of the attributes of the essence of deity. As God, Jesus Christ is coequal and coeternal with the Father and with the Spirit. As the manifest person of the Trinity our Lord Jesus Christ wears the crown of divine royalty, John 1:18; 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12. Only the Lord Jesus Christ is the revealed and the manifest person of the Trinity. Jesus Christ is also Jewish royalty. This was brought about by the virgin birth. He is directly descended from king David. The third royal title which we will find in this verse has to do with His strategic victory in the angelic conflict. This might be classified as His battlefield royalty for our Lord Jesus Christ resolved the angelic conflict by His death on the cross, bearing our sins, being judged for us, becoming our saviour. By being judged on the cross for our sins the strategic victory of the angelic conflict was accomplished. This royal warrant is related, then, to the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It relates to His deity and His second advent in hypostatic union. These are the three categories of royalty.

There are titles related to each one of these categories. As divine royalty our Lord Jesus Christ is called the Son of God. As Jewish royalty He is called the son of David. In His battlefield royalty He is called the King of kings, Lord of lords, the bright morning star. In Revelation 19:16 we read He has a royal title which has been written on His robe and on His thigh: “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

There are also royal families in connection with each one of these titles of royalty. Every category of royalty has a corresponding category called royal family. Regarding our Lord’s divine royalty His family includes God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. In His Jewish royalty it includes the entire Davidic dynasty, all of the ancestors of the royal line of David. This category would include the mother of His humanity, the virgin Mary. After the virgin birth Joseph and Mary had other children by natural generation who are a part of the royal family under the category of Jewish royalty. These children are mentioned in Matthew 13:55,56.

The royalty applied to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has a full name used in the scripture: “The Lord Jesus Christ.” Kurios or Lord denotes deity. The word we have in our passage, I)esouj or Jesus, means saviour, emphasising His battlefield royalty. The word Xristos or Christ means anointed one, Messiah, Jewish royalty, the fulfillment of the famous ritual line of Deuteronomy 6:4. The great principle that we will find in our passage in Revelation 22:16 is the fact that there is therefore a royal family for every stage of our Lord’s deity. 1. Our Lord is God. As deity He has royal family: God the Father and God the Holy Spirit; 2. The Davidic line: His human royalty, and we have the entire dynasty of David; 3. At the point of our Lord’s resurrection and ascension, seated at the right hand of the Father, when He was given a third royal warrant, He was minus a royal family. Therefore God the Father brought to a sudden halt the Age of Israel and the Church Age began with the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is the means of forming the royal family. The Church Age is therefore the dispensation of the royal family of God. When the royal family is completed there is the resurrection or Rapture of the Church and then the Age of Israel comes to its conclusion, for the Age of Israel was halted seven years short of its completion. Those seven years are picked up in the Tribulation.

At this point we begin with the royal title of our Lord. In His first royal warrant is Jewish identification. We have the pronoun “I”, the verb to be “I am,” and then the word ‘riza, a predicate nominative, and has to with the fact that David had a root. The root of David is eternal God, our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ as God is called the root of David. In other words, He is the one whom created Adam, He is the one who created Abraham, He is the one who created Judah, He is the one who brought into the world David, as it were. Jesus Christ as God is the source of the royal dynasty of David.

Then it says “the seed.” The predicate nominative of genoj should be translated “descendant.” Our English word “genes” comes from this Greek word. It is a reference to the humanity of Christ in hypostatic union. It is a reference to His second royal warrant, He is the Son of David. The word “root” refers to His Alpha glory and the word “descendant” refers to His Omega glory. Together the combination of words forms the principle found in Deuteronomy 6:4 and Revelation 22:13. Jesus Christ the God of Israel is also the saviour of Israel. Jesus Christ through His first advent became the God-Man and through His second advent He will return to deliver Israel and provide all of the unconditional covenants.

The title that comes up now is “the bright morning star.” It refers to our Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of the Church. It was prophesied by Balaam in Numbers 24:17 when he said, “I see him [Christ], but not now; I behold him, but not near; a star shall come forth from Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise from Israel.” And though our Lord was born in the flesh in the line of David, and therefore Jewish royalty, He is also the head of the Church. He is the star that Balaam saw from out of Jacob, He is the great sceptre, the one who will rule forever.

The title of our Lord as the morning star is used in relationship to the second advent in 2 Peter 1:19, “We keep on having a more reliable prophetic doctrine, with reference to which doctrine you perform honourably by habitually concentrating in your right lobes on the lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn and the morning star has come.” The morning star refers to the second advent of Christ. So this is His third royal warrant. Jesus Christ is the strategic victor of the first advent, the tactical winner at the second advent. This title is used for the highest decoration given to a Church Age believer living in the protocol plan of God.

Translation: “I Jesus have sent my angel to declare these things to you for the benefit of the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

Verse 17 — Now we come to the source of the final invitation. We have two conjunctions kai which are always translated “both,” and then the word “and.” So it is “Both the Spirit.” The source of the final invitation in the Word of God comes down to the word pneuma, a reference to God the Holy Spirit and presents the divine side of salvation. The divine side of salvation begins with the doctrine of common grace. When the gospel is presented to any member of the human race it finds the unbeliever dichotomous. He has a body and he has a soul but neither the body nor the soul can combine to understand spiritual phenomena, and so the gospel being spiritual phenomena is totally incomprehensible to the unbeliever, 1 Corinthians 2:14. So God the Holy Spirit begins His enabling ministry by acting as a human spirit for the understanding of the gospel message. That is the doctrine of common grace. Common grace, then, is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in evangelism, specifically the work of the third person of the Trinity in revealing the gospel to the unbeliever as it is presented. Because the unbeliever is spiritually dead under the principle of total depravity he cannot understand spiritual phenomena. The gospel is spiritual phenomena, therefore in the function of common grace the Holy Spirit acts as the human spirit for the understanding of the gospel. The basic function of the Holy Spirit in common grace, then, is to take the gospel presentation and make it understandable.

In John 16:8-11 we have one of the many passages on the subject of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in convincing the unbeliever. “And he [God the Holy Spirit], when he comes, will convince the world [common grace] concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment.” Note that personal sin is really not an issue in salvation because all personal sins were judged at the cross. God the Father imputed these sins to Christ and judged them. That is the saving work of Christ on the cross, and because of that saving work our personal sins are not the issue but the One who was judged for our sins, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 9, “concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.” The only reason why anyone is ever judged at the last judgment is because they do not believe in Christ.

Verse 10, “Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you see me no longer;

Verse 11, “and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world [Satan] has been judged.”

The principle of common grace is found first in Genesis 6:3, “My Spirit [God the Holy Spirit] shall not always convince inside man forever, for in going astray [mankind] he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.” In other words, what was being said at that point is the fact that at the point this was given there were 120 years before the human race would be destroyed by the flood and the only ones who would be preserved would be believers. God the Holy Spirit stops working on the unbeliever after he dies. Death is the end of it. Common grace, then, is the work of God the Holy Spirit in revealing the gospel to the unbeliever in either normal or crisis evangelism. It includes enablement to understand, enablement to perceive the true issue of the gospel related to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Common grace is the evangelistic ministry of the Holy Spirit up to the point of human volition. In common grace the Holy Spirit brings the unbeliever e)pignwsis facts on which a decision can be made.

Next is the doctrine of efficacious grace. When it says “the Spirit says, Come” in this passage it is referring also to the invitation. Efficacious grace is the evangelistic ministry of God the Holy Spirit related to positive volition of the unbeliever. Positive volition is expressed through faith in Jesus Christ. Under common grace facts are perceived by the unbeliever who takes this gnwsij gospel and believes it. Here is the way it starts. The gospel is presented, there is no human spirit so the Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit and makes it real into the left lobe where it becomes gnwsij doctrine, it is understood. Then faith believes that information and this is the point of efficacious grace, also the point when it becomes e)pignwis. Faith says, “I believe it.” That is the response to the invitation. Common grace, then, is antecedent to efficacious grace and therefore the illustration of breathing. The inhale is common grace, the exhale of faith in Christ is efficacious grace. Efficacious grace is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in empowering the human will to believe in Jesus Christ. Human volition is weak and needs divine power. It is provided just as the Holy Spirit provides at every stage. The power before salvation is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in efficacious grace. Efficacious grace is not a process, it is an instant moment when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Common grace can be resisted by human volition but efficacious by its very connotation is always effective to bring us to eternal salvation.

The human side of evangelism is the function of the Church, “and the bride.” The Greek word is numqh and is correctly translated “bride,” one of the seven different ways in which the Church is described. The Church is called a “new creation” under the principle that Jesus Christ is the last Adam and we are the new creation, 1 Corinthians 15:45.47; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15. The Church is also called the body. Under the analogy Christ is the head, we are the members of the body. The third analogy is the shepherd and the sheep. Christ is the good shepherd, John 10; the great shepherd, Hebrew 13:20; the chief shepherd, 1 Peter 1:4. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep; the great shepherd provides for us as members of the body of Christ; the chief shepherd rewards us at the judgment seat of Christ. We have the vine and the branches in John chapter 15. In 1 Peter 2:4-8 we have the Church described under the concept that Christ is the chief cornerstone, we are the stones of the building. The sixth is the high priest and the royal priesthood. Number seven is the one in view in our passage: Jesus Christ is called the groom and the Church anticipating its future after the resurrection is called the bride. Hence, we establish the bride as the Church, the royal family of God, every believer of this dispensation.

Then we have the present middle imperative of the verb e)rxomai, and it is the invitation to salvation. The aoristic present tense is for punctiliar action in present time, it expresses the idea of a present fact without reference to its progress. The aorist presents the concept of a point of time and the aoristic present fulfills the concept. It is the idea, “Now is the accepted time.” This is a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning. The Church, along with the ministry of the Holy Spirit [the human and the divine side of evangelism], produce the action, the imperative of entreaty on the part of the Church. Hence it does not convey the finality of a command but has the force of an urgent request. The urgent request is to believe in Christ now while you have a chance.

The invitation at the point of common grace comes next, the connective conjunction kai, “furthermore.” Then the articular present active participle from the verb a)kouw indicating the first stage of evangelism, “Furthermore he who hears.” The present tense is a perfective present and that presents a fact which has come to be in the immediate past, understanding of the gospel, the ministry of the Spirit in common grace, but is emphasised as a present reality. The active voice: the unbeliever produces the action of the verb in understanding the gospel. This is a circumstantial participle. The one who hears is the one who is evangelised.

The aorist active imperative comes next. The unbeliever has to do some thinking and he has to think “Come.” The word is legw which usually means to speak but also can mean to think. “Let him think, Come.” The culminative aorist views the function of common grace in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Once God the Holy Spirit has acted as a human spirit so that the gospel becomes spiritual phenomena, it is transferred to the left lobe and there it becomes gnwsij doctrine. At this point the unbeliever has to start thinking and in positive volition he thinks in terms of Come. Positive faith perception: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”; negative faith perception: “He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he who believes not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

What is the result? “Consequently the one who is thirsty,” this is the one who has positive volition at God-consciousness, the one who has positive volition at the point of gospel hearing, “let him come.” This is the unbeliever making the transition from common to efficacious grace. In other words, faith in Christ. The general invitation, then, is for both normal and crisis evangelism. “The one who desires it,” the unbeliever with positive volition at the point of common grace, ”let him take of the water of life freely [gratis].” The taking of the water of life is a synonym for faith in Jesus Christ. The aorist active imperative of lambanw is the verb to take. it means to take or to seize. The culminative aorist tense views common grace and resultant positive volition in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of efficacious grace, faith in Christ. The moment anyone believes he is automatically saved, he automatically has eternal life and he can never lose it. The active voice: the unbeliever produces the action of the verb through the exhale of faith in Christ. The imperative of command is a direct and positive appeal from God the Holy Spirit under the concept of efficacious grace. The accusative neuter singular direct object from o(udor, “water,” follows. It is used here for the possession of eternal life. With it we have a descriptive genitive of the noun zwh which means life, and with it an adverb dorean which means no cost. The price of salvation was paid on the cross.

Translation of verse 17: “Both the Spirit and the bride say, Come. Furthermore, he who hears let him think, Come. Consequently, the one who is thirsty, let him come. The one who desires it, let him take of the water of life without cost.”

Verse 18, the warning against adding to revelation. There is also a warning in verse 19 against deleting from revelation. “God shall take away his share from the tree of life,” loss of reward to the believer; loss of everyone, of course, to the unbeliever, “and from the holy city,” the satellite city, “which things have been written in this book.” Similar to Revelation 2:7 and 22:2.

Verse 20, the certainty of the resurrection of the Church. It begins with a very important concept: “He who communicates [declares] these things.’ The word communicates is the word marturew which means to give evidence in court, to give accurate evidence, not hearsay. Therefore it can be translated “communicate” or “declare.” The next word is “says,” better translated “has this to say.” Then we have a fascinating phrase which is simply a positive affirmation. In the Greek it is three letters, nai, translated “yes.” It is the emphatic repetition of our Lord’s statement of the imminency of the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church. The present active indicative of e)rxomai follows. E)rxomai is used both for the second advent and the Rapture. Here it is used for the Rapture. The futuristic present tense denotes the fact that the Rapture has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain it is regarded as already coming to pass. Hence, the futuristic present emphasises the imminency of Rapture. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of Bible doctrine, the imminency of the Rapture.

Then the adverb taxu which does not means quickly here, it means soon. The point is that there is no doctrine to be fulfilled, no prophecy, before the Rapture occurs. There is no intervening prophecy. “Soon” means historical trends are the order of the day until the resurrection. The next item on the agenda of eschatology, the next prophecy, is the Rapture itself. That is what is meant by “soon.” “He who declares these doctrines says, Yes I am coming soon.” Then we have a response to that. We have the Greek A)mhn [Amen]. This is the same as we have transliterated into English. But a transliteration is not a translation, it merely brings into English equivalent letters what the other language says. We actually translate it here, “So be it.”

Next we have, “Come Lord Jesus.” The word e)rxomai is used, the imperative of entreaty which expresses a wish or desire, but in the meantime carry on.

Verse 21, the priority policy of the plan of God is given in the last phrase of the book of Revelation.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus be with all of you.” Grace is the policy of the plan of God. There is no place for us to earn or deserve anything at any time. There is no such thing as salvation by works. There is no such thing as spirituality by works or executing the plan of God by works.

Doctrines	Lesson Index	Class Notes
		Bob’s Corrected Translation of Revelation
Bob’s Corrected Old Testament Translation	Bob’s Corrected New Testament Translation	What Are Enhanced Notes?